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It’s all about Samsung this week! Cherlynn, Devindra and Engadget Senior Editor Sam Rutherford dive into the company’s newest flagship smartphones, the Galaxy S22 and S22 Ultra. It’s jam-packed with new features, we just wish they were easier to use. (And what the heck is “Vision Booster” anyway?) Also, Sam gives us his thoughts on Alienware’s x14 gaming laptop, and Cherlynn is introduced to the infamous Bitcoin cryptocouple.

Listen above, or subscribe on your podcast app of choice. If you've got suggestions or topics you'd like covered on the show, be sure to email us or drop a note in the comments! And be sure to check out our other podcasts, the Morning After and Engadget News!

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Topics

• Samsung Galaxy S22 and S22 Ultra Reviews – 1:35

• Alienware X14 Review – 30:49

• Android 13 developer preview / privacy sandbox on Android – 39:20

• New productivity tools in Google Smart Canvas – 43:38

• Chrome OS Flex – 46:36

• Motorola and Verizon’s weird 5G neckband – 47:32

• Cryptocouple scammers caught trying to launder 25,000 BTC – 52:54

• Working on – 57:33

• Pop Culture Picks – 1:02:00

Video livestream

Credits
Hosts: Cherlynn Low and Devindra Hardawar
Guests: Sam Rutherford
Producer: Ben Ellman
Music: Dale North and Terrence O'Brien
Livestream producers: Julio Barrientos and Luke Brooks
Graphic artists: Luke Brooks, Kyle Maack 

Snapchat is adding a new location-sharing feature as it looks to build up its safety features. The app is introducing live location sharing, which allows users to share their exact whereabouts with select friends for short periods of time.

The Snap Map has had location sharing for years, but the current version of the feature only updates the location when the Snapchat app is opened. The new “live location” will allow select friends to see exactly where you are in real-time for a set period of time, much like Apple’s “Find My” app. Location details can be shared for 15 minutes, one hour or eight hours at a time.

Snap says the optional feature could make it easier to meet up with friends, or help people “stay safe” in situations when they may want the extra reassurance of knowing a friend or family member can see where they are. The company notes users will need to be friends, and mutually opt into the live location sharing in order to use it.

The update comes as Snap has tried to build up its safety features in recent months. The company recently announced it would limit friend recommendations for teens in an effort to deal with drug dealers targeting teenage users. The app is also expected to launch new parental control features later this year.

The Galaxy S22 Ultra is Samsung’s new Note. That’s the simplest way to put it. With a different design to the rest of the S22 family — which admittedly looks a little dated in comparison — and the return of the S Pen, this is the power-user flagship many Samsung fans have been waiting for.

Reviews Editor Cherlynn Low spent a week testing the S22 Ultra, and its familiarity means many users will feel totally at home with Samsung’s biggest new phone. The S22 Ultra is the best premium Android flagship around, with an excellent display, solid cameras and useful software. Nothing here is revolutionary, but with the onboard S Pen, the spirit of the Galaxy Note lives on. We scored it 89 — read on for why.

— Mat Smith

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• Star Trek: Discovery's faster ship travel comes at the expense of its supporting cast

• Amazon is matching Samsung's pre-order discount on Galaxy S22 smartphones

The director of ‘Oldboy’ is filming a fantasy movie on iPhones

Apple commissioned Park Chan-wook.

Apple

Apple commissioned famous Korean director Park Chan-wook to create a short film as part of its Shot on iPhone campaign. Park, perhaps best known for the action thriller flick Oldboy, used an iPhone 13 Pro to shoot a 20-minute fantasy martial arts movie entitled Life is But a Dream, which the tech giant has released on YouTube. Take a look for yourself.

Continue reading.

Intel delays its first Arc desktop gaming GPUs until spring

The company’s cloud GPUs will come later this year.

As previously announced, Intel’s Arc gaming GPUs will debut in laptops from partner companies this quarter, presumably alongside 12th-gen Alder Lake CPUs. However, desktop gamers will need to wait a little longer before they can plug Arc GPUs into their rigs. Intel says those graphics cards will ship in Q2. At an investor meeting, Intel also revealed plans for a service that will enable access to Arc GPUs via the cloud. It says Project Endgame, which will be available later this year, is "an always-accessible, low-latency computing experience."

Continue reading.

Why ‘Horizon Forbidden West' works well on the PS4

Even if the game shines brightest on the PS5.

SIE

Horizon Forbidden West developer Guerrilla was well aware of the PS5 and much of its capabilities when it started working on Forbidden West in 2018. But, the company also planned to make the game work on the PS4, a console that turns nine this fall. In an interview with the creators, we learn exactly how they were able to make a game that works well on both platforms. Two factors that helped? COVID-19 and game streaming.

