When Halo season 2 finally covered the fall of the planet Reach — a foundational, emotional moment in Halo lore — I figured that I’d write a few words of praise about it. But then I saw the episode after, “Aleria,” and that episode, not “Reach,” is the one that truly delivers a Halo experience worthy of the games yet so wonderfully unlike them.

Spoilers for Halo season 2 to follow

One of the elements missing from Halo season 1 was the camaraderie between Spartans. The first half of Halo’s second season better developed and defined the relationships of Silver Team (Master Chief Petty Officer John-117, Riz-028, Kai-125, and Vannak-134); specifically, Riz-028 (Natasha Culzac) and Vannak-134 (Bentley Kalu), who were all but neglected in season 1, really got moments to shine in season 2. Riz, after suffering a debilitating injury, struggles with keeping up with the physical and emotional demands of being a Spartan. Meanwhile, Vannak, after removing his emotion regulator chip, is cultivating a peaceful life for himself beyond his Mjolnir armor.

It was touching and funny to see Vannak show off as an animal facts guy who likes to feed the local pigeons while Riz suffers a bit of embarrassment realizing the guy she’s developed a crush on is in a committed relationship. But Halo is also a story of war. And when it comes to the planet Reach, in the form of a devastating surprise attack, Riz, Vannak, and the rest of Team Silver are called into action — and some of them don’t make it.

I expected the deaths of notable characters in the “Reach” episode. It pained me a little bit to see Vannak go because viewers were given such precious little time with him. Captain Keyes’ (Danny Sapani) death also surprised me since that character dies elsewhere in the games, and I didn’t think the show would kill him off so soon. Ultimately, “Reach” was a decent episode with bits of really good action but lacked the emotional weight an episode based on one of the moments in Halo lore should have.

Image: Adrienn Szabo / Paramount Plus

The next episode, “Aleria,” picks up right where “Reach” ended, with the remaining Spartans and Dr. Halsey surrounded by Covenant soldiers with no chance of escape. But then, as so often happens in this series, Halo delivered hope.

As everyone piled onto the ship, the Covenant kept getting closer. Riz, though injured and without her armor (nobody has any armor because plot) jumped off the ship with naught but pistols, ostensibly to keep the Covenant at bay to give the ship time to take off safely.

I started screaming, incensed that the show was about to kill yet another character I had come to care for.

But then, she came back.

Riz returned carrying Vannak’s body, and my indignant screams morphed into equally loud sobs. That wasn’t her noble sacrifice suicide run. She just went back for her friend, her comrade, her brother.

In that moment, Riz-028 delivered the best portrayal of a Spartan seen outside the series’ many games, while the show itself subverted my expectations.

I was ready to begrudgingly accept Riz’s death as I had Vannak’s and Keyes’. After all, she’s a Black character, as were Vannak and Keyes, while a previous heroic death in the “Reach” episode featured yet another Black character. In a media climate where characters of color are often sacrificed as a way to raise stakes or heighten emotion without threatening a show’s “more valuable” white stars, Riz’s death would’ve fit right in. Furthermore, Riz is a Spartan — so long as she’s not John-117, she’s expendable.

Image: Adrienn Szabo / Paramount Plus

Afterward, as everyone regroups and recovers on the planet Aleria, Riz decides to stay behind as John swears vengeance on the military leaders responsible for abandoning Reach to its fate. John vehemently opposes this, attempting to guilt her by asking what she intends to do about their lost planet and comrades.

“I’m going to live,” she says.

For Halo, that’s profound.

Spartans are always fighting. Always. There’s an in-universe military directive that mandates Spartans never be declared “KIA” but “missing in action,” not only to reinforce their mythos as the invincible soldier but a perpetual one as well — one who’s always still out there, still fighting.

When they can’t fight, like the Spartans who survived augmentation with permanent disabilities, they still serve in the military in some capacity. Even when there are no more battles to fight, Master Chief himself never puts down his gun, famously telling Cortana at the end of Halo 3 to wake him when he’s needed again. And when we see Spartans die, it is always in service of the mission.

But TV Halo, for the first time in the series, dares to imagine something different for a Spartan: life, one beyond fighting, serving, or death. And it was beautiful to see.

Every time you install an app on your iPhone, it comes with permissions attached — permissions that determine what it can and can’t do. These permissions cover some pretty fundamental parts of iOS, including access to the iPhone camera, microphone, and current location. The permissions get asked for one by one as they’re needed, so you’ve got plenty of control over how your apps are behaving.

