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Nomad's Labor Day Sale Scores You 15% Off Stylish Accessories Sitewide
Nomad's Labor Day Sale Scores You 15% Off Stylish Accessories Sitewide
There are thousands of manufactured plastic phone accessories out there, but nothing quite beats hand-crafted quality leather. Besides being strong, durable and sustainable, leather also offers a unique look however it's used. Good leather also ages well and lasts a long time. If you're looking for some great leather accessories, check out Nomad.
Nomad prides itself on delivering products that are 100% unique and hand-crafted. Its tanning process alone can take up to two months, but the result is a product that gets better and better with time. Right now, you can save 15% on your purchase with the code LABORDAY15. Plus, all orders over $150 ship free in the US.
CNET's David Carnoy is a longtime fan of Nomad's cases, describing them as "swanky" and "pretty slick" in his roundup of the best iPhone 13 cases.
The discount is good for almost everything that Nomad sells. We've pulled out some of our favorites below, but be sure to check out Nomad's site to see everything on sale right now.
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FDA Approves COVID Vaccines for Kids as Young as 6 Months Old
FDA Approves COVID Vaccines for Kids as Young as 6 Months Old
For the most up-to-date news and information about the coronavirus pandemic, visit the
WHO
and
CDC
websites.
The Food and Drug Administration on Friday approved emergency use of the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19vaccines for children as young as 6 months old.
The news comes two days after an expert panel at the FDA gave its approval for emergency use in small children. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention must still give its OK before those kids can start getting their shots, which could happen as early as next week.
In giving its approval, the FDA said that its analysis of the safety and effectiveness of the vaccines was "rigorous and comprehensive" and that it determined that the benefits of both vaccines outweighed their potential risks.
"As we have seen with older age groups, we expect that the vaccines for younger children will provide protection from the most severe outcomes of COVID-19, such as hospitalization and death," FDA Commissioner Dr. Robert Califf said in a statement.
Pfizer's vaccines had previously been approved for use in children at least 5 years old, while the Moderna vaccine had only been approved for use in people ages 18 and up.
For most small children, the Moderna vaccines will be administered in two shots one month apart, though some kids with certain kinds of immunocompromise could receive a third shot at least one month after they get their second, the FDA says.
With the Pfizer vaccine, all kids ages 6 months through 4 years will get three shots, the first two of them three weeks apart, followed by a third dose at least eight weeks later.
The White House has said that the vaccinations could start as early as Tuesday, though vaccine availability could vary state to state.
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Best Outdoor Grill Deals: Save on Charcoal, Kamado, Gas and Portable Grills
Best Outdoor Grill Deals: Save on Charcoal, Kamado, Gas and Portable Grills
Labor Day is still a month away, which means there are still plenty of summer nights left to fire up the grill. And there's no rule against continuing to grill into the fall and into the winter months. Midsummer is a great time to upgrade your grill game with sales on all types of outdoor grills. If you need a new grill for your patio, deck or tailgate parking lot, we've assembled the best deals on a variety of types of grills, from traditional charcoal grills and ceramic kamado grills to gas grills and portable grills.
Not sure which type of grill would suit you best? Before you check out our picks for the best deals on outdoor grills, take a spin through our grill buying guide. I'm firmly in the charcoal grill camp, but if you have yet to take a side in the great grill debate, here's a useful primer on which is better, a gas or charcoal grill.
Matt Elliott/CNET
There's no beating the original in terms of getting the best performance and the simplest design for the lowest cost. For a fraction of the price of a kamado or a gas grill, Weber's basic 22-inch kettle is the standard-bearer of charcoal grills. It's easy to assemble and will last for years and years. Surprisingly versatile, this Weber kettle can be used for high-heat grilling to get a good sear on burgers and crispy skin on chicken, and you can also set it up for a longer cooking session to smoke bigger cuts of meat like a brisket or pork butt. You can get it for $139 at Lowe's or Amazon.
Weber
Weber's 22-inch Premium Charcoal Grill is also a great deal for $80 more than the basic kettle above. Compared with the Original model, the Premium provides a better ash catcher (for less mess on your patio), a built-in thermometer in the lid (for help keeping a constant temperature when cooking low and slow) and a hinged cooking grate (for adding more coals without needing to remove the entire grate). The Premium model is also available in colors other than black.
Chris Monroe/CNET
Char-Broil's three-burner stainless-steel gas grill offers the best balance of features and performance among the models CNET has tested. At 25,500 Btu over 420 square inches, it provides a good amount of grilling power and space. It also has a side burner and tank storage behind two cabinet doors, and it comes with a 10-year warranty. Char-Broil uses what it calls Tru-Infrared, a set of perforated emitter plates that separate food from flame to evenly distribute heat and reduce flare-ups.
