Category: Technologies

OnePlus wasn’t content with just putting liquid cooling inside its latest OnePlus 11 Concept. The company has also created a liquid cooling dock to cool down any device, including iPhones and Samsung Galaxy phones. And unlike the OnePlus 11 Concept, you should be able to buy this cooling dock later this year.

Shown off at this year’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, the main part of the dock, which is full of liquid coolant, sits on your desk. A hose (that looks like a thick red charging cable) comes out of the dock and connects to a bracket holding your phone. The bracket resembles one you might use to view your phone on your car dashboard.

The bracket, equipped with a metal plate that gets extremely cold from the coolant, is in direct contact with the back of your phone. It should keep your phone from overheating during processor-intensive tasks, including gaming, which can raise the temperature of your handset, particularly when playing demanding games like Genshin Impact at max settings.

Gamers and others who require a lot of power on their devices might be used to getting frequent warnings about overheating during use. In that case, the OnePlus cooling dock could help you game for longer. Still, it’s pretty niche and requires quite an elaborate setup. It also needs its own power supply, so don’t expect to use it on the bus during your daily commute.

OnePlus hasn’t yet announced when it’ll be on sale or how much it will cost, but it is projected to be available later in the year.

Will you wear AR glasses everywhere you go in the future? That’s debatable. But manufacturers are continuing to make them. Xiaomi’s AR Glass Discovery Edition, announced at the Mobile World Congress trade show in Barcelona, is another attempt to figure out the territory. The camera-equipped AR glasses look like mysterious AR sunglasses, and they can dim their lenses on the fly.

Qualcomm announced a new AR glasses-focused chipset design last year that was aimed at having smaller smart glasses work wirelessly with nearby phones. Qualcomm’s tech is rolling out for manufacturers that have a glasses-and-phone product relationship already set up, since the glasses and phone both need to be certified for Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Spaces software in order to work.

Xiaomi’s new glasses don’t use that new chipset. Instead, they’re using a higher-performance XR2 chip, much the upcoming RayNeo X2 glasses TCL showed off at CES in Las Vegas earlier this year. (The chip’s also in the Meta Quest 2 and several other standalone VR headsets.) They work with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Spaces software, because Google hasn’t yet created a native environment for AR glasses in Android.

Xiaomi’s glasses look more like futuristic visors, and use Micro OLED displays, promising a “retina-level” resolution level at 58 pixels per degree (this measures the density of pixels rather than the total pixel resolution). One unique thing they add is a set of lenses that change opacity to go dark for better AR viewing, which sounds similar in concept to the Magic Leap 2. The glasses use hand tracking and gesture tracking for controls, using the glasses’ external cameras, but they can also pair with a phone and use a phone’s touchscreen like a trackpad too.

Google, Samsung and Qualcomm have already announced a future XR partnership, which could lead to glasses and phones that are better integrated with Google’s Android platform. Apple’s expected mixed-reality headset could do the same for the iPhone over time. Xiaomi’s glasses are early to the party, in that sense.

Qualcomm is driving the progress between glasses and phones in the meantime, and that’s mostly happening on a carrier-by-carrier and device-by-device basis. In some ways it feels similar to the early days of smartwatches, before Google and Apple entered the game. The immediate future will likely still see a process of gradual evolution, and it’s unclear what software will work for these glasses, or how well they’ll fit on your face or eyes. We do know they have prescription lens inserts, but I’ve found them a mixed bag for my vision when I’ve tested them in the past.

Pokemon Sleep, revealed during Monday’s Pokemon Presents livestream, is a sleep-analyzing game coming to Android and iOS this summer. We’ve waited a while for this one — The Pokemon Company first hinted at it back in 2019.

You play by placing your phone by your pillow when you go to bed, so it can record and measure your sleep. The longer you slumber, the higher your score will be in the morning and more Pokemon will have gathered around sleeping legend (and Pokemon Sleep mascot) Snorlax.

Your sleep will be classified as one of three styles — dozing, snoozing or slumbering — and Pokemon that sleep in similar ways will show up in the morning. Each Pokemon has a number of different sleep styles to discover and log in your sleep style dex.

