Google on Thursday introduced an replace to its Gemini 2.5 Professional preview mannequin that the corporate claims is healthier at sure programming duties.
The corporate’s calling it an “up to date preview,” constructing on the improve to Gemini 2.5 Pro that Google introduced round a month in the past. Google says the mannequin will roll out typically availability in a “couple of weeks” and is obtainable beginning in the present day in its AI developer platforms AI Studio and Vertex AI and the Gemini app.
Picture Credit:Google
“[Gemini 2.5 Pro] continues to excel at coding, main on tough coding benchmarks,” Google wrote in a weblog put up. “It additionally reveals top-tier efficiency [on] extremely difficult benchmarks that consider a mannequin’s math, science, information, and reasoning capabilities.”
So what else is new? Google says it addressed suggestions from its earlier 2.5 Professional launch, enhancing the mannequin’s fashion and construction. Now 2.5 Professional might be “extra artistic with better-formatted responses,” Google claims.
Meta is reportedly urgent pause on the Quest 4, now 2027 for its arrival.
As an alternative, the corporate is alleged to be hustling to drop an excellent light-weight headset, codenamed Puffin, by 2026.
Puffin ditches the cumbersome all-in-one model, rocking a tiny exterior puck for processing that matches in your jacket pocket.
Puffin goes all-in available monitoring, so it’s cool for informal use however most likely not hardcore gaming.
Meta is reportedly switching gears with its VR roadmap. As an alternative of launching the Quest 4 anytime quickly, the corporate is alleged to be hustling to get a complete new light-weight headset out by 2026. This one will reportedly have a separate compute pack, ditching the all-in-one model we’re used to.
In response to UploadVR’s sources, Meta has pulled the plug on “Pismo Low” and “Pismo Excessive”—the 2 headsets that had been within the operating for the following Quest. That just about means we’re not seeing a real Quest 4 till at the least 2027.
The outlet stories that Meta is betting massive on an excellent light-weight headset for 2026, powered by Horizon OS. Internally known as “Puffin,” this new system is shaping as much as ditch the majority of previous Quest headsets in favor of one thing means sleeker and simpler to put on.
Compute-on-the-go
(Picture credit score: Nicholas Sutrich / Android Central)
Puffin takes a unique route—it offloads the processing energy to a small exterior puck as a substitute of cramming all the pieces into the headset. It’s stated to be sufficiently small to stash in your jacket pocket. Whereas which may sound a bit like Apple Imaginative and prescient Professional’s exterior battery setup, there’s a key distinction right here that units Meta’s take aside.
The news first dropped final through The Information. As an alternative of the cumbersome look, Puffin is alleged to resemble a chunky pair of glasses and reportedly weighs underneath 100g.
On prime of that, the system is supposedly ditching the same old controllers and going all-in available monitoring. It is a cool concept, however it most likely received’t reduce it for critical gaming. That stated, Puffin displaying up doesn’t rule out a extra basic Quest-style headset might nonetheless be within the pipeline in a while.
Moreover, Puffin is alleged to give attention to digital screens, letting you arrange a complete multi-monitor setup in VR. It’s leaning arduous into an expertise caused by the leading AR glasses, aiming to show your house right into a digital playground for each productiveness and leisure.
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With Quest 4 supposedly pushed to 2027 on the earliest, Meta’s all eyes on Puffin to guide the following wave of VR.
The Samsung Galaxy S25 lineup now contains 4 members, making the selection of which one to purchase even trickier. There’s the base-model Galaxy S25, the midsize Galaxy S25 Plus, the slim Galaxy S25 Edge, and the premium Galaxy S25 Extremely. Spanning varied worth factors, every mannequin is tailor-made to a particular form of consumer on a sure finances.
This time round, there is not a simple Galaxy S25 suggestion that’ll work for everybody. You will have to contemplate your private wants and what issues in your particular person use circumstances. As an example, a digital nomad that likes to journey gentle may love the Galaxy S25 Edge, whereas an influence consumer may crave the battery lifetime of the Galaxy S25 Extremely.
