Technologies
Galaxy S24 Ultra: One Day With Samsung’s New Phone
Circle to Search and Instant Slow-Mo are my favorite new features so far.

The Galaxy S24 Ultra may look a lot like the Galaxy S23 Ultra at first glance. But Samsung’s newest phones are the first to come with Galaxy AI. It’s an umbrella term for tools and features powered by generative AI that can generate content and responses that sound conversational (but aren’t always accurate) after being trained on data. It’s the same flavor of AI that fuels ChatGPT, and the Galaxy S24 lineup is an example of how the tech is being applied to new smartphones.
I’ve been using the Galaxy S24 Ultra for a day, and one Galaxy AI feature has stood out to me in that short time: Circle to Search. I just press and hold the home button and draw a circle around anything I see on screen to launch a Google search for that object. It works intuitively and reliably so far and feels practically useful in everyday life unlike other AI-powered additions to the Galaxy S24.
Read more: Samsung’s Galaxy Ring Will Need Less of Your Attention Than a Smartwatch
I need more time with the S24 Ultra to truly assess the usefulness of Galaxy AI and to test out the new 50-megapixel telephoto camera among other updates.
As I wrote in my initial first impressions story, Samsung’s new AI features don’t feel strikingly new and different from the generative AI features from Microsoft and Google. Instead, the Galaxy S24 Ultra feels like a statement about how generative AI features are becoming table stakes on new phones.
Circle to Search is the standout Galaxy AI feature so far

Galaxy AI is a collection of features that spans everything from photo editing to texting, phone calls and note-taking. There’s a tool for moving and removing unwanted objects from photos and refilling the scene so that it looks natural, for example. The Samsung Notes app can organize notes into bullet points and phone calls can be translated between languages in real time. (Check out my first impressions story for a list of some of the top Galaxy AI features.)
But Circle to Search is the one that stood out to me the most. The feature, which was developed in partnership with Google, allows you to search for almost anything on your phone’s screen just by circling it. Based on the time I’ve had with it so far, Circle to Search seems fairly accurate in determining the type of content I’m looking for based on what I’ve circled.
For example, when I circled an image of the character Siobhan Roy from the HBO drama series Succession in a news article, the Galaxy S24 pulled up results that showed more information about the actress Sarah Snook, who plays her in the series. But when I just circled her outfit, I got results showing where to buy cream-colored blazers and slacks similar to those she was wearing in the image.
I’ve also been using the Galaxy S24 Ultra to organize my notes during the process of writing my review and transcribe meetings. I appreciated being able to have the phone turn my list of tests I’d like to run on the Galaxy S24 Ultra into neat and tidy bullet points. Samsung’s Recorder app also transcribed a meeting and summarized the key points into bullet points. While I wouldn’t rely on those bullet points alone for work-related tasks, it was a handy way to see which topics were discussed at specific timestamps in the conversation.
That feature isn’t unique to Samsung’s Recorder app; Google’s app can also do this, as can the transcription service Otter.ai. But combined with other features like the ability to automatically format notes, I’m beginning to see how generative AI could make phones more capable work devices.
Galaxy S24 Ultra’s new telephoto camera and slow motion

The biggest difference between the Galaxy S23 Ultra’s camera and the Galaxy S24 Ultra’s is the latter’s new 50-megapixel telephoto camera with a 5x optical zoom. That replaces the Galaxy S23 Ultra’s 10-megapixel telephoto camera with a 10x optical zoom, a choice that Samsung made after hearing feedback that users generally preferred to zoom between 2x and 5x.
Read more: Samsung Galaxy S24 Phones Have a New Zoom Trick to Get That Close-Up Photo
I haven’t had too much time to test this extensively, but I’m already seeing a difference. Take a look at the 5x zoom photos below of a wooden sign I came across at a San Jose, California, park. The photos may look similar at first, but you can see the changes when enlarging the images. The text is sharper in the Galaxy S24 Ultra’s photo, and there’s less image noise.
Galaxy S24 Ultra