But sometimes, especially when you’re in a hurry, it’s easy to accidentally give permission for an app to access data it doesn’t really require. Does your note-taking app really need to see your contact list, for example?

As a result, it’s well worth your while to do a regular audit of these permissions just in case you’ve previously allowed a permission you now want to revoke or vice versa. It’s not difficult to change your settings, and it gives you an extra layer of privacy and security.

Here’s how.

Before installing

You can check out the data an app is going to collect before you install it — it’s right on the app’s page in the App Store. Reading through this list before you do any downloading or installing can give you a good idea of how much access to your iPhone and data an app wants.

On the app’s App Store page, scroll down to App Privacy and tap See Details for a full rundown. You may not see every permission that the app is going to ask for here, but a lot of the data categories that are listed correspond to certain permissions on your phone — your phone’s location and its contact list, for example.

As well as listing the types of data that get collected, the list will also offer a general reason for the collection. It might be to improve app functionality, for example, or to target marketing messages or personalize the product. If you’re not happy with the app’s practices and policies, leave it uninstalled.

If you do install an app, you’ll find it requesting permissions as and when it needs them. Most of these permissions should be pretty essential to the function of the app — it’s hard to get an Uber if the app doesn’t know where you are, for example — but use your discretion with permissions that don’t seem necessary. Ideally, an app should explain why it needs each permission, though not all of them will.

Configuring permissions

To manage the permissions on your iPhone, head to Settings. If you want to see which permissions a specific app has been permitted:

• Scroll down to the app you want to look more closely at and tap on its name.
• You’ll see a list of permissions the app has and hasn’t been granted.
• Tap on any permission to change its setting.

If you want to check out a specific permission and see all of the apps that are using it:

• Choose Privacy & Security from Settings.
• You’ll see a list of permissions (like Contacts and Photos). Tap on the one you’re interested in to see which apps have been given permission and which have not.

It’s up to you which way you approach it, but you’ll find the same permission settings in either case.

Partial permissions

Some permissions aren’t just on or off. Photo access is a good example: apps can be given full access to your photo and video library or just to selected files. This is useful if, for example, you want to upload a few pictures to Instagram but don’t want to give the app access to your whole gallery.

The location permission works differently from the others in that it offers much more granular control.

• Tap Location Services at the top of the Privacy & Security screen.
• You’ll see a list of apps; to the right of each will be the current status of its location permission.
• In the list of apps, you’ll notice that some have a gray or purple arrow next to them. The gray arrow means they’ve used your location in the last 24 hours, and the purple arrow means they’ve used your location recently — another way to tell if an app might be overreaching in terms of the data it’s gathering.
• Select an app to change its access to your iPhone’s location.
• You’ll see at least three options: Never, Ask Next Time Or When I Share (so, on a case-by-case basis), and While Using the App.
• Some apps (like weather and mapping apps) have an Always option, too, which means the app can also access your location while it’s running in the background.
• The page also has a Precise Location toggle switch: turn this off, and the app is only allowed an approximate positioning for where you are.

At the bottom of the Privacy & Security screen, you’ll find the App Privacy Report option. Once this is turned on (it’s off by default), you can come back here to get a more detailed breakdown of how apps have been using the permissions you’ve given them.

Bad news for Roblox fans on Linux — the workarounds are dead. GamingOnLinux reports that the latest version of Roblox “forcefully blocks it from working with Wine,” throwing a “Wine is not supported” error message even when Roblox-specific tools like Vinegar and Grapejuice are added. Wine is the compatibility layer that lets many Windows games run on Linux systems.

But Roblox claims it’s not personal. “Confirming there has been no change on our end to specifically block Linux or Steam Deck since Roblox never supported Linux or Steam Deck officially,” spokesperson Samantha Spielman tells The Verge.

“We’re constantly improving our Hyperion anti-cheat functionality, so it’s possible whatever the author was doing was no longer compatible with our anti-cheat systems,” Spielman added.

I don’t know enough about Roblox workarounds to tell if the company’s splitting hairs, but it’s quite possible that Roblox simply cut off unofficial support for Wine because it felt it’d been abused.

In a Roblox developer forum, a staffer explained the company had actually unofficially supported Wine for some time — but that the unofficial support wouldn’t last, because some people were using it to reverse engineer the company’s Hyperion anti-cheat and develop Roblox hacks.

