The Royal Rumble isn't WWE's biggest show of the year, but it may be the most fun. On Sunday's show there'll be two Rumble matches, one for the men and one for the women, with title shots at WrestleMania on the line. Unlike some past years, there are no obvious winners -- which makes for a more exciting Rumble.

Who can toss Brock Lesnar over the top ropes? That's the story of this year's Royal Rumble. Lesnar, the current WWE Champion, will be entering the men's Royal Rumble at No. 1. (The Royal Rumble is a 30-person battle royale, where two wrestlers start and a new one is added every 90 seconds. You're eliminated by being thrown over the top rope.) That's strange, because Lesnar is a world champion and the whole point of entering the Rumble is to earn a shot at a world championship. Perhaps he wants to win in order to get WrestleMania off? Or maybe he wants to challenge for SmackDown's Universal Championship and become a dual champion? 

More likely, he's being set up to kill a bunch of people and be eliminated in spectacular fashion by someone. Who that person will be is a mystery. 

Elsewhere, Becky Lynch defends her Raw Women's Championship against Asuka. Asuka tapped Lynch out at this very event last year, and Lynch wants her win back. It's one to look forward to. The Universal Championship is also on the line, with Daniel Bryan shooting for the gold in a strap match against Bray Wyatt. Strap match plus Bray Wyatt isn't the most promising calculus, but if anyone can make this good it's Bryan.

Start times

Royal Rumble 2020 takes place in Houston, Texas, on Sunday, Jan. 26. The main card starts at 4 p.m. PT/7 p.m. ET. If you're a WWE Network subscriber -- at $9.99 per month, but free for one month for new subscribers -- you can watch it live for free. Otherwise you'll need to contact your local cable provider and pay a separate fee to watch. The two-hour Kickoff Show starts at 2 p.m. PT/5 p.m. ET on WWE's YouTube channel and the WWE Network.

Viewers in the UK will have to stay up late, as the show starts there at midnight Monday GMT (10 p.m. Sunday kickoff). For Australians, Survivor Series starts at 11 a.m. AEDT time (9 a.m. kickoff) on Monday.

Match card

• Men's Royal Rumble.
• Women's Royal Rumble.
• Raw Women's Championship match: Becky Lynch (c) vs. Asuka.
• Universal Championship strap match: "The Fiend" Bray Wyatt (c) vs. Daniel Bryan.
• Falls Count Everywhere match: Roman Reigns vs. Baron Corbin.
• SmackDown Women's Championship match: Bayley (c) vs. Lacey Evans.
• United States Championship match: Andrade (c) vs. Humberto Carrillo.
• Kickoff Show match: Sheamus vs. Shorty G.

Predictions

Roman Reigns will win the Rumble: Reigns is a safe bet to win almost any high-profile match he's in (curious loss to Erick Rowan notwithstanding), but that's not why I'm predicting this. The spotlight is on Brock Lesnar, but he's unlikely to win. I foresee him eliminating probably a dozen or so wrestlers, and mauling a dozen more, before being eliminated. It'll be a huge boost for whoever that person is -- and that person will end up challenging for Lesnar's WWE Championship at WrestleMania. That takes care of the Raw world championship for 'Mania. That leaves SmackDown's Universal Championship, which Reigns, after winning the Rumble, will challenge for.

Bray Wyatt retains the Universal Championship: Which brings us to The Fiend. Wyatt has been built up as an unbeatable monster. As much as I would like to see Daniel Bryan topple him at the Rumble, WrestleMania is where the unbeatable are beaten. 

A surprise entrant will win the Women's Royal Rumble: Lynch is the centerpiece of the women's division, so she needs a big WrestleMania match. She'll almost certainly beat Asuka to retain her gold, so Asuka's out as an opponent. Charlotte Flair is always a possibility, but Flair and Lynch have wrestled a million times already -- so that rematch is best left for next year's show. WWE needs to make an opponent for The Man, and the best way to do that is for her to win the Rumble. My head says Shayna Baszler, since Baszler beat Lynch and Bayley in a triple-threat match at Survivor Series, but my heart says Ronda Rousey. 

How to watch: WWE Network app

You can start (or restart) a subscription to the WWE Network here:

The monthly price is $9.99 (US) or £9.99 (UK). New subscribers get a free month, and you can cancel anytime.

The WWE Network app is available on Roku, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Amazon Fire TV, Amazon Kindle Fire, Apple TV, iOS and Android.

The event should also be available as a one-off pay-per-view purchase on many cable and satellite TV systems.

Almost everyone seems to have a YouTube channel these days. Experts all over the world are teaching people how to do home repairs, cook and even properly apply makeup from the comfort of their homes. But the footage still has to be engaging and watchable. While we can't help you attract and retain viewers or develop your online persona, we can make sure you look and sound your best online -- and for very little money upfront. 

A good starting point is to decide what kind of video recording you want to do. You don't need to spend thousands or even hundreds of dollars on a high-end DSLR camera if you can easily get the video quality you want with your phone or a webcam with a microphone. Also, a good vlogging camera doesn't have to cost a fortune or shoot 4K video. Most of the affordable vlogging cameras have features such as optical image stabilization, slow motion, autofocus, LCD touchscreens, low-light sensitivity, external mic input and more.

