Tired from a long day? Want to relax on the couch in front of the TV, but don't want to endlessly scroll through shows to find something to watch? IMDb has an app for that. What To Watch is a new, free app meant to help Fire TV users decide -- you guessed it -- what to watch.
The app uses a series of mini games to help make that decision fun instead of stressful. Once you've finished a game, the app generates a list of recommendations, along with IMDb user ratings and runtimes for each title, to help you decide.
You can play Quick Draw, a game that shuffles through virtual "playing cards" with TV series and movie options. Or you can play This or That, where you'll answer questions to help narrow down recommendations. IMDb plans to launch more mini games in the app, too.
"The new IMDb What to Watch app for Fire TV makes it easy, fun, and fast for customers to discover trending titles and hidden gems," Nikki Santoro, IMDb chief operating officer said in a release on Thursday.
Some of the mini games available through the What to Watch app.
IMDb
IMDb, which is owned by Amazon, recently rebranded its IMDb TV streaming service as Amazon Freevee. The streaming service plans to add 70% more original content this year to its platform.
"Customers are increasingly shifting to streaming ad-supported premium content, and we have developed Freevee to deliver them highly sought content with half the commercials of traditional TV," Freevee director Ashraf Alkarmi said.
WWE Clash of Champions: Results, new champions, match rankings and full recap
WWE Clash of Champions: Results, new champions, match rankings and full recap
Emanating out of Charlotte, North Carolina, WWE's Clash of Champions pay-per-view was OK. It wasn't bad, per se, but there was nothing on the show that was truly exceptional, with most of the event being average to good. Seth Rollins was the MVP of the night, being a key part of the strong open and closing matches. Becky Lynch vs. Sasha Banks was on its way to being a standout match but was stymied by a poor finish.
Here's a quick rundown of highlights:
Seth Rollins is still Universal Champion, but he and Braun Strowman lost the Raw Tag Team Championships to Robert Roode and Dolph Ziggler. Not that it'll end up meaning anything, but Rollins was pinned fairly cleanly by Roode.
AJ Styles vs. Cedric Alexander was on the preshow, for some reason.
Becky Lynch retained her Raw Women's Championship via DQ, lengthening her feud with Sasha Banks.
Roman Reigns vs. Erick Rowan was a waste of time -- until Luke Harper returned.
Below you'll find all the results of the night, as well as match recaps and ratings. See you next month for WWE's Hell in a Cell event, which will be headlined by Seth Rollins vs. Bray Wyatt.
Seth Rollins retains his Universal Championship
Hot start, with Strowman bulldozing Rollins and going for his powerslam finish. Rollins escapes, works over Strowman's legs and hits three superkicks followed by a frogsplash. Rollins is so good. Two count.
Good action, with Rollins springboarding all over the place and Strowman showing great intensity. The crowd is quiet, tired from a long and only OK show. Strowman hits his running shoulder tackle on the outside twice, but Rollins sidesteps him on the third one. Strowman crashes through an announce table, and Rollins hits dual suicide dives. The two end up fighting on the turnbuckle, and Strowman eventually hits a frogsplash from the top. Props.
We get a light, polite "this is awesome" chant. Rollins locks in a sleeper hold but Strowman rolls out. Rollins hits a curbstomp for a one count. He hits another for a two count. A third stomp for another two count. Rollins goes for a fourth but Strowman counters, hoisting him up for a powerslam. Strowman's leg gives out, Rollins nails a pedigree and then a final curbstomp for the pin.
After the match Rollins is attacked by Bray Wyatt, aka The Fiend. They'll wrestle next month at Hell in a Cell.
Rating: 3.5 stars. Very similar to SummerSlam's main event between Rollins and Brock Lesnar, but not as good. Suffered from a flat crowd, but still a solid main event.
Erick Rowan beats Roman Reigns (!)
Not much to this match. It's no DQ, so it's just a bunch of brawling outside the ring. Rowan has improved his intensity a great deal, but the crowd doesn't buy him as a threat to Reigns. Which is a shame, because the match was just Rowan beating down Reigns, trying to convince the audience he's a threat to Reigns.
One moment did impress the crowd. On the outside, Reigns jumps from the steel stairs for an elevated Superman Punch, but Rowan counters by grabbing him by the throat and pulling him up for a huge powerbomb through an announcer's table. This gets Rowan a 2 count.
Match ends when a returning Luke Harper blocks a spear attempt from Reigns. Harper and Rowan double team Reigns. Rowan gets the win.
