A SOLUTION TO NOISY RESTAURANTS: An app that conferences the phones of everyone at the table, letting you talk via the headsets. “The phones sync up and do a local ad-hoc wifi (or bluetooth) mesh network. You all start the app and swipe an agreed code so people at the next table can’t join or decrypt. Then they share audio for the dinner. Get those earbuds that plug up your ears to block out the rest of the room. Talk in an ordinary voice.”

It’s a cool idea, though a few hundred bucks worth of sound-absorbent material would be better. If the restaurants would do it.