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23.01.2025 00:00 Google has decided to invest another billion into Anthropic, four sources told the Financial Times, bringing its total sunk cost to more than three billion dollars. Both companies have declined to comment. Google uses Anthropic’s Claude AI models on Vertex AI, an AI-powered development platform. Amazon has also invested four billion into Anthropic to integrate its Claude AI models into the next generation of Alexa speakers. Other sources say Anthropic is also in talks with Lightspeed Venture Partners to raise another two billion. This investment would make Anthropic worth 60 billion. Even so, investors don’t believe that Anthropic or its rivals will be profitable soon due to the extreme costs of developing AI models. Google invented transformers, a type of neural network that became a backbone technology for AI models, back in 2017. Despite some success with models like Gemini, Imagen, Chirp, Veo and more, Google doesn’t have as significant a foothold in the generative AI market. Having so many big tech companies backing AI start-ups alarmed the Federal Trade Commission , which investigated Google parent Alphabet’s first $2.3 billion investment in Anthropic. However, as the Financial Times notes, FTC commissioner Lina Khan, who had a reputation as an aggressive antitrust enforcer, has since stepped down from her post at the head of the agency as the Trump regime took power, which could mean similar deals might not receive the same scrutiny in the future.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/google-is-investing-another-billion-dollars-in-anthropic-145548826.html?src=rss

23.01.2025 00:00 YouTube is rolling out new perks for paying users, starting with the ability to switch on more than one experiment. If you're paying for a Premium subscription, you can test out the video streaming service's experimental features by going to youtube.com/new. It was only previously possible to try one experiment at a time, but now you can activate multiple options so you can try out a few at once. YouTube even added new features you can test out now that you can activate more than one, including the ability to play music videos with your audio set to 256kbps. Previously, you could only listen to 256kbps audio on YouTube Music. Another new test feature is Picture-in-Picture for YouTube Shorts on iOS, so you can watch short-form videos while you have other apps open. You can also activate Smart Downloads on iOS if you want YouTube to automatically save recommended Shorts on your phone to view offline. Another thing YouTube is testing is "Jump ahead" for web viewing, which lets you skip ahead to specific parts of a video. It used to be exclusively available on YouTube apps. Finally, you'll soon be able to play videos even faster on mobile, with expanded playback options of up to 4x the speed. If you're in the US, take note that Google is rolling out a bundle with YouTube Premium and 2 TB of cloud storage with Google One, which will cost you $21.98 a month. That's slightly less than the typical price of $24 a month together . This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/youtube/youtube-premium-adds-256kbps-audio-experiment-for-music-videos-160043945.html?src=rss

23.01.2025 00:00 Imagine: A switch is flicked and, in a heartbeat, every process spewing deadly pollution into the heavens is replaced with something clean and sustainable. Sadly, even then, the Earth would still tip towards being uninhabitable thanks to all of the carbon we’ve already dumped up there. If we as a species are to survive then all of that junk needs to be pulled back to Earth, and fast. Proponents of Direct Air Capture believe it’s a vital weapon to accomplish that task; its critics say it’s so inefficient that we’d be better off trying anything else first. Direct Air Capture Mission Zero Put simply, Direct Air Capture is the practice of removing CO2 from the atmosphere by pulling air through a mechanical or chemical filter. Air is typically drawn through a DAC system via one or more fans, while filtering is done with a solid or with a liquid . Once captured, heat or electricity is applied to the filter material to remove the CO2, both to re-use the filter and get the CO2 ready to move on. It’s this last stage that’s often the most energy-intensive, and therefore costly, part of the process. Given the amount of air that will need to be cleaned for this to work, DAC needs to be as energy efficient as possible. The most cost-effective way to do this is by capping the smokestacks of a carbon-intensive process, like a factory or fossil fuel power plant to prevent more CO2 release. But that does nothing to reduce the excess CO2 already in the atmosphere. That’s why some scientists and entrepreneurs are inclined to gamble on DAC plants in free air to scrub the heavens clean. The NOAA explains that in 1960, humanity was pumping out 11 billion tons of carbon dioxide into the air each year. Half a century later, and that figure now stands closer to 40 billion, which is why emissions-reduction work is so vital. But even if we did manage to reduce all of our new emissions to zero, we’d still have to address the 950 gigatons or so of CO2 lurking in the atmosphere already. At the time of writing, the CO2 in the atmosphere as recorded by the NOAA’s Global Monitoring Lab at Mauna Loa is 422.38ppm. The scientific consensus is any figure over 350ppm will spell catastrophic doom for humanity and the state of the planet more generally. This June, the University of Oxford published research saying that if we want to limit warming to just 1.5 degrees , humanity will need to extract between seven and nine billion tons of carbon dioxide out of the air each year by 2050. The COP28 declaration supports signatory nations throwing their weight behind carbon capture technologies. