Samsung has announced that its Galaxy Watch 5 temperature sensor will finally be put to use. The company has teamed up with the fertility app Natural Cycles to bring its temperature-based period tracking algorithm to a smartwatch for the first time. The feature will be available in 32 countries across Europe, North America and Asia.
Galaxy Watch 5 users will get access to "advanced cycle tracking through the Cycle Tracking feature," recently approved by Korea's equivalent to the FDA, Samsung said. Much like Apple's Watch Series 8, it will provide retrospective ovulation estimates and help people better understand their cycles, the company told The Verge.
Since 2018, Natural Cycles has allowed women to track their temperature and menstrual cycle to check fertility, and the company has said it's 93 percent effective at preventing unwanted pregnancies. The app has already been approved by the FDA and European regulators to be used on wearables. The company tested it with Oura rings, but the algorithm apparently hasn't been used on a smartwatch until now.
Temperature readings are key for those trying to achieve or avoid pregnancy, as basal body temperature tends to increase slightly two to three days after peak fertility. With Oura's temperature sensors, Natural Cycles was able to cut out the need to take readings from a thermometer, and it will presumably do the same with the Galaxy Watch 5.
The feature will be integrated into Samsung's Health app, so you won't require a separate app to use it. It'll arrive to Galaxy Watch 5 and Watch 5 Pro users "within the second quarter" in 32 markets, including most of Europe, Korea, the UK and the US.
If you've been using Twitter's "For You" instead of the chronological "Following" tab as God intended, you may have noticed a problem. A number of users have remarked that the algorithmic feed has been showing a lot of Elon Musk's tweets and replies, whether they follow him or not. Twitter's CEO effectively confirmed the matter, tweeting "please stay tuned while we make adjustments to the uh... 'algorithm.'"
I'd assume that by putting "algorithm" in quotes, Musk is joking that a person, possibly himself, may actually be responsible for the change. That's not too far-fetched, considering that the Elon-forward feed arrived shortly after Musk complained about a drop in his own engagement and even reportedly fired an engineer over the issue.
Please stay tuned while we make adjustments to the uh .… “algorithm”
Following that episode, Musk tweeted that a fix was coming after a "long day at Twitter HQ with eng team." He said that 95 percent of his tweets weren't getting delivered to the Following feed due to an issue with something called "Fanout," so that's now been shunted to another service. He also noted that the Recommendation algorithm wasn't working correctly, "causing accounts with many followers to be dumped."
There's no word yet on why Twitter went from "Musk lite" to "all Elon all the time," but it appears that issue is being addressed. In the meantime, you could either mute Musk (at least temporarily) or simply use the Following feed to see only the tweets you want to see, precisely when they happen.
Comcast subscribers are about to lose a big perk: free access to Peacock streaming. Since it launched in April 2020, the ad-supported version of Peacock Premium has been provided to Xfinity TV and broadband customers at no charge. Starting on April 3rd, it will no longer be offered to new subscribers, and as of June 26th, existing customers won't get it either, NBCUniversal has confirmed to Variety.
The news was first noted on Reddit via screenshots posting more details. "Customers will be presented with discounted offer details within the Peacock app," an internal message reads. "Stay tuned for offer details and more information." NBCU has also sent messages to customers that they'll be able to purchase Peacock Premium at a discounted price, which has yet to be determined.
Last month, Peacock stopped offering the free ad-supported standalone service to new users. At the time, the company said it believed Peacock's paid tiers were the best way to experience the service. More likely, it's because despite counting 20 million subscribers in 2022, up 9 million from the year before, Peacock has yet to turn a profit for NBCU/Comcast.
The company's plan was always to phase out free Peacock access for Comcast users, a spokesperson told Variety. By next year, it aims to hit 100,000 hours of programing divided between original series, licensed TV, movies, live sports and more. Its buzziest original hit right now is Rian Johnson's Poker Face, and it also streams popular classic TV fare like The Office.
Sony’s full-frame A7R IV was one of the best mirrorless cameras I’ve ever reviewed, so there was a lot of pressure on its successor. The company’s answer is the 61-megapixel A7R V, designed to deliver the maximum amount of detail for portrait and landscape photography.
