Samsung is offering iPhone owners the opportunity to try out their foldables as the company updates its Try Galaxy web app.
For those who don’t know, Try Galaxy gives “non-Android users” a way to test drive Galaxy smartphones, including the S23 line, in an attempt to convince people to switch over. Now Samsung is seeking to introduce the Galaxy Z Flip5 and Z Fold5 to a new customer base by emulating the same experience – or attempting to. It’s a little tricky.
According to the official announcement, iOS users will need to grab a second iPhone and connect it to their own in order to simulate the Z Fold5’s unfurled screen. Doing so will activate “video demonstrations” where people can see what content looks like on the “immersive full screen.” Then, the app will enable the “enhanced drag and drop features” that allow iPhone owners to experience what it’s like to move items between screens.
As shown in the image below, users can see what One UI 5.1.1 looks like spread out between the two phones or play a game of digital air hockey.
(Image credit: Samsung)
FlexCam demo
There’s no real way to emulate the Z Flip5’s smaller, outer screen on an iPhone, so you will be missing out on that particular aspect. In its place, you will be able to try out FlexCam mode, a camera feature available on both of Samsung’s foldables. However, there is a slight problem with this particular preview: we don't know how exactly it'll work.
FlexCam is essentially a timer tool for taking hands-free photographs. The main difference is you can prop up the phone for interesting angles. This can be done easily on something like the Z Flip5 by just folding it in half, but obviously you can’t do that with the iPhone. Judging from Samsung’s description, it could simply be an on-screen demo showing off all the different angles possible with FlexCam.
Alongside the software tools exclusive to the foldables, Samsung's app offers access to more generic features. For example, there is Quick Share for sending files to friends and family, plus an option to preview “Samsung Health’s body composition date when paired with a Galaxy Watch”.
Availability
To access the demo, head over to the Try Galaxy website then scan the on-screen QR code. Upon scanning, the app will launch the Safari browser. Requirements are not very strict. At the very least, you’ll need an iPhone 7 running the latest version of iOS. As long as you have that, you’re good to go.
There isn’t a mobile app available, presumably because Apple doesn’t want Samsung seducing people to the dark side on the App Store.
You’ve got to admire Sony’s commitment to doing things its own way, rather than simply following current trends. It did so with the Sony Xperia 1 V – a phone with a 21:9 4K screen, sizable bezels, and a continuous optical zoom lens – and it will likely do the same with the Sony Xperia 1 VI, as well.
There are both up and downsides to this approach, but it certainly helps Sony’s flagship phones stand out from the crowd.
So far we don’t know anything about the Sony Xperia 1 VI, but we can take some educated guesses as to its price, release date, and some of its key features. You’ll find those below, and as soon as any information leaks, we’ll add that too.
What we do know though is what we want from the Sony Xperia 1 VI, so jump to the second half of this article for information on that.
Cut to the chase
What is it? The next flagship Sony phone
When is it out? Possibly May 2024
How much will it cost? Likely at least $1,399 / £1,299 / AU$2,099
Sony Xperia 1 VI: release date and price
The Xperia 1 VI is likely to land around a year after the Xperia 1 V(Image credit: Future)
The Sony Xperia 1 V was announced in May 2023, but didn’t go on sale until late June in the UK and late July in the US. This big wait between the announcement date and the on-sale date isn’t unusual for Sony, however, even if it's a little unorthodox by industry standards.
There’s no news yet on when the Sony Xperia 1 VI might be unveiled but with the Sony Xperia 1 IV also being announced in May, our best guess is May 2024.
In fact, the last two models were both unveiled on May 11 of their release years. Now, that’s a Saturday in 2024 so is unlikely as a date, but something close to that around mid-May is probably likely. Of course, you’ll likely then have to wait until at least June to get your hands on it, based on past form.
As for the price, the Sony Xperia 1 V starts at $1,399 / £1,299 / AU$2,099, so the Sony Xperia 1 VI will probably cost at least that much, which is a shame, as that’s an extremely high price.