In this roundup, I'm helping you find the best vlogging camera. I've kept cost in mind, so you don't need to worry about blowing the bank with a camera that shoots 4K video. Simply put, whether you want to do simple livestreams from your laptop or more polished productions, you're sure to find a vlogging camera for your needs and budget here. 

Note that if livestreaming is a priority (which may or may not be for someone interested in YouTube vlogging), you might need additional hardware beyond a camera. I'll include suggestions for that, as well as other accessories to consider, following the cameras' details.

With a small handful of exceptions, every vlog camera listed here has been fully reviewed or anecdotally tested by me or other CNET editors. Those exceptions in the accessories sections are based on positive Amazon user reviews and additional word-of-mouth accolades. I'll update this best vlogging cameras list periodically. Happy video recording and streaming!

---

Must-have accessories

Getting great video for YouTube requires a little more than the best vlogging camera and Wi-Fi connection. You'll want good lighting and audio, too. And if you're planning to stream, you might need a capture card or encoder to get video from your camera and up on YouTube or other video-sharing sites. 

More camera recommendations

With gas prices at an all-time high, Uber is introducing a temporary fuel surcharge to help its drivers and couriers pay their bills. 

"While earnings on our platform remain elevated compared to historical trends, the recent spike in gas prices has affected ride share and delivery driver," Uber said in a blog post Friday. "To help reduce the burden, we are rolling out a temporary fuel surcharge."

The surcharge will kick in March 16, costing customers 45 to 55 cents additional per trip and 35 to 45 cents extra for Uber Eats orders. That money will go directly to the drivers, and Uber says it will reassess the fee in 60 days.

The fees exclude trips starting in New York City and orders being delivered to customers in New York City.

Uber is also "seizing this moment to bolster our efforts to help more drivers make the switch to electric vehicles." The company's Green Future Program provides EV drivers with an extra $1 per trip (capped at $4,000 per year) as incentive.

Fuel prices have been skyrocketing as the US bans Russian oil imports in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, with demand outstripping supply. On Friday, the US average price hit $4.33 per gallon, a 50-cent increase from a week ago, according to AAA. The state with the highest cost is California, which averaged $5.70 as of Friday.

What's the most expensive NFT ever sold? Beeple's Everydays -- a collage of digital art that sold at Christie's auction for $69 million. But then there's the case of an NFT that sold for $532 million in October. 

As is often the case with NFTs and cryptocurrency though, it's complicated. 

The NFT in question is a CryptoPunk, part a set of 10,000 NFTs that are some of the first to ever be created. Being the OG NFT collection, these are costly. They usually sell for between $350,000 and $500,000, though some fetch millions.

Whoever is behind this particular transaction, however, they bought the Cryptopunk from themselves. Like cryptocurrency, NFTs are held in digital wallets. There's no limit to how many wallets one person can create. This person transferred the NFT from Wallet A to Wallet B. Then, Wallet C bought the NFT for $532 million from Wallet B -- and immediately transferred it back to Wallet A.  

Why use three wallets instead of just simply selling it from one wallet to another? It's because the buyer didn't pay for the transaction himself but instead was loaned the money from others via a "flash loan." Flash loans are a complicated decentralized finance tool, but the gist of it is they allow you to loan huge sums of cryptocurrency only if the criteria of a smart contract are met. Imagine buying a $1 million house using a loan, but only if you already had another buyer lined up, who was willing to pay enough for you to make a profit and pay back interest from the lenders. This person did that, except he was both the buyer and the seller.  

NFTs, am I right?  

Twitter and Discord, the platforms where most NFT discourse happens, quickly discovered the sale and speculated on the motives behind it. The smoke consensus is that it was a publicity stunt, with the owner probably trying to drive up the price of his CryptoPunk. 

There are broadly two types of art NFTs. One type is a one-of-its-kind, where an artist creates a piece of digital art and then sells it, just like what happens in real-world art sales. Then there are NFT collections, like Cryptopunks. These are when artists and developers create many -- usually 10,000 -- NFTs that have the same template with different characteristics. The Bored Ape Yacht Club, for instance, features 10,000 apes all wearing different articles of clothing, with different backgrounds and facial expressions. The rarer the properties, the more valuable the NFT -- think Pokemon cards. In the case of Bored Apes, the "floor" price is $190,000 but rare ones sometimes sell for millions. (An auction of 101 recently went for $24 million.) 

CryptoPunks is considered the original NFT collection, starting in 2017 when much of the world was just beginning its infatuation with Bitcoin. The highest legitimate sale for a CryptoPunk is $11.7 million.

GoPro is adding new ways to make extreme video even more out there -- with virtual reality.

The company said Tuesday it had acquired French software maker Kolor. Kolor's technology stitches together photos and videos into interactive media. Terms of the deal, announced as part of GoPro's first quarter earnings results, were not disclosed.

