I just realized I never posted a video showing my most recent version of GPU hydraulic erosion, so here it is :)heightmap size is 1024x1024, rendered with tessellation shaders with displacement mapping.Textures from FreePBR.com and Textures.com

Over the next two decades, the market for humanoid robots is expected to reach $38 billion. To address this significant demand, particularly in industrial and manufacturing sectors, NVIDIA is releasing a collection of robot foundation models, data pipelines and simulation frameworks to accelerate next-generation humanoid robot development efforts.Announced by NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang today at the CES trade show, the NVIDIA Isaac GR00T Blueprint for synthetic motion generation helps developers generate exponentially large synthetic motion data to train their humanoids using imitation learning.Imitation learning a subset of robot learning enables humanoids to acquire new skills by observing and mimicking expert human demonstrations. Collecting these extensive, high-quality datasets in the real world is tedious, time-consuming and often prohibitively expensive. Implementing the Isaac GR00T blueprint for synthetic motion generation allows developers to easily generate exponentially large synthetic datasets from just a small number of human demonstrations.Starting with the GR00T-Teleop workflow, users can tap into the Apple Vision Pro to capture human actions in a digital twin. These human actions are mimicked by a robot in simulation and recorded for use as ground truth.The GR00T-Mimic workflow then multiplies the captured human demonstration into a larger synthetic motion dataset. Finally, the GR00T-Gen workflow, built on the NVIDIA Omniverse and NVIDIA Cosmos platforms, exponentially expands this dataset through domain randomization and 3D upscaling.The dataset can then be used as an input to the robot policy, which teaches robots how to move and interact with their environment effectively and safely in NVIDIA Isaac Lab, an open-source and modular framework for robot learning.World Foundation Models Narrow the Sim-to-Real GapNVIDIA also announced Cosmos at CES, a platform featuring a family of open, pretrained world foundation models purpose-built for generating physics-aware videos and world states for physical AI development. It includes autoregressive and diffusion models in a variety of sizes and input data formats. The models were trained on 18 quadrillion tokens, including 2 million hours of autonomous driving, robotics, drone footage and synthetic data.In addition to helping generate large datasets, Cosmos can reduce the simulation-to-real gap by upscaling images from 3D to real. Combining Omniverse a developer platform of application programming interfaces and microservices for building 3D applications and services with Cosmos is critical, because it helps minimize potential hallucinations commonly associated with world models by providing crucial safeguards through its highly controllable, physically accurate simulations.An Expanding EcosystemCollectively, NVIDIA Isaac GR00T, Omniverse and Cosmos are helping physical AI and humanoid innovation take a giant leap forward. Major robotics companies have started adopting and demonstrated results with Isaac GR00T, including Boston Dynamics and Figure.Humanoid software, hardware and robot manufacturers can apply for early access to NVIDIAs humanoid robot developer program.Watch the CES opening keynote from NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang, and stay up to date by subscribing to the newsletter and following NVIDIA Robotics on LinkedIn, Instagram, X and Facebook.See notice regarding software product information.

