Category: Technologies

One of the iPhone 14’s most significant new features is its ability to communicate with satellites to contact emergency responders when cell service isn’t available. Chipmaker Qualcomm has also pledged to bring similar tech to Android phones later this year.

Samsung, however, is sitting this one out. At least for now.

The South Korean tech giant unveiled the Galaxy S23 lineup at its Samsung Unpacked event on Wednesday, which includes all the hallmarks we’ve come to expect from premium smartphones in 2023. All three new devices boast faster processors and more advanced cameras, while the two smaller phones are also getting bigger batteries. But satellite connectivity, which is already shaping up to be a key trend in new phones, is noticeably absent.

TM Roh, president and head of Samsung’s mobile experience business, acknowledges that there’s interest and promise in bringing satellite connectivity to smartphones. But he also thinks it’s too soon because the satellite functionality on today’s phones is still fairly limited. Roh spoke through a translator in an interview with CNET ahead of Samsung’s Unpacked event.

“When there is the right timing, infrastructure and the technology [is] ready, then of course for Samsung Galaxy, for our mobile division, we would also actively consider adopting this feature as well,” he said.

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Apple’s implementation of satellite connectivity kicks in automatically if you have an iPhone 14 and attempt to call 911 without a cell signal. When this happens, you should see the Emergency Text via Satellite option, writes my colleague Patrick Holland, who has tried the feature. But Apple’s service isn’t available everywhere; it launched in the United States and Canada initially before rolling out to parts of Europe in December.

The feature also works a little differently than traditional texting. Instead of typing out a message, you answer prompts on your phone so that dispatchers can gather more information about the emergency. Although the technology is new, there have already been reports of Apple’s satellite network being used to locate a stranded snowmobiler in Alaska.

Qualcomm, meanwhile, debuted Snapdragon Satellite last month at the annual CES trade show in Las Vegas. But unlike Apple, Qualcomm has already said it plans to expand beyond emergency scenarios so people will be able to send texts for social purposes too.

According to Roh, satellite connectivity is just one way to make phones better at helping people communicate in emergency scenarios. He says Samsung has made other efforts to give people a sense of security, such as improving the sensors found inside its phones and broadening 5G coverage.

“I do not believe that is the end-all or be-all of the solutions to ensure peace of mind among users,” he said.

For more, check out CNET’s first takes of Samsung’s newest Galaxy Book and phones, the Galaxy S23, S23 Plus and S23 Ultra. They’re available for preorder now.

GoodRX will pay $1.5 million and be barred from sharing user data with outside companies for advertising purposes under a deal that would settle allegations that it shared some of its users’ most intimate health-related information with companies like Facebook and Google.

The Federal Trade Commission characterized the action, which is pending approval by a federal court, as the first of its kind under its Health Breach Notification Rule, adding that the agency won’t hesitate to use its full legal authority to take action against companies that willingly misuse or exploit consumer data.

“Digital health companies and mobile apps should not cash in on consumers’ extremely sensitive and personally identifiable health information,” Samuel Levine, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, said in a statement.

According to the FTC’s complaint, GoodRX, which helps users find deals on prescription drugs and offers telehealth and other health-related services, shared its users’ data with outside companies for advertising purposes, despite promising it wouldn’t.

It also made money from that same data by using it to target its own users with personalized health-related ads on Facebook and Instagram, the FTC said. The complaint also accuses the company of failing to limit third-party use of the data, misrepresenting its compliance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA, and failing to put in place policies and procedures to protect its users’ data.

In a company blog post, GoodRX pushed back against the FTC’s allegations, saying they’re focused on an “old issue” that was “proactively addressed” more than three years ago before the FTC’s inquiry began. The company admitted no wrongdoing, adding that the proposed settlement will allow it to move on and avoid the time and costs of drawn-out litigation.

In addition to the civil penalty and ban on collecting data for advertising purposes, the settlement requires GoodRX to get users’ consent before sharing data for purposes other than advertising; reach out to the third parties it shared the data with and ask them to destroy it; limit its own retention of user data; and put in place a privacy program designed to protect user data.

If you’re thinking about upgrading to the new Samsung Galaxy S23, you’ll have up to eight colors to choose from at launch depending on where you purchase your phone. The new phones were announced Wednesday at the Samsung Unpacked event in San Francisco.

The phones will be available in four nature-inspired matte colors: phantom black, cream, green and lavender. The new Galaxy S23, Galaxy S23 Plus and Galaxy S23 Ultra are all available in these colors no matter where you purchase your phone.

