Samsung's The Frame — the smart TV that looks like art when it's off — just hit a record low price. As part of Samsung Week, a deals event running through November 1st, the 55-inch Samsung Frame comes in at $998, which is hundreds lower than it was Prime Day a few weeks ago. While these sets are still on the expensive side when on discount, they're hard to beat if you want a TV that blends into your space better than a standard black box.
As a TV, the Frame delivers the vivid, high-res quality with a QLED 4K panel, along with the intuitive smart TV interface of Samsung's Tizen OS. But the real draw here happens when the TV is off. In Art Mode, The Frame displays images from an extensive gallery of artwork. Pick from classic oil paintings from artists you'd find in the Louvre or modern photography from rising stars. I have an earlier model of The Frame and have surprised more than one visitor when I switched my "art" to an episode of Owl House.
One caveat is you'll need a Samsung Art Store subscription (currently $8 per month) to access the entire collection, as only a small subset is available for display without it.
To really sell the idea that you're displaying art instead of a TV, The Frame comes standard with anti-reflective glass and a separate CPU to keep a low, flush-mounted profile. The CPU connects via a thin cable that's hard to spot, especially if you drop it behind the wall when mounting the TV.
Getting a sub-$1,000 price point on the 55-inch model was unheard of before now. And currently, all sizes, up through the massive 85-inch, are deeply discounted. If the Frame isn't your style, or you're looking for an outdoor-friendly TV, Samsung Week discounts have also knocked down the prices of the Terrace TV and even some of the company's projectors.
Duolingo isn't just about helping people learn languages anymore. The company has released Duolingo Math on iOS, over a year after it first teased the app. Naturally, Duolingo Math shares a lot of DNA with the language apps, including colorful animations and interactive exercises in bite-sized, gamified lessons.
There are two main components to the app: an elementary-level math curriculum that goes over classroom topics and a brain-training course aimed at adults, with more advanced topics and a focus on improving mental math skills. The former covers topics such as multiplication, division, fractions, decimals, areas, geometry and measurements. The brain-training side has similar topics with tougher exercises. Duolingo hopes to help folks learn practical skills, such as converting between ounces and pounds.
Duolingo conducted a survey into math anxiety. It found that 93 percent of adults in the US have experienced some anxiety over math, while around half of high schoolers have "very high math anxiety." With its latest app, it aims to make math "accessible and fun" for everyone.
While this is far from the only math learning app around, Duolingo's name carries some weight with many folks. Like Khan Academy, Duolingo Math is free. The app is available on iPhone, iPad and some iPod Touch devices and it's only in English for now. The company hasn't revealed when it will be available on Android.
If you've been thinking about adding cameras to your connected home setup, this is a great time to dive in. Amazon's Blink Mini cameras are down to $30 for a pair, which is the usual price for just one camera. It's an all-time low and matches the deep discount Amazon ran for October's Prime Day.
The cameras take clear and sharp 1080p video, which you can stream to your phone or a smart display like Amazon's Echo Show. Since Amazon owns Blink, they work with Alexa, allowing voice control over the units from any compatible device. They also pair nicely with Blink's doorbell, acting as a chime when someone rings it.
The Minis are motion activated (as opposed to always-on) and can alert you when movement's detected. With built-in speakers and a mic, you can both hear and talk to people (or pets) remotely using your phone or another Alexa-enabled smart device. The cameras will work without a subscription, but if you want to save video clips, you can opt for the Blink Subscription Plan (currently $30 per year for the basic plan).
The only caveat is that Blink Minis are wired cameras, so you'll need to set them up somewhere near an outlet — but you'll never need to remember to change the batteries.
If you want cameras outside too, it's worth mentioning that the Blink Outdoor cameras are back on sale as well. Single packs are down to $60, and the multi-camera bundles are discounted too, with the best deal on the three- and five-camera bundles (both 50 percent off).
Blink Outdoor cams are our current favorite wireless security cameras, running on AA batteries, which will power a camera for about a year. They come with a mount and are, of course, weatherproof, so you don't have to mount them under an eave or overhang, which lets you angle them at exactly what you want to see. And like the indoor version, these let you see, hear, and talk to whomever is in front of the camera, and it can all be controlled via Alexa, either with the app or your voice.
Sony has launched the $3,900 A7R V, its latest mirrorless camera designed to shoot portraits, landscapes and other subjects that require as much resolution as possible. The new model carries the same 61-megapixel resolution as the A7R IV, but has a much more powerful new Bionz XR processor that allows for improved AI autofocus, better shake reduction and 8K 24p video.
