Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. is setting the record straight. After Variety reported earlier this week that an AI-generated track echoing the voices of Drake and The Weeknd could be considered for a Grammy Award in songwriting categories, Mason is insisting that’s not the case.

In an interview with The New York Times only last week, Mason suggested the track would be “absolutely eligible” as the lyrics a human made the lyrics. On Instagram, the Recording Academy CEO has now clarified that the song will not be eligible.

“Even though it was written by a human creator, the vocals were not legally obtained, the vocals were not cleared by the label or the artists and the song is not commercially available and because of that, it’s not eligible,” he said. Sorry robots.

– Mat Smith

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The biggest stories you might have missed

Watch The Morning After: Can AI win a Grammy? (Editor: Well, that did not age well.)

Engadget Podcast: Starfield’s failure to launch

Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra review: A little too big, a little too expensive

Apple event rumor roundup: What to expect at the Wonderlust iPhone 15 keynote

Butt-ugly Starfield ship defeats the enemy AI’s perfect aim

iRobot’s new flagship Roombas ship with an updated OS to make cleaning simpler

The best cheap Windows laptops for 2023

Chromebooks aren’t always the answer.

Engadget

Affordable Windows notebooks are great for people who only use a computer to check email, shop online or post on Facebook. They’re also good for kids who have no business putting their sticky little hands on a $2,000 gaming rig. And, depending on what you need them for, these devices can be decent daily drivers, too. Here’s what to look for in a cheap Windows laptop – and some of our recommendations.

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Google’s more durable Pixel Watch 2 goes on pre-order October 4

Expect IP68 water and dust resistance.

Google

Google desperately would love for you to remember that it will announce its own devices after Apple has its turn. Rather than just... holding its own event before Apple’s, Google has instead teased its upcoming devices with short videos. After dripfeeding details about the Pixel 8 lineup, now Google is teasing a new Pixel Watch that will feature IP68 dust and water resistance.

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Watch the first Monarch: Legacy of Monsters trailer

It pits Kurt Russell against Godzilla.

Apple has its fingers in many pies, and now it’s getting into the monster business with an upcoming TV show. The company has released the first trailer for Monarch: Legacy of Monsters and while the title might not make it super clear, this is a Godzilla affair. Get lost, Mothra.

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Uber could launch a service similar to TaskRabbit

You may be able to ask an Uber provider to help you mount a TV.

According to Bloomberg, Uber is exploring offering a new TaskRabbit-like service. Developer Steve Moser found code hidden in Uber’s iPhone app for an offering reportedly codenamed Chore. Based on its current iteration, Chore will let you hire “taskers” and specify in the app what you need help with, how long you think it would take and what time you want the tasker to arrive. It’s all pretty similar to TaskRabbit. Like any other unconfirmed feature still in development, Chore may not even make it to public release. If it does, it’ll be a huge new undertaking for Uber.

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Sony has launched the "Aibo Foster Parent" program for its $2,900 robot dogs, allowing owners whose basic plans have been canceled to donate them. The company will then refurbish the Aibos as necessary and donate them to medical facilities, foster homes and other organizations. The aim is to "make Aibo more sustainable," the company said, by giving the units a second home where they can provide emotional support and more. 

The Aibo robot dogs in question are the newer 2019 ERS-1000 units still being sold, which are a reboot of its "entertainment" robotic dogs from the late 1990s. It's not exactly a fully charitable project, as Sony will charge "foster parents" an unnamed fee for service. It also notes that depending on condition, some donated units may serve strictly as parts for other Aibo robots. 

As we discussed in our review back in 2019, Aibo can do a number of tricks like standing on its hind legs and greeting its owner at the door, and has been engineered to "mature" over time like a real dog. It also offers a web-based interface that lets you program custom actions. The units have a suite of sensors and respond to voice and touch, and can even recognize specific people, so they're ideal as emotional support devices. That means they can sub in at facilities that don't allow real animals, so the program seems like a good use of older units — while also reducing e-waste. 

