Month: August 2024
Volkswagen will soon offer in-car gaming in Europe via AirConsole
Volkswagen has teamed up with gaming platform AirConsole to make multiplayer games part of the in-car experience for European drivers and passengers. AirConsole offers a large number of casual games, ranging from racing and sports to puzzles and quizzes. The German carmaker expects to launch the feature in the first European countries in September. It will add more countries by the end of the year. The vehicle lineup includes several EVs (ID.7, ID.5, ID.4, and ID.3) as well as the new Passat, Tiguan, Golf, and Golf Estate — which come as hybrids. For safety reasons, the games will only be…This story continues at The Next Web
Volkswagen has teamed up with gaming platform AirConsole to make multiplayer games part of the in-car experience for European drivers and passengers. AirConsole offers a large number of casual games, ranging from racing and sports to puzzles and quizzes. The German carmaker expects to launch the feature in the first European countries in September. It will add more countries by the end of the year. The vehicle lineup includes several EVs (ID.7, ID.5, ID.4, and ID.3) as well as the new Passat, Tiguan, Golf, and Golf Estate — which come as hybrids. For safety reasons, the games will only be…
This story continues at The Next Web
Sony raises the price of a PS5 in Japan yet again – the third time since launch
Sony Interactive Entertainment is raising the price of the PlayStation 5 in Japan next month.
Sony Interactive Entertainment is raising the price of the PlayStation 5 in Japan next month.
That’s according to a new PlayStation Japan Blog post (which we machine translated), where Sony announced that it will be revising the suggested retail price of the PS5 and “related peripherals” on September 2, 2024.
“Given the recent challenging external environment, including the current fluctuations in the global economic situation, and the impact it will have on our business, we have reached this decision,” the company explained.
This means both versions of the PS5 – the standard and digital edition – will cost an additional 13,000 yen (roughly $90), making it the third price hike since the console launched in Japan in 2020.
As of September 2, the PS5 will cost 79,980 yen ($552.39 / £417.98) and the PS5 Digital Edition will cost 72,980 yen ($504.05 / £381.39).
Sony is raising PS5 prices in Japan on September 2nd. Both models are going up by 13,000 yen (nearly $90), in the third PS5 console price hike in Japan since its launch in 2020 https://t.co/1i3QOEkdDV pic.twitter.com/J7Y5OCT8YYAugust 27, 2024
As Sony details in the blog post, other PlayStation tech will also be getting a price increase, including all DualSense Wireless controllers and their color variations, which will now cost 11,480 yen ($79.29 / £59.99), as well as the PlayStation VR2 and the PlayStation VR2 “Horizon Call of the Mountain Bundle”, both of which will cost 89,980 yen ($621.15 / £470.19) and 94,980 yen ($655.67 / £496.11) respectively.
More items being revised also include the DualSense Edge, the Wireless Controller (Dualshock 4), the PlayStation Portal, the Pulse Explore Wireless Earphones, and the Pulse Elite Wireless Headset.
The latest retail price increase comes just after new rumors recently emerged about the PlayStation 5 Pro.
According to industry commentator Jeff Grubb and reported by GameSpot, Sony is gearing up for an upcoming State of Play in September, where he said it could potentially reveal its next console. Grubb also said that if it were to be announced at this time, it could then go on sale in October at an estimated price of $600 – $700.
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Apple Watch X? September 9 Event Date Marks Its 10th Anniversary
On September 9, 2014, towards the end of Apple’s iPhone 6 press event, CEO Tim Cook announced “one more thing,” and after a brief video, appeared on stage wearing the first Apple Watch. The date of the original device’s unveiling has led some to wonder whether Apple’s upcoming iPhone 16 event on Monday, September 9 could see a special tenth anniversary version of the Apple Watch debut.
The first chatter about a possible “Apple Watch X” appeared back in January 2023, when a French report claimed that Apple planned to skip the Apple Watch Series 9, much like the company did when it launched the iPhone X instead of an iPhone 9 model in 2017. Pronounced “ten,” the “X” branding referred to the iPhone’s 10th anniversary.
