Following President Joe Biden’s sweeping executive order regarding AI development last week, at the UK AI Safety Summit yesterday, Vice President Kamala Harris announced even more machine learning initiatives, as well as the establishment of the United States AI Safety Institute. In cooperation with the Department of Commerce, the Biden administration will establish the United States AI Safety Institute (US AISI) within the NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology). It will be responsible for creating and publishing guidelines, benchmark tests, best practices and more, for evaluating potentially dangerous AI systems. Tests may even include the red-team exercises President Biden mentioned in his executive order last week.

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) — it’s an acronym-heavy morning — will release the administration’s first draft policy guidance on government AI use later this week.

— Mat Smith

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The biggest stories you might have missed

The Google Pixel 7a is cheaper than ever at $374 in this early Black Friday deal

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Surface Laptop Studio 2 review

The ultimate all-rounder?

Engadget

Microsoft’s Surface Laptop Studio packs a unique blend of performance and adaptability — even among 2-in-1 PCs. Thanks to refreshed specs plus a USB-A port and a microSD card reader, it seems like Microsoft’s second-gen mobile workstation has pretty much everything it needs. Unfortunately, with a high starting price and costly upgrades, the Surface Laptop Studio 2 is still difficult to recommend to everyone.

Continue reading.

Chrome for iOS now lets you move the address bar to the bottom

Perfect for those iPhone Pro Max owners.

Google’s new feature for Chrome on iOS doesn’t massively change the browser, but it could be helpful if you find tapping the top of your iPhone screen a bit of a stretch. The company has rolled out the ability to move the browser’s address bar to the bottom of the screen from the top, a la Safari. Oddly, this isn’t yet a feature in Android’s Chrome app.

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Tesla’s Autopilot was not to blame for fatal 2019 Model 3 crash

The crash killed the car’s 37-year-old driver and severely injured two passengers.

Tesla was not at fault for a fatal 2019 crash that allegedly involved its Autopilot system, according to a jury in California. It’s the first US trial for a case claiming its software directly caused a death, with the car’s driver killed in the crash. The lawsuit alleged Tesla knowingly shipped cars with a defective Autopilot system. The jury ultimately found there was no defect, and Tesla was cleared on Tuesday.

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Ayaneo’s Kun is an even more powerful gaming handheld

This powerful handheld could also be your favorite laptop.

Engadget

The Ayaneo Kun is the highest-spec gaming machine the company has ever made, and after using it for a couple of weeks, Engadget’s James Trew says it’s both a fantastic gaming handheld and (if you want) a decent portable general-use PC. But it feels, he said, that the Kun is just a placeholder for the Kun 2, or the Kun 1S, Kun Pro or… whatever they call the next upgraded handheld. Notable specs include a huge 75Wh battery and the ability to play games at 1600p resolution — a substantial nudge above the usual 1200p max of other Ayaneo devices. Read on for the full breakdown.

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A bunch of Sony headphones, earbuds and other audio devices are on sale at Amazon, including the Sony WH-CH720N headset, which is currently selling for the lowest price we've seen for it on the website. You can get the noise canceling wireless headphones for $98, down 35 percent from their original list price of $150. They have a lightweight, over-ear design with ample space around your ears so that they'd be comfortable to use. And while you can completely block out outside noise for full immersion, you can also switch on their Adjustable Ambient Sound mode that comes with 20 levels for when you want to be aware of your surroundings. 

You can pair the WH-CH720N with two Bluetooth devices at the same time, and you can easily switch between them at the touch of a button. Plus, the model supports both Alexa and Google's voice assistants, and Sony says it can last for up to 35 hours on a single charge. 

The most deeply discounted product among the ones currently on sale, however, are the Sony WH-XB910N wireless headphones. They have the power to enhance low-end frequencies for extra bass with their "dedicated bass duct on the headphone housing" and "increased airtightness between the driver units and eardrums." The headphones use dual noise cancelation technology to keep ambient sounds out, and like the WH-CH720N, you can quickly switch between two connected Bluetooth devices. You can get the Sony WH-XB910N headphones right now for $118, which isn't quite a record-low for the model but is still 53 percent lower than its original price. 

If you're looking for earbuds instead of headphones, you can also grab a pair of Sony LinkBuds S with noise canceling capabilities for $128 (36 percent off) from the sale. Want earbuds designed to let ambient sounds in? The Sony LinkBuds earbuds with an open-ring design now also cost $128, or 29 percent less than their original list price. Finally, you can find deals on subwoofers and sound bars from Amazon, as well, if those are what you've been eyeing for the upcoming holiday season. 

