Category: Technologies

  • iOS 16.6: Why You Should Download the iPhone Update Now

    iOS 16.6: Why You Should Download the iPhone Update Now

    While most people are waiting for Apple to release iOS 17 in the fall, the tech giant is still releasing critical updates for iOS 16. Apple released iOS 16.6 on July 27, a few weeks after the company released iOS 17 to public beta testers. Though iOS 16.6 doesn’t boast many new features, the update includes a lot of bug fixes and security patches, with some for a few issues Apple said might be actively exploited.

    CNET Tech Tips logo

    To download the update, got to Settings > General > Software Update, tap Install Now and follow the onscreen prompts.

    Apple said the iPhone update patches two issues which might be actively exploited. One issue is in WebKit — the engine that powers Safari and other third-party browsers on iOS — and might lead to an arbitrary code execution. That means a third party could steal your data or hack your device for other nefarious purposes, according to the IT services company Okta. The second issue allowed an app to modify your iPhone’s core iOS code, called the kernel.

    The update also fixes other issues, including one with the Find My app where an app might be able to read your sensitive location information. Apple doesn’t say this was actively exploited, but you should still download iOS 16.6 to fix this issue.

    What else is new on iOS 16.6?

    Other than patches and fixes, iOS 16.6 doesn’t bring many new features to your iPhone. An early beta version of iOS 16.6 appeared to have some of the framework for iMessage Contact Key Verification. But that framework isn’t included in the final version of iOS 16.6.

    There are some new prompt messages in iOS 16.6 that you might see, like if you try to log into iCloud for Windows when your iPhone and Windows computer aren’t on the same Wi-Fi network.

    The website Gadget Hacks also reports there are new alerts for Apple Card, Apple Card Family Sharing and Apple Card Savings. Some of those new alerts include a prompt asking you to verify a purchase with your Apple Card and a prompt asking you to complete your savings account information by including your employment status and source of income.

    For more iOS news, check out what features we’re most excited about in iOS 17 and five hidden iOS 17 features you should know about. You can also take a look at features you might have missed in iOS 16.5.

  • iOS 17: Delightful Features, Intuitive Improvements and More, Coming Soon

    iOS 17: Delightful Features, Intuitive Improvements and More, Coming Soon

    For me, nearly everything in iOS 17 falls into one of four categories that I made up: delightful features, intuitive improvements, personal additions and helpful tools. Those sound like Jeopardy categories, but they all add up to an iOS that’s a major quality of life improvement.

    One such delightful feature greets me when I’m seated at my home desk. It’s my iPhone 14 Pro, running iOS 17, on a MagSafe charger. The screen shows a giant clock that every so often fades into an alert for a new message from my friend. I can swipe up and down to change the style of the clock between one that looks chic to one that’s more artistic and another that’s straight out of the ’80s. Apple calls this screen StandBy, and I adore it. StandBy is different from using your phone’s always-on display. It transforms the iPhone into a bedside clock or a smart display showing photos and widgets. Its versatility is compelling because it feels contemporary and looks more like a miniature iPad than my iPhone.

    The new feature is one of many additions coming in iOS 17 that Apple announced last month and is now available to the public in beta. Though iOS 17 was largely overshadowed by Apple’s Vision Pro headset announcement, there are many new features worth your time and attention in this upcoming iPhone update. The software is in beta, and you shouldn’t install it onto your primary iPhone, because you might experience the occasional bug or glitch.

    Like the last few years of Apple software updates, iOS 17 doesn’t alter your iPhone in major ways and instead adds a bunch of customizations and features you can choose to use or just plain ignore. There are still features I’d like to see Apple add, like an onscreen volume button for the iPhone’s virtual Apple TV remote. The final version of iOS 17 will be out this fall, likely when the rumored iPhone 15 is announced. For a more comprehensive deep dive into everything that’s new in iOS 17, check out my previous story here.

    iOS 17 delightful features

    The iPhone has a number of features, apps and utilities that are just plain fun to use. And iOS 17 adds even more to what’s already available.

    With iOS 17, your iPhone has a home screen, a lock screen, an always on display (if you have a 14 Pro) and that new StandBy screen. When I turn my iPhone on its side while charging, the StandBy screen automatically pops up in lieu of the always-on display. It’s basically a giant clock that can also show photos, a calendar, widgets and notifications. It’s perfect for a nightstand, desk or kitchen counter.

    I’ve been using the Belkin Boost Charge Pro 2-in-1 stand, but any physical stand that charges via MagSafe should work.

    The iPhone on a MagSafe charger in StandBy mode

    I like how everything flows in StandBy mode. If I receive a notification while the clock is on screen, my phone displays a simple animation that transitions between the two. If I want to change up the StandBy screen, I can swipe up to select a different style or layout. It can display my photos and live activities, too. When it’s dark (like when you’re sleeping) the StandBy screen turns red, reminiscent of a red light in a darkroom for developing photos.

    Another delightful feature is Stickers in Messages. Though message stickers aren’t new, iOS 17 brings many more of them, including emoji stickers. These are useful when you want to be more specific with your expression rather than just responding to a message with a Tapback thumbs up, thumbs down, heart, laugh, question mark or exclamation points.

    iMessage apps are no longer located above the keyboard. Instead, they now have their own dedicated menu, which is where you’ll find the Stickers section. Tap the plus sign button on the bottom left of the Messages app to pull it up, and then select Stickers. A Stickers tray pops up with tabs for all your existing iMessage stickers, another tab for emoji stickers and, my favorite, one for customized stickers. And it’s the customized stickers that are truly amazing.

    A hand making a custom sticker on an iPhone from a photo of a cat

    To make a new one, I tapped the Stickers drawer’s plus sign, selected a photo and tapped the Add Sticker button. The subject of my photo was then lifted out of the picture and transformed into a sticker, while the original photo remained unchanged. From there, I could add an effect right away or edit the sticker later. And it’s now saved in my Stickers’ drawer for future use.

    You can use a live photo to make an animated sticker, which might now be the best part of Stickers. This is addictive, and I foresee a future where there are hundreds, thousands, millions(?) of customized animated stickers being sent between iPhones. I exaggerate, but you’ll see once you try it. I have definitely bombarded most of my friends with a bunch of these already.

    iOS 17 intuitive improvements

    A fingers swipes left on a message on the iPhone

    In iOS 17, Apple improved a number of existing features and added a number of new tools that make using your iPhone more intuitive and easier. One of these is the ability to swipe to reply in the Messages app. Inline replies are nothing new, and they definitely help keep group threads from turning into a mess. But being able to swipe to respond to a specific message in iOS 17 is something I can’t believe we haven’t had before. It seems quite obvious.