Rating: 1.5 star. Cool powerbomb spot and it's awesome that Luke Harper, who is awesome, is back. Other than that, this was not good.
Kofi Kingston retains his WWE Championship
Orton and Kingston start slow. This is likely because they're following a hot match and want to restart the crowd, but it's also vintage Orton.
The wrestling here is actually very tight. The two exchange snug shots, and Orton ends up bumping Kingston out of the ring. He then follows up with suplexes all around the outside area, including two on the announce table.
The pace slows down though as Orton picks apart Kingston. Eventually Kingston mounts a comeback, but it's not a particularly vigorous one. He goes for a Trouble in Paradise, but Orton counters with a nice neckbreaker. Kingston gets some of that missing fire, though, with a huge over-the-top-rope dive.
Orton regains control and there's more slow-paced dissection. He sets up an RKO but Kingston counters into a rollup. Kingston starts a comeback but is cut off with an RKO outta' nowhere. Kingston gets a foot on the rope at 2. Orton goes for his infamous punt but Kingston dodges and nails a Trouble in Paradise to retain.
Rating: 3 stars. A lot of nice wrestling here, but nothing remarkable.
Sasha Banks beats Becky Lynch via DQ
Crowd reacts big to Lynch, and is more into this match than the last few. Lynch starts out on top, but once Banks gets control the crowd breaks out into loud "Let's go Sasha!/Let's go Becky!" dueling chants.
After Banks worked over Lynch for some heat, Lynch mounts a comeback. She gets cut off in spectacular fashion though, with Banks countering a flying clothesline with a Banks Statement submission. Lynch powers out and hits an exploder suplex. Crowd has been more quiet, but wakes up with more dueling chants.
The two women trade submissions in the center of the ring, Banks going for the Banks Statement and Lynch the Disarmer armbar. Lynch ends up on top, getting her submission, but Banks gets her foot on the rope. Good stuff here. Banks nails double backstabbers and rolls Lynch into a Banks Statement for an intense false finish, but Lynch gets the rope break.
Banks villains it up, tossing in a chair to distract the ref and then, while the ref isn't looking, hitting Banks in the torso with another chair. She follows up with a shining wizard for a two count. The ref accosts Banks for using a chair and then Lynch takes a chair herself and swings for Banks, but Banks ducks and Lynch hits the ref.
The two then brawl into the crowd. Lynch uses the stair rails to put Banks in a Disarmer armbar, which was gnarly. Banks and Lynch brawl into the backstage area, where Lynch smears Banks with mustard, and eventually come back to the ring. We're told by Michael Cole that Lynch has been disqualified for hitting the ref. Cool. Inside the ring Lynch destroys Banks with a chair.
Rating: 3.5 stars. A very good match with a weak finish. In fairness, Lynch looked like a badass babyface tearing apart Banks and leaving as a defiant champion, but that's in spite of an uninspired ending.
Still the champ.
WWE
Shinsuke Nakamura retains the Intercontinental Championship
After The Miz' entrance, Sami Zayn comes out to berate the audience, talk smack about The Undertaker and to introduce Shinsuke Nakamura. It sucks that Zayn is a manager, because he's such a terrific wrestler, but he is a fantastic manager.
Nakamura and The Miz open with some chain wrestling. Zayn immediately takes the mic and starts commentating from the side. After about 30 seconds of amazing commentating, Zayn's mic gets cut off.
Miz works over Nakamura's leg throughout the match, leading up to a Figure Four submission that gets a nice pop thanks to this being Charlotte, North Carolina, aka Flair Country. Nakamura grabs the ropes to break up the pin. Zayn distracts Miz, allowing Nakamura to his a modified Kinshasa to the back of Miz' head for a 2 count. Miz regains control and nails a Skill Crushing Finale, but Zayn distracts the ref.
Ending comes as Miz chases Zayn around the ring. Nakamura cuts him off, then hits a Kinsasha in the ring for the win.
Rating: 3.25 stars. This match had a slow start, got very good towards the end but had a finish that made The Miz look dumb. Miz's offense also looked weak at points.
Nikki Cross and Alexa Bliss retain Women's Tag Titles
Alexa Bliss comes out with a Harley Quinn-inspired look tonight.
Nikki Cross starts the match with Mandy Rose, who after some taunting from Cross tags in Sonya Deville. Eventually Rose is back in the ring against Bliss. Some sloppy stuff here, some of Bliss' forearms and slaps look great but there was some conspicuous mishaps too. The two were at some points a second or two out of sync.
