If you don’t see a Samsung phone mentioned in this guide, that might be because it’s not sold in the US and is a little harder to source for testing. But here are a few other Samsung phones I’ve tested to consider.
Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge.
Photograph: Julian Chokkattu
Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge for $1,220: Have you ever wanted a really thin and lightweight phone? No? Well, Samsung has an option for you anyway. The Galaxy S25 Edge (6/10, WIRED Review) sits in the middle of Samsung’s flagship lineup and matches several features of the Galaxy S25 Ultra, like a titanium frame, stronger front glass, and 4K 120 frames per second video recording. All the cameras even have autofocus. But it made several sacrifices to achieve its amazingly slim 5.8-mm frame (for context, the S25 Ultra is 8.2 mm thick). There’s no stylus, no telephoto camera, and worst of all, the battery capacity has been slashed. We’ve seen this before—thin phones have always compromised on battery life, and that’s no different here. I constantly had to baby this phone’s 3,900-mAh battery with average to heavy usage, and that’s just not acceptable. (The iPhone Air did it better.) If you find yourself constantly near a power source and you think you’ll enjoy the slim and light design, then go for it. Rumors suggest that the Edge did not perform well, and it may not see a successor in 2026.
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Galaxy A17 5G.
Photograph: Julian Chokkattu
Samsung Galaxy A17 5G for $200: On paper, the Galaxy A17 (5/10, WIRED Review) seems like a really great deal. Six years of software support, an AMOLED screen, expandable storage, and a decent camera. Unfortunately, it’s held back by lackluster performance. The problem is specifically the very limited 4 GB of RAM in the US model, which severely ruins the entire experience of using the phone. If you had to use your smartphone in an emergency, I would not trust the A17 to be reliable. But if your needs are extremely minimal, it may suffice.
Galaxy A36.
Photograph: Julian Chokkattu
Samsung Galaxy A36 5G for $395: The Galaxy A36 (6/10, WIRED Review) doesn’t quite measure up to its peers from Nothing and Motorola. Performance is just too choppy, and that’s not acceptable at this price. It’s manageable—it’s not so slow that it will frustrate—but you can do better. If your needs are very minimal, it’s an OK phone, and the camera system is good, with day-long battery life, a nice AMOLED screen, and 6 years of software updates.
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Galaxy Z Fold6 and Flip6.
Photograph: Julian Chokkattu
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold6 or Galaxy Z Flip6: If you don’t want to pay a premium for a new folding phone, then consider 2024’s Galaxy Z Fold6 and Galaxy Z Flip7 (7/10, WIRED Review). The Fold6 has a close to “normal” smartphone experience on the exterior 6.3-inch screen. Open the phone up, and there’s a vast 7.6-inch AMOLED screen staring at your face, turning this folding phone into a tiny tablet. The Flip6 isn’t as nice as the newer Flip7—the bigger and brighter cover screen on the latest model is a step up—but it’s worth considering over the new Galaxy Z Flip7 FE. Technically, it’s nearly identical to that phone, but the FE uses a Samsung Exynos chip instead of a Qualcomm processor, and performance may not be as smooth. The main drawback? Battery life isn’t great. Make sure you don’t pay MSRP for these 2024 phones.
If you’re looking to save some cash, it’s fine to buy Samsung’s Galaxy S23 range or the Galaxy S23 FE from 2023, as long as the prices are a good deal lower than the original MSRP. (They’re hard to find at most major retailers.) These phones will still get support for a while, and they’re pretty great. I don’t think it’s worth buying anything older.
There are certain perks to this, like how some features on the Galaxy Ring and Watch8 are only available when paired with a Samsung phone, and its earbuds will automatically switch between Samsung devices based on what you’re using. There’s not much in the way of exclusive features when using a Galaxy phone with a Galaxy laptop, but features like Quick Share let you speedily send photos and documents between your devices.
Again, it’s not necessary, and these other devices might not be the right ones for you within their respective categories, but if you’re chasing hardware parity, you have that option with Samsung.
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What Is Galaxy AI?
Photograph: Julian Chokkattu
With the Galaxy S24 series, Samsung launched “Galaxy AI,” a selection of artificial intelligence features, many of which are powered by Google’s Gemini large language models. These enable smart features that may be helpful day to day, like real-time translations during phone calls, real-time transcriptions in Samsung’s Voice Recorder app, the ability to summarize long paragraphs of text in the Samsung Notes app, or change a sentence’s tone with the Samsung Keyboard.