The latest WhatsApp beta contains a new screen called Third-party chats that may allow it to work with other messaging apps, WaBetaInfo has reported. While the page is blank, its presence could signal that WhatsApp is getting such a feature ready in order to comply with the European Union's Digital Markets Act (DMA). 

In July, the EU announced that seven tech giant "gatekeepers" with over $7.5 billion in turnover — Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, TikTok owner ByteDance, Meta, Microsoft and Samsung — must comply with all of the EU's new digital market rules. A key tenet of the DMA is that gatekeepers are prohibited from favoring their own services and must allow interoperability with third parties. Last week, the EU Commission designated key apps subject to the rules, including Meta's messaging apps, WhatsApp and Messenger. 

That means Meta must make WhatsApp work with other third-party messaging apps like Signal and Telegram starting in March 2024. That will allow users of those apps to contact people on WhatsApp, even if they don't have a WhatsApp account — though WhatsApp users will supposedly be able to opt out. There's no news yet about what kind of features will be available with cross-messaging, though end-to-end encryption will supposedly be preserved, according to WaBetaInfo. 

Apple's iMessage app isn't (yet) one of 22 key services mentioned under the DMA, so Google's dream of having Apple support RCS messaging may not happen soon. However, the App Store will be impacted. Apple is reportedly set to allow third-party app stores and sideloading in iOS 17, and both Microsoft and Epic Games are preparing their own stores for iOS mobile apps. We're likely to learn more about that tomorrow evening (September 12th) at Apple's iPhone 15 event, when it will take the wraps off of iOS 17.  

Amazon’s iRobot just released a pair of budget-friendly robo-vacs to suit modest cleaning tasks, but it’s been a while since the flagship J7+ vacuum got a refresh. Well, the wait is over. The company announced presales for the forthcoming J9+ line of vacuums, and these high-end appliances boast plenty of nifty features for those who absolutely hate manually pushing a vacuum or mop around.

The J9+ is available in two versions, which is normally the case with modern Roomba devices. There’s the traditional vacuum-only J9+ and the Roomba Combo J9+ that mops in addition to sucking up dirt. The latter ships with a redesigned fill dock that automatically empties debris and replenishes the robot with mopping liquid, removing yet another manual cleaning step so you can get back to the important work of clearing out that Netflix queue.

These robots are more powerful than ever before, with an amped-up motor designed to “tackle dirt, pet fur and debris with unmatched precision.” The four-stage cleaning system provides multiple passthroughs and the newly-added dual rubber brushes take the suction power up a notch, in addition to allowing for pressurized scrubbing when necessary. The Combo J9+ features a motor that automatically lifts the mop pads when vacuuming carpets and rugs to avoid moisture leakage.

The hardware updates are well and good, and certainly useful, but it’s the software that provides the lion’s share of new features. These Roombas ship with OS 7, which looks to take automation and efficiency to the next level. The software boasts a tool called Dirt Detective that uses a proprietary algorithm to keep track of previous cleaning tasks to assess the dirtiest parts of the home, prioritizing those locations accordingly. In other words, it’ll start with the dirtiest rooms and move on from there.

The Combo J9+ goes a step further, and Dirt Detective will force the vacuum and mop to clean the bathroom last, no matter how dirty it is. This means that the vacuum won’t be tracking gross bathroom stuff throughout the rest of the home. If you want a more hands-on approach, you can use the app to manually select the navigation route through your house.

Other software improvements include the SmartScrub feature that ensures the Combo J9+ makes multiple passes through certain parts of the home, like the kitchen, when mopping. It’ll even boost the scrubbing power in these locations to eliminate dirt and stains. This also works in the other direction, so the vacuum will scrub less in cleaner areas to protect hardwood flooring and the like.

The Roomba J9+ and the Combo J9+ are available for preorder today from iRobot and tomorrow from third-party retailers, with shipments going out sometime during the fall. The vacuum-only J9+ costs $900 and the Combo J9+ costs $1,400. As for OS 7, it’s coming to other Roomba models beyond the J9+, but the company hasn’t said which ones.