Though it uses the same sensor as the A7R IV, the new model has been improved in nearly every other way. The processors have been updated to the same ones found on the 50-megapixel A1, allowing for faster autofocus and AI tracking and better video specs. Sony has also improved the stabilization, the rear display, EVF and more – all for the same $3,900 price as its chief rival, the Canon EOS R5.
Sony’s advanced technology has always been its superpower, but rival models from Canon, Panasonic and others have started to catch up. To find out if the A7R V is worth buying over other cameras, and even the last model, I took it out for some detailed testing. Spoiler alert – it’s one impressive camera.
Body and handling
Sony made some changes to the design of its full-frame mirrorless cameras starting with the A7S III, and the A7R V continues in that vein. On top of a slightly bigger grip, it has a number of improvements over the A7R IV, such as a new dedicated selector for video, photos and the slow motion (S&Q) mode.
By taking that function off the mode dial, it’s relatively easy to switch between photos and video, then change modes in each. It’s also possible to share some, all or none of the settings like shutter speed and ISO between photo and video modes using the customization menu. Sony also moved the record button from the back to a better position on top.
As with other Sony cameras, it’s intuitive and easy to use. Some people may find it uncomfortable to hold all day, though, particularly those with larger hands. That’s because the grip has some hard edges and a material that’s less cushy than Canon’s R5, for example.
A big new innovation on the A7R V is the rear display. Rather than a simple tilt-only screen like before, Sony has come up with a whole new system. It not only flips out, but also tilts – not just upwards like Panasonic’s similar system on the GH6, but also down and out as well.
On top of being better for vlogging and selfies, it also lets you move the screen clear of any microphone or monitor cables. It’s also better for photo shooters. Some people prefer a tilting display (for shooting at high and low angles), so the A7R V has the best of both worlds.
The A7R IV already had a very good 5.76-million dot EVF, but Sony made it even better. Resolution on the OLED panel is up to 9.44 million dots, though it drops when you focus or increase the refresh rate to the maximum 120Hz. Still, it’s now close to matching what you’d see in an optical viewfinder.
Steve Dent/Engadget
Like the A1 and A7S III, it has a pair of dual-format card slots. Each one accepts either UHS-II SD or faster, but far more expensive CFexpress Type A cards. The latter are required for 8K video and let you shoot photo bursts longer before the buffer fills.
Since the A7R V is now a much better video camera, Sony has seen fit to swap out the tiny and fragile micro HDMI jack for a full-sized one. Though still not up to pro standards, it offers a relatively secure connection and allows for more robust cables, as micro HDMI models are prone to breaking.
It has the same battery as the A1 and delivers exactly the same number of maximum shots on a charge, 530. That’s under lab conditions, though, and I got about double that in the real world. The USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 port is PD compatible, so you can charge the battery and power the camera at the same time. It also comes with microphone and headphone ports as you’d expect, plus a wired LAN port and the ability to do zoom calls or livestream over USB-C via the UBC webcam standard.
Performance
Steve Dent/Engadget
The A7R V has roughly the same burst speeds as its predecessor, 10fps in both mechanical and electronic modes, shooting C-RAW and JPEG photos. That drops to 7 fps when shooting uncompressed RAW files. While not super quick compared to Sony’s A1 or the Canon EOS R5 (both have stacked sensors), it’s not bad at all for a 61-megapixel camera. You can shoot about 104 C-RAW + JPEG files before the buffer fills, though that takes less than two seconds.
Sony is known for its brilliant autofocus, and the A7R V may be its best camera in this area to date. WIth 693 phase detect focus points (up from 567 on the A7R IV) the regular (non subject tracking) AF is uncannily accurate in all five area modes, delivering a large majority of sharp frames even with fast moving subjects.
Things get even better when you kick in the AI. On top of the excellent face, head and eye tracking, Sony has introduced a new body tracking mode. It works much like 3D motion tracking software used for animation, predicting the position of your head and eyes based on your skeletal structure. If it fails to track the subject’s face, it can also switch to their body and still grab sharp shots.
