Gadgetory

wired headphones kind of suck wires can get tangled you could yank your laptop off the table so I so many people buy wireless headphones these days the problem with those is that they're either big and clunky or cheap and small that's where these come in they're called the braggy - and they're truly wireless earbuds it's an idea that was so popular the company raised three million dollars on Kickstarter now that they're here are there any good let's start with the hardware which is really good Bragi made the - small enough and light enough that you don't really notice them when they're in your ears and they stay in well enough that you can run with them you can swim with them and you can bike with them on the outside is a really nice polished plastic with a little light that glows to tell you how much battery is left on the inside is some rubber that helps grip to your ear and some sensors as well heart rate sensor and an IR sensor now once you've set them up the ear buds will sync together and to your phone every time that you put them in your ears the lower half of each ear bud is touch sensitive and lets you do things like control your music or your volume or even activate something like Siri finding the touchpad takes some getting used to but I only really had trouble with it the first few days the - will last you about three to four hours and any time they run out of battery you can just drop them back into the charging case that case can recharge the - in under an hour and the case carries five full charges you're not going to get a full day out of the - but the case makes it possible to bring them basically anywhere without having to worry about charging them now the - connects to your phone over bluetooth but the earbuds connect to each other using something called Near Field magnetic induction it's a technology from the hearing aid industry this helps the sound quality and means that the audio actually stays synced whether you're listening to music or watching video as wireless headphones go there's even a good amount of bass though the clarity of the mid and the high range frequencies could be a lot better the problem with the - is audio right now is that Bluetooth connection to your phone though it's just not that foolproof if you throw it in your bag or in your pants pocket the audio starts to skip and stutter doesn't happen all the time but it makes the experience really frustrating but bragging wants to - to be so much more than just earbuds there's a whole bunch more functionality like Fitness tracking a personal assistant and there are even gestures all of these are in supremely early stages and you're almost better off ignoring them the dash has modes for running biking and swimming but can only count your steps and time your activities it's also supposed to be able to measure your heart rate but I could never really get it to work right and I think it's just a problem of the way that the dash sits in my ear if these things worked it would be great because the dash can also store music meaning you could leave your phone at home while you go and work out the dash is also supposed to be a personal assistant but right now the voice that you hear only really guides you through the startup process and the menus and the gestures are really limited too right now you can only accept or reject phone calls just frustrating because the built-in microphone on the dash is really bad even audio transparency which is a feature that lets you hear the outside world without taking your earbuds out is a bit of a letdown this is a feature that impressed me a bunch at CES but outside of a quiet hotel room it's just not the same it's a great way to hear someone who's speaking directly to you but the audio clips when it picks up loud or high-pitched noises or even a mild breeze which is a pain because this feature would be most useful when you're running or biking down the street now those are all problems but if you're optimistic they're also glimpses at the future that the dash is promising the good thing is that they can all be solved with software and Bragi is promising to release monthly updates until then it's really only good with audio and even then it's not perfect at least there's no wires though