Technology

Samsung has announced its first displays that will support the HDR10+ Gaming standard, an expanded games-focused version of HDR10 that can also calibrate automatically. HDR10+ Gaming was initially announced in October, but now Samsung reveals that its new 2022 lineup of QLED TVs (Q70 and above) and gaming monitors will be the first to support the standard. Samsung partnered with Saber Interactive to bring support for HDR10+ to Redout 2 and Pinball FX, which will both be showcased at CES 2022 (as long as the game developer doesn’t drop out). Also, Game Mechanic Studios will have its HDR10+ gaming title Happy Trails and the Kidnapped Princess on the floor. The games Samsung is touting are in contrast to major games available on the competing standard: Dolby Vision gaming — including Halo Inf...

Samsung has announced its first displays that will support the HDR10+ Gaming standard, an expanded games-focused version of HDR10 that can also calibrate automatically. HDR10+ Gaming was initially announced in October, but now Samsung reveals that its new 2022 lineup of QLED TVs (Q70 and above) and gaming monitors will be the first to support the standard. Samsung partnered with Saber Interactive to bring support for HDR10+ to Redout 2 and Pinball FX, which will both be showcased at CES 2022 (as long as the game developer doesn’t drop out). Also, Game Mechanic Studios will have its HDR10+ gaming title Happy Trails and the Kidnapped Princess on the floor. The games Samsung is touting are in contrast to major games available on the competing standard: Dolby Vision gaming — including Halo Inf...

Two of the most popular NFT collections — CryptoPunks and Bored Ape Yacht Club — now have almost the same entry-level prices. CryptoPunks was created by Larva Labs in 2017 and is largely credited as being the first major NFT project. CryptoPunks have been auctioned at Christie’s and Sotheby’s and have recently sold online for up to $10.26 million USD. As of December 23, the cheapest Punk for sale was listed at 55 ETH ($225,916 USD). Bored Ape Yacht Club, on the other hand, was created in April by Yuga Labs and has exploded in popularity among its very dedicated fanbase. A rare Bored Ape sold for $3.4 million USD in October and another recently graced the cover of Rolling Stone magazine. As of December 23, the cheapest Ape for sale hovers around 53 ETH ($218,176 USD). Bored Ape briefly over...

Movies and TV have a notoriously tough time depicting video games. They tend toward presenting games as either generic arcade titles or as impossibly full-featured virtual realities, neither of which captures the typical experience of playing one. But The Matrix Resurrections, a film that’s all about virtual reality, has managed one of my favorite takes on it yet by embracing its own world’s unrealism. Below, I’m going to talk about a few specific plot points from The Matrix Resurrections, which premiered yesterday in theaters and on HBO Max. It’s a movie I found a lot of problems with but that many of my colleagues at other publications enjoyed, and if you don’t want some light spoilers, you should stop reading now. All right. Let’s talk about games. What exactly are the Matrix games? We ...

CES 2022’s exodus of exhibitors over rising COVID-19 concerns continues, with the latest withdrawal coming from Intel. The company typically has one of the biggest presences of major tech companies at the show. Intel joins a slew of other key companies skipping this year’s show in-person, which also includes Lenovo, Hisense, T-Mobile, AT&T, Amazon, Waymo, Meta, Twitter, Pinterest, and iHeartRadio. “The health and safety of our employees, partners and customers is always a top priority. After consulting with health officials and in the spirit of Intel’s safety policy, our plans for CES will move to a digital-first, live experience, with minimal on-site staff. We encourage you to join us as we deliver all our CES content and experiences virtually via the Intel Newsroom,” Intel commented ...

We’ve been keeping an eye out for end-of-year next-generation console drops in the US, and despite exceptions like a recent PlayStation 5 sale from Walmart that went on for an hour, they’ve remained as hard to get as ever. Things may be different on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, however, where Amazon UK has had a for sale sign posted next to Microsoft’s £449.99 Xbox Series X — complete with same-day delivery — for over 12 hours with no end in sight. The cheaper Xbox Series S has been much easier to find, but sales for either of the two flagship 4K gaming consoles never go on for this long. In a reply to our reporter Tom Warren on Twitter, one person reports similar sightings in France this week, so it’s possible the continent is just a bit oversupplied with new Xboxes at the moment...

Anker’s newly available 547 Charger may be a power brick to consider if you frequently travel with lots of USB-C devices or are in charge of keeping your family’s devices topped up (via 9to5Toys). Despite its relatively compact size, it packs four USB-C ports that are capable of putting out 120W of power at once. The $120 charger has two 20 watt ports for phones or tablets and two higher-power ports, one of which is capable of providing up to 100W (or 90W if you have a phone plugged into one of the 20W ports). High-power bricks with four USB-C ports aren’t exactly common Charging bricks with four USB-C ports aren’t exactly common, which can be annoying now that so many devices are compatible with the standard. Plus, with 120W, you should be able to charge a maxed-out 14-inch MacBook Pro an...

If you’ve ever thought, “This 4K HDR OLED TV is great, but I sure wish it tasted better when I licked it,” we may be getting closer to a world where that’s the case — a professor has created a device he calls “Taste the TV,” according to Reuters, and it does exactly what the name implies. Homei Miyashita says he hopes his “TTTV” will let people experience things like far-away world-class restaurants without leaving their own home, which has become an increasingly understandable desire in the past two years of the pandemic. According to a demonstration video, which you can see below, researchers blended up various foods and used sensors to “taste” them. Then, chemicals are sprayed onto a rolling plastic sheet (or a disposable tray for those who don’t feel comfortable licking a plastic-cover...

2021 will have been the year that Apple finally embraced lossless music streaming and prices for hi-fi listening came down at Amazon and Tidal. But the biggest subscription music service of all, Spotify, seems likely to miss its original target for launching a higher-quality streaming plan. Spotify HiFi, first announced all the way back in February, has yet to roll out despite the company’s early estimate that it would debut “later this year.” At the time, Spotify said HiFi would be available in select markets and that the company would “have more details to share soon.” Over the next 10 months, those details never came. Meanwhile, Spotify’s competitors didn’t wait around. Apple Music rolled out lossless and hi-res playback in June, offering the improved audio quality at no extra charge. B...

With the current end-of-year promotion happening at B&H Photo, you can get the massive Samsung Odyssey G9 gaming monitor for its lowest price ever. This monitor’s list price is $1,599 and it typically retails around $1,500, but you can currently grab it for $999 at B&H Photo and Best Buy. This same discount is also available at Newegg when you check out with the promo code YEAREND3. This curved 49-inch monitor sports a 1440p resolution and a blistering 240Hz refresh rate. The display is compatible with both AMD Freesync and Nvidia G-Sync to help cut down on screen tearing and comes equipped with a pair of Display Port and USB inputs, as well as a single HDMI port. The stand thankfully supports height, tilt, and swivel adjustments, so you shouldn’t have to make use of the 100×1...

Impossible as it once may have seemed, but Uncharted (the long-awaited film adaptation of the Naughty Dog game series) is actually set to hit movie theaters early next year, barring any other delays for the decade-in-the-making film. The new trailer also gives a better idea of what to expect from the movie: as teased, the film is a spiritual prequel of sorts to the characters players know and love from the PlayStation games. Nathan Drake (Tom Holland) is just at the start of his career as a globe-trotting treasure hunter (although the trailer already shows that he’ll be donning the character’s trademark henley and holsters by the end), while a ‘stache-less Sully (Mark Wahlberg) is his gateway to the world of thieves. The duo will be facing off against a new villain, Moncada (played on Anto...

Huawei has officially announced the P50 Pocket, a clamshell-style folding smartphone that has a circular, 1-inch external display for quick access to notifications and widgets. The device launches in China today, though US sanctions (which mean Huawei can’t use key tech like Google’s Android OS) mean the P50 Pocket won’t make any impact in the West. Huawei teased the handset earlier this month with a photoshoot focused on the P50 Pocket Premium Edition that appeared in Harper’s Bazaar China. This version of the device was created with Dutch designer Iris van Herpen. It has a gold or silver finish, and a 3D pattern on the exterior surface that’s typical of van Herpen’s work, resembling feathers or leaves. The P50 Pocket is Huawei’s third foldable phone, but its first to use a clamshell desi...