Apple TV and Netflix Guide: Tips, Tricks, and Troubleshooting Advice

From smart TVs to streaming sticks, Netflix is available across a range of different platforms. But not all Netflix experiences are created equal.

The Apple TV is fast and easy to use, and the Netflix app works well on the platform. Unlike YouTube and Amazon Prime Video, the Netflix app is actually customized to run natively on the Apple TV. Which is why Netflix on Apple TV is one of the best ways to experience the streaming service.

In this article we’ll help you set up Netflix on your Apple TV, before offering some tips, tricks, and troubleshooting advice.

How to Set Up Netflix on Apple TV

Watching Netflix on your Apple TV is as simple as downloading the app, just like you do with your iPhone or iPad.

After you’ve set up your Apple TV (4th Generation or Apple TV 4K), go to the homescreen, and find the App Store icon. Click on it use the trackpad to navigate to the Search tab on the top.

Then use the Search bar to search for Netflix. From the Netflix app page, click on the Download or Get button. The Netflix app will be downloaded and will show up at the bottom of the homescreen.

Find the Netflix app and open it. If you already have a Netflix account, you can click on the Sign in button. If you don’t have an account, you can sign up and get a 30 day free trial.

Once you’re logged in, Netflix will show you all your profiles. If you don’t already have one, you can use the Add Profile button to create a new profile. If you’re going with a new profile, you’ll be asked to choose a couple of movies and TV shows you like.

Your Netflix experience is now ready. The user interface on Apple TV is similar to every other Netflix app out there. You swipe up and down and left and right to browse titles. Click on the touchpad to select an item. From here, you can start playing it, view all episodes, add the title to your list, or rate it.

Recently, Netflix has simplified the app’s home screen, adding more clarity. Now, you’ll see a persistent sidebar on the left edge. Swipe all the way to the left edge to expand the sidebar. Here you’ll see shortcuts to access Search, Your list, Settings, Profiles, and more.

How to Enable Netflix Subtitles on Apple TV

To enable subtitles in Netflix, start playing something and swipe down to reveal the Info bar. Select Subtitles and choose the language of your choice.

You can customize Netflix subtitles from the website but they won’t apply to the Apple TV app. To change the look of the subtitles, you’ll need to go into the Netflix settings.

From the homescreen, open the Settings, select General > Accessibility > Subtitles and Captioning > Closed Captions and SDH > Style and choose from one of the options. In our testing, the customizable subtitle styles for tvOS didn’t work in the Netflix app, so your only choices are Transparent Background, Large Text, Classic, and Outline Text.

How to Get American Netflix Outside the US

You won’t find VPNs on the Apple TV App Store. But that shouldn’t stop you from watching Netflix from another region. If you want to access Netflix U.S. content on your Apple TV, use a DNS proxy. Just replace your local DNS address with a proxy address based in the U.S.

You can use a service like Getflix to get a DNS address. Once you’ve signed up for an account, go to Getflix’s list of Global DNS servers, and take note of the DNS address of the country you want to use.

Open the Settings, go to Network > Wi-Fi, and select your network. Here, select Configure DNS, choose Manual and then input the DNS address that your service has provided.

Go back to the Settings > System > Restart, and reboot your Apple TV. Start Netflix again and search for a show that’s not available in your region to test if it worked.

Common Issues With Apple TV and Netflix

How to Fix Lags and Hangups

Sometimes, the Netflix app will freeze and refuse to do anything. The best way to fix this issue is by force quitting the app. On the Apple TV remote, double-click the Home button to reveal the App Switcher. Swipe over to the Netflix app and swipe up on the touchpad to quit the app.

How to Fix Error Code 11800

If your Apple TV is showing error code 11800, it means that the system information of your Apple TV needs to be refreshed. This can happen if you mostly stream Netflix content on your Apple TV.

The solution is simple. Turn off your Apple TV, unplug the power cable for two minutes, plug it in again, and restart your Apple TV.

