Need to Know
FIRST LOOK
10 13 - 26 November 2019
Amazon Echo Buds
bit.ly/echobudFirst Apple, then Microsoft and now
it’s Amazon’s turn to jump on the
earbud bandwagon. The launch of its
Echo Buds has been somewhat
overshadowed by the near-
simultaneous release of Apple’s new,
upgraded AirPods. However, despite
having its rich and bassy thunder
stolen, Amazon’s first foray into smart
earbuds is largely a success.
The Echo Buds buck the all-white
trend for earbuds and are only
available in black. Amazon’s Echo
smart speakers have been praised
for their excellent sound quality and
this carries over to the Echo Buds.
Audio quality is crisp and clear,
and the buds employ Bose’s noise-
reduction technology, though it’sconditions of the Alexa phone app
and connect via Bluetooth instead.
Despite the voice assistant’s appeal,
it’s not essential to the Echo Bud
experience.
While the design of the Echo Buds
is sleek and comfortable, Amazon has
made an odd choice with the charger,
which is powered by MicroUSB rather
than the newer, faster USB-C – and
there’s no wireless charging option,
either. For serious tech-heads, that
may make them a less attractive
proposition but, for most everyday
users, it’s unlikely to be a deal-
breaker. Playback lasts around five
hours on an average charge.
Compared to the Apple’s £
price tag for its AirPods, Amazon’s
Echo Buds are a bargain at just £119,
and we suspect they’ll be further
discounted for Black Friday.What happened?
Customers who purchased items from
Currys PC World’s eBay shop may have
made an expensive mistake, after
hundreds of payments were redirected
by scammers on 19 and 20 October.
Criminals were able to gain access to
Currys PC World’s eBay account where
they changed payment information for
certain listings to funnel the cash
straight into their own PayPal account.
The scam is believed to have hit
around 600 customers, and included
listings for popular consumer items such
as the new iPhone 11. Since the email
address used by the fraudsters’ fake
PayPal account was similar to the
official Currys PC World email address,
few victims took any notice. That meant
customers made their payments to the
con artists rather than the retailer.
While we’re all becoming used to the
regular signs of an online scam – clues
such as incorrect spelling and poor
grammar – the fact that criminals were
able to gain access to a real account
would have made this case particularly
difficult to spot and avoid.
How will it affect you?
If you’re one of the unlucky 600, then
take comfort because your money
should be returned to you soon. PayPal
has been reversing the transactions, and
advises that any customers who don’t
Currys PC World customers scammed via eBay
see the money reappear in their account
should raise a case through using the
‘item not received’ query.
For everyone else, there’s still an
important lesson to be learned: we need
to be more vigilant than ever against
online fraud. While it might be easy
enough to ignore obviously fake
accounts or phishing emails, scammers
are getting more sophisticated by the
day. Always double-check all payment
details when transferring money, even if
it’s a routine transaction.What do we think?
Currys PC World and eBay have acted
reasonably quickly in shutting down thisscam but it should never have occurred
in the first place and there are serious
questions that need to be answered.
How did criminals get access to a
national company’s eBay account? How
was the payment information changed
without anyone noticing? It hints at a
worrying lack of security, and it’s critical
that the tech retailer launches a
thorough investigation to find out how
this happened and how it can be
avoided in the future.
This news also highlights one of the
real benefits of shopping with PayPal:
its consumer protections have made it
relatively easy for anybody affected by
scams to get their money back.a farcryfromtheAppleAirPods’new
noise-cancelling feature.
As you’d expect from Amazon, Alexa
lives inside the buds. The smart
assistant can be summoned with the
wake word, thanks to the microphone
buried within the shell. You can turn this
off if you don’t fancy having Alexa
eavesdrop on you while you listen to
podcasts, but be warned: switching off
the microphone means you can’t use
the Echo Buds for calls. If you’d rather
go Alexa-free, just ignore the terms and