Bose introduces their new Ultra Open Earbuds. “Their cuff-like fit leaves your ears totally open so you can still hear the world around you”

"so you can still hear the world around you"

Isn't that the exact opposite reason of why people wear headphones?

It's primarily for safety, like walking outside so you're aware of your surroundings. As for critical listening, an open soundstage is more accurate to the original sound than closed headphones.
- People keep saying that, but wearing earphones while walking outside is a niche usage. It's mostly an excuse because no one knows how to do total noise cancellation. Being able to work in quiet while others are yammering around you is priceless.
As a person, no. Most people maybe. It's incredibly liberating to not feel like you are missing out on the world around you sometimes (and safer). Sure sometimes I want to duck out and place my big puffy over ear speakers on and block everything out, but for day to day use for navigation, podcasts, phone conversations, AI interactions, and some stereo background music - this is exactly what this person wants.
- As a person
  I too am a person and totally not an AI driven bot fellow human.
Eeeehhhhh that depends.
I work delivering food on a bicycle. I need to be able to hear things. Would be nice if I could listing to my playlists and not drown out the car coming my way.
- May I suggest checking these out? https://shokz.com/products/openrunpro
  Not affiliated, just like mine for when I need to keep my ears completely open. Audio quality is surprisingly good, but also never going to compete with something whose sole purpose is to sound good i.e. non-sporty headphones.
  Bike riding is perfect for these bone conducting headphones, you can listen to tunes while hearing absolutely everything.
- The bose quietcomfort ones do that and more. You can choose if you want to block out external sounds with ANC or enable pass-through so you can hear the world around you. Not sure why they needed to make this product.
I use the shockz (another open ear headset) daily with my job. Work on equipment, a lot of tedious opening up a machine and fixing it. I don't have a singular place but move around a lot. Going from earbuds that I have to take out just to have a conversation if someone comes up and asks questions vs the open ear allows me to be able to know what's happening around me, keeps from annoying those around me with whatever I'm listening to, and I've chewed through so many audiobooks which has kept me from losing my mind.
- I love my shockz for running. But now just carry loops ear plugs with me for when I'm on the train or don't need to be aware of my surroundings
Not if you're on the street and want to live.
Additional anecdote from me, but I specifically seek out good sound pass-thru over good noise cancelling because I use music to help focus but need to hear at the same time like, say, at work when a call comes in.
I don't need it to be particularly loud, either, as I also have audio processing disorder so some concerns I see in this thread such as (paraphrasing) "probably poor bass" isn't as much of a concern.
I currently use Sony's Latest LinkBud S earbuds, and I'm pretty happy with it. But if I were still looking for a pair, something like what's being offered here is exactly the sort of thing that would appeal to me.
These will undoubtedly appeal to a niche audience vs mass appeal, but so long as production doesn't outpace demand I could see such a line of ear buds becoming quite popular among those who want that feature specifically.
(Edit: oops, my instance got all weird and posted 4 times. Fixed.)
I guess if I liked earbuds and still wanted to hear others, I could just wear one of them...
But I don't. I like big chunky headphones, because they send a message to others, and that message is "don't talk to me".

The amount of people in the comments not understanding why open buds are relevant to some people / the concept of earbuds overall is quite funny. I guess there's some truth in stereotypical Lemmy user rarely showing up outside 🙃

OK, but why the fuck are their models looking at me like I'm a piece of shit?

Do wearing these gives you a futuristic superiority complex?

It's a grumpy brand

Do we know they're bone conducting? or is this like the head phones on the Valve Index, highly directional and focused speakers which only project sound in a very narrow band spaciously?

No, they attach to your earlobe.
It's the later. A small speaker pointed into your ear while not blocking it.
tbeyre defknitly not bone conducting, bone conduction headphones don't go in your ear

These actually look like something I could see people wearing all day. Other wireless earbuds make you look like a dork, but these actually look pretty stylish IMO

I dunno about style, but I like the concept. Normal buds just don't fit my ears.
I agree. They look so good. Looking forward to reviews.

Open almost always means no bass (unless you're spending $500+ on planar magnetic), so I'll pass.

Semi-closed back is the way to go. Best of all worlds (good sound stage + good bass).

Sure but "almost always" is not "always". Maybe don't judge these until you've heard them?
You haven't even heard them and are making grand assumptions. The bass is great at low to medium listening levels but rolls off as you increase the volume due to physical limitations.
- I'm pretty sure those physical limitations are exactly what he's talking about.

Looks like someone at Bose saw Fringe lol

Norm from Tested recently reviewed the "Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses". The most interesting use case for him was to have good, non obtrusive earphones that allow you to hear normally without blocking people out.

Bose actually made the first music playing sunglasses. It's where the open ear bud idea came from.
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
Tested
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.

I love private sounds!

That’s great but it’s the bluetooth that’s the deal-killer

Bone conducting headphones already exist

So do double sided dildos, but neither is particularly salient here.
… and aren’t necessarily great for everyone. They cause a substantial number of people to feel nauseous.
If these achieve a similar effect without the downsides, then that’s both new and interesting.
- And even the most expensive ones sound worse than £10 earbuds of the normal kind.
- These sound like high end ear buds at low to medium volume levels.
It's looks more like they're focused audio rather than bone conducting.
So do open ear earbuds, this is just another one

earbuds are fucking stupid why don't you just wear headphones