Finding true wireless earbuds that balance hi-res sound, strong noise cancellation and comfort often means paying premium prices. Brands like Sony, Bose and Apple dominate the high-end, but Soundpeats has been building a reputation for delivering excellent value. Their latest release, the Air5 Pro, aims to offer flagship-style performance at a far more accessible cost. I was so eager to try these, I actually opened them & started using them straight away. Normally, I would take photos of earphones before using them, but I live by a loud road & it’s getting harder to hear my podcasts on my daily walks, so I was desperate to test out the noise-cancelling. I’ve not been disappointed. As usual for sound peats, they come well packaged & they feel premium. The charging case is great & I’ve only needed to recharge it once since getting the Air5 Pro’s.

With support for aptX Lossless, LDAC, adaptive ANC and multipoint Bluetooth, the Air5 Pro look like an audiophile-friendly option on paper. After several weeks of testing them across commuting, home listening, workouts and calls, here’s how they perform in real life.

Specs Overview

• Bluetooth: 5.4 with Snapdragon Sound
• Chipset: Qualcomm QCC3091
• Drivers: 10 mm bio-diaphragm (PU + PEEK)
• Supported codecs: SBC, AAC, LC3, LDAC, aptX, aptX Adaptive, aptX Lossless
• Noise cancellation: AI Adaptive ANC (up to 55 dB claimed reduction)
• Microphones: 6-mic system with cVc 8.0
• Battery life: 7.5 h per charge, 37 h with case
• Charging: USB-C, 10 min fast charge = ~2 h playback
• Water resistance: IPX5
• Weight: 4.8 g per earbud, ~50 g total with case
• Extras: Multipoint connectivity, touch controls, PeatsAudio app

Design and Comfort

The Air5 Pro use a familiar stemmed design with a compact charging case that slips easily into a pocket similar to that of AirPods. The earbuds weigh just 4.8 g each, making them feather-light and comfortable for long listening sessions. The silicone tips create a snug seal, and the stem design helps keep them stable during movement. I’ve found the medium silicone tips to very comfortable, and even without ANC, the design blocks out quite a bit of ambient sound. Build quality feels solid and these have become my go-to earphones for all uses, even supplanting my AND headphones. The charging case is solid with a strong hinge and the magnets hold the buds securely in place. With IPX5 water resistance, they can handle sweat and light rain, making them workout-friendly. I’ve worn these out in the autumn rain and they have been flawless.

Sound Quality

This is where the Air5 Pro shine. Powered by a 10 mm bio-diaphragm driver and Qualcomm’s QCC3091 chipset, they deliver audio quality that outperforms most rivals at this price point.

• Bass: Punchy and controlled, with enough weight for EDM and hip-hop without muddying the mids. Perfect for rock, metal & grunge. You can select EQ’s directly on the chipset via the app.
• Mids: Clear and natural, keeping vocals and instruments well-defined.
• Treble: Crisp and lively, adding sparkle without becoming harsh.
• Soundstage: Impressively wide for budget earbuds, with good instrument separation.

The real game-changer is codec support. With LDAC and aptX Lossless, the Air5 Pro can stream hi-res music if your device supports it. Listening to Tidal HiFi and my FLAC files, the earbuds revealed details and dynamics usually reserved for higher-end models.

Adaptive Noise Cancellation

Soundpeats claims up to 55 dB of reduction with AI-driven ANC. I’ve had great results with the ANC, now listening to my podcasts without vocal boost and only needing about 20% volume. With standard earbuds, I was at 100% volume and a vocal boost, due to the traffic noise on local roads where I walk daily. In practice, results are very strong:

• Commute: Engine and train rumbles are cut to a low murmur.
• Office: Background chatter and typing are reduced significantly.
• Outdoors: Wind is handled decently, though strong gusts can still sneak through.

The Transparency mode is effective for quick conversations or staying aware of traffic, though there’s a slight digital hiss in very quiet settings. While ANC doesn’t quite match Sony or Bose flagships, it’s excellent for the price.

Call Quality

With six microphones and cVc 8.0 noise reduction, the Air5 Pro are reliable for calls:

• Indoors: Voices are natural and clear, great for Zoom or Teams.
• Noisy streets: Background noise is suppressed well, though your voice can sound thinner.
• Windy conditions: Still usable, though some noise makes it through.

For work calls and everyday conversations, they’re more than adequate.

Connectivity and Features

Using Bluetooth 5.4, the Air5 Pro maintain a stable connection with no dropouts, even in crowded areas.

Multipoint connectivity works smoothly, letting you switch between phone and laptop without re-pairing. Latency is low enough for streaming video in sync, and casual gaming is fine.

The PeatsAudio app adds useful features like EQ presets, touch control remapping, and firmware updates. It’s not as advanced as Sony’s Headphones app, but it covers the essentials.

Controls

Touch controls are responsive and cover playback, volume, ANC, and calls. The learning curve is short, though accidental taps can happen when adjusting the fit. Thankfully, the app allows remapping or disabling certain gestures.

Battery Life

• 7.5 hours per charge with ANC on (longer with ANC off)
• 37 hours total with the charging case
• 10 minutes quick charge = ~2 hours playback

In daily use, they easily last a full workday plus commute. The case recharges via USB-C, though there’s no wireless charging option.