NVIDIA Cosmos, a platform for accelerating physical AI development, introduces a family of world foundation models neural networks that can predict and generate physics-aware videos of the future state of a virtual environment to help developers build next-generation robots and autonomous vehicles (AVs).World foundation models, or WFMs, are as fundamental as large language models. They use input data, including text, image, video and movement, to generate and simulate virtual worlds in a way that accurately models the spatial relationships of objects in the scene and their physical interactions.Announced today at CES, NVIDIA is making available the first wave of Cosmos WFMs for physics-based simulation and synthetic data generation plus state-of-the-art tokenizers, guardrails, an accelerated data processing and curation pipeline, and a framework for model customization and optimization.Researchers and developers, regardless of their company size, can freely use the Cosmos models under NVIDIAs permissive open model license that allows commercial usage. Enterprises building AI agents can also use new open NVIDIA Llama Nemotron and Cosmos Nemotron models, unveiled at CES.The openness of Cosmos state-of-the-art models unblocks physical AI developers building robotics and AV technology and enables enterprises of all sizes to more quickly bring their physical AI applications to market. Developers can use Cosmos models directly to generate physics-based synthetic data, or they can harness the NVIDIA NeMo framework to fine-tune the models with their own videos for specific physical AI setups.Physical AI leaders including robotics companies 1X, Agility Robotics and XPENG, and AV developers Uber and Waabi are already working with Cosmos to accelerate and enhance model development.Developers can preview the first Cosmos autoregressive and diffusion models on the NVIDIA API catalog, and download the family of models and fine-tuning framework from the NVIDIA NGC catalog and Hugging Face.World Foundational Models for Physical AICosmos world foundation models are a suite of open diffusion and autoregressive transformer models for physics-aware video generation. The models have been trained on 9,000 trillion tokens from 20 million hours of real-world human interactions, environment, industrial, robotics and driving data.The models come in three categories: Nano, for models optimized for real-time, low-latency inference and edge deployment; Super, for highly performant baseline models; and Ultra, for maximum quality and fidelity, best used for distilling custom models.When paired with NVIDIA Omniverse 3D outputs, the diffusion models generate controllable, high-quality synthetic video data to bootstrap training of robotic and AV perception models. The autoregressive models predict what should come next in a sequence of video frames based on input frames and text. This enables real-time next-token prediction, giving physical AI models the foresight to predict their next best action.Developers can use Cosmos open models for text-to-world and video-to-world generation. Versions of the diffusion and autoregressive models, with between 4 and 14 billion parameters each, are available now on the NGC catalog and Hugging Face.Also available are a 12-billion-parameter upsampling model for refining text prompts, a 7-billion-parameter video decoder optimized for augmented reality, and guardrail models to ensure responsible, safe use.To demonstrate opportunities for customization, NVIDIA is also releasing fine-tuned model samples for vertical applications, such as generating multisensor views for AVs.Advancing Robotics, Autonomous Vehicle ApplicationsCosmos world foundation models can enable synthetic data generation to augment training datasets, simulation to test and debug physical AI models before theyre deployed in the real world, and reinforcement learning in virtual environments to accelerate AI agent learning.Developers can generate massive amounts of controllable, physics-based synthetic data by conditioning Cosmos with composed 3D scenes from NVIDIA Omniverse.Waabi, a company pioneering generative AI for the physical world, starting with autonomous vehicles, is evaluating the use of Cosmos for the search and curation of video data for AV software development and simulation. This will further accelerate the companys industry-leading approach to safety, which is based on Waabi World, a generative AI simulator that can create any situation a vehicle might encounter with the same level of realism as if it happened in the real world.In robotics, WFMs can generate synthetic virtual environments or worlds to provide a less expensive, more efficient and controlled space for robot learning. Embodied AI startup Hillbot is boosting its data pipeline by using Cosmos to generate terabytes of high-fidelity 3D environments. This AI-generated data will help the company refine its robotic training and operations, enabling faster, more efficient robotic skilling and improved performance for industrial and domestic tasks.In both industries, developers can use NVIDIA Omniverse and Cosmos as a multiverse simulation engine, allowing a physical AI policy model to simulate every possible future path it could take to execute a particular task which in turn helps the model select the best of these paths.Data curation and the training of Cosmos models relied on thousands of NVIDIA GPUs through NVIDIA DGX Cloud, a high-performance, fully managed AI platform that provides accelerated computing clusters in every leading cloud.Developers adopting Cosmos can use DGX Cloud for an easy way to deploy Cosmos