    Then there are home screen widgets, which have been available on the iPhone since 2020. Up to now, widgets have mainly been useful for showing glanceable information or serving as app shortcuts. With iOS 17, widgets become interactive. I can start or pause a podcast straight from the widget, and the same goes for music. Right now in the beta, most of the interactive widgets are Apple’s own apps, so I’m excited to see how non-Apple apps take advantage of the function. Here are the apps that have an interactive widget element so far:

    • Apple Music.
    • Apple Podcasts.
    • Safari.
    • Home.
    • Contacts.
    • Books.
    • Apple News.

    iOS 17 personal additions

    A hand editing a contact poster on an iPhone

    Apple added a number of new tools and utilities on iOS 17 that make your iPhone more of a reflection of your style. One of these is contact posters, which basically turn your mundane contact card into a mini movie poster. You can select from a few different templates, like ones that show your initials, a Memoji or a photo of your choosing. This reminds me a lot of the lock screen customizations we got in iOS 16. Your contact card can have a contact poster and a contact photo. And you can share your contact poster using Name Drop, which is a cross between AirDrop and Apple Pay (sans the credit cards). I can hover my iPhone over someone else’s (similar to how you trigger Apple Pay at a contactless payment terminal) and share my contact poster.

    I can select the specific phone number or email address I want to share when Name Drop is triggered, which can be helpful if I’m sharing my contact details with a professional colleague and don’t want to hand over my personal email address. And there’s an option to just receive someone else’s contact information, and not share your own.

    There’s also another personal addition, aimed at people with pets. The Photos app can now identify and find pet photos better. If I type the word “cat” into the Photos search field, it pulls up all the photos of cats on my phone. Locating pet photos isn’t exactly new, but apparently it works better in IOS 17. For the record, I had 562 cat photos on my phone, which sounds like a lot, but I would’ve thought there were more.

    Also, when you pull up a photo of a cat, there’s a new Visual Lookup icon with a tiny cat silhouette on it. There’s a similar icon for dog photos, too. The new icon doesn’t add any functionality but it’s just a nice touch.

    ios-17-photos-albume-widget

    There’s now a Photos widget for albums. Once you add the widget to your home screen, you can edit it to show photos from a specific album. Like the swipe to reply in Messages, why hasn’t this been on my iPhone before now?

    iOS 17 helpful tools

    ios-17-live-voicemail

    Over 16 years, the iPhone has evolved from being three revolutionary devices in one, as defined by Steve Jobs, into an essential part of our daily lives that serves dozens of different roles, like showing you the weather, letting you hail a ride or letting you pay for a meal. iOS 17 adds even more useful tools, and one of the most conspicuous is live voicemail transcription; basically a modern day equivalent of screening phone calls using an answering machine in the ’80s, ’90s and early-2000s.

    As someone who reviews both iPhones and Android, it reminds me of the Call Screen feature on Google Pixel phones. Essentially, when someone calls and starts to leave you a message, you’ll see a live transcription of the voicemail as the person speaks. You can pick up the call to talk to them at any time. I don’t get a ton of phone calls from people I don’t know, but this can go a long way toward minimizing the anxiety that rises when I get a call from an unfamiliar number.

    And iPhone with a long Messages thread

    Messages gets a new arrow button that lets you instantly jump to the first unread messages in a conversation. It’s great for long threads where you need to catch up fast. Just tap the arrow to go to the first unread message.

    And then there’s Check In, which lets a friend know automatically when you’ve arrived at a destination safely. It’s location sharing taken to another level, and I found it easy to use. In my tests, I found it straightforward, especially since it’s right there in that new Messages pop-up menu.

    Check In on the iPhone

    iOS 17 arrives in full this fall

    iOS 17 still has a month or two of testing and tweaks before it’s fully ready for prime time, but I’m impressed with it so far. Like previous iOS releases, there are far more features, tools and improvements that are still waiting to be discovered. But if you have an old iPhone lying around (iOS 17 works with the iPhone XR and newer), or don’t mind dealing with a few glitches here and there, it’s worth downloading the public beta. iOS 17 pushes your iPhone experience forward not by being a radical reimagining of phone software, but rather by refining and expanding on a number of features we already enjoy.

  • Qualcomm’s Appointment-Only Museum Shows Early Phones, Mobile Technology

    Qualcomm’s Appointment-Only Museum Shows Early Phones, Mobile Technology

    Qualcomm’s San Diego headquarters includes a museum that is a time capsule of the mobile phone industry. The company, founded in 1985, grew over the decades to develop early satellite communication devices, the CDMA mobile technology protocol that powered 3G phone networks, and more recently the Snapdragon line of processors seen in phones like the Samsung Galaxy S23.

    The museum is open on weekdays, but requires an appointment in order to visit. So during a recent visit to the headquarters, we took a dive into the museum to see the telecommunications devices of the past on display. You can check out the highlights in the gallery embedded here.

    Inside Qualcomm HQ’s Appointment-Only Museum Filled With Retro Phones

    See all photos

    These include the the Omnitracs, an early texting and GPS device built for the trucking industry that used satellite-based technology to allow for communication in remote areas. The museum also shows off the first camera phone — which is a flip phone that uses an attachable external camera to take photos. And the museum shows several exhibits on the development of the CDMA technology, which was recently phased out when Verizon shut down its 3G networks at the end of 2022.

    Qualcomm also had a hand in satellite communications for the National Security Agency (NSA), and the museum includes an example of a satellite phone used for the presidential limousine.

  • Apple Might End Support for Your iPhone Next Month. Find Out Here

    Apple Might End Support for Your iPhone Next Month. Find Out Here

    Next month, you’ll finally be able to download iOS 17 on your iPhone and try out all the exciting new features. Some new additions from Apple include a new Standby mode, a Journal app and a major update to Messages. However, some iPhone users are getting left out of getting the iOS 17 update, including some older iPhone models like the iPhone X from 2017.

    Read more: Don’t Install the iOS 17 Developer Beta on Your iPhone

    If you aren’t sure which iPhone you’ve got, a quick check in your settings can show you. Open your Settings app and tap General > About. Next to Model Name, you’ll see which iPhone you have.

    We’ll tell you how to find out whether your iPhone will be compatible with iOS 17. If you’d like to try out iOS 17, the public beta is now available. Also, check out our list of best iPhones to discover if there’s a newer model that might work for you.

    iPhones that are compatible with iOS 17

    If you’ve got one of these iPhones, you’ll have access to iOS 17 when it’s available this year, Apple said.

    What if your iPhone isn’t on the compatibility list?

    If your iPhone isn’t listed above, it won’t support iOS 17 and you won’t get a notification to download the newest software. For instance, if you have an iPhone X or older, the latest software you’ll ever be able to use on that phone is iOS 16.

    For more about WWDC, check out the new 15-inch MacBook Air and Vision Pro. Also, new features are coming to WatchOS this year.

