When Samsung hosts its next Unpacked event in Seoul next month, the company is widely expected to announce a new Galaxy Z Flip device with a larger cover display. Now we have a better idea of exactly how much bigger the Z Flip 5’s external screen could be when it arrives later this year.

An alleged marketing render shared by MySmartPrice (via The Verge) shows a phone with a secondary display that covers most of the front of the device when you have it flipped closed. MySmartPrice didn’t share the size of the cover display, but judging from the render, it’s significantly larger than the 1.9-inch one found on the Z Flip 4. Additionally, it appears Samsung has found a more elegant way to shape the display around the Z Flip 5’s main camera array than Motorola has done with the Razr+.

MySmartPrice

Naturally, a larger cover display would make it easier to frame selfies with the Z Flip’s main camera, but there are also some potential drawbacks. For one, a bigger secondary screen would impact battery life on the Z Flip 5 unless Samsung equips the phone with a higher-capacity battery. It’s also worth pointing out that a small cover screen is part of the Z Flip 4’s appeal. The minimal functionality it offers is a good way to partially unplug from the typical distractions that come with a smartphone while still having easy access to some information.

Samsung is expected to announce the Galaxy Z Flip 5, alongside the Galaxy Z Fold 5, in late July. We’ll find out then if the company’s latest foldable display flip phone has a bigger screen.

Netflix just dropped the first reveal trailer for the forthcoming 3 Body Problem science fiction series at its Tudum fan event, along with a premiere month of January. This is a short delay for the anticipated series, as it was originally supposed to air this year.

If the name of the show sounds familiar, it’s likely for two reasons. First of all, the showrunners are the former Game of Thrones creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, along with Alexander Woo. Despite the bone-deep hatred among viewers for the final season of HBO’s fantasy epic, Benioff and Weiss are still a known quantity that could draw in some eyeballs.

Secondly, 3 Body Problem is based on a highly successful book series, just like Game of Thrones, only this one is already finished. Let’s hear it for pre-existing endings! The book series, authored by Chinese writer Liu Cixin, is one of the most celebrated sci-fi epics of recent years, so we could be in for something special here.

To that end, Netflix dropped a trailer that’s heavy on eye candy and light on story. That’s okay, though, as those who want spoilers can just read the books. Some of the actors set to star in the series include Benedict Wong (The Martian, Doctor Strange), Eiza González (Baby Driver) and Game of Thrones veterans John Bradley and Liam Cunningham.

January is not that far off, so we don’t have long to wait until we learn all about the titular three bodies and any associated problems. Here’s hoping Benioff and Weiss earn back some goodwill with this show. At any rate, this is a much cooler idea than that weird alt history/slavery thing that the duo almost pushed through at HBO.

Netflix is finally offering a peek at its Squid Game reality show. The streaming service has shared a teaser trailer for Squid Game: The Challenge, a competition series now set to premiere this November. The clip doesn't reveal much of how contestants will participate, but it's evident that Netflix is trying to recreate as much of the original production's atmosphere as possible — right down to the giant "red light, green light" doll. Without the bloodshed, of course.

The 10-episode run has 456 people competing in events both "inspired" by Squid Game and new for the show. The winner receives a large $4.56 million prize, so there's a strong incentive to stick through to the end. Netflix filmed the series earlier this year.

There's no mystery behind the existence of The Challenge: it's a bid to capitalize on the success of Squid Game. The Korean drama remains Netflix's most popular TV show of all time, with over 1.6 billion viewing hours as of June (even Stranger Things season 4 has 'just' over 1.3 billion). Given that Netflix is fond of spinoffs for popular shows, it may have just been a matter of time before the company built on demand for its best-known series.

There isn't as much pressure to release Squid Game: The Challenge as there was upon its announcement in 2022, when Netflix dealt with rare subscriber losses. The company is in a stronger position as of mid-2023 — it added nearly 1.8 million subscribers in the first quarter, and appears to be reaping the rewards of a password sharing crackdown. The firm still faces stiff opposition from rivals like Amazon, Disney and Paramount, however, and a series like this could be key to growing viewership alongside expected blockbusters like 3 Body Problem and the next seasons of Bridgerton and The Witcher.

When more than 8,000 subreddits went dark for 48 hours earlier this week to protest Reddit’s forthcoming API changes, there were signs the action had an immediate effect on the platform. On the morning of the first day of the protest, Reddit suffered a “major outage” affecting its desktop and mobile websites, as well as mobile apps. Days later, company CEO Steve Huffman went on a media offensive where he attempted to cast aggrieved users and moderators, many of whom give countless hours of their free time to make Reddit the vibrant platform it is today, as unreasonable. “These people who are mad, they’re mad because they used to get something for free, and now it’s going to be not free,” he said in an interview with The Verge.