Those who prefer not to put their phone by their pillows will also be able to use the Pokemon Go Plus+ accessory, which connects to Pokemon Sleep via Bluetooth. Once it’s connected, you hold the device’s central button, place it by your pillow and sleep. In addition to measuring your sleep, a Pikachu voice can prompt you when it’s time to wake up or go to sleep.

Like the Pokemon Go Plus device that came out in 2016, it’s compatible with Pokemon Go — you can use it to spin Pokestops and catch Pokemon in the hugely popular mobile game. Linking the new device to Pokemon Go will let you catch an adorable Snorlax wearing a nightcap.

A future update will also let you use Pokemon Sleep data in Pokemon Go, but it’s unclear what that data will do.

Pokemon Sleep didn’t get a firm release date, but the Pokemon Go Plus+ comes out July 14 — it’s likely the app will arrive around the same time this summer.

Gotta eat ’em all at the Pokemon Cafe

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Snapchat on Monday said it is launching its own generative artificial intelligence chatbot, called My AI, powered by the latest version of OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Snapchat calls My AI an experimental feature, and it’ll start rolling out to Snapchat Plus subscribers this week.

In a blog post, Snapchat wrote that My AI can help plan a weekend hiking trip, suggest a recipe to try for dinner and more. It can also write a haiku if you’re feeling poetic.

“My AI was trained to have a unique tone and personality that plays into Snapchat’s core values around friendship, learning, and fun,” a Snapchat spokesperson said in an email to CNET. “It has been trained to adhere to our trust and safety guidelines.”

While Snapchat wrote that My AI was designed to avoid biased, incorrect or harmful information, the company also noted that the AI feature “can be tricked into saying just about anything.” When an AI creates incorrect information that sounds plausible, that information is called a hallucination.

Snapchat will store and potentially review conversations users have with My AI to help improve the feature. Users can also send feedback directly to Snapchat by long pressing on a My AI response and sharing it with Snapchat.

It’s unclear if My AI will be available to Snapchat users who don’t subscribe to Snapchat Plus.

Snapchat is the latest tech company to integrate AI into its platform. On Feb. 6, Google unveiled its own ChatGPT rival, called Bard. “Bard seeks to combine the breadth of the world’s knowledge with the power, intelligence, and creativity of our large language models,” Google Chief Executive Sundar Pichai tweeted at the time.

Then on Feb. 7, Microsoft unveiled a new version of its Bing search that incorporates ChatGPT. Microsoft then said that longer chats can cause bizarre responses, and that it would try to fix errors in the tool. Not long after the announcement, Microsoft limited its Bing AI chat to a handful of responses so the conversations wouldn’t get too strange.

For more, check out what you need to know about generative AI like ChatGPT, why people are interested in ChatGPT and why one of the founding fathers of the internet has called technology like ChatGPT “snake oil.”

Editors’ note: CNET is using an AI engine to create some personal finance explainers that are edited and fact-checked by our editors. For more, see this post.

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My biggest complaint about last year’s Galaxy S22 was that its battery didn’t last long enough on a single charge. Samsung addressed that shortcoming with the recently launched Galaxy S23, which has a larger battery and a more efficient processor.

The Galaxy S23 doesn’t offer record-breaking battery life, but it’s enough of an improvement to make me feel comfortable using it on a busy day without carrying a charger. That’s more than I could say for the Galaxy S22, which left me with battery anxiety on long days spent away from a power outlet.

Petite Android phones like the Galaxy S23 and Galaxy S22 can be hard to come by, which is why I’m glad Samsung made this fix to its 6.1-inch flagship phone.

Galaxy S23’s bigger battery makes a difference

Samsung increased the Galaxy S23’s battery capacity by 200 mAh compared to the Galaxy S22. The new phone has a 3,900-mAh battery; last year’s device had 3,700 mAh. But that’s not the only factor influencing battery life.

