While Apple’s iPads are still the most popular tablets out there, if you prefer an Android device, you’ll want to go with the Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Plus. This sleek Samsung tablet earned a top spot on our list of the best tablets for 2023 as our favorite Android option, and right now you can snag one on sale. Amazon currently has the 128GB model on sale for $600, which saves you $300 and matches the all-time lowest price we’ve seen. There’s no set expiration, but we don’t expect a deal this good to last for long. So get your order in sooner rather than later if you don’t want to miss out on these savings.
This powerful Android tablet comes equipped with a Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, though that can easily be expanded up to 1TB thanks to the built-in microSD card reader. It features a stunning 12.4-inch AMOLED display, and comes with the Samsung S Pen stylus for easy note-taking and navigation. It’s great for games and entertainment, but is designed for productivity as well with Microsoft 365 integration and Wi-Fi 6E support for blazing fast web performance. It also weighs just 1.27 pounds and has a substantial 10,090-mAh battery, so it’s great for taking care of work when you’re on the go.
And if you’re in the market for a different model, you can check out our roundup of all the best tablet deals for even more bargains.
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There are two types of budget gaming laptops: Ultralow-cost models well under $1,000 with entry-level Nvidia GeForce GTX graphics and models priced between roughly $1,000 and $1,200 equipped with a low-end GPU from the superior GeForce RTX series. The HP Victus 15 is solidly in the former category. It costs $800 at Best Buy and can frequently be found on sale for as little as $580. It’s based on a 15.6-inch, 1080p display with a 144Hz refresh rate and powered by an Intel Core i5-12450H CPU, 8GB of RAM and GeForce GTX 1650 graphics.
I wouldn’t pay $800 for a laptop with a midrange Core i5 CPU, a meager 8GB of RAM and an aging GTX 1650 GPU because you can usually find a budget model with a better CPU, twice the RAM and — most importantly — an RTX 3050, 3050 Ti or even 3060 GPU on sale for less than $1,000. So, the question becomes, is the Victus 15 a good buy when it’s on sale for less than $600? At that price, it begins to make sense for those just dipping their toes into the 3D-gaming waters and looking to play older or more casual games rather than rocking the latest AAA titles with ray tracing and other quality settings dialed up.
You’re receiving price alerts for HP Victus 15-fa0031dx
Like
Ultralow price for gaming laptop
Speedy 144Hz display
Decent battery life
Don’t Like
Dim display
Grainy 720p webcam
Keyboard lacks RGB lighting
Enough 3D performance for some
Our Victus 15 test system (model 15-fa0031dx) has been available at Best Buy for nearly a year and is based on an Intel Core i5-12450H CPU and GeForce GTX 1650 graphics. Released at the beginning of last year, the 12th-gen Alder Lake CPU is relatively new. While some high-end, high-priced laptops have been released with 13th-gen Raptor Lake CPUs, we’ve yet to see a lower-end model based on a mainstream 13th-gen Core i5 or Core i7 chip. The Victus 15’s GPU is another story. The GTX 1650 was released nearly four years ago and has been surpassed by three generations of GeForce RTX graphics processors.
The only place you’ll find the GTX 1650 GPU these days is in not just a budget gaming laptop but an entry-level budget gaming laptop. You really can’t drop down a level without entering integrated graphics territory. That said, this four-year-old GPU isn’t entirely useless. While it will struggle with the latest, most demanding AAA titles, it’s more than capable of playing most games at 1080p at medium to high settings.