On top of humans, it can also track people, birds, animals, insects, cars, trains and airplanes. However, you have to select those manually – it would be nice to have an auto mode that lets the AI choose the subject like Canon’s EOS R6 II. It also has a touch-to-track mode that locks onto subjects more accurately than rival models.
Steve Dent/Engadget
In most of these tracking modes, the camera did a good job at focusing on the subject’s eyes. Failing that, it accurately tracked the head or body and still delivered sharp photos. The results were particularly impressive considering the high resolution that shows focus flaws in minute detail.
It sometimes failed to lock onto birds’ and other animals' eyes, though that’s something Sony could potentially improve with firmware updates. By and large, though, it nailed focus nearly every time, beating rivals by a solid margin.
The A7R V also has a new in-body stabilization system, boosting it from 6 to 8 stops with supported lenses, the same as what Canon’s EOS R5 offers. It was very good for photography, letting me take sharp shots down to a quarter of a second. That means you can shoot handheld and capture the streak of a car’s lights, for instance, while freezing the background. That being said. it falls a bit short for video as you’ll see soon.
Image quality
As it has the same 61-megapixel sensor, the A7R V delivers near identical image quality to the A7R IV. That’s not a bad thing, as the latter can produce stellar images. With the very high resolution and the lack of an anti-aliasing filter, only Hasselblad and Fuji’s 100-megapixel medium format cameras offer greater detail. If that’s not enough, you can use Sony’s Pixel Shift Multi-Shot and quadruple it to 240.8 megapixels.
With no low-pass filter, beware of antialiasing or moire that can crop up in detailed or repeating parts of an image. The high resolution means that the detail has to be very fine, however.
JPEGs are ready to share right out of the camera, with nicely tuned levels of sharpening and noise reduction. Colors are more accurate but perhaps less flattering to skin tones than Canon’s latest models. The system is particularly well tuned to sunny, blue-sky scenes, so the A7R V is a great option for landscape shooting.
Sony claims 15 stops of dynamic range, above Canon but perhaps slightly below Nikon. That gives you tons of overhead to edit RAW files, fix under- or over-exposed shots or tweak colors. Except for highly detailed scenes, I didn’t notice much difference between compressed and uncompressed RAW files.
The A7R V does surprisingly well in low light. At speeds up to ISO 6400, grain isn’t an issue. Noise increases considerably at ISO 12800, but images retain detail. Beyond that, they can get gnarly with large grained color noise. Still, for such a high-resolution camera, it exceeded my expectations in this area.
As it happened, I reviewed the A7R V at the same time as the 100-megapixel Hasselblad X2D, so it was a good opportunity to test two very high resolution cameras. Both use sensors that have the same size pixels, and both are likely manufactured by Sony. For many photos, it was honestly hard to tell the difference, which is not bad for Sony considering the X2D costs over twice as much.
Video
The A7R V is a pretty darn competent video camera if you understand its limitations. It now offers 8K at up to 24/25 fps, 4K 60p and 10-bit 4:2:2 video with S-Log3, S-Cinetone and HDR formats. The A7R IV had none of those features, so it’s quite a step up.
Steve Dent/Engadget
There are some asterisks, though. The 8K video has a 1.24 times crop, while 4K 60p has a 1.24 times crop with pixel binning. 4K 30p video is uncropped, but also uses pixel binning. The only way to get supersampled video is with a 1.5 times APS-C crop. That, however, is limited to 30 fps. 120 fps video is only available at 1080p.
That said, Sony has done a good job with the pixel binning, so it doesn’t look significantly less sharp than the APS-C video supersampled from 6.2K.
Now that it supports 10-bit capture, the S-Log3 video is far more useful than on the A7R IV. You’ll see less banding once you grade it, and the 15 stops of dynamic range give you extra room to push blacks, pull back highlights and tweak colors. As with photos, hues are natural and accurate, and the A7R V is decent but not awesome for video in low light.
