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Sony is ending production of recordable Blu-ray, MiniDisc and MD Data disc media, along with MiniDV cassettes, the company announced. Last year, Sony said that it would gradually end production of recordable optical media and production at its Tagajo City plant due to poor sales. Now, production will definitively halt next month and "there will be no successor models," according to the Japanese web page. In the announcement, Sony referred to "Blu-ray Disc media," by which it means recordable media only, not Blu-ray discs used to distribute movies (Engadget asked Sony to confirm that it's only halting recordable optical disc production). Sony currently offers 11 products in the recordable category, ranging from 25GB to 128GB, in both R (write once) and RE (write multiple times). While Sony is ceasing production of recordable Blu-ray discs, they're still available from Verbatim and possibly others. However, MiniDiscs may be hard to come by as Sony was one of the few remaining manufacturers so you may want to stock up while they're still for sale. MiniDisc, mostly used for audio recording, has seen a bit of a resurgence among audiophiles due in part to the tactile experience compared to streaming. It was widely used by professionals as it supports live recording and still has a presence in studios because a lot of content has been archived to that format. (Fun fact: the character Neo in The Matrix stores his ill-begotten wares, whatever they are, on MiniDiscs.) Once popular for movie collection and file archiving, recordable Blu-ray and other optical media were effectively killed by streaming services, cheap memory, and cloud storage. All of the formats Sony killed have been around for decades, with BD-RE arriving 2002, MiniDisc in 1992, MD Data in 1993 and MiniDV cassettes, primarily used for video production, first appearing in 1995.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/home/home-theater/sony-is-halting-production-of-recordable-blu-ray-minidiscs-and-minidv-cassettes-140030225.html?src=rss
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This year, Samsung unified the design language of its S-series flagships, making the S25, S25+ and the S25 Ultra look and feel the same (barring the camera). The curving sides of the S24 Ultra are finally gone, replaced with the solid, squared-off lines seen on the cheaper Galaxy S handsets. Flatter sides make the device easier to grip, slide into your pocket, or prop up when youre trying to photograph them for a tech website. Ill be honest, they look like iPhones. And older Galaxy S phones. And, well, even older iPhones. Smartphones have hopped from flat to curves for as long as smartphones have existed. Samsung With Samsung, weve gripped onto rounded sides from the debut of Galaxy S (2010) through to 2015. Then, the Galaxy S6 (2015) had more flattened sides before the series returned to curves for the S8 (2017). It stayed that way until the more recent S24, with recent years gradually hammering out those curves. The S25 series, now, has flat sides for every model. Are flatter sides actually easier to grip? I dont know. Im a hypocrite. Ive found multiple reviews and impressions pieces where I love flat sides. Ive found the same number of stories where I loved curved devices. Why should you ever believe me again? Im sure there are tech journalists who have stuck with one form factor being better, but I couldnt find them. Engadget Each time it happens and the company explains its change, the designers say this lack of curves/ introduction of curves is better than whatever it was last year. In an interview with Vanity Fair in 2024, Jony Ive said that Apple chose rounded edges for the iPhone 6 series because they made larger phones feel less clunky. That was when the iPhone 6 Plus had a heady 5.5-inch screen, which seems quaint in 2025. My theory is that our hands get used to whatever phone form factor weve used for the last couple of years. That means when the design gets shaken up (or you swap to a different manufacturer), one has to pay more attention to holding it. But that effect fades. If the two most significant, most influential phone makers have settled on flat sides, then there are reasons for it. Until theres an even bigger reason to return, once again, to curves.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/curvy-sides-flat-edges-the-galaxy-s25-and-the-arbitrary-shape-of-smartphones-130047461.html?src=rss
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Welcome to a new newsletter, with a bit of a new direction. While our mid-week edition tackles news specifics, this end-of-the-week missive combines the biggest news with more context, more things to read and watch, recommendations, easter eggs, inside baseball and stuff that interests our readers, alongside the breaking news, reviews and features you expect from Engadget. Wed love your feedback on what youd like to see covered in these meatier editions hit me up at tma(at)engadget.com. Luckily for me, we kick things off with Samsungs big Unpacked event, launching three new phones and teasing two yes, two! more coming soon. Everything Samsung announced, including prices and launch dates (February 8 Ill save you a click), we collated here, but it was largely a fallow year for Galaxy S hardware, barring a substantially more powerful chip. While the Galaxy S25 Ultra et al. might not thrill, Samsung managed to breadcrumb several devices with no launch date. First, at its San Jose event, the company revealed its mixed reality headset in person, finally even if it was just a functionless headset for photos and gawping at. Then there was the Galaxy S25 Edge a device I didnt think existed. (And something that wasnt shown at my satellite event in London we got a not-great projection mapping brand activation across Londons Thames river. Boo.) Like Samsung did a year ago with its Galaxy Ring teaser, we got a fleeting glimpse of the rumored slim Galaxy phone, actually called the Galaxy S25 Edge. Its slim, has two cameras and... thats about all we know. Bloomberg reports it will cost less than the S25 Ultra when it arrives later this year. Samsung/YouTUbe And then theres the mysterious teaser for some possible bifold device see the screengrab above. This would be a foldable concertina, like devices weve seen from Huawei. Samsung teased the display tech back at CES 2022 and subsequent trade events. Is it now ready? Will the companys foldables become the new home for Samsung hardware innovation? Is the Galaxy Fold series now truly the new Galaxy Note? Mat Smith The biggest stories you might have missed NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 review: Pure AI excess for $2,000 Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra hands-on: Faster and way more... AI-ier Star Trek: Section 31 review: An embarrassment from start to end Today, in 1984 The first Mac(intosh). BBC Apple demonstrated its first Macintosh computer in front of 3,000 people. Graphical computing on the Macintosh wasnt as commercially successful as Microsofts DOS and Windows, but this was the first successful mass-market desktop personal computer with a graphical user interface, built-in screen and mouse. Yes, a mouse! The epic Ridley Scott-directed ad, 1984, also teased it. Time to watch that ad again. President Trump and tech The new leader got straight to work. It was a busy first week for President Trump. The Trump Administration no longer lets asylum seekers make appointments with app Donald Trump pardons Silk Road creator Ross Ulbricht Trump executive order rescinds Bidens AI framework Trump delays TikTok ban for at least 75 days via executive order President Trump withdraws the US from the Paris climate agreement (again) Reintroducing: Ask Engadget! AMA or AEA. I'm used to fighting robots.Engadget What can we answer for you that a hallucinating AI cant? When is the best time to buy a new iPhone? Do I need a high-res screen on my gaming laptop? My smart home is trying to kill me. While Google/ ChatGPT/ social media can often help, were bringing back Ask Engadget. Whatever it is, I made my boss create an entirely new email address: askmat(at)engadget.com. So help me help you. (Keep me gainfully employed in an era of bots and AI.)This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/general/the-morning-after-engadget-newsletter-123633309.html?src=rss
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