Technologies

How Galaxy AI Camera Tools Help You Take Better Photos Automatically on the S25

From photobomb fixes to better low-light shots, Galaxy AI1 helps you get polished, post-worthy photos without a heavy manual lift.

Summary:

The Samsung Galaxy S25 and S25 Ultra are packed with new AI-powered camera
features.
The Scene Optimizer feature will automatically adjust settings like exposure and contrast to optimise for different scenes and lighting conditions.
Editing tools like Object Eraser and Generative Edit
let users remove, move, or resize elements in photos
with just a tap.
Super HDR enhances dynamic range, delivering richer detail and truer color in both stills and previews.
AI-driven search
capabilities make it easier to find photos and get pro-quality results without navigating complex menus or learning new skills.

If you’ve ever missed a perfect photo
op because you were fussing with settings, you’re the kind of photographer Galaxy S25 is built for. In Samsung’s
latest flagship device, the brand embeds intelligent enhancements throughout the camera experience—from photo capture to editing and sorting.

What’s so compelling about these Galaxy AI* updates is that they don’t require you to watch hours of tutorials to master—they just work. The S25 marks a step forward for the way AI quietly works in the background to elevate your photography, without you needing to do anything special.

Here’s how Galaxy AI helps make great photos happen automatically.

Smarter settings in real time

One of the most low-key powerful features of the S25 is Scene Optimizer, which uses AI to identify what you’re shooting—landscapes, food, people, pets—and automatically fine-tune settings like exposure, contrast, and saturation to make it looks its best. Simply enable the feature in the camera app settings to turn it on indefinitely.

Thanks to AI, the S25 also produces more balanced photos in tricky lighting scenarios. For instance, in low light, Samsung’s Nightography feature reduces noise while preserving sharpness
and color. (Results may vary depending on lighting, subject, and shooting conditions.) In broad daylight, the device’s built-in Galaxy AI compensates for harsh contrast and reflective surfaces.

That means the S25 can adapt instantly to your environment, making quick decisions that improve image quality without slowing you down. Shooting your dinner in a dim restaurant? When you turn on Scene Optimizer in your settings, Galaxy S25 kicks in to enhance brightness without making it look like a flash went off. Snapping a mountain range in peak sun? The S25 will naturally balance the sky and landscape so neither gets washed out. No toggling between modes, no extra effort—just a well-adjusted shot, ready to send to your friends or post online.

Take a clean shot, every time, with Object Eraser and Generative Edit

We’ve all had great shots ruined by a stranger walking into the frame
—or a power line cutting across an otherwise pristine skyline. The Galaxy S25‘s Object Eraser handles those intrusions with ease.

Powered by advanced AI and Samsung’s ProVisual Engine, users can simply tap on an object they want removed, and the phone fills in the background. In seconds, the tool recreates patterns, textures, and lighting to make it look like the offending object was never there.

Generative Edit, the broader suite of AI tools included on the S25, also lets users move or resize elements in their photos—for instance, you can reposition a subject for better framing, or scale down a distracting element in the background. The AI fills in any gaps for a seamless final result.

Super HDR for richer detail in every pic

Dynamic range is one of the toughest things for smartphone cameras to get right. Bright skies and dark shadows often lead to blown-out highlights or murky details. Super HDR on the S25 addresses this common problem by capturing multiple exposures nearly simultaneously, and blending them with AI to preserve detail across the full tonal range.

Super HDR doesn’t apply solely to stills in the camera app; it also enhances preview and playback in the Gallery. It even extends to social media apps like Instagram, so what you share is more representative of what you actually shot.

Better and more intuitive search

The Galaxy S25 also makes it easier to find the photos you’ve already taken without spending half an hour in a conversation-interrupting endless scroll. Thanks to Galaxy AI-enhanced search in the Gallery app, you can now type natural queries like «dog playing fetch» or «spring break at the beach,» and the phone will parse both visual elements and metadata to surface exactly what you’re looking for.

AI that’s there when you need it—and invisible when you don’t

One of the best parts about Galaxy AI is that it doesn’t require a learning curve. Even if it’s your first-ever Samsung device, you can pick up the phone and just start using it. Most of the photography tools activate automatically or appear at the precise time you need them with minimal interruption.

You don’t need to fiddle with menus or sliders; the phone quietly does the heavy lifting. Behind the scenes, the device’s AI is making thousands of tiny decisions—tweaking exposure by fractions, choosing the right tone curves, sharpening only where it helps—in mere milliseconds.

Whether you’re taking, editing, or sharing a photo, Galaxy AI helps eliminate the friction between your vision and the final result. You don’t have to overthink it—the S25 helps you get a great shot, then gets out of the way.

It flips, it folds, it’s anything but expected: the Galaxy Foldable is coming.

*Samsung account login is required for certain AI features.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Friday, Jan. 9

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for Jan. 9.

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? The Across clues were kind of tough today. Read on for all the answers. 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: Question in a late-night text
Answer: YOUUP

6A clue: Plentiful
Answer: AMPLE

7A clue: Saint ___ and Nevis (Caribbean nation)
Answer: KITTS

8A clue: Baby-bringing bird
Answer: STORK

9A clue: Take care of the tab
Answer: PAY

Mini down clues and answers

1D clue: Himalayan herbivores
Answer: YAKS

2D clue: Fail to include
Answer: OMIT

3D clue: «High five!»
Answer: UPTOP

4D clue: The «U» of UV rays
Answer: ULTRA

5D clue: Annoying to deal with
Answer: PESKY

Don’t miss any of our unbiased tech content and lab-based reviews. Add CNET as a preferred Google source.