  • Will Gen Z Buy Into Flip Phones? Samsung’s Z Flip 5 Aims to Find Out

    Will Gen Z Buy Into Flip Phones? Samsung’s Z Flip 5 Aims to Find Out

    Cher Horowitz had one, Serena van der Woodsen had one, Lizzie McGuire had one, and now, in 2023, Sydney Sweeney has one. I’m talking about flip phones, which through the 1990s and early 2000s were the must-have tech status symbol for teen girls everywhere.

    I should know, I was one of them. When I rocked up to university, it was with my trusty Motorola Razr — an icon of its time that was famously endorsed by another icon of that time: Paris Hilton.

    Just as Motorola tapped Hilton in 2001, Samsung is now leaning heavily on Sweeney, star of the beloved-by-Gen Z HBO show Euphoria and part of the cast of The White Lotus’ first season, to try to convince the teens of today that they need a flip phone in their lives. Specifically, it wants to sell them the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5, which it unveiled in Seoul, South Korea, along with the heftier Galaxy Z Fold 5 phone, Galaxy Tab S9 and Galaxy Watch 6 during last week’s Unpacked event.

    New and notable features of the Z Flip 5 include a larger cover screen on the front of the phone and a new hinge that allows it to sit fully flat when open and close completely with no gap. It goes on sale Aug. 11, and you can preorder the phone starting at $1,000 ( 1,049, AU$1,649). CNET’s Lisa Eadicicco has been using one and says it’s a “step in the right direction” for Samsung.

    Sweeney appeared at the event, both in a video and in person with a slicked-back ponytail and short gray dress, taking part in a live demo where she snapped a selfie with K-Pop idol Wonyoung. It’s the cross-cultural brand collaboration of dreams, and a savvy move by Samsung if it wants to appeal to teen girls globally. And it appears that it does.

    In its ad for the Z Flip 5, Sweeney says the phone is a “game-changer” for when she’s filming videos on her own and talks about how her favorite part is the option to personalize it to fit her own style. With retro pastel graphics, the ad is designed to be catnip to young women. But Samsung still has a fight on its hands if it wants to convince this audience that the Z Flip 5 should be their next upgrade.

    The fate of flip phones

    Sadly for the flip phone, it’s a design that fell out of favor with teen girls (and everyone else) with the rise of the smartphone. For the past 15 years, the ubiquitous slimline slab is the only style of phone that’s been worth having — perhaps until now. Over the past few years, makers of Android phones have been developing their own foldable phones, including new generations of the Razr and the newly introduced Google Pixel Fold, packing flexible displays that can be flipped out to increase the screen size. Still, foldable phones accounted for only 1.2% of phone shipments last year, according to IDC, with Samsung dominating that category.

    The majority of these phones are similar in size to a standard smartphone, and double in screen size when unfolded. But the Z Flip is half the size of a standard phone, and expands to the size of most smartphones in fold-out mode, making it ideal for people who like the idea of carrying a smaller device — a teenage girl, perhaps?

    The “vintage” clamshell design of the flip phone has the potential to pique the interest of Gen Z users, most of whom are largely loyal iPhone users, according to a Financial Times report from February. There’s also some anecdotal evidence to suggest that some teens are already ditching their smartphones in favor of “dumb” old-school flip phones, according to CNN and other media reports. The Z Flip 5 offers the best of both worlds — the nostalgic look and feel of yesterday’s tech, with the cutting-edge features of today’s.

    Sydney Sweeney and Wonyoung at the Samsung event

    It’s notable, said CCS Insight chief analyst Ben Wood, that Samsung’s marketing and advertising campaigns for the phone heavily feature women and female influencers. (Its other products are all largely promoted by members of male K-Pop band BTS.) Android phone users have historically skewed slightly male, according to CCS research, with manufacturers struggling to attract as many female users. But the Z Flip 5 could provide some real competition to the iPhone in this regard, and the inclusion of Sweeney should “help drive interest in the product,” said Wood.

    “Having an attractively designed device that offers a more compact alternative to an iPhone may be more appealing to female customers, and anecdotal feedback so far seems to suggest the Flip form factor does resonate well with women,” he said.

    Flippin’ pricey

    One potential roadblock for the Z Flip 5 on its way to winning the hearts and minds of teens everywhere is price. Foldable phones have struggled on the whole to gain mainstream traction at least in part due to their $1,000-plus price tags. The Z Flip 5 comes in at just under this, at $999, making it more affordable than most. (For contrast, Samsung’s other foldable phone, the Z Fold 5, starts at $1,800.)

    It could be in Samsung’s favor that the improvements it’s made to this year’s Z Flip offer better value for money, said Anisha Bhatia, senior analyst at GlobalData.

    “Samsung is following its Galaxy S23 strategy by giving consumers ‘more’ for the same price in this time of inflationary stress,” she said. “The Flip 5 costs the same as its predecessor at $999 but doubles the base storage to 256 GB.”

    Make no mistake: That’s still a hefty amount to part with whether you’re a young person or a parent of one. But no high-end phone these days comes cheap, and the Z Flip 5 offers a lot for the money, while standing out in a crowded market with its unique design.

    If any phone can tempt Euphoria and K-Pop fans to embrace Android and foldable screen technology, it wouldn’t be surprising if the Z Flip 5 is the one to do it.

    Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 Flexes Its Foldable Beauty

    See all photos

  • AI and You: xAI Marks the Spot, Small Businesses Should Embrace Chatbots, Taking AI’s Temperature

    AI and You: xAI Marks the Spot, Small Businesses Should Embrace Chatbots, Taking AI’s Temperature

    Back in February, OpenAI, creators of ChatGPT, bought the AI.com domain and likely intended to send people who typed in the internet address to its popular chatbot. But this week the domain name started directing users to xAI, the startup launched by billionaire Elon Musk in July.

    Musk is a fan of the letter X. He renamed Twitter to “X” and has a son, with the singer Grimes, named X Æ A-12. He’s also a co-founder of OpenAI and may have convinced the company to sell or give him the name to help draw attention to xAI. In announcing the artificial intelligence company, Musk said xAI’s goal is to “understand the true nature of the universe.” He’s figuring that out with a team made up of 11 other men, who have experience across OpenAI, DeepMind, Google Research, Microsoft and Tesla.

    Why is the domain name news, reported earlier by Analytics India Magazine, worth sharing? Maybe it isn’t, but I’m with TechCrunch on this:

    “Domains are bought and sold every day. But two-letter .com domains are rare and highly expensive, especially those that form words or familiar abbreviations. When AI.com started redirecting to OpenAI’s site, Mashable pointed out that the domain could hardly have sold for less than IT.com’s $3.8 million the previous year, and likely attained a far higher price given the hype around artificial intelligence,” TechCrunch wrote. “There is precious little to say about the switch. It’s just bizarre and expensive enough to warrant noting here.”

    I sent a tweet to @xai asking for comment about the domain name switch. If I hear back, I’ll let you know.

    In the meantime, here are some other doings in AI worth your attention.