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says there is no viable pathway to averting climate change unless large volumes of CO2 are pulled from the air. This has been the status quo for a while: In 2017, a coalition of prominent scientists led by Professor Jim Hansen said it was imperative that humanity began mass-removing atmospheric CO2. What to do with all the CO2 Once DAC has sucked the unwanted carbon out of the air, it needs to be put somewhere. One option, The British Geological Survey explains, is to easily and affordably convert CO2 to its supercritical form, which behaves like a runny liquid. This liquid can then be stored underground after being injected into porous rocks, with old oil fields and coal seams appearing to be ideal places. The oil and gas industry actually uses this approach to boost production in existing fields, as the liquid CO2 fills up the space, pushing more oil toward the extraction site. But the International Energy Agency’s briefing paper on Direct Air Capture suggests more than half of all atmospheric CO2 emissions recovered will need to be sequestered. Obviously, getting more fossil fuels out of the ground to burn does not do very much for the climate, and ideally the governments of the world would just invest in effective carbon capture to prevent us from boiling to death. Fortunately for humanity’s fixation on market solutions, recycling some of the non-sequestered CO2 could become an industry unto itself. CO2 can also be turned into synthetic fuels in traditional combustion engines. Air travel is the most obvious example, especially given that the size and weight of batteries make it nearly impossible to build an electric jumbo jet. Recovered CO2 can also be used as the base for common non-fuel products including construction materials, in chemical and agricultural products, not to mention putting the fizz in our drinks. Holocene is one of many companies looking to turn CO2 extraction into a viable, long term business by selling carbon removal credits to big businesses. Its approach is to pull air through water which has been embedded with an amnio acid that binds to CO2. The water and CO2 mix is then combined with guanidine, which turns the CO2 into a solid that can be easily filtered out, allowing the amino acid water to be reused. The solid CO2 is then heated to a low temperature, which separates the guanidine from gaseous CO2, ready for use or sequestration. Holocene believes a reusable solvent combined with the low-temperature heat makes its approach far more cost-effective than that of its rivals. Mission Zero is also looking to develop a low-cost way of procuring large quantities of CO2 from the atmosphere. It draws air into its hardware and then applies a water-based solvent. But rather than treating this mix chemically, it uses electrodialysis and an ion exchange process to purify the liquid and extract the CO2. From there, the liquid can be reused and the CO2, again, can either be buried underground or, turned into viable products. The company says that its electro-chemical process is similarly far more cost and energy-efficient than many of the other companies operating in this space. Given the commercial sensitivities involved, it’s not easy to get a real handle on how much it costs to extract CO2 from the atmosphere using DAC in open air. Depending on where you look, the figure can be as much as $600 per ton, but a more common figure is between the $300 and $400 mark. For years, the received wisdom has been that DAC needs to reach a cost of $100 per ton in order to become economically viable. Earlier this year, a German climate-focused VC firm, Extantia Capital went digging into the source of that $100 shibboleth and traced it back to a paper from early DAC firm Carbon Engineering in 2018 when it published a paper projecting its long-term cost would fall to as little as $94 per ton. Suddenly, the phrase “less than $100 per ton” became the benchmark to which all other DAC companies were held. But, as Extantia’s Torben Schreiter wrote, that figure was also pegged to 2016 dollar prices, so it hasn’t grown with inflation. In 2023, the World Economic Forum said the cost of Direct Air Capture had to fall “below $200 per ton” before it would be widely adopted. It doesn’t matter if your aims are environmental or industrial, we know the volume of CO2 that needs to be extracted from the atmosphere is significant. For that to be viable, the cost of extraction needs to fall by a significant degree. A more mature metric would be that pricing falls in line with, or below, the perpetually in-flux cost of carbon dioxide as a commodity. Holocene “All these DAC approaches use a bunch of energy,” said Holocene’s CEO Keeton Ross. Ross says it’s the cost of this energy that is keeping the price of Direct Air Capture higher than it needs to be. He believes heat-based systems will likely win out in the end because heat can come from any number of affordable sources. These claims of being able to cut the costs of DAC were compelling enough that in September Google invested in Holocene and pledged to buy carbon credits from it in future. Dr. Nicholas Chadwick, CEO of Mission Zero, told Engadget his company is targeting around $350 per ton by 2026, but that figure is “dependent on a specific price of electricity.” That price, he believes, is "substantially better than what’s available in the commodity market,” making it a no-brainer for industries that are reliant on CO2 to start buying from Mission Zero. Roadblocks The obvious objection to Direct Air Capture is that while there’s a lot of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, it’s still a relatively small proportion of the whole. I’ve heard the process described as panning for gold in the ocean, and the energy costs alone will make it unfeasible on the scale necessary. In 2022, the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis bluntly claimed the process “simply won’t work.” Part of the objection was that it can be used for enhanced oil recovery, but also that when DAC facilities are up and running, they’re often far less effective at capturing CO2 than initially promised. In 2023, a piece published by the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists expressed outrage that the US Department of Energy invested $600 million in one such project. Its authors said the energy costs required to filter that much air to extract just 0.04 percent of its total are far in excess of other, already less expensive ways to reduce emissions, and that there won't be any dramatic improvement in the physics and chemistry that will make Direct Air Capture dramatically more efficient. They said, bluntly, "It’s just dumb to build today something that we won’t need for 50 years, if ever." Chadwick said a lot of the criticisms around DAC center on its technical feasibility, which he says is the wrong point. “There are tons of industrial processes where the thermodynamics are terrible, look at ammonia,” he said, “it took years and years to get the yields to where they are right now.” What drove those otherwise inefficient processes was the “economic imperative for it in the marketplace,” he said. “When someone proves they can do for $200 a ton, all of these arguments go away.” Both Chadwick and Ross spoke about the importance of scale to help accelerate the still quite nascent industry. In 2023, Carbon Engineering, 1PointFive and Occidental broke ground on the Stratos plant in Texas that, when completed, is expected to suck 500,000 tons of CO2 out of the air per year. Both are optimistic, however, that the projects that are currently under construction will help engineers solve those questions. It’s a long, long way to go before we get to the billions of tons experts believe we’ll need to be extracting to have a hope of survival.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/science/can-our-climate-be-saved-by-vacuuming-carbon-out-of-the-skies-145944818.html?src=rss