Long-Term Impressions (After 4 Weeks of Use)

After several weeks, the Air5 Pro still hold up well:

• Comfort: Lightweight fit remains comfortable for long listening sessions. Tips keep their seal.
• Battery: Runtime hasn’t dropped noticeably, and there’s no sign of idle battery drain in the case.
• Connectivity: Multipoint switching between laptop and phone works seamlessly. No random dropouts experienced.
• Durability: The earbuds resist scratches well, though the case shows fingerprints. IPX5 protection has survived sweat and rain during workouts.
• Sound: Still detailed and lively. After “burn-in,” mids feel slightly smoother, making vocals richer.
• ANC: Continues to handle commuting noise effectively, though not at flagship levels. Transparency mode remains practical.
• App and Updates: Firmware updates via the app are simple, showing that Soundpeats is committed to long-term support.

Overall, they’ve proven reliable beyond first impressions — not always the case with budget earbuds.

Pros and Cons

Pros

• Excellent hi-res audio with LDAC and aptX Lossless
• Punchy, detailed sound across genres
• Effective adaptive ANC for commuting and office use
• Lightweight, secure and comfortable fit
• Stable Bluetooth 5.4 with multipoint pairing
• Strong battery life and fast charging

Cons

• No wireless charging for the case
• Companion app is basic

The Air5 Pro stand out for Android users who want lossless audio at a budget-friendly price. I tend mostly to use iOS, but they are wonderful for my use case and have become my go-to earbud. At this price, I’d say they are an AirPods Pro challenger & a no-brainer purchase for those wanting a premium earbud and ANC at a fraction of the cost.

Verdict

The Soundpeats Air5 Pro are among the best value wireless earbuds of 2025. They combine hi-res audio support, adaptive ANC, multipoint connectivity, and excellent battery life into a lightweight, comfortable package.

They don’t fully dethrone flagship models from Sony or Bose, but they come surprisingly close at less than half the cost. For listeners who want premium features without the premium price tag, the Air5 Pro are an easy recommendation — and they’ve proven durable in the long run.

Verdict: A superb choice for budget-conscious audiophiles and commuters alike. Keep an eye out for these on the upcoming Amazon Prime Day, as I hear they are going to have a significant discount available.

So the Soundpeats Q40 HD came out as a massive upgrade to my older Soundpeats Q12 which I got & reviewed years ago & you can read here.  Choosing portable headphones isn’t always straightforward. The lighter and more compact they get, the more you often sacrifice in terms of comfort, durability, or battery life. For people who want headphones that balance portability with proper sound and long-term wear comfort, the SOUNDPEATS Q40 HD make a strong case. They come with a great selection of ear hooks (wings) and ear tips so you can get that perfect fit, and these feel premium in the hand with their metal casing and reinforced cables. I’ve been wanting to upgrade the Q12’s I use for a long time, so when I heard of these with bigger drivers & LDAC support, I just had to try them.

The Q40 HD uses a neckband design. It may not suit everyone, but for active use it’s an excellent choice – the band helps the earbuds stay secure without weighing you down. The cable is slightly flattened at the back so it rests more comfortably against your neck, and each bud uses small ear wings to keep them locked in place during workouts. I really liked the addition of the ear wings, as they made the fit much more secure than the Q12 I’ve already got. I did heavy workouts and sprints, but they stayed in place at all times. They also feel extremely comfortable when wearing them and the fact that the earbuds are technically joined, means connectivity between left & right is solid with no chance of drop-outs. I also like that if one falls from your ear for whatever reason, it’s still connected to your body around the neck and in the other ear. It would be extremely difficult for these to drop to the floor by accident.

In the box, you’ll find five sets of silicone ear tips and three sets of ear wings, giving you plenty of sizing options for comfort and stability. The lightweight nature of the Q40 HD means you can wear them for hours without noticing much strain. With an IP67 rating, the Q40 HD can easily withstand sweat, rain, and dust, making them a reliable running & sports earphone. Magnetic clasps on the earbuds let you clip them together when not in use. It’s a simple but useful touch carried over from previous designs that make them easier to carry and prevents tangling.

An inline control module handles playback, volume, and track skipping. It’s easier to use than fiddly buttons on the earbuds themselves, and it also makes it simple to tell left from right at a glance. I really appreciate this feature, as I sometimes struggle to remember the gestures and taps required when it comes to touch controls on ear buds. The controls contain the playback and pause buttons, volume controls and the microphone for calls.  It’s always handily available by your neck & I much prefer inline controls to touch controls for ease of use. Multipoint connectivity via Bluetooth 5.4 means you can connect to two devices at once – for example, switching seamlessly between your laptop and phone, which I haven’t used with these, but it’s a great feature to have.

Audio Performance

The Q40 HD are Hi-Res certified and support the LDAC codec, which means higher-quality streaming when used with compatible devices. Inside each earbud are 11mm dual-magnetic dynamic drivers, tuned for a lively sound profile with punchy bass and smooth mids. Treble is controlled well enough to avoid harshness, even at higher volumes. I enjoyed the sound from these & the inner ear design allows for some external noise dampening without actual ANC. These have just enough bass to make them comfortable to wear & I found I didn’t need to use massive volumes to enjoy music on them. A 360° spatial audio mode adds depth for films and gaming. It isn’t going to rival high-end surround systems, but it makes content feel more immersive than standard stereo. Overall, the sound signature leans slightly towards the energetic, making them well suited to workouts, pop, and electronic tracks – while still handling podcasts and calls cleanly. I listened to a lot of podcasts using these & spoken word does sound excellent. I also tried some Prog Rock & some metal albums from my collection, and they sounded good. Perhaps the best thing I listened to was my 90s grunge. Nirvana tracks like Son of a Gun & Turnaround sounded really clean on these.