Sony Xperia 1 VI: news and leaks
We expect a narrow screen, just like on the Xperia 1 V(Image credit: TechRadar)
We haven’t heard anything about the Sony Xperia 1 VI yet, but we can predict that it will inherit some aspects of the Sony Xperia 1 V.
That includes a narrow 21:9 screen, with a 4K resolution – as these are trademark features of the line. It will also probably put a lot of focus on the cameras, and likely include a continuous optical zoom lens which can smoothly move between different focal ranges, as that’s one of the highlights of the latest model too.
One thing that will almost certainly change though is the chipset, with Sony likely to move from the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 to the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, so expect the Sony Xperia 1 VI to be more powerful than the Xperia 1 V.
Sony Xperia 1 VI: what we want to see
The Sony Xperia 1 V is a decent phone, but it’s one with plenty of room for improvement, as our Sony Xperia 1 V review attests. Here’s what we most want to see from the next model.
1. Crisper zoom shots
We want improvements to the Xperia 1 V's zoom camera(Image credit: TechRadar)
The star feature of the Sony Xperia 1 V is arguably its telephoto camera, which can move between optical zoom levels of 3.5x and 5.2x, rather than being locked at one zoom level like most smartphone telephoto cameras or having two separate sensors at two different zoom ranges, like the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra (which sports both 3x and 10x telephoto sensors).
However, in our review, we found that the resulting images are ever so slightly soft. This is one hazard of offering a continuous optical zoom, rather than having a fixed focal length (the same is true with conventional cameras), but we hope it’s something Sony can improve for the Xperia 1 VI; so that zoom shots are completely sharp and crisp.
2. Better heat management
In our Sony Xperia 1 V review, we noticed that the phone could get surprisingly warm, even when doing very little. On a likely related note, we found – when using an app called CPU Throttling Test – that its performance would drop quite rapidly when the phone was being pushed.
So with the Sony Xperia 1 VI, we’d like better heat management, so the phone stays cooler and hopefully the performance therefore won’t get throttled as much.
3. Faster charging
The Sony Xperia 1 V only charges at up to 30W(Image credit: TechRadar)
While the Sony Xperia 1 V has fairly decent battery life, its charging speed is much less impressive than many of its competitors, topping out at 30W. Now, that’s still slightly faster than you’ll get with an iPhone, but given that we’ve seen phones like the OnePlus 10T offer 150W charging, and loads of handsets allow for charging at upwards of 60W, providing only 30W charging doesn’t really cut it in 2023/2024.
Therefore, we want to see a boost with the Sony Xperia 1 VI. At the very least it should be capable of 45W charging, like the Galaxy S23 Ultra, but ideally we want it to charge faster still.
4. A better fingerprint sensor
One of the many unusual choices Sony makes with the Xperia 1 V is putting a capacitive fingerprint sensor on the side, set into the power key, rather than using a – nowadays – more conventional under-display sensor. This isn’t in itself a problem – though it is a little old fashioned – but in our review we found that the sensor was slower, less responsive, and less reliable than those in most phones.
At this price, that’s unacceptable, so we want to see big improvements with the Sony Xperia 1 VI’s fingerprint sensor, wherever Sony chooses to put it.
5. A lower price
The Sony Xperia 1 V has all sorts of interesting features and high-end tech, but there’s no escaping just how expensive it is.
With a starting price that’s even higher than the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra or iPhone 14 Pro Max, this is never going to be anything other than a niche entrant in the high-end smartphone space, but we’d love for the Sony Xperia 1 VI to be a more mainstream prospect. For that, the price needs to be lower. Not drastically, but it should at least undercut the aforementioned phones.
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Bethesda's Head of Publishing, Pete Hines, has hit back at World of Warcraft designer Mark Kern after Kern said Starfield's start screen suggests it "either shows hasty shipping deadlines by a passionate team overworked, or a team that didn't care".
"The physiognomy of start screens. The start screen of a game can reveal a lot about how rushed the team was and how much pride they took in their work," Kern tweeted.
"Starfield's start screen either shows hasty shipping deadlines by a passionate team overworked, or a team that didn't care.
