Binance's chief communications officer says hackers used a deepfake of his image in Zoom calls to scam cryptocurrency executives. Patrick Hillmann claims the hackers successfully duped crypto project representatives into thinking he would help their tokens get listed on Binance's exchange.
In a blog post spotted by Bitcoin News, Hillmann wrote that the scammers built the deepfake based on his interviews and TV appearances. Hillmann learned about the deception after receiving messages thanking him for discussing listing opportunities. However, he said he didn't meet with any of those people and that he's not involved in Binance's listing process.
"This deepfake was refined enough to fool several highly intelligent crypto community members," Hillmann wrote. It's not clear how many crypto projects were affected by the scam or how much the folks behind them may have paid for the promise of a Binance listing. Binance doesn't have a set figure for listing fees. It asks projects to propose a number they're comfortable with and donates fees to charity.
Hillmann notes that Binance has stringent cybersecurity rules. Still, that won't stop hackers from trying to impersonate its workers. "There’s been a recent spike in hackers pretending to be Binance employees and executives on platforms such as Twitter, LinkedIn, Telegram, etc," Hillmann wrote. Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao recently warned that there are around 7,000 purported profiles of the company's employees on LinkedIn, but only around 50 are real.
It's not the first time criminals have impersonated executives with the help of technology. In 2019, a scammer pretended to be the CEO of an unnamed company by using artificial intelligence to mimic that person's voice. They asked the head of a subsidiary to transfer $243,000 to a supplier. Of course, that money never arrived at its intended destination.
Last year, someone used a deepfake of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny's chief of staff to dupe politicians in the Netherlands into having a video call with them. Facebook took down a deepfake of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in March, shortly after Russia invaded his country.
Senate and Congressional committee leaders from both sides of the aisle are looking into claims from Twitter's former security chief that the platform has “extreme, egregious deficiencies” in terms of protections against attackers. Famed hacker Peiter "Mudge" Zatko, who took over Twitter's security division in 2020 and left the post in January, accused the company in a whistleblower complaint of having questionable cybersecurity defenses and weak measures to fend off spam. Zatko also claimed the company violated the terms it agreed with the Federal Trade Commission to settle a privacy dispute.
Democratic Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. and Republican Cathy McMorris Rodgers, the chair and ranking member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee respectively, say they are "assessing next steps" following the allegations, according to The Washington Post. They said the complaint underscores how important it is for Congress to protect people's data by passing consumer privacy legislation.
"The whistleblower’s allegations of widespread security failures at Twitter, willful misrepresentations by top executives to government agencies and penetration of the company by foreign intelligence raise serious concerns," Senate Judiciary Committee chair Dick Durbin wrote on Twitter. "If these claims are accurate, they may show dangerous data privacy and security risks for Twitter users around the world."
The offices of Durbin and the committee's ranking member Chuck Grassley said they've held early talks with Zatko. The Senate Intelligence Committee is also looking to set up a meeting with the whistleblower.
"Security and privacy have long been top company-wide priorities at Twitter," spokesperson Rebecca Hahn said, while claiming that Zatko's assertions are "riddled with inaccuracies." The company fired Zatko "for poor performance and leadership," Hahn said, adding that he "appears to be opportunistically seeking to inflict harm on Twitter, its customers and its shareholders."
Zatko has said he "felt ethically bound" to file the complaint as a member of the cybersecurity community. Given the bipartisan interest in Zatko's claims, the allegations could prompt Congress and the Senate to beef up cybersecurity legislation after several failed efforts to more strictly regulate the technology industry.
Additionally, Zatko's disclosure could play a role in Twitter's case against Elon Musk, who is trying to back out of a deal to buy the company. The two sides are set to go to trial in October.
BYD is one of more than 450 registered EV firms in China, all of which are competing for a slice of the world’s largest automotive market with future designs for the US and Europe as well. American ingenuity may have initially ushered in the EV era, but it’s been China’s relentless commoditization of the technology that has put the nation’s automakers at the forefront of the global electric vehicle race.
“Developing new energy vehicles is essential for China’s transformation from a big automobile country to a powerful automobile country,” Chinese President Xi Jinping said in 2014. “We should increase research and development, seriously analyze the market, adjust existing policy and develop new products to meet the needs of different customers. This can make a strong contribution to economic growth.” In China, so-called New Energy Vehicles (NEVs) are basically any plug-in electric (either hybrid or battery) which qualifies for financial subsidies from the government — specifically battery electrics, plug-in hybrids, and fuel cell EVs.
These efforts can also help China meet its Paris Accord carbon neutrality targets of a 20 percent reduction by 2035 and a 100 percent reduction by 2060 – lofty goals given it’s currently the world’s biggest emitter of carbon dioxide. These policies aim to reduce pollution in Chinese cities, reduce the nation’s reliance on imported oil, and “position China for global leadership in a strategic industry,” per a 2019 study by Columbia University.
