u/art_vande1ay

Quick review of the new Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro (L5P). For context, I'm no audiophile, but I've been through a ton of buds: Pixel Buds Pro, Bose QC II, Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro, AirPods Pro (already returned), plus a bunch of open and half in ear types. My last ANC Soundcore was the Liberty 3 Pro, and I currently use the Aerofit 2 too.

Gotta give Soundcore credit here. The L5P is easily the most complete product I've used. Not the absolute best at any one thing, except for call quality, but for general daily use it's the most balanced package out there. If I could only keep one pair, this would be it.

The quick breakdown:

• ANC: Top notch. Can't believe I'm saying this, but it's almost as good as my Bose QC II, and it beats Google, Samsung, and the AirPods I had.
• Sound: Not for critical listening, but good enough, especially after tweaking the EQ.
• Calls: Simply the best. No competition here.
• Perks: Super comfortable, connects to 3 devices at once.
• Smart Voice Commands: More built in commands than Galaxy B3P. You can switch between ANC, Transparency, and Adaptive modes entirely hands free with your voice.

One weird thing though:

I liked them so much I bought a second pair for my partner. That pair has different smart voice commands than mine. For example, for volume control, mine needs "increase volume" and "decrease volume," while hers uses "volume up" and "volume down." Feels like Soundcore is shipping different hardware batches or stealth revisions.

Hi everyone,

I built ToneLatch, a Mac app mainly for Fujifilm X100 series shooters who shoot RAW + JPEG and want to keep the camera JPEG look while adding true HDR highlight brightness. This is meant for real HDR displays and viewers, with a normal SDR fallback, not just an SDR tone-mapped HDR look.

This is my second attempt sharing it here. I took the earlier version down because it was still buggy. The new version is much more refined, is now on the Mac App Store, and ToneLatch Basic is free. No account, no subscription, no trial limit, and all processing is local on your Mac.

The main workflow is: pair the SOOC JPEG you already like with the matching RAW file, then ToneLatch uses the RAW to create an HDR gain map while preserving the JPEG or film recipe look. On supported displays and viewers, highlights can get extra brightness. Everywhere else, it still opens as a normal JPEG fallback.

Basic includes RAF support, Apple HDR export, Google Ultra HDR export, and standard batch processing. ToneLatch Plus is optional and adds editor tools, geometry matching, borders, export sizing, JPEG quality control, and more batch/export controls.

It is not meant to replace Lightroom or be a pro HDR grading tool. The strength is the simple workflow: if the JPEG is already the finished look, you can make an HDR version without rebuilding the image from RAW or setting up a full HDR grading hardware/software pipeline.

If you want to see examples, I have HDR/SDR comparisons on Instagram. Swipe between the two versions on an HDR-capable phone or display to see the difference. On an SDR screen, they should look the same because the HDR file falls back normally.

Check the pinned Instagram post first if you are not sure your display is showing HDR. Adjust brightness until the test image has the most contrast. If it only looks like a flat grey image, your screen or viewer probably is not rendering HDR.

Happy to answer questions or hear feedback from Fuji shooters. Thank you 😊

IG: https://www.instagram.com/logic.n.light/  

Website: https://tonelatch.logic-and-light.com  

Mac App Store Basic: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/tonelatch-basic/id6781000496?mt=12 

Mac App Store Plus: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/tonelatch-plus/id6781001020?mt=12

[Edit 2026 Jun 10, 10:11am]: I just realized a subscription is now required to use it. Since I was an early adopter, all the features are grandfathered in for me. If my current device broke, I’m not sure I would buy a new one.

It did help me a lot in the beginning when I was trying to get my BP under control, and it eased some BP anxiety for me. But after 1.5 years, I feel like I know enough about my body that I don’t think I would be willing to pay an annual subscription for it right now.

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Hey everyone, figured I’d share my experience with the Hilo blood pressure bracelet, formerly Aktiia.

I’ve been wearing it since November 2024, and the main reason I still use it is the nighttime blood pressure data. That alone makes it worth it for me. If I see my nighttime BP creeping up, I usually take it as a sign that something is off. Maybe I’m getting sick, not recovering well, stressed, too sedentary, or something in my diet is not agreeing with me.

Accuracy has been pretty good compared with my cuff. I do think it leans a bit toward the latest calibration, but it still shows real movement through the day and night. That was not my experience with Samsung watches. I tried two of them and even switched from a Pixel to a Samsung phone just to use the BP feature. Honestly, I regret bothering with that. The readings felt way too tied to the last calibration and mostly stayed around that point. Hilo is not perfect, but it actually shows the pattern. I can see daily rhythm, overnight changes, and bigger baseline shifts over time.

My biggest complaint is the stock strap. The pod kept sliding around, and I could never get a good fit. Then Fitbit Air came out recently, and I realized its strap might be perfect for Hilo. I had a spare Fitbit Air strap lying around, so I cut off the plastic ends and slid the Hilo pod onto it. It works surprisingly well. The strap is a little wider, so the pod no longer slides around, and the nylon Velcro lets me adjust it to exactly the right tightness. Not loose, not too tight, just snug enough to keep the sensor in place. See pictures:

https://preview.redd.it/1e91rv5t7a6h1.jpg?width=3000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4af532fb097c0d1d7e78483cebf4065d32290821

https://preview.redd.it/um60djwu7a6h1.jpg?width=3000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c17deea87b35e245d68ddd1b4559dfd177cb9093

https://preview.redd.it/nkhw1pjw7a6h1.png?width=2668&format=png&auto=webp&s=ce2034904356be8386efe5c8162051a4b3d91aff

https://preview.redd.it/183jkrjw7a6h1.png?width=1272&format=png&auto=webp&s=49ed970cee056d195361ba1f0aa509e5c5f4b6d8

https://preview.redd.it/uc2p4pjw7a6h1.png?width=1272&format=png&auto=webp&s=57c7f2f1cba1e7ed8e5996b9b1c72e9c19bfe719

https://preview.redd.it/28rw1pjw7a6h1.png?width=2668&format=png&auto=webp&s=df85c9fdb3e2e6e969879af7bf907fa2b3017502