Technologies

I Was Excited About Samsung’s Cheaper Folding Phone. Then I Saw the Price

Commentary: At first glance, the Galaxy Flip 7 FE is the foldable phone Gen Z has been waiting for. But it’s still annoyingly unaffordable.

Every young person today should get to experience the specific fun, flirty pleasure of having a quirky flip phone that is both a fashion accessory and a cutting-edge piece of tech. It’s the noughties tech experience in a nutshell – or a clamshell, if you will.

But even though folding phones are now more sophisticated than ever thanks to advances in flexible screen technology, the devices on the market are usually extortionately expensive. Samsung’s latest flagship phone, the Galaxy Z Fold 7, announced Wednesday at Galaxy Unpacked, starts at an eye-watering $2,000, for example. That’s way beyond what most adults are willing to spend on a phone, never mind teens.

By contrast, Samsung has long targeted its cheaper Galaxy Flip series at a Gen Z audience – enlisting Euphoria star Sydney Sweeney to endorse the phone and making its front-facing selfie camera a key part of the device’s promotion strategy. But two years ago, at the launch of the Galaxy Flip 5, I pointed out that even though the phone was around half the price of the Fold, it was still too expensive. That observation still applies to the latest iterations of the Fold and Flip.

I was thrilled, though, when Samsung announced it had at last added an even cheaper model to its foldables family in the form of the Galaxy Flip 7 FE. The FE has a slightly smaller screen and footprint than the Flip 7, along with a less sophisticated camera system, which has the Flip 7’s wide-angle 50-megapixel lens, but not its 12-megapixel ultrawide lens.

«Samsung is now offering a broad portfolio catering for different segments and most importantly those price-conscious users,» said PP Foresight analyst Paolo Pescatore.

At first glance, the Flip 7 FE looks like the flip phone Gen Z has been waiting for. That is, until you look at the price tag. Even though it’s cheaper than the $1,100 Flip 7, it’s only $200 cheaper at $900. That’s still a flagship price for a nonflagship phone. It’s not giving affordable, as the kids might say.

I’m not the only one to balk at the price of the Flip 7 FE, either. «Extending its foldable portfolio to include the more affordable Galaxy Z Flip 7 FE is a move in the right direction, but it is likely not priced affordably enough to have a significant impact on the market,» said Ben Wood, chief analyst at CCS Insight.

Foldable phones remain a tricky sell. Market researcher IDC notes that while the market is growing, companies are failing to shift as many devices as predicted. Pricing, it says, is often the No. 1 thing standing in the way of people buying these phones.

Demand for foldables remains «stubbornly low,» said Wood. «Samsung will still need to overcome consumers’ nervousness about foldables as an alternative to a traditional smartphone.»

So will this be the year the teens get to discover the joy of flip phones? I suspect the hinged devices might still be out of their financial grasp for now. But if Samsung can find a way to make foldables genuinely affordable and not such a big risk, I believe there’s hope yet for the flip phone to delight another generation, who deserve the opportunity to melodramatically end a call by snapping shut their phone, before dropping it into their stupidly small clutch bag and heading to an indie-sleaze club night to make some bad decisions.

Technologies

Tinder Users Must Start Logging In With Their Faces, Starting Nationwide

The social app now has new US requirements including face identification to help quell longstanding problems with catfishing and more.

US Tinder users will find a new feature when they open up the dating app starting Wednesday: A mandatory Face Check on their phones will be required before they can log into their profiles.

The Face Check step will begin with a new request to record a video of your face, a more casual version of setting up Apple’s Face ID login. Tinder will then run checks comparing your face data to your current profile pics and automatically create a small face badge for your profile. We already know how it works, because Tinder has already launched the feature in Canada and California before the full US rollout.

The technology, powered by FaceTec, will keep biometric data of the user’s face in encrypted form but discard the scanning video for privacy. Tinder will be able to use the face data to detect duplicate accounts, in an effort to cut down on fake profiles and identity theft.

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Tinder’s facial recognition rollout is also made to prevent catfishing, or people pretending to be someone else on Tinder to scam or blackmail them. But that also points to a deeper problem on the rise in dating apps — a growing number of bots, many controlled by AI, are designed to glean personal information or fool users into scammy subscriptions, among other problems.

Tinder’s working against these bots on several fronts, including this Face Check push as well as ID Check, which requires a government-issued ID and other types of photo verification.

The dating app also recently released a feature in June to enable double-dating with your friends, which Tinder reports is especially popular with Gen Z users. If you’re worried about the latest hazards on Tinder, we have guide to safety practices.

A representative for Tinder did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Thursday, Oct. 23

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for Oct. 23.

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

Need some help with today’s Mini Crossword? Read on. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: Tips and Tricks for Solving The New York Times Mini Crossword

Let’s get to those Mini Crossword clues and answers.

Mini across clues and answers

1A clue: Like some weather, memories and I.P.A.s
Answer: HAZY

5A clue: Statement that’s self-evidently true
Answer: AXIOM

7A clue: Civic automaker
Answer: HONDA

8A clue: What fear leads to, as Yoda told a young Anakin
Answer: ANGER

9A clue: Foxlike
Answer: SLY

Mini down clues and answers

1D clue: Verbal «lol»
Answer: HAHA

2D clue: Brain signal transmitter
Answer: AXON

3D clue: Hits with a witty comeback
Answer: ZINGS

4D clue: Sing at the top of a mountain, maybe
Answer: YODEL

6D clue: Name of the famous «Queen of Scots»
Answer: MARY

Technologies

Today’s NYT Strands Hints, Answers and Help for Oct. 23 #599

Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle for Oct. 23, No. 599.

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 might be Halloween-themed, as the answers are all rather dangerous. Some of them are a bit tough 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: Please don’t eat me!

If that doesn’t help you, here’s a clue: Remember Mr. Yuk?

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:

POND, NOON, NODE, BALE, SOCK, LOVE, LOCK, MOCK, LEER, REEL, GLOVE, DAIS, LEAN, LEAD, REEL

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: