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Skullcandy’s New Method 360 ANC Are $100 Bose Earbuds in Disguise

Skullcandy and Bose team up to create an affordable pair of impressive-sounding earbuds. Here are my early hands-on impressions of the Method 360 ANC after using them for a day.

Ahead of the launch of its new $100 Method 360 ANC earbuds in NewYork City, Skullcandy hyped the new buds as «the boldest audio product of 2025, featuring a partnership you didn’t see coming.» Whether the Method 360 ANC are the boldest audio product of the year is debatable, but I was certainly surprised to learn that Skullcandy had joined forces with Bose to create what’s essentially the budget version of Bose’s $299 QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds. 

Read more: Best wireless earbuds of 2025

I’ve been using the Method 360 ANC for only a day — they’re available now in five color options — but I’ve been mostly impressed with the new buds, which sound better than most of the earbuds in this price class. From a design standpoint, they share many of the traits of the QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds, with a similar shape and stabilizing «fit» fins, but they’re lighter and lack the more premium finish and overall feel of those pricey buds. That said, they offer a similar fit — and by that, I mean they’re quite comfortable and stay in your ears very securely once you get the buds set up with the right combo of ear tips and fins (three sizes of each are included).

Method 360 ANC’s jumbo case has plusses and minuses

The one glaring difference between the Method 360 ANC and Bose’s QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds, as well as the step-down Quiet Comfort Earbuds ($179), is the Method 360 ANC’s charging case. It’s big — perhaps too big for some people — and it’s a little awkward to get the buds in the case. Yes, the case still fits in a pocket or can be clipped onto a backpack or your jacket. But compared with the charging cases of most true-wireless earbuds, it’s pretty jumbo. It also has no wireless charging.

On the plus side, the case does have a distinct Skullycandy-ish vibe, and I like how it slides open/shuts and how the o-ring clip is integrated into the case. It also houses an ample-size battery that stores an extra 23 hours of battery life when the case is fully charged. The buds are rated for 9 hours of battery life with noise canceling on, or 32 hours total (with the juice in the case), and 11 hours with ANC off, or 40 hours total. I haven’t fully tested the buds yet to confirm those numbers, but if accurate, they’re good.

Sound by Bose

Skullcandy describes the buds as having «Sound by Bose,» which involves hardware (a chipset and presumably drivers) and acoustic digital tuning. I don’t know exactly what components the buds use, but they sound similar to Bose’s QuietComfort Earbuds and have similar specs, including four-mic hybrid active noise canceling. 

Like the QC Earbuds, they’re equipped with ear-detection sensors that pause your music when you take the buds out of your ears and resume playback when you put the buds back in your ears. I also thought the touch controls were well-implemented. They’re customizable via the Skullcandy-iQ app for iOS and Android, where you can also play around with EQ settings to tweak the sound profile. 

Bose’s earbuds and headphones are designed to work well with a variety of music and offer generally smooth, punchy sound that’s very pleasant for listening. While some premium buds offer a little more detail and clarity, like Bose’s QC Earbuds, the bass on these Skullcandy buds has good kick to it without sounding boomy. 

I don’t think the Method 360 ANC buds sound as good as the QC Ultras, which have a tad more depth and extension (they offer slightly richer, more detailed sound), but the contest was much closer than I thought it would be. It’s also worth mentioning that the Method 360 ANC buds play pretty loud and sound better than any Skullcandy earbuds I’ve tested over the years. I still have to listen to them a little longer and compare them with some other earbuds in this price range before delivering a final verdict, but as far as sound goes, there really isn’t much to complain about for the price. 

Skullcandy’s best noise canceling in a pair of earbuds

Noise canceling also seems pretty good, and you can adjust its «intensity» in the app along with the level of ambient sound you let into the buds when you’re in the «stay-aware» mode. While noise canceling isn’t part of the Sound By Bose program, a PR rep told me it was validated by Bose as meeting its standards. As with the sound quality, it isn’t quite up to the level of what you get with the QC Ultra Earbuds or even the QC Earbuds, but it’s respectable and more effective than the middling ANC on earlier Skullcandy noise-canceling earbuds I’ve tried.

I found the voice-calling performance to be something of a mixed bag. In my tests in the noisy streets of New York, one caller said they could hear me clearly with little background noise, while two other callers said my voice warbled and cut in and out (I was hard to hear). I still have some testing to do in this area, but there are some question marks about call quality — at least when it comes to what callers are hearing (I had no issues on my end hearing callers).

An excellent value for the moment

I’ll have my full review of the Skullcandy Method 360 ANC earbuds in the coming days. But aside from a few caveats, it’s safe to say these buds appear to be a very good value. Note that Skullcandy refers to their $100 price tag as an «introductory price,» and that it could change in time as the situation with tariffs remains fluid. But a Skullcandy rep informed me that the earbuds went into production in January, so the company was able to get plenty of units to the US before the tariffs went into effect. While there are currently exemptions in place for smartphones, laptops and some other electronics, there are no tariff carve-outs for headphones and earbuds.           

