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If you’ve lost track of this week’s most important tech news then don’t fret, as we’re here to catch you up to speed – and this is one week you won't want to have missed. We say that because some major things have happened in the last seven days. Meta announced that it’s sharing its Horizon OS with other VR headset makers – which is the biggest announcement it will likely make this decade – Apple teased its 2024 iPad lines and gave us a launch date for them, and DJI gave us a release date for its cheapest-ever 4K drone. And here at TechRadar we hosted our first Sustainability Week, producing a whole host of articles showcasing some fantastic examples of how the tech industry is focusing on sustainability – and a few instances where it still needs to do better. Let’s get you all caught up on the week’s biggest stories that you might have missed… 7. We hosted Sustainability Week (Image credit: Shutterstock / Troyan) We ran our first Sustainability Week, highlighting the sustainability heroes working to make a difference in tech – and some we think could do more. We talked to Samsung about its energy efficient, AI-driven appliances, delved deep into Apple's recent patent for removable uniform battery enclosures, and even spoke with the creators of a bioengineered plant purifier. It's not all sunshine and rainbows, though, as we also zoned in on the energy impact of processors and graphics cards, calling for the likes of AMD, Nvidia and Intel to work together towards a more sustainable chipmaking future. We've also shared insights on how you can do your bit, whether that's by opting for refurbished tech, seeking out sustainably sourced devices, or using your phone to save the planet. Read more: Our sustainability week coverage 6. Apple set a launch date for its new iPads The official invite for Apple's May 7 launch event (Image credit: Apple) Apple has confirmed the date for its next “special Apple Event” as May 7 at 7am PT / 10am ET / 3pm BST, which is midnight AEST on May 8, and while iPads aren’t officially on the cards, the invite includes a snazzy Apple logo featuring an Apple Pencil surrounded by splashes of color – a strong indication that new tablets will be shown off. We’re expecting the headline announcement to be a new iPad Pro with an OLED display and M3 chipset, with two iPad Air 6 models plus some accessories – such as a new Pencil and potentially a Magic Keyboard – also likely to get shown off. And if this isn’t enough Apple for you, just over a month later Apple’s annual developer conference, WWDC 2024, will kick off on June 10. So make sure to check back here regularly to keep yourself in the loop. Read more: Apple sets imminent launch date for new iPads 5. Meta made a massive OS announcement (Image credit: Meta) This week Meta announced that its Horizon OS – the operating system used by its VR headsets like the Meta Quest 3 – is coming to third-party hardware, starting with ASUS, Lenovo and Xbox devices. This is huge news, as it’ll hopefully lead to a much more diverse range of VR headsets in the near future, with the already teased gadgets including a “performance gaming headset,” “mixed-reality devices for productivity,” and a more Quest-like headset coming from the trio of partners respectively. However, Meta might want to make sure that Horizon OS doesn’t copy too many of the bad aspects of Windows, though only time will tell how this move will play out. Read more: Meta is making spatial computing's Windows with Horizon OS 4. A Sony wearable took us one step closer to Dune (Image credit: Future / Axel Metz) With the recent launch of Apple’s Vision Pro headset and Dyson’s Bane-like air-purifying headphones, you’d be forgiven for thinking that we’ve reached peak wearable tech. However, this week Sony showed us that the wearable product class is just getting started. The Sony Reon Pocket 5 is a wearable thermo device that cools or warms your body, depending on the conditions of your environment. Designed to sit neatly on the back of your neck, the Reon Pocket 5 uses a plate-like "thermos module" and five sensors to determine optimal body temperature and, hopefully, make you more comfortable while you're traveling on public transport or walking in less-than-ideal conditions. The Reon Pocket 5 offers five levels of cooling and four levels of warmth, meaning that – in theory – it’s just as useful on a stuffy commuter train as it is outdoors on a frosty morning. We took the device for a spin at a recent demo event, and we can confirm that it does indeed regulate body