Professionals end every day feeling behind or burnt out, but not because they haven’t worked hard enough or clocked off earlier that day.

It’s because the volume of information, decisions, and context-switching is moving faster than the pace humans can realistically handle.

A recent Microsoft report put numbers to what people are feeling.

Eight in 10 of the global workforce say they lack enough time or energy to do their work, and 60% of meetings are happening as ad hoc calls or quick chats outside the pre-scheduled day-to-day.

This isn’t a motivation problem, it’s a capacity one - and it's created one of the defining contradictions of modern work. Businesses have never had more ideas, expertise, or ambition at their disposal, yet the people inside them are increasingly starved of the time and clarity needed to turn that potential into progress.

The smartphone makes this contradiction impossible to ignore. It is one of the most consequential inventions of the 21st century, yet also one that many people actively try to use less. Screen-time limits and digital detoxes are not anti-technology trends. They are signs that people are trying to regain control over a tool that has become indispensable, but increasingly overwhelming.

The message is simple: the market isn't asking for more technology. It's asking for relief.

Technological exhaustion

People are adopting or looking at things like digital assistants, wearable AI, focus apps, and workflow automation, not because the technology is impressive. They're doing it because they're exhausted.

That distinction matters because cognitive overload has become a workplace crisis. And the first wave of wearable AI missed the opportunity to solve it.

Instead of building practical tools, companies chased futuristic visions. Early wearable AI products asked "what can AI do?" instead of "what problem needs solving?"

The Humane Pin is the most obvious and probably the most well-known industry example. The vision was compelling, but the execution wasn't there. It positioned itself as a complete phone replacement before proving it could do even just one thing better than a phone. Ultimately, it tried to be everything and ended up being nothing.

This approach didn't reduce cognitive overload - it created more. Another device to manage. Another thing running in the background of an already overwhelming life.

The wrong question asked was: "How do we replace the phone entirely?"

A much better question is: “Where are people losing the most time, energy, and clarity — and how can technology give some of it back without demanding more from them?”

Useful technologies

The most useful technologies rarely arrive by replacing everything at once. The calculator didn't try to replace the accountant - it eliminated one specific source of friction and became indispensable.

It’s the same with wearable AI assistants. Progress is made in practice, not promises.

The wearables gaining real traction share one quality: users can explain their value in a single sentence. "This device exists so I can stop worrying about X." That clarity isn't a constraint - it is the product.

The future of this category will not be defined by the devices with the boldest premise. It will be defined by those who understand where people are most overloaded and remove that pressure without asking for much in return.

Does the technology make someone feel more capable or more managed? Does it reduce the number of things they have to remember, check, repeat, and translate? Does it create clarity, or simply another stream of information?

Those questions are less glamorous than asking whether AI can replace the smartphone. But they are also far more useful.

The wearables that will actually help aren't the ones with the boldest premise; they're the ones that solve one real problem but do it well.

In a world drowning in information, that may be the most ambitious thing technology can do.

Simplify work with the best AI tools.

This article was produced as part of TechRadar Pro Perspectives, our channel to feature the best and brightest minds in the technology industry today.

The views expressed here are those of the author and are not necessarily those of TechRadarPro or Future plc. If you are interested in contributing find out more here: https://www.techradar.com/pro/perspectives-how-to-submit

• The90 Gem necklace measures UV rays in your surroundings
• It then gives personalized advice on how to stay safe
• The high-tech device is styled as a pendant necklace

It often doesn’t take a lot to burn your skin if you’re out in the sun, and even just a few minutes of exposure can do damage if you’re not properly protected. Instead of guessing the best course of action, a new wearable device from The90 could help you know exactly what to do.

Dubbed the Gem, the product rather grandly describes itself as “The first personal sun intelligence system” that helps you “protect your skin's future in real time.” Despite that, it looks like a simple pendant at first glance. Worn around your neck, it could easily be mistaken for a piece of jewelry to the untrained eye. But there’s a lot more to it than that.

The main pendant is actually an ultraviolet (UV) light sensor that can measure the levels of both UVA (ageing) and UVB (burning) that you’re subject to. It combines this with your personalized skin profile, which covers your skin type, current clothing, and whether you’ve already applied sunscreen.

Once the device has all of that, it can give you advice on when it’s time to apply more sunscreen, cover up with extra clothes, or get under shade and out of the sun entirely. It does this through the company’s companion app, which is available for free.

Actionable insights

Plenty of weather apps provide data on UV rays in your local area, but the issue is they’re always going to be relatively inaccurate since they cover broad areas. A device like the Gem, on the other hand, can measure UV levels in your direct vicinity, giving you potentially more accurate information.

And because it takes variable factors into account — such as your clothing and skin type — it might be able to give you more valuable and actionable insights than something that just gives out blanket advice.

Still, it has a couple of limitations. It only comes in one style, for one thing, and that might not appeal to everyone. When you have a device that doubles up as both a health tracker and a wearable necklace, it could be a risk to only offer one appearance.

As well as that, the Gem is priced at $299, which makes it a fairly expensive — and therefore fairly niche — device. That’s perhaps reflected by its positioning as a piece of high-tech jewelry rather than a simple UV tracker. Still, it could price more people out than a simpler product would.

Despite all that, though, the Gem has promise. Founded by a Fitbit/Google veteran and with plenty of interesting ideas, it could certainly be one to watch.

Today, smart wearables and health tracking apps are part of everyday life for millions of people in the UK. From heart rate and blood oxygen levels to continuous glucose readings and home ECGs, a growing share of the population is generating real time health data from their wrist, phone or patch.

This is more than a consumer trend: it is fundamentally changing how patients understand their own health and their awareness of what medical technology can offer. Patients no longer arrive at appointments in the dark about their health.

Rather, they present months of data to clinicians, who can then use this information to support their own decision-making.

It is important, however, to distinguish between consumer wellness wearables and regulated medical devices (such as CE- or UKCA-marked technologies) that inform diagnosis and treatment in clinical pathways supported by NICE guidance.

We see this shift towards on-the-go health tech across the industry including developers of wearable cardiac monitors, continuous glucose systems, therapeutic wearables and portable diagnostic tools.

The public taking prevention into their own hands

Wearables have not only normalized constant and convenient access to health information, but have also empowered individuals to take personal responsibility for their own health. Checking a resting heart rate or sleep pattern has become routine, often prompting earlier referral to NHS services when anomalies appear.

Fitness trackers were the catalyst, but the public is now increasingly familiar with clinically focused technologies. Their presence in pharmacies, online, and in the media has raised awareness that precise, preventative tools exist, even when not supplied through the NHS.

Patient autonomy and appetite for diagnostics

This growth in patient autonomy has direct implications for health tech adoption. A decade ago, wearing a cardiac monitor for longer than 24 hours might have deterred patients; today, many people have adapted to this change, wearing devices day and night.

Key implications of this shift for health tech adoption include:

1. Willingness to use clinical devices: Familiarity with wearables makes patients open to long-term clinical monitoring if it yields a definitive result.

2. Stronger demand for accuracy: Patients understand that a 24-hour snapshot can miss intermittent issues and are more inclined to support technologies that monitor over days or weeks, even if this requires more commitment in the short term.

3. Reduced tolerance for repeat appointments caused by inconclusive tests: Once patients realize high-quality data prevents repeated hospital visits, they naturally prefer comprehensive, first-time investigation.

Ambulatory ECG monitoring illustrates this well. Traditional 24-hour Holter monitors frequently miss intermittent arrhythmias, leading to delayed diagnoses and increased stroke risk. Modern devices monitoring for 14 days provide higher diagnostic yields and a far better patient experience.

When tariffs lag behind patient expectations

Unfortunately, we often see that NHS reimbursement structures rarely keep pace. Long-term monitoring technologies are often grouped under the same tariff codes as short-duration, less accurate options.

In ambulatory ECG, for example, extended continuous monitoring is frequently reimbursed at the same rate as a basic Holter monitor. This structurally disincentivizes providers from adopting more effective diagnostics, compelling Trusts to rely on cheaper, short-term tests that fit existing codes but result in avoidable repeat appointments.

To harness patient autonomy in support of health tech adoption, reimbursement must recognize wider system benefits - such as avoided admissions and reduced outpatient appointments - rather than focusing solely on unit cost.

Supporting bringing care closer to home

These issues are particularly relevant in the context of the Neighbourhood Health Framework and 10 Year Health Plan. Moving toward integrated neighborhood teams and prevention-focused, community-based care depends on timely insight into patient risk.

Neighborhood teams are expected to manage long term conditions closer to home, prevent avoidable non-elective admissions and reduce pressure on acute services. Virtual wards are already doing this at scale: in January 2026, more than 11,000 patients in England were being cared for on virtual wards, with around 90% of the 12,700 available ‘beds’ occupied. Patient-generated data from wearables can support this by flagging risk earlier, enabling timely intervention and safe remote follow-up.

Longer term monitoring, postal diagnostic pathways and remote review are consistent with the Framework’s aims. They can contribute to mandated success measures, including reductions in non-elective admissions and bed days, improvements in cardiovascular and diabetes outcomes, better access and fewer avoidable outpatient appointments.

However, local providers will only realize this potential if adoption and market access mechanisms are aligned. If tariffs and coding frameworks undervalue longer-term monitoring, local systems will struggle to invest in the tools that best support these objectives.

Harnessing the “wearable generation” for system change

The rise of health tracking has created a population comfortable with health data, more focused on prevention and more aware of the possibilities of health technology. Whilst this can lead to more ‘worried well’ presentations - where non‑specific alerts from consumer wearables drive anxiety and extra GP appointments - it is largely an asset for the NHS.

The answer is not to discourage engagement, but to channel it. Clear guidance on how consumer data should be interpreted, and regulated devices with proven accuracy sitting within structured pathways rather than operating in isolation, can reduce unnecessary demand while accelerating appropriate diagnosis and treatment.

If procurement and commissioning are adjusted to reflect this reality, informed patients can accelerate responsible health tech adoption. They are already willing to track their health, use monitoring devices for longer periods and engage with digital tools if this results in clearer answers and less time on waiting lists.

The task now is to ensure that adoption pathways, tariffs and neighborhood care models are designed to support this engagement and to translate prevention on the wrist into better outcomes for patients and the health system.

We feature the best telemedicine software.

This article was produced as part of TechRadar Pro Perspectives, our channel to feature the best and brightest minds in the technology industry today.

The views expressed here are those of the author and are not necessarily those of TechRadarPro or Future plc. If you are interested in contributing find out more here: https://www.techradar.com/pro/perspectives-how-to-submit

• The LightInk watch offers 400 days of battery life
• It does this by stripping back features and using an E Ink display
• It also adds solar charging to stay topped up on the go

From the Apple Watch Ultra 3 to the Google Pixel Watch 4, customers looking to adorn their wrists with one of the best smartwatches tend to look for wearables that offer excellent battery life — after all, there’s no point in shelling out on a device if you spend more time charging it than using it. If battery life is a priority for you, you might want to check out the LightInk watch.

That’s because with 400 days of juice on a single charge, it blows past the competition in terms of battery longevity. How does it achieve that figure? Well, this is no ordinary watch — it’s powered by solar energy to keep itself constantly topped up, meaning you can start charging it even when you’re miles from the nearest power outlet. As long as the sun is beaming down on you, the LightInk’s battery is getting topped up.

But you’ll get 400 days of battery even before solar charging is taken into account, the project’s creator claims. How? Well, one way is through cutting the feature list right down. As its name suggests, the LightInk uses an E Ink display instead of an AMOLED display, unlike some rival smartwatches. E Ink technology is incredibly efficient on the battery, helping you eke even more life out of this product.

And because it’s an open-source project, there’s no fee to obtain one. You just need a 3D printer and a few off-the-shelf components to make it yours.

Extreme battery savings

Of course, the LightInk isn’t all sunshine and roses — there are a few downsides to it. Its E Ink screen might grant it excellent battery life, but it comes at the cost of visual fidelity. The LightInk’s display is monochrome and low resolution, so you shouldn’t expect any eye-catching graphics here. It doesn’t even show seconds.

And if you’re a fitness nut or believe in the ‘quantified self,’ you’ll want to look elsewhere. You won’t get any of the health and fitness sensors and metrics you find in most smartwatches — the LightInk can tell the time, occasionally connect to Wi-Fi and GPS, and that’s about it.

You also can’t just go out and buy the LightInk at your local shopping mall. As we mentioned before, you need to have a 3D printer on hand to craft many of the required components yourself, then assemble and solder them into a finished product. You’ll also need to be comfortable with building your own firmware based on the resources provided on LightInk’s GitHub page.

Still, the LightInk doesn’t make any claims of being a high-end, flagship device — it’s a deliberately basic product, as this is what allows it to put all of its energy into maximizing battery life.

It’s definitely not for everyone, but if your priority is staying away from your charger for as long as possible, it could be just what you’ve been looking for.

• This brand new perception chip supports real-time awareness at huge efficiency
• Always-on tracking could also improve smartphone camera performance
• Object recognition, positional tracking and scene understanding also supported

Swiss semiconductor startup Mosaic has successfully raised $3.8 million in funding to build super-efficient so-called perception chips, which would be installed across smart glasses and other wearables to bring more powerful processing into smaller form factors.

Company co-founder and CEO Alfio Di Mauro argues that “spatial intelligence shouldn’t require an application-class processor and a GPU,” hence the inception of Mosaic SoC, which aims to deliver “real-time perception at a fraction of the energy.”

Mosaic says its “next-generation perception chips” will address some of the current bottlenecks wearable makers face today, including battery size, heat output, device thickness and engineering complexity.

Are perception chips the answer to powerful yet slim wearables?

While cameras and sensors continue to improve, manufacturers are under increasing pressure to add more compute and processing power inside devices while maintaining (or even decreasing) form factor.

The perception chip is said to be able to provide real-time environmental awareness, object recognition, positional tracking and scene understanding while consuming only a fraction of the power a conventional smartphone-class compute stack would consume, making it ideal for future AR glasses and headsets.

“The Mosaic SoC chips are designed to be small enough and efficient enough to make smart glasses indistinguishable from regular glasses, while still delivering full spatial awareness,” the company declared in a press release.

Early smart glasses like Ray-Ban Meta and Oakley Meta devices currently lean heavily on smartphone pairing to get the most out of the technology they provide because the physical constraints of size and weight prevent them from being able to install the relevant hardware. On the flip side, Apple’s Vision Pro often draws criticism for its sheer weight (750-800g), which makes it uncomfortable to wear for longer periods.

However use cases extend far beyond just glasses – in smartphones, perception chips could power always-on tracking and classification to deliver continuous awareness with minimal impacts on battery life.

Extra power and big goals

Where Mosaic’s perception chip differs from others is that, where others rely on single- or dual-code ARM-based designs, this one uses a proprietary design and a multi-core architecture of eight or more cores, which maximizes performance per watt to back up Mosaic’s bold efficiency claims.

Mosaic also claims to remove original design manufacturer (ODM) complexity, shipping its chips with a full application layer developed and maintained by the startup.

While the company has already achieved “meaningful revenue” through NRE contracts with ODM partners, future plans revolve around far more than being a chip provider. This startup has big visions to become a platform supplier, where applications are developed specifically for its silicon.

“The next billion smart devices will see and understand the world around them,” Antonia Albert, an investor with leading Swiss pre-seed fund Founderful, commented. “Mosaic SoC's product is the chip that makes that possible at scale.”

• Amazfit has launched the Cheetah 2 Ultra smartwatch
• It’s made for trail runners and ultra-running enthusiasts
• It arrives just one day after the new budget wearables from Garmin

Amazfit has managed to carve out a role for itself as a popular budget-friendly wearables brand, and its devices often find a spot on our list of the best cheap smartwatches money can buy.

Now, the company has launched a brand-new offering, and it’s hot on the heels of a new cut-price Garmin watch that is gunning for the exact same buyers.

Amazfit’s new product is dubbed the Cheetah 2 Ultra, and the company describes it as “a specialized instrument for trail runners who measure success in elevation, unpredictable terrain, and hours spent on the move.”

It comes with a Grade 5 titanium bezel, frame, and back cover; a 1.5-inch AMOLED display that goes up to 3,000 nits of peak brightness and features a scratch-resistant sapphire glass panel; up to 33 hours of battery life in Trail Running Mode and up to 30 days of juice in regular mode; and dual-frequency six-satellite positioning for accurate GPS tracking.

If you’re going off-road and need directions, you’ll find full-color route planning that Amazfit says comes with “rendering speeds 2.5 times faster and refresh speeds 12 times faster than before.” There are also improved training and performance metrics, expanded third-party integrations, and more.

And the Cheetah 2 Ultra is not the only news from Amazfit. The firm has also recently updated the firmware for its T-Rex Ultra 2 watch to offer heart rate zones and waypoint data, better aiding you when you’re training, racing, or just out for a leisurely run.

A whole range of new watches

Amazfit typically positions its devices at the more affordable end of the market, but with the Cheetah 2 Ultra’s $599.99 price tag, the company is showing it’s not afraid to compete with more mid-range rivals.

Funnily enough, the announcement comes just one day after Garmin revealed a new array of affordable smartwatches, including the Forerunner 70, the Forerunner 170, and the Forerunner 170 Music. The former clocks in at £219.99 / AU$399 (about $300), and with the most expensive (the Forerunner 170 Music) priced at £299.99 / AU$549 (around $400), Garmin seems keen to show it can still make excellent budget smartwatches of the kind Amazfit’s customers might be used to.

It’s also interesting to note that while the Amazfit Cheetah 2 Ultra is aimed squarely at long-distance runners and ultra-marathon competitors, the Garmin Forerunner 70’s predecessor — the Forerunner 55 — was worn by Sabastian Sawe as he broke the sub-two-hour London Marathon record in April this year.

So if distance running is your bag, both of these watches should be on your radar. It’s just up to you to decide which one best fits your budget.

• OnePlus has announced the Watch 4 wearable
• It features a new version of Wear OS ahead of OnePlus’s older devices
• But some users are disappointed with the lack of sizeable upgrades

If you’re in the market for a new wearable, you might want to check out what OnePlus has added to its lineup. The company has just announced the OnePlus Watch 4 and revealed the device’s full list of features and specifications, and there’s an interesting software surprise nestled in the listing.

Head over to the OnePlus website, and you’ll find all the details for the new smartwatch. It’s got a 466x466 pixel LTPO OLED display with a sapphire crystal face delivering 600 nits of brightness and 3,000 nits of peak brightness in sports mode, 2GB of memory, and 32GB of storage. The 646mAh battery can power the device for three days of heavy usage and up to 16 days in power saver mode. The weight has been cut compared to the Watch 3, and an IP69 rating has been added.

Interestingly, the OnePlus Watch 4 is driven by Oxygen OS Watch 8, based on Google’s Wear OS 6, right out of the box. That’s unusual because OnePlus has previously said that Wear OS 6 will be coming to the older Watch 3 and Watch 2 models later this year, so getting it loaded onto a brand-new wearable before that timeframe is a pleasant surprise.

You’ll be able to get the OnePlus Watch 4 in Evergreen Titanium and Midnight Titanium colorways. Yet despite a soft launch on the OnePlus website, there’s no info yet on pricing or release date. We’ll have to see when that arrives.

One to avoid?

Despite the upgrade, some notable drawbacks will probably prevent the OnePlus Watch 4 from becoming one of the best smartwatches around, which is a shame considering how much we liked the Watch 3.

For one thing, the Watch 4 uses the same Qualcomm Snapdragon W5 processor and BES 2800 co-processor as the Watch 3 and Watch 2 before it. That’s a disappointing concession and means there’s no sign of the Snapdragon Wear Elite chip here.

And not all OnePlus fans are impressed, particularly when it comes to the relatively minor upgrades over the Watch 3. On Reddit, for example, user DueCompetition1249 expressed their displeasure by saying, “Nothing new. Either it will be really cheap … or it will be a flop.”

That sentiment was mirrored by user Realistic-Button1810, who said, “Not much hardware change, not really worth an upgrade if you have a two or three … better to wait until the new hardware is released.”

If you already have a OnePlus Watch 3 — or even a Watch 2 — you might not feel the upgrade is worth it, especially considering the lack of a new chip. In the absence of significant changes, the OnePlus Watch 4 might be one to avoid for recent OnePlus customers.

• An unreleased Fitbit wearable has been spotted in the wild
• It’s been repeatedly worn in public by basketball player Steph Curry
• The device was previously teased by Curry and Google

Not everyone that’s interested in fitness trackers wants a wearable with a screen. After all, these products might be some of the best smartwatches out there, but with a high-end display thrown into the mix, they can be too bulky, too expensive, and too short on battery life for many people.

Pushing against this, there are many screenless wearables that quantify your wellbeing without the cumbersome screen. Fitbit has been teasing one such device in collaboration with basketball player Steph Curry, and now a whole treasure trove of images has leaked depicting the as-yet-unreleased product.

The pictures were unearthed by Droid Life, with the outlet saying they came across the images on Steph Curry’s social media pages. These photos depict a screenless wearable wrapped around Curry’s wrist, with what looks to be a gray woven strap with an orange border and metallic clasp.

These match earlier leaked images supposedly portraying Fitbit’s wearable, which was officially teased by Google at the start of April. That lends credence to the idea that the product spotted by Droid Life is the same as the one promoted by Google and Steph Curry a few weeks ago.

Aside from the wearable itself, Droid Life also found a Steph Curry video that shows what looks like a modified version of the Fitbit app running on a Google Pixel phone. The Fitbit app in the video is tracking a Sport activity with live data, which Droid Life doesn’t believe the current app is able to do. The implication is that this is a feature that could come to the Fitbit app in order to complement its new wearable.

Seems legit

Interestingly, Curry has been sporting this wearable publicly since at least January 2026, Droid Life claims. He has been seen with it at basketball games, at press conferences and at promotional events, which seems unusual for an unreleased product that, you would think, would be kept under lock and key until it was ready for release.

One possibility is that the parties involved want the device to be spotted in order to build up excitement ahead of its launch date. In that way, it might be an attempt to seed the product into people’s minds before the arrival of any official press campaign.

The claim that the images were discovered on official pages managed by or featuring Steph Curry gives them some weight — after all, Curry is lending his name to the project alongside Google-owned Fitbit. It’s not like Droid Life has spotted an unknown device on the wrist of some other celebrity and has guessed that they’re looking at an in-development Fitbit product.

With the device seemingly making public appearances now, it might not be long until we get official details from Fitbit, such as the product’s name and asking price. If it’s something you're interested in, you might want to keep your eyes peeled.

• Garmin has added fertility tracking to many of its best wearables
• The feature comes via a partnership with Natural Cycles
• It’s coming to the Fenix 8, Forerunner 570, Venu 4, and more

The best Garmin smartwatches are more than just fitness trackers these days — they can help you get a clearer picture of your overall health, with many metrics that extend well beyond exercise. That’s just been expanded further with the introduction of fertility tracking, which is bound for Garmin users thanks to a collaboration with Natural Cycles.

If you haven't heard of Natural Cycles, it is currently the only birth control app cleared by the FDA. That means it’s well placed to enable cycle tracking on Garmin wearables and make understanding your fertility a little easier.

The new feature is coming to many of Garmin’s most popular watches, including the Fenix 8, Forerunner 570, Venu 4, and Venu X1. It should therefore be available to a wide variety of Garmin’s customers.

It works by measuring your skin temperature and then uses that reading to “unlock fertility insights in the Natural Cycles app,” Garmin says. This empowers users to “better understand their reproductive health.” Your temperature is tracked overnight, with information synced to the Natural Cycles app in the morning.

Plan or prevent a pregnancy

One of the benefits of using a smartwatch to track your fertility is that it is simple and non-invasive. There’s no need for any kind of hormone-based treatment or complex procedure, just a few metrics that can be gathered from your wrist.

Garmin is not the first nor the only company to have added fertility features to its wearables. Rivals, including Apple, Whoop, Fitbit, and more, also offer some kind of cycle tracking, meaning you’ve got a lot of options if you want this kind of functionality on your wrist.

The cycle-tracking features from Garmin and Natural Cycles aren’t available everywhere just yet. Garmin says it’s currently available in Australia, Brazil, Canada, the European Union, Norway, Singapore, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States. There’s no word yet on when it might be rolled out elsewhere.

But for now, it’s a welcome improvement to Garmin’s wearables and one that could help you keep track of a vital part of your life.

According to recent reports, Apple is going hard on the next generation of AI wearable technology. So far, even the best Apple Watches have been largely limited to health and fitness and a few communication features as an extension of your phone, while its AirPods Pro 3 have been enhanced with heart-rate detection and live translation.

Now Apple is taking its wearable AI smarts one step further, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, with a trio of wearables sporting AI cameras to provide 'contextual information' for its revamped Siri AI chatbot. The devices will function like the Meta Ray-Bans AI glasses, which let ask Meta a question based on the world around you and interpret your request as best they can.

Gurman reports that Apple is making its own AI glasses to take the fight to Meta, developing its frames in-house (rather than collaborating with an established glasses maker like Ray-Ban) with "an advanced camera system with a high-resolution camera that's able to capture photos and videos, as well as a second camera that provides visual information to ‌Siri‌ and environmental context" according to MacRumors.

It's reportedly focusing on build quality to distinguish itself from Meta, which likely means the glasses will be a premium product. With multiple sizes and colors set to be available, MacRumors says Apple is aiming for an "all-day AI companion".

The other two devices are expected to be an AI wearable pin – along the lines of the disastrous Humane AI Pin and other devices that have flopped in previous years – and AirPods fitted with cameras.