The country’s central government has invested heavily over the past decade to spur growth in the NEV industry, leveraging a mix of policy, tax incentives and consumer subsidies. As of 2020, EVs must account for 12 percent of production for any company that manufactures or imports more than 30,000 vehicles in China (up from a 10 percent requirement the previous year). The government has also deeply subsidized consumers’ EV purchases with more than $14.8 billion since 2009, providing up to $3,600 for battery electric vehicles (BEVs) with more than 400 km range, though those rebates were first halved, then eliminated by 2021.
The government has also provided funding and standardization mandates for building out China’s charging infrastructure with a goal of 120,000 EV charging stations and 4.8 million EV charging stalls available by 2020. Local and municipal governments further incentivized EVs with discounts on licensing fees and preferential parking spots for NEVs.
“Emerging China EV companies are making a concerted effort to target the premium end of the local market and eventually abroad,” Deutsche Bank equity analyst Edison Yu told Forbes in July. “We are already witnessing intense domestic competition in the mass market from Leap Motor, Hozon Neta, WM Motor, BYD and numerous sub-brands from incumbent OEMs (GAC/Aion, BAIC/Arcfox, SAIC/R-brand). Newer entrants have shown willingness to absorb deep losses to quickly gain volume share.”
The Chinese EV market is currently dominated by five firms: Tesla comes in third surrounded by domestic automotive manufacturers BYD (27.9 percent market share), SGMW (10.1 percent), Chery (4.9 percent), and GAC (4.2 percent). Geely, which owns stakes in Volvo, Polestar and Lotus, didn’t crack the top five but its various brands did manage a record 2.2 million worldwide vehicle sales in 2021. XPeng and NIO are additional noteworthy brands, totaling 98,155 and 91,429 sales in 2021, respectively.
At the Boao Forum in 2018, President Jinping announced a raft of sweeping economic reforms designed to further open the nation’s markets, including an announcement to phase out existing limits on foreign ownership of automakers. The Policy for the Automotive Industry of 1994 contained a key provision that banned foreign business entities from owning more than 50 percent of a joint venture with a Chinese firm as well as from participating on more than two such ventures for any single vehicle type sold in the country — the so-called 50%+2 rule. Jinping’s reforms will see the 2-venture limit lifted in 2022 and the restriction on ownership share eliminated at the end of 2023.
Xinhua News Agency via Getty Images
This regulatory relaxation could have immense impact on the Chinese EV market, potentially increasing competition for domestic OEMs from an influx of international automakers hawking additional NEV brands and models. The rule change could also see foreign firms renegotiate their ownership stakes, potentially even fully buying out their Chinese partners, though as Sino Auto points out, that isn’t likely to happen in the immediate future as the existing joint ventures have an average remaining contract length of 19 years. Overall, the policy shift should give international firms a more even footing with local Chinese automakers.
That’s not to say that local firms won’t still enjoy a number of advantages. For one, switching costs associated with transitioning from internal combustion to electric drivetrains are largely non-existent because for many Chinese consumers, an EV will be their first vehicle. The local automakers also have a better handle on what their customers want, offering tech-laden, customizable EVs at a variety of trim levels (starting at literally $4,300) to tech-savvy, price sensitive, middle-class consumers.
SOPA Images via Getty Images
International auto companies will need to tread carefully around any number of hot button topics, freedom and privacy concerns, should they choose to do business in China. GM and BMW, for example, recently became embroiled in a dispute over accusations of forced labor usage in lithium mining in the Xinjiang region. Beijing denied the allegations, characterizing the report as “nothing but ill-intentioned smears against China,” per Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian in April. The US has since sanctioned individuals and companies involved in the Xinjiang operation. Lithium mined from the region is used in Tesla battery systems, among others.
Looking ahead, you’ll need to tilt your head back a bit as the Chinese EV market is expected to grow more than 30 percent by 2027. The government’s stringent emissions regulations and growing population are both expected to contribute to the expected demand growth. What’s more, “over the forecast period (2022-2027), the country may also witness growth in the adoption of electric buses,” a recent study from Mordor Intelligence notes. “More than 30 Chinese cities have made plans to achieve 100 percent electrified public transit in the near future.” That’s not even including the nation’s battery production capacity, which currently stands at roughly 59 percent of the global market. It too is expected to balloon 7.5 percent by 2027.
Aly Song / reuters
Given the robust domestic Chinese market, it may not be long before we see BYD or XPeng brands on American roads, much as they are on the streets of Europe. “I’d imagine it’s only a matter of time before we see more Chinese vehicles being sold in North America,” Morningstar analyst Seth Goldstein told Capital in February.
“Given that EVs are a new powertrain, this is an opportunity for Chinese automakers to establish brands in new geographies where, for years, with the internal-combustion engine, Chinese automakers tended to only sell vehicles in China,” he continued.
The question now is whether China can maintain its pole positioning. Just as Tesla was eventually overtaken by BYD despite enjoying a sizeable and lengthy initial lead, Chinese automakers find themselves in much the same position: on top of the heap, but for how long once the likes of GM and Ford come sniffing around with their deep pockets and expansive R&D budgets?