"We are excited to welcome Kolor to GoPro," GoPro CEO Nicholas Woodman said in a statement. "GoPro's capture devices and Kolor's software will combine to deliver exciting and highly accessible solutions for capturing, creating and sharing spherical content."

Imagine a moving version of Google Street View from the perspective of a hang glider or rock climber, which you can control by simply looking around. Combine that with a virtual reality headset, like the Facebook-owned Oculus Rift, and you'll have what GoPro hopes is a more realistic view of any location.

GoPro is searching for a way to expand its business beyond simply selling cameras for skiers, race drivers and other sports-adventure enthusiasts. The company is reportedly planning to enter the drone market; GoPro-equipped drones are frequently used to record landscapes for real estate companies and film movie sequences. Now, the company is investing in spherical video to convey the sensation of being part of not just extreme feats, but NFL games, live concerts and other events.

To take it up a notch, virtual reality can enhance those sensations.

"Kolor's mission is to enable the ultimate visual experience -- to transport an audience to another time and space," Kolor CEO Alexandre Jenny said in a statement. "When the best spherical media software is combined with the world's most versatile capture devices, our imagination become our only limitation. We're excited to see what the world captures and shares with GoPro and Kolor."

GoPro and Kolor will be competing against much bigger rivals. For the past two years, Google has offered free online software to create interactive photo-spheres that can be embedded in Google Maps, and the company has its own virtual reality platform, Google Cardboard, to help developers create more VR experiences. Facebook in March said it would support spherical videos on its News Feed and plans to incorporate them into Oculus.

The dawn of the Windows 11 era brings many questions. For now, the most pressing one may be: Will installing the Windows 11 beta screw up my system? 

Having installed the current Insider Preview on several laptops, the answer so far has been no. But what about performance? Will my laptop be faster with Windows 11, because it's better optimized? Or slower, because we're installing a new OS on older hardware? 

An official answer will have to wait for at least the final release candidate of Windows 11. What most people have instead right now is an Insider Preview from Microsoft's Windows Insider dev channel, which is far from complete, and full of bugs (like the ones listed here). 

If you want to try it yourself, instructions for how to download the current Windows 11 beta are here. As in the video above, I always encourage you to think twice about installing any OS beta on a mission critical laptop (i.e., your only laptop). But do what you want, I'm not the laptop police. 

I installed the current Windows 11 Insider Preview on a newer budget laptop, the Surface Laptop Go from Microsoft; and on an older high-end gaming laptop, the Alienware Area-51m. Benchmark test scores were compared for them under Windows 10 and 11. Keeping in mind regular Windows 10 vs. an early, buggy Windows 11 build isn't exactly a 1:1 comparison, those results are below. This is a quick snapshot of some of my very first head-to-head results and not definitive. 

Windows 10 vs Windows 11 Dev Beta

Alienware Area-51m [3.6GHz Intel Core i9-9900K; 32GB DDR4 SDRAM; 8GB Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080; (2) 512GB SSD RAID 0 + 1TB HDD]	GeekBench 4	Cinebench R15	3D Mark Port Royale
Windows 10	30271	1994	5769
Windows 11 (Dev Beta 22000.51)	29444	1810	6108
[For all tests: Higher scores are better]
Microsoft Surface Laptop Go  [1.0GHz Intel Core i5-1035G1; 8GB LPDDR4; Intel UHD Graphics; 256GB SSD]	GeekBench 5 (multicore)	Cinebench R20
Windows 10	2983	1034
Windows 11 (Dev Beta 22000.51)	3399	1096

Overall, I can safely say that in both cases, using Windows 11 on these laptops felt pretty much the same as using Windows 10. For the Surface Laptop Go, which cost around $700, I used the latest versions of some of our benchmark tests in both Windows 10 and 11. For the Alienware Area-51m, I used the test versions from when I originally reviewed that system in 2019. The most noticeable takeaway was that Windows 11, in its beta state, performed a a bit better in newer versions of benchmarks (and a little worse in the older versions). 

I did run into a couple of Windows 11 bugs, including the one where the Start Menu search tool won't accept keyboard input. (Try hitting Wn+R to open a Run box, then closing it, might help.)

We'll continue to follow the development of Windows 11 and MacOS Monterey, both of which should be ready for full public consumption by the end of 2021. 

About 13,000 pounds of Home Run Inn frozen meat pizzas are being recalled due to potential metal contamination. The product's meat topping "may be contaminated with extraneous materials, specifically metal," according to a Sunday announcement from the US Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service.

The recall applies to 33.5-ounce boxes of Home Run Inn Chicago's Premium Pizzeria Deluxe Sausage Classic Pizza with a best by date of Dec. 3, 2022. That's the equivalent of about 6,256 pizzas.

The issue was discovered when customers sent complaints stating that metal was found in the pizza. No confirmed reports of injuries or adverse reactions due to eating the product have been made, the USDA said.

If you recognize this product in your freezer, check to see if the label, expiration date and other specific information matches that of the recalled product.

Home Run Inn's pizzas aren't the only products that have been recently recalled. Many drinks made by Lyons Magnus, including products from Oatly, Premier Protein and Stumptown, have also been pulled due to possible contamination. 

The information contained in this article is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as health or medical advice. Always consult a physician or other qualified health provider regarding any questions you may have about a medical condition or health objectives.

This story is part of Health by the Numbers, CNET's deep dive into how we quantify health.

The scale was viewed as the holy grail for determining how healthy you are for the longest time. With extensive research and understanding, we know that the scale doesn't take into consideration the many factors that can influence our weight. That means that weight isn't always the best indicator of health. 

What makes things more complex is when you meet someone who's the same weight, height and gender, but looks completely different than you. Weight is much more than what the scale tells you, and there are better ways to interpret your health instead of relying on a specific number. I spoke with registered dietitian and diabetes educator, Amelia Ti, to help break down the unique factors that influence weight, as well as a healthier approach we can take to understanding it. 

What determines your weight?

First, it's important to understand the many factors that influence weight. These factors include genetics, hormone levels, stress and sleep levels, moods, trauma, any medications you're taking and health conditions. 

"Our weight is more than just calories consumed versus calories burned," said Ti. She said the number on the scale is not a reliable indicator of health, since our weight is influenced by various details. In fact, many of the factors that determine our weight, such as the environment, genetics, age and gender, are beyond our control -- they were either set before we were born or are inescapable. 

The same can be said when people are dieting and aim to set a goal weight determined by the scale. "Weight is not a behavior, therefore the number on the scale cannot directly be controlled," she said. Setting a specific goal weight is not realistic or sustainable, because it implies that we can control our weight through willpower. In that same vein, Ti pointed out that dieting to lose weight or change one's body shape, size or composition, is not effective in the long-term and usually results in weight regain and cycling. There are exceptions, but we know that many diets fail.

Then there's the set point theory, which implies that we all have a natural weight that our bodies prefer to maintain. The idea is that our bodies periodically adjust our food intake (such as eating more or less) and energy expenditure to keep it balanced. Although the concept is still up for debate, studies have shown that there may be some truth to a biological control of body weight at a set point. However, weight is more complex than that, so it isn't fully proven.  

Same weight, different body composition

What about circumstances where you find yourself weighing the same as a year ago, but you notice your clothes fit a little tighter (or looser)? "Your clothes may fit differently even when your weight has stayed the same due to changes in lean body mass," said Ti. How your clothes fit can also vary on a day-to-day basis due to weight fluctuations caused by bloating or fluid retention.

Similarly, you might compare yourself to others who are the same height and weight -- yet look different from you. For example, on TikTok, women are sharing photos of themselves and labeling their exact weight to celebrate body diversity. While this may seem harmless, this trend could easily be triggering for someone with a history of disordered eating or body image issues. 

"The intentions of this TikTok trend are good, but it still places an emphasis on appearance, such as body size and shape, which may cause people to have unrealistic expectations, become overly critical, and heighten body shame and dissatisfaction," said Ti, adding, "It's important to understand that you can weigh the same as someone else, but look different because each individual has their own genetic blueprint." 

Genetics determine where exactly our bodies carry our weight. Plus, body composition also plays a major role. Body composition refers to the ratio of body fat to muscle, bones, ligaments, organs and other tissue. Again, this varies by individual and can change over time, based on many different factors.

Another aspect Ti said we should be mindful of is that we can't make assumptions about someone's physical or mental health, diet, activity or relationship with food simply by observing their appearance.

BMI and weight

Usually when the topic of weight comes up, body mass index is also discussed.

BMI is a screening tool that measures your weight and height to estimate your body fat and then categorizes you as either underweight, a healthy weight or overweight. But for individuals, BMI is not a great indicator of health. "BMI was created by a statistician based on a population of white, European males -- not a representative sample of diverse populations -- and was meant to be used as a screening tool, not a diagnostic tool," Ti said. 

Furthermore, BMI was never intended to be used to evaluate the health of an individual and does not account for gender, age, body frame or body composition. "Continued use of BMI further contributes to weight stigma in health care," warned Ti, adding that even though the health care system probably won't move away from the concept, we can avoid relying on BMI as the sole indicator of our health because it doesn't tell the whole story. 

When weight matters

It would be remiss to say that weight never matters. There are certain circumstances when it's important to monitor your weight. For example, observing your weight during pregnancy is necessary to make sure you gain the right amount of weight for a healthy gestation.

Weight can also matter if you have a known heart condition. Ti said those with congestive heart failure have to monitor their weight closely because fluid build up in the body causes weight fluctuations and changes that occur as a result of the disease itself.

Additionally, you should be aware of your weight if you have a health condition, such as diabetes, that requires a specific medication dosage. Your doctor will determine your dosage based on your weight to make sure you're being prescribed the right amount.

If you have a clean bill of health, Ti suggested you place less emphasis on having a specific weight. "Ultimately, the focus should be improving your health through changes in your behaviors, habits, thoughts, and how you feel throughout the day," she said. Improvements in mood, sleep, energy and strength will make a bigger difference than what the scale tells you in the morning. 

The information contained in this article is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as health or medical advice. Always consult a physician or other qualified health provider regarding any questions you may have about a medical condition or health objectives.