Continue reading.

Ford's Mustang Mach-E ousts the Tesla Model 3 as Consumer Reports' top EV

Reliability and ease of use gave Ford's EV the edge.

Tesla's Model 3 has been Consumer Reports' top EV choice for the past two years, but the publication is ready to declare a new champion. CR has revealed that Ford's Mustang Mach-E has ousted the Model 3 as its EV Top Pick.

The Mustang crossover is not only "more practical," according to editors, but has better first-year reliability and a "far easier" infotainment system, which doesn't require multiple steps for basic tasks.

Continue reading.

Landing a jetliner in a strong crosswind is no joke, as any pilot (or passenger) can attest. If you crank those winds up to 60-70 MPH plus, then you have not only a supreme test of pilot skill, but pure YouTube entertainment. A site called Big Jet TV has 90,000-plus people watching the butt-puckering action as planes come in nearly sideways, engines howling, trying to get down on London Heathrow runway 27L. 

The commentary itself is pure entertainment, with the announcer doing his upmost to keep his gear and himself from blowing away. It's become a notable enough happening that he's even fielding requests for interviews from the BBC and others. It can be a bit hard to watch at times and is not recommended for anyone squeamish about flying — tune in above, if you dare. 

Nintendo is addingThe Legend Of Zelda: Majora's Mask to the Switch Online Expansion Pack lineup on February 25th. The classic title was first released for the Nintendo 64 in 2000, was the second Zelda game to feature 3D graphics and became one of the best-selling games at the time. It also received critical acclaim for its gameplay, writing and visuals that showed an improvement from its predecessor, Ocarina of Time.

Majora's Mask picks up from where Ocarina of Time left off, with Link finding himself in a parallel world to Hyrule called Termina. There, he learns that the mask is being used to summon the moon and destroy the world within three days. 

Nintendo launched Expansion Pack in October 2021 as a higher subscription tier for Switch Online. It costs $50 a year for an individual membership, or $30 more than a basic subscription. In addition to being able to enjoy the perks of basic Switch Online, Expansion Pack members are also able to access the Nintendo 64 and Sega Genesis titles the gaming giant adds to its library. Plus, it gives them access to a copy of Happy Home Paradise, a $25 Animal Crossing: New Horizons DLC.

Ocarina of Time was one of Expansion Pack's launch title. Players reported experiencing emulation issues, such as bad input lag, shortly after the tier's debut, but Nintendo has released some improvement updates since then.

Facebook rebranded itself as Meta in order to fully embrace virtual reality via the Oculus platform, so how is that actually going? The company reportedly told employees that its primary social VR platform for the Oculus Quest headset, Horizon Worlds, has grown ten times to since December, according to The Verge.

Meta's chief product officer Chris Cox said that since Horizon Worlds was rolled out widely in early December in the US and Canada, its monthly user count has expanded to 300,000 people. That includes both Horizon Worlds and Horizon Venues, a separate live event VR app with the same mechanics, a company spokesperson confirmed. It doesn't include the VR conferencing app Horizon Workrooms, however.

Horizon Worlds was first launched as an Oculus social platform called Facebook Horizon back in 2019, and launched into beta later on. Users appear as avatars with an upper body only, and can build their own custom worlds. Earlier this week, Meta announced that 10,000 of those worlds have been built so far and its Facebook group for creators numbers over 20,000. 

The company seems intent on avoiding issues like harassment rampant in Facebook, having introduced "personal boundaries" to Horizon Worlds and Venues earlier this month. It's also dealing with technical issues as some users couldn't access Horizon Venues during a virtual Foo Fighters concert. 

Still, growth so far seems solid, given that access to the site currently requires an Oculus Quest headset, with the latest Quest 2 model priced at $299. However, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that Meta planned to bring a version of Horizon Worlds to mobile phones later in 2022 in a bid to expand the user base. Depending on how well that works, it could provide a big boost to membership. 

Apple has commissioned famous Korean director Park Chan-wook to create a short film as part of its "Shot on iPhone" campaign. Park, perhaps best known for the action thriller flick Oldboy, used an iPhone 13 Pro to shoot a 20-minute fantasy martial arts movie entitled Life Is But a Dream, which the tech giant has released on YouTube. 

The film starts off with horror-like elements after an undertaker digs up a grave to steal a coffin and awakens the ghost of a swordsman, who then awakens the ghost of a hero who fell after saving the undertaker's village. After that, it becomes a blend of action, romance, dark comedy, dancing and pansori, a Korean genre of musical storytelling. 

