Kerry Wan/ZDNETSamsung has been everywhere so far this January, from Las Vegas for CES to San Jose for its Unpacked event, where we expect to hear more about the company’s plans for Galaxy AI and the latest S series of smartphones More
Sabrina Ortiz/ZDNETSince its debut, Apple Intelligence has required the extra step of actually turning it on or opting in. But with the next versions of Apple’s operating systems, the AI-powered feature will be enabled by default.Enabled automatically for new and upgrading usersThe release notes for iOS/iPadOS 18.3 and MacOS 15.3 state that Apple Intelligence will be enabled automatically for new and upgrading users, giving them immediate access to its AI-powered capabilities. Anyone who doesn’t want to use the AI will have to manually turn it off.Also: I bought an iPhone 16 for its AI features, but I haven’t used them even once – here’s whyCurrently accessible as release candidates, iOS 18.3, iPadOS 18.3, and MacOS 15.3 are likely to launch within the next week or so. All three versions have been in beta testing since mid-December, giving developers more than a month to evaluate them for new features and fixes.Eligible devices that can run Apple IntelligenceOnly eligible devices can take advantage of Apple Intelligence. These include any iPhone 16, the iPhone 15 Pro, the iPhone 15 Pro Max, any iPad Pro or iPad Air with an M1 chip or later, the iPad mini with the A17 Pro chip, and Macs with an M1 chip or later.Also: What is Apple Intelligence? Everything to knowApple Intelligence now chews up around 7GB of storage, up from 4GB initially. Turning off the technology doesn’t automatically recover that space, at least not right away. But if you don’t plan to use the AI at all, you can certainly disable it. To do so, just go to Settings, select Apple Intelligence & Siri, and then turn off the switch for Apple Intelligence. More
I spend a lot of time testing power banks. Adrian Kingsley-Hughes/ZDNETBig numbers sell. In the minds of consumers, 5,000 is better than 2,000, and 10,000 is better than both. And when it comes to 10 million, well, that beats everything, right? There’s one area of tech where I see big numbers being thrown around a lot, and that is power bank capacities.Also: The best power banks you can buy in 2025Power bank manufacturers have adopted the milliamp-hour (abbreviated as mAh) as the default measure of battery capacity for power banks. This is handy for marketers because even the smallest power banks have capacities measured in the thousands of milliamp-hours. However, mAh is not the best measure of power bank capacity, and I’m here to explain why.The problem with relying on mAh for battery capacityThe issue with using mAh as a measure of battery capacity is that it reflects a battery’s power capacity at a specific voltage output. If you tweak the output voltage, the mAh rating changes.The mAh is calculated using the formula:mAh = (Wh x 1000) / VWhere Wh is the energy capacity of the battery measured in watt-hours, and V is the voltage of the battery.The default voltage that most reputable power bank manufacturers use is the voltage of the battery inside the power bank, which is typically 3.7V or 3.85V. If you remember a few of your math classes, you might have noticed from that equation a few lines above that the lower the voltage, the higher the mAh rating. This is advantageous from a marketing point of view because the default voltage output for an old-school USB-A port is 5V, and USB-C ports can go to 20V and beyond. This makes the mAh capacity rating somewhat meaningless because it changes with that output voltage.Also: The best MagSafe battery packsQuite a lot of people are noticing this because they are going out and buying USB power meters More
ZDNETIn 2017, I sent DNA samples to Ancestry, as well as to two other DNA companies. My parents had recently passed away, and I had some questions about my family background that I hoped the DNA might reveal.As it turned out, that DNA reveal sparked a fairly long and painful story, which you can read here: Ever since then, I’ve kind of dabbled with my family tree. I enjoy digging through documents and connections, following clues, and updating charts.But then, a few weeks ago, I was contacted by one of my DNA matches. It was an odd sort of connection.Based on the DNA data, I knew exactly how related we were (roughly third cousins), with about 1% shared DNA. But I didn’t (and still don’t) know the person’s gender or name. The contact used an Ancestry username, which didn’t indicate either gender or first name. I also know that the person’s approximate age is close to mine, because they told me their age in the message.And then things started to get interesting. My cousin (for I know the person is my cousin, even if I don’t know their name) asked ChatGPT to provide insights into our possible relationship based on the DNA data. That included average lifespans and birth and death periods of our shared ancestors.Also: How ChatGPT scanned 170k lines of code in seconds, saving me hours of workI asked this mystery cousin’s permission to tell you about their ChatGPT use, which they granted. Based on the transcript of their session, along with some of my own questions, ChatGPT was able to shed some light on the family connection.In this article, I’m going to show you how I used ChatGPT (and, by extension, how