temperature pretty effectively – though you’ll have to put up with looking like an extra from a sci-fi movie when wearing it. Read more: Sony’s wearable air conditioner could improve your commute 3. An Android phone served up superior audio (Image credit: Moondrop) The lack of an audio jack in most of today’s phones hasn’t been popular with everyone – especially not audiophiles, who love the fidelity of wired connections for hi-res audio. Enter the Moondrop MIAD01 – this phone not only has a 3.5mm jack, it also has a 4.4mm balanced output for connecting to a powerful music system without distortion, and a “flagship” DAC to make sure high-end digital files get treated properly on the way to your ears. On top of that, it’s a pretty cool phone as well. It’s got a great futuristic look (as do all Moondrop products – just check out their earbuds when you’re bored), a large 120Hz OLED screen, and dual cameras on the back. For serious streaming audiophiles, a dedicated music player or a portable DAC tend to be a big part of listening on the go, and this phone aims to replace both – and the music lovers on the TechRadar team are watching closely. Read more: This Android phone for audiophiles offers a hi-res DAC and 3.5mm jack 2. The Deadpool and Wolverine trailer delivered Easter egg galore (Image credit: Marvel Studios) Deadpool and Wolverine is edging closer towards its July 26 launch date, so it’s high time that Marvel released some new footage to further fuel our excitement for the duo’s multiversal buddy-cop flick. Thankfully, the comic book giant duly obliged earlier this week (April 22) with a brand-new trailer – and, unsurprisingly, the Marvel Phase 5 movie’s latest teaser is packed with Easter eggs. Some are easier to spot than others, mind you, so we’ve taken the liberty of picking out six of the best and/or easily missable ones from Deadpool 3’s newest trailer. Once you’ve read that, check out our X-Men movies in order guide to see what films you need to stream ahead of the MCU’s next flick, too. Read more: New Deadpool and Wolverine trailer is packed with Marvel Easter eggs 1. DJI’s cheapest-ever 4K drone got a release date (Image credit: DJI) A DJI drone announcement without the usual speculation, rumors and leaked pictures is a rare thing, but the DJI Mini 4K quietly popped up on the DJI Amazon store this week, complete with a April 29 release date. We’re not expecting big things from the Mini 4K – it will likely be a modest refresh of the DJI Mini 2 SE, with similar specs like 31-minute flight time, level 5 wind resistance and a sub-250g body – but it will become DJI’s cheapest ever drone to shoot 4K video, and that should make it one of 2024’s most popular drone for beginners. Read more: DJI Mini 4K release date confirmed, here's what to expect View the full article

This week in the world of tech: Boston Dynamics unveiled a new robot, and while it terrified us, the barrage of negative Humane AI Pin reviews showed us that maybe the artificial intelligence uprising is perhaps further aware than we initially feared. But maybe you’ve missed these or other major tech stories from this past week. No worries, because we’re here to help with a round-up of the eight biggest tech news stories from the last seven days. There’s a lot to catch up on, so let’s get into it. 8. The Humane AI Pin came… and flopped (Image credit: Humane) Reviews for the first Humane AI pin came out this week, and they weren’t great – with the wearable being universally labeled as “unreliable.” Marques Brownlee released a video on his YouTube channel calling the AI gadget “the worst product i've ever reviewed... for now,” Mrwhosetheboss said "It's not good," Bloomberg said “"The design and interface are fatally flawed," and The Verge’s video interview featured frequent bouts of hysterical laughter because of how bad it found the Humane AI Pin to be. There was also a very strange controversy on social media criticizing the critics – with much of the undeserved hate being directed at Brownlee, leading to him issuing a response – but the main thing was that while AI wearables do seem to be the future – with Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses getting Meta AI and the Nothing earbuds getting ChatGPT (more below) – the current tech isn’t where it needs to be right now. Read more: Humane AI Pin review roundup: an undercooked flop that's way ahead of its time 7. Boston Dynamics terrified us with its new humanoid robot (Image credit: Boston Dynamics) Perhaps someday we’ll ask, “Where were you when you first saw “New Atlas?” Boston Dynamics all-new and