Technologies

How to Connect Bluetooth Headphones to Your Smart TV

Connecting headphones to your smart TV can keep the peace in your household after hours.

Whether you’re a parent, a roommate, a spouse or all of the above, you’ve probably given up watching TV at some point to avoid disturbing the people around you. The good news? You don’t have to retreat to a tiny phone or tablet to catch your favorite shows and movies. You can still watch on your big TV without bothering anyone else.

Bluetooth is the key, and it’s everywhere, including the best TVs. Connecting your wireless headphones or earbuds to your TV is usually quick and easy. Here’s how to do it, what you can do with it and what to do if you encounter issues.

Initial prep

First, update the firmware on both your TV and your headphones/earbuds (you’ll do this via the companion app for your headphones on your phone). Next, put your headphones into pairing mode. If needed, check the manual for specific instructions, but it usually involves pressing and holding a button on the headphones or earbud case until a light starts flashing.

Connect

Go to your TV’s settings menu, usually represented by a gear icon. Locate the Bluetooth menu, which may be accessible separately or within the sound/audio output options, depending on your TV model.

Once you’re in the Bluetooth settings, select Add device (or the closest equivalent). Your headphones/earbuds should appear there. Select them, and the TV should indicate that the headphones are now connected.

If your TV’s Bluetooth settings are separate from the audio output settings, you’ll need to change the audio output to Bluetooth as well. You should also hear a brief connection tone from the headphones.

Once a set of headphones is paired with your TV, you generally just need to put them on, and they should automatically reconnect to the TV. Some TV models may require you to revisit the settings and manually select Bluetooth as the sound output. Some TVs support audio output through both Bluetooth and the built-in speakers simultaneously, which can be handy if you’re watching with multiple people and one of them likes the volume cranked way up.

Multipoint and dual audio

If your headphones support multipoint Bluetooth, you should be able to switch from your TV audio to a phone call without having to manually switch and reconnect devices.

If your TV supports dual audio, you can connect to two headsets and watch/listen together without waking the kids. Pair the second device you’d like to connect using the same procedure above, and then go to the audio output settings. You should be able to choose multiple devices for simultaneous synced output.

Troubleshooting Bluetooth and TV connections

Some HDMI connections to devices like soundbars can hog up the audio output and prevent you from switching to Bluetooth. For example, I encountered a specific combination of devices — an LG OLED TV and a Sonos Arc soundbar — where I selected Bluetooth, and the HDMI connection took over the audio within a couple of seconds. If this happens, you can try unplugging the soundbar cable.

If an issue or problem comes up, such as a Bluetooth connection error message, return to your TV’s Bluetooth settings, select the device and choose either Forget device or Delete device. Then repeat the pairing process.

If your TV doesn’t have Bluetooth, you’re not left out in the cold. Bluetooth transmitters are easy to connect to older TVs with an audio output (typically an optical connection) and usually support two headphone connections simultaneously. However, be sure to look for a transmitter model that includes the aptX low-latency codec and use it with headphones that also support the same codec. If not, you may experience distracting lag time between audio and video, aka lip-sync issues.

To pair the transmitter with your headphones, place both devices in pairing mode, and they should connect automatically. If another device hijacks the connection to your headphones, turn off that device’s Bluetooth.

Technologies

Harvard Business Review Study Finds ‘AI Brain Fry’ Is Leaving Workers Mentally Fatigued

Study participants reported increased mental fatigue while using AI tools, but less burnout overall.

Workers who excessively use AI agents and tools at work are at increased risk of mental fatigue, according to a recent Harvard Business Review study. In certain industries, more than 25% of hired professionals report increased mental strain due to their role in AI oversight — though these professionals also generally experienced less burnout than peers who aren’t using AI.

This phenomenon — which the researchers refer to as «AI brain fry» — is described as a «‘buzzing’ feeling or a mental fog» that caused study participants to develop headaches and difficulty focusing and making decisions. Individuals pointed to being overwhelmed by large amounts of information and to frequent task switching as the reasons for these feelings.

Studied individuals experienced more brain fry when they utilized AI agents to manage a workload beyond their own cognitive capacity. When participants used AI to replace mundane, repetitive tasks, managing the growing number of tools led to increased mental fatigue.

Crucially, the study found that fewer individuals who used these AI agents reported workplace burnout.

The researchers predict that this is because burnout testing assesses emotional and physical distress. In contrast, they report, acute mental fatigue «is caused by marshalling attention, working memory and executive control beyond the limited capacity of these systems.»

These are the processes that are taxed when study participants use multiple AI tools in their workflow, according to the researchers.

The Harvard study identifies several business costs incurred by workers suffering from AI brain fry. The foremost consequence is that these individuals may end up making lower-quality decisions. «Workers in [the] study who endorsed AI brain fry experience 33% more decision fatigue than those who did not,» the study reports. Workers who report AI brain fry were also more likely to self-report making both minor and major errors at their jobs.

Another recent Harvard Business Review study similarly found that employees who use AI tools «worked at a faster pace, took on a broader scope of tasks and extended work into more hours of the day,» but warned that «workload creep can in turn lead to cognitive fatigue, burnout and weakened decision-making.»

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections Hints, Answers and Help for March 11, #1004

Here are some hints and the answers for the NYT Connections puzzle for March 11, No. 1,004.

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

Once I spotted «ice cream» and «traffic» in today’s NYT Connections puzzle, I had the blue category all but filled in. But that purple category was even more bizarre than usual. Read on for clues and today’s Connections answers.

The Times has a Connections Bot, like the one for Wordle. Go there after you play to receive a numeric score and to have the program analyze your answers. Players who are registered with the Times Games section can now nerd out by following their progress, including the number of puzzles completed, win rate, number of times they nabbed a perfect score and their win streak.

Read more: Hints, Tips and Strategies to Help You Win at NYT Connections Every Time

Hints for today’s Connections groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: Bring that back!

Green group hint: Fancy ____.

Blue group hint: Think of a certain shape.

Purple group hint: Sounds like…

Answers for today’s Connections groups

Yellow group: Steal.

Green group: Make nicer, with «up.»

Blue group: Kinds of cones.

Purple group: Pronoun homophones.

Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words

What are today’s Connections answers?

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is steal. The four answers are lift, palm, pinch and pocket.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is make nicer, with «up.» The four answers are dress, jazz, spiff and spruce.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is kinds of cones. The four answers are ice cream, pine, snow and traffic.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is pronoun homophones. The four answers are hee, mi, oui and yew.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections: Sports Edition Hints and Answers for March 11, #534

Here are hints and the answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle No. 534 for Wednesday, March 11.

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

Today’s Connections: Sports Edition features a real mix of categories, but the yellow one came easily to this Seahawks fan. If you’re struggling with today’s puzzle but still want to solve it, read on for hints and the answers.

Connections: Sports Edition is published by The Athletic, the subscription-based sports journalism site owned by The Times. It doesn’t appear in the NYT Games app, but it does in The Athletic’s own app. Or you can play it for free online.

Read more: NYT Connections: Sports Edition Puzzle Comes Out of Beta

Hints for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: Super Bowl champs’ division.

Green group hint: Baseball stats.

Blue group hint: Stars on ice.

Purple group hint: You wear it around your waist.