Apple is showing some love to Android users by finally displaying their message reactions correctly. Now when an Android user reacts to an RCS message from an iOS user, the selected emoji will appear in line with the message bubble on iOS — instead of archaically appearing as a separate line like this: “💀 to ‘that wasn’t supposed to happen.’”

The Verge sent test messages and emoji reactions between iPhones running iOS 18.1 and different Android phones, confirming both devices now display reactions as intended. It’s unclear when this change happened or whose side — Google or Apple — had to make adjustments to get it working.

When RCS first launched widely on iOS in September, message reactions from Android users still weren’t being displayed correctly on the iPhone, even though they worked the other way around. We reached out to both companies for comment but did not hear back before publication.

Apple’s quiet improvement to RCS messages comes as a surprise. Apple for years ignored Google’s campaign to get the company to adopt the standard, ultimately complying only after a mix of pressure in both China and the EU. Basic support for RCS was included in iOS 18.

Within the Messages app, Apple officially supports the basic RCS standard known as the RCS Universal Profile. Emoji reaction support is part of RCS version 2.7, which should also include the ability to edit a sent message — but we could not make that work on iOS. Of course, Apple will keep as many exclusive features as possible for its blue bubble iMessage service, at least as long it isn’t forced to change.

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 Wordle today, NYT Connections today and Quordle today pages for hints and answers for those games.

NASA astronaut Don Pettit already has a long-held reputation for creating stunning space photography, and his latest effort will only bolster it.

Shared on social media on Thursday, the image (top) shows Earth as a blaze of streaking light, an effect created by using a long and multiple exposures to capture cities at night across several continents.

But the photograph, captured from the International Space Station (ISS) where Pettit arrived in September on his fourth orbital mission, also features lots of other goodies, including perhaps the first ISS image to show both a sunset and sunrise in a single frame. Circular star trails above Earth are also visible, and if you look closely enough you might also be able to see lightning flashes and aurora.

New star trails photography is back!

This 30-minute time exposure through orbital night with our new 15mm wide-angle lens was able to capture sunset (on the left) all the way to sunrise (on the right). I have never been able to capture this before but our new fast (14mm f1.4 and… pic.twitter.com/H6uV9GGEK1

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— Don Pettit (@astro_Pettit) November 7, 2024

“This 30-minute time exposure through orbital night with our new 15mm wide-angle lens was able to capture sunset (on the left) all the way to sunrise (on the right),” Pettit, at 69 NASA’s oldest serving astronaut, wrote in a post on social media. “I have never been able to capture this before but our new fast (14mm f1.4 and 15mm T1.8) wide-angle lenses are opening up observations previously not possible.”

Pettit added: “Visible are circular star trails above the earth limb created not from Earth rotation but from our orbital motion (pitch axis of ISS), cities streaking by (again due to orbital motion), lightning flashes, aurora, [and] atmospheric airglow (both strong green and fainter red).”

The American astronaut used a powerful Nikon Z9 camera with an Arri-Zeiss 15mm T1.8 master prime lens to capture the image, opening the shutter for 30 seconds at T1.8 for individual exposures that were assembled using Photoshop into a composite equivalent to a 30-minute exposure.

Pettit hit the headlines shortly after arriving at the ISS last month after capturing a remarkable image showing the Polaris Dawn crew heading back to Earth at high speed aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft at the end of a history-making mission. He also recently shared some sublime shots that look more like works of art than photos of Earth.

This time around we’ll be comparing two foldable smartphones, one from Google, and one from HONOR. These are the best foldables these two companies have to offer, and they launched a couple of months ago. This is a comparison between the Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold vs HONOR Magic V3. Both of these smartphones have their upsides, but they’re vastly different despite the fact they’re both book-style foldables.

The two companies took completely different approaches here. The HONOR Magic V3 is actually the thinnest and lightest book-style foldable on the market. The Pixel 9 Pro Fold has some catching up to do in that department. In any case, we’ll first list their specifications, and then we’ll move to compare them across a number of different categories. With that being said, let’s get down to it.