In the event you’re overwhelmed by all of the fashions, configurations, and specs supplied as a part of Samsung’s Galaxy S25 collection, this information will enable you to out. We have examined all of the Galaxy S25 fashions at Android Central, and can assist you determine which one you can purchase.
At a time when flagships are getting bigger and bigger, the base-model Samsung Galaxy S25 looks like a breath of recent air. The usual Galaxy S25 sports activities a 6.2-inch AMOLED show, which is the smallest of the key Android flagships. That is both a professional or a con, relying on whether or not you favor a extra compact kind issue. This mannequin can also be the most cost effective of the bunch, beginning at simply $800 and incessantly accessible for a lot much less with post-launch reductions.
Do not be fooled, nonetheless — the Galaxy S25 isn’t like the rest of Samsung’s flagship lineup. The bottom mannequin has shortcomings in comparison with the pack, like 128GB storage, no help for UWB, and a lower-resolution show with out ProScaler AI. Though different AI options, like Now Temporary, can be found on the bottom Galaxy S25, the above omissions are notable oversights.
The cameras additionally have not been up to date since 2022, and go away so much to be desired.
Now, for the great. Samsung is utilizing the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy chipset throughout the board on the Galaxy S25 series, that means the bottom mannequin has the identical processor as the costliest mannequin. One UI 7, a serious Galaxy overhaul primarily based on Android 15, can also be accessible on the Galaxy S25.
Whereas the Galaxy S25’s show often is the worst of the lot on the spec sheet, it does not underwhelm in particular person. The AMOLED 2X show helps variable refresh charges as much as 120Hz, plus a great deal of different specs like HDR10+ and a pair of,600 nits of peak brightness. The FHD+ show (1080 x 2340) remains to be beautiful to make use of and many shiny.
With a 4,000mAh battery and help for gradual 25W wired charging, the Galaxy S25 is not excellent for battery life. Nonetheless, it is higher than the Galaxy S25 Edge (for no matter that is price) and first rate general. You may get a full day of cost with reasonable utilization, simply.
The Samsung Galaxy S25 is for the smartphone consumer who simply needs the fundamentals in a compact kind issue and at a reasonably inexpensive worth. There’s sufficient energy right here to make this telephone really feel like a bona-fide flagship with out going overboard. In the event you can look previous the cameras and slight {hardware} compromises, the Galaxy S25 is a pleasant pickup.
Samsung Galaxy S25
An ideal start line
The Samsung Galaxy S25 has a transparent dimension benefit — at the least, in the event you love compact telephones. The 6.2-inch display on the Galaxy S25 is the smallest you will discover on this lineup, and you continue to get a flagship Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset.
Samsung Galaxy S25 Plus: Discovering a sensible center floor
(Picture credit score: Derrek Lee / Android Central)
The Samsung Galaxy S25 Plus is the center baby of the lineup, although that is not precisely a foul factor. It is not very unique, with the identical basic design and few {hardware} upgrades in comparison with its predecessor. Like the bottom Galaxy S25, the Galaxy S25 Plus retains the identical digital camera {hardware} because the Galaxy S22 collection. Nonetheless, at $999 and packing a 6.7-inch show, the Galaxy S25 Plus tends to hit the correct worth and dimension for lots of people.
It builds upon the constructing blocks of the Galaxy S25, elevating them to offer a extra complete expertise. The machine encompasses a bigger battery with a 4,900mAh capability, and the bigger dimension permits a 45W wired charging velocity. That addresses a standard gripe with the bottom mannequin, and it is not the one one.
The Galaxy S25 Plus additionally begins at 256GB of storage with UFS 4.0 help, a UWB chip for exact location discovering, and a bigger (and improved) QHD+ show with ProScaler AI. Remember to manually allow QHD+ decision if you buy it, although.
(Picture credit score: Derrek Lee / Android Central)
The ageing triple-camera system leaves us wanting extra, however it’s nonetheless comparatively stable by 2025 requirements. You get a 50MP main shooter, a 12MP ultrawide lens, and a vital 10MP telephoto lens supporting as much as 3x optical zoom.