Microphone Quality

For calls, the Q40 HD includes a single AI-assisted microphone that reduces background noise. It does a solid job of filtering out chatter and general environmental noise, making voices clearer on the other end. It’s not at the level of professional headsets, but for casual and work calls it performs well. I found this works better in quieter environments, I tend to run at the side of busy roads, so even the best noise-cancelling would struggle, but these are OK for making those quick calls during your workouts.

Battery Life

Battery life is one of the Q40 HD’s strongest features. You get up to 20 hours of playback on a full charge, which is more than enough for a week of commuting or several long gym sessions. A 10-minute quick charge provides around 5 hours of use, perfect for when you’re rushing out the door. Full charging takes about 1.5 hours, and standby stretches to 100 hours.

What’s in the Box

SOUNDPEATS include a generous set of accessories:

Q40 HD headphones

5 pairs of silicone ear tips (XS/S/M/L/XL)

3 pairs of ear wings (S/M/L)

Adjustable silicone bead

USB charging cable

User manual

This range of fittings ensures a secure and comfortable experience for most ear shapes.

The SOUNDPEATS Q40 HD neckband headphones strike a balance between portability, performance, and comfort. They’re not trying to reinvent the wheel, but they deliver strong sound quality, excellent battery life, and rugged durability at a price that feels more than fair. They are a massive upgrade from my trusty Soundpeats Q12 and well worth the investment if you are looking for some well priced workout earphones. For sports, commuting, and general day-to-day listening, they’re a dependable choice – and one of the better-value neckband headphones currently available. They are super cheap to buy & they do seem to last years. My older Q12 which I’ve had for many years still hold great charge & have survived a lot of miles of running. As of writing, they are running a promotion on these, so you can grab them at a bargain price of £29.99 over on Amazon.

I’ve been rocking these SoundPeats PearlClip Pro earphones for a month or so now, so thought it was about time I did a short review of these little beauties. They are currently available on Amazon with money off, so I can 100% recommend grabbing a pair. Let’s dive into the review.

I’ve been looking for something to replace my wired apple earbuds for a while now. Since upgrading to an iPhone 16 Pro and requiring an adaptor to convert USB-C into a 3.5mm jack, I was thinking of grabbing a pair of wireless earbuds. The Apple AirPods are great, but for the amount they cost, I was convinced I could find a better option for my usage.

I’ve been using these Soundspeats PearlClip Pro earbuds now for well over a month, and they tend to be worn for around an hour a day when I’m doing my walks. The thing that strikes me the most is just how well they cling to your ear, even on a windy day, on the beach, they cling onto your ear cartilage like a champ.

Let’s get into the details, they come well boxed in a neat little package which has the most satisfying film to peel off (it can’t be just me who loves to open electronics that are sealed in film). Inside you will find the charging case and underneath the packaging a USB-C charging cable and instructions.

As standard, the rear of the box has details about the earbuds themselves including the specs, but this is kept to a minimum and the packaging feels very premium. Let’s get into the earbuds themselves.

Flip open the charging case, and both earbuds are neatly contained inside. The status light on the front lets you know that they are charged. You can also press and hold the pairing button on the front, so the earbuds enter pairing mode. The earphones are held in the charging case with small magnets, and the charging case itself feels very sturdy and premium. As soon as you remove the earbuds from the case, they connect to any device they have been previously paired with, and you are ready to go. To switch them off again, simply pop back into the case.

The earphones themselves are very sturdy. There is a trick to wearing them, take the left or right earbud, have a look at the bottom edge and see where the charging points are. This bit goes over the edge of your ear and clings to the rear side of your earlobe, while the speaker side sits in your ear canal. Once you get used to clipping these on it becomes second nature, and they cling on so well, even during sport or heavy movement.

So now onto using them. I’ve found them to be very good for all but the noisiest environments. They obviously don’t have any kind of ANC, so this is to be expected. I did find turning off soundcheck on my iPhone was needed to get the volume high enough when walking in noisy areas, but for everyday use & city sounds they are more than sufficient. The Bluetooth connection is seamless & I haven’t once lost the stereo pairing.

The earphones themselves have touch controls, so you tap or hold to do things like adjust volume and skip tracks. The gestures themselves take a bit of getting used to, but once you master it, it works well. I do tend to be old school & like to control my music on the device, even from lock screen controls, so this hasn’t been an issue for me.

The sound is actually superb, with a nice balance of bass & treble. They don’t suffer from sounding tinny or muddy, especially given this small size. I’ve also found the battery life to be great & have only recharged my charging case once in over a month. I tend to listen to a lot of rock & metal, and both genres sounds great on these. Furthermore, I also listen to a lot of prog rock, and the new Steven Wilson album – The Overview – actually sounded great on these little earphones. I could pick out the individual instruments & the soundstage sounded much larger than it had any right to on small ear buds. For the price, these really are a great deal.

The one criticism I would have is the wireless call quality. I don’t tend to make many calls on wireless headphones, but if the phone rings, I do answer it even wearing headphones. Friends have complained the audio clarity isn’t great, so I’ve been avoiding using them for calls.

My recommendation would be to go & buy these right away. They always have great deals on Amazon, and for the money, they are a great addition if you are in the market for Bluetooth earbuds. I love how firm they stay in my ears & I’ve not yet managed to drop one or shake one lose, even when doing workouts & running outside. They seem super durable & well-made & I’m convinced you won’t be disappointed.

pmset -g log | grep ' wake'

I could see a lot of references to CSPNEvaluation with an hourly wake event. After looking around online I found a solution to this. In Sonoma, even with powernap disabled, the Mac seems to wake on a regular basis by design. If you want to override this function & stop your Mac waking, I recommend the following.