Both devices are expected to have lower-resolution cameras designed for information rather than taking high-quality photos, with included microphones for speaking with Siri. Gurman adds that a speaker for the AI Pin is being considered, but isn't confirmed. The devices would reportedly act like 'the eyes and ears' of an iPhone, linked to Siri on your phone rather than using on-device AI.

Will Apple fare any better than Humane?

Apple has struggled to make ground with splashy launches in areas of innovation in recent years, notably with the Apple Vision Pro. It's not that the device wasn't good; rather, the world wasn't ready for it (and it's expensive). However, if these rumors are true and we see the first hints of these devices in 2027, I have the feeling that Apple's smart glasses or AI wearables will do significantly better.

Apple has historically done well in fields others have broken ground in. It's not often been a true trailblazer – it lets others take the initial risks, then aims to produce an improved model. Look at how long Apple has taken to launch a foldable phone, for example: something we know it's currently working on. With its smart glasses Apple will look to fix the mistakes it sees Meta making, ironing out the pain points of the form factor and launching when potential customers have become used to the new concept of smart glasses.

Likewise with an AI pin or pendant. The Humane AI Pin was its own device, and it flopped, with a strange LED-display system on a device designed to completely replace the user's phone. Apple doesn't need to replace the iPhone; by all accounts it wants to add to it, keeping it as a hub in your pocket while reducing the need to take it out all the time. AirPods with AI cameras would be a similar concept.

It's all about making technology easier to use, and reducing friction between the user and their gadgets. That's one thing Apple has always excelled at, and I see no reason why these rumored devices wouldn't be successful.

• Ultrahuman may be about to release a new Ring Pro wearable
• That’s hinted at by fresh paperwork filed with the FCC
• It suggests Ultrahuman has worked a way around its past patent woes

Late last year, Ultrahuman’s best smart rings were banned from the US as part of the fallout from a patent dispute with Oura. At the time, Ultrahuman said that “A new ring design is already in development” – and a newly published regulatory filing suggests that this product is almost upon us.

As reported by Gadgets & Wearables, the Ultrahuman Ring Pro has just been revealed in paperwork filed with the FCC in the US. The filing lists several specifications of the new device and suggests that Ultrahuman has made changes to avoid infringing the patents that got its previous products banned in the first place.

According to the regulatory filing, the Ultrahuman Ring Pro will sport multiple colors and finishes, including Pro Raw Titanium, Pro Matte Gray, Pro Silver, Pro Gold and Pro Aster Black. There are options ranging from ring sizes five to 14, and its internal diameter extends up to 24.91mm across.

The Ultrahuman Ring Pro utilizes Bluetooth Low Energy and contains a 2450 MHz chip antenna. There doesn’t appear to be any mention of NFC functionality, although that doesn’t necessarily rule out this feature, as it might have been disabled for testing.

The fact that Ultrahuman is seemingly back with a new device suggests that it has found a way around the patent dispute that led to its previous troubles. That’s hinted at by the fact that Ultrahuman has also submitted filings for a new charger for the Ring Pro, with the new design implying that the company has worked out a new internal design that does not infringe upon Oura’s patents.

An imminent return

As soon as its rings were banned from import into the US, Ultrahuman reassured its users that it would be back with a new product. That appears to be the Ring Pro, which the filing suggests was tested in November 2025 and manufactured a month later. Considering the ban came into effect in October, that’s a fast turnaround for this new product.

At the time of the ban, Ultrahuman also raised the possibility of creating a ‘Made in USA’ version of its Ring Air that could be manufactured in Texas. There’s no indication that this is underway yet, so we’ll have to wait for more news on that front.

Now that the Ultrahuman Ring Pro has filed its paperwork with the FCC, it has cleared the last regulatory hurdle for entering the US market. While we don’t yet have a solid release date, we probably won’t have to wait too long to see Ultrahuman announce the Ring Pro. Gadgets & Wearables points out that the filing’s confidentiality clause expires in May, suggesting that the Ring Pro should launch before then.

When that happens, it should enable Ultrahuman to put its patent woes behind it. That should give more certainty to fans of the brand who have been waiting for news on the company’s future offerings for several months now.

I use a notepad every day. Not a tablet, or Windows Notepad, or Google Keep, or even OneNote, I'm a plain old pen-and-paper stalwart. I'm not a meticulous journal user: my notes are messy to-do lists, scrap notes from meetings, planning stories and articles, shopping lists, and brainstorming. In essence, I use it a bit like a second brain.

I shouldn't be surprised to see AI coming for this part of my life, too. As TechRadar's Senior Fitness and Wearables Editor, I had my eye on all the best fitness trackers and health innovations this year, but in the world of wearables it's 'second brains' that are dominating the show floor and conference halls, threatening to retire my beaten-up analog notepads.

First, it was the Pebble Index O1. Launching before CES but on display at the show, it's a new kind of smart ring. With a tactile button, microphone, and an NFC chip linking it to your phone (on which is an app with an open-source LLM), the Index O1 allows you to add events to your calendar, set reminders, transcribe notes to yourself, and generally remember things. In a conversation with me, Pebble and Core Devices founder Eric Migicovsky referred to it as "external memory for the brain".

It seems other wearables at CES have got the same idea. The Switchbot AI Mindclip is a device worn like a lapel pin that records conversations, sends them to the cloud and transforms them into searchable AI summaries. It reportedly supports over 100 languages, and describes itself as "a second brain".

We were on the ground at Lenovo's keynote (and posted the clip on our TikTok channel — you can watch it below), where Lenovo demonstrated its voice assistant Qira, housed in a camera-equipped pendant a bit like the creepy AI Friend concept that made the rounds last year. Anker's Soundcore Work and the Plaud NotePin are similar record-and-transcribe concepts.

As a journalist who knows all too well the pains of manual transcription, I can see the usefulness of these devices straight away. Long projects and features involving multiple interviews are a pain to work through, and it's a lot easier when I can skip backwards and forwards through the transcript, pull out the quotes I want and compare them with the original audio. Likewise, I'm sure most people who take lots of long meetings would appreciate a Ctrl+F function for their minds.

However, there's a big difference between "useful transcription feature for interviews and meetings" and "second brain". The phrasing these companies are using means they're aiming to replace the paper mind-map, not just the analog dictaphone. Instead of a physical notebook, we get AI that can be spoken to hands-free, back up your notes to the cloud (SwitchBot hasn't yet specified what cloud service it uses), allow you to search through them simply and is eminently more convenient. All for a chunky up-front purchase and a small monthly fee thereafter.

The phrasing of the "second brain" also reminds me of an MIT study about heavy AI and ChatGPT users, which explored the effects of using AI to write essays rather than the human brain across four months, measuring brain activity for each participant group. By the end of the study, the researchers found that "over four months, LLM users consistently underperformed at neural, linguistic, and behavioral levels," and showed significantly lower brain activity.

My parents have an unerring, almost encyclopaedic knowledge of the road networks in, probably, a 50-mile radius from my childhood home. They learned this the old-fashioned way. When I learned to drive, on the other hand, I used GPS to get me everywhere, and as a result became almost completely reliant on it. I don't have anywhere near the instant road-network recall my parents have, even close to home, and I'm sure many people of my generation are the same.

As someone who already makes use of AI transcription tools, I'm keen to see them get better and continue to automate one of the most mind-numbing tasks of being a journalist — transcribing interviews. However, if the second brain is going to see a lot of use outside of the workplace too, I wonder whether any more essential cognitive functions we take for granted are going to atrophy as a result.

• Razer showcased an upgraded Project AVA animated holographic AI assistant at CES this year
• Project AVA has a selection of avatars with their own simulated personalities that can engage in conversation, see your screen, and track your gaze
• Razer is widening Project Ava's role beyond gaming coach to everyday tasks like scheduling and organizing your life

AI assistants right now mostly take the form of a wall of text or a disembodied voice, but Razer thinks people would prefer to talk to a small, animated hologram with a matching personality sitting on their desk.

It brought its Project AVA to CES this year to showcase exactly that. AVA first debuted at CES last year as an esports coach inside a gaming rig, but the glowing, 5-inch holographic avatar can now live on your desk, conversing with you and offering help on everything from your daily schedule to the perfect outfit of the day.

AVA's cylindrical home sits next to your keyboard, appearing to house a lively hologram looking like one of a handful (so far) of assistant forms, such as original Razer characters, AVA, Kira and Zane, or recognizable esports figures.

The holograms have facial expressions, lip-synced speech, and personalities that Razer says go "from bold and sassy, to calm and friendly."

The built-in camera, far-field microphone array, and “PC Vision Mode” enable AVA to see your screen, hear your voice, and follow your gaze. According to Razer, the hologram isn’t just for show. The projected avatar mirrors your interactions with subtle head movements, blinking, lip syncing, and expressions designed to feel alive without veering into the uncanny valley. The eye-tracking hardware lets it maintain “eye contact,” giving conversations a surprising sense of reciprocity.

Despite its gaming roots, AVA is designed to be a full-service assistant. Along with analyzing in-game footage and suggesting strategy tweaks in real time, it can organize your schedule, remind you of appointments, and suggest entertainment options based on your browsing.

Hologram AI

AVA is supposed to use what it learns about you, from your speech patterns to your on-screen activity, to adapt to your mood and habits. Razer suggests AVA will leverage that information, and its screen access, to give you ideas to help with making spreadsheets, editing code, or putting together presentations.

The standard concerns about sharing that much information with an AI model apply to AVA, but with an extra dimension of eeriness possible when that AI has a face and voice. Razer has said the data stays local and that privacy protections are a top priority, but the intellectual understanding of an AI collecting information about you might feel more visceral when it has a human or human-like form.

Razer has opened up $20 refundable reservations for AVA in the U.S. ahead of an unrevealed shipping date, likely later this year. While you technically only need a Windows PC and USB-C connection, AVA needs relatively high system performance to support its real-time avatar rendering and analysis, so it's not a casual toy.

Whether power users willing to pony up for AVA find it to be a persistent digital buddy they miss when it’s off might decide AVA's fate in the wider world. The glow of a small animated being quietly watching you from your desk might not appeal to the more tentative AI tool users.

• Razer unveiled its Project Motoko AI headset at CES
• Project Motoko can see, hear, and react to your surroundings in real time
• The headset pairs cameras, microphones, and AI platforms like ChatGPT and Gemini to offer hands-free assistance

Razer offered a glimpse of a world where your headset sees, hears, and thinks while it pipes your music to your ears at CES this year. The company's new Project Motoko AI-native headset is still in the concept stage, but it joined its new remote and gaming chair in Las Vegas. Motoko is a way of seeing how Razer's approach to AI wearable tech might easily catch on.

Razer’s pitch for wearable AI is basically a headset that sees and hears whatever you do and provides proactive help based on context. Project Motoko melds Razer’s design sensibilities with AI chips and extended reality tools. The wireless headset is laden with cameras and microphones that share information with AI models able to recognize and interact with whatever you're looking at, while keeping a digital eye on the world beyond your peripheral vision. Razer claims the headset will respond to visual cues, translate signs, summarize documents, track workouts, and generally act like a low-key, always-on assistant.

The dual forward-facing cameras mounted at eye level give the headset a natural first-person perspective, allowing it to recognize traffic lights, recipes, or anything else in front of you and offer whatever help seems most needed. The multiple microphones let it parse both your voice commands and whatever else it hears around you. They combine to provide what Razer calls “augmented AI awareness.”

Project Motoko is agnostic about which AI tool is helping you out, so you can have a conversation with Gemini, ChatGPT, or even Grok. The headset can process and respond based on whatever system you already use.

Razer hastened to make clear that Motoko is not just for gaming, even if it debuted under Razer’s gaming-forward brand. The company wants people to use the headset every day for more mundane tasks. That might mean organizing your calendar, handling chores, browsing the web, or walking through a foreign city while it quietly translates the signage and helps you avoid construction zones.

The look of the headset compared to smartglasses might be part of the draw. Smart glasses, which have struggled with adoption due to awkward designs and social discomfort, while over-ear headphones are already widely accepted.

Omniscient headset

Of course, since Motoko isn’t shipping yet, a lot of its capabilities are left to demos and speculation. Razer is likely particularly keen to avoid the pitfalls that plagued Humane's AI Pin into extinction and led to so many complaints for the Rabbit’s R1 assistant.

Motoko doesn’t claim to be the first or the only solution. But it does reflect a growing trend for context-aware devices that live in everyday accessories. Razer even sees potential in robotics and machine learning research. The idea is that people could use Motoko’s human-like field of view and depth data to train other AI models to see and understand the world. One way or another, headsets might become a common AI interface sooner than we think.

“Project Motoko is more than a concept, it’s a vision for the future of AI and wearable computing,” said Nick Bourne, Global Head of Mobile Console Division, Razer. “This is the next frontier for immersive experiences.”

So farewell, 2025 – you were frequently exciting, regularly chaotic, occasionally frustrating but always interesting. And that’s how we like it around here.

It was a year in which often fairly iterative improvements to hardware were overshadowed by rapid and significant advances on the computing side of things. I’m talking, of course, about AI, which is now so dominant within the tech world that it’s increasingly hard to find a device that doesn’t have an AI brain.

Not that I’m complaining, because the leaps made in 2025 by the likes of OpenAI’s Sora and Google’s Gemini were truly astonishing; the pace of change is such that it feels like we’re squeezing about a decade’s worth of advances into each year now, and I wouldn’t like to predict what the state of play will be in 12 months’ time. Well, other than to say that we’ll be taking for granted things which seem almost impossible right now – although as our AI Editor Graham Barlow notes below, maybe we’re already doing that.

In comparison, it often looked in 2025 as though things were slowing down on the hardware side. Could Apple really make its already-excellent MacBooks much better? Could Samsung improve much on the superb Galaxy S series? Was there much scope for OLED TVs or wireless headphones or mirrorless cameras to develop?

The answer was yes, yes and yes. Though the upgrades to many models may not have been as big as those on the software side, they were frequently excellent in their own right. The improvements to battery life, screen tech and camera lenses may not be as flashy as those on the AI front, but they can make a real difference to how we use our devices on a daily basis. In many ways, tech fans have never had it so good.

Whether that will continue in 2026 remains to be seen. AI now looks to be having a direct – and negative – effect on component prices, which could make your favorite new phone or laptop more expensive in the coming year. We might also see stock shortages in some areas, which could further inflate those price tags.

It looks like we’re set for another year of exciting, chaotic, frustrating and interesting news, then – and we’ll be here with you every step of the way. Until then, I hope you’ve enjoyed reading TechRadar in 2025, and have a happy New Year!

My year in tech

I bent reality, but I failed to bend an iPhone

This year was marked by astonishing leaps in AI capabilities, which I tried to not only report on but experience in full. From my first experience with ‘vibe coding’ to wild leaps of fancy with Veo 3 (and later the Sora app) to creating my own digital double, AI’s fast-changing capabilities constantly amazed me.

Never in four decades of covering emerging technologies have I seen anything like it: AI’s rise continues to be a heady mixture of enthusiastic adoption tinged with white-knuckled fear about what it all means for jobs, and for humanity, and nothing we saw in 2025 did much to resolve that anxiety.

However, it was my conversations with those leading the AI and wider innovation charge that stood out. My interviews with Amazon’s Panos Panay about Alexa+ and Google’s Sameer Samat about the future of Android were particularly memorable, as was the moment when one of Apple’s top executives threw his brand-new iPhone Air to me during a video podcast and insisted that I try to bend it.

The rise of humanoid robots was a trend that shocked and pleased me in equal measure, though I’ve tried to temper my enthusiasm with the knowledge that clever marketing and eye-popping videos will only get us so far. We all want the ultimate home robot, but I still don't think many of us are willing to pay $20,000 to get it.

Away from all the AI and robots, I spent much of the year trying new phones, including redesigned iPhones and an incredibly thin folding Samsung phone, along with a wide range of wearable technology that included the Galaxy XR headset, and some very exciting AR glasses from Meta and Google’s Android XR group. Experiencing these felt like peering into our near technological future, which increasingly will be filled with on-demand AI, flexible phones, and maybe those robots.

The year in AI

This was the year we started taking AI for granted 

For all the talk of breakthroughs and hype, 2025 felt less like the year AI changed everything and more like the year it quietly became unavoidable. While the much-hyped arrival of super-powerful artificial general intelligence (AGI), predicted for 2025 by many, simply hasn’t materialized, the year has still been a strong one for companies such as OpenAI, xAI, Anthropic, and Google. That said, there have also been some massive flops; and as for Apple, it feels like yet another year in which it slipped further behind in the AI race.

ChatGPT maintained its vice-like grip as the most popular AI chatbot in the world, though it hasn’t been plain sailing for OpenAI. Legal challenges, particularly the copyright infringement claim brought by The New York Times, have continued to dog the company, and in June its servers crashed for a couple of days, giving the world a brief taste of life without the ubiquitous chatbot.

OpenAI then fumbled the ball with the release of its GPT-5 model, which came across as cold and unemotional compared to the previous GPT-4o. For millions of users who’d come to rely on the chatbot as something closer to a trusted companion it felt like a best friend had undergone a personality transplant overnight, forcing OpenAI to make the legacy 4o model available again.

The company has also lost a little ground to Google’s Gemini in recent months. The arrival of Gemini 3 Pro in November was well received, and on the image front, Gemini’s Nano Banana and Nano Banana Pro proved superior to ChatGPT for image generation. OpenAI responded with a new image-generation model in December.

AI-powered pets and toys also began to appear this year. We took Moflin for a spin, until we accidentally fried its battery. More broadly, the dominant theme of the year was that every product must now have AI built into it in some form, and no company exemplifies this approach better than Microsoft, which has spent the year enthusiastically stuffing Copilot into just about everything it makes.

Finally, the year looks set to end on a high note for Amazon. Alexa+, the AI-powered version of Alexa that Amazon has been promising all year but hasn’t yet managed to fully roll out, may finally be getting a web version, at least in the US.

THE YEAR IN PHONES

Slim pickings for thin phones, and hints of a tri-fold future

2025 was the year of the super-thin phone, writes Roland Moore-Colyer, Managing Editor, Mobile Computing, with the release of the Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge in the first half of the year, and the iPhone Air in the second. These handsets grabbed headlines with their svelte proportions, but so far sales figures have yet to match the hype.

That’s likely due to their relatively high prices in the face of already pretty slim iPhones and Galaxy and Pixel handsets, all of which saw the expected yearly upgrades with the iPhone 17, Galaxy S25 and Pixel 10 lines respectively. While the upgrades to the iPhone 17 family appeared incremental at first glance, I'd argue they're a bigger deal when you dig into the details: there was a new design and cooling system for the Pro phones, the standard model finally got a 120Hz display, and Apple's 48MP 'Fusion' camera came to every iPhone in the lineup, including the Air (the Plus model went the way of the dodo).

AI found its way into more phones and more features, with Google’s Pixel phones in particular boasting a whole host of genuinely useful smart tools. Meanwhile, Apple just about managed to distract us from the shortcomings of Apple Intelligence with its flashy Liquid Glass design and the eye-catching Cosmic Orange iPhone 17 Pro.

Some of the most interesting phones came from smaller brands, with the Nothing Phone 3 offering something a little different without scrimping on flagship features. There was the Oppo Find X9 Pro with its strange but useful camera kit, while the OnePlus 15 was the only phone to earn a maximum five-star review from us this year. There were also a clutch of affordable phones from the likes of Motorola and Xiaomi, proving that you don’t have to pay a lot to get a very capable smartphone these days.

We saw further evolution in the folding phone space, with the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 leading the way, and Samsung also unveiled its first tri-folding phone, with the Galaxy Trifold joining Huawei's Mate XT, and teasing a future of devices that truly blend phones and tablets. We may even see a foldable iPhone in 2026, but don’t hold your breath.

THE YEAR IN COMPUTING

RAM drama enlivens a year of evolution over revolution

When it came to computing, 2025 didn't start off as the most promising year. While 2024 felt like a year of revolutionary change, with the explosive growth of AI, the fall of Intel, and the rise of Arm-based laptops that were actually worth buying, this year has felt more like we're in a holding pattern, as the innovations of the past few years are iterated on and refined.

The year kicked off with Nvidia launching its latest generation of consumer graphics cards, the RTX 5000 series, at CES 2025, and they encapsulated the ‘evolution, not revolution’ theme, with some great new features that haven't fundamentally shaken up the industry, as the introduction of ray tracing with the RTX 2000 series did. Of course, making a great product even better is no bad thing, and our components editor and GPU expert John Loeffler was suitably impressed, enthusing in his RTX 5090 review that “If you're a gamer, you'll still get impressive gen-on-gen performance improvements over the celebrated RTX 4090, and the Nvidia RTX 5090 is really the first consumer graphics card I've tested that can get you consistent, high-frame-rate 8K gameplay.”

I have an RTX 5090 and I love it, and I've also been impressed by its 8K performance in modern games, but with the majority of PC gamers still playing at 1080p, this high-end GPU might be a bit too expensive to justify. Other releases from AMD and Intel, plus Apple’s latest M5 chip, continued the theme of impressive releases that don’t massively change the computing landscape.

Perhaps the biggest event in 2025 was the continued rise of AI. Recently, the AI boom has led to a global shortage of memory, which has in turn caused an increase in the prices of devices that use it. All of a sudden, PCs, RAM, and GPUs look set to get increasingly expensive, though some, like our computing editor Christian Guyton, aren’t too worried – yet. Personally, the end-of-year drama is making me nostalgic for those early months when 2025 felt rather boring.

THE YEAR IN TVS

The era of giant, cheap TVs is here

This year saw two really interesting developments in TV technology, with the first being the arrival of a whole new kind of ‘Tandem RGB’ OLED TV panel from LG. This appeared in the LG G5, helping it to score the maximum five stars in our review, and in the fantastic Panasonic Z95B, enabling both TVs to hit stunning levels of brightness and color depth, but with reduced power consumption.

However, this new screen technology didn’t win either of those sets our TV of the Year award – that went to the Samsung S95F, which not only earned its own perfect 5-star review, but was also voted the top TV in the most categories by the judges in our flagship OLED TV showdown, which pitted it against the LG G5, Panasonic Z95B, and Sony Bravia 8 II.

The second big tech development was the arrival of RGB mini-LED tech – and, make no mistake, this is the next big thing. It’s more efficient than current mini-LED tech, and is capable of richer colors and less light leakage from bright areas to dark ones, and it could be the tech to finally knock OLED off its perch.

We know that Samsung, LG, TCL and Hisense will all launch RGB mini-LED TV ranges in 2026, but the Hisense UX116 was the only TV to use it in 2025 – and it was a mixed bag, with performance issues that disappointed given its eye-wateringly high price. Still, we’re excited to see how this tech develops.

But the biggest thing in TVs this year was the TVs themselves – as in, they got big and they got affordable. TCL and Hisense launched 85-inch and 100-inch TVs that were within the budgets of regular mortals, and 75-inch TVs are becoming positively cheap, while still being good. While new tech is exciting, huge TVs like the Hisense U8N and TCL QM7K becoming more affordable is the change that made the biggest difference for customers.

THE YEAR IN VR/AR

Android XR arrives to challenge Meta’s dominance

This year XR or 'extended reality' took center stage, thanks in large part to Android XR hardware finally breaking cover in the shape of the Samsung Galaxy XR headset. We also tested prototype Android XR glasses ahead of their expected release in the coming year, and they’re impressive (the glasses at least, the headset less so right now). Google, along with its Android partners, looks set to seriously challenge Meta in 2026.

For its part Meta debuted several new smart wearables over the past 12 months, including two pairs of Oakley smart glasses – the stylish HSTNs and the sporty Vanguards, the latter of which are perfect for runners when used with a compatible Garmin watch. We also saw a Gen 2 model of the Meta Ray-Bans, and the company's latest step towards full-on AR specs, the Meta Ray-Ban Display glasses, which as you can probably guess feature a display for the specs to relay info visually. We’ve tested them, and they’re everything Google Glass wanted to be, but right now they're not easy to get hold of.

What about VR headsets proper? Valve surprised no one (because the device was so heavily leaked before launch) with its Steam Frame headset announcement. Key details like the price are still a mystery, but it will be landing in 2026 – and when it does, the spec sheet teases a device that could seriously challenge the reigning champion of VR, the Meta Quest 3. Depending on how Valve handles the launch, I wouldn’t be surprised if it makes all other headsets feel obsolete – even the Galaxy XR and Apple Vision Pro.

Talking of Apple's mixed-reality spatial-computing headset, we got a new version with an M5 chip and comfier strap, but while it's a worthwhile upgrade the price still feels too high.

THE YEAR IN AUDIO

The year the big dogs bit back

If 2024 was the year niche UK hi-fi brands took over the dance floor amid a hiatus from audio's heavy hitters (see Bowers & Wilkins' fantastic Pi8 earbuds or Cambridge Audio's inaugural, affordable, adorable P100 cans), 2025 was the year the big dogs returned to the party and got their groove back.

We got five major headphones releases in 2025, starting with the Beats Powerbeats Pro 2 earbuds in February. The hotly anticipated update to the 2019 Powerbeats Pro proved that Apple could indeed deliver heart-rate monitoring in its earbuds.

Cut to May and Sony's WH-1000XM6 landed, to finally knock the 2020-issue WH-1000XM4 off the top spot in our best headphones guide. It was a similar story with the June arrival of the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds (2nd Gen), quickly followed by the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen) in September – a two-pronged attack on the market that saw Bose reinstated as the king of ANC.

However, this roundup wouldn't be complete without a nod to the biggest launch of them all: the fall arrival of Apple's AirPods Pro 3. The shape's different, the ANC is twice as good, and yes, like the Powerbeats Pro 2 they also keep tabs on your ticker, in a slightly different way, and with increasing third-party fitness-app support. Still the most popular earbuds in the world? Absolutely.