Chris Monroe/CNET
Kamado grills are usually made from ceramics and boast amazing heat retention that lets you maintain a constant temperature for low-and-slow cooking. They can also reach high temps for grilling burgers and even pizza. Big Green Egg started the kamado craze and is still the leader in making the best-performing and best-looking kamados.
I bought a Big Green Egg last year and have smoked ribs, pork butts, whole chickens, chicken wings and my masterpiece to date, a 10-pound brisket. The brisket took all day -- roughly 10 hours -- and the Big Green Egg required very little on my part to maintain a constant temperature around 250 degrees. I tried cooking a brisket on a Weber previously and had to be much more involved in adding coals and adjusting the vents to maintain the temperature of the grill.
I visited the Big Green Eggs on display in my local Ace Hardware for years before finally trading in my trusted Weber for one. The cost is high, and goes even higher when you start adding accessories, including the stand (that is, a nest for your egg) and a ceramic heat deflector for long cooking times over indirect heat. After finally taking the Big Green Egg plunge, I have no regrets. The build quality is so outstanding that I plan to have my Egg for a very long time.
Kamado Joe
Kamado Joe is the biggest kamado competitor to Big Green Egg, and the Classic II costs less than the large Big Green Egg and comes complete with a cast-iron cart and side shelves. It's not the newest model in Kamado Joe's lineup but should perform similarly to the newer Classic III for a fraction of the cost. The Classic III has three cooking zones to the Classic II's two, but two ought to be enough for most backyard pitmasters.
Amazon
As much as I prefer a charcoal grill, using a gas grill for tailgating or camping makes a lot of sense because you don't need to deal with the mess of transporting a dirty, ash-filled grill in your car. Of all the portable grills CNET has tested, this sleek gas grill from Weber was the clear winner.
It's easy to assemble and feels sturdy. The igniter works well, and the grill quickly climbs to temperature, reaching its advertised 500 degrees Fahrenheit in only 15 minutes. The flame is easy to control and keeps a consistent temperature throughout cooking, even when grilling with the flame turned low. It's big enough to cook for a group of six people and features flare-out trays to hold your plates and grilling tools. And it comes in a bunch of fun colors.
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Always Home Cam: Amazon's flying Ring drone might be tricky to get your hands on
Always Home Cam: Amazon's flying Ring drone might be tricky to get your hands on
Amazon announced during its fall hardware event Tuesday that the Ring Always Home Cam -- the flying drone camera announced during the same event last year -- will begin selling this fall. Starting today, you can request an invitation to buy the Always Home Cam.
The Ring Always Home Cam will cost $250, and it will be able to fly around your house following a preset flight path. You'll be able to schedule a route around the house or trigger a trip manually. In addition, the camera will be able to respond to certain events -- such as an armed door/window sensor in the Ring Alarm system being set off.
The camera is not designed to cover multiple floors, so flying up or down stairs seems to be out, along with remote control, which Ring said will not be possible for security and privacy reasons. The Always Home Cam will not be able to record footage while it's docked, and its loud propellers will make its presence known, in case you're worried about its access to private spaces in your home.
Ring's privacy has been the subject of close scrutiny and sharp criticism -- particularly for how it has shared user information with police, and how it has facilitated video sharing on its public app and with police. Despite some recent improvements to its policies, releasing a flying drone camera complicates already-difficult questions about where Ring stands on privacy. Indoor security cameras have contributed to serious privacy breaches as it is; to attach propellers to one and enable it to fly autonomously around a house potentially compounds the existing problems. (Ring's indoor cameras, including the Always Home Cam, cannot be used to respond to Requests for Assistance posts by police.)
Amazon's strategy for rolling out the drone cam is perhaps more telling than it seems. The tech giant has relied on invite-only sales when a device's uptake has been uncertain -- the Echo Auto, Alexa Microwave and other so-called Day 1 devices spring to mind here. The strategy, in these cases, has been explicit: limit the initial release to measure market interest. (UK and Australian prices were not announced, but $250 is about £185 or AU$345.)
The Always Home Cam has certainly grabbed headlines. The question is whether it will get people to pull out their credit cards -- or their Prime cards. Or perhaps, eventually, to ask Alexa to order it for them.
At Tuesday's event, Amazon also announced the Ring Alarm Pro, Amazon Blink, the Astro, a new custom alerts feature and more. The company unveiled that Ring will soon let you hire virtual security guards to monitor your doorbell feed, as well.