If you're a music maker, chances are you've signed up for a music distribution service like DistoKid, maybe you have a subscription to a sample depot like Splice, and even pay monthly for an instrument like Output's Arcade. LANDR is now bring all of those disparate tools together under one plan that also includes unlimited access to its well-regarded AI-powered mastering service.
LANDR Studio aims to be an end-to-end solution that can take your musical project through its entire journey from creation to release. For $20 a month, or $150 for the year you get 20 sample credits per month, access to the company's FX suite, its Chromatic sample instrument, DAW streaming and collaboration tools, three masters a month and unlimited distribution to services like Spotify and Apple Music.
Yearly subscribers also get a host of third-party VSTs from companies like Arturia, Audiothing, Cableguys and Baby Audio and get unlimited mastering. Even if you decide to pay month to month, those mastering credits roll over, so you can get 36 fully mastered tracks per year, which is probably more than enough for your average hobbyist.
There's also educational content available from Melodics and Groove 3 if you want to improve your keyboard or finger drumming skills. Plus, more courses are planned through partners like Ableton and Berklee College of Music. The company is clearly taking aim at Splice's Creator plans that come bundled with a pair of exclusive VSTs and a ton of educational videos.
All of these tools in one bundle is pretty attractive no matter what. And at the yearly price of roughly $12.50 a month it's a pretty decent bargain. While there are other services out there, like Splice, that offer at least some of these features, LANDR has undercut them on price (though, it does offer significantly fewer sample credits per month). And perhaps more importantly it's one of the few (maybe the only) such service that includes mastering.
When a company has been making headphones as long as Sennheiser has, you begin to expect certain things from it. In this case, that list includes class-leading sound quality and a comfy fit. What I don’t usually expect is jaw-dropping battery life and conveniences that typically only Sony manages to offer.
With the Momentum 4 ($350), Sennheiser has completely redesigned its flagship headphones, ditching trademark elements of the line for a more generic look. However, the company has also overhauled its active noise cancellation (ANC) and tossed in a few new features to make your life easier. On top of that, Sennheiser achieves a whopping 60 hours of listening time with ANC enabled, easily doubling what you’d get from competing sets.
Design
For the Momentum 4, Sennheiser completely abandoned the design it consistently used since the first model. I’m not handing the company a design award, but the metal sliding mechanism to adjust the fit gave these products a unique appearance whereas a lot of headphones tend to look the same. Now, Sennheiser has adopted an aesthetic that blends in with much of the competition.
Indeed, the mostly plastic Momentum 4 now has earcups that rotate flat for both storage and wearing them around your neck. The headphones no longer fold in on themselves before you dock them in their carrying case. The earpads are still a softer leather material with plenty of cushion, and the outside of the headband is wrapped in a woven fabric. The rest of the Momentum 4, though, is a lot of plastic. Meaning, it lacks the premium look of the previous models.
One thing I do like about the new design is the arc of the headband. A lot of headphones have a flatter curve, so they have a wide look. For someone like me with a big head, the straight-on appearance is a bit weird, and it reinforces that I have a huge noggin. That arc is slightly rounder on the Momentum 4, and the headband attaches to the top of the earcups rather than the outside. It’s probably not a massively important thing for most people, but this is one of the few headphone models where I noticed the difference in how they look when they’re worn.
Billy Steele/Engadget
Another big design change for the Momentum 4 are the on-board controls. Up through the Momentum 3, Sennheiser offered reliable physical controls that saved you from the awkward feeling of having to repeat a touch gesture in public. This time around, the company went with touch controls on the outside of the right ear cup. The standard options are all here: play/pause (single tap), skipping tracks in both directions (swipe forwards/backwards) and volume control (swipe up/down). You can also alternate between ANC and transparency mode with a double tap. As frustrating as touch controls can be on headphones, these work well and I don’t recall any instances where I looked silly swiping or tapping over and over.
There’s one additional gesture – a pinch – that’s used to adjust the level between noise cancellation and ambient sound. Instead of going from 100 percent of one to all out on the other, this pinch or reverse pinch transitions at certain intervals, so you get a bit of both. For me, this is unnecessary because I’m all or nothing when it comes to those two settings. I never want some of both. Either I want to hear what's going on around me or I don’t, so going from one straight to the other is no problem. I can appreciate the inclusion by Sennheiser, I just wonder how many people will use it – or remember it’s even there.
Billy Steele/Engadget
The lone physical button on the back edge of the right ear cup primarily summons your preferred voice assistant. It’s also the Bluetooth pairing and the manual power control. I specify manual here because the Momentum 4 will turn on when you take them out of the case or pick them up. They’ll also turn off automatically after sitting idle, if you have that feature enabled in the app.