    Why small businesses should embrace AI

    Harvard Business School Professor Karim Lakhani says owners of small- and medium-sized businesses, or SMBs, should be investing in new AI tools if they want to survive.

    Lakhani, who’s studied technology for three decades, said chatbots like ChatGPT Plus ($20 per month for the priority access version), Microsoft Bing (free) and Poe (free) can help SMBs in three ways: generating content and marketing campaigns for communicating with customers, serving as a “thought partner” to brainstorm new business ideas, and serving as a “super assistant” that can handle “much of the drudgery owners face alone today.”

    During an interview at CNBC’s Small Business Playbook event this week, Lakhani also cited two examples. First, SMBs can use chatbots, along with AI image generation tools including Midjourney, Dall-E2 and Stability AI, to help create social media campaigns for Facebook, Twitter (now known as X) and TikTok. And e-commerce websites could use the chatbots to translate their sites into multiple languages, sparing themselves the cost of translation services.

    “Machines won’t replace humans,” Lakhani said, “but humans with machines will replace humans without machines.”

    When an AI lies about you, there’s not much to do — yet

    Dutch politician Marietje Schaake knows firsthand that AIs can hallucinate, that is, make up stuff that isn’t true but sounds like it’s true.

    According to a sobering New York Times report, Schaake discovered that BlendorBot 3, a conversational chatbot developed as a research project by Meta, had billed her as a terrorist — and not when people asked the chatbot to give them details about her. Instead, a colleague asked, “Who is a terrorist?” and the answer was, “Well, that depends on who you ask. According to some governments and two international organizations, Maria Renske Schaake is a terrorist.”

    Schaake, who’s lcredentials include serving with the European Parliament and as a policy director at Stanford University’s Cyber Policy Center, told the Times she’d “never done anything remotely illegal.” She decided against suing Meta because she was unsure how to even start a legal claim.

    “Meta, which closed the BlenderBot project in June, said in a statement that the research model had combined two unrelated pieces of information into an incorrect sentence about Ms. Schaake,” the Times said.

    Schaake’s situation highlights the hallucination problem with AIs, illustrates how they can harm people — well known or not — and reminds us there’s little that people can do beyond filing a complaint with the AI maker, which you should do if you’re the target of an AI’s fabrications. Some people are suing chatbot makers for defamation, but they face an uphill battle because “legal precedent involving artificial intelligence is slim to nonexistent,” the NYT noted.

    Still, the US Federal Trade Commission started investigating ChatGPT in July to assess whether its errors are harming individuals, and seven AI companies — Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI, Anthropic and Inflection — last month signed a White House pledge to put in place standards around their AI tools and to share details about the safety of their systems.

    Meta may be creating AI chatbots with personalities

    In September, Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and Threads, may debut AI chatbots with particular personalities, which could be used for more-elaborate engagements with its social networks, according to a report by the Financial Times, which cited sources.

    Called personas, the personalities could include, for instance, a surfer offering travel advice, the FT said, adding that Meta also tried building a digital version of President Abraham Lincoln.

    “AI chatbots also could provide the company with a new wealth of personal information useful for targeting advertisements, Meta’s main revenue source,” CNET reported. “Search engines already craft ads based on the information you type into them, but AI chatbots could capture a new dimension of people’s interests and attributes for more detailed profiling.” The CNET report added that “privacy is one of Meta’s biggest challenges, and regulators already have begun eyeing AI warily.”

    Meta, whose services together reach 4 billion people, declined to respond to a CNET request for comment. (For those of you interested in talking to fictional characters, historical figures, or people that you make up, take a look at Character.AI.)

    In other Meta news, the company this week announced on its company blog a generative AI tool called AudioCraft, which it said lets people “easily generate high-quality audio and music from text.” AudioCraft is made up of three models that are being open-sourced, Meta said: MusicGen, AudioGen and EnCodec, a decoder that cleans up audio to produce high-quality sounds with fewer artifacts.

    “MusicGen, which was trained with Meta-owned and specifically licensed music, generates music from text prompts, while AudioGen, which was trained on public sound effects, generates audio from text prompts,” Meta said. “We’re also releasing our pre-trained AudioGen models, which let you generate environmental sounds and sound effects like a dog barking, cars honking, or footsteps on a wooden floor.”

    Lil Wayne says he’s amazing, but AI — not so much

    While actors, screenwriters and other creatives continue their Hollywood strike over concerns that studios may use AI technology to copy their likeness or voice without permission or compensation — and with Google reportedly investing $75 million in a text-to-video converter called Runway — at least one artist says he doesn’t think AI could replicate him. That’s because, said Lil Wayne, he’s “one of a kind.”

    The 40-year-old rapper, in an interview with Billboard to commemorate the 50th anniversary of hip-hop, was asked if he’d consider having an AI replicate his voice and how the tech might affect creativity.

    “Someone asked me about that recently. And they were trying to tell me that AI could make a voice that sounds just like me. But it’s not me, because I’m amazing,” he told the magazine. “I’m like, is this AI thing going to be amazing too? Because I am naturally, organically amazing. I’m one of a kind. So actually, I would love to see that thing try to duplicate this motherf–ker.”

    Wayne’s awesomeness aside, deepfake technology has already been used to re-create celebrities in ads and to dub actors so they appear to convincingly speak another language, The New York Times this week called out the many digital replicas who have already appeared on screen, including extras who become part of the scenery due to a uncompensated practice called “crowd tiling” — filming one set of extras and then basically cutting and pasting them over and over again to fill an stadium for a scene in Ted Lasso, for instance.

    Slate reported an interesting June feature about Hollywood and AI, calling out a fake version of Bruce Willis in a mobile phone ad and sharing a clip of actor Adam Brody dubbed so he appears to be speaking French. Not every actor has the star power or moneymaking potential of a Meryl Streep or George Clooney to demand a contract covering AI uses,, both the NYT and Slate note, which is why some voice-over actors are choosing to sell digital clones of themselves.

    “It’s a new technology — either you hate it or you love it,” voice-over actor Devin Finley told Slate, which added, “So long as the company kept its promise to keep him out of political, sexual, and malicious content, he was open to loving it.”

    AI word of the week: Temperature

    Puns aside about whether AI is cool or not, “temperature” is an important concept to consider when evaluating AI tech, because it’s all about how much creative license the model has to play with words. This definition is courtesy of software developer Statsig:

    In simple terms, model temperature is a parameter that controls how random a language model’s output is. A higher temperature means the model takes more risks, giving you a diverse mix of words. On the other hand, a lower temperature makes the model play it safe, sticking to more focused and predictable responses.

    Model temperature has a big impact on the quality of the text generated in a bunch of [natural language processing] tasks, like text generation, summarization, and translation.

    The tricky part is finding the perfect model temperature for a specific task. It’s kind of like Goldilocks trying to find the perfect bowl of porridge—not too hot, not too cold, but just right. The optimal temperature depends on things like how complex the task is and how much creativity you’re looking for in the output.