In the future, when you need someone's help to get a task done, you might find yourself launching the Uber app on your phone. According to Bloomberg, the company is exploring the possibility of offering a new TaskRabbit-like service. Developer Steve Moser found code hidden within Uber's iPhone app for an offering that's reportedly codenamed "Chore." Based on its current iteration, Chore will let you hire "taskers" and will let you specify in the app what you need help with, how long you think it would take and what time you want the tasker to arrive. 

Of course, you'll be able to input the address of where you want the person to go before you submit your request. Uber will then compute a payment that's commensurate with the time required to finish the task, but you will have to pay for a minimum of one hour no matter what it is. Bloomberg says the code Moser unearthed didn't have hints on what types of help you can ask from providers, but the potential service's rival TaskRabbit has a wide range of categories to choose from. These include cleaning, furniture assembly, electrical help, plumbing, TV mounting, packing and moving, snow removal, computer assistance, pet sitting and even senior care. 

Like any other unconfirmed feature still in development, though, Chore may not even make it to public release. If it does, it'll be a huge new undertaking for Uber, which is known for its ride-hailing and restaurant delivery services. Over the past months, Uber rolled out Carshare, which lets users borrow cars from private owner, to more locations as part of its efforts to become a zero-emission platform by 2040. It also started testing a toll-free number — 1-833-USE-UBER (1-833-873-8237) — that you can call to schedule an immediate or a future ride.

Online game platform and creation toolset Roblox will finally be available on PlayStation in October, as announced at the 2023 Roblox Developers Conference (RDC) earlier today. The title is coming to the PS5, of course, but also the PS4 for those who have yet to make the leap to next-gen. As always, it’ll be free to download.

Roblox was already available on just about every other platform, including PC, Mac, iOS, Android and Xbox, though it's still not available for the Switch. CEO David Baszucki did mention the Switch alongside the PlayStation as potential platforms during an August earnings call, as reported by The Verge, so it could eventually launch on Nintendo’s hybrid console. Or, maybe, the company will wait for the long-rumored Switch successor. The company has stated that the VR version of Roblox will officially launch for the Meta Quest platform later this month, after a successful test run.

As for the PlayStation releases, the company promises that Sony fans will be able to access “the full catalog of Roblox experiences”, indicating a robust cross-platform toolset. In other words, you should be able to download it and jump right into your favorite creations. Why did a PlayStation release take so long? It may have been Sony’s doing, as a document surfaced last year indicating that the console maker didn’t want Roblox due to child safety concerns.

The company also used RDC to announce some nifty innovations for the service, beyond wider availability. It unveiled its own version of video chat that incorporates your Roblox avatars for one-on-one conversations with other users. 

The company also announced a new chatbot called Roblox Assistant that uses generative AI to help plan builds, write code, create virtual assets and more, according to The Verge. In a demo of the feature, the company showed off someone typing in that they wanted a game set in some ancient ruins. The assistant automatically dropped in some stones, moss-covered columns and even broken architecture. Another example had a player asking for some trees to chop down, and the program followed suit. The software pulls assets from its own marketplace or your personal library. This looks to be a fantastic use of generative AI that takes the drudgery out of making your own Roblox builds. Both the chatbot and video call feature should roll out in the next few months.

Labor Day sales have ended, Amazon's next Prime-related sale isn't until October and Apple won't announce new products (and likely discount older ones) until next week. In this in-between time, there are still a few worthy deals out there for those looking to save some coin on new tech. Some of our recommended Anker hubs and chargers are seeing up to 50 percent discounts while KitchenAid stand mixers are hitting the lowest prices we've seen this year. Disney+ Basic plans are just $2 for the next three months and Amazon's Fire TV Stick 4K Max is 51 percent off. Apple's AirPods Pro and the 15-inch MacBook Air have both returned to their all-time lows and Samsung's still-brand-new Galaxy Z Fold 5 is $300 off. Here are the best tech deals from this week that you can still get today.

Disney+ Basic

If you cancelled your Disney+ streaming service, or have yet to give it a go, you can get the Basic plan for $2 per month for three months. The deal runs though September 20 and only applies to subscribers in the US. Basic is the company's ad-supported tier, typically $8 a month, which means you'll save a total of $18 over the course of the promo. The deal comes just as Disney prepares to raise the prices of its ad-free subscriptions, with Disney+ Premium jumping by $3 to $14 monthly on October 12th. Hulu's ad-free plan will also go up by $3 per month to $18. If you want both ad-free services, you can opt for the new Duo Premium, a bundle that combines both top-tier plans into a single $20-per-month package.  

