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How to finance your solar panels: Cash, loan, lease and more

How to finance your solar panels: Cash, loan, lease and more

Whether you're looking to save money, avoid paying so much to your utility or keep some carbon out of the atmosphere, homeowners are generating their own energy with rooftop solar. By some estimates, 13.4% of homes will have solar panels installed by 2030.

While prices are dropping steadily (though supply chain snags have pushed them up recently), rooftop solar costs thousands of dollars, sometimes tens of thousands. Most people don't have that kind of cash laying around, but there are plenty of options for paying for solar.

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Advertiser Disclosure : CNET's corporate partner, SaveOnEnergy, can help you find the right energy fit for your home. The SaveOnEnergy marketplace helps you search, compare, sign up and save on the right energy fit for your home — all for free. If you're interested in solar, answer a few questions to get an exact price quote from our solar advisors.  

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"Financing has always been an issue," said Roger Horowitz, director of co-ops at Solar United Neighbors, a nonprofit and advocacy group helping people adopt solar in 11 states. Being able to finance solar is often dependent on having a bunch of cash, good credit and owning a home. 

This article aims to hit some of the highlights of solar financing, but it should not be taken as financial advice. For that you'll have to find someone more qualified to determine whether going solar makes financial sense for you and how to best pull it off. 

Buying solar panels with cash

Arguably the most straightforward way to buy solar panels is with cash, and the benefits are clear. With a cash payment you avoid paying interest and loan fees and don't need a qualifying credit score. As a result, you'll save more money over the life of your solar panels. 

You do have to cough up more cash up front, however, so it will take a while before you recoup the money that you've spent. That period of time is called a payback period, and it's a useful piece of information when deciding whether or not paying in cash is a good option for you. The average payback period is eight years in the US, and you can find help calculating your payback period here.

A cash purchase gives you the opportunity to take advantage of the federal solar tax credit. If your solar panels are fully installed through 2022, the US government will give you 26% of the cost back when you file your taxes. In 2023 the credit falls to 22% and will disappear after that, barring new legislation.

That means you could be getting thousands of dollars back, but it also means you don't get that money back until tax time.

Paying cash works best for folks who have a stable cash flow and can absorb such a large one-time payment, said Grant Klein, senior dealer relations specialist at Clean Energy Credit Union.

Buying solar panels with a loan

If you can't afford to pay all at once, solar loans are widely available from a number of sources and in a number of forms, though a poor credit score might disqualify you.

It's increasingly common for solar providers to offer loans, often from a third party. While these loans are easy to apply for, they can have higher fees associated with them than options from a bank or credit union.

"The vast majority of folks that purchase solar that we see end up using loans from their installers," Horowitz said. He pins that apparent preference on how easy it can be to get a loan in that way. However, getting multiple loan proposals (at least two, Horowitz said) can save you significant money.

One such option is a home equity loan or home equity line of credit, where you borrow against the equity of your house (what you could get for selling it minus what you owe on your mortgage). You can borrow up to 85% of that amount, according to the Federal Trade Commission.

You can claim the federal solar tax credit if you purchase solar using a loan, though it comes back to you when you file your taxes, not when you buy your system. Still, it might be useful in paying back the loan.

Solar loans can be secured or unsecured. A secured loan is one that's backed by collateral, like your house or the solar panels themselves. Essentially, you're saying the lender can sell your collateral to pay off the loan if you fail to pay it. Solar loans are most often secured by the solar equipment, Klein said. Home equity loans are secured by the value in your house. Unsecured loans don't have that guarantee backing them up. As a result, secured loans offer lower interest rates and longer terms for paying them back. 

With any of these options, it's important to shop around and compare lenders. Again, this article isn't to be considered as financial advice. 

Getting help from the government to buy solar panels

Beyond the federal solar tax credit, the federal government (and sometimes your state) can help with a couple of other financing options.

A HomeStyle energy mortgage from Fannie Mae allows you to add the cost of a solar project into your new or refinanced mortgage. The Federal Housing Administration offers similar additions to mortgages. The amount of money you can borrow is determined based on the value of your home. 

One of the advantages of an energy efficient mortgage is that you're borrowing money once instead of twice. That means you only pay one set of loan costs and fees, and you can pay it back over 30 years, instead of 10 or 15 as can be the case with other solar loans. This keeps your monthly payment low. Not every lending institution offers loans from these programs and the borrowing process can be complicated.

"They tend to be more complicated, because you need to make so many phone calls to reach the right people," Horowitz said. That can place an extra burden on people who have fewer financial resources, the people the program is meant to help. It's important to work with an institution who knows how to navigate these systems, Horowitz said. 

An energy efficient mortgage can be used for other energy saving equipment in addition to solar panels such as new insulation, new windows and doors, smart thermostats or water efficiency improvements. Whatever the upgrade, it must be cost effective, which means it needs to save more money over its lifetime than it costs. For most places in the country, solar panels are sure to satisfy that requirement.

Johner Images/Getty Images

Another option is Property Assessed Clean Energy, which deserves a brief mention despite only being available to residential customers in California, Florida and Missouri. Working with a local PACE office, you can finance your solar panels and pay back the loan over a longer period of time through an additional charge on your taxes. In theory, this makes large purchases more affordable, though early iterations of the program have actually buried some low income homeowners with debt and the possibility of foreclosure. New regulations passed by state legislatures could fix this problem.

Getting solar through a lease or power purchase agreement

If buying solar using cash or a loan is out of reach because of poor credit, lack of cash or some other reason, you still have options. Instead of buying, you can enter into a lease or power purchase agreement with a solar provider. With both options, lumped together as third-party-owned solar, the solar provider owns the panels and you agree to pay for the equipment (via lease) or pay for the power (power purchase agreement), usually at a lower price than you pay your utility.

CNET went into detail on power purchase agreements earlier, but briefly, here's what you need to know.

The biggest benefits to these arrangements are that you don't have to buy solar panels to get solar power. Usually you'll save money on power over the life of your agreement, too. And you won't have to worry about the maintenance of the panels, although maintenance usually isn't a huge burden.