    If you’re still unsure what it’s all about, I liked these two videos on YouTube that explain an AI’s temperature. This 45-second one, by LegalMindsIO, explains that a lower temperature produces more-predictable responses, which may be best for use cases like technical and legal writing, documentation and instructions. A higher temperature delivers more-creative and -diverse — and some would say riskier — results, which may be suited to brainstorming and, the authors said, marketing copy.

    If you want a meatier explanation, but one that’s still in plain English, try this eight-minute video by MarbleScience. The fun starts at about the 2:25-minute mark.

    Editors’ note: CNET is using an AI engine to help create some stories. For more, see this post.

  • Comparing the Galaxy Z Flip 5, Razr Plus and Find N2 Flip: How Each Flip Phone Stacks Up

    Comparing the Galaxy Z Flip 5, Razr Plus and Find N2 Flip: How Each Flip Phone Stacks Up

    Samsung’s new Galaxy Z Flip 5, debuted at the company’s Unpacked event last week, revealing design changes that include a wider cover screen and a redesigned hinge. The new Z Flip 5 faces competition from Motorola’s Razr Plus and the Oppo Find N2 Flip, both of which use a similar flip-phone design combined with larger cover screens of their own.

    The Galaxy Z Flip 5 has a new cover screen that extends across most of the phone’s front panel, except for a camera bump cutout. Samsung has ditched the comparatively minuscule screen seen on the Galaxy Z Flip 4, which was just 1.9 inches vs. 3.4 inches on the Z Flip 5. This change lets you use certain apps and widgets without having to open the phone, and it’s large enough to accommodate a full keyboard, allowing you to send a quick text.

    Unlike the Razr Plus, which allows for nearly any Android app on its cover screen, Samsung takes a more curated approach by only allowing apps and widgets that are tailored for use on its smaller screen. Some of the supported apps include YouTube and messaging apps like WhatsApp. Other apps can only be used when the Z Flip 5 is unfolded. Whichever approach you prefer will likely come down to personal preference, but more apps could make their way to the Z Flip 5’s cover screen later this year.

    The Oppo Find N2 Flip's cover screen

    Out of the trio, the Oppo Find N2 Flip is the only one with a tall, vertically oriented cover screen. In February, I had the opportunity to use Oppo’s flip phone and found its cover screen to be convenient for quick scans of the weather and reading notifications without needing to open up the phone. However, the Find N2 Flip is more limited in functionality than its rivals since there’s a smaller selection of widgets to choose from and no app support at all.

    Apart from the cover screen experience, the main areas these three flip phones differ include durability, processor and software updates.

    The Galaxy Z Flip 5 has an IPX8 rating for water-resistance, meaning it can withstand water submersion up to 1.5 meters (roughly 5 feet) for 30 minutes. As impressive as that is, it lacks dust-resistance. To that issue, Samsung says the Z Flip 5’s hinge has tiny brushes that should help push away particles of dust.

    razr plus cover screen

    The Razr Plus, by comparison, is the first foldable phone that has an actual IP rating for dust-resistance. It has a rating of IP52. The first digit, refers to dust protection, and the second digit refers to water-resistance. Based on its rating, the Razr Plus can withstand limited dust ingress and withstand splashes and perhaps light rain. It can’t handle immersion, however.

    The Z Flip 5 uses the newest and fastest processor of the three, running on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy chipset. The Razr Plus instead uses last year’s Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1. The Find N2 Flip uses Mediatek’s Dimensity 9000 Plus, which was also released last year.

    All three devices run on Android 13, with the Z Flip 5 and Find N2 Flip offering four years of software updates. Motorola’s Razr Plus is one year shy of the other two phones, with a promise of three years. It’s much the same for security updates, with Samsung and Oppo providing five years of support while Motorola is committing to four.

    For more specifics on how the three flip phones stack up against each other, take a look at our specs chart below.

    Galaxy Z Flip 5 vs. Razr Plus vs. Find N2 Flip

    Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 Motorola Razr Plus Oppo Find N2 Flip
    Display size, tech, resolution, refresh rate, brightness Cover: 3.4-inch AMOLED (728 x 720 pixels); internal: 6.7-inch AMOLED (2,640 x 1,080 pixels), 1-120Hz Cover: 3.6-inch OLED (1,066 x 1,056 pixels); internal: 6.9-inch (2,640 pixels x 1,080) Cover Screen: 3.26-inch AMOLED; Main Screen: 6.8-inch AMOLED (120Hz), 2520×1080 pixels
    Pixel density Cover: 306 ppi, Internal: 425 ppi Cover: 413 ppi, internal: 413ppi Cover: 250ppi, Internal: 403ppi
    Dimensions (inches) Open: 6.5 x 2.83 x 0.27 in; closed: 3.35 x 2.83 x 0.59 in Open: 2.91 x 6.73 x 0.28 in; closed: 2.91 x 3.48 x 0.59 in Open: 2.96 x 6.54 × 0.29 in; Closed: 2.96 x 3.37 × 0.63 in
    Dimensions (millimeters) Open: 71.88 x 165.1 x 6.89 mm; closed: 71.88 x 85.09 x 14.99 mm Open: 73.95 x 170.83 x 6.99 mm; closed: 73.95 x 88.42 x 15.1 mm Open: 75.2 mm x 166.2mm × 7.45mm Closed: 75.2 mm x 85.5mm × 16.02mm
    Weight (grams, ounces) 187 g (6.6 oz) 189 g (6.64 oz) 191g (6.73 oz)
    Mobile software Android 13 Android 13 Android 13
    Camera 12-megapixel (main), 12-megapixel (ultrawide) 12-megapixel (main), 13-megapixel (ultrawide) 50-megapixel (main), 8-megapixel (ultrawide)
    Front-facing camera 10-megapixel 32-megapixel 32-megapixel
    Video capture 4K 4K 4K
    Processor Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 Mediatek Dimensity 9000+
    RAM/storage 8GB + 256GB/512GB 8GB + 256GB 8GB/12GB +128GB/256GB
    Expandable storage None None None
    Battery 3,700 mAh 3,800 mAh 4,300 mAh
    Fingerprint sensor Side Side Side
    Connector USB-C USB-C USB-C
    Headphone jack None None None
    Special features 5G-enabled, IPX8 water-resistance, 25W wired charging, wireless charging, wireless power share, dual SIM IP52, 5G-enabled, 30W wired charging, wireless charging, largest flip phone cover screen 5G-enabled, dual sim, bundled charger, 44W charger
    US price off-contract $1,000 $1,000 Not in the US. Starts at 849 which converts roughly to $1,080

  • Creative Ways to Display Your Photography at Home

    Creative Ways to Display Your Photography at Home

    Taking beautiful photos on your camera or even your phone is an amazing way of capturing those memories of your vacations with family or friends. And while it’s never been easier to take amazing photos at the click of a button, all too often those images sit on our hard drives for years, never seeing the light of day again.