In the Galaxy S25 series, Galaxy AI expanded to include Gemini as the default voice assistant and the ability for Gemini to work with multiple apps simultaneously. It also debuted Drawing Assist, which lets you sketch or enter a prompt and get an AI-generated image. Now, you can also use video in real-time with Gemini, even from the cover screen of the Galaxy Z Flip7.
You can find many of these features by heading to Settings > Galaxy AI to toggle them on or off. We have an explainer on how to limit Galaxy AI to on-device processing, too.
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What Is Samsung DeX?
Courtesy of David Nield
Samsung’s DeX (short for “desktop experience”) launched in 2017, and it’s a way to plug in your Samsung phone to an external monitor and trigger a desktop version of the Android OS, all completely powered by the phone. You can find a list of compatible Samsung phones here—the Flip7 is the first Galaxy Flip to support DeX—and you’ll need a monitor, mouse, and keyboard, plus a cable to connect the phone to the monitor. (You can also cast DeX to select screens wirelessly.)
When in DeX mode, you can resize Android apps and have them all open in separate windows. It’s a proper computing platform, though you probably won’t want to use this as a permanent laptop replacement or anything of the sort. It’s great if you’re visiting another office, or working out of a coffee shop or airplane (if you have a portable display). We have a whole guide to setting up and using DeX here.
How I Test Phones
I’ve been reviewing smartphones for a decade, but one of my earliest smart devices was a Samsung Galaxy Captivate, which I got for “free” from my carrier at the time. After working during college, I finally saved enough cash for a Galaxy S3, my first flagship. I’ve spent years using Samsung phones in my personal life and began reviewing them for work not too long after.
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With each Samsung smartphone, I always put my personal SIM card inside and spend as long as I can (a few weeks) using the phone as my own. I do camera testing and compare the results with similarly priced devices, I benchmark performance and play graphically demanding games to see how they fare, I try out all the new features, and even take calls to make sure that ol’ function still works fine.
A titanium smart ring that tracks sleep, heart rate, stress, and over 20 biometric indicators without a screen, a strap, or anything that announces itself on your wrist is a different proposition to most wearables, and at £139.99 it is close to the cheapest it has ever been.
The research-grade sensors inside the 4-star Oura Ring Gen 3 Horizon monitor over 20 biometric indicators including sleep stages, heart rate, heart rate variability, stress, and activity, and because the ring sits on your finger rather than your wrist, the pulse readings are more accurate than most wrist-based wearables can manage.
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Battery life runs to up to seven days on a single charge, which means weekly charging rather than the daily or every-other-day routine that most smartwatches require, and the titanium construction keeps it lighter than the average wedding ring while remaining non-allergenic and water resistant.
The ring integrates with over 40 apps including Apple Health, Google Health Connect, Strava, Natural Cycles, and Flo, so the data it collects feeds into whatever health ecosystem you are already using rather than sitting in isolation.
An Oura Membership is required to access the full range of insights and personalised health data, with the first month free and a subscription of £5.99 per month after that, which is worth factoring into the overall cost before buying.
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The Oura Ring Gen 3 Horizon is available in sizes 6 through to 13, and because Oura sizing does not correspond to standard ring sizes, the brand recommends purchasing a sizing kit on Amazon before committing to a size, with a £10 Amazon credit included to offset the cost against your ring purchase.
Outside of Black Friday itself, £139.99 for the Oura Ring Gen3 Horizon in Brushed Titanium is about as close to the November low as this ring is likely to get until the sales come around again.
Hims & Hers, the telehealth company that sells weight-loss drugs and sexual health prescriptions, has confirmed a data breach affecting its third-party customer service platform.
The healthcare company said in a data breach notice filed with the California attorney general’s office on Thursday that the hackers stole data about user requests sent to the company’s customer support team. The company said hackers broke into its third-party ticketing system between February 4 and February 7 and stole reams of support tickets, which contained personal information submitted by customers.
The data breach notice said the hackers took customer names and contact information, as well as other unspecified personal data that Hims & Hers left redacted in the letter.
Although the company says customer medical records were not affected by the breach, the nature of customer support systems means that the data may contain sensitive information about a person’s account, personal information, and healthcare.
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It’s not yet known how many individuals had personal information compromised in the hack. Under California law, companies are required to disclose data breaches involving 500 or more state residents.