Power purchase agreements usually save you less money than buying panels outright. And, depending on the price of your lease or power purchase agreement and how much your payment increases over time, you could end up saving significantly less. The federal tax credit also goes to the owner of the system, in this case the solar company.

Because these agreements commonly last for 25 years, they work best if you plan to stay in your house long term. Anecdotal reports reveal moving to a house with third-party-owned solar panels can be onerous and expensive. What happens if you move is something you'll want to be sure of before sticking third-party-owned solar panels on your roof.

Also, be aware that third-party ownership of solar panels isn't allowed in every state.

Which solar financing option is best?

Sorry! I'm not giving financial advice here. Before making any decision, make sure you get the advice you need from someone qualified, get multiple offers on solar projects or loans, and make a point of reading all the fine print.

Are there finance options I left out? Others you're curious about? Did you finance solar panels in a way that worked perfectly for you? Reach out via comments and let me know.

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When Local Newspapers Fold, Polarization Rises. Here's What You Can Do

When Local Newspapers Fold, Polarization Rises. Here's What You Can Do

Russia's invasion of Ukraine, rising energy costs and our ongoing struggles with the coronavirus pandemic take up a lot of our attention these days. But there's more going on a lot closer to home -- you just might not know it, because your local newspaper is gone.

More than a quarter of hometown newspapers have disappeared in the last century, leaving about 70 million Americans with little or no way to stay informed about their city and county governments, schools or businesses. As the country heads toward the 2022 midterm elections, Americans are increasingly turning to friends and social media to stay informed -- which isn't always trustworthy, as we learned during the 2016 election when around 44% of Americans were exposed to disinformation and misinformation through untrustworthy websites. 

"The state of local news in America is dire," said Tim Franklin, senior associate dean of Northwestern's Medill School of Journalism and head of the Medill Local News Initiative.

Local journalism isn't just a nice idea. Community newspapers report some of the most important stories in our country. That includes the Boston Globe's 2002 series exposing the Catholic Archdiocese of Boston's sex abuse of minors, Sara Ganim and The Patriot-News' coverage revealing Penn State sex abuse scandal involving Jerry Sandusky and the Charleston Gazette-Mail's 2017 expose on opioids flooding into West Virginia. 

This is part of Citizen Now, a package that aims to empower readers with information about our changing world. 

CNET

But for every Pulitzer Prize-winning local journalism story, there are countless more that have  served as chroniclers of their communities and watchdogs of the people in power. And when they aren't there, research from the Brookings Institute found there's generally more government waste and fraud. 

"When you have less local news, there's various effects, some of which you'd find predictable: lower voting turnout, more corruption, more waste," said Steven Walden, president and co-founder of Report For America, a nonprofit that funds young reporters to work in understaffed newsrooms throughout the US. "There's also evidence that you have more polarization and misinformation."

The journalism industry has been struggling to adapt. Advertising, once a vital part of the newspaper world, has shifted to online. Meanwhile, profit-hungry newspaper owners have chosen to lay off staff and reduce the quality of their products.

Nonprofit organizations have stepped up to support newsrooms in several ways, but ultimately, they live or die by their communities. Many local papers and radio stations depend on individual donations to fund reporting that would never be done by larger publications, covering civic meetings and investigating local issues that lead to exposés which fix injustices. Even simply signing up for and reading local news draws people closer to issues that affect them -- and reinforces what publications do.

"Most of these stories weren't big but they mattered immensely to the residents in a community larger outlets didn't regularly cover," said Greg Yee, now a reporter at the Los Angeles Times, speaking about his year writing for the Farmington Daily Times in Farmington, New Mexico. (Full disclosure: Yee is a former colleague of this article's author.) Stories that stick out from that time include a mobile home park cut off from natural gas in winter and a new gas station opening in a Navajo Nation community, the only fuel access in 30 miles, that significantly improved locals' quality of life. 

"A good local news organization is a problem solver: it identifies problems and helps a community come together to solve it," said Penelope Abernathy, visiting professor at Northwestern's Medill School of Journalism, who heads a site dedicated to mapping news deserts, areas with one or zero local papers. "And a good news organization shows you how you are related to people you may not know you're related to in another part of the county, region or state."

The Washington Post / Getty Images

Long, withering decline

Journalism jobs have been shrinking for decades, driven by declining newspaper circulation and the rise in digital advertising. The news industry's advertising and subscription businesses have roughly halved over the past decade. Much of that money's shifted to Google, Facebook and Amazon, which together now hold 64% of the US online advertising market.

For newspapers, that shift in spending is catastrophic. In the decade after the great recession in 2009, the Pew Research Center found newspaper newsroom employment in the US had dropped by more than half, to about 35,000 workers. 

Ironically, the news industry has more readers than ever before – upwards of 10 times as many, according to Danielle Coffey, vice president and general council of the News Media Alliance. 

"We don't have a broken product. It's being consumed at exponential rates," she said. "The source of the problem is the revenue problem."

It wasn't always this way. 

The founding fathers believed so strongly in newspapers as a public good that they set up government subsidies for postal rates, reducing the cost of distributing the news – which at the time, was delivered on horseback.

In the 1960s and '70s, though, publicly traded paper owners began fixating on profits. To impress shareholders, news organizations conglomerated into big chains that gobbled up local papers into regional networks, said Amanda Lotz, professor of the Digital Media Research Centre at Queensland University.

"The financialization pressure really moves [newspapers] away from the balance between a commercial and public service enterprise of providing news to a community," Lotz said. 

Rounds of acquisitions resulted in the gutting of editorial budgets and staff. With fewer reporters, newspapers started relying on national stories published by wire services, a trend that created "ghost papers" that had little or no local content. Meanwhile, the internet became an easy substitution for things online that had until then been exclusive to the paper, like weather, sports scores, classifieds and even news.

Venture capitalists and other financial firms began buying up newspapers in the 1980s but rapidly accelerated in the last two decades, growing to own over 23% of US newsrooms today while wringing out profits with more layoffs.

