Technologies

Galaxy Z Fold 5: Everything I Want From Samsung’s Next Foldable

Commentary: Above all else, the Galaxy Z Fold 5 needs more features you can’t get elsewhere that make use of its bendable screen.

Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 4 has a slightly tweaked design, an updated camera that brings it up to speed with the Galaxy S22 and a new processor. These are steps in the right direction, but there are plenty of ways Samsung could further improve its larger foldable phone.

The biggest change I’m hoping to see in the Galaxy Z Fold 4’s successor (which will likely be called the Galaxy Z Fold 5) is more software that takes advantage of its foldable shape. Having a giant screen that fits in your pocket is great. But Samsung needs to provide a more convincing argument if it truly wants foldables to be appealing to more than just early adopters.

The Galaxy Z Fold is on its fourth generation, yet foldables still haven’t had the breakout moment Samsung has been waiting for. Although sales of foldable phones are growing, they will only account for 1.1% of the overall smartphone market in 2022, according to projections from the International Data Corporation.

Samsung typically releases its new foldable phones in August. Here’s everything I’m hoping to see from the Galaxy Z Fold 5 next year.

More software features

Yes, the Galaxy Z Fold’s design is what makes it noteworthy. But impressive hardware doesn’t mean much without the software to go with it. Samsung has done a lot to improve the way apps work across the Z Fold’s 7.6-inch inner display in the years since its launch. For example, the Z Fold 4 has a dock that sits at the bottom of the screen for quickly accessing apps, as well as the ability to use the bottom half of the screen as a touchpad when in Flex Mode.

The problem is that these features don’t do a great job at convincing users why they should want a foldable phone in the first place. Instead, they just make the process of using apps on the Z Fold slightly easier and more convenient.

I don’t think any company has answered that question adequately just yet, but I have seen some promising attempts. Microsoft’s Surface Duo 2, for example, turns into a digital book when you open the Kindle app, complete with page-turn animations. It’s worth remembering, however, that the Surface Duo is different from the Z Fold since it consists of two separate displays joined together by a hinge. The Galaxy Z Fold 4 is also a much better phone overall thanks to its superior camera and smoother software improvements, among other benefits.

Samsung was among the first to release a foldable phone, meaning it’s had a longer lead time than most competitors in this department. That’s why I’m hoping to see more ambitious features from Samsung in future versions of the Galaxy Z Fold.

An embedded S Pen

The S Pen could help Samsung address that critical question of who the Galaxy Z Fold is for. The Galaxy Z Fold 3 and 4 both support the S Pen, but you must buy it separately and there’s no storage mechanism for it. Instead, Samsung should bundle the S Pen with the Galaxy Z Fold 5 and add a way to conveniently store it within or attach it to the device.

Doing so could make the Galaxy Z Fold 5 even more useful for taking notes, sketching and editing documents. That might not be important to everyone, but it could make the Z Fold more appealing to the productivity-oriented crowd that Samsung seems to be targeting. It would also make the Z Fold’s high price a bit easier to swallow since you’ll be getting more for your money.

Samsung hasn’t discussed its plans for the Galaxy Z Fold series. But a report from The Elec says Samsung has cited the addition of an S Pen slot as a key challenge that must be overcome to make foldables more popular. That means Samsung may at least be thinking about bundling the S Pen with its future foldables.

A less noticeable crease

Samsung has gradually refined the Z Fold’s design over the years, but the crease hasn’t gone away just yet. Although it’s not always visible, you can feel the crease when running your finger across the screen. Reducing the crease could make the Galaxy Z Fold feel more like a regular tablet when opened.

Samsung may be the leader when it comes to foldable phones, but other companies are making quick progress when it comes to shrinking the crease. Take Huawei and Oppo, the latter of which is one of the world’s biggest smartphone makers.

The screen on Huawei’s Mate XS 2 wraps around the front of the device so that it can function as a regular phone when folded and a tablet when opened — a design that makes the crease barely existent. CNET’s Sareena Dayaram recently tried Oppo’s new Find N2 foldable, writing that she «hardly ever saw or felt the crease.» These advancements make me wish I saw more progress from Samsung in this regard. There’s a chance Samsung may be looking into how to address this, considering The Elec’s report also suggests Samsung is interested in reducing the Z Fold’s crease.