“We see it being used for cheating, which is heartbreaking, to be honest, as this was a personal effort of our developers under the assumption that folks out there would understand and not misuse it,” wrote Bitdancer, according to GamingOnLinux.

“Unfortunately, we have exhausted our options,” they replied, when a user asked whether Linux support was likely to last much longer.

Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney once said he wouldn’t update Fortnite to run on the Steam Deck for the same reason, because of the “threat model to a game of Fortnite’s size” from custom Linux kernels that could defeat anti-cheat. More recently, he told me the Steam Deck would need “tens of millions of users” to justify it.

No one has been willing to tell me why existing anti-cheat software like Easy Anti-Cheat and BattlEye, both of which are supported on the Steam Deck and used in games there, aren’t good enough by themselves. But many major games have adopted custom anti-cheat systems now that cheaters are getting more sophisticated.

In a blog post, Microsoft gave users a sneak peek into Copilot for OneDrive, which it plans to release in late April. Copilot for OneDrive will take on the role of a research assistant of sorts, being able to both find, summarize, and extract information from a wide range of files. These include text documents (Word and rich text), presentations, spreadsheets, HTML pages, PDF files, and more. Users can ask Copilot to tailor summaries to their liking, such as only including key points or highlights from a specific section.

We knew an AI overhaul of OneDrive was coming since last fall, when Microsoft announced the third generation of the cloud storage service. The company promised that AI would make searching for files easier and faster, and would be able to intelligently summarize and organize documents. Users could ask Copilot to quickly find their tax documents or summarize that boring PowerPoint presentation from work, for example.

Microsoft

The chatbot will also be able to respond to natural language prompts and answer highly specific questions about the contents of a user’s files. Some examples given by Microsoft included asking Copilot to tabulate a week’s worth of beverage sales and throw the data in a table view by day. Or, asking it to list the pros and cons of a project, or display the most recent or relevant files. Users can even ask Copilot for advice on how to make their documents better.

Copilot on OneDrive will also be able to create outlines, tables, and lists for users, based on existing files. A few examples given were:

• Using the /sales-enablement.docx as reference, create an outline of a sales pitch to a new customer.

• For these selected resumes, create a table with names, current title, years of experience, educational qualifications, and current location.

• Create a list of frequently asked questions about project Moonshot.

OneDrive users will get an early taste of Copilot later this month, when Microsoft will roll out summaries of shared documents. Users can include an AI-generated summary of a Microsoft Word document before sharing, which recipients can read in their email before even opening the document.

Copilot will be available on OneDrive for web, or from the file viewer in Microsoft Teams, OneDrive, and SharePoint. It’ll be available for work and school customers with a Copilot for Microsoft 365 license sometime in late April.

When it comes to finding a device to use to read your ebooks, you have a few options to choose from. You can always buy a tablet or use your phone, but those devices are multipurpose and can be used for a ton of things, like surfing the web or doom-scrolling on Twitter. If you are looking for something to strictly read books, e-readers, while niche, are designed to store all of your books in a virtual library with limited functionality.

Amazon, one of the pioneers of the e-reader, has dominated the space for years with its ever-expanding Kindle lineup, which consists of several unique models with their own pros and cons. The bulk of the devices function as simple ebook readers; however, with the Kindle Scribe, Amazon looks to be moving beyond books and into the realm of writing — something that should make future Kindles function more akin to physical paper.

Below, we’ve listed each model currently available. Sometimes, there isn’t a deal for one or any of the products, but we’ve mentioned the most recent sale price in those instances. Keep in mind that Amazon also offers 20 percent off all of its Kindles when you trade in select devices, so there are still other ways to save money when none of the models are available at a discount.

Image: Amazon

The best Kindle (2022) deals

In case you missed it, Amazon announced a new entry-level Kindle in 2022, one that was designed to replace the 2019 model. The latest Kindle — which starts at $99.99 — puts Amazon’s base e-reader more in line with the most recent Kindle Paperwhite, providing a number of quality-of-life improvements in the process. The 2022 model features longer battery life, a 300ppi screen, and charges via USB-C instead of Micro USB. It also touts 16GB of storage by default and comes in a “denim” color, which resembles the soft blue you might associate with jeans.