"Those losses put more strain on already stretched newsrooms and the publications ended up churning through staff," said Yee, who worked for four years at a pair of newspapers owned by hedge fund Alden Global Capital. "All of that translates into worse, inconsistent coverage of the communities they're trying to serve."

As a result, from 2004 until the start of the pandemic in 2020, the US lost a quarter (around 2100) of its newspapers, according to a report from the University of North Carolina's Hussman School of Journalism and Media. By the end of last year, another hundred were gone, Poynter reported, expanding news deserts that are mostly located in financially-impacted rural areas in the country's interior.

Some papers have tried to rely more heavily on subscriptions, while transitioning to mainly digital publishing. Some success stories include the Chattanooga Times Free Press, which has been operating since 1869. Last September, it switched to a daily digital edition and a single print edition on Sunday from a daily print edition. The publication spent $6.1 million to give all its monthly subscribers iPads and train them one-on-one how to use them to access their daily paper, and it's retained subscribers through the transition. 

"There are some real success stories in this transition. If you can lower your paper costs and your distribution costs and if you can attract enough digital subscribers, you can support a local newsroom on that. But many local news organizations are still getting a significant chunk of their revenue from print advertising," Medill's Franklin said.

Bloomberg / Getty News

Legislative fix, maybe

One way the news industry could regain revenue and profit is to seek compensation from big tech platforms. After all, advocates say, Facebook, Google, Twitter make money selling ads next to links, videos and photos published and shared freely to their networks. 

Legislators in Australia were the first to pass a law in February 2021 requiring Google and Facebook to negotiate with publishers for compensation to use their work, while France followed with its own legislation shortly thereafter. The latter locked horns with Google before finally securing legal assurance that the search giant would pay local media outlets when they appear in search results. Critics like the Electronic Frontier Foundation lament that the Australian and French laws ensured deals for big media publishers at the expense of smaller ones, but that hasn't stopped  Canada and the UK from gearing up to pass their own versions. 

A version of that idea in the US, called the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act, was proposed in March, 2021 by Senators Amy Klobuchar, Rand Paul, Cory Booker, and Lindsey Graham -- a rare bipartisan effort. The bill would allow news organizations to collectively bargain with tech companies for compensation, but hasn't moved out of committee yet.

Another idea to fund journalism Is the Local Journalism Sustainability Act introduced a year ago in the House by Representatives Ann Kirkpatrick and Dan Newhouse. That bill, if it were to become law, would give newsrooms around $50,000 annually in tax breaks to hire reporters. Small businesses, meanwhile, would receive $5,000 for the first year to advertise in local papers, and Americans would get a $250 stipend to pay for news subscriptions. It's unlikely to pass, though, in part because of partisan bickering over other spending plans on Capitol Hill.

"We need to make sure these publications can sustain themselves through this crisis and beyond, and I believe the credits in this bill make significant progress in providing a pathway to that sustainability," Rep. Kirkpatrick said when announcing the bill. 

Nonprofit newsrooms 

Some news organizations are finding funding beyond ads and subscriptions. Nonprofit foundations and philanthropic organizations are funneling grants and other aid money to newsrooms, including a new wave of nonprofit publications, like ProPublica, which run mostly on foundation and individual donations.

The American Journalism Project is a self-described venture philanthropy firm that to date has raised $90 million to back 32 local nonprofit newsrooms. Founded in 2019, it's also helped launch four more, taking the startup incubation model and applying it to digital newsrooms.

The organization focuses on both funding newsrooms and guiding them toward self-sustainability by diversifying their revenue streams, said Sarabeth Berman, CEO of the American Journalism Project. Newsrooms they've helped grow by around 67% in their first year and are projected to double their revenue in three years. 

"Will local news only be nonprofit? No. Is nonprofit news vital for the future of an informed citizenry? We think so," Berman said.

Report For America, founded in 2017, describes itself as a service organization, which helps pair young reporters fresh out of college with legacy newsrooms. The organization financially supports the reporter by paying half their salary (up to $25,000) the first year, then a third (up to $20,000) the following year. After that, it's up to the publication to decide whether to hire them permanently. 

"If you're not in New York or Boston or Washington, some of these news organizations have trouble getting people to go out to smaller towns," said Report For America's Waldman. "We have a very significant recruiting operation and are able to create a sort of self-selected group of people who are really passionate about local."

Report For America has grown its graduating class to 130 reporters this year, up from its first class of 13 in 2018 -- to date, over 560 reporters have gone through the program and partnered with local newsrooms. They include Laura Roche of the Charlotte News & Observer writing about the fraught debate over museums returning the unethically sourced remains of Black people, Sierra Clark of the Traverse City Record-Eagle writing about Melissa Isaac and many others in her Anishinaabek Neighbors series, and Brandon Drenon of the Indianapolis Star writing about the NAACP and others criticizing Indiana schools for failing Black students.

Report for America also connects newsrooms with donors in their area in an effort to get the community more involved in funding its local news again.

"Our goal is to actually help change the local business models in a way that they can sustain that," Waldman said.

The nonprofit Knight Foundation pledged to give $300 million to news organizations in 2019, some of which will go to both the American Journalism Project and Report For America, among other nonprofits that in turn support local newsrooms -- efforts that can be seen city by city on this interactive map. The flow of financial support is important for local newsrooms that operate on nonprofit and for-profit models, which are both valuable to their communities, said Jim Brady, vice president of the Knight Foundation's journalism program.

"Nonprofits tend to be more investigative or enterprise in nature, and the for-profits tend to provide more information on how consumers can live their daily lives. So we think both must be part of the answer to how local news can thrive," Brady said. 

An infographic from the UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media's project website, The Expanding News Desert, headed by Penelope Abernathy.

UNC Hussman

What to do if you don't have local journalism

News experts have advice for what to do if you live in a news desert, with little or no coverage. First on the list: Stop thinking that social media posts are an informative replacement for reporting. Social media can help people know what's going on, but it's rife with bias and misinformation. 

"There's a proliferation of misinformation and disinformation that goes unchecked because there's no local journalist checking on the facts. [Social media is] a place where unvetted gossip can get spread," Franklin said.