Apple AirPods Pro

Apple's AirPods Pro are back on sale for $199 at Amazon and Walmart. That matches the lowest price we've seen for these yet and both retailers have offered this deal quite a few times lately. That could have something to do with Apple's upcoming iPhone event next week, during which we anticipate the announcement of AirPods Pro with USB-C charging cases, instead of Lightning. The charging port may be the only difference, but if you want to wait until the 12th to make your decision, that's understandable. In any event, we think the current generation of the AirPods Pro are the best companion for iPhone users and gave the buds a solid 88 in our review when they came out last September.  

Anker sale

As part of a larger Anker sale at Amazon, the 332 USB-C Hub is nearly half price, down to $18 instead of the $35 list price. There's even a clickable $2 coupon that'll make it even cheaper. It has an HDMI port that'll output 4K video at a 30Hz refresh rate, two data-and-power USB-C ports and two USB-A ports. It taps into the host with a built-in USB-C cable and can support pass-through charging to deliver up to 85 watts to your laptop as you use it. 

Also on sale is the Anker 313 Wireless Charging Stand, which we like as a budget option in our wireless charging guide. Its list price is $20, but the sale brings it to just over $15. Keep in mind it doesn't come with a power adapter brick and tops out at 10W for Android phones and 5W for iPhones. But you aren't likely to find a reliable stand-and-charger combo for less. One last device to note is Anker's USB-C Nano II 735 Charger, which is 15 percent off for the sale. After some extensive testing, we named this the best 65W charger you can buy. It's got three ports, a compact size and performed admirably when juicing up smartphones, laptops and a gaming handheld. 

Samsung monitor sale

One of our favorite monitors under $200, Samsung's T35F, is on sale right now as part of larger Samsung monitor sales at both Amazon and B&H Photo. The T35F is down to $129 at Amazon and $130 at B&H Photo, which is within a dollar of the all-time low price we've tracked. The 27-inch, 1080p display is ideal for work and light gaming, with a 75Hz refresh rate and an IPS panel that gives better color accuracy, picture quality and viewing angles than cheaper panel types.   

Kitchen Aid sale

A few different KitchenAid appliances are on sale at Amazon this week, including our top pick for a cordless immersion blender, the KitchenAid Cordless Variable Speed Hand Blender. It's now $80 as opposed to its typical $100. The stick is easy to use, has a built-in safety switch and instead of discrete speed settings, the 180-watt motor adjusts with a squeeze of the trigger. 

If you've been thinking about a new stand mixer, today might be the time to buy as most colors of KitchenAid's Artisan series tilt-head Stand Mixers are seeing some sort of discount, putting many at the $380 mark, which is the lowest price we've seen so far this year. This particular mixer is one of the gadgets we recommend in out kitchen tech guide because it's durable, powerful and works with a huge array of attachments. Plus it looks pretty stylish on a countertop. The mixers are also on sale directly from KitchenAid. 

Xbox Wireless Controllers

If you worry you might wear out your gamepad playing Starfield, now might be a good time to pick up a spare. The Xbox Wireless Controller is down to $45 at Microsoft right now. That's a dollar more than they went for two weeks ago at Walmart and Amazon, and about $6 more than the all-time low during last year's Black Friday sales. Its a comfortable enough controller, with a dedicated share button and connectivity that's fairly speedy with Xboxes, Windows PCs and Android devices. It uses AA batteries instead of a rechargeable battery pack, though you can buy one separately for $25. 

If you want a rechargeable gamepad and lots of extra features, check out Microsoft's Xbox Elite Wireless Controller Series 2, which is down to $140 at the Xbox site and at Amazon. That's just $2 more than its all-time low. It features adjustable-tension joysticks, a charging dock, four swappable paddles and extra thumbsticks.  