HP Victus 15 gaming laptop
Price as reviewed
$800
Display size/resolution
15.6-inch 1,920×1,080 144MHz 16:9display
CPU
2GHz Intel Core i5-12450H
Memory
8GB DDR4 3,200MHz RAM
Graphics
4GB Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 Graphics
Storage
SamsungMZVL2512HCJQ 512GB SSD
Networking
Wi-Fi 6 MT7921 (2×2) and Bluetooth 5.3
Operating system
Windows 11 Home 21H2
For casual gamers looking to play around with co-op shooters, the Victus 15 is a cheap way to get there. We experienced smooth gameplay at 1080p on both CS:GO and Riftbreaker. The laptop averaged 105 frames per second on the Riftbreaker GPU benchmark and an even more impressive 191fps on the CS:GO benchmark. Both tests were run at 1080p with High settings enabled. It also achieved a playable 61fps on the newer and more demanding Guardians of the Galaxy — also at 1080p and High settings.
On our Shadow of the Tomb Raider test (1080p with Highest settings), however, it dropped to 46fps. When we dialed back the detail settings to High, the Victus 15 averaged 53fps. It was able to surpass 60fps only when we dropped the settings to Low, where it averaged 73fps. (It got close at Medium settings, with an average frame rate of 58fps.)
Gaming laptops rarely, if ever, deliver long battery life, so all we are looking for from such a machine is a passable runtime. And the Victus 15 delivers just that. It lasted for nearly 6.5 hours on our demanding streaming video battery-drain test, which placed it in the top half of the other budget gaming laptops we are using for comparison in this review. Don’t plan on getting anywhere near that if you’re gaming, though.
Matt Elliott/CNET
Plastic chassis, dim display
There’s certainly a limit to its 3D performance — not a surprise with an $800 gaming laptop that’s frequently on sale for less than $600. The laptop’s design doesn’t overcome its budget price, either. The all-plastic, all-black body is a bit flimsy but not too bulky. It’s a hair less than an inch thick and weighs just over 5 pounds. The display hinge isn’t quite tight enough, causing the display to wobble at the slightest nudge. Some flex can be felt with the plastic keyboard deck under your fingers when you are typing and particularly when mashing keys during a game. The plastic lid protecting the display also flexes a bit too much for my comfort.
Matt Elliott/CNET
The keyboard feels cramped because HP decided to squeeze in a number pad. The keys have snappy response but lack RGB backlighting, a fun feature offered on nearly every gaming laptop. I wasn’t expecting per-key or even multizone RGB lighting, but the Victus 15 offers neither R nor G nor B — nor any other color than white. You get the bare minimum of keyboard backlight — one-level white lighting.
Matt Elliott/CNET
The display offers a crisp, full-HD image across the 15.6-inch panel along with a speedy 144Hz refresh rate but is rated for only 250 nits of brightness. That’s typical of budget laptops, but I measured a peak brightness of only 220 nits. Games and images looked a bit dull, even at max brightness. The 720p webcam, too, is underwhelming. It produces a grainy, poorly balanced image compared with that of 1080p cams that have quickly become the norm.
Affordable fun for a first gaming laptop
Do you remember your first car? Unless you were born into the 1%, it was likely on the level of a Ford Taurus that could receive a dent or two without your parents getting upset. It’s also likely you recall that dented Taurus fondly. You made great memories in that car, because you and your friends had the ability to cruise around without a parent at the wheel. The Victus 15 is that beloved Ford Taurus. It’s not the sleekest or fastest gaming laptop, but it’s an inexpensive rig that you can afford right now. You could keep saving for a pricier gaming laptop that would deliver greater gaming capabilities and more bells and whistles than the Victus 15, but the Victus 15 will let you start making fond memories online with your friends right now.
The Victus 15 can regularly be found on sale at Best Buy for less than $600. For first-time gamers, it makes sense at this price. If it’s selling at its full price of $800, however, then budget gaming laptops in the form of the Acer Nitro 5 or Dell G15 are better buys. Or you could check out this RTX 3050-based Victus 15 model available directly from HP that is regularly discounted. Each cost less than $1,000 (and can be frequently found discounted closer to $800) and feature RTX 3050 or RTX 3060 graphics for better 3D gaming performance than the Victus 15 and its aging GTX 1650 GPU.
