The Oscars will soon be upon us, and no one knows what’s going on… in a good way.2023 was chock full of great movies, and who will go home with the golden man is anyone’s guess. The awards ceremonies from earlier this month (specifically the Golden Globes and Emmys) may be able to point us in the right direction, but we’ll have to rely on industry chatter (and personal bias) to predict who’s getting an Academy Award.

BEST PICTURE- If we were wagering, we would — under normal circumstances — go all in on Oppenheimer, Killers of the Flower Moon, or even The Holdovers and Poor Things. The former two films each scored 51 nominations across the boardand are expected to take home several of the little gold guys.

But this year, we see a plot twist coming. PastLives and American Fiction might be in the running, and we see a lot of people lobbying for Anatomy of a Fall and The Zone of Interest this year in the name of international inclusion.

BEST DIRECTOR- This may be the wild card this year. Christopher Nolan for Oppenheimer is our safe guess for frontrunner, but Martin Scorsese might clinch the gold for what has been called his magnum opus, Killers of the Flower Moon. The Holdovers’ Alexander Payne may give them a run for their money, though. While Greta Gerwig and Yorgos Lanthimos may deserve recognition for Barbie and Poor Things, we don’t see the statuette in their cards.

BEST ACTOR- If there was ever a deservedly overpopulated category, this would be it. We loved Paul Giamatti as Professor Hunham in The Holdovers, but a more traditional choice would be Cillian Murphy for his performance in Oppenheimer, or Bradley Cooper for Maestro. We hope Jeffrey Wright gets a nod for American Fiction, and wouldn’t be surprised if Leonardo DiCaprio gets his second Oscar for Killers of the Flower Moon.

BEST ACTRESS- Lily Gladstone and Emma Stone are head-to-head for Killers of the Flower Moon and Poor Things, but Carey Mulligan seems to tick all the Academy Award boxes for her performance in Maestro. If international actresses had a history of victory in this category, we would have rooted for Sandra Hüller in Anatomy of a Fall.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR- We would be surprised if Robert Downey Jr. didn’t go home with this award for his role as Lewis Strauss in Oppenheimer, but we kind of want to see Ryan Gosling nab it for Barbie. We wouldn’t be upset if it went to Robert De Niro’s malevolent William Hale from Killers of the Flower Moon. Dominic Sessa, a newcomer with a great track record so far with The Holdovers, deserves recognition, but it might be too early for this budding actor.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS- Could The Holdovers’ Da’Vine Joy Randolph be this year’s heir apparent? Many seem to think so after bagging every televised trophy so far. Emily Blunt could be another actor to watch, playing Oppenheim’s troubled but ultimately supportive wife Katherine, alongside Danielle Brooks for The Color Purple, yet to debut in Om El Donia.

The Oscar nominations will be announced on Tuesday, and the awards ceremony will air on March 11 at 1am CLT.

Apple is doing away with the blood-oxygen measurement feature on its Watches after losing the patent case: After racing to rework the Ultra 2 and Series 9 Apple Watches, the tech giant lost its patent case with the International Trade Commission (ITC) over the blood-oxygen measurement technology, with the ITC ruling that the feature infringed on patents held by medical tech company Masimo. Rather than discontinuing the two Apple Watch models, the company is instead getting rid of the detection system, reports the New York Times.

If you already have one of these watches, it’s not getting recalled and you won’t be required to hand it back over to Apple. Other features such as timers, irregular heartbeat detection, and sports tracking, will not be affected.

More went down behind the scenes: Masimo claimed in court that after talks of an Apple acquisition, they turned around and nabbed their top employees then dropped pulse oximeter technology similar to their patented work. That’s when Masimo took it to the ITC.

Apple (naturally) isn’t thrilled: The decision gets in their way of increasing health utility to their devices and competing with medical companies like Medtronic and Abbott. Now in the process of appealing, the company already lost an attempt to push back the ban on selling their watches until the appeals court makes a decision. US Customs allowed the company to continue sales as long as they remove the disputed feature in the meantime.

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