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Even among 2-in-1 PCs, Microsoft’s Surface Laptop Studio offers a unique blend of performance and adaptability. But now on the second model, thanks to refreshed specs plus the addition of a USB-A port and a microSD card reader, it feels like Microsoft has given its mobile workstation the finishing touches it needed all along, resulting in what may be the ultimate all-rounder. Unfortunately with a high starting price and costly upgrades for more RAM and a discrete GPU, the Surface Laptop Studio 2 is hard to recommend for everyone.

Design: Funky but functional

Francis Bacon once said “There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion,” which is a sentiment that feels applicable to the Surface Laptop Studio 2. It features a minimalist aluminum chassis (instead of the magnesium frame on the previous model) but in a somewhat unconventional configuration. The laptop’s lid is divided into two halves, which allows the screen to pivot 180 degrees or tilt down into an easel. Meanwhile, its base features a two-tiered design that allows the laptop to keep its vents away from the sides of the system while also providing a hidden magnetic charging spot for a Surface Slim Pen 2 (which sadly, is not included).

The two biggest changes to the Studio 2’s design are the addition of the USB-A port and a microSD card slot. When combined with the existing dual USB-C jacks, you get a solid range of connectivity options. It means you can transfer files from a camera directly to the laptop and you’ll rarely (if ever) have to worry about carrying around extra dongles for peripherals. That said, Surface Laptop Studio 2’s slightly thicker chassis (but only by one or two millimeters) and the change to aluminum does mean an extra third of a pound in weight (4.18 pounds with integrated graphics or 4.37 with a discrete GPU).

Display: Vivid from any angle

The Surface Laptop Studio 2’s screen hasn’t changed much from the previous model, but that’s not a bad thing. Its 14.4-inch panel features the same 2,400 x 1,600 resolution, along with a dynamic refresh rate that can switch between 60Hz and 120Hz depending on what you’re looking at. However, brightness is a touch better at around 500 nits, or 650 nits with HDR turned on. And you still get full Windows Inking support with 4,096 levels of pressure sensitivity.

Performance: More than enough power, but it’ll cost you

Photo by Sam Rutherford/Engadget

For the new model, Microsoft streamlined the Surface Laptop Studio 2’s specs by offering a single processor across every config: an Intel Core i7-13700H. From there you can choose a base model with integrated graphics or upgrade to one with either an RTX 4050 or RTX 4060 GPU. The annoying thing is that, to get that 4060, you also have to get 64GB of RAM, which is overkill for most people. That’s unfortunate because that config costs $3,300. An option with only 32GB of RAM and a lower cost would be appreciated.

That said, it’s hard to complain about its actual performance. The Surface Laptop Studio 2 kept pace with similarly specced gaming laptops including the MSI Stealth 14 Studio and Razer Blade 18 across both benchmarks and real-world tests. While it’s not meant to be a dedicated gaming rig, it also hit 62 fps in Cyberpunk 2077 at 1920 x 1200 with high graphics and ray tracing set to ultra (though that is with NVIDIA’s DLSS turned on).

Battery Life: Surprisingly decent

Photo by Sam Rutherford/Engadget

Even with a discrete GPU, the Surface Laptop Studio 2’s longevity is closer to a standard ultraportable than more short-lived gaming notebooks. On PCMark 10’s OpenOffice battery rundown test, it lasted eight hours and 40 minutes. That’s three hours more than both the MSI Stealth 14 Studio and the Razer Blade 16, which lasted 5:19 and 5:10, respectively. However, more typical ultraportables like ASUS’ Zenbook S 13 fared even better with a time of 10:39.

Wrap-up

The two major knocks against the Surface Laptop Studio 2 are its price and limited configurations that top out with NVIDIA RTX 4060 graphics, which makes it feel more like a great all-rounder than an all-out mobile powerhouse. While there’s no defending its cost, I’m not as bothered by the latter, because there’s a lot of value in a system that offers unmatched adaptability.