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5

Saumsung's new foldable, the Galaxy Z Fold 5 is currently $300 off at Amazon, bringing it down to $1,500 instead of $1,800. That's certainly not cheap but still a pretty early discount, as the phone only came out last month. In his Engadget review, Sam Rutherford questions whether Samsung is squandering its head start in the foldable space, with a phone that's not terribly different from its predecessor. But Sam nevertheless appreciated one of the more noticeable upgrades, the Flex Hinge, which creates a much thinner profile when the phone is folded, helping the phone to fit better in your hand and open more smoothly than before. You also get a brighter screen, improved battery life and better performance that makes game graphics look "downright silky."

Samsung's other new foldable, the smaller Galaxy Z Flip 5 is also on sale, but only in the higher-capacity 512GB size. That phone is down to $920 instead of the $1,120 list price. It's our current favorite foldable for multitasking in our smartphone guide and it earned an 88 in our review. 

Apple Watch Series 8

The Apple Watch Series 8 is on sale at Amazon again, down to $310 for the 41mm model in Midnight and (Product)Red colorways. That's not quite the rock-bottom $280 the smartwatch sold for during Prime Day in July, but it's the lowest price we've tracked outside of that sale. The Series 8 is our current favorite smartwatch overall because it combines a slew of helpful health and fitness tools with useful apps, customizable features and, naturally, excellent integration with your iPhone. Of course, the sale may be in response to Apple's upcoming iPhone event, in which we expect the company to announce at least two new Apple Watches. 

Apple 15-inch MacBook Air M2

The 15-inch MacBook Air Laptop with the M2 chip is still just $1,099 for the entry-level configuration at both Amazon and at B&H Photo. Apple's latest laptop has fallen to this price a few timesbefore, and it matches the all-time low. The 15-inch screen represents a bigger version of the already-great MacBook Air, but as Engadget's Nathan Ingraham said in his review, the extra real estate helps to make the most of the M2's processing power and makes it "one of the best Apple laptops" he's used in a long time. This model comes with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. If you need more room and opt for the 512GB capacity model, that's also $200 off at Amazon and B&H, putting it at $1,299, also an all-time low.   

Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Max

Along with a couple other Amazon Fire TV streaming devices, the 4K Max stick is on sale right now. It's down to $27, which is a 51 percent discount and just $2 more than it sold for during Prime Day. Two other streaming dongles are also on sale: the standard, HD-compatible Fire TV Stick is down to $25 instead of $40, and the set-top Fire TV Cube is down to $120 as opposed to $140.

The 4K Max has speedy loading and response times and can show you live feeds of your smart cameras and doorbells with a picture-in-picture view. It also supports Wi-Fi 6 and bakes Alexa's help right into the remote. 

Crucial MX500 1TB SSD

Crucial's MX500 1TB SSD is our favorite 2.5-inch SATA drive in our guide to the best SSDs and right now its 52 percent off at both Amazon and directly from Crucial. It delivers excellent performance, with sequential read speeds of 560MB/s and is a great value at its $85 list price. At just $48, that value gets even better. Another pick from the same guide, Samsung's 970 EVO Plus iTB SSD, is also on sale, currently down to $50, which matches its lowest all-time price. We thing that one is a good choice for people buying their first Gen3 NVMe drive. 

Razer BlackWidow V3 Mini HyperSpeed 

In our guide to 60 percent keyboards, we named the Razer BlackWidow v3 Mini HyperSpeed the best option for a model with arrow keys. Right now Amazon is selling it for half price, making it $90 and the lowest price so far. Extra arrow keys make it a 65 percent keyboard instead of a 60 percent, but it's still compact enough to give you room on your desk. You can buy it with one of two switch types: clacky and tactile or liner and silent. Unfortunately, the linear model isn't seeing the same deep discount as the tactile version, with just a 27 percent off sale. 