People need to learn to spot misinformation that's spread on social media by publications that look like they're trustworthy but aren't. Both the World Health Organization and the Poynter Institute have their own free online courses to learn how to fact-check posts yourself -- not just to spot fake news, but also to understand the agenda behind why they're spreading in the first place.

In the voids left by local papers, citizen journalists and bloggers have stepped up to provide their communities with informative coverage, but they lack the oversight and vetting a newsroom provides. For lack of better options, a citizen reporter could start a site on Substack and write about local events, Franklin suggested. 

The best thing to do is to reach out to regional papers the next town over and request coverage. You can find your nearest local or regional paper on Newspapers.com or  NewspaperMap.com. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting has a station finder site too, and if you're a fan of National Public Radio, you can sign up to become a member of your local station in order to help support it. It isn't a perfect solution for an existing newsroom to stretch to cover another area, but is far better than starting a new local publication from scratch. 

But if your community decides to launch a new publication, organizing it as a nonprofit newsroom is a successful way to go. They rely on donations -- foundation support and individual giving account for a combined 83% of nonprofit revenue, according to the Institute of Nonprofit Newsrooms' 2021 Index. And that model is working: 83 of the over 400 nonprofit newsrooms affiliated with INN are less than five years old.

Then there's nonprofit newsroom Berkeleyside, which hosted the so-called first 'direct public offering' where it solicited a combined $1 million in funding from 355 of its readers (an average of $2,816 per person) in 2018 to get started. These are technically securities, but sold directly to its readers, and the publication continues to publish today. It's one of many ways newsrooms are innovating new ownership structures to stay solvent.

"We need to get more support from communities, from local community foundations, from national media foundations and from high net-worth individuals to help make local news sustainable in all areas of the country," Brady said.

Correction, June 28: The original version of this story incorrectly stated how many reporters were in Report For America's first graduating class. Its first graduating class of reporters was in 2018 and had 13 members.

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You want you type top features of windows 10 what windows 10 features should be on all features of windows 10 all features of windows 10 windows 10 windows features top 10 features of windows 10 all features of windows 10 windows 10 s features 5 windows brewery 5 windows accessories

5 Windows 10 features that are better than what you had on Windows 7

5 Windows 10 features that are better than what you had on Windows 7

Finally made the upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 10? Hopefully the answer is yes, since Microsoft stopped supporting Windows 7 ($5 at Target) over a year ago, which means devices running that OS no longer get important updates or security patches. But never fear: Learning how to navigate Windows 10 ($144 at Amazon) isn't too difficult, especially if you can pinpoint all of the big differences between the new OS and the older version. 

From tighter security to a new browser, Windows 10 has a lot to offer. Here are some of the biggest feature updates in Windows 10, compared to Windows 7. 

Read more: You can still download Windows 10 for free -- and you should because Windows 7 is dead

Security improvements

Windows 10's advanced security and continuous patches and updates are the top reason to switch to the latest version of the OS. Some of the best security features include: 

• Windows Hello: Software that uses facial recognition to unlock your machine using its webcam, as well as to unlock more than a dozen apps.
• Microsoft Defender: The antivirus program and internet security software comes free with Windows 10.
• Automatic updates: Unlike previous versions of the OS, Windows 10 offers automatic updates by default, to keep systems more secure. (You can turn these off if you want to, by going to Windows Update Settings > Advanced Options and changing from Automatic to another option in the drop-down menu.) 

If you're still holding on to Windows 7, at least consider these security tips to protect your Windows 7 laptop. You can also check out this full comparison of Windows 10 and Windows 7 security features from Microsoft. 

Read more: The best antivirus protection of 2021 for Windows 10

Matt Elliott/CNET

Start menu

Hit the familiar Windows icon at the bottom left of the screen or on your keyboard to find a list of your desktop apps and programs. Similar to the Start menu in Windows 8, the Windows 10 Start menu includes live tiles -- large icons to the right of the Start menu including Mail, Calendar and Weather. You can customize these tiles with any app you like: Just open the Start menu, click All apps and find the app you want to make into a tile. Right-click it, and click Pin to Start. To remove a tile, right-click it and click Unpin from Start. 

With Windows 10, you can also access a lesser-known second Start menu that helps you access important features like the Command Prompt, the Control Panel and the Task Manager much easier, either by pressing the Windows key + X or by right-clicking the Windows icon/Start button. 

Read more at TechRepublic: Windows 10: A cheat sheet

Cortana

Microsoft's digital assistant Cortana is available on Windows 10 PCs. Cortana acts as a personal assistant -- similar to Apple's Siri -- and operates via voice command to help with tasks like scheduling and reading or summarizing your email. 

Go to Start > Settings > Cortana to turn Cortana on and off, and control when and how you use the assistant. For example, toggle yes if you want Cortana to help when you say, "Hey Cortana," and yes if you want speech and typing personalization turned on, which helps the assistant get to know your patterns. 

Read more: Have a new PC or laptop? Here's how to set it up the best way

The Microsoft Edge browser now runs on Chromium.

Illustration by Stephen Shankland/CNET

Edge browser

Say goodbye to Internet Explorer: With Windows 10, Microsoft introduced the Edge browser to replace the old mainstay. In January, Microsoft rolled out a new version of Edge, built on the same engine that drives Google's Chrome browser -- making it more compatible with modern websites, for a better browsing experience. You can download the new Edge browser on Windows 10 (and, technically, since it's built on Chromium, on Windows 7 or 8 too) by going to the Microsoft Edge webpage, selecting Windows, and clicking Download. 

Continuous updates 

Unlike Windows 7, Microsoft continually updates Windows 10 to patch security issues and make the machines run better. This is part of Microsoft's move to make Windows operate more as a service, with continuous updates instead of a brand-new version. 

To check for updates, go to Start > Settings > Update & Security, and under Windows Update, click Check for updates. 

Major feature updates come twice a year, with the most recent being the October 2020 Update. This update added some new features like a new, streamlined Start menu and the ability to personalize your Taskbar. It also includes the new Chromium-based Microsoft Edge browser instead of the legacy version for the first time.