Elsewhere, Spotify Lossless finally landed, at no cost to Premium subscribers, offering almost-as-good-as-Apple-Music resolution at up to 24-bit/44.1kHz. While Lossless wasn't a huge hit with fans initially, the big green streaming machine's popularity continues to grow, despite concerns over artist payments.

Oh, and if you take note of just one audio brand name this year, let it be WiiM. As Sonos continues to tackle trust issues among its once-loyal fanbase, the plucky multi-room underdog unveiled its WiiM Sound (and now the WiiM Sound Lite) premium hi-res speakers – and the firm would love to help you build your wireless sound system around them.

THE YEAR IN CAMERAS

A memorable year for glass as well as for cameras

2025 was full of pleasant surprises for photographers. The Sigma BF was truly out of the ordinary, being dubbed ‘the camera Apple would have made’, while the Caira with its Nano Banana AI skills showed us a glimpse of how on-the-go generative editing can work in an actual camera.

Fujifilm and OM System showed us that user experience matters with the quirky X half and retro OM-3 respectively, while Hasselblad and Nikon delivered strong offerings of their own – my favorite stills camera ever, the X2D II, and a new player in the cinema-camera game, the Nikon Zr. A special shoutout goes to Nikon for becoming the best-value camera brand this year, notably for the excellent Z5 II, which is our Camera of the Year, and Z50 II.

It was arguably an even better year for new lenses than cameras, with Sigma, Sony and Viltrox in particular knocking it out the park with world-first and affordable optics. Canon continues to lock out third parties from its full-frame camera lineup, but that decision feels more justified after it launched the affordable and capable 45mm F1.2 STM prime.

A sense of order was restored towards the end of the year when Canon and Sony launched their anticipated mid-range full-frame cameras: the EOS R6 III and A7 V, both of which are integral to their lineups.

The long-threatened US ban on DJI products finally came into effect, and we saw a couple of major product launches from the brand in the build-up to it: the incredible (sort of) sub-250g Mini 5 Pro, and the DJI Osmo 360 – its first foray into 360 cameras, and rival to both the Insta 360 X5 and GoPro’s new Max 2. DJI is also being tipped to launch its first 360 drone soon, but Insta360 got there first with the truly innovative Antigravity A1.

Overall, it’s been a good year for camera fans, with demand seemingly remaining strong in the face of competition from increasingly capable smartphones. I’m predicting that the consumer and cinema camera spaces will continue converging in 2026, and I hope the likes of Viltrox expand our options with new and affordable autofocus zoom lenses.

The year in gaming

The Switch 2 makes waves, and GTA 6 looms over 2026

Gaming in 2025 was largely dominated by the arrival of the Nintendo Switch 2. It’s a safe improvement on the original Switch, and one that epitomizes the ‘evolution not revolution’ approach to console development.

The specs sheet won’t blow anyone’s socks off, but it’s a superb package that cements the Switch's position as the go-to handheld console; and it was so popular in the pre-order and launch phases that it took months for retailers to catch up with demand. It’s been backed up by some excellent games too, including Mario Kart World, Donkey Kong Bananza, Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, Kirby Air Riders, and Pokémon Legends Z-A.

Sony had its own say in the gaming handheld space, breathing new life into the PlayStation Portal handheld device, which is now capable of excellent cloud streaming. This has elevated the handheld, which we were already big fans of, to impressive new heights.

The PS5’s game library got a bump with Death Stranding 2: On the Beach and Ghost of Yotei, as well as titles including Borderlands 4, Battlefield 6, Arc Raiders and TechRadar Gaming’s Game of the Year, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. Elsewhere, indie games ruled, with the likes of Blue Prince, Hades 2, and Hollow Knight: Silksong proving standouts in a strong year for releases.

It’s been a year to forget for Xbox, however, and its woes only accentuated the aforementioned successes for Nintendo and Sony. For starters, more Xbox games – including Gears of War: Reloaded – arrived on PS5, while others are set to follow, including the symbol of Xbox itself, Halo. Meanwhile studios were shuttered and prospective games cancelled, and to make matters worse the Xbox X/S were outsold by a tiny family console, the Nex Playground, over Black Friday. All in all it’s been tough going for Team Green.

As for 2026, it’s beginning to feel like the pace of progress towards next-gen consoles will quicken, and the game release calendar looks well stocked. However, a titan looms: Grand Theft Auto 6 is now slated for release in November after being originally planned for late 2025, and the whole gaming world is going to revolve around its arrival.

THE YEAR IN FITNESS

Time’s finally up for wasteful wearables, thanks to Google

Last year, I ended my contribution to this round-up by predicting a move away from fitness watches towards screenless trackers, such as a new WHOOP model, writes Matt Evans, Senior Editor, Fitness, Wellness & Wearables. Well, we got not one, but two new WHOOPs, and they were… fine. But, as prices rose, I found the ongoing subscription model far too expensive.

However, my prediction that we’d move away from smartwatches hasn’t really been borne out. Wearable tech isn’t changing much in the mainstream, with the highest-profile releases being a slate of new watches from Garmin, Apple, Samsung, Google and OnePlus, and they’ve been as popular as ever.

Look beyond those big releases, however, and interesting new stuff is out there. A subscription-free WHOOP competitor band was launched by Polar, while Core Devices, the resurrected Pebble watch company led by its original founder, unveiled a pair of watches inspired by the original Pebble designs, complete with low-power LCD-style screens, and open-source software that anyone with the know-how can tinker with.

Core Devices also launched a new kind of smart ring with a button and a microphone, which the company says acts as “external memory for the brain”. Elsewhere, the AirPods Pro 3 now have built-in heart rate sensors, and Meta teamed up with Garmin to bring us the Oakley Meta Vanguard sports specs. Cool new wearable innovations are happening, but it all still feels quite fringe.

My innovation of the year, however, came from Google. The Google Pixel Watch 4 is the first properly repairable smartwatch, as you’re able to take it apart and replace the battery and display. This enables you to change individual parts rather than the whole watch, reducing your contribution to e-waste, and saving you money in the long run.

Almost every other piece of wearable tech from every other company is still a sealed unit that will ultimately end up being disposed of, and I hope Google's move could be the catalyst for change that the wasteful wearable tech industry sorely needs.

THE YEAR IN ENTERTAINMENT

Streaming sensations, box-office flops, and merger madness

The biggest story of 2025 broke late in the year, and it concerned off-screen studio machinations rather than on-screen drama. Netflix’s $82.7bn bid for Warner Bros. sent shockwaves through the industry when it was announced in early December, and provoked a counter-bid from Paramount Skydance. There’s still a long way to go before a deal is approved, but should Netflix acquire one of the film world’s most iconic studios it would be a landmark moment for the streaming sector, and would represent a seismic shift for the entertainment industry as a whole.

Turning to the year's big theatrical releases, and numerous new movies flopped at the box office, including some with huge names attached (I’m looking at you, Dwayne Johnson and The Smashing Machine). Heck, with Captain America: Brave New World, Thunderbolts*, and The Fantastic Four: First Steps all underperforming, even the usually reliable Marvel Studios didn’t have a money-spinning hit on its hands. I wonder how many people predicted that animated and live-action/CGI hybrids would rule the theatrical roost, led by multi-billion dollar-spinning flicks like Lilo & Stitch, Zootopia 2, and Ne Zha II…

As for the major streaming services, users endured more of the now-customary annual price hikes, while Max raised eyebrows by rebranding itself – again – to HBO Max. On the screen, unexpected hits such as HBO medical drama The Pitt, plus Netflix's ‘one-shot’ drama Adolescence and pop-culture phenomenon Kpop Demon Hunters, proved that not even the savviest industry exec can really be sure what viewers will latch onto. Add in the return of unmissable shows including Severance and Stranger Things amid the glut of great and not-so-great film and TV releases, and there was plenty to keep our eyeballs engaged. Now, what have you got in store for us, 2026?

The Year in Smart Home

If the subscriptions don't get you, the fridge ads will

It's been a slow but not insignificant year in home technology as legacy brands scramble to keep pace with bigger, already tech-savvy players vying for their spot in our homes – whether that's Breville reinventing the toaster with a proprietary optical sensor, IKEA launching new renewable energy solutions, or Eufy and Dreame duking it out to give us the most effective stair-climbing robot vacuum.

Some brands were less innovative than others though. Dyson left some of us feeling snubbed with its 'new' (read: decade-old) vacuum, while Shark's TurboBlade Cool + Heat failed to impress despite its noble attempt at mimicking other SharkNinja product's viral fame.

Elsewhere we saw big plays from Amazon and Google in the smart home space, with the arrival of their AI-bolstered home assistants. Amazon's Alexa+ and Google's Gemini for Home both entered Early Access beta in the US, and while the early reviews for both have been mixed, it's a promising glimpse into the future of the connected home.

Both of those services are subscription-based offerings, and subscriptions look set to become a major battleground for smart-home brands, and a bone of contention between brands and their customers, as companies attempt to lock users into their ecosystems, as we've already seen with video doorbells. Between that, and brands like Samsung using screen-loaded appliances as advertising billboards around the home, now might be a good time to really think about which brands you want want to invest in as you build your smart home.

The Apple Watch is all about quick, glanceable information – your split time on your morning jog, message alerts when your friends get in touch, the latest updates from the weekend’s big games. With just a swift glance at your wrist, you’ve got all the info you need.

Live Activities make that even easier. This feature allows apps running on your iPhone to display pertinent data on your Watch face. But there’s a problem: Live Activities take over your entire Watch screen. If you want to use a different app or just want to tell the time, you’ve got to dismiss the Live Activities first. They get in the way and slow you down.

I find this particularly annoying when I’m on a morning run or walk. I like to listen to podcasts when I’m out of the house, and launching an episode from an app like Overcast brings up a Live Activity on my iPhone.

Unfortunately, it also brings up a Live Activity on my Watch. That’s a problem because rather than seeing how far through an episode I am, I would much rather have an unobstructed view of my Watch face, but this gets obscured by the podcast Live Activity. As a result, my Watch is instead taken over by something I would much prefer to control on my iPhone.

Fortunately, there’s a way to prevent Live Activities from hijacking your Watch without disabling the feature on your iPhone. It’s quick and simple to do and means you get an unobstructed view of your Watch face, even when an app is running. Better yet, there’s plenty of extra customization available should you need it. Let’s take a look at how it’s done.

How to rein in Live Activities

To stop Live Activities opening apps on your Watch and instead just show your Apple Watch’s face, follow the steps below:

1. On your Apple Watch, open the Settings app
2. Now go to General > Auto-Launch > Live Activities Settings
3. Within this menu, disable the toggle next to Auto-Launch Live Activities

And that’s it. Now when an iPhone app brings up a Live Activity, it’ll only do so on your iPhone, not on your Apple Watch. And if you change your mind, all you need to do is re-enable the toggle you switched off in step 3 above.

The best bit is there’s still a quick and easy way to access Live Activities, even after you’ve disabled them: just swipe up from the bottom of your Watch’s screen. As long as there’s a Live Activity running on your iPhone, it’ll now be visible on your Watch. To dismiss it, just swipe down or press the Digital Crown. It’s all still accessible, it just won’t take over your display by default.

Further customization

Apple doesn’t just leave things there – it gives you more controls to tweak Apple Watch Live Activities to your liking.

For instance, scroll down the Settings page and you’ll see an option to show Live Activities if your wrist is down. This is enabled by default, but can be switched off.

Scroll down further and you’ll find sections for media apps, as well as entries for individual apps that you have installed on your Watch. Tap one of these sections and you can switch off Live Activities for selected apps while allowing them for all others, giving you plenty of granular control over how Live Activities are displayed on your wrist.

A small change that makes all the difference

With a few of these settings adjusted, I feel like Live Activities are much more under control on my Apple Watch. They’re reined in and only appear when I’d like them to, allowing me to enjoy my morning podcast while still getting a clear view of my Watch face whenever I need to.

If you’ve previously despaired of Live Activities or wondered why they insist on taking over your Watch at every opportunity, changing a few settings can help put things right in just a few taps.

And you don’t even have to lose Live Activities when you follow these steps – a simple swipe up from the bottom of your Watch screen restores the Live Activity, ready for when you need it.

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• Oura has won a patent case against Ultrahuman
• It means Ultrahuman’s smart rings are now banned from the US
• RingConn has reached a settlement with Oura that ends its ongoing dispute

Bad news, Ultrahuman fans: the popular smart ring maker has been forced to halt sales of its devices in the US after it lost a patent case against rival firm Oura, with the US International Trade Commission (ITC) ruling that Ultrahuman infringed upon Oura’s patents. This now has significant ramifications for Ultrahuman and users of its devices.

According to a blog post by Oura, the “ITC’s final ruling enforces exclusion and cease-and-desist orders.” What this means in practice is that Ultrahuman is now banned from importing and selling its smart rings in the US, strongly restricting a major player from operating in the wearables market – at least for the time being.

On its own website, Ultrahuman explained that existing owners of the Ultrahuman Ring Air device will be able to continue using it “exactly as before – with subscription-free health insights, relentless feature updates, and full warranty support,” provided the product was purchased on or before October 21, 2025. Retailers can continue selling existing inventory after this date, and anyone who buys a Ring Air after October 21 will be supported with diagnostics and tech support.

However, retailers won’t be able to import or stock the Ultrahuman Ring Air beyond what is kept in their existing inventory. Once that runs out, you’ll no longer be able to buy the device if you live in the US.

In response to the patent case, Ultrahuman said that “A new ring design is already in development and will launch in the U.S. as soon as possible,” and that it is also exploring whether a “Made in USA” Ring Air could be produced at its Texas facility.

As well as that, Ultrahuman added: “We also eagerly await the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s review of the validity of Oura’s ‘178 patent, which it acquired in 2023, and is central to the ITC ruling. A decision is expected in December.”

Better news for RingConn

The patent dispute centers on the design of smart rings that aim to rival Oura, specifically those made by Ultrahuman and competitor RingConn.

The legal judgement – which was first made earlier this year, with the ban set to come into effect on October 21 – declared that Ultrahuman and RingConn had infringed on Oura’s patents relating to the ring’s form factor.

RingConn, however, seems to have fared better than Ultrahuman. That’s because it has reached a settlement with Oura whereby all existing disputes between the two companies in the US have been resolved. Oura has granted RingConn a multi-year patent license, meaning you can continue to buy RingConn wearables in the US.

It’s unknown if this is a route that Ultrahuman will take, but it doesn’t seem to have opted to do so yet. If you’re a fan of the company’s products, you’ll have to watch closely to see what happens in the coming months.

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Amazon is looking to make AI part of your daily life and has turned to the world of wearables to help. The tech giant has just acquired Bee AI, the maker of the eponymous device for your wrist or lapel that listens to everything happening around you.

Bee’s microphones and built-in AI transcribe it all in real time and make personalized summaries of your day and your stated upcoming tasks, and then make recommendations to improve your life based not only on what it hears, but the emails, calendar, contacts, photos, locations, and other data you allow it to access.

People already make jokes about how they will be discussing a product with someone else in person and, seemingly by magic, it will appear in their recommended products on Amazon. That can usually be chalked up to coincidence and forgetting previous searches, along with being unaware of your app permissions.

However, this may become part of Amazon's business model, prompting people to wear microphones to listen all day and pay $50, plus a $19 monthly subscription, for the privilege.

Bee listening

Naturally, Amazon saw potential in Bee. Alexa has mostly been stuck inside the house despite attempts at smart glasses and other wearables. Bee is a chance for Amazon to make its AI a real-world concern, part of your actual conversations and routines, not just what you yell across the kitchen. That might be helpful, but it's impossible not to think about what it might mean in terms of privacy and trust.

To be fair, Bee has a mute button you can hold down to pause recording when you need a moment of peace. But that assumes you realize you’re about to say something you might not want permanently archived by Amazon. Bee listens and turns your life into searchable text. Although the company claims it doesn’t retain the raw audio, the transcripts remain unless you delete them.

I don't know if I want everything I mutter under my breath to be a searchable note. Not to mention whatever it might overhear from when I watch TV or movies at home.

I get the appeal of a little AI that remembers everything so you don’t have to. Remembering every chore and birthday would be great. But the line between deliberate memory aid and surveillance feels blurry with it. Especially when Amazon already has so much information.

Although Amazon has promised to work with Bee, allowing users to have control over their data, the actual shape of that control remains unclear for now. And control is too often translated into a complex settings menu and paragraph of boilerplate text in the terms and conditions.

I know plenty of people who would at least try out Bee, especially when it becomes an Amazon device with all the special sales and integration with the e-commerce site that implies. Perfect recall is a tempting commodity, but it has its price. If you're willing to pay it, then I say go for it. Not every microphone is the gateway to Skynet. But skepticism and caution are essential if you want something to sit on your wrist and transform the events of your life into data points that might help sell you products.

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• US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says every American should own a wearable
• The plan could bring major benefits, but also comes with risks
• We don't have much information about what the plan entails

The best smartwatches and other fitness wearables offer huge potential when it comes to helping us manage and improve our health – and now US Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has said he'd like to see every American wearing some form of health or fitness device.

“My vision is that every American is wearing a wearable within four years,” he said at a congressional hearing last week. To that end, his department will soon begin one of “the biggest campaigns in HHS history” that it says will help Americans “take control over their own health.”

Right now, the plan is short on specifics. We don’t know, for example, if it will involve the government promoting the benefits of wearables, federal bodies partnering with or subsidizing existing devices, or even the release of a Trump-branded health tracker (akin to the recent Trump Phone). A major campaign to promote the use of wearables, however, seems likely.

During the congressional hearing, Kennedy Jr. – who's helped to inspire the 'Make America Healthy Again', or MAHA, movement, said that while blood glucose monitors can cost $100 to $300 a month, his agency is “exploring ways of making sure that those costs can be paid for.”

He also suggested that an $80 wearable might be a better solution to the weight-loss drug Ozempic – which can cost over $1,000 a month – for controlling diabetes and weight.

More info is needed

On the surface, a campaign promoting the use of health wearables sounds like a good idea. These devices are tuned to nudge you towards healthier habits, such as exercising regularly and understanding your sleep patterns.

But questions are likely to be raised over Kennedy Jr.’s role in this, given his past promotion of some medical practices that are considered dubious by experts, and his skepticism over some vaccines.

Wearables also come with potential issues, regardless of who's promoting them. Your medical data is some of the most sensitive information about you, and if it were to be stolen, sold to advertisers without your knowledge, or otherwise fall into the wrong hands, it could have serious implications for you. That makes it a juicy target for hackers and identity thieves.

It’s also worth adding that wearables are not a cure-all solution. While they can provide important health information, including, for example, warnings about irregular heart rhythm, they can also fuel health anxiety and lead to unsafe self-medication.

Ultimately, they’re only one piece of the puzzle, and should be accompanied by other healthy actions and habits, as well as input from health professionals.

It sounds like a worthy endeavor, and one that could both improve American's health and save billions of dollars on healthcare costs over the long term – but right now we have more questions about RFK Jr.’s wearables plan than we do answers.

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• Oura has updated its smart ring with improved health-tracking features
• There are tweaked algorithms, new features, and fresh integrations
• The changes are available today

The Oura Ring is one of the best smart rings around, giving you a slate of in-depth insights into your health, all from a high-tech ring on your finger. Now, its maker has announced a slew of updates to make activity and movement tracking more accurate and useful.

Oura says these changes, which it describes as “a suite of algorithm improvements and product updates”, have been prompted by the idea that “all movement counts.” To that end, you can expect a range of different adjustments and new features across a variety of activity types.

For instance, Oura’s step-counting algorithm has been updated to no longer estimate steps and instead work more like a pedometer, making it more accurate, while measurement of active calories has been improved to consider the intensity of the movement (gauged using your heart rate). Heart rate info from Oura’s partners (like Google Health Connect and Apple HealthKit) will now be included in activities you import from these partners’ apps and platforms.

Elsewhere, Oura’s Automatic Activity Detection now works at any time of the day or night, including in the early hours. If you want to add an activity or workout from the last seven days manually, you can now do that too, and your Readiness and Activity scores will be tweaked accordingly.

There are also new views and metrics to be found in Automatic Activity Detection, such as running splits. Oura will use your phone’s data to add more detail to runs and walks, and there’s a new trend view for active minutes, which should give you more insight into your workouts.

While these changes all impact Oura’s own platform, there are also new integrations with third-party providers including CorePower Yoga, The Sculpt Society, Technogym, and Open. In each case, Oura users will be able to see data gathered from their wearable ring in each platform’s own app. Discounts are also being offered to Oura members.

Whether you want to stick to Oura’s own service or use one of these integrations, these updates should bring some intriguing new features to one of the best fitness trackers you can buy. Oura says all the new features are rolling out to users today, May 21, so be sure to check them out if they sound like they’re of interest.

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I'm not a morning person, and I'm also a light sleeper. Even the best wake-up lights tend to startle me awake when they start to brighten, and don't even get me started on those irritating snippets of synthetic bird song that gradually increase in volume until sheer annoyance motivates you to get out of bed.

It doesn't have to be that way, though - if only my Garmin watch had a smart alarm.

The premise of a smart alarm is simple. Each night, we go through sleep cycles comprising periods of light, deep, and REM sleep. During light sleep we're easily woken and generally feel okay, but if something (like fake birdsong or a bright light) wrenches us out of deep sleep then we end up feeling groggy, confused, and disoriented.

A smart alarm is designed to wake you during a period of light sleep at roughly the time your alarm would normally go off, with a backup alarm in case you're firmly stuck in the land of nod and at risk of oversleeping.

It's a feature offered by many of the best fitness trackers, including those from Fitbit, and there are third-party smart alarm apps available for most of the best smartwatches, but so far there's nothing for Garmin owners like me.

Wakey wakey

Each night my trusty Garmin Fenix 7 tracks my sleep stages based on my heart rate and movement, and it can be set to wake me with an audible or vibrating alarm, so far the two have never been combined. It seems like a no-brainer, but it's something that's still missing from even the best Garmin watches.

I'm not the only Garmin user who'd love to be woken more naturally during a period of light sleep. It's a subject that comes up regularly on Garmin's support forums, and the Garmin Subreddit.

Why can’t garmin introduce a smart alarm? from r/Garmin

I could just break away from Garmin entirely, but it would be a wrench. There's years of health and fitness data attached to my Garmin profile – not to mention all those hard-earned virtual badges. I'm halfway up Mt Everest and only 3% off completing the Appalachian Trail badge.

I'd hoped that smart alarms might be introduced along with the three sleep badges last year (Sleep Savant, Sleep Sleep, and Mythical Sleep – none of which I've managed to earn) but sadly not.

For now, I can only wait and hope that smart alarms are one of the features that comes to the latest batch of watches over the coming months. Who knows, if it's limited to the latest devices like the Garmin Fenix 8 and Garmin Instinct 3, it might even be enough to convince me to upgrade.

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2024 felt a lot like 1994. Back then it was the internet that was experiencing seemingly exponential growth: the worldwide web had only formally launched three years before, but by ’94 the first browsers and ecommerce platforms were in use, and websites were springing up everywhere.

I was a college student at the time, and it was all very exciting, albeit not yet something which impacted my daily life too much. But by the time I started work a few years later, it was inconceivable that I might do my job without using the internet constantly.

Substitute ‘AI’ for ‘the internet’ and you’ll have a pretty good idea of where we are right now. AI has been everywhere this year, like it was in 2023, but even more so. As you’ll read below, it’s infiltrating every aspect of our lives – and certainly every aspect of tech – and it will soon be impossible to imagine what the world was like before it.

Is that a good thing? That question makes no more sense than it would have if asked about the internet in 1994. The web has been great in many ways, terrible in others – but that’s more about how it's been used than any inherent goodness or badness.

And so it will be with AI. The simple fact is that artificial intelligence will have an utterly transformative impact on the world; the next few years will be a case of holding on for dear life, as our everyday lives are changed in multiple ways.

Of course, there was more to 2024 than AI, and we saw some massive stories elsewhere in the tech world. VR hardware and experiences continued to improve, even if Apple's Vision Pro didn't quite take off as we thought it might, while smartphones gained an extra fold, new and improved smart rings offered fitness tracking without the screen, and gaming handhelds proliferated.

Expect much more AI, and more of everything else, in 2025. Until then, I hope you’ve enjoyed reading TechRadar in 2024, and have a happy New Year!

My year in tech

AI advances apace, but vintage tech still charms

As a chronicler of technology, it’s only natural as the year draws to a close that big moments, larger trends, disappointments, and surprises fill my thoughts – and they are my thoughts, not those of the AI systems I expended thousands of words on.

Graham Barlow has more to say about AI below, but of all the things I wrote about artificial intelligence, it was the stories that showed just how fast these generative platforms have come in a relatively short time that gave me the most joy. When I first asked ChatGPT to help me code and it failed miserably, I hesitated to return to the task. Now I’m glad I did. ChatGPT, like other emerging systems, is now an incredibly effective coding assistant. It was the a similar story with other platforms: Sora can create believable video, image generators now know how to count fingers, and Google’s NotebookLM can replicate realistic-sounding podcasts.

When I wasn’t writing about AI, I was trying out the latest augmented-reality headgear, and if I had to choose a standout device it would be Meta’s Orion. This sunglass-like wearable isn’t consumer-ready yet, but it easily offers the most impressive AR experience to date – and, yes, it integrates AI. At the other end of the spectrum is the Apple Vision Pro; a year after launch, the most impressive wearable technology I’ve ever tried appears to be floundering.