Mophie Powerstation Pro AC

Mophie's Powerstation Pro AC is one of our favorite accessories for MacBooks and its currently down to the lowest price we've seen yet. Typically $200, the sale brings it to $172. In addition to Two USB-C ports and a USB-A slot, it includes an AC outlet so you can power non-USB items like printers, lights or other peripherals. The massive 27,000 mAh battery translates to about 100 watt hours, which is the maximum allowed in your airplane carry-on (keep in mind spare lithium ion batteries are not allowed in checked luggage in any size). In our tests, the Pro AC boosted a 16-inch MacBook Pro from 10 percent to 75 percent in just under 90 minutes, and that's while the laptop was under heavy use. 

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It’s one thing to build a LEGO replica of the Millennium Falcon or something, but rival Mega Bloks just kicked it up a notch. The company’s releasing a 3:4 scale replica of the Xbox 360, complete with the console itself, a controller, and copy of Halo 3. That’s right. You can actually build your own version of Master Chief’s 2007 adventure, as originally spotted by Twitter/X user Wario 64.

Though this is obviously a non-functioning unit, it sounds like a great time for anyone with fond memories of rushing home to open up their launch-era Xbox console. It has a removable hard drive, working lights, an interactive interior and a moving disc drive. Mega says there are even more easter eggs for true Xbox die-hards, suggesting that something happens when you insert the fake Halo 3 disc into the fake disc drive.

The kit includes nearly 1,400 pieces, so the build should take a while, allowing you to revel in the halcyon glow of the mid 2000s. Mega Blok says this set is for ages 18 and up. It releases on October 8 and costs $150, which is half as much as a bare-bones Xbox 360 cost back in 2005. This isn’t the first gaming-themed building set by Mega Blok. In the past, it’s released sets based on Assassin's Creed and World of Warcraft, among others.

While it's debatable if the Xbox 360 was Microsoft’s crowning console achievement, it was certainly the company‘s most popular system to-date. The 360 sold 85 million units throughout its run and had a truly impressive games catalog, from the first two Gears of War entries to the Mass Effect trilogy. The console also saw the release of Skyrim, GTA IV, Halo 3 and a whole bunch of Call of Duty games. Did we mention Crackdown, Alan Wake and Bioshock? It was a good time to be a gamer.

For Samsung, bigger is often better. The company led the way in popularizing the gigantic smartphones most of us now use, so it’s no surprise that it’s also made some shockingly large tablets recently. In this year's Galaxy Tab S9 series, there are 11- and 12.4-inch models that line up well with Apple's two iPad Pros. And then there's the $1,200 Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra, a 14.6-inch behemoth that's nonetheless thin and light for its size.

Android tablets have long been a tough sell, thanks to the fact that relatively few developers bother to optimize their apps for larger screens. And tablets this big are not exactly easy to hold, either. Those facts have been top of mind as I tried to figure out who, if anyone, should buy the S9 Ultra. Despite my skepticism, Samsung's mammoth of a tablet did manage to surprise me with its utility in a few specific cases.

Hardware

When I pulled the S9 Ultra out of its box, I was immediately struck by its svelte footprint – it’s only 0.21 inches thick and weighs 1.6 pounds. In usual Samsung fashion, the tablet feels impeccably solid and well-made. Sure, it's just a big slab of glass and metal, but what can Samsung reasonably be expected to do to innovate here? The tablet form factor is pretty settled at this point. What's most important is that Samsung made the device so thin without it feeling fragile.

That's backed up by the S9 Ultra's IP68 water- and dust-resistance certification; Samsung says this is its first Galaxy S tablet with that rating. It was a pretty big deal when companies started making water-resistant phones, but it feels a lot less necessary here. That said, if you want to watch movies in your bathtub, you can feel secure that you won't immediately destroy your tablet if it takes a dip in the water with you.

The S9 Ultra is dominated by its huge 14.6-inch AMOLED touchscreen. With a 2,960 x 1,848 resolution and a 16:10 aspect ratio, it’s great for watching movies but far too tall to comfortably use in portrait mode. That quibble aside, it looks outstanding, with extremely bright, vibrant colors and a refresh rate of up to 120Hz. It also supports HDR10+, which can make watching movies even more stunning. Samsung is well known for its mobile displays, and the one on the S9 Ultra is another exceptional offering.