Jake Martin, a spokesperson for Hims & Hers, told TechCrunch in a statement the company was hit by a social engineering attack, in which hackers trick employees into granting access to their systems. The spokesperson said the stolen data “primarily included customer names and email addresses.” The company did not say what specific types of data were taken, when asked by TechCrunch.
The company would not say if it has received any communication from the hackers, such as a demand for money.
In recent months, customer support and ticketing systems have become rich targets for financially motivated hackers, who have raided databases containing customer information and extorted companies into paying a ransom.
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Last year, Discord had a data breach that affected its customer support ticketing system and exposed the government-issued IDs of around 70,000 people who had submitted their driver’s licenses and passports to the company to verify their age.
The new Kindle Scribe lineup, led by the first colour Kindle Scribe, has been available in the States for months now, but Amazon has finally confirmed when we’ll be able to get our hands on it.
At the centre of it all is the Kindle Scribe Colorsoft, which introduces a colour e-paper display designed specifically for writing.
Amazon says its custom Colorsoft tech keeps colours soft and easy on the eyes. Meanwhile, a new rendering engine makes writing feel fast and fluid.
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The hardware has also had a serious rethink. The new Scribe is thinner (5.4mm), lighter (400g) and around 40% faster when it comes to writing and page turns. The 11-inch display is still front and centre. However, it now feels more paper-like thanks to a redesigned glass texture and a near-zero parallax effect. This effect makes the pen feel closer to the screen.
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Amazon is also pushing software harder this time. A new AI-powered notebook lets you search handwritten notes using natural language and even pulls together quick summaries. There’s also tighter integration with Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive and OneNote. This makes it easier to import, annotate and export documents without jumping through hoops.
Other additions feel more practical than flashy. You can now write in 10 pen colours, highlight in five shades, organise everything into workspaces, and quickly jot things down via a new Quick Notes feature from the redesigned home screen.
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Battery life still stretches into weeks, and there are no distracting apps or notifications to pull you out of focus. This sticks to what makes Kindle devices appealing in the first place.
Filming a video on your phone may be a frustrating experience, with unsteady footage that looks like a terrible home video. The DJI Osmo Mobile 7P really flips the script. Priced att $99 (was $129), it produces silky smooth video that appears to have been taken with a pricier piece of equipment.
First, let’s discuss how the device performs everyday use. When you open it, the magnetic clamp immediately secures your phone without requiring you to fiddle with it. The extension rod extends to 215mm, allowing you to shoot a wide image or selfie without having to strain. If you flip down the tripod feet, you’ll have a self-standing set suitable for static pictures, time-lapse photography, and other applications. These small comforts pile up quickly when you’re out shooting, and the last thing you want to be carrying is a bunch of unnecessary gear.
Snap the Spectacular – The Multifunctional Module packs intelligent tracking, DJI Mic 2/DJI Mic Mini reception, and lighting features into one compact…
Experience Seamless Stability – Osmo Mobile 7P’s robust 3-axis gimbal stabilization ensures lossless stability. Capture creative bursts and craft…
Capture Like a Pro From Day One – Pair your Osmo Mobile 7P with DJI Mimo for ShotGuides and One-Tap Edit. Film and edit like a pro, saving time and…
The Osmo Mobile 7P also excels in terms of battery life. Its 3350 milliamp battery will keep you going for about ten hours under typical settings, enough to get through a full day of casual recording or a longer event without having to look for a power source. Even with the extra module attached for tracking and lighting, most users get five full hours out of it, which is significantly more than the earlier Osmo Mobile 6. As an added bonus, the gimbal can recharge your phone’s battery when it runs low, allowing you to stay in the game longer.
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Once your phone is balanced, the stabilization feels practically seamless, with three motors keeping the frame level while you walk, run, or pan madly. The real show-stopper, however, is ActiveTrack 7.0. Simply tap a person or item on the screen, and the gimbal will track it with incredible accuracy, even if the subject moves in and out of view or changes direction. Earlier versions required the DJI app for accurate tracking; however, this new edition incorporates a small multipurpose module with its own camera. That means the smart following feature works great in your phone’s native camera, streaming apps, and pretty much anyplace else you want to utilize it.
The same module includes a handy fill light and receiver for DJI wireless mics. The light provides just enough even lighting to sort out faces in gloomy areas or outside when it’s coming close to dusk, and the warmth can be adjusted to maintain skin tones looking realistic. When you pair a microphone, your audio will be crystal clear without the need for cords or clip-ons. That’s the beauty of this thing: all of the things that used to need separate purchases or larger rigs are now available in one nice little box.
