Now that Stadia is gone, Bungie is steering players toward NVIDIA's GeForce Now. The developer has offered Destiny 2 users a free month on the game streaming service, sending unique codes to each user, according to an email seen by 9to5Google. "We managed to snag some free codes for NVIDIA's high-performance cloud gaming platform," Bungie wrote. "Redeem your one-month code of a GeForce Now priority membership, for free."
Destiny 2 featured prominently in Stadia's marketing up until the end, but also figured in GeForce Now promotion for various devices, as shown in the image above. Of the remaining cloud services, Destiny 2 is available on GeForce Now but not Xbox Cloud, Amazon's Luna or PlayStation Now.
Google announced in September that it would shut down Stadia for good as the service failed to gain traction with users. It refunded all game and hardware sales, and some game studios stepped in to help port games over to other services. If you have a Stadia controller, you can enable Bluetooth support via an online tool so it can be used with PC, iOS or Android devices.
Bungie's offer was sent to each Destiny 2 user, so check your inbox for the invitation and unique code, then be sure to redeem it before February 19th. That will give you a free month of GeForce Now Priority, which offers 1080p gaming, 6-hour session lengths and up to 60fps refresh rates (it'll cost $10 per month or $50 for six months after that). The service just introduced a new Ultimate membership tier with a new RTX 4080 boost that offers 4K resolutions, 8-hour sessions and up to 120 fps for $20 per month, or $100 for six months.
Apple is reportedly working on an iPad-like smart home device designed to compete against Amazon's Echo Show and Google's Nest Hub products, according to Bloomberg. It would reportedly be "essentially a low-end iPad" that would operate as a hub to control thermostats, lights and security systems, while also allowing FaceTime chats. It could be mounted on walls using magnetic clips or positioned more as a home hub-type device than a regular iPad.
The company has also discussed the idea of building smart home displays larger than iPads, though there are no other details on those. None of the smart home products would be ready until 2024 at earliest.
Rumors about potential Apple smart displays have popped up before. Last August, it was reported that the company had four smart home devices in its labs, including a kitchen accessory that combined an iPad with a speaker. (In the same report, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman correctly predicted the new HomePod model that arrived yesterday.)
Apple is also reportedly working on a new version of Apple TV, set for release in the first half of 2024. It would have a faster processor but carry the same design as the current model.
Smart home devices with touchscreens represent a potentially lucrative market segment still largely untapped by Apple. Amazon makes several versions of its Echo Show smart display, with prices ranging from around $30 for the Echo Show 8 to $250 for the Echo Show 15. Google has the Nest Hub and Nest Hub Max, priced at $100 and $229 respectively.
Apple just made a key update to its smart home family yesterday. Following the launch of new MacBook Pro and Mac mini models, it released a new $300 version of its larger HomePad that was discontinued last year. Notably, it features new smart home features along with updates like improved audio, an S7 chip and a lower price. Those include a built-in temperature and humidity sensor, along with a feature called Sound Recognition can monitor for smoke and carbon monoxide alarms and send an alert to your iPhone.
Twitter is now offering a yearly discount on its Blue subscription service, according to a new support page spotted by The Verge. Web users can now sign up for $84 per year ($7 per month) and save a buck over the monthly $8 price. Similar discounts are available in other countries that offer Twitter Blue, including the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Japan.
Until now, Twitter Blue users only had the option of an $8 per month subscription via the web, or $11 month on iOS (passing Apple's 30 percent fee onto the user). However, iOS users can still sign up on the web to save the extra $3. In that case, the new yearly subscription would save them 36 percent compared to signing up directly on iOS.
A Twitter Blue subscription offers a number of perks, including a blue "verified" checkmark, higher ranking replies, 60-minute video uploads and more. Users can also undo and edit tweets, customize app icons, themes and navigations, bookmark tweets and more. You'll need a phone number to sign up, and Twitter is supposed to verify your account to assure it's not fraudulent or fake — something it failed at recently.