Photo by Sam Rutherford/Engadget

With its innovative design, brilliant display, above-average battery life and improved connectivity, the Surface Laptop Studio 2 can handle a lot of different assignments with ease. It’s a great system for editing photos and videos, and stylus support makes drawing or taking notes a delight. When you factor in the excellent keyboard, Windows Hello IR cameras and one of best touchpads on a Windows laptop today (courtesy of Sensel), you get an incredibly versatile mobile workstation. And if we revisit that classic line from Shakespeare, “A jack of all trades is a master of none, but oftentimes better than a master of one,” which is precisely what we have here with the Surface Laptop Studio 2. I just wish it was a bit cheaper.

Google’s budget Pixel 7a was already a more affordable alternative to the flagship Pixel, but with a 25 percent discount on Amazon right now, it’s an absolute steal. The Pixel 7a is down to just $374 from its original price of $500. It’s the lowest we’ve seen it drop yet, beating even the October Prime Day price by $25. The discounted Pixel 7a is unlocked for all carriers, and available in the colors Charcoal, Sea and Snow.

While it may not have everything you’d get in a flagship, the Pixel 7a is still a really solid smartphone. It has a smooth 90Hz display and a Tensor G2 chip, plus 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. The battery life is great, too. In our review, where it earned a score of 90, we found the Pixel 7a’s 4,385mAh battery kept it going for an impressive 17 hours and 41 minutes. The Pixel 7a is also the first in Google’s A series to support wireless charging. It’s not groundbreaking, capping out at 7.5 watts, but it’s still a nice convenience.

The Pixel 7a holds up in just about every category, and we ranked it as the best midrange Android smartphone in 2023. It boasts a 64MP camera on the back which does a great job of preserving detail, and shots taken in Night Sight mode even beat Samsung's Galaxy S23 when comparing white balance. The selfie camera is crisp as well, and now capable of shooting video in 4K.

Designwise, the 7a looks a lot like the flagship Pixel 7, though it’s slightly bulkier and has plastic backing. It’s got a 6.1 OLED screen and a water resistance rating of IP67. It’ll also get years of updates, with at least three OS upgrades and five years of security updates. There are some things it’s missing, being a budget phone — like a dedicated zoom lens — but at only $374, that may not be a dealbreaker.

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Today Microsoft has begun rolling out its Windows 11 2023 update (also know as version 23H2), which adds some minor features on top of Copilot and its other AI-powered apps announced in September. Now, you may be asking yourself, "Didn't Microsoft just release a major Windows 11 update?" And you would be correct. But it turns out that release, which launched on September 26th, was basically just an AI preview meant for last year's Windows 11 22H2 update. Consequently, Copilot didn't actually reach most Windows users over the past few weeks (I eventually got it in a test laptop, but my home desktop is still Copilot-less).

It's fair to be confused, because Microsoft's handling of Copilot has been baffling from the start. We first heard it was arriving as "Windows Copilot" back in May, where it essentially put the AI features we saw on the Edge Copilot and similar tools right into the heart of Windows. Copilot ended up being the star of Microsoft's most recent Surface event, where the actual hardware took second place to the company's AI ambitions.

So if you've been dying to get your hands on Copilot, be sure to start refreshing Windows Update. Additionally, the Windows 11 2023 update transforms the built-in Chat app into Microsoft Teams, which will sit in your task bar by default. You'll also be able to find Windows 11 components under a new "System" label in the Start menu's "All apps" section (something I rarely visit these days). Those System Components will also be under a new page in the Settings app under the System section.

iRobot’s Roomba 694 isn’t the most feature-rich robot vacuum on the block, but it certainly gets the job done. Now, it can get that job done for cheaper, as the Roomba 694 is on sale for $159 as part of an early Black Friday deal on Amazon. This is a record-low price for the gadget, with the discount slashing $115 off the MSRP. That’s more than 40 percent off the usual price of $275.

If you've been curious about hiring a robot helper to sweep the floors, but were waiting for a good deal, now might be a great time to jump on board. After all, the Roomba 694 sits at the top of our list of the best budget robot vacuums in the world. This little jobby might be low in price, but it's high in functionality.

The cleaning power is on point and the affiliated mobile app is both useful and easy to operate. The 694 boasts a sleek all-black design, giving it an aesthetic similar to its more expensive siblings. It can spot clean or do more intensive jobs throughout the home. The app lets you control the vacuum manually or set cleaning schedules. Amazon now owns Roomba, so you can even use that famous wisecracker Alexa to set up cleaning times.

The vacuum includes an edge-sweeping brush for corners and adaptive navigation capabilities, so it won’t careen down the stairs like a little kid on Christmas morning. These navigation sensors also allow the vacuum to clean under furniture. You don’t get any replacement brushes or filters with this unit, so you’ll have to buy those on your own when the time comes.

