As part of a new agreement, films from Sony Pictures Entertainment will stream on Netflix first, the companies announced via a joint statement. The new deal expands on the exclusive rights Netflix had to Sony films in the US, and means the service will be the first place people will be able to stream upcoming projects like the live-action adaptation of The Legend of Zelda, and a quartet of biopics about The Beatles.
Sony's films will stream worldwide on Netflix in what's called "Pay-1," the first window of availability after a movie's theatrical and VOD releases. As part of the deal, Netflix is also licensing an undisclosed number of films and television shows from the Sony Pictures back catalog to help fill out its library. Netflix says the new arrangement "will roll out gradually" as licensing rights become available throughout the year, with full availability happening sometime in 2029. Neither company shared how long this new setup will last, but did describe the deal as a "multi-year agreement."
Netflix and Sony's partnership has been fruitful so far. Films like Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Uncharted and Anyone But You have had popular second lives on the streaming service. In the case of KPop Demon Hunters, Netflix was also able to spin a surprise Sony Animation streaming hit into a profitable theatrical run. Netflix will pay Sony north of $7 billion for this new deal, Variety reports — clearly that's worth it to secure the companies’ relationship for another few years.
Netflix has a similar deal with Universal, which has brought other Nintendo adaptations to the streaming service like The Super Mario Bros Movie. Beyond licensing, the company has an even bigger purchase in mind, though: buying Warner Bros. for $82.7 billion. In an effort to prevent the deal from going through, Paramount is now suing Warner Bros. Discovery for ignoring its own competing bid for the company.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/netflixs-expanded-sony-deal-includes-streaming-rights-to-the-legend-of-zelda-movie-203011384.html?src=rss
Verizon’s network is experiencing technical issues that are impacting calls and wireless data. Verizon customers on X have reported seeing “SOS” rather than the traditional network bars on their smartphones, and even the network provider’s own status page struggled to load, likely due to the number of customers trying to access it.
Based on the experience of Verizon users on Engadget’s staff, the services that are impacted appear to be calls and wireless data. Text messages continue to be delivered normally, at least for some users. On DownDetector, reports of a Verizon outage started growing around 12PM ET and numbered in the hundreds of thousands at their peak.
DownDetector also shows spikes in outage reports on competing networks like AT&T and T-Mobile, but in terms of magnitude, they’re much smaller than the issue Verizon is facing. For example, Verizon peaked at 181,769 reports, while AT&T’s was just 1,769 reports. The difference between the two is great enough that those AT&T reports could be from people trying to contact Verizon customers and thinking that their personal network was the problem.
We are aware of an issue impacting wireless voice and data services for some customers. Our engineers are engaged and are working to identify and solve the issue quickly. We understand how important reliable connectivity is and apologize for the inconvenience.
In a post on the cell provider’s news account on X, Verizon acknowledged the issues with its network. “We are aware of an issue impacting wireless voice and data services for some customers,” Verizon wrote. “Our engineers are engaged and are working to identify and solve the issue quickly. We understand how important reliable connectivity is and apologize for the inconvenience.”
Based on DownDetector’s map of outage reports, issues with Verizon’s network appear to be concentrated in major cities in the eastern United States. The majority of reports appear to be coming out of Boston, New York and Washington DC, though the map also shows growing hot spots in Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles.
Verizon engineering teams are continuing to address today's service interruptions. Our teams remain fully deployed and are focused on the issue. We understand the impact this has on your day and remain committed to resolving this as quickly as possible.
At 2:14PM ET, Verizon shared on X that its engineering teams “remain fully deployed” to work on fixing the outage. The company didn’t share when the issue would resolved or how many of its customers are currently impacted. Reports on DownDetector have dropped since their peak at 12:43PM ET, but thousands of Verizon customers are still noticing issues with the service.
As of 3:09PM ET, Verizon has yet to share more information about the recovery of the company’s cell network. Some Verizon customers on X have noticed their cell service returning, but it’s not clear if this means the network’s technical issues have been fixed.
At 4:06PM ET, nearly two hours since the company’s last statement, at least one member of Engadget’s staff reports their service has been restored. The connectivity issues are still affecting Verizon customers, however. DownDetector received over 55,000 outage reports as recently as 3:47PM ET.
Verizon's team is on the ground actively working to fix today’s service issue that is impacting some customers. We know this is a huge inconvenience, and our top priority is to get you back online and connected as fast as possible. We appreciate your patience while we work to…
Verizon posted at 4:12PM ET that work continues on addressing the outage, but the issue hasn’t been completely fixed. According to the company, its team is “on the ground actively working to fix today’s service issue that is impacting some customers.”
