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It might be the end of the road for Blu-ray discs.

That news comes to us from Australia’s Sky News (via Tom’s Hardware) and it has shifted our physical media-loving brains into meltdown. While the news pertains to only one movie studio and one continent, it could be the beginning of a grim trend, as the best streaming services fully overtake DVDs and Blu-ray discs as the primary means of home viewing.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is scheduled to land on 4K Blu-ray in Australia on August 9. The disc will feature HDR10 high dynamic range and a Dolby Atmos soundtrack. It will also include a pair of featurettes, deleted scenes, and a commentary from director James Gunn running the film’s full length.

Gunn’s movie is also currently available on Disney Plus, where it has the added benefit of being presented in Dolby Vision HDR – an enhancement Disney has routinely withheld from its 4k Blu-ray disc releases, though it’s widely used for movies on the company’s streaming service.

Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 3 will be the last Disney disc sold in Australia (Image credit: Marvel)

Analysis: No 4K Blu-rays for Australia  – a Disney thing, or beginning of a trend?

It’s no secret that the Disney company is under financial pressure. The company is seeking to profit off selling its content to other streamers – a strategy that category leader Netflix has so far held off from pursuing – and is also looking for strategic partners for its ESPN division. Disney’s ESPN cable TV channel had long been the company’s cash cow given the popularity of sports programming in the US, but cable TV subscriptions have steadily plummeted over the past decade.

So, while there’s been no announcement from the studio confirming that ending sales of DVDs and Blu-ray discs in Australia is a money-saving measure, recent actions from the company have indicated that it is in cost-cutting mode. With sales of physical media on the decline, cutting off disc sales in a specific region would appear to be a financially motivated decision.

The reality is, Disney would prefer for viewers to subscribe to the Disney Plus service over buying movies on 4K Blu-ray. Blu-ray disc collectors have long bemoaned the lack of Dolby Vision HDR on the studio’s 4K Blu-ray releases, even as the company continues to provide the same titles in that format on its streaming service. Avatar: The Way of Water excepted, Disney has also routinely used the 66Gb disc format for its 4K Blu-ray releases over the 100Gb disc format, which allows for movies to be encoded with reduced video compression.

Even so, a movie on a 66Gb format 4K Blu-ray disc will have a substantially higher video data bit-rate than the same movie on streaming services, which generally top out in the 17-25 Mbps range for 4K streaming. Compared to that, 4K Blu-ray has a maximum 128 Mbps bit-rate, and regular Blu-ray has a maximum of 40 Mbps.

That’s the main technical reason why videophiles prefer to collect their favorite movies on disc for playback on the best 4K Blu-ray players. Another is audio: while streaming services all use the lossy Dolby Digital Plus format to deliver soundtracks, Atmos ones included, Blu-ray disc uses lossless Dolby True HD format, which yields superior sound quality.

One more reason people collect 4K Blu-rays, and physical media, in general, is pride of ownership. Movies regularly come and go on streaming services (check out our monthly Leaving Netflix posts as evidence), but if you own a disc of a movie you love, it can’t be taken away. That’s why I’m betting other studios won’t soon follow Disney down this dangerous path, even if that change does seem inevitable.

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More than a decade after the first color, electronic paper displays popped up at CES 2010, the technology's chief innovator E Ink has built a color panel capable of powering ereaders, smartphones, retail signage displays, and, now, even monitors.

This week, Chinese electronics manufacturer Dasung unveiled what it's calling The World's First E Ink Monitor which features a 25.3-inch Kaleido 3 color E Ink display. Based on details in the company's Indiegogo funding campaign, the 25.3-inch display supports 4,096 colors and a resolution of up to 3,200 x 1,800. That sounds good but it should be noted that the number is likely based on Kaleido 3's 300ppi rating. Essentially it's the same resolution you'll find on your best Amazon Kindle reader. On the other hand, that ppi beats Apple's Studio Display, which has a resolution of 5,120 x 2,880 and 218 pixels per inch.

Dasung promises turbo refresh rates along with the company's "Dasung X- color Filter" technology that should improve contrast, vibrancy, text darkness, and other on-screen effects. It's not clear if all of this enhances or replaces E Ink's own Kaleido 3 display enhancement technologies.