1.  In terminal, type the following command to create an override folder
   sudo mkdir -p /Library/Preferences/FeatureFlags/Domain/
2. Change directory into the folder with cd /Library/Preferences/FeatureFlags/Domain/
3. Create the following file & open the terminal editor with
   sudo nano powerd.plist
4. You will now be in the nano editor, where you need to paste the following code block to override (the folder & file you create as part of this can be deleted at any time if you want to undo it)

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>CoreSmartPowerNap</key>
    <dict>
        <key>Enabled</key>
        <false/>
    </dict>
</dict>
</plist>

Save the file in nano & reboot your machine. The CSPNEvaluation issue should have resolved & your mac should stay asleep. I’ve just tested mine & it successfully stayed asleep for 10 hours.

A week later I had the OneOdio A30’s in my hand, and I was instantly impressed with this little gem. I wasn’t expecting great things given the sub £60 price tag, but I’ve got to say I’m blown away by how good these headphones are. My expectations were low due to price, but that was misplaced. They are wonderful.

They are on over ear design so the soft ear cups naturally block out a lot of ambient noise. Trigger the ANC switch though & you have 26db active noise cancelling which is brilliant. Like all noise cancelling, it is better at blocking out constant pitch of noise such as the hum of an engine, but these do well to block out most sounds, even sudden bangs and crashes in the environment.

Without the noise cancelling active, the sound response is decent from the 40mm drivers. Bass is punchy but not overpowering & treble doesn’t get muddy like it tends to on a lot of Bluetooth headphones. I’ve paired them with my MacBook, iMac, Apple Watch & iPhone, and they work flawlessly with each device, also allowing for easy switching between devices as they favour the current connected device which is outputting audio. Simply pause on one device and start playing on another and the audio source automatically switches. I have found that they work best without any EQ settings on iOS. I had a bass booster turned on for my earpods, but have switched it off for use with these. It was too bassy.

The multi function buttons on the side allow you to power on/off the headphones and also feature volume up and down buttons. Tap the power button to pause and resume and long press the volume buttons to skip tracks. The controls are always at hand, but I tend to use my Apple Watch to control my music, so not a function I use often.

One problem I did find was when pairing with my MacBook & iMac, the Bluetooth codec would default to SBC which is the basic Bluetooth reference codec & means audio will go out of sync with videos when playing. However, not stated on the box is that these headphones support the AAC codec which is the native apple codec on Mac/iOS devices. AAC is normally reserved for much higher end hardware & I’m surprised it isn’t advertised on the specs as it would make these even more desirable with apple users. Running the following commands in terminal on my iMac and MacBook enabled AAC support & audio/video streaming was in sync & the audio much better quality. I also enabled aptX for other headphones.

To enable AptX support
sudo defaults write bluetoothaudiod "Enable AptX codec" -bool true

And AAC support

sudo defaults write bluetoothaudiod "Enable AAC codec" -bool true

The headphones charge using a USB C cable which is supplied & the OneOdio A30 headphones also come with carry case, wired cable for use when battery is low or on older non Bluetooth devices & an airline adaptor to allow you to use them on a plane.

The headphones are made out of plastic, which doesn’t feel premium like the alloys used in other brands, but they feel robust and hard wearing. The ear cups are a comfortable synthetic leather & I haven’t had any issues with hot ears or itching. The headband is padded in a similar vegan leather and one aspect I really like is that the top of the headband where the logo is, is also padded. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve banged my beats against things like car doors and not wanted to look at the scratches & gouges. A nice touch.

Battery life is excellent. Specs quote that you will get 15 hours using Bluetooth and noise cancelling, while you should get 25 hours with noise cancelling disabled & 45 hours of just noise cancelling without Bluetooth switched on. This all from a 500mAH battery. For my usage, listening to music, meditating & watching films while I work, I find that I’m charging them once a week. I don’t tend to use ANC when sat in the office, but will when meditating or walking outdoors & I’ve found it a really handy feature. It really does help. These headphones also have mics built in for hands-free calling which is a feature I’m using a lot during lockdown.

For under £60 on Amazon these are a no brainer. Great price, great product and wonderful value for money. As good if not better than headphones I’ve used at 5-6 times the price. Their support of AAC makes them perfect for iOS & Mac users & if you stream from Apple Music, you will notice that the audio is crisp and pleasant as intended. A highly recommended purchase.

After a little use I noticed my CPU was constantly maxed out and I could also hear the HDD seeking a lot. Digging in I found 4 processes related to Apple’s new Music app running wild in activity monitor

The four processes in question where AMPArtworkAgent, AMPLibraryAgent, AMPDeviceDiscoveryAgent and AMPDevicesAgent. I assume from the naming of these processes that the first is used to download additional album and artist artwork, the second manages the library, the third looks for devices such as iPhones and Apple TV’s on the network and the fourth manages the wireless syncing of my old iPhone 4 in our kitchen dock which is used for music playback. The one that was causing the most trouble seemed to be the AMPArtworkAgent.

I had a look in my Music preferences and under the advanced tab I noticed that the Automatically Update Artwork tick box was checked. I unchecked this box to troubleshoot but still saw the process was eating up CPU cycles.

So last night I finally found a fix, but first a few caveats before you try this. My own library of ripped music is huge. I have 37k+ tracks stored locally & I used Cloud Music (formerly iTunes Match) to match and store them all safely in the cloud. I keep them locally because I listen to them all the time, I have the storage space, it allows me to continue to sync to my old iPod and iPhone, as well as play them back on my media centres and Sonos over NFS/SMB. Also, my iMac still works perfectly, but it is technically unsupported, so I went into this troubleshooting not knowing if it could be resolved given that the OS shouldn’t really run on my machine.

Anyway I finally managed to fix it & went the nuclear route.