In the past, Amazon’s newest ad-supported Kindle has dropped to as low as $74.99 ($25 off) with three months of Kindle Unlimited included. Right now, however, you can only buy the Kindle at Amazon, Best Buy, and Target for its full retail price of $99.99. That said, you can pick it up on sale at Amazon with ads, a power adapter, and a fabric cover starting at $134.97 ($15 off). Regardless of whether you choose the standalone model or the bundle, the entry-level Kindle remains a worthwhile option if you’re looking to pick up an e-reader for less than the latest Paperwhite.

Read our Kindle (2022) review.

The best Kindle Kids (2022) deals

The latest base Kindle wasn’t the only e-reader Amazon introduced in 2022. The entry-level model arrived alongside a new Kindle Kids, which is identical to the standard model but comes with a handful of accessories and provides age-appropriate content for younger readers who prefer digital books. Like the last-gen Kindle Kids, the latest model retails for $20 more than the base model, bringing the MSRP to $119.99.

In terms of add-ons, the new Kindle Kids edition consists of four items: the device, a case, a two-year extended replacement guarantee (in the event the device breaks), and one year of Amazon Kids Plus. The latter is the biggest selling point of the device aside from the kid-friendly patterns, as it allows parents to grant their child access to a digital library of kid-friendly books like Percy Jackson and the entire Harry Potter series at no additional cost.

While we’ve seen the Kindle Kids drop to as low as $79.99, right now there are no deals available. That means you can only buy Amazon’s latest Kindle Kids from Amazon and Best Buy at its full retail price of $119.99.

Photo by Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge

The best Kindle Paperwhite (2021) deals

Amazon’s latest Kindle Paperwhite is its 11th-gen model, which comes with USB-C support, longer battery life, and a larger 6.8-inch display. The e-reader launched more than two years ago, and it often receives steep discounts at retailers like Amazon and Best Buy, particularly around Black Friday and throughout the holiday season. You can still occasionally pick up the last-gen model from 2018 at a discount.

The 2021 Kindle Paperwhite comes in a variety of configurations: first, there’s an 8GB model with ads for $139.99 and an 8GB model without ads for $159.99. There’s also a 16GB version with ads for $149.99 and an ad-free version that sells for $169.99. Finally, there’s a 32GB ad-free Signature Edition for $189.99. The latter is identical to the standard Paperwhite except it also features Qi wireless charging and a sensor that will automatically adjust the backlight when needed.

Amazon has also rolled out a Kindle Paperwhite Kids Edition for $169.99, which comes bundled with a kid-friendly cover, a two-year extended replacement guarantee, and a year of Amazon Kids Plus, much like the aforementioned Kindle Kids. All 2021 models are also similar to the 2018 model in that they feature a waterproof design and Audible audiobook support.

There aren’t any discounts currently available on the standard Kindle Paperwhite by itself, meaning it's only available at Amazon and Target starting at $139.99. However, you can buy the base Paperwhite at Amazon as part of a package that contains a power adapter and your choice of a fabric cover for $174.97 ($20 off), a leather cover for $181.97 ($20 off), or a “cork” cover for $189.97 ($20 off).

Read our Kindle Paperwhite (2021) review.

As for the 32GB ad-free Signature Edition, it’s available at Amazon and Best Buy right now for $189.99 — its regular retail price. However, you can buy the ad-free Signature Edition with 32GB of storage, a wireless charging dock, and a leather cover on sale at Amazon for $244.97 ($20 off). You can also buy the e-reader with a cork cover and a wireless charging dock for $252.97 ($20 off) or a fabric cover and a wireless charging dock for $237.97 ($20 off).

Image: Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

The best Kindle Scribe deals

The ad-free Kindle Scribe is Amazon’s biggest e-reader to date — one that also represents a departure from past Kindle models. It packs a 10.2-inch display with 300 dpi, along with the same great battery life for which Kindles have become known. What separates the Scribe from other models, however, is that it comes with one of two styli, which can be used to annotate books, doodle, or jot down notes. We found the e-reader’s note-taking capabilities lacking in our testing, but Amazon has already started to improve the software via free OTA software updates, helping bring it up to speed with other E Ink competitors.

The Kindle Scribe is available at its full retail price of $339.99 at Amazon in its 16GB base configuration with a Basic Pen and three months of Kindle Unlimited. The same model is also available at Amazon bundled with a leather cover and a power adapter for $379.97 ($60 off). Meanwhile, the bundle with the Premium Pen, which offers a shortcut button and a built-in eraser, is currently on sale in the 16GB configuration with a folio cover and a power adapter starting at $389.97 ($60 off).