The A7R V now has the best video autofocus system, too. It’s nearly foolproof, locking onto subjects quickly and accurately even in chaotic circumstances. Shooting one scene with three people, it stayed locked onto the main subject even after he moved positions around the frame. All the AI features mentioned for photos work for video, so it can track animals and other subjects nearly as well as humans.
Steve Dent/Engadget
The updated stabilization isn’t nearly as good for video as for photos. It’s good for handheld video if you don’t move around, nicely smoothing out any hand shake or small motions. However, any rapid movements or walking will cause jolts that mar the video. Panasonic’s new S5 II is much better in this regard.
You might be thinking at this point that the A7R V is actually a solid video option, but it’s held back by one thing: excessive rolling shutter. It’s particularly bad at 8K and full-frame 4K, with any camera movement setting off a jello-like effect. The best case scenario is in APS-C mode, but you’ll still need to be careful not to whip the camera around.
Still, the A7R V is fine for most video shooting. If you’re mainly looking to shoot video, though, I’d get another camera. For instance, Canon’s EOS R5c or the Nikon Z9 are better, if you need 8K and can tack an extra thousand or two onto your budget. If 4K is fine, Canon’s new $2,500 EOS R6 II or the $2,000 Panasonic S5 II are better and a lot cheaper.
Wrap-up
Steve Dent/Engadget
Sony is once again on top of the high-resolution full-frame camera market with $3,900 A7R V. Image quality and detail are outstanding, autofocus is second to none and the updated video capabilities are a great addition for hybrid shooters.
As mentioned, Sony’s main rival is the 45-megapixel Canon EOS R5, which offers lower resolution and better video capabilities, but suffers from overheating issues. The 45-megapixel Nikon Z9 is also a more capable video camera, but costs $1,500 more, and Nikon’s $3,000, 45-megapixel Z7 II is $500 less but has inferior autofocus and video.
None of those models come close to matching the A7R V’s resolution, image quality and exceptional AF, though. Given that, plus the massive video improvements, it’s now the best high-resolution full-frame camera on the market, by far.
The UK's competition authority has found that Microsoft's proposed $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard could result in a "substantial lessening of competition in gaming consoles" and "could harm UK gamers." In a provisional finding, the Competition Markets Authority (CMA) said that Activision may need to be split up into separate businesses for the merger to proceed.
The government said it conducted a wide-ranging probe over the last five months to determine the deal's potential impact. Noting that Microsoft already accounts for 60-70 percent of global cloud gaming services, it said that buying Activision would "reinforce this strong position" and substantially reduce Microsoft's competition in cloud gaming. That in turn could "potentially [harm] UK gamers, particularly those who cannot afford or do not want to buy an expensive gaming console or gaming PC."
The CMA said that the deal may work if Activision Blizzard divested parts of its business. Namely, it could split out either the Activision and/or Blizzard segments, or the business that operates its biggest franchise, Call of Duty (CoD). The idea, it said, would be to leave assets "capable of competing effectively under separate ownership" with the new business.
In response, Microsoft said it has already addressed the CMA's concerns over competition. "We are committed to offering effective and easily enforceable solutions that address the CMA’s concerns," Microsoft corporate VP and deputy general counsel Rima Alaily told Engadget in a statement. "Our commitment to grant long term 100 percent equal access to Call of Duty to Sony, Nintendo, Steam and others preserves the deal’s benefits to gamers and developers and increases competition in the market."
First announced last year, the merger would allow Microsoft to add titles like Call of Duty to its already impressive suite of games. The deal ran afoul of regulators from the get-go, though, over concerns that it would block out Sony's PS5 and other consoles from key games, particularly CoD. Rival Sony vehemently opposes the deal, having called it a "game-changer that poses a threat to our industry."
Microsoft said at the time that the CMA's concerns were misplaced and that its arguments were based on "self-serving statements by Sony." In November, it confirmed that it would support Call of Duty on PlayStation "forever" and promised to bring it to Nintendo's Switch consoles and Steam as well.
Microsoft now has until February 22nd to address the CMA's concerns, with a final report from the regulator due April 26th. "Our job is to make sure that UK gamers are not caught in the crossfire of global deals that, over time, could damage competition and result in higher prices, fewer choices, or less innovation. We have provisionally found that this may be the case here," said Martin Coleman, who chaired a panel of independent experts conducting the probe.
