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Earbuds That Let You Hear The Outside World: Sony LinkBuds Review

by Anil Polat | Mar 17, 2022 | Tech | 0

Most headphone and earbud manufacturers focus on sound control, isolation, and active noise cancellation. Not the Sony LinkBuds though, which don’t even feature ANC. Rather, the Sony LinkBuds have a hole right in the middle to let you listen to music while still be able to hear the world around you.

They’re weird but packed with a lot of great features and might be sign of earbuds to come.

Recycled Parts, Updated Design

Right out of the box you’ll notice Sony have opted for a recycled paper box (like their WF1000XM4) to reduce plastic use and the plastic that is used in the LinkBuds case itself is made up of recycled materials. The result is a 95% reduction in plastic packaging and a smooth matte case that is very small. Measuring 41.4 x 48.5 x 30.9 millimeters and weighing on 34 grams, the USB-C charged LinkBuds case adds 12 hours of battery life. That’s on top of the 5.5 hours of battery life of the LinkBuds themselves, which isn’t great, but the smaller size means less space for batteries on par with Samsung’s Galaxy Buds Pro. (And no wireless charging either.) Also, enabling some of the more advanced features like the Digital Sound Enhancement Engine, may get you less battery life.

Coming in two colors, a textured white or a darker grey, the real story of the LinkBuds is their physical shape. There’s a rounded hole over your ear canal, leaving it exposed, while the battery and V1 Integrated Processor sits above that. The result is a very comfortable fit (these are very light earbuds) but having your ear canal open is much less restricting. Not only can you hear sounds around you but you also don’t feel like you’re in a warm sound booth either and these earbuds actually stay in your ears.

Sony LinkBuds Truly Wireless Earbud Headphones with an Open-Ring...

LinkBuds Sound

To get the most out of the Linkbuds you’ll want to download the free Sony Headphones app but even out of the box they sound crisp – pretty impressive for earbuds that don’t cover your ears. They tones really excel in the higher pitches and trebles but the bass sounds muffled. You can use the Headphones app to select one of a few different sound profiles or save your own custom EQ preferences as well.

Most earbuds focus on noise cancelling whereas the LinkBuds are designed for optimal transparency mode. That’s useful for when you’re jogging outdoors, they are IPX4 sweat proof, or when you’re walking around a city. Sony have also included features like speak to chat which turns off what you’re listening to automatically when you start speaking.

The microphone for calls is decent – it does tend to have a somewhat hollow sound a lot of earbuds do but the person on the other end of your phone call or virtual meeting should be able to hear you fine even if there’s moderate background noise on your end.

Futuristic Features

Sony have really leaned in to the software customization of the LinkBuds. Using the spatial sound feature, moving your head up and down then left and right, the LinkBuds will adjust their sound based on how you specifically wear them. Another feature found on other Sony earbuds is ear analysis where the headphones app uses your phones camera to optimize the sound quality based on the specific shape of your ears.

Another elegant design choice that cuts down on the size of the LinkBuds is that they don’t have any onboard buttons, rather you double tap the side of your head for adjustable functions like pause/play or volume up and down. And it works pretty well, even if you’re chewing gum, even if it does feel a bit weird to tap the side of your head to skip ahead a song.

There are some quarks like the case hinge feels a bit flimsy at certain angles and the headphones app can’t show you the case battery life unless you take the earbuds in and out but those are mainly minor complaints and one that can be fixed with a software update. These might not be the best earbuds if you fly frequently – check out the Bose QuietComfort – but for daily use around town where hearing your surroundings is useful, the LinkBuds might be weird looking but could be a good fit.

Could You Visit Every Place On Earth In A Lifetime?

by Anil Polat | Mar 10, 2022 | Pictures and Video, Travel, Travel Unravel | 0

As someone who’s made a career that began from a quest to visit every country in the world, I’ve often thought, could I see more? Could I see every city with a population of over 500,000 or all the world’s countries, UNESCO sites, best and worst cities? It’s a question we’ve tackled here before but in the video above I show just how difficult such a feat would be.