How we test computers
The review process for laptops, desktops, tablets and other computer-like devices consists of two parts: performance testing under controlled conditions in the CNET Labs and extensive hands-on use by our expert reviewers. This includes evaluating a device’s aesthetics, ergonomics and features. A final review verdict is a combination of both objective and subjective judgments.
Google Drive now limits users to 5 million items. A Google Workspace spokesperson confirmed the change in an email Monday evening.
This comes as a Reddit user posted a thread Monday saying Google had imposed a 5 million item limit on peoples’ Drive accounts, without prior warning. The Reddit user said people began receiving “Upload Failed” notifications around Feb. 14 for any action, including creating a new empty folder.
“To maintain strong performance and reliability, individual users are limited to 5 million total created items in their Google Drive,” a spokesperson from Google Workspace said. The spokesperson went on to say this change affects only a small number of users and recommended deleting some files.
For those with a plethora of files, suddenly being asked to remove millions of items is a major inconvenience, as noted in a report created on Google’s issue tracker. One user in the UK said their business in the animal health space has been critically hit by this change. It’s caused a major disruption for the “tens of thousands of users in-practice and their work on a daily basis.”
Others are wondering why, if there’s a hard limit, Google didn’t provide any guidance. The rollout of this change may not be going smoothly either, with some users saying that even at 1 million items, they can’t create a new folder.
For many users and businesses, storing files online is often more convenient than local storage. The overall cloud storage market was valued at $78.6 billion in 2022, according to Markets and Markets.
People can upgrade their Google One account, the service that contains Gmail, Drive, YouTube and others, to have additional storage. This storage can go all the way up to 30TB. Google One competes with Microsoft’s OneDrive, Dropbox, Amazon Cloud Drive and Box. Of course, Google One integrates better with Google Workspace apps like Docs and Sheets.
Some Google One competitors also have file limits.OneDrive for Business has a limit of 50,000 items per folder. But it’s uncertain if Microsoft has a hard cap on the number of items overall. Dropbox, on the other hand, says there’s no limit.
Microsoft, Amazon and Box representatives didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
It seems that regardless of a person’s Google One plan, whether it be 100GB or 20TB, the 5 million item limit applies. As a result, users with small file sizes are likely to hit the item limit before they hit the storage limit: Someone on a 2TB plan would have to exceed an average file size of 400KB to run out of storage before they hit the item limit. So, unless a person is storing large files like photos and videos on their drive, it’s possible that some are paying for more space than can realistically be used.
Alternatively, other Reddit users pointed out that compressing files into a .ZIP folder ends up counting as one item.
The wait for iOS 16.4 is over. Apple rolled out iOS 16.4 on Monday, about a week after the company let developers and beta testers try the iOS 16.4 release candidate.
The update comes with a handful of bug and security fixes, as well as some new features. Some of the new features include new emoji, voice isolation for cellular calls, and more.
Here are some of the new features your iPhone gains with iOS 16.4.
31 new emoji
The iOS 16.4 update brings 31 new emoji to your iOS device. The new emoji include a new smiley; new animals, like a moose and a goose; and new heart colors, like pink and light blue.
Some of the new emoji released in iOS 16.4.
Patrick Holland/CNET
The new emoji all come from Unicode’s September 2022 recommendation list, Emoji 15.0.
Voice isolation comes to cellular calls
Voice isolation was introduced with iOS 15 in 2021, and at the time it worked only on FaceTime calls. Now with iOS 16.4, you can use the feature on your cellular calls too.
When enabled, voice isolation can help the person you’re on a call with hear you more clearly by muffling background sounds, like kids playing in the other room or construction outside your window. It could therefore cut back on the number of times you have to repeat yourself in a phone call because the other person can’t hear you.
Easily find photo duplicates across shared albums
In iOS 16.4, you can easily find duplicate photos in shared albums in Photos. If you share photos with family or friends via iCloud, iOS 16.4 will show you all the duplicates across albums. You can also Merge these duplicate photos.