all-electric Atlas update is a generational leap from the more than decade-old hydraulics-based Atlas. That robot, which is being retired was amazing in its own right, capable of doing numerous human-like tasks like walking, running, bending, and lifting, but also showing us how an apex human could perform through various acrobatics and parkour antics. New Atlas, however, might be even stronger and it’s already showing us its uncanny flexibility in a brief introduction video. Expect to see it doing even more impressive physical tricks before the bot finally makes its way to factories and, maybe someday, our homes. Read more: Boston Dynamics reveals its most astonishing humanoid robot so far 6. We saw Sony’s new mini-LED TV backlight tech put OLEDs on notice (Image credit: Future) Sony just launched its new 2024 TVs, and the Bravia 9 mini-LED leads the lineup. Positioning mini-LED as its flagship TV tech is an extreme about-face for the company, which had previously reserved that status for OLED. We saw the new Bravia 9 TV in action at Sony Pictures Studios in Culver City, California, and there’s good reason for Sony’s newfound mini-LED enthusiasm. The company has developed a new XR Backlight Master Drive backlight design that uses a 22-bit LED driver to deliver 50% higher brightness and 320% more local dimming zones than its previous X95L mini-LED model. This new backlight helps enhance contrast and color brightness while reducing blooming, closing the picture quality gap between mini-LED and OLED. It’s also better able to capture the full range of highlight detail in movies with high dynamic range – an important factor as movies increasingly get mastered at higher brightness levels. Read more: I’ve seen Sony’s impressive new mini-LED TV backlight tech 5. Samsung confirmed its AI is coming to your Galaxy 21 phone (Image credit: Future) Samsung has not only teased that Galaxy AI features are coming to the Galaxy S22 series soon, but it seemingly revealed this week that its 2021 flagship phones will get a couple of Galaxy AI tools too. Per a post on Samsung’s Korean community forum the Galaxy S21, Galaxy S21 Plus, Galaxy S21 Ultra, Galaxy Z Flip 3 and Galaxy Z Fold 3 will be getting the company’s AI-packed One UI 6.1 update in “early May,” and when it does it’ll bring Circle to Search and Magic Rewrite to these devices. It’s always great news to hear older handsets will be getting some of the technical bells and whistles of the newer smartphone releases, though if you’re rocking a Samsung handset from 2020 it looks unlikely you’ll get any of these AI tools – so we’d suggest checking out our Samsung phones deals page if you’re thinking of upgrading to a new phone that can access Galaxy AI. Read more: Samsung Galaxy S21 phones are getting two big Galaxy AI features 4. New Nothing Ear buds launched with ChatGPT (Image credit: Nothing) Nothing’s naming strategy is anything but self-explanatory, so to avoid supplementary confusion: Nothing launched two new sets of true wireless earbuds on Thursday, April 18. A model called just Ear are the company’s new flagship offering – these have arrived after the Ear (1), Ear (Stick) and Ear (2), that’s just how it is – while the also-new Ear (a) are the cheaper pair. And it’s this entry-level model that just gained a highly coveted TechRadar five-star recommendation, which you can read about to your heart’s content in our full-fat Nothing Ear (a) review. But the fact that there are two new sets of Nothing earbuds is only part of the news here, because in addition to releasing two new earbuds models, Carl Pei’s startup has also fixed it so that your Nothing earbuds and phones can let you talk to ChatGPT for instant AI support. Nothing says that once you’ve downloaded the ChatGPT app on your Nothing Phone (running the latest Nothing OS), you’ll be able to pinch-to-speak using the earbuds’ stems and thus summon the chatbot for answers, without having to dig out your device. And have to admit, that’s really something, Nothing… Read more: Nothing unveils 2 affordable earbuds with near-identical features 3. Meta rolled out its new AI – and it might bury Google and Microsoft (Image credit: Meta) Meta’s AI got a new and improved website, as well as some upgrade thanks to it’s new “state-of-the-art Llama 3 AI model” according to CEO Mark Zuckerberg – and the best thing of all is it’s completely free to use. The site lets you generate text and images with a written prompt – though to make AI images you'll need to log in and your picture will feature a watermark which should help a little in cutting down misuse. It’s