This was also the year I dug into the tech archives and rummaged through drawers to rediscover some old favorites, including my 40-year-old Casio watch and an aging Pebble (an OG smartwatch if there ever was one). I also played on a refurbished Game Boy – that last experience was part of one of my favorite interviews of the year.

Other year-defining moments included the wild CrowdStrike outage, which should still serve as a warning to all people who worry about our infrastructure; new foldables, including one I test-drove in Paris (photographing a folding phone at the Louvre was a bucket-list moment); and capturing the solar eclipse with three smartphones at once – quite the challenge, but totally worth the effort.

The year in AI

If you think 2024 was wild, wait till you hear about 2029…

In 2024 Apple performed a spectacular U-turn away from AR and its Vision Pro headset, and went all-in on AI, doing its bit to push AI into the mainstream in the process.

While the rollout wasn't the smoothest, Apple Intelligence is sprinkled throughout Apple’s operating systems in the form of notification summaries, Image Playground, Visual Intelligence and, my personal favorite, Genmoji, for making your own emojis. Genmoji is a genuinely innovative use of AI, and has the potential to actually get people excited about the technology because it’s so usable and fun (you can base emojis on your friends and family).

While most of the big AI platforms launched in 2023, 2024 was the year they became established. Meta kept pushing AI to its various social media apps, and even added it to its Ray-Ban smart glasses. ChatGPT kept improving, OpenAI added Sora video generation and ChatGPT search, X gave us Grok, Google gave us Gemini 2.0, and AI image generators like Midjourney and Adobe Firefly went from strength to strength.

While Genmoji was a highlight, my favorite moment was my mind-blowing and occasionally unsettling interview with Dr Ben Goertzel, one of the leading thinkers looking to manage the advance of AI towards the smarter-than-human superintelligence known as artificial general intelligence, or AGI, aka the singularity.

Goertzel believes it’s only a matter of years before the machines become smarter than we are, and that we'd better get used to the idea. 2029 is his estimate, at which point all bets are off and AGI will either put an end to disease, aging, and potentially even death, or it might decide that humanity is just a nuisance, and The Matrix / The Terminator becomes a reality. I, for one, welcome our new AI overlords – I just really hope they like us.

THE YEAR IN PHONES

It's not the real deal yet, but AI will do it all eventually

Nowhere did AI dominate the landscape more than in mobile computing. With every phone launch I attended, every product I reviewed, and every Snapdragon Summit I climbed, AI was a foregone conclusion. The disconnect between what phone makers see and what phone buyers want has never been greater; although, that said, the new phones this year were great, in spite of (never because of) the looming presence of AI. We saw impressive new foldables from Samsung and Google, while Huawei went one screen better with the first mainstream tri-folding phone.

But this was AI's year. Just think, we started this year with Circle to Search on the Galaxy S24 Ultra, and now we’re ending it with Apple Intelligence on the iPhone 16 making up fake headlines in its news summaries. Look how far we’ve come! These AI features seem half-baked because they are. The real deal isn’t here yet, and I’m not even talking about artificial general intelligence; I’m just talking about a better Siri, or Bixby, or Gemini.

At Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Summit I saw it take a big leap in mobile processing power and power management with its new Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset, a platform that has the potential to radically change what AI can do. Qualcomm’s vision, which is similar to that of most phone makers, is for AI to become an ‘agent’ that works as a middleman between you and your phone. You won’t need to worry about Settings, or your home screen, or even apps, really – you’ll just tell the AI what you want to do, and it will do the rest.

In the meantime, some of the AI features are already pretty good. Google’s Pixel 9 Pro does a great job of things like transcribing meeting notes or screening your calls. Amazon’s new Kindle Scribe uses AI for the best handwriting recognition ever. And even you’re not thrilled with Apple Intelligence and its summaries, at least we can all appreciate the way AI has pushed smartphone photography past its limits.

So, 2024 was the year for AI on mobile devices, and soon enough it won’t feel like gimmicks and parlor tricks – it will actually help us do the things we need with less effort.

THE YEAR IN COMPUTING

Finally, a reason to get excited about Windows laptops again

Apple has dominated the laptop scene for the past few years, releasing a series of brilliant MacBook models powered by its own chips that offer performance, battery life, and value for money that Windows 11 laptops from the likes of Dell, HP and Lenovo just couldn't compete with.

With the launch of the M3-powered MacBook Airs in March it looked like 2024 was shaping up to be another year in which MacBooks would be the laptops to beat. Instead, we got something of a renaissance in Windows 11 laptops, mainly thanks to Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X chips.

Like Apple’s M3 (and M4, which came to MacBooks later in the year), the Snapdragon X series are ARM-based chips that, unlike traditional chips from Intel and AMD, have been created with efficiency and mobile use in mind.

The result is laptops that offer fast performance and long battery life, and we saw a wave of truly excellent devices, such as the Dell XPS 13 (2024) and Microsoft Surface Laptop 7, that have challenged Apple’s MacBooks in our best laptops list.

This has made Qualcomm a major player in Windows world, challenging the two established titans Intel and AMD. While neither of those two have had a particularly good year, Intel in particular has had a rocky 2024, with CEO Pat Gelsinger standing down after a particularly poor set of results.

Both AMD and Intel have released new chips to take on Qualcomm, and from what I’ve seen so far Intel’s Core Ultra Series 2 chips show a lot of promise, especially when it comes to battery life. However, there’s no getting past the fact that Intel – a company that was so dominant in the processor market for so long – ends the year in a precarious position.

As for 2025, I’m looking forward to seeing what Nvidia has in store. It's tipped to be announcing its next-gen RTX 5000 series graphics cards as soon as CES next month, and they could take PC gaming to new heights – though I do worry about the price tags they’ll come with.

THE YEAR IN TVS

The year that mid-range mini-LED TVs went mainstream

A few years ago, a new high-end technology that goes by the name ‘mini-LED’ launched as a high-end alternative to the best OLED TVs, promising dazzling brightness but with far superior contrast to regular LED TVs. Fast forward a few years, and while OLED TVs basically cost exactly the same as they did before, mini-LED is now taking over the more affordable end of the TV market.

At least, it’s taking over in our list of recommendations. The likes of the Hisense U8N, TCL QM851G, Hisense U6N and TCL C805 all offer amazing value for money at a huge range of screen sizes – those two companies really turned the screws on Samsung in the contest for places on our list of the best mini-LED TVs, and put a lot of pressure on next year’s more expensive TVs to really make a case for themselves.

One elite TV this year that successfully did just that was the Samsung S95D, which won our TV of the Year award, thanks to its new anti-reflection screen, which was a first on an OLED TV. OLED’s low brightness mean it’s prone to distracting reflections – no problem for dark-room movie viewing, but not so great for sports during the day – so Samsung solved this with a light-dissipating layer over the screen; and combined with the amazing picture quality and stunning design it made the S95D our most-talked-about TV of 2024. Samsung told us that this tech could come to more TVs if people like it – here’s hoping we’ll see more at CES 2025.

THE YEAR IN VR/AR

Apple’s Vision fades, but Meta may see real rivals soon

The year kicked off with the launch of what many believed would be the one headset to rule them all: the Apple Vision Pro. Alas, it came, it saw, and it failed to conquer. Once the initial hype wore off, early adopters – including our own Lance Ulanoff – found they simply weren’t using the gadget very often, as the expensive headset failed to offer a substantial productivity or entertainment upgrade over a MacBook or iPad, or feel sufficiently superior to the VR competition.

We also saw the Pico 4 Ultra, which boasts some super foot-tracking tech, and a PC/Standalone hybrid in the shape of the Vive Focus Vision. Unfortunately each device disappointed in its own ways, with a major issuing being lackluster software offerings that fail to compete with the excellent catalog you’ll find on Quest systems, which includes Batman: Arkham Shadow, which I hailed in my review as "an almost flawless VR experience".

As the saying goes, if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em, and this year saw Lenovo, Asus, and Xbox announcing their plans to build Horizon OS headsets – Horizon being the operating system Quest headsets use. This would presumably give those headsets access to the full suite of Quest titles, and while we’re yet to see the devices, their announcement may have been the biggest VR announcement of 2024.

Next in line in terms of major launches was probably the Meta Quest 3S, an affordable Quest 3 alternative with the same brain but a bulkier body and less-crisp displays (though I think the Meta Quest 3 is worth paying extra for), and the Meta Orion AR glasses – they may still only be a prototype for now, but they’ve already blown away many who've tried them, including the aforementioned Mr Ulanoff.

Slipping in just under the 2024 wire, Samsung and Google showcased their Android XR software platform, which will power new headsets and glasses. While what the duo is promising is reminiscent of Apple’s Vision Pro hype, I’m optimistic that their Android offering might finally give Meta some serious competition in 2025.

THE YEAR IN AUDIO

Sonos stumbles, and hearing health is the New Big Thing

2024 in the world of audio has really been about risers and fallers. Let’s start with the rise of open-ear headphones. These weren’t new in 2024, but they suddenly became the hottest category this year. At first, these looked like just a new option for runners, because the way they push sound into the ear yet don’t actually fit in the ear means you can still be aware of your surroundings. But then it turned out that lots of other people would prefer not to put things in their ear too, both for comfort and to protect their long-term hearing. Expect to see a lot more of these in 2025.

Speaking of open-ear buds, though, new AirPods arrived in two flavors. The basic and cheaper AirPods 4 are fine, but the AirPods 4 with Active Noise Cancellation are a very interesting option for iPhone users. Plus, the AirPods Pro 2 got a truly ground-breaking new hearing-aid mode, and we can expect to see, and hear, a lot more of this health-focused tech in the future.

Now we need a faller, and no one took a bigger tumble than Sonos. The company released a truly disastrous change to its app that threw all of its goodwill in the trash overnight, and cast a large cloud over the launch of its first headphones, the Sonos Ace. By the time the Sonos Arc Ultra soundbar came out, it had barely clawed back any ground. It needs to have a really good 2025…
But there’s always space for a comeback story, after all, 2024 was the year we went loopy over a beautiful new cassette player and a stunning portable CD player from FiiO, and a lovely combo player from TEAC.

THE YEAR IN CAMERAS

The retro revolution looks like it's here to stay

Despite feeling like a relatively quiet year for leading camera brands, 2024 has actually served up some real treats. The Canon EOS R5 Mark II scooped TechRadar’s camera of the year award and with good reason – it boasts a speedy 45MP stacked full-frame sensor, incredible autofocus skills including Eye Control AF, plus an innovative in-camera 400% upscale editing function that could end the megapixel race for good.

DJI had another busy year, with its broad portfolio of new devices including drones, action cameras and vlogging cameras, and it consequently scooped TechRadar's camera brand of the year for the second year running – and for good measure it’s avoided a ban on its drones in the US, for now. Other honorable mentions go to Nikon and its 5-star Z6 III, and Insta360 for doubling down in the pocketable video camera space, in particular with its unmatched X4 360-degree camera.

The people's vote went to the Fujifilm X100VI – a pricey premium compact that nonetheless attracted huge preorder numbers, and which is still on backorder the best part of a year later. I found the highly anticipated retro camera a delight to shoot with at its Tokyo launch. 2024 was also the year that film made a comeback, with the Pentax Film Project delivering the legendary brand’s first film camera in decades, the surprisingly charming half-frame Pentax 17.

2024 was also the year that the humble point-and-shoot camera enjoyed a comeback, particularly with young audiences and thanks in no small part to TikTok. We never expected an old, mediocre and cheap Nikon compact’s popularity to blow up, but the Coolpix S6900 in pink did just that.

So what about 2025? As cameras, and AI image and video generation, get closer to perfection we might see increasing pushback, with demand for simple, flawed, disconnected, retro cameras continuing to grow. 2025 could well be the year that dumb cameras win out over smart tech.

The year in gaming

Sony’s mid-gen upgrade points to the future of consoles

Sony’s PlayStation 5 Pro was the biggest gaming hardware release of 2024, and while it wasn’t unexpected – rumors had been building all year – it did give us a window into what future consoles might offer.

While it brings welcome boosts to storage and connectivity, Sony’s PlayStation Super Spectral Resolution is the headline feature, offering AI-driven upscaling that enables users to enjoy enhanced graphical fidelity and higher frame rates, at the same time. Is this what we might see more of in future console upgrades as the gap between fidelity and performance closes? Perhaps. The new console was supported by a strong lineup of games like multiplayer phenomenon Helldivers 2, and the absolutely joyous Astro Bot, making 2024 another robust year for PlayStation.

Xbox didn’t join the mid-gen-upgrade party this time around, and instead Microsoft iterated on its existing hardware range by offering a larger-capacity Xbox Series S 1TB and releasing a Digital Edition of its existing Series X. Games-wise, Microsoft finished the year much stronger than it started it with the release of the epic Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 and action-adventure hit Indiana Jones and the Great Circle.

Nintendo continued to publish excellent games for the Switch, such as The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom and Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, and while we did see new hardware, it wasn’t what we were expecting or hoping for: the Nintendo Alarmo! clock took us all by surprise, and you can now be woken up by your favorite Nintendo characters.

Returning to hardware, SteelSeries’ Arctis GameBuds became the new gold standard in what gaming earbuds can offer, Razer’s Wolverine V3 Pro became the new premium Xbox controller to beat, and Secretlab’s Titan Evo NanoGen Edition chair offered a new level of comfort.

The Nintendo Switch 2 will be the biggest thing in gaming in 2025 – should it actually arrive, which feels very likely at the time of writing – but with rumors that Xbox and PlayStation are also looking at building new handheld gaming devices, next year could get very interesting.

THE YEAR IN FITNESS

Ringing the changes as time stands still for smartwatches

What a year 2024 has been. I said last year that I believe we'd reached peak smartwatch, with not much scope left for the form factor to innovate, and that this year's more interesting developments would come in other product fields, such as smart rings.

That prediction has largely been borne out. The Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra looked very similar to the Apple Watch Ultra 2, while the Apple Watch Series 10 and Google Pixel Watch 3 were, like their predecessors, fairly iterative updates, with slightly bigger and slightly thinner displays being the most significant changes. Outside of smartwatches, though, there’s been plenty of action: this has been the year we’ve seen the widespread adoption of previously fringe tech, from smart wearables to continuous glucose monitors (live broadcasting of your blood sugar!) to AI fitness coaches.

As elsewhere, fitness and wearables brands have been eager to embrace the potential of AI (in many cases, before it’s really ready). Strava’s Athlete Intelligence and apps like Runna have been quick out of the gate with AI-generated feedback and workout insights. We asked ChatGPT for workout tips, and Oura got in on the action with its Advisor, a health and fitness chatbot that lives in the Oura app.

Speaking of Oura, 2024 was the year smart rings hit their stride, with the release of the RingConn Gen 2, the Samsung Galaxy Ring and the Oura Ring 4. Fun functionalities like gesture controls, and automatic workout tracking for multiple activities, show how far the technology has come in such a short space of time: check out our best smart rings guide for more on the early leaders in the race to dominate the space.

Looking forward to 2025, I think we’ll see continuing move away from the traditional fitness watches and notification-based devices, and towards smart rings and screenless trackers. A WHOOP 5, anyone?

THE YEAR IN ENTERTAINMENT

Streaming giants entertain and enrage in equal measure

Let’s get the bad news out of the way first. Away from the on-screen action, Max, Disney Plus, Hulu, Paramount Plus, and Peacock all raised their prices, Netflix angered customers by scrapping its cheaper tier, Prime Video assailed us with ads unless we paid more, and the Disney Plus password crackdown once again made us feel like we were being taken for a ride.

On a happier note, this year's entertainment calendar was packed with global events that drew in large audiences to the best streaming services: from the Olympics and the Euros to Taylor Swift’s ‘Eras Tour’ on Disney Plus and Olivia Rodrigo’s Guts World Tour concert special on Netflix. When it came to new movies, we were taken on an emotional rollercoaster ride dominated by sequels like Deadpool and Wolverine and Moana 2. Highlights included Pixar’s return to form, with Inside Out 2 becoming the highest-grossing animation movie of all time, while lowlights included Borderlands, which brought a run of impressive video game adaptations to a crashing halt.

On the TV show front, video game adaptations fared much better, with Fallout and Arcane season 2 picking up the torch from The Last of Us to become massive hits. Some of the other most-streamed shows of the year include True Detective: Night Country, Shōgun, The Boys, Bridgerton, Agatha All Along, and my personal favorite, The Penguin.

As we look to the year ahead, make sure to check back in with TechRadar, where we’ll bring you all the latest streaming news, recommendations and tips to get the most out of your services, including how to become more savvy by pausing your subscriptions.

The Year in Smart Home

Matter matters, but features matter more

It's been a middling year for smart home tech, with few major product launches or big developments, but rather lots of iterative improvements to the building blocks of smart-home technology. We've also seen the emergence of some interesting trends that could point to the future of how smart devices are integrated into our homes.

One important yet relatively slow-moving part of this story is the connectivity standard Matter. We've seen versions 1.3 and 1.4 roll out in 2024, introducing support for new device categories across energy management and new household appliances, as well as improvements to features like lighting control and Thread networks. Big news for smart home enthusiasts and product developers, yes, but not exactly a reason to stop the presses. Indeed, Matter continues to be something that matters, but only in the background.

Elsewhere, we've seen trends emerging in terms of user experiences. 2024 began with Samsung upgrading its SmartThings ecosystem with a new TV-centered experience, demonstrating a push to integrate smart home technology into appliances rather than using dedicated hubs like those built into some smart speakers. Much like the trends we've seen in AI adoption, it's becoming increasingly apparent that in order for smart home technology to take off, it has to be a feature, not a product. To that end, Samsung is also putting screens on more and more appliances, kitting each out with SmartThings for whole-home control.

Similarly, in a trend I've catchily labeled "stuff that does other stuff", we've continued to see a focus on multi-functional smart home devices. On the more bizarre end of the spectrum, we saw an air purifier with a mounted cat bed from LG at IFA 2024, a follow-up to its more sensible air-purifying table from a few years ago.

There's still no sign of Apple's long-rumored smart display, and Alexa's big overhaul has quietly been pushed to 2025, so there's plenty to be excited for in the coming year.

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The longer you’ve been working in tech media, the easier it is to see what’s coming. Predicting the biggest tech trends for the coming year doesn’t involve consulting a crystal ball or a psychic. I prefer to go with my instincts, which are based not only on what happened in the previous 12 months, but during the 37 years before that in which I've been writing about tech.

Technology and innovation don’t simply spring out of the ether. Even with the advent of AI, which some might think would bring incredible, generative shortcuts, companies still have significant development cycles and they build based on signals from within their organization, and many others that come from the market and competition. Perhaps the biggest difference between the tech cycles of the early oughts and today is the transparency; companies develop products and services before our eyes, with open and public betas that make us part of the process.

What I’m saying is that you don’t have to be extraordinary, or psychic, to know what’s coming in the new year. If you, like me, have been paying attention, much of what follows will probably elicit, “Oh, right, I knew that” or “That’s what I was thinking.”

Of course, I’m far from infallible and, as I often do, I like to bounce my ideas off some of my trusted industry friends. In this case, I chose Tim Bajarin. Tim and I have known each other for more than 20 years, and his industry experience extends deep into the last century. He's seen most of the industry's key developments and known many of its major movers and shakers, including the late Steve Jobs, and keeps his finger on the pulse of the technology with his Creative Strategies analyst group, of which he is the founder and chairman. As always, Bajarin has thoughts regarding my 2025 predictions. I’ve included many of them here.

With that, let’s get started on my predictions for the biggest tech trends of 2025. Please feel free to share them with your friends, telling them, “See? Lance agrees with me.”

An AI explosion

I know, it's a fairly obvious suggestion two years into our AI revolution, but I do suspect a critical turn of events in 2025. Expect more AI in everything, but also a codification of the concept that people understand how it will work for them as consumers and as businesspeople, and for a wide variety of tasks and sectors. In other words, less wondering, "What was this made for?"

Bajarin more or less agrees with me, but reminds me that companies introducing AI apps still have their work cut out for them. “[They] need to be clearer on what it does and then add a short tutorial,” he says. “There is too much confusion, and we are still in the hand-holding phase of AI.”

It’s a good point. Consumers won’t tap into AI’s full potential until they understand exactly how to use it and how it will benefit them. In 2025, I expect to see more consumer guides on how to build the best launch prompt and, especially, how to converse with an AI to get the results you want.

Enter the agents

2025 will be the breakthrough year for AI agents. For those unfamiliar with them, AI agents are bits of artificial intelligence that can analyze the environment and other interactions, and perform narrowly defined tasks on your behalf.

Their prevalence will be intertwined with emerging conversational AI wars, in which all the major digital assistants finally migrate to generative AI chat systems: Alexa gets Claude, Siri gets another brain transplant, Google Gemini fully consumes Google Assistant and becomes a conversation-first platform.

While I think Bajarin and I see eye-to-eye on this, he sees agents' development in 2025 a bit differently.

“Building agents will be the biggest thing in AI in 2025,” he says. “The last three years gave us the groundwork for an agentic-driven world, and next year will see great strides made in creating and applying agents to all AI apps.”

So, it’s building and application. I wonder how many consumer apps will have a set of pre-built AI agents, and if consumers will feel comfortable using them. At the very least, I do expect to see the broad deployment of AI agents in business throughout 2025.

Bye, AI wearable

You know what, I do know who needs to hear this: every AI wearable maker who wrongheadedly tried to sell us a standalone AI device in 2024. Their collective failure proves that while artificial intelligence is a powerful feature inside other larger applications and products, it isn't a sufficient basis for a dedicated product.

The ChatGPTs, Copilots, and Geminis of the world arguably work better when integrated into our favorite mobile devices, not yet another device we need to carry around or wear.

The Humane AIs, Rabbit R1s, Friends, and Plauds of our world will not survive 2025. But their brains, the beating AI hearts inside them, will likely live on as apps on, naturally our iPhones and Androids.

Bajarin was a bit less convinced of this prediction and would only reply, “Possibly.”

Chip wars

The convergence of mobile and desktop chips will move into overdrive in 2025, with all the big players vying for top honors in power, efficiency, AI, and battery life. Intel is entering a period of uncertainty, and Nvidia may make a desktop CPU play, but Apple is still going to set the bar. It’s remarkable how Apple set that bar with its M1 chip in 2020 and every chip company has been playing catchup on laptops (and to a lesser extent desktops) ever since.

In 2024 Qualcomm has offered the best answer to Apple silicon with its X Elite line, but it’s not clear that systems running it are flying off the shelves just yet. Still, what is clear is that Intel, Qualcomm, and Apple are finally offering laptop customers what they want: power and efficiency.

In 2025, battery life across Windows and Mac laptops will balloon to nearly 30 hours, while every new chip will support ever-larger local generative model work. It’s a new era for on-the-go computing, but I guarantee that Apple will continue to lead the way throughout 2025.

Here, Bajarin made it clear I nailed the landing, telling me: “Very true... Intel, AMD, Qualcomm, and Arm will be the key players, but Apple’s M-series chips will be hard to beat.”

Windows out of the spotlight

Microsoft’s hyper-vigilant focus on Copilot makes me wonder if 2025 is the year the Redmond software giant plants Windows in the backseat. It’s possible that Microsoft will focus on Copilot almost to the exclusion of Windows, as the platform continues its march into software as a service, where big upgrades matter less than shiny features like Copilot and Edge.

Props to Bajarin for keeping me real on this. I could tell that he sort of agreed, but with muted enthusiasm. “More or less,” he says. “[Microsoft] will continue to do more AI integration into Windows UI but make Copilot their most significant push in next two years.”

Exactly – the marketing dollars in 2025 and 2026 will, unless I’m very mistaken, be mostly for Copilot. For consumers it’ll feel inescapable, although I can’t tell if they will embrace it. Windows users on the ground have expressed some frustration to me about the sudden appearance of Copilot on the taskbar and on new laptop keyboards. Microsoft’s communication must be about Copilot's consumer benefit above all else, and I’m not sure that it's made the case yet. 2025 is Microsoft's opportunity.

AR Wearables turn a corner

I think 2025 is the year we'll see AR glasses achieve consumer availability (maybe the second half of the year), and the competition for dominance will be intense. Having now tried Meta's Orion and Snap’s AR Spectacles, I think the race to consumer readiness is accelerating faster than most expected. Meta is clearly ahead, but Snap, which has access to the same silicon, should catch up. It could be a squeaker, but I think we'll see consumer availability of at least one pair of AR glasses that finally make the tech-buying public say “I do” to wearable AR gear.

Apple might be part of that mix, but first it must contend with the fate of its Vision Pro. As a category, the Vision Pro can’t survive without a more affordable entry-level counterpart. Apple is supposedly working on that, but if it doesn’t deliver, 2025 may be the year Apple deprecates Vision Pro (it won't discontinue it, at least not yet).

Here, I struck a Bajarin nerve. He had many thoughts, and not all of them were in alignment with mine. Here’s how he sees 2025 playing out:

“AR glasses will get more AI functionality, with Meta Rayban’s smart glasses, Snap Glasses, and others focusing on better audio and AI, as well as better cameras. However, there will not be breakthrough technology that delivers true in-lens data that is worth anything in 2025. Meta has Orion targeted for 2027, but I do believe Apple will introduce some form of AR glasses by the end of 2025. I don’t think we will see a slimmer Vision Pro at a cheaper price until 2026 at the earliest.”

I have to admit that Bajarin’s outlook seems more plausible than mine – but then I was surprised by the quality of Meta Orion glasses when I tried them, and I expect to be surprised again in 2025.