R-Truth runs into the ring and is chased by the 24/7 Championship crowd for a quick distraction. Bliss tries to rollup Truth, but he kicks out and runs into the crowd. This sentence must be completely incomprehensible to someone who doesn't regularly watch Raw.
Deville and Rose hit a double-team move on Bliss, but the pin was broken up by Cross. Bliss tags in Cross, Cross scores the pin on Rose after a top-rope neckbreaker.
Rating: 2 stars. Not bad, a well laid out match (except for the 24/7 distraction), but there was a lot of sloppy wrestling here and the crowd wasn't particularly interested.
The Revival defeats The New Day
The Revival are awesome and The New Day very good, but these teams are struggling to get the crowd alive. The New Day dominate until The Revival out Xavier Woods and double team Big E. The crowd did wake up when Big E, after around 5 minutes of being beaten down, tagged in Woods.
Woods runs wild on The Revival, but is cut off when he gets kicked in his injured leg. Big E comes in for a nice sequence that ends up with The Revival hitting a Shatter Machine on the outside. Scott Dawson and Dash Wilder then pick apart Woods in the ring and nail him with a Shatter Machine. They could go for a pin but decide to work over Woods' leg more.
Dawson puts Woods in a submission lock and Woods taps out.
Rating: 2.75 stars. Some nice wrestling here, but the middle section of the match felt plodding and the crowd, though sporadically invested, on the whole wasn't super into it.
Bayley retains her SmackDown Women's Championship
Flair opens hot with a big boot to Bayley, who then retreats out of the ring. Flair chases Bayley around and, back in the ring, hits her with some chops and some snug-looking strikes. Outside the ring Flair throws Bayley into the ringside barricades. Pretty gnarly looking. Here the crowd pipes up with a "Let's go Charlotte!" chant.
Flair starts working over Bayley's leg. The story of the match so far is that Flair is murdering Bayley. Bayley reteats to the corner and the ref stops Flair from keeping the offense up. Bayley takes the bottom turnbuckle padding off, pulls Charlotte into it in an illegal move and, surprisingly, gets the 1-2-3.
After the match Bayley legs it to the back.
Rating: 2.5 stars. This match actually told a coherent story. Flair was killing Bayley, who blatantly cheated to retain her title. The hero looks strong, the villain looks evil. It was too short to be a great or even good match, but was solid for what it was.
Robert Roode and Dolph Ziggler are Raw Tag Champions
Good opening match here. It opens with Strowman dominating both Roode and Ziggler, then tagging in Rollins. Ziggler turns the tide with a wicked DDT on Rollins outside the ring. The crowd was a little quiet at the beginning, but really got into the match as the bad guys kept cutting off Rollins from tagging in Strowman.
Big pop when Strowman gets tagged in. He runs wild -- literally running Ziggler and Roode down on the outside -- but Ziggler rakes his eyes and double teams him with Roode. Eventually Strowman tags in Rollins. Amazing hot tag. This guy was flying all over the place, springboards inside the ring, suicide dives outside, more springboards inside.
Match ends when Roode sets up a Glorious DDT and Strowman bumps Roode into Rollins. Strowman and Ziggler take a tumble outside, and Roode hits a DDT on Rollins for the win.
Robert Roode, bottom of the card a month ago, pins the Universal Champion.
Rating: 3.5 stars. Slow start, but ultimately a solid match with a very good final few minutes.
Your new tag champs.
WWE
Preshow results
AJ Styles defeats Cedric Alexander in a United States Championship match: The first surprise of the night is that this match was on the preshow. Styles beats Alexander in a 5-minute match.
Drew Gulak retains the Cruiserweight Championship: Gulak beats Humberto Carrillo and Lince Dorado in a triple-threat match.
Try This Surprisingly Smart Lightbulb Tip (Your Uber Driver Will Thank You)
Try This Surprisingly Smart Lightbulb Tip (Your Uber Driver Will Thank You)
This story is part of Home Tips, CNET's collection of practical advice for getting the most out of your home, inside and out.
Light bulbs that change colors on command are a smart home staple, but there aren't a lot of obvious ways to make them a practical part of your day-to-day. Sure, they're lots of fun for a kids room, and useful to have at Halloween or when you're throwing a party, but how often have those colors actually come in handy?
The truth about color-changing smart bulbs is that it's all about how -- and where -- you use them. If you've been looking for new ways to put them to work, there's one spot at home you might not have considered, and I'm confident that it's a place where you'll get plenty of practical use out of those automated color changes.
