The Weekly Authority: ???? Galaxy Unpacked date confirmed

⚡ Welcome to The Weekly Authority, the Android Authority newsletter that breaks down the top Android and tech news from the week. The 227th edition is here with a confirmed Galaxy Unpacked date, Galaxy S23 teaser videos, eSIM transfer profiles for Pixels, Ubisoft delays, AI interns, and much, much more.

???? My week has been spent terrifying myself with The Callisto Protocol, scaring myself senseless at the local Surgical Museum’s jars of body parts, and getting the black comedy spooks watching The Menu. That ending! 

The new year is a great time to think about changing your cell phone carrier, but with so many providers and plans out there to choose from, it feels like a bit of a minefield! That brings us nicely to our sponsor this week.

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• Check out the best new streaming movies this week, from dark comedy The Drop to COVID-era slasher Sick.
• The Fabelmans, The Banshees of Inisherin win big at revamped Golden Globes — and here’s the best speech of the event — plus, Mashable has a complete list of winners.
• The Last of Us airs on HBO Max this weekend, and reviews are already in, with Engadget saying it “successfully trades hordes of monsters for emotional depth,” and the BBC calling it “the best video game adaptation ever.”
• ‘M3GAN’ surprisingly dominates at the box office with $30M+ opening.
• We saw a trailer for You season 4, and looks like the tables are turned on Joe this time, with the first part of the new season premiering on Netflix February 9.
• Screen Actors Guild Awards find a new home on Netflix in 2024; This year’s show will stream on YouTube; Everything Everywhere All At Once and The Banshees Of Inisherin are among the 2023 nominees.
• Looking for new shows to binge-watch in 2023? We’ve listed some of the best, from Stranger Things to Breaking Bad, The Flight Attendant, and A League of Their Own.
• Also: Check out this off-the-wall trailer for Ari Aster’s (Hereditary, Midsommar) latest film, Beau is Afraid, hitting US cinemas in April.
• Plus: HBO Max just bumped up the price of its ad-free plan while canceling shows and removing content.
• And a new Chromecast with Google TV is in the pipeline, could be a successor to original model.

In other news this week, Seattle schools are suing tech giants for harming young people’s mental health.

• Seattle’s public school district filed a novel lawsuit against tech giants behind Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, and Snapchat.
• The lawsuit, filed last Friday in US District Court, consisted of a 91-page complaint.
• The school district claims by targeting their products to children, social media companies are responsible for worsening mental health and behavioral disorders such as depression, anxiety, and disordered eating.
• The complaint also mentioned that children’s use of social media had made educating students more difficult, and that schools had been forced to educate children about the effects of social media, hire additional mental health professionals, and provide teachers with extra training.

The lawsuit claims that between 2009 to 2019, there was an average 30% increase in the number of students at Seattle Public Schools reporting feeling “so sad or hopeless almost every day for two weeks or more in a row.”

“Defendants have successfully exploited the vulnerable brains of youth, hooking tens of millions of students across the country into positive feedback loops of excessive use and abuse of Defendants’ social media platforms. Worse, the content Defendants curate and direct to youth is too often harmful and exploitive ….”

The school district’s complaint asks the court to order tech giants to stop targeting children with their products, and also asks the court to award damages and pay for prevention education and treatment for social media addiction and problematic use.

• Already hundreds of families are pursuing lawsuits against these companies over similar claims of harm.
• But it’s unclear if any other school districts have filed similar complaints to Seattle’s.

This news comes hot on the heels of a study published before Christmas that revealed screen time was linked to increased odds of preteens developing OCD:

• According to the study led by UC San Francisco (UCSF) researchers, the odds of preteens developing OCD over a two-year period increased by 13% for every hour they played video games.
• It was also shown that the odds increased by 11% for every hour they watched videos.
• With adolescent screen time doubling during the pandemic, families should be aware of this risk.
• The study’s lead author, Jason Nagata, said, “Children who spend excessive time playing video games report feeling the need to play more and more and being unable to stop despite trying. Intrusive thoughts about video game content could develop into obsessions or compulsions.”
• He said that watching videos can also make preteens want to compulsively view similar content, and that algorithms and advertisements can exacerbate that behavior.

Of course, it’s not the first time social media, gaming, and screen time, in general, have come under fire for health concerns. It likely won’t be the last time, either.

Tech Calendar

• January 18: Samsung launch event (Galaxy A54?)
• January 24: Forspoken releases on PS5, PC
• January 26: Razer Edge released
• January 27: Dead Space launches on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC
• February 1 @ 1 PM ET: Samsung Unpacked (Galaxy S23?)
• February 7: OnePlus 11 global launch
• February 22: PSVR 2 launch date
• February 27-March 2: MWC 2023 Barcelona

Something extra: Want to see a TikTok of some adorable commuting dogs? Dog walking and training business Mo Mountain Mutts in Skagway, Alaska is here with its “puppy bus,” where seats are assigned based on the dog’s personality. Aww ???? (h/t Axios).

Paula Beaton, Copy Editor.