The Elon Musk-owned social media network seems to need as many subscriptions as possible. According to a recent report on The Information, more than 500 of Twitter's advertisers have paused spending on the site, and daily revenue on January 17th was down 40 percent compared to last year.
In the first quarter of 2022 before Musk's acquisition was finalized, Twitter reported sales of $1.2 billion, with $1.1 billion of that in advertising, and subscriptions (plus other revenue) making up the rest.
Logitech has unveiled a colorful, budget-oriented line of 1080p webcams, the $70 (£75) Brio 300 series. The aim is to help users struggling with "poor lighting conditions, unflattering camera angles and low-quality sound," the company said.
To that end, the Brio 300 for consumers and business-oriented Brio 305 models feature high dynamic contrast, auto light correction (via the company's RightLight 2 tech) and a digital microphone with noise reduction. It also comes with a privacy shutter that rotates around to block the lens. It supports 1080p at up to 30 fps and 720p at 60 fps and connects to any USB-C port (you'll need to buy an adapter for USB-A). Logitech promises Microsoft Teams, Zoom and Google Meet certification.
The Brio 300 is priced the same as Logitech's C920s Pro HD webcam, but has a funkier cone-shaped design and comes in Rose, Off-White or Graphite colors. Compared to the $130 Brio 500, it's missing the stereo microphones, has a narrower field of view (70 versus 90 degrees) and no auto-framing. But it's also nearly half the price — the Brio 300 is now available for $70 at Logitech's store.
As rumored, Apple has unveiled is new M2 Pro and M2 Max chips that will arrive very soon in new 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pro and Mac mini computers. The new models will be up to 40 percent faster than before and better still, they're now available to order and will start shipping next week.
The new entry level chip processor is the M2 Pro, which offers 10- or 12-core core CPUs including eight high-performance cores and four high-efficiency cores, boosting performance by up to 20 percent over the 10-core M1 Pro CPU. The GPU, meanwhile, goes up from 16 to 19 cores, promising faster processing for content creation apps like Photoshop or compiling in Xcode.
Apple
Meanwhile, Apple calls the M2 Max "the world's most powerful and efficient chip for a pro laptop" with the same 12 cores as the M2 Pro, but an increase from 34 to 38 GPU cores. More impressively, it supports up to 96GB of fast unified memory. With all that, Apple is processing graphic speeds up to 30 percent higher than the M1 Max chip, for chores like visual effects, machine learning and more.
The new MacBook Pro 14- and 16-inch models have the same designs as before, but offer considerably more performance, plus up to an incredible 96GB of unified memory in the M2 Max model. Apple is promising up to a 30 percent boost in graphics performance with the M2 Max model and a more modest boost on the M2 Pro.
One of the main benefits, though, is battery life, as the MacBook Pro can now run up to 22 hours — the longest ever on a Mac, Apple claims. And as rumored, it now supports WiFi 6E, which offers up to twice the speed of the previous generation. Another new feature is an HDMI port that supports 8K for the first time.
The models have similar designs the late 2021 M1 Pro/Max versions, so you get features like a MagSafe power connector and Liquid Retina XDR displays. The rumored touchscreens are not on these models but expected to come in a couple of years. The new MacBook Pro models are now available to preorder starting at $1,999 for the MacBook Pro with M2 Pro, and $2,499 for the 16-inch MacBook Pro with M2 Pro. Shipping will start on January 24th.
These chips will also appear in Apple's new Mac mini, which comes with either an M2 or M2 Pro chip, giving potential buyers a budget option. Apple is promising considerably faster graphics processing and AI speeds for content creation, gaming, music and more.
Apple
The M2 version comes with up to 24GB of unified memory and 100GB/s of bandwidth, boosting image editing speeds in Photoshop by up to 50 percent, for example. It can also "simultaneously play up to two streams of 8K ProRes 422 video at 30 fps, or up to 12 streams of 4K ProRes 422 video at 30 fps," Apple says.