See that blue light on the porch? So can your delivery driver -- and in a multiunit home like this one, it's a great way to help them find the right door.
Ry Crist/CNET
Stick a multicolor smart bulb on your front porch
Or your stoop. Or your front window. Or the light in the yard -- wherever, just so long as you've got a color-changing bulb that people can see from the street. That last bit's important, because we're going to use this thing as a signal that helps people find your house -- specifically, the rideshare and delivery drivers trying to earn a living by bringing meals, groceries and other home goods to your doorstep.
With Americans staying home more than ever during the past two years, delivery services like those have seen massive growth. If you're anything like me, you've come to appreciate the occasional (OK, more than occasional) convenience of a well-timed burrito delivery in the middle of your remote workday. With a color-changing smart bulb outside your home, it's easy to help those drivers find your address -- just change the color to something distinctive when you order and make a note to your driver to look for the colored light. You'll be doing your driver a solid, and helping ensure that your food gets to the right place, too.
Along with deliveries and pickups, it's also a useful trick when you're having people over for a social visit. And, even when you aren't using it to help people find your place, a bulb on your porch that you can set to turn on automatically whenever the sun goes down is great to have on hand, not to mention the fact that you'll have a nice head start on the Halloween decorations. Here's how to get it set up.
Just about any color-changing smart bulb will work -- and if you don't want your bulb to be smart, a nonconnected color-changing bulb with a remote like this one from GE will do the job, too.
Chris Monroe/CNET
Step 1: Pick out a bulb
You've got no shortage of options here. Big names like Philips Hue and Lifx will get the job done, but less expensive bulbs from Sengled, GE Cync, Wyze, TP-Link Kasa, Govee and others will work, too, so in most cases you won't need to spend more than $15 per bulb or so. If you need a floodlight instead of a standard, A-shaped bulb, you'll find lots of options, as well: Cree, Feit Electric, Lifx, Philips Hue, Sengled, Wiz and others all sell them, and most cost less than $20.
Any color-changing bulb will do, but you'll want to put some thought into how you plan to control the thing. All of them should let you change the color from your phone, using an app, but if you already use voice assistants or home automation platforms in your house -- Alexa, Google Assistant, Apple HomeKit, SmartThings -- you'll want to make sure to pick a bulb that works with your setup. Later this year, smart bulbs that support Matter, a new universal smart home standard that works with all of those other platforms, should start hitting the market, too.
And, if you aren't interested in smart bulbs that you can control with your voice or with an app, that's fine: Just look for nonsmart color-changing bulbs that come with a remote, like this one from GE. Again, you shouldn't need to spend much more than $10.
Step 2: Pair with your bulb
This part's easy -- just screw the bulb in where it needs to go, turn it on, download the app to your Android or iOS device, and follow the instructions to pair it with your phone.
Keep in mind that different bulbs connect in different ways. If it's a Wi-Fi bulb, it'll pair directly with your home network via your router. If it's a Bluetooth bulb, it'll pair directly with your phone whenever it's within Bluetooth range. Zigbee bulbs need a Zigbee hub on your network that's capable of receiving the signal and translating it into something your router can work with.
Once you've connected, you can use the bulb's app to change the color yourself whenever you're expecting a delivery. If your bulb supports voice commands via Alexa, Google Assistant or Siri -- and just about all of them do at this point -- the app should offer instructions on how to set that up, as well.
Most meal delivery apps have a field where you can leave instructions for your driver at checkout. This is where you want to tell them to look for the light.
Screenshot by Ry Crist/CNET
Step 3: Give your driver a heads up
Don't forget to loop your driver in on the plan. Before you place your order or request a ride pickup, look for a field where you can leave special instructions for your driver -- tell them to "look for the blue light," and you'll be all set. Same goes for pizza delivery if you're ordering online, or via the brand's app.
And that should do it -- a color-changing bulb on the porch that'll help delivery drivers find your front door each and every time you order. It's novelty meets practicality, all without costing very much, and a great way to put those colors to work.
For more tips, check out five inexpensive ways to tech out your patio, and which appliances you should unplug at home to save money.
Instagram Live Streamers Can Assign Their Own Moderators to Clean Up Chat
Instagram Live Streamers Can Assign Their Own Moderators to Clean Up Chat
Instagram Live streamers can now assign someone to moderate their stream as it happens, freeing up broadcasters to focus on their content.