23.01.2025 00:00 Netflix’s earnings report for the fourth quarter of 2024 recently dropped. While results like an operating income of more than $10 billion and a 16 percent revenue increase seem to be good news for the company's shareholders, Netflix users won’t be so fortunate. Subscription prices are going up yet again, starting today. The Standard plan with ads is inching up from $7 to $8 a month, while the ad-free version of Standard will rise from $15 to $18 a month. The monthly rates for Premium, which offers 4K Ultra HD and HDR, will increase from $23 to $25. Adding an extra member from outside your household to a streaming plan is also getting more expensive, changing from $8 a month to $9 a month. "As we continue to invest in programming and deliver more value for our members, we will occasionally ask our members to pay a little more so that we can re-invest to further improve Netflix," the company said in its shareholder letter. "To that end, we are adjusting prices today across most plans in the US, Canada, Portugal and Argentina." In 2023, Netflix eliminated its Basic plan in major markets. That change preceded the most recent increase in subscription costs, less than two years ago.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/netflix-raises-subscription-praises-again-with-its-standard-plan-now-costing-18-per-month-234344714.html?src=rss

23.01.2025 00:00 The UK's Competition and Markets Authority , a watchdog agency which has repeatedly probed Amazon's business dealings, will now be run by former Amazon executive Doug Gurr. — that makes sense, right? Gurr will serve as interim chair "in a bid to boost growth and support the economy. "The decision comes alongside reports that the UK government ousted former chair, Marcus Bokkerink, whose resignation was simultaneously announced. Secretary of State for Business and Trade, Jonathan Reynolds, explained the appointment in a statement. "This Government has a clear Plan for Change — to boost growth for businesses and communities across the UK. As we’ve set out, we want to see regulators including the CMA supercharging the economy with pro-business decisions that will drive prosperity and growth, putting more money in people’s pockets." The CMA is responsible for investigating any potential breaches of antitrust regulations, vetting mergers and protecting consumers from any unfair trading practices. It has taken action against Amazon multiple times, including the period Gurr worked there. Recently, the CMA has probed Amazon for not protecting customers from fake reviews and whether Amazon gives its own brands preference over third-party products in its marketplace — the latter resolved with agreed upon changes from the tech giant. Last year, the CMA looked at Amazon's $4 billion investment into Anthropic, ruling it didn't qualify as a merger. The CMA is currently investigating Google for antitrust practices in regards to its search services. Gurr joined Amazon in 2011, serving as the President of Amazon China from 2014 to 2016 and finally as Country Manager of Amazon UK until he left the company in 2020. Most recently, he served as director of the Natural History Museum in London. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/former-amazon-executive-to-run-uks-antitrust-agency-163433153.html?src=rss

23.01.2025 00:00 The clickety-clacking sounds of mechanical keyboards are satisfying for a lot of people, even if the prices of many such devices may not be. So it’s nice to see some discounts of up to 63 percent on select Keychron models at Woot. For example, the Q2 Wired keyboard has dropped by 63 percent from $200 to $75. But why stop there? New Woot customers can get an extra ten bucks off through the end of this month by using the code KEYCHRONTEN at checkout. If you prefer a split keyboard format, you can scoop up the Q8 Alice layout model for $95, which is $125 off the usual price. Again, the $10 offer applies for Woot newbies. Keychron makes some of our favorite mechanical keyboards. In fact, the brand accounts for three of the five spots on our list of the best mechanical keyboards. None of the specific models we highlight in our guide are included in Woot's sale, unfortunately, but Keychron models are popular for good reason. There is one major downside worth bearing in mind when it comes to Keychron mechanical keyboards. They only come with a 12-month manufacturer's warranty, which isn't ideal for products that have lots of moving parts. That said, the sale runs until 1AM ET on February 1, so you might have a little time to decide whether to pick one up while they're less pricey than usual. However, some models have already sold out. Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribe to the Engadget Deals newsletter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/keychron-mechanical-keyboards-are-up-to-63-percent-off-right-now-164647272.html?src=rss