Those auto power controls sound handy on paper, but I’d discover the headphones turn on when I moved them from one room to another, even if I didn’t put them on my head. There’s also this weird thing where if the headphones have automatically turned off, when I wake my MacBook Pro, they turn back on and reconnect just sitting on my desk. These frequent occurrences make what should be a handy feature rather annoying.
Between the lone physical button and the USB-C charging port, five white LEDs show battery level. When you get down to one lone red light, it’s time to find an outlet. They also pulse in sequence when the Momentum 4 is in pairing mode.
Software and features
Billy Steele/Engadget
Similar to other recent Sennheiser audio gear, the company’s Smart Control app offers access to all of the settings on the Momentum 4. Here, you can customize the sound with dedicated EQ sliders for bass, mid and treble and save anything you like as a preset. There are also pre-tuned Bass Boost and Podcast sound modes. For ANC, there’s a slider so you can decide on a mix of noise cancellation and ambient sound, or 100 percent of either one. You can also disable Sennheiser’s Adaptive ANC, a feature that automatically adjusts to environmental noise. There’s access to more granular features like Wind Noise Reduction level or setting the headphones to automatically pause when you activate transparency mode.
For calls, Sennheiser offers a tool called Sidetone. It’s a slider that gives you the ability to hear some of your voice so you end up yelling during conversations. You can set it between 0 and 100 percent, so it isn’t an all or nothing setting. Sidetone works much better than transparency mode alone, making calls much more enjoyable when you’re wearing headphones or earbuds.
Two of Sennheiser’s more advanced features require you to create an account in order to use them. I’m not a fan of companies doing this for headphone features, but I can also understand the need to do so when you’re dealing with things like location settings. First, Sound Zones will automatically adjust audio settings based on where you are. You can create up to 20 different ones, so when you arrive at the office or return home, the Momentum 4 changes to your preferred settings. Sony has been doing something similar for a while now, but Sennheiser debuted its take on it in March.
The other registration-required tool is Sound Check. This item helps you personalize the audio on the Momentum 4 with guidance on the best presets for the music you like to listen to. Sennheiser says you can use the feature repeatedly to create multiple modes for every genre, allowing you to get quite detailed in your customization.
Of course, the app gives you more basic things like battery percentage (in 10-percent increments) and connection management. A separate settings menu offers the ability to enable/disable on-head detection, automatic pausing and automatic power off. You can also choose between 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 60 minutes and never for when the Momentum 4 will automatically turn off if you’re no longer actively using them.
Sound quality
Sennheiser’s earbuds and headphones consistently offer some of the best sound quality among all of the products I test – and that’s especially true of the Momentum line. The company has a knack for balanced tuning that still offers punchy bass where it’s needed and superb clarity in the details. It’s no surprise, then, that the audio profile on Momentum 4 is stellar. There’s a decent amount of customization in terms of sound in Sennheiser’s app, but the default tuning is so good I rarely activated any of it.
The first thing that struck me is how deep the sound is. In terms of both low-end tone and overall depth, there’s a wide soundstage where different genres are free to roam. Whether it’s the staccato synths and pulsing bass line on Sylvan Esso’s “Echo Party” or the myriad elements dancing on top of the driving beat of Beyoncé’s “Alien Superstar,” everything sounds like it was placed in an actual space, rather than just being compressed sound waves streamed directly to your ears. Even when there’s a lot going on at once, like that Beyoncé track, you can still pick out each element. Nothing ever feels like it’s been smashed together.
The Momentum 4 are the kind of headphones that you put on and you discover new aspects of songs you didn’t realize were there. On Maggie Rogers’ “Want Want,” for example, there’s a lot of atmospheric airiness to some of the instruments that doesn’t come across on some other models or earbuds. Things like the textured distortion of the bass guitar or the reverb on the drums.
When it comes to ANC performance, Sennheiser has made a big improvement. The noise cancellation on previous models was fine, but it didn’t come anywhere close to what Bose and Sony offer on their flagship headphones. With the Momentum 4, Sennheiser has narrowed the gap, especially with constant noise sources like sound machines and dishwashers. Bose and Sony are still better at blocking unwanted clamor overall, but the change from the Momentum 3 is obvious once you try this new version.
Call quality
Billy Steele/Engadget
For calls, Sennheiser has equipped the Momentum 4 with two beamforming microphones per side. Much like the ANC, the headphones do a better job blocking constant noise during calls than things like background music or television. The person on the other end can still hear you loud and clear, it’s just obvious you’re talking over top of the roar. Your voice also sounds better than most headphones and earbuds overall, many of which offer the audio quality of a speakerphone rather than anything with a hint of mids and bass.
The Momentum 4 can automatically switch to transparency mode when you make a video or voice call. And coupled with Sidetone that lets you hear yourself speaking, these are a solid option for completing either of those tasks. Plus, multipoint connectivity means you can take a call on your phone and easily jump back to a podcast or music on your computer.
Battery life
Sennheiser promises a jaw-dropping 60 hours of battery life on the Momentum 4, and that’s with active noise cancellation enabled. That’s double what most of the competition offers, where a lot of premium models can typically only muster around 30 hours. Of course, sometimes those battery claims don’t always pan out. It’s not uncommon for a company to come up a few hours short. Incredibly, that’s not the case here.