That didn’t happen. Indeed, if “Apple Watch X” had launched in 2023, only nine years would have elapsed since Cook unveiled the original model, which is why the rumor was branded “sketchy.” For the “X” branding to logically make sense, Apple would have to announce it in 2024 – on Monday, September 9, to be exact, which happens to be the date of Apple’s iPhone 16 event.
However, there’s still uncertainty about whether Apple will unveil a special edition “Apple Watch X” or a more standard issue Apple Watch Series 10 at next month’s event. One reason is that after the original Apple Watch presentation in September 2014, it actually took seven months before customers got their hands on the smartwatch, with the device’s official release occurring on April 24, 2015.
Tim Cook unveils the original Apple Watch in Sept 2014
Another reason is that the device Apple is rumored to be preparing appears, on paper, to be a rather modest upgrade on its predecessor. According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Apple is planning to debut a thinner version of the Apple Watch this year, but he has said it is “unlikely” that it will look much different than the current models. In August 2023, when Gurman first mentioned a thinner tenth anniversary model, he said that Apple was considering a magnetic band attachment system that would free up space in the Apple Watch. However, his most recent reports have not mentioned this functionality.
Apple has also been working on hypertension and sleep apnea detection for this year’s model, but Gurman says these features may not be ready to launch. Apple is reportedly having issues with reliability for the hypertension feature, which could lead to delays, and the sleep apnea detection relies on blood oxygen monitoring that Apple has had to temporarily remove from the Apple Watch due to patent issues.
Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has also suggested that the 2024 Apple Watch will have a thinner body with larger screen sizes. Kuo expects this year’s model to be available in 45mm and 49mm sizes, up from the current 41mm and 45mm size options. However, Kuo made no mention of the possibility that this could be a tenth anniversary edition.
Alleged next-generation Apple Watch CAD render
CAD renders of what might be the next-generation Apple Watch surfaced in June, allegedly depicting a larger model with a two inch display, which is a bit bigger than the 1.93-inch Apple Watch Ultra. The dimensions are said to measure roughly 46 x 39.7 x 11.6mm, so that would be a bit larger than the Series 9 but smaller than the Apple Watch Ultra. The design seems to have the same Digital Crown and Side Button, and it is overall similar to the Apple Watch Series 9. But there is no evidence of a notably slimmed down case or a magnetic band attachment system.
iPhone 16 Likely to Launch on September 20 With These New Features
In summary, with the Apple Watch Series 9 available now, an Apple Watch Series 10 or “X” would be more appropriate for 2024, not 2025, but the X naming is just speculation at this point, and Apple may not feel as if the device justifies the branding. Alongside the iPhone 16 and new AirPods, Apple plans to introduce the next-generation Apple Watch at its September 9 event, dubbed “It’s Glowtime,” with a launch likely to follow on September 20. Are you expecting an Apple Watch X? Let us know in the comments.Related Roundup: Apple Watch Series 9Tag: Apple Watch XBuyer’s Guide: Apple Watch (Don’t Buy)This article, “Apple Watch X? September 9 Event Date Marks Its 10th Anniversary” first appeared on MacRumors.comDiscuss this article in our forums
On September 9, 2014, towards the end of Apple’s iPhone 6 press event, CEO Tim Cook announced “one more thing,” and after a brief video, appeared on stage wearing the first Apple Watch. The date of the original device’s unveiling has led some to wonder whether Apple’s upcoming iPhone 16 event on Monday, September 9 could see a special tenth anniversary version of the Apple Watch debut.
The first chatter about a possible “Apple Watch X” appeared back in January 2023, when a French report claimed that Apple planned to skip the Apple Watch Series 9, much like the company did when it launched the iPhone X instead of an iPhone 9 model in 2017. Pronounced “ten,” the “X” branding referred to the iPhone’s 10th anniversary.