A thinner design

Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 4 has a sturdy build and a wide cover screen. But it still feels cumbersome to use as a regular phone when closed. The Galaxy Z Fold 4 measures 0.5 to 0.6 inch thick when folded, whereas the iPhone 14 and Galaxy S22 both measure roughly 0.3 inch thick. That extra bulk might not bother those who primarily use their Galaxy Z Fold unfolded in tablet mode. But it’s another barrier to adoption for those who aren’t yet convinced of the promise of foldable phones.

A lower price

With a regular price of $1,800, calling the Galaxy Z Fold 4 expensive might be an understatement. You’ll get a discount when trading in an old device, with Samsung listing the 256GB model for $900 with an eligible trade-in. But that still lands at the high end of the spectrum compared to many nonfolding phones, like those in the Galaxy S22 lineup and Pixel 7 family.

Samsung is at least aware of this conundrum. «It’s definitely a challenge that we are tackling, and we will need to tackle,» TM Roh, president and head of Samsung’s mobile experience business, said in an interview with CNET earlier this year regarding the Z Fold’s price.

Foldable phones are still a nascent part of the broader smartphone market, but changes like these could push them closer to becoming viable alternatives to our everyday devices. Samsung helped popularize the big-screen phones we use today with its first Galaxy Note phone back in 2011. It’s trying to do the same with foldables, but there are clearly still challenges to overcome.

Technologies

Researchers Discover 18 Popular VPNs Are Connected: Why This Matters

All are owned by 3 separate groups but CNET’s recommended VPNs are not on the list

Virtual private networks are popular ways to keep your online activity private and hide your physical location from your internet service provider and apps. But it’s obviously important to choose a safe and secure VPN.

Three university researchers have discovered that 18 of the most widely used VPNs have shared infrastructures with serious security flaws that could expose customers’ browsing activity and leave their systems vulnerable to corrupted data. These VPNs are among the top 100 most popular on the Google Play Store, comprising more than 700 million downloads.

Read more: Best VPN Service for 2025: Our Top Picks in a Tight Race

The peer-reviewed study by the Privacy Enhancing Technologies Symposium found that these VPNs, despite calling themselves independent businesses, are actually grouped into three separate families of companies.

None of CNET’s recommended VPNs — ExpressVPN, NordVPN, Surfshark, Proton VPN and Mullvad — are on the list. (If you currently don’t have a VPN, here’s why you might want to start using one.)

According to the findings, these are the three groups that contain the 18 VPNs:

Family A: Turbo VPN, Turbo VPN Lite, VPN Monster, VPN Proxy Master, VPN Proxy Master Lite, Robot VPN, Snap VPN and SuperNet VPN
Family B: Global VPN, Inf VPN, Melon VPN, Super Z VPN, Touch VPN, VPN ProMaster, XY VPN and 3X VPN
Family C: X-VPN and Fast Potato VPN

Researchers determined that the VPNs in Family A are shared between three providers linked to Qihoo 360, a firm identified by the US Department of Defense as a Chinese military company. The VPNs in Family B use the same IP addresses from the same hosting company.

Know your VPN’s parent company

It’s a cautionary tale about why it’s important to know who’s behind the VPN you’re using, says CNET senior writer Attila Tomaschek.

«It’s also crucial to know what kinds of data the VPN provider is sharing with its parent company and affiliated entities,» Tomaschek said. «Some of these companies may even be compelled to log customer activity and share it with authorities, depending on the jurisdiction in which they operate.»

Despite the warnings, Tomaschek says it’s not so easy to figure out who controls your VPN. But he says there are measures that customers can take.

«Users can do a few things to help ensure the VPN they’re using is reputable,» Tomaschek says. «Check the privacy policy — specifically for terms like ‘logging,’ ‘data sharing’ or ‘data collection.’ A Google search of the provider can help determine whether the VPN has been involved in questionable activity. Read detailed, unbiased reviews from reputable sources. Be especially wary of signing on with a free VPN, even if it’s listed as a top choice in your app store.»