As of 4:52PM ET, the Verizon’s network has been experiencing issues for around four hours, making today’s outage nearly as long as the last major outage the company had in 2024. Like that 2024 outage, Verizon has yet to share what exactly is causing the issues with its network. Without out an official update, it’s safe to assume the company is still working on a fix.
At 5:41PM ET, DownDetector latest tally still shows over 46,000 people reporting issues with Verizon’s network. Based on the platform’s map, the same cities are filing the bulk of the outage reports, though reporting appears more diffuse than before as news of the outage has spread across the country.
At 6:20PM ET, the situation was much the same. Tens of thousands of users (including Engadget editors) still don’t have proper service, and Verizon had not updated its customers since 4:12PM ET. There are intermittent reports of service coming back and then failing again but seemingly no true fix has been deployed.
At 10:20PM ET, Verizon has announced that the outage has been resolved and has encouraged subscribers still having issues to restart their devices to reconnect to the network. The company also said that it will provide account credits to affected customers.
Both T-Mobile and AT&T have confirmed that their own networks are unaffected by the issues facing their competitor. In a post on X, T-Mobile shared that its network is “operating normally and as expected.” Meanwhile, AT&T says that for any of its customers experiencing issues, “it’s not us...it’s the other guys.”
Update, January 14, 7:25PM ET: This article was published as a developing story and was updated multiple times over a period of around seven hours. These updates were additive, and noted with a timestamp within the article. As of writing, Verizon is still down for tens of thousands of users and the company’s support team has not issued an update on the stituation in over three hours. Happy Wednesday!
Update January 14, 10:39PM ET: This story has been updated to add Verizon’s latest update that the outage has been resolved.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/verizon-says-its-service-is-back-after-a-10-hour-outage-183048229.html?src=rss
The Senate has passed the Disrupt Explicit Forged Images and Non-Consensual Edits (DEFIANCE ) Act with unanimous consent, according to the bill’s co-sponsor Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL). The bill lets the subjects of nonconsensual, sexually explicit deepfakes take civil action against the people who create and host them.
Deepfakes are a known issue online, but without the proper protections, easy access to AI-powered image and video generation tools has made it possible for anyone to create compromising content using another person's likeness. This has become a particular problem on X, where the integration of Grok, the AI assistant created by X's parent company xAI, makes it possible for anyone to turn the content of another person's post into an image-generating prompt. Over the last month, that's allowed users to create sexually explicit images of children, just by replying to a post with @grok and a request.
In response, Ofcom, the UK's media regulator, has already opened an investigation into X for potentially violating the Online Safety Act. The chatbot has also been outright blocked in Malaysia and Indonesia. The DEFIANCE Act won't prevent Grok or other AI tools from generating nonconsensual deepfakes, but it would make creating or hosting that content potentially very expensive for anyone on the receiving end of a lawsuit.
The Senate passed an earlier version of the DEFIANCE Act in 2024, but it stalled in the House. Given the urgency of Grok's deepfake problem, the hope is this new version of the bill won't see the same resistance. Congress passed an earlier piece of deepfake regulation last year, the Take It Down Act, with bipartisan support. That bill was focused on the companies who host nonconsensual, sexually explicit content, rather than the people exploited by it.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/senate-passes-defiance-act-for-a-second-time-to-address-grok-deepfakes-212151712.html?src=rss
Waymo, Alphabet's self-driving car company, tested its autonomous vehicles in New York City in 2025, and as part of proposed legislation from New York Governor Kathy Hochul, the company could soon offer its services across the state, Wired reports.
Governor Hochul's proposed legislation was formally announced during a State of the State address covering policy proposals for the upcoming year. The new law, if passed, would loosen the state's restrictions on self-driving car companies by forming a pilot program that would allow for "the limited deployment of commercial for-hire autonomous passenger vehicles outside New York City." Applicants to the pilot program would need to demonstrate that they have "local support for [autonomous vehicle] deployment" and prove their "adherence to the highest possible safety standards" to be considered.
As a company with presumably good odds of being approved, Waymo supports the legislation. "Governor Hochul’s proposal to legalize fully autonomous vehicles is a transformative moment for New York's transportation system," Waymo's Head of Global Public Policy Justin Kintz said in a statement. "With the Governor’s leadership, New York has the opportunity to pair its investments in slower speeds, better traffic enforcement, and first-in-the-nation congestion management strategies with Waymo’s demonstrably safe technology, creating a future where living in New York is safer, easier, and more accessible."