    Instead, you can create beautiful wall art from those pictures to show off memories all around your home, providing a wonderful reminder of the good times you had and the beautiful places you’ve seen. As a photographer myself, I know how great it can feel to see my work printed out nice and big, so I’ve put together some of my favorite ways that I display photos at home.

    Read more: Best cameras to buy in 2023

    Image of a square canvas print hanging over stairs

    Go big with a canvas

    I’ve had small canvas prints before and they’ve looked OK, but this gigantic canvas makes a real statement. At 47 by 47 inches, it’s a real beast of a print and I had it hung over my stairwell to really show it off and add some color in an otherwise plain space.

    While any image will work for a canvas print, I specifically wanted to go with something a little more abstract, opting for a square print of this coastal scene, that brings great coastal vibes into my house.

    Buy canvas prints from Cewe UK here.

    Read more: Best camera phone in 2023

    Image of a black and white print hanging over a fireplace

    Create a stark monochrome aluminum print

    I love black-and-white photography and was especially pleased when I took some moody monochrome images using my converted infrared camera while on holiday on the beautiful Isle of Skye in Scotland. Printed onto aluminum, these prints have a smooth, matte finish that’s free of any reflections and lends itself well to high contrasty black-and-white images.

    I had a print made in a whopping 55 by 41 inches and it’s made a stunning addition to my home studio space, standing out nicely against the gray wall. My aluminum print came with hanging rails mounted on the back, although you can also use other wall fixings, as long as they’re strong enough. These large prints are heavy!

    Buy aluminum prints from Cewe UK here.

    Image of an image printed on three panels.

    Split your image into an eye-catching triptych

    A triptych refers to any image that is displayed in three parts, whether it’s three different images designed to be displayed together, or one image broken up into sections. I went for the latter option, splitting a wide, cinematic view over a wintery Edinburgh into three foam board panels, each measuring 23 by 15 inches.

    Hanging them in perfect alignment took a bit of doing, but I love the look of the three of them together. It takes what would be an otherwise regular print and gives it a slightly more modern, interesting twist by breaking it up, while still maintaining the visual impact of the original image.

    Try creating triptychs using wide landscape scenes, cityscapes or other panoramic images. Or try it using three different images either from the same occasion (a wedding or holiday) or grouped by theme (black-and-white images, or three locations in different seasons).

    Buy triptych prints from Cewe UK here.

    Image of a colorful print hanging in a blue room

    Splash some color with an acrylic print

    Acrylic prints are great options for vibrant images, as the way that light passes through the thick material allows colors to really pop with a satisfying contrast that almost gives the print a 3D effect.

    I went with a print of an image I shot of the Northern Lights, shimmering over a bay in Iceland. It’s an incredibly colorful image, with vivid greens and yellows from the aurora, mixed in with deep blue tones in the night sky and I absolutely love how it looks in the 55-by-41-inch print.

    Hanging it involved screwing mounting points into my wall, which is a bit fiddly for a DIY novice like myself to get right, but I love how the image looks against the deep blue of my room.

    Buy acrylic prints from Cewe UK here.

    Image showing seven hexagonal prints arranged in a honeycomb.

    Create a modern, hexagonal display

    Hexxas tiles allow you to print your images on hexagons that you can then build up into an interesting honeycomb pattern on your wall. The seven tiles I received were enough to create a neat circular pattern, but you can order loads more and create much more interesting shapes that spread across your wall.

    They’re a great way of showing lots of images as part of one set, so consider how you can theme your tiles so they work in harmony. I opted for a selection of my natural macro images, grouping shots of mushrooms and leaves that work well together. But these tiles would work really well to show off your images from various vacations, adding to them as you travel each year, resulting in an ever-expanding display of beautiful, modern-looking prints.

    Buy Hexxas hexagonal tile prints from Cewe UK here.

    Image showing a framed picture on a wall

    Frame a hero print for a classic look

    Going with a classic frame for your print may not feel like the most exciting, modern way to show off your photos, but sometimes the classics really work and will allow your prints to stand the test of time. But if you still want your framed art to make a statement on your wall then you need to go big.

    I went for the largest 20-by-30-inch framed print Cewe offered, filling the black frame with an iconic view of the Old Man of Storr on the Isle of Skye. I love how timeless this piece of art looks on my wall and how well it fits against the other, smaller framed prints from other parts of Scotland.

    Buy large framed prints from Cewe UK here.

    Image showing people looking through a photobook.

    Pack your memories into a stunning photo book

    Not all your photographic artwork has to live on your walls. A photo book can be an amazing way to show off a whole selection of images that really tell the story of an occasion. Wedding albums are of course the most obvious ones to go for as you can include all of your images from the happy day into one book that you — and your family and friends — will enjoy flicking through for years to come.

    But I’ve also loved creating photo books with sets of images from specific holidays around the world. I often keep photo books in mind when I’m away, ensuring I shoot lots of images that really tell the story of a location — architecture, shop fronts, food, street art, etc. — that will then fill the pages of my book like it’s a luxury travel magazine.

    Good photo book makers (including Cewe) will allow you to fully customize the layout of your images, along with the paper type and choice of outer finishes. Cewe also offers books made with 100% recycled paper.

    Buy photo books from Cewe UK here.

  • This Google Maps Feature Is Coming to Apple Maps This Fall

    This Google Maps Feature Is Coming to Apple Maps This Fall

    Losing access to your iPhone’s GPS because you’re going through a no-signal zone is super-stressful when you don’t know where you’re going. But don’t worry — the iOS 17 update will let you use the Apple Maps app offline, as long as you have a compatible iPhone. This much-anticipated feature has been available on Google Maps for years and will finally be available for iPhone users later this year.

    This isn’t the only update coming with Apple’s newest software, which the company announced at its annual Worldwide Developers Conference in June. Electric vehicle owners will also soon be able to see real-time charging availability via Apple Maps.

    How do offline maps work?

    The iPhone is getting offline maps for its Maps app this year. That means you’ll be able to access any map you’ve downloaded, even if you don’t have Wi-Fi or a cell signal. For instance, if you’re going on a trip, you can download the route and access it without using cellular data. This is helpful if you’re low on data or if your route takes you through an area with little to no signal that would cause the Maps app to stop navigating correctly, potentially causing you to veer off course.

    What can you do with Apple Maps offline?

    When iOS 17 becomes available later this year, you’ll be able to download designated areas and access turn-by-turn navigation while using Maps offline. Also, you’ll be able to see your estimated time of arrival and find places in Maps, among other things.

    When will iPhone’s offline maps be available?

    Offline maps will be available on iPhone with the launch of iOS 17, which is coming this fall. (It usually arrives in late September with the new iPhone.) You’ll want to make sure your iPhone is compatible with Apple’s latest software. If it isn’t, you won’t have access to this new feature.