The upcoming Windows 10 Spring 2021 update will add a few more useful new features, and also set the stage for a larger Windows 10 UI update in the future. 

More Windows 10 tips

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Galaxy watch 3 reviews 2021 galaxy watch 3 45mm review galaxy watch 3 reviews 2021 galaxy watch 3 bluetooth review galaxy watch 5 galaxy watch galaxy watch 4 vs 5

Galaxy Watch 3 review: A stunning smartwatch with SpO2 tracking and ECG

Galaxy Watch 3 review: A stunning smartwatch with SpO2 tracking and ECG

Samsung's Galaxy Watch 3 has a lot working in its favor. It's one of the best-looking smartwatches out there, with a physical rotating bezel and bright, circular AMOLED display. It also brings new health and fitness tools such as a running coach, better sleep tracking than earlier models, blood oxygen monitoring and an electrocardiogram (EKG or ECG). But at $399 (or higher) it's on the pricier end of the smartwatch spectrum, and battery life on the smaller version is disappointing. 

Read more: Samsung Galaxy Watch 4: Samsung aims for the ultimate Android watch

Looks go a long way with this watch 

I was already a fan of the original Galaxy Watch with its round face and physical rotating bezel, and the Watch 3 looks even nicer. It has a bright, beautiful AMOLED screen that's easy to read even in broad daylight. It's also useful if you're on a run and need to quickly check your stats during a workout. The screen can always be on if you need it, although it'll cost you in the battery department (more on that later). I like navigating the interface with the rotating bezel instead of smudging the screen with my fingers. 

Gazing at the Watch 3 on my wrist, I think it could almost pass for a traditional analog watch thanks to its classic design. The smaller bezels mean the screen is bigger than the original's even though the body of the watch has gotten smaller. It still bulges out from under the stainless-steel frame, however, making it thicker than I'd like and not as comfortable to wear at night as the Galaxy Watch Active. 

I tried out the bronze 41mm version (the watch also comes in a 45mm size), with the tan-pink leather straps -- a welcome step up from the silicone straps on the original Galaxy Watch and Galaxy Watch Active series. The bronze is a lot less flashy than the gold of the original Galaxy Watch, and it looks softer and more flattering on my wrist. If you're planning on using it for working out or swimming (or, in my case, bathing small children), you may want to invest in a sports strap as well. I can see the leather getting worn after a while due to frequent contact with water.

A staggered rollout of its health features

Aside from its looks, what really made the Galaxy Watch 3 stand out for me was its impressive list of new health features. It has ECG, an SpO2 app that measures oxygen saturation in the blood, a blood-pressure monitor, fall detection, advanced sleep tracking, period tracking and a detailed post-run analysis. But I have to admit I was a little skeptical as to whether Samsung could deliver on all of these promises. The Galaxy Watch Active 2, for example, also launched with an "ECG feature" which is still pending over a year later. The blood-pressure feature from the original Active was unreliable at best when we tested it and calibrated it against a blood-pressure cuff. 

Samsung has since received FDA clearance for its ECG feature  which can also screen for signs of atrial fibrillation (AFib), and rolled out the feature to both the Watch 3 and the Active 2. But blood pressure that's still pending FDA clearance in the US. (Blood pressure is only available in South Korea at the time of writing.) 

Tracking blood oxygen levels on the Galaxy Watch 3 

Samsung has had SpO2 tracking on past Galaxy devices like the S10, but I was excited to test it out on the watch to see how it had improved. Apple's new Apple Watch Series 6 also tracks blood oxygen levels on demand,  while other smartwatches from Fitbit and Garmin use blood oxygen levels for sleep analysis or to determine VO2 max during exercise.

Tracking blood oxygen has become especially important during the coronavirus pandemic. People with COVID-19 can experience shortness of breath and serious dips in blood oxygen. 

Doctors and hospitals use pulse oximeters placed on the tip of the index finger to measure blood oxygen levels, but these have become a hot commodity during the pandemic as many patients experiencing shortness of breath have turned to these small sensors to determine whether or not to head to the emergency room. 

To test accuracy of the SpO2 app on the Galaxy Watch 3, I took a side-by-side reading using a medical-grade pulse oximeter and both gave results within a few points of each other (98 and 99). It also took a few minutes more to get a read on the Watch 3 and you have to position it correctly on your wrist for it to work. 

Because my oxygen levels were within the healthy range, it's hard to know whether the Watch would be as accurate as the pulse oximeter in the lower ranges as well. It's also important to note that any watch or consumer tech device should only be used as a starting point, never in place of a physician and medical care. 

Like its predecessor, the Watch 3 can monitor stress levels using your heart-rate data. The test takes a few seconds and requires you to keep your arm still. Once it has the information it needs, it'll grade levels on the stress spectrum and give you the option to go through a minute of breathing exercises to help get your rating down.

I took my stress test while on deadline writing this review and it detected very low levels, so I'm a bit skeptical about its accuracy. 

It's also added menstrual cycle or period tracking: You enter the data in your watch and it syncs with the Samsung Health app, which can give you information about your next period and predicted fertility window. The feature isn't native to Samsung and is powered by the Glow app, which was already a relatively established name in the menstrual health tracking category and one I'd used before. 

The other big health feature exclusive to the Galaxy Watch 3 is the trip-detection feature, which I hope I'll never need. If the watch detects that you're not moving after a hard fall, it immediately calls your emergency contact and shares your location. It's not on by default, so you'll have to set it up from the advanced settings option on the Watch 3 and designate an emergency contact. I tried activating it by falling on my bed a few times but I was unsuccessful. The Apple Watch (Series 4 and later) has a similar feature called fall detection that's actually saved lives.

CNET screenshot/Samsung

New ways to work out with the Galaxy Watch 3 

Despite its dressed-up exterior, the Galaxy Watch 3 doubles as a fitness tracker. It tracks 40 different workouts, including swimming (both indoors and outdoors) and will automatically detect and track seven of those workouts. Within about 10 minutes of my starting my walk, I received a notification to start a workout and it gave me credit for the 10 minutes prior. 