How to Fix Low-Quality Streaming

If Netflix keeps buffering, try the following solutions:

Check Internet Speed: The first thing you should do is run a speed test. Make sure you’re getting around 20 megabits per second download speeds for a smooth HD experience.

Reset DNS: If you’re using one of the best third party DNS providers, it might be slowing down your Netflix streams. Go to Settings > Network > Wi-Fi > Your Network > Configure DNS, and switch to Automatic.

How to Enable 4K Streaming

If you’re using Apple TV 4K, you’ll want to see Netflix shows in full 4K resolution. How do you make sure you’re always getting the best resolution possible? Open the Netflix account settings page on your computer and navigate to Playback settings.

Switch to the High option so that you get the best possible streaming quality. If you want to stream 4K content, you’ll need a steady internet connection with a speed of 25 megabits per second or higher.

How to Sign Out of Netflix

Wondering how to sign out of Netflix? Swipe all the way to to the left to reveal the sidebar, select Settings, and choose Sign Out.

Getting Even More Out of Netflix

We hope this article has helped you get to grips with using Netflix on your Apple TV. After all, once you’ve got Netflix up and running on your Apple TV, a whole range of new content becomes available to you.

No matter which device you use to access Netflix, we’ve got you covered with tips and tricks in our ultimate guide to Netflix. Which should help you get more out of the streaming service.

Read the full article: Apple TV and Netflix Guide: Tips, Tricks, and Troubleshooting Advice

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What Is Google Script? How to Write Your First Google Apps Script

If you use Google Apps like Google Sheets or Google Docs, Google Script allows you to accomplish things you could never could with a similar desktop application.

Google Script (also known as Google Apps Script) is an application development platform that lets you integrate all of the Google Cloud services you use.

Google offers a long list of APIs for each one of their cloud services. By writing very simple Google apps, you can open up an entire world of additional features in each one of Google’s many services.

What Can You Do With Google Script?

Learning Google Script is very easy. Just a few of the things you can do with Google Script include:

• Creating custom functions in Google Sheets
• Integrating Google Sheets or Google Docs with Gmail
• Creating web apps you can deploy using Google Sites
• Adding a custom menu to Google Docs
• Creating web traffic dashboards in Google Sheets using Google Analytics data
• Sending email from Google Sheets or any other Google service

Since Google services are all in the cloud, you can create your Google Apps script from a single script editor. From that code you can tap into the APIs for any of Google’s services you use.

This creates a flexibility that’s hard to find in most other scripting platforms.

Writing Your First Google Apps Script

To see how easy it is to write a Google Script, try the following example.

Your first script will send an email from your Gmail account, with a message embedded in your Google Script.

1. Open a web browser and type script.google.com into the URL field.
2. Log into your Google account if you aren’t already.
3. Once logged into Google Apps Script, click on New script.
4. Where it says Untitled project, type the name My First Script.

Delete the code in the script window, and paste the following:

function SendAnEmail() {

  // Set the recipient email address
  var email = 'xxxxx@yahoo.com'

  // Create the email subject line.
  var subject = 'This is my first script!';

  // Create the email body.
  var body = 'Hello, world!';

  // Send an email
  GmailApp.sendEmail(email, subject, body);
}

Click on the disk icon to Save the code. Then click on the Run icon to run it.

You may need to provide permission for the script to run using your Google account the first time, and to send email from your Gmail account.

You may see a warning that the app isn’t verified. Just click on Advanced and Go to My First Script (unsafe). Since you’re the one who wrote the app, you can be confident that it’s perfectly safe to run.

Here’s what that incoming email will look like:

This script used the Gmail service to send an email from your account via Google Script.

It’s just one simple example of how a Google Apps Script can tap into any of your Google cloud services.

Adding More Features to Google Services

You’ll find access to Google Scripting from inside of many of Google’s services as well.