Curious what an automatic seatbelt even is? Well, you must be on the younger side. These were pretty common in the late 1980s into the 1990s. You’d sit down in your car, shut the door, and an automatic belt would be strapped across you. You’d then have to buckle the separate lap belt into place — automatic was a bit of an exaggeration.
The federal government didn’t require seatbelts until 1968 — it wasn’t something you automatically thought about when you sat in a car around that time. By 1981, only 11% of drivers were using a seatbelt at all. Cars also didn’t even have airbags — they were still a bit of a mystery. To reduce the number of deaths on the road, the Transportation Department proposed a regulation that would require all vehicles to have some form of automatic protection by 1984.
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There was a lot of pushback over this requirement at first, largely from automakers. It was delayed multiple times over the backlash, but eventually they had to choose their form of automatic protection, either the automatic seatbelt or the airbag. Many automakers in the late ’80s went with the automatic seatbelt since it was cheaper to implement. Who even knew how those airbag things would work at the time, anyway?
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Automatic seatbelts are no longer required
New Africa/Shutterstock
Remember how the automatic seatbelt wasn’t all that automatic? Yeah, that eventually became a problem. Raymond Peck, Head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in the ’80s, felt that drivers would simply disconnect the chest belt and not even bother with the lap one. He stated: “Our latest survey evidence shows that there is a clear possibility that the automatic aspect of the new system could not only fail to increase usage but could itself create negative public reactions.”
By 1987, only 28.6% of drivers were clicking the lap belt. Drivers and passengers continued to get killed in car accidents at an alarming rate. Nationwide Insurance Co’s Ted Rodgers questioned why airbags were not required instead, pointing at the continued highway deaths.
Well, eventually, they were, but it took until 1998. Better late than never, right? With automakers forced to implement airbags, coupled with automatic seatbelts not working as intended, most models started arriving without them. Vehicle safety has continued to improve as technology expands — it’s hard to even imagine a time when airbags were seen as overpriced and complicated, causing carmakers to avoid them by offering automatic seatbelts. Oh, and new seatbelts will still save your life due to continuously advancing technology — definitely use them, even if it’s not the law.
The war in Iran has hammered global oil markets, with gas prices in the U.S. spiking significantly. Amid the rise in transportation costs, Amazon has instituted a new 3.5% fuel surcharge for sellers that use its distribution network. The policy has the potential to inflict significant new costs on the untold merchants that rely on the e-commerce giant to sell their products.
Amazon told TechCrunch that the surcharge would be in place for the foreseeable future, although the company said it will continue to evaluate a potential policy shift as market conditions evolve. The news was originally reported by Bloomberg.
“Elevated costs in fuel and logistics have increased the cost of operating across the industry,” a spokesperson said. “We have absorbed these increases so far, but similar to other major carriers, when costs remain elevated we implement temporary surcharges to partially recover these costs.” The spokesperson added that the surcharge was “meaningfully lower than surcharges applied by other major carriers.”
The new policy will take effect on April 17 and will impact sellers who use the company’s Fulfillment by Amazon service, Bloomberg writes. Fulfillment by Amazon, commonly known as FBA, allows companies to send their products to Amazon’s warehouses, where they are packed and shipped to buyers. Amazon doesn’t disclose how many merchants use FBA, but the program underpins the vast majority of third-party sales on its platform.
Iran is strategically located along the northern border of the Strait of Hormuz—a narrow but critical shipping lane for global oil supplies through which roughly 20% of the world’s oil supply passes—and the country has sought to block shipping lanes there, a move that has majorly impacted energy prices throughout the world.
A new NYT Strands puzzle appears at midnight each day for your time zone – which means that some people are always playing ‘today’s game’ while others are playing ‘yesterday’s’. If you’re looking for Thursday’s puzzle instead then click here: NYT Strands hints and answers for Thursday, April 2 (game #760).
Strands is the NYT’s latest word game after the likes of Wordle, Spelling Bee and Connections – and it’s great fun. It can be difficult, though, so read on for my Strands hints.
Want more word-based fun? Then check out my NYT Connections today and Quordle today pages for hints and answers for those games, and Marc’s Wordle today page for the original viral word game.
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SPOILER WARNING: Information about NYT Strands today is below, so don’t read on if you don’t want to know the answers.
