AirPods are great and all, but what if you don’t want earbuds jammed into your earholes? These open-ear headphones use increasingly popular bone-conduction tech to deliver audio without plugging up your ears.

These wireless bone-conduction earphones work with iPhones, Macs and iPads. And they let you mix your Apple Music playlist into your soundscape while keeping your ears open for what you need to hear.

You don’t need to pay a fortune for these fancy, futuristic headphones, either. Right now, they’re on sale for just $33.99.

Logitech unveiled its new Brio 500 webcam series and Zone Vibe headphones series for hybrid workers Thursday. The company said “they bring quality, style, affordability, and sustainability to today’s workers for ultramodern collaboration experiences.”

“Many remote and hybrid workers are still underequipped and grappling with pre-pandemic era solutions,” said Scott Wharton, Logitech Video Collaboration general manager. “Our innovative new genre of Brio webcams and Zone Vibe headphones answer the call of modern workers who need business-grade quality, style, and affordability for work and play.”

Venerable audio brand Sennheiser rolled out its new Momentum 4 wireless over-ear headphones Tuesday. The successor to the much-liked Momentum 3 aims for the same high-end sound and comfort along with a more modern look.

The cans, which will compete with the likes of Sony’s top headphones and AirPods Max, also claim an impressive battery life of up to 60 hours.

Few would dispute that Sony’s flagship wireless WH-1000XM4 active noise-canceling (ANC) headphones have been among the best on the market since they came out in August 2020. But Sony has improved upon them, offering its fifth-generation WH-1000XM5 headphones on Thursday.

The redesigned cans flaunt several impressive improvements over the previous model, making the XM5s an even worthier competitor to AirPods Max and other premium headphones.

The compact new Dell Dual Charge Dock is the first laptop docking station to offer a Qi-standard wireless charging stand for smartphones and smart headphones, the company said. And it supports dual 4K monitors, making it a solid choice for home and hybrid offices.

Sony’s WH-1000XM4 over-ear noise-cancelling wireless headphones are considered one of the best sets of cans in the business. Now a new leak shows what may be in store for the audio giant’s next version, the WH-1000XM5, in terms of a sleek new design and key specs.

College students, often not exactly made of money (yet), usually feel obliged to be super-thrifty. Their setups might feature entry-level gear, hand-me-down equipment, doors on cinderblocks serving as desks — that sort of thing.

But today’s featured setup, owned by a college student, comes with some frills. They’re courtesy of a lucrative internship the computer science major completed last summer.

Bose made a splash with its recent, long-awaited update to its popular QuietComfort 35 headphones. But while the company was probably smart not to change the QuietComfort formula much, that included not expanding the classic headphones’ limited customizability. Until now.

If you have a set of QC 45s, Bose said a new firmware update lets you access and adjust a new equalizer via the Bose Music app. So you can tweak the sound all you want with the new Adjustable EQ feature.

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Every year Samsung subsidiary JBL rolls out a tempting raft of updated or new audio products at CES, but you can’t get them right away. CES 2022, held in Las Vegas earlier this month, was no different. The company showed its new JBL PartyBox Encore and a slew of other Bluetooth speakers, earbuds and headphones. We’ll round them up below. Some are coming in spring and others in summer.

AirPods might just be the best wireless buds you can pair with Apple devices, but they’re also pretty expensive. Plenty of more affordable options that deliver stellar sound and reliable connectivity in a neat design are available.

So, if you’re buying on a budget this holiday season, skip the Apple Store and check out these six brilliant but more affordable alternatives to AirPods.