As mentioned above, this lets you add extended features to those services. For example, inside of Google Sheets, you can access your Google Script Editor by clicking on Tools, and then clicking on Script editor.

We’ve previously looked at examples of creating custom functions and menus in Google Sheets. That’s an excellent resource to get started building your own.

You can access the Google Scripts editor the same way from Google Docs.

You can even use a Google Script to create a Gmail add-on to enhance your Gmail experience. This lets you modify things like the message compose window or even writing a script that manages archiving old emails.

To enable developing and testing Google Script add-ons, you need to enable developer add-ons in your Gmail account. You can do this by going to Settings, then clicking on Add-ons and selecting Enable developer add-ons for my account. You’ll need to click Enable on a pop-up window as well.

Creating Gmail Add-ons is beyond the scope of this article. But if you’re serious about diving into this, you can study the Google Developer Guide on Building a Gmail add-on.

Accessing Google Script APIs

From within your Google Script editor, you can access each of your Google services by using a global object. You used the GmailApp global object in the Hello World example above.

To access all of the features (methods and calls you can make from within the Google Script editor), you just need to enable Advanced Google services for that service.

You do this from within the Google Scripts editor by clicking on Resources and Advanced Google services.

Don’t forget to click on the Google Cloud Platform API Dashboard link at the bottom and enable the service in that dashboard as well.

Once you’re in the Google Cloud Platform API Dashboard, click on Enable APIs and Services, search for the name of the service in the API Library, select it, and then click on Enable.

You only need to enable the advanced service once for each Google account you use for scripting.

If you scroll down on this page where you’ve enabled the API Library, you’ll notice a link for Reference documentation. Save this link, because it provides valuable examples and syntax on how to integrate with that API inside your own Google Scripts.

You can see an excellent example of integrating with Google Analytics using Google Scripting in our guide to creating a website analytics dashboard.

Browsing the API Library shows just how many Google Services you can integrate into your scripts.

There are hundreds of available APIs.

If you are interested in becoming a Google superuser, learning how to use Google App Scripts is definitely the way to go.

Beyond Google Script Basics: What Now?

As you can see from the simple Hello World example above, learning how to write a Google Script isn’t hard at all.

And since Google provides an extensive Google Apps Script library filled with guides and references, you have a solid base to start from.

If you want to get started on a slightly more advanced Google Script application, try your hand at integrating Google Forms and Gmail to quickly apply to job openings.

Read the full article: What Is Google Script? How to Write Your First Google Apps Script

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The Best Amazon Fire Stick and Fire TV Remote Apps and Controls

How to Add Notes to Bookmarks in Chrome and Firefox

If you’ve bookmarked a lot of sites over the years, you may have some that you don’t remember why you bookmarked them in the first place. Should you keep them just in case, or delete them?

If you don’t remember why you saved your bookmarks, they won’t do you any good. Adding notes to your bookmarks can help you remember why you wanted them.

You used to be able to add notes to bookmarks in Firefox, but that feature has been removed. And Chrome never had that ability. Let’s look at how to get around this limitation in Chrome and Firefox and add notes to your bookmarks.

Adding Notes to the Bookmark Name

An easy way to add a note to a bookmark in both Chrome and Firefox is to put the note in the name of the bookmark. We’ll show you how to customize the name of a bookmark with a note in Chrome and Firefox.

Adding a Note to the Bookmark Name in Chrome

To add a note to a new bookmark in Chrome, visit the site you want to bookmark and click the star icon in the address bar.

Then, enter the name for the bookmark and whatever notes you want to add in the Name box. Click Done.

The name and notes display when you move your mouse over the bookmark on the Bookmarks bar.

If you added a long note to the bookmark name, you won’t be able to see the whole note. We tested adding a lot of text to the name, and Chrome showed an ellipsis (…) after 198 characters. A strange limit. If you get different results when adding a long note to the bookmark name in Chrome, let us know in the comments.

To add a note to an existing bookmark in Chrome, right-click on the bookmark (or on a bookmark in a folder) on the Bookmarks bar and select Edit.