Instead of having to do all the moderating themselves, streamers can deputize someone to clean up chat by reporting comments, turning off comments for some viewers, or even booting them from the stream entirely. To assign their moderator after starting an Instagram Live, streamers tap the "..." button in the comment bar and either choose from a list of suggested accounts or manually search for one.
Rumors of assigned moderators first appeared in November when leaker Alessandro Paluzzi tweeted screenshots showing the feature in action. Instagram says it's adding the capability to help streamers keep their broadcasts safe and civil for them and viewers.
Read more: Instagram Boss Says App Will 'Rethink What Instagram Is' in 2022
Instagram parent company Meta has a lengthy history with moderating its social networks and had struggled with policing extreme content during the pandemic on Facebook. Even so, what it does allow has been challenged, as studies linked youth use of Instagram along with rival social media platform TikTok with body image and eating disorders.
The company slowly added more tools for administrators of groups to moderate comments themselves back in June, though reports later in the year said self-harm content is easily found while bullying and harassment are still prevalent on Meta's social media platforms. Still, adding livestream moderators -- especially trusted accounts who can clean up chat and remove viewers as aggressively as needed -- gives content creators tools to keep their own spaces safer than before.
Windows 11 Regret? You Have 10 Days to Go Back to Windows 10
Windows 11 Regret? You Have 10 Days to Go Back to Windows 10
Microsoft has finished rolling out its latest OS, Windows 11, to compatible devices. Windows 11 offers some handy new features, along with several significant changes compared to Windows 10. But if you make the leap and download Windows 11 -- and then regret it -- there's an easy way out. That is, as long as you hurry.
After downloading and installing Windows 11, you only have 10 days to revert your system to Windows 10. If you roll back to the old OS, all the information stored on your computer will automatically repopulate there, so you won't have to worry about any files disappearing.
Note that if you haven't already downloaded Windows 11, you don't need to install it right away. You actually have until 2025 to make your decision -- that's when Microsoft says it'll end support for Windows 10.
Read more: What to Do If You Get a Windows 11 Installation Error
Here's how to make the switch back to Windows 10: Start menu > Settings > Windows Update > Advanced options > Recovery > Previous version of Windows (you may see Go back instead). That's it!
Once 10 days have passed, you can still go back to Windows 10, but it'll be a little trickier: You'll need to back up your data and perform what Microsoft calls a "clean install" of Windows 10 on your PC. Or, if you had backed up your system before installing Windows 11 in the first place, you can restore from that.
Should you choose, you can stick with Windows 10 for four more years until Microsoft stops supporting it in October 2025. If the 10-day countdown sounds new, that's because Windows 10 initially launched with a 30-day window for easy rollbacks.
Take a 360-degree GoPro ride on winning horse American Pharoah
Take a 360-degree GoPro ride on winning horse American Pharoah
The view from American Pharoah includes this other horse. Video screenshot by Amanda Kooser/CNET
Most of us are simply physically too big to even think about becoming professional horse jockeys and riding a fleet-footed equine to Triple Crown glory. You don't have to watch your weight or spend years in training to hitch a ride on American Pharoah, the latest winner of horse racing's elusive trifecta of the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont Stakes. A new GoPro video lets you saddle up and go.
The video was taken on July 18 at Del Mar Race Track in California during a morning workout. It was recorded with a GoPro Hero4 camera and released on the GroPro YouTube channel Thursday.
The video starts off with a view of the grandstands, moves to the stable area and then steps out onto the track itself. You can spin the view around to see other horses working out, flashes of American Pharoah's tail and the tips of the horse's bouncing ears in front.
If you want to access the full 360-degree swiveling-head features, you'll need to use the Chrome browser or download the Kolor panoramic video app. The interactive footage is a fun way to show off the capabilities of the Hero4 combined with Kolor's video-stitching services.
The jockey's-eye view is exhilarating and the beat of the thoroughbred's hooves is mesmerizing. It's not quite the same as being in the middle of an actual race, but it does give you a sense of the buzz and excitement surrounding the horse. American Pharoah is scheduled to race again on August 2 at Monmouth Park in New Jersey.
Insta360 One X2 is a 360 camera that unlocks your creativity for $430: Hands-on
Insta360 One X2 is a 360 camera that unlocks your creativity for $430: Hands-on
When Insta360 released its One R camera at the beginning of 2020, I expected that to be the end of the road for its compact 360-degree camera, the One X. After all, the modular design of the One R lets you easily swap out its regular action-cam-style wide-angle camera for a dual-lens camera module that could do all the things the One X could, giving you two (or more) cameras in one, so to speak. But, it turns out, there's still plenty of room for a One X2 in the lineup.