But beyond those signs, it was hard to tell how much of a practical effect the protest had on the website’s traffic. Now we have a better idea. According to data provided to Engadget by internet analytics firm Similarweb, the impact was small but noticeable. On the day before the blackout began on June 12th, Similarweb logged more than 57 million daily visits to Reddit across desktop and mobile web clients. By the end of the first day of the protest, daily visits were below 55 million. Then, at the end of June 13th, Similarweb recorded fewer than 52 million daily visits to Reddit. Compared to the website’s average daily volume over the past month, the 52,121,649 visits Reddit saw on June 13th represented a 6.6 percent drop.

Over that same time period, Similarweb recorded a more dramatic decrease in the amount of time Reddit users were spending on the platform. The day before the protest began, an average session on the website was about eight minutes and 31 seconds long. A day later, that metric fell to seven minutes and 17 seconds, or the lowest that stat has been in the past three years. Reddit did not immediately respond to Engadget’s comment request.

Looking forward, a temporary drop in daily traffic is unlikely to affect Reddit’s near-term prospects. But as many subreddits continue to protest the company’s plans and its leadership contemplates policy changes that could change its relationship with moderators, the platform could see a slow but gradual decline in daily active users. That’s unlikely to bode well for Reddit ahead of its planned IPO and beyond.

The Securities and Exchange Commission and Binance have come to an agreement that will allow the cryptocurrency exchange to continue operating in the US until a lawsuit filed by the SEC earlier this month is resolved. The regulator sued Binance and founder Changpeng Zhao, better known as CZ, on June 5th, alleging the company had artificially inflated trading volumes, mixed and diverted customer assets and failed to restrict US investors from trading on Binance.com when they were supposed to stay on a separate US system.

After announcing the charges, the SEC sought to freeze Binance’s US assets. The regulator said the move was necessary to protect customer funds and prevent the company from potentially moving money abroad. Binance, meanwhile, argued an asset freeze would put it out of business in the US. On Tuesday, the judge overseeing the litigation ordered the two sides to come to a compromise that would safeguard customer assets. 

In a court filing seen by The New York Times, the SEC said Friday that Binance had agreed to move all assets belonging to US customers stateside. Additionally, the company’s US operation is prohibited from providing access or control of domestic assets or funds to Binance’s international operation or Zhao. Until the ligation is resolved, Binance.US is "solely" allowed to transfer assets “to make payments for expenses or to satisfy obligations incurred in the ordinary course of business.” Additionally, the exchange is required to create new customer wallets which its international employees can’t access. The deal still needs approval from Judge Amy Berman – and won’t resolve the SEC lawsuit even if it’s put in place.

“Given that Changpeng Zhao and Binance have control of the platforms’ customers’ assets and have been able to commingle customer assets or divert customer assets as they please, as we have alleged, these prohibitions are essential to protecting investor assets,” the SEC said Saturday. “Further, we ensured that US customers will be able to withdraw their assets from the platform while we work to resolve the alleged underlying misconduct and hold Zhao and the Binance entities accountable for their alleged securities law violations.”

Zhao took to Twitter on Saturday morning to comment on the deal. “Although we maintain that the SEC's request for emergency relief was entirely unwarranted, we are pleased that the disagreement over this request was resolved on mutually acceptable terms,” he posted. “User funds have been and always will be safe and secure on all Binance-affiliated platforms.”

The SEC’s lawsuit against Binance is part of a broader crackdown by the watchdog against the crypto industry. At the end of last year, the agency accused FTX founder and former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried of carrying out an alleged multi-year scheme to defraud investors. One day after suing Binance, the SEC filed a complaint against Coinbase, the largest crypto trading platform in the US, alleging the company had failed to register as a broker, national securities exchange or clearing agency.

In the three years since Black Mirror's previous (and somewhat disappointing) season, we've lived through a global pandemic, watched a US president trigger a mob attack on the Capitol, and AI has gone mainstream. We’re barreling towards the future faster than ever, but loneliness remains a key issue in modern life. What better time for Charlie Brooker to bring back his feel-bad series for another season?

In 2019, I argued that Brooker was running out of things to say with the show, despite his deft ability to predict our tech-infused dystopia with Black Mirror's first few seasons. Something was lost with his transition to Netflix, which led to bigger budgets and more notable stars, but less of the sharp insight that made the show so memorable. (At least we got “San Junipero,” though.) Thankfully, a few years away from the project seems to have helped. Season six of Black Mirror, which hit Netflix on June 15th, is the series at its best: Shocking, incisive and often hilarious. It also finds new life by looking back into the past frequently, as well as exploring horror more directly than before.

Minor spoilers ahead of Black Mirror season six.

