Category: Technologies

TV lineups tend to be a bit a dry at this time of year, but February is Super Bowl time and there’s still plenty to watch on streaming. But beware, changes are rolling in for some of your favorite services, including a $1 price hike for HBO Max’s ad-free plan and extra fees if you’re sharing your Netflix account. Despite those price hikes, you’ll want to keep those services if you’re planning to keep up with The Last of Us and You season 4, which are streaming this month.

Onward. You can stream Super Bowl 57 on a live platform such as Sling TV, Hulu with Live TV or YouTube TV. But if you’re wondering how you can cut corners elsewhere in your streaming budget, we’ve got you covered. Rotating — or churning — your services is the way to do it.

How? You subscribe for a specific time frame, cancel, choose a different service, then resubscribe, keeping your favorite streaming services in a rotation. Choose one or two must-have platforms for the year and treat additional platforms like occasional add-ons. This allows you to save money when Netflix, Disney Plus, HBO Max and others don’t have the movies and shows you want to watch at a given time. Just remember to shut off auto-renewal for your monthly subscriptions. If you share accounts with someone outside your household, this strategy may not be ideal, but if you can work it out with your streaming mates, go for it.

Here are my suggestions for which streamers to keep or cancel for February based on new TV shows and movies arriving on each platform. Your tastes may be different, but if nothing else, I encourage you to at least consider the concept of rotating your memberships to save money.

Read more: Best Live TV Streaming Service for Cord Cutters in 2023

Definitely keep Netflix, HBO Max, Hulu and Starz

Netflix: Joe Goldberg’s antics on You aren’t the only attraction on Netflix this month. There’s a documentary about a rich dog, more Outer Banks, anime and reality TV. Here’s a list of noteworthy new releases:

• Detective Conan: The Culprit Hanzawa (Feb. 1)
• Gunther’s Millions – documentary about a dog with a hefty inheritance (Feb. 1)
• Freeridge — an On My Block spinoff (Feb. 2)
• Bill Russell: Legend (Feb. 8)
• My Dad the Bounty Hunter animated series (Feb. 9)
• Love to Hate You — K-drama (Feb. 10)
• You season 4, part 1 (Feb. 10)
• Your Place or Mine starring Ashton Kutcher and Reese Witherspoon (Feb. 10)
• Perfect Match features an all-star lineup of Netflix dating show contestants (Feb. 14, 21 and 28)
• African Queens documentary series (Feb. 15)
• Aggretsuko season 5 (Feb. 16)
• Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal (Feb. 22)
• Outer Banks season 3 (Feb. 23)
• Formula 1: Drive to Survive season 5 (Feb. 24)
• We Have a Ghost (Feb. 24)

HBO Max: Keep watching The Last of Us and tune in for the Max exclusive, Harley Quinn: A Very Problematic Valentine’s Day Special on Feb. 9. Also new this month: Empire of Light (Feb. 7), All that Breathes documentary (Feb. 7), Aqua Teen Forever: Plantasm (Feb. 8), Puppy Bowl XIX (Feb. 12) and Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (Feb. 19).

Hulu: Your network favorites are still airing current seasons, but these are new arrivals in February: A Million Little Things final season premiere (Feb. 9), ABC’s Not Dead Yet (Feb. 9), final season of Wu-Tang: An American Saga (Feb. 15), The Masked Singer season 9 (Feb. 16), American Idol season 21 (Feb. 20) and Snowfall season 6 (Feb. 23).

Starz: After ending more than a decade ago, Party Down returns for a season 3 debut on Feb. 24. BMF is still airing too. Shop around for Starz deals to pay less for your subscription for the next few months.

Prime Video: You should cancel Prime Video if you only have a standalone subscription and you’re not interested in Carnival Row season 2. Otherwise, check out the fairy drama on Feb. 17 along with Harlem season 2 (Feb. 3) or The Consultant starring Christoph Waltz (Feb. 24).

Disney Plus: Again on the keep-cancel cusp this month, Disney Plus may be tempting for the short term if you love Black Panther or if you have kids. You can keep streaming Star Wars: The Bad Batch, but here are the new selections for February: Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (Feb. 1), The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder season 2 (Feb. 1), Marvel’s Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur (Feb. 15) and BTS star J-Hope’s In the Box arrives Feb. 17.

You can drop these streaming services this month

Apple TV Plus: There’s not much to stream here. We now know Ted Lasso isn’t coming until spring, but if you want, you can stream Hello Tomorrow! or Dear Edward on Feb. 3 on Apple TV Plus. We’ll also note that subscribers who are soccer fans can begin signing up for MLS Season Pass beginning Feb. 1 and receive a discounted rate.

Paramount Plus: Football season is over, so you may not want to dish out the money for Paramount Plus this month. But here’s what’s new: 65th Grammy Awards (Feb. 5), rom-com movie At Midnight debuts on Feb. 10, Star Trek: Picard season 3 (Feb. 16) and The Wolf Pack TV series starring Sarah Michelle Gellar airs through February until March 16. Drop the service if you these titles don’t interest you.

Peacock: If you’re a fan of Bel-Air, keep Peacock because season 2 debuts on Feb. 23. This is also where you can watch SyFy’s The Ark (Feb. 2) and The Real Housewives of New Jersey (Feb. 9). Cancel if you’re not interested in these releases, or in the awfully good Poker Face.

Save more money with patience

Waiting until most or all of the episodes of your favorite series arrive on a platform is a smart move to make if you don’t get FOMO. Instead of paying for a service for two or three months to cover a show’s six- to 10-week run, you can catch up on everything by subscribing for one month. And then repeat the cycle again.