Read our Kindle Scribe review.

A note on the Kindle Oasis

Up until recently, Amazon also sold the 2019 Kindle Oasis. Along with a 7-inch 300ppi E Ink display, the Oasis was unique in that it offered physical, page-turning buttons. Sadly, however, the waterproof ebook reader is neither on sale nor in stock at Amazon or any other major retailer. While the international version of the e-reader is available at Amazon starting at $199.99 ($70 off), it may not be worth buying at this point. Amazon won’t ship it to US addresses, and more notably, the Oasis is no longer listed as part of Amazon’s official Kindle lineup. That suggests that Amazon may have discontinued it and that we may see a newer version at some point in the near future.

Threads plans to release its API by the end of June after testing it with a limited set of partners, including Hootsuite, Sprinklr, Sprout Social, Social News Desk, and Techmeme. The API will let developers build third-party apps for Threads and allow sites to publish directly to the platform.

The API will let users “authenticate, publish threads, and fetch the content they posted through these tools,” according to Threads developer Jesse Chan in a post on the social platform, with more features coming later.

In a post last October, Instagram head Adam Mosseri said that the team was developing an API while worrying that an API would result in more publisher content on Threads instead of user-created posts.

For years, users have used third-party apps like Hootsuite and Tweetbot to post and interact on social media sites like Twitter or Reddit. But in the past couple of years, several of these sites turned against third-party apps by removing APIs or making them much more expensive, pushing some apps to shut down.

Several of Threads’ competitors, like Bluesky and Mastodon, have embraced third-party apps from the beginning. For example, after X’s API changes forced Tweetbot to shut down, its creators made Ivory, a Tweetbot-like app for Mastodon.

Apple TV Plus subscribers in the US can now stream over 50 new movies from various studios, including Mad Max: Fury Road, A Star Is Born, Titanic, Con Air, The Bodyguard, Zoolander, and more. If that sounds like a random assortment of films, well, you’re not wrong. But it seems that Apple is experimenting with including some catalog content as part of its video subscription service. Normally, the appeal of Apple TV Plus centers on the company’s original programming (and increasingly, live sports).

Many of the movies can be streamed in 4K, and there are even a few — Jurassic World, Edge of Tomorrow, Gravity, and others — available in 3D for you early Apple Vision Pro adopters out there. Unfortunately, international subscribers won’t be getting a similar batch of movies at this time.

Even for US subscribers, there’s a pretty short window to dive into this collection. Some of the films expire at the end of March, and all will be gone by the time April comes to a close. Sigmund Judge has the full details on Threads.

Below is the list of what’s now streamable on Apple TV Plus. To find the movies, look for a “Great Movies on Apple TV Plus” banner at the top of the app.

• 21 Jump Street
• 300
• The Accountant
• American Sniper
• Argo
• Bad Boys
• Black Hawk Down
• The Bodyguard
• Captain Phillips
• Catch Me If You Can
• Con Air
• Draft Day
• Edge of Tomorrow
• Failure to Launch
• Fast & Furious 6
• Fast Five
• Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
• Fight Club
• Good Burger
• Gravity
• Horrible Bosses
• How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days
• The Hurt Locker
• I Am Legend
• Jurassic World
• Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom
• Kill Bill: Volume 1
• Kill Bill: Volume 2
• Knocked Up
• Mad Max: Fury Road
• Mean Girls
• Men in Black
• Minority Report
• No Strings Attached
• The Prestige
• The Proposal
• Old School
• Saving Private Ryan
• Spider-Man
• Spider-Man 2
• Star Trek
• Star Trek Beyond
• Star Trek Into Darkness
• Titanic
• Training Day
• Troy
• Two Weeks Notice
• The Wolf of Wall Street
• Wyatt Earp
• Zodiac
• Zombieland
• Zoolander

Apple last raised the price of Apple TV Plus back in October, taking the service from $6.99 monthly up to $9.99 per month. If it ever climbs higher than that, Apple might be well served to make this catalog side of the service more permanent.

If you still haven’t migrated your Oculus account to a Meta one, you might want to do that soon. In an email sent to users, the company says it will delete Oculus accounts on March 29th, 2024, preventing you from reactivating or retrieving your apps, in-app purchases, store credits, and more. You’ll lose your achievements, friends list, and any content created with your Oculus account if you don’t migrate to a Meta account before then.

