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We may bit a post-CES news lull some days, but the reviews are coming in hot and heavy as February begins. Samsung has already debuted its latest premium phones and we've published a few long-term reviews of devices we've been testing for months. In this installment of the reviews roundup, we've got phones, a wearable, a robot vacuum and a smart grill. There's something for everyone this week. Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra Samsung has given us the first flagship phones of 2025 and they rely heavily on AI features to lure users. Sam notes that the company has improved those tools, but the Galaxy S25 Ultra feels like an iterative update due to the limited hardware upgrades. "This means a lot of what Samsung focused on in this generation feels more like a bonus rather than a must-have feature," he writes. "And when you can get around 90 percent of the phones capabilities from previous models, the most dangerous thing Samsung is asking buyers to consider is why they need to upgrade at all." Samsung Galaxy S25 Like the Galaxy S25 Ultra, Samsung leaned heavily into the AI features on the regular S25. However, the company didn't spend a lot of time updating the design and major components of this model either. As Mat explains, this makes for a boring release for the long-running flagship line. "Unless youre desperate for a bump in processing power and battery life, it would be wise to see how heavily last years models get discounted in the coming months," he says. Anker Eufy E20 The Eufy E20 is a first-of-its-kind transforming robot vacuum. While it works best in its core function as a robo vac, you do have the option of cordless stick and handheld vac configurations in the same device. "While Eufy isnt a stranger to making solid robot vacuums, this device is still a first-gen product in my mind and a solid one at that," Valentina notes. "But you have to know what youre buying upfront: an above-average robot vacuum that can turn into a just-average stick and hand vacuum." Oura Ring 4 Smart rings may still be niche, but there's one company that stands above the rest. With the Ring 4, Oura fixed flaws of the previous model to ensure its crown is safe for the time being. "If theres a downside, its that Oura remains forever constrained by the limitations a smart ring imposes," Dan explains. "If you want something more comprehensive, then its likely a smartwatch is a better option, but for everything else, theres this." OnePlus 13 While most phone companies are focused on AI features, OnePlus decided to build a compelling, flagship-level handset that isn't overloaded with bloat. "Throughout the years, OnePlus has used taglines like 'flagship killer' and 'ultra in every way' as a means of taking shots at its biggest rivals from Samsung, Google and more," Sam writes. "But for the OnePlus 13, it feels like the company just went and made a really solid premium handset without a bunch of AI fluff." Weber Searwood Weber's first pellet grill, the SmokeFire, was a learning experience for the company. Thankfully, the longstanding brand learned from those missteps when it built the Searwood. The company's second smart pellet grill offers more reliable performance, excelling at low-and-slow smoking. Weber opted for an all-new design for this model, from the cooking area to the new display. There's also a manual mode that allows for open-lid griddling and searing. And while there are some caveats, the Searwood is a much-improved grill compared to its predecessor. Upcoming reviews: Apple, Beats, Technics and more According to Bloomberg, Apple will debut a new iPhone SE next week. This will be the first update to that model since 2022, and will reportedly nix the home button. The report also details specifics like a camera notch, USB-C and the use of Apple's first in-house cellular modem. If the timing holds true, we'll expect to begin our testing shortly after the news drops. In that same report, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman explains that Beats' PowerBeats Pro 2 earbuds are expected to debut next week as well. The Apple-owned brand first teased an update to its fitness-focused model with a over-the-ear hook design last September. Gurman reports that the new model will have heart rate monitoring, which will be a first for a set of Apple earbuds. If the PowerBeats Pro 2 are indeed announced soon, we'll expect to have a review ready shortly after. I've got the Technics EAH-AZ100 earbuds in for testing too. These buds won one of Engadget's Best of CES awards last month and I've been eager to get my hands... er, ears... on them eer since. During a brief hands-on in Las Vegas, the company's newly designed Magnetic Fluid drivers offered impressive sound, but I'm looking forward to seeing how this set holds up during a full gamut of tests. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/engadget-review-recap-samsungs-galaxy-s25-phones-oneplus-13-and-oura-ring-4-180039298.html?src=rss