The faster M2 Pro version, meanwhile, supports up to 32GB of unified memory and offers 200GB/s of memory bandwidth. That delivers up to 2.5x faster graphics performance in Affinity Photo, 4.2 faster ProRes transcode in Final Cut Pro and 2.8x faster gameplay in Resident Evil Village, the company claims.
As before, it offers two Thunderbolt 4 ports with support for up to two displays, and can support a single 8K display — a first for a Mac. It also comes with two USB-A ports, an HDMI port, A gigabit ethernet port with a 10GB option and an upgraded headphone jack that supports high-impedance headphones. As with the MacBook Pro, they also offer WiFi 6E connectivity, along with Bluetooth 5.3.
The new Mac mini starts at $599 with the M2 chip or $1,299 with the M2 Pro, and is now available on preorder with shipping set to start on January 24th.
Sony and Canon are locked in a pitched battle for the full-frame mirrorless camera market, and Canon’s latest salvo is the $2,500 EOS R6 II. It’s not just a key rival to Sony’s like-priced 33-megapixel A7 IV, but gives Canon the opportunity to rectify overheating flaws in the otherwise excellent EOS R6.
The new 24-megapixel sensor promises more resolution and image quality than the 20-megapixel R6. It also offers faster shooting speeds, improved 4K video specs, an improved viewfinder and more. The competition in this category is getting tough, though. Panasonic also recently announced the $2,000 Lumix S5II and $2,200 S5IIX, its first cameras with phase-detect hybrid autofocus.
I saw the R6 II last last year in prototype form, but I’ve now got my hands on the final version. Can it keep up with the competition, and are the overheating issues solved? I tried it in a variety of shooting situations to find out.
Body and handling
Canon has experimented with the controls of past cameras, introducing things like a touch bar, but users didn’t like it. Fortunately, the R6 II uses Canon’s tried and tested form factor, with buttons, dials and the joystick right where you’d expect to find them. The grip is big, comfortable and has a rubber-like material, giving a sure hold with no discomfort even after a day’s use.
There are a few welcome changes over the R6, though. The power switch is now at right for easier access, with a “lock” setting that prevents accidental control activation (you can specify which controls to lock out).
Canon also introduced a dedicated photo and video switch. Flipping it changes all the settings for each button, as well as the main and quick menus. If you flip from photos to video, though, it uses whatever is set on the mode dial (M, S, A, P, etc.), so you have to remember to change that. All other settings, though, remain separate.
As before, it has a fully-articulating 1.62-million dot display that makes the R6 II useful for vlogging, selfies, etc. And Canon has updated the EVF from 2.36-million to 3.67-million dots, matching the A7 IV and getting rid of one of my biggest complaints about the original R6. It’s not quite as sharp as the 5.76-million dot EVF on the X-H2S, for instance, but it’s relatively sharp and fast with a 120 fps refresh rate.
Where the R6 had a single fast UHS-II card slot and a slower UHS-I slot, the R6 II now has two UHS-II slots. Unlike the A7 IV or Panasonic GH6, though, it lacks any kind of a CFexpress card slot which does affect burst speeds and video capture options.
It uses the same LP-E6NH battery as before, but endurance is up significantly from 510 shots max on the R6 to nearly 760 on the R6 II. I’ve taken well over 2,000 shots in a day (with a mix of electronic and mechanical shutter), and shot video for nearly two hours.
Naturally, it has microphone and headphone ports, along with a “next-generation” 21-pin digital interface at the hot shoe (Canon has shown images with the Tascam XLR2d-C audio interface and its newly launched Speedlite EL-5). Sadly, it uses a fragile micro instead of a full HDMI port. That’s unfortunate considering the RAW video output, as micro HDMI cables (and ports) tend to be fragile and finicky.
In terms of connectivity, you can run the camera off the USB-C via the power delivery feature. It also offers Bluetooth 5 and 5GHz Wifi, and you can use it directly as a PC or Mac webcam over USB-C using the built-in industry-standard UVC and UAC video and audio drivers built into Windows and MacOS.
