Technologies

7 Great AirPods Pro Alternatives That Cost a Lot Less

Don’t want to spend $200 on Apple’s AirPods Pro? Here are some affordable — and in some cases downright cheap — true-wireless earbuds with active noise canceling, great sound and voice-calling capabilities.

Apple’s AirPods Pro 2 are the best true-wireless earbuds out there. They’re small, lightweight and fit snugly, in addition to their impressive features and audio quality. But you do have to loosen the purse strings when buying them. Apple rarely drops the prices of its products, and when it does, there’s always a more expensive model you could go for instead. But there’s a better option than waiting for that perfect price. You might ask yourself, «Is it possible to spend less than $100 on a pair of earbuds that compare to the AirPods Pro?» At this time of the year, the answer is a resounding yes.

You won’t get some of the AirPods Pro’s bonus features, like hands-free Siri or Apple’s spatial audio virtual surround mode for watching movies and TV shows, but the alternatives listed below deliver on core performance attributes such as sound and voice calling. They also feature decent active noise canceling, are well designed and fit comfortably. Note that all these picks work with both iOS and Android devices and aren’t Apple-centric like the AirPods Pro.

I’ll be updating this list as new models arrive, but here are the best «cheap» noise-canceling, true-wireless earbuds I’m impressed with right now.

More headphone recommendations

Technologies

You’re Wasting $200 on Subscriptions You Forgot About, CNET Survey Finds. How to Put an End to ‘Subscription Creep’

Technologies

Today’s Wordle Hints, Answer and Help for May 17, #1428

Here are hints and the answer for today’s Wordle No. 1,428 for May 17.

Looking for the most recent Wordle answer? Click here for today’s Wordle hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles.

Today’s Wordle puzzle isn’t super easy, and there’s only one vowel, so you’ll have to chip away at guessing the consonants. If you need a new starter word, check out our list of which letters show up the most in English words. If you need hints and the answer, read on.

Today’s Wordle hints

Before we show you today’s Wordle answer, we’ll give you some hints. If you don’t want a spoiler, look away now.

Wordle hint No. 1: Repeats

Today’s Wordle answer has no repeated letters.

Wordle hint No. 2: Vowels

There is one vowel in today’s Wordle answer.

Wordle hint No. 3: First letter

Today’s Wordle answer begins with the letter G.

Wordle hint No. 4: Past tense

Today’s Wordle answer is in the past tense.

Wordle hint No. 5: Meaning

Today’s Wordle answer can refer to being an adult.

TODAY’S WORDLE ANSWER

Today’s Wordle answer is GROWN.

Yesterday’s Wordle answer

Yesterday’s Wordle answer, May 16, No. 1427 was FIFTH.

Recent Wordle answers

May 12, No. 1423: BICEP

May 13, No. 1424: AWARE

May 14, No. 1425: BONGO

May 15, No. 1426: EAGER

Will Wordle run out of words?

When Wordle began, creator Josh Wardle used a list of five-letter words he’d shared with his partner, picking only the words they recognized. While that’s more than 2,000 words, more than half of them have already been used.

Wordle editor Tracy Bennett admitted that the game will eventually have to come to grips with the fact that the word list is not eternal.

«One possibility is that we could recycle old words at some point, like when we get close to the end,» Bennett told a Wordle player on TikTok.

She also said the editors might throw all the words back in and reuse them, or allow plurals, or past tense, something that’s not done now.

Bennett hasn’t commented on it, but it seems possible Wordle could expand to six-letter words, too. Options abound.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Strands Hints, Answers and Help for May 17, #440

Here are hints — and all of the answers — for the NYT Strands puzzle No. 440 for May 17.

Looking for the most recent Strands answer? Click here for our daily Strands hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Today’s NYT Strands puzzle is a fun one. It relies on you knowing a bit about a certain sport. If you need hints and answers, read on.

I go into depth about the rules for Strands in this story.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections and Mini Crossword answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: NYT Connections Turns 1: These Are the 5 Toughest Puzzles So Far

Hint for today’s Strands puzzle

Today’s Strands theme is: She’s got game.

If that doesn’t help you, here’s a clue: Caitlin Clark.

Clue words to unlock in-game hints

Your goal is to find hidden words that fit the puzzle’s theme. If you’re stuck, find any words you can. Every time you find three words of four letters or more, Strands will reveal one of the theme words. These are the words I used to get those hints, but any words of four or more letters that you find will work:

SOME, TOME, TOMES, MEET, SEER, TEES, GAMS, GEAR, MAST, TROT, MART, MARTS, RALLY, MALL, RICE, MICE, MAGE

Answers for today’s Strands puzzle

These are the answers that tie into the theme. The goal of the puzzle is to find them all, including the spangram, a theme word that reaches from one side of the puzzle to the other. When you’ve got all of them (I originally thought there were always eight but learned that the number can vary), every letter on the board will be used. Here are the nonspangram answers:

LYNX, DREAM, FEVER, STORM, WINGS, LIBERTY, MERCURY.

Today’s Strands spangram

Today’s Strands spangram is BASKETBALL. To find it, start with the B that’s four letters to the right on the very bottom row, and wind up.

Quick tips for Strands

#1: To get more clue words, see if you can tweak the words you’ve already found, by adding an «S» or other variants. And if you find a word like WILL, see if other letters are close enough to help you make SILL, or BILL.

#2: Once you get one theme word, look at the puzzle to see if you can spot other related words.

#3: If you’ve been given the letters for a theme word, but can’t figure it out, guess three more clue words, and the puzzle will light up each letter in order, revealing the word.