Hullo, itâs Alex in London. The search for the perfect headphones is a struggle for an insomniac like me. But first...Three things you need [View in browser](
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Hullo, itâs Alex in London. The search for the perfect headphones is a struggle for an insomniac like me. But first... Three things you need to know today: ⢠Apple shuffles the hardware team [responsible for audio](
⢠Law enforcement strikes a blow at the [LockBit ransomware gang](
â¢Â Tinder expands its [ID verification program]( A market opportunity This might be a weird thing to admit, but I listen to Netflix while I sleep. Yes, you read that correctly. I listen to Netflix. I line up a show, turn audio description on, switch my iPhone display off, put on my headphones and press play. And I wonder if the practice represents an opportunity to which tech companies have not yet fully woken up. Choosing what to play is a challenge. It has to be interesting, but not have so compelling a narrative that Iâll stay up all night listening, as Iâve learned the hard way. Seinfeld works pretty well. So does Brooklyn Nine-Nine. Yes, Minister on Britbox is a favorite. The intro music canât be too loud or else itâs liable to wake me up just as I doze off. The clapping in the Friends theme had that effect. I find itâs a good way of disengaging my brain. And if I wake in the middle of the night, Iâm less likely to embark on a spiral of anxiety about the bills Iâm yet to pay or impending story deadlines. Instead, I can listen to Jerry Seinfeld whining about, well, [nothing](. If Iâm not listening to a Netflix show, itâs an audiobook or a podcast. If itâs a strange habit, I know Iâm not alone in practicing it. I have friends who do the same. And Kit Harington of Game of Thrones fame [told a podcast last month]( that he listens to Harry Potter audiobooks while sleeping. In fact, 51% of American podcast listeners tune in to ârelax before going to sleep,â according to a [2019 study]( from Edison Research. Interestingly, [subsequent editions]( of the report stopped capturing that data, presumably because the podcast companies who pay for the study donât really want advertisers to know that a sizable chunk of their listeners arenât actually awake. Back in 2017, Netflix Inc. co-founder Reed Hastings said that sleep was his companyâs [biggest competitor](. Calm.com Inc. has built half its business on sleep stories. If tech and media companies know that sleep can be good for their content businesses, however, hardware is a different matter. Yes, there are all those sleep trackers, from the Apple Watch to Oura Ring and $1,600 smart mattresses. That [sleep tech devices market]( is expected to grow to $95 billion in 2032 from $18 billion in 2022, according to Global Market Insights, a research firm. But Iâm talking about headphones. Because if finding the right show, audiobook or podcast is half the battle for insomniacs like me, searching for the right pair of headphones is a separate challenge. Over-ear headphones are a non-starter. Appleâs AirPods and the like have a habit of falling out in the middle of the night, not to be seen again until the morning. Earbuds that connect to each other with a cable and via Bluetooth to a smartphone are the sweet spot. The ones that Iâve landed on are the Adidas RPD-01s, which are manufactured under contract by the Stockholm-based Marshall Group AB. Theyâre in-ear, but not noise-canceling, so I can still hear my toddlers yelling in the middle of the night. And theyâre flush to your head, unlike the Beats Flex, which dig in a bit. Annoyingly, Adidas no longer makes them. And just as annoyingly, each pair only tends to last eight months or so before giving up the ghost. So Iâve spent the past few months desperately buying up the last remaining stock. There are some alternatives out there, like the Kokoon nightbuds that start at $285. Others swear by Zero Audio's Carbo Tenore Wireless. I'd still like to see more headphone-makers thinking about this market. Go on, do an insomniac a favor. â[Alex Webb](mailto:awebb25@bloomberg.net) The big story Japan is betting $67 billion in the hopes of becoming a [global chipmaking powerhouse once more.]( Growing US-China tensions make Japanâs chip business essential when it comes to aiding the countryâs economy. One to watch
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