It cleans for 90 minutes before requiring a charge, but it’ll automatically head to the dock when the power’s running low, which is a staple of most modern robo-vacs. The Roomba 694 features a three-stage cleaning system that excels on both carpets and hard floors, but you won’t be able to use this little bot to mop. That’s a feature reserved for the pricier models.

Speaking of pricier vacuums, Roomba is running a sale on multiple models right now. You can snag the flagship J9+ for $600 instead of $1,000, or the J7+ vacuum/mop hybrid for $700 instead of $1,000. Even the mop-focused Braava Jet M6 is on sale for $300. In other words, it’s a mighty good day to be very, very lazy.

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It’s perhaps The Addams Family’s favorite time of year, but Apple’s pre-Halloween “Scary Fast” event was neither mysterious nor spooky. Thanks to M3 chip leaks and rumors, all of the company’s announcements were largely expected. And though the showcase inexplicably took place in the evening, it’s hard to imagine Tim Cook ever cutting a ghostly figure.

Anyway, Apple had a bunch of product refreshes to discuss, namely in the new MacBook Pro and iMac lineups. The event anchored around a trio of new chipsets that, unsurprisingly, Apple is touting as its most powerful yet.

M3 chipsets

Apple

Apple unveiled a trio of M3 chips at Scary Fast: the M3, M3 Pro and M3 Max. While they're certainly going to be faster than the previous M2 chipsets, the company not-so-subtly hammered home the notion that they're far more powerful than their M1 equivalents, just in case folks who are using devices with first-generation Apple silicon chips are starting to yearn for an upgrade.

Notably, these are the first three-nanometer chips for PCs. On the GPU side, Apple has factored in hardware-accelerated ray-tracing and mesh shading to offer more realistic lighting and better geometry handling.

The base M3 has an eight-core CPU (four performance cores and a quartet of efficiency cores) and a 10-core GPU, with support for up to 24GB of unified memory. The M3 Pro has six performance and six efficiency cores for a 12-core CPU, along with an 18-core GPU. The mid-range chipset can support up to 36GB of RAM.

As for the M3 Max, that's up to 80 percent faster than the M1 Max, according to Apple. The company's current most powerful chipset features a 16-core GPU (with 12 performance and four efficiency cores), a 40-core GPU and support for a whopping 128GB of RAM, in case you're feeling flush or need a lot of memory.

The chips should be major upgrades for anyone making the switch from an M1-powered device or an Intel-powered Mac. That means better performance for productivity, creativity and even gaming as high-profile titles such as Death Stranding Director's Cut make their way to Apple's ecosystem.

M3 MacBook Pro

Apple

Of course, those fancy chips aren't going to be very useful unless they're plugged into some capable hardware. As such, Apple showed off some upgraded MacBooks of the Pro variety that run on M3 chips.

There are new 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pros for you to get your hands on. The 14-inch variant starts at $1,599 for a model with a base M3 chip. That's the lowest ever price for a new 14-inch MacBook Pro. There wasn't a version with a base M2 chip. Instead, you would have had to shell out $1,999 for an M2 Pro-powered unit if you wanted to go with that form factor. You can now opt for a 14-inch MacBook Pro with an M3 Pro, which will likewise run you $1,999.

On a similar note, the 16-inch MBP starts at $2,499 for a model with an M3 Pro. An M2 Pro-powered model started at $2,499 as well.

Don't expect major hardware changes elsewhere on the latest models. This is by and large a spec bump. One notable tweak, however, means that the laptops' Liquid Retina XDR displays are now able to display SDR content with 20 percent more brightness, up to 600 nits.

Perhaps the best thing about the new MBPs is that Space Black chassis. I'm more tempted than ever to make the switch from Windows to Mac for that colorway alone. The extra power that the M3 chips offer seems like a bonus — though the Space Black option isn't available for the base 14-inch MacBook Pro, unfortunately.

However, not everything about the refreshed MacBook Pros is a Halloween treat. The base 14-inch model has a paltry 8GB of RAM, which maybe doesn't quite align with Apple's promise of significantly better performance in the new MBPs.

Pre-orders for the new MacBook Pro models are now open. Apple will start shipping them on November 7.

M3 iMac

Apple

The new 24-inch iMac is pretty much the same as the last 24-inch iMac, save for a new chipset and a few other tweaks. Apple says the M3-powered system is up to twice as fast as the previous version, which ran on the M1 chipset.