Specs

Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold & HONOR Magic V3, respectively

– Screen size (main):
8-inch Foldable LTPO OLED display (120Hz, HDR10+, 2,700 nits)
7.92-inch Foldable LTPO AMOLED (120Hz, HDR10+, Dolby Vision, 1,800 nits)
– Screen Size (cover):
6.3-inch OLED (120Hz, 2,700 nits)
6.43-inch LTPO OLED (120Hz, 5,000 nits)
– Display resolution (main):
2076 x 2152
2156 x 2344
– Display resolution (cover):
2424 x 1080
2376 x 1060
– SoC:
Google Tensor G4
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3
– RAM:
16GB (LPDDR5X)
12GB/16GB (LPDDR5X)
– Storage:
256GB/512GB (UFS 3.1)
256GB/512GB/1TB (UFS 4.0)
– Rear cameras:
48MP (wide, f/1.7 aperture, OIS), 10.8MP (ultrawide, 127-degree FoV), 10.5MP (telephoto, 5x optical zoom, OIS)
50MP (wide, f/1.6 aperture, 1/1.56-inch sensor size, OIS, PDAF), 40MP (ultrawide, f/2.2 aperture, 112-degree FoV), 50MP (periscope telephoto, 1/2.51-inch sensor size, OIS, 3.5x optical zoom)
– Front cameras:
10MP (main display, f/2.2 aperture), 10MP (cover display, f/2.2 aperture)
20MP (main display, f/2.2 aperture), 32MP (cover display, f/2.4 aperture)
– Battery:
4,650mAh
5,150mAh
– Charging:
21W wired, 7.5W wireless (no charger)
66W wired, 50W wireless, 5W reverse wired (charger included)
– Dimensions (unfolded):
155.2 x 150.2 x 5.1 mm
156.6 x 145.3 x 4.35 mm or 4.4 mm
– Dimensions (folded):
155.2 x 77.1 x 10.5 mm
156.6 x 74.0 x 9.2 mm or 9.3 mm
– Weight:
257 grams
226/230 grams
– Connectivity:
5G, LTE, NFC, Wi-Fi, USB Type-C, Bluetooth 5.3
– Security:
Side-facing fingerprint scanner
– OS:
Android 14
Android 14 with MagicOS 8.0.1
– Price:
$1,799+
€1,999
– Buy:
Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold (Best Buy)
HONOR Magic V3 (HONOR)

Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold vs HONOR Magic V3: Design

Both of these smartphones are made out of metal and glass. The Magic V3 does come in a variant with a vegan leather backplate too, though. The Pixel 9 Pro Fold’s design seems like it was inspired by the OnePlus Open, at least to a degree. It is flat on the front and back, and even its sides are flat. The HONOR Magic V3’s back is mostly flat, but it has rounded corners. The phone kind of curves into the sides a bit, which makes it feel even thinner.

Speaking of which, the HONOR Magic V3 is noticeably thinner and lighter than the Pixel 9 Pro Fold. It measures 4.35-4.4mm when unfolded (depending on the variant), and 9.2-9.3mm when unfolded. The Pixel 9 Pro Fold measures 5.1mm when unfolded, and 10.5mm when folded. HONOR’s smartphone weighs 226 or 230 grams, while the Pixel 9 Pro Fold weighs 257 grams. The difference in weight is especially pronounced, but you’ll feel both the added weight and thickness in comparison.

The HONOR Magic V3 is slightly taller and considerably narrower than the Pixel 9 Pro Fold. HONOR’s phone has a larger cover display and a slightly smaller main display. Both phones have a display camera hole on both their cover displays and main displays. The location on the main displays is different, though. Their rear camera islands are also different. The Pixel 9 Pro Fold’s is pill-shaped and horizontal. The HONOR Magic V3 has a camera oreo on the back, which is centered.