Waymo already has commercial robotaxi services in select cities in California, Texas and Georgia, offered on its own or in partnership with Uber. The company announced plans to expand in Texas and Florida late last year, and is already committed to offering service in Las Vegas, San Diego and Detroit in 2026. Wired reports Waymo spent over $370,000 lobbying regulators in New York about telecommunications and transportation issues in 2025, and based on today's announcement, it appears those efforts are paying off.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/proposed-legislation-opens-the-door-to-robotaxi-services-in-new-york-193804671.html?src=rss
Amazon is making a return, of sorts, to physical retail via plans to build a big-box retail store in the Chicago suburbs, The Information reports. The 225,000-square foot retail space will open in Orland Park, Illinois, and give the company the opportunity to sell more than just groceries after it closed most of its physical bookstores and gift shops in 2022.
The new store will offer in-store shopping, but also act as a fulfillment center for online orders, which could make it similar to competitors like Target and Walmart, and some of Amazon's existing Whole Foods and Amazon Fresh locations. "The proposed development will offer a wide selection of products, including groceries and general merchandise, with accessory services and potentially dining locations for prepared food sold onsite," Amazon wrote in a planning document The Information viewed.
While best known as an online marketplace, Amazon has made multiple attempts to have a physical retail presence. Amazon Books sold books based on what was trending on the company's website, Amazon 4-star sold a variety of products that were rated four or more stars in Amazon reviews and the company's Amazon Go stores sold pre-made food and select groceries via its cashier-less "Just Walk Out" technology.
Amazon has abandoned basically all those experiments in favor of sticking with the grocery brand it bought in 2017, Whole Foods, and the new one it’s formed in the years since, Amazon Fresh. This new store could be an entirely new concept, or an evolution of Amazon Fresh, but whatever it is, it'll have to be approved by the Orland Park Village Board to move forward, according to the Chicago Tribune.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/amazon-is-apparently-planning-a-big-box-store-in-the-chicago-suburbs-213451978.html?src=rss
The start of the new year is a great time to get your finances in order, and a good budgeting app can help with that. Instead of laboring over a spreadsheet, you can try one of our favorite budgeting apps for less than usual. Monarch Money is running a sale that gives new users 50 percent off one year of the service, bringing the final cost down to just $50. Just use the code NEWYEAR2026 at checkout to get the discount.
Monarch Money makes for a capable and detailed budgeting companion. You can use the service via apps for iOS, Android, iPadOS or the web, and Monarch also offers a Chrome extension that can sync your Amazon and Target transactions and automatically categorize them. Like other budgeting apps, Monarch Money lets you connect multiple financial accounts and track your money based on where you spend it over time. Monarch offers two different approaches to tracking budgeting (flexible and category budgeting) depending on what fits your life best, and the ability to add a budget widget on your phone so you can know how you're tracking that month.
How budgeting apps turn your raw transactions into visuals you can understand at a glance is one of the big things that differentiates one app from another, and Monarch Money offers multiple graphs and charts to look at for things like spending, investments or categories of your choice based on how you've labelled your expenses. The app can also monitor the spending of you and your partner all in one place, to make it easier to plan together.
The main drawbacks Engadget found in testing Monarch Money were the app's learning curve, and the differences in features (and bugginess) between Monarch's web and mobile versions. Still, for 50 percent off, the Monarch Money is well worth experimenting with if you're trying to save money in 2026, especially if you want to do it collaboratively with a partner.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/monarch-money-deal-new-users-get-one-year-of-access-for-only-50-204507285.html?src=rss
Meta's messaging app WhatsApp could soon be subject to deeper scrutiny (and punishment) under the European Commission's Digital Services Act, Reuters reports. Because the app's broadcasting feature WhatsApp Channels grew to around 51.7 million average monthly active users in the European Union in the first six months of 2025, the feature has crossed the 45-million-person barrier that lets DSA rules apply.
A platform is designated as a "very large online platform" or VLOP once it has 45 million monthly users or more, according to the European Commission. Once an app or service passes that amount, it's subject to the DSA and all its rules about how digital platforms should operate, particularly around removing illegal or harmful content. Companies can be fined up to six percent of their global annual revenue for not complying with the DSA.
WhatsApp traditionally functions as a private messaging app, but its Channels feature, which lets users make one-sided posts to anyone who follows their channel, does look a lot more like Meta's other social media platforms. "So here we would indeed designate potentially WhatsApp for WhatsApp Channels and I can confirm that the Commission is actively looking into it and I wouldn't exclude a future designation," a Commission spokesperson said in a daily news briefing Reuters viewed.