The page-turn curl animation is back in Apple Books with iOS 16.4, after it was removed in a previous iOS update. Before, when you turned a page in an ebook on your iPhone, the page would slide to one side of your screen or it would vanish and be replaced by the next page. You can still choose these other page-turn animations in addition to the curl animation.
Music app changes
A small banner appears at the bottom of the screen when you choose to play a song next in Apple Music in iOS 16.4
Zach McAuliffe/CNET
The Music interface has been slightly modified in iOS 16.4. When you add a song to your queue, a small banner appears near the bottom of your screen instead of a full-screen pop-up like in previous iOS versions.
Also, if you go into your Library in Music, you can organize your Library by Artist and tap into an artist, across the top of your page you will see an icon for that artist. A search bar used to be at the top of this page. Tap the artist’s icon and you will be taken to that artist’s Music page.
Apple Podcasts updates
Apple Podcasts also gets an update with iOS 16.4. Now you can access a Channels tab in your Library, which shows you different networks you follow. Tap into each channel and you see can the shows you subscribe to and other shows that channel produces.
See who and what is covered under AppleCare
With iOS 16.4, you can go to Settings > General > About> Coverage to check who and what devices are covered on your AppleCare plan. That way, if your AirPods break, you can easily check whther they are covered. You can manage your coverage from here too.
Focus Mode filters added
If you have an iPhone 14 Pro or Pro Max, iOS 16.4 lets you enable or disable the always-on display option with certain Focus Modes. When creating a new filter, scroll down to the bottom of the edit page, tap Focus Filter, then tap Always-On Display to enable or disable the display for that Focus Mode.
New Apple Wallet features
You can add three new order-tracking widgets for Apple Wallet to your home screen with iOS 16.4. Each widget displays your tracking information on active orders, but the widgets are different sizes: small, medium and large.
The medium-size Apple Wallet order tracking widget takes up three tile spaces on your iPhone’s screen.
Zach McAuliffe/CNET
More accessibility options
The update also adds new accessibility options. One new option is called Dim Flashing Lights, and it can be found in the Motion menu in Settings. The option’s description says video content that depicts repeated flashing or strobing lights will automatically be dimmed. Video timelines will also show when flashing lights will occur. VoiceOver support has also been expanded to the maps and Weather apps.
Apple ID and beta software updates
The latest iOS update lets you sign into another Apple ID to access other beta software.
Zach McAuliffe/CNET
With iOS 16.4, developers and beta testers can check whether their Apple ID is associated with the developer beta, public beta or both. If you have a different Apple ID, like one for your job, that has access to beta updates, iOS 16.4 also lets you switch to that account from your device.
New keyboards, Siri voices and language updates
This iOS 16.4 update also adds keyboards for the Choctaw and Chickasaw languages, and there are new Siri voices for Arabic and Hebrew. Language updates have also come to Korean, Ukrainian, Gujarati, Punjabi and Urdu.
This update includes the following enhancements and bug fixes:
• 21 new emoji including animals, hand gestures, and objects are now available in emoji keyboard
• Notifications for web apps added to the Home Screen
• Voice Isolation for cellular calls prioritizes your voice and blocks out ambient noise around you
• Duplicates album in Photos expands support to detect duplicate photos and videos in an iCloud Shared Photo
Library
• VoiceOver support for maps in the Weather app
• Accessibility setting to automatically dim video when flashes of light or strobe effects are detected
• Fixes an issue where Ask to Buy requests from children may fail to appear on the parent’s device
• Addresses issues where Matter-compatible thermostats could become unresponsive when paired to Apple Home
• Crash Detection optimizations on iPhone 14 and iPhone
14 Pro models
This story is part of Focal Point iPhone 2023, CNET’s collection of news, tips and advice around Apple’s most popular product.