The Galaxy S23 family runs on a version of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor that’s been optimized specifically for the Galaxy S23 series. Samsung says this new processor brings better power efficiency, contributing to the phone’s longer battery life.

Even after spending a short time with the Galaxy S23, these changes are noticeable. The Galaxy S22’s battery would sometimes dip to the 30s or 40s by roughly 9 p.m. after a long day in the office. I even had to borrow a colleague’s charger once while attending an all-day work event because I was worried I wouldn’t make it to the evening. (I typically had the always-on display turned off and the refresh rate set to standard instead of adaptive.)

My experience with the Galaxy S23 has been very different so far. I still had 64% of my battery left by 12:36 a.m. on a recent Sunday having taken the phone off its charger at 10 a.m. However, it’s important to note that I also wasn’t using my phone very frequently that afternoon. I was spending time with my family for a large chunk of the day, so I mostly kept my phone tucked away in my pocket, only retrieving it to occasionally check my texts or take a photo.

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But even on a busy day, the Galaxy S23 still had more of its battery left than the Galaxy S22 likely would have. After a day of running benchmarks, taking lots of photos, recording videos and streaming YouTube videos as part of my review testing, I still had 46% of my battery left by 9:45 p.m. That’s not so bad when you consider the Galaxy S22 sometimes had 30% to 40% of its battery left by around 9 p.m. after using the phone heavily throughout the day. I also left the adaptive refresh rate setting turned on most of the time I spent with the Galaxy S23.

To further test the battery, I put each phone through a 45-minute endurance test and a three-hour battery drain test. During the 45-minute test, I continuously streamed videos on YouTube, made a video call, played mobile games and scrolled through social media feeds to see how much of a dent these everyday tasks would make in each phone’s battery. For the three-hour test, I streamed YouTube with the display brightness set to 100% and checked the battery percentage once every hour to see how much it had drained.

Unsurprisingly, the Galaxy S23 beat the Galaxy S22 in both tests, as you can see in the tables below.

It’s important to remember that battery life will always vary depending on how you use your device. Factors like screen brightness and the types of apps you’re using will impact battery life, so your experience may not directly mirror mine. For example, even though I sometimes struggled to get through a whole day using the Galaxy S22, I was able to preserve roughly 60 to 70% of my battery by 9 p.m. with the always-on display turned off on days mostly spent at home.

How to get the most battery life out of your Galaxy S22

If you own a Galaxy S22 and are struggling with battery life, there are a few steps you can take to maximize your device’s longevity. First, try turning down the screen brightness by pulling down from the top of the display to access your phone’s quick settings menu.

You’ll also want to make sure the adaptive brightness setting is disabled to prevent your phone from automatically boosting brightness when needed. While that can be a useful feature under normal circumstances, you might not want the brightness to increase when you’re trying to conserve battery life. Open your Galaxy S22’s settings menu, choose the display option and make sure the switch next to adaptive brightness is toggled off.

It’s also a good idea to try turning off the adaptive refresh rate and always-on display settings if you’re trying to extend battery life, which you can toggle in the settings menu.

Samsung devices have a power savings mode that disables certain settings to make the battery last longer. Open the settings menu, select the battery and device care option and then tap battery to access it. From this battery menu, you can also limit battery usage for apps that you don’t use very often.

These tips will work on the Galaxy S23 too, which also has a light performance mode to prioritize battery life and cooling efficiency over high performance. To turn this on, open the Galaxy S23’s settings menu, tap battery and device care, and select battery. Scroll down to the bottom of the screen and choose the more battery settings option. From there, you should see a field called performance profile, which you can tap to switch between standard and light. (During my time with the Galaxy S23, I had it set to standard.)

If that’s not enough, you can try purchasing a portable charger or power bank to power up your device on the go.

With its new $700 price, the Galaxy S22 is a tempting choice alongside the $800 Galaxy S23. Just remember you’ll be sacrificing some battery life to save that money.