Samsung managed to fit excellent speakers into the S9 Ultra as well, making it a great overall option for watching movies and shows while you're, for example, sitting in isolation with Covid. I don’t know how companies are able to make such solid speakers in super-thin devices, but I’m glad it’s becoming commonplace on higher-end tablets like this and the iPad Pro.

There are a few other minor things to note about the S9 Ultra. You’ll find a pair of front-facing cameras on the long edge of the display: one standard and one ultrawide, both with 12-megapixel sensors. There’s a tiny notch in the screen to make room for them – it’s small, and I mostly forgot about it, but it’s there. On the back are a 13-megapixel standard camera and an 8-megapixel ultrawide option. The front cameras worked well for a handful of Google Meet calls I took on the device, and the back ones are serviceable as well. But tablet photography is ridiculous, even more so with a device this large. As I always say, just use the phone in your pocket.

Also on the back is a magnetic strip that holds and charges the included S Pen stylus. It’s not the most intuitive place to store the S Pen, and it’s not the easiest target to find when you’re retrieving the pen or putting it back. But I got used to it pretty quickly and the stylus reliably stayed attached to the back of the S9 Ultra.

Tablet mode

Photo by Nathan Ingraham / Engadget

Since the S9 Ultra doesn’t come with a keyboard case, I first set out to use the massive device as a pure tablet. This… was not my favorite experience. But first, some positives: the S9 Ultra’s screen is outstanding, as are the speakers, which made a great portable movie theater. And the S9 Ultra’s aspect ratio meant most content I watched filled almost the entire display.

The S9 Ultra is well-equipped for more intense tasks than watching movies. its Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor (paired with 12GB of RAM on the model I tested) is powerful enough for basically everything I tried. Running Adobe Lightroom was a pretty great experience, as there’s plenty of room for the various tools on one side and a huge, detailed preview of everything you’re doing on the other. Samsung doesn’t offer any battery life estimates, but I got well over 11 hours of use in tablet mode, and the device lasted days on standby. Unless you’re using it for hours every single day, you won’t have to charge it too often.

Another use case for the S9 Ultra is as an artist's canvas. The S Pen is an excellent stylus, and Samsung has years of experience tuning its performance. The S Pen is incredibly responsive – the company says latency has been reduced to 2.8 milliseconds, and I certainly felt no lag while testing it. I’m no visual artist, so I haven’t been able to really push the limits of what the S Pen and various Android software can do, but the combo of a low-lag pen and the S9 Ultra’s massive screen make it a powerful tool for visual artists, provided you can find the right software.

Unfortunately, the sheer size and width of the S9 Ultra means it wasn’t the best for other content consumption. First off, the tablet clearly wasn’t designed to be used in portrait mode – it’s just too tall. This is a problem I’ve found with other Android tablets that use similar aspect ratios, but most of those had smaller screens that are a little more manageable. That’s not the case here, and it just feels downright odd to use – elements at the top are too far away to comfortably interact with.

Things are marginally better in landscape mode, but the main issue with the S9 Ultra is the fact that there still aren’t a lot of Android apps suited to such large screens. Some apps (like Instagram) would only open in portrait orientation, while others like Slack simply have too much wasted white space. Google has done a great job of making its own apps look pretty great on tablets, and a handful of other key apps I use like Spotify and Todoist are also well adapted. But the S9 Ultra just isn’t designed for things most people use tablets for like browsing, messaging, sending emails, playing games and so forth. If that’s what you’re interested in, the 11-inch Galaxy Tab S9 will be a more comfortable device to use that also costs less. The S9 Ultra is proudly a niche device and you’ll want to know exactly how to use it before buying one.

Dex mode

My experience with the S9 Ultra changed once I paired it with Samsung’s $200 “Book Cover Keyboard Slim” and a Bluetooth mouse and started running the tablet in Dex mode. This completely changes the interface from the touch-focused Android UI to something more like Windows or Chrome OS.

Dex mode reminded me a lot of using a Chromebook. There’s a navigation bar at the bottom that shows any open app, and you can pin things there to get back to them quickly. As this is an Android tablet, all the apps you have access to here come from the Google Play Store or Samsung’s own app store. Historically, the main issue with Android tablets is how few Android apps are built to take advantage of bigger screens, and that’s still the case now.