For those of you who love traveling and want to see it all, the answer to the question – can you see the world in a lifetime – will either be discouraging or profoundly inspiring. The choice is a big one and all yours to make.

A Review Of Mint Mobile, There’s A Catch

by Anil Polat | Mar 3, 2022 | Money, Tech | 0

Mint Mobile is a company that offers an alternative to local U.S. cell service, undercutting the prices of larger providers by maintaining an entirely brick-less infrastructure. For visitors to the United States, Mint Mobile can also be an attractive options compared to other eSim services but in both cases, there are some limitations to be aware of you can watch in this video or read on.

MVNO

To see how Mint Mobile is able to have talk, text, and data plans half the price of major carriers like AT&T or Verizon, you need to understand what’s known as a mobile virtual network operator or MVNO. That means that Mint Mobile does not have its own wireless network infrastructure – in other words they’re not putting up their own cell towers and spending money managing, maintaining and growing their own network hardware. Instead, what Mint Mobile does as an MVNO is purchase portion of the network services from a larger carrier that does have its own wireless infrastructure.

In the case of Mint Mobile, they are an MVNO on T-Mobile’s network. Essentially Mint Mobile purchases bulk access to T-Mobile’s network then creates their own pricing for their talk, text, and data plans which end up being a lot less expensive for you the consumer.

For example on a yearly plan with unlimited talk, text, and 10 gigabytes of data per month, Mint Mobile charges $20 every month, compared to T-Mobile where their 100GB plan is $70 a month and requires a year commitment. Mint Mobile offers plans as short as 3 months and setup takes 10 minutes on eSim compatible devices (most phones made since 2020) or if needed, they’ll mail you out a SIM card.

Carrier Games

Now being an MVNO means that T-Mobile can, and does, prioritize their paying users over Mint Mobile’s. In crowded places like sporting events or concerts, where a lot of people are connecting to the Internet on their phones, Mint’s service might be slowed down considerably or become unavailable altogether. During my testing I never encountered major throttling but it’s a possibility to be aware of.

Mint Mobile also limits video streaming to 480p resolution and doesn’t support Netflix. For people who watch a lot of YouTube on your phone, those limitations might be a deal breaker.

Lost Data

Unfortunately after testing Mint Mobile for over 6 months, it became apparent data from my first, 3GB, then 10GB plans were going missing. Even during a month where I purposefully kept my phone in airplane mode (wireless only) for all but a few hours, I some how hit my 10GB limit 10 days into the month. According to my phone stats, that’s not possible and something other users have reported online.

Mint Mobile wasn’t able to give me a good reason for the discrepancy and that’s disappointing because their service is otherwise solid with very good monthly rates. Given their status as an MVNO and the fact they don’t have physical stores, it’s easier to understand how Mint Mobile is able to cut down on costs. Assuming you don’t have mystery data leaks, the setup and price might be right for you.

How Airbnb Rips You Off With Cleaning Fees

by Anil Polat | Feb 17, 2022 | Lodging, Money, Travel | 0

Once the lower cost alternative to hotels, Airbnb prices have gone steadily up, even if it’s not apparent from the nightly rates that pop up in the search results. That’s because Airbnb hosts have adopted a strategy commonly used by airfare search engines to get you to pay more than you want to – by using the cleaning fee.

Clearing Up Cleaning Fees

You’re probably familiar with the service fee when booking on Airbnb – the cut the site takes to run their service but much, much more variable is the cleaning fee. Cleaning fees on the other hand are there to cover costs like labor, cleaning products, toilet paper, laundry – as the name suggests, to cover the costs of cleaning an Airbnb after your stay. The cleaning fee, unlike many hotels, is a one-time (non-refundable) upfront cost – in other words you pay a single cleaning fee rate whether you’re staying for a night or two months.

Cleaning fees, in theory, vary based on the size of the accommodation, location, and any special circumstances like being on a ski resort for example, where you might have a lot more mud tracked inside. But cleaning fees, at least for the host, are somewhat arbitrary.