Performance
Steve Dent/Engadget
As I saw in San Diego while shooting sports, the R6 II is fast. It can fire bursts at 12 fps with the mechanical shutter, which is already a touch faster than the A7 IV. However, switching to electronic mode brings that pace up to a frenzied 40 fps, making it the sportiest full-frame camera in this price category by far.
Using electronic mode means you’ll shoot fewer shots though (it also impacts the quality, but more on that shortly). You can get about 75 compressed RAW/JPEG frames before the buffer fills, and fewer with uncompressed RAW. In mechanical shutter mode, by contrast, you can shoot around 1,000 compressed RAW/JPEG frames before it stops, or about 140 uncompressed RAW photos.
Speaking of the buffer, an interesting new feature is the Pro Capture mode. If you activate that setting and half press the shutter button, it will continuously record and store several seconds worth of photos in the buffer. Then, when you full-press the shutter button, you’ll capture a few seconds of action that occurred right before you did so. The idea, of course, is that if you weren’t quite quick enough, you’ll still get a shot.
Rolling shutter is well controlled, about half that of the original R6 and significantly less than the A7 IV, as you can see in tests performed by Gerald Undone. I’d hesitate to use it for fast-moving sports at full-frame, but it’s very minimal in cropped 1.6x mode.
The Dual Pixel autofocus on the R6 II is also quicker and more reliable than the R6. Using it in single-point mode with no face/eye detection, it could keep up with the 40 fps burst speeds, missing just the odd shot. In 12 fps mechanical shutter mode, I rarely had a shot out of focus. In this aspect, it’s nearly on par with the EOS R3, which uses a stacked sensor.
Steve Dent/Engadget
There are 4,897 focus detect positions for photos and 4,067 for video, with up to 100 percent coverage depending on the lens. That means you can track subjects even at the edge of the frame. Selecting a subject is relatively easy using the multi-controller joystick or touchscreen.
On top of face and eyes, the R6 II can detect people’s bodies, plus animals and vehicles, including motorcycles, cars, trains and horses. It also comes with a new auto-select mode that lets the AI choose the subject type. It can also track user-selected subjects not in those categories.
While it can occasionally get confused by the background, the R6 II is good at locking onto human faces and eyes. It’s a bit less dependable for animals and other subjects. Tracking fast-moving subjects works well, though I had to dive into the settings to boost speeds for quicker movement. Touch to track works well if the subject is well defined, but isn’t as reliable as face tracking.
In general, autofocus is excellent and second only to Sony. As mentioned, I shot thousands of images per day at Canon’s shooting sessions (on a prototype camera), and most of them were in focus, with very little fiddling required on my part.
Image Quality
The new 24-megapixel sensor (neither backside illuminated nor stacked) is the biggest improvement in this camera, offering improved image quality, better low-light sensitivity and more. Images are of course sharper, but Canon has also boosted the dynamic range, allowing for improved image quality as well.
JPEGs have good levels of detail without excessive sharpening. Color accuracy is good and skin tones more pleasing than other cameras I’ve tried recently. If you want to boost quality a bit but not shoot RAWs, you can also shoot using the 10-bit HEIF (high efficiency image file) format, which offers a wider color range and less likelihood of banding.
With an ISO range of 100-102400 (50 to 204800 expanded), the R6 II is actually better than the original R6 in low light, despite the extra resolution. I had no qualms about shooting at ISO 12800 using some light noise reduction, and even ISO 25,600 images were usable if I exposed correctly. Anything above that had low usability, however.
RAW images retain extra detail, especially in shadows. That makes images easier to edit should you underexpose them. It has perhaps a bit less dynamic range than Sony or Nikon full-frame cameras, but it’s still very good. Beware that dynamic range drops in electronic shutter mode, though, as the R6 II shifts from 14-bit to 12-bit capture – so that extra speed does come at a slight loss in dynamic range.