Nic Henry/CNET
The One R is designed to be a versatile all-in-one action cam. Costing $430 (about £330 or AU$600 converted), the One X2 is more about having the ultimate pocket camera for photos and videos, and the updates compared with its predecessor are plentiful. It might not be modular, but the X2's design has other advantages.
The One X2's shape makes it way easier to slip in your pocket and the company includes a protective sleeve to keep its dual lenses scratch-free, at least while it's stashed. It's also more comfortable for handheld use and it's now waterproof to 10 meters (33 feet) without a housing -- twice as deep as the One R. And it has a longer-lasting battery to boot.
The X2 has a new circular touchscreen, so this time around -- no pun intended -- you can see what you're shooting, change settings and keep tabs on things like shot count, battery life and shooting modes. You can also tap on a subject for tracking and the upgraded Deep Track algorithm lets you lock onto humans, animals and other moving objects and will keep them centered in the frame.
The 360-degree image quality is a step up from the One R's, too, despite the fact that they both go up to 5.7K resolution at 30 frames per second. The bit rate goes up to 100Mbps, and the camera has re-engineered color science, better stabilization and improved audio quality with two additional mic, bringing the total to four.
Here's a frame taken from the 5.7K video using the invisible selfie stick.
Nic Henry/CNET
While the One cameras are known for their cool Bullet Time mode that slows down the action while the camera pans 360 degrees around you, the camera does that and much more. A Steady Cam mode lets you shoot with a single X2 lens so you can capture a stabilized traditional ultrawide movie clip. Then there's a new InstaPano photo mode that snaps panoramas without you having to move the camera; just a single press of the shutter release gets it done. There's also an updated MultiView mode with face tracking that creates a picture-in-picture video with different views from the two camera lenses.
Other additions include a Vivid color setting that joins its Standard and Log options; a PureShot mode for better low-light pics and AquaVision for underwater color correction; voice controls; and 360-degree live-streaming as well as webcam capabilities.
Still, my favorite part of using Insta360's One cameras is the Shot Lab tutorials. They show you how to get the most from the cameras and, while the effects might not be ones you use all the time, they can definitely kick-start your creativity.
New Universal Music band Kingship is a few bored, virtual apes who're also NFTs
New Universal Music band Kingship is a few bored, virtual apes who're also NFTs
One of the world's largest music labels is exploring entertainment in the metaverse. Universal Music Group is already home to some of music's biggest names, but now its label 10:22PM is launching the music group Kingship, made up of some famous NFTs, or nonfungible tokens.
Four virtual apes from the Bored Ape Yacht Club collection of NFTs comprise a "metaverse group," Universal said Thursday. The team behind Kingship will eventually put on performances and release original music.
"Just as we would with any artist or creator, my team and I will work with Kingship to sharpen their vision and develop their unique sound," Celine Joshua, founder of the label 10:22PM, said in a press release. "Each member of the group has their own story and personality that influences and contributes to Kingships's overall narrative."
10:22PM will create backstories for the apes and eventually sell NFT performances, providing buyers with unique musical experiences, Bloomberg reported. Alongside concerts in the metaverse, the group represents a "new area of NFT ownership," said Jimmy McNeils, the owner of the four NFTs that make up the group.
NFTs have already been big money for some owners. The Bored Ape Yacht Club is a collection of thousands of unique digital artwork depicting, well, bored apes. At the end of October, one sold for $3.4 million. Two of the NFTs in Kingship are currently valued at about $125,000, according to OpenSea, an online NFT marketplace.
It's unclear when the first performance or musical NFT will be available to potential fans. Universal Music Group didn't immediately respond to questions about any timeline.
Galaxy Watch 4: Samsung is coming for Apple Watch's crown with Wear OS 3
Galaxy Watch 4: Samsung is coming for Apple Watch's crown with Wear OS 3
There's one clear go-to smartwatch for iOS: the Apple Watch. But for Android, there hasn't been a singular option. Will the Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 finally be that watch? At Samsung's newest folding-phone-focused Unpacked announcement where the latest Galaxy Z Fold 3 and Z Flip 3 phones were unveiled, the company also announced the Galaxy Watch 4 and Watch 4 Classic -- which can be preordered now and go on sale Aug. 27. I've already started to wear them and test them: here's the full review. They're the first Samsung watches to have the Google co-designed Wear OS 3, which isn't coming to other smartwatches until next year. Following the already-excellent Watch Active 3, will the Galaxy Watch 4 be even better? It certainly looks like it.