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Apple Watch: It's been 5 years since my original review, and it holds up
Apple Watch: It's been 5 years since my original review, and it holds up
I'd love to say that when I first put on the Apple Watch, I'd never seen anything like it before. But of course, that's not true. By late 2014 I'd been surrounded by smartwatches for a few years. So when Apple announced it was making its own watch, my thought (as so often with Apple) was: finally.
The first smartwatch I reviewed at CNET was the Martian Passport, an analog watch that could make phone calls. It sounds so primitive now, but it was cool in early 2013. The Pebble Watch followed, and the Steel version became my favorite: It was like a Casio watch turned into a useful little pager-assistant. It was simple and had long battery life, and it was great.
There were others, too: Samsung's first smartwatches were ambitious (a camera?). Google's first Android Wear watches arrived in 2014. Meanwhile, there were Fitbits and Jawbone trackers galore.
I say this to lay the groundwork for the Apple Watch and what its impact was. Like the iPhone wasn't the first smartphone, the Apple Watch wasn't the first smartwatch... but it made the biggest footprint. It was another step validating that a world of wearables was here to stay.
I was able to wear the Apple Watch a month before it went on sale. I spent a ton of time with it, getting used to both how it handled phone calls, and the activity tracking rings. I looked at my heart rate measurements. I accidentally ordered an Xbox One with an early Amazon app.
The Watch was, much like the first iPhone, sometimes feature-limited. But it also had some features that already stood out.
My original review was updated a year later, which you can read here. Some parts have changed, clearly, and Apple has updated the OS. But I'll comment on what I wrote then, and how I felt, and how that's evolved. Quotes from the original review are in italics.
The gold Apple Watch, way back when.
James Martin/CNET
An excellent design, with luxury overtones
Apple wants you to think of the Apple Watch as fine jewelry. Maybe that's a stretch, but in terms of craftsmanship, there isn't a more elegantly made piece of wearable tech. Look at the Apple Watch from a distance, and it might appear unremarkable in its rectangular simplicity compared with bolder, circular Android Wear watches. It's clearly a revamped sort of iPod Nano. But get closer, and you can see the seamless, excellent construction.
The first Apple Watch came in aluminum, steel and ramped all the way up to a gold model costing more than $10,000. Compared to other smartwatches, it screamed luxury.
Certain touches felt luxurious, too: the fine-feeling Digital Crown, which spun ever so smoothly like a real watch part, for instance. The OLED display, which was a first for an Apple product, looked crisp and bright.
The most amazing part, maybe, were the watch bands. Apple created a really nice series of specially designed straps, from a steel link to a clever magnetic Milanese mesh that were extremely expensive and impressively engineered.
Its watch face designs were great, too, and they integrated some information from the iPhone that aimed to add at-a-glance ease of use. There was a Mickey Mouse watch face that danced! The Solar face showing sunrise and sunset, and the astronomy face that showed planetary alignments and moon phases, felt like magic. I wanted more, but Apple's assortment of watch faces was limited, and it didn't allow for third-party watch face design. That's still the case now.
A lot of the Apple Watch reminded me of the strides Apple began with the iPod Nano, which also had watch mode... and a Mickey Mouse watch face.
Sarah Tew
New technologies at first: fantastic haptics, a force-sensitive display
All Apple Watches have a new S1 processor made by Apple, that "taptic" haptic engine and a force-sensitive and very bright OLED display, which is differently sized on the 38mm and 42mm models. The watch has its own accelerometer, gyrometer and heart-rate monitor, but no onboard GPS. It uses Bluetooth 4.0 and 802.11b/g/n 2.4GHz Wi-Fi to connect to your phone or your home network. There's a built-in speaker and microphone, but no headphone jack.
As I wore the watch on the first day, I felt a rippling buzz and a metallic ping: one of my credit card payments showed up as a message. Apple's "Taptic Engine" and a built-in speaker convey both a range of advanced taps and vibrations, plus sounds. Unlike the buzz in a phone or most wearables, these haptics feel sharper: a single tap, or a ripple of them, or thumps.
Sometimes the feelings are too subtle: I don't know if I felt them or imagined them. My wrists might be numbed from too many smart devices. I set my alerts to "prominent" and got sharper nudges on my wrist.
The first watch introduced some ideas that eventually made their way to other iPhones. A "taptic engine" delivered on some amazingly refined vibration effects, ranging from a purr to a ping to a gentle tap. These were way ahead of what anybody else was doing -- and they weren't just a gimmick. The notification types associated with unique vibrations felt distinct. Sometimes, the vibrating taps on the first Watch weren't as powerful as I wanted. But with later updates, the haptics made parts of the interface seem real: virtual wheels, clicking as if moving with invisible gears.
The more advanced haptics made their way to the iPhone next, making us used to them now. Other phones, game consoles like the Nintendo Switch, and VR accessories, have evolved haptics since, but the Apple Watch was the first mainstream device that upped the haptics game.