Social Media's big shift

Bluesky will dominate and battle Threads for a heat lead (that's the hottest, though not necessarily the biggest platform), though X will hold the active user numbers crown for the foreseeable future. That's even as people looking for a sunnier social media conversation head for the exits. A Luddite movement may depress Gen Alpha's entry onto any platform. Broadly, the bloom is off the social media rose. Most platforms are introducing stricter controls, whether because some government is requiring it or they’re seeking to get ahead of future regulation and, perhaps, change the conversation on social media.

Oh, and as for the future of TikTok and that potential ban, it might skate on through in the new year but a real reckoning on Jan. 19 now seems far more likely. Either way, I will continue using it until someone stops me.

Bajarin and I are mostly in sync here.

“I do see X losing more users in 2025 and Bluesky and Threads gaining significant ground. [X owner and Tesla CEO Elon] Musk will be too distracted by his other projects, and X will continue to lose users and momentum.”

I like how Bajarin is too cool to spell out exactly which Musk “projects” will distract him. In 2025, Musk will be co-running a sort of US Government omnibus tasked with sucking a lot of money and people out of the bureaucracy. That could definitely be diverting, to say the least.

Low-energy EVs

EVs and self-driving cars will stall as the industry recalibrates and slumping trailblazer Tesla deals with the fallout of not delivering a sub-$30K EV to the market (while also delivering the least reliable EV, ever – the Cybertruck). Electric trucks and other cars are not flying the way big auto thought they would, and the US the incoming administration will be steering the market back toward a combustible engine future.

Bajarin didn’t offer comment on this prediction, which I'll take as an automatic win.

Folding rises

Folding phones are on sale from Google, Samsung, Huawei, Oppo, and others, and yet they have only a collective 1.5% of the smartphone market. Maybe that changes next year.

I think folding phones will make a slow rise to 3% of the market in 2025, but it will be Apple teasing a folding iPhone that sets the market on its ear. It won't ship until 2026, but it will generate renewed interest in the sector, and put competitors on notice.

Okay, my winning streak collapsed here. Bajarin is not on board with this last idea.

“I am not optimistic about Apple doing a folding phone at all. I wrote about this last week.

"The tablet market has room for innovation and I would not be surprised to see Apple point their foldable research at tablets. I can’t say Apple will never do a foldable, but my article shows why I don’t think Apple believes there is a market for foldable.”

Bajarin's post points to concerns about durability, utility over traditional phones, and, for Apple, a lack of interest in such a tiny market. He’s not wrong, but I think Apple could be the spark that ignites a frenzy. Let’s say Apple only shows us a folding tablet. It could be one that opens to the size of an 8-inch tablet, which is essentially the same interior screen size as the Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold, and the iPad mini. I have to believe that if consumers saw that they might want what Apple’s created, but because it’ll naturally be more expensive than other folding devices they’ll look for cheaper alternatives, and that would grow interest across the market.

I know, it’s just one dream scenario, but it could happen in 2025.

Tariffs cascade

I fully expect tariffs to destabilize the tech industry. Companies will scramble to get exemptions (there’ll be a revolving door at the White House as companies march in and out of President Trump’s office), and consumer electronics prices will rise preemptively in early 2025. We should also brace for shortages in key product categories as trade wars kick off and supply chains get squeezed. The free flow of, say, silicon between other countries and the US could slow to a trickle.

Bajarin is no more optimistic than I am about this.

“This is an important point. If Trump goes through with tariffs, it will impact all tech companies that make products in China... The reasoning around tariffs is to bring more manufacturing back to the US. That boat sailed 15 years ago and will never happen. Instead, any new manufacturing will go to India, Vietnam, Malaysia, Cambodia, and other regions where labor is cheaper.”

Companies like Apple have tried to diversify manufacturing outside China for years, but very little of that manufacturing has returned to the US. If the Trump administration focuses all its tariffs on China (and some on Mexico and Canada) it will only accelerate that process as companies seek to reduce their Chinese exposure. In the end, American workers and consumers won’t be the benefactors in 2025. I don’t know what 2026 will look like.

Oh, and robots. Lots and lots of robots

The humanoid robot revolution is upon us, and 2025 will see an explosion in capabilities and styles. Unfortunately, none of them will be ready to come home with you.

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Whether you're after the latest Versa or the stylish Luxe, Fitbit deals can score you a discount on everything from the latest releases to the oldest (and cheapest) fitness trackers.

We regularly see plenty of savings across the brand's range of smartwatches, with significant savings on old and new models. That's all, provided you're looking in the right place at the right time; however, with more and more models filling the shelves, we are seeing Fitbit sales dropping more frequently these days.

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The brief flurry of AI-powered wearables like the Humane AI Pin and the Rabbit R1 doesn't seem to have caught on the way their creators hoped, but one seems to be banking on the idea that what we really want from an AI companion is non-stop drama and traumatic backstories. Friend, whose pendant hardware isn't even out yet, has debuted a web platform on Friend.com to allow people to talk to random examples of AI characters. The thing is, every person I and several others talked to is going through the worst day or week of their lives.

Firings, muggings, and dark family secrets coming out are just some of the opening gambits from the AI chatbots. These are events that would lead to difficult conversations with your best friend. A total stranger (that you're pretending is human) should not kick off a possible friendship while undergoing intense trauma. That isn't what CEO Avi Schiffmann highlights in the video announcing the website, of course.

Dramatic AI

You can see typical examples of the AI chatbots opening lines at at the top of the page and above. Friend has pitched its hardware as a device that can hear what you're doing and saying and comment in friendly text messages. I don't think Craig is in any position to be encouraging after getting pistol-whipped. And Alice seem more preoccupied with her (again, fictional) issues than anything going on in the real world.

These conversations are textbook examples of trauma-dumping, unsolicited divulging of intense personal issues and events, Or, they would be if these were human beings and not AI characters. They don't break the illusion easily, however. Craig curses at me for even suggesting it. Who wouldn't want these people to text you out of the blue as Schiffmann highlights.

Future Friends?

When the hardware launches, you'll be able to carry around your dramatic pal in a necklace. The AI will be listening and coming up with ways to respond to whatever happens in your day. I'm not sure you'd want that in some of these cases. If you do end up hitting it off with one of the AI characters on the website, you can link it to your account.

"You'll effectively 'move in together"' like a real companion," as Schiffmann put it on X. "We're basically building Webkinz + Sims + Tamagotchi."

That said, I'll be very surprised if anyone takes up his offer for those who really get along with their AI companion.

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Apple has never spoken of a smart ring or even hinted at the impending existence of one, but if the latest rumors are to be believed, the illusory product is now nothing more than a pipe dream as Apple may have canceled the whole project. If true, it's a mistake.

You only need to wear a smart ring for a few weeks to understand its appeal. Wearables like the Oura Ring and Samsung Galaxy Ring are small, attractive, sleep-friendly, and offer enviable battery life. I started wearing an Oura Ring 3 some months ago, and it's the only technology that I wear 24/7 for days on end (until it needs a charge).

Smart rings offer most of the benefits of smartwatches like the Apple Watch. They track activity, exercise, sleep, blood oxygenation, heart rate, wellness, and more. The lack of a screen, microphones, speakers, and haptic vibrations lowers the distraction level to virtually zero.

It's easy for me to forget I'm wearing the Oura, though I do tend to worry the ring around my finger, endlessly spinning it with my thumb. When I do this, I need to remember to return the ring's indent to the palm side of my hand so that the inside ring sensors are in their best position to track my vitals.

The new Oura Ring 4 is apparently even better prepared for wearers like me who can't stop spinning their rings; the sensors are now spread all around the inner ring.

Still not a smartwatch

Smart Rings aren't perfect. In my case, I can't do certain exercises with them; anything that presses the ring against my finger, like pull-ups, causes pain, so I remove the ring for those routines. That's never been an issue with the Apple Watch.

The low profile and lack of screen and on-device alerts mean I often have no idea what the Oura Ring is tracking. I have to remind myself to check out the Oura app. I don't mind, really, because I also allowed my iPhone's Health App to capture all of my Oura data, so I'm fairly confident that nothing's been missed.

Bloomberg's report claims that Apple is canceling its ring project because it doesn't want to cannibalize the still-growing Apple Watch market. I don't get that. If what I've found can be broadly applied to the wearable market, then there are many people who do not want to wear a smartwatch and screen on their wrist and would appreciate a smart ring from Apple.

I'm not even sure this rumor makes business sense. Over the years, Apple has worked across its categories to fill in the blanks. Don't like a single iPhone option? How about a Pro model or a giant Plus one? EarPods, not your style? Check out these AirPods. Need more noise control? Check out these AirPods Pros. Prefer tablets over smartphones and computers? Here's an iPad. Prefer something small? How about an iPad Mini (version 7 might be coming soon).

Even in the wearable space, Apple has shown a propensity for expanding choices.

This doesn't make sense

Apple is also willing to take big swings. Just look at the Vision Pro. Sure, it's way too expensive and a niche product that's being pitched as the mixed reality experience for everyone. My point, though, is Apple is not timid and has shown little concern about category cannibalization.

If, though, Apple has truly killed the rumored Apple Ring project, it's made a mistake. I guarantee people want an Apple Ring and would love to use it to enable gestures that allow it to control everything from the Vision Pro to their Mac, iPads, and AirPods (tap your thumb and ring finger to pause and play).

Apple fans will gladly pay a premium for Apple's own very Applely take on a smart ring. I'm sure it'll be titanium (for the high-end) and aluminum for everyone else. It'll come in Pro and basic versions, with the basic offering custom skins (or etchings) that you can order printed on the ring before it arrives. Most will pay extra for the Pro because it'll be the one with the gesture control.

The more I think about it, the more I believe that Bloomberg is just plain wrong. There's no way Apple is walking away from this section of the wearable market. An Apple Ring will arrive – maybe as soon as next year. If you believe it, you better put a ring on it.

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After Meta made AI wearables a centerpiece of its announcements at Meta Connect 2024, the question arises of how its rivals will respond. In particular, there's a lot of rumors flying around about what Apple has planned in response to the upgraded Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses and upcoming Orion smart glasses that employ augmented reality along with AI. 

One major long-running rumor is that Apple plans to incorporate the hardware and AI software for a wearable not into glasses, but into its next-generation AirPods Pro. That might include cameras and AI features to match what you see in Meta's smart glasses. This potential competition sets the stage for a battle of wearables, with both companies seeking to redefine how users interact with the digital and physical worlds.

Meta boasted that the upgraded Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses can take photos, live stream video, and otherwise provide hands-free access to the world with both audio and visual receptors controlled by voice commands. With the Meta AI assistant integrated into the device, the smart glasses can handle requests in a conversational form. However, they are only a shadow of what the Orion smart glasses previewed at the event could do. Orion will employ augmented reality to meld digital content with the physical world through a holographic display.

Smart Futures

Apple's approach with the speculative AirPods Pro is more about leveraging AI for contextual awareness, using infrared cameras to interpret the space around you. It wouldn't take photos or video from the perspective of your ears. Rather, it would use visual input to subtly improve navigation, fitness tracking, and even better respond to gesture controls. They would also likely augment Apple's Vision Pro headset, giving even more accurate spatial audio experiences by tracking head movements and adjusting audio based on the user's surroundings.

The best way of thinking about the difference between Meta's smart glasses and Apple's AirPods with AI tools is how they connect the AI with the hardware. They might divide prospective users based on what they want from their wearables. Meta's Ray-Ban glasses are geared toward capturing and sharing experiences visually, while Apple's AirPods seem to be more about enhancing the AI assistant with more passive input than is currently available. What they share is an interest in immersive experiences and making AI an ever-present aspect of wearing technology. 

While Orion may link the physical and digital worlds through augmented reality, Apple's AirPods offer a lighter touch in enhancing environmental awareness and boosting the AI assistant's ability to help you. However, the integration into the Apple headset gives more weight to the AirPods and their capacity to deliver AI experiences. That's especially true if they can sync up with Apple’s extensive ecosystem of devices.

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We can talk all day about the Apple Watch Series 10 and its new off-angle viewing screen, sleep apnea abilities, Training Loads, and ability to measure dive depth. However, I know the real reason this Apple Watch is the best ever and might be the only smartwatch you really want.

In the decade I've been wearing smart watches, they've almost consistently grown in size and weight, reaching an apex with the Apple Watch Ultra 2 (61.4g) and the Samsung Galaxy Ultra (60g). These are beefy digital timepieces intended for rugged outdoors and climbing Mount Everest. I've never understood why people who are not great outdoors people wear them. And forget about sleeping with them. It's impossible unless you can sleep with a rock under your gut.

There's a new trend in the smartwatch game, though: big, thin, and light. For me, it started with the 45mm Google Pixel Watch 3. I've worn the last two generations, and while I loved the smooth water droplet design, I was frustrated by the screen size and the thickness. For such a pretty watch, it wasn't always comfortable to wear. The Pixel Watch 3 in 45mm changed that by introducing a much larger (and brighter) screen and a thinner and quite light 37g build.

I found that I could sleep with this watch and considered putting aside my Apple Watch Series 9 for good.

Then along came the Apple Watch Series 10 46mm.

Big and light

Yes, this is Apple's biggest Apple Watch screen ever (it's 30% larger than the Apple Watch Series 6), and it looks it. I like a big screen, especially one that uses wide-angle OLED for way better off-axis viewing. Still, I won't wear it if it's uncomfortable or cumbersome. Basically, I can't trade screen size for comfort, which is why I've never fully embraced the Ultras.

The Apple Watch Series 10, however, pulls off a rather surprising feat. Despite the screen size, the watch (without the band) weighs 35.3g. The wild thing about that is the 45mm Apple Watch Series 9 in aluminum weighed 51.5 grams. This is a difference I can feel. It's like a reverse TARDIS: Bigger on the outside and the weight of a smaller device on the inside.

It's not just the weight, though. At 9.7mm thick, the watch is a full millimeter thinner than the last Apple Watch.

I know, these are just a bunch of numbers, so let me tell you how it feels: almost like nothing.

If it weren't for the fact that I see the watch on my wrist, I might forget it was there. This is all-day comfort and, in my experience, sleep-friendly comfort, too.

This weight and size change is even more impressive when considering that the new Apple Watch Series 10 combines GPS and cell capabilities on all models. Usually, the cell and GPS models would be a tad heavier than the GPS-only counterparts. Not this time. Part of that may be because Apple re-engineered the chassis build.

Metal matters

While the last Apple Watch had a Zirconia back, the Apple Watch Series 9 uses either Aluminum or Titanium. The all-metal back now supports the placement of cell radios, which is handy for the GPS + Cellular models as the WiFi GPS radios are on the top. These are under-the-hood changes you might not notice, but Series 10 with GPS + Cellular will no longer feature a red ring on some on the Digital Crown to indicate cell support. You'll still pay your phone company to turn the service on, though, and need to buy a model with cellular connectivity.

To be clear, size, weight, and design are really just one aspect of the Apple Watch Series 10, but when it comes to wearables, which are essentially fashion, can you put a price on good design, fit, and feel? How the watch feels on your wrist will define how you feel about it.

Getting notifications, tracking workouts, health, and sleep (even sleep apnea) is, in some ways, the icing on a time-keeping cake.

So yes, let the Apple Genius talk your ear off about all these amazing new Apple Watch Series 10 features, just make sure they let you try one on.

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Some days I wake up thinking the world has gone mad. Case in point: there’s now a $899 Apple Watch case. 

While I don’t have UK or Australian pricing to hand, I think you can translate that dollar price to something equally hefty in other currencies. The case comes in two equally expensive variants: the Crown Sport and the Crown Classic. The Sport comes on a rubber strap and the Classic features a metal bracelet. And there are silver and rose gold options. 

These pricey cases are the brainchild of Golden Concept – the kind of name I’d expect graphics cards of the early 2000s to sport – and are designed to blend modern technology with classic watchmaking. 

Yeah, so it’s a no from me. 

An unholy mix

The case seems to draw inspiration from the Patek Philippe Nautilus, with a form of wing on the left side, and the Rolex Daytona, via its chronograph-style pushers on the right-hand side. For people who don’t know, those are two so-called ‘hype watches’ that are hard to get hold of and have rocketed in price. There’s what appears to be a deployant-style clasp for the strap, but it’s hard to tell from the photos.

Look, I applaud the gumption in trying to add something to the Apple Watch, which I feel is a brilliant but utterly soulless smartwatch that’s kinda ubiquitous on the wrists of commuters I pass by. But I feel that trying to add a mechanical watch vibe to the Apple Watch, or any smartwatch, is a swing and a miss.

One of the reasons why the Apple Watch models consistently top our best smartwatches list is that they have a design that’s hard to beat – they're compact but still with a usable display and buttons, and feel nice to the touch. Plus there are plenty of strap options, and with a choice between aluminum and titanium materials, you can get an aesthetically pleasing Apple Watch without needing to go down the third-party case route.

Now I’ve worn a good few smartwatches, and I appreciate how useful they can be with all the data they suck up and spit out. But recently I’ve developed a taste for mechanical watches. And I simply don’t think a smartwatch, no matter how bougie the case, can replicate the feeling of wearing an automatic or hand-wound watch.

There’s just a more tactile, purposeful, and stylish feeling that you get with a ‘real’ compared to what’s basically a wrist-worn computer. You develop a form of human-and-machine relationship with such a watch, especially given that it’s powered by you, via either your movement or winding.

As such, I think both traditional and smartwatches have a place in today’s world; I just don’t think the streams should be crossed. And I certainly don’t think that paying more than the cost of an Apple Watch 10 to get a case to give it the pseudo look of two watches that could almost be seen as distasteful due to the hype around them is a smart approach.

For around $900 you can get an Apple Watch and have some spare money for a great automatic watch – my recommendation would be something from Seiko or the excellent Baltic HMS 003.

Equally, if you already have an Apple Watch and want some nice extra wrist wear, then I’d suggest getting something like the Christopher Ward 63 Dune – I have one in to test in bronze, and it’s excellent, offering a lot for around a grand in British bullion. 

And for people on a tighter budget, Christopher Ward has the C63 Sealander, a watch that comes in at £685 in the UK and has the design, specs, waterproofing and strap options to see you from the boardroom to the beach. 

In fact, for around the combined price of an Apple Watch and the Golden Concept Crown Sport, you could get a new Apple Watch and a C63 Sealander.

Maybe I’m just stuck in my ways, and there’s an audience there for such bling-y Apple Watch cases. But my advice, both professional and personal, is to go for a smartwatch and a mechanical watch, rather than try and combine the two.

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Fitbit Charge 3 prices are looking particularly strong these days, considering the fitness tracker has been on the shelves since 2018, and newer models are now avaialble. It's still a perfectly serviceable smartwatch, though, capable of offering in-depth metrics and a range of additional smartphone features as well. That means any Fitbit Charge 3 deals are doing to be offering strong value for money these days, especially if you're after a budget piece of wrist candy.

The fitness tracker has always been considered fantastic value for money, even before Fitbit Charge 3 deals started to arrive, given the range, and quality, of the tech inside. They're easily the most fashionable trackers on the market, too - there's a reason all the third-party manufacturers are trying to rip off Fitbit's designs.

If those prices are a bit stubborn for your liking, though, why not check out the latest prices on the older Charge 2 or other models in the range over on our main cheap Fitbit deals roundup.

Today's cheapest Fitbit Charge 3 prices

The standard Fitbit Charge 3 is currently available in two colour schemes. One tracker comes with a graphite aluminium case with a black strap, while another option goes for a rose gold tracker with a blue grey strap. You can usually view both options on the same page at most retailers.

Today's best Fitbit Charge 3 Special Edition prices

Fitbit isn't averse to creating a special edition for its products, just like Apple and its smartwatches, or Ubisoft and its insane number of special editions for an Assassin's Creed game. Thankfully, there's not much to get confused about with the Fitbit Charge 3 Special Edition. The difference between the regular and Special Edition Fitbit Charge 3 involve prices, wrist strap options and Fitbit Pay.

As you can tell via our price comparison above, the Fitbit Charge 3 Special edition prices are more expensive, namely thanks to the additional tech inside powering Fitbit Pay. This allows you to make contactless payments at select stores (with the icon to the left), which can be handy for buying a bottle of water while out for a run.

However, it actually depends if your bank supports Fitbit Pay transactions too. UK coverage is seriously poor at the time of writing - though if you're with Santander or Starling Bank among a few more obscure others you'll be fine. Plus, Fitbit Pay is also now accepted on TFL transport systems. There are plenty of options in the US as well. You can check your country's options via the official list.

The other difference you've probably noticed already are the different straps. One option is a sporty silicon strap in white with a graphite-coloured tracker. We're quite taken with the other model which comes with a woven lavender strap and a rose gold tracker. The Fitbit Charge 3 Special Editions came out a few weeks after the regular Charge 3 and is widely available around the world now.

Google is rolling out an update to its kid-friendly Fitbit Ace LTE smartwatch with the goal to “foster independence and motivate movement” in young users. Chief among them is the implementation of Tap to Pay. 

Children will be able to use the feature to pay for things wherever “Google Pay is accepted. In fact, it operates just like it does on the Pixel Watch 2, but with a distinct difference.

Tap to Pay on the Fitbit Ace LTE doesn’t work with just any debit or credit card. The device must be connected to a debit card from either Greenlight or GoHenry, two financial tech companies that strive to teach children about money. 

Through this integration, the wearable can also send transaction alerts, implement spending limits, and give out an allowance whenever chores are done. It's designed to help children develop autonomy while giving parents a way to monitor their finances so they don’t overspend.

New games

The second major release is the introduction of two new games on the FitBit Arcade app: Sproutlings and Spirit Garden. Details are sparse, but from what we can see, they encourage kids to exercise like the other already-available titles. 

Spirit Garden is an immersive title where players are tasked to summon virtual spirits and rebuild shrines. Progression appears tied to exercising as extra game time is unlocked "the more kids move." It’s an interactive experience as the title utilizes haptic feedback, audio, and the built-in accelerometer in its gameplay. There is also a meditation aspect to it, as the announcement mentions “guided mindful practices”.

Sproutlings are similar to Tamagotchi, with children receiving a little plant critter they’re tasked with raising. As with the previous game, progression is connected to exercise since the Sproutling grows as young users play.

The School Time tool is receiving an extra function by allowing parents to set up a lunch break. That way, “kids can use their watch during recess” or lunch, but when classes start, it’s automatically disabled. 

Future update

There are other changes, too, although we don't know a lot about them. Google states it is partnering with the Alliance for a Healthier Generation to consistently release “new Daily Quests” moving forward. Exactly what these exercises are is unknown.

Later in the year, kids will be able to add their older or younger siblings as contacts inside the wearable Fitbit Ace app. This is supposed to facilitate communication between the two sides. There is no word on exactly when the feature will roll out, although we did reach out to Google for more information and we'll update this piece if and when we hear back.

If you're looking for a wearable for you, check out TechRadar's list of the best smartwatches for 2024.

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Wearable devices powered by artificial intelligence have been having a moment recently, with the Humane AI Pin and the Rabbit R1 catching the world’s attention – often for the wrong reasons. But despite these high-profile flops, another AI wearable has just emerged on the scene, and it might be one of the strangest offerings yet.

Called Friend, this new device takes the form of a medallion that’s attached to a lanyard and worn around your neck. It can pick up on things you’re doing and saying, and then send you friendly comments in the form of text messages sent to your phone. To use Friend, you push a button in the medallion’s center and say something, then the device will reply using the aforementioned text messages.

Friend costs $99, giving it an advantage over the $699 Humane AI Pin and the $199 Rabbit R1. It’s only compatible with iOS devices for now, with the creators saying, “We will support Android in the future depending on demand.” It’s due to start shipping in Q1 2025.

A creepy companion?

Despite the chummy aim of the device, there seems to be a lot of potential for Friend to cross the line from chirpy pal to creepy know-it-all. Take the Friend promotional video, for example. In one scene, a woman is watching a video on her phone while eating a falafel wrap. The Friend device comments on the on-screen content and asks how the person’s meal is. It’s unclear how exactly it knew what the woman was eating, leaving an uncanny aftertaste to the video.

Elsewhere in the trailer, a man is playing a video game with his friends and is being roundly beaten, even commenting that he hates the game. The Friend device then responds – without any prompting from the man – and mocks him by saying that his performance is “embarrassing.” That implies that the device is potentially always listening to your conversations – after all, it wasn’t prompted to speak by its owner – and the Friend website confirms this, saying “When connected via Bluetooth, your Friend is always listening and forming their own internal thoughts. We have given your Friend free will for when they decide to reach out to you.”

Friend’s creators say that data is end-to-end encrypted and does not leave your device, but there are still some pretty substantial privacy implications with a product that's always listening to what you say.

As well as that, there’s the question of whether a device like this will help or hinder people in terms of healthy relationships. It seems reasonable to ask whether it’s a good idea to encourage people to form a parasocial friendship with an inanimate object rather than with real people. While it might help provide temporary relief for lonely people, it’s hardly a long-term solution.

We’ll find out what kind of impact the Friend will have when it launches next year. It will be interesting to see if it can avoid the fate of the Humane AI Pin and the Rabbit R1 – and tame some of its creepier aspects.

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When Samsung’s Galaxy Watch7 was recently revealed, people were excited to see all of the new features but failed to notice that something was missing. 

User JordyV27 on X (the platform formerly known as Twitter) discovered a support page revealing that neither the Galaxy Watch 7 nor the Galaxy Watch Ultra has Wireless PowerShare.

For those unfamiliar, Wireless PowerShare is a reverse charging feature that allows Samsung wearables to steal a bit of power from a Galaxy smartphone. To transfer energy, you just had to place the smartwatch directly on the back of the phone. This function was exclusive to a handful of first-party devices, but it really came in handy in a pinch.

