Month: April 2021

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  Samsung's upcycling program can turn an old smartphone into an audio baby monitor. [credit: Samsung ]

Samsung on Wednesday kicked off something genuinely innovative in the smartphone market: an official consumer upcycling program. Samsung's "Galaxy Upcycling at Home" initiative was announced at CES 2021, and today it enters a "beta" release. The program allows users to transform old phones into smart home devices that work through Samsung's SmartThings app, which has two new modes: a sound sensor and a light sensor.

Samsung says the sound sensor mode will "accurately distinguish sounds in everyday surroundings, and users can choose to save certain sound recordings. For example, if the device detects sounds such as a baby crying, dog barking, cat meowing, or a knock, it will send an alert directly to the user’s smartphone, and the user can listen to the recorded sound." Samsung says the mode is meant to act as a baby monitor or pet care solution.

The Light Sensor mode simply turns your phone into a light sensor, allowing it to detect levels of sunlight or room light and trigger your smart home to do something in response. If you want to use this mode while on battery power, Samsung says it has "equipped the Galaxy Upcycling at Home upgrade with battery optimization solutions to minimize battery usage."

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  The Volkswagen ID.4 has won 2021's World Car of the Year award. [credit: Volkswagen ]

The real measure of success for Volkswagen's embrace of electric vehicles (EV) post-dieselgate will be how many the company can sell each year. But on Tuesday, VW's job might have gotten a little easier. That's because the new ID.4 crossover just won this year's World Car of the Year award, beating two other finalists, the adorable Honda E and the new Toyota Yaris. Fear not, E-fans: the diminutive electric hatchback won the World Urban Car category. Previous years' winners have included the Kia Telluride and the Jaguar I-Pace.

I expected the Honda E to win World Car Design of the Year; as one of the 93 jurors around the world, I gave it high marks because just look at it. But more of my fellow jurors picked the chunky Land Rover Defender for that honor, and the Rover also beat the Mazda MX-30 in the process.

The World Luxury Car award went to the new Mercedes-Benz S-Class, perhaps no surprise considering the other two finalists were the Defender and the Polestar 2. The Polestar is a fine EV with some very nifty tech, but it's no match for the bombastic Benz.

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  The name may not be final, but this image's appearance on official PlayStation servers hints loudly at a PlayStation-exclusive video service in the near future. [credit: Sony Interactive Entertainment ]

As the battle of subscription gaming services heats up, Sony appears poised to offer a new perk to PlayStation console owners: Sony movies with your Sony games.

A logo for a new service, dubbed PlayStation Plus Video Pass, is live on Sony's PlayStation.com servers as of this writing, and it was part of a Polish-language PlayStation promotion spotted by Video Games Chronicle before being taken down. The page in question suggested a two-day test run for this new service, available exclusively to subscribers of Sony's paid PlayStation Plus service, on April 21-22.

While the description of the service was vague, merely mentioning PS Plus Video Pass and a date range, an attached image clarified what PlayStation console owners should expect: three recent films released by Sony Pictures Entertainment (Venom, Bloodshot, and Zombieland: Double Tap). PS Plus Video Pass thus might revolve around films from Sony-owned companies like Columbia Pictures and TriStar Pictures—but whether additional studios might participate, and exactly how films would be doled out to paying customers, remains unclear.