Galaxy S23 Ultra


Image quality aside, Samsung also introduced some new camera tricks on the Galaxy S24 Ultra. While Generative Edit may have gotten a lot of attention following Samsung’s announcement, Instant Slow-Mo has impressed me the most so far. I just hold down on a video clip I captured and the phone converts it into a slow motion video by generating extra frames. I can preview how the clip will look in slow motion by pressing and lifting my finger to switch between the regular and slowed-down footage.
Taken together, it seems like Galaxy AI has the potential to make Samsung’s phones more useful and helpful. Most of the features that are currently available, like Circle to Search and note summaries, feel practical rather than gimmicky. But the bigger question is whether Samsung will be able to meaningfully differentiate its offerings moving forward, especially since Google’s Pixel phones provide similar functionality and Samsung plans to bring Galaxy AI to the Galaxy S23 lineup as well.
Editors’ note: CNET is using an AI engine to help create some stories. For more, see this post.
Technologies
Tariffs Explained: Latest on Trump’s Shifting Import Tax Plan, and What It Means
Technologies
Apple, I’m (Sky) Blue About Your iPhone 17 Air Color
Commentary: The rumored new hue of the iPhone 17 Air is more sky blah than sky blue.

I can’t help but feel blue about the latest rumor that Apple’s forthcoming iPhone 17 Air will take flight in a subtle, light-hued color called sky blue.
Sky blue isn’t a new color for Apple. It’s the featured shade of the current M4 MacBook Air, a shimmer of cerulean so subtle as to almost be missed. It’s silver left too close to an aquarium; silver that secretly likes to think it’s blue but doesn’t want everyone else to notice.
Do Apple employees get to go outside and see a real blue sky? It’s actually vivid, you can check for yourself. Perhaps the muted sky blue color reflects a Bay Area late winter/early spring frequent layer of clouds like we typically see here in Seattle.
«Who cares?» you might find yourself saying. «Everyone gets a case anyway.» I hear you and everyone else who’s told me that. But design-focused Apple is as obsessive about colors as they are about making their devices thinner. And I wonder if their heads are in the clouds about which hues adorn their pro products.
Making the case for a caseless color iPhone
I’m more invested in this conversation than most — I’m one of those freaks who doesn’t wrap my phone in a case. I find cases bulky and superfluous, and I like to be able to see Apple’s design work. Also, true story, I’ve broken my iPhone screen only twice: First when it was in a «bumper» that Apple sent free in response to the iPhone 4 you’re-holding-it-wrong Antennagate fiasco, and second when trying to take long exposure starry night photos using what I didn’t realize was a broken tripod mount. My one-week-old iPhone 13 Pro slipped sideways and landed screen-first on a pointy rock. A case wouldn’t have saved it.
My current model is an iPhone 16 Pro in black titanium — which I know seems like avoiding color entirely — but previously I’ve gone for colors like blue titanium and deep purple. I wanted to like deep purple the most but it came across as, in the words of Patrick Holland in his iPhone 14 Pro review, «a drab shade of gray or like Grimace purple,» depending on the light.
Pros can be bold, too
Maybe the issue is too many soft blues. Since the iPhone Pro age began with the iPhone 11 Pro, we’ve seen variations like blue titanium (iPhone 15 Pro), sierra blue (iPhone 13 Pro) and pacific blue (iPhone 12 Pro).
Pacific blue is the boldest of the bunch, if by bold you mean dark enough to discern from silver, but it’s also close enough to that year’s graphite color that seeing blue depends on the surrounding lighting. By comparison, the blue (just «blue») color of the iPhone 12 was unmistakably bright blue.
In fact, the non-Pro lines have embraced vibrant colors. It’s as if Apple is equating «pro» with «sophisticated,» as in «A real pro would never brandish something this garish.» I see this in the camera world all the time: If it’s not all-black, it’s not a «serious» camera.
And yet I know lots of pros who are not sophisticated — proudly so. People choose colors to express themselves, so forcing that idea of professionalism through color feels needlessly restrictive. A bright pink iPhone 16 might make you smile every time you pick it up but then frown because it doesn’t have a telephoto camera.
Color is also important because it can sway a purchase decision. «I would buy a sky blue iPhone yesterday,» my colleague Gael Cooper texted after the first rumor popped online. When each new generation of iPhones arrive, less technically different than the one before, a color you fall in love with can push you into trading in your perfectly-capable model for a new one.
And lest you think Apple should just stick with black and white for its professional phones: Do you mean black, jet black, space black, midnight black, black titanium, graphite or space gray? At least the lighter end of the spectrum has stuck to just white, white titanium and silver over the years.
Apple never got ahead by being beige
I’m sure Apple has reams of studies and customer feedback that support which colors make it to production each year. Like I said, Apple’s designers are obsessive (in a good way). And I must remind myself that a sky blue iPhone 17 Air is a rumored color on a rumored product so all the usual caveats apply.
But we’re talking about Apple here. The scrappy startup that spent more than any other company on business cards at the time because each one included the old six-color Apple logo. The company that not only shaped the first iMac like a tipped-over gumdrop, that not only made the case partially see-through but then made that cover brilliant Bondi blue.
Embrace the iPhone colors, Apple.
If that makes you nervous, don’t worry: Most people will put a case on it anyway.
Technologies
Astronomers Say There’s an Increased Possibility of Life on This Distant Planet
Using the James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers are working to confirm potential evidence of life on a distant exoplanet dubbed K2-18b.