Both devices also come with an IPX8 certification for water resistance. The HONOR Magic V3 also supports a stylus, unlike the Pixel 9 Pro Fold. These are two completely different approaches to design. The HONOR Magic V3 does feel a lot more like a regular phone when folded, though.

Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold vs HONOR Magic V3: Display

The Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold has an 8-inch Foldable LTPO OLED main panel. That display offers a refresh rate of up to 120Hz (1-120Hz), and it supports HDR10+ content. The peak brightness here is 2,700 nits. The display offers a 2076 x 2152 resolution. Its cover display measures 6.3 inches, and it’s an OLED panel. It offers a 120Hz refresh rate, and HDR content is supported. The Corning Gorilla Glass 2 protection is also a part of the package, while the resolution here is 2424 x 1080. The peak brightness is also 2,700 nits.

The HONOR Magic V3, on the flip side, has a 7.92-inch Foldable LTPO AMOLED main display. That panel can project up to 1 billion colors, and HDR10+ content is supported. Dolby Vision is also supported here, and the display offers an adaptive refresh rate of up to 120Hz (1-120Hz). The peak brightness here is 1,800 nits. The resolution it offers is 2156 x 2344. The cover display measures 6.43 inches, and it offers a resolution of 2376 x 1060. That is an LTPO OLED panel that can project up to 1 billion colors and offers an adaptive refresh rate of up to 120Hz (1-120Hz). Dolby Vision is also supported, and the peak brightness here is 5,000 nits. This display is protected by nanocrystal glass 2.0.

All four of these displays are great, actually. They’re vivid, have great viewing angles, and are more than sharp enough. They also get bright enough under all conditions, basically, even though there are some differences. It’s worth noting that the HONOR Magic V3 does have the advantage of having a less visible crease, even though Google did improve in that aspect compared to the Pixel Fold. The HONOR Magic V3’s main panel also supports a stylus input.

Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold vs HONOR Magic V3: Performance

The Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold is fueled by the Google Tensor G4 processor. The company also includes 16GB of LPDDR5X RAM here, and UFS 3.1 flash storage too. The HONOR Magic V3, on the flip side, is fueled by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor. It includes up to 16GB of LPDDR5X RAM and UFS 4.0 flash storage. Do note that the storage is not expandable on either phone.

The Magic V3 does have a more powerful processor and faster storage. The Tensor G4 is not about sheer power, though, and it’s well-optimized to work with Pixel phones, it’s also a flagship chip. With that being said, both smartphones work really well on a day-to-day basis. Regular tasks are a piece of cake for both phones, and there’s no lag to talk about here, none at all. That may change over time, of course, and create some differences between the two phones. At the moment, however, you’ll be happy with the performance they both offer.

The HONOR Magic V3 does have the upper hand when it comes to gaming, though. It can play the most demanding titles from the Play Store without a problem, at the highest graphical settings. Games like Genshin Impact, for example. The Pixel 9 Pro Fold can do the same, but the experience is not as good. You’ll have to tone down the graphical settings a bit in order to get the very top performance. Any other game, however, that is not a top graphical title, will play great on either phone. Neither phone ended up overheating for us.

Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold vs HONOR Magic V3: Battery

The Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold includes a 4,650mAh battery. HONOR’s foldable, on the flip side, has a 5,150mAh battery on the inside. HONOR is using a silicon-carbon battery, unlike Google, which allowed the company to fit a lot more capacity in a smaller space. The thing is, however, the Pixel 9 Pro Fold did offer better battery life overall, at least during our testing. The difference was not huge, but still, it’s there. Google manages to pull out more battery juice from a smaller battery in this case.

Granted, getting to really high screen-on-time levels with both phones is possible. That will largely depend on your usage, but if you’re not utilizing processor-intensive tasks, such as gaming, getting over 7 hours of screen-on-time on both phones is possible. That will also depend on how much you use their main displays compared to cover displays, and many other factors. What I’m trying to say is, your mileage may vary. Both phones offered really, really good battery life during our usage.