Samsung Galaxy S23

$800 at Samsung

Samsung Galaxy S22

$700 at Samsung

Feb. 27 is Pokemon Day and, as well as a special Pokemon Presents offering news on the franchise, there are a bunch of Pokemon deals to shop at Best Buy today. The retailer is discounting the popular Pokemon trading cards, several games for the Nintendo Switch as well as related accessories to celebrate the series’ anniversary. The deals all expire tonight or when sold out, so don’t wait on grabbing anything you want this Pokemon Day.

If you’ve been swept up by the Pokemon trading card game craze, either as a collector or as a serious player, today’s sale offers an unmissable chance to save 20% on the latest TCG sets. The sale includes various booster packs and boxes of Silver Tempest, Astral Radiance and the popular Pokemon Go TCG set, though we expect many of these to sell out fast.

If your Pokemon fandom revolves more around the video games, you can use today’s sale to snag a few titles with as much as $15 off. The sale offers Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl from $45 as well as the reimagined New Pokemon Snap game at that same low price. If you’re yet to add these to your library, now’s a great chance to get them for less. Other neat Switch accessories like the Squirtle Amiibo, a Pikachu Switch case and various Pokemon-themed controllers are also on sale.

While we liked the OnePlus 11 for its high performance and fast charging, OnePlus has taken it further with the OnePlus 11 Concept, which sees the phone get a makeover that includes liquid cooling and fancy LEDs designed to make it even more of a powerhouse. We went hands on with the device at MWC in Barcelona, and it’s got a pretty awesome design, although its naming conventions sound like something straight out of Back to the Future.

“Active CryoFlux” is the name OnePlus has given to its new liquid cooling system, which employs coolant pumped around a series of tubes, along with heat-sync panels, and other bits and bobs to allow the phone to perform for longer at higher temperatures without melting.

But why hide such fancy tech away under the hood? Instead, OnePlus has used a clear glass back panel that allows you to literally see the coolant pumping through like veins. As a bit of additional flair, there’s a new blue LED ring around the camera unit and a new chamfered circular panel designed to emulate luxury watch faces.

Liquid cooling is frequently used in high-end gaming PCs to allow the processors to run at higher speeds (called overclocking) and increase the power output. It generates more heat as a result, so sophisticated cooling is required. OnePlus reckons its cooling tech allows the phone to increase its overall power, gaining a few additional frames per second during gaming and increasing the fast charging time by a minute.

So, not exactly “game changing” technology, but it’s a fun idea, and I like the aesthetic of it, if nothing else. Despite multiple models being available to hold and photograph at the show, the phone is purely a concept and there are no plans to put it into production.

Logitech’s goal with the Blue Sona dynamic XLR microphone is straightforward: Give people an accessible option for pro-level audio no matter what it’s plugged into. Whether you’re an experienced producer or just starting out, you’ll get amazing sound with minimal effort.

I fall into the “just starting out” user category, so I got testing help from former CNET podcast producer and audio engineer Bryan VanGelder to ensure the Sona lived up to Blue’s claims. Ultimately, we both arrived at the same conclusion: The Blue Sona makes it extremely easy to get clean, clear audio regardless of your experience level. It does come with a pro-gear price of $350 ( 299, AU$530 converted), but you get a top-quality mic in return.

Logitech Blue Sona XLR Microphone

$350 at Walmart

If you’re new to XLR microphones, they use an analog three-pin connector and are the standard for professional audio. Unlike a USB microphone, an XLR mic must be plugged into an audio interface with an XLR cable to convert the audio from analog to digital before connecting to a computer. You can get a USB mic that is as good as an XLR mic, but XLR is needed to connect to other pro audio gear, such as a mixer. It also lets you connect multiple mics simultaneously through a single audio interface into a computer.

To test the claim that you’ll get pro sound regardless of what audio interface it’s plugged into, we went with the cheapest option we could find on Amazon, the $30 Xtuga Q-12. If you’re investing $350, you’ll probably want an interface that’s even just a little better. But the Xtuga proved the Sona can get you great results with the most basic audio interface. The interface you go with does need to support 24- or 48-volt phantom power.

