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Samsung Galaxy Unpacked 2024 has come and gone, leaving behind a series of new Galaxy devices. If you missed the event, we've got you covered: You can watch Samsung Galaxy Unpacked S24 in less than 10 minutes right on our YouTube channel. Between new smartphones and a dive into AI — here's what you can expect to see.

The event revealed three new smartphones that make up the Samsung Galaxy S24 series. There's the S24, starting at $799 for the 128GB model — plus, order it by January 25, and Samsung will throw in a free Watch 6. The Galaxy S24+ and Galaxy S24 Ultra start at $1,000 and $1,300, respectively, for their 256GB options. The entire S24 series comes equipped with the new Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor in the United States, providing the necessary power for the smartphones' AI features.

The Galaxy S24 series uses Samsung's new Gauss Generative AI model. Galaxy AI, as the company refers to the overall system, allows for quite a few fresh features, including live two-way translations for phone calls. The system works right on the phone and doesn't require Wi-Fi or cellular connections. The same applies to Interpreter, an in-person translator, and Samsung Keyboard, which can translate messages across 13 languages. Speaking of messages, Android Auto can summarize any messages you receive while driving and suggest responses for you to approve with voice commands.

Galaxy AI will also come into play for any photos you take using the S24 series. According to Samsung, it can help with image stabilization, digital zoom and content captured in low-light. Galaxy AI can also suggest photo edits and offers Generative Fill to change the background. However, the latter requires a network connection and will give the photo a watermark.

Overall, the S24 series comes with a lot of changes and new features to test out. Learn more about the smartphones in our video below.

Last December the state of New Mexico sued Meta for failing to protect children, claiming that Facebook and Instagram algorithms recommended sexual content to minors. Now, an unredacted internal Meta presentation has been revealed, with the company's own employees estimating that 100,000 child users were harassed daily, The Wall Street Journal reported.

According to a 2021 internal document, Facebook's "People You May Know" (PMYK) algorithm was singled out as a primary connector of children to predators. When employees reported those findings to Meta executives, they reportedly rejected recommendations that the algorithm be redesigned to stop recommending adults to minors. 

The feature was responsible for 75 percent of all inappropriate adult-minor contact, according to one employee. "How on earth have we not just turned off PYMK between adults and children?" another employee said. "It's really, really upsetting," added another. 

The issues were particularly insidious on Instagram, according to an internal 2020 memo, with "sex talk" 38 times more prevalent on that platform than Facebook Messenger in the US. In one case an Apple executive reported that his 12-year-old child was solicited on Instagram. "This is the kind of thing that pisses Apple off to the extend of threat[en]ing to remove us from the App Store," said an employee charged with addressing the issue. 

New Mexico claims that Meta has failed to address large-scale predation on its platform, particularly around recommendation algorithms. State investigators originally set up phony accounts for children, providing adult dates of birth, as kids often misstate their ages to access online services that they're not supposed to. Then, they implied that the accounts were being used by children, with one posting about a lost baby tooth and starting seventh grade. The suit alleged that, among other things, the accounts were sent child sex images and offers to pay for sex.

The state further alleges that Meta leaders didn't take action to limit adult predation on minors until late 2022, and still stopped short of strict measure recommended by safety staff. Instead it, only attempted to block suggestions to adults who previously demonstrated suspicious behavior toward children. However, according to a Meta study, 99 percent of accounts disabled for grooming children failed to state their age.

Meta recently introduced measures for teen users on Instagram and Facebook, including stopping non-followers from messaging them and blocking offensive comments. On top of the New Mexico complaint, Meta is facing lawsuits from 41 states complaining it harms the mental health of its youngest users. Another recently unsealed complaint filed by 33 states alleges that Meta "coveted and pursued" users under the age of 13 and has been dishonest about how it handles underage users' accounts when they're discovered.

Social media apps tend to offer the convenience of their very own camera tools, but on the flip side, these are limited by the few shooting options. Understanding our modern-day pain point, Samsung has teamed up with Instagram and Snap to integrate some of its handy native camera features into their apps, in order to up our social media game via the brand new Galaxy S24 series smartphones — namely the titanium-framed S24 Ultra with its 200-megapixel main shooter. Specifically, you'll be able to leverage Samsung's "Super HDR" option, upgraded "Nightography" power and video stabilization within Instagram and Snapchat's in-app cameras. The only caveat here is that for video stabilization, you'll need to have it enabled in the native camera settings first.

Samsung's collaboration with Instagram goes deeper, offering upgraded editing, uploading and viewing experiences tailored to its devices. These also include the ability to create Instagram stories directly from motion photos. With their Super HDR capabilities, the Galaxy S24 devices are also the first to receive HDR photo support on Instagram — likely marking the first of many more apps to potentially support this vibrant display format in the near future.

With its new AI capabilities playing a big role in the Galaxy S24 lineup's camera systems, it's no wonder that Samsung is pushing its camera integration into the two popular social media platforms. Still, you'll probably want to stick to the native camera app and editing tools for maximum versatility — especially when it comes to the more AI-specific tools like "Edit Suggestion," "Generative Edit" (network connection required) and "Instant Slow-mo."