The PETS researchers examined the most downloaded VPNs on Android, looking for overlaps among business paperwork, web presence and codebase. After identifying code similarities, they were able to group the 18 VPNs into three groups. The study was initially spurred by VPN Pro’s own findings, «Who owns your VPN? 105 VPNs run by just 24 companies.»

CNET’s Tomaschek has advice for anyone who has been using one of these 18 VPNs.

«I’d recommend deleting it from your device immediately,» he said. «If you suspect that any sensitive personal data may have been compromised, it’s a good idea to keep an eye on your credit report and look into services like dark web monitoring or identity theft protection.»

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections: Sports Edition Hints and Answers for Sept. 6, #348

Here are hints and the answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle for Sept. 6, No. 348.

Looking for the most recent regular Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle and Strands puzzles.

Today’s Connections: Sports Edition was a stumper. But if you play cards, the green group is a fun one for sure. If you’re struggling but still want to solve it, read on for hints and the answers.

Connections: Sports Edition is published by The Athletic, the subscription-based sports journalism site owned by the Times. It doesn’t show up in the NYT Games app but appears in The Athletic’s own app. Or you can play it for free online.

Read more: NYT Connections: Sports Edition Puzzle Comes Out of Beta

Hints for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: Racket time.

Green group hint: Ante up!

Blue group hint: NY signal-callers.

Purple group hint: Coach’s CV.

Answers for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Yellow group: Tennis statistics.

Green group: Poker variants, familiarly.

Blue group: Giants QBs, past and present.

Purple group: Teams coached by Lane Kiffin.

Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words

What are today’s Connections: Sports Edition answers?

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is tennis statistics. The four answers are aces, double faults, unforced errors and winners.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is poker variants, familiarly. The four answers are hold ’em, horse, Omaha and stud.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is Giants QBs, past and present. The four answers are Manning, Simms, Tittle and Wilson.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is teams coached by Lane Kiffin. The four answers are Mississippi, Raiders, Tennessee and USC.

Technologies

Hollow Knight Silksong Guide: Read These 11 Tips Before Starting

Need help finding rosaries and maps? Here are 11 tips to help you begin your journey.

The indie gaming classic Hollow Knight’s long-awaited sequel, Silksong, is here. Just like the 2019 original, the new game is mysterious and labyrinthine. I’m having an absolute blast playing it, but there are a lot of quirks and challenges you’re going to have to face.

Here are 11 tips to help you navigate the first couple hours of the exciting — and difficult — Silksong.

Read more: I Played Silksong on the ROG Xbox Ally X and I’m Ready for More

11 Hollow Knight: Silksong tips for beginners

Early rosary cache

Rosaries are this game’s version of currency, which you can use to buy amulets and maps from early game merchants. If you die, you’ll have to recover them from your corpse in order to collect what was lost. In the opening area of the game, you can find a rosary cache to give your wallet a boost early on. Right before entering Bone Bottom, there’s a hole to drop down. Hold left as you fall and you’ll find a bone wall you can break. Here you’ll find your reward.

Learn the pogo

Bouncing off enemies is an early way to double jump. To do it, hold down while attacking in the air. It’s much harder to pull off than it was in Hollow Knight due to Hornet’s attacks, which are angled diagonally rather than straight down. However, if Silksong is anything like the first, you’ll be expected to master this technique in order to find and unlock everything in the game — there could be secret areas that can only be reached or bosses that can only be defeated with this technique. Make sure to master this skill early on.

First spool fragment and shortcut

After meeting Shakra, the map merchant, head left into the next screen. There is a flying enemy near the far left wall. Use the pogo jump technique off of them to reach and exit the room in the top left corner. If you kill the enemy, simply leave the area and rest at the nearby bench to respawn them (benches also save your game). After reaching the next room, drop down the first hole. There’s also a rosary cache to your right as you descend. Continue down until you reach a lever, which activates the elevator, giving you a shortcut back to Bone Bottom.