Apple’s iPhone software keeps adding new features, and you don’t even need a new iPhone 14 to take advantage of them. With iOS 16.3, first released in January, Apple added a number of small but significant updates to the iOS 16 iPhone software, including security keys for iCloud and new wallpaper options. A smaller iOS 16.3.1 update in February then threw in a few bug fixes and security updates as well. And now the release of iOS 16.4 and its new emojis are available for the iPhone, too.
iOS 16 was announced last spring at Apple’s WWDC conference prior to its public launch alongside the iPhone 14. If you’re curious about what else iOS 16 offers, read on as we break down the 11 best new features on your iPhone. Just make sure you’ve already completed these three steps first, and check out the lesser-known features lurking in iOS 16 too.
After downloading iOS 16.4, your iPhone’s emoji keyboard will expand to include 31 new symbols to decorate your chats — many of which have a festive theme. Maracas, Pink Heart, Light Blue Heart and Folding Hand Fan arrive alongside animals like the Donkey, Moose and the Goose. Meanwhile the Shaking Face could help you express shock and confusion.
The ability to edit and ‘unsend’ messages
“Embarrassing typos are a thing of the past,” Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of software engineering, said at WWDC as he introduced three of the most requested features for the Messages app.
First, in iOS 16 you’re able to edit sent messages. So if you notice a typo after a message, you’ll be able to edit the message after the fact. A tiny “edited” appears in the status under the message.
In Messages, you can edit previously sent messages.
Apple
Next, and this might be my favorite new feature, you can immediately recall a sent message. If you accidentally send an unfinished message, you can use the Undo Send tool to prevent it from being read and hopefully look less chaotic to your friends and family.
Last, you can mark messages and threads as unread. This could be an excellent tool for when you don’t have time to respond to a message in the moment, but want to make sure you come back to it later.
Now playing:Watch this:Testing iOS 16 (Edit/Delete Sent Messages, New Lock Screen…
16:22
A new customizable lock screen
One of the things you look at the most on your iPhone is the lock screen, especially if you have a Face ID-equipped iPhone. iOS 16 brings the most substantial update to the iPhone’s lock screen yet. Press and hold to edit your lock screen. You can swipe to try out several different styles. Each style changes the color filter for the background photo and the font on the lock screen so everything complements each other. This feels a bit like Apple’s take on Google’s Material You, which launched with Android 12.
You can also customize the fonts for the time and date, and add lock screen widgets like temperature, activity rings and a calendar. The widgets are akin to complications on the Apple Watch lock screen.
Your iPhone will become more customizable in iOS 16. You’ll be able to choose how your lock screen looks, down to the font and color.
Apple
You can even set up multiple customized lock screens with different widgets and easily swipe to switch between them. There’s also a photo shuffle option that automatically changes the pictures on your lock screen.
iOS 16 adds a feature that developers can use called Live Activities. This is essentially a mini view of the real-time progress of a workout, sporting event or Uber ride from your iPhone’s lock screen.
Apple
Notifications and live activities
Sometimes notifications can cover up your lock screen’s photo, so iOS 16 moves notifications to the bottom of your display. As you receive them, instead of being compiled into a list, they appear like a vertical carousel. This not only looks better but should be a big help for one-handed use of your iPhone.
iOS 16 also aims to solve another notification problem. Sometimes you get a bunch of notifications in a row from one app, like the score of a basketball game. A new tool for developers called Live Activities makes it easier to stay on top of things happening in real time from your lock screen, instead of getting a series of interruptions.
Live Activities should make it easier to follow sporting events, workouts or even the progress of an Uber ride.
Skip CAPTCHAs using Private Access Tokens
The CAPTCHA — which stands for Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart — has been a necessary evil across the internet. CAPTCHAs are designed to make sure that a person is accessing a website or service, and not a bot. I find them annoying, as they often involve reading strangely written letters or having to find all the images that have a truck. With iOS 16, Apple plans to start replacing these awkward interactions with Private Access Tokens.