Force Touch was another wild idea: Apple made its watch display force-sensitive, meaning a deeper press could work like pushing a button. Though this idea was refined further into 3D Touch on the iPhone 6S, 3D Touch was a technology that never became as necessary as expected, and current iPhone models have dropped the pressure-sensitive display tech completely.
The Apple Watch still has Force Touch, though, and I think it always will.
Digital Touch: I never used it much after that.
Sarah Tew
Lots of features. Too many features?
As you can see, this is a lot of stuff. Did I have fun using the watch? Yes, mostly, but there are so many features that I felt a little lost at times. There are so many ways to interact: swiping, touching, pressing harder into the display, a button and a clickable digital crown-wheel. Plus, there's Siri. Do I swipe, or click, or force touch or speak? Sometimes I didn't know where an app menu was. Or, I'd find getting back to an app I just had open would require an annoying series of crown clicks, swiping through apps, then opening the app again.
There's a reason I used the word "complicated" to describe my feelings using that first Apple Watch. Setting up bits of information, called complications, was slow and not always intuitive. Apps took a while to load, and were sometimes so slow that it was easier to check my phone instead. Quick glances and notifications, and phone calls, were fine. Apple Pay on the watch was clever, but would I use it? I wished the watch had more battery life.
I didn't like the overcomplicated feel. The design of the OS, and the card-like swappable mini-view apps that used to be on the Watch like a dock, changed over time. It's gotten better since.
Storing music on the watch, while it took a while to sync, was easier than attempts on Samsung Gear or Android Wear. Of course, I had to hunt for a good pair of Bluetooth headphones to connect with the watch.
Today I still forget to dive into and make the most of the apps on the watch. I just dusted off Walkie Talkie: it's cool. There's noise monitoring. One app lets me remote control my iPhone camera, which has been a huge help for my stay-at-home self-shot videos. The Remote app helps me when I lose the Apple TV remote every other day.
Third-party apps, and the grid of options? It turns out I don't use them much at all. I don't dig down deep into the layers of functions. I prefer what's on the surface: watch faces, and their readouts. But I've come to appreciate the watch's surprising number of options and settings. It's better than not having them at all.
The rings were the beginning.
Sarah Tew/CNET
Fitness: The ring idea was just the beginning
The Apple Watch doesn't work any fitness miracles that the rest of the wearable world hasn't already invented, and it doesn't ship with any new magical sensors that change the game. But the Apple-made integrated fitness apps, Activity and Workout, are far and away the best fitness apps on any existing smartwatch that isn't a dedicated "fitness watch" (Samsung Gear, Android Wear, Pebble and the like). A clever three-ring method of tracking daily activity, which simultaneously measures and rewards daily calorie burn, active exercise and standing up, feels like a fusion of rewards and metrics seen on the Nike FuelBand, Jawbone Up, Fitbit and others.
I appreciated Apple's complete-the-ring motivational activity tracker, which felt inspired by wearables like the Nike FuelBand (not surprising, since Apple's head of fitness, Jay Blahnik, arrived from Nike). For the red ring's daily goals, it's great. It felt too easy to complete the blue Stand ring, and it still does.
There are tons of fitness advancements Apple has made on the Watch in the last five years: GPS, resting heart rate, workout controls, social sharing, third-party app integration, swimming, modes for accessibility, activity trends -- and I haven't even discussed Apple's massive health aspirations like adding ECG, checking for falls, monitoring elevated or irregular heart rate or women's health tracking. There is some form of coaching and motivation, too. But I'd still love to see more of that. I hit a wall when trying to be fit, and there's only so much watches seem to help.
The first Apple Watch was more of a Fitbit. Now, it's more of a health companion. Those two worlds still feel like they need to dovetail and grow. There are missing features, too, like sleep tracking, which feels like the inevitable next step.
You still need an iPhone, just like in 2015.
Sarah Tew
It was, and still is, an iPhone accessory
Much like most other smartwatches, the Apple Watch isn't a standalone device -- it's a phone accessory. Android Wear, Samsung Gear, Pebble and others work the same way. But here, you must own an iPhone 5 or later to use the Watch. A few Apple Watch functions work away from the phone, but the watch primarily works alongside the phone as an extension, a second screen and basically another part of your iOS experience. It's a symbiote.
One thing I noted back then was that you needed an iPhone to use the Apple Watch. Unlike other wearables that can pair with Android or iOS, or even sync with a computer, the Apple Watch was always designed to live symbiotically with the iPhone.