That didn’t happen. Indeed, if “Apple Watch X” had launched in 2023, only nine years would have elapsed since Cook unveiled the original model, which is why the rumor was branded “sketchy.” For the “X” branding to logically make sense, Apple would have to announce it in 2024 – on Monday, September 9, to be exact, which happens to be the date of Apple’s iPhone 16 event.
However, there’s still uncertainty about whether Apple will unveil a special edition “Apple Watch X” or a more standard issue Apple Watch Series 10 at next month’s event. One reason is that after the original Apple Watch presentation in September 2014, it actually took seven months before customers got their hands on the smartwatch, with the device’s official release occurring on April 24, 2015.
Another reason is that the device Apple is rumored to be preparing appears, on paper, to be a rather modest upgrade on its predecessor. According to Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman, Apple is planning to debut a thinner version of the Apple Watch this year, but he has said it is “unlikely” that it will look much different than the current models. In August 2023, when Gurman first mentioned a thinner tenth anniversary model, he said that Apple was considering a magnetic band attachment system that would free up space in the Apple Watch. However, his most recent reports have not mentioned this functionality.
Apple has also been working on hypertension and sleep apnea detection for this year’s model, but Gurman says these features may not be ready to launch. Apple is reportedly having issues with reliability for the hypertension feature, which could lead to delays, and the sleep apnea detection relies on blood oxygen monitoring that Apple has had to temporarily remove from the Apple Watch due to patent issues.
Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has also suggested that the 2024 Apple Watch will have a thinner body with larger screen sizes. Kuo expects this year’s model to be available in 45mm and 49mm sizes, up from the current 41mm and 45mm size options. However, Kuo made no mention of the possibility that this could be a tenth anniversary edition.
CAD renders of what might be the next-generation Apple Watch surfaced in June, allegedly depicting a larger model with a two inch display, which is a bit bigger than the 1.93-inch Apple Watch Ultra. The dimensions are said to measure roughly 46 x 39.7 x 11.6mm, so that would be a bit larger than the Series 9 but smaller than the Apple Watch Ultra. The design seems to have the same Digital Crown and Side Button, and it is overall similar to the Apple Watch Series 9. But there is no evidence of a notably slimmed down case or a magnetic band attachment system.
iPhone 16 Likely to Launch on September 20 With These New Features
In summary, with the Apple Watch Series 9 available now, an Apple Watch Series 10 or “X” would be more appropriate for 2024, not 2025, but the X naming is just speculation at this point, and Apple may not feel as if the device justifies the branding. Alongside the iPhone 16 and new AirPods, Apple plans to introduce the next-generation Apple Watch at its September 9 event, dubbed “It’s Glowtime,” with a launch likely to follow on September 20. Are you expecting an Apple Watch X? Let us know in the comments.
This article, “Apple Watch X? September 9 Event Date Marks Its 10th Anniversary” first appeared on MacRumors.com
Discuss this article in our forums
The Morning After: The iPhone 16 launches September 9
Apple pretty much always announces the year’s iPhone in the first chunk of September, so no surprise here. It’ll announce the iPhones 16 on September 9 with the usual pomp and show at Apple’s campus, complete with global live stream. Dubbed It’s Glowtime, the event name hints at the new features leveraging Apple Intelligence.
Being a diligent technology news outlet, we already have a detailed roundup of all the rumors. It’s likely the hardware won’t change too much, with small tweaks all around. That includes slightly bigger screen sizes, new colors and a faster chipset better able to run Apple Intelligence. Personally, I’m excited for a second action button as a camera trigger, given how often I’m snapping with my iPhone.
— Dan Cooper
The biggest stories you might have missed
Canada follows the US by slapping a 100 percent tariff on Chinese EVs
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You can get these reports delivered daily direct to your inbox. Subscribe right here!
Pharma Bro Martin Shkreli ordered to surrender copies of one-off Wu-Tang Clan album
Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy.