According to a video on Apple’s website demonstrating Private Access Tokens, websites that support the token will essentially log in and authenticate that you are indeed a human without your having to play any of the usual CAPTCHA games. Apple says in the video that the company is working with other companies to roll out support for this feature, so we can’t say the CAPTCHA will be dead after iOS 16 rolls out to the public. But the concept could provide some relief if it gets adopted.
Wallet and Apple Pay Later
ID cards from more states will be available in your Wallet app along with more security and privacy features. In iOS 16 you can also protect your identity and age. So rather than showing your exact birth date, the Wallet app will display your ID and that you’re over 21.
iOS 16 makes sharing keys easier with apps like Mail and Messages. When your friend receives the key, they can add it to the Wallet app on their iPhone. Apple said it’s working to make sure that shared keys are an industry standard and free for others.
The Wallet app in iOS 16 gets a bunch of small but notable updates, including the Apple Pay Later payment plan.
Apple
Apple Pay will support new types of payments and adds a new feature called Apple Pay Later, a Klarna-like service that lets you split the cost of an Apple Pay purchase into four equal payments spread over six weeks, with zero interest and no fees. Upcoming payments are managed through the Wallet app, making it easy to keep track of dates and payments.
But Apple Pay doesn’t stop there. A new feature will also help you track Apple Pay orders and lets merchants deliver detailed receipts and tracking information. This should make it easier to stay up to date on the status of all your orders.
You can tap and hold on the subject of a photo and separate it from the background. Then you can drag it into another app like Messages to share it.
Apple
Visual Look Up’s tap and drag for photos
In iOS 15, Visual Look Up analyzes your photos and can identify objects like plants, landmarks and pets. iOS 16 takes this to the next level. When you touch a photo’s subject like the dog in the image above, you can lift it away from the background and add it to apps like Messages. Essentially it’s a tap-and-hold tool that removes a photo’s background.
Apple sometimes overuses the word “magic,” but this feature truly seems like it.
During the keynote for WWDC, Apple executive Craig Federighi introduces SharePlay for the Messages app.
Apple
SharePlay comes to Messages
SharePlay, which debuted in iOS 15, lets you have a shared experience while connecting with someone over FaceTime. You can watch TV shows, listen to music in sync and other things. iOS 16 adds the ability to discover more apps that support SharePlay from within FaceTime.
But perhaps one of the coolest things Apple did for SharePlay was to make it work within the Messages app. Apple said that this was one of the biggest requests from app developers. Now when you want to share a movie on Disney Plus, you can start SharePlay together with a friend while chatting in Messages.
Safety Check lets you quickly reset location sharing and access to passwords. It’s intended to be helpful for people in abusive relationships.
Apple
Safety Check aims to help people in abusive relationships
Safety Check is a new feature intended to be helpful for people in abusive relationships. It lets you review and reset who has access to location information as well as passwords, messages and other apps on an iPhone.
Focus mode updates and Focus filters
Focus mode gets several updates. The first applies Focus behaviors to widgets and lock screen looks. So you could have one lock screen set for when your Work Focus is enabled and another for workouts.
Apple added specific Focus filters that apply your iPhone’s Focus mode within apps. For example, in Safari, you can limit what tabs are shown depending on what Focus mode you have active.
Apple Maps adds transit fare cards
Maps gets several updates. You’ll be able to plan trips with up to 15 different stops along the way. If you start planning a trip with the Maps app on your Mac, you’ll be able to share that to your iPhone.
And in something similar to what Google announced for Google Wallet in Android 13, you’ll be able to see transit fare estimates as well as add more money to a fare card from within Apple Maps.
In iOS 16 you’ll be able to customize Quick Start with a specific child’s iCloud parental controls and settings.