For example, there are 10 episodes of Star Trek: Picard this season on Paramount Plus. The show airs into April, so all 10 episodes will available to stream at that time. Though it premieres in February and runs through April, why pay for three months when you can wait to watch it in full at any time in April? The same system can apply to all 10 episodes of Hulu’s Wu-Tang: An American Saga or Peacock’s Poker Face.

Consider how much you’re paying per month for each streaming service, and do the math. Netflix costs $7 to $20, Disney Plus is anywhere from $2 to $11 depending on bundles, HBO Max costs $10 or $16, Hulu starts at $8 and Starz runs $9. The others have a base rate of $5 a month. Should you decide to churn, set yourself a calendar reminder to alert you when it’s time to resubscribe or cancel. We’ll see you in March for another streaming rundown.

When you think of Garmin wearables, you probably picture the company’s smartwatches for runners: They’re bulky, but they have a long-lasting build and solid GPS to boot. In recent years, however, the company has made an effort to diversify from its fitness niche with a range of hybrid watches, some of which debuted at CES 2022.

Garmin’s latest wearable offering, announced Wednesday, is the $270 Vivomove Trend. The hybrid timepiece is part smartwatch and part stylish wristwatch. It has ticking watch hands, but there’s also a hidden full-dial display for notification alerts and activity tracking. The company says the watch can monitor sleep, stress, heart rate and blood oxygen levels.

The slender Vivomove Trend is crafted with domed glass, a stainless steel bezel and a silicon wristband. Both the band and the bezels can be swapped out to mix and match, according to Garmin. The watch is available in black, silver, ivory, gold and grey.

Read More: Don’t Buy a Smartwatch Without Asking Yourself These Questions First

Unlike smartwatches, hybrid watches are designed to be more discreet with their digital elements. Thanks in part to their smaller screens, hybrid watches tend to have significantly longer battery life than smartwatches — one of their biggest advantages. Garmin promises five days of battery life for the Vivomove Trend as well as wireless charging. However, the tradeoff is that a hybrid watch sacrifices some of the smart features you may find on devices like the Apple Watch or Samsung Galaxy Watch.

Garmin has long been a household name in the world of fitness and running watches. In recent years, the US company has endeavoured to branch out to hybrid watches as it faces increased competition from the likes of Apple and Samsung in the fitness segment. In September 2022, Apple launched the Apple Watch Ultra, its biggest competitor yet to performance watches like those made by Garmin.

Reality shows may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but there’s something about them that’s just satisfying to watch even for the most sophisticated TV enthusiasts. Reality shows can launch careers, crush dreams and turn ordinary people into household names. Just ask Kelly Clarkson, Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino or NeNe Leakes. We are beyond the days of the experiment that was MTV’s The Real World. Today, you can hatch a business on Shark Tank or take a deep dive with Pawn Stars.

You can follow ghost hunts, cheer for undiscovered talent, watch socialites duke it out, witness bachelors and bachelorettes look for love or learn how to care for animals and the planet. Plenty of camera crews have gone where no one has gone before. Someone tell Captain Kirk that you’ll soon be able to stream civilians in outer space as part of a new reality show trend. NASA has Space Hero in the works and Discovery will air Who Wants to Be an Astronaut? at some point this year.

You probably won’t find anyone from The Real Housewives or The Bachelor traversing the galaxy (yet?), but you can watch their shows on streaming services. As a fan, you may regularly turn to specific channels to catch the latest installment of your favorite series. While Apple TV Plus or HBO Max — two brands known for prestige television — aren’t necessarily our first choices to get your reality fix, plenty of other streaming services deliver the reality goods. But sometimes, it’s a challenge to keep up with the shows and reality stars you’re interested in seeing.

Whether you stream reality TV as a guilty pleasure, for inspiration, fun or education, the services below offer enough to watch in small doses or as a bingeable feast. Just be aware that every season of your favorite show might not be available to stream.

Read more: Netflix Considers Livestreaming

VH1

Paramount Plus

Carries VH1, MTV and CBS faves like Survivor

With a host of traditional cable networks from Viacom/CBS under its umbrella, Paramount Plus houses a wide variety of reality shows. You can stream older and newer seasons of MTV shows such as Jersey Shore, The Challenge and The Hills. VH1 mainstays like RuPaul’s Drag Race, Black Ink, Basketball Wives and Love & Hip Hop are streaming on the platform, along with the popular CBS hits Survivor, Love Island and Big Brother.

Paramount Plus also has a few reality originals, including The Real World: Homecoming and RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars, which is currently airing new season 7 episodes. Fans will also find titles from CMT (The Last Cowboy) and Paramount Network releases such as Lip Sync Battle, Ink Master and Bar Rescue. Because there’s a designated “Reality” tab on Paramount Plus, it’s easy to find each title in one central location.

The service costs $5 per month for the ad-supported version, but not every season for every show is available. Of the 14 seasons of RuPaul’s Drag Race, only 12 are streaming on the platform. However, all 42 seasons of Survivor are on Paramount Plus.

$5 at Paramount Plus

HGTV/Discovery

Discovery Plus

All the Food Network, TLC, HGTV and Animal Planet you want

A giant in the realm of unscripted programming, Discovery Plus is home to some of the genre’s most recognized brands. HGTV, Food Network, Discovery, TLC, Travel Channel, Magnolia Network, Animal Planet, ID, Lifetime and several others are part of the service. In total, there are 14 networks with content on Discovery Plus, which we laid out in a list here.

Multiple subgenres of reality TV available on the platform will have you bouncing from paranormal investigations to fishing expeditions to foodie competitions. And if you’re into celebrities like the Kardashians, Tony Hawk or Martha Stewart, they show up as guests, clients and contestants on various networks.