Article continues below
NYT Strands today (game #761) – hint #1 – today’s theme
What is the theme of today’s NYT Strands?
• Today’s NYT Strands theme is… Smooth(ie) operator
NYT Strands today (game #761) – hint #2 – clue words
Play any of these words to unlock the in-game hints system.
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LINE
PLACE
CLAP
PINE
PYRE
FRUG
NYT Strands today (game #761) – hint #3 – spangram letters
How many letters are in today’s spangram?
• Spangram has 13 letters
NYT Strands today (game #761) – hint #4 – spangram position
What are two sides of the board that today’s spangram touches?
First side: left, 5th row
Last side: right, 4th row
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Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE THEM.
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NYT Strands today (game #761) – the answers
(Image credit: New York Times)
The answers to today’s Strands, game #761, are…
GUAVA
ACAI
PINEAPPLE
LYCHEE
MANGO
PAPAYA
SPANGRAM: TROPICALFRUIT
My rating: Easy
My score: Perfect
As opposed to the hits of ’80s legend Sade (who sang the brilliant Smooth Operator) it was immediately apparent that we were searching for smoothie ingredients.
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It wasn’t immediately apparent that all the words would be TROPICALFRUIT, so my first thought was for banana — the key ingredient of most smoothies — a search you could say proved fruitless.
Smoothies are a key plot point in an HBO show I am currently watching — DTF St Louis — where one of the characters pretends to be a regular consumer of The Go Getter at her local juice store, where it is later revealed that she is a regular Watermelon Breeze consumer. It’s quite the twist!
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Yesterday’s NYT Strands answers (Thursday, April 2, game #760)
AGENT
BETTOR
JOCKEY
TIPSTER
BOOKIE
TRAINER
SPANGRAM: HORSERACING
What is NYT Strands?
Strands is the NYT’s not-so-new-any-more word game, following Wordle and Connections. It’s now a fully fledged member of the NYT’s games stable that has been running for a year and which can be played on the NYT Games site on desktop or mobile.
I’ve got a full guide to how to play NYT Strands, complete with tips for solving it, so check that out if you’re struggling to beat it each day.
Zoë Schiffer: Wait, is the Pentagon Pizza thing a joke about the pizza predicting the war?
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Makena Kelly: Yeah.
Zoë Schiffer: Oh, my God.
Makena Kelly: Because they had these Pentagon pizza trackers up. When I returned the second night, yes, I came back the second night. Everything was working for the most part. There were still some screens that were turned off, but I never saw any actual Bloomberg terminals. There were some monitory Bloomberg type terminal things that it looked like Polymarket had developed themselves, but the real $50,000 Bloomberg terminal was nowhere to be found. And yeah, the second night, again, it was mostly people looking to gawk at the event, except I did find a couple of people who placed some bets on platforms like Polymarket and Kalshi. One was named William, and he said he was a member of the military, wouldn’t give me his full name. And he last year got involved in this for the first time by putting in, I think, all of his tax return into Oklahoma City sports betting.
Makena Kelly, archival audio:So, you used Kalshi?
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William, archival audio:Yes.
Makena Kelly, archival audio:When did you first start using the service?
William, archival audio:Probably when I got my tax return back.
Makena Kelly, archival audio:OK.
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William, archival audio:So, I filed my taxes pretty early and I was like, “Oh, sweet. I got my tax return. What am I going to do with it?” So, I was like, “I’m going to just put it on Kalshi.”
Makena Kelly: He said that he goes up and down 100 dollars, but he hasn’t made any major winnings. Some of the stuff that we’ve heard. Some people making crazy insider bets making millions and millions of dollars. This is just a guy who was interested in this and just plays it for fun, it sounds like.
Brian Barrett: Kate, what do you see when you see a pop-up like this and Polymarket trying to—is it an attempt to legitimize itself to just a marketing stunt? And how does it tie into what you’re seeing with these companies anyway, that there’s the explosive growth that they’ve got trying to reach out to so many people and getting so many people hooked on what they’re offering?