Apple
iCloud family checklist
iCloud gets several new features. One of the more interesting ones is the option to quickly set up a new device for your child. When Quick Start appears, you have the option to pick a user for the new device and use all the existing parental controls you’ve previously selected and configured. However, this is not what many of us still want: the ability to set up separate users for the same device.
There’s a new family checklist with tips for updating settings for your kids as they get older, like a reminder to check location-sharing settings or share your iCloud Plus subscriptions.
If you’re serious about gaming, you ought to have a monitor that can do your games justice. Not only do you want a picture that allows titles to look great and feel immersive, but you also need the screen to be responsive enough that it’s not going to throw you off your game.
For a limited time, Samsung is discounting an array of gaming monitors at its site so you can upgrade your setup for less. The sale offers 15% off select Odyssey monitors with promo code ODYSSEY15. That means as much as $450 in savings is up for grabs — with sizes ranging from 27 to 55 inches included.
For a limited time, a variety of Samsung Odyssey gaming monitors are seeing steep discounts with 15% off regular prices with promo code ODYSSEY15. That equates to a $450 saving on the flagship 55-inch Odyssey Ark monitor and drops smaller screen prices to as little as $467.
The monitors on sale include some premium features like OLED or Mini LED panels, 4K resolution, curved screens and more. Other gaming-specific features include Nvidia G-Sync, AMD FreeSync Premium Pro, 240Hz refresh rates and speedy response times as low as 0.03 milliseconds.
The deals are slated to expire on Thursday, March 30, so you don’t have long to secure these discounts.
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The luxury fashion house tweeted an image on Monday (seen below) of a bottle emblazoned with Gucci and Yuga Labs branding. The image was also seen in the trailer of Otherside, Yuga’s upcoming Bored Ape-themed metaverse game designed for PC and mobile browsers.
“Continuing to explore the metaverse, the House comes together with YugaLabs,” the tweet read. “Stay tuned as a new narrative takes shape, blurring the boundaries between the physical and digital.”
Details on the specifics of the partnership remain scarce, but a Business of Fashion report says the multifaceted deal is “meant to extend engagement between each company’s communities ‘by exploring the intersection between fashion and entertainment in the metaverse.’”
Yuga Labs is the biggest NFT company in the world. NFTs, or nonfungible tokens, are blockchain tokens that certify ownership of a digital good. Their proposed purpose is to grant digital goods the same property rights as physical items: An NFT allows you to sell an in-game costume, for instance, just as you’d be able to sell a real-life costume once you’re done with it.
In recent years, luxury fashion brands have strengthened their Web3 ties. Luxury fashion houses, including Louis Vuitton, Prada and Gucci, have created NFT collections and immersive experiences in the metaverse. This underscores a willingness to experiment with the metaverse, which proponents tout for its business potential as an entirely new platform on which to sell digital goods and services.
Gucci’s participation in Otherside is set to begin this week.
Whether you’re planning a once-in-a-lifetime experience, an epic road trip across the United States, or just a quiet weekend getaway, you’ll want the best camera to document your adventure. The best camera can elevate your photos and videos from the vacation with higher quality. It can also help you capture amazing slow-motion footage and, most especially, rugged waterproofing so your phone stays safely in your pocket. You don’t need to spend a fortune on high-end cameras either. Often a GoPro can do the trick.
I travel a lot, and I’ll be the first to admit I bring more camera gear than I need to. However, there are only a few I use all the time, and those are what I recommend here. One of them will probably be all you need for your next road trip.
You can’t go wrong with a GoPro. They have excellent image quality, are quite rugged and their app is pretty solid in letting you edit your photos and footage to look its best. The main reason I’m recommending the Hero 10 over one of the less expensive options is because of the Max Lens Mod. This lens swaps in and records an even wider angle of view. Plus, it improves the already excellent stabilization.
I’ve been using it not only to capture scenic vistas, but also as a dash camera, as you can see in the video below.