That's still the case now. Even with independent cellular options, and an on-watch App Store, you can't use the Watch without pairing to an iPhone. And it still won't work with Android. It's a shame, because a fully standalone watch could be a really helpful tool for many people who don't have iPhones, and it could even be a phone alternative (for kids, maybe).
Apple's AirPods created a gadget trinity where the Watch, the iPhone and AirPods can all work seamlessly together. But that trinity is an expensive one. The entry price of the Apple Watch has dropped, at least. But it feels like an extension of the iPhone more than its own device, even now.
The Apple Watch Series 5: much better, with a few similarities.
Sarah Tew/CNET
Today: the best watch in a war of attrition
You don't need an Apple Watch. In many ways, it's a toy: an amazing little do-it-all, a clever invention, a possibly time-saving companion, a wrist-worn assistant. It's also mostly a phone accessory for now. In the months and years to come, that may change: with Apple's assortment of iPads, Macs, Apple TV and who knows what else to come, the watch could end up being a remote and accessory to many things. Maybe it'll be the key to unlock a world of smart appliances, cars and connected places. In that type of world, a smartwatch could end up feeling utterly essential.
I think back to what the Apple Watch was competing against back then: Jawbone, Pebble, Fitbit, Google's Android Wear, Samsung's watches, the Microsoft Band. A lot of competitors are gone now. Fitbit was acquired by Google. Samsung still has watches. Garmin makes lots of dedicated fitness watches. There are still plenty of more affordable relative newcomers, too.
The original Apple Watch, with the Pebble Steel, Moto 360 and the original iPod Nano with wristband (clockwise from top left).
Sarah Tew
In a field of fewer alternatives, the Apple Watch's consistent addition of new features and ongoing performance improvements has made it the best option. It's Apple's commitment to gradual improvements that has made it a stand-out watch now, especially compared to the struggles of Google's Wear OS.
The Apple Watch is still an iPhone accessory. And it's still not an essential product. But it's become a really fluid and useful device, one with lots of key upgrades that work, and one that's a lot easier to use.
What's the best smartwatch now? The Apple Watch. That doesn't mean I don't want to see improvements: battery life, sleep tracking, a watch face store and most importantly, Android support and true standalone function. If the last five years are any indication, Apple will tackle these problems on its own... time.
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Best Cloud Gaming Services
The dream of cloud gaming is the ability to play PC or console games on any device, anywhere, regardless of how low-power your hardware is. It promises you won't have to worry about updates, patches or upgrades. And the dream has come true to a large extent, making streaming games a reality.
Cloud gaming has come far since the hype train left the station in 2018. There's still no guarantee that you'll have a seamless, consistent experience, but it has reached the point where it feels like you can sit down and start playing without getting bogged down by glitches -- at least most of the time.
Network issues remain, but Wi-Fi 6 and 6E and 5G cell service have helped smooth over the rough spots. It's still not a great option, however, if you live in or travel to places somewhere with poor connectivity or if your broadband costs are exorbitant.
But from a gamers perspective, there are really only five major options dedicated to gaming, as opposed to general PCs-as-a-service, like Shadow, or closed-network solutions, like console remote play or Steam Link: Xbox Cloud Gaming (part of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, one of our top game subscription services), Nvidia GeForce Now, PlayStation Plus Premium, Amazon Luna and Google Stadia.
And of those five, only Xbox and GFN really deliver on the promise, though Luna has its high points. The only non-PlayStation that PlayStation Plus Premium works on is PCs. And while Stadia's got strong underlying technology, Google seems more interested in making money off the platform rather than a consumer service, and it's effectively let it languish.
The two top choices are completely different from one another as well. Xbox Game Pass Ultimate streams games from its subscription library, while GeForce Now streams games you already own, as long as they're supported. If you can afford it and already have a large library, they complement each other nicely.
Lori Grunin/CNET
Xbox Game Pass delivers something for everyone who plays games, making it a great option for many types of gamers. Though the feature is still technically in beta, it also delivers robust cloud gaming with the $15-a-month Game Pass Ultimate subscription tier ($1 promo price for the first month). In addition to all the Game Pass perks, it can stream to any device via dedicated apps (PC, some TVs, Android phones), browsers (for iPads, iPhones and Chromebooks) or Xbox.
The library has close to 500 games, almost 400 of which are playable via the cloud, and that includes EA Play, with cloud support for quite a few of its games. That makes it one of the largest cloud-capable libraries available. And Game Pass offers some Xbox Game Studios games on day one -- the Studios produce a fair number of games -- and Microsoft says later this year it plans to expand support to allow you to play games you own via the cloud if they've left the service.
Some features, such as the frustrating "play with touch," feel like they're still in beta. Plus, as with many libraries, games come and go, and sometimes come again. It's also limited to 1080p at 60fps.