Kate Knibbs: I mean, this particular event definitely seems like a very bald effort to woo DC-based journalists, if nothing else. One thing that Makena said sort of encapsulates what’s going on right now, the thing about the guys in the Palantir hoodies. So, I think it was the same week that this bar opened. Polymarket announced a partnership with Palantir and Palantir is helping them protect the integrity of their sports market. So, Palantir is going to be basically attempting to help Polymarket catch insider traders and market manipulators in all the sports games, which is kind of wild. I actually asked Polymarket last week whether they had any other deals with Palantir when I was trying to get them to say anything about whether they were investigating the Iran bets that have been raising a lot of eyebrows. And they said that Palantir was only helping them with sports, which I thought was freaking weird. And it speaks to how they’re rapidly expanding, but doing so in this really messy ad hoc way that doesn’t really make a lot of sense. Because I was like, “If you’re going to get Palantir involved, why wouldn’t you have them do this geopolitical stuff instead of March Madness?” Yeah, wild, wild times.
There are a number of high-quality tire brands on the market, but it’s hard to find one more consistently rated for its quality than Michelin. It came out on top in SlashGear’s own ranking of every major tire brand, and Consumer Reports (CR) places it at the top of its list as well. Across Michelin’s entire selection of tires, you see high marks for just about everything you could put a tire through, from braking on dry ground to handling on ice. It’s very rare to see CR rate something about one of these tires as below average.
With Consumer Reports, there are two sides to what data it provides. There are its in-house experts testing these tires, but then there’s also the opinions of actual drivers that CR surveys. These are folks who drive with these Michelin tires day-to-day, and they can sometimes come to a different conclusion than the experts as to which tires are best. Out of the eight Michelin tires rated by CR, the one with the highest owner satisfaction score is the Michelin LTX A/T2. These are all-terrain tires designed for trucks. What makes this high satisfaction score so interesting is that these tires actually have the lowest overall score from CR experts. They found its wet braking and noise generation to be below average, while dry and ice braking, ride comfort, and handling to be no more than average. Regardless of these tests, CR owners gave the Michelin LTX A/T2 tires a near-perfect satisfaction score, so perhaps CR’s tests don’t fully capture the real world experience with these tires.
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The experts’ top Michelin tire
DiPres/Shutterstock
Although the Consumer Reports experts do not hold the same high opinion of the Michelin LTX A/T2 tires as the owners surveyed, they’re not too far apart when it comes to owners’ second-highest satisfaction rating. That would be the Michelin Pilot 4s tires. These tires are categorized as ultra high performance summer tires and are made for sports cars that you’d obviously want to drive quite fast. Out of all the tires tested, these are the ones with the highest overall score from the CR experts, and it’s actually a significant first place finish among Michelin tires. Being number one for the experts and number two for the owners shows a level of consensus you just don’t get with the LTX A/T2 model.
The thing about Consumer Reports’ findings on the owner satisfaction of Michelin tires is that they are universally high. The previously mentioned ones are ranked one and two, but the remaining six Michelin tires tested all tie for third place, demonstrating a remarkable level of consistency across the brand’s offerings. For a broader perspective, every single Michelin tire tested has the highest CR owner satisfaction rating for whatever category it is in compared to every other brand. There is one exception with the Michelin X-Ice Snow tires, but it still ranks second among all winter/snow tires. For owners surveyed by CR, there is not a single Michelin tire they’re not incredibly pleased with. If you don’t have a truck suitable for the Michelin LTX A/T2 tires, owners don’t think you’re settling for less with a different Michelin tire better suited to your vehicle.
Artemis 2 astronauts are using Microsoft Surface Pro computers on board the Orion spacecraft. (GeekWire Illustration)
Bound for the Moon, astronauts aboard NASA’s Artemis 2 Orion spacecraft experienced a challenge familiar to many of us back here on terra firma: Microsoft Outlook.
Commander Reid Wiseman radioed Mission Control on the crew’s first day in space to report that he had two instances of Outlook running on his computer — a Microsoft Surface Pro — and neither seemed to be working.
Like any good IT support team, Houston said it would jump in remotely and take a look. About an hour later, ground controllers reported they had resolved the issue and gotten Outlook open, though it would display as offline, which they said was expected.
The moment, captured on NASA’s livestream, quickly went viral. A Bluesky user clipped the exchange, writing, “I’m so sorry we’ve sent these souls to the moon and they’re using outlook?”
Outlook is part of the commercial off-the-shelf software NASA provides astronauts for scheduling, personal communications and other routine tasks. The spacecraft’s primary flight systems run on separate, radiation-hardened hardware.
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The Outlook glitch wasn’t the crew’s only mundane challenge. Shortly after launch, the toilet fan jammed, though ground teams managed to fix that, too.
We contacted Microsoft for comment and a rep said they’d let us know if the company had anything to say. At least we know the message went through.
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