models, with further support available through the NVIDIA AI Enterprise software platform.Customize and Deploy With NVIDIA CosmosIn addition to foundation models, the Cosmos platform includes a data processing and curation pipeline powered by NVIDIA NeMo Curator and optimized for NVIDIA data center GPUs.Robotics and AV developers collect millions or billions of hours of real-world recorded video, resulting in petabytes of data. Cosmos enables developers to process 20 million hours of data in just 40 days on NVIDIA Hopper GPUs, or as little as 14 days on NVIDIA Blackwell GPUs. Using unoptimized pipelines running on a CPU system with equivalent power consumption, processing the same amount of data would take over three years.The platform also features a suite of powerful video and image tokenizers that can convert videos into tokens at different video compression ratios for training various transformer models.The Cosmos tokenizers deliver 8x more total compression than state-of-the-art methods and 12x faster processing speed, which offers superior quality and reduced computational costs in both training and inference. Developers can access these tokenizers, available under NVIDIAs open model license, via Hugging Face and GitHub.Developers using Cosmos can also harness model training and fine-tuning capabilities offered by NeMo framework, a GPU-accelerated framework that enables high-throughput AI training.Developing Safe, Responsible AI ModelsNow available to developers under the NVIDIA Open Model License Agreement, Cosmos was developed in line with NVIDIAs trustworthy AI principles, which include nondiscrimination, privacy, safety, security and transparency.The Cosmos platform includes Cosmos Guardrails, a dedicated suite of models that, among other capabilities, mitigates harmful text and image inputs during preprocessing and screens generated videos during postprocessing for safety. Developers can further enhance these guardrails for their custom applications.Cosmos models on the NVIDIA API catalog also feature an inbuilt watermarking system that enables identification of AI-generated sequences.NVIDIA Cosmos was developed by NVIDIA Research. Read the research paper, Cosmos World Foundation Model Platform for Physical AI, for more details on model development and benchmarks. Model cards providing additional information are available on Hugging Face.Learn more about world foundation models in an AI Podcast episode, airing Jan. 7, that features Ming-Yu Liu, vice president of research at NVIDIA.Get started with NVIDIA Cosmos and join NVIDIA at CES. Watch the Cosmos demo and Huangs keynote below:See notice regarding software product information.

GeForce NOW turns any device into a GeForce RTX gaming PC, and is bringing cloud gaming and AAA titles to more devices and regions.Announced today at the CES trade show, gamers will soon be able to play titles from their Steam library at GeForce RTX quality with the launch of a native GeForce NOW app for the Steam Deck. NVIDIA is working to bring cloud gaming to the popular PC gaming handheld device later this year.In collaboration with Apple, Meta and ByteDance, NVIDIA is expanding GeForce NOW cloud gaming to Apple Vision Pro spatial computers, Meta Quest 3 and 3S and Pico virtual- and mixed-reality devices with all the bells and whistles of NVIDIA technologies, including ray tracing and NVIDIA DLSS.In addition, NVIDIA is launching the first GeForce RTX-powered data center in India, making gaming more accessible around the world.Plus, GeForce NOWs extensive library of over 2,100 supported titles is expanding with highly anticipated AAA titles. DOOM: The Dark Ages and Avowed will join the cloud when they launch on PC this year.RTX on DeckThe Steam Decks portability paired with GeForce NOW opens up new possibilities for high-fidelity gaming everywhere. The native GeForce NOW app will offer up to 4K resolution and 60 frames per second with high dynamic range on Valves innovative Steam Deck handheld when connected to a TV, streaming from GeForce RTX-powered gaming rigs in the cloud.Last year, GeForce NOW rolled out a beta installation method that was eagerly welcomed by the gaming community. Later this year, members will be able to download the native GeForce NOW app and install it on Steam Deck.Steam Deck gamers can gain access to all the same benefits as GeForce RTX 4080 GPU owners with a GeForce NOW Ultimate membership, including NVIDIA DLSS 3 technology for the highest frame rates and NVIDIA Reflex for ultra-low latency. Because GeForce NOW streams from an RTX gaming rig in the cloud, the Steam Deck uses less processing power, which extends battery life compared with playing locally.The streaming experience with GeForce NOW looks stunning, whichever way Steam Deck users want to play whether thats in handheld mode for HDR-quality graphics, connected to a monitor for up to 1440p 120 fps HDR or hooked up to a TV for big-screen streaming at up to 4K 60 HDR. GeForce NOW members can take advantage of RTX ON with the Steam Deck for photorealistic gameplay on supported titles, as well as HDR10 and SDR10 when connected to a compatible display for richer, more accurate color gradients.Get ready for major upgrades to streaming on the go when the GeForce NOW app launches on the Steam Deck later this year.Stream Beyond RealityGet immersed in a new dimension of big-screen gaming as GeForce NOW brings AAA titles to life on Apple Vision Pro spatial computers, Meta Quest 3 and 3S and Pico virtual- and mixed-reality headsets. Later this month, these supported devices will give members access to an extensive library of games to stream through