Apple has also released a behind-the-scenes clip alongside the short film showing Park and his crew using an iPhone 13 Pro on gimbals and mounts for the shoot. The crew specifically praised the phone's ability to quickly shift focus, blur the background and shoot in low light. In the behind-the-scenes footage released alongside the film, Park said it's a story he's always wanted to tell and that he didn't have a specific camera in mind when he conceptualized it. 

You can watch the "making of" video below:

Senators Mark Warner (D-VA) and Todd Young (R-IN), along with Rep. Susan DelBene (D-WA) introduced a bill today that would create a $20 million pilot program with the Department of Labor to incentivize states and cities to test out portable benefits. The idea that benefits like health insurance and paid vacation should be universal, rather than tied to your job, has gained steam in recent years. Such social insurance programs, normally backed by Democrats, have sparked interest from some Republicans motivated by the rapidly changing workforce and economic climate following the pandemic.

“More Americans than ever are engaging in part-time, contract or other alternative work arrangements. As the workforce changes, it is increasingly important that we provide workers with an ability to access more flexible benefits that can be carried to multiple jobs across a day, a year, and even a career,” said Sen. Warner in a statement.

Under the bill, the Department of Labor would create a $20 million grant fund to incentivize states, cities and nonprofits to experiment with portable benefits for independent workers. It’s not the first time Warner and DelBene have introduced such legislation. The duo has been regularly pushing to pass portable benefits bills since 2017 — none of which have gotten very far. One of their measures, to provide states with emergency unemployment benefits for gig workers, was folded into the CARES Act.

The bill gives states and cities a lot of room to figure out what their portable benefits program will look like. This could include unemployment benefits, life and disability insurance, sick leave, worker training and health insurance.

A number of states such as California, Massachusetts, Illinois, New Jersey and Colorado have looked at implementing portable benefits programs of their own. But critics of portable benefits warn that such a system would mean that gig economy companies like Uber, Lyft, Doordash and others would be largely off the hook. Indeed, Uber and other gig companies have backed portable benefits legislation in their fight to continue to classify their workers as independent contractors.

You can now catch up on episodes of Naruto or Tokyo Revengers on your Switch while waiting for the subway. The anime streaming platform Crunchyroll today unveiled an app for Nintendo's handheld console.

Using your Nintendo Switch to watch movies is still a relatively new concept (and not for those who already suffer from eye strain due to hours of gameplay), but one that’s taking off. There are currently Switch apps for Hulu, YouTube, Twitch Pokémon TV and Funimation. It’s fair to say we’ll likely see more entertainment offerings on the Switch soon, given its popularity. Nearly 103 million units of the Switch have been sold globally, surpassing its predecessor the Wii, Wii U, GameCube and Nintendo 64. Switch sales skyrocketed during the pandemic, leading to a global shortage that has carried over to 2022 and absurd price gouging.

The user base for Switch is considerably larger and more diverse than other game consoles (half of all Switch users are women and users tend to be older). But there are far fewer streaming options on Switch than other consoles, much to the chagrin of current owners.

While Crunchyroll is free, you’ll need to purchase one of its premium plans in order to stream shows on multiple devices or watch shows off-line. Plans start at $7.99 a month.

Kickstarter's plan to create a decentralized crowdfunding platform ran into more than a little criticism, and the company is eager to reassure jittery users. The firm has clarified how it will develop the blockchain-based system, with promises it would take input along the way. To start, Kickstarter said it was "not going to force" a decentralized system on the community without testing it. It would ensure a "proof of concept" existed for those creators who wanted to try it, and would only integrate those parts that "offer value" in light of community input.

To that end, Kickstarter promised to form an advisory council that will shape feature development, including the decentralized protocol. The council would include a wide range of users and participants.

The crowdfunding firm also noted that work on the platform would occur through a Public Benefit Corporation, and that it would ensure the necessary blockchain wasn't harmful to the environment. The team-up was already known to be using the "carbon-negative" Celo chain.

Kickstarter unveiled the plans in December in hopes of bringing crowdfunding to many platforms beyond its own. As Mashablenotes, the company soon faced a backlash over several issues. Critics were not only worried about the high energy consumption that often comes with blockchain-based transactions, but that Kickstarter was tarnishing its reputation by tying itself to the technology behind scam-prone NFTs and cryptocurrencies. Some veteran creators, such as Doctor Popular, vowed to either stop backing projects or host their own projects elsewhere.

The clarification might reassure users worried they would have to move to the blockchain just to buy or fund a hot new product. However, the response also follows two months after the uproar began. That's a long time to leave users wondering about certain issues, and it's not guaranteed disaffected users will come back.