Skullcandy Method 360 ANC key specs

  • Sound By Bose technology
  • Battery Life: Up to 40 hours ANC off (11 in buds, 29 in case); up to 32 hours with ANC on (9 in buds, 23 in case)
  • Noise-isolating, ergonomic fit: 3 different size pairs of fit fins and three sets of ear gels, leveraging licensed technology from Bose
  • Adjustable 4-mic hybrid active noise canceling with customizable Stay-Aware mode
  • Low latency audio
  • Wear detection sensors
  • IPX4 sweat and water-resistant (splash-proof)
  • Skull-iQ App compatible: Choose one of 3 preset EQ settings or customize your own, reconfigure the button functions, adjust your Stay-Aware or ANC modes and more
  • Rapid charge: A 10-minute charge provides 2 hours of playtime 
  • Clear Voice smart mic helps isolate your voice and reduce background noise during calls
  • Spotify Tap compatible
  • Google Fast Pair 
  • Multipoint Bluetooth Pairing: Pair two devices simultaneously for easy switching
  • Voice sidetone for calls (hear your voice in the earbuds during calls)
  • Bluetooth 5.3 with LE Audio
  • Five color options: Black, bone, primer, plasma and leopard
  • Price: $100

Technologies

Apple CarPlay Ultra vs. Google Built-In: How the Next-Gen Auto Software Rivals Compare

Apple and Google are supercharging their car software experiences. Here’s how they differ.

I’d spent an hour driving a $250,000-plus Aston Martin up the Los Angeles coast when my hunger pangs became impossible to ignore, and as I’ve done many times before, I asked Siri (through Apple CarPlay) to find me a taco place. But then I did something no other car on the planet allows: I asked Siri to blast the AC and make the air colder. That’s because the 2025 Aston Martin DBX I drove was the first vehicle to come with Apple CarPlay Ultra, the upgraded version of the company’s car software.

Apple debuted CarPlay Ultra at WWDC 2025 last month, and this year’s version of the Aston Martin DBX is the first vehicle to launch with it (pairing with an iPhone running iOS 18.5 or later). As I drove the luxury crossover around, I fiddled with other features that aren’t available in regular CarPlay, from climate control to radio to checking the pressure on the car’s tires. Ultimately, Ultra gives deeper access to more car systems, which is a good thing.

That reminded me a lot of a new feature announced at Google I/O back in May: Google Built-In, which similarly lets users control more of a car’s systems straight from the software interface (in that case, Android Auto). When I got a demonstration of Google Built-In, sitting in a new Volvo EX90 electric SUV, I saw what this new integration of Google software offered: climate controls, Gemini AI assistance and even warnings about car maintenance issues.

But the name is telling: Google Built-In requires automakers to incorporate Android deeper into their cars’ inner workings. Comparatively, Apple CarPlay Ultra support seems like it won’t require car manufacturers to do nearly as much work to prepare their vehicles, just adding a reasonably advanced multicore processor onboard that can handle an increased task load. (Aston Martin will be able to add CarPlay Ultra support to its 2023 and 2024 lineups through firmware updates because they already contain sufficiently advanced CPUs.)

Both solutions reflect Apple’s and Google’s different approaches to their next versions of car software. Apple’s is lighter weight, seemingly requiring less commitment from the automaker to integrate CarPlay Ultra into their vehicles (so long as it has adequate processing power onboard), which will run through a paired iPhone. Google Built-In does require much more integration, but it’s so self-sufficient that you can leave your Android phone at home and still get much of its functionality (aside from getting and sending messages and calls). 

Driving with Apple CarPlay Ultra: Controlling climate, radio and more

As I drove around Los Angeles in the Aston Martin with Apple CarPlay Ultra, I could tell what new features I would be missing once I stepped back into my far more humble daily driver. 

At long last, I could summon Siri and ask it to play a specific song (or just a band) and have it pulled up on Spotify. Since Apple’s assistant now has access to climate controls, I asked to turn up the AC, and it went full blast. I asked to find tacos and it suggested several fast food restaurants — well, it’s not perfect, but at least it’s listening. 

To my relief, Aston Martin retained the physical knobs by the gearshift to control fan speed, temperature, stereo volume and the car’s myriad roadway options (like driving assistance) in case the driver likes traditional controls, but almost all of them could also be altered in the interface. Now, things like radio controls (AM/FM and satellite) and car settings are nestled in their own recognizable apps in CarPlay’s interface.

Ultimately, that’ll be one of CarPlay Ultra’s greatest advantages: If you enter an unfamiliar vehicle (like a rental), you still know exactly where everything is. No wrestling with a carmaker’s proprietary software or trying to figure out where some setting or other is located. It’s not a complete replacement — in the Aston Martin’s case, there were still a handful of settings (like for ambient light projected when the doors open) that the luxury automaker controlled, but they were weaved into CarPlay so you could pop open those windows and go back to Apple’s interface without visibly changing apps.