A heart-shaped dashboard shows you a breakdown of your active minutes, calories burned and stand time during the day compared with your target. 

I took it on my usual 3-mile run alongside the San Francisco Bay without my phone, and I found it to be fairly accurate at displaying my distance, pace and heart rate. 

You'll have to tweak the settings to display the information you want at a glance during your run, because the default doesn't include heart rate, which I personally like to have on hand. But I liked that it showed me a map of my run and a breakdown of my heart rate zones at the end of the run. It told me I had sustained my maximum heart rate for 2 minutes during the uphill portion of my run. You can also access this data after the fact on the Samsung Health app.

It also has a few bonus features for runners. The first is a running coach, the same one that debuted on the Active 2, which provides real-time feedback about pace and form during a run. Instead of starting a normal run, I selected the running coach on the watch and plugged in my earbuds. A robotic female voice told me to start my warmup. The voice gave me pace alerts throughout the run and generic tips about lengthening my stride and landing on the front of my feet instead of the heel. Be warned that using the running coach will drain the battery a lot faster than if you are tracking a regular run.

What's new to the Galaxy Watch 3 is a post-run analysis, with details including flight and contact time, asymmetry and stiffness to help identify areas of improvement. It's not as comprehensive as the data you'd get on a dedicated running watch such as the Garmin Forerunner, but it could help if you're training for a race or just looking to get more out of your usual route. 

Apparently my "stiffness" needed improvement. Good to know, but it'd be nice to get this feedback live from the running coach so I could have adjusted during my run. It can also calculate your VO2 max, or maximum oxygen consumption during exercise, to give a sense of your overall fitness and tells you what your percentage is within your age group. This is the same metric you'd get if you were doing a VO2 max test in a lab on a stationary bike or treadmill, wearing a mask that measures oxygen exchange. I'm yet to compare them to determine whether or not the reading I got on the Galaxy Watch 3 was accurate. 

Mitchell Chang/CNET

Another first on the Galaxy Watch 3 is a feature that lets you sync it with home workout videos you can control from your wrist. I wasn't really a home workout videos kind of person before March, but I think the global pandemic has made us all rethink how we exercise and I've since been doing a lot of Pilates and yoga classes on my TV. Having the workout on my wrist was a big step up from my usual routine. 

I selected an abs program on the Health app, which consisted of three 15-minute workouts during the week, and was able to cast the first of the series on my Samsung TV and and follow along with my watch. The watch vibrated to let me know when it was time to move on to the next exercise and let me pause with a press of the button when I had to readjust my position. Plus it gave me the appropriate calorie credit at the end of it (or at least what I think is appropriate based on similar previous workouts). 

This is not the first watch to offer training prompts from your wrist: Fitbit's Premium account gives workout videos that sync with the Versa, and there are third-party workout apps for the Apple Watch. But it's nice that Samsung offers it natively and for free. My one complaint is that the workout I chose had the same robotic woman's voice as the running coach guiding me through the workouts -- and let's just say she's not exactly motivating when you're trying to hold a plank for 60 seconds. 

Sleep tracking finally makes sense on the Galaxy Watch 3

One of my biggest complaints about the sleep tracking feature on the original Galaxy Watch was that it provided little context about your sleep habits, especially for if you don't know much about sleep to begin with. 

The Watch 3 has learned a lot from the mistakes of its predecessors, and now gives a more comprehensive look at your night. It gives you a full breakdown of the stages of sleep (light, REM, deep), and compares yours with a normal range. It also gives you a score based on these factors. 

I've never found the score to be helpful, but having the context of seeing my data compared with a normal range helped me figure out how to get the most out of my sleep. While my total sleep time was good, I found I wasn't spending much time in "deep" sleep compared with what's typical. I tried going to bed an hour earlier, and though my total sleep time didn't change, I was able to extend my deep sleep time and felt more rested in the morning. 

Samsung

The basic smartwatch features, but no MST for Samsung Pay

I tested the Galaxy Watch 3 with an iPhone 11 Pro and a Galaxy S20 Ultra and, while it worked well on both, some of its features, which include text responses and mobile payments, are only available for Android users. The Watch runs on Samsung's own Tizen operating system, which is easy to navigate and offers a lot more customization than some of its competitors. You can set widgets and rearrange apps right from the watch screen.

You can type, scribble, dictate or doodle a response and take calls from your wrist. It doesn't have a huge selection of third-party apps (Spotify and Strava are among the few), but it does receive notifications from most of them including Facebook, WhatsApp and even CNET news alerts.

With Spotify you get full music control, offline listening for Premium subscribers and streaming over LTE (you'll pay about $50 more for the cellular version of the Galaxy Watch 3). 

The Galaxy Watch 3 has Samsung Pay, but sadly it's NFC-only and the feature will only work at NFC-enabled terminals. The Galaxy phones and Gear S3 have MST technology so you can use them for contactless payment at nearly all credit card terminals with a magnetic strip. 

Battery life is disappointing

Samsung says the battery on the Galaxy Watch 3 will last for up to two days, which it can, but there are a few caveats. For starters, this claim only applies to the larger 45mm version of the watch. I tested the smaller, 41mm version and Samsung says this size will last closer to a day and a half with "normal use." As always, mileage may vary depending on how you intend to use it. 

With the always on display set to auto brightness, tracking a full night of sleep and taking it on a 30-minute jog (without my phone) I only just made it to the 24-hour mark. 

The watch offers some battery-saving tips including turning off the always-on feature, limiting the screen timeout and turning off location data. I made those changes and the watch lasted a day and a half when I didn't have time for a run and had the always-on screen off, but I feel like those features should be factored into Samsung's claim.

I was also disappointed to find that the watch doesn't come with its own USB wall adapter, just a cable with the magnetic charging puck, but the upside is that you can charge it on any Qi compatible wireless charger, or get a quick boost on the go using the Power Share feature on Samsung's Galaxy phones (S10 or later). 

A good-looking smartwatch with great potential

The Galaxy Watch 3 has come a long way in terms of its features and user experience. Starting at $400 for the base 41mm model, you're getting a premium-looking smartwatch that can finally keep up as a fitness tracker. But the Watch 3 won't feel fully finished until it can deliver on all of its health features.