1. Make sure the ‘Automatically Update Artwork’ check box remains unchecked in preferences > advanced.

2. De authorize your music app from apple. Head to Account > Authorizations >De-authorise within the music app toolbar.
3. Sign Out your Apple ID within music. Again Account > Sign Out.
4. Close the music app
5. Open Activity Monitor and search AMP. Force quit any processes beginning with AMP (assuming AMP is standing for Apple Music Player/process)

6. Go to your music folder and delete everything. Make sure you either have your own music stored in iTunes match or copy it onto an external drive for backup. This will delete any locally stored music, so if you don’t use match please do make sure you have backups of your own ripped music.

7. Go to the following folder and delete everything. This folder contains the SQLite that seems to control the artwork caches and also stores the artwork which Music caches from the embedded artwork in music files, probably to speed up UI rendering during playback/streaming.
~/Library/Containers/com.apple.AMPArtworkAgent/Data/Documents/

8. Hold the option key and click on the Music icon to open the app. Keep holding option until a dialog appears regarding your music library. Opt to create a new library and call it Music (if it asks you to overwrite please do).
9. Once music opens, before you sign in with your Apple ID, go to preferences and make sure the checkbox for downloading artwork is still unchecked. This is a must or you will have the same problem.
10. Click on account in the top toolbar, sign in and reauthorise your music app.
11. You should now see your Apple Music start to populate (if you subscribe) and your iTunes match/cloud music start to return. It will take some time for the artwork cache to refill so be patient. AMPArtwork Agent and the other processes will run for a while, but this is simply to extract the artwork embedded in your music files and to populate the cache. Give it time and all of your artwork will come back.
12. If you use iTunes match, start playing your music or downloading your tracks again. The same goes for Apple Music. All should be well.

I still have the AMPArtwork agent process running, but it doesn’t get out of control. My artwork cache is now fully populated after around 8 hours of idling and use. Music is fast & snappy again and I can use it without issue. I’ve always managed my own artwork for my own ripped music, so I can do without the auto fetching of artwork from Apples Servers.

My own impression is that the process starts to loop. It is trying to extra artwork from the mp3/m4a meta of my own music files & also trying to populate the cache with additional artwork while trying to update my artwork (if the Automatically Download Artwork services is checked). The SQLite database must start to choke and the process runs amok. Mine is purring along again with around 85% idle CPU when using Firefox and music. Even on my unsupported workhorse iMac its working perfectly again.

I hope this post helps some of you out. One thing that drives me mad is wasted CPU cycles & HDD seeks/writes, especially to fluff out meta I’d rather control myself. Let me know how you get on.

A few years later I bought a Raspberry Pi 2 Model B and this became our main Kodi media centre, replacing the Apple TV 2 and coupled with a Rii keyboard. It was much faster & more stable running Libreelec.

A couple more years passed and I realized I still had my first Pi, complete with an awesome perspex case, so I had a look for projects to complete with it. I stumbled across the PiHole project and the rest is history.

PiHole is a network ad blocker/filter and DNS server. It has a great browser interface & you can add lots of adblock/ublock blocklists to the pi, to block ads on all devices on the network at a hardware level. Unlike adblockers on a browser which use more cosmetic ways of blocking ads, the pihole blocks them at DNS level, meaning a request to the ad/blocked server never leaves the network. From a privacy standpoint this is huge. It also means I can control traffic/trackers on devices such as our Smart TV and iOS devices. It’s surprising how many requests these devices make without your knowledge.

PiHole’s web interface shows all traffic & destinations and allows you to whitelist or blacklist IP’s & domains for fine-grained control over outgoing traffic on your network.

I took my setup one step further & coupled it with DNSCrypt 2.0 to encrypt all of my outbound DNS traffic. DNSCrypt coupled with PiHole on the pi & HTTPS everywhere in my browser ensures no unencrypted traffic leaves my browser. All DNS lookups are encrypted & I use non logging DNSCrypt Servers for my DNS lookups. This adds an extra layer of protection for my network traffic & prevents eavesdropping & sniffing of my traffic.

The Pi Hole raspberry pi sits in a cupboard downstairs and filters all of our network traffic. We have around 20 Wi-Fi connected devices on the network & around 10 hard-wired devices & it copes fine. It’s running 24/7 and the blocklist contains almost 1.3 million blocked domains without a hitch. Even with DNScrypt running alongside Pi Hole (which are both Python based) and a MySQL server for Kodi, the old Pi with its modest hardware isn’t stressed, runs silently, uses very little CPU time and has a 50% memory footprint. It’s even running the original SD card which has been in use since 2012.

This is a great solution. It’s silent, uses only a few watts of power & saves thousands of extra requests per day, not to mention the amount of data which is never downloaded. Browsing is generally much quicker on my home network & an added benefit is that we don’t see advertising on catch up TV services on our Smart TV.

I’m going to do a full post on setting up the pi for this usage, so if you would like to see that, check back soon.

For those of you willing to dive in, you need a Pi running raspbian. You can install Pi Hole using the instructions on their website

I used these instructions to install DNScrypt 2.0

First I tried blocking the individual IP’s, but this seemed to make the bot more aggressive & requests went up as high as 800 every 30 seconds. The range of IP’s seemed endless, which seems to suggest some sort of bot farm or a whole range of compromised machines which are used for DDOS.