GeForce NOW by opening the browser to play.geforcenow.com when the newest app update, version 2.0.70, starts rolling out later this month.Jump into a whole new gaming dimension with GeForce NOW.Members can transform the space around them into a personal gaming theater with GeForce NOW. The streaming experience on these devices will support gamepad-compatible titles for members to play their favorite PC games on a massive virtual screen.For an even more enhanced visual experience, GeForce NOW Ultimate and Performance members using these devices can tap into RTX and DLSS technologies in supported games. Members will be able to step into a world where games come to life on a grand scale, powered by GeForce NOW technologies.Land of a Thousand Lights and GamesNew year, new data center.NVIDIA is broadening cloud gaming in India and Latin America. The first GeForce RTX 4080-powered data center will launch in India in the first half of this year. This follows the launch of GeForce NOW in Japan last year, as well as in Colombia and Chile, to be operated by GeForce NOW Alliance partner Digevo.GeForce RTX-powered gaming in the rapidly growing Indian gaming market will provide the ability to stream AAA games without the latest hardware. Gamers in the region can look forward to the launch of Ultimate memberships, along with all the new games and technological advancements announced at CES.Send in the GamesAAA content from celebrated publishers is coming to the cloud. Avowed from Obsidian Entertainment, known for iconic titles such as Fallout: New Vegas, will join GeForce NOW. The cloud gaming platform will also bring DOOM: The Dark Ages from id Software, the legendary studio behind the DOOM franchise. All will be available at launch on PC this year.Get ready to jump into the Living Lands.Avowed, a first-person fantasy role-playing game, will join the cloud when it launches on PC on Tuesday, Feb. 18. Welcome to the Living Lands, an island full of mysteries and secrets, danger and adventure, choices and consequences and untamed wilderness. Take on the role of an Aedyr Empire envoy tasked with investigating a mysterious plague. Freely combine weapons and magic harness dual-wield wands, pair a sword with a pistol or opt for a more traditional sword-and-shield approach. In-game companions which join the players parties have unique abilities and storylines that can be influenced by gamers choices.Have a hell of a time in the cloud.DOOM: The Dark Ages is the single-player, action first-person shooter prequel to the critically acclaimed DOOM (2016) and DOOM Eternal. Play as the DOOM Slayer, the legendary demon-killing warrior fighting endlessly against Hell. Experience the epic cinematic origin story of the DOOM Slayers rage this year.Get ready to play these titles and more at high performance when they join GeForce NOW at launch. Ultimate members will be able to stream at up to 4K resolution and 120 fps with support for NVIDIA DLSS and Reflex technology, and experience the action even on low-powered devices. Keep an eye out on GFN Thursdays for the latest on their release dates in the cloud.GeForce NOW is making popular devices cloud-gaming-ready while consistently delivering quality titles from top publishers to bring another ultimate year of gaming to members across the globe.See notice regarding software product information.

Hear that awful cacophony of farts, blips, and voice lines from the Mortal Kombat announcer? Thats the sound of 3,683 add-ons running simultaneously in World of Warcraft Classic. YouTuber Baltoboulbobbi brought the MMO to its knees with a bucket of custom tools and effects simply to see what happens. And what happens is a total nightmare.There are so many add-ons in the first minute of Baltoboulbobbis video you cant even see the game world. Its an abomination that makes those spyware browser toolbars from the 2000s look tame. As they try to find WoW underneath all the mess, car horns and visual effects fire off in protest. Their naked Tauren is just standing in the corner of the screen for no reason and I think I saw four separate health bars.Game has become Mahjong, the text in the video says before Baltoboulbobbi gives up and decides to try some combat. After dragging their Lightning Bolt spell to one of the 90 action bar slots covering their screen, they take a shot at an enemy and watch their game buckle. A fart sound effect starts playing on repeat and Im pretty sure I heard someone say Among Us in there just before you can hear Finish him! by the Mortal Kombat announcer (or someone doing an impression). Other than when it bottoms out at zero, their frame rate never exceeds 20 during all of this.The rest of the video is horrific for anyone who has played WoW enough to know what its like to accidentally leave a few add-ons enabled, let alone 3,683. That they were even able to play it without the game crashing is impressive, and according to the video description, it required omitting a handful that would prevent the game from working at all.Normal players usually install a few add-ons to track their healing or damage in a dungeon, or to give Blizzards default UI a facelift. Nobody except Baltoboulbobbi is brave enough to strap thousands of add-ons to their game for the fun of it. Its no surprise its basically unplayable, but that doesnt mean its not fascinating to know that its technically possible to live like this.Baltoboulbobbi wrote in a comment on the video that if it gets 20,000 views they will attempt to level a character from one to 60 on a perma-death Hardcore server with all the add-on enabled. The video is currently at over 100,000 views.

