The pace of tech news rarely lets up, which is why we put together this ICYMI – In Case You Missed It – recap every weekend, so you can get familiar with all of the biggest headlines over the past week, even if you didn’t catch the stories first time around.
This week, we’ve seen everything from household robots to flagship phones, with Microsoft outages, another Stranger Things season 5 trailer, Samsung’s long-awaited tri-fold, and new Fitbits along the way, too. It’s been busy, in a good way.
7. We got the final trailer for Stranger Things season 5
We’re all heading back to Hawkins, Indiana for one last time: Stranger Things season 5 premieres on Wednesday, November 26, with episodes then dragged out until the finale on New Year’s Eve, and we now have the final trailer for the fifth and final season.
There’s a lot going on here, and pretty much every major character in the Stranger Things universe – good and bad – gets some screen time. It’s been a long wait for this fifth season, but this should be enough to keep Stranger Things fans going for the next four weeks.
6. Microsoft gave us another huge online outage
It was only recently that an Amazon AWS outage left a swathe of websites, apps, and services unresponsive, and this week Microsoft’s Azure platform joined in with a critical crash of its own. Millions of users were affected before the issues were finally fixed.
Everything that relies on Microsoft digital infrastructure got hit, including Minecraft and the Xbox platform, and Microsoft 365 applications. Thankfully, Microsoft acted swiftly to get Azure patched up again, but these kinds of outages shouldn’t be happening at all.
5. Samsung rolled out ads on its smart fridges
Adverts aren’t really appealing at the best of times, but one place you definitely don’t want them is on your fridge, beaming sponsored content into your kitchen. It’s strange then that Samsung has decided to start showing ads on the screens of its Family Hub smart fridges.
That’s $2,000 (or around £1,500 / AU$3,000) for the fridge itself, and then you have to put up with “curated advertisements” while you’re trying to cook up a meal or just grabbing a drink. Understandably, the move has been met with a rather frosty response from users, although you can at least turn them off.
4. Google said new Fitbits are coming in 2026
Google acquired Fitbit in 2021, and seems to have been prioritizing the Pixel Watch over any kind of Fitbit gadget since then. The last Fitbit-branded device to launch was the Fitbit Charge 6, which made its debut in 2023 – and we’d almost given up hope of new Fitbits.
It’s encouraging then that a Google executive has gone on the record to say we can expect new Fitbit devices during the course 2026. It’s not clear exactly which gadgets might be updated, but the compact, lightweight fitness trackers are well overdue an upgrade now.
3. The Samsung tri-fold made its public debut
We’re moving very slowly towards an official launch of the Samsung tri-fold we’ve been waiting for all year. Don’t forget that this next-gen foldable was first teased by Samsung back in January, and we’re still not sure when it’s going to launch or what it’ll cost.
What we do have is the first public showing of the foldable, which made an appearance at the K-Tech Showcase in South Korea. It was put behind a glass case, so no one could touch it, but we’re hopeful that the Samsung phone isn’t too far away now from going on sale.
2. OnePlus revealed all about the OnePlus 15
One of many TechRadar exclusives on the site this week included some key information about the new OnePlus 15 flagship phone: when it’s launching globally, the new camera features it’s bringing with it, and the different colors you’re going to be able to buy it in.
All of these details came out in our chat with the CMO of OnePlus Europe, Celina Shi. We may be approaching the end of the year, but the OnePlus 15 is very much a contender for one of the best phones of 2025 – find out everything you need to know about the handset.
1. The first humanoid robot for home chores arrived
Surely in the year 2025 we should be getting robots to do all of our regular, tedious, household chores? Well, maybe 2026 will be the year: 1X has now opened pre-orders for the Neo Home Robot, which can do tasks like doing the laundry and filling up the dishwasher.
It doesn’t come cheap, but you might consider it a price worth paying if it means you’ve got more free time. There are skills that remain beyond the robot’s scope, however – you need to allow a remote operator to control it for those, and it can’t yet cook for you or mow the lawn. Perhaps we’ll have to wait until 2027 for that.
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