This story is part of CES, where CNET covers the latest news on the most incredible tech coming soon.

Asus usually brings a router or two to CES, and that was true for this year's all-virtual event, where the company showed off a new Wi-Fi 6 router that lets you create a VPN connection back to your home network when you're using public Wi-Fi.

The router is the Asus RT-AX68U, an AX2700 device with full support for 802.11ax, or Wi-Fi 6. That means it supports the newest and most advanced generation of Wi-Fi, with features including OFDMA and 1024 QAM that let it communicate more efficiently with lots of devices at once and send more data with each transmission. Just don't expect support for Wi-Fi 6E, which adds in access to the newly opened 6GHz band -- for that, you'll need to go with something fancier.

Asus tells me that the AX68U will launch in the coming weeks at a retail price of $200. That's at the high end of reasonable -- other, similar Asus routers with dual-band Wi-Fi 6 designs typically cost about $180; meanwhile, the previous-gen, Wi-Fi 5 version of this router currently sells for about $125.

The new feature that aims to make public Wi-Fi safer to use is a companion app called Instant Guard. Like all VPNs, it encrypts the data travelling to and from your phone and routes it all through a secure server. The interesting wrinkle is that, in this case, the secure server is your home network. As your data passes through, the router's own AIProtection Pro feature will scan for threats.

It's a similar pitch to Ubiquiti's Teleport app for routers like the AmpliFi Alien, which can VPN your public Wi-Fi connection back to your home router, too. I thought it was a clever feature when I tested it out last year, but noted that Ubiquiti collected certain bits of usage data to make the feature work. That makes it a less ideal privacy option than a dedicated VPN like Nord or Express that doesn't collect usage data at all. At any rate, I'll be sure to take a good look at Instant Guard's fine print once I've had the chance to test it out, too.

As for speeds and specs, Asus claims the AX68U can hit theoretical maximums of 861Mbps on the 2.4GHz band and 1,802 Mbps (1.8 Gbps) on the 5GHz band. It features three external antennas, four spare Ethernet LAN ports, and two USB ports for connecting printers and other peripherals, one USB 2.0 and the other USB 3.0. If you're bored with black, the Asus landing page for the router teases an albino, white-bodied version, too.

However, the AX68U doesn't include a multigig WAN port that's capable of accepting incoming, wired speeds any faster than 1Gbps. And, again, it doesn't support Wi-Fi 6E, a new designation for Wi-Fi 6 devices equipped to operate in the newly opened 6GHz band. So far, the only Asus router that does is the ROG Rapture GT-AXE11000, an extravagant gaming router the company teased last year. An Asus spokesperson tells me to expect that one to launch later in the first quarter of 2021, perhaps by February.

Asus sent an RT-AX68U my way during CES in January -- as soon as the show was wrapped up, I plugged the thing in and started testing it out.

The first thing that caught my eye was the chrome trim that runs along the top of the router. It's plastic, but it's still an interesting and eye-catching cosmetic touch, and one that almost makes the RT-AX68U look more like a midcentury radio than a router. I wonder if Asus could have pushed the idea further and done more to buck the trend of routers with faux-futuristic designs (but then again, this is Asus we're talking about here).

I was most interested to see how the thing performed, though -- and after my initial run of speed tests here at home, I'm pretty impressed. The dual-band router lets you split the 2.4 and 5GHz bands into two separate networks, but if you like, you can also turn on a feature called SmartConnect that merges them into a single, unified network that automatically steers you from band to band. So, I ran speed tests for all three -- the 2.4 GHz band, the 5GHz band, and the SmartConnect network -- across multiple spots in my 1,300 square foot home, where I have incoming internet speeds of 300Mbps.

That SmartConnect feature didn't perform well with previous Asus routers I've tested, like the otherwise great RT-AX86U gaming router, but it did a fine job here. In the four rooms closest to the router, it matched the near-perfect performance of the 5GHz band, then kicked me over to the 2.4GHz band when the 5GHz speeds dropped in my back bathroom, the room farthest from the router.

Most importantly, when I reran the test starting with a fresh connection at range in that back bathroom, it started me out on 2.4GHz and then quickly bumped me back up to 5GHz speeds as soon as I left the room and moved a little closer to the router. That's where that gaming router got tripped up last year -- it would leave me on the slower 2.4GHz band even after I had left the back bathroom and moved almost all the way back to the living room, where the router sits. No such problem with the AX68U. With SmartConnect turned on, it finished with average download speeds throughout my home of 258Mbps, which is strong for a home with internet speeds of 300Mbps. 

That was with me running speed tests on a laptop that uses Wi-Fi 5 -- when I reran the tests using an iPhone 12 Pro, which supports Wi-Fi 6, my average whole-home download speed increased to 337Mbps, with speeds mostly staying at 5GHz levels at distance and peaking as high as 375Mbps at close range. That's a noticeable improvement, and good evidence that Wi-Fi 6 is ready to hit its stride in 2021.