The newer GoPro Hero 11 has a few improvements, but for most people the Hero 10 will look pretty much the same and will save you some money.
I’ve used 360 cameras for years. They’ve come a long way. This is the first I’d consider using without a backup action camera. 360 cameras capture everything in a sphere around the camera. Later, with the app, you can pick and choose what to show and how. So basically you record everything, and then crop to show just the interesting parts.
One of the coolest tricks a 360 camera can do is automatically remove the selfie stick, so it looks like you have a drone following you. For more, check out:
This is a unique and tiny action camera that I’ve been using a lot. It’s not really a main camera, but definitely an excellent secondary camera. It’s about the size of your thumb — and magnetic. You can hang it on your shirt while wearing an included magnetic pendant, or attach it to anything metal, or use one of the myriad clever mounts. The case that recharges and controls the camera even has a built-in tripod. The footage is wonderfully stabilized and looks far better than you’d expect for something so small.
Because of its size, it can record perspectives other cameras can’t, like the model train POV in the video below.
For most people the GoPro Hero 10 Black is all the action camera they’ll need. If you don’t mind spending a bit more, the newer Hero 11 improves on the 10 in a few minor ways. For one, there’s a new image sensor. The primary difference is it’s more square. So if you often post vertical content for, say, TikTok or Instagram, but still want to be able to post standard horizontal content to YouTube, this allows you to more easily do both without a significant loss in quality.
If you don’t want to invest in a new camera, or don’t want the bulk of one (fair), consider a gimbal. You can really improve the quality of your videos with a gimbal. They smooth out your hand’s movements while you’re walking around, and can do slick, professional-looking pans and tilts. They’re an absolute must-have if you’re primarily using your phone. I have the OM 3, but the 5 is the current model and is easier to connect to your phone.
If you’re recording a lot of video, your camera and phone’s storage are going to fill up fast. Cloud storage is one option, but if you’re bringing a laptop, consider a tiny portable hard drive. I have one of these and they seem impossibly small for how much they can store. They’re also reasonably rugged.
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Selfie stick
I don’t have a strong recommendation for this one, other than to say selfie sticks are great (when you’re not in crowds, that is) and you should find one you like. Even I, who has what one friend describes as “freakishly long arms,” find great use in a selfie stick. They let me capture photos and videos that would be impossible any other way, especially with a 360 camera that automatically deletes the stick from the final image or video.
Precariously perched over the Badlands, thanks to a 360 camera and a selfie stick.
Geoffrey Morrison/CNET
I recommend getting one with tripod-mount screws on both ends, which gives you more options on what you can mount and how you can mount the stick itself. Similarly, make sure you get one that can hold all your cameras and phones.
I find these to be super handy, though depending how you’re recording, it might not be. It’s a simple Bluetooth remote that lets you control when the camera starts and stops recording along with changing modes, settings, and so on. True, you can use the camera’s app on your phone instead, but I feel like I spend half my life trying to get cameras to connect to their apps, so sometimes a remote is easier. Sometimes the remote won’t connect either. It’s a hassle either way. Oh well.
One last thing. Tripods and mounts. You probably don’t need a full-size tripod, few people do. A small bendable model can be super handy though, letting you mount the camera to just about anything and get a great shot with you in it. I’ve had good luck with Joby GorillaPods. I have an older version of this one.
Also check out suction-cup and dash mounts. I have a tiny dashboard and tiny windshield, so it was a lot harder to find something that worked. So what I’m using probably won’t work for you. Generally I’d recommend mounting the camera as high as possible, if you can, for a better view.
I’ll end with my favorite, an antenna mount. Unscrew your antenna and install this mount. When paired with a 360 camera, it lets you get an exciting and unique view of your adventure. I got one of these and put a selfie stick on top of it, plus a 360 camera, to get the drone-like footage of me and my car in Grand Teton National Park. How well this works is going to depend on your particular vehicle, however.