If you buy any of the Galaxy S23 phones from Samsung’s website, you’ll be able to choose from four online-exclusive colors, too. Those colors are lime, graphite, sky blue and red.

On Monday, one AT&T store in Atlanta leaked the Galaxy S23 specs and some of the available phone colors. The information was removed around 8:20 a.m. PT that same day.

The Galaxy S23 starts at $800 (about 645, AU$1,120), the Galaxy S23 Plus starts at $1,000 (about 800, AU$1,400) and the Galaxy S23 Ultra starts at $1,200 (about 975, AU$1,700). We’ll update with the actual UK and Australian prices when they’re released. You can preorder Galaxy S23 series phones now, and the phones go on sale on Feb. 17 on Samsung’s website, at Samsung Experience Stores and at major carriers and retailers.

For more, check out what to know about the Galaxy S23 and S23 Plus, CNET’s hands-on review of the Galaxy S23 Ultra and Galaxy S23 preorder deals,

Now playing:Watch this:Samsung’s Galaxy S23 Lineup Is Here With Big Camera Upgrades

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Samsung’s Galaxy Book Pro laptops are leveling up. At Samsung’s Unpacked event Wednesday, the electronics giant announced the Galaxy Book 3 Ultra laptop alongside its latest flagship Galaxy S23 phones.

Like Samsung’s top Galaxy Ultra phones and Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra tablet, the Ultra laptop will have the best performance, a ton of features and a killer display. But like the other Ultra devices, the Ultra laptop might be more computer than you need. Samsung also has the Galaxy Book 3 Pro and Pro 360, which are a notch below the Ultra in performance, but have a lot of features in common, along with their own added extras.

Read more: Samsung Unpacked Live Updates

The Galaxy Book 3 Ultra is the star, though, and thankfully it fixes two things I didn’t like about the otherwise excellent Galaxy Book 2 Pro models. One issue was their displays. While they had great-looking AMOLED panels, they were 16:9, 1080p widescreens; most premium laptops use higher-resolution 16:10 panels that give you more vertical space. The 16-inch Galaxy Book 3 Ultra makes the jump to 16:10. It’s still an AMOLED panel, too, so you’re going to get amazing color and contrast. Plus it has a 120Hz refresh rate for smoother-looking video; its resolution is 2,880×1,800 pixels.

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The second issue I had with the Book 2 Pro was that Samsung didn’t offer any options for discrete graphics and frankly, if you’re going to call something “Pro” you should offer something stronger than integrated graphics. That doesn’t change with the Book 3 Pro models, but the Ultra will have either an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050 or 4070 graphics chip and they’ll be paired with a 13th-gen Intel Core i7 or i9 processor, respectively, giving the Ultra some pro-level laptop performance.

Samsung Galaxy Book 3 Ultra

$2,400 at Samsung

Those components drive the price up considerably, with the Core i7 and RTX 4050 configuration starting at $2,400 and the Core i9 and RTX 4070 pairing going for $3,000. (Pricing and availability weren’t announced for the UK or Australia, but the entry price converts to 1,950 and AU$3,400.) You get a lot of other great features for those prices like a 1080p webcam, a quad-speaker audio system, a fingerprint reader on the power button and a larger 76-watt-hour battery. The Ultra also has more ports than the Galaxy Book 2 Pro, with a USB-A port and HDMI 2.0 output joining its two Thunderbolt USB-C ports, microSD card slot and headphone jack.

The good news is almost all of these things trickle down to the Pro models, with the big exceptions being the Core i9 processor and the discrete graphics. The nice thing about that is the 16-inch Galaxy Book 3 Pro laptop is 4 millimeters thinner and it’s about a half pound lighter than the 16.5-mm thick, 4-pound (1.8-kilogram) Ultra. The Galaxy Book 3 Pro will also be available in a 14-inch size that’s just 2.6 pounds (1.2 kilograms).

There’s also a 16-inch Galaxy Book 3 Pro 360 two-in-one, which is large for a two-in-one, but since it comes with one of Samsung’s excellent S Pens, you’ll have a lot of room to draw or take notes, plus it’ll make a nice digital whiteboard for meetings. And again, all of the features like the high-res webcam, port assortment and quad speakers on the Ultra are here, too. It’s also the only model to come with optional 5G wireless.