Add your note to the Name on the Edit bookmark dialog box and click Save.

Adding a Note to the Bookmark Name in Firefox

Adding a note when you add a new bookmark in Firefox is like doing it in Chrome. Visit the site you want to bookmark and then click the star icon in the address bar.

On the New Bookmark popup dialog box, add your note in the Name box. Next, click Done.

Firefox doesn’t seem to have the same character limitation as Chrome. We got to over 2000 characters in our bookmark Name in Firefox and they all displayed when we hovered our mouse over the bookmark. So this seems to be a good solution in Firefox. You can quickly view your bookmark notes simply by moving your mouse over your bookmarks.

To add a note to an existing bookmark in Firefox, right-click on the bookmark (or on a bookmark in a folder) on the Bookmarks bar and select Properties.

Add your note to the Name on the Properties dialog box. Then, click Save.

Adding Notes to Bookmarks in Firefox (Keywords)

In Firefox, you can add a keyword to a bookmark to make it quick and easy to use the bookmark. Simply type the keyword in the address bar and press Enter to access the bookmarked page.

But if you don’t use keywords, you can use the Keyword field for a bookmark as a notes field instead. To make your bookmarks easier to find and use without keywords, you can add tags to your bookmarks in Firefox.

In Firefox, right-click on the bookmark you want to add a note to and select Properties.

Then, enter your note in the Keyword box on the Properties dialog box and click Save. Since keywords are all lowercase, your note defaults to that also.

When using this method, you must open the properties for a bookmark to see your notes. The text in the Keyword box doesn’t display when you mouse over a bookmark.

Adding Notes to Bookmarks in Chrome (Extension)

The Bookmark Manager extension in Chrome replaces the built-in bookmark manager and adds the notes feature back to bookmarks.

This extension is not available in the Chrome Web Store. You must download it and install it manually. But don’t worry. It’s easy.

First, visit the Bookmark Manager extension page on Github.

Then, click the green Clone or download button and then click Download ZIP. Save the ZIP file to a folder on your hard drive and then extract it.

To install extensions from outside the Chrome Web Store, you must use Developer mode on the Extensions page.

Be careful what you install from outside the Chrome Web Store. Make sure you trust the source and scan downloaded extension files for viruses and check for malware. We scanned the Bookmark Manager extension ZIP file using Windows Defender and VirusTotal and found it safe.

To enable the Developer mode, type chrome://extensions in the address bar and press Enter.

Then, click the Developer mode slider button.

To add the Bookmark Manager extension to Chrome, click Load unpacked.

On the Browse For Folder dialog box, go to the folder where you extracted the downloaded extension file.

Then, select the main folder for the extension and click OK.

You’ll find the Bookmark Manager extension on the Extensions page now. You may see an Errors button on the extension’s box, but don’t worry about that, unless you encounter problems with the extension. The extension worked just fine for us, even though there were errors reported.

The extension should be enabled automatically. If not, click the slider button on the Bookmark Manager box to enable it.

The Bookmark Manager extension adds a Bookmarks button to the Bookmarks bar automatically. Click that button to open the revised Extensions page.

On the box for the bookmark you want to add a note to, click the menu button (three vertical dots) and then click Edit.

Enter your note in the Note box on the right panel.

Next, click Close at the bottom of the panel or click anywhere off the panel to close it.

To view a note added to a bookmark, you must edit the bookmark again.

Adding Notes to Bookmarks in Firefox (Add-On)

If you’re using Firefox, there’s a nice add-on called Bookmark Notes that allows you to add notes to bookmarks.

Once you install the add-on, it should automatically open in the left sidebar. If it doesn’t, click the Open Bookmark Notes button on the toolbar.

Your bookmarks and bookmark folders display in a tree format in the left sidebar.

To add a note to a bookmark, expand the section your bookmark is in and expand the folders it’s in, if needed. Then, click the bookmark you want.