Real-life Batman villain Martin Shkreli has been ordered to hand over any copies he may have made of the Wu-Tang Clan album that propelled him to infamy. The album’s current owner gained an injunction demanding he document any copies made and hand them over within the next week. Probably shouldn’t have boasted he’d sent the album to various people and stored copies in safes all around the world.
Continue Reading.
After CEO Pavel Durov’s arrest in France, Telegram says it’s ‘absurd’ to blame a platform if users abuse it
It’s not entirely clear why Durov has been arrested.
Pavel Durov, CEO of Telegram, the messaging platform, was arrested by French authorities on the weekend. French law enforcement says Durov’s arrest is part of a wider investigation into online crime, but Durov’s connection isn’t clear. Shortly after the arrest, Telegram said it’s “absurd” to arrest its CEO because some users may be misusing its platform.
Continue Reading.
SpaceX will soon send the Polaris Dawn crew off to attempt the first commercial spacewalk
Good luck to the crew.
SpaceX
Bankrolled by billionaire Jared Isaacman, Polaris Dawn is a private space mission that aims to complete the world’s first civilian spacewalk. Due to launch August 27, the Polaris Dawn capsule will travel into the high atmosphere before two of the four crew members exit the craft. The flight will also test SpaceX’s innovative idea of not building the capsule with an airlock. Instead, the crew will all don spacesuits then open the door, exposing the rest of the crew and the spacecraft to the vacuum of space. We’re all keeping our fingers crossed.
Continue Reading.
Starliner astronauts will come home in February on a SpaceX Crew Dragon
Boeing’s annus horribilis continues.
NASA / Robert Markowitz
After years of having its backside handed to it by SpaceX, Starliner was meant to be Boeing’s comeback story. Sadly, after its first trip to the International Space Station, the vessel will return to Earth without its two crew members. NASA has announced that, instead, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams will get home on a SpaceX Crew Dragon scheduled for February 2025.
Continue Reading.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-morning-after-the-iphone-16-launches-september-9-111546820.html?src=rss
Apple pretty much always announces the year’s iPhone in the first chunk of September, so no surprise here. It’ll announce the iPhones 16 on September 9 with the usual pomp and show at Apple’s campus, complete with global live stream. Dubbed It’s Glowtime, the event name hints at the new features leveraging Apple Intelligence.
Being a diligent technology news outlet, we already have a detailed roundup of all the rumors. It’s likely the hardware won’t change too much, with small tweaks all around. That includes slightly bigger screen sizes, new colors and a faster chipset better able to run Apple Intelligence. Personally, I’m excited for a second action button as a camera trigger, given how often I’m snapping with my iPhone.
— Dan Cooper
The biggest stories you might have missed
Canada follows the US by slapping a 100 percent tariff on Chinese EVs
Uber gets slapped with €290 million fine
You can get these reports delivered daily direct to your inbox. Subscribe right here!
Pharma Bro Martin Shkreli ordered to surrender copies of one-off Wu-Tang Clan album
Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy.
Real-life Batman villain Martin Shkreli has been ordered to hand over any copies he may have made of the Wu-Tang Clan album that propelled him to infamy. The album’s current owner gained an injunction demanding he document any copies made and hand them over within the next week. Probably shouldn’t have boasted he’d sent the album to various people and stored copies in safes all around the world.
After CEO Pavel Durov’s arrest in France, Telegram says it’s ‘absurd’ to blame a platform if users abuse it
It’s not entirely clear why Durov has been arrested.
Pavel Durov, CEO of Telegram, the messaging platform, was arrested by French authorities on the weekend. French law enforcement says Durov’s arrest is part of a wider investigation into online crime, but Durov’s connection isn’t clear. Shortly after the arrest, Telegram said it’s “absurd” to arrest its CEO because some users may be misusing its platform.
SpaceX will soon send the Polaris Dawn crew off to attempt the first commercial spacewalk
Good luck to the crew.