In a sea of smartphone gaming controllers with chunky grips, obtrusive analog sticks and rigid backplates, the MCON by Ohsnap stands out. Its a gamepad that essentially turns any phone into a supercharged Xperia Play, complete with Hall effect joysticks, silent buttons and handles that can extend out of its base. It also has bumper-style triggers and actual bumpers. When its attached to the back of a phone, the MCON creates a slightly chunky but uniform profile that slides into a pocket without fuss. When youre ready to start playing, the phone pops up from the gamepad with a satisfying flick. The MCON communicates with your smartphone via Bluetooth, no cables or plugging in required. It uses MagSafe to connect to iPhones, and for Androids, there will be a MagSafe adapter included in the box this is simply a disc 2 millimeters thick that sticks to the back of your phone or case. That covers essentially every smartphone out there, and its possible to stack multiple connecting pucks to create space for awkward camera bumps. Ohsnap's goal is to support iOS, Android, Xbox, PC and Mac, with PlayStation as a platform pipe dream. Ohsnap Ohsnap and MCON creator Josh King showed off the gamepad at CES 2025 with a nearly finalized prototype. The final version will have silicone tops on the analogue sticks, a cover for the spring mechanism and more finesse all around. King said he wasnt quite satisfied with the D-pad yet, either. But even in its current form, the MCON is a sweet little peripheral. It feels nice lightweight but sturdy enough to support and fling a full-size smartphone and it folds into a compact rectangle thats satisfying to hold. Snapping it open involves pressing two buttons on the top of the controller, behind the attached phone, and it requires just the right amount of finger strength and angling. It took a few tries for me to successfully deploy the pop, largely because I have long manicured nails, but I was able to use my actual nail tips to make the magic happen. Ohsnap When King spotted my Samsung Z Flip 6, he immediately started troubleshooting ways to make the foldable work with the MCON. Youd just have to move the attaching puck over slightly, so it could connect to the lower back quadrant of the phone rather than on the central hinge, he explained. He was confident he could make it work, and said hed already ensured the Galaxy Z Fold was compatible with the MCON. Kings goal is for the MCON to support absolutely every smartphone. The MCON Kickstarter went live on January 2 and, four days later, its collected more than $740,000 of a $25,000 goal. Kings concept has enjoyed a bit of viral fame over the years, and he eventually took the idea to Ohsnap, an established MagSafe-focused accessory manufacturer. By their powers combined, the MCON is on track to ship in August at a price of $150. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/i-adore-this-clever-mobile-gamepad-with-hall-effect-sticks-and-a-snap-up-design-110007990.html?src=rss

Qualcomm has launched a new platform that will put Copilot+ PCs in reach of more people. Snapdragon X, the latest addition the brand's Snapdragon X Series that also include the X Elite and the X Plus, comes with Qualcomm's 8-core Oryon CPU and an integrated Adreno GPU. The company says it can run up to 163 percent faster than its competitors' comparable platforms, that its neural processing unit can run AI tasks on device more efficiently and that it enables a lengthy (even multi-day) battery life.There are apparently over 60 computer models powered by the platform in development and in production at various manufacturers already, including Acer, Asus, Dell, HP and Lenovo. These companies are expected to launch the first batch of Snapdragon X products early this year, with more than 100 models coming by 2026.The devices will be priced in the $600 range, making them a viable option for a lot of people looking to buy a new computer. They won't be just laptops either Qualcomm says buyers can expect Snapdragon X-powered mini PCs, as well, and will announce more details soon. The company believes Snapdragon X devices will be a "good solution for students, freelance workers and budget-conscious consumers who need a reliable and powerful laptop."This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/qualcomms-snapdragon-x-chip-will-power-more-affordable-copilot-pcs-104029263.html?src=rss