After giving it some thought & checking the raw access logs, I could see a pattern in the user agents being used by the malicious traffic. Below are a few examples of those user agents:-

Mozilla/5.0(Linux;Android 5.1.1;OPPO A33 Build/LMY47V;wv) AppleWebKit/537.36(KHTML,link Gecko) Version/4.0 Chrome/42.0.2311.138 Mobile Safari/537.36 Mb2345Browser/9.0

Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; Android 7.0; FRD-AL00 Build/HUAWEIFRD-AL00; wv) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Chrome/53.0.2785.49 Mobile MQQBrowser/6.2 TBS/043602 Safari/537.36 MicroMessenger/6.5.16.1120 NetType/WIFI Language/zh_CN

Mozilla/5.0(Linux;Android 5.1.1;OPPO A33 Build/LMY47V;wv) AppleWebKit/537.36(KHTML,link Gecko) Version/4.0 Chrome/43.0.2357.121 Mobile Safari/537.36 LieBaoFast/4.51.3

Mozilla/5.0(Linux;U;Android 5.1.1;zh-CN;OPPO A33 Build/LMY47V) AppleWebKit/537.36(KHTML,like Gecko) Version/4.0 Chrome/40.0.2214.89 UCBrowser/11.7.0.953 Mobile Safari/537.36

Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; Android 7.0;) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Mobile Safari/537.36 (compatible; PetalBot;+https://aspiegel.com/petalbot)

I broke down the user agents above & added a new rule to my root .htaccess file as follows:-

Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} Mb2345Browser|LieBaoFast|zh-CN|MicroMessenger|zh_CN|Kinza|Datanyze|serpstatbot|spaziodati|OPPO\sA33|AspiegelBot|aspiegel|PetalBot [NC]
RewriteRule ^ - [F,L]

This rule uses a regular expression to block a user agent containing any of the following strings:-
Mb2345Browser
LieBaoFast
zh-CN
MicroMessenger
zh_CN
Kinza
OPPO A33
Aspeigel
PetalBot

The first two seem to be used commonly by Chinese crawlers, but as mentioned earlier, we do not ship products to china, so I’m not worried about blocking those browsers. The ZH-CN strings refer to Chinese specific localization settings such as OS & Interface language. Micromessneger is related to WeChat – but again, I’ve never had a customer browse/buy from within the WeChat app so that can be safely blocked. Finally, Kinza is related to Russian email spam. I believe the Kinza browser is an obscure Japanese browser, but on our site is commonly misused in the user agent string by Russian email spam.

This seems to be quite a simple solution to block traffic. Many spammy users will have something in the user agent string which isn’t common to the popular browsers such as chrome, safari & Firefox on common devices. You will have to cater this to your own websites needs, but I’ve no doubt I’ll be adding other reg ex arguments from obscure user agents in the future to keep malicious users off the site.

I hope this helps & if you have anything to add, please get in touch or leave a comment.

I even re-subscribed to Apple Music to see if the problem was iTunes match only, but it also affected most of the music I streamed from Apple Music too.

I’ve managed to find a really simple fix for the album artwork problem.

Head over into settings and click on the music tab. Once there, you need to disable iCloud music & Apple Music by clicking the toggles. Immediately after disabling iTunes Match (iCloud Music) and Apple music, you need to restart your iOS device. Do this as soon as you disable the toggles, that way you will stop iOS pruning off corrupted artwork files.

Once restarted, you can re-enable both the iCloud Music and Apple Music toggles in settings. At this point, it may ask if you want to delete music stored on your device & replace it with that in iCloud. Click yes at this point to force iOS to do a hard reset of the music XML file and cached thumbnails on the device. In this way iOS will delete all previous traces of the corrupted music database file and thumbnails.

When you open music, you should see the Apple Music app slowly start to cache your library & thumbnails again.

This took me a few days to fully rectify but going through the above steps seems to be the only way to force a hard reset of the apple music and icloud music cache.

Fix Note 2 – I also found that only having 1.5GB of free space on my iphone meant that ios wasn’t caching all artwork. By freeing up space, offloading unused apps to icloud & deleting my locally stored podcasts, I’ve managed to get all artwork to show without issue. Make sure you free up any additional space possible, more than 1.5GB seems to be the sweet spot for this fix to work. It would appear ios is reserving that last GB or so for something, so is failing to cache artwork.

Hope this helps to fix your broken album artwork in iOS 12.

I’ve got a Nike+ Apple Watch Series 3 with Cellular and I tend to use my watch a lot to listen to music on the go. It means I can keep my iPhone in my pocket or backpack & not worry about being disturbed. It’s also amazing to use the apple watch to work out. I already use the fitness trackers on the apple watch, but now combined with the SoundPEATS Q12 headphones I can listen to music and track my workout.

The Soundpeats Q12 headphones are a similar design to my older Q30’s. They still have the magnets built-in so they connect like a necklace when not in your ears, and the left & right headphones are still connected by a wire which I really like. The one thing which has stopped me buying Earpods is the thought of having nowhere to put them when I stop to chat.

The wire connecting the left & right earbud on the Q12 is a better design than on the Q30. The cable is flat and much less prone to tangling. It also sits comfortably around my neck when not wearing the earbuds, and looks a little slicker too.

The Headphones come with various sizes of ear bud and ear hooks, so you can customise the fit to your ears. I’ve found a really snug fit with the large hooks and medium earbuds, almost to the point where they are noise cancelling like earplugs. Much of the outside world is blocked out by the close fit, meaning you can keep your volumes lower & protect your ears.

Another major benefit of the SoundPEATS Q12 is the ability to pair via bluetooth with two devices. I’ve got mine synced to my apple watch & to my iPhone, and can easily switch between the two without having to un-pair & re-pair the bluetooth connection.