Video
The EOS R6 II offers supersampled, full-frame 4K video all the way up to 60 fps. By contrast, the A7 IV and Panasonic’s S5 II both crop 60p video. Much like the A7 IV, 10-bit quality is available only in C-Log3 mode, with 8-bit in the regular video modes. That’s too bad, as regular 10-bit video provides extra headroom in shadows and highlights, without the hassle of applying LUTs or doing other color correction. All resolutions are available in 1.6X crop mode, with just a slight loss in sharpness.
You can do super slow mo in 1080p at up to 180fps, though the footage is barely usable. It’s more acceptable at 120fps, which still slows the action way down. And finally, you can shoot up to 6K in 12-bit ProRes RAW to an external Atomos Ninja V+ recorder. That delivers the best quality and easiest-to-edit video, if you don’t mind the hassle.
With the original R6, heating issues were a showstopper for many. You could shoot no more than 40 minutes of video at 4K 30fps, or 30 minutes at 60p. On top of that, you had to wait at least 10 minutes for it to cool down, and then you could only shoot for another 10 minutes or so.
Fortunately, those problems are largely gone. I shot supersampled 4K 30p video for nearly two hours until the battery died with no heating issues. In 60p supersampled mode, Canon says you can shoot for up to 50 minutes and get back to shooting again more quickly and for a longer time.
Steve Dent/Engadget
Those numbers are actually conservative, as I was able to shoot 4K 60p for over an hour (albeit, in 50 degree F temperatures). If you start and stop 4K 60p capture, there are no problems. If you really need continuous 4K 60p video, get another camera, but otherwise overheating issues are largely gone.
Quality is excellent, with sharper video than the competition at 4K 60p. Dynamic range in CLog3 mode isn’t quite as good as Sony’s A7 IV or the Panasonic S5 II, though. Much of that is lost in shadows, so it’s better to slightly over than underexpose when shooting C-Log3. It’s nothing you’d notice for regular non-log video, though.
Low-light video is good at ISOs up to 6400 and you can get away with 12800 if you’re careful with exposure. If not, boosting shadows can create some serious noise. Still, it’s one of the better full-frame cameras in low light, making it useful for things like concerts or plays.
One unfortunate omission compared to rivals is the lack of easy-to-edit intra-frame (all-intra or ProRes) codecs. That makes it pretty much mandatory to convert to ProRes or another format afterward, as even fast editing systems don’t like LongGOP. Sony’s A7 IV, meanwhile, supports all-intra capture at up to 600 megabits per second, which is one reason it has a CFexpress Type A card slot.
Video autofocus is a strong point for Canon. With single-point autofocus for run and gun shooting, interviews and the like, I rarely had out-of-focus shots. Human face and eye-tracing is incredibly reliable for videos. It stays locked on the subject and keeps them in focus as they move, though again, Sony’s A7 IV is slightly quicker.
Steve Dent/Engadget
As with photos, it also offers reliable animal and vehicle tracking, with the same “auto” mode that lets the camera’s AI choose the subject type. Overall, the R6 II is another reliable Canon camera in terms of video autofocus – something I think is really important for most video shooters, especially vloggers or documentary filmmakers..
Canon beats all rivals in rolling shutter. It’s noticeably better than on the Sony A7 IV, even in fully-downsampled mode. In 1.6 crop mode, it’s barely detectable, even if you whip the camera around. Like bad autofocus, excessive rolling shutter can ruin shots, so for me this is another key feature.
In-body stabilization is fine for stationary handheld shots or small movements. Anything more can be jerky, even in enhanced digital IS mode, however. The R6 II is about the same as the A7 IV in this regard, but Panasonic’s new S5II has massively improved stabilization designed for video and looks like it will beat both cameras.
Finally, Canon has introduced a digital focus breathing feature, much like Sony has on the A7 IV. This allows you to “rack” focus from one subject to another without either changing in size, by essentially using digital zoom to counteract the optical zoom. It works well, but only with a handful of lenses for now.