But, since Dex lets you resize any app, you can make things fit properly in windows without wasting space. For example, the Slack app still doesn’t have a left-hand sidebar on Android, unlike on desktop or iPadOS. That’s annoying, but at least I can make Slack narrower, like a phone-sized app that doesn’t have a ton of wasted white space. And apps that do have multi-column interfaces, like basically all of Google’s first-party software, are downright pleasant to use.

Photo by Nathan Ingraham / Engadget

My main complaint with the S9 Ultra in Dex mode is the fact that Chrome for Android isn't quite as capable as the desktop version. That lets you use extensions, has more features and more reliably renders sites the way you’d expect. Most things render well, but you may also end up getting tossed into a version of the site designed for mobile phones, not huge tablets. But one unexpected bright spot was discovering that I could run the full web version of Slack in Chrome, an experience that's a lot better than using the Android app.

Battery life is a bit worse in Dex mode, which wasn’t a huge surprise given how many apps I was quickly jumping between. The tablet lasted for around six hours when I was using it as my full-time work device – not terrible, but worse than a lot of similarly-priced laptops.

Photo by Nathan Ingraham / Engadget

Wrap-up

Despite the number of intriguing use cases I found for the S9 Ultra, it’s a niche device that won’t make sense for most people, largely because of the price. That’s not a bad thing; niche devices exist for a reason, and some people will be well-served by this massive tablet. But $1,200 for the S9 Ultra (plus $200 for the keyboard case, or $350 if you want an integrated trackpad) is a ton of money to spend unless you have very specific ideas on how you’ll use this tablet. It doesn’t make sense for me, as I prefer a smaller tablet that I can easily use handheld and then drop into a keyboard case for getting work done. Still, for some, the combo of Dex mode, a keyboard and the S9 Ultra’s big, beautiful screen might make sense.

Most people would be better off spending their money on a different device, though. As impressed as I am with Dex, you can easily get a laptop that can run far more software for less money. And while I think the iPad is a better choice for most people looking for a tablet, those who prefer Android should consider Samsung’s own 11- and 12.4-inch Galaxy Tab S9 and S9+, as they offer basically the same specs, high-quality design and excellent screens for less cash. But if you’re interested in having a massive tablet with a great stylus and solid productivity chops, the S9 Ultra might be worth opening your wallet for.

Apple has released a critical iOS 16 security update for iPhones and iPads to patch a particularly malicious bug that could allow a hacker to take over your device with no action on your part. The "zero-click, zero-day" exploit allows attackers to install NSO Group's Pegasus spyware, which could let them read a target's text messages, listen in on calls, pilfer and transmit images, track their location and more. 

The exploit (referred to as "Blastpass") was first discovered by Citizen Lab, which immediately disclosed it to Apple. It was reportedly used to install Pegasus onto the iPhone of an employee from a Washington DC-based organization. It's capable of compromising devices running the latest 16.6 version of iOS "without any interaction from the victim," the group wrote. 

Apple has released iOS 16.6.1 to counter the vulnerability, stating simply that "a maliciously crafted attachment may result in arbitrary code execution." In addition, Citizen Lab even advised "all at-risk users to consider enabling Lockdown Mode as we believe it blocks the attack." It's believed that the attack involved PassKit (an SDK that allows developers to put Apple Pay in their apps), hence the Blastpass name, along with malicious images sent by iMessage. For obvious reasons, Citizen Lab didn't release any other details. 

Lockdown mode is a recent iOS feature designed to severely restrict the functions of Apple devices and is aimed at a "very small number of users who face grave, targeted threats to their digital security," Apple has stated. The company has faced a number of threats of late, including a vulnerability from February 2023 that "may have been actively exploited," Apple said at the time. 

The exploit also brings Pegasus back into the news, following a ban by the Biden administration earlier this year. Developed by the Israel-based cyber-arms company NSO Group, it created a furor after it was used by multiple nations to spy on journalists, activists and others. In one notorious case, it was reportedly used by Saudi Arabia to spy on journalist Jamal Kashoggi, who was later murdered in Turkey.