The key improvement is in the autofocus, as the A7R V is Sony's first camera to introduced something called "human pose estimation." The system can see 20 different points in the human body and and thus figure out where the eye is supposed to be. That allows it to accurately track someone who might be moving and turning away from the camera, and keep tracking them even if they disappear from view for a moment. On top of that, it can now pick out different subjects like cars, trains, plains, animals and insects.
Though the A7R V is primarily targeted at photographers, it's much better at video than ever, too. Where the A7R IV was limited to 8-bit 4K at 30fps with either cropping or line-skipping, the A7R V now shoots 8K video at up to 24 fps, along with 6.2K without line-skipping or pixel binning. With the same heatsink as the A7S III, it allows for unlimited 4K recording and up to 30 minutes of 8K capture.
It can also handle supersampled 10-bit 4K video using the entire sensor width at up to 30 fps, or at 60fps with a 1.2x crop. You can also capture 16-bit RAW video to external recorders at up to 4K 60p.
Sony has upgraded to the in-body stabilization (IBS) system from 5.5 to 8 stops, now matching what Canon can do with its similarly-priced EOS R5. And in lieu of the tilting display used in the A7R IV, the new model has a fully articulating screen that makes it more useful for high-angle shooting, video and more.
The A7R V shoots at the same 10fps speeds as before, which is impressive for such a high-resolution camera. However, it can now shoot compressed RAW files rather than just uncompressed as before. The buffer can also handle up to 583 shots, letting you shoot for a large amount of time in a burst.
Sony
It has a long list of other attractive features, including a class-leading 9.44-million-dot electronic viewfinder (EVF) and dual card slots that accept either speedy (but expensive) CFexpress Type A or UHS-II cards. Another new feature is pixel shift multishot (tripod use only) for compositing 16 shots into one 240.8-megapixel image using AI processing to automatically detect and correct movement between frames.
The list continues with AI-powered white balance, focus stacking of up to 299 frames for increased depth of field, Sony's Cinetone color profile for a more film-like look, an updated body with dials and controls similar to the A7 IV, USB-C charging with Power Delivery and native webcam compatibility. The Sony A7R V is set to arrive in December for $3,900.
CD Projekt Red recently announced a whole bunch of projects it has in the pipeline, including multiple entries in The Witcher series. One of those had the codename "Canis Majoris" and it was then confirmed to be a "full-fledged" Witcher game developed in Unreal Engine 5 by an external studio. Now, CDPR has shed more light on the project. As it turns out, Canis Majoris is actually a remake of the first title in the series.
Polish studio Fool’s Theory is remaking The Witcher under CDPR's supervision. It's in the early stages of development, so the game is likely at least a couple of years away. CDPR says it will be a while before it starts talking about the project in more detail. However, it confirmed that Fool's Theory is rebuilding The Witcher Remake from the ground up using the same toolset that CDPR is utilizing for other games in the series. For what it's worth, the Fool's Theory team includes developers who worked on The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.
We're thrilled to reveal that, together with @Fools_Theory, we're working on remaking The Witcher using Unreal Engine 5 (codename: Canis Majoris)!
Going back to where it all began for CDPR makes a lot of sense. The Witcher came out in 2007 and while it was fairly well received, it arguably wasn't until The Witcher 3 (and the Netflix show based on the source novels) that the franchise reached a much higher level of popularity. It's not a stretch to imagine that players who came into the series later would be curious about Geralt of Rivia's earlier adventures.
What's more, The Witcher was only released for PC and Mac. While PS3 and Xbox 360 versions were announced at one point, they never came to fruition. It seems unlikely that CDPR wouldn't release console versions this time, given the larger audience of players it can tap into. Meanwhile, the current-gen version of The Witcher 3 is slated to arrive by the end of the year.
It’s a strange feeling. The Callisto Protocol is a new game from a studio with zero releases to its name, but playing it feels like coming home. Its mechanics, environments and monsters are deeply familiar, unapologetically feeding off the immersive sci-fi horror concepts of Dead Space. While playing a preview of The Callisto Protocol on PlayStation 5, I was reminded of that scene from Wayne’s World where the boys are looking down on a film set that looks like Wayne’s basement, but it’s not actually Wayne’s basement, and Garth says, "Isn’t that weird?" They all agree it is.
Playing The Callisto Protocol, I found myself trapped in a world between old and new. Like I said, it was strange. However, once the weirdness wore off, playing The Callisto Protocol just felt good.
Callisto is the first game out of Striking Distance Studios, a team led by Dead Space co-creator Greg Schofield — so yeah, all the references are coming straight from the source. And there are plenty of similarities to go around: Callisto stars a lone space dude fighting through rooms of mutated humans; headshots are less effective than shooting extremities and tentacles; there’s no UI and the protagonist’s health is displayed on the back of his neck; stomping enemies is the best way to ensure they’re dead; there’s a gravity gun that functions like a kinesis ability; and the death screens are particularly gruesome. One early level even has a vignette with the phrase, "shoot the tentacles" scrawled across the wall in blood, riffing on the classic Dead Space blood tag that read, "cut off their limbs."