The look of color E Ink

In the promotional video, it's clear the slightly curved display is quite thin and lets you switch from landscape to portrait mode orientation. However, the display also looks, well, a bit dull. Like most E Ink displays, its reflective technology is well-equipped for use in well-lit environments (there's also a front light to decrease blue-light impact) but since there's no backlight to shine through the colors, the display imagery looks flat and almost a little grayed out.

Despite Dasung's promises of "unbelievable refresh speed on Color E Ink" the video makes it appear as if the display's refresh rate might fall somewhere below 60Hz. Some of the best cheap monitors, meanwhile, promise 120Hz refresh rates or higher, and most reports have E Ink's Kaleido 3 at a 350ms response time (so the best gaming monitor, this is certainly not). That means you should not expect the same kind of visual response you'll find on any of the best monitors on the market.

What you will get is a cool-operating, easy-on-the-eyes, ultra-low-powered display that, we guess, could be the talk of your office, home office, or student set-up. As for how much such a display will cost you, we don't know. Dasung's campaign does not feature a price or any details about when the color E Ink display will ship to consumers, aside from the tantalizing, "coming soon.".

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Nearby Share on Android has received a major upgrade, giving you the ability to send entire folders to other devices.

This feature was recently discovered by industry insider and tech journalist Mishaal Rahman who shared his findings on X (or Twitter, if you prefer the older, less obtuse name). Rahman states you’re able to transfer folders from one Android phone to another as well as to Chromebooks and Windows PCs via the Files by Google app. He says that all you have to do is long-press any folder within Google Files and then select the Nearby Share icon on-screen. From there, you will see all of the connected devices which can accept the transfer. Pretty simple stuff.

Neat: You can send an entire folder from your Android device to other Android devices, Chromebooks, or Windows PCs from the Files by Google app! Just long-press on any folder in the Files app and then tap the Nearby Share icon in the top right. pic.twitter.com/yk7epVxojhJuly 31, 2023

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There are some limitations to be aware of. Tom’s Guide states in their report, “Nearby Share has a 1,000-file limit”, so folders can’t be too big. Another piece from Android Police reveals the upgrade is exclusive to Google Files as it doesn’t seem to work properly with Samsung’s own file manager. Files will still be shared on Samsung's app, but it won’t retain the folder structure, according to Rahman.

What’s interesting is there’s a good chance you already have this feature if your device has Google Files. Rahman says that Nail Sadykov, another notable industry insider, claims “the earliest he saw someone mention it was back in May” of this year. It’s just that no one knew about it until very recently. Apparently, Google didn’t give anyone the heads-up.

So, if you have Google Files on your phone and haven’t updated it in a while, we recommend downloading the patch to get the boosted Nearby Share.

Closing the gap

Admittedly, it’s a small update, but an important one as it allows Nearby Share to close the gap a bit between it and Apple’s AirDrop. Android users will save a lot of time since they won’t be forced to transfer files one by one. It’s a function iPhone owners have enjoyed for many years now. It’s hard to say exactly when AirDrop first gained the ability to send folders to Macs. The oldest instance we could find was one of our How-to guides from 2015.

However, Nearby Share still has a long way to go before it can be considered a proper rival to AirDrop. For iOS 17, Apple plans on further enhancing its wireless file transfer tool by introducing new features like Contact Posters for friends plus improved security for unsolicited images.

If you’re looking for other management options besides Google Files, be sure to check out TechRadar’s list of the best file transfer software for 2023. 

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Have you been watching Silo on Apple TV Plus? The first season of the new dystopian sci-fi series has already wrapped, and Apple has signed on for season 2, assuming the Hollywood strikes ever come to a close. Of course you know Silo is based on a book, the first of a trilogy of novels called the Silo series by author Hugh Howley. If you’re curious about the novels, or if you want to finish the story in case Apple never gets around to making more shows, here are some things you should know. 

If you don’t need anything more than a thumbs up or down, I’d give the three Silo series novels a hearty thumbs up. I’ve read all of the Silo books and seen every episode of the series. I watched the series first and decided I didn’t want to wait, so I quickly devoured the novels. 