90 Day Fiance fans can stay up to date with every episode of all the franchise’s spinoffs. Viewers can also stream every iteration of House Hunters and Flip or Flop, as well as follow Chip and Joanna Gaines’ offerings from HGTV to Magnolia Network. Discovery Plus also has exclusive originals like 90 Day: The Single Life and Ghost Adventures: House Calls.

As with other services, however, some seasons are missing for certain shows. Married at First Sight has 14 seasons, but only 12 are available on Discovery Plus, and when I hovered over the show tile, it said there were only eight seasons. Pro tip: Click on a show’s title to see how many full seasons are actually available. Searching is easy, and you can click on a network or type in a title or cast member’s name to find a series.

At $5 a month, Discovery Plus is a bargain for those who love to skip around the reality TV landscape. Scroll through gold mining ventures, alien research and custom motorcycles along with cupcake tutorials and educational romps with dogs.

$5 at Discovery Plus

NBCUniversal

Peacock

Stream Bravo’s Housewives, NBC, E! and Fox reality shows

Peacock offers NBC’s reality slate, including primetime favorites The Voice and America’s Got Talent, but that’s just the beginning. Bravo’s conveyor belt of unscripted series lives on Peacock too, with hits like The Real Housewives franchise, Top Chef, Married to Medicine, Below Deck and Project Runway. Digging around, I again found that not every show is currently available to binge. There are only three seasons of Project Runway on Peacock now, but all of Bravo’s content will stream exclusively on Peacock in September.

Fox’s reality picks are also on the platform, including Hell’s Kitchen, Divorce Court, MasterChef and The Masked Singer. Shows from entertainment channel E! such as Botched can be streamed here too. What about originals? The Real Housewives of Miami and Below Deck Down Under may attract fans of Bravo-lebrities, but Snoop Dogg and Maya Rudolph are just a couple of well-knowns hosting their own original Peacock reality series.

But there’s a catch with this streaming service. Peacock users with free accounts can only access a limited number of episodes. You must upgrade to one of the service’s paid subscriptions — which start at $5 a month — to watch full seasons.

See at Peacock

ABC

Hulu

Houses Shark Tank, The Kardashians and reality lineups from major networks

Hulu harvests much of its catalog from traditional networks like ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, E!, VH1, BET, A&E and more. But this has disadvantages. One of them is that full seasons aren’t available for every series. While it has older seasons of Bravo and Lifetime shows like The Real Housewives and Married at First Sight, current seasons are not airing on Hulu, so you can’t watch episodes the next day. Other series like The Bachelorette and The Voice only have one or two seasons on the platform.

For Fox shows such as The Masked Singer or MasterChef Junior, however, current episodes and full seasons are both available. And you can still find popular titles in Hulu’s catalog such as Shark Tank, American Idol, Hoarders and Storage Wars, as well as Hulu originals like the new Kardashians show. Later this year the streamer will lose NBC-owned content, but at least you can binge what you like through the summer.

Hulu keeps its reality lineup well-organized with a dedicated tab on the app. For the basic $7 subscription, you can take your pick from an assortment of channels.

$7 at Hulu

Netflix

Netflix

Mostly originals with a small slice of licensed reality series

During the past five years, Netflix has been gradually building its platter of reality fare. Ultimate Beastmaster was its first release, but the streamer’s made an imprint in dating and cooking entertainment. The Great British Baking Show and Is It Cake? have become hits with viewers, and series such as Love Is Blind, The Circle and Too Hot to Handle became hot topics on the internet. However, food and romance aren’t the only two areas that Netflix covers in the reality world. Home improvement, mindfulness, travel and international releases are among the categories you’ll find on the service.

Originals Selling Sunset and Bling Empire give viewers a peek inside luxurious lifestyles and real estate while Floor is Lava and Bullsh*t the Game Show put a different spin on… game shows. If you’re into music contests, Rhythm + Flow focuses on budding hip-hop artists while Sing On is a karaoke-style competition.

There’s also a row of titles described as “rugged” that features jail-themed docuseries, a peek into the custom vehicle industry, or unique jobs like funeral directors. With Netflix, the monthly cost — which runs from $10 up to $20 — is significantly higher than other services, but know what to expect.

The majority of Netflix’s reality slate is made up of originals like Tidying Up With Marie Kondo and Nailed It, but a sprinkling of licensed series such as Old Enough and Tiny House Nation are also on the platform. Whatever you do, do yourself a favor and skip the dating-in-a-creature-mask weirdness of Sexy Beasts.

$10 at Netflix

How we chose these reality TV streaming services

Other streaming services such as Apple TV Plus, Disney Plus, Prime and HBO Max offer high quality entertainment, but when it comes to reality TV, scope and preference is key. Though we looked at their reality rosters, the platforms on this list have large catalogs to offer for established franchises, new releases and originals.

Netflix may not be top of mind for this genre, but according to Nielsen, the streamer has found huge popularity with some of its unscripted titles. Specifically, Selling Sunset and The Great British Baking Show have performed very well. For that reason, Netflix edged out rivals like Prime and Disney Plus. I also examined Parrot Analytics statistics between 2020 and 2022 and found that shows such as RuPaul’s Drag Race, Shark Tank, The Voice and Survivor are consistently in the top rankings in terms of audience demand.

Reality TV streaming services FAQs

EA says it will cease work on its Battlefield mobile game and begin winding down Apex Legends Mobile.

The game publisher made the two announcements during its earnings call on Tuesday. Apex Legends Mobile, a battle royale game that launched last year, will cease operations on May 1 at 4 p.m. PT.

Players who purchased in-game items or have in-game currency in their Apex Legends Mobile account will lose their purchases after servers go down, and there will be no refunds, according to an FAQ posted on EA’s site. Apex Legends Mobile’s sunsetting will not affect the console/PC version of the game.