Read our Xbox Game Pass review.
Lori Grunin/CNET
Because of its smart set of plan options, solid performance and big and growing list of supported games, along with Nvidia's aggressive strategy for its data center and GPU businesses -- the bedrock on which GeForce Now is built -- it's a great choice for gamers who've amassed large game libraries and want to play them in more places. GeForce Now distinguishes itself from the competition because, in addition to a host of already free-to-play games, it lets you play games you've already paid for. It works primarily with Steam and Epic Games Store, but also GOG, and supports launchers for Ubisoft Connect and Origin. In other words, unlike all the others it doesn't require that you buy a special version of a game or stream games from a subscription library.
It works, via an app or web browser, on Android; Windows and Mac OS; Chromebooks; Chrome, Safari (for iPad and iPhone) and Edge web browsers; and Some TVs natively, all TVs via Nvidia Shield. Plus, with a browser it can be coaxed to run on more novel devices as well, such as the Xbox or Valve Steam Deck.
Pricing starts at free, basic 1080p streaming for hour-long sessions and ramps up to as much as $20 a month ($16.70 if you pay six months up front) for all the perks, including streams up to 4K/60fps HDR or 1440p/120fps for 8-hour sessions, ray tracing, priority server access and access to the highest-power servers.
Read our GeForce Now review.
Screenshot by Lori Grunin/CNET
Given that it's the oldest service -- Sony launched PlayStation Now in 2014, then bought the assets of OnLive in 2015 -- you'd think Sony would have added a lot more capabilities. When it relaunched in a tiered plan model in June 2022, it incorporated a relatively large catalog of older titles and a refreshed version of PS Now, available in the $18 per month Premium plan ($10 per month if you pay annually).
The non-console cloud gaming is strictly for PCs and only for a small subset of the catalog (and they're all PS4 or earlier games), via an app. And it doesn't include some of the desirable features of the service, such as the limited-time game demos, or features offered by other services, such as better-than-1080p quality and day-one availability.
Like Xbox Game Pass Ultimate's Cloud Gaming, though, you can stream games to your console if you're strapped for storage space or want to try before you buy.
How to Play PS Plus Premium Games on Your PC
Sarah Tew/CNET
Amazon Luna is less than two years old, and has expanded since it launched, but it seems to get no love from its parent company. It's nearly impossible to find the service on Amazon's site, though you'll see lots of promotion for the optional Luna Controller. You don't need Amazon's controller to play games through Luna, but the controller can connect directly to your Wi-Fi network for the lowest latency possible.
It works through an app (PC, Mac, Fire TV and Fire Tablet) or browser (PC, Mac, iPad, iPhone, Android phone).
What makes it stand out is the large number of kid-friendly titles and its relatively granular parental controls for managing what they can or can't play. It's also joined at the hip with Prime Gaming, so you get the time-limited freebies and perks, plus integrated broadcasting via Twitch. Since it comes with a Prime subscription, if you're already a member you really don't lose anything.
It can get expensive, fast, though. The service is modeled after Prime Video. As a Prime member, you get access to the base games and the Luna Plus channel, which is essentially the core game library of a little more than 120 games-- you can also subscribe to it separately for $10 per month, with a seven day free trial. They're mostly older titles, without many AAA games.
The rest comes in add-on channels, which currently include family ($6 a month), retro ($5 a month), Jackbox games ($5 a month) and Ubisoft Plus (a whopping $18 a month for less than 40 games). So if you're not a Prime member, the total monthly cost can range from $10 to $44. Quality tops out at 1080p and 60fps.
And unlike other services, you can't buy individual games in order to continue to play them via the cloud (like Stadia Pro) or locally (without losing progress) when they leave the rotation.
Read our Amazon Luna preview
Lori Grunin/CNET
Stadia will be three years old in November, but it seems like Google still hasn't figured out what to do with it as a service. The underlying technology is solid, but the service feels like it hasn't evolved at all in the interim, still offering only 51 titles for the subscription tier. Google shuttered its game studio over a year ago and in March the company launched its Immersive Stream for Games platform, which third parties can license in order to create their own streaming offerings .
There are only two tiers for Stadia: free and Pro. You can try Stadia Pro for a month free, and after that it's $10 a month. If you "buy" a Stadia game, you don't need to maintain your subscription to play it, but it will only play via Stadia. It runs in Chrome and it supports 4K and 60fps for a few of the titles.
It operates via an app on compatible Android phones, browsers (Chrome for PC and Mac, Safari for iPhone and iPad) or on a TV via a Chromecast Ultra.
One benefit of Google's push for third-party licensees is that Stadia has accumulated a nice-sized library of free game trials that you can play without an account. They're not very long -- they range from 30 minutes to 2 hours -- but they include higher-profile titles like Assassin's Creed Valhalla and Far Cry 6.