Howley self-published the books on Amazon and they were popular enough to earn an actual book publishing deal, followed by the TV adaptation on Apple TV Plus. The writing is sharp and imaginative, and the story is compelling and historically deep, while remaining tightly focused on the main characters. 

If you’re curious and want to know more about the book series, here are some spoiler-free things to consider before you get started. 

1. Season 1 of the TV show is only half of the first book

(Image credit: Apple TV Plus)

If you’ve watched all of the first season of Silo and think you’ll get bored reading the first book, think again. While the stories are very similar, with some interesting differences in details, the first season of Silo on Apple TV Plus concludes about halfway through the plot of the first book in the series, Wool. While the show seems to end on a climactic moment, you get a lot more if you read the books. 

There are three books in the Silo series: Wool, Shift, and Dust. The same characters are present in all three books, though the focus shifts dramatically in the middle novel. There are also short stories that you don’t have to read to understand the complete Silo story, but they provide some context about the world Silo inhabits. 

2.  There is character development in the show, and the books move quickly

This guy isn't as important in the books (Image credit: Apple TV Plus)

I wouldn’t say that the TV show is much better than the books, but it goes into much more detail and provides background for many of the main characters. This gives some of the show's coolest actors a chance to shine. The character “Sims” played by Common on the show is a minor character in the book, as are many of the more colorful TV show side characters. 

The adaptation works well for television, and the books work well for reading. On TV, the extra background and extended subplots give the actors more nuance. The main character, Juliet, has been in a relationship that shapes her character and the story in major ways. In the TV show, much more time is given to exploring this, and it’s among the best parts of the show.

We get more of this in the show than in the books (Image credit: Apple TV Plus)

Instead of character backstory, the books focus more on the structure and roles of the different strata of the silo. We don’t get to know one mechanic or one porter, as the inter-level messengers are called, we get to know more about them as groups through the perspective of a few characters.

In the books we understand more about the roles of each part of the Silo population, in the TV show we learn more about who they are individually.

3. The second book changes focus so the TV show will need to shake things up 

We find out what happens to Juliet ... eventually (Image credit: Apple TV Plus)

Okay, it may be a slight spoiler to say that the second book, Shift, focuses on a different part of the story’s history than the first book. I won’t tell you what we see or learn, but there is a new cast of characters, and in some cases we meet returning characters at different ages than they appear in Wool. 

I think the TV show will combine the stories. I wouldn’t expect Silo’s showrunners to build affection for its capable cast and then toss them aside when we get to that part of the story. Instead, I’d expect Silo will start to blend the second and third books together into the story over the (hopefully) longer run of the series. 

That means, if you’re thinking about reading the books, you should probably read them before the series reaches the end of the first book, or else the show may start spoiling plot points that come later in the novels. 

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Apple might be releasing a new iPad mini this year, according to a new report. The report follows analyst statements earlier in 2023 that the company was planning to update the iPad mini with a spec bump. Apple's small tablet was last updated with the iPad mini 2021, alongside the iPhone 13.

Today's report comes from ShrimpApplePro, a leaker on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. According to the leak, Apple is considering releasing a new iPad mini this year. It would reportedly debut with the Apple Watch Series 9, so likely around the same time as the iPhone 15 launch, or a month later if not. The leaker does not expect Apple to make big changes to the iPad mini this year, instead restricting the updates to a spec bump.

The recent report tallies with what other Apple watchers, including Mark Gurman and Ming-Chi Kuo, have said in the past. The substance of what a minor spec refresh could constitute has not been shared. It could be as simple as updating the A15 Bionic chip powering it, giving the 2023 iPad mini more headroom in the future.

It would be about time

It's rough out there for mini product lovers. The few mini products out there that hit a niche are infrequently updated; the others are simply taken out back unceremoniously, as was the case with the iPhone 12 and iPhone 13 mini phones.

Apple updating the iPad mini this year would at least give the impression that it is committed to at least one line of mini products, training people who want to invest in small tablets to wait for a release cycle that falls every other year.