EA first revealed its plans for a Battlefield mobile game in 2021. The initial plan was to bring the large-scale military FPS to mobile devices, and that it would be a different take from the console/PC version. EA says its pivot was “to best deliver on our vision for the franchise.” The company will continue work on its flagship game Battlefield 2042, which was considered a “disappointment” when it launched in 2021.

Your iPhone is more powerful than you might think. Underneath all the major new features on iOS 16, like the revamped lock screen and ability to unsend text messages, there are lesser known tools and settings that are just as impressive, and can help make your day-to-day use more efficient, interesting and fun.

I’m going to walk you through what to know about the best hidden gems in iOS 16, like password-protected photo albums and easily accessible Wi-Fi passwords.

Read more: All the New Features on iOS 16.3

And while you’re here, make sure you also brush up on the major new iOS 16 features you’ll love and a few that you might just hate (luckily, there’s a fix).

View and share saved Wi-Fi passwords

Apple has allowed iOS users to share Wi-Fi passwords for a while now, but only by placing two Apple devices near each other. And if that feature didn’t automatically work, you couldn’t just dig out the password from your settings. Plus if you wanted to share a saved Wi-Fi password with someone else, like an Android user or someone on a computer, you had to remember the password. Until now.

In Settings, go to Wi-Fi and tap the tiny information icon to the right of the network you want the password for. To view the network password, tap the Password section and then use Face ID or enter your passcode to view it. You can then tap Copy to copy the password into your clipboard and share it.

Find and remove duplicate photos and videos

Maybe you’ve saved the same photo multiple times or downloaded a video more than once, resulting in duplicates littering up your photo album. It may not be a problem if you’ve got storage to spare, but you’re running out of space, you can now remove every single duplicate easily with iOS 16.

In Photos > Albums, you should see a new Duplicates album under Utilities. Apple scans through all of your photos and shows you any photo or video you’ve saved more than once in that album. From there, you can either delete any duplicates, or simply press Merge, which will keep the photo with the highest quality (and relevant data) and then move the others to the trash.

Although you’ll probably want to go through each set of duplicates, to ensure that they’re actually exact copies and not similar photos, you can also hit Select > Select All > Merge to remove every single photo and video that Apple thinks is a duplicate, all at once.

Hang up a phone or FaceTime call with Siri

Siri does a lot of things. You can use the virtual assistant to send a text message, get directions or play music — but one thing she’s never been able to do is hang up a phone call. Weird right? Now that’s finally a possibility with iOS 16.

In Settings, go to Siri & Search and first make sure Listen for “Hey Siri” is toggled on. If it is, you should see a new option underneath — Call Hang Up. Go into that option and toggle on Call Hang Up. When you’re on a phone call or FaceTime video chat, simply say, “Hey, Siri,” and ask her to hang up your current call.

Pair Nintendo Switch Joy-Cons with your iPhone

Apple has long allowed you to pair third-party controllers, like the PS5 Sony DualSense and Xbox Core Controller, to your iPhone and iPad, in order to more comfortably play mobile video games like the Apple Arcade library, Minecraft and Call of Duty. Now you can add another console controller to that list.

If you own a Nintendo Switch, you can now pair your Joy-Con controllers to your iPhone or iPad running iOS 16. To start, hold down the little black pairing button on the Joy-Con, until the green lights start running back and forth. This means the device is in pairing mode. Next, open your iPhone and go to Settings > Bluetooth and select the Joy-Con from the list. Repeat this step with the other Joy-Con.

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Hidden and Recently Deleted albums are now password protected

The Hidden album in the Photos app is clearly not hidden, seeing as anyone can easily find it. That makes it impractical for adequately hiding private photos and videos. While Apple does have an option to make the Hidden album “invisible,” anyone with access to your phone could make it visible again and view everything inside.

Thanks to iOS 16, you can now lock the Hidden album. You don’t actually need to do anything to toggle this feature on. If you want to check it out, launch the Photos app and go to the Albums tab at the bottom of the screen. If you scroll down, you’ll see a tiny lock next to the Hidden and Recently Deleted albums. To view the contents of those albums, you’ll need to use Face ID or your passcode.

Copy and paste photo and video edits

If you use the editor tool in the Photos app, you’ll be happy to learn that you can now copy and paste edits, including saturation, contrast and brightness, between photos. If you edit one photo or video and are happy with the look, you can paste those same exact edits to any other photo or video in your camera roll.

To do this, launch the Photos app and open a photo that’s been edited in full-screen. Next, tap on the three-dot menu in the top-right corner and then hit Copy Edits. This option will only appear if the photo has been edited within Photos, not any third-party photo editor. Finally, go to the photo you want to copy these edits over to, tap on the three-dot menu and then hit Paste Edits. After a second or so, you should see the photo edits appear.

Bring haptic feedback to your keyboard

The iPhone has long had haptic feedback. It’s what you feel underneath your fingertips whenever you attempt to delete an app from your home screen or enter the incorrect password on your lock screen. Strangely enough, haptic feedback has never been available for the stock iOS keyboard — until now.

If you want to enable a slight vibration for every single key you type in, go to Settings > Sounds & Haptics > Keyboard Feedback and toggle on Haptic. The sound option you see is the loud and annoying clacking sound you might hear when you type in something and your phone isn’t on silent mode, so you can keep that disabled.

Pin your favorite tabs in Safari

Safari caps your open tabs at 500, and if you’re nearing that limit, it might be pretty darn hard to find the exact tab you’re looking for. You could scroll endlessly, but there’s now an easier way to find the exact tab you’re looking for.