Wrap-up
Steve Dent/Engadget
Canon’s $2,500 EOS R6 II is a formidable hybrid mirrorless camera, with fast shooting speeds, accurate autofocus and strong video capabilities. The overheating issues have largely been fixed, unless you really need to shoot continuous 4K 60p full-frame video. The main downside is a lack of dynamic range compared to rivals.
Sony’s $2,500 A7 IV has more resolution but slower shooting speeds, particularly in electronic mode. Rolling shutter is a more serious issue on that camera as well. On the plus side, it offers slightly better image quality and autofocus that’s a touch faster.
Panasonic’s $2,000 S5 II has slightly better video specs, but it remains to be seen if autofocus can keep up. The S5 IIx, coming in May, looks like a better mirrorless camera for video and it's less expensive at $2,200. And finally, if you’re willing to drop down to an APS-C sensor, the $2,500 X-H2S has a stacked sensor and better video chops, but slightly inferior autofocus. If you shoot both photos and video equally, I’d choose the EOS R6 II over all those models.
Samsung is continuing its "more pixels is better" mantra with the launch of its latest 200-megapixel (MP) sensor. The ISOCELL HP2 is a relatively large (for a smartphone) Type 1/1.3 sensor (around 12mm diagonally) with a pixel pitch of 0.6 micrometers (μm) — in between the 200-megapixel HP1 and HP3 sensors. It offers more light gathering than past sensors along with new HDR features and will likely be used in Samsung's upcoming Galaxy S23 Ultra smartphone.
The HP2 uses something Samsung calls Dual Vertical Transfer Gate (D-VTG) technology. This essentially doubles the number of electrons available from each photo diode, "boosting the pixel's full-well capacity by more than 33 percent," the company wrote. That means a pixel can hold more charge before saturating, reducing overexposure and improving color reproduction in bright light conditions.
As before, it can transform into either a 1.2μm 50MP or 2.4μm 12.5MP sensor by binding either four or 16 neighboring pixels, allowing for better performance in low light. It can shoot up to 8K 30 fps video in 50MP mode (up from 24 fps on the Galaxy S22) to minimize cropping while still allowing for sharp video. It also uses something called Smart-ISO Pro to capture 12.5MP HDR images and 4K HDR at up to 60 fps. And as before, each pixel acts as a focus agent to allow for quick autofocus, even in low-light situations.
Samsung's Galaxy S22 Ultra "only" had a 108MP sensor, with the 200MP HP1 chip used in other devices like the Motorola 30 Edge Ultra and Xiaomi 12T Pro. However, rumor has it that the S23 Ultra will have a 200MP sensor, and the HP2 fits the bill as it's already in mass production, Samsung said. The Galaxy S23 is set to be revealed in just two weeks on February 1st, 2023.
Amazon is having an January sale on its 8- and 10-inch Fire HD tablets with some of the lowest prices we've seen. The all-new Fire HD 8 with a 30 percent faster processor is available for just $60 for a savings of 40 percent, and the 2022 Fire HD 8 Plus is on sale for $80 (33 percent off). The biggest discounts can be found on the 10-inch tablets though, with the Fire HD10 on sale for $85 (43 percent off) and the Fire HD Plus available for $105 (42 percent off).
The 2022 Fire HD 8 and Fire HD 8 Plus come with hexa-core processors that are 30 percent faster than the previous model, making them more responsive and better for streaming and other activities. At the same time, you get up to 13 hours of battery life for reading, web browsing, and music/video streaming. Both come with 32GB of storage (expandable via a microSD port), Alexa support, a 2-megapixel front camera and more.
The Fire HD 8 Plus adds a bit more, including wireless charging, a 9W power adapter for faster charging, 3GB of RAM and a 5-megapixel rear camera with 1080p (it's 2-megapixels and 720p on the Fire HD 8). Otherwise, though, the specs are identical. As mentioned, the Fire HD 8 is on sale for $60, and you can grab the Fire HD 8 Plus for $80.