you can use it) to explore genealogy connections between DNA relatives. I’ll show you the prompts, but in most cases, I’ll just summarize the responses, because those can get quite long. How are we related? My starting point was the DNA data itself. According to Ancestry:Shared DNA: 95 cM across 10 segments on my maternal sideUnweighted shared DNA: 95 cMLongest segment: 16 cMAncestry predicted that we were “half 2nd cousin 1x removed,” but the shared DNA quantity doesn’t necessarily place the relationship on a family tree. It just tells you how many jumps away one person is from the other. So those jumps can go equally all the way up and down the tree, or partially up on one side and down an extra generation on the other, or some variety of the two.I started asking ChatGPT about the DNA data. I asked:What does this mean? Shared DNA: 95 cM across 10 segments Unweighted shared DNA: 95 cM Longest segment 16 cMAlso: I spent hours testing ChatGPT Tasks – and its refusal to follow directions was mildly terrifyingI was told that cM is a unit of measurement for genetic linkage. It measures the length of DNA shared between two individuals. The 95 value indicates second cousins or greater. DNA is shared in blocks or segments. The more segments, the closer the relationship. Larger segments indicate closer relationships, while smaller segments indicate more distant relationships.Our shared DNA had few shared segments, and those segments were pretty small. All together, that put us about eight generational hops from each other. More
<!–> ZDNET’s key takeaways The OnePlus 13 is a snappy, nearly no-compromise phone that starts at $899. A Snapdragon 8 Elite, paired with a 6,000mAh battery and 80W fast charging, is a recipe for endurance success. IP69 is almost excessive, but you’ll appreciate it when least expected. more buying choices It’s not often that I […] More
Zhou Yibao on Weibo A new foldable phone is about to hit the market, and it may be as thin as a phone can possibly be. Oppo is billing its upcoming Find N5 (it will likely be the OnePlus Open 2 when it hits the US market) as the world’s thinnest foldable. That title currently belongs to […] More
The Apple Watch Ultra, Samsung Galaxy Ring, and Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses have ushered a new age of AI wearables. Jason Hiner/ZDNETSamsung is kicking off its first Unpacked event for 2025 today, Wednesday, January 22. Although there are still a few more hours until airing, we have a fairly good sense of what will be revealed. Spoiler: The Galaxy S25 series will undoubtedly be the star of the show.Also: Samsung Unpacked 2025: How to watch and what to expectNew Galaxy smartphones are usually shown off during the first Unpacked of the year. Plus, Samsung revealed the topic in its formal invitation. The company stated that “the new Galaxy S series is about [to reset] the bar once again”. Artificial intelligence (AI) is probably set to be the second-biggest topic, as Samsung referred to the “new AI developments as premium Galaxy innovations.”But what about the rest of the show? Well, there’s a good chance more will be unveiled at the event, even if it’s in the form of a short teaser image or video. Samsung has been working on all sorts of devices outside of its wheelhouse for the past few years, and they could make a surprise appearance at Unpacked 2025. Below is a list of four potential candidates.1. Project Moohan XR headset More
Considering that Samsung’s Unpacked invitation reads, “The new Galaxy S series is about to set the bar once again for mobile AI experiences now and into the future,” it’s nearly certain that the S25 lineup will launch at the event. When Qualcomm launched the Snapdragon 8 Elite in October, the company shared that Samsung would be one of the leading manufacturers to adopt the mobile platform. With this event being Samsung’s first release since the Snapdragon 8 Elite launch, it’s likely the S25 lineup will sport Qualcomm’s newest chipset. Also: Leaked Nothing Phone 3 email teases AI-powered flagship – but I’d rather see thisThe chipset will bring major improvements to smartphones, especially in the AI space with support for on-device processing, which will result in faster processing speeds, less latency by forgoing sending data to the cloud, and increased security, as data doesn’t have to leave the device.The Snapdragon 8 Elite has already launched in North America in the OnePlus 13, in which ZDNET’s Kerry Wan found the chipset to “gracefully” tackle day-to-day tasks such as bouncing between productivity apps. However, its performance with graphic-intensive applications is a bit less efficient. In terms of form factors, many leaks give us a good idea of what the phones will look like. An Android Headlines report claims the Galaxy S25 will have a 6.2-inch screen, the Galaxy S25 Plus will have a 6.7-inch screen, and the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra will have a 6.9-inch display. Images within the report also reveal that the S25 lineup will all have rounder edges, but other than that, it seems like all three will be staying very close to their current design. The color ways for the base models will include Iceblue, Mint, Navy, and Silver Shadow and for the Ultra will include Titanium Black, Titanium Gray, Titanium Silver Blue, and Titanium White Silver, according to the report. More