Oculus accounts have been on the way out since 2020, when the company then known as Facebook started requiring new users to sign up with Facebook accounts instead. However, it added the ability to create a Meta account in 2022, offering an alternative to users who didn’t want to link their Facebook account to their Quest headset. Meta stopped letting users log in to their Oculus accounts in January 2023. If you’ve got a Quest gathering dust in a drawer somewhere, now’s your last chance to migrate your Oculus account to a Meta one.

Screenshot by Emma Roth / The Verge

You can migrate your account by heading to this page and signing up for a Meta account with the same email you’ve used for Oculus. From there, you’ll be able to access all of the same games, data, and other purchases saved to your Oculus account.

Several of us here at The Verge received the email, including a couple of my colleagues who have already converted their Oculus accounts to Meta. It’s not clear whether Meta sent these emails by mistake or if there’s any action Meta account holders will need to take. The Verge reached out to Meta with a request for more information but didn’t immediately hear back.

Balatro, the card game everyone’s talking about right now that’s not named Queen’s Blood, has apparently been removed from console storefronts in certain countries. The game’s publisher, Playstack, addressed the removals, attributing it to Balatro’s ratings suddenly changing from a game for players three and up to a game for players 18 and up.

Playstack wrote that the change happened “due to a mistaken belief that the game ‘contains prominent gambling imagery and material that instructs about gambling.’” Playstack went on to vehemently deny that Balatro contains gambling of any kind, affirming that its developer “is staunchly anti-gambling.”

In an email to The Verge, Playstack PR manager Wout van Halderen went into a bit more detail about the affected consoles and countries, writing, “Most Nintendo Switch stores across Europe are temporarily affected, as well as in Australia and New Zealand.” Storefronts in Asia are also being monitored, but Playstack hasn’t confirmed if they’re also impacted.

Van Halderen also wrote that Playstack is working to get the game back up in the affected markets as soon as possible.

“The logical first step is to get the game back with the current 18+ rating and take it from there,” he wrote. “This could mean a patch with updated ratings or an additional look through certification.”

Strict anti-gambling regulations in Europe and Asia have caught up a number of games that may not explicitly feature gambling content, and poker games seem especially susceptible. Diablo Immortal did not launch in Belgium or the Netherlands due to the countries’ classification of loot boxes as a form of gambling. Sunshine Shuffle, a narrative game featuring animals playing poker, was temporarily removed from the North American Nintendo eShop and outright banned in Korea because its creator joked a little too much that the game “teaches children to gamble.”

Despite this hiccup with Balatro, Playstack wrote in its statement that it doesn’t foresee PC storefronts being affected, and the game is still currently available on Steam.

When we got some hands-on time with Samsung’s Galaxy Ring earlier this week at Mobile World Congress, battery life was still a mystery. However, Samsung has since confirmed that the smart ring will get between five and nine days on a single charge.

The estimate comes from a few sources. As spotted by 9to5Google, Korean outlet Financial News reports that Dr. Hon Pak, Samsung’s VP of digital health, gave reporters that figure during a briefing. Android Authority also spotted a TechM report quoting Samsung Electronics chief Roh Tae-moon as saying the ring can be used for up to nine days.

But don’t put too much stock in Samsung’s battery estimates yet. The Oura Ring claims up to seven days of battery, but in practice, I only ever get three to five because I enable continuous SpO2 monitoring. The same may very well end up being true for the Galaxy Ring. We don’t know how the Galaxy Ring will use its sensors. Some wearables take periodic readings to extend battery life; others sample continuously; and others yet give you the option to choose. Usually, enabling continuous tracking causes battery life to take a significant hit.

Battery life could also depend on what size ring you get. With smartwatches, smaller models tend to have slightly shorter battery life simply because they can’t stuff larger batteries inside. The same could be true for Samsung’s Galaxy Ring, which comes in multiple sizes.

Regardless, up to nine days of battery life may be appealing to those sick of charging their smartwatches every day. It’s also a draw for smart rings in general. In addition to being smaller and more discreet, they lack battery-guzzling displays. The vast majority are also passive trackers that don’t interact with your phone except to sync data.

In other words, big if true! We’ll have to wait until the Galaxy Ring is ready for reviewers to see whether Samsung delivers.