Smartwatches do more than just track your steps and deliver phone alerts to your wrist. The best smartwatches go even further, giving you the ability to pay for a cup of coffee, take calls and connect to apps like Spotify all without whipping out your smartphone.Chances are, if youre reading this, you already know all of the benefits of a smartwatch. Youre ready to invest, or upgrade from an aging accessory, but we wouldnt blame you if you if you didnt know where to start. There are dozens of smartwatches available now, including GPS running watches, fitness trackers that look like smartwatches and multi-purpose devices. Plus, youll want to consider factors like durability, battery life and operating system before you spend a lot of money on a new wearable. Weve tested and reviewed most major smartwatches available today and these are our top picks. Table of contents Best smartwatches Stylish smartwatches: Fossil and more Factors to consider before buying a smartwatch Other smartwatches our experts tested Best smartwatches Stylish smartwatches: Fossil and more Fossil Yes, there are still companies out there trying to make fashionable hybrid smartwatches. Back when wearables were novel and generally ugly, brands like Fossil, Michael Kors and Skagen found their niche in stylish smartwatches that took cues from analog timepieces. You also have the option to pick up a hybrid smartwatch from companies like Withings and Garmin these devices look like classic wrist watches but incorporate some limited functionality like activity tracking and heart rate monitoring. They remain good options if you prefer that look, but thankfully, wearables made by Apple, Samsung, Fitbit and others have gotten much more attractive over the past few years. Ultimately, the only thing you cant change after you buy a smartwatch is its case design. If youre not into the Apple Watchs squared-off corners, all of Samsungs smartwatches have round cases that look a little more like a traditional watch. Most wearables are offered in a choice of colors and you can pay extra for premium materials like stainless steel for extra durability. Once you decide on a case, your band options are endless there are dozens of first- and third-party watch straps available for most major smartwatches, and for both larger and smaller wrists, allowing you to change up your look whenever you please. Factors to consider before buying a smartwatch Compatibility Apple Watches only work with iPhones, while Wear OS devices play nice with both iOS and Android phones. Smartwatches made by Samsung, Garmin, Fitbit and others are also compatible with Android and iOS, but youll need to install a companion app on your smartphone. The smartwatch OS will also dictate the type and number of third-party apps youll have access to. Many of these arent useful, though, making this factor a fairly minor one in the grand scheme of things. Price The best smartwatches generally cost between $300 and $400. Compared to budget smartwatches, which cost between $100 and $250, these pricier devices have advanced operating systems, communications, music and fitness features. They also often include perks like onboard GPS tracking, music storage and NFC, AMOLED displays, and long battery life, things that budget devices generally dont have. Some companies make specialized fitness watches: Those can easily run north of $500, and wed only recommend them to serious athletes. Luxury smartwatches from brands like TAG Heuer and Hublot can also reach sky-high prices, but we wouldnt endorse any of them. These devices can cost more than $1,000, and youre usually paying for little more than a brand name and some needlessly exotic selection of build materials. Battery life Battery life remains one of our biggest complaints about smartwatches, but theres hope as of late. You can expect two full days from Apple Watches and most Wear OS devices. Watches using the Snapdragon Wear 3100 processor support extended battery modes that promise up to five days of battery life on a charge if youre willing to shut off most features aside from, you know, displaying the time. Other models can last five to seven days, but they usually have fewer features and lower-quality displays. Meanwhile, some fitness watches can last weeks on a single charge. If long battery life is a priority for you, its worth checking out the watchs specs beforehand to see what the manufacturer estimates. Communication Any smartwatch worth considering delivers call, text and app notifications to your wrist. Call and text alerts are self explanatory, but if those mean a lot to you, consider a watch with LTE. Theyre more expensive than their WiFi-only counterparts, but cellular connectivity allows the smartwatch to take and receive phone calls, and do the same with text messages, without your device nearby. As far as app alerts go, getting them delivered to your wrist will let you glance down to the watch face and see if you absolutely need to check your phone right now. Fitness tracking Activity tracking is a big reason why people turn to smartwatches. An all-purpose timepiece should function as a fitness tracker, logging your steps, calories and workouts, and most of todays wearables have a heart rate monitor as well. Many smartwatches' fitness features include a built-in GPS, which is useful for tracking distance for runs and bike rides. Swimmers will want something water resistant, and thankfully