"Start screen [sic] are often done at the very end of development," they added in a follow-up tweet. "Teams are too busy making the core game. It's quite common for the start screen to completely change once the game is shipping or on patch 0.
"Teams that take pride want to put a good face forward and will often redo these just prior to game going live," Kern concluded.
Or they designed what they wanted and that’s been our menu for years and was one of the first things we settled on. Having an opinion is one thing. Questioning out a developer’s “care” because you would have done it different is highly unprofessional coming from another “dev”August 20, 2023
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After a commenter alerted them to Kern's tweets, Hines responded in kind earlier today, saying: "Or [the development team] designed what they wanted and that’s been our menu for years and was one of the first things we settled on.
"Having an opinion is one thing. Questioning out a developer’s 'care' because you would have done it different is highly unprofessional coming from another 'dev'."
You may have to free up some space beforehand, though – Starfield will take up a sizeable 100.19GB on Xbox Series X|S for Standard Edition players and 117.07GB for those rocking the Premium Edition. PC and Steam users have it worse still, with Bethesda's spacefaring RPG taking up an eye-watering 139.84GB.
One of Call of Duty's longest-serving and best-known developers, David Vonderhaar, is leaving Treyarch and Activision for new pastures.
Whilst he stopped short of revealing what studio or game had tempted them away – Vonderhaar could only say that they were staying in the games industry, "working on an undisclosed project they can't discuss yet" – the developer thanked both their colleagues and the community for their support over the last 18 years.
"Today I am sharing that I have left Activision and Treyarch after an incredible 18 years and 8 Call of Duty games," Vonderhaar said via their LinkedIn profile.
"To my co-workers at Treyarch, I am immensely grateful for the time we invested working to improve our craft, never sitting on successes, and always wondering how to improve what we design and how we produce it."
As for the community? Vondehaar thanked players for their "passion and enthusiasm".
"That energy has often fueled our determination as a studio and individuals," Vonderhaar added. "I will always be grateful for the opportunity to interact with so many of you directly online and in person. This energy will always be a massive part of me."
Vonderhaar finished by saying that they were moving on to work on "a rare and unique opportunity".
Earlier this week, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (2023) was finally fully unveiled, with a trailer giving fans their first glimpse of the FPS in action. A November 10 release date was also confirmed, which means we have just three short months to wait.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Modern Warfare 3 (2023) is a direct sequel to Modern Warfare 2 (2022), with the former's campaign picking up exactly when its predecessor's left off. New to Modern Warfare 3 (2023) is the addition of ‘open combat missions’, which will face players with a number of choices regarding how they approach certain story quests.
As suspected, it also features all 16 launch maps from the original Modern Warfare 2 (2009), although each one has been modernized with new modes to get stuck into, such as the competitive 3v3v3 mode, Cutthroat. Expect over 12 totally fresh 6v6 arenas will be introduced in post-launch seasons, too.
It's time for your daily dose of Quordle hints, plus the answers for both the main game and the Daily Sequence spin off.
Quordle is the only one of the many Wordle clones that I'm still playing now, around 18 months after the daily-word-game craze hit the internet, and with good reason: it's good fun, but also difficult.
What's more, its makers (now the online dictionary Merriam-Webster) are also keeping it fresh in the form of a new variant called the Daily Sequence, which sees you complete four puzzles consecutively, rather than concurrently.
But Quordle is tough, so if you already find yourself searching for Wordle hints, you'll probably need some for this game too.
I'm a Quordle and Wordle fanatic who's been playing since December 2021, so I can definitely help you solve Quordle today and improve your game for tomorrow. Read on for my Quordle hints to game #573 and the answers to the main game and Daily Sequence.
SPOILER WARNING: Information about Quordle today is below, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers.
Quordle today (game #573) - hint #1 - Vowels
How many different vowels are in Quordle today?
• The number of different vowels in Quordle today is 4*.
* Note that by vowel we mean the five standard vowels (A, E, I, O, U), not Y (which is sometimes counted as a vowel too).