Engadget has asked Meta to comment on WhatsApp’s possible new designation. We’ll update this article if we hear back.
The possibility that WhatsApp could become a regulatory target in the EU was first reported in November 2025, but Meta has been dealing with DSA-related fines since well before then. Meta was charged with violating the EU law in October 2025 because of how it asks users to report illegal content on Facebook and Instagram. Earlier that month, a Dutch court also ordered the company to change how it presents the timelines on its platforms because people in the Netherlands were not "sufficiently able to make free and autonomous choices about the use of profiled recommendation systems" in the company's apps.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/whatsapp-might-soon-be-subject-to-stricter-scrutiny-under-the-eus-digital-services-act-191000354.html?src=rss
In a new executive order, President Donald Trump has declared that the United States will withdraw from 66 international organizations and bodies, including several focused on tackling climate change. Trump made his disregard for climate change clear when he withdrew the US from the Paris climate agreement for a second time in early 2025, but these new withdrawals further confirm the second Trump administration is against global collaboration in general.
Among the organizations targeted, the US will no longer participate in the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and organizations focused on trade, conservation, reproductive rights and immigration, like International Trade Centre, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, the UN Population Fund and the Global Forum on Migration and Development. In the case of the United Nations-affiliated organizations, the US ending its participation also means withdrawing funding.
According to the White House, the organizations the US is leaving "promote radical climate policies, global governance and ideological programs that conflict with US sovereignty and economic strength." Withdrawing is supposed to save taxpayers money, though the White House's fact sheet on the executive order neglects to say how much will be saved or how that saved money will be spent now that it's not supporting the United Nations.
"By withdrawing from the IPCC, UNFCCC, and the other vital international partnerships, the Trump administration is undoing decades of hard-won diplomacy, attempting to undermine climate science and sowing distrust around the world," Former Vice President Al Gore said in a statement responding to the executive order.
While losing financial backing likely doesn't help anyone, the actual impact of the US'sdec withdrawals is a bit of an unknown, The Washington Post reports. For example, the US remains involved with the International Energy Agency, which works on global clean energy solutions. Also, many of the organizations the White House decided to exit were deliberative bodies, or ones that the US was only marginally involved in, according to a UN official The Post spoke to.
Directly pushing back against global organizations and regulation has been a consistent theme of the second Trump administration, particularly in regards to tech regulation. The US withdrew from trade talks with Canada in June 2025 over the country's digital services tax, and just last month the US banned former EU commissioner Thierry Breton from entering the US for his role in the creation of the Digital Services Act.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/the-us-withdraws-from-dozens-of-international-bodies-including-climate-focused-organizations-195259578.html?src=rss
CES 2026 has been a big event for screens of all sizes: TVs, laptops and everything in between. New PC monitors are among the CES announcements, with several companies are using the trade show as an opportunity to update their gaming monitor lineups. Some companies are showing off expanded OLED panels with improved refresh rates, brightness and color production, while others are showing off weirder ideas like a glasses-free 3D monitor. The collection below are some of our favorite gaming monitors that have already been announced:
LG UltraGear GX7
LG's latest QHD OLED gaming monitor is its brightest to date
LG
The LG UltraGear GX7 is the fastest and brightest gaming monitor LG has offered so far and a gaming-focused showcase for LG Display's 4th-gen RGB Tandem 2.0 OLED technology. The new display tech splits up the yellow layer of the company's 3rd-gen OLED tech into distinct red and green layers that, when stacked with blue layers, create brighter, more energy-efficient screens.
In the case of the UltraGear GX7, the new 27-inch monitor reaches a typical brightness of 335 nits, and is VES DisplayHDR True Black 500 certified, for deeper contrast between the dark and bright parts of the screen. LG touts the display's Dual Mode, which lets discerning gamers switch between two distinct settings: a 540Hz refresh rate mode at QHD resolution, when image quality is what you care about most, or a 720Hz refresh rate mode at HD resolution, when speed is your priority.
Whichever mode you choose, LG promises the monitor will offer a smooth and stutter free experience. It has a 0.02ms response time and supports both NVIDIA G-Sync and AMD FreeSYNC Premium Pro, so you should be set, regardless of what your computer's specialty is. For $1,000, the LG UltraGear GX7 seems like a high watermark for OLED gaming monitors.