A popup displays in the sidebar showing the name and URL for the bookmark at the top.

Enter your notes for the bookmark and click Save.

You can’t see your notes on the sidebar, but a notes icon displays next to each bookmark that has notes.

To see your note for a bookmark, click the bookmark or the notes icon next to it to display the popup dialog.

Other Options for Storing Notes With Saved Links

If you don’t like any of these options for adding notes to bookmarks, you can save bookmarks with notes to OneNote. Or you can use Evernote’s web clipper to save bookmarks and add notes to them in Evernote.

Read the full article: How to Add Notes to Bookmarks in Chrome and Firefox

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Chrome adds new security features to stop mobile subscription scams

Google today announced that Chrome will soon get a new feature that aims to stop mobile subscription scams. Those are the kind of sites that ask you for your phone number and that then, unbeknownst to you, sign you up for a mobile subscription that’s billed through your carrier. Starting with the launch of Chrome 71 in December, Google will pop up a prominent warning when a site doesn’t make it clear that users are signing up for a mobile subscription.

To make sure that developers who are legitimately using this flow to offer users a subscription don’t get caught up in this new system, Google also published a set of best practices for mobile billing today. Generally, developers are expected to make their billing information visible and obvious to users, display the actual cost and have a simple and straightforward fee structure.

If that information is not available, Google will throw up a prominent full-page warning, but users can always opt to proceed. Before throwing up the warning page, Google will notify webmasters in the Search Console when it detects a potential scam (there’s always a chance for false positives, after all).

This new feature will be available on both mobile and desktop, as well as in Android’s WebView.

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Chrome adds new security features to stop mobile subscription scams

Google today announced that Chrome will soon get a new feature that aims to stop mobile subscription scams. Those are the kind of sites that ask you for your phone number and that then, unbeknownst to you, sign you up for a mobile subscription that’s billed through your carrier. Starting with the launch of Chrome 71 in December, Google will pop up a prominent warning when a site doesn’t make it clear that users are signing up for a mobile subscription.

To make sure that developers who are legitimately using this flow to offer users a subscription don’t get caught up in this new system, Google also published a set of best practices for mobile billing today. Generally, developers are expected to make their billing information visible and obvious to users, display the actual cost and have a simple and straightforward fee structure.

If that information is not available, Google will throw up a prominent full-page warning, but users can always opt to proceed. Before throwing up the warning page, Google will notify webmasters in the Search Console when it detects a potential scam (there’s always a chance for false positives, after all).

This new feature will be available on both mobile and desktop, as well as in Android’s WebView.

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Google CEO highlights corporate changes following walkouts

This time last week, Google employees held massive walkouts across the country to protest the company’s handling of sexual harassment in the wake of a damning New York Times piece. This morning, CEO Sundar Pichai sent a note to employees about the events that was also shared via the company’s blog.

“We recognize that we have not always gotten everything right in the past and we are sincerely sorry for that,” the executive says in the letter. “It’s clear we need to make some changes.” The memo follows another recent letter, in which Pichai noted the termination of 48 employees for sexual harassment over the past two years.

Google walkout organizer: ‘I hope I still have a career in Silicon Valley after this’

This latest letter also makes note of a private “action plan.” While not spelled out in its entirety, Pichai breaks down a  handful of policy changes, including  mandatory training for employees and the ways in which the company will handle sexual harassment claims going forward. Here are the bullet points:

• We will make arbitration optional for individual sexual harassment and sexual assault claims. Google has never required confidentiality in the arbitration process and arbitration still may be the best path for a number of reasons (e.g. personal privacy) but, we recognize that choice should be up to you.
• We will provide more granularity around sexual harassment investigations and outcomes at the company as part of our Investigations Report.
• We’re revamping the way we handle and look into your concerns in three ways: We’re overhauling our reporting channels by bringing them together on one dedicated site and including live support. We will enhance the processes we use to handle concerns—including the ability for Googlers to be accompanied by a support person. And we will offer extra care and resources for Googlers during and after the process. This includes extended counseling and career support,
• We will update and expand our mandatory sexual harassment training. From now on if you don’t complete your training, you’ll receive a one-rating dock in Perf (editor’s note: Perf is our performance review system).
• We will recommit to our company-wide OKR around diversity, equity and inclusion again in 2019, focused on improving representation—through hiring, progression and retention—and creating a more inclusive culture for everyone. Our Chief Diversity Officer will continue to provide monthly progress updates to me and my leadership team.

