Technologies

Don’t Miss Out on the Perfect Solar Eclipse Photo: Tips on Taking Pictures Today

Take these steps to minimize potential damage to your camera or phone lens, and get a great photo.

Today’s solar eclipse is the talk of the town. During its trip across North America, the total eclipse will hit parts of Mexico, a long diagonal stripe across the US and a stretch of eastern Canada. It’ll be quite the event, especially since the next total solar eclipse to hit North America won’t happen until August 2044.

Nearly half of the US population lives within a 200-mile drive of the event, giving many people a chance to catch a glimpse or a photo.

Remember, you must wear solar eclipse glasses if you’re looking up during the eclipse. While the sun will be completely hidden behind the moon for a few minutes, the rest of the eclipse will be just as harmful to human vision as it would be if you stared at the sun on any other day. So you’ll want to make sure that your solar glasses will protect your eyes while you watch.

You’ll want to protect your camera and its lenses, too, if you’re among the throngs who’ll be aiming a smartphone or DSLR at the sun in hopes of capturing that perfect image to share on social media of the last total solar eclipse in the US for the next 20 years.

Here are a few things to know before pointing your sensitive and expensive devices at the giant fireball in the sky.

Taking photos of the solar eclipse with a smartphone

A great many solar eclipse photos are likely to come from smartphones, given that just about everyone has one and that many are packed with very capable cameras.

First things first, you’ll want to pick up a solar filter. You don’t need anything fancy. You can buy little solar lenses that you can physically hold in front of your phone camera lens for a little over $10. In a pinch, you could use one of the lenses from a pair of paper solar eclipse glasses to achieve the same effect.

In general, your phone’s auto mode should take care of most of the heavy lifting. Phone makers have spent tons of time tuning the cameras to the appropriate settings to take the best possible picture. If you want to take matters into your own hands, you can always switch to manual mode — but do spend a bit of time before the eclipse familiarizing yourself with those settings.

A few other helpful tips:

Turn off your flash. Once totality hits, you’ll be taking pictures essentially at night and your flash isn’t going to help. Plus, it can annoy people around you.
Only use zoom if your phone is equipped with an optical zoom lens like the Galaxy S24 Ultra or the iPhone 15. Check your phone model to see if yours comes equipped with it. Using digital zoom will reduce resolution and make the image look blocky and unappealing.
Most modern smartphones feature a burst shot mode. The crown jewel of eclipse photography, the diamond ring, is only visible for a split-second and a burst shot mode will give you better odds of capturing it than if you try to time it yourself.
Practice. Taking good pictures of the sun is no easy task and you don’t want to spend the entire time fiddling with your smartphone camera settings.
Google also recommends bringing a portable battery bank. Camera use is a huge battery drain, and you may need some extra juice.

A Photographer’s Adventure With the Last Eclipse

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Taking photos of the solar eclipse with a DSLR

Many of the rules for smartphone photography also apply if you plan on taking a DSLR or mirrorless camera to the event. The steps to get there are slightly different. Smartphones can use virtually any solar filter, but cameras require something that’ll fit on the end of your camera’s lens barrel since it’s very difficult to hold a filter while taking a picture with a regular camera.

You may think you need a UV filter for solar photography. In reality, you’ll want an ND (neutral density) filter. ND filters reduce the amount of light coming into the lens the same way solar eclipse glasses reduce the amount of light coming into your eyes. K&F Concepts has a good one designed specifically for celestial photography.

The next factor is size. Filters come in various sizes and the size you need depends on what lens you own. Check the barrel of your lens. You’ll want to find the ø symbol with a number next to it. That number is the millimeter size you need.

If your lens doesn’t have that measurement on it, you can find the measurements on the box the lens came in or on the manufacturer’s website. If you get an incorrectly sized filter, it won’t fit on your camera properly, so make sure you look before you leap since ND filters can get quite expensive.

Once you obtain a solar filter, the same general tips apply to a regular camera. Practice photographing the sun over the weekend before the eclipse so you can dial in your preferred settings. Use burst mode to capture the diamond ring, bring spare batteries, and make sure your equipment is in order before the event.