At 75.8mm x 158.4mm x 7.3mm and weighing 190 grams, the Galaxy S25 Plus is designed for people who require greater than the bottom mannequin in a considerably compact kind issue. The Galaxy S25 Extremely is best, however it’s additionally an costly behemoth. Out of the 4 Galaxy S25 fashions, the Plus is clearly essentially the most sensible choice for many consumers.
Sensible worth, sensible package deal
The Samsung Galaxy S25 Plus delivers a ton of options whereas nonetheless remaining considerably inexpensive. You get a 6.7-inch display, a quick Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset, a much bigger battery, and sooner charging speeds than the bottom mannequin.
Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge: The Plus, with a bunch of subtractions
Opposite to what you will have heard, the positioning of the Galaxy S25 Edge is pretty easy. It is for individuals who need the 6.7-inch display dimension of the Plus mannequin in a thinner and lighter kind issue — and are keen to surrender an entire lot to get it.
Irrespective of the way you slice it, the Galaxy S25 Edge’s dual-camera system, minuscule 3,900mAh battery, and 25W most charging velocity are clear compromises.
Now, there are some redeeming qualities. The Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge nonetheless makes use of the Snapdragon 8 Elite chip and runs One UI 7, so it’s going to get the identical basic expertise as all the opposite fashions. It additionally borrows the Galaxy S25 Extremely’s 200MP essential digital camera sensor, which the Galaxy S25 and Galaxy S25 Plus cannot declare.
Measuring simply 158.2 x 75.6 x 5.8 mm, it is arduous to understate simply how skinny the Galaxy S25 Edge is. The telephone’s thickness is arguably extra spectacular, at solely 163 grams — that is 27 grams lighter than the Galaxy S25 Plus and 55 grams lighter than the Galaxy S25 Extremely.
To like this telephone, you will should be ready to make use of it with out a case and recharge it each day, and sure earlier than the day ends. If these two qualifiers sound okay with you, and you’ve got at all times liked skinny units, the Galaxy S25 Edge may very well be your subsequent smartphone. It begins at $1,099, a bit increased than the Galaxy S25 Plus.
Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge
Slim on kind and performance
The Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge’s kind issue is downright spectacular, however its characteristic set is missing in comparison with its worth level. You lose a ton of battery life, surrender a telephoto lens, and sacrifice charging velocity — simply to get a skinny telephone.
Samsung Galaxy S25 Extremely: High of the road
(Picture credit score: Andrew Myrick / Android Central)
Lastly, we’ve got the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra, which is decisively for individuals who need the most effective and are keen to pay for it. At $1,299, the Galaxy S25 Extremely is not low-cost by any means. Nonetheless, it tries to justify that beginning worth with a great deal of options, together with an enormous 6.9-inch show, an inbuilt S Pen, and a robust camera system.
It is the one Galaxy S25 mannequin to obtain a digital camera improve this , though the first 200MP digital camera sensor is unchanged. As an alternative, the ultrawide digital camera is now utilizing a 50MP sensor, up from 12MP. You additionally get a 10MP, 3x telephoto lens and a 50MP, 5x telephoto lens. In different phrases, the Galaxy S25 Extremely affords the most effective digital camera system accessible on a Samsung telephone.
(Picture credit score: Andrew Myrick / Android Central)
It is for energy customers before everything, with a Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy chipset, 12GB of RAM, and a 5,000mAh battery capability. Plus, it has all of the AI options from the remainder of the Galaxy S25 lineup.
At a dimension of 162.8 x 77.6 x 8.2mm and weighing 218 grams, the Galaxy S25 Extremely is not small. It is a massive telephone with a fair larger characteristic set. In the event you like that form of factor, the Galaxy S25 Extremely will test bins that no different Android telephone can.
Samsung Galaxy S25 Extremely
Samsung’s newest and best
The Samsung Galaxy S25 Extremely is the entire package deal, with pen help, an enormous display, a sturdy rear digital camera system, and way more. Its anti-glare Gorilla Armor cowl glass will make it simpler to see in direct daylight, too.