If you're not too attached to the design, or the physical bezel, you might also consider the Galaxy Watch Active 2, which shares a lot of the same features for about $200 less.

First published Aug. 10.

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Dish Expands 5G, But There's a Catch: Here's What You Need to Know

Dish Expands 5G, But There's a Catch: Here's What You Need to Know

What's happening

Dish, the fourth US carrier, says it expanded 5G in 120 cities.

Why it matters

Dish took on its fourth carrier role when Sprint and T-Mobile merged, and has been under the gun by the FCC to roll out the service. It's supposed to a viable competitor to its bigger rivals.

What's next

Dish will still need to provide more clarity on the service, which is still invite only for now.

Dish Network may finally be on its way to offering a competitive 5G alternative to the big three national carriers. On Tuesday, the satellite TV provider updated its Project Genesis site to say 5G service is live in more than 120 cities, marking a claim of nationwide coverage amid a Federal Communications Commission deadline to roll out service to at least a fifth of the country's population. 

The announcement, a surprise change from earlier in the morning, when Las Vegas was the sole live city, could signal that the company is finally getting serious about the wireless business. Dish acquired wireless spectrum for years, but very little of a wireless network materialized. Then in 2020, Dish entered the mobile market by acquiring some of Sprint's mobile licenses, which Sprint was shedding as part of its merger with T-Mobile. The complex transaction suddenly made Dish the country's fourth-biggest carrier and led to the creation of Dish Wireless service.

But the FCC had a stipulation. To ensure competition, the regulatory agency required Dish to make sure 20% of Americans would be covered by its 5G network by June 14. The company said in a Wednesday release that the expansion exceeds that threshold. The "beta list" for the service is only available on an invite-basis only, and the company has been tightlipped about how many people will actually be able to access it.  

Dish wasn't available for comment, but Stephen Stokols, CEO of Dish-owned Boost Mobile, tweeted that 5G service is now live in 120 cities and linked to the Project Genesis site. When reached for comment, the FCC clarified that Dish is required to file status reports to the agency, with the first due on July 14. 

"Consumers benefit when there is more competition in our wireless industry," an FCC spokesperson said over email. "We are closely monitoring DISH's 5G build out to ensure that they are meeting all of their requirements in the law."

A host of issues has conspired to trip up Dish. The company acknowledged during an earnings call earlier this year that it had underestimated how much work it would take to get its own 5G network up and running. Supply chain issues only made the situation worse.

It's unclear whether Dish will suffer any consequences if it ends up missing the deadline. Neither Dish nor the FCC responded to a request for comment.

Here's what you need to know about Dish's 5G plans:

Why did the FCC put this requirement on Dish? 

The deadline is the result of a huge shift in the US mobile industry two years ago, when T-Mobile and Sprint combined in a $26.5 billion deal. The FCC nearly quashed the deal out of concern that it would lead to market concentration by taking one carrier out of the market. Only AT&T, Verizon and the new T-Mobile would remain. 

But Dish, which tried to add mobile service to its satellite TV offerings a decade ago, saw the carrier consolidation as an opportunity to become a mobile player. The company paid $5 billion for Boost Mobile, Sprint's prepaid mobile brand, as well as Sprint's 800MHz wireless spectrum specifically for 5G. Dish also secured rights to use part of T-Mobile's 5G network.

Dish still needed to build out its own 5G network, a task that it started mostly from scratch. To ensure Dish mobile customers would have solid service, the FCC originally set March 7, 2020, as the deadline for the company to have its 5G network up and running. The FCC also stipulated that coverage should reach 20% of the US population. 

The deadline, however, was pushed back at Dish's request several times. The latest deadline was set for June 14, 2022. Dish Chairman and co-founder Charlie Ergen decided against requesting another extension and expected that the carrier would meet the FCC deadline, the Fierce Wireless news site reported in May.

Did Dish make the deadline?

Dish updated its Project Genesis website the day of the deadline to say its 5G network has reached over 120 cities. But we don't know how many people in those cities are covered by the network, and ergo whether Dish has met its goal of covering 20% of the US population by June 14. According to the FCC's terms, failing to meet the deadline could result in Dish's license for wireless spectrums being revoked and paying fines of up to $2.2 billion, the Light Reading news site reported earlier this year. 

How far along is Dish's 5G network?

In early May, Dish made its 5G service publicly available in Las Vegas. Customers sign up for the service through "Project Genesis," an early access program that costs $30 per month and currently is only available on Motorola Edge Plus handsets. (The service plans accommodate other phones in the future.)

In February, Dish had said its 5G service would be live in more than two dozen cities by the June deadline. And after the Las Vegas service launched to the public, the carrier published a list of 113 cities it planned to include in Project Genesis. As recently as its first quarter earnings call in May, Dish had said it remained confident that it would activate 5G service in enough cities to reach 20% of the US population by the June deadline. 

The carrier didn't make public where 5G service was live beyond its first city until today, when it suddenly listed over 120 more cities that now have active service on the Project Genesis site. The service remains invite-only, and we don't know how much area in each city is covered.

In addition to securing Sprint's 800MHz range, Dish has also bid in several separate auctions to secure 5G spectrum licenses. These include spending $7.3 billion in January on midband 5G in the 3.45GHz spectrum and $913 million on the so-called C-band 5G in 2020. Combined, the chunks of connected 5G spectrum will serve as the backbone of its service. 

While Dish can use some of T-Mobile's 5G spectrum for years to come as part of agreements between the carriers, Dish also paid AT&T at least $5 billion in July 2021 for a 10-year contract to lean on the latter's 5G network while it builds out its own infrastructure.

What took Dish so long?

Unlike other carriers, which built their 5G networks on existing 4G LTE, Dish has more or less been building its network from scratch. It's also building the service on OpenRAN, a flexible type of cellular network that uses infrastructure from multiple vendors. 

Dish executives have acknowledged that they'd underestimated the work it would take to build their network and that they hadn't anticipated supply chain issues. 

