For anyone who walks, runs, cycles or does just about anything outside on a regular basis, I always give the same piece of advice: Ditch those noise-canceling headphones. Don’t get me wrong. I have a pair of big over-the-ear headphones that have spectacular noise cancellation, and I love them. But when I’m outside — especially if I’m close to fast-moving cars and heavy traffic — I need to be able to hear the world around me and not just my music or whatever podcast I’m bingeing at the moment. In those cases, I want something like the OpenFit true wireless headphones from Shokz.

I love a good pair of headphones, but I don’t love spending a ton of money on them. My threshold is about $100, which is why when all of my cycling friends started raving about bone-conduction headphones a few years back, I was more than a little hesitant because I would probably use them only when working out. However, now is a great time to get in on this innovative headphone technology.

These headphones are designed to be used in places where bone conduction may not be enough and, as a result, I’m rarely seen without mine on. You can grab these headphones at a great price in black and beige, both marked down to $160 right now — a $20 discount off the usual list price.

A week after I picked these up, I was nearly sideswiped by a pickup truck and the only thing that saved me was hearing it come up behind me. There’s a reason these are recommended on our list of the best running headphones you can buy.

If you’re looking for outdoor-friendly workout headphones, my first recommendation is always Shokz, formerly known as Aftershokz. Bone-conduction headphones sit just outside your ear, resting on the bone. Music vibrates through a set of pads into your skull and you hear those sounds as if they’re coming from a speaker a few feet away.

You can hear everything you’re listening to on your phone without interrupting the sounds coming from the rest of the world around you. For cyclists and runners — really anyone who does anything outside — this is a game-changing experience. It’s more accurate and pleasing than traditional headphones with «passthrough mode» and you sacrifice very little in audio quality.

Impulse Buys Under $25 on Amazon That Make Surprisingly Great Gifts

+17 More

See all photos

My favorite bone-conduction headphones — and I’ve tried them all — are the OpenRun Pro headphones from Shokz. They’re waterproof (which means they’re easy to clean when I’m all sweaty), the battery lasts me about 7 hours on a charge (perfect for those 70-mile riding days), and they’re comfortable enough that I can wear them all day and not feel them pressing on me. They charge magnetically with a proprietary charger but Shokz includes two cables in the box in case you lose things, as I do.

If these headphones are a little rich for your blood, no worries. Shokz also has cheaper OpenRun and OpenMove bone-conduction headphones with up to 6 hours of battery life and IP55 dust and water resistance. Whether you’re physically active outdoors or you just like exploring new things, I highly recommend giving these headphones a try.

The Shokz OpenMove make a great gift for an outdoor runner

The Shokz make a great purchase, either for yourself or as a gift for the outdoor runner in your life. Not only are they the best of their kind, but giving these to a runner may also give you some peace of mind to know they’re a little safer when they’re out running alongside busy streets or other high-traffic areas.

For more discounted tech, check out our editors’ picks for the best headphone deals.

Facing down a heat wave this summer? There’s a new beta app for iPhones from the founder of Twitter, Jack Dorsey, that helps you track your exposure to the sun. The Sun Day app is free to testers and contains information like sunrise, sunset and UV index in order to assess your potential burn-limit time and, as the app description says, «track your Vitamin D from the sun.» 

Dorsey is currently testing UI updates and a solar noon notification, according to the app notes. In the app, you can describe the type of clothing you’re wearing, such as shorts and T-shirts or swimwear, and your Fitzpatrick skin type, which classifies how quickly you’ll burn.

The iOS app asks permission to connect to some Apple Health data when the app is installed.

Dorsey also recently released Bitchat, a private messaging client that uses Bluetooth as its communication platform. Although it’s meant to be a secure, private app, some users have flagged Bitchat for potential security flaws that are still being tested.

How to test the Sun Day app

If you’ve got an iOS device, download the Sun Day TestFlight app from the App Store and then follow the link to the app for Sun Day to join the beta test.

The effectiveness of an app such as Sun Day depends on giving it accurate information about your skin type and clothing, and while vitamin D levels are one way to gauge UV exposure, it’s not foolproof given that some people also take vitamin D supplements.

«Jack Dorsey’s new app Sun Day is exciting, not to detect vitamin D levels but really to help us understand our UV index which is so important in sun safety,» said Tanya Kormeili, an LA-based dermatologist. «The app does have an interesting promise as far as I am concerned, in that using the UV index can show you the risk for the level of UV exposure.»

The risks of too much sun exposure include sunburns, aging skin and skin cancer. Tracking UV levels is one way to help mitigate those risks.

People tend to think about sun exposure and protections like sunscreen most during the summer, when the sun is strongest and the days are long, and when you’re heading to the beach or out gardening, golfing or otherwise getting in quality sun time. But there is always a risk of sun damage to your skin while you’re outside — year round.

«Sometimes it is hard for patients to be convinced that there can be an excessive UV risk on a cloudy day,» Kormeili says. «The app would provide an objective measure of that UV index and guide you in safer sun practices.»

The dermatologist suggests that Dorsey putting the app out for public consumption without medical experts endorsing it might be a missed opportunity. «I am surprised that they have not involved actual dermatologists in pointing out the true value and limitations of this app,» she said.

If kids are lying about their age, YouTube will know about it. Or at least will try its best to find out. The streaming service announced Tuesday it’s rolling out age-estimation technology that will use various data to determine if someone is under the age of 18, and then use that signal «to deliver our age-appropriate product experiences and protections.» 

Basically — assuming it works as it should — kids will not be able to access what YouTube deems as age-restricted content.

Google, YouTube’s parent company, announced in February that it would begin deploying this type of technology, which relies on AI, to determine users’ ages.

YouTube said it will test the machine-learning tech on a small set of users in the US to estimate their age. Some of the signals it will look at include «the types of videos a user is searching for, the categories of videos they have watched or the longevity of the account.» After ensuring the age verification is working as intended, YouTube will then roll it out more widely.

Donna Rice Hughes, president and CEO of children’s online safety organization Enough is Enough, welcomed YouTube’s move toward age verification. 

«It’s always encouraging to me as a veteran working in the internet safety space for over three decades to see big tech companies being proactive to better protect youth online,» Hughes told CNET. «Since the advent of social media, which began with age limits of 18 years and older then reduced to 13-plus with absolutely no age verification technologies in place, kids have learned to lie about their age to get on these platforms, including YouTube.»

Hughes said YouTube can take it a step further: «I also encourage YouTube to turn on safety defaults to block sexually explicit videos and advertising and other harmful content for all users under 18.»

YouTube’s age-verification move is another step in the growing age-verification push that is being hastened by the US and other governments trying to prevent children from accessing content deemed harmful, unhealthy and not appropriate for their age.

What happens when YouTube decides someone is under 18?

If its age-estimation system decides someone is under 18, YouTube will then:

• Disable personalized advertising.
• Turn on digital wellbeing tools.
• Add safeguards to recommendations, including limiting repetitive views of some content.

People who are actually adults but who have been wrongly identified as children will be able to verify that they are 18 or older by using a credit card or a government ID.

Hughes of Enough is Enough said that strong measures are needed to protect kids when it comes to their online use of YouTube videos and more.

«At EIE, we have encouraged turning on safety defaults — including filtering, monitoring and time-limiting controls — on all internet-enabled devices and platforms,» Hughes told CNET. «This simple step by big tech companies would greatly empower parents, who now must do this themselves on every device and every social media platform, which is overwhelming.»