Samsung Odyssey 3D and Odyssey OLED G8
Samsung's new Odyssey 3D monitor is the "world's first 6K display with glasses-free 3D," with a 6,144 x 3,456 resolution, and the ability to take games "beyond 2D" by tracking the position of your eyes, and enhancing terrain, distance and object separation. Even if you're not interested in playing formerly 2D games like Lies of P: Overture with an added sense of depth, a 32-inch LCD screen with a 165Hz refresh rate that's capable of being boosted to 330Hz through Samsung's Dual Mode is nothing to sneeze at, especially with a 1ms response time.
On top of its big 3D monitor, Samsung is also pushing its own updated OLED tech at CES. The company's new 32-inch Odyssey OLED G8 uses a 4K QD-OLED panel with a 240Hz refresh rate and a glare-free treatment for added visibility. The monitor has a VESA DisplayHDR True Black 500 certification, but unlike LG's display, its brightness is capped at 300 nits.
ASUS ROG Swift OLED PG27UCWM and ROG Strix Pulsar XG27AQNGV
The back and front of ASUS' new ROG Swift monitor with a Tandem OLED panel.
ASUS
While the ASUS ROG Swift OLED PG27UCWM uses a Tandem OLED panel – a panel with two light-emitting layers, like the Ultra XDR Retina display on Apple's recent iPad Pros – the big change ASUS is focused on at CES 2026 is its new RGB Stripe OLED layout, technology LG helped pioneer. These updated panels use "a full RGB sub-pixel arrangement" to produce sharper text and more accurate color reproduction when compared to the QD-OLED panels the company has used in the past.
The 27-inch ROG Swift OLED PG27UCWM can be run at 4K with a 240Hz refresh rate or at FHD with a 480Hz refresh rate. The display also has a 0.03ms minimum response time for smooth and clear action, and 99 percent DCI-P3 color gamut coverage for more vibrant and accurate color reproduction. The OLED monitor also includes a "Neo PRoximity Sensor" which automatically turns the screen off when you're not looking at it, to prevent burn-in.
NVIDIA's new G-Sync Pulsar tech, which uses variable backlighting to reduce blur, is specifically meant for competitive gamers, and ASUS' new ROG Strix Pulsar XG27AQNGV monitor is one of the first to support the new tech. The monitor features a 27-inch, 1440p panel with a 360Hz refresh rate and "the fastest response time" ASUS has ever achieved in a 1440p LCD display. The monitor also includes DisplayPort, HDMI 2.1 and multiple USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A ports for whatever devices you want to connect to it.
MSI MPG 314CQR QD-OLED X36
MSI's new curved MPG monitor with a QD-OLED panel.
MSI
The star monitor of MSI's new products at CES 2026 is the wordily titled MSI MPG 341CQR QD-OLED X36, a curved, 34-inch ultrawide monitor, with new OLED panel. Like Asus, MSI is mixing different OLED display technologies for better results. This new monitor uses a 5th-gen Tandem QD-OLED panel with an "RGB Stripe sub-pixel layout" for sharper visuals. MSI also applies what it calls "DarkArmor Film" to "enhance light absorption," eliminate the reddish tint some QD-OLED panels have under ambient light, and boost black levels by "up to 40 percent."
As an ultrawide, the MPG 341CQR QD-OLED X36 has a resolution of 3,440 x 1,440, an aspect ratio of 21:9 and a refresh rate of 360Hz. MSI says the monitor can reach a peak brightness of 1,300 nits, and the company provides multiple HDR modes to switch between depending on your needs. Similar to ASUS, the monitor also includes a sensor for detecting whether a human is in front of the screen – MSI calls it an AI Care Sensor – so that the monitor can power-off or enter standby mode when not in active use.
ViewSonic VX2738 2K OLED Gaming Monitor
ViewSonic's new 24-inch OLED monitor.
ViewSonic
ViewSonic's new gaming monitors are more approachable and (presumably) more affordable than the options from competitors, but not necessarily less performant. The company top-of-the-line model, the ViewSonic VX2738 2K OLED Gaming Monitor has a 27-inch 2K QHD QD-OLED panel with a 240Hz refresh rate and up to 0.03ms response time.
The monitor supports AMD FreeSync Premium and NVIDIA G-Sync for smoother gameplay. The VX2738 also has the ability to scale down its image via a 24.5-inch "esports mode" for competitive settings. ViewSonic says the monitor will include HDMI 2.1 and DisplayPort 1.4 ports and be available for $500.
HP HyperX Omen OLED 34
HP's new curved OLED monitor with a headphone hook.