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These Technologies Could Play a Big Role in the iPhone's Future
These Technologies Could Play a Big Role in the iPhone's Future
Social distancing during the height of the pandemic in 2020 was challenging for Lucy Edwards, a blind journalist and broadcaster based in the UK. So she tried the iPhone's People Detection feature, which uses the iPhone 12 Pro's and 13 Pro's lidar sensor to detect when other people are nearby and calculate their distance from the user.
"I'm going to have to get used to it, but I'm really excited that I can be in control again," Edwards said in a BBC video from 2020 documenting her experience.
Lidar, or light detection and ranging, is just one example of how the technology inside the iPhone has evolved in the last 15 years. When the first iPhone launched, on June 29, 2007, it had a 3.5-inch screen that would be considered minuscule by today's standards and a single 2-megapixel camera. Now Apple's most sophisticated phones come equipped with triple-rear cameras that are advanced enough to shoot films, sensors that help people like Edwards navigate the world and powerful chips with billions of transistors. We're expecting to learn about what's next for the iPhone at Apple's upcoming event on Sept. 7.
The iPhone often served as a catalyst for the technologies introduced within, whether it's digital assistant Siri, mobile payments or wireless charging, and helped drive the evolution of how we live our mobile lives. But in the future, the most important part of the iPhone might be everything around it. That's according to analysts who've observed the mobile industry's general trends and Apple's strategy.
In the short term, we're likely to see incremental improvements like higher quality cameras and giant displays. But over the next decade, the iPhone could evolve into a hub for smart glasses and other devices. AirPods, Apple Watches and CarPlay-enabled vehicles may be just the start. The iPhone's core elements, like its display and charging systems, are also expected to get a significant boost.
"The next quest for the smartphone is to figure out what it will connect to next," said Runar Bjørhovde, an analyst with market research firm Canalys. "Because the smartphone has not necessarily reached its potential yet, but as a standalone device I think the smartphone is getting closer and closer to the edge."
Your iPhone at the center of everything
There's plenty of speculation about what's next after the smartphone. The resounding consensus seems to be smart glasses, with companies like Meta, Snap and Google all working on their own version of high-tech spectacles.
Apple is no exception; reports from Bloomberg indicate that the iPhone maker could debut a mixed reality headset this year or next that supports augmented and virtual reality technologies. A pair of AR-powered smart glasses could arrive later this decade, according to the report.
So what does this have to do with the iPhone? Possibly everything. Even though Apple's headset is expected to function as a standalone device, the apps and services it runs would likely stem from the iPhone.
Think of the Apple Watch. It doesn't need a nearby iPhone to function, but a large part of its appeal involves its ability to sync closely with Apple's phone. Many of the Apple Watch's notifications are also tied to accounts and apps that were set up on the iPhone.
Whether it's a smart headset, the Apple Watch, AirPods or HomeKit-enabled appliances, analysts expect the phone to remain at the center.
The iPhone will likely remain at the center of the Apple experience, serving as a hub for AirPods, the Apple Watch and possibly a pair of smart glasses one day.
Scott Stein/CNET
"The phone will be the anchor," said Gene Munster, managing partner for tech investment firm Loup Ventures and a longtime Apple analyst.
But it isn't just about connecting to new personal tech gadgets. Apple is gradually turning the iPhone into a viable replacement for the wallet, weaving it even more tightly into the nondigital aspects of our lives.
Apple has made a lot of progress on this front over the past year by rolling out new features like digital IDs for Apple Wallet and Tap to Pay, which turns the iPhone into a contactless payment terminal for merchants without additional hardware. Apple also just announced Apple Pay Later, which lets Apple Pay users split a purchase into four equal installments paid over the course of six weeks.
"It's clear that there's a lot of momentum within financial services with Apple, and I think we will see further advancements there," said Nick Maynard, head of research for Juniper Research.
Better lidar, more advanced AI for better spatial awareness
Making educated guesses about Apple's general direction for the iPhone is certainly easier than pinpointing specific changes that might be coming. But analysts have some ideas based on the seeds Apple has planted in current iPhones.
Lidar will likely continue to be important as the company pushes more deeply into augmented reality. Apple added lidar on the iPhone 12 Pro in 2020 to boost the performance of AR apps, enable new camera tricks and facilitate accessibility features like the aforementioned People Detection. The technology measures distance by determining how long it takes for light to reflect off an object and bounce back.
Yet the iPhone's current lidar sensors might not be sophisticated enough to bring Apple's augmented reality ambitions to fruition, said Munster.