It's not as if Apple's other tablets don't have a similar cycle. It's simply that with the bulk of the tablets being 10-11 inches, waiting your turn in the tablet release cycle will certainly feel longer than ever.

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The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 could have included an S Pen. No, not the one currently offered on the optional case, but inside the body of Samsung's largest and most productive foldable. This isn't guesswork, Samsung's design team considered it, going so far as to create an aluminum mockup with the integrated S Pen. I saw it, touched it, and even popped the S Pen out.

Samsung however, chose a different path. In fact, the road to the current Z Fold 5 and Galaxy Z Flip 5 was full of such design considerations, something I learned when I (along with an invited collection of international journalists) sat down during Samsung UnPacked last week with the company's mobile design team at Samsung Headquarters in Suwan, South Korea.

The full expression of Samsung's foldable line was developed and influenced not just by last year's model or even the most recent Samsung Galaxy S23 line. 

Choose your aspect ratio. (Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)

According to the man who worked on every Samsung smartphone since 2000, Samsung Head of Foldable Smartphone Design Tae-joong Kim (also known as "The Master" by his colleagues), the new foldables are influenced by everything from the company's first dual-screen folding phone to the thin Ultra Edition 5.9 and Armani Phone, both launched in 2007. The latter was the first collaboration with a third-party design company.

For its latest Z Fold 5 and Z Flip 5, the team went through countless prototypes and showed us many of them in their mock design studio.

Along with the pen, Samsung considered a wide variety of aspect ratios for the Z Fold 5, including some that made the cover screen look considerably wider and, yes, more like a Google Pixel Fold.

Some foldable mockups that show the potential impact of different cover screen aspect ratios. (Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)

Samsung's design team stuck with the relatively narrow form factor because they believe it offers the best "usability and grip and portability."

That Samsung looked into those other ratios makes me wonder if we'll see a change in the not-too-distant future. When Samsung was the only big-name foldable game in town, it could afford to tell consumers what their foldable experience should be like. Now, though, consumers have seen the well-reviewed Pixel Fold and Samsung may have to take a second look at those aspect ratio studies when it comes time to design the Galaxy Z Fold 6.

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See? There's an S Pen in this mockup. (Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)

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These foldables, including the S Pen one on the left, look real, but they're just pretty blocks of metal. (Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)

Still, the potential inclusion of the S Pen really intrigued me. Based on the Galaxy S23 Ultra, we know Samsung can easily integrate the pen into the body of a not-too-thick smartphone. Plus, as I mentioned to Samsung Head of MX Design Hubert Lee, Samsung should consider including an S Pen in the $1,799.99 / £1,749 price of the Z Fold 5. After all, few people have adopted foldables, and even fewer understand the productivity potential of the Z Fold 5.

What better way to educate consumers than to have early adopters all running around with an S Pen that they pop out of the phone or off the case and use to draw, take notes, or markup a document on the Main unfolded screen? I don't want to speak for Lee, but he didn't dismiss my idea and his assistant appeared to take notes.

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The designers at work in Samsung's mock design studio. (Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)

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This guy spent a lot of time on the Z Fold 5 camera array. (Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)

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Samsung spends a lot of time considering colors and materials for everything from the face plates to the hinge covers. (Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)

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Z Fold 5 color considerations. (Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)

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Some Z Fold 5 body design work. (Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)

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Some credos from Samsung's walls. Words to live and design by. (Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)

Oh, but what a wonder it would be to have a Z Fold 6 that offers an embedded pen.

When I asked why Samsung didn't go ahead with that idea this time, Lee told me, "There's a lot to consider. You can't just stick a pen in there. If you stick in a pen in there are other cost consequences. For now, we decided not to have the pen in the Fold."

Those consequences are probably the weight, thickness, and battery life of the device. All would change with a pen tunneled into the body. The phone might get thicker, it could be a little heavier, and you'd definitely lose some battery capacity. The last bit is especially concerning because the current Z Fold 5 has the same battery capacity and life as the last model. It really can't afford to lose a few hours of performance to an integrated S Pen.

As Samsung EVP and head of R+D office Won-Joon Choi told us later, when developing these products, "every millimeter, every gram matters."

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