The company claims that Safari and productivity apps like Microsoft Excel will run up to 30 percent faster than on the M1 iMac. There will be support for up to 12 video streams in 4K resolution, three times as many as on the last iMac. Image processing and video-editing apps will be up to twice as fast too, according to Apple.

There are some minor upgrades on the connectivity front too. The M3 iMac supports Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3, which improve on the previous model's Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.0.

The M3 iMac starts at $1,299 for a model with an eight-core GPU and eight-core CPU. Unfortunately, Apple's only offering 8GB of RAM and 256GB of SSD storage with that configuration, so you may want to bump those up a bit. Pre-orders for the M3 iMac are open now and the revamped desktop will arrive next week.

Everything else

Other than the M3 chips, new MacBook Pros and refreshed iMac, Scary Fast was notable for what Apple didn't talk about. First, you had to read between the lines to realize that the company has ditched the 13-inch MacBook Pro. That means we're waving farewell to the much-loved and much-loathed Touch Bar, at least for the time being.

It was widely expected that Apple would update several of its accessories to include USB-C ports as it shifts away from Lightning to a common charger. That wasn't the case at Scary Fast. For the time being, you'll still need a Lightning cable on hand at least for your Magic Keyboard and Magic Mouse.

Although we couldn't really shake the notion that Apple would reveal an M3-powered iPad or two, the company declined to do so on Monday. As such, you'll need to wait a while longer for tablets with its new chips.

Follow all of the news from Apple’s "Scary Fast" October event right here.

The latest version of Apple's AirPods Pro is back on sale for $190 at Amazon and Target, which is only a dollar more than the lowest price we've tracked. We've seen this new model briefly fall this low a few times since arriving in September, and there's at least some chance it could drop farther by Black Friday, but the discount is still $60 less than Apple's usual price. It also beats the deal we saw over the weekend by $10. 

As a refresher, this variant of the AirPods Pro comes with a USB-C charging case to match the latest crop of iPhones. It technically has a higher IP54 dust-resistance rating and will support lossless audio with the upcoming Vision Pro headset as well. Other than that, though, it's essentially the same as the Lightning-based model that Apple launched last year. 

That's not a bad thing: We gave that pair a review score of 88 at launch for its effective active noise cancellation (ANC), pleasantly warm sound, superb transparency mode and easy pairing with other Apple devices. You really need to be a dedicated Apple user to get the most out of it but, if so, perks like Find My tracking and hands-free Siri can also be useful. A software update last month added a few new helpful features as well, including an "Adaptive Audio" mode that blends the ANC and transparency modes based on your surroundings and can automatically lower the volume when you start speaking to somebody else.

We wouldn't call the AirPods Pro the best wireless earbuds overall: Their six-ish hours of battery life is just average, there's no way to customize the EQ and the touch controls take some getting used to. If you want a similar pair that's more suitable for the gym, the Beats Fit Pro (which is also on sale) would be a better choice. But the AirPods Pro remain a compelling option for those firmly planted in Apple Land, which is why they're the "best for iOS" pick in our wireless earbuds buying guide.

The only small caveat here is a Bloomberg report from last week that detailed Apple's plans to revamp its entire AirPods lineup starting next year. According to the report, this refresh will include a version of the standard AirPods with ANC and a redesigned AirPods Pro that may include new hearing health features. Bloomberg says most of those headphones won't arrive until late 2024, however, while the new AirPods Pro won't release until 2025.

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During its Scary Fast product event last night, Apple officially debuted its new M3, M3 Pro and M3 Max chips. The company is positioning the M3 chips as major upgrades over its M1 hardware — if you bought an M2 system, you’re probably not itching for a replacement just yet.

The M3’s GPU is the biggest leap forward, delivering new features, like hardware-accelerated ray tracing and mesh shading, enabling more realistic lighting and better geometry handling. If you’re into chip architecture and other fun endeavors, the M3 chips are also notable for being the first PC chips built on a three-nanometer process — both the M1 and M2 families are based on a 5nm process. This means more transistors packed into the same space, which helps with power efficiency, as well as providing better overall performance. The M3 series will feature in the revamped MacBook Pro 14-inch and 16-inch (more on those below), as well as the 24-inch iMac.

