Lilbits: Intel Foundry to operate as a subsidiary, HTC Vive Focus Vision XR is a premium headset, and Bose unveils “Personal Surround Sound”

Setting up a surround-sound system at home usually involves arranging at least five speakers plus a subwoofer around the house. But Bose has introduced a new “Personal Surround Sound” system that lets you do it by pairing a soundbar placed by your TV with a pair of open-ear earbuds. Since the earbuds don’t cover your ears, they can act as rear speakers while still allowing you to hear audio from the soundbar.

Bose is debuting the technology with its Bose Smart Soundbar ($499) and Bose Ultra Open Earbuds ($299), which means this isn’t necessarily a cheaper solution than a multi-speaker setup. It’s just simpler. But there are some down sides.

One is that you’ll need to grab your earbuds every time you want to listen to surround sound. Another is that only one person will be able to listen to surround sound at a time, which really puts the “personal” in Personal Surround Sound.

Here’s a roundup of recent tech news from around the web.

Bose’s latest soundbar can use the Ultra Open Earbuds as rear speakers [Engadget]

Want surround sound without going through the effort of setting up a full-fledged surround system? Bose has a solution… sort of. 

HTC VIVE Launches VIVE Focus Vision XR Headset for Enterprises and High-end Gaming [HTC / press release]

HTC Vive Focus Vision XR is a $999 VR headset that can be used as a standalone device or tethered to a PC. It’s basically an upgraded Vive Focus 3 with dual 16MP cameras with color passthrough, eye tracking, and automatic lens adjustments.

Mozilla exits the fediverse and will shutter its Mastodon server in December [TechCrunch]

Mozilla is shutting down its Mastodon/fediverse server a year and a half after launching for “a small closed beta group as an experiment” in May, 2023. According to TechCrunch there are currently only 270 active users.

Intel stock jumps on plan to turn foundry business into subsidiary and allow for outside funding [CNBC]

Intel is restructuring its foundry business a subsidiary, which could help raise outside funding. CNBC reports Intel is even considering spinning off the business entirely as a separate publicly traded company.

Keep up on the latest headlines by following @bradlinder@fosstodon.org on Mastodon. You can also follow Liliputing on Threads, Facebook, and X.