23.01.2025 00:00 Korg is a name that typically brings to mind synths, keyboards and production tools, but ahead of NAMM 2025, the company announced new turntables. These aren't just your typical shelf-bound, plugged-into-speakers vinyl spinners though. Under the Handytraxx brand, Korg will soon offer portable turntables for listening, archiving and DJing, and some are equipped with the company's Nutube vacuum tubes. The series of turntables gets its name from the original Handy Trax from Vestax. Korg says former Vestax president and co-developer of that OG model, Toshihide Nakama, was working with the company on "an all-new kind of record player." Nakama passed away in 2023 during the development of the Handytraxx Play, but Korg continued to merge its digital processing and audio tech with "the spirit" of the Handy Trax. The Handytraxx Play is the DJ-focused member of the group and appears to be ready for the masses after a cameo at NAMM last year. Designed for scratching, the turntable is equipped with a Nakama-designed fader as well as three types of filters, delay, playback control and a built-in audio looper. The tonearm was made to minimize needle skipping and the belt-driven motor has digital rotation correction to keep things in check. The Play supports both ceramic and MM cartridges and Korg allows you to flip the control panel for right- or left-handed configurations. Korg Handytraxx Play Korg If your vinyl habit is more listening than scratching, the Handytraxx Tube "bridges the gap between modern convenience and analogue fascination," according to Korg. This model gets its name from the tiny Nutube vacuum tube that lends its power to the phono amplifier and its warmth to the overall sound. A die-cast aluminum platter, balanced tone arm and MM cartridge serve as the main components. Bass and treble controls are right on the deck and there's a dedicated knob for fine-tuning the Nutube's output. And if you want to convert your records to digital files, the Tube connects to a computer via USB for that purpose. There's also a special edition of the Handytraxx Tube that Korg calls the Handytraxx Tube J . This model looks very similar to the Tube, but it's equipped with a JICO Clipper MM Cartridge. "The cartridge’s unique design balances the center of gravity between the left and right channels, while its Tapered-S Cantilever ensures accurate vibration reproduction, creating a truly immersive Hi-Fi soundstage," Korg explains. In other words, this is an option for audiophiles in of the group. Lastly, the Handytraxx 1bit is what Korg calls the flagship model in the new series. The company explains that this unit blends high-quality playback with 5.6 MHz/1-bit recording for archivists. The 1bit works with Korg's AudioGate 4 high-res audio conversion software after you connect the turntable to your computer via USB. That complete setup supports both recording and playback in 5.6 MHz and 2.8 MHz DSD in addition to PCM formats up to 192 kHz/24-bit. The Handytraxx 1bit has a JICO J44A 7 MM cartridge and, like the Handytraxx Tube, there's a built-in Nutube. As is the case on that more affordable model, there are bass, treble and tube controls right up top on the 1bit version. Korg Handytraxx 1bit Korg Like I mentioned, the entire Handytraxx series is portable thanks to built-in 2.5-watt speakers. You can power them with included AC adapters or employ six AA batteries for a true on-the-go kit. There are appropriate inputs and outputs on each model if you want a stationary setup, including an on/off switch for the speakers. The Handytraxx Play, Tube and 1bit are scheduled to arrive in May with the Tube J following in June. All four are currently available for preorder from B&H Photo. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/audio/korg-joins-the-turntable-craze-with-portable-options-for-archiving-djing-and-more-172443992.html?src=rss

23.01.2025 00:00 The Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra will have an S Pen onboard, as is tradition for all Galaxy S Ultra smartphones since the 2022's Galaxy S22 Ultra. What that S Pen won't have anymore is Air Commands, because it turns out barely anyone bothered with them. Air Commands are a feature that allows Galaxy owners to assign various actions to pen gestures made, as the name implies, in the air rather than on the phone's screen. In a briefing, Samsung representatives told members of the media that less than one percent of customers with an S Pen bothered using Air Commands. Those who did mostly used them to trigger camera captures, a thing that can be done pretty easily without the S Pen. For those one percent of users perhaps sad to see Air Commands go, Samsung claims removing support for the gestures as well as Bluetooth LE will increase the pen’s durability and eliminate some weight. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/samsung-retires-s-pen-air-commands-because-no-one-was-using-them-180021197.html?src=rss

23.01.2025 00:00 Samsung has announced the latest version of its flagship device, the Galaxy S25 Ultra, and it will come with more AI-focused features than its predecessors like the other phones in its lineup. It's powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite that was customized specifically for Galaxy devices and comes with a RAM that starts at 12GB. Samsung says the new chip will enable the phone to process AI experiences on-device, including tasks that previously had to be processed on the cloud like Generative Edit, which can reframe shots, delete subjects in the photo and fill in backgrounds. Samsung designed a new heat dissipation structure for the phone, as well, so that on-device AI processes can run smoothly. The new Galaxy S25 devices run One UI 7 on top of Android 15, which Samsung says can turn the phones into a true AI companion. It enables the new phones to understand text, speech, images and videos in a way that allows you to interact with your phone using natural language. You can ask your phone to find a photo or a video by describing certain elements you can remember, for instance, or tell it to change specific settings without having to manually navigate the device. There's also an AI feature called the Now Brief that sends you alerts throughout the day based on your schedule and pattern of activity. Those notifications will be visible on the Now Bar, the devices' new notification system. If you want to access Google's Gemini AI assistant, you can simply press on the phone's side button. And, of course, the phones can use Google AI features, such as Circle to Search. The Galaxy S25 Ultra and S25+, in particular, come with ProScaler. That's a real-time AI upscaling feature that Samsung says can achieve "a 40 percent improvement in image quality" for what's shown the screen, as long as the display is set to QHD+ resolution. When it comes to AI tools for sounds, there's Audio Eraser, which you can use to isolate and erase certain sounds from your recordings, whether it's music, background noise or voices. Samsung says the new phones' Galaxy AI features will be "free through 2025," after which you may have to pay to be able to access some of them. Like the previous Ultra devices, the new Ultra is still bigger than the Galaxy S25 and S25+ with a 6.9-inch display, but it now comes with a more rounded edge for a "comfortable grip." The company describes it as the "slimmest, lightest, and most durable Galaxy Ultra device ever," with a body made of titanium and Corning's Gorilla Armor 2. Corning's new material is composed of a glass ceramic that's treated with a proprietary anti-reflective that can help "ensure advanced drop protection" and scratch resistance. And while the Galaxy S25 Ultra still has a 200MP main camera sensor like the S24 Ultra before it, it has a 50MP ultrawide camera instead of a 12MP one. The Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra will be available in 256GB, 512GB and 1TB variants in Titanium Silverblue, Titanium Whitesilver, Titanium Gray and Titanium Black. You can also get Titanium Pinkgold, Titanium Jetblack or Titanium Jadegreen from Samsung's official website. Its prices begin at $1,300, and it's now available for pre-order. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/the-samsung-galaxy-s25-ultra-is-more-ai-focused-and-tougher-than-before-180018308.html?src=rss

23.01.2025 00:00 In just a few years, Samsung has built up a substantial collection of artificial intelligence tricks, features and apps. While some of them have been impressive, like live translation and annotation, others aren’t actually helpful — or notable — enough to warrant regular use. The latest trio of Galaxy S flagship phones means another barrage of AI. Samsung has saved the best hardware for its S25 Ultra, of course, but the company also has smaller flagships, with the Galaxy S25 and larger S25+ both launching at the same time. And those AI features could be more crucial for the base S25 and larger S25+. Aside from the addition of a potent new chip, the Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy, there’s not a lot here to differentiate from last year’s Galaxy S24. In fact, you really have to look for changes. Mat Smith for Engadget The Galaxy S25 and S25+ are as premium and solidly built as any of their predecessors. Once again, the company has gone for aluminum frames, while the S25 Ultra gets the favorable titanium treatment. There’s also Corning Gorilla Glass Victus 2 across both the screen and the back of the devices, with a trio of cameras standing out as the only detail on the otherwise smooth backs. All of the devices’ edges are flat just like their predecessors — even the S25 Ultra’s design has caught up here too. Is this more comfortable than the curvier sides? I don’t think anyone knows. We’ve seen Samsung, Apple and many others flit from rounded to flattened edges. I don’t know anymore. But, boy, are they skinny. Does the Galaxy S25 “slim” exist? I’m not sure it needs to: This year’s S-series models are the slimmest we’ve seen in nearly a decade – barring Samsung’s foldables . Both the S25 and S25+ are 0.4mm thinner than their predecessors. That makes the S25 the thinnest Galaxy phone since the 6.8mm Galaxy S6. They’re both more pocketable because of this change, but I have an oversized affection for the base S25. It’s bigger, but it reminds me of the Apple iPhone mini . As you’d expect from Samsung, the AMOLED displays on these new phones are vivid, bright and gorgeous, with refresh rates up to 120Hz. The smaller 6.2-inch S25 has an FHD+ resolution, which is fine for a screen this size. Fortunately, the bigger S25+ has a higher-res qHD+ 6.7-inch display. So what’s the biggest upgrade this year? It’s a bit dry, but it’s the chip. The Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy is the biggest hardware upgrade since last year. Samsung claims the S25’s CPU is 37 percent faster than its predecessor, with 40 percent improvements on the NPU, and a 30 percent more powerful GPU. Those are substantial jumps. Mat Smith for Engadget Given the hardware has barely changed, AI improvements and upgrades are the core focus for the Galaxy S25 series. Some features were unavailable during my briefing or will require a closer look and deeper testing. Some are intriguing, though, like a new spatial-temporal filter on the camera app. It’s a Samsung exclusive since it relies on the custom Snapdragon 8 Elite chip and adds more power to noise analysis, as well as the ability to apparently maintain crispness of photo and video subjects while taming blurring backgrounds and low-light noise. Samsung says its new AI image processing with ProScaler offers 40 percent improvements to its AI images only on the S25+ and S25 Ultra. If you’re looking for video upgrades, the S25 series all records 10-bit color profile video by default, while Audio Eraser offers some AI-augmented noise removal, although the benefits were difficult to discern during my brief time with the devices. A new large language model is also part of the S25’s camera processing, which the company says will improve Portrait mode results and generative AI editing like object removal. Sadly, there is no sign of the Pixel’s “Add Me” — arguably the best application of AI and photography on a phone. However, Samsung has also used its AI improvements to substantially improve the generative AI selfies inside the S25’s Portrait Studio. Just look at what it did with my face at our briefing. This is a pretty decent line drawing — and yes I was wearing a neckerchief. Mat Smith for Engadget Like we’ve mentioned elsewhere, Samsung has refined its existing AI features. A new AI select button will appear when you tap on the side panel, suggesting what you might want to do, based on the context of what the S25 can “see” on screen; Circle to Search can now figure out what to search based on sound too, using Google’s existing Shazam-like hum-to-search feature. Cross-app smarts that integrate Google’s Gemini mean the voice assistant can dip in and out of multiple apps to add appointments, figure out routes and set reminders. From my brief testing, this appears to involve only core Samsung and Google apps, which could constrain exactly how useful this is. I’m at least intrigued and want to test this out in real life. Another feature that demands real-world testing is Samsung’s new “Now Bar” and “Now Brief,” which is meant to collate your smartphone life and schedules into, hopefully, a single place. It’ll offer up a morning and evening briefing, even pulling in sleep and wearable data for some wellness and health insights. One feature Samsung mentioned but did not hugely elaborate on was the S25’s Personal Data Engine, which will analyze user context, patterns and preferences to deliver a personalized way of using your new Samsung device. I’d imagine that taps into "Now Brief," which seems similar to iOS’s daily summaries, offering up a curated selection of your schedule, weather updates, travel plans and even fitness and health insights from all those Galaxy wearables. Whether this offers some truly personalized experiences within One UI 7 will only be clear once we’re using these phones, but it’s hard to imagine it’ll be all that game-changing. Let’s see if the S25 can change my mind, Samsung. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/samsung-galaxy-s25-and-s25-hands-on-180017460.html?src=rss