Camera owners may also want to consider bringing multiple lenses to get different types of pictures, and you should definitely bring a tripod if you’re planning on long exposure shots, or just for stability in general. (A remote shutter release helps as well.) If you’re comfortable with it, shooting in raw image format can also produce some amazing results after some editing.

Can I take photos of the solar eclipse without a filter?

Human eyes can be damaged in seconds when staring at the sun — and the same is true for eyes looking through an unprotected camera lens at the eclipse. Camera lenses themselves are a bit more resilient. They might be able to handle the occasional sun photograph, but the longer and more frequently the camera is pointed at the sun, the more likely it is that damage will occur.

This can happen in a variety of ways, including damage to the lens, camera internals and mounting hardware. Camera lenses are essentially fancy and expensive magnifying glasses, and anyone who used a standard magnifying glass to concentrate sunbeams as a kid already knows how dangerous it can be for things on the other side of the sunbeam.

You may be able to get away with the occasional snap of the sun with an unprotected camera without damage as long as it’s quick and it’s not a long-exposure shot (and you’re not looking directly at it yourself). However, given how expensive cameras, camera lenses and smartphones are, better to err on the side of caution and use a solar filter.

In addition to safety, the solar filter can also help you take more effective pictures of the sun. Cameras — especially smartphone cameras — often have a rough time with super bright lights like the sun. A solar filter will reduce the brightness so you’ll be able to get much cleaner pictures of the eclipse.

During the brief moment of totality, you might consider removing your solar filter. Everything will be so dark that it’ll be unnecessary, and it’ll help if you want a good shot of the corona. Just make sure to put it back on if you want photos as the eclipse wanes.

Don’t forget to actually watch the eclipse

This is the last total solar eclipse to run through North America until 2044. It’s a once-in-a-generation event, unless you plan on traveling to Russia in 2026 or Egypt in 2027. Remember to put the camera down at some point and enjoy the moment. A celestial event like this doesn’t happen every day.

While it is a singular event for us here on Earth, astronauts on the ISS will have three total opportunities to watch it.

If you live in the path of the solar eclipse, you’re also encouraged to leave pets indoors with lights on and shutters closed as the transition to nighttime in the middle of the day can cause stress to animals. And systems that run on solar power may experience significant impacts on solar generation, so that’s another thing to keep in mind.

Technologies

Every iPhone 17E Rumor and Leak That I Found: Dynamic Island, MagSafe and More

Apple’s reportedly releasing a lower-priced iPhone 17, and it might offer notable improvements over last year’s iPhone 16E.

Key Takeaways:

Features: Apple might include MagSafe on the iPhone 17E.
Release date: Possibly as soon as February.
Price: There have been no leaks about price increases, which is good news at this point.
Design: Could get the Dynamic Island and look more like an iPhone 15.

Apple might be continuing its lower-cost iPhone line, with an iPhone 17E reportedly releasing early this year. If that’s true, the sequel to last year’s iPhone 16E has a lot of room to step up.

Some rumors point to improvements borrowed from Apple’s iPhone 15, such as Dynamic Island and MagSafe. If these are true, it could make the lower-cost iPhone 17E a compelling value option with fewer trade-offs needed to hit a lower price.

Apple’s $599 iPhone 16E was a bit of an oddity when it was released last year. It replaced Apple’s $429 iPhone SE, effectively retiring the older iPhone SE design that included a home button with Touch ID. Apple’s new «budget» device was a pricier amalgamation, featuring the body of an iPhone 14 with a display notch. It also had the USB-C port from the iPhone 15 and the A18 processor from the iPhone 16 to support Apple Intelligence features.

To save money, Apple scaled back on features by including only a single 48-megapixel main camera and omitting Apple’s MagSafe clip-on capability (though it kept standard wireless charging). While the iPhone 16E is a solid starter iPhone, I found these omissions to be confusing, especially given that Apple increased the price of this entry-level iPhone from $429 to $599.

