Circle to Search is Google Lens but with extra steps
Last night’s Samsung Unpacked event in San Jose, California wasn’t only to shill the S24 family or the accompanying Galaxy AI. Not all of it, anyway. It actually brought with it a couple of features that we could definitely see ourselves trying at least a couple of times — the coolest of which is probably Google’s Circle to Search.
It’s about as self-explanatory as it gets. Anybody donning one of the three newly announced S24s will be able to simply perform the necessary gesture (long-pressing the home button or navigation bar) and circle, scribble, highlight, or tap on anything they’re keen to learn more about and have Google shove the answer down their throats — all without ever leaving the app they started in.
Google’s example involves circling a pair of sunglasses in an image and being treated to similar shopping results, or, taking it a step further, employing what it calls multisearch (a Lens feature) to dig even deeper into a specific subject. Just circle a corndog and ask Google “Why are these so popular?” And it’ll answer. Again, without making the, uh, arduous trek to Google’s app.
Welcome to Neighborville
Microtransactions are back, baby Plants Vs. Zombies is back, baby. PopCap Studios and, unfortunately, EA, are still at the helm of the insanely popular mobile franchise that consumed our essence more than we’d care to admit. Oh, that’s right, meet Plants Vs. Zombies 3: Welcome to Zomburbia — coming to a mobile device near you… sometime this year — unless you live in the UK, Netherlands, Australia or Philippines. More on that later.
Don’t take that tongue-in-cheek intro as confirmation that microtransactions won’t be making a return here. This is an EA game after all. Fortunately, it’s also a PopCap game, meaning it’s also returning to what made the series so great; tower-defence strategical gameplay. And Crazy Dave, we can’t forget about Crazy Dave.
It’s also been given a new look which… we’ll probably get used to… eventually. We won’t pretend that when nostalgia hits, it hits hard. Fortunately, the game’s trailer did enough to satiate our thirst, confirming that characters and plants from older games will be reappearing alongside a slate of new ones to keep things interesting.
EA hasn’t landed on a firm release date as of writing, but development is far enough along that users in the UK, Netherlands, Australia and Philippines already have access to the game as part of EA’s soft-launch strategy to play-test the game before it officially goes live. When that day comes, it’ll be released on Android and iOS for free, with the usual “in-app purchases”.
Put a ring on it
After slogging through that bit of Samsung’s Unpacked event where recycling and the Watch 6 were the centres of attention, we waited with bated breath for some sort of “One more thing…” Steve Jobs moment and… it delivered. Well, sort of. Just minutes before the curtains closed on the event, Samsung pulled the heavily rumoured Samsung Ring out of its back pocket (metaphorically speaking, of course). Actually, that’s all it did.
Seriously, not even a single spec? No overly dramatic colour names? Nothing. Well, apart from the image and the news it’d be taking health tracking pretty seriously. That’s all we have to go on until Samsung launches the bloody thing, which should be happening later this year. Possibly alongside the next iteration of the Flip and Fold phones, meaning sometime around July or August.
It’s enough to know that the Ring is real, or it will be eventually. And it’s not like we’re fresh out of specs entirely. It’s been a known secret since at least July of last year, with several patent leaks confirming the inclusion of ECG and PPG sensors which means heart rate and temperature sensors at the very least. Other leaks have even pointed to the addition of smart-home powers, but we’re still figuring out how that might all work.
Hollow Knight: Silksong when?
We aren’t kidding when we say that the r/Silksong subreddit is becoming more mentally deranged by the day, having waited, a good five years for the release of Hollow Knight: Silksong to release. We haven’t quite reached the level of lunacy found there, but we’re getting close. Here’s hoping that Xbox’s Developer Direct, kicking off later today, will bring some sort of news into the mix.
There’s no need to tell us that it’s a pipedream. Xbox has confirmed as much in its announcement, saying that it’d only be visiting games like Indiana Jones (there’s an Indiana Jones game?), Avowed, Ara: History Untold, and Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II. But we’d be lying if we didn’t pretend to at least be excited for some sort of surprise reveal of Silksong — especially after Xbox’s maddeningly coy teasers it’s shared in the past couple of days.
If you’re like us or just simply want to see some Indy action, you’ve got a couple of options of where to watch the thing. The simplest would be to visit Xbox’s official YouTube or Twitch accounts or, if you’re feeling brave, the company’s Facebook page. The stream we’ve embedded above should work, too. As for when you’ll need to have the popcorn ready, the stream will be starting at 15h00 ET, or 22h00 for South Africans.