When the charging is concerned, however, the HONOR Magic V3 completely destroys the Pixel 9 Pro Fold. Google’s handset supports 21W wired and 7.5W wireless charging. The HONOR Magic V3, on the other hand, supports 66W wired, 50W wireless, and 5W reverse wired charging. It charges much faster both via a wire and wirelessly, it’s not even close. It also comes with a charger in the box, which is not something we can say for the Pixel 9 Pro Fold.

Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold vs HONOR Magic V3: Cameras

Both of these phones have three cameras on the back, but their setups are different. The Pixel 9 Pro Fold has a 48-megapixel main camera (1/2.0-inch sensor, OIS), a 10.5-megapixel ultrawide unit (127-degree FoV), and a 10.8-megapixel periscope telephoto camera (1/3.2-inch sensor, 5x optical zoom). The HONOR Magic V3 includes a 50-megapixel main camera (1/1.56-inch sensor, a 40-megapixel ultrawide unit (112-degree FoV), and a 50-megapixel periscope telephoto camera (1/2.51-inch sensor, 3.5x optical zoom).

The HONOR Magic V3 does have the advantage when it comes to camera hardware. Its sensor sizes are bigger, and that does show in the final results. If you take a closer look at the images, you’ll see the difference. The Pixel 9 Pro Fold is not on the same level as its Pixel 9 Pro and Pro XL flagships in terms of camera prowess, unfortunately. Google attempted to save space and this is what we got.

Don’t get me wrong, the pictures look great, but it’s also at the same time obvious that they’re not on the same level as the ones provided by its siblings, not even close. The HONOR Magic V3 did win this comparison for us. Overall it took better pictures, even though the Pixel 9 Pro XL did swing back at times. In low light the Magic V3 offered superior performance, even though Google’s image processing made sure that the Pixel 9 Pro Fold is not that far behind. Both phones offer vivid images, with emphasized colors. Neither is aiming to bee too realistic, as both phones are trying to make images look appealing via processing. Also, it’s worth noting that the Magic V3 offers a lot better camera performance than the Magic V2.

Audio

There are stereo speakers included on both of these phones. This is where the Pixel 9 Pro Fold has a huge advantage, actually. Its speakers are notably louder than the ones from the Magic V3, it’s not even close. The sound quality is good from both sets, but the Pixel 9 Pro Fold does have the edge in that regard too.

Neither hone comes with an audio jack, though. You can plug in your headphones into their Type-C ports if you need a wired connection, though. If not, Bluetooth 5.3 is on offer on both smartphones.

Voice assistants have a reputation for finicky activation, such as responding to their prompts that are spoken in an ad. Apple may have a fix for that in the works. 9to5Mac spotted this element in the tvOS 18.2 beta. A part of code called AdBlocker appears to use the Shazam API to match audio captured by a device’s microphones against audio fingerprints downloaded from Apple. When there’s a match, the usual Siri trigger command is disabled. In theory, this means Apple could have devices not react to the “Hey Siri” prompt when it’s spoken as part of the company’s keynote presentations or TV advertisements.

The publication only found this feature in the current developer beta of tvOS, which it suggests means that HomePod smart speaker will be the first device to potentially ignore those “Hey Siri” commands. However, iOS 18.2 is also in developer beta and is bringing more Apple Intelligence features to Apple’s smartphones, as well as possibly integrating ChatGPT subscriptions with Siri.

Unity reported that its third-quarter revenues and adjusted profits beat expectations, with revenue falling 2% to $429 million.

For the quarter ended September 30, Unity‘s guidance was for revenues of $415 million to $420 million. Unity’s stock price initially went up in after-hours trading after the report came out, and then it fell again to $21.95 a share, down 1%.

The net loss for the quarter was $125 million, as compared to net loss of $125 million in the third quarter of 2023 and net loss of $126 million in the second quarter of this year. (However, as with many game companies, adjusted financials capture the company’s performance better).

On an adjusted basis, Unity reported its EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) were a profit of $92 million, compared to guidance of $75 to $80 million. Adjusted
EBITDA for the total company was $94 million in the same quarter last year (excluding customer credits of $37 million as described in a shareholder letter at the end of 2023).

