This week, we watched Alex Honnold free solo Taipei 101 on Netflix while terrible commentary played over the top, and Samsung teased its next major phone launch.
To catch up on all of this and more, we’ve rounded up the top seven most important tech news stories of the week here for you, with links to the full stories too.
7. Netflix proved it hasn’t figured out live events
This week, the world of streaming treated us to Bridgerton Season 4, Wonder Man, and Shrinking Season 3, among others, but the livestream sports event of the year also aired: Skyscraper Live, and fans were quick to let their anger be known at the end result.
It featured Alex Honnold, of Free Solo fame, and his attempt to free solo (climbing alone, without ropes or safety equipment) Taipei 101, which was, at one point, the tallest building in the world. The climb was a feat of human ability if nothing else, but the commentary – which was filled with nerves, and often spoke over Alex – was not well received.
Some declared the show “The worst live sports production I’ve ever seen in my life,” though one of the hosts has since come out to address fans’ frustrations.
6. Xreal’s glasses got a 3D upgrade
Xreal’s smart glasses are impressive entertainment specs that’ll show your favorite shows, games, and movies on a giant virtual screen – provided they’re connected to a compatible device. Now, they can make that content 3D too.
That’s thanks to Real 3D, which just debuted on Xreal’s One and One Pro glasses, and it’s an incredible tool that works on any device or content, as all processing is handled on the glasses.
Admittedly, it’s a work in progress, but it just made some of the world’s best smart glasses even better – and made Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s comment about AI someday letting us “jump into” any video feel less far-fetched.
5. We played Resident Evil 9
We have over four hours of Resident Evil Requiem under our belt, and now we’re confident that it’s on track to be the finest entry in the long-running survival horror series.
The return of Leon Kennedy had us worried, though. How can you create a sense of fear when your star is a one-man infected-slaying army? You pair him with a much less combat-capable partner.
Leon’s segments are like a New Game Plus run of the Resident Evil 4 Remake on steroids: you’re an ultra-powerful killing machine; meanwhile, new protagonist Grace’s sections are intended to deliver the serious scares. They’re set in wonderfully intricate environments expertly built for tense exploration, desperate resource scavenging, and scrappy fights that always have you on the back foot.
4. OpenAI admitted to screwing up
ChatGPT’s most avid users are quick to air their frustrations when OpenAI messes up an update, and now CEO Sam Altman has conceded the company “screwed up” with ChatGPT 5.2.
The criticisms centered on the AI providing overly technical, complicated responses to questions, rather than the easy-to-digest answers AI users typically hope to receive.
“We did decide, and I think for good reason, to put most of our effort in 5.2 into making it super good at intelligence, reasoning, coding, engineering, that kind of thing,” Altman revealed. “And we have limited bandwidth here, and sometimes we focus on one thing and neglect another.”
Hopefully, OpenAI can learn from this error, however, and better manage which aspects of its vision it has to sacrifice as it pumps out successive iterations of its chatbot.
Speaking of making sacrifices, OpenAI also teased this week that it’s time to finally retire GPT-4o, and yet again, fans are furious.
3. Apple finally gave us a new AirTag
The original AirTag launched back in 2021 and quickly garnered an unwanted reputation as a stalking accessory. With those issues now largely sorted, Apple has launched a more powerful sequel with a better range and louder speakers.
A new Bluetooth chip lets you find the new AirTag from 1.5x farther away than with the previous version. That new speaker also means it’s 50% louder, which is handy if you’re trying to find keys that are buried deep inside a sofa.
While it isn’t exactly a bargain, the new AirTag keeps the same $29 / £29 / AU$49 price as the original.
2. Garmin leaked its Whoop alternative
The same week, Whoop blasted the Australian Open for its “ridiculous” decision to force tennis stars to remove its tracker, and following our testing a slew of fitness band alternatives, it appears Garmin’s own Whoop alternative just leaked.
Normally, we’d ignore leaks here until they’re confirmed launches, but the spoiler was shared by none other than Garmin itself.
Eagle-eyed Garmin fans were able to screenshot the page before it disappeared, cluing us into the ‘Garmin Cirqa smart band,’ which could be released in around ‘4–5 months,’ which would be May or June based on shipping details.
Crucially, we didn’t get a price for the band, but even so, Whoop has some competition on the way.
1. Samsung teased the S26 Ultra’s biggest upgrade
Flagship smartphones have struggled to deliver dazzling new features in recent years, but the forthcoming Galaxy S26 Ultra appears to has bucked that trend. This week, Samsung teased the flagship phone’s new ‘privacy display’, which it calls ‘a new front line for privacy’.
What makes this display tech so interesting is that it lets you hide parts of your screen – like a private message – from onlookers while keeping it visible to you. The OLED screen apparently does this by emitting light in specific directions. We’re yet to see the tech in person, but if it lives up to the hype, it could be the most useful smartphone upgrade we’ve seen for a while.
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hamish.hector@futurenet.com (Hamish Hector)
