This week was Meta Connect, with the social media and now AI-focused tech giant announcing a lot of new tech (mostly smart and VR glasses).
We also tried the new Beats headphones and got our first look at Google’s long-awaited answer to Apple’s MacBook.
To catch up on all of this, and more, scroll down to read the latest edition of our ICYMI roundup.
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7. Disney+ hiked it prices
Another month, another streaming price hike. This time, it’s Disney+ and Hulu each getting a price increase in the US, by different amounts depending on the tier.
The good news, however, is that the price of the ad-supported bundle that includes both Disney+ and Hulu isn’t going up, and the same goes for the ad-supported triple bundle that includes those two plus ESPN. Premium bundles that are ad-free are going up, though.
Will the price rise in other territories too? Australia just had one, and there’s no announcement in the UK yet, but other sources say one is coming in October. It feels like there’s just no break from price rises these days…
6. A GTA 6 Collection box was announced
This week, Rockstar Games announced the Grand Theft Auto VI: The Goodtime State – Vice City Collection. It costs £349 / $399, comes with exclusive merchandise, and will land on November 19 (the same day as the game’s release).
Crucially, you don’t get a copy of GTA VI in the bundle. You will, however, get a cute Macca the Gator figure, sunglasses, a crossbody bag, and plenty more goodies.
Only you can decide if it’s worth the high asking price, and it certainly could be for a mega fan, though you may want to act fast if you want one, as we imagine GTA VI merch will sell out, especially as launch day approaches.
5. Beats launched comfortable headphones
Beats finally announced its next-generation, entirely new over-ear headphones this week. The Beats 360 won’t be replacing the Studio Pro – those are now more affordable, though – and they look distinctly different with a thinner, lighter build that is customizable.
Yes, there are four main colors for the Beats 360, but you can also buy ‘performance knit’ or ‘ultra-plush’ earcups and swap them out as you please. Since the Beats 360 are sweat- and water-resistant, you can go from a workout to the office by swapping earcups.
Audio quality is strong here too, thanks to a redesigned stack in each earcup, and you can expect over 30 hours of battery life with a listening mode enabled. And, true to other Beats products, a custom chip inside lets these work seamlessly with both iOS and Android.
4. Amazfit dropped a solar-powered smartwatch
In a world where smartwatches share the same features and similar specs, it’s always nice to see something innovative. In this instance, it’s the Amazfit T-Rex line.
Solar charging isn’t new, but this line brings it to an AMOLED watch for the first time with the T-Rex Dual Solar; as the name implies, it can charge from sunlight on both sides.
In normal conditions, the watch packs up to 25 days of battery life, extended up to 35 days in optimal solar conditions, and 41 hours of use in ‘accurate GPS mode’ which are some impressive stats. Unusually for Amazfit, it’s also very expensive, priced at $649.99 in the US. Other regions’ pricing is TBC, but that’s around £500 / AU$900.
3. Google launched a MacBook rival
What do you get when you mix Android with Chrome OS? It’s a question we’ve pondered for years, but only recently did Google confirm it was working on systems featuring a new mashup platform: Googlebooks. The platform? It’s called GooglebooksOS, naturally.
Now, we have the products of that union: systems from Acer, Asus, Lenovo, Dell, and HP. On the outside, they’re indistinguishable from Windows systems, but we opened them all and found a very different platform that somehow mixes Android’s power with the approachability of ChromeOS. This means these systems have a real relationship with the Android phone in your hand, but are also perfectly capable of running apps on the desktop, just like a Mac or PC.
Oh, and these are priced like premium laptops, not Chromebooks.
The annual Meta event kicked off this week, and we got a look at a suite of brand-new Meta AI wearables.
The Ray-Ban Meta Gen 3 glasses were announced with slightly better specs than what came before and a higher price tag, though it seems many still see the camera glasses as creepy perv glasses.
Perhaps that’s why we also got Ray-Ban Meta Audio glasses. They boast most of the same great tech, but have a longer battery life a more lightweight design and no cameras — so people can’t spy on you with these.
There was also a new Lisa (from BlackPink) collab design, and something very different: the Muse Charm. Essentially an AI Tamagotchi (at least in the design), the Charm lets you interact with your Muse AI agent, though we’ll have to wait and see if this is just another Rabbit R1 or the Humane AI Pin flop.
Meta didn’t just showcase Ray-Ban smart glasses at Connect this year; it also debuted a brand new VR headset — or we should say VR Glasses.
They boast an ultra-slim and lightweight design enabled by a puck that houses not only the battery but also all of the headset’s compute power. In practical terms, this means the headset itself is only around 100g, or one fifth the weight of a Meta Quest 3.
We’ve taken the headset for a whirl and been wildly impressed with the comfort of the design, its dazzling micro-OLED displays, and its overall performance for a respectable $1,299 price tag (other regions pricing TBC).
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