"Specifically what needs to happen is the mapping of the real world needs to be more accurate," said Munster, whose firm conducts research on topics like augmented reality, autonomous vehicles and virtual reality. "And until that happens, AR isn't really going to happen."
The iPhone's People Detection feature uses lidar.
James Martin/CNET
Lidar improves the iPhone's depth-sensing skills, but it's still up to the phone's processor to make sense of all that data. Apple has leaned into artificial intelligence -- one of Silicon Valley's favorite buzzwords in recent years -- to give the iPhone and other products more context about users and their surroundings.
Once again, you can look to the Apple Watch to see this approach at work. Apple's smartwatch uses artificial intelligence and data gathered from its sensors for tasks such as tracking your sleep and noticing when you're washing your hands.
Hanish Bhatia, a senior analyst for Counterpoint Research, provided a hypothetical example of how AI improvements could one day manifest in upcoming iPhones. He envisions a future in which Apple's smartphone can observe a person's habits to understand whether the phone's primary user or a family member may be using the device.
"The way you use your phone, at what angle your smartphone is tilted ... Do you press with a particular pressure, or do you just tap it with your nails or something like that?" he said as an example. "All of these are different types of behaviors which are very unique to a user."
Bhatia's example is speculative and doesn't reflect Apple's actual plans. But with advancements in AI and technologies like lidar and ultra wideband giving the iPhone more spatial awareness, it's easy to imagine a scenario like this.
Displays and charging tech could get a big change
Perhaps one of the biggest questions surrounding Apple's future smartphone plans is whether the company will ever create a foldable iPhone. Samsung, Apple's biggest rival in the mobile space, has already launched several generations of phones with flexible designs. Motorola, Huawei and Microsoft have all followed suit, and Google is rumored to be working on a bendable Pixel. Shipments of foldable smartphones are said to have increased by 264.3% in 2021 compared with 2020, according to The International Data Corporation.
But experts like Munster and Maynard are skeptical about whether Apple will take a similar approach. Though the tech giant has filedpatents for mobile devices with flexible displays, those filings aren't always indicative of Apple's plans. Sales of foldable phones have been growing, but shipments still pale in comparison with regular smartphones. (Research firm IDC estimates that 7.1 million foldable phones were shipped in 2021 compared with 362.4 million phones shipped in just the fourth quarter of last year). And then there's the question of whether foldable devices bring anything truly new or meaningful to the smartphone experience.
There are also challenges with creating a true glass screen that's foldable, says Munster. Samsung's Galaxy Z Flip has a glass screen, but that glass is also combined with "a special material" to "achieve a consistent hardness," CNET reported in 2020.
"The piece that's missing from my perspective is how [Apple] would actually do it," Munster said.
Samsung's Galaxy Z Flip 3 can fold in half.
Sarah Tew/CNET
The iPhone's charging experience is probably due for an upgrade too. Between USB-C, Lightning and MagSafe, it isn't an exaggeration to say that Apple's charging options are complicated. Maynard believes pressure from the European Union and US senators could mean a switch to USB-C might be in the iPhone's future.
But more dramatic changes could also be in the pipeline. Rumors about a completely portlessiPhone have swirled for years, and Maynard doesn't think it's totally out of the question.
"I suspect if any vendor was going to launch a fully portless system, then it probably would be Apple," said Maynard, citing Apple's decision to remove the iPhone's headphone jack in 2016.
Wireless charging has also been a focal point for Apple in recent years, further supporting the case for a port-free iPhone. There's Apple's relatively new MagSafe chargers, and many CarPlay-enabled vehicles also support wireless connections. Apple has also patented wireless charging systems that would be built directly into MacBooks, enabling Apple's laptops to charge iPhones, Apple Watches and iPads. The iPad Pro's Smart Connector also provides a quick and easy way to attach accessories to Apple's tablet without a port.
"The number of systems that actually 100% must have a cable are diminishing," Maynard said.
Apple's MagSafe battery pack wirelessly connects to the back of an iPhone.
Patrick Holland/CNET
Otherwise, analysts expect to see routine upgrades to the camera in the near term. Munster says there's room for improvement in the iPhone's front-facing camera, while Bhatia expects Apple to continue to use display size and camera quality to distinguish the regular iPhones from its Pro iPhones.
It's impossible to know what's next for the iPhone without Apple's input. But experts seem certain on one thing: Apple is laying the groundwork for the iPhone's future today. Current iPhone features, like Apple's lidar-powered accessibility tools meant to help people like Edwards, could provide a clue about what's ahead.
"Everything we can see that they've done over the last few years is a good hint of what's coming up next," said Bjørhovde. "Because a lot of what I think they do is setting themselves up for the systems they want to integrate the iPhone into in the years to come."