In Safari, if you press down on an open tab, you now have the option to hit Pin Tab. This will move that tab to the top of Safari, where it will exist as a tiny tab preview, permanently pinned there, which you can then tap to view. If you press down and unpin a tab, it will move to first in your grid of open tabs.

Use Face ID while you’re lying down

If you’ve ever tried to unlock your iPhone while it’s vertical, like when you’re lying on your side, you might have noticed that it doesn’t work. You have to place your iPhone in portrait orientation, or upright, for Face ID to work. With iOS 16, you can finally use Face ID to unlock your iPhone when it’s in landscape orientation. However, for this to work, you must have an iPhone 13 or 14 running iOS 16.

Copy your screenshots to your clipboard without saving them

You don’t need to save a screenshot to your photo album to share it with someone else. A new iOS 16 feature allows you to take a screenshot, copy it to your clipboard, delete it from your phone and paste it where you see fit. After you take a screenshot, tap the screenshot preview that appears, hit Done on the top-right and then tap Copy and Delete to copy the screenshot to your clipboard.

Remove more preinstalled Apple apps

Since iOS 10, you’ve been able to remove some preinstalled iOS applications like Stocks, Maps and Calculator — but not all of them. With the release of iOS 16, you can add three more apps to this list of ones you can remove: Find My, Clock and Health. However, deleting these apps can negatively affect and break support with other apps and connected devices, like your Apple Watch.

For more on iOS 16 and the iPhone, check out our iOS 16 cheat sheet.

The Samsung Galaxy S22 has an upgraded camera that’s better at seeing in the dark, and it has an upgraded aesthetic. But we need so much more for Samsung to blow us away with their Galaxy S23, which is expected to debut on Wednesday at Samsung Unpacked.

In particular, I’d like to see longer-lasting batteries, more photographic features and faster charging that doesn’t require an expensive adapter and more photographic features.

Read more: How to Watch Samsung Unpacked

Samsung leads the smartphone industry, with 21% of the worldwide market in the third quarter of 2022, according to Counterpoint Research. Upgrading core features like the camera and battery could help it maintain that top spot, especially as it faces increased competition from Apple and Google.

Longer battery life for the regular Galaxy S23

Battery life can never be long enough, but the standard-issue Galaxy S device is in particular need of a boost. The 6.1-inch Galaxy S22 generally lived up to Samsung’s claims of all-day battery life, but sometimes just barely. After using it for a month straight, I noticed the battery level dipped roughly to 30% or 40% by 9 p.m., even with the always-on display turned off and the screen’s refresh rate set to standard. That’s enough to get through a work day, but you’ll likely want to pack a charger if you have after-work plans or a long commute home.

The Galaxy S22 has the smallest battery (3,700-mAh capacity) of the three phones in the Galaxy S22 lineup, and it shows. For example, I was pleasantly surprised when the 6.6-inch Galaxy S22 Plus, which has a larger 4,500-mAh capacity, lasted for about a day and a half when I reviewed it in February. I also had the refresh rate set to high, which typically drains battery more quickly. The Galaxy S22 Ultra, which has a 6.8-inch screen and a 5,000-mAh battery, had similar battery life.

It makes sense that the Galaxy S22 line’s smallest phone would also have the smallest battery. But I hope Samsung finds a way to improve battery life on next year’s 6.1-inch Galaxy phone, whether it’s through better power efficiency or a larger physical battery. After all, Apple made upgrades to the iPhone 13 Mini that gave it an extra two to three hours of battery life compared to the iPhone 12 Mini. Battery life is the main complaint I had about the Galaxy S22, and addressing that would make the Galaxy S23 an even more compelling choice for Android fans who prefer smaller phones.

Korean news outlet The Elec indicates that could indeed be the case, as it reports that Samsung aims to increase the Galaxy S23’s battery capacity by about 5%.

More clever camera features

The Galaxy S22’s 50-megapixel camera and the Galaxy S22 Ultra’s 108-megapixel camera capture impressively colorful and detailed photos. I only wish there was more you could do with those cameras when it comes to editing and software features.

The Galaxy S22 lineup has shooting options like panorama, night mode, portrait mode, slow motion, super slow motion and Director’s View, which lets you record video using two different lenses simultaneously. Then there’s Single Take, which creates multiple stylized shots with a single press of the shutter button. You can also download the Expert Raw app to get more granular control over photo settings.

But not much has changed between the Galaxy S21 and Galaxy S22 when it comes to camera features and shooting modes. I’d love to see Samsung take a page from Google, which regularly adds nifty camera tricks that feel practical rather than gimmicky. For example, Google introduced a new feature on the Pixel 7 and 7 Pro called Photo Unblur, which sharpens low-quality photos, even ones taken with an older camera. Photo Unblur builds on Face Unblur, a previous Pixel 6 and 6 Pro camera feature I also appreciate. As the name implies, Face Unblur freezes moving subjects that may otherwise look blurry.

Features like these show that Google is not just thinking about camera quality, but also ways to eliminate everyday annoyances with mobile photography. Many of Samsung’s updates, on the other hand, feel aimed at giving content creators more tools for capturing different types of shots and video clips.

While the Galaxy S23 likely won’t launch for several more weeks, Samsung is already making enhancements to the cameras on its current Galaxy phones. It added a new feature to the Expert Raw app that helps stargazers take better photos of constellations, similar to Google’s Astrophotography feature for Pixel phones. There’s also a new Camera Assistant app that lets you enable or disable certain features, like a faster shutter or automatic lens switching.