Performance wasn't perfect, though. On more than one occasion, the AX68U dropped my connection on the 2.4GHz band while I was at range, and in each case, I wasn't able to fully reconnect until I moved back within a room or two of the router. That's a minor red flag, though I didn't notice any such issues on the 5GHz band, or with SmartConnect turned on.

I'll keep an eye out for more issues like that as I keep testing this thing out. Up next are speed tests in our lab, where we'll clock its top data transfer rates when there isn't an ISP setting the speed limit. I'll also be sure to test out the Instant Guard app's home VPN feature, too. Expect an update to this post as soon as I have more to share.

It might look like something out of a Mad Max or Bond flick, but it's a real-world tool designed to help police deflate the dangers of high-speed car chases.

It's called the MobileSpike, and it attaches to the front of a squad car. When officers race up alongside a suspect's vehicle, the gadget uses compressed air to shoot a strip of spikes sideways under the suspect's tire. Bam. End of chase.

After finishing the design, MobileSpike CEO Michael Moormeier said, he could see the device attached to the Batmobile -- if Hollywood or Bruce Wayne ever came calling.

"It is James Bond cool," he said, "there's no doubt about it."

The gadget is one of several meant to put the brakes on high-speed chases, which, according to one estimate, have accounted for the deaths of more than 5,000 bystanders since 1979. Although police departments have been adopting policies against chasing suspects, there were more pursuit-related deaths in 2013 (322) than in 1990 (317).

"It's completely unacceptable now," Moormeier said. "Someone dies every single day in America because of a pursuit."

The chase-busting tech also includes the Grappler, which seems to have taken inspiration from the wild west. The add-on attaches to the front bumper of a police car and lets officers lay a lasso beneath a suspect's back tire. From there, the police car can brake and drag the suspect to a stop.

The StarChase, meanwhile, tries to avoid dangerous pursuits altogether. It shoots out a tracker that latches onto a suspect's car, allowing the police to follow at a distance.

"We pride ourselves on removing adrenaline from these types of situations," said StarChase President Trevor Fischbach. Officers are "learning in the 21st century, you can't use brute force tactics all the time to get to the end game."

Moormeier wanted to create something officers were already used to but with a safe way of getting it in front of cars.

"Spike strips" had been the go-to tool for many major police departments since the 1970s. But officers have to manually lay such a strip across the road, which means they can be hit by the very car they're trying to stop. In 2012, Dallas police outlawed the strips after five officers were killed.

An alternative lets police place a box by the road and extend a spike strip out of it by remote control. But the officers still have to set up the box.

With its shoot-from-the-side design, the MobileSpike adapts an existing chase maneuver in which police bring their front bumper parallel to the suspect's back bumper; then knock the suspect's car sideways, causing it to fishtail till it stops.

"It's no different than ... passing a car on the highway," Rick Eldridge, a police official in Sanford, Florida, said of using the MobileSpike. "It's very safe."

Eldridge's department was one of the early adopters of the device, helping Moormeier test it in 2009 before it was revealed to the public. Eldridge has arrested about 10 people in chases since the department started using MobileSpike. At first, though, he couldn't believe it was real. He hadn't heard of any upgrades to spike strips in decades.

Moormeier also wanted to keep the MobileSpike as simple as possible. The last thing officers need during a police chase is a gadget with too many settings.

The device activates just as you'd turn on your windshield wipers, or as Speed Racer would turn on his tree-cutters: with a switch and a big red button that launches the line of spikes in about six seconds.

So far, the gadget has been tested in all terrains and temperatures, from Alaska to Arizona.

"I've used it quite a few times," Eldridge said," and we'd arrest suspects and they'd say, 'what happened to my tire?'"

This story is part of CES, where CNET covers the latest news on the most incredible tech coming soon.

Samsung's new Galaxy S21 lineup is here. And the new Galaxy S21, S21 Plus and S21 Ultra have plenty to attract would-be buyers, including new designs and $200 shaved off the starting price of their predecessors.

The South Korean electronics giant on Thursday, during its first virtual Unpacked event of the year, showed off its three new phones: the $800 Galaxy S21, the $1,000 Galaxy S21 Plus and the $1,200 Galaxy S21 Ultra. (In the UK, the S21 will start at £769, just £30 cheaper than the S20.) It also unveiled new $200 earbuds, called the Galaxy Buds Pro; $30 Tile-like Galaxy SmartTags that can track nonelectronic items like pets; and a $40 S Pen accessory. The event took place on the last day of this year's CES and more than a month earlier than normal. 

Samsung's Galaxy S21 lineup is packed with refinements to the cameras, displays and 5G capabilities. The new phones feature a redesign that accentuates the camera lenses on their backs while linking them with their metal frames, something Samsung calls "Contour Cut Camera" housing. The base amount of storage for all of the S21 models is 128GB, and Samsung boosted the photo and video capabilities for vloggers and others. 

The lower price is a nod to the realities of the world, with the coronavirus pandemic shutting down many global economies and eliminating millions of jobs. Smartphones, serving as a lifeline to friends and co-workers, remain one of the few essential gadgets. This is also one of the first phones in a few years that didn't introduce a brand new technology like 5G, which often justifies a premium. 