PowerShare is gone because of the new BioActive sensor on the rear of the watches. It’s a powerful collection of sensors more accurate than the Galaxy Watch6’s hardware and provides “deeper [health] metrics.” Samsung explains that the unique design of the stack required them to alter the shape of the smartwatch’s backglass.

As a result, it “increased the distance between the internal wireless charging coil… and the wireless charger.” With so much going on inside the case, Samsung decided it would be best to simply remove support for Wireless PowerShare.

Worthwhile tradeoff

Although it may disappoint some to see such a useful tool removed, it’s a worthy exchange. Samsung’s BioActive array has improved the health features of wearables. The Galaxy Watch 7 can, for example, help users learn about their metabolic health since it can track AGEs (advanced glycation end products). It can even look for signs of sleep apnea now.

Plus, the signs of PowerShare going away have been around for a while now. The Galaxy Watch5 Pro supported the function, but you had to remove the strap as it would get in the way.

Samsung’s support page also recommends utilizing the wireless charger that comes with the Watch 7, as using a charger from an older model could result in slower charge times “and higher heat generation.” Again, this is because of the BioActive sensor array.

Pre-orders are currently for the Samsung Galaxy Watch7 and Watch Ultra. The former is available in two sizes: 40mm at $299 / £289 / AU$549 and 44mm at $329 / £319 / AU$599. The Watch Ultra is a single size with a price tag of $649 / £599 / AU$1,299. The shipping date for both is set for July 24.

While we have you, be sure to check out TechRadar's list of the nine things we saw and learn at Galaxy Unpacked 2024.

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The second Samsung Galaxy Unpacked of 2024 has wrapped up and we have all the news, hands-on looks, and in-depth details about Samsung's wealth of new mobile products. We saw a number of firsts, though no huge surprises. Here is our play-by-play report of the Unpacked Live Stream as it happened.  

The biggest new thing was probably the Galaxy Ring, Samsung's first finger-focused wearable. In fact, all of Samsung's wearables got an update today, including a brand new Galaxy Watch Ultra that sits atop the Galaxy Watch 7 line. We also saw new Galaxy Buds 3 and Buds 3 Pro earbuds, which look suspiciously like another set of earbuds we know...

Following is the Live Blog as it happened, unchanged from when it originally ran live during the Galaxy Unpacked 2024 event in Paris. You can also read about everything  we saw and learned from Samsung at Galaxy Unpacked. 

Galaxy Unpacked cheat sheet

• The event kicked off at 6am PT / 9am ET / 2pm BST / 11pm AEDT
• To watch the stream again, check out how to watch Samsung Galaxy Unpacked 2024
• Here's 9 things we saw and learned at Galaxy Unpacked
• News about the Samsung Galaxy Ring
• All the foldable phones: Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Galaxy Z Flip 6
• A faster Samsung Galaxy Watch 7
• The Galaxy Watch Ultra is very Ultra
• These Galaxy Buds 3 and Galaxy Buds Pro 3 look familiar
• Galaxy AI dominated Galaxy Unpacked, as expected

Good morning. Managing Editor of Mobile Computing Roland Moore-Colyer here to take you through the run up to what I'm calling the 'summer' Samsung Galaxy Unpacked event. Expect to hear about a good handful of products today. 

And AI... always AI. 

Right, let's get into it. First off, here's what I reckon you can expect: 

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6: going by the rumors so far, expect a small upgrade. 

The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6: expect a decent suite of changes, notably an improved camera system. 

The Samsung Galaxy Watch 7: an upgrade on the Galaxy Watch 6, so more wellness tracking features, better specs and maybe a refreshed design. 

The rumored Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra: basically Samsung's clap back at the Apple Watch Ultra. 

The Samsung Galaxy Buds Pro 3 and Galaxy Buds 3: new wireless earbuds from Samsung to nip at the heels of the AirPods range. 

Of course, all those devices currently exist in the fug of rumors, leaks and speculation. But I've been covering Samsung stuff for years, so am rather confident that we'll see pretty much most of those aforementioned devices. 

I've not heard a great deal about the Galaxy Watch Ultra, but a recent big leak has sparked the rumors to more than just a little smoldering in the background. 

As the 'boss' of the Mobile Computing division at TechRadar, which means smartphones and tablets, you'd think I'd be excited about the Galaxy Z Fold 6. After all, I have a Fold 4 and Fold 3 within my grasp and do rather like the literal flexibility of the phones. 

But I'm not. 

I'm expecting to see a chip upgrade to the next-generation Fold but not a lot more given the rumors. Samsung is sure to equip the Galaxy Z Fold 6 with all the AI chops it put into the Galaxy S24 series, but I've not heard much of any unique features to make the Fold 6's larger display sing with smart tools. And that's a pity, so far at least, as I've already written how I hope Samsung leans on AI to make the Galaxy Z Fold 6 special. 

Just take a look at the below renders of the Galaxy Z Fold 6, seemingly based on insider information, and you'll see a phone that looks pretty much identical to its predecessor. 

I'd normally say that's no bad thing as I like the design of the current Fold. But equally in the face of tighter competition from the likes of the Google Pixel Fold and OnePlus Open, I feel Samsung could do with mixing up the design of its flagship foldable phone... try saying that fast and after a few beers. 

So keeping the focus on the Galaxy Z Fold 6 for now, I reckon it'll get the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip seen in the Galaxy S24 phones, in addition to a mild battery boost: read our rundown of the Galaxy Z Fold 6 specs for a deeper analysis. 

New Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 colors are also predicted. Expect to see navy, a light pink, silver, black, and white. All of which would be pretty run-of-the-mill; I'd love a lime green Fold! 

As for the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 price, expect the next-gene Fold to follow the pricing structure of the Galaxy Z Fold 5 and start at $1,799.99 / £1,749 / AU$2,599. But I'd not be super surprised if Samsung upped the price of the Fold, given that's a trend for high-end smartphones that have been released over the past 18 months or so. 

So moving on to the Galaxy Z Flip 6. I'm expecting to see a little more in the way of an upgrade in comparison to the Fold 6. 

Naturally the Galaxy Z Flip 6 specs will surely include the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip, but there's likely to be a battery boost, a new main camera, potentially more base memory and RAM. Plus I suspect we'll see upgrades to make any Galaxy AI features snappy. 

I'm also low-key excited about the Galaxy Z Flip 6 colors, as Samsung is good at giving the flipping foldable phone a decent suite if shades. So far we're predicting a mint, silver, yellow, black, peach, white, and lavender color options. 

As for the Galaxy Z Flip 6 price, I'd suggest it'll follow that of its predecessor, the Galaxy Z Flip 5, and start at $999.99 / £1,049 / AU$1,649. 

On to the Samsung Galaxy Watch 7. I'm a little lukewarm on this one. The rumors and leaks so far have been a bit 'meh', with what could be a small update on the Galaxy Watch 6. 

We're talking a new chipset, sizes of 40mm and 44mm, and likely an improved battery life. On the software side, expect smart, AI-powered workouts and wellness routines. And I reckon the starting price for the next-gen Galaxy Watch will be around $299.99 / £289 / AU$549. 

Still, I hope Samsung has a few surprises up its sleeve with its next smartwatch, as I'm keen to see the Apple Watch knocked of its throne, or at least give a damn good shove. 

And on to the Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra. The rumors are rather vague around this smartwatch, but it looks set to be a larger take on the Galaxy Watch line, likely sporting rugged features and a tough strap that'll deal with being deep underwater or up a mountain with ease. 

But I'm also forecasting the Watch Ultra will have a mix of wellness and fitness tracking features, like blood glucose monitoring, along with AI-powered features driven by connected Galaxy phones. I do hope that the so-called Galaxy Watch Ultra isn't completely limited by needing to be used with the best Samsung phones, and can instead work with other Android phones. 

But the big announcements that's surely happening today, will be a proper look at the Samsung Galaxy Ring. I'm rather excited about this, as it's Samsung's first smart ring and going by Fitness Editor Matt Evans' first impressions, it could be a rather feature-packed device. 

We're expecting to see a suite of embedded sensors, and a host of AI-powered fitness and wellness tracking features. But what appeals to me is the simple design and the tracking of things like step counts without the need to wear a smartwatch or deal with the lack of accuracy I feel smartphone-based tracking has. 

Now there are other smart rings, but I feel Samsung has the tech ecosystem to really make a smart, smart ring; say support for gesture control in tandem with Samsung phones. 

Speaking of wellness tracking, we've just spotted some news that claims older Galaxy Watch models are getting a sleep apnea feature retroactively added to them via an update. 

Sleep apnea is a sleep disorder where people's breathing repeatedly starts and stops, which can manifest as loud snoring and not feeling rested after a night's sleep. Tracking it can be one step on the road to tackling the condition.  

So the addition of such a feature to older Galaxy Watches is promising, and a sign that the Galaxy Watch 7 and Galaxy Watch ultra will surely have such a feature as well. 

New sleep apnea feature from r/GalaxyWatch

Oh if you want to hear from me directly, because reading might not be your jam, take a look at my TechRadar TikTok video below for a quick rundown on what to expect from Unpacked today. 

Now some fresh news: according to GSMarena, the rumored Galaxy Z Fold 6 Ultra has been put on hold indefinitely by Samsung. 

There's no clear information as to why that would be the case, but I'd posit there's just not an appetite for a bigger and more powerful Fold, given the Fold line as it stands has a host of flagship features. 

Right, lets talk Galaxy Buds. Going by a very recent leak, it looks like Samsung could be poised to reveal the Galaxy Buds 3 and Galaxy Buds Pro 3 today. 

We're not sure whatto expect beyond improved audio, but the leaks so far suggest a new design is coming, one that's reminiscent of the AirPods. 

Let me give you a little recap on what to expect from the Samsung showcase today: go read my roundup of 7 things to expect from today's Samsung Galaxy Unpacked. 

So we could have a (sort of) surprise guest at Galaxy Unpacked and it looks like it could be Sydney Sweeney. She was at the last Fold/Flip launch event, so we can predict she'll be an ambassador for the new folding phones today. 

But then again maybe she'll just be a huge Galaxy Ring fan... time will tell. 

So AI... we can expect to hear a fair bit about it in around two hours time. Specifically, Samsung will surely tout AI features that have been baked into the new foldable phones. 

I reckon we'll see a lot of the same Galaxy AI features we saw with the Galaxy S24 series. But I am crossing my fingers they'll be reworked to make use of the large folding display of the Fold 6 and the ability for the Flip 6 to present its displays in interesting positions. 

But I also hope that with whatever wearables Samsung does indeed launch today that we'll see smart AI features used to get the most out of them. I feel AI will work well with the likes of the Galaxy Ring, intelligently serving up insights in tandem with a connected phone and smarty recognising hand movements. 

Speaking of AI, I'm curious to see what Samsung could do to ensure it's making its AI efforts as consumer-friendly as possible. That's because with Apple Intelligence, the Cupertino company looks like its targeting a seamless integration of AI into consumer tech. 

So I hope that Samsung introduces some new Galaxy AI features today that are genuinely useful for everyday life rather than nice to have tools that one plays around with briefly then forgets quickly. 

Good morning everybody! I'm Phil Berne, your US Mobiles editor, taking the helm from our Mobiles Chief Roland MC. We have our large and in charge Editor-at-Large Lance Ulanoff and our Captain Video Viktoria Shilets on the scene in Paris, so be sure to check back for our hands-on impressions, and don't miss the TechRadar TikTok channel for videos of all the new gear. 

Before we even get into all the Samsung news, let's pause to notice the Motorola Razr 2024. Moto says its cool flip phone is the best selling flip foldable on the market, but is the foldable market big enough to notice? Samsung's expected Galaxy Z Flip 6 will arrive today to take on Moto's new hotness, bringing performance and professionalism to match Moto's colorful cool. 

I've been reviewing the Motorola Razr and Motorola Razr Plus (that's Razr 50 and Razr 50 Ultra for the rest of the world) for the past couple of weeks, but I decided it did not make sense to offer a review of these phones with Samsung's next Flip 6 waiting patiently to attack. Once I've had time to measure my impressions against Samsung's next compact, we'll have in-depth, lab-tested reviews of all the new phones. 

The big question for me will be AI. Will Samsung push its AI ambitions even further with the Galaxy Z phones? Or will it shore up its AI defenses and let Google continue to take the lead on Android's AI evolution. We'll find out today. 

Oh, also there will be watches, if you're, like, Ultra active. We'll get to those in a bit.

What are you hoping to see today? While the Galaxy Z Flip 6 and Galaxy Z Fold 6 smartphones will be the big ticket items, there are a couple entirely new products on the slate for Galaxy Unpacked 2024 that are generating even more interest. The Galaxy Ring will be Samsung first entry into finger-focused wearables, and the Galaxy Watch Ultra will be Samsung's rugged take on the Apple Watch Ultra. 

The Galaxy Ring has been rumored for quite some time, and of course a finger wearable just makes sense, once the sensors can be shrunk appropriately small. For folks who already own a nice watch, especially, a ring is a better option than a Galaxy Watch. 

What's most surprising is how few smart ring products are on the market today. Oura is the biggest smart ring player, with new AI features that launched today to anticipate Samsung's coming attack. Oura isn't a brand name you hear in other categories. Where are Apple, Google, and even Motorola (Lenovo) when it comes to smart rings? Samsung will be the first big phone player with its own ring, but I doubt it will be the last. 

What am I hoping to see from today's Galaxy Unpacked 2024? As a long-time Samsung watcher and owner, I'm looking for Samsung to reclaim its dominance across the board. Samsung's foldable phones are incredible, but there have been some design missteps that allowed competitors like Motorola's Razr and the OnePlus Open to take top spots on our list of the best foldable phones. 

On the Galaxy Z Fold 6, I'm hoping the cover display looks like a normal phone, not like a tall, narrow slab of glass. That means an aspect ratio change. The Galaxy Z Fold 5 has an aspect ratio of 23.1:9, which is very long and narrow. The OnePlus Open, on the other hand, has an aspect ratio of 19.5:9. The difference is obvious at first glance. The OnePlus Open looks like a normal phone, while the Z Fold 5 looks weird. I'd like to see a Galaxy Z Fold 6 that takes on a normal cover display aspect ratio, closer to the OnePlus Open.

On the Galaxy Z Flip 6, I'm hoping to do a lot more on the cover display. I'd like a huge cover screen, like you get on the Motorola Razr 2024 and Razr Plus 2024, but it's a bit late for major design changes. At the least, I want to use every app on my phone on the Galaxy Z Flip 6 cover. I want to use AllTrails and my Roku TV remote with the Flip closed. 

For the Galaxy Ring, I'd like to see something new in health tracking and data accuracy. If we're going to accept a whole new form factor for wearables, if I'm going to have to put a computer on yet another new part of my body, I want a good reason why. I want better sleep tracking than I get with a Galaxy Watch, and maybe something to monitor metabolism levels in a more accurate way. 

On the Galaxy Watch Ultra, just make it Ultra. I miss Samsung's old rotating bezel, like on the Galaxy Watch 6 Classic. If I can't have that, then just go wild. Give it every stupid bit of technology you can cram inside. If Apple can sell a watch as a SCUBA depth monitor, Samsung must have something more obscure up its sleeve. 

We're only minutes away from Galaxy Unpacked 2024. I've got my Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra open next to me, ready to watch the Live Stream at Samsung.com on the biggest, baddest tablet I've ever owned. I'm hoping for spectacle and surprises, though this is one of the biggest Samsung product launches I've ever seen, and I've seen them all. 

Will there be any celebrity appearances? We know that actress Sydney Sweeney, who helped promote the Galaxy Z Flip 5, has already posted video content online showing she's on the way to Galaxy Unpacked 2024. Our editors will keep an eye out for anybody famous in the crowd. Besides our Editor-at-Large Lance Ulanoff, of course. 

Is there any chance for One More Thing from Samsung at the very end? Who knows, maybe all of the excitement over new products will snowball and we'll get a sneak peak at VR glasses, or some other future Galaxy star. If the new Galaxy Ring, Galaxy Watch Ultra, foldable phones, and accompanying accessories are all that we get, for that alone we'll have to be content. 

Samsung is launching a slew of new devices today, but you wouldn't know it watching the preview for the Live Stream of Galaxy Unpacked 2024. The only text on screen is "Galaxy AI is here" over and over again, with the now-familiar stars that seem to represent AI everywhere. 

So, it looks like Galaxy AI is here? Okay, the show is starting. Let's hope for more than just AI. 

Samsung's July Galaxy Unpacked 2024 is under way! We're starting with an introductory video showing familiar AI features like circle-to-search, and live translation, while hip-hop plays. 

Now Samsung President and Head of the Mobile Experience (MX) business TM Roh is on stage. He says Samsung is going to "open the next frontier of ... AI." He takes an early dig at Apple, saying Galaxy AI will be available on more than 200 million devices, while Apple Intelligence is only coming to the Apple iPhone 15 Pro models and whatever iPhone Apple launches next. 

Samsung's Roh says Galaxy AI is now an ecosystem, built in a way only Samsung can manage. Does this mean your phone can finally control your washing machine? No, it looks like he just means Galaxy Watch, Galaxy Ring, and Galaxy Buds. 

I'm rooting for Bixby here. Let's count how many times Samsung mentions Bixby in today's Galaxy AI presentation. 

Without much fanfare, Roh has announced the Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Galaxy Z Flip 6, but is only showing the phones in silhouette profile. We're still hearing platitudes about AI, which will be "safe and inclusive," blah blah blah. Nothing tangible yet. 

Let's meet the new Galaxy stuff! We're starting with a Doctor, so clearly the Galaxy Ring and health features are coming first. 

We're starting with Galaxy AI and health data, not the Galaxy Ring itself. Without offering any specific details, Samsung says Galaxy AI will interpret your data in a better way. 

Samsung Health will be all about sleep and weight especially. Samsung talks about using various measurements, but isn't talking about what it's doing that is new or different from anybody else. 

Now, finally we see the Galaxy Ring. Let's take a look. 

The Galaxy Ring is "the pinnacle of unobtrusive health technology." It has three sensors that measure sleep, activity, heart rate and more. It continuously syncs with Samsung Health and you don't need a subscription. Okay, that's fantastic. Samsung could have absolutely followed Oura's lead and charged a fee, and I'm thrilled it isn't milking its customers for more. 

The ring is made from titanium, and you'll get days of battery life with one charge. Samsung wants you to sleep with it. 

Oh, and now we're rushing on to Galaxy Watch Ultra. Okay, let's digest the Ring and move on to the wrist. 

The Galaxy Watch Ultra looks ... like an Apple Watch Ultra. It has titanium in the frame, and it can survive up to 10ATM of pressure, which is farther than most humans will ever dive. 

Samsung says it lasts up to 100 hours in power saving mode. It uses a 3nm processor that is 3X faster than the past Galaxy Watch CPU. It uses dual-frequency GPS systems, more like a smartphone than previous Galaxy Watch devices. 

While other smart watches have gone for the burgeoning running market, Samsung is going strong for the cycling crowd, which is smart considering the Tour de France is happening right now and Galaxy Unpacked 2024 is taking the stage in Paris. 

There will be Blood Pressure monitoring, at least in the EU, and it can handle ECG testing in the US. The US FDA has also approved the Galaxy Watch Ultra for detecting sleep apnea. 

Samsung says the watch will detect Advanced Glycation End-products. I have no idea what that means, so I'll leave that to the experts. 

On the Galaxy Watch Ultra specs slide there is a mention of Double Pinch Gesture Controls, but nothing in the presentation. We'll see if Samsung has copied the Apple Watch's newest gesture feature from the Apple Watch 9. 

The Galaxy Ring will be available from $399 in the US. We'll have more detailed pricing around the world in our full coverage of the new Galaxy Ring. 

Now Samsung is moving quickly to the foldable phones, without discussing in detail how the Galaxy Ring or Galaxy Watch will use AI to help user health, or how these devices might work together as part of the ecosystem. 

Oh well, on to the phones!

The Galaxy Z Fold 6 is Samsung's thinnest and lightest tablet foldable phone. It looks like Samsung has changed the aspect ratio of the cover display, but only very slightly. The new display looks like it is 22.1:9, as opposed to the 23.1:9 display from the Galaxy Z Fold 5. That's not quite enough, but hopefully it will be a much better experience. 

Durability is a huge concern on this phone, so Samsung is stressing the durability of the new display up front. 

"Samsung engineers are masters" no humility here, huh?

The Galaxy Z Fold 6 is all about gaming, according to Samsung. The company is boasting about its ray tracing capabilities and bright display. It says future displays will be slimmer, stronger, and brighter, but I'm not sure how that benefits anybody interested in a Galaxy Z Fold 6. 

Samsung is talking up circle to search, which is not a Samsung feature but rather a Google AI tool. Samsung says circling will help with language translations, and it will also help with homework. When your student circles a problem, Samsung's Galaxy AI will help your learner work through the problem, it won't just answer for them (can you tell I was a teacher?). 

Samsung says Galaxy AI is multi-modal, which means you can type, talk, draw, or use the camera to feed input to the AI tools. We haven't seen anything new or surprising yet, mostly just features from Google's AI and Google Gemini. 

Google Gemini is coming to the Galaxy Z Fold 6, Galaxy Z Flip 6, and other Samsung phones, if you live in a region where Google Gemini is in the App Store. 

Samsung is expanding its generative AI text features in the Samsung keyboard. In addition to changing writing styles, Samsung is now offering a Composer that will create an entire document based on a prompt you provide. You can say "Send a thank you note to Michael for the inviation" and it will do that for you, without a note from you to start with. 

Samsung is also improving its Galaxy AI transcripts on the voice recorder app, which is fantastic. This is a great feature, but Samsung's version couldn't quite match Google's Pixel recorder app. Hopefully this will bring Samsung's phone in line with Google's capabilities. 

Now for something new with AI...

Galaxy AI will have new generative image features that will create an image from your drawings. Using an S Pen (or your finger, presumably) you can give the phone a doodle to start, and it will interpret whatever you were drawing and create a more polished final image. Samsung showed off drawing a quick sketch of the Eiffel Tower and the phone created graphics with color and texture. Samsung calls this Sketch to Image. 

This Sketch to Image looks like the most unique Galaxy AI feature we've seen so far, and it's in keeping with Samsung's commitment to the S Pen, with apps like PenUp also supporting the drawing community. 

Oh, wait, Samsung is now calling out Sydney Sweeney, who is such a fantastic actress that she can even seem interested in being a part of Galaxy Unpacked 2024, in the front row, no less. I have asked our team on the ground to get more time with Ms. Sweeney, if possible. 

Okay, enough fun, now we're getting serious about specs. After a few words about feeds and speeds, we're now hearing about the Galaxy Z Flip 6. 

As the more affordable, and more portable, of these two foldable phones, the Galaxy Z Flip 6 might be my early favorite of the two. We're now seeing how Galaxy AI features will change Samsung's flip phone. 

The best thing about the Galaxy Z Flip 6 is that Samsung doesn't step down the specs for the smaller phone. It should have the same fast performance, and the same OneUI software and Galaxy AI features. We're getting a look at the phone in a preview video showing off all the new colors now. 

Samsung is starting with the camera on the Galaxy Z Flip 6. It will have a 50MP camera (how big is the sensor?), with help from Galaxy AI. Samsung's camera AI scene optimization is actually very good, so I have some hope for improvements on the camera front. Cameras are a weakness for all foldable phones, because of the thin design, not just for Samsung. 

When you fold the camera slightly, Samsung calls this FlexCam mode, and it's now more intelligent. It will frame your photo for you, zooming in as needed. The Galaxy Z Flip 6 will also get the Instant Slow-Mo feature we saw on the Galaxy S24 family. 

There's a bigger battery on the Galaxy Z Flip 6, now in line with the latest Motorola Razr Plus 2024. Not to give away my upcoming Razr Plus review, but that phone has amazing battery life compared to the previous Galaxy Z Flip 5, so I'll be very happy to see major battery improvements on the Galaxy Z Flip 6. Samsung also says it has a vapor chamber for cooling, which is a first for Samsung's flip phone. 

Now we're talking about the Flex window, Samsung's name for the cover display. Samsung keeps things much more limited than Motorola's Razr. Samsung wants you to personalize and show off the Flex Window, but maybe don't do so much on that smaller screen. Motorola, on the other hand, lets you run every app on the phone. 

We'll see if Samsung has changed anything else on the Flex Window when we've had more hands-on time with the new Z Flip 6. 

Live translate is coming to more apps. Samsung says its live translate spoken language translator will work with third party apps during calls and video chats. Samsung is also using both screens on its latest foldable phones to give each person in a conversation a display window with translation on screen. That's a feature Google offers on the Pixel Fold, but it should be even more useful on the smaller Galaxy Z Flip 6. 

Translations are handled on the device by Galaxy AI, running locally without any cloud support. Samsung supports up to 20 languages in its live translation feature. 

Now we're on to Galaxy Buds, which must have AI of some sort. 

The Galaxy Buds3 Pro are Samsung's latest earbuds. Samsung is starting with the shape of your ear, not AI. Maybe it used AI to create the ear design? Ahh, yes it did, of course. AI is everywhere, let's never forget. Ear shape and fit should be improved. 

Samsung says the newest buds monitor when you are wearing your buds more tightly, or when you are hanging loose, and it adjusts the sound accordingly. It will also improve call quality, blah blah blah, lots of improvements without much substance. I'm sure AI is responsible. 

The Galaxy Buds 3 Pro have speakers and amplifiers. There are woofers and tweeters. Sounds can be optimized. To demonstrate the way its earbuds sound, Samsung is playing music over the theater speakers at the Louvre. Let's skip to the next things. Samsung has spent more time on the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro than it did on the Galaxy Watch 7. 