We Put the Galaxy S22 Ultra’s Camera to the Test

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Faster charging that doesn’t cost so much

The Galaxy S22 lineup supports fast charging of up to 25 watts for the Galaxy S22 and 45 watts for the Galaxy S22 Plus and Ultra. But you have to purchase a separate charger to do so. Samsung charges $50 for the 45-watt charger and $35 for the 25-watt charger, although you can often find them for less through retailers like Amazon and Walmart. In some scenarios, I also didn’t notice much of a difference between the pricier 45-watt charger and Samsung’s less expensive 25-watt charger when powering up the Galaxy S22 Plus, which you can read more about here.

With the Galaxy S23, I’d like to see a more noticeable improvement in charging speeds, as well as more affordable charger options. The OnePlus 10 Pro, for example, offers either 65- or 80-watt fast charging depending on your region, both of which are speedier than what Samsung has to offer on paper. OnePlus also includes a compatible power adapter in the box.

Samsung and Apple stopped including power adapters in their product packaging to cut down on waste, which is an admirable cause. But I at least wish Samsung would let you choose to include a fast-charging compatible adapter as an option for a discounted price when ordering a new phone, similar to the way it lets you select a storage option or add Samsung Care Plus.

If rumors turn out to be accurate, the base Galaxy S23 model might have the same 25-watt charging speed as the Galaxy S22. That’s according to Ice Universe, a Twitter account with a history of publishing details about unreleased Samsung products.

Samsung is already doing a lot right with the Galaxy S22, particularly when it comes to software support and display quality. But as year-over-year smartphone upgrades have become more incremental than revolutionary, focusing on core elements like the camera and battery are as important as ever.

Apple released iOS 16.3 on Jan. 23, and the update brings new features, bug fixes and security updates to people with an iPhone 8 or later. One of the biggest new features in iOS 16.3 means you can now use security keys to protect your Apple ID.

This update was released alongside updates for other Apple software, too, like iPadOS, Safari and previous versions of iOS. The latest iOS update arrives about a month after the release of iOS 16.2.

Here are the new features landing on your iPhone with iOS 16.3.

Security keys come to Apple ID

Users can now use third-party security keys instead of two-factor authentication for their Apple ID.

Security keys are a lot like keys to your home. You still use passwords, but this extra layer of security can help protect you against phishing scams and hackers.

“Hardware security keys are very, very secure,” Diya Jolly, chief product officer of authentication service company Okta, told CNET’s Stephen Shankland.

Apple’s security keys feature only works with FIDO Alliance-certified security keys.

Support for the second-gen HomePod

Apple’s iOS 16.3 software will support the second-generation HomePod, which is set to be released on Feb. 3 for $299 ( 299, AU$479). Apple announced the release of the new HomePod four days before the latest iOS software was made available.

New Unity wallpaper for Black History Month

The latest iOS update includes a new iPhone wallpaper as part of Apple’s Black Unity Collection. The collection celebrates Black History Month with a special-edition Apple Watch Black Unity Sport Loop, a mosaic watch face and the new iPhone wallpaper. Apple also plans to release a selection of Black History Month content for Apple TV, Fitness Plus, Music, Maps, Books, Podcasts and the App Store as part of the collection.

New ways to use Emergency SOS via satellite

Emergency SOS via satellite was introduced at Apple’s event in September. In iOS 16.3, the Call with Hold option has been replaced with Call with Hold and Release. If you enable Call with Hold and Release, you can hold the side button and a volume button to initiate a countdown and an alarm. After the countdown, you release the buttons and your iPhone will call emergency services on its own. Before with Call with Hold, pressing the side button and a volume button would first bring up the Emergency SOS call slider. If you continued to hold the buttons, a countdown started and an alarm would go off. After the countdown ended, your phone would make an emergency call.

There’s also an option to Call Quietly in Emergency SOS. By enabling this option, when you try to make an emergency SOS call, your phone won’t start flashing or making an alarm sound.

Here is the list of new features and changes included in iOS 16.3.

• New Unity wallpaper honors Black history and culture in celebration of Black History Month.
• Security Keys for Apple ID allow users to strengthen the security of their account by requiring a physical security key as part of the two factor authentication sign in process on new devices.
• Support for HomePod (second generation).
• Emergency SOS calls now require holding the side button with the up or down volume button and then releasing in order to prevent inadvertent emergency calls.
• Fixes an issue in Freeform where some drawing strokes created with Apple Pencil or your finger may not appear on shared boards.
• Addresses an issue where the wallpaper may appear black on the Lock Screen.
• Fixes an issue where horizontal lines may temporarily appear while waking up iPhone 14 Pro Max.
• Fixes an issue where the Home Lock Screen widget does not accurately display Home app status.
• Addresses an issue where Siri may not respond properly to music requests
• Resolves issues where Siri requests in CarPlay may not be understood correctly.

New iOS Tech Makes It Super Hard to Hack Your iCloud Login

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For more iOS 16 news, see what new features were added in iOS 16.2 and iOS 16.1. Here’s how you can sign up to test Apple’s iOS beta software, too.

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A lot of people are on the hunt for quality headphones and earbuds that don’t cost too much. We’re talking anywhere from $50 to $150, with some folks willing to spend more for flagship models from certain brands like Apple, Bose and Sony.

We have lots of best earbuds and headphones lists at CNET that focus on headphones that cost less than $400 — or even less than $100 — if you’re looking for the best cheap wireless earbuds. But this list is all about high-end wireless headphones and earbuds, which we’re seeing more of, especially after Apple released its $549 AirPods Max headphones two years ago.

I can’t tell you which of these (if any) are truly worth what they cost, but they’re all great headphones and earbuds. Here’s a look at our current high-end favorites, all of which I’ve tried, and in some cases, fully reviewed.

Read more: Best Wireless Earbuds for 2022

David Carnoy/CNET

Bowers & Wilkins PI7 S2

Best-sounding wireless earbuds with small updates for 2023

Bowers & Wilkins has upgraded its fantastic-sounding PI7 noise-canceling earbuds. The new S2 model has better battery life and Bluetooth range, now up to 25 meters (double the previous range). Additionally, the buds now integrate into the new Bowers & Wilkins Music app for iOS and Android and have an improved setup experience.

While they’re not a major upgrade from the originals, the PI7 S2s, which have a dual-driver design, are easily among the best-sounding true-wireless earbuds. The step-down PI5 S2s, which have a single driver design, don’t sound quite as good but are more affordable.

Read our Bowers & Wilkins PI7 S2 review.

$399 at Crutchfield

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Focal Bathys

Best-sounding wireless noise-canceling headphones

French audio company Focal is known for its high-end speakers and headphones. You might call it the Bowers & Wilkins of France. And now it’s finally done what a lot of high-end audio companies have had to do in this age of on-the-go wireless music listening: make active noise-canceling Bluetooth headphones.

Over three years in development, the Bathys cost $799 and feature not only wireless connectivity but a built-in DAC (digital-to-analog converter) for USB wired listening with any computer, smartphone or tablet with USB-C. They are easily one of the best-sounding wireless headphones.

Read our Focal Bathys first take.

$799 at Crutchfield

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Bowers & Wilkins PX8

Swanky design with fantastic sound

When they were originally announced, Bowers & Wilkins swanky PX8 noise-canceling headphones were supposed to cost $549 or essentially the same price as Apple’s AirPod Max headphones. However, when they finally hit stores, the PX8’s price jumped to $699 or a full $300 more than the company’s step-down PX7 S2 headphones, which are also excellent (see below).

The biggest difference between the PX8, which weigh in at 320 grams, and the PX7 S2 are the PX8’s all-new 40mm Carbon Cone drive units that are “inspired” by the Carbon Dome drive units used in the company’s 700 Series loudspeaker line. Bowers & Wilkins says these units help deliver superior resolution, detail and timing with even more accurate sound than the PX7 S2.

Based on my tests, that’s true. While I liked the PX7 S2, the PX8 headphones do sound more special, with a touch more openness and overall clarity. They’re right near the top for sound in a Bluetooth headphone and are also comfortable to wear for long listening sessions (there’s no listening fatigue with these guys). For the best sound, you can listen to lossless files on a computer in wired mode with a USB-C to USB-C cable.

As for the noise-canceling function, it’s good but not quite on par with what you get from Sony’s WH-1000XM5. And while the voice-calling capabilities are solid, these don’t reduce background noise quite as well as some headphones like the Sony when you’re on calls (the transparency mode is top notch).

While I can’t say they’re worth $300 more than the PX7 S2, they’re a great set of cans if you can afford them. I do prefer the sound and overall performance of the more expensive Focal Bathys, though the Bathys don’t have such strong noise canceling, but the PX8 headphones are a close second.

$699 at Amazon

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Master & Dynamic MW75

Great-sounding premium noise-canceling headphones

The MW75 are Master & Dynamic’s best full-size headphones yet. Needless to say, they’re pricey at $599; most people will be quite satisfied with the $400 Sony WH-1000XM5, which are lighter and more comfortable, and which deliver best-in-class voice calling and noise canceling. But the MW75’s build quality is hard to beat and they offer top-notch sound for a wireless model (I thought they sounded better than Apple’s AirPods Max headphones), plus strong voice-calling and noise-canceling performance. With their support for aptX Adaptive, they have additional appeal for Android users, who can get a touch better sound quality with the right setup. But I was also quite happy streaming music with my iPhone 13 Pro using the AAC codec.

Read our Master & Dynamic MW75 first take.

$599 at Master & Dynamic

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Mark Levinson No. 5909

Great noise-canceling headphones if you can afford them

The No. 5909s are premium audio brand Mark Levinson’s first headphones. Yes, they’re expensive at $999 and probably a wee bit overpriced, but they’re excellent. They have a sturdy design without managing to feel hefty on your head (read: they’re substantial but not too heavy) and they’re comfortable to wear over long periods thanks to their nicely padded (and replaceable) leather-covered earcups and headband.

Not only do they feature good noise canceling and excellent sound, but their voice-calling performance is top-notch, making them one of the best noise canceling headphones options on the market. Plus, they have multipoint Bluetooth pairing so you can pair them with two devices, such as a computer and a smartphone, simultaneously.

The No. 5909 are high-res certified with support for Sony’s LDAC and Qualcomm’s aptX Adaptive codecs that allow for near-lossless streaming over Bluetooth. Apple’s iPhones and iPads don’t support those codecs while certain Android devices do. Using the No. 5909 headphones over Bluetooth on my iPhone 13 Pro, it sounded a tad more natural and refined than the AirPods Max (the No. 5909 had a touch more “pure” and accurate sound).

I did notice a difference when I paired the No. 5909 to my Google Pixel 4 XL, which has support for LDAC, and using the Qobuz audio streaming service’s high-res streaming. Overall, the sound had a little more depth and texture, and there’s a touch more sparkle, definition and openness.

Read our Mark Levinson No. 5909 review.

$999 at Music Direct

$999 at Crutchfield

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Sony WH-1000XM5

Best new noise-canceling headphones

When you have a product that a lot of people love, change can be risky. Such is the case for Sony’s WH-1000XM5, the fifth generation of the 1000X series headphones, which were first released in 2016 as the MDR-1000X Wireless and have become increasingly popular as they’ve improved with each generation. Over the years, Sony has made some tweaks to the design, but nothing as dramatic as what it’s done with the WH-1000XM5. Other than the higher $400 price tag ($50 more than the WH-1000XM4), most of those changes are good, and Sony’s made some dramatic improvements with voice-calling performance as well as better noise canceling and a more refined sound.