23.01.2025 00:00 Mike Mignola, the creator of Hellboy, has been cooking up a whole new fantasy universe, and the first book set in it is out now. Bowling with Corpses and Other Strange Tales From Lands Unknown, is an anthology that reads like a collection of myths and folklore. The stories are macabre with a touch of whimsy , ranging from a boy’s bizarre adventure after he becomes the unexpected wielder of a powerful dead hand, to the creation of the world and gods in the eponymous Lands Unknown. Mignola said when the project was announced last year that “it all started with an Italian folktale about a boy who goes bowling with corpses,” which he wanted to adapt, but also to “play fast and loose” in doing so. “So I created a whole new world,” he said. Bowling with Corpses hits comic stores today, and you can read a snippet from “Una and the Devil” below. Unsurprisingly, Mignola’s style lends itself well to the concept of creepy folk tales, and there are some really stunning visuals that bring it all to life: a woman rising from a blood-filled casket; a man following a floating dagger through a forest bathed in red; a newly transformed creature of the night spreading her wings for the first time. The book contains eight stories across its 112 pages , so there’s plenty of good stuff to sink your teeth into. Mignola collaborated once again with Ben Stenbeck to create the Lands Unknown universe, and the book is the first to be published under Mignola’s new imprint, Curious Objects, from Dark Horse Comics. Bowling with Corpses and Other Strange Tales From Lands Unknown was written and illustrated by Mignola, colored by Dave Stewart and lettered by Clem Robins. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/heres-a-look-at-mike-mignolas-new-book-set-in-a-macabre-folklore-inspired-universe-170009280.html?src=rss

23.01.2025 00:00 As expected, Samsung used its first Unpacked shindig of the year to officially unveil the Galaxy S25 series. Although the Galaxy S25 and S25+ bring welcome hardware upgrades like more RAM and a Samsung-centric flavor of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite chip, most updates revolve around new Galaxy AI features — many of which are on-device and context-aware. Fortunately, you won’t have to pay more: The phones cost the same as their S24 predecessors. It’s no surprise that Samsung put most of its eggs in the AI basket with this year’s flagships. The phones run One UI 7 on top of Android 15 — a combination the company describes as “a new AI-integrated OS.” Samsung is trying to nudge its collection of features in the direction of a more personalized AI that “understands the context of your needs and preferences,” acting accordingly. Like the Galaxy S24 series, the new phones’ Galaxy AI features will be “free through 2025.” That sounds like a pretty big catch: Unless Samsung decides to extend the free period, you’ll have to pay for at least some of the phones’ marketed AI features starting next year. Sam Rutherford for Engadget The long list of AI features includes what the company describes as “a breakthrough in natural language understanding.” For example, Samsung says you can ask the phone to find a specific photo in your gallery or adjust your display’s font size — saving you the time-consuming legwork of sifting through old pictures or drilling through settings. One UI 7 includes the Now Bar, which hangs out at the bottom of the lock screen , behaving similarly to the iPhone’s Dynamic Island. The Now Bar’s standout AI feature is the context-sensitive Now Brief, which proactively makes suggestions about your day . Fortunately, this all stays on-device in Samsung’s Knox Vault, a chipset-level security feature that separates sensitive data from the OS. Pressing and holding the side button activates Google’s Gemini — now the default assistant instead of Bixby. It can handle multi-step queries and can work across apps. For example, you can ask it to find your favorite team’s schedule and add their games to the Samsung Calendar app with a single command. There’s also a new AI-powered call transcript and summarizing feature and an upgraded version of Google’s Circle to Search. Meanwhile, AI Select is an outgrowth of Samsung’s legacy Smart Select. The AI version is a multimodal series of tools that can recommend context-sensitive actions — like creating a GIF from a YouTube video you’re watching. The idea is to merge multiple steps into one quick action. Sam Rutherford for Engadget The phones’ display specs are unchanged from the S24 lineup: The Galaxy S25 has a 6.2-inch FHD+ screen, and the S25+ uses a 6.7-inch QHD+ panel. Samsung says a new real-time AI upscaling feature called ProScaler can boost the screen’s image quality by 40 percent on the fly. But there’s some fine print: The feature is only available on the Galaxy S25+ and S25 Ultra , and it only works when the screen’s resolution is set to the more power-efficient QHD+, not the phone’s native WQHD+. But if the feature works as advertised, it could offer a nice balance of image quality and battery life. The Galaxy S25 and S25+ are better equipped to handle all that AI with 12GB of RAM, up from the 8GB in last year’s models. Storage options stand pat: 128GB or 256GB in the standard model and 256GB or 512GB in the Plus variant. The 3nm Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy powers all Galaxy S25 and S25+ versions. The company says it worked with Qualcomm for its custom flavor of the processor. Compared to the S24 Ultra, the chip boosts performance by 40 percent in the NPU , 37 percent in the CPU and 30 percent in the GPU. Sam Rutherford for Engadget The phones’ camera specs are the same as last year’s models: a 50MP wide sensor, a 12MP ultrawide one and a 10MP zoom lens. But 10-bit HDR, which can better capture details in high-contrast scenes, is enabled by default on the new phones. Samsung says the Qualcomm chip makes the phones better at reducing noise in dimly lit videos. Meanwhile, Audio Eraser sounds similar to Google’s Audio Magic Eraser in the Pixel 8. The AI feature can isolate sounds in videos to make it easier to remove or reduce the volume of those you don’t want. The Galaxy S25 and S25+ are available now for pre-order ahead of their February 7 ship date. The standard S25 starts at $800 for 128GB of storage, and the S25+ begins at $1,000 for 256GB. Colors include Navy, Icyblue, Mint, and Silver Shadow. If you order from Samsung’s website, you get a few extra options: Blueblack, Coralred, and Pinkgold. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/the-galaxy-s25-and-s25-have-more-ram-and-context-sensitive-ai-180013432.html?src=rss

