Our verdict on Beats' $200 Solo 4 headphones

[The Morning After]( It's Wednesday, May 01, 2024. Beats today announced the [Solo 4]( a $200 set of familiar-looking cans with significant upgrades inside, even if they look almost entirely the same as the Solo 3. At this price, the Solo 4s don’t have any active noise cancellation and, according to Billy Steele, who [tested the new headphones]( they sound a bit thin. However, sound is generally improved, and the boost to 50 hours of playback (along with USB-C) is a major improvement over the predecessor. They’re available to buy now. [[TMA] Engadget]( Beats also surprised us with new sub-$100 [Solo buds]( wireless (non-ANC) earbuds with 18 hours of playback. One focus is comfort, with ergonomic acoustic nozzles and vents assisting with audio performance and relieving the pressure on your ears. The Solo Buds will be available in June for $80. — Mat Smith The biggest stories you might have missed [Lorelei and the Laser Eyes preview: This may be my GOTY]( [What to expect from Apple’s Let Loose iPad event]( [The excellent and customizable Arc Browser is now fully available on Windows]( [Binance founder Changpeng Zhao sentenced to four months in prison]( ​​You can get these reports delivered daily direct to your inbox. [Subscribe right here!]( [Instagram algorithm overhaul will reward ‘original content’]( And penalize low-effort aggregators. Instagram is overhauling its recommendation algorithm for Reels to support and increase “original content.” It could greatly impact aggregator accounts and other accounts that mostly report other users’ work. The company is also changing how it ranks Reels to boost smaller accounts. The app’s changes around “original content” could be pretty immediate. Instagram says it will actively replace reposted Reels with the “original” clip in its suggestions when it detects two pieces of identical content. Aggregator accounts that “repeatedly” publish posts from others will be penalized even more harshly. I’ve come across many accounts (often through Reels) that are simply the same viral clip (that isn’t even original) posted and reposted as far as I was willing to scroll. These changes could shrink the chances of coming across lazier content like that. [Continue reading.]( [FCC fines America’s largest wireless carriers $200 million]( It’s for selling customer location data. The Federal Communications Commission has slapped the largest mobile carriers in the US with a collective fine worth $200 million for selling access to their customers’ location information without consent. AT&T was ordered to pay $57 million, while Verizon has a $47 million fine. Meanwhile, Sprint and T-Mobile are facing a penalty with a combined amount of $92 million, as the companies merged two years ago. Apparently, the carriers sold “real-time location information to data aggregators,” and this data ended up “in the hands of bail-bond companies, bounty hunters and other shady actors.” [Continue reading.]( [The Instax mini 99 is an instant camera that's cool]( But it’s more like a Polaroid. [[TMA] Engadget]( Fujifilm’s Instax cameras have been around for a while, but the new Instax mini 99, which was released this month, looks more like my X-T2 and other Fujifilm models than yet another plasticky Polaroid. From a distance, it looks like a pricey digital camera, but it costs only $200. It also has modes and filters to customize your tiny instant photos. That flexibility, combined with the understated look, makes for an instant camera I might actually buy (and use). [Continue reading.]( The Morning After is a daily newsletter from Engadget designed to help you fight off FOMO. Who knows what you'll miss if you don't [subscribe](. Craving even more? [Like us on Facebook]( or [follow us on Twitter](. Have a suggestion on how we can improve The Morning After? [Send us a note.]( [Twitter]( [Facebook]( [Youtube]( [Instagram]( You are receiving this email because you opted in at [engadget.com](. Not interested anymore? [Unsubscribe from this newsletter.]( Copyright © 2024 Yahoo. All rights reserved.