The sound is very good from these earbuds. They take a little getting used to regarding fit, you figure out the right angle and depth to insert these earbuds & when you do the bass response is great & even at low volumes the sound fidelity is good. On a song such as Trains by Porcupine Tree, there is a good dynamic range, and I can hear good seperation in bass and treble between the hand claps and bass lines. For the price (currently only £19.99) these headphones are a great choice for people who appreciate decent sound without breaking the bank.

There are a selection of colourways for the Soundpeats Q12 headphones, but I opted for black with luminous green earbud inserts. They really suit my colour pallete.

In the pack you get three sizes of earbuds, three sizes of ear hooks and two cord clamps for hooking them to your T-shirt collar. The headphones come in a small faux leather pouch for storage and transport, and the pouch works great to keep them clean & dry in my backpack when not in use.

The headphones themselves weigh only 15g and are sweatproof so have survived my 40km daily bike rides with ease. I’ve also worn them in the rain & cold and have had no problems. The headphones are an advertised 8 hours battery life from the built-in lithium-ion battery, but I’ve found they will do around 10 hours between a charge on the volume setting I select.

The SoundPEATS Q12 also come with a 12 month warranty, so I’ve not been afraid to use them as advertised, and I work out in them for a few hours each day. I’ve never had issues with pairing on sync and they always performed as expected.

These Soundpeats Q12’s also support AptX And are specced as Bluetooth 4.1, so if you have an android phone or device supporting AptX, you will benefit from a better audio/bluetooth compression codec & the headphones should generally sound better.

I would never expect in ear headphones to perform as well as full size cans, but these work well with my ios devices & I’ve not noticed a difference between them using bluetooth & my wired apple earbuds. When playing on the iPhone I use Tidal Hifi and the sound is rich & defined.

If you want audiophile quality sound i would always advise you buy wired full size headphones with a built-in DAC, but for the casual daily user or someone who needs a lightweight & versatile pair of headphones, I would fully recommend the SoundPEATS Q12’s.

I’m currently using mine predominantly with my Apple Watch Series 3. The in line controls work perfectly with the apple watch for volume, play/pause & skipping of songs.

Manufacturer specs as follows :-

Through the years I’ve adopted more of these platforms and integrated them into my life. I’ve continued to study them from both a personal & a societal point of view, and in the last few years my view has shifted radically.

The networks which started out with so much promise have turned sour. The tools given to us to allow for greater collaboration & communication, have been turned against us.

First came the overwhelm with platforms. I used to only manage my twitter account, which was a massively different beast. Back then, you could post a 140 character micro blog, which included links in your character count. A re tweet meant writing RT and then including someone’s handle. We didn’t have the trending bar. Hash tags where used sparingly. Brands and businesses didn’t bother posting at all. We didn’t have an app, or smart phones.

Fast forward to 2018 & I have Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Last Fm, Good Reads, Google+ & Spotify. I still have a Facebook account, but this has lay dormant for around a year. With all of these extra accounts to manage I feel like I’m spread too thin & duplicating posts. I feel more like a manager now than a user utilizing a tool. The platforms themselves have become more complicated, sapping more attention than I can spare.

Take for example Instagram. Instagram used to offer simple tools to filter & post an image. The image could be filtered with an array of real time filters & the initial offering was Insta-nt. It would take a picture, in the moment on your phone camera, filter it & post it. Now we have Inbox, we have instagram stories, IG TV, video posts, multiple image posts & enough hashtags to make descriptions feel more like codewords.

Instagram also allows the use of pictures taken on any other device. Photographs can be taken in studios, or with professional grade camera equipment, edited in lightroom and posted to a standard previously reserved for glossy magazines. The instant element of insta(nt)gram have been lost, and much of the human feel of the platform has been lost as a result.

This bloat is reflected across all of the networks. Twitter is a mess of “such a person liked this” or “you may like this” or “trending topics”. The introduction of advertising tweets, algorithmic twitter feeds, extended text & the like button have made twitter bloated beyond recognition when compared to the initial simple offering. Another massively bloating feature is the re-tweet button, which allows all users to re-tweet all tweets ad nauseam, filling everyone else’s time lines with irrelevant and distracting content. The simple addition of a like button and re tweet button have turned an endorsement or recommendation into an almost obligatory spamming tool.

Another addition which has ruined twitter (in my opinion) is the tweet thread. What once would be a conversation between two users, which would largely go unnoticed by the Twitterati at large has become an arena to attack peoples views or jump into a conversation which doesn’t concern anyone other than the people holding the conversation. It has made general conversation & collaboration via twitter something to avoid, and even means users are guarded with what they say, for fear of awaking the trolls or critics.

The last nail in the coffin of social media in general is money & stealth advertising. Social networks started as as just that, social. A means to communicate & converse with those in your circle. A way to start conversations with like minded people & develop new friendships. Much like the forums and instant messenger apps that went before them, social networks promised to connect like minded people and allow users to trade ideas and knowledge. Twitter, for instance, was actually known as a micro blogging service. Now, I fear we have entered the commercialisation of social networks.

The money rolls in, from brands, from political actors, from foreign governments & big business. Users proliferate ideas or recommend products as an all expenses paid lifestyle. A recommendation via a twitter user or Instagrammer has lost credibility in the age of ‘the influencer’, and it is this money which has tainted the platforms and also our psychology.

Social Media quickly developed into a tool to show off with. Humans are inherently competitive animals, and we like to show off to establish our social standing. This used to mean buying a fancy suit for work, or perhaps a fancier model of car, but social media has amplified this social one-upmanship to new levels.

