This week, Microsoft hinted at an exciting Xbox hardware announcement for the end of the year, Sony was forced to adjust its PS5 sales projections, and Google unveiled a potent new AI model.
Nevertheless, this week's winners and losers were Samsung and Amazon. To find out why, continue reading.
After the Galaxy Watch gained a potentially life-saving new health feature in the US, Samsung is winner.
This week, the FDA granted De Novo authorization for the sleep apnea feature on the Samsung Health Monitor app. As a result, the feature will be accessible on Galaxy Watch devices in the US starting in Q3 2024.
The feature is intended to identify sleep apnea symptoms in people who are not yet aware they have the illness, with the assistance of a compatible Galaxy Watch and phone. Over the course of two nights of monitoring, it looks for indications of moderate to obstructive sleep apnea in users over the age of 22.
In the US, obstructive sleep apnea affects 10% of women and 25% of men, according to the National Sleep Foundation. This illness can raise your of cardiovascular diseases like hypertension, heart failure, cardiac arrhythmia, and stroke if you don't get treated for it.
The sleep apnea feature's objective is to notify users if they think they may have the illness so they can get help and lower their of developing any of these problems.
The approval of the sleep apnea feature is not unique to the United States. In October of last year, Samsung's home nation of South Korea approved the feature. To see the feature on Galaxy Watches on the other side of the pond, users in the UK and Europe must still wait for approval.
This week's loser is Amazon, as the company discretely lowered the caliber of TV episodes and films available on its recently launched, ad-supported Amazon Prime Video tier.
German website 4KFilme reports that while HDR10 and Dolby Digital 5.1 are now available on smart TVs streaming Amazon Prime Video's ad-supported tier, Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos are still supported on the ad-free tier.
The Verge was informed by an Amazon representative, Katie Barker, that "Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos capabilities are only available on the ad-free option, on relevant titles."
The ad-supported tier was introduced by Amazon only recently, so users of the previous lowest plan were already required to pay an extra $2.99/£2.99 per month to avoid advertisements. This is because the company had previously raised the price of its ad-free tier. Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos will now also need to be maintained at this additional expense.
The first change was disclosed to users in advance, but the latter was unanticipated and disappointing. The removal of Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos appears to be merely one more inducement for customers to move to a new tier or remain in one that hasn't really benefited from the price increase.
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