That new chip will make the new iMac up to twice as fast as its predecessor, but there aren’t too many upgrades elsewhere in the latest Mac. Apple is sticking with a 4.5K Retina display, for instance. There are some handy changes on the connectivity front, now with support for Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3 The new iMac starts at $1,299 and ships on November 7.

— Mat Smith

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Apple kills off the 13-inch MacBook Pro

But it has new 14- and 16-inch models, don’t worry.

Apple

Apple’s updated line of 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pros features a range of new M3 chips and a new Space Black chassis. Was that the spooky part of Apple’s event?

The 14-inch MBP with a base M3 processor will cost $1,599 — the first time the 14-inch laptop has hit that low of a price. The M3 Pro iteration will still cost you $1,999, and prices go up from there for M3 Max options. Meanwhile, a base 16-inch MacBook Pro with an M3 Pro chip will have the same $2,499 starting price as its M2 Pro predecessor. Alas, the 13-inch version is no more. Farewell, Touch Bar. 

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Lenovo Smart Paper review

A solid e-ink tablet spoiled by the cost.

Engadget

In the last few years, we’ve seen Amazon get into e-ink scribes, while startups like ReMarkable have carved out their own niche with capable hardware for a reasonable price. Lenovo, having dabbled with e-ink on devices like the Yoga Book, has joined the fray with a dedicated device, the Smart Paper. While the product hasn’t yet launched in the US, the Smart Paper has launched elsewhere, including the UK. At around $400 (or £500 in the UK), it’s expensive. The hardware is impressive (and useful), but it’s all tainted by a subscription service that demands even more money.

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X won’t pay creators for tweets that get fact checked with community notes

The ‘slight change’ is the latest attempt to address misinformation.

X will no longer pay creators for tweets promoting misinformation. Elon Musk said the company is making a “slight change” to its monetization program, and tweets fact-checked via community notes will no longer be eligible for payouts.

The latest change comes as researchers, fact-checkers and journalists have raised the alarm about the amount of viral misinformation spreading on X amid the ongoing conflict in Israel and Gaza. Recent analysis from NewsGuard, a nonprofit that tracks the spread of misinformation, found 74 percent of “the most viral posts on X advancing misinformation about the Israel–Hamas war are being pushed by ‘verified’ X accounts.”

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Samsung has been reporting steep profit declines and record-breaking losses over the past quarters, and while it has yet to go back to its previous numbers, it sounds optimistic for the future in its latest earnings report. The company credited the strong sales of its mobile flagship devices and its premium displays for doing better the past three months than the previous quarters. Samsung also said that its Device Solutions (DS) division, which includes its memory and foundry businesses, has narrowed its losses. It even expects demand for memory chips to recover gradually with the rise in popularity of artificial intelligence. 

The company has posted a consolidated revenue of KRW 67.40 trillion ($49.9 billion) for the third quarter of 2023, which shows a respectable 12 percent increase from the previous quarter's. It reported KRW 2.43 trillion ($1.80 billion) in profit, as well, and while that's a third of what it earned in the same period of 2022 — KRW 10.85 trillion or $7.6 billion — that figure still much better than the $527 million profit it reported for the second quarter. 

For its mobile and network business, in particular, it reported KRW 30 trillion ($22.17 billion) in consolidated revenue, as well as KRW 3.30 trillion ($2.44 billion) in operating profit. There was a higher demand in the third quarter compared to the second, Samsung said, thanks to the global smartphone market showing signs of recovery. If you'll recall, the company mostly blamed its drop in revenue for the second quarter to a decline in smartphone shipments. For this period, it says the Galaxy S23 series has maintained "solid sales momentum," while its foldables, tablets and wearables recorded strong sales. It expects smartphones sales to grow next quarter due to the holiday season and for the market to bounce back next year "as consumer sentiment stabilizes in anticipation of a global economic recovery."

Another segment that did well in the third quarter is Samsung's mobile panel business, which "reported a significant increase in earnings on the back of new flagship model releases by major customers." As Bloomberg notes, those new flagship model releases could include Apple's iPhone 15. Samsung intends to continue focusing on OLED panels for its mobile display business and plans to establish a supply chain catering to the augmented and virtual reality market. 

Finally, the company's semiconductor division posted KRW 3.75 trillion ($2.77 billion) in operating losses for the quarter, which is slightly better than its KRW 4.36 trillion ($3.23 billion) losses in the previous one. Samsung expects the demand for PCs and mobile devices to improve next period, and it's anticipating strong server demand from cloud service providers thanks to generative AI applications.