Samsung's latest 77-inch S95 QD-OLED TV generated some buzz at CES this year thanks to brightness levels up to 2,000 nits, 144Hz refresh rates and more. Now, the company has revealed that you'll pay to get those premium features: $4,500 for the 77-inch model, with shipping set to start in the US on February 15th.
As mentioned, Samsung's 2023 QD-OLED TV lineup will supposedly hit up to 2,000 nits of peak brightness, a bit more than LG's latest OLED models and approaching Mini-LED TVs. That's thanks to a new QD-OLED Panel from Samsung Display, which uses a new "HyperEfficient EL" OLED material and Samsung's IntelliSense AI. The TVs will also be more energy efficient and offer more accurate colors, according to Samsung Display.
The 144Hz refresh rate will make it great for gaming, as it already offers the lowest input lag you can get on any TV or monitor at just 0.1 milliseconds. As HDTVTest's Vincent Teoh pointed out, the 77-inch S95C will come with an external connect box, which allowed Samsung to make the panel extremely thin and reduce bezel sizes down to the bare minimum. However, as with all other Samsung TVs, it doesn't support Dolby Vision, using Samsung's HDR 10+ instead.
The price is a bit more than LG's comparable 77-inch G2 model from last year, priced at $4,200. If you order before February 20th, though, Samsung will throw in free installation worth around $200. The company has yet to reveal pricing across the rest of its lineup, but last year's 55- and 65-inch models cost $2,200 and $3,000, respectively.
Canon has put Sony and its other rivals on blast with the launch of the $1,500 24-megapixel EOS R8, its cheapest full-frame camera yet. Released alongside the $680 R50 APS-C model, it's targeted to photographers and video creators on a budget. However, it's got some impressive features like uncropped, oversampled 4K video up 60 fps, shooting speeds up to 40 fps and Canon's excellent Dual Pixel autofocus.
On the photography front, the R8 can shoot at up to 6 fps with the first-curtain electronic shutter (like the R50, there's no fully mechanical shutter) or a whopping 40 fps with the electronic shutter. That sounds great, but rolling shutter may be an issue in electronic mode for fast moving subjects. It can capture up to a very respectable 100 C-RAW + JPEG files at a time to the single UHS-II card slot. The autofocus systems looks strong, using Canon's Dual Pixel AF along with AI subject detection for people, animals and vehicles.
Canon
For video, you can capture 4K video up to 60 fps with 6K oversampling, or Full HD at up to 180 fps — quite impressive considering the price. Editing-friendly ALL-I capture is supported up to 4K 30p with a 470Mbps data rate. It supports up to two hours of continuous recording with no 30-minute limit, though 4K 60p and 180 fps Full HD shooting times are thermally limited to around 30 minutes. You can shoot 10-bit HDR PQ or Canon Log-3 video, so this would be the perfect budget vlogging camera if not for the overheating situation. It also has focus breathing compensation (for select lenses).
The main thing missing compared to the $2,500 EOS R6 II is 5-axis in-body stabilization. However, it does have optical stabilization with supported lenses and Canon's Movie Digital IS, which works in concert with lens stabilization.
Canon
Other features include a micro-HDMI port that supports up to 4K 60p, mic and headphone ports, an LP-E17 battery (no CIPA battery life provided yet) and USB webcam support. The 3-inch, 1.62 million dot display flips out for vloggers, but the OLED electronic viewfinder is a low-end unit with 2.36-million dots of resolution.
Despite the low price, there are no red flags I can see on the R8 (pending a full review, of course). At a full $1,000 below the R6 II, it looks like a great camera particularly for vloggers and content creators. Canon also introduced a budget full-frame kit lens, the RF24-50mm f/4.5-6.3 IS STM, selling by itself for $300. The EOS R8 goes on sale in the spring of 2023 for $1,500, or $1,700 with the aforementioned lens.