Odyssey, a startup based by self-driving pioneers Oliver Cameron and Jeff Hawke, has developed an AI mannequin that lets customers “work together” with streaming video.
Out there on the net in an “early demo,” the mannequin generates and streams video frames each 40 milliseconds. Through fundamental controls, viewers can discover areas inside a video, much like a 3D-rendered online game.
“Given the present state of the world, an incoming motion, and a historical past of states and actions, the mannequin makes an attempt to foretell the subsequent state of the world,” explains Odyssey in a blog post. “Powering this can be a new world mannequin, demonstrating capabilities like producing pixels that really feel lifelike, sustaining spatial consistency, studying actions from video, and outputting coherent video streams for five minutes or extra.”
Introducing AI video you possibly can watch and work together with, in real-time!
Powering this can be a new world mannequin that imagines and streams video frames each 40ms(!). No recreation engine in sight.
We name it interactive video, and it is free for anybody to attempt proper now (GPUs allowing)! pic.twitter.com/QtADRXCQ8z
— Odyssey (@odysseyml) May 28, 2025
A lot of startups and Huge Tech corporations are chasing after world models, together with DeepMind, influential AI researcher Fei-Fei Li’s World Labs, Microsoft, and Decart. They imagine that world fashions may at some point be used to create interactive media, similar to video games and films, and run lifelike simulations like coaching environments for robots.
However creatives have blended emotions in regards to the tech. A recent Wired investigation discovered that recreation studios like Activision Blizzard, which has laid off scores of staff, are utilizing AI to chop corners and fight attrition. And a 2024 study commissioned by the Animation Guild, a union representing Hollywood animators and cartoonists, estimated that over 100,000 U.S.-based movie, tv, and animation jobs will likely be disrupted by AI within the coming months.
For its half, Odyssey is pledging to collaborate with inventive professionals — not substitute them.
“Interactive video … opens the door to completely new types of leisure, the place tales may be generated and explored on demand, free from the constraints and prices of conventional manufacturing,” writes the corporate in its weblog submit. “Over time, we imagine all the things that’s video at the moment — leisure, advertisements, schooling, coaching, journey, and extra — will evolve into interactive video, all powered by Odyssey.”
Odyssey’s demo is a bit tough across the edges, which the corporate acknowledges in its submit. The environments the mannequin generates are blurry and distorted, and unstable within the sense that their layouts don’t all the time stay the identical. Stroll ahead in a single path for some time or flip round, and the environment may immediately look totally different.
However the firm’s promising to quickly enhance upon the mannequin, which may at present stream video at as much as 30 frames per second from clusters of Nvidia H100 GPUs at the price of $1 to $2 per “user-hour.”
The world performed ahead, by a mannequin.
On the one hand, it is calm and serene. On the opposite, it is chaotic and terrifying.
I believe the mannequin nailed it in each instances. pic.twitter.com/vuszeL9p0V
— Oliver Cameron (@olivercameron) May 28, 2025
“Wanting forward, we’re researching richer world representations that seize dynamics much more faithfully, whereas growing temporal stability and protracted state,” writes Odyssey in its submit. “In parallel, we’re increasing the motion house from movement to world interplay, studying open actions from large-scale video.”
Odyssey is taking a distinct method than many AI labs on the planet modeling house. It designed a 360-degree, backpack-mounted camera system to seize real-world landscapes, which Odyssey thinks can function a foundation for higher-quality fashions than fashions skilled solely on publicly accessible knowledge.
Thus far, Odyssey has raised $27 million from traders, together with EQT Ventures, GV, and Air Road Capital. Ed Catmull, one of many co-founders of Pixar and former president of Walt Disney Animation Studios, is on the startup’s board of administrators.
Final December, Odyssey said it was engaged on software program that enables creators to load scenes generated by its fashions into instruments similar to Unreal Engine, Blender, and Adobe After Results in order that they are often hand-edited.