Technologies

I Got Up Close and Personal With Boston Dynamics’ New Atlas Robot

Before Atlas takes its first steps into the world of work later this year, I found myself face-to-face with CES 2026’s most talked-about robot on the show floor.

When I say that I went hands-on with the new Boston Dynamics Atlas robot, I mean that I actually held hands with it. This humanoid robot, which CNET just awarded the Best Robot of CES Award, is one of the most advanced in the world, and I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to get up close and personal with it.

This product version of the robot, which is set to be shipped to Hyundai factories imminently to start working, has been the talk of CES this year. The specific Atlas robot I encountered was a static model that wasn’t turned on or fully operational. Our interactions were, therefore, sadly one-sided. Still, I ran my hands over its soft-touch plastic shell and gently prodded at its finger joints, wondering how it would feel if they gripped me back.

People tend to have varying feelings about humanoid robots — understandable given that they are built to some degree in our image, while also usually being stronger than us, with «brains» that we don’t fully understand. Atlas definitely evokes contradictory emotions for me — even more so when I stood face-to-face with it.

I’m in awe of the engineering, a little fearful of its capabilities, hesitant about what it could mean for the future of humanity and charmed by its design and styling. The periwinkle blue iteration of Atlas that I met on the show floor at CES 2026 almost bears more resemblance to a Dyson product than it does the industrial robots that defined Boston Dynamics’ early days, when it was best known for its work with DARPA.

«There’s a lot of really specific things about this robot that probably look a little weird,» said Zachary Jackowski, Boston Dynamics VP and general manager of Atlas. He pointed to the legs, which he described as «like nothing anyone else was doing.»

Atlas’ thighs are narrow set and in line with the torso, while the calves are wider set, attached to their upper counterparts with a circular joint. This robot is, in fact, all subtle curves and soft lines. There are no harsh edges or stark angles.

During a year when CES has been flooded with humanoid robots, Atlas definitely does stand out due to its design. It appears both less classically human and less industrial than some of its peers, while also lacking the often intimidating, featureless faces they tend to exhibit. Instead, it has two low-set cameras resembling eyes placed where you’d usually expect a mouth to be. Its face is a perfect flat circle, defined by an LED halo that gives it a somewhat Pixar lamp effect.

I asked Jackowski why Boston Dynamics decided to skew so relatively unhuman with this version of its humanoid. «Well, it’s not a human,» he said. «It projects the wrong first impression about a robot to have it pretend to be something that it’s not.»

Particularly in the early days of humanoids, he added, robots won’t have anything like human-like intelligence. People should look at it and see it for what it is — a tool for performing tasks safely and efficiently.

In fact, most of the design decisions were made to keep Atlas as simple, scalable and safe as possible, Jackowski said. I remark that there’s some irony in thinking of a humanoid robot as simple, given the complexity of the technology and development process to bring Atlas to life.

The key to making it simple, Jackowski said, is having a strong enough grasp of the technology to «accomplish the complex thing of building a humanoid robot,» but then being able to take it apart and understand that you can use fewer computers and actuators in it while achieving the same results.

And it’s essential to Boston Dynamics that Atlas is perceived as simple. After all, it’s a general-purpose humanoid, which might eventually be sent far and wide to fulfil all manner of roles. Jackowski calls it the «ultimate generalist.»

Simplicity aside, there are aspects of Atlas that Jackowski believes set it apart from other humanoids at the show. «The repairability of this robot is crazy good,» he said. «The runtime is crazy good. The strength is unlike anything.»

From working in Hyundai’s manufacturing plants, Atlas’s job trajectory is to eventually graduate to many of the same industrial environments where Boston Dynamics’ Spot robot works, before moving to bussing tables in the service industry and eventually into the home. The robot will evolve between now and then, Jackowski said. However, this could be an early glimpse of the type of humanoid that will eventually be our housemate.

That’s some way away, though, which is probably for the best. As I gaze up at Atlas, which I’d guess is around the same height as my husband, my feeling is that, however impressive Atlas is, I’m still not ready for it to move in.

Technologies

This Star Wars Dartboard Has a Secret That Will Stop You From Using the Force to Win

This cool dartboard has cameras to track your score and keep you honest

Right in the middle of the high-tech show floor at CES 2026 sits a pub called the Bull and Barrel with some of the coolest dartboards I’ve seen. Target Darts was showcasing its collaboration with both Star Wars and Xbox. Darts may not be for everyone, but I love «shooting some arrows» in my basement with the family. I also love anything Star Wars themed, so these tick a lot of boxes.

The basic Star Wars set comes with a branded board and wall protector that resembles the cockpit of the Millennium Falcon and costs $200. The board is of very high quality, with a tight-knit sisal fiber face, and the protector is thick enough to keep stray shots out of your drywall. The graphics are cool too, with nods to the original Falcon and even have the gold dice hanging above.

The big tech twist to this board, though, is the Omni light ring around the outside. It uses four cameras to track your dart’s position, then sends that info to an app that keeps score. The scoreboard is crisp and clear and uses the voice of legendary darts announcer John McDonald to narrate your game. It’s pretty great to hear his voice announce my terrible scores.

The Omni also allows you to connect with other players worldwide via shared scoreboards. I love the idea of my dad having a board at his house or playing a match with me at my house. It adds a feeling of community to home darts that you don’t normally get outside a pub or bar.

The Omni is a much more expensive proposition than the Star Wars set, coming in at $650, but if you’re serious about the game and a Star Wars fan, it looks to be a great investment.