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Sebastian Anthony

The Galaxy S7 Edge.

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OK Samsung, you got me. After years of resisting Galaxy phones because of TouchWiz, and because they were made of plastic, and because, well, they were ugly as sin, you've gone and made a phone that I really, really want. The S7 Edge and its counterpart the S7 are beautifully designed, expertly constructed, and sport the kind of features I've been clamouring for for years, but could never find in a single device. They're so good, in fact, that I might even be able to forgive TouchWiz. Almost.

At first glance you'd be hard pressed to tell whether you were looking at an S6 Edge or S7 Edge, such is the design language both phones share, but the difference is immediately noticeable when you pick the S7 Edge up. Gone are the awkward camera bulge and the uncomfortable flat back of the S6, replaced instead with an almost flush camera and metal back that gently curves out to fill your hand. Even the increased thickness over the S6 isn't a bad thing. The S7 is easier to pick up off a table, seems like it'll be more comfortable to hold over longer periods of time, and—most importantly for a phone that costs a hefty €799 (~$800)—it feels worthy of its premium price tag.

The improvements to the S7 Edge's design may be small on paper, but such subtle refinements make a world of difference. This is the first Galaxy phone I've used that I can truly say matches up to the premium feel of an iPhone, the sort of thing that I'd fondle all day out of pure joy, and not because of an ever growing (and worrying) Facebook addiction. Those curved edges may be a little superfluous, but they make swiping in from the sides of the phone delightfully smooth, while also having the added benefit of next to no screen bezel along the sides. With its 5.5-inch AMOLED screen, the S7 Edge isn't a small phone by any means, but compared to the likes of Apple's iPhone 6S Plus—which has the same screen size—it's much smaller and easier to use in one hand.

Sebastian Anthony

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BARCELONA, Spain—While Samsung may have been first to the (consumer) market with its Galaxy Gear VR headset, it's safe to say that compelling content is still thin on the ground. The company hopes to change that with the Galaxy Gear 360, a camera born out Samsung's "Project Beyond" that captures spherical video and images for playback in VR, or in 2D via an Android app. It's due for release in Q2 of this year in "select countries."

The Gear 360 is a small (just shy of a baseball), sphere-shaped camera weighing at 153 grams that sports two fisheye lenses hooked up to two 15-megapixel CMOS sensors, which work together to capture 3840x1920 360-degree video, or 30-megapixel still images. There's also an option to film 180-degree wide angle video by using just one of the lenses. Both lenses offer a relatively fast F/2.0 aperture, which should help in low light, particularly given the small sensor size.

Naturally, the Gear 360 is splash-proof and dust resistant—rated at IP53—for capturing all those extreme sports moments without the need to strap a bunch of GoPros to your head. Indeed, with GoPro not having had the best year in 2015, Samsung's primed to snap up some marketshare.

Enlarge / Global snapshot of the Vegetation Sensitivity Index (VSI), which measures environmental sensitivity to a changing climate, using satellite data gathered between 2000-2013 at 5km resolution. Areas in green are covered in vegetation that is the least sensitive to changes. Areas in red show the highest sensitivity. Grey areas are barren land or ice covered. Water is blue. (credit: Sedon, et. al.)

Climate change isn't just one, uniform transformation of the planet. Over time, some areas are going to get hotter, some wetter, some cloudier—and vice versa. This map, produced using a new system for analyzing satellite data, reveals which parts of the planet will be most affected by these changes.

Published in Nature, the map shows what the researchers call a vegetation sensitivity index (VSI). The VSI is a new measure of environmental vulnerability that combines several sources of data. The first source of data comes from the enhanced vegetation index—a measurement of plant cover on the ground, built with data from a satellite-based, moderate-resolution imaging spectroradiometer.

The researchers added information about how well each region's plant life could withstand changes in temperature, moisture, and cloud cover.

The future's so bright, I gotta wear these free VR shades Samsung included with my phone pre-order. (credit: Kyle Orland)

With all the talk of the impending Oculus Rift and HTC Vive, it's easy to forget that the Samsung Gear VR already provides a consumer-grade virtual reality experience for a relatively low price and without the need for a pricey desktop PC. Samsung seems intent on not letting the tech world forget about its mobile VR solution, though, announcing at Mobile World Congress Sunday that pre-orders for its new flagship Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge phones will include a free Gear VR headset.

On the one hand, adding a useful $100 accessory to these pre-orders seems like a good, synergistic way to generate interest in both virtual reality and in Samsung's new top-of-the-line phones, possibly pushing both to critical mass more quickly than they could unbundled. On the other hand, the fact that Samsung is willing to essentially give away a significant number of these $100 headsets suggests the Gear VR might not be selling as well as Samsung had hoped.

Business concerns aside, the pack-in deal is great for VR-curious consumers that are ready for a phone upgrade. Sure, the Gear VR might not have the head-tracking or hand-tracking capabilities of its PC-based counterparts. And the Galaxy phones can't really match the sheer pixel-pushing power of the GTX980 graphics cards needed to power tethered PC headsets.