Week in Tech: decent smartwatches, iPhone 6 promises, Google lemonade

Week in Tech
The smartwatch goes full circle, but what will Apple's look like?

You've got to feel sorry for Kate Bush. The musical legend urged fans not to record her long-awaited live comeback shows on their smartphones and iPads, but they did it anyway. Still, it could be worse: they could have been filming on 13-inch iPad Pros.

Never mind cloudbusting: we'd be crowdbusting if we were stuck behind one of those. And that's not all that happened this week. Come with us as we discover armies - or should that be sleevies? - of smartwatches and why you really don't want to see what that person's watching on their 3DS.

Gear S: the S stands for "square"

Samsung has unveiled the rather unlovely Gear S smartwatch, which bucks the Android Wear trend in favour of Samsung's own Tizen OS. Luckily there's more to it than its divisive appearance: its SIM tray means it can receive notifications and make and receive calls without pairing with a phone. No word on prices just yet but it's due in October.

G Watch R: the R stands for "raaaargh". Or maybe "round"

It may have a rubbish name but the LG G Watch R is a pretty nifty-looking Android Wear smartwatch, and its plastic OLED display - P-OLED for short - promises to remain usable even in very bright sunlight. It's a lovely looking thing but we'll reserve judgement until LG reveals the price.

IFA got a little somethin' for ya

If you're wondering why so many new products are suddenly appearing, IFA 2014 has the answer. The annual consumer electronics show is just days away, and it promises a plethora of products, a tsunami of touchscreens and an avalanche of Androids. We've got the skinny on this year's most exciting launches including the Galaxy Note 4 and what could be a cheap Windows tablet revolution.

Apple: big phones, bigger iPads and a little watch

We're days away from Apple's next media event and it's going to be a biggie - quite literally, because Apple seems to have embraced bigness with the iPhone 6. There have been so many leaks that surprises are unlikely, but we're also hearing that Apple is developing the much-discussed, big-screened iPad Pro. It won't be unveiled any time soon, but it appears to be in an advanced stage of development.

Remember the stories saying that we wouldn't see the iWatch until next year? You can forget about them again: reputable leaks are telling us it'll appear at September's iPhone event, after what feels like a decade of leaks and rumours.

Google gears up

But Google's planning to steal some of that Apple limelight - we're starting to hear more and more about Nexus 8 - which may also be the rumoured Nexus 9 or Volantis. It's likely to target the gap between the Nexus 7 and Nexus 10 tablets and we're hoping for a late 2014 release.

Fight Facebook folderol

Spam, spam, baby photos, spam, ice bucket challenges, spam, spam, more ice bucket challenges and spam. If that sounds like your Facebook feed, discover how to opt-out of irritating notifications, shut down app babble and ensure that your feed doesn't become infested with ads using our handy guide.

Twitch is rich

Amazon has bought game streaming giant Twitch for nearly ONE BILLION DOLLARS, and that's a terrible thing because Amazon will probably ruin it, right? Or could Amazon make it even better?

Google's lemonade stand

We haven't heard from Eric Schmidt for a while, so we're delighted to see him explain that Google works just like a lemonade stand - although we're not sure where driverless cars, military robots and surveilling the entire human race fit into the analogy. He's got a book out, so maybe he explains it in that.

The TechRadar hive mind. The Megazord. The Voltron. When our powers combine, we become 'TECHRADAR STAFF'. You'll usually see this author name when the entire team has collaborated on a project or an article, whether that's a run-down ranking of our favorite Marvel films, or a round-up of all the coolest things we've collectively seen at annual tech shows like CES and MWC. We are one.