Quordle today (game #573) - hint #2 - total vowels
What is the total number of vowels in Quordle today?
• The total number of vowels across today's Quordle answers is 6.
Quordle today (game #573) - hint #3 - repeated letters
Do any of today's Quordle answers contain repeated letters?
• The number of Quordle answers containing a repeated letter today is 0.
Quordle today (game #573) - hint #4 - total letters
How many different letters are used in Quordle today?
• The total number of different letters used in Quordle today is 16.
Quordle today (game #573) - hint #5 - uncommon letters
Do the letters Q, Z, X or J appear in Quordle today?
• No. None of Q, Z, X or J appear among today's Quordle answers.
Quordle #554, Tuesday 1 August: ANNOY, TAPER, TRIAL, HOUSE
Quordle #553, Monday 31 July: SQUAT, CHOSE, SNORT, THERE
Quordle FAQs: Everything you need to know
What is Quordle?
Where Wordle challenges you to guess a new five-letter word each day, Quordle presents you with four puzzles to solve. And rather than complete them in turn, you do so simultaneously. You get nine guesses, rather than the six for Wordle, but the rules are otherwise very similar.
As with Wordle, the answers are the same for every player each day, meaning that you're competing against the rest of the world. And also as with Wordle, the puzzle resets at midnight so you have a fresh challenge each day.
The website also includes a practice mode - which I definitely recommend using before attempting the game proper! - and there are daily stats including a streak count. You also get Quordle Achievements - specific badges for winning a game in a certain number of turns, playing lots of times, or guessing particularly hard words.
Oh, and it's difficult. Really difficult.
What are the Quordle rules?
The rules of Quordle are almost identical to those of Wordle.
1. Letters that are in the answer and in the right place turn green.
2. Letters that are in the answer but in the wrong place turn yellow.
3. Letters that are not in the answer turn gray…
4. …BUT the word you guess appears in all quadrants of the puzzle at the same time, so an A could turn green in one square, yellow in another and gray in the final two.
5. Answers are never plural.
6. Letters can appear more than once. So if your guess includes two of one letter, they may both turn yellow, both turn green, or one could be yellow and the other green.
7. Each guess must be a valid word in Quordle's dictionary. You can't guess ABCDE, for instance.
8. You do not have to include correct letters in subsequent guesses and there is no equivalent of Wordle's Hard mode.
9. You have nine guesses to find the Quordle answers.
10. You must complete the daily Quordle before midnight in your timezone.
What is a good Quordle strategy?
Quordle needs to be approached in a different way to Wordle. With four puzzles to solve in nine guesses, you can't blindly throw letters at it and expect to win - you'll stand a far better chance if you think strategically.
That's the case in Wordle too, of course, but it's even more important in Quordle.
There are two key things to remember.
1. Use several starting words
Firstly, you won't want just a single starting word, but almost certainly two or three starting words.
The first of these should probably be one of the best Wordle starting words, because the same things that make them work well will apply here too. But after that, you should select another word or possibly two that use up lots more of the most common consonants and that include any remaining vowels.
For instance, I currently use STARE > DOILY > PUNCH. Between them, these three words use 15 of the 26 letters in the alphabet including all five vowels, Y, and nine of the most common consonants (S, T, R, D, L, P, N, C and H). There are plenty of other options - you might want to get an M, B, F or G in there instead of the H, maybe - but something like that should do the trick.
If all goes well, that will give you a good lead on what one or sometimes two of the answers might be. If not, well good luck!
2. Narrow things down
Secondly, if you're faced with a word where the answer might easily be one of several options - for instance -ATCH, where it could be MATCH, BATCH, LATCH, CATCH, WATCH, HATCH or PATCH - you'll definitely want to guess a word that would narrow down those options.
In Wordle, you can instead try several of those in succession and hope one is right, assuming you have enough guesses left. It's risky, but will sometimes work. Plus, it's the only option in Hard mode. But in Quordle, this will almost certainly result in a failure - you simply don't have enough guesses.
In the scenario above, CLAMP would be a great guess, as it could point the way to four of the seven words in one go.
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