Over the span of several days, which included powering the headphones off manually and letting them turn off on their own, I managed 57 hours of ANC use. Sennheiser says 60 hours is achievable at “mid volume level, but I kept the audio around 75 percent the entire time and still almost hit the company’s estimate. If, somehow, you find yourself in a pinch, there’s also a quick-charge feature that will give you four hours of playtime in five minutes.
The competition
Billy Steele/Engadget
Despite Sennheiser’s mix of stellar sound and insane battery life, the Momentum 4 doesn’t quite have enough to dethrone Sony’s WH-1000XM5. Sony simply offers more features, like automatic pausing when you start talking, though it's clear companies like Sennheiser are catching up with tools like location-based sound settings. The M5’s noise cancellation is better and Sony includes compatibility with its LDAC and 360 Reality Audio, on top of DSEE Extreme upscaling. Of course, the Momentum 4 has double the battery life and at full price Sennheiser’s offering is $50 cheaper.
I’m also a big fan of the Bowers & Wilkins Px7 S2. They offer more of a refined look than the Momentum 4, with impressive sound quality and better than advertised battery life. These are some of the only headphones I consider to rival Sennheiser in terms of audio. ANC works well and the Px7 S2 are plenty comfy to wear for long periods of time, but the headphones could use a little more polish with features like the ambient sound mode and customizable EQ. They’re also the same price as the M5, so Sennheiser is the more affordable option once again.
Wrap-up
The Momentum 4 is Sennheiser’s most complete set of headphones thus far. The company improved its ANC performance so it matches up better with the outstanding sound quality that was already a staple of the Momentum line. Conveniences like Sidetone, automatic pausing and Sound Zones make your life easier, but besides stellar audio, the main attraction here is the battery life. Sennheiser has doubled up much of the competition there and, perhaps even more impressively, has managed to do so while keeping noise cancellation active. The design is what it is, but everything else combines for a worthy contender.
The Pixel 6a is barely a month old, but that isn't stopping retailers from offering hefty discounts. Amazon is selling Google's budget Android phone at a new low price of $399 in Chalk, Charcoal and Sage colors. That's a $50 discount, and could make it an easy pick if you're looking for an affordable handset that still packs strong performance. The Pixel Buds lineup is still on sale, too, in case you're looking for matching wireless earbuds starting at $69.
Simply put, the Pixel 6a is one of the best mid-range phones around. It touts the same Tensor chip as the higher-end Pixel 6 and 6 Pro, and delivers excellent camera quality for its price class — it may feel more like a flagship device than a low-cost model. You can similarly expect an eye-catching (if polarizing) design and lengthy battery life. This is the phone to get if you want a 'pure' Android experience at the lowest possible price, or just prefer the 'small' 6.1-inch screen versus the larger displays of other Pixels or rivals like the Galaxy A53.
There are some sacrifices involved. The 60Hz refresh rate won't seem as buttery smooth as on other Pixels or the A53. You won't find wireless charging or more than 128GB of storage, either. And yes, Google dropped the headphone jack that was present on the 5a — you need a dongle if you prefer wired audio. The compromises are easier to accept with a sale like this, however, and the Pixel 6a is easily our pick for a North American phone under $500.
If you have an aging machine that could use a storage upgrade, or you need a new portable drive before the new semester begins, you can pick up many Crucial gadgets for less at Amazon right now. A slew of Crucial's internal and portable SSDs are up to 29 percent off, and that includes one of our favorites. The Crucial MX500 internal drive in 1TB is 24 percent off and down to $76, which is the best price we've seen. Also discounted are the Crucial P5 Plus SSD in 2TB, which is down to $226, and the X6 portable drive in 1TB, which is 25 percent off and down to $83.
Crucial's MX500 has been a favorite among Engadget staffers for quite some time. It has a standard 2.5-inch form factor, so it'll fit into many machines, and decent sequential read/write speeds of 560/510 MB/s. It also has 256-bit hardware-based encryption and integrated power loss immunity, which should protect your saved work if power gets cut off. The five-year warranty that it comes with is a nice perk as well.
The P5 Plus drive earned a spot on our list of storage options for the PlayStation 5 thanks to its 6,600 MB/s sequential reads and heatsink compatibility. It doesn't come with a heatsink by default, but you do have the option to add one to your order when you're buying from Amazon. The 2TB drive alone is on sale for $226 right now, but you can get it with a heatsink for only about $10 more.
As for external SSDs, Crucial's X6 is a good all-around solution for most people. It supports read speeds of up to 800 MB/s, works with a variety of devices including PC, Android, iOS gadgets and has a lightweight, pocket-friendly design. If you're willing to spend a bit more, you can get a speed upgrade by opting for the Crucial X8 drive, which supports read speeds up to 1,050 MB/s.The 1TB version of that drive will set you back $90 in this sale.