Of course, all of this only arrives in the wake of both a serious piece highlighting disturbing complaints about former employees, along with a very high-profile walkout on the part of Google employees. It never bodes well for a company’s underlying culture when these sorts of actions are required to induce a fundamental change.

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Facebook Dating arrives in Canada and Thailand

On the heels of Tinder’s plans to go more casual, Facebook is today expanding access to its own dating service, Facebook Dating. First launched two months ago in Colombia for testing purposes, the social network is today rolling out Facebook Dating to Canada and Thailand. The company is also adding a few new features to coincide with the launch, including the ability to re-review people you passed on and take a break by putting the service on pause, among other things.

If that latter feature sounds familiar, it’s because it’s also something dating app Bumble recently announced, as well.

Bumble in September launched a Snooze button for its own app, which addressed the problem many online daters have – the need for a detox from dating apps for a bit. Sometimes that’s due to frustration or just being busy; while other times it’s because they’ve matched with someone and want to give them a chance.

Facebook says you can still message people you already matched while on pause.

Meanwhile, offering daters a chance to give someone a second look is also common among dating apps, though it’s presented in different ways. For example, OKCupid may resurface people you’ve passed on, while Tinder’s newer “Feed” feature lets you keep track of updates from matches that you had earlier decided to ignore.

Second Look will be in Facebook Dating’s Settings, and show people in reverse chronological order. You can go back through your Suggested Matches and even review people you may have accidentally passed on – features other dating apps charge for.

Also new today is the ability to review a blocked list, support for non-metric units (for things like range and height), and more interactive profile content, including tappable entry points for conversations – like a shared hometown or school.

These features will arrive in the new version of Facebook Dating, rolling out today, the company says.

It has tweaked the user interface a bit, too. Now, when scrolling through Groups and Events to unlock, these will appear vertically, instead of horizontally as before.

Facebook says it’s also working now on a pre-emptive block list, based on user feedback.

This would let you search for people who are not already your Facebook friends in Facebook Dating that you know you don’t want to see – for example, an ex you’ve unfriended but not blocked on Facebook, a family member, etc., the company tells TechCrunch.

You’ll be able to search for specific people regardless of whether or not you know they have a Dating profile, and doing so won’t reveal to you if that person has a profile on Facebook Dating or not.

Originally announced at F8 this May, Facebook has already figured out some of the larger details about how it wants its dating service to operate. That includes its decision to limit users from expressing interest in no more than 100 people per day, and other settings to open the service to matching with strangers or with friend-of-friends.

There’s a certain (evil) genius in launching a Facebook Dating service, given that Facebook is already the place people go – along with Instagram – to research their new matches and potential dates, once things progress to that point. Plus, the service can leverage Facebook’s data. After all, if anyone knows who you are and what you’re like, it’s them. That could save users time in answering the ‘getting to know you’ questions some apps pose to their users to help perfect their matching algorithms.

It also helps that Facebook is positioning the service for those who want relationships, given the leading dating app – Tinder – is known for the opposite.

But user trust in Facebook today is lacking. And dating is something many considerate private – not something they’d want exposed on a network where they’re connected with work colleagues, industry peers, and extended family. While Facebook vows to maintain user privacy, its track record on this front is poor, which could limit the service’s growth.

Facebook has not said when the service will launch in the U.S., nor has it detailed the number of signups to date.