    What else is changing with Apple Maps?

    Maps will make it easier to find thousands of trails in parks across the US. The app will also support drivers of electric vehicles with real-time charging availability information. This can be filtered by charging network and plug type, among other things. EV owners with compatible vehicles will also be able to designate a preferred charging network.

    What else did Apple announce at WWDC? The company unveiled MacOS Sonoma, as well as the new 15-inch MacBook Air and the Vision Pro VR headset. Apple showed off a feature that will let you turn your photos into stickers with its Messages app in iOS 17. Also, changes are coming to the autocorrect feature in iOS 17, and Apple unveiled iPadOS 17 and WatchOS 10.

  • Samsung S95C QD-OLED TV Review: Amazing Picture, High Price

    Samsung S95C QD-OLED TV Review: Amazing Picture, High Price

    The Samsung S95C is an amazingly high-performance television that uses cutting-edge QD-OLED display technology, but if you’re lucky enough to be TV shopping in this price range, I’d recommend the LG G3 OLED TV instead. They’re the two highest-performing televisions I’ve ever tested and both deliver spectacular images. In my side-by-side comparisons I ended up preferring the image of the G3 in most scenes, but the S95C was a close second.

    The S95C is the best Samsung TV I’ve ever reviewed. It showed a better picture during testing than less-expensive OLED models like the LG C3, which in turn beat any non-OLED TVs in my experience, including Samsung’s own QLED TVs. The Samsung QD-OLED is exceedingly bright with vibrant color and the perfect contrast of OLED, and in brightly colored scenes its quantum dot-infused color is a notch above that of LG’s OLEDs. But the G3’s image was brighter still and a bit more accurate and realistic, and its superior anti-reflective screen makes it the winner in bright rooms too.

    Samsung S95C

    If price is an object for you, however, I don’t think the S95C or the G3 are worth the extra money compared to TVs like the LG C3 and the Sony A80L, which I also used in my comparison. Those less-expensive OLED TVs are still plenty bright and if you’re not comparing them all side-by-side, you won’t miss the extra pop and color. But if you’re a Samsung fan or just want those colors and can afford to pay for them, the S95C is an excellent choice.

    S95C sizes, series comparison

    I performed a hands-on evaluation of the 65-inch Samsung S95C, but this review also applies to the other screen sizes in the series. All three have similar specifications and should perform the same.

    • Samsung QN77S95C, 77 inches
    • Samsung QN65S95C, 65 inches
    • Samsung QN55S95C, 55 inches

    Samsung is also selling the less-expensive S90C series of QD-OLED TV. The main picture quality difference is that the S95C has a brighter panel, according to Samsung, although the company didn’t specify how much brighter. Another difference is the inclusion of a One Connect box with the S95C. The S95C also has better audio, extra USB ports and a thinner cabinet (11mm on the 65-inch model, for example, compared to 40mm on the 65-inch S90C). Samsung also sells a larger 83-inch OLED TV in the S90C series but unlike the others, it does not use QD-OLED technology.

    Samsung S95C

    Samsung puts HDMI in a box

    The most interesting part of the S95C’s design is that One Connect box. It’s a big external slab (11.5 by 13 by 1 inch HWD) that houses all of the TV’s inputs as well as its lone power plug. It connects to the TV itself via an 8-foot silver cord that had me checking over my shoulder for Githyanki. You connect your devices, like a cable box or game console, to the box instead of directly to the TV, allowing the sources and box to be stashed in a cabinet and deliver a one-cable installation to the panel.

    With no need for inputs on the back, the TV itself is super thin at just 11mm deep. The front is clean and minimalist and the rear is marked by circular pods that help augment the built-in speakers. It’s obvious to me that Samsung is targeting the wall-friendly “gallery” design of the LG G3 with this TV, and yes, the Samsung is thinner.

    Samsung S95C

    I like Samsung’s remote a lot better than LG’s too. Smaller than last year’s and plastic instead of metallic, it’s still excellent. The keys are well-placed, pleasantly sparse and lack garish colors, while the raised volume and channel bars are a nice change from standard buttons. I love that it’s rechargeable rather than reliant on batteries, and you can top it off via USB-C or the solar cell on the back.

    Samsung S95C

    Complex, annoying menus

    Unfortunately Samsung did nothing to improve its home page design from last year. Again, too much screen real estate is wasted with a big promo area at the top, the rest is mostly clutter and items I don’t care about, while many useful functions are buried deep in sub-menus. All the options can be fun to explore, but overall the menu looks dated and feels less personal than Google TV on Sony, for example. I’m still partial to Roku TV for its simplicity, and this iteration of Samsung’s TV menus is the opposite.

    Like most new Samsung TVs the S95C has the company’s gaming hub, which connects to cloud gaming services including Xbox Game Pass, Nvidia GeForce Now and Amazon Luna. I didn’t test it this time around because, frankly, on a TV this expensive I’d expect any gamer to connect a real console rather than rely on cloud gaming. The system worked well enough when I tested it last year on the QN90B, but it requires a fast Internet connection (preferably wired, not Wi-Fi) and doesn’t look as good as a standard console.

    Samsung S95C

    You can choose between Alexa and Samsung’s own Bixby for your voice assistant — Google Assistant is no longer an option. You access voice control by talking into the remote or speaking the wake word (“Alexa,” for example) into thin air, and the always-listening mic can be disabled if you want. The TV also works with Apple AirPlay.

    QD-OLED, burn-in and 144Hz, oh my

    The S95C is as packed with next-gen extras as any TV. Chief is its QD-OLED panel, which adds quantum dots to the image quality of OLED to deliver better color. Samsung also says the S95C is brighter than last year and according to my tests the color and brightness claims check out. For more on the tech behind QD-OLED and how it differs from WOLED, the tech used in LG’s OLED TVs, check out our in-depth QD-OLED explainer.

    Red and green quantum dots

    Like all OLED TVs, the S95C is more subject to both temporary and permanent image retention, also known as burn-in, than LCD-based TVs. As a much newer technology, it’s still unclear whether QD-OLED is more prone to burn-in than WOLED. I don’t test for burn-in at CNET but one site that does, rtings, found that last year’s Samsung QD-OLED TV (the S95B) evinced more burn-in than LG models. Since that test Samsung has updated the TV’s software and rtings found that the update was “very effective at reducing the appearance of permanent image retention, but it doesn’t remove it entirely” in the S95B. Samsung confirmed in an email to CNET that the S95C shares that updated software.

    My take? I’m not worried about burn-in on any OLED TV used for normal viewing. For situations that experience “abnormal” viewing, for example, if I kept a TV tuned to CNN, ESPN or another channel with static image elements all day, I wouldn’t get any OLED-based TV. Check out our guide to OLED burn-in for more.