Striking Distance Studios
I had the luxury of playing the Callisto Protocol preview just a week after trying out Motive Studio’s Dead Space remake, so the similarities stung sharply — but so did the differences. The Callisto Protocol does some things that Dead Space couldn’t, and it’s clearly a bigger game in a more complex world. Where the USG Ishimura in Dead Space often felt claustrophobic, the dead-moon prison colony in The Callisto Protocol feels vast and mazelike, with ladders, vents, long hallways, tight corridors and open laboratories with multiple access points for enemies, all of it overgrown with alien life.
The early game features a variety of enemy types — rushing monsters, tall spitters, leather-daddy tanks and invisible beasts with too many legs, to name a few — and they’re each difficult to kill in their own special ways. The twist is that all of the infected humans, or Biophage, will mutate in front of the player’s eyes when they’re not killed quickly enough, growing stronger in their evolved form. Enemy spawn points are not randomized, a fact that I discovered after dying a few times in a row in a single room. (The death screens are numerous and reach Mortal Kombat levels of brutality in the best possible way.)
All of these details result in a rich sense of strategy, with explodables, ammo drops and escape routes secreted around each combat area. Callisto is a video game for video game people, offering little actual direction while relying on the environment to communicate escape and attack opportunities — a suspiciously red canister in the middle of a long walkway, a ladder rung dangling just within reach, a box barely big enough to duck behind. Each detail blends smoothly into the futuristic surroundings, only standing out when a horde of Biophage are breathing down your neck.
TheCallisto Protocol is a fully formed concept executed with proficiency. The Striking Distance crew clearly know how to make a game feel tense and horrific and satisfying, and with Callisto, they’re just showing off. Only one segment of my playthrough sticks out negatively in my mind: The protagonist essentially finds himself on a water slide, and players have to navigate the concrete pillars and other obstacles in his path. It isn’t a terrible concept, but personally, I don’t need any more on-rails sequences in my games. Overall though, the preview was a haze of sci-fi gore, action and surprise, and I’m excited to play the full game when it comes out on December 2nd.
To be honest, I almost expected more out of The Callisto Protocol — more growth since Dead Space, a new perspective on horror, a stronger attempt to be different than that iconic game. Instead, Callisto leans into Dead Space’s original ideas and competes with them directly, even down to the release timing — the Dead Space remake is due out just eight weeks after Callisto. Something about that feels personal, like The Callisto Protocol is shoving something in Dead Space’s face; as if, more than a decade later, Schofield is trying to prove something to EA. That’s not based on any conversations with developers, it’s just a gut feeling I have.
Striking Distance Studios
Conspiracy theories aside, it’s fortunate that Dead Space provides such a timeless foundation for The Callisto Protocol’s playground. The original ideas — immersive UI, strategic combat, horrific killscreens, tight metal corridors — remain effective today, and modern hardware only provides more room for these mechanics to breathe.
The Callisto Protocol contains a few fresh concepts, but its most satisfying mechanics are the familiar ones, spit-shined for a new generation. That said, The Callisto Protocol’s success isn’t guaranteed just because it’s riffing on proven ideas — the game still has to run smoothly and look beautiful. Luckily, it seems Striking Distance got it right in these areas, too. Playing for an hour on PS5, the game is perfectly polished, terrifying and gruesome. Somehow, The Callisto Protocol is entirely new, yet exactly as I remember.
Nothing’s second attempt at wireless headphones come in a carry case that tries to combine a cosmetics packaging aesthetic with the glossy white, transparent style of its other devices so far. The Ear Stick, priced at $99, works best with the company’s phone (of course) but will happily work with any Android device or iPhone. The Nothing Ear 1 buds were eye-catching and surprisingly capable true wireless earbuds that offered tech like active noise cancellation (ANC) at a competitive price – although that’s since gone up.
While the Nothing Ear Stick is cheaper than its predecessor, these buds lack ANC. There are no silicone buds this time around, so you can expect more noise bleed-through, too, although some headphone wearers may find them a more comfortable fit. Nothing says it tested the new headphones with 100 pairs of ears. But I prefer silicone buds, so I’m looking forward to trying the Stick and forming my own opinion. The buds are still, thankfully, IP54 dust-, water- and sweat-resistant. One of the drawbacks of Nothing’s Ear 1 was occasionally patchy connectivity, both when pairing with your device and talking on calls. With the Ear Stick, the company has redesigned the antenna and shifted it further away from the face to reduce signal blockage.