“We don’t have any specific metrics to share, but we’ve been pleased with the response in Colombia thus far and are excited to roll it out to Thailand and Canada,” a spokesperson said.

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There’s a new PS4 Pro and it’s much quieter than the original

There’s a new Sony PS4 Pro and it’s much quieter than the original. Right now, it’s only available in a Red Dead Redemption bundle but eventually, it will likely be available as a standalone product, too.

The new CUH-7200 version reportedly dropped the console’s noise from 50 decibles to 44 decibels though as EuroGamer notes, it can still top out at 48 decibels. The noise reduction is reportedly thanks to improved cooling, which in turn, reduces the strain on the cooling system within the PS4 Pro. The original Playstation Pro came out two years ago, and at times, it can roar like a jet engine.

The revised model looks the same as the original so check the model number on the box to ensure you’re getting the quieter option.

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Sony’s new noise-canceling headphones are great traveling companions

I’ll admit that I’ve been caught up in the Bose hype. I’ve worn qBoseSony WH-1000XM3, a pair of wireless/wired cans that truly give everything else I’ve tried a bad name.

These $349 headphones come with a USB cable, audio cable, international audio adapter, and a compact case that holds the whole thing in a tight package. The headphones also support Bluetooth and will automatically swap to wired mode when you insert the headphone cable. The WH-1000XM3s support full noise cancellation that turns even the noisiest situation into a blissful escape. An ambient audio feature lets you listen to external sounds at the touch of a button and there is even a “Quick Attention” feature that turns the headphones down instantly when you need to speak to someone. Sony touts 30 hours battery life on one charge, a claim that I won’t refute as I haven’t recharged these things after multiple flights and they’re still going strong.

In short, these things are great.

Sony likes to brand all of its features and these headphones are no exception. The cans contain a “HD Noise-Canceling Processor QN1″ that run two 1.57 ” drivers that can handle up to 40 kHz. Something called a SENSE ENGINE notices what you are doing – walking, sitting, talking – and automatically changes the audio and noise reduction. Finally, the headphones offer multiple styles including stages, clubs, and outdoor stages. I doubt many will use or notice these features but they’re nice to have.

How do they sound? First, understand that these are not audiophile headphones. You get nice separation, great sound stage, and high quality audio out of these things but mostly you’ll be listening wirelessly to music on your phone or listening to awful audio being blasted out of your seatback entertainment system. Put garbage in, as they say, and you get garbage out. That said, I found these headphones superior to nearly every other model I’ve tested recently, including my Bose QuietComfort 35 IIs. The Sony models were bright and crisp and sounded great with noise canceling on or off. I also tested the headphones in loud environments including cafes and at home with lots of ambient audio playing. The ambient audio immediately disappeared when I turned on noise canceling, leaving only great sound.

They charge via USB and easily pair with any Bluetooth device instantly.

Now for some quibbles. The WH-1000XM3 has no physical power switch, a feature that lets you ensure your headphones are completely off. This single feature could mean the difference between a good flight and a bad flight. Further, the power button is right next to and the same size as the noise cancelation button. This makes it hard to tap this button if you’re wearing the headphones.

Thankfully, the headphones work when turned off, a feature that many lower-end noise canceling models lack. This means you can still listen to headphones if the battery is dead. I also noticed a bit of a bass heaviness in the WH-1000XM3s, but that could be a relic of using the fairly flat Bose headphones for so long.

The headphones also have some fairly cryptic touch features on the right cup including a call and music pause feature that works when you tap the sensitive surface. You can swipe through songs and turn the audio up and down and change the soundstage with a little button next to the power button.

Sony produces excellent audio products and these are no exception. I fly nearly every week these days and find myself reaching for these headphones over anything else I have in my extensive test collection. Time will tell if these cans survive the rigors of travel but given the price and the build quality I wouldn’t be surprised if these headphones are nestled in my backpack for years to come. Now I just have to break up with my Bose and I just know there will be drama.

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