Throughout its first three generations, Samsung’s flagship foldable phone has made massive leaps and improvements. Simply putting together the original Fold with its flexible OLED screen was a triumph of engineering, even though it had some obvious flaws. Then on the Z Fold 2, Samsung got rid of the selfie notch, increased the size of the Cover Screen and redesigned the hinge to better withstand everyday wear and tear. And with the Z Fold 3, we got native stylus support and water resistance on a foldable for the first time.
But with the Galaxy Z Fold 4, it feels like Samsung has slowed down to polish the blueprint it's been revising over the years. We’re talking sharper cameras with a longer zoom, better battery life, a renewed focus on multitasking and more. So while it might not look all that different, the Z Fold 4 feels like it’s five to 10 percent improved across practically every metric. Yeah, it’s still kind of bulky, and with a starting price of $1,800, it's way more expensive than a typical glass brick. But that’s the tax you pay for a cutting-edge device that’s actually ready for the mainstream.
Design and durability
Weighing 263 grams or 9.28 American yeehaw units and measuring 15.8mm at its hinge when closed, the Z Fold 4 is less than 10 grams lighter and 1mm thinner than the previous model. That’s a difference that’s almost impossible to discern – even when holding both phones at the same time. But that doesn’t mean everything is the same.
The bezels and frame around the 6.2-inch Cover Screen have been trimmed down, allowing for a display that’s about 3mm wider than before. That might not sound like much, but it makes a big impact. Typing quick replies or searches on my Z Fold 3 often felt cramped, resulting in regular typos. But even without really increasing the Fold’s physical dimensions Samsung has improved the typing experience and cut back on mishits.
Sam Rutherford/Engadget
On top of that, the hinge is a bit flatter and thinner and the whole phone has slightly sharper edges, almost as if Samsung honed its design with a whetstone. And it’s a similar story on the inside, where the plastic bezels surrounding the 7.6-inch flexible OLED display have been trimmed down too. The effect is subtle, but everything is a bit sleeker and toned up, even though the phone is actually a touch wider than before. You still get a side-mounted fingerprint reader, which is fast and responsive and the best choice for this device until someone figures out how to make an under-screen sensor for flexible displays.
The Z Fold 4 sports Gorilla Glass Victus+ in front and back, along with the company’s signature Armor Aluminum alloy holding everything together. Samsung also says it has changed the construction of its flexible display to be 45 percent more durable than before, while the addition of new metal plates and sponges behind the display help prevent it from becoming mushy over time – not that it was really an issue on previous devices.
Sam Rutherford/Engadget
Of course, the one exception to the surprisingly rugged build on recent Folds’ is Samsung’s built-in screen protector, which once again comes with a warning on first boot that it should not be removed by anyone besides a certified technician. Now, I’ve been very open about the bubbling issues I’ve experienced on both my Z Fold 2 and Z Fold 3, and this remains one of my biggest concerns. This year, Samsung says it switched to a stickier adhesive and a new factory application process intended to prevent the screen protector from peeling away or bubbling prematurely. Naturally, I haven’t had time to see how this change will hold up over time, but you better believe I’m going to revisit this down the line.
Display
Next, let’s talk about the star of the show: the Z Fold 4’s display, or in this case displays. Both the 6.2-inch Cover Screen and the 7.6-inch main screen support a 120Hz adaptive refresh rate and excellent brightness. Using a light meter, I measured the Cover Screen hitting just shy of 700 nits on an all-white screen, while the interior display did even better at around 750 nits. And with Samsung claiming a peak brightness of over 1,000 nits, everything from games to movies just look better.
Sam Rutherford/Engadget
Honestly, this flexible main display is still the thing I like most about the Fold. You get a small vibrant screen on the outside that’s easy to use one-handed, so you can quickly look up directions or text a friend while walking around. Then when you have a chance to sit down, you can open up the phone to reveal a big and even more colorful display for all your productivity or entertainment needs. And all this comes on a device that easily fits in your pocket.
Yeah, there’s still a crease, and it’d be nice if it wasn’t there. But after using a Fold for even a short time, you stop caring about it and you start enjoying the screen for all of its strengths. When you want to bury yourself in a book, setting something like the Kindle app to display white text on a pure black background transforms the Fold 4's OLED screen into the best e-reader around. Comics arguably look even better thanks to rich, punchy colors. And because there’s so much screen space to utilize, you get room for immersive viewing in tight quarters like on the subway, or potent productivity if that’s what you need.
Sam Rutherford/Engadget
Before I forget, while it’s still easy to see when you’re looking for it, the new subpixel matrix on top of the Fold 4’s under-display-camera does an even better job of camouflaging its 4MP sensor. Just don’t expect a big upgrade in image quality, because this thing isn’t good for much more than showing your face during video calls.