Bankrolled by billionaire Jared Isaacman, Polaris Dawn is a private space mission that aims to complete the world’s first civilian spacewalk. Due to launch August 27, the Polaris Dawn capsule will travel into the high atmosphere before two of the four crew members exit the craft. The flight will also test SpaceX’s innovative idea of not building the capsule with an airlock. Instead, the crew will all don spacesuits then open the door, exposing the rest of the crew and the spacecraft to the vacuum of space. We’re all keeping our fingers crossed.
Starliner astronauts will come home in February on a SpaceX Crew Dragon
Boeing’s annus horribilis continues.
After years of having its backside handed to it by SpaceX, Starliner was meant to be Boeing’s comeback story. Sadly, after its first trip to the International Space Station, the vessel will return to Earth without its two crew members. NASA has announced that, instead, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams will get home on a SpaceX Crew Dragon scheduled for February 2025.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-morning-after-the-iphone-16-launches-september-9-111546820.html?src=rss
LG says next-gen “dream OLED” panel is finally real – but it might not come to TVs first
OLED’s future just got a little brighter, but don’t expect to see the results in the shops any time soon – certainly on TVs.
One of the most exciting technologies in TV land is blue phosphor OLED technology, or blue PHOLED for short. As we reported earlier this month, PHOLED is more efficient and provides much more brightness without also requiring more power. It’s used in the red and green pixels on OLED TV, but blue had eluded us until recently. Even now, though, it’s proving tricky to manufacture, and that means the next big thing in TV tech has taken a bit longer than expected to become a commercial reality.
That means the latest news from LG Display is exciting: the firm says it’s created a new OLED panel based on the blue “dream OLED material,” as described by LG (via translation). As reported by ETNews, LG Display has “successfully developed an OLED panel based on blue phosphorescence.” The panel is apparently a two-stack tandem OLED and will have similar longevity to existing OLEDs.
That’s the good news. But the detail suggests that it’ll still be some time before we see the tech in our screens. Previous reports have suggested that PHOLED won’t be ready for prime time until at least 2025, and this announcement doesn’t indicate a shorter time span – and suggests it may be even longer for TVs.
Why we’re curbing our enthusiasm over PHOLED TVs
The key words in the LG story are “tandem OLED”. Normally, OLED displays have a single light-emitting layer; in two-stack tandem OLEDs, there are two, one stacked on top of the other.
Apple uses tandem OLED technology in its iPad Pro (2024), and that just happens to underline the problem with tandem OLED tech: it’s very expensive. That means so far it’s been limited to use in smaller electronic devices and for car heads-up displays where its longevity and resistance to screen burn are worth paying extra for.
The problem is when you want to scale that up, the complexity and the cost also increase dramatically. And that means tandem OLED is in the same position as other new TV technologies when they were first developed: it’s very difficult to do at scale, and it costs an absolute fortune to do it. In the short term that means it’ll be in relatively few devices: for example Samsung intends to use the tech in its mobile phones as an upgrade from AMOLED, especially in folding phones, but hasn’t announced any plans to put it into the best OLED TVs.
LG is using the PHOLED material developed by Universal Display, which is the key firm behind the technology, and the use of a tandem system sounds like a compromise: while Universal Display’s goal is to have blue PHOLEDs in the same panels as the green and red ones that it already produces, it announced earlier this year that while “phosphorescent blue is coming [we] need some more time before commercial introduction”.
So, this is good news for screens in the best phones and best tablets, but it’ll actually have less of an impact there anyway, because small screens can already go very bright. It’s the best TVs that will benefit most from this, so we’ll have to wait to see when the tech comes to them – at this rate, it’s looking like 2026.