still early days in the battle between AI creators, but Google and OpenAI had better watch out because Meta’s new and improved software is already looking like a major competitor to what’s currently out there – and it will only get better. Read more: Meta rolls out new Meta AI website that might bury Microsoft's dreams 2. The iPhone got its first Nintendo emulators and alternative app stores (Image credit: AltStore) Following some gentle arm-twisting from the EU, Apple recently said its App Store would soon allow retro game emulators like the ones you can find on Android. This week, we saw the first one arrive with Delta – a free app that you can download now from the App Store in the EU and many countries outside of it. Unlike rival emulators like iGBA, which quickly disappeared from the App Store due to copyright violations, this one is likely here to stay. Delta supports several consoles including the NES, SNES, Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS, and you can play games with iPhone-compatible controllers, too. All you need to do is provide the ROM files (as long they’re copyright-free, of course) and you’re good to go. Now all we need is a PS1 emulator… Read more: The first third-party iOS app store is live in the EU – and another Nintendo emulator just showed up 1. The Insta360 X4 became our new favorite 360 camera (Image credit: Insta360) Our extensive Insta360 X4 hands-on review waxed lyrical about the 8K video-equipped 360-degree camera. With higher resolution video than the X3, much better battery life and welcome design tweaks, the X4 is the best 360-degree camera yet. Full waterproofing and a decent single-camera mode make the X4 a compelling action camera, vlogging tool, and even a dash cam especially for motorcyclists who can voice command the X4 from a Bluetooth compatible headset from within a helmet. GoPro has a tough act to follow with its upcoming Max 2, as does Canon with its intriguing 360 / 180 3D Powershot concept. It’s been really quiet in this category of cameras the last couple of years, but that seems set to change in 2024. Read more: The Insta360 X4 just became our favorite 360 camera – and the incoming GoPro Max 2 might struggle to beat it View the full article

We understand: life is busy, and you can't necessarily spend all of your time glued to the TechRadar website, waiting for updates. Look away for just an hour or two though, and you can quickly miss a flurry of significant stories. That's the thinking behind this in-case-you-missed-it round-up, a collection of all the biggest news headlines from the world of tech this week. We've got reviews of the new M3-powered Macs and 3rd-gen Amazon Echo Show 8, news of Sony's fastest ever digital camera, some Black Friday buying advice, and more besides. Without any further ado, here are the highlights of everything we've covered over the last week. See you again next week for more of the same. 7. We heard about a more affordable foldable from Samsung Samsung's latest foldable phones (Image credit: Future) You'll see that Samsung gets plenty of praise in our carefully curated list of the best foldable phones you can buy right now – but read our Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 review and Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 review and you'll see that these aren't cheap handsets. A more affordable Samsung foldable phone could be on the way though, according to one team of analysts. Foldables represent a growing segment of a shrinking market right now, and Android manufacturers are keen to make the most of it. What we don't get in the report are any details on form factor or pricing – but we do have some ideas about what we would like to see if Samsung were to bring out a cheaper folding phone. See if you agree with us. Read more: Samsung could be planning a mid-range Galaxy foldable for 2024 6. Loki season 2 finished – and we're still recovering It's been emotional... (Image credit: Marvel Studios / Disney Plus) Loki season 2 has come to a close with an episode entitled 'Glorious Purpose' – also the name of the very first episode by the way – and we've got a lot of thoughts. It's a finale that we're going to remember for a long, long time. For our money it's a 10 out of 10 instalment, and if you've also seen it, then you probably have a few questions about what passed before your eyes. We've tried our best to answer those questions, so obviously don't click through if you want to avoid spoilers. We're not going to say any more here, for the sake of those who might still be catching up, but it's safe and