Also, just like earlier Galaxy Books, the new Ultra and Pro laptops are made to work with other Galaxy devices. Things like sending files back and forth between your phone and laptop are easy. You can, for instance, start working on a file on your Galaxy phone and finish up on the Galaxy Book. Or you can use a Galaxy Tab S8 as a wireless external display to extend the laptop’s screen. Your Galaxy Buds can automatically switch between devices as well. This extra layer of interoperability is something Apple does well with its iPhones, iPads and MacBooks, and Samsung is quickly catching up with help from Intel and Microsoft. These laptops have enterprise-level security, too, since they meet Microsoft’s secured-core PC requirements.

There is one thing that Samsung kept the same as the previous generations and that’s the overall look. They’re nice and clean, if a bit unexciting, especially compared to Samsung’s phones, which come in several colors — these come in graphite or beige. Build quality is improved, though. They’re sturdier, stiffer and stronger, which is certainly a plus even if they’re a bit heavier because of it.

The Samsung Galaxy Book 3 Ultra and Pro and Pro 360 laptops are available to preorder now through Samsung’s site and the Pro models are expected to start shipping on Feb. 17.

Dead Space might be the best video game remake ever. But whether you’re a longtime fan of the series or brand new to it, the sci-fi survival horror game can be a little tricky.

The remake of the 2008 game came out Friday, and players are stepping back into the role of Isaac, an engineer who finds himself in the middle of an utter nightmare. Even though the game is 15 years old, developer Motive Studios made some small changes to its formula to create a fresh experience for anyone playing.

Here are nine tips to survive Dead Space.

Always go for the limbs

Several characters in the game mention cutting off the limbs of the Necromorphs, the game’s alien bad guys. It can’t be said enough how important this is.

Shots to the head and body don’t do nearly as much damage as cutting off a limb, making the effort a waste of ammo. Most of the weapons available to Isaac are intended to be used to cut off the extremities, but you have to make sure to target limbs accordingly. For most enemies, focus on the legs in order to decrease their mobility.

Dead Space on PS5

$70 at Amazon

Use the right weapon on the right enemy

Speaking of weapons, with so many options, it’s important to know which one is best for the job. Isaac starts off with the Plasma Cutter, ideal for the commonly found Slashers, with their long limbs, or the doglike Lurkers. Isaac’s second weapon, the Plasma Rifle, is perfect for the Exploders, who have a pouch of chemicals attached to them. It takes only a few bullets for the pouch to explode. Since ammunition is limited in Dead Space, picking the right weapon will help prevent you from running out of ammo at the worst time. The Ripper is the third weapon Isaac acquires and is the best to take down multiple Stalkers.

Keep the weapons you like on you

There are seven weapons in Dead Space, but you may find yourself gravitating to a few of them. If that’s the case, keep only those weapons you like in your inventory and put the rest in storage. Ammo dropped by enemies will only match the weapons you carry. Sticking to the weapons you like will open up space in your inventory, and ammo for those weapons will be prioritized by the game.

Never forget to stomp

Necromorphs can take a lot of damage and still move around with only one or two working limbs. Because of this, one way to make sure they’re dead is by stomping on them. Not only does smashing them to bits with Isaac’s boot provide some satisfaction, it’ll also cause an item to drop from the Necromorph. Practically every one will have some useful item on it.

Use your Stasis

The Stasis Module is a suit upgrade that lets you slow down an object or enemy. At the start of the game, Isaac can use it just a few times before it’s depleted, but upgrades to his suit extend the amount available. Though initially Statis is used to get past an out-of-control door, it’s an incredibly helpful tool for dealing with Necromorphs. A shot to an individual or group of enemies will slow them down tremendously, giving you more time to evade attacks, lop a limb or run away.

Use Kinesis to get hard-to-reach items

Kinesis is another module Isaac acquires early in the game to move obstacles in his way. It can also be used to solve puzzles and to throw pipes and exploding canisters at Necromorphs.

Kinesis can also be used to grab items. Keep an eye out for the glowing green or white dots on items. Instead of running, or floating, to get them, you can use Kinesis to bring items right to you. There are some items purposely placed out of reach that can be acquired only with Kinesis.

Watch out for useful weapons around you

Thanks to Kinesis, many objects found around the Ishimura can be used as weapons. The two obvious ones are the bright red canisters that explode on impact, and the glowing blue-ish containers, which can cause a Stasis effect to enemies caught in the blaster. Isaac can also yank poles from the ship with Kinesis and then hurl them at a Necromorph. Even the Necromorphs themselves can act as a weapon. Once a Slasher’s arm has been severed from its body, that giant claw can be thrown at the enemy to deal damage.

Don’t let your health get too low

Isaac’s health is viewable on his back and goes from green to yellow to red as it’s depleted. Since Dead Space is a survival horror game, healing items are hard to come by. The problem is that certain Necromorphs have a grab attack that can immediately kill Isaac if his health is in the red. If it’s that low, make sure to keep your distance.