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As soon as late February, a lunar lander will depart from NASAs Kennedy Space Center on its way to the moon carrying instruments that could investigate whats just beneath the surface. Barely two months into the year, itll be the third mission to have set out on a journey toward the moon so far in 2025. If 2024 was all about establishing a commercial presence on the moon, 2025 is the year of doubling down. Well, unless Trump decides to deprioritize moon missions and shift the focus to Mars under Elon Musks direction, throwing off the whole timeline. But as it stands, it should be a busy year for the moon. Last year kicked off with the launch of Astrobotics Peregrine lander, marking the first of several missions led by companies working under multimillion-dollar contracts as part of NASAs Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program. Peregrine ultimately didnt make it to its destination after suffering a propellant leak post-launch, but only a few weeks later, Intuitive Machines launched and successfully landed its Odysseus spacecraft on the moon a first for a private spacecraft. (Odysseus tipped over when it hit the ground, but its payloads were still able to collect and transmit some data). Now, fast-forward to this year, and NASA has half a dozen CLPS missions on its schedule. The first of these, Firefly Aerospaces Blue Ghost Mission 1, launched on January 15 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. That same rocket also carried a lunar lander made by the Japanese company ispace, which is making a second attempt for its own commercial exploration endeavor, Hakuto-R. Fireflys lander, Blue Ghost, is expected to arrive at the moon first, with a target landing date of March 2 in an area called Mare Crisium. The 6.6-foot-tall solar-powered spacecraft is carrying 10 science payloads for NASA and other partners. That includes a new dust shield system to demonstrate how future missions might prevent particulates from accumulating on spacecraft, instruments for testing sample collection and Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS)-based navigation and a radiation tolerant computer. The objectives of the mission are to investigate heat flow from the lunar interior, plume-surface interactions, [and] crustal electric and magnetic fields, according to NASA. It will also take X-ray images of the Earth's magnetosphere. Resilience, the ispace lander, is taking a different, low-energy path to the moon and wont reach its site, Mare Frigoris, until late May or June. That craft has a micro rover called Tenacious on board that is designed to explore, collect surface material and relay data. In addition to a camera and shovel, Tenacious has a tiny model house mounted on it specifically the Moonhouse, by Swedish artist Mikael Genberg. The lander is carrying water electrolyzer equipment, a deep space radiation probe and a food production experiment module. (And how could we forget, it also contains a commemorative alloy plate from Bandai Namco Research Institute made in the style of the Gundam franchises Charter of the Universal Century). ispace Intuitive Machines, the company that pulled off the first-ever commercial moon landing with its Odysseus craft last year, is slated to launch its second CLPS mission in the next month or so, around the end of February. The IM-2 Nova-C lander dubbed Athena is headed to the lunar south pole with a meter-long drill and a mass spectrometer for NASAs Polar Resources Ice Mining Experiment-1 (PRIME-1). Its goal is to demonstrate the feasibility of drilling for samples and analyzing those samples on-site for things like water. IM-2 will also serve as a rideshare for NASAs Lunar Trailblazer, a small orbiter that will study the form, abundance and distribution of lunar water and its relation to geology. Besides the PRIME-1 instruments, Athena will transport a laser retroreflector array, an Intuitive Machines Micro-Nova Hopper described as a propulsive drone that deploys off of a Nova-C lander and hops across the lunar surface and a Lunar Surface Communication System network in a box made by Nokia. The two companies plan to set up the moons first cellular network, which is engineered to handle surface connectivity between the lander and vehicles, carrying high-definition video streaming, command-and-contro communications and telemetry data. Intuitive Machines Theres a chance Blue Origins Blue Moon Mark 1 lunar lander will take its first trip to the moon as soon as this spring or summer. John Couluris, a senior VP at Blue Origin, said in an interview with 60 Minutes last March that were expecting to land on the moon between 12 and 16 months from today. At the time, the company hadnt yet launched its New Glenn rocket which would be the vehicle for this mission even once, so that claim didnt hold much weight. But after many, many delays, New Glenn finally took its maiden flight in mid-January. NASA revealed, in