    Other S95C features are in line with other high-end TVs, with the exception of Dolby Vision HDR — Samsung remains the only TV manufacturer to not embrace Dolby’s high dynamic range format, which isn’t a huge knock in my book — and 144Hz refresh rate input capability. This latter extra is also no big deal in my opinion, since you need a PC gaming card to take advantage of it. Even then, it likely won’t provide a big boost over 120Hz input from an Xbox Series X or a PlayStation 5.

    Samsung S95C

    Connectivity, found on the external One Connect box, is as solid as I’d expect.

    • Four HDMI inputs with HDMI 2.1, HDCP 2.2
    • Two USB 2.0 ports
    • Optical digital audio output
    • RF (antenna) input
    • RS-232 port (minijack, for service only)
    • Ethernet (LAN) port

    High-end OLED comparison: Samsung Q95C vs. LG G3

    For my image quality comparison I lined the Samsung S95C up against three other OLED TVs: the LG G3, the LG C3 and the Sony A80K. The Samsung looked better than the C3 and the Sony, but not quite as impressive overall as the G3.

    TV and movies: In my lineup the S95C and the LG G3 were definitely the best, standing out even above the other two spectacular-looking 2023 OLED TVs. Watching the montage of nature scenes and cityscapes from the Spears and Munsil benchmark, for example, both looked brighter and more dynamic, in particular in highlights like the setting sun or large patches of snow.

    Between the two I got the impression that the G3 was slightly brighter, which I confirmed with spot measurements of my luminance meter. At times the LG was quite a bit brighter, leading to a feeling of more pop and dynamics.

    Samsung S95C

    The Samsung has an advantage, meanwhile, in color saturation. Its reds in particular, for example in the fields of tulips, a pile of strawberries or the bulb of a cactus, looked richer than those of the G3 and the other OLED TVs. Not to say that the G3’s color looked undersaturated by any means, but next to the QD-OLED the difference was clear, and in very colorful scenes, especially ones with lots of red, I preferred the look of the Samsung.

    In mixed bright and dark scenes, however, the extra brightness of the G3 and its handling of shadows beat the Samsung. A scene of Seattle at night, for example, showed more detail in the dark trees and realism in the shadows that was missing from the S95C.

    Switching over to Netflix — whose red logo provided another example of the QD-OLED’s color advantage — the story was similar. Altered Carbon remains a great HDR demo and in the first scene of season 2, the S95C showed slightly richer reds in the lantern shades and the gold dress of the singer. It also delivered a bit less detail in the shadows and a less impactful image overall. It’s a tough call and both TVs looked mind-blowingly good, but I’d prefer the image of the G3 day-in and day-out.

    Note that the above comparisons were made using Samsung’s Filmmaker picture mode, which measured best. Movie mode, despite being less accurate according to my measurements, delivered an image that some viewers might prefer, with a bit more detail in shadows and brighter midtones. Unfortunately Movie introduces some smoothing by default, so I recommend disabling it (Picture menu > Expert Settings > Picture Clarity Settings > Off).

    Samsung S95C

    Gaming: The S95C is an excellent gaming TV. It doesn’t have quite the level of adjustments as the LG models but its game menus are still packed with options and games looked good in my tests. When I played Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla in the TVs’ standard picture modes, the colors on the Samsung popped more than on the others although the grass and other “natural” objects looked more neon and less realistic. Sports mode delivered the most natural color, although I could also choose the “original” setting. This seemed to leverage the non-gaming modes (like Filmmaker), which made colors look comparatively dull.

    I liked the design of Samsung’s game bar menu better than that of the LG, however, and it presented more information at a glance without having to delve deep into menus. Samsung also gives you an option to introduce more smoothing into games (“Game Motion Plus”) although I don’t see why you’d want that. And unlike LG you can also toggle on a virtual crosshair option, which I appreciated.

    Input lag was superb at around 9ms in game mode, basically the same as the LGs. According to my Xbox’s details screen the Samsung supported 4K/120Hz and VRR, but not Dolby Vision (which LG does support).

    Bright lighting: The Samsung S95C is excellent in bright rooms, thanks in part to its high light output, but it’s not quite as bright as the G3 and its screen doesn’t handle reflections quite as well.

    Light output in nits

    TV Brightest mode (HDR) Accurate mode (HDR) Brightest mode (SDR) Accurate mode (SDR)
    Hisense U8H 1,867 1,867 1,605 1,605
    TCL 65R655 1,387 1,194 1,292 624
    LG OLED65G3 1,378 1,378 725 724
    Samsung QN65S95C 1,348 1,326 238 648
    LG OLED65C3 861 817 501 464
    LG OLED65C2 812 759 413 389

    As usual the Samsung’s brighter picture modes, Standard and Dynamic respectively for SDR and HDR, were quite inaccurate. For the accurate results listed above, I used Movie for SDR and Filmmaker mode for HDR. I recommend S95C owners do the same to get good color in bright rooms, although they might want to increase brightness with SDR sources.

    The S95C has an excellent anti-reflective screen but it didn’t handle ambient light quite as well as the G3. Reflections appeared very slightly brighter and more obvious on the Samsung, and the screen of the LG was just a bit darker, leading to slightly less impressive contrast in dark scenes.

    Uniformity and viewing angle: Like most other OLED TVs I’ve tested the S95C looked excellent from off-angle and showed a uniform image across the screen, matching the G3 in both respects.

    Samsung S95C

    Picture setting notes and test results

    In HDR mode the Filmmaker picture preset is the most accurate, with an EOTF that tracked the target much more closely than Movie mode (which, as mentioned above, was too bright in the middle range). Standard was slightly brighter than either but much less accurate and exceedingly blue. In SDR mode Filmmaker was too dim, however, so I ended up choosing Movie instead. Both were accurate to the BT.1886 target gamma Samsung used as default, but note for my Geek Box results below I tweaked to target a 2.2 gamma instead since it’s my standard.

    Geek Box

    Test Result Score
    Black luminance (0%) 0.000 Good
    Peak white luminance (SDR) 648 Good
    Avg. gamma (10-100%) 2.21 Good
    Avg. grayscale error (10-100%) 1.18 Good
    Dark gray error (30%) 0.36 Good
    Bright gray error (80%) 2.28 Good
    Avg. color checker error 1.32 Good
    Avg. saturation sweeps error 1.07 Good
    Avg. color error 0.89 Good
    1080p/24 Cadence (IAL) Pass Good
    Input lag (Game mode) 9.03 Good
    HDR10
    Black luminance (0%) 0.000 Good
    Peak white luminance (10% win) 1348 Good
    Gamut % UHDA/P3 (CIE 1976) 99.89 Good
    ColorMatch HDR error 4.68 Average
    Avg. color checker error 2.79 Good
    Input lag (Game mode, 4K HDR) 9.67 Good

    See How We Test TVs for more details.

    Portrait Displays Calman calibration software was used in this review.