Third quarter Create Solutions (Unity’s game engine division) revenue from the strategic portfolio was $132 million, up 5% year-over-year, and up 2% quarter-over-quarter. The year-over-year increase was driven by a 12% growth in subscriptions revenue, as customers upgraded and renewed at increased prices.

The quarter-over-quarter increase was also driven primarily by subscription growth. Grow Solutions (Unity’s advertising division) revenue from the strategic portfolio in the third quarter was $298 million, down 5% year-over-year and up 1% quarter-over-quarter.

Revenue for the total company for the third quarter was $447 million, down 18% year-over-year driven by decreases in Grow Solutions revenue and the portfolio reset. During the third quarter, revenue from the non-strategic portfolio was $17 million, down 84% year-over-year as a result of our portfolio reset. Unity expects revenue from our non-strategic portfolio in the fourth quarter to continue to decline compared to the third quarter.

For the fourth quarter, Unity said it is guiding revenue for its strategic portfolio to $422 to $427 million. The company is guiding adjusted EBITDA to $79 to $84 million. This reflects caution on revenue recovery for the Grow business.

The canceled Runtime Fee price increase

In September, after months of listening to customers, partners, and the community, Unity rolled back one of the decisions that forced its previous CEO, John Riccitiello, to resign. Unity’s new CEO Matthew Bromberg announced the cancellation of the Runtime Fee and a reversion to the existing seat-based subscription model (and a traditional price increase) for all gaming customers. Bromberg spoke at our GamesBeat Next 2024 event in a fireside chat with me and our coverage is coming up.

“We focused on execution and discipline to drive more rapid product innovation and to restore the strong, authentic bond we have with our customers in our community. We’ve acted on those intentions over the course of the last 90 days in many different ways, and we’re feeling we impacted that positive momentum, both inside and outside the company,” Bromberg said in an analyst call.

Bromberg added, “We started off with a cancelation of the runtime fee, a reversion to a subscription based model in introducing price increases that customers could understand. And all this has unblocked our renewals pipeline and reconnected us. We thought that with delivery of Unity 6, the best performing, most stable version of Unity we’ve ever shipped, Unity 6 marks a fundamental change in how we’re going to approach the development cycle going forward.”

The company introduced pricing increases, effective January 1, 2025, which will apply to all new and existing Unity Pro and Enterprise customers upon purchase, renewal, or upgrade. Since announcing these decisions, Unity said it has seen a positive trend in renewals and an increase in early adoption of Unity 6.

The future financial impact on our Create subscription revenues will be dependent on the timing of renewals and contract negotiations with our Enterprise customers but the company believes that, over time, these pricing changes will help to drive consistent revenue growth in the double digit range for the core subscription business.

In October, the company finally launched Unity 6, the most stable and best performing version of Unity. Unity 6 is designed to enable the creation of better games, built more quickly and more efficiently than ever before.

Built, tested, and refined in production environments in partnership with developers, Unity 6 marks a shift
in how Unity will approach the development cycle moving forward. The key will be in maintaining a better and more consistent feedback loop that will ensure Unity delivers tools that make a tangible difference for customers every day.

Some of the new features in Unity 6 include end-to-end multiplayer workflows that speed development of connected games; tools that enable developers to reach even more players by targeting mobile web; and with new graphics capabilities that move workloads from the CPU to the GPU, Unity has seen CPU
computation time improvements of up to four times, dropping from from 40 milliseconds to 10 milliseconds per computation in internal stress tests.

Bringing cross-platform 3D visualization to market segments outside of gaming is a major focal point of the strategy, and remains the fastest growing segment of the subscription business. Unity is beginning to achieve global scale through partnerships with global system integrators (GSIs), distributors and value-added resellers (VARs) in every region.