an FCC filing spotted by SpaceNews back in August, that it had selected Blue Origins lander to bring a camera system, the Stereo Cameras for Lunar Plume Surface Studies (SCALPSS), to the moons south pole this year under the CLPS program. In the filing, NASA notes that this needs to be done before 2025 is over, as the data collected by the instrument at landing will help inform plans for the first crewed Artemis moon landing. SCALPSS payloads have flown on other CLPS missions, but the thrust level of Blue Origins Mark 1 lander is closer to the scale of the Human Landing System NASA will use for astronauts. Blue Origin said in another FCC filing the same month that its demonstration lunar mission, Pathfinder, could launch as early as March 2025, SpaceNews reported. Dont be surprised if it actually happens much later. The next CLPS mission after that isnt expected to take off until the fall, when Astrobotic will get another shot at landing on the moon. This time, itll be sending its larger Griffin lander to a region near the south pole. Griffin Mission 1 was initially supposed to carry NASAs Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER), but the space agency canceled development of that project late last year due to delays and rising costs. Astrobotics lander wont show up to the moon empty-handed, though. Itll have a tiny solar-powered CubeRover in tow, as well as a laser retroreflector array to pinpoint the landers location. Astrobotic We may see a third Intuitive Machines mission before the end of this year. The company and NASA are eyeing late 2025 or early 2026 for the launch of IM-3, which will deliver a suite of instruments focused on studying the magnetic and plasma properties of the Reiner Gamma lunar swirl, an area with its own mini-magnetosphere. A rover called the Mobile Autonomous Prospecting Platform (MAPP) will also be on board, plus a trio of small rovers from the Cooperative Autonomous Distributed Robotic Exploration (CADRE) project that will demonstrate mostly autonomous robots working together. The European Space Agencys MoonLIGHT laser retroreflector will fly with IM-3 too, along with and the Lunar Space Environment Monitor, from South Koreas Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI). While this year is certain to bring a lot of activity on and around the moon, theres one thing we wont see there just yet humans. NASA has adjusted the timeline of the Artemis missions a few times since the programs announcement, and most recently said in December that its pushing the first crewed flight, Artemis II, to April 2026. The agency previously said it was shooting for September 2025. Artemis III, the mission in which two astronauts will go to the lunar surface, now isnt expected to launch until mid-2027.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/science/space/2025-is-going-to-be-another-big-year-for-commercial-moon-missions-160038622.html?src=rss
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If you need to download and install TikTok in the US, you can do so on Android even though the app isn't back on the Play Store yet. In a tweet, the TikTok Policy account has announced that the service has made Android Package Kits available for download through its official web site. Companies don't typically endorse sideloading, but Tiktok is, of course, a special case. The app briefly went offline on January 19 before a law banning it in the US unless its parent company ByteDance sells it to an owner based in the country took effect. Under that law, the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store are required to remove its listing if they don't want to get slapped with a fine amounting to $5,000 for every user in the US who downloads the app. It didn't take a full day before TikTok restored access to its service, but its app has yet to reappear on Google's and Apple's stores in the US. We're enhancing ways for our community to continue using TikTok by making Android Package Kits available at https://t.co/JoNVqKpnrS so that our U.S. Android users can download our app and create, discover, and connect on TikTok.More information at our Help Center: TikTok Policy (@TikTokPolicy) February 8, 2025 One of the executive orders President Donald Trump signed when he took office put a 75-day pause on the law that banned the app, giving ByteDance until April to reach a deal. Trump has reportedly put Vice President J.D. Vance in charge of negotiating a potential sale before the deadline. ByteDance repeatedly said in the past that it had no plans to sell the social media app, but one of the company's biggest investors recently said that a deal is in "everybody's interest." Several companies and individuals have already expressed their intention to purchase TikTok in the US, including Perplexity AI and MrBeast.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apps/tiktok-advises-android-users-in-the-us-to-sideload-the-app-130015055.html?src=rss
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