The dependable ubiquity of Apple’s CarPlay software will likely become even more essential as cars swap out their analog instrument clusters for screens, as Aston Martin did. There’s still a touch of the high-end automaker’s signature style as the default screen behind the wheel shows two traditional dials (one for the speedometer, one for RPMs) with Aston Martin’s livery. But that can be swapped out for other styles, from other dials with customizable colors to a full-screen Maps option.

Each of the half-dozen or so dashboard options was swapped out via square touchpads smaller than a dime on the wheel next to the other touch controls. On the dual-dial display types, I swiped vertically to rotate between a central square (with Maps directions, current music or other app information) or swiped horizontally to switch to another dashboard option. No matter which one you choose, the bottom bar contains all the warning lights drivers will recognize from analog cars — even with digital displays, you’re not safe from the check engine light (which is a good thing). 

Apple CarPlay Ultra doesn’t yet do everything I want. I wish I could also ask Siri to roll down the windows (as Google Built-In can — more on that later) and lock or unlock specific doors. If Apple is connected to the car enough to be able to read the pressure in each tire, I wish it could link up with the engine readout and be able to tell me in plain language what kind of maintenance issue has sprung up. Heck, I wish it could connect to the car remotely and blast the AC before I get in (or fire up the seat warmer), as some proprietary car apps can do. And while Apple Maps and Waze will be included at launch, Google Maps support is not, but it’s coming later.

These aren’t huge deficiencies, and they do show where CarPlay Ultra could better meet driver needs in future updates, notwithstanding the potentially dicey security concerns for using CarPlay Ultra for remote climate or unlocking capabilities. But it shows where the limits are today compared to Google’s more in-depth approach.

Google Built-In: Deeper car integrations — and, of course, Gemini AI

The day after Google I/O’s keynote was quieter back in May, as attendees flitted between focused sessions and demos of upcoming software. It was the ideal time to check out Google Built-In, which was appropriately shown off in a higher-end Volvo EX90 electric SUV (though not nearly as pricey as an Aston Martin). 

As mentioned above, Google Built-In has deeper integrations with vehicles than what I saw in Apple CarPlay Ultra, allowing users to change the climate through its interface or access other systems, including through voice requests. For instance, it can go beyond AC control to switch on the defroster, and even raise and lower specific windows relative to the speaker’s position: cameras within the car (in the rearview mirror, if I remember right) meant that when my demonstrator asked to «roll down this window» pointing over his left shoulder, the correct window rolled down.

Google Built-In is also connected to Gemini, Google’s AI assistant, for what the company is calling «Google Live,» a separate and more capable version of the Android Auto assistant experience in cars right now. With a Live session, I could request music or directions much like I could with Siri — but my demo went further, as the demonstrator tasked Gemini with requests better suited for generative AI, such as asking, «Give me suggestions for a family outing» and telling it to send a specific text to a contact. 

The demonstrator then asked Gemini for recipe advice — «I have chicken, rice and broccoli in the fridge, what can I make?» — as an example of a query someone might ask on the drive home.

Since you’re signed into your Google account, Gemini can consult anything connected to it, like emails and messages. It’s also trained on the user manuals from each car-maker, so if a warning light comes on, the driver can ask the voice assistant what it means — no more flipping through a dense manual trying to figure out what each alert means.

There are other benefits to Google Built-In, like not needing your phone for some features. But there are also drawbacks, like the need to keep car software updated, requiring more work on Google’s end to make sure cars are protected from issues or exploits. They can’t just fix it in the most current version of Android — they’ll need to backport that fix to older versions that vehicles might still be on. 

This deeper integration with Google Built-In has a lot of the benefits of Apple CarPlay Ultra (a familiar interface, easier to access features), just cranked up to a greater degree. It surely benefits fans of hands-off controls, and interweaving Gemini naturally dovetails with Google’s investments, so it’s easy to see that functionality improving. But a greater reliance on Android within the car’s systems could be concerning as the vehicle ages: Will the software stop being supported? Will it slow down or be exposed to security exploits? A lot of questions remain regarding making cars open to phone software interfaces.

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A Samsung Tri-Fold Phone Could Be in Your Future, if This Leak Is to Be Believed

UI animations might have revealed the imminent release of a so-called «Galaxy G Fold» device with three screens.

Samsung has been showing off mobile display concepts with three screens at trade events such as CES for several years, but it might finally bring one to market soon if a leaked UI animation is any indicator.

As reported by Android Authority, an animated image from a software build of One UI 8 appears to show what some are dubbing a «Galaxy G Fold» device with three display panels. The screens would be capable of displaying different information or working in unison as one large display. The new phone model could debut as early as next week at Samsung’s Unpacked event on July 9 in Brooklyn. 

Huawei released a tri-folding phone in February, the Mate XT Ultimate Design. 

Some websites have gone into overdrive trying to uncover details on what Samsung’s new device might include and how much it may cost, with Phone Arena reporting that according to a Korean media report, it could be priced at about $3,000. 

Samsung didn’t immediately respond to request for comment.

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Early Prime Day Headphone Deals: Up to $100 Off Top-Rated Pairs From Apple, Beats and More

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