Much like previous Samsung watches, there are two designs: a sleeker, less expensive Watch 4 and a more traditional-looking Watch 4 Classic. The latter brings back Samsung's physically rotating outer bezel and has more traditional watch-like looks and straps. The prices ramp up based on either design ($250 for the aluminum 40mm Watch 4, $350 for the stainless steel 42mm Watch 4 Classic), size (the larger 44mm Watch 4/46mm Watch 4 Classic cost an extra $30) or LTE data compatibility (an extra $50 on top of that). In the UK, the Watch 4 starts at £249, and the Classic at £349. Australian prices are TBD.
Samsung's watches have always been good. Then there's also been Fitbit and even Google Wear OS. But Samsung's Galaxy Watch 4 is looking to tie it all together and reboot the Android watch landscape by finally not having a weird split between Samsung's watch experience and Google's.
Promises of better watch-phone connection
The Watch 4's new Google- and Samsung-developed OS will eventually show up on other smartwatches. But for Samsung's newest watches, it should mean a more Android-fluid connected experience. Notifications, calls, controlling your phone, syncing with your phone settings: Samsung promises that the Watch 4 will do all this better than previous watches. Samsung's also promising better battery life and speedier performance. That battery life may still only be about two days, but it'll be enough to go to bed with and track sleep overnight. Samsung also renamed its watch: The Watch Active name is gone. (Welcome back, Galaxy Watch.)
The Galaxy Watch 4 is only made for Android phones, with no plans for iOS compatibility right now. While previous Wear OS and Samsung watches could pair with iPhones, the Watch 4 is clearly made to be a seamlessly connecting watch for Android (and specifically Samsung) phones. Samsung's "One UI" philosophy is about syncing wallpapers, designs and settings across phone and watch. Will the watch feel like a seamless extension of the phone? We'll see when we test-drive one.
The new rear sensor array includes electrical bioimpedance, which promises scale-like body fat/BMI estimates.
Drew Evans/CNET
Health tech: Snore detection and bioimpedance-based body analysis
There are several new health features on the Watch 4 on top of the ones that carried over from the Samsung Galaxy Watch 3. Besides heart rate, blood oxygen and electrocardiogram (and stress-sensing/blood pressure testing that requires calibration with a blood pressure cuff), Samsung is adding a few extras to sleep tracking. Snore detection works using the paired Android phone's microphone, and the blood oxygen checks now run continuously once a minute overnight (or as a spot-check during the day).
Samsung also added a new sensor to its rear array: an electrical bioimpedance sensor for full-body analysis using a weak electrical current to measure how conductive you are -- and therefore showing what you're made of. This type of sensor tech hasn't been on recent smartwatches; the last wearable I remember promising bioimpedance was the Jawbone Up 3.
When using the body analysis feature, there will be readouts on your BMI, muscle mass and body water along with body fat percentages, much like some scales. I'm not sure how I feel about that! Samsung Health will use this readout to calculate a range of where your health is compared to optimal levels.
New sensor tech is always a toss-up: Will it work? Will it be useful? We don't know yet. Samsung is aiming for this to be a comprehensive body analysis tool, which sounds awfully ambitious. Last year, the Fitbit Sense also introduced new electrodermal stress-detection sensors, but I never found them meaningful in my everyday life. Jury's still out on the bioimpedance features, too.
Samsung Health remains the fitness and health platform default for the Galaxy Watch 4, despite the OS change. But a shift to Google Play for apps and new support for watch face complications should mean a lot of fitness apps make the shift, too. (Complications are basically those little watch-face widgets that show data from other apps, and they're pretty helpful.) Samsung's already announced that Strava, Calm and Adidas Running are supported. Spotify's also supported for on-watch music playback.
See that rotating bezel? It's back.
Drew Evans/CNET
Boosted specs
The Watch 4's new processor should be faster than the last Watch 3 (20% faster CPU and 50% faster GPU, according to Samsung) and there's more RAM (1.5GB) and storage (16GB) than before. That should make animations and app-launching speedier. The Super AMOLED display is sharper: the 1.2-inch 42 and 40mm models have a 396x396-pixel resolution, while the 1.4-inch 44 and 46mm models are 450x450. The watches can also quick charge, gaining 10 hours of battery life on a 30-minute charge.