Nothing
The company has also worked to improve sound quality, both listening and speaking. For the latter, there are now three high-definition mics (up from two mics on the Ear 1) that work with algorithms to filter out louder background noises and what it says is “wind-proof and crowd-proof.” Regarding audio quality, there’s a new 12.6mm custom dynamic driver inside each bud. A new feature called Bass Lock Technology will detect how much bass is lost during wear and adjust the equalizer automatically. You can also tweak the equalizer settings (with presets for different kinds of audio) from a new companion app. There are gesture controls on each headphone's tips, which can also be reassigned in the app.
Nothing says the Stick will offer up to seven hours of playback between charges, with 29 hours of total playback with the case. In a pinch, 10 minutes in the case should offer up to two hours of playback.
If you already own the see-thru Nothing Phone 1, many of these settings and features are already baked into the device, accessible by a widget in the Android phone’s drop-down menu. For other devices, a new Nothing X app will act as a settings hub for all of the company’s peripherals. The Ear stick will go on sale at 5:30 AM ET, on November 4th, directly from Nothing’s online store and other retailers, including Farfetch.
Google has some good news for folks who are on the Workspace individual plan. Those who use the service, such as self-employed people and entrepreneurs, will soon get a significant storage upgrade from 15GB to 1TB at no extra cost. Most Workspace individual users won't need to worry about running out of storage space in Gmail and Drive anymore.
Until now, Google has only offered Workspace individual users the same amount of storage that you'd get with a free Gmail account. To increase that capacity, you'd need to buy more storage through Google One. Google says it will users won't need to do anything as it will upgrade their storage automatically.
Elsewhere, there are more options for those who send emails to multiple people through the multi-send mode. You'll be able to use mail merge tags, such as @firstname, to personalize these email blasts. That may be useful, even if the Workspace individual plan doesn't support custom email addresses as yet. Additionally, Google is bringing the Workspace individual plan to the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Taiwan, Thailand, the Netherlands, Portugal, Belgium, Finland, Greece and Argentina.
Sony isn't just upgrading its wireless earbuds with eco-friendly plastic. The company now promises that its LinkBuds, LinkBuds S and WF-1000XM4 models will receive multipoint audio support this fall. As with some rival buds, this lets you juggle the audio between two Bluetooth devices. You can switch to a call on your phone while you're watching video on your tablet, for instance.
The improvement requires new firmware available through Sony's Headphones Connect app. The LinkBuds family will get the multipoint update by November, while the WF-1000XM4 should make the leap sometime this winter.
As The Vergepointed out, the WF-1000XM4 upgrade is somewhat unexpected. Sony started selling that model in mid-2021, and hadn't even teased the prospect of a multipoint update. While the news still won't be much consolation if you own budget buds like the WF-C500, this at least ensures that you won't feel left out if you splurged on wireless audio in the past year.
The upgrade gives Sony an edge over some of the competition, at least. While you'll get seamless audio switching on challengers like Apple's AirPods lineup, you're frequently limited to one brand's ecosystem. Sony's multipoint functionality could make more sense if you don't want to be tied to certain platforms or products just to avoid wading through Bluetooth device menus.
The Starlink service for RVs gives you a way to stay connected online even while you're off the grid, but it comes with one big limitation: It can't be used while in motion. Now, SpaceX has launched a new variant of Starlink for RVs called "Flat High Performance" that you can use on moving vehicles. You just have to be willing to pay almost five times as much for the dish needed to be able to access the service.
The Flat High Performance Starlink for RVs was designed for in-motion use, with a bigger rectangular terminal that can see 35 percent more sky than its standard counterpart. It also has enhanced GPS capabilities, giving the dish the power to connect to more satellites, which enables connection to the Starlink internet even while a vehicle is on the move. The terminal features improved weather resistance and better performance in both hot weather and snow, as well. Unlike the standard version that can be placed on the ground, though, the Flat High Performance dish must be permanently installed on top of your RV.
SpaceX is already taking pre-orders for Flat High Performance in select markets and will start deliveries in December. Take note that its hardware kit, which includes its dish and mount, will set you back $2,500. The standard Starlink for RVs only requires an upfront payment of $599 for its kit. The service itself costs $135 a month just like the standard version, which is $25 more than a regular Starlink connection. You can pause (and un-pause) the service anytime, though, so you won't have to pay for those months when you don't use it.
Enjoy high-speed, low-latency internet while on the move! Now accepting orders for the flat high-performance Starlink, which provides connectivity while in motion on land → https://t.co/tWDPs3JDWKpic.twitter.com/z2HNxaizdW