What a week this was, folks. Meta Connect 2024 introduced us to a new VR headset, its first AR glasses prototype and slew of Meta AI upgrades – including an in-development skill to live dub Instagram reels.
We also said hello to the Samsung Galaxy S24 FE, reviewed the new Legend of Zelda title, and prepared ourselves for heartbreak in 2025 with the arrival of The Last of Us season 2’s first teaser trailer.
In case you missed all that, we’ve rounded up all of these top tech news stories below so you can get up to speed on everything that happened in the last seven days.
7. Is there nothing Nothing can’t do?
On Tuesday (September 24), Nothing unveiled its inaugural set of open-ear buds and TechRadar’s audio editor couldn’t help but share her initial thoughts. She’d already said she thought it was the best idea Nothing’s had in ages (questionable ‘Ear Open’ moniker aside), and after slipping them on for a few hours, they didn’t disappoint.
Ear Open are so very Nothing; their friendly praying mantis aesthetic is so very likeable. And just as the company’s Nothing Ear (a) impressed for a competitive fee, these buds are likely to be a huge hit in the open-ear space. That’s particularly true given that they cost just £129, ie. the same price as the flagship Nothing Ear (which means your US and Australian prices are almost certainly $149 / AU$249). Compare that to the Bose Ultra Open Earbuds, with their $299 / £299 / AU$449.95 price-point. See?
Slip ’em on and they feel like nothing, too. The fit is excellent – even putting both on at the same time is a cinch. You get the trademark transparent-meets-monochrome-meets-titanium Nothing design language, plus on-ear pinch control, although there’s a knack to it now, purely because you need to locate where the old ‘stem’ idea is, to pinch. Oh, and the Advanced EQ setting? It’s another level…
6. Echoes of Wisdom is here!
We won’t be surprised if not too many Nintendo fans are reading this, because right now they’re probably all playing The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom. This highly anticipated entry in the long-running Nintendo franchise is something of a landmark, letting players explore Hyrule through the eyes of Princess Zelda for the first time.
And the good news is that it’s great. It combines elements from classic Zelda titles with a wealth of new mechanics for an adventure quite unlike anything that we’ve seen before.
Tasked with closing sinister rifts that threaten the kingdom, you journey through a charming open-world and experiment with a suite of magical abilities. These let you create copies of certain objects whenever you need, which is just as fun as it sounds; a summoned bed might be good for a quick nap in isolation, but makes for the perfect bridge over a perilous chasm when multiplied and stacked. You can even spawn friendly versions of enemies to fight on your behalf.
It’s all wrapped up in an adorable art direction, making everything from the characters to the world look like it was plucked straight from a cute diorama. Check out our review below.
5. The Last of Us season 2 was teased
This week we were treated to our first new trailer for The Last of Us season 2, and we’re convinced it’s going to be as emotionally devastating as the videogame it’s based on. Released as part of this year’s The Last of Us Day celebrations (September 26 is the day the Cordyceps infection ravaged the world of the game/show) we got both a two-minute S2 teaser and a confirmation that it’s coming sometime in 2025.
The teaser gives us our first glimpse of characters players know from the games, including Abby and Ellie’s love interest Dina, as well as providing hints at what Ellie and Joel have been up to following the ‘five years of peace’ that followed the events of season 1. Fans of the games know it’s not all sunshine and roses for the survivors, though, so we’re going to take these next few months to emotionally prepare ourselves for what The Last of Us has in store for us come 2025.
4. We spent some time with the Samsung Galaxy S24 FE
Samsung launched the Galaxy S24 FE alongside the Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra this week, and the new phone looks like it’ll prove the cheapest route into Samsung’s Galaxy AI ecosystem.
Among the S24 FE’s hardware upgrades over the Galaxy S23 FE are a bigger 6.7-inch display, a new Exynos 2400e chipset, and longer battery life. But while that would be enough to make it a contender in the cheap flagship stakes, it’s the phone’s AI tricks that we’re most excited about.
Chief among them are its AI-powered ProVisual photography engine, which it inherits from the standard Galaxy S24 and which should bring improved low-light performance and optical zoom quality.
In our hands-on Samsung Galaxy S24 FE review, we described Samsung’s new device as “a great value phone for its power and features,” so here’s hoping it lives up to that billing once we’ve put it through our full review process.
3. Meta’s affordable Meta Quest 3S broke cover
The least surprising announcement of Meta Connect 2024 was nevertheless an exciting one – the much-leaked Meta Quest 3S. This affordable alternative to the Meta Quest 3 still packs a solid punch with its Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 chipset, and 8GB of RAM, but only costs $299.99 / £289.99 / AU$499.99.
In exchange you will have to accept a couple of downgrades – less sharp displays, a bulkier body, and the loss of the depth sensor – but by all accounts the Quest 3S is an impressive VR headset at its price, and looks like it could be perfect for people looking to dip their toes into XR as we head into the holiday season.
We also saw Meta’s first fully functional AR glasses – the Orion prototypes. These aren’t something anyone will be able to buy (though some are being given out as developer kits to help software creators make apps for the official specs), but from what we’ve been shown Orion looks amazing.
And it’s only set to get better, with Mark Zuckerberg promising the consumer pair will boast better displays, a more fashionable design, and a more affordable price. Although on that last point, Meta’s CTO Andrew Bosworth later clarified that Meta meant affordable in terms of smartphone and laptops rather than at “a Quest 3S price point, or even a Quest 3 price point.”
1. PS5 Pro preorders went live
It suddenly feels rather like 2020 all over again. That’s because pre-orders for the forthcoming PS5 Pro and the limited-edition PS5 30th Anniversary Collection went on sale this week – with predictable results. Such as? Well, such as the official PlayStation Direct website quickly being inundated with would-be buyers all eager to get their hands on Sony’s upcoming consoles and kit. Many had to wait in digital queues for upwards of an hour, just to be in with a chance of pre-ordering the mid-gen refresh, and there were reports of crashes and timeouts and (inevitably) scalpers.
Most PlayStation Direct stock sold out completely that same day; the 30th Anniversary Edition bundle was gone in minutes across the US and UK, while the limited-edition PS5 Slim, DualSense Edge and PlayStation Portal models were quick to follow. Some stock still held on, however, and at the time of writing, Sony’s website still has PS5 Pro units available to pre-order.
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hamish.hector@futurenet.com (Hamish Hector)