How can you sign up for Dish 5G?

Right now, you can only sign up for Dish 5G's Project Genesis service by getting on a "beta list" of subscribers. First, check if you're located in any of the over 120 cities with 5G service. Then register by entering your email and address on the Project Genesis member site. Since the program is invite-only, there's no guarantee that applicants will be given the chance to subscribe.

Those in the Project Genesis Beta can use the Samsung Galaxy S22 and/or the NetGear 5G hotspot to access Dish's 5G network, while those in Las Vegas can use the Motorola Edge Plus smartphone. More devices will be made available later in the year.

Update, 1 pm PT and 3:45 pm PT: To include more details of the Project Genesis site and the 120 new cities. 

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Twitter Expands Fact-Checking Project Birdwatch in the US

Twitter Expands Fact-Checking Project Birdwatch in the US

Twitter said Thursday it's expanding a pilot project that allows users to add context to misleading tweets.

As part of a project known as Birdwatch, users can add "notes" to tweets that contain false information. Twitter said a "small (and randomized)" group of users in the US will see these notes on tweets and be able to rate if they're helpful. About 10,000 people have contributed to the pilot, which was launched more than a year ago, the company said.

The expansion of the project is an example of how social networks are experimenting with ways to combat the spread of misinformation, a long-standing problem that's become a bigger concern after Russia's invasion of Ukraine. From fake profiles to misleading videos, social networks have struggled to stop a flood of lies before they go viral.

While the idea of crowdsourcing isn't new, it's not entirely clear how well Twitter's Birdwatch program has been working. Poynter, which analyzed more than 2,600 notes from Birdwatch and reviewed 8,200 ratings, said in February 2021 it found that less than half of Birdwatch users cited a source and many of the notes included partisan rhetoric. Twitter said Wednesday that the "vast majority" of notes that appear on tweets cite sources. In November, Twitter started allowing users to add notes without providing their name. Twitter said the anonymity is meant to help protect people from harassment and could potentially reduce polarization. The move, though, also makes it tougher to vet a source.

Twitter's Birdwatch program is still small and most users don't see these notes. The Washington Post reported this week that Birdwatch contributors were flagging about 43 tweets per day in 2022 before Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Birdwatch also isn't available in Russia or Ukraine.

Keith Coleman, vice president of product at Twitter, said during a virtual press conference Wednesday there are a lot of challenges that come with building Birdwatch.

"As we're expanding, we want to know that the product is really working and is really helpful," he said.

Twitter users can rate if a Birdwatch note is helpful.

Twitter

The company surveyed Twitter users in the US and found that they were 20% to 40% less likely to agree with the substance of a potentially misleading tweet after reading a note about it. Coleman didn't say how many people were surveyed or when this study was conducted. CNET asked Twitter for a copy of the survey, but the company declined to share it publicly. Twitter has also worked with The Associated Press and Reuters to rate the accuracy of the notes. Most were accurate, Coleman said.

Twitter wants people who have different points of view to contribute to Birdwatch, Coleman said. The company doesn't look at a Birdwatch user's political affiliation, gender or location but instead how they've rated notes in the past. 

"If you have a note that's been rated helpful by two people who historically have always disagreed with each other, it's probably a good sign that that note is actually helpful to people from different points of view and could be worth showing," he said.

CNET wasn't invited to the press conference but viewed a recording of the call after learning about the event. 

Twitter users are able to see what tweets are being fact checked on Birdwatch. Some recent examples of notes rated helpful include one that debunked a claim that US Vice President Kamala Harris told a kindergarten class that "Russia decided to invade a smaller country called Ukraine so basically that's wrong." The March 2 note cites an article from Media Matters, a left-leaning nonprofit and watchdog group, that points out that Harris was asked to explain Russia's invasion of Ukraine in "layman's terms" on the podcast The Morning Hustle.

Another note rated as helpful appeared below a video with 12 million views that describes a woman at an ice cream stand as a "real-life hero" because she appears to have prevented a girl from getting kidnapped. "This video is most likely scripted or setup. Similar video exists with same people," the note from March 1 said, citing Reddit. The note and replies to the tweet didn't appear to stop people from sharing it. As of Wednesday, the questionable video had been retweeted more than 84,000 times and quote tweeted more than 11,600 times. The quote tweets indicate that users still believe the video is legitimate. 

"Our focus right at this phase is note quality — that notes are helpful to people, inform understanding, and accurate. As we scale and it becomes visible to more people, we believe it has the potential to impact virality, and this is something we'll be measuring," Coleman said in an e-mail after the press call. 

Twitter users aren't alerted at the moment if a tweet has a note but Coleman said as the pilot expands it would "make sense to look at extensions like this, to help people evaluate what they're reading and sharing."

Allegations of bias in fact-checking has been an issue that social networks have grappled with as they try to combat more misinformation. Last week, Russia said it's partly restricting access to Facebook after the social network refused to stop fact-checking and labeling content posted on Facebook by four Russian state-owned media organizations. Russia's telecommunications regulator, Roskomnadzor, alleges Facebook violated "fundamental human rights" by restricting the country's state-controlled media. Twitter said Saturday in a tweet it's also being restricted in Russia. 

Facebook pays third-party fact-checkers such as PolitiFact, Reuters and The Associated Press to flag misinformation on its site. The company started a project in 2019 so "community reviewers" who are contractors can help fact-checkers spot misinformation faster. Content flagged as false is shown lower on the Feed, filtered out of an Instagram page that curates content, and is featured less prominently in Feed and Stories where users post content that vanishes in 24 hours. If you try to share a fact-checked post, Facebook shows you a notice that says there's false information in the post.

Outside of Birdwatch, Twitter has taken other steps to help curb the spread of false claims, including adding more labels to misinformation, Russian state-media links and automated accounts.

While there are people who share false claims intentionally, others might share misinformation because they simply don't know it's true.

Yoel Roth, head of site integrity at Twitter, said Russia's invasion of Ukraine has made it more apparent how important Twitter's work in combating misinformation is.

"We're acutely aware of the role that we play in society and the value that public real-time conversation has," he said.

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