Technologies

I’ve Used Some Bad Under-Display Cameras. It’d Be Big If Apple Fixed That for iPhone 20

Commentary: Rumors suggest the iPhone 20 could have an under-display selfie camera, but it’ll need to be much better than what Android phone makers have attempted.

Apple might be developing an iPhone with an under-display camera, and if it’s any good, it’s going to be a herculean accomplishment. A recent rumor from Weibo user Digital Chat Station (translated into English) suggests that such a camera may appear in the 20th anniversary iPhone, which could be called the iPhone 20 and is expected to debut in 2027.

The idea of an under-display camera for an iPhone would be novel, but it’s a feature that we’ve seen on a number of Android phones, with mixed results at best.

An under-display camera is just that. The phone’s selfie camera is actually located behind the screen, rather than being nestled in a cutout or notch, such as the current Dynamic Island cutout on more recent iPhone models. In versions of this on Android phones, like the Galaxy Z Fold 6, the part of the display in front of the camera has fewer screen elements and translucent wiring, allowing the selfie camera to «see through» the screen like looking out a window that has opened blinds in front of it.

Having an under-display camera does add reasonable appeal. Most of the ones we’ve seen on gaming phones, such as those made by RedMagic, as well as on earlier models of the Samsung Galaxy Fold, allow for an uninterrupted display free from cutouts and notches. Over the past decade, since the launch of phones with minimal bezels, we’ve seen Apple, Samsung, OnePlus and Google try all kinds of styles that make room for the selfie camera without compromising the screen, including display notches, cutouts and even a mechanical pop-up camera. So finding a way to hide the camera underneath the display seems like a logical evolution.

However, for now, under-display cameras do a great job of hiding a camera, but they don’t fulfill their primary purpose of taking good photos or making you look presentable on video calls. I’ve tested numerous RedMagic phones that have an under-display camera — which is an excellent idea for a gaming phone, where taking full advantage of the screen is far more important than snapping selfies.

For instance, this photo taken with the 16-megapixel under-display selfie camera on the RedMagic 11 Pro makes me look super flat. My skin tone is washed out, almost like I’m wearing makeup.

Samsung has also had challenges with under-display cameras. It started incorporating them into its foldable phones’ internal displays, starting with 2021’s Galaxy Z Fold 3. This often resulted in subpar photos; the Z Fold 6, for instance, had a 4-megapixel camera under the main display, which served up lower-resolution images. Still, my former colleague Lisa Eadicicco found Samsung’s camera software helped refine the photos a bit, though there was still a bit of an «early-2010s» blur. It’s no wonder, then, that Samsung ditched the under-display camera with this year’s Galaxy Z Fold 7 and opted for a more traditional camera cutout on the main display.

So, if Apple is indeed developing an under-display camera for an upcoming iPhone, hopefully, it’s found a solution that differs from what we’ve seen from other phone makers. This isn’t like how Apple took its time adding an always-on display option to the base iPhone 17, while other $800 Android phones have long made it a standard feature.

An under-display camera that meets the current standard of Apple’s new 18-megapixel Center Stage selfie camera is going to need a bold reinvention on how an under-display camera can perform. That new camera — featuring a square sensor for taking vertical and horizontal photos while holding a phone vertically — is so nice that it would be odd for Apple to move away from it so quickly just to get a camera underneath the display. Apple doesn’t typically skimp on cameras, and it’s notable that even this year’s thin iPhone Air includes the same selfie shooter as every other iPhone 17 model.

If Apple can pull this off, it could mark the return of the company making truly big «one more thing» announcements. Because if Apple can create a good under-display camera, it could show other phone makers how it’s done and create an industry-wide standard.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Strands Hints, Answers and Help for Nov. 11 #618

Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle for Nov. 11, No. 618.

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 a fun one, especially for fans of certain fables and childhood stories. 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: Aesop’s animals.

If that doesn’t help you, here’s a clue: Stories with morals.