Read our Sony WH-1000XM5 review.

$398 at Amazon

$398 at Best Buy

$398 at Target

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Bowers & Wilkins PX7 S2

Next-gen Bowers & Wilkins noise-canceling headphones

Available in three color options (gray, blue and black), Bowers & Wilkins PX7 S2 headphones offer some significant improvements over the first-gen version. Not only are these headphones more comfortable — they tip the scales at 307 grams — but they sound better and have better noise-canceling and voice-calling performance with improved noise reduction. I don’t necessarily think they’re a better option than the lighter and more comfortable Sony WH-1000XM5. But the PX7 S2 certainly looks and feels luxurious with its sturdy design, and it delivers good sound with better voice-calling performance thanks to an upgraded microphone setup.

Bowers & Wilkins’ step-up model, the PX8, does sound better, but it costs $699.

Read our Bowers & Wilkins PX7 S2 first take.

$399 at Amazon

$399 at Crutchfield

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Bang & Olufsen Beoplay EX

Best-sounding buds with stems

Bang & Olufsen’s Beoplay EX buds are the company’s best true-wireless earbuds yet. They feature a comfortable, secure fit (except perhaps for those with smaller ears), top-notch build quality, great sound, good noise canceling and improved voice-calling performance over B&O’s EQ buds, with three microphones in each earbud they help with reducing background noise while picking up your voice. While they’re out of most people’s price range, they’re arguably the best earbuds out there with stems and offer superior sound to the AirPods Pro with better clarity, deeper more powerful bass and richer, more accurate sound.

Battery life is rated at 6 hours at moderate volume levels with noise canceling on and there’s an extra 14 hours of juice in the brushed aluminum charging case (wireless charging is supported). The buds have an IP57 water-resistance rating, which makes them waterproof and dust-resistant. They feature Bluetooth 5.2 and multipoint Bluetooth pairing so you can connect to two devices at the same time, such as a computer and smartphone. You can use a single bud independently and the earbuds have ear-detection sensors so your music pauses when you remove them from your ears.

The buds support AptX Adaptive for devices like Android smartphones that support Bluetooth streaming with the AptX HD audio codec (AAC is also supported). They’re available in the gold tone pictured as well as a graphite color.

$354 at Amazon

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Ultimate Ears

UE Drops

Best custom earbuds

Before it started making Bluetooth speakers, Ultimate Ears made a name for itself with its custom-fit wired earbuds that found a fanbase with audiophiles and musicians. Now you can get that same custom fit (the ear tips are customized for your ears) with the UE Drops.

While these are not active noise-canceling earbuds and Ultimate Ears took some criticism for not having the latest flavor of Bluetooth in a set of expensive earbuds (the Drops have Bluetooth 4.2 instead of Bluetooth 5.3) or AptX audio codec support for Android phones, they fit my ears really well and sounded excellent, with nicely detailed sound and well-defined bass. I found them great for longer listening sessions and they do have a transparency mode.

To create the custom fit, UE sends you an at-home fit kit that will capture your ear impressions using Lightform technology. It comes with a return label to send your impressions back to UE and the final product — uniquely shaped to your ears — arrives within a few weeks. The Drops are available in onyx, sapphire and rose quartz and are sweat-resistant for workouts. They list for $449 but are currently selling for $399.

$399 at Ultimate Ears Custom

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Edifier Stax Spirit S3

Wireless planar-magnetic headphones

Edifier makes some nice headphones and earbuds that offer good quality for your dollar. And while its Stax Spirit S3 is pretty pricey at $400, it’s essentially a value version of a high-end audiophile headphone. It features planar-magnetic drivers (with Audeze components) that deliver clean, clear, distortion-free sound. Though these aren’t noise-canceling headphones, they are wireless and are certified as hi-res. You can also use them as wired headphones, though you may want to pair them with a headphone amp in wired mode.

I found them comfortable to wear, and they’re relatively compact and reasonably weighted (329 grams) for planar magnetic headphones. Battery life is excellent at up to 80 hours of listening time at moderate volume levels, and these do have multipoint Bluetooth pairing so you can simultaneously connect them to two devices (such as a smartphone and a computer). They’re also decent for making calls and come with an additional set of “cooling-mesh” ear pads for outdoor use in warmer environments.

These are built on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon audio platform and support its aptX Adaptive audio codec (along with SBC but alas, not AAC), which is capable of delivering near lossless audio if you stream from an aptX-compatible Android device or dedicated music player and subscribe to a music service such as Qobuz or Tidal that offers high-resolution tracks. Certain smartphones are now certified for Snapdragon Audio, which simply means you’re getting the best end-to-end Qualcomm solution for wireless Bluetooth streaming. I tested these headphones with the Motorola Edge Plus 2022 smartphone, which features Snapdragon Audio. How much of a difference it made is debatable, but overall I was impressed with the sound, though sound does vary with the recording quality of certain tracks (the headphones are revealing, sometimes too much so).

Planar magnetic headphones are known for delivering detailed sound with well-defined bass and clear, natural-sounding mids (where voices live). These have a balanced, flatter sound profile and while the bass is punchy and ample, it’s not quite as meaty as what you get with some headphones like Apple’s AirPods Max or Sony’s WH-1000XM5. But they do sound really good. And while they’re missing some features, like ear-detection sensors that automatically pause your music when you take the headphones off, and a customizable EQ (you only get a few presets along with a low-latency gaming mode), you’re ultimately buying these for their audio quality.

$400 at Amazon

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