An iPhone 17E could follow a playbook closer to Samsung’s Galaxy S25 FE. It would have many of the same features as the iPhone 16 and iPhone 17, like the smaller screen notch and an A19 processor, along with smaller stepbacks to the hardware that might be less noticeable.

Apple hasn’t confirmed whether an iPhone 17E exists yet, but we’re keeping an eye out. Here are the rumors we’ve heard so far, with features that could help or hinder the more budget-friendly iPhone 17E.

iPhone 17E release date: February 2026

The iPhone 17E could be announced as early as February, according to a Mashable report citing the Digital Chat Station Weibo account. The phone is said to be launching in the first half of the year. This would align with the iPhone 16E’s February 2025 announcement, establishing winter as Apple’s preferred launch window for cheaper iPhone models.

There are even rumors suggesting the base iPhone 18 will launch in the first half of 2027, but let’s not get too ahead of ourselves.

iPhone 17E design: Gets a Dynamic Island

One aspect that made the iPhone 16E stand out was Apple’s new design, which featured the iPhone 14’s body, a USB-C port and a single camera.

The iPhone 17E, however, will allegedly look more like 2023’s iPhone 15, with a smaller Dynamic Island cutout, according to the same Digital Chat Station Weibo post. The iPhone 17E is rumored to have a 6.1-inch display with a cutout, including dynamically sized notifications for timers and app alerts, such as Uber pickups.

This design is corroborated by the Smart Pikachu Weibo account, which also notes that the iPhone 17E will have a 60Hz refresh rate screen rather than the 120Hz one seen across the iPhone 17 line and the iPhone Air. It’d be nice to see a 17E with a 120Hz display, dubbed ProMotion by Apple. But this is one area that could be less noticeable to people coming from a former iPhone SE or an older base model like the iPhone 14.

While Apple’s ProMotion displays have been available on Pro models for years — as well as on almost every Android phone that costs $300 and more — the smoother animations and always-on displays it provides won’t be as noticeable when switching from a phone that never had them.

iPhone 17E features: MagSafe wireless charging

It baffled me that Apple didn’t include MagSafe with last year’s iPhone 16E. The feature, which allows for sticking magnetic accessories like chargers and wallets without a case, has been on most iPhone models since 2020. It felt like a strange omission, since Apple contributed MagSafe’s charging and magnetic profiles to the Qi2 standard, both of which are on Google’s Pixel 10 phones, HMD’s Skyline, and the upcoming Clicks Communicator.

The iPhone 17E is rumored to have a glass back that supports magnetic wireless charging — likely meaning the phone would gain the ability to magnetically attach to MagSafe and Qi2 accessories, according to a report in The Information spotted by 9to5Mac. This would be a major improvement for someone coming to this phone from an iPhone SE or the iPhone 11, both of which do support Qi wireless charging but do not include magnets for attaching accessories and cases.

While we would need more details, hopefully the inclusion of MagSafe also means the iPhone 17E’s wireless charging speed would increase to at least 15 watts, matching the iPhone 15.

iPhone 17E pricing

We’ll keep updating this story as more iPhone 17E rumors arrive. While there isn’t much regarding the pricing of the rumored phone, last year’s iPhone 16E starts at $599 for a 128GB model. I’m hoping the iPhone 17E starts at 256GB of storage, like the base iPhone 17. Apple still sells both the 16E and the iPhone 16 at 128GB, with the latter starting at $699.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Strands Hints, Answers and Help for Jan. 24 #692

Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle for Jan. 24, No. 692.

Looking for the most recent Strands answer? Click here for our daily Strands hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Today’s NYT Strands puzzle is one of those where the answers only make sense in pairs. There are six answers to find, and each of them matches up with one of the other answers. Some of them are difficult to unscramble, so if you need hints and answers, read on.

I go into depth about the rules for Strands in this story.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections and Mini Crossword answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: NYT Connections Turns 1: These Are the 5 Toughest Puzzles So Far

Hint for today’s Strands puzzle

Today’s Strands theme is: A work of art.

If that doesn’t help you, here’s a clue: On museum walls.