HP
HP's newest monitor under its unified HyperX Omen gaming brand is the HyperX Omen OLED 34, a curved 34-inch monitor with a QD-OLED panel. HP says the monitor uses V-stripe QD-OLED tech, which like in MSI and ASUS' monitors, means sharper text and better color accuracy. The HyperX Omen OLEd 34 has an aspect ratio of 21:9, a 360Hz refresh rate and a 0.03ms response time.
The monitor has 100W USB-C power delivery for whichever laptop you decide to connect to it, and a built-in KVM switch, HP says. Plus, the company is offering a customizable, 3D-printable headphone hook, if you want to store your accessories nearby.
Acer Predator XB273U F6 Gaming Monitor
An Acer Predator monitor on a white background.
Acer
Acer is showing off multiple new monitors at CES 2026, but the Predator XB273U F6 Gaming Monitor stands out for its ridiculously fast refresh rate. Acer says the 27-inch screen has a 500Hz refresh rate by default, that can be boosted to 1000Hz at a 1,280 x 720 resolution if you use the company's Dynamic Frequency and Resolution (DFR) mode.
The Predator XB273U F6 otherwise features a 2,560 x 1,440 IPS panel with a brightness of 350 nits, that's calibrated to cover 95 percent of the DCI-P3 and 99 percent of the sRGB color gamut. The monitor also has 2-watt speakers built-in, and includes HDMI2.1, DisplayPort 1.4 and audio out ports for connecting to the rest of your PC gaming setup. Acer says the Predator XB273U F6 will be available for $800 when it launches in Q2 2026 in North America.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/accessories/the-gaming-monitors-that-caught-our-eye-at-ces-2026-130000433.html?src=rss
After kicking off its Moto Things accessory line with wireless earbuds, a Bluetooth tracker and a cheap smartwatch in 2024, Motorola is doubling down. At CES 2026, the company is announcing a sequel to its tracker, the Moto Tag 2, a stylus for its new folding phone, the Moto Pen Ultra and a more premium smartwatch called the Moto Watch.
The Moto Watch has a 47mm round face with a stainless steel crown and an aluminum frame. The smartwatch comes with a PANTONE "Volcanic Ash" silicone band, but is designed to support third-party 22mm bands, too, which greatly expands its customization options. Motorola says the watch can get up to 13 days of battery life normally or seven days with its always-on display enabled, and also features a built-in speaker and microphone for hands-free controls and audio notifications. The Moto Watch is meant to be fairly durable, as well, with Gorilla Glass 3 front glass and IP68 water and dust resistance.
The actual fitness features of the watch are powered by Motorola's new partner Polar, a company with its own line of fitness trackers and smartwatches. The Moto Watch lets users log their calorie consumption throughout the day, track their workouts and activity levels (with a daily Activity Goal and Activity Score) and monitor their sleep. The watch also has built-in dual-frequency GPS for tracking runs, bike rides and hikes.
A hand holding a Moto Pen Ultra writing on a Razr Fold.
Motorola
While Samsung dropped S Pen stylus support on its latest version of the Galaxy Z Fold 7 (one of many ways the company got the foldable so thin), Motorola is embracing styluses on its new Razr Fold. The Moto Pen Ultra comes with a charging case and supports things like palm rejection and tilt sensitivity for more accurate strokes. The Moto Pen Ultra can also be used with Google's Circle to Search and new AI-powered software features like "Sketch to Image," which converts hand-drawn sketches into detailed images.
A bike seat with a Moto Tag 2 attached to it.
Motorola
The Moto Tag 2 builds on the original Moto Tag with a longer battery life and better durability. The Moto Tag 2 is IP68-rated and now gets over 500 days of battery life in comparison to the original Tag's year-long battery. As before, the Bluetooth tracker connects to Google's Find Hub network and Motorola says the tracker's ultra-wideband (UWB) antenna and support for Bluetooth Channel Sounding can help users determine the exact distance they are from their tracked object. You can also press the button on the Moto Tag 2 to ring your phone if it's missing, or customize the Tag to act as a camera shutter button.
Motorola hasn't shared pricing details for any of its new Moto Things accessories, though it has provided a release date for at least one. The Moto Watch will be available on January 22 from the company's website. The Moto Tag 2 and Moto Pen Ultra, meanwhile, will both be available in North America "in the coming months."
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/motorola-expands-its-moto-things-lineup-with-a-new-bluetooth-tracker-stylus-and-smartwatch-010000669.html?src=rss