"Joan is Awful" is the perfect way to kick off the new season – it's the most stereotypical Black Mirror setup. A disaffected big tech HR worker is surprised to find a show on Streamberry (an obvious Netflix stand-in) that recounts her daily life. That includes the cringeworthy layoff of a colleague (and supposed friend), and a therapist appointment where she reveals she's dissatisfied with her fiance.

It's a relatable Millennial malaise setup, the sort of thing Charlie Brooker captured so well early on in the series. Joan, played by Schitt's Creek star Annie Murphy, says she doesn't feel like a main character in her own life, so she coasts through everything on autopilot, almost always taking the easiest and less confrontational option. You'd think that it would be illegal for a network to just recount her life for all of its subscribers — turns out, she should have read the Terms of Service more closely.

I won't spoil where, exactly, that episode goes, or the familiar faces you end up seeing. But as the twists revealed themselves and it reached its inevitable bonkers conclusion, I couldn't help but smile. It was like Charlie Brooker shouting at me through the screen, "Black Mirror is back, baby!"

Netflix

What's truly surprising, though, is that this season of the series also feels refreshing in the ways it veers away from what we expect. "Loch Henry" is a fascinating exploration of our obsession with true crime dramas, and the impact they can have on the people affected by those stories. But aside from the presence of Streamberry as a service thirsty for true crime narratives, the story is more cultural than technology criticism.

Sure, we have more tools than ever to make true crime documentaries – there's a drone being used to make sweeping aerial shots, and the digital cameras are perfectly suited to shooting in dimly lit basements – but the desire to tell and consume these stories is purely human. And when it comes to macabre drama we can't help ourselves.

Black Mirror also gains some fresh perspective by exploring the past — or at least, timelines without smartphones and ubiquitous fast cellular internet. “Beyond the Sea” is an elegant yet brutal story set in 1969, focusing on two astronauts on a deep space mission who also wirelessly control mechanical bodies back on Earth. The episode is less interested in how any of that tech works — just accept the mystery, folks — and more about how it affects those astronauts, their families and society as a whole.

It's not too surprising when deranged hippie cultists appear, believing that mechanoid people are an affront to humanity. Both astronauts, played by Aaron Paul (Breaking Bad) and former heartthrob Josh Hartnett, are also trapped by the societal norms of the '60s. They may be world-class astronauts, but they're also men who can't share their feelings properly, who hit their kids to "keep them in line," and who have rigid expectations from the women in their lives. Beyond the Sea may not fully earn its tragic conclusion, but the journey is certainly powerful.

I was surprised to see how much Black Mirror leans into pure horror this season: “Demon 79” is a direct callback to '70s horror films, from its explosive score to its overall aesthetic. The story revolves around an immigrant shoe sales clerk who inadvertently summons a demon, and is tasked with murdering three people to prevent the apocalypse. There isn't a sliver of tech involved — perhaps that’s why the opening credits refer to it as a "Red Mirror" episode. But it's still a fun horror romp, with plenty of subtext around the South Asian experience in '70s London (thanks to co-writer Bisha K. Ali, who also served as the showrunner for Ms. Marvel).

“Mazey Day” also brings Black Mirror into fresh territory, but you're better off discovering how for yourself. I can reveal that its story of a young paparazzi photographer (Zazie Beetz) is a refreshing glimpse of the mid-2000's, filled with then cutting edge tech (the square iPod Shuffle! Dashboard GPS!), but also plenty of old school touches. You still needed big paper map books in that era, because GPS wasn't always reliable. And even though high speed internet was widely available, it wasn't unusual to find people still relying on dial-up in 2005.

It’s impossible for Black Mirror to feel as fresh as it did over a decade ago. Since then, the downsides of Big Tech have become impossible to ignore. But at least now, especially with some extra time to craft these episodes, it seems like Charlie Brooker has found something new to say with the show.

Sony Bravia TVs will be the first hardware to support the upcoming Zoom for TV app on Google Play. Although remote work has dwindled as corporations beckon their underlings back to the office, those still enjoying work-from-home or hybrid arrangements could soon attend virtual meetings from their living room couches. It follows Apple’s WWDC 2023 announcement that FaceTime is coming to Apple TV (via mounted iPhones) later this year.

Bravia TVs don’t have built-in webcams, so you’ll need to buy a Bravia Cam to make the setup work. In addition to enabling Zoom calls, the $200 accessory can adjust sound and picture settings based on your location and distance from the television. It also allows you to control your TV with hand gestures without picking up the remote, enables a proximity alert that detects when kids sit too close (as they’re wont to do) and adds a power-saving mode that dims the screen if nobody is watching.