Save often

Modern games autosave a player’s progress frequently. Dead Space, however, predates that feature, which means it’s important to save your progress often. There are segments of the game when an autosave happens, but don’t rely on these, or else you’ll risk incurring a significant setback.

Microsoft no longer sells Windows 10 Home and Pro on its website. However, you can still buy the operating system from other online vendors, including Amazon and Newegg.

Microsoft announced it would no longer sell Windows 10 Home and Pro on the operating system’s product page a few weeks ago.

“Jan. 31, 2023 will be the last day this Windows 10 download is offered for sale,” Microsoft wrote online. “Windows 10 will remain supported with security updates that help protect your PC from viruses, spyware and other malware until Oct. 14, 2025.”

Microsoft announced in June 2021 that it would stop supporting Windows 10 in 2025, a decade after the operating system launched in 2015. Then, after a gradual rollout starting in 2021, the company fully deployed Windows 11 to everyone with a compatible computer in May 2022. Microsoft said Windows 10 users with compatible computers could upgrade to the latest operating system for free.

For more, check out CNET’s review of Windows 11, how to download Windows 11 and the best new Windows 11 features.

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T-Mobile grew its customer base over the holiday period, finishing the year with another strong quarter that saw it bring in 927,000 postpaid phone additions over the quarter, the metric used by the industry as an indicator of success.

This capped off a year of growth for phones that resulted in 3.1 million more that signed up for monthly plans over 2022. All told, it had 6.4 million net additions over 2022, half of which had signed up for phone plans.

“We’re winning the highest share of switching decisions in the industry,” T-Mobile CEO Mike Sievert said on the company’s earnings call Wednesday. He didn’t say if the carrier would be changing its promotional strategy, standing in contrast with AT&T’s and Verizon’s recently declared intent to wind down their aggressive phone deals, which had been used to lure customers.

Sievert addressed the recent cybersecurity breach that affected 37 million T-Mobile customers, voicing regret that any information was exposed but noting that the carrier’s systems prevented the “most sensitive kinds” of data from being accessed. The hack was the fifth breach in five years, prompting concern over the carrier’s security.

T-Mobile continued slowly growing its 5G network and announced that it is now covering 265 million people with its faster midband and millimeter-wave “Ultra Capacity” 5G flavors, which offer significantly improved speeds and capacity compared to 4G LTE and its low-band 5G network (what T-Mobile calls “Extended Range 5G”). That marks an increase of 15 million over the last quarter, with the carrier planning to expand this faster network to 300 million people by the end of 2023.

Sievert said that of its 150 MHz of spectrum, 130 MHz is dedicated to midband 5G, which it aims to grow to 200 MHz by the end of 2023.

T-Mobile reported a more modest 25,000 prepaid net additions due to customers switching providers, though the carrier noted that it was the only one with positive gains — Verizon lost 175,000 and AT&T lost 13,000 prepaid customers over the holiday period. Sievert took this as a healthy sign for the industry as customers continued to shift from prepaid to postpaid contracts.

T-Mobile’s internet customer base grew with 524,000 net additions in the quarter, slightly lower than the 578,000 added last quarter as the carrier adjusts to increased deactivations from a customer base that grew to 2.6 million by the end of the year. Most of these are using T-Mobile’s fixed wireless running on its mobile 5G network, which Sievert acknowledged on the call has less overall bandwidth capacity than wired fiber internet but which is cheaper and available to tens of millions of households without needing to go through the trouble of laying cable, making it attractive to customers.

“Most of our [fixed wireless] customers are coming directly from cable, not just from rural areas or unconnected places or DSL,” Sievert said.

T-Mobile reported $15.5 billion in service revenue, a growth of 4% year over year, which resulted in a diluted earnings per share of $1.18, an increase of 71% from the same period in 2021. That was above the $1.10 earnings per share expected by analysts polled by Yahoo Finance.

Shares of T-Mobile rose 0.5% in early morning trading.

T-Mobile said it’s on track to meet expectations for 2023, which includes finalizing its integration with Sprint’s network by the end of the year. The carrier had “substantially completed” decommissioning of Sprint’s network in the third quarter of 2022. T-Mobile expects postpaid net customer additions of between 5 million and 5.5 million, half of which will be on phones.

The company capped off its quarterly report by committing to a sustainability goal of zero emissions across its entire carbon footprint by 2040, though it didn’t offer any specifics on how it would meet that goal.

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