‘Thanks for your patience’ — Spotify is back online after a major outage that impacted thousands of users

Spotify experienced major problems for several hours on May 12, 2026. Here’s everything we know.

, ,
JBL just refreshed its touchscreen-equipped earbud line with better sound, ANC, and call quality — here’s everything you need to know

JBL is refreshing its touchscreen-equipped earbuds with the new JBL Live 4 series.

, ,
Spotify’s new mobile experience is like a supercharged Wrapped, taking you through your entire music history since your first stream — here’s everything it offers

Your Party of the Year(s) is Spotify’s latest experience that takes you on a nostalgic trip back in time over your music history.
…

, ,
Want a super-clear look at Sony’s upcoming super-premium new headphones? These new image leaks appear pretty official — and they look very Sony-meets-Sonos

We’ve been reporting on Sony’s The Collexion headphones, and this is the clearest look at them so far.

, ,
Apple quietly released the all-new AirPods Max 2 last month — and you can already score a rare $40 discount at Amazon

The all-new AirPods Max 2 were just released last month, and Amazon already has an impressive $40 discount on the luxurious over-ear headphones.
…

, ,
This retro-inspired portable CD player looks super-sleek, has audiophile credentials including a headphones amp for spicier cans, lasts 12 hours, and offers Bluetooth, 3.5mm, 4.4mm and Coax output too

The Shanling EC Play offers a retro design and a range of connectivity tools, to make it useful for on-the-go listening as well as in your home hi-fi setup
…

, ,
These bookshelf speakers just replaced basically every part of my hi-fi set-up in one fell swoop — after months of testing, I really appreciate the Edifier M90’s sheer range of connectivity

The Edifier M90 is a jack-of-all-trades desktop and monitor speaker that connects in loads of ways.

, , ,
‘Podslop’ is a real and growing problem — data shows 39% of new podcasts are now ‘likely’ generated by AI. Here’s why I won’t be listening

What makes podcasts special are the human hosts, and producing AI content takes that away.

I spent 10 days testing the iFi GO Link 2 — and this little DAC delivers an enormous audio upgrade for your phone or laptop audio at a great price

iFi’s tiny DAC is smaller and lighter than the first generation and delivers an excellent audio upgrade to phones in particular
…

, ,
I tried the lossless audio test and couldn’t believe my ears. Can you really tell the difference between lossless audio and plain old MP3 versions of your favorite tunes?

At higher bitrates it’s hard to tell the difference between lossy and lossless