The best trail cameras for keeping an eye on your backyard wildlife

Daffodils flourishing in sidewalk cracks, pigeons and starlings congregating on overhead power lines, rats living in your apartment walls — no matter how urban humans strive to make our environments, nature’s flora and fauna will make themselves right …

The PS5 finally gets 1440p support

The PlayStation 5now supports 1440p, at least for gamers with access to its beta software. While the console has supported 1080p and 4K output from the start, 1440p support is still a much-requested feature by players who use monitors instead of TVs. It provides a middle ground between full HD and 4K, after all, and is a popular choice for gamers who also play on their PCs. Testers who get the latest beta software for the PS5 will now see a 1440p HDMI video output option as an additional visual setting when they use the console with a compatible monitor.

Obviously, they can enjoy the full benefits of 1440p rendering if the game they’re playing supports the resolution. But if they’re playing a game that supports 4K, they could also benefit from the feature, because the option downsamples the visuals for 1440p output and that leads to sharper images. As VG247 notes, though, Variable Refresh Rate (VRR), which rolled out for the console in April, is only available for 1080p and 2160p. VRR gives the screen the ability to sync its refresh rate with that of the game for a smoother experience, and it’s not quite clear why it’s not available for 1440p output. 

In addition to 1440p support, the latest beta software also gives users a way to create gamelists in their Game Library so that they can better organize all the titles they own. Players can create up to 15 gamelists with 100 games each. Their in-progress activities will now be shown prominently at the top of the game hub when they resume a game, as well, and they can now request party members to share their screens so that they can watch their gameplay. Plus, when they enter a party and a member is playing game they can join, they’ll now receive an alert and then join the game directly from that notification.

Sony has introduced more experimental features with the new beta and has listed them all on the PlayStation blog.

Samsung posts 12 percent increase in profit but warns of weak mobile and PC demand

For the second quarter of 2022, Samsung has reported a consolidated revenue of KRW 77.2 trillion (US$59.4 billion), which is a record high for the quarter ending on June 30th. Samsung’s operating profit also reached KRW 14.1 trillion (US$10.8 billion) — that’s 12 percent higher from the same period a year earlier and is its best yet since 2018. As has been the case these past years, the company’s semiconductor or Device Solutions (DS) division greatly contributed to those numbers and has achieved a historical high in quarterly revenue for the second consecutive quarter.

The DS division posted KRW 28.5 trillion (US$21.9 billion) in consolidated revenue and KRW 9.98 trillion (US$7.7 billion) in operating profit in the second quarter, thanks mostly to server chip demand. However, chip demand for consumer products, such as mobile phones and PCs, was much weaker than expected “due to widening impacts of macro issues.” In fact, Samsung said its DRAM and NAND shipments came in below guidance. The company also expects demand for consumer devices to stay weak and even believes that there’s a possibility for this slump in demand to make its way to enterprise.

As you can guess based on that information, Samsung’s Mobile eXperience (MX) business was also affected by the overall decline in market demand. The company blamed “geopolitical issues and concerns over inflation on top of continued weak seasonality” for the mobile division’s decline in earnings. It also said the costs of components and logistics affected the business’ profitability and caused it to slide lower than the previous quarter’s.

The tech giant doesn’t expect smartphone sales to blow up next quarter either: Demand for new phones will likely stay similar year-on-year or show only a single-digital growth, it predicts, because of prolonged geopolitical issues and economic uncertainties. That said, it’s hoping that the launch of new foldables could pad its sales numbers in the coming months. Samsung will unveil its next-gen foldable phones at its upcoming Unpacked event on August 10th. 

Google Photos for Chromebooks is getting a video editor and movie maker

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The best smart speakers you can buy

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