New Unity customers in the quarter include Dutch airline KLM and Deutsche Bahn, the national railway company of Germany. KLM used Unity to build a VR cockpit training application. Deutsche Bahn used Unity to build guided customer experiences in AR to help passengers navigate transit changes, and
created VR environments for staff training that include a fire safety training simulator for train operators and a railway interlocking system training.

The pace of product releases in the Grow business also accelerated, highlighted by efforts to increase the scale and quality of users acquired, fine tune automated ROAS campaigns on our ad networks, and build diversity and effectiveness of ad placements.

Unity also continued to invest in the Ad Quality product, which gives publishers critical transparency into how the ads running inside their apps and games impact user engagement, and the tools to immediately shut off those that are having a negative impact. All of this work continues alongside the more fundamental data infrastructure and machine learning work being prepared for a 2025 launch.

Outlook

Unity is raising guidance for the full year due to better than expected performance in Q3, with full year revenue guidance for the strategic portfolio now at $1.703 billion to $1.708 billion compared to $1.68 billion to $1.69 billion previously. Adjusted EBITDA is expected to be $363 million to $368 million, compared to $340 million to $350 million previously.

In a statement, Bromberg said the entire gaming ecosystem functions better when Unity is delivering on its commitment to provide developers and publishers what they need to make and market great games.

“While we’re just at the beginning of our journey to transform the company, we’re energized by our progress and the response from our customers and the community,” he said. “The opportunity is clear, the market wants us to succeed, and we believe we have everything we need to deliver consistent, sustainable growth and profitability in the years ahead. As always, our deepest gratitude goes out to our customers, partners, employees, and investors for their unwavering support.”

Unity also hired Jarrod Yahes as the company’s new chief financial officer. Unity also recently hired Jim Payne as chief product officer for advertising and Alex Blum as senior vice president of corporate development. And Steve Collins, formerly of King, is the new CTO.

Asked by an analyst about Unity five years from now, Bromberg said in the call, “We are really bullish on the long term value of Unity. We think we’re in a in a really unique spot, in a really big, vibrant business. The creation of 3D content and interactive entertainment is just going to grow. We believe that we’re in an amazing spot as a tools provider to fundamentally change how the next generation of content gets created…. If they can do it more efficiently and more effectively, they’re going to make more, and they’re going to innovate more, and we’re going to get growth.”

AI’s impact

Bromberg said AI will make a difference at Unity.

“We also talked last quarter about how we’re undertaking a fundamental rebuild of our machine learning stack and data infrastructure, and using AI to enhance the return on investment we’re able to deliver to our advertising customers. We’re happy to report great progress on that work, which is already in testing on live data, and we’re really encouraged by the early results we’re seeing,” he said.

He said game monetization will not be a winner take all market. But he noted that Unity will deliver unique insight into how to maximize the lifetime value of the gaming consumer.

And Bromberg said, “Our vision for Unity is clear. We believe we have a critical role to play in helping drive the game industry forward to its next stage of growth. We’re the only company in the world capable of providing a platform to power the entire development cycle, from prototyping through life service management to user acquisition and monetization. This puts us in a position to be able to drive fundamental improvements to the economic calculus of making successful games on the production side, AI enhanced tools will speed the development process and enable greater innovation while in live operations, advertising and monetization will be able to provide insights that customers won’t be able to get anywhere else.”

On another AI question, Bromberg said, “We know that AI has a fundamental role to play with our customers in terms of making the process of building video games faster, easier and more engaging and innovative. So we are a platform and an assembly point for games and other applications. So, as and our extensibility is really our greatest strength, we feel perfectly positioned to help developers integrate these tools. Keep in mind that from our perspective, we’re agnostic as to where and how the 3D assets get created. We’re about being an assembly point providing close control the pipelines you need to build, helping your team collaborate to do that building, and then ultimately cross platform distribution through the runtime.”

He added, “The explosion of Gen AI, from our perspective, if it helps our customers, then we’re going to benefit from a seamless, integrated first party and third party AI functionality inside our editors, inside the editor, and we’re going to offer those that to customers. So we feel very good about that, and we’re not kind of fighting that at all.”