"In 2021, our top priority is to bring the benefit of technology to more people," TM Roh, the head of Samsung's mobile communication business, said in a statement, calling the Galaxy S21 series "the most powerful and versatile flagship lineup ever."

On the other end of the spectrum, the S21 Ultra is designed for people who want the "best of the best." It features a 6.8-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2x display, Samsung's best camera of the S21 lineup with four back lenses, and Corning's scratch-resistant Gorilla Glass Victus on the front and back. The S21 and S21 Plus have 6.2- and 6.7-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2x displays, respectively, and Gorilla Glass Victus on the front. The S21 Plus also has the glass on the back, while the regular S21 features a plastic polycarbonate backing. Both have three camera lenses on the back.

This year, Samsung has brought support for its S Pen, a hallmark of the Galaxy Note lineup, to its Galaxy S family for the first time. Of the three new phones, only the S21 Ultra works with the S Pen, and it comes as a separate accessory that costs $40 for just the pen or $70 when bundled with a specially designed case that stores the stylus. Users can't stow the S Pen away inside the S21 Ultra like they can with Note, but they can use their old Note styluses with the S21 Ultra. The new accessory doesn't work with gestures or many of the other features found in the Note's S Pen, which likely means the Note line isn't dead quite yet.

Samsung will introduce an S Pen Pro later this year, though, that has some of the Bluetooth-enabled features found in the Note's stylus, like gestures. Samsung didn't give a price or release date for the S Pen Pro. 

The new phones come as Samsung faces a tougher market for 5G phones. When the Galaxy S20 lineup hit the market a year ago, there still were relatively few 5G phones available, and they weren't cheap. Now competition is fierce. Prices for 5G phones go as low as $300 in the US, and virtually all companies sell 5G models. Every phone in Apple'siPhone 12 lineup from late 2020 came with 5G by default, something that was expected to help the technology go mainstream. At the same time, the world continues to grapple with a pandemic that's limiting budgets for new gadgets. 

Samsung made the decision to drop the starting price of its new phones by $200 because of a few factors. Components like 5G processors, displays and camera modules now cost less because Samsung has such a high volume of those parts in devices across its portfolio. The company also made some minor trade-offs in its S21 and S21 Plus devices, like lowering the base level of RAM to 8GB from 12GB. 

"For people who want the highest-end, Ultra experience, we still have that, and we're not sacrificing [the features] based on price point," Drew Blackard, Samsung Electronics America's vice president of product management, said in an interview ahead of Unpacked. "For people who want value and an amazing flagship experience at the same time, we still have a great offering for them with the S21. And then we've got something kind of in between for people who want a little bit of both."

The existence of the Ultra is a reminder that not everyone feels the impact of the pandemic equally.

"The people that are buying an S21 Ultra are not feeling the pressure of the pandemic," Creative Strategies analyst Carolina Milanesi said. Samsung "could have decided that maybe [its] entry product was going to be cheaper but leave the two flagships more expensive. But it's not doing that." 

Preorders for the phones begin Thursday at 8 a.m. PT, and the phones hit stores on Jan. 29. The Galaxy Buds Pro are available Thursday on Samsung.com and will be at other retailers on Friday. People who preorder the phones get up to $200 in Samsung credit and also get a free Galaxy SmartTag. In addition, carriers are offering promotions, like AT&T's offer for up to $800 off when trading in an eligible device and purchasing the new phone on a 30-month installment plan.

Say cheese

One of the biggest differentiators for the Galaxy S21 Ultra over the S21 and S21 Plus is the camera. The pricier device comes with four cameras on the back -- ultra-wide, wide and dual tele-lenses -- and an upgraded 108-megapixel sensor. That allows users to capture 12-bit HDR photos with 64 times richer color data and more than three times wider dynamic range. In other words, sharper, better photos. 

"When designing the Galaxy S21, we thought about how people use their cameras today," Stephen Hawke, director of product management for Samsung Electronics America, said during a briefing with reporters ahead of Unpacked. "For instance, there are those fleeting moments when you just don't have time to think about the perfect mode or setting to capture a shot, let alone switch to recording video. We need our phones to do all this for us. With a Galaxy S21, you get photos and videos with the simplicity of point and shoot."

When it comes to video, the Ultra enables users to shoot in 4K at 60fps across all lenses, including those on the front, meaning they can shift to different perspectives with the same quality. A new feature called Director's View lets you see a scene from multiple perspectives simultaneously, while Vlogger View lets you shoot with the front and rear cameras at the same time. Pro Mode lets users capture images in a 12-bit raw file format to make it easier to edit the images later. 

The S20 Ultra features 100x Space Zoom, like its predecessor, but in this year's phone is a new feature called Zoom Lock that keeps the camera focused on an object for a clearer picture. Samsung said it provides "tripod-like stability with an AI-powered stabilizer." Space Zoom on the S21 Ultra is powered by Samsung's first dual-tele-lens system, which is one optical 3X zoom for midrange and one optical 10x zoom for long-range. Both have dual pixel autofocus to capture ultra clear shots. 