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Telegram’s Pavel Durov arrested: 12 charges France is investigating
French prosecutors have shed further light on the arrest of Telegram CEO Pavel Durov. Durov was apprehended on Saturday at Le Bourget Airport near Paris after landing on his private jet. The Russia-born billionaire — a dual citizen of France and the UAE — was detained over alleged offences related to Telegram. Durov and his brother Nikolai launched the messaging and social media app in 2013. With almost 1 billion users, the platform has become immensely popular. But it’s also a magnet for controversy. Supporters laud the platform as a bastion for free speech. Critics counter that it’s a haven for…This story continues at The Next Web
French prosecutors have shed further light on the arrest of Telegram CEO Pavel Durov. Durov was apprehended on Saturday at Le Bourget Airport near Paris after landing on his private jet. The Russia-born billionaire — a dual citizen of France and the UAE — was detained over alleged offences related to Telegram. Durov and his brother Nikolai launched the messaging and social media app in 2013. With almost 1 billion users, the platform has become immensely popular. But it’s also a magnet for controversy. Supporters laud the platform as a bastion for free speech. Critics counter that it’s a haven for…
This story continues at The Next Web
Microsoft’s next big Windows 11 update significantly improves Ryzen gaming performance
Image: AMD
AMD promised that Microsoft’s upcoming 24H2 update to Windows 11 would improve performance for its new Ryzen 9000 series CPUs, but it’s also giving a significant boost to some older Ryzen CPUs. Hardware Unboxed has tested the Zen 4-based Ryzen 7 7700X and the new Ryzen 7 9700X (Zen 5) on both Windows 11 version 23H2 and 24H2 and found a significant performance increase thanks to Microsoft’s OS update.
On average, Hardware Unboxed found an improvement of 10 percent across multiple games running at 1080p resolution on the older Ryzen 7700X running Windows 11 version 24H2. On the latest Ryzen 9700X, Windows 11 24H2 provides an 11 percent performance improvement on average in the same game tests. KitGuru has also tested AMD’s best gaming CPU, the 7800X3D, and found similar increases in some games, alongside improvements to the older Ryzen 9 7950X thanks to Windows 11 version 24H2.
The new benchmark results come just weeks after AMD launched its Zen 5 desktop CPUs, which failed to impress during early reviews. Reviewers found that in gaming the previous generation Ryzen 9 7950X looked like better value than AMD’s new flagship Ryzen 9 9950X.
Windows 11 24H2 will certainly improve the performance of these new Zen 5 CPUs, but since it’s also improving older Zen 4 processors, the performance gap still seems to be a little disappointing between the two architectures. Microsoft’s 24H2 update is anything but disappointing for Ryzen owners though, as it literally allows them to download better performance for their CPUs.
We’re expecting Microsoft to release its 24H2 update for Windows 11 in late September, but if you want to grab it early you can opt into the Windows Insider program and enable the Release Preview builds on your PC. If you’d prefer to clean install or perform the upgrade manually, ISO files for 24H2 are available here.
Image: AMD
AMD promised that Microsoft’s upcoming 24H2 update to Windows 11 would improve performance for its new Ryzen 9000 series CPUs, but it’s also giving a significant boost to some older Ryzen CPUs. Hardware Unboxed has tested the Zen 4-based Ryzen 7 7700X and the new Ryzen 7 9700X (Zen 5) on both Windows 11 version 23H2 and 24H2 and found a significant performance increase thanks to Microsoft’s OS update.
On average, Hardware Unboxed found an improvement of 10 percent across multiple games running at 1080p resolution on the older Ryzen 7700X running Windows 11 version 24H2. On the latest Ryzen 9700X, Windows 11 24H2 provides an 11 percent performance improvement on average in the same game tests. KitGuru has also tested AMD’s best gaming CPU, the 7800X3D, and found similar increases in some games, alongside improvements to the older Ryzen 9 7950X thanks to Windows 11 version 24H2.
The new benchmark results come just weeks after AMD launched its Zen 5 desktop CPUs, which failed to impress during early reviews. Reviewers found that in gaming the previous generation Ryzen 9 7950X looked like better value than AMD’s new flagship Ryzen 9 9950X.
Windows 11 24H2 will certainly improve the performance of these new Zen 5 CPUs, but since it’s also improving older Zen 4 processors, the performance gap still seems to be a little disappointing between the two architectures. Microsoft’s 24H2 update is anything but disappointing for Ryzen owners though, as it literally allows them to download better performance for their CPUs.