The rotating bezel is back
Both the Watch 4 and Watch 4 Classic lean heavily on touching the outer rim of the watch to "spin" and navigate: the Watch 4 has a touch-sensitive rim, while the Classic has a physical rotating bezel. Samsung's also putting touch controls into these watches to allow swipe navigation, much like Wear OS watches. You can choose how to interact.
A few other buttons on the side of the watch control moving back and forth in the interface and can be reprogrammed. One can be pressed and held for Samsung's Bixby assistant; the other for Samsung Pay. But you can make Google Assistant and Google Pay the go-to apps instead.
Some of the Google apps on the Galaxy Watch 4 have a familiar Google look.
Google
Google apps onboard
Google's Wear OS 3 being on the Galaxy Watch 4 means it'll hook into Google Play, but it's also getting some revamped Google apps. Google's already committed to new YouTube, Google Maps, Google Pay and Messages apps, which have new designs for Wear OS 3. There are also third-party updates with new Tiles: Calm, Komoot, MyFitnessPal, Period Tracker, Sleep Cycle, Spotify and Strava are among the first to get updates. Google is committing to rolling out more updates over time, meaning that both Samsung and Google should be keeping this watch full of apps.
But you're stuck with Bixby for now. Samsung's voice assistant is still the default on the watch, which comes up when pressing and holding the top button. Google Assistant isn't available at the moment, which is frustrating -- that's one of the top things I'd want to access on a Google-connected watch.
Could this be the best Android watch?
The Galaxy Watch 4 looks like the ultimate fusion of a Samsung watch with Google watches -- and that could be a winning formula for using Google Maps, connected phone features and third-party fitness apps on Google Play, which is the Galaxy Watch 4's default app store. It should be the hardware-boosted Google watch that we've been waiting years for. The software interface seems exactly like what you'd expect: part Samsung, part Google. But is it worth waiting to see how it works out, or should you just go for this first model? Hard to tell, since it's the first of its kind.
It's not surprising that Samsung's new health features and its new OS aren't coming to older Samsung watches for now. Some of them might, but expect this to largely be a clean break and a reboot. And we also don't really know how many of the Galaxy Watch 4's features will carry over to the rest of Google's future Wear OS 3 watch lineup, which will include watches from Mobvoi, Fossil and eventually Fitbit.
Those Wear OS 3 watch updates won't come to those other watches until 2022, which makes the Galaxy Watch 4 the only new Google-connected Wear OS 3 watch this year. For that reason alone, it could very well be the best Android watch of the moment. As to how it actually feels and works? We'll have full hands-on impressions and a review in the days ahead... but the Galaxy Watch 4 looks extremely promising for any Android phone owner who wants a much more hooked-in watch.
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Google's new Samsung-codesigned version of Wear OS is officially called Wear OS 3, and it'll be on Samsung's next-gen Galaxy Watch soon. But for many watch owners it won't arrive until 2022. Or, you won't be able to get the new software at all.
The latest news comes from a new update from Google, which will make watches eligible for the next version of Wear OS. According to Google, which shared the information with CNET, Mobvoi's TicWatch Pro 3 GPS, TicWatch Pro 3 cellular, and TicWatch E3 will get the upgrade, along with Fossil's next-gen smartwatches, which are coming this fall. But that software update won't be coming in 2021. Instead, it'll be in the middle of next year.
Fossil shared news of its next-gen smartwatches with CNET earlier this year, but now it looks like Fossil's watches (and Mobvoi's) won't have Wear OS 3 to start, instead they'll come with an option to upgrade the OS in the "mid to second half of 2022."
Google also cautions that the OS update involves a complete reboot to factory settings, and that for some watches the "user experiences will be impacted," suggesting some people could choose to keep the previous version of Wear OS. Google wouldn't clarify what those "impacted" experiences will be, but told CNET via email that it will "share more at the time of upgrade so users can make an informed decision."
Other Wear OS watches won't get Wear OS 3, as Google had indicated before, but some future software features are still expected, with security updates for at least "two years from device launch."
Samsung is expected to announce its newest Galaxy Watch on Aug. 11 during its summer Unpacked event. That watch will have Google's Wear OS 3, making it the only Wear OS 3 watch that's confirmed for 2021. Google wouldn't confirm whether other Wear OS 3 watches are expected this year or not, but for now it looks like Samsung may have an exclusive window on its Wear OS partnership.
