Newcomer is the only way to describe Master & Dynamic, which on Dec. 31, 2015 completed its first full year of revenue. Young or not, its audio gear is vintage and refined. Wanna see? You can find the MH40 headphones, which look like something World War II bomber pilots would wear, inside any Apple Store. Distribution partnership of that caliber from a near start-up says much about M&D earphones and headphones—design, price, and sound.

The signature sound is full, which is atypical in a market where booming bass ranks among headphone buyers’ top priorities. But for those listeners who delight in the faintest tap of the symbol, warmest treble, and deep lows that reveal details rather than thump, thump, Master & Dynamic delivers. For Christmas I bought the company’s MW60 wireless headphones, which I will review soon. Today's topic is the MH40, which are wired.

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If you are a vlogger, podcaster, or someone who video chats while on the go, you know that a quality microphone is key. Sure, a good camera or webcam is essential, but if people can't hear you well, their interest will fade quickly.

Today, Samson announces a new laptop-focused portable microphone (it can also work with desktop monitors), called the Go Mic Connect. This should meet the needs of many on-the-go vloggers, podcasters and communicators. Unfortunately, the product is not yet publicly available, as the company is instead leveraging crowdfunding to make it a reality.

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I know what you're thinking, "another Bluetooth speaker". Yes, there is a flood of them on the market. We've had our fair share pass through the BetaNews office and most are comparable and a few even stood out for one reason or another.

Now Braven is announcing its latest offering. It's a name that's no stranger to us, we've reviewed previous models. This one is a bit different though.

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Despite the publicity that music service Tidal has received recently thanks to the exclusive release of the Kanye West album, it has continued to struggle. Rumors the past few weeks have swirled around a potential sale of the streaming service, with Samsung being front and center among the candidates as a possible buyer.

Samsung has already shuttered its video service and there's a chance its Milk Music service is on the chopping block. While Milk has seemingly gained some footing with the free version of the Pandora-like radio, it has little in the way of paid subscribers.

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Is adblocking good or evil? It's a discussion that has been rumbling on for some time, and it shows no signs of going away any time soon. The reasons for blocking ads are plentiful -- privacy, speed, annoyance -- but there's no getting away from the fact that ads mean revenue, and without this income many sites simply would not exist.

The latest figure to wade into the debate is the UK culture secretary John Whittingdale. While not going as far as calling for a ban on adblockers, he says that companies such as Adblock Plus are operating "modern-day protection rackets", ultimately threatening the existence of news sites.

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Training for that big marathon? You have a lot of work to do and plenty of long training runs in your future, but it can be done, it just takes some ambition and fortitude. But those long training runs? It's good to have some company to keep you going. Since a partner isn't always possible, music can be your next best option.

In running, the Runkeeper app comes in handy for tracking your workout and music can be supplied from a good streaming service such as Spotify. Now the two are teaming up to keep you moving out there.

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Swedish music streaming service Spotify has decided to transport its entire product onto Google’s cloud. The news was confirmed on the Spotify blog.

In the blog post, written by the company's vice-president of engineering and infrastructure, Nicholas Harteau, it was explained how Spotify decided for the move as it could no longer scale fast enough to meet the demand.

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Sunday is it. The big day will be here as the Denver Broncos take on the Carolina Panthers. Peyton Manning squares off against the up and coming Cam Newton in a showdown for the coveted Lombardi Trophy, first hoisted into the air by the Green Bay Packers back in 1967, three years before the legendary namesake passed away.

Fast-forward 40-plus years and we've arrived at that day again, though this time the game will be held in a more temperate climate, as that is now the way the league wants it to be. No more frozen tundra, but weather more suitable to fans and media.

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Bluetooth speakers are awesome. They are convenient, often inexpensive, and sometimes portable. If I want to listen to music in my backyard, at the beach, or in my home, an inexpensive unit can do the trick.

Unfortunately, these little speakers are often lacking in sound quality. Yeah, they are usually better than integrated smartphone and tablet speakers, but hardly up to snuff for audiophiles or hardcore music enthusiasts. Enter the Fluance Fi70. This elegant three-way music system looks to be the Bluetooth speaker of which many of us have been dreaming.

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Listening to music is probably my favorite hobby. No matter what I am doing -- working, relaxing, showering -- I like to have some tunes playing in the background. My most common source of music is Spotify on my iPhone or iPad.

While the integrated speakers on Apple's devices are decent, I crave more volume and improved quality. To achieve this, I use a Bluetooth speaker. One of the best line of such speakers comes from Ultimate Ears. Its UE ROLL, UE BOOM 2 and UE MEGABOOM are all exceptional. Today, the company announces a limited edition 'Rabbit Eye Movement' version of the UE BOOM 2, designed by Austrian graffiti artist Nychos.

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We live in a world where we increasingly expect everything to interface with everything else. New cars come with Bluetooth and wireless connections for example to access information from your phone, and audio systems are able to stream music around your home.

But what if you have an older car, or if you want to link a smartphone to your non-smart home Hi-Fi? Inateck has an answer in the form of the BR1002, a neat little gadget that can turn your older devices into Bluetooth enabled ones.

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Streaming services come and go, and some remain popular or even grow over time. Giving the users the ability to create and manage stations is a great idea, allowing anyone to become the radio DJ, perhaps a fantasy of many people, is an even bigger ambition.

The greatest option for this has been Live365, a service started back in 1999, in the early days of streaming. It brought the world of online radio to the masses and made it easy to create your own station.

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iHeartRadio, a leading provider of streaming music, has numerous stations customers can listen to either on the web or through mobile apps. It's a popular service in a crowded streaming market. In fact, it even sponsors a major music festival each year in Las Vegas, the most recent taking place back in September.

What sort of follower-base does putting on a show with big name artists take? Obviously there's a lot behind it, aside from followers -- contracts with artists and radio stations, for example.

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My Apple love-affair started with the allure of hardware—the original Bondi Blue iMac in December 1998—but stayed true because of software. I found Mac OS 8.5.1 to be substantially more satisfying than Windows Me and to support broader range of applications than NT 4. The experience carried forward, particularly during the iLife era and priority placed on content creation that matters to most people. The company caught the transition from documents to digital media as main content created by most people

Over the past couple years, Apple apps and operating systems feel stuck in the last decade. They're directionless. But as 2016 slowly advances, i see hopeful hints that software innovation will rise to the standard set by the company in the early 2000s. Fresh example, which is but a curiosity to some, foreshadows much: Music Memos; released yesterday.

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Earbits, which came close to shutting down before being backed by You 42, is a popular platform for finding new artists. It's available, not only on the web, but also for Android, iOS and Chrome. The service was founded in 2010 by Joey Flores with the goal of promoting the artists and doing so without ads or premium plans.

The problem with any online service is security and there are many examples of those who got that part wrong. Often times these sites were poorly protected and user data has been stolen -- names, emails, even credit card numbers.

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