If you need something bigger than 8 inches, a pair of 10-inch tablets are on sale as well. The Fire HD 10 gives you a lot of tablet for the money, including a 1080p display, 32GB of storage, 3GB of RAM, an octa-core battery, 2-MP front and 5-MP rear cameras and fast USB-C charging. It's on sale for $85, or 43 percent off the regular price — the second lowest we've seen. And finally, the Fire HD 10 Plus boosts those specs to 4GB of RAM, along with wireless charging and a fast 9W charger. It's on sale for $105, or $75 off the regular price.
After steadily increasing prices over the past couple of years, Tesla has cut them drastically across its lineup in the US and Europe, in an apparent bid to boost sales. The least expensive EV, the Model 3 RWD, has dropped from $46,990 to $43,990, while the 5-seat Model Y Long Range fell 20 percent from $65,990 to $52,990. That means the latter model now qualifies for the $7,500 US Federal Tax credit, so the final price drop will be $20,500 — over 30 percent.
All other models, including the Model S and Model X (both regular and plaid versions) and the performance versions of the Model 3 and Model Y saw price cuts. However, the 7-seat option on the Model Y has increased in price by $1,000 to $4,000. While that puts the price over $55,000, it still qualifies for the Tax Credit as it's considered to be an SUV. In Germany, Model 3 and Y prices were cut by one to 17 percent, and also dropped in Austria, Switzerland and France.
To receive the full $7,500 rebate, customers will have to order before mid-March, when it's expected to be reduced to half that. The tax rebates apply to SUVs priced below $80,000 and cars under $55,000. The Model Y fell into both categories, depending on the number of seats, meaning certain 5-seat models weren't eligible — something CEO Elon Musk called "messed up." Now, all Model Y EVs except the Performance version appear to qualify.
Late last year, it was reported that Tesla inventory was building up after years of strong sales, first with reports in China, then the US. Tesla recently cut prices in China, then later declined any compensation to customers who complained. The Model 3 now starts at 229,900 yuan ($33,425) in that nation.
Neither Tesla nor CEO Elon Musk have weighed in on the price cuts, but potential buyers will no doubt be pleased (and recent purchasers displeased). The Model 3 was originally supposed to cost $35,000 and shipped in that configuration for a short time, but saw steady increases to the $46,990 price announced in March 2022. Last month, Musk said that "radical interest rate changes" had affected vehicle affordability and that Tesla could potentially lower prices.
If you have your eye on Samsung's Galaxy Watch 5 but have been waiting for a sale, Amazon has a good one right now. It's selling the 40mm model in several colors (Grey, Pink Gold and Silver) for $230, saving you $50 or 18 percent off the regular price. And if it's a larger Galaxy Watch 5 you want, the 44mm version is on sale at $260, also $50 off.
The Galaxy Watch 5 scored a solid 85 in our Engadget review, and we once again called it "the best non-Apple smartwatch." Samsung was focused on perfecting it over the Watch 4, adding extra battery life (a runtime of up to 80 hours), greater durability with Sapphire Crystal glass and a temperature sensor.
Otherwise, it carries the same design and features as before, which is a good thing. Powered by a responsive 5-nanometer Exynos processor and running Wear OS, it uses Samsung's bezel-based navigation with a touch-sensitive ring framing the screen. That gives you access to numerous apps, along with sleep-tracking and coaching plus health and activity tracking. You can get your body composition reading using the body-impedance analysis tool, take ECG scans, reply to messages, control music playback and more.
The lightly curved underside keeps the sensors in contact with your wrist, and it's rated IP68, 5ATM and MIL-STD-810H for durability (water, dust and pressure resistance). The main downside is that battery life is considerably lower with the always-on display compared to the Apple Watch 7.
You can grab the 40mm model in gray, pink and purple/silver for $230, and pick up the 44mm version in grey, white/silver and blue for $260. The best deal is on the 44mm Golf Edition, available in black and white with a golf-themed watch face and Smart Caddie app for $260, a full $100 off the regular price.