Performance and software
When it comes to performance, there isn’t really anything that can bog the Z Fold down. Recent games like Diablo: Immortal and Warhammer 40,000: Lost Crusade run super smooth. Same goes for when you have three different apps on screen at the same time. It packs a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chip, up to 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage (or 1TB if your order direct from Samsung). And in tests, the Z Fold 4 even flexes on its little brother, with multicore scores in Geekbench 5 of 4,036 versus 3,441 for the S22 Ultra.
Sam Rutherford/Engadget
But more importantly, Samsung and its partners (like Google and Microsoft) continue to enhance the phone’s multitasking software thanks to expanded support for Flex mode and a platform based on Android 12L. Now if you’re scrolling through a news site like say Engadget, it's even easier to open a link in a new window without losing your place. And when the phone is half closed, apps like YouTube and Netflix automatically adjust their UI to better suit your orientation.
That said, my favorite improvement is the Fold 4’s redesigned taskbar, which now lives at the bottom of the screen and serves as a powerful extension of the traditional Android Home row. When you launch an app, the bottom row of icons cleverly shrinks and expands, giving you access to your Home Row, along with recently opened apps and any app pairs you may have created – all without taking up too much space.
Sam Rutherford/Engadget
And while they’re kind of hidden, if you dive into Samsung’s Labs in the Advanced setting menu, you can activate a number of even more helpful multitasking features and gestures. Take for example the two-finger swipe up from the bottom or sides of the screen that lets you instantly launch into split screen mode, which makes multitasking a cinch. Alternatively, if you want a more desktop-like approach, you can toggle on the multi-window menu option, which adds a little tab at the top of apps that holds another set of spilt screen options.
However, I must admit I’m not really a fan of Samsung’s new Flex Mode Panel, which presents a little laptop-like touchpad and some quick settings on the bottom of an app when the phone is half-open. It’s kind of clunky, and because some media apps like YouTube already have their own customized Flex Mode layouts, I’ve yet to encounter a situation where having a little mouse cursor is actually all that useful.
Sam Rutherford/Engadget
But that’s just one small swing and a miss, and for Samsung which is kind of plowing through uncharted territory with its attempts to add powerful multitasking features to a foldable phablet, one whiff among a bunch of handy hits is hardly something to get upset about.
Cameras
While the Z Fold 4 still can’t really hang with phones like the S22 Ultra or the Pixel 6 Pro, that gap isn’t nearly as big as it used to be. Not only do you get a new 10MP telephoto cam with a 3x optical zoom – up from 2x on the Z Fold 3 – there’s also a new 50MP main cam that catches 23 percent more light than before. That has a noticeable impact on low-light pics. And before I forget, there’s still a solid 12MP ultra-wide camera for capturing all your group shots and expansive landscapes.
Sam Rutherford/Engadget
At night details are crisper, with the Z Fold capturing a shot of the NYC skyline featuring soft, blurry lights on the buildings in the distance compared to a similar pic from the Pixel 6 Pro. And in another shot of some mangos at a fruit stand, the Fold 4 arguably captured better textures, though Samsung’s photo processing strumbled by picking a white balance that’s a bit too warm.
But if image quality is super important to you, phones like the Pixel 6 Pro still have an obvious advantage. Even in daylight where most every high-end phone can shoot a great photo nowadays, the Pixel 6 Pro captured sharper focus and richer detail than anything the Z Fold 4 could manage.
Battery Life
Sam Rutherford/Engadget
Remember when I said the Z Fold 4’s faster performance is hard to fully appreciate? Well, that may be true when it comes to processing power, but when it comes to energy efficiency, the improvement you get from the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chip is plain to see. On our local video rundown test, the Z Fold 4 posted a time of 17 hours and 13 minutes for its main screen, compared to 14:03 for last year’s Z Fold 3.
That’s more than solid for any smartphone, let alone a foldable with a huge main display. Alternatively, if for some reason you’re in a situation where you’re only using the Cover Screen all day, it did even better with a mark of 20:45. And when you need to refill, the Fold 4 still has 25-watt fast charging (which sadly is isn’t quite as speedy as the 45-watt charging you get on the S22 Ultra), 15-watt wireless charging and wireless power sharing for topping off other gadgets in need.
Wrap-up
When it comes to how you feel about the Z Fold 4, I think a lot of that depends on your opinion about foldables in general. There’s no denying that Samsung’s latest and greatest is still way bulkier than a standard smartphone, and at $1,800 it’s a lot more expensive too. And when you consider that its design is essentially the same as before, I doubt the upgrades included in this generation are really going to sway the naysayers. For current Z Fold 3 owners, it’s also kind of the same. The improvements are nice, but not really worth shelling out a bunch of money to upgrade after only a year.
But for people who have been tempted by a foldable that’s arguably the most powerful pocket-size multitasker you can buy right now, now there are even more reasons to consider diving in. The Z Fold 4’s cameras are better, its performance is faster and its battery life is even longer without Samsung actually increasing the size of the power cell inside. Also, thanks to new software, it feels like the Z Fold 4 is really starting to unlock the true potential for productivity on a handheld device. And we haven’t even talked about stylus support, which is just as handy as ever, and is only brought down by the lack of built-in storage for stashing an S Pen.