Following Google's recent rounds of layoffs affecting over a thousand jobs, CEO Sundar Pichai has reportedly told remaining employees to expect further downsizing later this year. According to The Verge, Pichai sent out an internal memo on Wednesday, in which he stated that "to be upfront, some teams will continue to make specific resource allocation decisions throughout the year where needed, and some roles may be impacted."

The exec explained that the latest "role eliminations" are about "removing layers to simplify execution and drive velocity in some areas." which is just another way of packaging the situation. What's a little more reassuring, perhaps, is Pichai saying that these won't match the scale of some 12,000 job cuts around this time last year, and that not every team will be affected. But numbers are all relative, of course.

Google isn't the only notable tech company that has already made redundancies at the beginning of 2024. Earlier this month, the industry also saw Discord, Meta, Amazon, Twitch, Humane AI, Unity and Duolingo making similar moves at various scales. Here's hoping that LinkedIn's timely launch of its AI-powered "Job Collections" feature will help those impacted quickly land a new post.

Engadget has reached out to Google for comment and will update the story if required.

If you're in the US, any Watch Series 9 or Ultra 2 model you buy from Apple will no longer have a functional blood oxygen monitoring feature. Apple failed to convince the court to allow it to keep selling the aforementioned models while it's appealing a ruling by the US International Trade Commission (ITC). If you'll recall, the commission found that Apple had violated patents owned by medical technology company Masimo, which accused the iPhone-maker of infringing on its intellectual properties related to light-based blood-oxygen monitoring. The ITC ordered the company to stop selling the contested watches.

Apple pulled the Watch models from its website and stores in December before the the ban took effect as a preemptive measure. A few days later, though, the company put them back up for sale after a federal appeals court in Washington D.C. granted it a temporary pause on the import and sales ban. Now, the appeals court has lifted the stay and ordered Apple to stop selling both models again by 5PM ET on January 18. 

The company, however, is able to skirt the ban, because the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) recently decided that redesigned watches without a pulse oximetry functionality fall outside the scope of the ITC's ruling. In a statement sent to 9to5Mac, Apple said it believes "the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit should reverse the USITC’s decision" and that it strongly disagrees with it and the resulting orders. "Pending the appeal, Apple is taking steps to comply with the ruling while ensuring customers have access to Apple Watch with limited disruption," the spokesperson added. "These steps include introducing a version of Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2 in the United States without the Blood Oxygen feature." The company also clarified that there "is no impact to Apple Watch units previously purchased that include the Blood Oxygen feature."

The modified watches will still have the blood monitoring app, Apple told the publication, but you will get a message that says it's no longer available when you tap on it. That message also tells you to go the Health app on your iPhone to learn more, where you'll then see a link to a support article on the company's website. 

Even before the ITC's ban took effect, Apple was already reportedly scrambling to create a software update that would allow it to sell the devices involved. Clearly, the company was able to develop a solution in time for the stay to be lifted. While the ban isn't officially taking effect until the afternoon of January 18, you'll already see a note that says "Apple Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2 no longer include the blood oxygen feature" when you visit the company's website and access either model's product page. Engadget reached out to Apple, and while it confirmed the resumed US availability of both watch models, it refused to comment on the matter.

Sheryl Sandberg is leaving Meta’s board of directors after 12 years, ending her last official role with the company. In a post on Facebook, she said that “this feels like the right time to step away” and that she would continue to advise the company.

Sandberg spent 14 years as Meta’s COO and Mark Zuckerberg’s top lieutenant and 12 years on the company’s board. Her role as board member will officially end in May. “After I left my role as COO, I remained on the board to help ensure a successful transition,” she wrote. “Under Mark's leadership, Javi Olivan, Justin Osofsky, Nicola Mendelsohn, and their teams have proven beyond a doubt that the Meta business is strong and well-positioned for the future, so this feels like the right time to step away.”

Meta hasn’t commented on who may take over the board seat. During her time with Meta, Sandberg was known for leading the company’s multibillion-dollar ad business. According to Axios, revenue grew 43,000% during her tenure. But her status within the company had changed in recent years as Zuckerberg embraced the metaverse, which doesn’t currently have a clear path for an advertising business.

“Your dedication and guidance have been instrumental in driving our success and I am grateful for your unwavering commitment to me and Meta over the years,” Zuckerberg wrote on Facebook. “I look forward to this next chapter together!”

Notion launched a calendar app Wednesday, built and reskinned from Cron, the calendar startup the company bought in 2022. Tight platform-wide integration will be the appeal for Notion’s “tens of millions” of users. Notion Calendar includes a built-in scheduler and makes it easy to merge content from the productivity ecosystem’s notes, docs and project dates.

Notion Calendar lets you link Notion notes and other documents to meetings, transforming the calendar invite into an all-in-one hub for participants to add or view supporting content. It also integrates with external tools like Google Calendar, Google Meet and Zoom.

