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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

Sony made a special occasion of its 2024 TV launch, holding it at the Sony Pictures Studios lot in Los Angeles. At the event, attendees, myself included, were treated to demos of Foley effects and soundtrack mixing, plus other striking examples of behind-the-scenes movie magic that happens at the studio. Sony’s message was that the technology that goes into movie and TV creation via its studio and professional camera and display divisions trickles down into consumer products, and it was made loud and clear at the event. The Sony Bravia 9 is the flagship model of the new Bravia series TVs, taking that crown from the Sony A95L OLED TV, which will continue in the lineup for 2024. Interestingly, the Bravia 9 is a mini-LED TV. That marks a change in direction for Sony, a brand that in the past had regularly positioned OLED as the most premium technology in its TV lineup. Sony’s re-positioning of mini-LED at the top of the TV food chain results from two tech developments at the company. The first is the creation of the BVM-HX3110, a professional mastering monitor capable of 4,000 nits peak brightness. The BVM-HX3110 was introduced in late 2023, and replaces the BVM-HX310, a standard model for movie post-production that tops out at 1,000 nits peak brightness. The backlight LED driver panel used in Sony's Bravia 9 TVs. Those tiny black stripes are the mini-LED modules. (Image credit: Future) The second development is XR Backlight Master Drive with High Peak Luminance, a new TV backlight technology used exclusively in the Sony Bravia 9 mini-LED TV. According to Sony, its next-gen backlight tech is responsible for a 50% brightness boost in the Bravia 9 over the company’s previous flagship mini-LED model, the Sony X95L, along with a 325% increase in local dimming zones – something it accomplishes through a new, highly miniaturized 22-bit LED driver. Along with increasing the number of LED modules that can be positioned in a backlight, the new driver’s higher resolution (other TV makers use 10- or 12-bit drivers, according to Sony) in combination with advanced dimming control algorithms lets it display images with a greater level of refinement than previously available in the best TVs. And that’s where Sony’s demo of the new Bravia 9 TV I attended comes in. Brightness refined There were two components to Sony’s demonstration of the Bravia 9’s XR Backlight Master Drive with High Peak Luminance tech. The first was a comparison of the new Sony BVM-HX3110 monitor with the older BVM-HX310 using movie scenes mastered at 4,000 nits peak brightness. While most movies are mastered at 1,000 nits peak brightness, according to Sony that has mainly been a technology limitation – one now removed by the BVM-HX3110. When viewing the 4,000 nits footage on both monitors side by side, a clear increase in highlight detail on the new BVM-HX3110 made images look notably more dynamic. Sony's Bravia 9 mini-LED TV in a bright room setting. (Image credit: Future) The second component was a stacked pair of Sony Bravia 9 TVs set alongside a stacked pair of Samsung QN90C TVs, that company’s flagship 2023 mini-LED model in the US. The TVs arrayed at the top had their LCD panels removed so we could see the “raw” mini-LED backlight (see pic at top). Viewing a series of video clips, the Sony’s backlight had notably higher “resolution” owing to the XR Backlight Master Drive’s more granular local dimming performance. It also had a punchier level of brightness that could be seen in images displayed on the normal, non-butchered versions of both TVs located below. That brightness made highlights pop more dramatically and colors look brighter and richer. Equally impressive in the demo was the virtual absence of backlight blooming effects in the transitions between bright and dark parts of images on the Bravia 9. Backlight blooming is a common visual artifact with LED-based TVs, even ones that use mini-LED tech, and it’s a key reason why OLED TVs, which have panels with self-emissive pixels that generate their own light, have retained a picture quality advantage over LED TVs. Mini-LED mastered Another picture quality comparison conducted by Sony at the event put the Bravia 9 alongside the Sony X95L and Samsung S95C, that company’s 2023 flagship QD-OLED model. The comparison also used Sony’s BVM-HX3110 displaying the same images as a reference point, and of the three TVs, the Bravia 9 most closely tracked the picture on the professional mastering monitor. While Sony hasn’t revealed peak brightness specs for the Bravia 9 TV, its ability to accurately reproduce highlight and shadow details in movies mastered at 4,000 nits makes it a statement piece for HDR. As Sony’s new mastering monitor makes its way into more production facilities and movie directors and cinematographers start pushing the limits of what the format is capable of, any TV that can handle that will have an advantage. Sony’s shift to mini-LED for its flagship TV signals its confidence in the tech, and with developments such as XR Backlight Master Drive, its ability to compete effectively with OLED. The 2024 crop of OLED TVs is turning out to be the brightest yet, with the new Samsung S95D measuring just under 1,800 nits peak brightness in our tests. But the new Samsung QN90D mini-LED model is even brighter, topping out at around 2,000 nits. There’s only so much more that OLED makers can do to increase brightness beyond current levels, and the display tech may have hit its peak in the latest generation of TVs. And while we’ve yet to measure the Bravia 9, mini-LED is capable of higher brightness than OLED tech, and that’s something Sony clearly had in mind when planning its new flagship. In the future, we can expect to see movies with even wider dynamic range, and mini-LED with its high peak brightness capability will be well-positioned to handle it. You might also like Why Sony’s X95L TV reveals a brand boldly determined to swim against the tideI tested Sony's pricey X95L mini-LED 4K TV and sometimes it pays to spend moreNew OLED TVs are brighter than ever – here’s what that means for LCD's future View the full article

Sony will soon release a new pair of mid-range wireless headphones capable of delivering bassy audio on the same level as high-end models. At least, that’s what this latest leak from industry insider Roland Quandt would lead us to believe. He recently spilled the beans on what may be the Sony WH-ULT900N headphones, which Quandt claims are the successors to the WH-XB910N. This information comes from German tech news site WinFuture, but we’re going to be using a translation provided by NotebookCheck. According to the report, the pair will sport a feature called “Ultra Power Sound,” giving the pair a frequency range stretching from 5 Hz up to 20 kHz. Having a bottom as low as 5 Hz is particularly notable because it’s a range close to what you see on high-end headphones such as Sony’s WH-1000XM4. NotebookCheck points out this would allow the WH-ULT900N to output “more bassy sound than many of its competitors.” (Image credit: Roland Quandt/WinFuture) Images within the leak also give us our first look at what the headphones may look like. At a glance, they resemble the high-end WH-1000XM4 although with a few design tweaks. The USB-C ports on the outside of the cups are no longer there, having been replaced by what appears to be a speaker grill. And the company logo is in a different position. (Image credit: Roland Quandt/WinFuture) Specs Quandt’s leak goes on to list some of the WH-ULT900N’s specifications. Inside the cups will be 40mm drivers, and its battery will last up to “50 hours of music playback”. That number drops down to 30 hours with ANC (active noise canceling) enabled. It’ll use the company’s own LDAC (Lossless Digital Audio Codec) connectivity standard to ensure high resolution audio across wireless connections. With Bluetooth 5.2, the WH-ULT900N supports Bluetooth Multipoint. This will let future owners hop between simultaneously connected audio sources. No word on when the Sony WH-ULT900N will launch, but when they do, the pair should cost around $215/£170 and come in three different colors: Black, White, and Forest Grey. While we have you, check out TechRadar's list of the best wireless headphones for 2024. You might also like Best headphones with mic in 2024We just got another hint that the Sonos headphones are launching soonGetting into hi-res audio? This is the hi-res player and headphones I recommend View the full article