Apple researchers launched a brand new synthetic intelligence (AI) mannequin that may generate 3D views from a number of 2D photos. The big language mannequin (LLM), dubbed Matrix3D, was developed by the corporate’s Machine Studying group, in collaboration with Nanjing College and the Hong Kong College of Science and Know-how (HKUST). The Cupertino-based tech large has made the AI mannequin accessible to the open group, and it may be downloaded through Apple’s itemizing on GitHub. With Matrix3D, the researchers have unified the 3D technology pipeline to eradicate the chance of errors.
In a post, the tech large detailed the analysis that went into the event of the Matrix3D AI mannequin. Whereas a number of 3D rendering fashions exist already, this one innovates the prevailing area by unifying the pipeline to create 3D views. As an alternative of getting a number of fashions and elements, right here, a single LLM performs a number of photogrammetry subtasks corresponding to pose estimation, depth prediction, and novel view synthesis.
Notably, Photogrammetry is the strategy of acquiring correct measurements and 3D details about bodily objects and environments by analysing photos. It’s generally used to create maps, 3D fashions, and measurements from 2D photos taken from totally different angles.
The researchers have additionally printed a paper concerning the new mannequin on the web preprint journal arXiv. As per the researches, Matrix3D relies on a multimodal diffusion transformer (DiT) structure. It could actually combine knowledge throughout a number of modalities corresponding to picture knowledge, digicam parameters, and depth maps.
Within the paper, Apple researchers spotlight that the mannequin was educated utilizing a masks studying technique the place part of the picture is obstructed, and the AI mannequin is educated to search out the correct pixels that match within the hole.
The researchers discovered that the LLM can generate a complete 3D object or scene view with simply three photos from totally different angles. Whereas the dataset used to coach the mannequin was not disclosed, the mannequin itself is on the market to obtain, modify, and redistribute through a permissive Apple licence on the corporate’s GitHub listing.
Apple is alleged to have seen a major decline within the demand for its smartwatches in most areas. As per a market analysis agency, 2024 was the second consecutive yr the place Apple Watch shipments declined by a placing margin. One of the vital notable areas the place shipments fell is North America, the Cupertino-based tech large’s house turf. That is attributed to the dearth of recent fashions, in addition to minimal upgrades made to the prevailing lineup within the final yr.
Decline in Apple Watch Shipments
According to Counterpoint Analysis’s World Smartwatch Cargo Tracker for the fourth quarter (This autumn) 2024, Apple Watch shipments declined by 19 % year-on-year (YoY). It marked the second consecutive yr and fifth consecutive quarter of decline for the iPhone maker, while its opponents, particularly Chinese language OEMs, carried out strongly within the international smartwatch market.
Picture Credit score: Counterpoint Analysis
A good portion of the decline is because of the firm shedding floor in North America, which is alleged to contribute to greater than half of its complete shipments in a yr. Apple’s market share lowered by 8 proportion factors YoY in 2024, as per the evaluation agency.
The general decline is attributed to a number of elements, with considered one of them being minimal upgrades made to the Apple Watch Series 10 which debuted final yr. Additional, the corporate didn’t launch the Apple Watch SE (third Technology) and Apple Watch Extremely 3 fashions. As per the report, the previous is an inexpensive possibility which constitutes most of its shipments within the post-launch interval. In the meantime, the latter is Apple’s most premium smartwatch providing which holds over 10 % of its complete smartwatch cargo share.
Apple has additionally been dodging authorized hurdles within the final two years, largely resulting from a patent dispute between Apple and Masimo, a medical expertise firm that claimed that Apple Watch’s blood oxygen sensor expertise infringed a number of of their patents. This pressured the corporate into initially halting its smartwatch gross sales within the US, following which it disabled the heart beat oximetry characteristic for measuring blood oxygen (SpO2).
Notably, these elements contributed to the Cupertino-based tech large witnessing a YoY cargo decline for the primary time in 1 / 4 when it additionally launched a brand new smartwatch sequence.