Raphael Schaad, Cron’s founder who now heads its next iteration as Notion Calendar, describes the app as “a new way to manage your most precious resource, time.” In the video below, he demonstrates how you can quickly check on a family member’s medical appointment and block it off your planner so your work colleagues won’t double-book you for that hour. Notion Calendar’s scheduler will let your co-workers (or anyone else you’ve shared availability with) know that time is unavailable, but they won’t see the details.

Notion Calendar requires a one-time sign-in with Google Calendar to set it up. However, Schaad wrote on X today that the company was “running into Google Auth rate limits,” preventing sign-ins — something he describes as a “‘good’ launch day problem to have.” If you have trouble logging in, he expects the issue to be resolved within the next day and advises you to check back later.

Notion Calendar supports all the same languages as the entire platform. It’s available today on Windows, Mac and iOS. In a significant absence at launch, Notion says Android support is “coming soon.” It also doesn’t yet support Office 365 or iCloud integration, although Schaad promises that, too, is on the company’s roadmap.

Sony is continuing to mine its back catalog of games for movie adaptations while conveniently continuing to forget that Bloodborne is right there. The next game that's bound for the big screen is Until Dawn, a 2015 interactive horror title that Supermassive Games developed and Sony published.

David F. Sandberg (Lights Out and the Shazam! movies) will direct the adaptation, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Gary Dauberman, who previously worked on Annabelle: Creation with Sandberg, is taking a fresh stab at a script originally written by Blair Butler (The Invitation).

Until Dawn focuses on a group of eight young people who try to survive the night at a perilous mountain retreat. The spooky game has a branching narrative and, depending on the decisions you make (or if you fail at quick-time events), some of the characters may not make it until the group is rescued the following morning.

Given that any or all of the characters may perish during the night, there are hundreds of possible endings to the game, so it'll be interesting to see which direction Sandberg and Dauberman take with the material. Several notable actors appeared in Until Dawn, including Hayden Panettiere, Jordan Fisher and Oscar winner Rami Malek.

Sony has already adapted several of its games into film and TV properties, with live-action versions of Uncharted (another movie pastiche that itself became a film), Gran Turismo, Twisted Metal and The Last of Us popping up over the last couple of years. Sony also has adaptations of Ghost of Tsushima, Horizon: Zero Dawn, God of War and others in the pipeline.

Today as part of its latest Galaxy Unpacked event, Samsung announced a whole host of AI-powered features for the S24 family. However, buried among the news was info that Samsung will also be porting at least some of those tools over to last year's premium phones and tablets.

After asking about specifically which devices were covered, in an email to Engadget, Samsung confirmed that the company is "looking forward to bringing the Galaxy AI experience to the Galaxy S23 series, including the S23FE, ZFold5/ZFlip5 and Tab S9 later this first half."

Samsung's new AI tools include things like Chat Assist which can translate languages in real-time or perform tone correction in texts and emails, Suggested Edits in photos which looks to automatically correct things like shadows and reflections and Circle to Search, which is powered by Google and combines traditional text-based queries with visual search similar to the Google Lens app. 

Currently, it's unclear if the entire suite of Galaxy AI features will be available across every device or if tools will be ported over on a more case-by-case basis. And without the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chips used in the S24 line to power them, it remains to be seen how much of a performance hit there might be on older models. That said, it's really nice to see Samsung commit to bringing at least some of its new software to last year's flagship gadgets as it helps avoid people feeling like they need to upgrade after a year or less. 

Samsung’s first major hardware event of the year is here and, as expected, it’s primarily focused on the Galaxy S24 series of flagship smartphones. What you might not know, however, is that these smartphones are available for pre-order and that Amazon is already offering a fairly substantial bonus for early adopters.

You can get a gift card, up to $200, by pre-ordering the S24 via Amazon. All you have to do is enter a code at checkout. Once you complete the order, you’ll get an electronic gift card for use throughout the site. Being as how Amazon sells just about everything under the sun, that’s basically free money.

The gift card amount varies depending on the model. To snag the full $200, you’ll have to pony up for the top-of-the-line Galaxy S24 Ultra. The standard S24 gets you a $50 gift card, while the beefier S24+ allows for a $150 gift card. The Ultra costs $1,300, while the S24+ costs $1,000. The regular S24 will set you back $800. Flagship phones are pretty expensive, so the gift card can help offset that a bit. Samsung’s also offering a storage upgrade with pre-orders and Amazon customers get access to this perk.

What’s new with the S24 line? A whole lot, actually. They boast an ultra-durable titanium frame that should seriously increase the phone’s lifespan. To that end, Samsung has promised seven years of software support for these phones. While the specs feature the usual year-to-year bump, the software is packed with, wait for it, AI algorithms that allow for some new use case scenarios.

For instance, AI allows for a drastic increase in optical quality when using the camera’s zoom functionality. The algorithms can also be used to edit photos, create slow-mo footage and even delete and move items in the frame, with the AI automatically filling in the empty space. There’s also AI-enhanced language translation tools, ChatGPT-esque summarization capabilities and automatic copy-editing.

There’s a reason we previously wrote that Samsung “is taking the transition to the AI era incredibly seriously.” Pre-orders start today and official sales of the S24 line are slated for January 31.

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