Reservation Pricing

An Airbnb host can set the cleaning fee to whatever they want and I’ve seen places where the fee is the same as the rental rate, meaning it can double the cost of your stay if it’s only for a night. See, Airbnb calculates service fees based on the total amount of your payment, which includes the cleaning fee. A high cleaning fee can mean a larger service fee meaning the price you saw in the search could be a lot more each night than at first sight.

This all makes sense from a logical perspective for Airbnb but for you, the consumer, you still have that original price – the one you saw when you were searching in the first place – you still have that first price in mind. And because of that, you’re more likely to book the Airbnb, high cleaning fees and all. This is due to a psychological phenomenon called “reference price” and it works even better to get you to book an Airbnb if the search price – that first price you see is really low.

Airline Tactic

See, this is a tactic airlines have been using for a long time. You’ve seen it, you search for flights and pick a cheap one, only to watch the total price be way above what you were hoping to pay when airline fees are added. Fees for seating, fees for luggage, fees for food, fees for who knows what else. But you usually end up booking that flight anyway because our brains unconsciously evaluate prices based on the first base cost we’re presented with.

So it’s not a 949 dollar flight, it’s a $600 flight with fees and taxes tacked on. And just like that it’s not a $288 a night Airbnb but a $147 Airbnb with a $105 dollar cleaning fee. For Airbnb, holding off on how long they show you the total price – or rather by showing you the lowest base price for a booking, they increase their chances of you booking. And Airbnb hosts know this as well – so they can lower the nightly rate but make up for it a bit with a higher cleaning fee.

For longer bookings of a week or more, large cleaning fees probably won’t impact the total price too significantly. But for one or two night stays, they can significantly add to your totals. And that’s how hosts can really turn a profit since it probably doesn’t cost them close to the cleaning fee to spruce up after a one night guest.

Overall, hosts get to lower their nightly rate at first glance, profit off the cleaning fee, and all the while Airbnb makes more off increased service fees. To avoid falling for the reference price trap, check hotels, other rental sites, so for better or worse, you’re not just relying on Airbnb.

Is Travel Blogging Dead?

by Anil Polat | Feb 10, 2022 | Discussion, Money, Site News | 2

In evolution, there’s no one specific moment in time where you can point to and say, this species split into two different paths. We of course do that in history books but the truth is there’s a big grey area where things overlap. The same is often true of online platforms and trends, travel blogging being a good example.

Travel blogging has been changing but now has changed so much, we can say it’s in a new era. So, travel blogging isn’t dead but not what it once was. Here’s what you need to know about travel blogging if you’re thinking of starting your own or not sure to do with the one you have on life support.

This Was The Plan

Since I began blogging seriously around 2008, I’ve had a weekly schedule. In those days, it was start planning out the site’s posting schedule for the week on Sundays. I’d write 5 posts a week and foXnoMad slowly grew an audience. Many left comments and suggestions as they followed my travels and tech reviews through RSS. A reader where you subscribed to sites to get updates. (It still exists as a weekly foXnoMad email update.) Growth was organic and at the time and I knew pretty much every other travel blogger.

Social media was in its infancy and timelines were chronological. Introverts rejoice, you could have an online presence without being the face of your own brand. You can still exist on the Internet as travel blogs once did in the early 2010s but what’s changed is your ability and perhaps, desire to monetize.

Everything Everywhere

As Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube became algorithm based – machines preferring content know will get clicks (quality or usefulness be damned) and Google abandoning Reader, travel bloggers shifted. Some jumped completely to YouTube or Vine (rest in peace) while others tried to be on every platform. Without a way to like and subscribe to your favorite blog, blogger audiences became scattered and had to rely on Google searches to get views. Personality based based blogs mostly suffered and those that help you travel smarter, benefited. (Not all though, some have cultivated a very active user base on their blog.)

Gary Arndt has a very good write up on this history and why he’s done travel blogging. We also talked about it in a recent episode of the foXnoMad Podcast. But to me, it comes down to money. Travel blogging isn’t dead but the monetization model isn’t the same.