most all-purpose devices now can withstand at least a dunk in the pool. Some smartwatches from companies like Garmin are more fitness focused than others and tend to offer more advanced features like heart-rate-variance tracking, recovery time estimation, onboard maps and more. Health tracking on smartwatches has also seen advances over the years. Both Apple and Fitbit devices can estimate blood oxygen levels and measure ECGs. But the more affordable the smartwatch, the less likely it is that it has these kinds of advanced health tracking features; if collecting those kinds of wellness metrics is important to you, youll have to pay for the privilege. Music Your watch can not only track your morning runs but also play music while youre exercising. Many smartwatches let you save your music locally, so you can connect wireless earbuds via Bluetooth and listen to tunes without bringing your phone. Those that dont have onboard storage for music usually have on-watch music controls, so you can control playback without whipping out your phone. And if your watch has LTE, local saving isnt required youll be able to stream music directly from the watch to your paired earbuds. Displays Most wearables have touchscreens and we recommend getting one that has a full-color touchscreen. Some flagships like the Apple Watch have LTPO displays, which stands for low-temperature polycrystalline oxide. These panels have faster response times and are more power efficient, resulting in a smoother experience when one interacts with the touchscreen and, in some cases, longer battery lives. You wont see significant gains with the latter, though, because the extra battery essentially gets used up when these devices have always-on displays, as most flagship wearables do today. Some smartwatches have this feature on by default while others let you enable it via tweaked settings. This smart feature allows you to glance down at your watch to check the time, health stats or any other information youve set it to show on its watchface without lifting your wrist. This will no doubt affect your devices battery life, but thankfully most always-on modes dim the displays brightness so its not running at its peak unnecessarily. Cheaper devices wont have this feature; instead, their touchscreens will automatically turn off to conserve battery life and youll have to intentionally check your watch to turn on the display again. NFC Many new smartwatches have NFC, letting you pay for things without your wallet using contactless payments. After saving your credit or debit card information, you can hold your smartwatch up to an NFC reader to pay for a cup of coffee on your way home from a run. Keep in mind that different watches use different payment systems: Apple Watches use Apple Pay, Wear OS devices use Google Pay, Samsung devices use Samsung Pay and so forth. Apple Pay is one of the most popular NFC payment systems, with support for multiple banks and credit cards in 72 different countries, while Samsung and Google Pay work in fewer regions. Its also important to note that both NFC payment support varies by device as well for both Samsung and Googles systems. Other smartwatches our experts tested Apple Watch Ultra 2 The Apple Watch Ultra 2 is probably overkill for most people, but it has a ton of extra features like extra waterproofing to track diving, an even more accurate GPS and the biggest battery of any Apple Watch to date. Apple designed it for the most rugged among us, but for your average person, it likely has more features than they'd ever need. If youre particularly clumsy, however, its high level of durability could be a great reason to consider the Apple Watch Ultra 2. Apple Watch SE The Apple Watch SE is less feature-rich than the flagship model, but it will probably suffice for most people. We actually regard the Watch SE as the best smartwatch option for first-time buyers, or people on stricter budgets. Youll get all the core Apple Watch features as well as things like fall and crash detection, noise monitoring and Emergency SOS, but youll have to do without more advanced hardware perks like an always-on display, a blood oxygen sensor, an ECG monitor and a skin temperature sensor. Garmin Forerunner 745 Garmin watches in general can be great options for the most active among us. The Garmin Forerunner 745 is an excellent GPS running watch for serious athletes or those who prize battery life above all else. When we tested it, we found it to provide accurate distance tracking, a killer 16-hour battery life with GPS turned on (up to seven days without it) and support for onboard music storage and Garmin Pay.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/wearables/best-smartwatches-153013118.html?src=rss

A dozen flaws, including a critical-severity RCE, were found affecting multiple MediaTek chipsets.

NetEase has finally released the first details for Marvel Rivals Season 1.