WhatsApp has introduced some new updates to Status, the feature introduced in 2017 as an answer to Snapchat and Instagram Stories. One of the key additions is a feature called Voice Status that gives you the ability set voice notes up to 30 seconds long as status updates. The company calls it a more personal way of providing updates, particularly if you're more comfortable talking rather than typing or creating a video.
Another key update is a feature called Private Audience Selector that lets you choose who can view your status updates. It lets you select your audience for every status update you do, providing more granular control and convenience than the current privacy settings.
If you're more of an emoji person, WhatsApp has also introduced Status Reactions, providing "a quick and easy way to respond to status updates from your friends or close contacts," WhatsApp wrote. It lets you reply to any status simply by swiping up on it and tapping one of eight emojis, rather than use other means like text, voice messages and stickers.
Meanwhile, Status Profile Rings put a ring around your profile when you share a status update, and is visible in chat lists, group participant lists and contact info. Finally, you'll now see a preview of a link when you post it on your status, giving your contacts a better idea of what it is before they click.
Some of the new features (status reactions, profile rings and link previews) were announced previously, but are now being highlighted as a group of Status updates, WaBetaInfo notes. The new features are rolling out to users globally and will be available to everyone "in the coming weeks."
The Switch just leaped over both the Game Boy and PlayStation 4 to become the third best-selling console of all time. The console has sold 122.55 million units overall as of the end of 2022, Nintendo announced in its earnings report, so it's is now behind only the DS and PlayStation 2 in lifetime sales.
That's the only silver lining in a darker cloud, though. Switch unit sales for the nine-month period ending December 31st dropped to 14.91 million from 18.95 million the year before, and revenue declined 5.6 percent for the fiscal year ending in March. Game sales also fell by 4 percent over the same period, with the new Pokemon Scarlet/Violet titles unable to offset the decline. As a result, the company has lowered its fiscal year forecast from 19 million to 18 million units with 5 million fewer games — continuing a downward trend from last year.
Nintendo attributed the decline to the ongoing semiconductor shortage, with the lack of consoles affecting software sales too. However, Sony set a new sales record for PS5s last quarter with 7.1 million sold, up 82 percent year-over year.
Nintendo's issues likely boil down to its aging hardware, as well. Buyers are going for the latest OLED model, with the older Switch and Switch Lite models seeing a decline. The Switch is now relatively underpowered compared to the latest Xbox Series and PS5 consoles, and Sony and Microsoft are also pouring money into games and subscriptions.
Nintendo said last year that the transition to its next console is "a major focus for us," and it could start becoming more urgent soon. It'll be interesting to see if the Switch can hang around long enough to become the best selling console of all time, but Nintendo will have to sell around 33 million more units to surpass the PlayStation 2.
Sony's latest WH-1000XM5 wireless ANC headphones are among the best we've ever tested, thanks to improved sound quality, a comfortable fit and incredible active noise cancellation (ANC). Now is a good time to pick up a pair, because they're currently on sale at Amazon for $348, for a savings of 13 percent ($52) over the regular $400 price.
The WH-1000XM5 scored an excellent 95 in our Engadget review, thanks to improvements in nearly every way over our previous favorite headphones, the WH-1000XM4 (which are also on sale for $300 right now, by the way). Perhaps the biggest improvement was in fit and comfort thanks to the more optimal weight distribution, synthetic leather ear cups and slightly reduced weight.
Sound quality also went up, due to the new 30mm carbon fiber drivers that deliver punchier bass. We also saw more clarity that helps you hear fine detail, along with improved depth that makes music more immersive. And Sony's DSEE Extreme sound processing recovers detail lost to compression, without any noticeable impact on sound quality.
The ANC is equally impressive. With double the number of noise cancellation microphones found in the M4, along with a new dedicated V1 chip, the M5 does a better job at minimizing background noise. And in terms of the microphone, we found that the M5 offers superior call quality over its predecessor. Moreover, you get 30 hours of listening time with ANC enabled, enough for the longest of flights.
The main drawback of the WH-1000XM5 headphones is the $400 price tag, but you can pick them up right now in either silver or black for just $348 and save a cool $52. Just act fast before the sale ends.
