Dyson’s Zone Air Purifying Headphones Will Cost $950

If you are alive somewhere with a lot of air pollution, or just keen to prepare for a dystopia where you have to cover your ears and mouth to the outside world, the Dyson Zone could be for you. The device — which combines a pair of headphones with a face-shielding air purifier — isn’t on sale yet, but the company has announced how much the Zone will cost when it does hit shelves. Soon, this Daft Punk ball gag can be yours for just $950.

Better known as a vacuum brand than a fashion accessory maker, Dyson has invested a lot of time and effort into this portable face grabber. While it may seem like a pandemic-inspired concept, the Zone has actually been in the works for over six years. Dyson has made it clear that this does not mean it has to be a Covid protection device. So what, you might ask, is the point? The Zone is intended to specifically filter out air pollution, not viruses, and is aimed at people who live in cities or countries where air pollution is, so to speak, inescapable.

Masks may be more fashionable in Western countries now than before the pandemic, but the Zone will likely still be considered an outlier. Whether Dyson — or any other tech-heavy mask maker — can convince the public to adopt their wearables is unlikely. Especially considering the exorbitant price tag and the fact that everyone seems to have just reverted to open mouth coughing in public.

Here are some more developments in the world of consumer technology.

Put Google Chrome on a diet

The most widely used internet browser is a massive resource hog. However, soon Google Chrome will get an update with some new modes that will let you streamline how much power and RAM it sucks up.

Google is introducing two separate resource-saving modes: Memory Saver and Energy Saver. The former will reduce memory usage in all those tabs you have open but not yet clicked. That way, background tabs won’t passively eat up memory while you’re completely focused on something else. (Although you probably still need to clear your tabs.)

Power saver mode goes a step further. When it detects that your computer’s battery has dropped below 20 percent, it disables background tabs and also pauses visual effects and video on web pages you’re on.

Game over (possibly).

In January of this year, Microsoft announced that it was buying the video game industry giant Activision Blizzard. It was a huge deal that was set to give Microsoft control over powerhouse franchises like Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, look overand Diablo. Now the US Federal Trade Commission is trying to block that deal from going through.

The FTC is suing Microsoft to halt its $69 billion purchase, citing antitrust concerns about consolidating so many game brands under one company. Microsoft has been on a game studio buying spree, acquiring, for the past few years Skyrim and Fallout developer Bethesda in 2020.