23.01.2025 00:00 Last year, none of Samsung's phones offered support for Qi2 magnetic wireless charging. However, there was hope that would change after Samsung said it would launch compatible devices in 2025. Unfortunately, it seems the world's largest phone maker still isn't fully committed as the new Galaxy S25 line is said to be "Qi2 ready" instead of fully Qi2 compliant. So what does that actually mean? Similar to previous models, the Galaxy S25, S25+ and S25 Ultra can charge wirelessly at up to 15 watts. That falls neatly within the Wireless Power Consortium's specifications for Qi2. But what the Galaxy S25 lacks in order to offer true compatibility are magnets inside the phone itself designed to help attach and align related peripherals. This is why Samsung says the S25 is merely "Qi2 ready" instead of 100 percent compliant. That means if you want to use Qi2 accessories with the S25, you'll need to pair the phone with a supported case that provides a built-in magnetic mounting system , with Samsung saying there will be a range of first and third-party options available at launch. For people who always put their phone in a case, this might not be a big deal. You'll just want to make sure you buy one with magnets inside designed to work with other Qi2 peripherals. However, for people who prefer their phones to be caseless or simply want something a bit less bulky, there may fewer alternatives. Some manufacturers have created skins that come with included magnets to help out older phones that also lack full Qi2 support, so it's likely we'll see some variation of that for the S25. Sadly, despite claiming that the company would release devices with Qi2 support in 2025, Samsung hasn't fully delivered on that promise with the new S25 family, which makes things a bit more complicated than they ought to be. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/the-samsung-galaxy-s25-doesnt-fully-support-qi2-on-its-own-180011574.html?src=rss

23.01.2025 00:00 Today may seem like it’s all about the Galaxy S25, but if you use an older Android phone, there’s something new for you too. Starting today, Google is rolling out an enhanced version of Circle to Search to all Android devices. As a reminder, Circle to Search is an AI-powered feature Google released at the start of last year. You can access it by long-pressing your phone’s home button and then circling something with your finger. At its most basic, the feature is a way to use Google Search from anywhere on your phone, with no need to switch between apps. It’s particularly useful if you want to conduct an image search since you don’t need to take a screenshot or describe what you’re looking at to Google. As for those enhancements I mentioned, Google is adding one-tap actions for phone numbers, email addresses and URLs, meaning if Circle to Search detects those, it will allow you to call, email or visit a website with a single tap. Again, there’s no need to switch between apps to interact with those elements. In less exciting news, Google is bringing AI Overviews to Circle to Search. As long as your device is set to English, the company’s AI-generated Search summaries will appear when relevant. Google said it was preparing to greatly expand the availability of AI Overviews when it debuted Gemini 2.0 at the end of last year, so the fact they’re now integrated with Circle to Search should not come as a surprise. As with any Google release, it may take a few days before you see today’s update arrive on your device.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/circle-to-search-now-offers-one-tap-actions-for-phone-numbers-emails-and-urls-180005330.html?src=rss

23.01.2025 00:00 Get ready for new Samsung Galaxy phones. That's the safe bet for the headliner today at the company's Galaxy Unpacked event which kicks off today at 1PM ET in San Jose, CA. Engadget will offer you two ways to follow the launch in real-time: our Galaxy S25 livestream and our Galaxy Unpacked liveblog . While the event is imminent, this story collects the full list of leaks, rumors and assumptions as to what we can reasonably expect from the presumed Galaxy S25 phones. Before we detail everything we know, take note: If you're enough of a Samsung fan to preorder sight unseen, it's your last chance to do so. Reserving "the next evolution of Galaxy AI" at Samsung.com will get you a $50 credit and up to $1,250 in additional savings . The reservation window ends exactly as the event begins. Galaxy S25, S25+ and S25 Ultra Galaxy S24 UltraSam Rutherford for Engadget Much like Apple reveals its latest iPhones at its first fall event, Samsung typically launches its mainline Galaxy S flagships at its first Unpacked shindig of the year. You can bet the farm that there will be Galaxy S25 phones at this event. And given Samsung’s recent trend of launching three tiers of flagships — standard, Plus and Ultra — you can bet we’ll see that again. There’s even an FCC certification to dispel any doubts. The degree of certainty falls sharply once we dig into the phones’ features. A subtle redesign with rounded corners, flatter edges and thinner bezels appears likely based on a leaked video posted to Reddit and images from reputable tipster Ice Universe. But this isn’t expected to be the generation where Samsung’s hiring of a former Mercedes-Benz designer will lead to drastic aesthetic changes. Android Headlines also posted plenty of pictures of the purported Galaxy S25, S25+ and S25 Ultra that confirm the relatively minor redesign. The site also claims the screen size for the Galaxy S25 and S25+ are unchanged from last year at 6.2 and 6.7 inches, respectively. The Ultra gets an ever-so-slightly bigger display at 6.9 inches. Qualcomm