We are nearly all guilty of curating our best selves on social media. Presenting our lives in the best possible light. Posting pictures of our awesome lunch or an amazing hotel room, to compete with our peers. I’ve lived on the south coast of England for years, and the small harbour village I live in is very picturesque. I’ve posted so many pictures of emerald green seas and coastal walks for the sole purpose of showing off. It shames me to say it, but I don’t think enough of us admit why we are doing these things.

Self expression has rapidly mutated into self promotion. Individual identity has morphed into the human as a personal brand.

The problem we face now is that money & funding is often opaque online. We are bombarded with perfect, luxury lifestyles, amazing holidays, fancy clothes & cars and we believe (as outlined by establishing our social status as humans) that we are somehow less successful than those posting the pictures. This false representation is terrible for our psychological well being.

You can see this in action every day. Just take a look at your friends & neighbours car, the clothes they wear, the lifestyle they exude. Many people are clamouring to keep up with the influencers, and in doing so are falling into huge amounts of debt and stress. But the lifestyles we try to imitate are not real.

Social media influencers are able to quickly grow on social networks. They are favoured by algorithms because they receive a lot of engagement. This is due to the fact that their perfect pictures & lifestyles appeal to users who are trying to prove their worth in the social media age. We follow them and like their pictures in the hope of mimicking the perfect travel & lifestyle. What we aren’t told is that the flights & hotels are all paid for by brands, the clothing is all free, the links are all affiliate links and the influencers themselves are essentially stealth advertisers.

This taints our own experience of life. How can our car, our house, our travel or surroundings ever match up to the all expenses paid luxury lifestyles which now parade on social media as normal?

Think of an influencer as a living television advert. They are a brand, they cultivate themselves as a brand and they push products and services onto an often unsuspecting public. The difference being, a television advert is obvious whereas an advert masquerading as one of our social peers is a dangerous development in our social hierarchy.

The same goes for political influencers such as populist politicians. Often their funding is opaque, but they masquerade as a champion of the people, while being funded and guided by the wills of the rich & powerful. Social networks have allowed such bad actors to copy the template of the influencer, but they are pushing a political agenda disguised as opinion & distorting the public debate.

The cumulative affect of this can be seen in our now polarized & highly competitive societies. Social justice and social progress are being discarded in favour of personal development & greed. Forced to compete under a microscope with peers who are not our equal is extremely damaging to our psychological well being as I’ve experienced first hand.

This article is based purely on my own experience of social networks & my studies over the years, so you may have a different view entirely, but for me social networks have caused extensive stress which dates back now around 6 years.

I’ve found myself unable to create new work. My ideas have been subliminally altered by exposure to social media & I’ve found myself less interested in my academic work and more interested in cultivating an on line persona. Even knowing how addictive social media can be, I was still unable to make the connection with a decline in my own mental health & the proliferation of more distracting social media tools.

I honestly believe that social media could have been used as a great collaborative & creative tool, but the profit motive from data collection & advertising has meant that engagement and eye ball time has taken precedent over user health and well being. The networks are now competing with each other for our attention & they are turning to more nefarious ways of monopolising and holding our attention, including employing large quantities of neuroscientists & psychologists to perfect the tools to work against our best interests.

The introduction of professional social media influencers has only compounded the psychological harm done by social media. When your peers & friends become human advertising, its hard to trust the networks & the social element starts to break down. By presenting impossible lives to everyone, we can’t help but fall into depression, anxiety & debt. Without the transparency of funding, it isn’t possible to differentiate between a paid editorial user and a genuine peer.

We also don’t know if the friend we have made, who we believe holds similar values, is a bot, a user funded by a foreign government to disseminate disinformation, or a paid influencer. Money has tainted the experience & I do believe the days of social networks as we know them are numbered.

I continue to research social media & I implore all readers to regain control of their online lives. Limit your social network circles to those who you know & trust, or to those who you have been referred to by close friends & trusted acquaintances. Always be sceptical about those selling a lifestyle & try not to use the networks to turn yourself into a brand. Post honest content & try to enjoy the moment. If you ever feel like you are posting for the wrong reasons or to show off, just take a moment to ask yourself if that post will be valuable to others, and also ask if it might contribute to someone else’s stress.

I’ve since removed social media from my mobile devices & unfollowed the majority of accounts which don’t bring me value. I no longer follow brands or aspirational accounts. I’ve unfollwed all aggregating accounts and those which tend to repost. I’ve tried to reintroduce the human element to my usage. If it’s not an individual, I don’t follow them.

I’ve also limited myself to twitter & instagram. I’ve deleted my other accounts & find I have much more time & less stress. I also worry less about my situation & I don’t compare myself to others. I feel much more confident & able to write. I’ve started making notes for future work.

But the biggest change I’ve made is valuing the open internet. I’m not interested in apps. I don’t want walled gardens. I’m trying to avoid comparison sites & middle men sites. The internet is full of wonderful websites, blogs and resources.

I’ve logged back into my favourite forums and enjoy discussion with those I share an interest. A forum is great because it is self moderated & inherently more human.

I’ve also started calling & texting people directly. Conversation strictly between a closed group of people is much more open & fluid than a discussion in front of the entire world, and the small nuances you get from voice and body language make the experience much more human. Conversation is also good for your brain & general well being.

Social Networks are a walled garden of signed up users, but there is a whole world out there online. Leave behind the walls of social media and get out exploring the open internet again. It’s a wonderful place.

This video is over an hour long, but goes a long way to explain the direction in which our technology (and the companies who run them) are going. If we leave it to the quasi-monopoly companies we have already, we are in for a rough ride. Recommended for any internet user, especially those with a penchant for smart home devices (he outlines some good real world hacks, including hacking a pacemaker). A great advocation for ignoring all of the apps & walled gardens & returning to the open internet.