spoiler-free to say that the curse of the Marvel TV show finale has been lifted, and not before time either. Read more: Trying to make sense of the Loki season 2 ending 5. ChatGPT got given its biggest update so far Upgrades are coming to ChatGPT (Image credit: OpenAI) Some pretty major upgrades for AI chatbot of the moment ChatGPT were announced this week, making the bot even more powerful and helpful – especially if you're paying out a monthly subscription for the Plus plan. Included in the upgrades are the ability for users to make their own bespoke chatbots, and the launch of what's effectively a chatbot app store. There's also a new 'Turbo' mode which uses more up-to-date data to provide responses. It's all very exciting if you're sold on the potential of artificial intelligence – and if you haven't found ChatGPT particularly useful so far, perhaps the upgrades that are now rolling out will be enough to change your mind. Read more: ChatGPT gets its biggest update so far – 4 key upgrades 4. We really enjoyed testing the 3rd-gen Amazon Echo Show 8 The new Amazon Echo Show 8 (Image credit: Future) There's a new and improved version of Amazon's 8-inch Echo Show to talk about, and TechRadar Computing Reviews and Buying Guides Editor Michelle Rae Uy was impressed enough by it to give it four-and-a-half stars out of five in her review. It brings with it excellent audio fidelity, snappy performance, and a display that's sharp and responsive, as well as support for the Thread and Zigbee smart home standards. You've also got all the smarts of Amazon Alexa on board, of course. We'd encourage you to check out the full review via the link below if you think the 3rd-gen Amazon Echo Show 8 could be the next smart display for you. As usual, our review goes in depth on all the details that matter. Read more: Amazon Echo Show 8 (3rd gen) review 3. We dispensed a lot of advice about early Black Friday deals Resist the temptation... (Image credit: Future) As well as keeping you up to date with the latest happenings in technology, and bringing you the best analysis of the tech landscape, and providing you with the most comprehensive gadget reviews on the web, we're also keen on pointing you towards the best early Black Friday deals. Black Friday itself is still a couple of weeks off, but you'll find a wealth of deals and discounts live on the site right now: check out our Black Friday deals hub for the US and our Black Friday deals UK hub if you're on the other side of the Atlantic for more details. Sometimes, though, the best deals aren't the obvious ones. The iPhone 14 is available for a very attractive price right now, for example – but all things considered, we think you're better going for the iPhone 13 or the iPhone 15. Click the link below to find out why. Read more: Don't buy an iPhone 14 this Black Friday 2. Sony launched the fastest ever mirrorless camera It's the Sony A9 III (Image credit: Sony) There was big news on the digital camera front this week, with the launch of the Sony A9 III. It's the fastest mirrorless camera we've seen to date, and it boasts a rapid 120 FPS continuous burst shooting rate for 24.6MP raw and JPEG photos. Fast-moving subjects and quick camera movements should be no problem at all for the Sony A9 III, and there's an impressive 759-point autofocus as well. The Bionz ZR processing engine on board is said to be eight times more powerful than the one on the A9 II. All this can be yours for (deep breath) $5,999 / £6,100 / AU$10,499, and the camera is going to go on sale at the end of January 2024. We're looking forward to getting our hands on it and providing you with a full review of its capabilities. Read more: The Sony A9 III is the fastest ever mirrorless camera with a new kind of sensor 1. We were hugely impressed by the new M3 Macs The new 14-inch M3 MacBook Pro (Image credit: Future) Speaking of reviews, we took an in-depth look at the new 14-inch MacBook Pro, the new 16-inch MacBook Pro, and the new 24-inch iMac this week – all powered by Apple's latest super-powerful chipsets, the M3 series. You can see from the star ratings that we've dished out that we really like what Apple has done with its new hardware, and of course performance gains are always to be welcomed (as well as casings that don't attract fingerprint smudges). Head to our Apple MacBook Pro 14-inch M3 Max (2023) review, our Apple MacBook Pro 16-inch (M3 Max) review, and our Apple iMac 24-inch (M3) review to see if they've got enough about them to tempt you into a purchase. Read more: Apple MacBook Pro 14-inch M3 Max (2023) review View the full article