Astronomers are nearing a statistically significant finding that could confirm the potential signs of life detected on the distant exoplanet K2-18b are no accident.
The team of astronomers, led by the University of Cambridge, used data from the James Webb Space Telescope (which has only been in use since the end of 2021) to detect chemical traces of dimethyl sulfide (DMS) and/or dimethyl disulfide (DMDS), which they say can only be produced by life such as phytoplankton in the sea.
According to the university, «the results are the strongest evidence yet that life may exist on a planet outside our solar system.»
The findings were published this week in the Astrophysical Journal Letters and point to the possibility of an ocean on this planet’s surface, which scientists have been hoping to discover for years. In the abstract for the paper, the team says, «The possibility of hycean worlds, with planet-wide oceans and H2-rich atmospheres, significantly expands and accelerates the search for habitable environments elsewhere.»
Not everyone agrees, however, that what the team found proves there’s life on the exoplanet.
Science writer and OpenMind Magazine founder Corey S. Powell posted about the findings on Bluesky, writing, «The potential discovery of alien life is so enticing that it drags even reputable outlets into running naive or outright misleading stories.» He added, «Here we go again with planet K2-18b.Um….there’s strong evidence of non-biological sources of the molecule DMS.»
K2-18b is 124 light-years away and much larger than Earth (more than eight times our mass), but smaller than Neptune. The search for signs of even basic life on a planet like this increases the chances that there are more planets like Earth that may be inhabitable, with temperatures and atmospheres that could sustain human-like lifeforms. The team behind the paper hopes that more study with the James Webb Space Telescope will help confirm their initial findings.
More research to do on finding life on K2-18b
The exoplanet K2-18b is not the only place where scientists are exploring the possibility of life, and this research is still an early step in the process, said Christopher Glein, a geochemist, planetary researcher and lead scientist at San Antonio’s Southwest Research Institute. Excitement over the significance of the research, he said, should be tempered.
«We need to be careful here,» Glein said. «It appears that there is something in the data that can’t be explained, and DMS/DMDS can provide an explanation. But this detection is stretching the limits of JWST’s capabilities.»
Glein added, «Further work is needed to test whether these molecules are actually present. We also need complementary research assessing the abiotic background on K2-18b and similar planets. That is, the chemistry that can occur in the absence of life in this potentially exotic environment. We might be seeing evidence of some cool chemistry rather than life.»
The TRAPPIST-1 planets, he said, are being researched as potentially habitable, as is LHS 1140b, which he said «is another astrobiologically significant exoplanet, which might be a massive ocean world.»
As for K2-18b, Glein said many more tests need to be performed before there’s consensus on life existing on it.
«Finding evidence of life is like prosecuting a case in the courtroom,» Glein said. «Multiple independent lines of evidence are needed to convince the jury, in this case the worldwide scientific community.» He added, «If this finding holds up, then that’s Step 1.»
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