Samsung has two expensive sets of earbuds. The Galaxy Buds 3 will be US $179 and they don't have eartips. The Galaxy Buds 3 Pro will be US $249 and they have eartips.  Samsung isn't announcing UK and Australia pricing on stage, but we'll have those prices in our hands-on reviews. 

The Galaxy Z Flip 6 will cost a whopping $1,099 in the US, a $100 increase over last year. The Galaxy Z Fold 6 will cost $1,899 in the US, also a $100 increase. Both phones will be available on July 24. Samsung has committed to support these phones with seven years of Android and Security updates. 

After talking pricing and availability for every single device, Samsung has finally gotten around to talking about how it is keeping your data safe as its Galaxy AI listens and analyzes everything you do. 

Samsung says it will process as much information as possible on the device. Also, it will create an entire knowledge graph to understand you and make suggestions for your schedule and routines. Samsung says it will accomplish this through on-device analysis. 

When you need more power, you'll be able to use AI features in the cloud, or you can choose to keep your processing on the device only. Samsung isn't being clear about the dangers of using the cloud, or explaining why you might want to process your data on the device only. Is the cloud unsafe?

Now Samsung is introducing Rick Osterloh, head of Platforms and Devices from Google, to talk more about AI. 

Osterloh is here to talk about ... circle to search? Okay, we get it. You circle. It searches. It's not that great. You could just search with a screenshot before. It doesn't even really search a 'circle.' Whatever you have circled, it makes a square box, and searches within that. Enough with the circle to search. 

Google Gemini is rolling out into new countries. Osterloh also says Gemini will be able to do more, but isn't being very specific about what features Gemini will get. He says Gemini will become more multimodal, like we saw at Google I/O with Google's Project Astra. 

Rick Osterloh drops a hint about the upcoming XR glasses program that Google is working on with Samsung. There is no visual or specific info, but Osterloh drops the hint then calls Samsung chief TM Roh back on stage for a hand-shake and a quick goodbye. 

Roh mentions the XR platform created with Google will be coming this year. We're in the back half of the year, so Samsung better hurry! This is usually the last big Unpacked event. I'd bet Samsung shows off more at its Samsung Developers Conference. 

Roh is reviewing all the products offered. He calls Galaxy AI a 'Hybrid Intelligence' and ends by saying "life opens up with Galaxy." And that's the end of Unpacked! 

Now we're sending our editors on the scene to get hands-on. Just kidding! We already got hands-on with all the new products. You can check out our hands-on review of the Galaxy Z Flip 6, the Galaxy Z Fold 6, the brand new Galaxy Watch Ultra, and even Samsung's first ever Galaxy Ring. So I guess our editors will just have to hang out with Sydney Sweeney and her crew, like usual. 

We're on the scene at Galaxy Unpacked 2024 in Paris, learning everything we can about the latest Galaxy Gear. We'll have full reviews of the new products as soon as they've cleared Future Labs testing, as well as in-depth impressions of the latest features. 

Google was a huge presence today, with its phone features like circle to search as well as AI apps like Google Gemini. You can read about what's coming to Google Gemini, including a much more robust background AI that will get to know you better. 

We are also tracking pre-order deals and sales for the Samsung gear. With Amazon Prime Day coming early next week, will we see some older Samsung kit on sale? Seems likely, so check back for the best sales on old and new Galaxy gear. 

The next Apple Watch SE could be primarily made out of plastic. Notable industry expert Mark Gurman claimed in his recent newsletter the tech giant is thinking about getting rid of the aluminum shell for the upcoming wearable. In its place will be a body made from a “rigid plastic.” 

The current SE model has some plastic in its construction, with a back case made of a nylon composite. But with his move, Apple would be fully embracing plastic as the primary material. 

What kind of plastic is unknown, but it could possibly be a type of fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP for short). FRPs are notable for their high strength, lightweight nature, and noncorrosive properties. 

Other smartwatch brands like Garmin use the polymer in their devices while restricting nylon for their wristbands. Apple could follow a similar trajectory there, although this is admittedly speculation.

Low-cost wearable

Gurman theorizes the new plastic shell is being implemented in an effort to compete with the Galaxy Watch FE. Samsung revealed their wearable on June 24, which notably sports an aluminum frame. The Bluetooth model for the Galaxy Watch FE costs $199.99, while the LTE version has a $249.99 price tag in the United States. By comparison, the 2022 Apple Watch SE is $249.99.

Apple’s move, assuming the company goes through with it, could knock prices down to $200, maybe even lower. This wouldn’t be the first time the company has experimented with different constructions for their products. The iPhone 5c from all the way in 2013 famously had a polycarbonate design.

However, it wasn’t pure plastic, as it had a steel frame underneath. The 2024 Apple Watch SE may have no metal. It is entirely possible. Some of Garmin’s mid-range smartwatches have nothing but an FRP body.

Analysis: Metal or plastic

Initial online reactions are mixed, with some people on the Apple subreddit responding positively and others concerned about sustainability. Apple aims to be totally carbon neutral by 2030, so wouldn’t opting for a plastic Apple Watch go against this mission? It’s a complicated question to answer.

For example, consider the production of soda cans and plastic bottles. According to Reuters, producing cans “pumps about twice as much carbon into the atmosphere” compared to plastic. 

Although plastic production may emit less carbon in the short term, the material doesn’t last as long as metal, adding to pollution in the long term. Extending this idea to smartwatches creates a problem regarding device longevity.

Would a plastic Apple Watch, however tough it may be, have a shorter shelf life than the device with aluminum? Will it be more susceptible to wear and tear, forcing people to buy the upgrade? It’s hard to say for sure. We’ll just have to wait for more information, if and when the wearable is officially announced. 

As with every leak, take this information with a grain of salt. Be sure to check out TechRadar's list of the best Apple Watches for 2024.

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The next Samsung Galaxy Unpacked is taking place in Paris and is scheduled for July 10, and while it looks like foldable phones will be out in force, we’re expecting wearables to be making the biggest splash this year. Putting aside the much-anticipated launch of the Samsung Galaxy Ring, we’ve already had a Samsung Galaxy Watch FE debut, we’ll certainly get a Samsung Galaxy Watch 7, and if the rumor mill is to be believed, a Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra. 

The Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra, as the name suggests, would be Samsung’s answer to Apple’s best smartwatch ever – the Apple Watch Ultra 2. The Ultra 2 is Apple’s own response to the popularity of the best Garmin watches: a tough titanium tank of a watch, able to last for a weekend of outdoor fun if needs be, with more accurate GPS and workout options mapped to a new convenient action button. 

If we can compare Apple Watches to Batmobiles, the Apple Watch Series 9 is the sleek, shiny version envisioned by Tim Burton, while the Ultra series is the chunky, hard-wearing Christopher Nolan version. We’re expecting Samsung’s all-but-confirmed adventure watch to share a similar rough-and-ready design ethos.

However, “similar” doesn’t mean “better”. The Apple Watch Ultra 2 may top our smartwatches list, but it’s not perfect. There are aspects of the watch Samsung could take and improve upon, combining it with Samsung’s already-excellent user experience and One UI Watch 5 operating system, in order to create a fantastic outdoor smartwatch experience for Samsung users. Who knows? It might even be enough to convince a few users to switch over from Apple.

1. Integrated  maps and smoother route creation 

Before the Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra, there was the Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 Pro. Samsung’s earlier attempt at an adventure watch was an impressive step up from the Watch 5, with a “trackback” feature to stop you getting lost during hikes and runs, and the ability to allow you to follow turn-by-turn directions on routes from GPX files. GPX stands for “GPS Exchange Format file”, and contains information such as waypoints, routes and other geographic information. 

What this means in user terms is that you could put together a route on a service like Strava Premium, download it to your watch, and follow it using the watch’s GPS, so you always know where you’re going. Essential on hikes and so forth, when streaming maps from your phone can be spotty. 

The problem is that getting GPX maps, and then importing them to your Samsung watch, is a fiddly business. Apple can’t quite manage it: you can finally get online maps and download them to your watch via watchOS 11, but you can’t automatically sync it with workouts. You’ll have to use the Maps app, then open and start a workout, swapping between the two as needed. 

The best implementation I’ve seen is Garmin’s: create a course in Garmin Connect using its excellent tool, sync it to your watch in seconds, open the workout app, and once you’ve chosen “Run” (or “Cycle” or “Hike or whatever) you’ll be presented with an option to follow a route you’ve created. Swapping between your workout data such as your heart rate and so on, and your map is the matter of a touch of a button. 

Samsung should harness some of this simplicity and build route creation into the heart of its watch, as Garmin has done, rather than bolt it on as an afterthought. It’s one way to do things differently to Apple, which – for all its ultimate adventure watch credentials – can’t do this.  

2. A longer battery life

Modern smartwatches, at least true smartwatches rather than the best running watches or best fitness trackers, tend to cap out at ludicrously short battery life times. The Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 is around 40 hours, while the Apple Watch Ultra 2 can only squeeze out 36 hours. 

It sounds obvious, but in order to help an outdoor enthusiast choose Samsung’s Watch Ultra, it needs to put a shift in. Garmin watches can last weeks, even the newer models with AMOLED screens, and the (admittedly low-power, low-smarts) Coros Pace 3 lasts for almost a month. 

The Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 Pro capped out at 80 hours, and that was two years ago. If Samsung can reach that sort of battery level with the Watch Ultra (while embarking on multiple GPS-powered workouts, please, retaining some semblance of usability - not the usual “low-power mode” caveat) it could really go a long way towards trumping Apple. Twice the battery power of competing Ultra-themed watches? That is, pardon the pun, a powerful argument.

3. More of Samsung’s improved recovery metrics 

When I sat down with Samsung’s Vice President of Health, Dr Hon Pak, for a roundtable presentation on the Samsung Galaxy Ring back in January, almost all of the information on offer was on sleep and recovery. Samsung’s been investing in sleep, stress and wellness tracking metrics for a while now, a result of its watches improving on battery life, meaning they can be worn all day and night before needing a charge. Samsung will be adding a Vitality Score to the Galaxy Watch 6 series as well as the Galaxy Ring, and you can bet the Watch Ultra will have an emphasis on sleep too. 

The Vitality Score will be similar to Garmin’s Body Battery, Apple’s new Vitals app and Fitbit’s Daily Readiness Score, in that they compare how well you’ve slept, with how much stress your body is under, using their own algorithms to create a score or rating. A high score might encourage you to either go out and seize the day, while a low score may mean you need to take things easy. 

This is key stuff for an activity watch. If it’s designed to be worn non-stop for several very active days, Samsung’s sleep tracking metrics (which we know are going to be AI-powered) will need to provide detailed, personalized information about your health to keep you safe on the trails. 

Samsung’s sleep profiles, which assigns you a recommendation on how to get the best sleep for your “sleep type” represented by a cute animal, are one way Samsung is going a step further than Apple to ensure its users recover from workouts effectively, but using that score to recommend workouts based on training intensity, like Garmin does, would be another step in the right direction.

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Two days after renderings for the Pixel Watch 3 surfaced online, another leak has come out revealing its sibling device: the Pixel Watch 3 XL. 

This appears to be the rumored large, 45mm smartwatch that Google has been working on behind the scenes. If you look at the images given to Android Headlines by industry insider OnLeaks, it looks similar to the Pixel Watch 2. You have the same round glass covering the watch face and a digital crown with a single button on the right. Things only begin to differ when you look at the dimensions.

The article claims the Pixel Watch 3 XL’s display measures 1.45-inches across, larger than the Pixel Watch 3’s purported 1.2-inch panel. It goes on to say that the second model will measure 45 x 45 x 13.89 mm. That’s about a full millimeter thicker than the Pixel Watch 2, as pointed out by 9To5Google. 

It’s unknown why the tech giant is opting for bulkier wearables; the same design update is reportedly occurring on the standard model, too. Online theories suggest it’s because the Pixel Watch 3 series is going to house a bigger battery and new sensors. As a result, the devices need the extra room. 

Design changes

Now we’re getting into potentially bad news. According to the leak, “the Pixel Watch 3 XL will come with a larger band attachment system” because it is significantly bigger than its counterpart. 

Not only does this mean that the bands between the two models are not interchangeable, but you also won’t be able to use your old Pixel Watch 2 bands. They won’t fit.

Apart from the potential sizing issue, there’s not much information about the XL bands. The renderings are nothing more than possible designs. They appear to showcase a white (or “Porcelain” as the report calls it) Active band.

Initial online reactions are mostly positive, although we did see a comment hoping that the Pixel Watch 3 XL comes with sapphire crystal glass to protect against scratches. 

There is still a ton we don't know about the wearable or any of its accompanying models. However, all these leaks coming out in a short span of time could hint at an imminent release for the series. As always take the unconfirmed information with a grain of salt. And make sure to check out our roundup of the best smartwatches to get an idea of wear Google's next release might fit.

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Android 15 looks set to bring in the ability to control your phone's media output with  Wear OS smartwatches.  

In a code deep-dive of the Wear OS companion app function (which grants Wear OS app a host of phone data access, such as access to contacts and calendars) in the Android 15 beta by Android Authority’s Mishaal Rahman, a mention of "MEDIA_ROUTING_CONTROL". This new permission reportedly grants the companion app “access a list of available devices and control which one streams or casts audio or video from other apps.” 

A somewhat vague description, Android Authority noted one such privileged control permissions are granted to the companion app, they also apply to the connected smartwatch. This basically means the smartwatch would have access to a list of available connected devices (presumably ones paired with a companion smartphone) in order to route audio to video through them. 

So that reportedly means you could, for example, start playing music on your phone through a pair of connected headphones, and then use a Wear OS smartwatch to switch playback to a paired smart speaker without needing to use the phone. 

This would be handy if you wanted to change the device your audio was playing from (for example, switching from your earbuds to a Bluetooth speaker) but had left your phone in another room, in a bag, or just wanted to perform a few quick on-wrist gestures instead of opening your phone.

As it stands, Wear OS provides some control over media playback directly from a smartwatch and within watch-based apps, but for greater control over audio from services such as Spotify, one needs to use the connected phone. 

But adding more direct control over media feedback via a Wear OS smartwatch could allow for a lot more to be done from a wrist-worn wearable device, bypassing the need for one to dip into a pocket or purse to pluck out a connected Android phone. By building out Wear OS functionality and interconnectivity, Google could help bolster its device ecosystem and the interplay between such devices to provide an experience that's closer to Apple's product and software ecosystem. 

It's not clear if such functionality will come to all Wear OS devices, or be reserved for select Google devices like the Pixel Watch and Pixel Watch 2, or even if it'll make it to the full release on Android. We're likely to find out at Google I/O 2024 on on May 14, where we expect a good look at what's next for Android, Wear OS, and other Google software. 

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As part of the recent March Feature Drop, the first-generation Pixel Watch can now track your workouts and heart rate and will even teach you how to cool down.

There are six new changes in total, according to Google. The first of these is called Pace Training. Utilizing the wearable’s built-in GPS and motion-detecting sensors, runners can use this tool to set a certain pace they want to maintain while jogging. If you have a pair of Pixel Buds Pro connected, they let you know if you begin to slow down via auditory and haptic feedback. 

The second is Heart Zone Training, as mentioned earlier. This feature monitors how long your heart stays at a certain rate, whether resting or active. It’s meant to help people optimize their exercises so they can get the most out of their workouts. Similar to Pace Training, the tool will notify you when you’ve jumped from “one heart rate zone to another.”

Never get lost again

Google also saw fit to tweak the Pixel Watch’s workout user interface by increasing the font size and making the on-screen colors brighter for easier viewing. Auto-start and auto-stop are being included in the patch. These two allow the wearable to automatically start a workout whenever it detects you performing an activity. For example, when you start jogging, the Pixel Watch will instantly begin to record your run without needing extra input. 

To help you cool down after an intense gym session, the new Fitbit Relax app will guide you through a breathing exercise, telling you how long to inhale and when to exhale.

The last feature doesn’t directly pertain to exercise, but it’s still helpful as the Pixel Watch will now display public transit directions in real-time. The company states users can see their different public transit options and departure times, plus a “compass-enabled map view”. All this can be done without having to pull up Google Maps on your smartphone.

If any of this seems familiar to you, that’s because the Pixel Watch 2 has had most of these features for some time now. Google is making good on past promises of continued support for the original device. Does this mean the first Pixel Watch is now as good as the current model? 

No. The gap between the two is certainly smaller now, but the Pixel Watch 2 is still the superior wearable. It’s better at monitoring your heart rate and blood oxygen levels, plus it houses a continuous electrodermal activity (cEDA) sensor for detecting sudden spikes of stress.

Keep an eye out for the update when it arrives on your Pixel Watch. Google states the rollout for the patch begins today.

While we have you, check out TechRadar's list of the best smartwatches for 2024.

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Mobile World Congress 2024 saw its share of phones, laptops, and wearables, but bio-enhancement devices were few and far between. They were not, however, absent. Xpanceo unveiled this week four different smart contact lens prototypes that may someday become real products that you put in your eyes.

Smart contact lenses may be the holy grail of wearables. I blame The Six Million Dollar Man, a 1970s-era TV show featuring a biomechanically-enhanced former astronaut who had, among other things, a bionic eye that let him zoom in on and assess targets (there was even a data readout). That, I assume, is the dream of the smart contact lens, a wearable tech category that has thus far failed to get off the ground.

Xpanceo doesn't lack ambition. Instead of just one smart contact lens, the company announced four versions:

• A holographic smart contact lens
• A biosensing lens
• A nanoparticle-infused lens for super vision
• A transparent electronics lens

All of these lenses are as thin as traditional contacts, the company claims, but each has its own set of capabilities. The holographic lens, which Xpanceo demonstrated at MWC 2024, is essentially a mixed reality (XR) lens. In the demo, no one put the lens in their eyes; instead they looked through the lens on a platform to view a "hologram" of the nanoparticles used in the "super vision" lens. Those nanoparticles might enable low-light vision and, yes, zooming capabilities (see? Steve Austin).

The biosensing lens, which might be used to measure eye pressure and alert the wearer of potential glaucoma issues might sound somewhat familiar. Almost a decade ago Google announced that it was working with healthcare company Novartis to develop lenses that could measure glucose levels through the tears in someone's eyes.

It's not clear what became of Google's project, but the road to true smart contact lenses is littered with delays and failure.

After spending years trying to perfect an in-eye AR display system, Mojo Vision laid off most of its staff last year and switched to working on ultra-tiny microLED screens.

Another company, InWith has been working on embedding a mixed reality display system into Bausch & Lomb contact lenses. After Mojo Vision bowed out, InWith told TechRadar "We're the last man standing it appears, since Mojo has bowed out ... We're still forging ahead with going into clinicals and focused on FDA regulatory stuff right now." 

While InWith's site has not been updated since 2022, the company told us this week, "We're still in the game...Stay tuned."

A grand vision

In some ways, Xpanceo's plans appear even more ambitious. Its four lens technologies appear to be a framework for an "all-in-one smart contact lens," which could incorporate an ultra-tiny, 1-pixel screen for content, transparent technology for XR capabilities, and nanoparticles for super vision capabilities. The company believes it could start "final tests" as early as 2026.

I asked Xpanceo how close they are to bringing the "perfect lens" to market. They told me that development on all the basic components was largely complete but there's work to be done on a neuro interface, some AR elements, and improving their biosensors.

One thing that may set Xpanceo's vision apart from, say, that of Google or InWith is the use of materials. Xpanceo told me that there are fundamental limitations in traditional optoelectronic materials that make them too bulky for their designs. Xpanceo, by contrast, uses 2D materials that support "a more streamlined and advanced smart contact lens design." Xpanceo is also using flexible and transparent electronics that are only a few nanometers thick.

Eye AI

The secret sauce though might be – wait for it – AI. Xpanceo told me its scientists are using AI to "predict the properties of new materials and devise methods for creating custom materials."

The company is even promising the integration of a neural interface, which implies using your brain to control the smart lens as opposed to gestures, winks, blinks, or even specified eye movements.

Xpanceo's *ahem* vision for its smart contact lenses is futuristic and expansive. The company envisions its all-in-one lens tracking all sorts of health stats including glucose levels, blood pressure, cortisol, and more. Based on the reading, Xpanceo's lens might display a message recommending you don't have that second cup of coffee because your blood pressure is already high.

These future lenses might even be able to help with, well, vision problems such as myopia and strabismus (crossed eyes), automatically adjusting the view on the fly and delivering perfect vision to your brain.

It all sounds fantastic, and while I support the idea of a super smart contact lens that can show you a hidden world, bring the distant into sharp focus, and keep track of your health and proactively tell you how to manage it, no company has successfully delivered on a single smart contact lens promise.

As Xpanceo admitted to me no one has put any version of the company's smart contact lenses in their eyes. "No, not yet. Our lens is a medical device, and we are currently in the process of pre-submission for FDA approval for medical testing."

Jeremy Kaplan contributed to this report

Update 02-29-2024: New comment from InWith on its progress.

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As our time at the MWC 2024 mobile tech expo in Barcelona comes to an end, we wanted to highlight the products and concepts that have jumped out at us amid a sea of phones, wearables and other technology. 

Below you'll find everything from smartphones and laptops that you can buy today, or very soon, through to futuristic concept devices that give us a taste of what's to come, and AI tech that promises to help you do more, rather than do everything for you. 

So read on for the 11 best things that caught our eye, and which have earned a coveted TechRadar 'Best of MWC 2024' award.

Phone of the show: Xiaomi 14 Ultra

Last year’s Xiaomi 13 Ultra was a stellar no-holds-barred entry into the smartphone space, but as a China-only release, its power and potential remained out of reach for those outside that country looking for an alternative premium option to the usual suspects from the likes of Apple and Samsung.

In time for MWC 2024, Xiaomi has corrected this error by officially taking the 13 series’ successor – the new Xiaomi 14 Ultra – global less than a week after its Chinese debut.

As you might expect, it’s got Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset at its heart, plus charging that’s more than twice as fast as what you’d get from the mainstream competition, a quartet of rear 50MP cameras with Leica co-engineered optical tech, and a suite a new AI abilities to rival even the mighty Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra.

That camera array is the phone’s main showpiece, especially when you consider that Xiaomi is also bringing its compatible Photography Kit accessory to the party. This adds a dedicated camera grip with hardware controls, an additional onboard battery, and a 67mm filter ring for attaching polarizers and the like, to up the 14 Ultra’s impressive photography skills even further.

Best foldable phone: Honor Magic V2

Despite having already been unveiled worldwide, the Honor Magic V2 took pride of place at Honor’s MWC 2024 stand – and it’s not hard to see why. This improbably slim foldable remains the world’s thinnest (and lightest) inward-folding smartphone, measuring just 9.9mm thick when folded and 4.7mm when unfolded. By comparison, the next-thinnest foldable phone, the OnePlus Open, measures 5.8 mm at its thinnest point, and weighs some 14g more than Honor's device. So, if style and portability are your top priorities, the Magic V2 is hard to beat.

But there’s more to this phone than just good looks. Sure, Honor’s software still lacks the polish of, say, Google’s more streamlined take on Android, and you won’t get an IP water resistance rating with the Magic V2; but Honor’s latest foldable is a feature-packed device nonetheless. 

Beyond its impressive form factor, the Magic V2 boasts a 7.92-inch foldable OLED display, which itself offers a 120Hz refresh rate, HDR10+ support and a peak brightness of 1,600 nits. The phone’s second screen is a 6.43-inch, 120Hz OLED cover display, and everything is powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset. Put simply, the Honor Magic V2 is a worthy recipient of our MWC Best Foldable award.

Best phone innovation: Honor Magic 6 Pro silicon carbon battery

Honor’s Magic 6 Pro flagship boasts plenty of premium features, but we’re most impressed by its battery technology, which is derived from the electric vehicle industry. Specifically, the Magic 6 Pro uses a silicon-based 5,600mAh battery, the composition of which allows it to store more energy at the same density as carbon-based lithium-ion batteries. 

In layman’s terms, this means that, despite its increased capacity, the phone’s battery is no larger or heavier than smaller-capacity batteries in competing flagship phones. The Magic 6 Pro’s silicon-carbon battery is much more resistant to cold temperatures, too; Honor claims you’ll get 81 minutes of YouTube playback with the phone at just 10% battery in -20C temperatures. And, to top things off, the Magic 6 Pro can charge at 80W speeds, or 66W wirelessly with Honor's optional charging pad. In other words, the Honor Magic 6 Pro could well be our new battery champion.

Laptop of the show: Samsung Galaxy Book 4

While Samsung's Galaxy Book 4 was announced last year, the laptop has only just made is way out of South Korea, and seeing it in the glass and metal has won us over. There's a MacBook Air-like quality to the Galaxy Book 4's design and finish, with a very big trackpad to make zipping a cursor around the glorious 120Hz AMOLED touchscreen a joy. 

Coming in standard, Pro and Ultra variants, the Galaxy Book 4 comes in a suite of specs configurations to suit all manner of users, with access to the latest Intel processors and the option to upgrade to an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 graphics card. 

But specs are a little by-the-by here; what's really got our attention is how the Galaxy Book 4 can work with other Galaxy devices, so you can start a task – say video editing – on a Galaxy S24, and easily port it over to the Galaxy Book 4 paired with the Galaxy Buds 2 Pro earbuds and continue working with minimal disruption. This is an Apple-esque approach to creating a slick ecosystem that works well, and we're all for it.  

Best computing innovation: Lenovo's Project Crystal

We're not sure anyone ever asked "What if I could look through my laptop's display?", but regardless, Lenovo has created a laptop with a transparent display. And it's really rather cool. 