At least in the US, the phone is practically guaranteed to use Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite processor, which the chip-maker revealed in October. Like just about every flagship processor these days, the Snapdragon 8 Elite is built for on-device generative AI, which aligns with Samsung’s Galaxy AI blitz in recent models. We don’t know whether the company will split its S25 processors between Snapdragon and Exynos , but Ice Universe has claimed it will be all Snapdragon this generation. That would be a good thing, given what’s often a glaring performance and battery life disparity favoring Qualcomm. There would be precedence, too: although the vast majority of Galaxy S generations have had different processors regionally, the S23 had the same "Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy" chip globally. Samsung is rumored to stick with last-generation OLED displays instead of the brighter and more efficient M14 OLED panels used in the iPhone 16 Pro and Google Pixel 9. Logic suggests Samsung would want its best homemade screen in its best phones — especially when its competitors are already using it. But it could stick with the cheaper panels to keep the bill of materials down. Perhaps it calculated that better displays don’t make for better generative AI , while the latest Qualcomm chip does. Speaking of AI, expect Samsung to devote a perhaps agonizingly long portion of the event to generative AI features. The hit-or-miss DigiTimes reported last month that the Galaxy S25 series will include “an AI Agent that provides personalized clothing suggestions and transport information.” What that would look like in practice is anyone’s guess, but I’m not sure I want to know. Samsung The phones will run Samsung’s One UI 7 on top of Android 15. We know this because Samsung said in October that its user experience will launch on the next Galaxy S flagships. It’s already available in beta for Galaxy S24 phones. Samsung has said that One UI 7 will be its "first integrated AI platform." It added that Galaxy phones "will become true AI companions" that are able to understand natural language derived from speech, images and text. And to drive things home, Samsung reaffirmed that the "One UI 7 will be officially released with the upcoming Galaxy S series devices." On the camera front, Ice Universe claims it’s “confirmed” that only the ultra-wide sensor will see an upgrade in the Galaxy S25 Ultra — to 50MP from 12MP in last year’s model. The leaker says the S25 Ultra will stick with a 200MP main sensor, 10MP 3x zoom and 50MP 5x zoom. Galaxy S24 UltraSam Rutherford for Engadget Samsung will add the Qi2 wireless charging standard to its new flagships — and that comes straight from the horse’s mouth. However, leaker chunvn8888 says Samsung’s phones won’t have built-in magnets for Qi2’s native MagSafe in everything but name charging. Given that's the main benefit of Qi2, this would be disappointing news. Instead, the leaker says Samsung will sell a first-party case with a Qi2 magnetic ring to enable that. Is it really Qi2 if you need a case? Rumors have buzzed about an alleged Galaxy S25 Slim with a — you guessed it — slimmer design joining the trio at some point this year. That’s something Apple is also rumored to be working on. Leakers have posted numerous renders this past week comparing how the different size options may compare to each other. A post from Ice Universe puts the S25 Slim at 6.4mm. However, given the FCC certifications only appear to cover the familiar trio of flagships, that phone may not arrive until later in the year. Galaxy Ring 2, Samsung XR and AR glasses Galaxy RingSam Rutherford for Engadget DigiTimes reported in December that Samsung would show off the Galaxy Ring 2 and augmented reality glasses during its January Unpacked event. The Taiwanese publication says the Galaxy Ring 2 will add two more sizes to the nine from the original model, which only launched in July. The second-gen wearable health tracker is said to add new AI features and updated sensors for more accurate measurements. The Galaxy Ring 2 is also rumored to last longer than the current model’s maximum of seven days. Google DigiTimes also claims Samsung’s AR glasses — which the company has confirmed it’s working on — will look like regular prescription glasses and weigh around 50g. It says the futuristic glasses would use Google’s Gemini AI, which aligns with what we already know about Samsung’s partnership with Google and Qualcomm on Android XR. But given the lack of supply chain rumors surrounding the glasses, it’s likely that any mention at the event would amount to little more than a teaser, a la its grand reveal of... a stinkin’ render for the first Galaxy Ring at Unpacked 2024. We also know Samsung is co-developing an Android XR headset — codenamed Project Moohan — alongside Google and Qualcomm. The “lightweight” and “ergonomically designed” headset will have a “state-of-the-art display,” passthrough video and natural multi-modal input. Google’s renderings show a wearable reminiscent of Apple’s $3,500 Vision Pro. Project MoohanGoogle / Samsung Since Google only recently began offering a developer kit and API for the platform, any glimpse of it at Unpacked wouldn’t likely include an imminent release or deep dive into its hardware. Engadget will have full coverage of Samsung’s first Unpacked event of 2025. More to come on January 22! Update, January 13 2025, 12:58PM ET: This story has been updated with purported images and more details on the Galaxy S25, S25+ and S25 Ultra from Android Headlines. Update, January 14 2025, 3:20PM ET: This story has been updated with some more information about One UI 7. Update, January 17 2025, 12:45PM ET: This story has been updated with more details on the Galaxy S25's processor and the history of processors in the Galaxy S series. Update, January 19, 2025, 12:15PM ET: This story has been updated with more information about the rumored Galaxy S25 Slim. Update, January 20, 2025, 3:35PM ET: This story has been updated to include Samsung's recent affirmation that the One UI 7 interface will be present on new Galaxy devices. Update, January 21, 2025, 2:29PM ET: This story has been updated to include reservation details for the new Samsung products. Update, January 22, 2025, 9:45AM ET: This story has been updated to add the link to our liveblog. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/what-we-expect-at-the-samsung-galaxy-s25-unpacked-2025-event-202024699.html?src=rss