Best of both worlds

The Sona is a dynamic microphone that handles loud voices and noises better than a more sensitive condenser mic might. That means it’s good for game streaming or anything where you might have audio spikes, as it will help with distortion and clipping.

The mic also has a tight supercardioid pickup pattern that focuses on what’s in front of the mic while rejecting background noise. Combined with Blue’s ClearAmp technology that gives the mic an additional 25dB gain, the Sona has the greater sensitivity needed to boost quieter sources, functioning like a condenser mic. ClearAmp also means you don’t need to add a preamp gain like a Cloudlifter to your setup.

Again, the sound from the Blue Sona is clean with excellent clarity. Even the din of an open office and the HVAC blower over my desk was kept quiet. Bryan noted its robust low end and that it took a fair amount of effort to overload it. He put the Sona on par with the popular Shure SM7b. He also said the built-in high-pass filter and presence toggles on the rear of the mic make a noticeable difference in clarity too. They’re definitely worth experimenting with to get the tone you want from the mic.

Lastly, the Sona’s build quality is exceptional. The metal body gives it a professional look and feel. There’s an internal shock mount for the mic capsule. If you tend to get a bit animated when you talk or are concerned about bumps or vibration, the mount helps keep it all under control. Plus, the single-knob design allows it to rotatefreely to use sitting on a desk or mounted on a boom.

In the box with the mic are two foam windscreens that magnetically click into place, making quick swaps simple. There’s also a 3/8-inch mic stand adapter. That’s all though, so if this is your first XLR mic, you’ll need an XLR cable and audio interface to connect to a computer.

Though it requires more investment than a USB mic, the Logitech Blue Sona’s straightforward design and features make it a superb choice if you’re ready to graduate to an XLR mic. And the built-in gain also means you need one less piece of equipment to buy and clutter up your workstation. Something to remember if you’re launching your podcasting career from a tiny desk in your apartment or if you’re a pro in need of a simple, space-saving option.

Your iPhone already has thousands of emoji, but you’ll soon get even more. With the release of the first iOS 16.4 beta, 31 fresh emoji designs will drop on iOS.

The new emoji include a shaking-head smiley, animals like a donkey, moose and a goose, and additional heart colors, including plain pink and light blue. The plain pink heart has been a long-sought emoji, according to Emojipedia, which named it one of the site’s top emoji requests in 2015. Last year’s significant emoji drop in iOS 15.4 included a melting face, a biting lip and a pregnant man, with 37 new designs in total.

Emojipedia said the new emoji came from Unicode’s September 2022 recommendation list, Emoji 15.0.

There isn’t any word yet on when the new emoji will be available across iOS devices, and the designs of the new emoji might change between now and their final release on iOS.

Apple issued a handful of bug fixes and patches with the release of iOS 16.3.1 on Feb. 13, a few weeks after the release of new features in iOS 16.3 in January.

For more, check out how to decipher each emoji and take a look at the emoji you may have missed with the release of iOS 15.4.

Here’s the complete list of new emoji in iOS 16.4 beta

1. Shaking Face
2. Pink Heart
3. Light Blue Heart
4. Grey Heart
5. Donkey
6. Moose
7. Goose
8. Wing
9. Jellyfish
10. Hyacinth
11. Pea Pod
12. Ginger
13. Folding Hand Fan
14. Hair Pick
15. Flute
16. Maracas
17. Khanda
18. Wireless
19. Rightward Pushing Hand
20. Leftward Pushing Hand
21. Black Bird
22. Rightward Pushing Hand: Light Skin Tone
23. Rightward Pushing Hand: Medium-Light Skin Tone
24. Rightward Pushing Hand: Medium Skin Tone
25. Rightward Pushing Hand: Medium-Dark Skin Tone
26. Rightward Pushing Hand: Dark Skin Tone
27. Leftward Pushing Hand: Light Skin Tone
28. Leftward Pushing Hand: Medium-Light Skin Tone
29. Leftward Pushing Hand: Medium Skin Tone
30. Leftward Pushing Hand: Medium-Dark Skin Tone
31. Leftward Pushing Hand: Dark Skin Tone