Sam Rutherford/Engadget
Do I wish Samsung had cribbed some of the fancy features seen on other high-end foldables from Vivo, Xiaomi and others? Yes, absolutely, and I won’t be surprised if we get some major design changes on next year’s offering. But as a total package, Samsung has tweaked and refined the Z Fold 4’s kit with just enough for it to retain its title as the flagship foldable phone to beat.
The gaming audio market has focused on headphones for years, leaving you to rely on familiar brands like Logitech and Klipsch if you prefer speakers. SteelSeries thinks it can shake things up, though. It's introducing its first desktop speaker line, Arena, and promising a few standout features aimed at gamers. The flagship Arena 9 (pictured at middle) is billed as the first gaming speaker setup to deliver 5.1-channel surround sound through USB. There's still a 3.5mm jack if you like, but you won't need a nest of wires to immerse yourself in games on a PC, Mac or PlayStation. You can expect synced RGB lighting, too.
All models also tout the first "pro-grade" parametric EQ aimed at gamers through the Sonar Audio Software Suite, SteelSeries claims. While we'd remain cautious about the company's boasts, this might prove useful if you're more interested in accurate-sounding explosions than nuanced music.
The other two Arena models aren't quite as elaborate, but could make more sense if price or desk space are concerns. The entry Arena 3 (shown at right) is a simple two-speaker offering with four-inch fiber cone drivers and Bluetooth audio support. Buy the 2.1-channel Arena 7 (left) and you'll get a subwoofer, optional USB audio and RGB lighting.
SteelSeries' speakers are available now with prices of $150 for the Arena 3, $330 for the Arena 7 and $600 for the Arena 9. You can also buy a $100 Arena Wireless Mic with a cardioid, noise-cancelling microphone to provide voice chat without donning a headset. None of these prices are trivial, but SteelSeries is clearly betting that you'll pay extra for speakers built more for Call of Duty than Claude Debussy.
Peiter "Mudge" Zatko, Twitter's former head of security, says the company has misled regulators about its security measures in his whistleblower complaint that was obtained by The Washington Post. In his complaint filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission, he accuses the company of violating the terms it had agreed to when it settled a privacy dispute with the FTC back in 2011. Twitter, he says, has "extreme, egregious deficiencies" when it comes to defending the website against attackers.
As part of that FTC settlement, Twitter had agreed to implement and monitor security safeguards to protect its users. However, Zatko says half of Twitter's servers are running out-of-date and vulnerable software and that thousands of employees still have wide-ranging internal access to core company software, which had previously led to huge breaches. If you'll recall, bad actors were able to commandeer the accounts of some of the most high-profile users on the website in 2020, including Barack Obama's and Elon Musk's, by targeting employees for their internal systems and tools using a social engineering attack.
It was after that incident that the company hired Zatko, who used to lead a program on detecting cyber espionage for DARPA, as head of security. He argues that security should be a bigger concern for the company, seeing as it has access to the email addresses and phone numbers of numerous public figures, including dissidents and activists whose lives may be in danger if they are doxxed.
The former security head wrote:
"Twitter is grossly negligent in several areas of information security. If these problems are not corrected, regulators, media and users of the platform will be shocked when they inevitably learn about Twitter’s severe lack of security basics.
In addition, Zatko has accused Twitter of prioritizing user growth over reducing spam by distributing bonuses tied to increasing the number of daily users. The company isn't giving out any bonuses directly tied to reducing spam on the website, the complaint said. Zatko also claims that he could not get a direct answer from Twitter regarding the true number of bots on the platform. Twitter has only been counting the bots that can view and click on ads since 2019, and in its SEC reports since then, its bot estimates has always been less than 5 percent.
Zatko wanted to know the actual number of bots across the platform, not just the monetizable ones. He cites a source who allegedly said that Twitter was wary of determining the real number of bots on the website, because it "would harm the image and valuation of the company." Indeed his revelation could factor into Twitter's legal battle against Elon Musk after the executive started taking steps to back out of his $44 billion takeover. Musk accused Twitter of fraud for hiding the real number of fake accounts on the website and revealed that his analysts found a much higher bot count than Twitter claimed. As The Post notes, though, Zatko provided limited hard documentary evidence regarding spam and bots, so it remains unclear if it would help Musk's case.
When asked why he filed a whistleblower complaint — he's being represented by the nonprofit law firm Whistleblower Aid — Zatko replied that he "felt ethically bound" to do so as someone who works in cybersecurity. Twitter spokesperson Rebecca Hahn, however, denied that the company doesn't make security a priority. "Security and privacy have long been top companywide priorities at Twitter," she said, adding that Zatko's allegations are "riddled with inaccuracies." She also said that Twitter fired Zatko after 15 months "for poor performance and leadership" and that he now "appears to be opportunistically seeking to inflict harm on Twitter, its customers, and its shareholders."