Low-light photography also gets a boost in the Galaxy S21 Ultra. Samsung improved its Bright Night sensor and Night Mode to reduce noise and capture challenging shots like dimly lit rooms or landscapes at night. 

The Galaxy S21 and S21 Plus both have three rear cameras in ultra-wide, wide and tele-lens. They feature 30X Space Zoom with Zoom Lock, as well as Director's View and Vlogger View. Portrait Mode gets a boost from AI, which provides options for virtual studio light and effects to make the subject pop from the frame -- with both the rear cameras and the front-facing selfie lens. 

Samsung has improved its 8K Snap feature to let users grab clear images from 8K video footage, and its Super Steady Video records at an "improved" 60fps. The new Galaxy S21 phones also feature Multi-Mic Recording when paired with the new Galaxy Buds Pro, letting users record with their camera mic and earbuds mic at the same time. 

What's inside

All phones in the Galaxy S21 lineup in the US come with Qualcomm's new Snapdragon 888 processor and integrated 5G modem. The new Snapdragon chip is more effective at connecting to all flavors of 5G, from the slower, more reliable nationwide variant offered by all the US carriers, or the speedier but more finicky millimeter wave version touted by Verizon, and boasts peak download speeds of 7.5 Gbps and upload speeds of 3Gbps.

The new processor with its integrated modem is "really important," Technalysis Research analyst Bob O'Donnell said. By being able to combine different types of 5G airwaves together, there's a "huge potential increase in performance in 5G," he said. 

The Galaxy S21 Plus gets a bigger battery -- 4,800 mAh versus 4,500 in the S20 Plus -- while the S21 stays steady with 4,000 mAh and the S21 Ultra retains its 5,000 mAH battery. 

Also under the hood, or rather the display, is an improved fingerprint sensor from Qualcomm. The chip giant on Monday unveiled the second generation of its 3D Sonic Sensor that's 50% faster and 77% bigger than the previous generation, making it easier for people to to unlock their devices using their fingerprints. Along with making it simpler to know where to place a finger, the larger size also allows the technology to collect 1.7 times more biometric data, speeding up the unlock time. 

Samsung also included ultra wideband, or UWB, technology in the Galaxy S21 Plus and S21 Ultra. The technology lets a user pinpoint the exact location of phones, key fobs and tracking tags, helping them find lost dogs or automatically unlock their car. UWB calculates precise locations by measuring how long it takes super-short radio pulses to travel between devices. (Note: It's different from the Ultra Wideband terminology Verizon uses for its mmWave 5G network.)

Samsung will eventually have UWB in its Galaxy SmartTags, but the first version available will use Bluetooth Low Energy. The company didn't yet say when the UWB version will be available or how much it will cost, but it sees big opportunities for UWB in the future, especially as it tries to control the smart home. 

"We recently launched SmartThings Find to help you quickly and easily locate your Galaxy devices, even when offline," KJ Kim, chief technology officer and head of mobile R&D for Samsung, said in a statement. "We took this a step further with Galaxy S21 Plus and S21 Ultra, which use expanded UWB capabilities to utilize the AR finder so you can send virtual messages to other Galaxy users during your search."

He added that Samsung has formed partnerships with "major car companies" to provide "a next-generation car experience starting this summer."

And out

The phones in the Galaxy S21 lineup all feature a matte finish that helps minimize fingerprints. In the US, the Galaxy S21 Ultra comes in phantom black and phantom silver, and it has four possible configurations. The silver only comes with 128GB of storage and 12GB RAM, while the black has 128GB or 256GB of storage with 12GB RAM, and a monster 512GB model with 16GB RAM. 

The S21 Plus and S21 have some brighter color options, including phantom violet and phantom pink, the latter of which is only in the S21. There are two storage options for those phones, either 128GB or 256GB, both with 8GB RAM.

Samsung's Bixby voice assistant again makes an appearance in the S21 lineup, but its button can be remapped to other tasks. It's also integrated into SmartThings, Samsung's smart home control app.

The S21 Ultra has some advantages when it comes to the screen. All three use Samsung's Infinity-O Displays, are HDR10+ certified and have an adaptive 120Hz refresh rate that automatically adjusts based on what the users is doing, but the Ultra has a resolution of 3,200x1,440, while the other two are 2,400x1,080. 

The Ultra also has a Quad HD+ display -- versus flat, full HD+ in the S21 and S21 Plus -- and "the best, brightest display ever," Samsung's Hawke said. He noted the picture is 25% brighter than in the S21 and S21 Plus. The Ultra also has a 50% improved contrast ratio to deliver clear, immersive images, even when outdoors, and a brighter screen

"This is going to make content really pop, especially high dynamic range content," said Techsponential analyst Avi Greengart. "People will be able to use it outdoors without [the screen] getting washed out."

For Samsung, the hope is that its lineup has something for everyone. 

"When it comes to shopping for new smartphones, first and foremost, people want choice," Samsung's Blackard said. "That is both in terms of features and in terms of price points. So we're really committed to driving a range of different devices that offer what we think is that diversity of needs that's in the market today."