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:

BEND, MOLE, BLAM, BRAN, PAIL, FALL, MULE, RIOT, RISE, ROSE, RAMBLE, SORT

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:

BULL, GNAT, HARE, LION, WOLF, CRANE, MOUSE, TORTOISE

Today’s Strands spangram

Today’s Strands spangram is FABLEDPAIR. To find it, look for the F that’s three letters to the right on the top row, and wind down.

Toughest Strands puzzles

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

#1: Dated slang, Jan. 21. Maybe you didn’t even use this lingo when it was cool. Toughest word: PHAT.

#2: Thar she blows! Jan.15. I guess marine biologists might ace this one. Toughest word: BALEEN or RIGHT.

#3: Off the hook, Jan. 9. Similar to the Jan. 15 puzzle in that it helps to know a lot about sea creatures. Sorry, Charlie. Toughest word: BIGEYE or SKIPJACK.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Tuesday, Nov. 11

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for Nov. 11.

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.

I admit, I was stumped by 8-Across in today’s Mini Crossword, but I figured out the other answers, and the letters just filled in. Need help to solve it? 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: Villain’s counterpart
Answer: HERO

5A clue: California governor Newsom
Answer: GAVIN

6A clue: Home to Prada (and pasta)
Answer: ITALY

7A clue: Shipping company with a purple-and-orange logo
Answer: FEDEX

8A clue: Three-pointer, in basketball lingo
Answer: TREY

Mini down clues and answers

1D clue: Hard person to please
Answer: HATER

2D clue: Get around
Answer: EVADE

3D clue: «Inside Out» girl
Answer: RILEY

4D clue: Deep black gemstone
Answer: ONYX

5D clue: «Today is a ___. That’s why it’s called the present» (cliché)
Answer: GIFT

Technologies

Wikipedia Asks AI Companies to Stop Scraping Data and to Start Paying Up

The free internet encyclopedia is the seventh-most visited website in the world, and it wants to stay that way.

The Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit organization that hosts Wikipedia, wants AI companies to stop scraping its data to train AI models and to begin paying to use its Application Programming Interface instead, the foundation said in a blog post on Monday.

Wikimedia says AI companies need high-quality human-curated information to keep their models working. Wikipedia’s extensive volunteer network of editors ensures that its information remains well-sourced, and its content is available in over 300 languages.

At the same time, running Wikipedia is a costly endeavor. It’s currently the seventh-most visited website in the world, according to Semrush. It cost $179 million to run Wikipedia for the 2023-2024 fiscal year, according to a Wikimedia Foundation audit. Wikimedia keeps Wikipedia afloat primarily through donations and doesn’t run advertising.

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But AI is changing people’s research habits. Instead of researching subjects on Wikipedia, people are turning to AI to answer their questions. Although Wikipedia is free to use, if people circumvent it by using ChatGPT, they won’t see donation requests at the top of the Wikipedia home page, and the site could lose money.

Wikimedia is asking AI companies to pay to use its Enterprise API, which will allow them «to use Wikipedia content at scale and sustainably without severely taxing Wikipedia’s servers, while also enabling them to support our nonprofit mission.»

Representatives for Google, OpenAI, Meta, Perplexity, Anthropic, Microsoft, DeepSeek and xAI didn’t immediately reply to requests for comment, and a representative for Wikimedia also didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Google did agree to a deal with Wikimedia in 2022 to commercially access Wikipedia content.

Wikimedia’s request comes as online content creators are pushing back against AI companies using online data without permission or payment. Online publishers, such as Penske, the New York Times and News Corp, are suing AI companies for copyright infringement. Other companies, such as the Associated Press and Reuters, have signed licensing deals with AI firms.

(Disclosure: Ziff Davis, CNET’s parent company, in April filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.)

During the AI boom, Big Tech stocks have soared to stratospheric heights. Nvidia briefly became the world’s first $5 trillion company late last month, with Microsoft and Google’s parent company, Alphabet, breaking the $4 trillion barrier earlier this year.