We’re expecting Microsoft to release its 24H2 update for Windows 11 in late September, but if you want to grab it early you can opt into the Windows Insider program and enable the Release Preview builds on your PC. If you’d prefer to clean install or perform the upgrade manually, ISO files for 24H2 are available here.
At last! Garmin Fenix 8 revealed, with an Apple Watch Ultra-beating dive mode – alongside the Garmin Enduro 3
Garmin Fenix 8 and Garmin Enduro 3 are here: Two new super-watches with incredible battery power.
Garmin has finally revealed the Garmin Fenix 8 – which is shaping up to be a potential Apple Watch Ultra-beater – alongside the Garmin Enduro 3. And both watches look set to be among the best Garmin watches released yet.
The Garmin Fenix 8 comes in 43mm, 47mm, or 51mm sizes, with two screen options: a bright AMOLED screen and the older, more power-efficient memory-in-pixel (MIP) screen, which offers solar charging capabilities thanks to Garmin’s Power Glass tech. The AMOLED screen models can last for up to 29 days in smartwatch mode, while the MIP screen models can last up to 48 days in smartwatch mode, and that’s with the always-on screen enabled. Incredible stuff.
Garmin Fenix 8 now has diving modes, with the watch capable of becoming a working dive computer to descend down to 40 meters of depth for scuba activities. According to an exclusive chat we had with Jon Hosler, the Fenix 8 Product manager, the leakproof buttons ensure that even below 40 meters of depth, divers can still return to the 40-meter mark and the Fenix 8 will still operate fine.
Alongside the leak-proof buttons, models with optional titanium bezel and sapphire glass upgrades will be available for purchase.
(Image credit: Garmin)
Hardware features such as the LED flashlight from the Garmin Epix Pro, a new speaker, and a microphone for taking quick calls and setting simple commands like “set a five-minute timer” are all present here.
The Fenix 8 also promises upgraded strength training modes and new map functionalities like a “dynamic round trip routing,” feature that suggests options to guide you back to the start of your route. Running users will now get a prompt for this when they’re around 40% through a run.
The Garmin Fenix 8 is available for pre-order now and will start at $999.99 in the US and £869.99 in the UK. AU prices and exact pricing for all six models (three sizes with AMOLED and MIP screens) have yet to be revealed.
Introducing the Garmin Enduro 3
(Image credit: Garmin)
The Garmin Enduro 3 is the latest watch in Garmin’s range of super-premium endurance race tools. Designed to be “lighter than ever” at 63g (the old Garmin Enduro 2 watch was a very hefty 70g), the Garmin Enduro 3 shares many of the powerful tools as the Garmin Fenix 8. The Fenix 8’s dynamic round trip routing is here, alongside the built-in LED flashlight and thousands of preloaded TopoActive maps.
The Enduro 3 only comes in one size, 51mm, with a titanium bezel and scratch-resistant sapphire lens. Its MIP screen also features solar charging technology, lasting for 320 hours in GPS mode and up to 90 days in smartwatch mode. Garmin states that enabling “SatIQ technology – which automatically toggles between GPS modes – secures the superior positioning accuracy of multi-band GPS for up to 120 hours.”
Enduro 3 also adds Garmin Messenger, the in-watch instant messaging widget, alongside Garmin Pay and the ability to download songs from streaming services such as Spotify and Deezer for phone-free listening. However, the microphone and speaker on the Garmin Fenix 8 line are missing here.
The Enduro 3 is available for pre-order now for $899.99 in the US and £769.99 in the UK. As is the case with the Fenix 8, Australian prices will be added to this article when we receive them.
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Garmin’s Fenix 8 Takes on Apple Watch Ultra 2 With Monthlong Battery
The Fenix 8 launches alongside the Enduro 3 at a busy time for smartwatch releases.
The Fenix 8 launches alongside the Enduro 3 at a busy time for smartwatch releases.