State Of Blogging Today

See, if you want to make money from travel blogging, that’s a whole other story. Is travel blogging dead? Not if you don’t care about money. Blogs and websites still remain possibly the most independent, free spaces on the Internet. You don’t have to make money from a travel blog and there are other benefits to having your own personal online space. It can be a hub for your merch, tours, or other services.

And, this is a big one, whether you jump to YouTube or start a podcast, writing is an invaluable skill. Videos often need scripts, podcasts a well-thought out plan, and an economy of words online is a skill that takes time to cultivate. How you say stuff – that “voice” everyone keeps talking about requires writing. Having written thousands of posts now and hundreds of YouTube scripts, a blog is a great way to articulate ideas, organize your thoughts, and have one place where everyone can find everywhere else you happen to be posting.

Since I began travel blogging I have said to myself and others, if I didn’t make a cent doing this, I would still be doing it. I love sharing knowledge and writing because they lead to ideas. In my experience, ideas often lead to adventures. Life isn’t the same without them.

Tech YouTuber Marques Brownlee has a good analogy that works for any creative endeavor. Don’t start travel blogging unless you love traveling and writing (or photography). You should be happy doing it even if you never make a dime off of it. Otherwise it sounds like you want to start a business. But turning your travel blog into a business, that has evolved into something else completely.

How To Rent A Tesla From Hertz

by Anil Polat | Feb 3, 2022 | Car, Tech | 0

Hertz recently sent Tesla’s market value over 1 trillion dollars after the car rental company ordered 100,000 Tesla electric vehicles. Hertz’s goal is to eventually make 20% of its fleet EVs and they’re slowly rolling out Teslas as a rental option mainly in California, Texas, and at airports in major US and European cities.

Here’s how you can rent a Tesla from Hertz and everything you need to know about the process.

Finding A Tesla

The easiest way to book a Tesla is through the Hertz app where you might snag some discounts not available on their desktop site. Either way, you’ll see that Hertz’s online portal is a bit ahead of its Tesla rollout. See, Tesla is a vehicle option at many locations but in reality they’re currently limited to select cities mainly at airport locations. There are also some restrictions to know about before renting – you can’t rent and drop off at separate locations – and self-driving is disabled, in case you were hoping to test that feature out. (Though autopilot is enabled.)

Otherwise the process is much like renting any other type of car. Pick your dates, choose the Tesla (currently they’re all rear wheel drive Model 3s with the standard range of about 260 miles), and select your pick up location.

Car Pick Up

Most of the locations with Teslas have chargers on site so you should get a car that’s 80-100% charged. Keep in mind though if you’ve never driven a Tesla to read up on the several emails Hertz will send you describing how to unlock the doors, start the car, and put it back into park. It sounds straightforward but the Tesla experience is very different than most gas powered vehicles so arrive prepared. Nobody at Hertz will give you a tour or demonstration unless you ask so be prepared if it’s your first time to take a few minutes in the parking lot to get a good feel for the car.

All of your controls, wipers, heating, everything is managed through the Model 3’s large central touchscreen. Get familiar with it before hitting the road so you’re not searching to turn on the air conditioning when you should be watching the road.

Costs And Drop Off

For some reason when I booked a Tesla, I got it for a rate of $72 ($91 total with fees and taxes). I was told by the clerk I must have had some good luck on my side because the going rate to rent a Model 3 is about $170-200. You’ll have to include the cost to charge the car, which can run about $6-8; meaning it should be a lot less expensive than gas to refuel.

Hertz’s is planning to add superchargers to many of their local locations as they expand the Tesla rental option and you should start seeing Model 3s at many more locations. Overall, a good way to experience driving a Tesla while reducing your emissions, although you will pay a premium for it.

About Anil Polat

Hi, I'm Anil. foXnoMad is where I combine travel and tech to help you travel smarter. I'm on a journey to every country in the world and you're invited to join the adventure! Read More