Sony

Sony says the Zoom for TV app will be available for Bravia TVs “by early summer.” The company’s head of Bravia product design, Shusuke Tomonaga, said, “This partnership will make it possible for our customers to enjoy more realistic video communication on a large TV screen in the living room, enabling them to be more connected with the people they care about, whether they are working from home, learning remotely, or just catching up with friends and family.”

Meta is expanding the audience for Quest headsets by inviting preteens into the fold. The Facebook owner is lowering the age for Quest 2 and 3 accounts from 13 to 10 later this year by introducing parent-controlled accounts. Kids will need their parents' approval to set up accounts, download apps and block access to already-present software. Those adults can set time limits.

The company says it's implementing strict privacy controls. Meta will provide "age-appropriate" app store experiences like recommendations if parents volunteer their child's age. It won't serve ads to kids, however, and parents will have the choice of whether or not data is used to refine the experience. These younger users' Meta Horizon profiles are private by default and will require approval for follows and active status updates. Horizon Worlds will still require that users are 13 and older.

Meta portrays this as a boon for education. This could give kids virtual science lessons and a raft of educational games, the company says. Most educational titles on the store are rated for ages 10 and older, so there shouldn't be a shortage of material.

Whether or not there's a trouble-free launch is another matter. Meta's policies theoretically comply with COPPA (Children's Online Privacy Protection Act), which bars collecting personal data from kids under 13 without parental consent. The New York Timessources claim Meta is already discussing its plans with regulators. However, there are concerns about safety. VR apps, particularly social ones, are sometimes prone to creeps, harassment and similar abuse. Meta can't necessarily shield young users against what happens inside third-party apps.

There's also the question of whether or not it's healthy for children to use VR headsets in the first place. As Duke University optometrist Dr. Nathan Cheung explains to ZDNet, these wearables can introduce eye and neck strain that may be particularly problematic for kids with smaller bodies and developing eyes. There's also a lack of definitive research on how VR can affect depth perception and focusing. The technology isn't definitively dangerous for kids, but it's not guaranteed to be safe, either.

The last remnants of Virgin Orbit have been offloaded. Firefly Aerospace has agreed to buy the defunct satellite-launch company’s remaining assets for $3.8 million. Firefly’s purchase included the leftovers from a May auction that cleaned out most of the company’s possessions, netting $36 million in Virgin Orbit’s bankruptcy proceedings. Firefly’s purchase was reported in June 15th filings in a Delaware bankruptcy court (viaSpaceNews).

Firefly Aerospace’s purchased assets include inventory at two of Virgin Orbit’s former Long Beach, CA, production facilities. Among them are engines and other components for Virgin’s LauncherOne vehicles and two additional engines stored at a Mojave, CA, test site. At last month’s auction, Virgin Orbit said it “deemed it in the best interests of the Debtors’ estates” to hang onto the remaining assets for the time being. Negotiations reportedly continued afterward, leading to this week’s sale to Firefly.

Once-promising Virgin Orbit, a spinoff of Virgin Galactic specializing in the air-launching of satellite rockets from a modified Boeing 747, saw its stock nosedive in the months leading up to its downfall. Only four of the company’s six flights between 2020 and 2023 were successful, and its most recent attempt earlier this year reportedly failed because of a dislodged $100 fuel filter. The company began an “operational pause” in March as a last-gasp attempt to find new investors before filing for bankruptcy protection and finally throwing in the towel a couple of weeks later.

Meanwhile, Firefly Aerospace, based in Cedar Park, TX, is developing a launch vehicle called Firefly Alpha. The two-stage, liquid-fueled rocket is designed to be launched from various sites. Its first attempt failed in 2021, but the rocket had a partially successful orbital launch the following year. The company expects to launch a third time for the US Space Force.

Bonnaroo takes place this weekend and, as with the last two years, you can watch the festival from the comfort of your home on Hulu. Through Sunday, the streaming service is offering two channels of live music coming to you from Manchester, Tennessee. You'll find the streams on the Hulu homepage or by searching for "Bonnaroo."

This year's headliners are Kendrick Lamar, Odesza and Foo Fighters. There are many other notable names on the bill, including Three 6 Mafia, Jenny Lewis, Tyler Childers, Sheryl Crow, My Morning Jacket, Franz Ferdinand, Paramore and Pixies. As things stand, Hulu will show all of those artists' sets except for Lamar's. You can check the platform's website for the up-to-date schedule. Unfortunately, you won't be able to stream the sets on Hulu after the fact — you'll have to tune in live to catch them.

You'll need to be a Hulu subscriber to watch the livestreams, but the service is offering a seven-day trial for new and eligible returning users. Hulu has been the streaming home of Bonnaroo since 2021, when it took over the rights from YouTube. Later this year, you'll be able to watch Lollapalooza and the Austin City Limits Music Festival on the platform as well.