Clue words to unlock in-game hints

Your goal is to find hidden words that fit the puzzle’s theme. If you’re stuck, find any words you can. Every time you find three words of four letters or more, Strands will reveal one of the theme words. These are the words I used to get those hints but any words of four or more letters that you find will work:

FINS, FINE, FINES, GARB, BOAT, GATES, GATES, FIST, RATE, RATS, STAR, PAINT, SILL, SPAT

Answers for today’s Strands puzzle

These are the answers that tie into the theme. The goal of the puzzle is to find them all, including the spangram, a theme word that reaches from one side of the puzzle to the other. When you have all of them (I originally thought there were always eight but learned that the number can vary), every letter on the board will be used. Here are the nonspangram answers:

STARRY, NIGHT, WATER, LILIES, BOATING, PARTY

Today’s Strands spangram

Today’s Strands spangram is FAMOUSPAINTING. To find it, start with the F that’s four letters down on the far-left vertical row, and wind up, across, and then down.

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Toughest Strands puzzles

Here are some of the Strands topics I’ve found to be the toughest.

#1: Dated slang. Maybe you didn’t even use this lingo when it was cool. Toughest word: PHAT.

#2: Thar she blows! I guess marine biologists might ace this one. Toughest word: BALEEN or RIGHT.

#3: Off the hook. Again, it helps to know a lot about sea creatures. Sorry, Charlie. Toughest word: BIGEYE or SKIPJACK.

Technologies

San Diego Comic-Con Draws a Line: No AI Art Allowed at 2026 Event

The long-running fan convention is banning AI-created works from its popular art show.

Like Sarah Connor in The Terminator, San Diego Comic-Con is fighting back against AI. The prestigious, long-running pop culture convention has banned all artwork created by artificial intelligence from the 2026 Comic-Con art show. Rules posted on the Comic-Con website now state that AI-generated art won’t be shown in any form.

«Material created by Artificial Intelligence (AI) either partially or wholly, is not allowed in the art show. If there are questions, the Art Show Coordinator will be the sole judge of acceptability,» the website reads.

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A representative for San Diego Comic-Con did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In the past, the convention allowed participants to display AI artwork, provided it was clearly marked as such and wasn’t sold. But now, those artists can’t even bring it through the door. The rule change is a response to artist-led pushback, according to a 404 Media report. San Diego Comic-Con is one of the world’s most famous pop culture conventions, uniting comics, movies, television, gaming, cosplay and collectibles.

Jim Zub, writer for the Conan the Barbarian and Dungeons and Dragons comic book series, told CNET he supports Comic-Con’s decision and hopes other conventions will follow their lead.

«Hundreds of thousands of people attend San Diego Comic-Con each year, and the excitement that generates isn’t because they’re eager to meet a computer spitting out homogenized slop,» Zub said.

Zub, who’s also an artist, is scheduled to appear at Comic-Con in 2026.

Entertaining AI

The use of generative AI in comic book and pop culture art has generated controversy in recent years as AI programs have become more skilled at imitating creators.

A central focus of the 2023 actor’s strike involved backlash against the use of AI in movies and television. The issue has continued to roil Hollywood, as actors, special effects designers, and other film workers see the technology as a threat, while some movie studios view AI as a way to reduce production costs.

Netflix has already begun using AI-generated imagery in at least one series, Argentine sci-fi show El Eternauta. CEO Ted Sarandos praised the technology during a 2025 earnings call.

«We remain convinced that AI represents an incredible opportunity to help creators make films and series better, not just cheaper,» Sarandos said at the time.

AI is also an issue in the video game industry, with publishers facing swift backlash whenever fans discover AI was used in a game. The Indie Game Awards rescinded two awards for the hit RPG, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, after they found out that AI-made placeholder assets were included when the game launched. The game developer quickly patched the assets out.

While the movie and video game industries appear to have mixed views on using AI, Comic-Con has taken a firm stance, at least for now.

«Artists, writers, actors and other creatives gather and celebrate the popular arts in person because the people part of the equation is what matters most,» Zub said.