The Morning After: Apple Watch X will herald a dramatic redesign
Plus, Assassin’s Creed comes early, and Netflix tests game streaming.
Apple has a thing for 10th anniversaries: The iPhone X made its debut a decade after the first iPhone arrived. The rumor mill says Apple Watch’s 10th edition justifies a similarly dramatic reworking of its original template. Reports suggest 2025’s Apple Watch X will ditch the slide-in lugs in favor of magnetic band attachments. Doing so gives Apple more room to make the case bigger, and with it a bigger display and battery, but make the overall package thinner.
We might also see a bigger, brighter and more efficient microLED screen replacing the existing OLED display. And the X might also add an optical blood pressure sensor to its suite of health-tracking features. (It’s worth saying that optical blood pressure sensing is still a fairly novel technology outside of clinical settings and some niche wearables.)
With so many features coming to Watch X, the Watch 9 – which we’re expecting to see arrive this fall – might be a skip. Rumors suggest we could see a faster processor and different case colors, but otherwise it’s probably worth waiting for whatever’s coming next.
– Dan Cooper
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Netflix tests game streaming on select devices, smart TVs and desktop browsers
Testers can play Oxenfree on their TV.
Netflix is testing if its streaming infrastructure can deliver games to smart TVs as well as other devices. It’s an extension of its nascent games project that, so far, is only on iOS and Android apps. The beta is running in the UK and Canada on select platforms, where users can play Oxenfree and Molehew’s Mining Adventure. Could this be the start of Netflix’s emergence as the cloud gaming provider Stadia could, and should, have been?
Xiaomi's third foldable phone adds a zoom camera but keeps the slim frame
And now it supports hover mode.
Xiaomi has announced the Mix Fold 3, its latest folding flagship that gains wireless charging and a 5x periscope zoom lens over its predecessor. The China-only handset may not be as thin and light as, say, Honor’s Magic V2, but Richard Lai seems pleased with the improvements on show. Especially as Xiaomi has taken a leaf out of Samsung’s book to make hover mode enough of a feature that you should be able to get the best out of the Fold 3’s many cameras.
Assassin’s Creed Mirage will arrive one week early on October 5
Ubisoft says this is a less bloated title than some of its predecessors.
Assassin’s Creed Mirage will now arrive on October 5, a week earlier than its planned release date. It’ll help space out a fall schedule full of blockbuster open world titles, including Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, which arrives October 20. It’s rare for a game to be early, rather than forever delayed, so let’s give Ubisoft some credit for this welcome blast of punctuality.
Ford's advanced BlueCruise driver assist features will only be available as a subscription
Your car just got swallowed by Recurring Revenue.
It may have started out as an optional extra, but now Ford’s BlueCruise hands-free driving will be on all new supported vehicles. Would-be buyers can activate the tools at purchase or as an optional subscription at some point down the road. It’ll cost $75 a month, $800 for a year, or $2,100 if you buy three years’ worth in a single bundle, with Ford saying – rather terrifyingly – drivers will spend a lot more time with their hands off the wheel.