Dubbed Project Crystal, this concept laptop uses a transparent micro-LED panel fitted between two panes of Gorilla Glass to equip the machine with a screen that you can see through as if it were just a rectangle of pure glass. And despite this, the icons and windows on the display were still plenty crisp and clear. 

So what's the point of this? Well, it's been designed with the idea of creating a more collaborative laptop experience, enabling users to see other people when they're also looking at the screen, instead of being hidden behind it. Plus, there are AI-powered augmented reality options thanks to an outward-facing webcam on the laptop's rear. 

You're unlikely to see Project Crystal yield a load of Lenovo laptops with transparent screens in the near future. But this is an intriguing glimpse at where computer screens could go next, and how they might evolve into something that almost blends into its environment rather than sticking out. 

Best work laptop: Lenovo ThinkPad T14 Gen 5

Lenovo's ThinkPads have long been the workhorse laptops of many a business, and the new ThinkPad T14 Gen 5 is no different – at least not from a quick glance. 

There's a whole host of spec options to choose from, so you or your business can get a laptop that has the right parts for the job. But the award-worthy part of the new ThinkPad T14 is how Lenovo's designers worked with repair gurus iFixit to create a laptop that's far easier to repair than ever before.

The ThinkPad T14 (and the new ThinkPad T16) score an impressive 9 out of 10 on iFixit's repairability scale, with components able to be easily removed and replaced thanks to everything being clear and easy to access, and there not being a plethora of screws to get past or glued-down parts to deal with.  

This smart approach means the ThinkPad T14 Gen 5 could be repaired by users rather than needing to be sent to specialists, and it also makes for a laptop that's more sustainable, given that parts can be swapped out without he need to replace components like the motherboard. Now we just need more laptop makers to follow Lenovo's example. 

Best health and fitness tech: Samsung Galaxy Ring

Was this category likely to have any other winner? Samsung’s tiny new tracker had been one of the major talking points of the technology world for months before its official reveal. In our hands-on session, we got to know a lot about the Samsung Galaxy Ring, including a few specs like battery sizes, its overall design, and its sleep-tracking capabilities. 

It’s packing four new metrics which the Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 doesn’t have, and it uses some of these to generate a Vitality score. Its concave shape protects it from scratches, and it also has some movement-tracking capabilities, such as step count. 

Some of the best smart rings have been around for quite a few years now, but even the Oura Ring isn’t very widely adopted, thanks in part to a prohibitive price and added subscription model. A big name like Samsung embracing the category with such fanfare heralds a new, minimalist, miniature era for wearables, and I couldn’t be more excited about the future of health and fitness tech – it’s no longer all about wrist-based tracking. 

Best wearable: Humane AI Pin

Artificial intelligence is coming for us all, even in the wearables space, and the Humane AI Pin is one of the first wearables that's really trying to harness this, in an attempt to “turn the world into your operating system” via a personal assistant the size of a lapel pin. With a camera, microphone, GPS and cellular connection, the OpenAI-powered device drinks in information and requests such as “how much is $50 dollars over here” and answers via a speaker, LEDs and a laser ink display that projects onto your palm. The camera records your gestures, interprets them and cycles through the options on the laser display.

It’s really innovative stuff. I was skeptical at first, until I saw it all work in person, and I was positively delighted, especially seeing how considerations had been made for various practical problems. The magnetic backing that allows it to clip onto your clothing is also a battery pack, LEDs on the front of the display flash to indicate when the device is recording, and all data is end-to-end encrypted for security.

It’s not quite perfect quite yet: the AI confused my shirt for a hoodie, and it’s very expensive ($699, plus a $24 monthly subscription) and US-only right now. However, like the Apple Vision Pro, that price is likely to come down with subsequent generations. It’s the most unique, forward-thinking wearable at MWC this year. 

Best AI innovation: ai.io’s 3D Athlete Tracking

This is a very cool, niche-case use for artificial intelligence: 3D Athlete Tracking, or 3DAT. Partnered with Intel and currently used by the Chelsea soccer team in the UK, ai.io’s 3DAT technology is used to analyze athletic performance, looking at explosive power, speed and energy recoil among other metrics, and providing tangible scores based on footage alone. 

It’s currently being used by soccer players via an app, aiScout, which uses this 3DAT technology to analyze footage of amateur players, get detailed information to help improve performance, and pass the information on to talent scouts. Smartwatches have democratized the sort of metrics that were once only available to elite athletes, and 3DAT is taking the next step in that direction. 

However, it’s not just for the soccer world; conversations are said to be happening with the NFL, and when quizzed, a representative revealed that other disciplines like running were "on the roadmap". I’d personally love to not have to find a specialist running store to conduct a gait analysis for me, and instead just be able to get information about my running using the treadmill at my local gym. It sounds like with ai.io’s 3DAT technology, that could happen sooner rather than later. 

Best smartwatch: OnePlus Watch 2

The OnePlus Watch 2 is a little like last year’s Samsung Galaxy Watch 6: a big, beefy, premium-construction, longer-lasting Wear OS watch that's tailor-made for endurance activity, and it looks stellar. However, OnePlus’ impressive battery life – 100 hours is fantastic for a smartwatch, and you get 12 days on Power Saver mode – is reportedly down to it packing two separate chips, an innovation OnePlus dubs “dual engine architecture”. 

The BES2700 chip runs RTOS, which covers the basic features such as movement tracking and other basic functions, which saves on battery life. However, when you open the watch up to have a play, it switches to the Qualcomm Snapdragon W5 and Wear OS, with all the bells and whistles Google’s operating system offers. The end result is a fantastic Wear OS watch which lasts four times as long as Google’s flagship Pixel Watch 2.

Best EV: Xiaomi SU7

While Xiaomi’s renown in the smartphone space is indisputable, its presence in the EV market is comparatively non-existent; however, that’s now changing with its first car: the Xiaomi SU7.

The company debuted its new set of wheels in China in late December 2023, but used Barcelona as the stage to confirm the SU7’s expansion to Europe and beyond. While there were a few EVs (and the odd flying car) on the show floor this year, the SU7 leads with an impressive spec sheet, and ecosystem integration through its dash-mounted Xiaomi HyperOS-power in-car experience.

The SU7 arrives in two powertrains: the standard single-motor variant and the dual-motor, all-wheel-drive SU7 Max, which boasts a range of 800km, fast-charges to 220km of range in five minutes, has a top speed of 265 km/h (165mph) and can hit 100km/h (62mph) in just 2.78 seconds. It’s also a looker, with a longer wheelbase than a Tesla Model 3 or a Porsche Taycan, and a front end that takes cues from a McLaren 720S/750S; the Aqua Blue paint job doesn’t hurt either.

Apple has just launched an entirely new product with its Vision Pro headset, but a new report claims the company could be about to do it again with an entirely different device – a smart ring. However, despite how intriguing that might sound, we have plenty of doubts.

According to a report from Korean outlet ETNews (machine translated version), Apple is on the brink of launching a new smart ring to compete with the likes of Oura and Samsung’s own upcoming device. That could see Apple gaining a relatively early entry into a market that is still developing, potentially giving it a chance to score another hit product.

ETNews quoted an “industry insider” who claimed that Apple’s smart ring is almost upon us: “Apple has consistently released smart ring-related patents for several years, so advanced development for commercialization appears to be imminent.”

It’s true that Apple has been firing off smart ring patents left, right and center. Those patents have covered ideas like connecting to other Apple devices using the ring and embedding a touchscreen for quick controls. That seems to give the impression that something major is afoot.

Reasons for doubt

That might all appear to be pretty convincing. But does it mean that the ring is any closer to being ready than it was, say, a year ago? We’re not so sure.

For one thing, filing patents does not necessarily indicate that a product is about to launch. Apple has been applying for smart ring patents for years, and rumors that the device was in development have been circling since at least 2007. In fact, a patent is no guarantee that a product will ever get released at all – Apple could simply be exploring ideas and eventually decide not to go ahead with the project.

As well as that, Apple has been going hell-for-leather on the Vision Pro in recent years. In 2023, a reputable leaker claimed that the company pulled employees away from multiple different areas of the business in order to focus on the headset (that’s one reason why last year’s software releases were so pared back). It’s hard to imagine that a smart ring could be anywhere near ready when the behemoth that is the Vision Pro has been sucking up all of Apple’s resources.

Still, that doesn’t mean we can totally rule out Apple gearing up its work on a smart ring, and you never know, we might see it sooner than expected. Just don’t bet the bank on it happening this year.

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Google is updating the Camera app on the Pixel Watch giving users the ability to, on their paired Google Pixel Phone, jump between photography and video modes on the fly.

The company made no effort to let people know about the patch as a formal announcement was never made. Not even the official help page on Google’s support website mentions anything. We only know about this after it was discovered by 9To5Google. According to their report, users can access the new Modes section by first opening the Settings menu. Tapping the submenu lets you see what it now holds. In total, there are six individual states ready to be activated at any time.

Night Sight allows you to take pictures in low light. Portrait, as the name states, lets users take photographs in a vertical alignment. Photo is your basic picture-taking mode. Video offers control over when to record footage. Slow Motion is for shooting video in, well, slow motion. Time Lapse, as Google explains it, gives people a way to “record changes that [occur] slowly” like the sun setting.

Fairly basic stuff, but it does introduce a nice level of utility that the Pixel Watch didn’t have before. Before this, you had to open the Camera app on your phone if you wanted to switch between the various modes. The Pixel Watch could only be used to set a timer or swap camera feeds from the front lens to the rear and vice versa. Speaking of the timer, the patch now allows owners to extend the length of said timer from three seconds to 10.

Lingering questions

Because Google didn’t make a proper announcement, we do have several questions; namely, is this update exclusive to Pixel phones? 9To5Google mentions seeing the same modes present on their Pixel Fold, however, they don’t say anything about other Android mobile devices. News site Android Police believes that you will need to own a Pixel phone, but isn’t totally sure.

We reached out to the tech giant asking for clarification on the release: will the Pixel Watch 2 receive the same changes, and if the upgrade will be widely available? 

It’s unclear if this is something all units will receive or if is it something exclusive to a select few. It’s presumably the latter because 9To5Google claims the changes began rolling out this past December as part of the Pixel Camera 9.2 patch. The problem was no one knew about it until recently. The launch has been rather confusing, so we’ll update this story as soon as we hear back.

Until then, check out TechRadar's guide on the best smartwatches for 2024.

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Long, long before Apple unveiled the Apple Vision Pro, Google had augmented reality (AR) eyewear of its own dubbed Google Glass, and while this device never saw the success Google presumably hoped it would, there are signs that the company is readying a new attempt – this time with some help from smartwatches like the Google Pixel Watch 2.

The latest evidence of a new version of Google Glass is a patent – spotted by Wareable and filed with the USPTO – which shows an AR headset that’s controlled by a smartwatch.

In the patent, this headset can use its camera to determine when a user is looking at their smartwatch screen, and once that has been established the watch can then be used to open apps and navigate the headset’s interface.

Examples of this are making the gesture for a letter on the smartwatch’s screen, which would then cause a matching up to launch on the headset. For example, drawing a ‘U’ might launch the Uber app.

If an app is already open on the headset, then interacting with the connected smartwatch might allow you to control a cursor, or scroll through menus. So this idea would give you a way to control the headset other than your voice or eye movements, without requiring a separate controller.

Not the only solution

That said, there’s the question of how necessary this would be. After all, the Vision Pro works with hand gestures, without the need for a separate input device. Though using a smartwatch could perhaps provide more precision.

There’s also the question of whether you’d still be able to operate your wearable as a smartwatch when wearing this headset, since the patent suggests the interface would automatically switch to headset controls when you gaze at it with the headset on.

Still, it’s an interesting idea, and a way that future Pixel Watches – along likely with other Wear OS wearables – might become even more useful than they already are.

That said, plenty of patents never turn into actual products, so there’s no guarantee that any future Google headset will be controllable like this. But with Apple's Vision Pro potentially making these sorts of devices more popular, there’s a good chance that we’ll see a next generation version of Google Glass – or a successor to it – before long, whether or not it has smartwatch controls.

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We don't know much about the development journey that the Apple Watch underwent before the final version made its debut back in late 2014, however, a newly-unearthed prototype from several months prior shows what could have been.

Apple device collector Giulio Zompetti has got hold of a prototype Apple Watch unit that reportedly dates from December 2013, and they’ve shared images of it with 9to5Mac.

As a reminder, the original Apple Watch went on sale in April 2015, following an unveiling in September of 2014. So this prototype is almost 18 months older than the device shipped to buyers, but actually the design isn’t drastically different, suggesting that Apple may have settled on the approximate form and aesthetic quite early on, spending the rest of the time polishing it and developing the software.

Subtle differences

That said, it’s not identical. As you can see in the images, this Apple Watch prototype’s Digital Crown is a slightly different shape, and it’s running SwitchBoard – a launcher that Apple uses internally to test hardware features.

The biggest difference though isn’t a visible one, as Zompetti claims that the charger doesn’t work with any other Apple Watch models, despite looking similar to the current charger.

It’s unclear what changes Apple made to the charging mechanism before release, but visually, at least, this is a very similar wearable to the original Apple Watch, and not drastically different even to the latest models, other, arguably, than the Apple Watch Ultra and Apple Watch Ultra 2.

Perhaps this is a sign that it’s time the Apple Watch got an overhaul, and it seems Apple might have the same idea, as some reports suggest that next year’s Apple Watch 10 (or Apple Watch X as it might be called) will get a significant redesign.

So the Apple Watch 10 might be worth waiting for, but if you can’t wait until September (when it's likely to launch) to strap on one of the best Apple Watches, take a look at the best Black Friday Apple Watch deals in the meantime.

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The next Google Pixel Watch could be button-free, relying on gesture recognition controls, with the aim of making the most out of the watch’s space. 

That’s going by a patent filed by Google (as spotted by Wareable) that appears to suggest that by ditching the buttons, a Google smartwatch could have fewer moving parts and thus a cleaner design. 

“Content on such a small screen is easily obscured when touching the device, making it difficult to precisely select and scroll because the user cannot see what they are selecting or scrolling,” the patent noted. 

This would facilitated by having new sensors on the side of the watch that could detect specific presses, taps and squeezes on its sides to act as a form of gesture recognition.

The patent is titled “Gesture recognition on watch bezel using strain gauges” which would suggest that the sides of a future Pixel Watch could be squeezable, not unlike those of the Google Pixel 3 and Pixel 4 phones, only likely reliant on sensors rather than moving parts.

Going by the patent's intent, it would suggest that a next-gen Pixel Watch won’t be getting a larger display, though we do hope it trims the bezels slightly to offer more screen space without enlarging the watch’s footprint. 

An image in the patent also suggests that the crown used to aid scrolling through apps on the Pixel Watch, as well as being a home button, may be dropped altogether on a future Google smartwatch. 

One to watch

The current Pixel Watch 2 only really has one dedicated standalone button, just above the digital crown, so it’s not like it's festooned with buttons. 

Yet, going button-free and harnessing gesture recognition could not only avoid the challenge of obscuring a display when tapping at on-screen icons, it could also make a future Pixel Watch more durable and likely better at resisting water and dust due to having fewer external moving parts and thus less scope for gaps between the external and internal hardware. 

However, this has been filed and not yet granted, so the tech Google is proposing may not come to fruition. And even if a patent is granted, it’s no guarantee that the tech or techniques proposed will get into a consumer device. But it does feel like a button-free Pixel Watch isn’t beyond the realms of imagination; we suspect we’ll have to wait until later next year at the earliest before we see a next-gen Pixel Watch. 

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Amazfit is back with a pair of new affordable, fitness smartwatches: the Amazfit Active and the Active Edge.

Looking at the first model, you’ll notice it bears a resemblance to the Apple Watch due to its rectangular, 1.75-inch screen. In fact, it even offers, according to the company, performance comparable to the Apple Watch Series 9 as its AMOLED display outputs a resolution of 390 x 450 pixels. This distinction is important to make as AMOLED tech is more energy efficient than standard OLED screens. Looking at the Amazfit Active’s specs, the wearable can last a claimed 14 hours with “typical usage”. But if you activate Battery Saver Mode, you could double the battery life to 30 days max.

If you prefer a more eye-catching smartwatch, then you should check out the other option. The Amazfit Active Edge sports a rugged, rounder design to withstand bumps. It even has a water resistance rating of 10 ATM (atmospheres), meaning you can, if the specs hold up, dive up to 100 meters underwater with this device on and it’ll still work. Comparatively, the Active model can only last up to 50 meters underwater. Be aware the company recommends you don’t shower with it on as the steam can loosen the tight seal.

The Active Edge does have slightly worse performance. Its 1.32-inch display has a maximum resolution of 360 x 360 pixels. The watch battery can, Amazfit claims, last up to 16 days. However, it apparently peaks at 24 days with Battery Saver Mode on. So there is some trade-off.

Software features

The real heart and soul of these fitness devices can be found in the software features. 

Both wearables give users the ability to create “personalized training plans via Zepp Coach”. The app integrates over 120 exercises from running to more engaging workouts like combat sports (Think martial arts; nothing gladiatorial). Additionally, you’ll be able to monitor key bodily functions 24/7 including your heart rate and blood-oxygen levels. If you ever get lost, the watches are supported by “five satellite systems [enabling] reliable GPS tracking”.

There are some key differences between the two. Most notably, the Amazfit Active houses the company’s proprietary “Readiness function” which, according to the announcement post, “provides a score based” on certain parameters. Using the internal sensors, the smartwatch can measure your body’s temperature, breathing quality, as well as your sleeping heart rate. 

When put together, the score tells you how much your body has recovered after a night's rest. For example, if you feel more tired than usual, the screen will inform you that your mental recovery is low.

Availability

Both wearables are available for purchase on the company’s official website. Prices for the Amazfit Active start at $150 where you choose between Midnight Black, Petal Pink, and Lavender Purple as your main color. With the Active Edge, prices start at $140. The three color options include Mint Green, Midnight Pulse, and Lava Black. That last one is particularly striking as the face is very fiery-looking.

If you buy one, you’ll be given a free trial to Zepp Fitness where you can try out the new AI chatbot that you can ask for training tips or nutrition advice. It’s unknown if there are plans for an international launch although we did ask. This story will be updated at a later time.

If you're looking for other options, check out TechRadar's list of the best smartwatches for 2023.

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Your Oura Ring will soon be receiving three new features to help you manage stress, understand what causes it, and even offer recommendations on how to relax.

The full update will be released incrementally starting off today with Daytime Stress. This tool identifies what triggers your stress by constantly checking for “small changes" like heart rate fluctuations and shifts in body temperature. The device records these changes every 15 minutes or so. You can check these readings on your smartphone via the Oura app, where it’ll tell you “which experiences add stress… and which ones help [you] recover.” The on-screen dot graph informs users when they are the most exhausted as well as when they are totally relaxed. A daily summary appears the moment you launch the app. 

There is a catch: users will need to have a subscription to the Oura Membership in order to access Daytime Stress. It’s unknown if there are plans to roll out the feature to non-subscribers.

Letting it all out

Next is Reflections, an AI-powered journal for the Oura smartphone app. It allows users to record short entries in the app about what’s stressing them out. The company claims “journaling is an effective tool for reducing stress” with Reflections making this process a lot easier. To get the conservation started, there will be a prompt question at the top of the screen.

Speech recognition will automatically transcribe the text while the AI will suggest implementing tags to “correspond with your journal entries”. Those tags will add context “to help you understand your own personal stressors”. That way, you’ll know, or at least have some idea, of how to recover. Also, if you don’t feel like talking, you can always type in an entry.

This feature is currently in beta for iOS devices. No word on whether or not the beta will migrate over to Android, although we did ask.

Road to (stress) recovery

Rounding out the trio is Stress Resilience coming out this winter. True to its name, this function “creates an assessment” detailing how resilient someone is to certain “physiological” situations. It tracks a person’s “daytime stress load”, how they recover during the day, and how they recover while sleeping. Paired with Daytime Stress mentioned earlier, the tool will provide “insights, education, and recommendations” on how to manage everything. The goal here is to aid people in finding the most effective way to chill out. 

We reached out to Oura for clarification for certain things like if there will be an Android version of Reflections plus the exact launch date of Stress Resilience. This story will be updated at a later time. 

Until then, check out TechRadar’s list of the best smart rings for 2023. 

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CMF, a sub-brand of smartphone company Nothing, has revealed its first set of low-cost products: the CMF Buds Pro, Watch Pro, and the Power 65W GaN charger.

With the new earbuds, you’ll notice they resemble the Nothing Ear (2) minus the transparent design. Everything announced, in fact, adopts this solid color look as they'll come in either light grey, dark grey (basically black), or a shade of dark, blood orange. It’s quite striking. Inside, each bud comes with a “custom dynamic bass boost driver”, said to be capable of outputting accurately reproduced sound and a deep bass. 

What’s interesting is that the Buds Pro can “cancel out noise with a depth of up to 45 dB”, which is better than what the Ear (2) can do. It can only block noise up to 40 dB. Even the battery life is superior as CMF’s model can last up to 39 hours with active noise canceling off. Under the same conditions, the Ear (2) peaks at 36 hours. 

Other notable features include six internal microphones with Clear Voice Technology for high-quality phone calls, touch controls, Transparency Mode to hear external sounds, plus a “special channel structure… to reduce wind interference.”

Nothing's first smartwatch

Next, we have the star of the show: the CMF Watch Pro. As other people online have pointed out, it looks similar to the Apple Watch Ultra thanks to its square-shaped display and brightly colored wrist strap. The Watch Pro, however, won’t be as capable as Apple’s wearable since it lacks support for third-party apps. CMF’s device also won’t be able to integrate fully with a smartphone nor does it have access to an app store. 

What you see is what you get, but fortunately, you get a lot. The Watch Pro sports a 1.96-inch AMOLED display with resolution 410 x 502 pixels making it a tiny bit bigger than the Apple Watch Ultra 2’s 1.92-inch screen. The large 340mAh battery for CMF’s wearable is said to last 13 days straight under typical usage. With Power Saving Mode on, the company claims it can last 45 days.

The Watch Pro makes up for its lack of apps by having a wide variety of functions. Internal sensors can monitor key bodily functions like your heart rate or remind you to drink water every so often. It can connect to a phone for certain features like controlling a mobile device's camera and receiving important notifications on the watch face. CMF also states you can make calls via Bluetooth on the wearable, which itself is backed up by AI-powered noise reduction.

Availability

By comparison, the Power 65W GaN charger is more humble. It’s sort of a mini-docking station, with two USB-C ports next to a single USB-A input. As the name suggests, it is capable of 65W fast charging. Connecting your Nothing Phone (2) to the brick can charge it up to 50 percent in about 25 minutes, according to CMF.

At launch, the Buds Pro will cost £49/$49, the Watch Pro will be £69/$69, and the charger will have a price tag of £39/$39. A release date has not been given although the line will see a limited drop at the Nothing Store Soho in London on September 30. We reached out to Nothing for information on a widespread launch. This story will be updated at a later time. 

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Pre-ordering the Pixel 8 Pro might give you a free Pixel Watch 2. 

That nugget of information comes from industry insider Kamila Wojiciechowska who recently posted a massive leak for the Pixel 8 series on X (the platform formerly known as Twitter).

The image she posted appears to be a screenshot from a promo video for the smartphone. Looking at the post, the two devices will have matching colors, which, in this case, is probably Sky Blue. Besides that, not much else can be inferred from the image. It doesn't look like Google isn't making any last-minute design changes to their smartphone or wearable. 

What’s interesting to note is Google recently released images of the wearable next to the smartphone. At first, we thought this was just the company saying that this is what’s being announced. But as it turns out, it was part of a larger deal – presumably to entice new customers. We know from another leak the Pixel 8 Pro will likely cost $899 at launch. It’s unknown if the pre-order combo will cost more although we wouldn’t be surprised if it did.

Hardware leak

As interesting as the deal may be, the real meat of the leak can be found in the rest of Wojicieshowka’s post because she shared what appears to be complete spec sheets and product pages for the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro.

The leaks reiterate a lot of what we already knew about the Pixel 8 duo while also revealing some of the devices' capabilities. For instance, the specs show the base model will sport a 6.2-inch Full HD Plus (1,080 x 2,300 pixels) OLED screen. The Pro model bumps that up to a 6.7-inch OLED display with a resolution of 1,344 x 2,992 pixels. Under the hood, both phones will come equipped with the Google Tensor G3 processor supported by a Titan M2 security coprocessor. 

Again, this is all stuff we already know, but it is good to get confirmation – if unofficial.

The first thing that caught our eye scanning through the specs sheet was the “beyond 24-hour battery life”. Apparently, the two are able to last up to 72 hours using “Extreme Battery Saver” mode. The Pixel 8 Pro has the bigger 5,050 mAh battery while the standard Pixel comes with a 4,575 mAh battery. What’s more, the new devices support fast charging. 

A quick 30-minute charge gives you 50 percent of battery life. In other words, that's potentially a day and a half assuming light usage. Not bad.

Notable features

As alluded to earlier, Wojciechowska posted images of the phones’ product pages from what appears to be from Google Store. They provide details for key software features such as Live Translate which will “transcribe messages in real time” in 49 different languages via Google Assistant. The Pixel 8 series is also slated to have “improved clear calling” by reducing background noise and enhancing the voice of the other speaker. 

Of course, take this leak with a grain of salt. Things can always change; however, these images do look pretty legit. We wouldn’t be surprised if we saw these exact photographs during the Pixel 8 event on October 4.

While we have you, be sure to check out TechrRdar’s list of the best Pixel phones for 2023.

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