This week has been a rollercoaster in the world of tech. Twitter shut down thanks to its biggest outage in years, giving us all a second of peace, Google unveiled Gemini-infused robots, which seems like the begin of a robotic revolution, and we examined Apple’s new Macbook and iPad Air.
To make amends for all that and extra, scroll down for our in case you missed it and make amends for the week’s seven biggest tech information stories.
When you’re caught up on the week’s information, try our picks for the 7 new films and TV reveals to stream this weekend (March 14).
X had its biggest outage in years
The social media large previously often known as Twitter has had a tumultuous few years – however even in contrast to Elon Musk’s takeover in 2022, this week was a turbulent one. X was taken fully offline a number of occasions on Monday, with Musk later claiming that this was due to a “massive cyberattack”.
Given X is attacked “every single day”, in accordance to Musk, this monumental outage was defined by the perpetrator having “a number of sources”. Cue some inevitable political finger-pointing and lots of people discovering what DDOS stands for (spoiler on your trivia quiz, it’s ‘Distributed Denial of Service’). X is again to its previous self now with its trademark mixture of memes and outrage, but it surely may not be lengthy earlier than its subsequent large outage.
We noticed Sony’s next-gen TV tech in motion
OLED is mostly considered the best-performing TV tech, and for good purpose, since OLED TVs ship completely uniform photos with “infinite” distinction and wealthy coloration. OLED’s primacy has principally gone unchallenged, however a new RGB LED backlight know-how for TVs that Sony simply introduced may lastly make mini-LED TVs aggressive.
Sony’s “next-generation show system” replaces the quantum dot layer used for higher-end mini-LED TVs with a “excessive density LED backlight” with particular person management over the purple, inexperienced and blue major colours. Its advantages embody excessive brightness, prolonged coloration, and OLED-like distinction, and Sony additionally claims it may be cost-effectively scaled up to bigger display sizes than OLED TVs, which max out at 97 inches.
TV makers repeatedly subject chest-beating bulletins of new tech in growth, however on this case, TechRadar was invited to Sony’s headquarters for a preview, and it’s each bit nearly as good as they declare. Watch your again, OLED!
We reviewed the new MacBooks and iPads
Apple lately launched some new tech and we’ve had the probability to attempt all of it out. Lengthy story brief, it’s all nice.
The iPad Air with M3 earned four-and-a-half-stars thanks to its new chipset providing a stable energy increase and not using a worth bump. The display is simply as vibrant as ever, the battery life and audio are nice, and thanks to assist from the new Magic Keyboard, it’s extra laptop-like than ever earlier than. Our solely gripe is Apple’s new slate is slightly too related to final yr’s mannequin in the digital camera and show division – with nonetheless solely a pair of 12MP snappers (one dealing with every route) and a display missing clean ProMotion refresh charges you’ll nonetheless solely get on extra premium fashions.
As for the new MacBook Airs with M4, they wowed us but once more as not solely do they boast wonderful efficiency – helped by the upgraded chipset they simply obtained – however they’re much less expensive to boot. As a substitute of $1,299 / £1,399 / AU$2,199 you may choose the laptop computer up for $1,199 / £1,199 / AU$2,099 cementing this glossy machine as certainly one of the finest worth for cash laptops on the market.
iRobot changed virtually its complete Roomba vary
This week we discovered that iRobot was scrapping virtually its complete vary of Roomba robotic vacuums, and changing them with 4 shiny new fashions. It is a daring transfer, however feels mandatory given how far the model was beginning to slip behind opponents.
New options embody LiDAR navigation (in the end), spinning mop pads, a cool design aesthetic, and a naming system that really makes some type of sense. Maybe the most attention-grabbing mannequin is the Roomba 205, which boasts a dust-compacting onboard bin, and appears excellent for these with small properties who haven’t got house for a cumbersome dock.
They won’t be the flashiest improvements we have seen in the market of late, however we predict iRobot has nailed what prospects are literally in search of in a robotic vacuum. Here is hoping it may assist the unique robovac model catch up to the competitors.
New restricted Ray-Ban sensible glasses upset us
Meta launched new Ray-Ban sensible glasses this week – effectively, it launched a new design of glasses, which can be found for a restricted time in collaboration with trend model Coperni.
They’re undeniably fashionable with a translucent black body (which helps you to see their interior workings) and mirrored lenses, however past the Coperni emblem stamped at the finish of every arm there’s nothing notably particular about this restricted run. What’s extra not solely are these specs extra restricted than Meta’s earlier clear body drop – solely 3,600 Coperni sensible glasses can be found as an alternative of 7,500 like earlier than – they’re additionally pricier.
Meta’s glasses usually begin at $299 / £299 / AU$449, and its final restricted drop was $429 / £429 (it wasn’t accessible in Australia). These Coperni specs are promoting for $549 / £519 / AU$859. Some commenters on the unique story love the design, however for us it’s not sufficient to justify the hype and price of Meta and Ray-Ban’s first-ever sensible glasses collab.
Disney+ is making Andor free to stream on YouTube
Watch On
Did you miss out on seeing what’s come to be thought of as the finest Star Wars present ever made? Effectively, you don’t have to fear about having FOMO anymore as a result of Disney has determined to publish the first three episodes of Andor on YouTube at no cost.
It has additionally made the complete first season of certainly one of the finest Disney+ reveals accessible on Hulu in the US forward of the highly-anticipated premiere of Andor season 2 on April 22, giving any non-Disney+ subscribers much more methods to get in on the motion.
That’s a sensible transfer to hook extra followers on the present and if you happen to’ve develop into certainly one of them (welcome) then you definitely’ll little doubt need to make the most of this nice streaming deal that brings down the Disney+ and Hulu bundle value again down to its superior Black Friday worth – come be a part of the rebels!
Google Gemini simply acquired bodily
Google Gemini is certainly one of the strongest AI platforms, however up till this week, it was principally about textual content, photos and didn’t join immediately to the bodily world. That adjustments with Gemini Robotics and its counterpart, Gemini Robotics-ER (embodied reasoning). Collectively, these platforms will join the dots between Gemini’s highly effective fashions and robots.
The long-term aim is humanoid robots working Gemini fashions (many main robotic firms, like Boston Dynamics, are already on-board) to help them in interacting with the actual world, and particularly unfamiliar conditions. Our private favourite was a pair of robotic arms that shortly discovered how to slam dunk a toy basketball with none particular coaching. The race to our robotic revolution is accelerating.
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