From the top of the elevator shaft, head right. You’ll also see an enemy glowing green below you as you progress. It holds a Moss Berry, and in order to get it, you’ll either have to keep pogo attacking them or fall and slash repeatedly. You can use your new elevator to keep ascending back up if you fall down.

Eventually, you’ll find another cache of rosaries hanging in a small room, but be careful, as they’re boobytrapped with spikes right underneath. However, these spikes only activate once, so you can just wait for them to disappear. Attack the wall in the bottom left of this room to open a secret door that leads to the Spool Fragment — you’ll want to prioritize collecting these, as they increase your max silk capacity.

Buy the first four items from Shakra

Maps are extremely useful in Silksong, so buy them whenever you have the chance. When you first meet Shakra, they’ll have two for you. In addition, you can also buy the Quill and Compass. These will help fill in the map and, if equipped, show your location. Try and grind out enough cash to buy all four of these items. If you’re low on funds, the enemies in the area to your left will drop around five rosaries each, and there’s a nearby bench you can sit on to keep respawning them.

If you followed my advice and collected the Spool Fragment above, you should have more than enough currency to buy all four.

View the entire map

Holding down LB (on Xbox) will bring up the map of your current area. In order to see the entire area, and how each section connects to one another, double tap LB instead.

Choral Commandment

You can find a Choral Commandment, which can be given to a certain collector later on, shortly after encountering Shakra. Climb upwards from their position and to the left. Up again past the lever and there is a breakable wall immediately left of you.

Moss Druid

Right after obtaining the Silk Spear technique, head to the bottom right corner of the room and destroy the webs with your new skill. Inside and past the right exit is Moss Druid (and a save bench) who will give you your first side quest of finding three moss berries. If you found one early on, and a second one that I mentioned while going for the Spool Fragment, you can collect a third just below them by dropping down the hole left of the bench and past a hidden wall in the bottom right corner of the room. Finishing this side quest will earn you an achievement.

Easier healing

Unlike in Hollow Knight, you don’t need to hold down the bind button (B on an Xbox controller) to heal. In Silksong, you simply need to tap it once you have enough silk. This will grant you three pips of life back. You can also heal while in the air, so take advantage of it when landing could mean your death.

Different types of equipment

Hollow Knight only had one type of equipment, but Silksong has four. They’re distinguished by colors: white, red, blue and yellow. White is for your spells, such as the Silk Spear, red is for tools, blue holds amulets, and yellow is for additional items, such as the compass. You can only equip one of each at a time (at least for now).

How to defeat the Bell Beast

The first real boss fight of the game is the Bell Beast and it’s located shortly after collecting the Silk Spear skill.

The Beast has three main attacks. The first will see either side of the ground rumble followed by the Beast surfacing and charging toward you. Simply jump over it and do a pogo attack as it passes. The second attack begins like the first, with the ground on the side of the arena rumbling, but this time the Beast will launch into the air and arc over you. It’s very easy to just walk the opposite direction to avoid getting crushed. You can also quickly counter and get in two attacks while it tries to get unstuck from the wall. The last attack will start a little differently — this time the center ground will rumble. The Beast will pop up and launch two bell projectiles horizontally. To dodge, just hop over the bell.

When you’ve whittled the boss’s health down halfway, the Beast will surface and scream, shaking the whole area. This will cause bells to start dropping down from the ceiling while you continue the fight. They’re pretty easy to avoid since they only bounce once before disappearing. Simply hop over them as you continue the pattern of attacking and dodging the Beast’s three attacks.

Unlocks after the Bell Beast

After defeating the Bell Beast you get an achievement and a silk heart. This will regenerate a little bit of silk automatically after every use. After falling in combat, the Bell Beast will also have a change of heart and become your mode of fast travel.

Make sure to revisit Bone Bottom once you’re victorious as you’ll now be able to take on additional side quests from a sign in town.

Hopefully these tips give you a better grasp of the dangerous and complex world as you begin your adventure in Silksong.