It has been another busy week in the world of tech, which included us testing new Android XR glasses and watching the new Supergirl trailer.
To catch up on both of these and more, scroll down for our picks of the week’s seven most important tech news stories. You’ll find quick recaps of them all, and links to the larger story if you want to learn more about what’s been happening.
7. IKEA gave us a handy little smart light
IKEA has been on something of a smart home roll recently – and this week it followed up its colorful new speaker-lamps with a handy little motion-sensitive light.
The Gömpyssling – an LED light that automatically turns on when motion is detected – wasn’t officially announced, instead just quietly sneaking onto IKEA’s European stores. It looks ideal for cupboards and a two-pack costs just £3 / €4, though we don’t yet know when (or if) it’s coming to other countries.
At that price, we obviously can’t expect any Wi-Fi smarts or phone connectivity, but it’s already shot to the top of our IKEA impulse buys list.
6. DC told us to ‘Look Out’ for Supergirl
Spoiler alert: there’s a moment at the end of last Summer’s blockbuster Superman film from James Gunn that literally left you yearning for more; it’s when a dishevelled and perhaps slightly inebriated Supergirl (aka Kara Zor-El, aka Superman’s cousin) stumbles into the Fortress of Solitude. It was a brief, comedic bit, but from that moment forward, we all wanted to see and learn more about the DCU’s updated version of the last surviving citizen of Krypton.
We now have the first teaser trailer for the Supergirl movie, set to drop this summer. From the looks of things, that brief appearance in Superman was only the beginning of Kara’s troubles and adventures. There’s nothing here that looks like a straight continuation of the Superman movie tale, except for Krypto, the super dog.
In fact, the settings, character, and tone all feel purposefully different. There was so much to break down from the trailer reveal; we suggest you reread our exhaustive liveblog.
5. Paramount pitched a hostile takeover
Last week, Netflix and Warner Bros. Discovery announced plans for the former to acquire the latter, but Paramount wasn’t ready to get shut out of the negotiations, and so it has announced a possible hostile takeover of WBD.
In many ways, its $108 billion offer trumps Netflix’s – not only is it paying more, but it’s also all cash rather than a mix of cash and shares, plus it buys the whole of WBD, not just the production studios and back catalogue that Netflix is trying to nab. It’s also tough to ignore the personal ties between US President Donald Trump and the Paramount deal.
Not only is he friendly with the Ellison family – David Ellison runs Paramount, and his father Larry Ellison is a close ally of Trump’s and is stumping up some of the cash for the deal – but his son-in-law Jared Kushner’s private equity firm is also putting some money behind the Paramount bid.
However, the Paramount bid also includes financial investment from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates, which could raise concerns for regulators who may not want foreign powers to have such significant involvement in a major media empire.
4. We met a different kind of smart ring
Like your futuristic gadgets with tactile buttons that work, instead of yelling a wakeword at a screen half-a-dozen times? So does the Pebble founder, Eric Migicovsky, who invented a new kind of smart ring.
Said to be a “a button and a microphone, a little bit of memory and a Bluetooth chip”, the Pebble Index 01 is a smart ring designed to be a note-taker and organiser, connected to an LLM on the Pebble app on your phone. With no assistant personality or subscription, you just talk into the ring, and it’ll transcribe recordings and interpret your commands. It doesn’t even need to be recharged: it’s said to last years, and once done, you send it back for recycling.
The first units are scheduled to ship in March 2026.
3. The House of Mouse embraced AI
This might have been one of the most surprising moments of the week, but The Walt Disney Company has struck a deal with OpenAI to allow over 200 of its characters to appear in Sora and ChatGPT Images. That means, come early 2026, you’ll be able to ask for Mickey, Stitch, Elsa, Yoda, and even some of the Avengers to sit alongside you or be animated in user-generated videos.
Moreover, select Sora-generated videos will be available on Disney+. As part of the deal, Disney is investing $1 billion in OpenAI and has a multi-year licensing agreement that will allow Disney’s characters to appear on OpenAI’s platform. Still, for a company that’s been so protective and intentional with its characters and stories, a partnership with OpenAI and the use of these in Sora is a bold, big move.
2. ChatGPT 5.2 made its debut
ChatGPT 5.2 is now available, and it comes at an interesting time for the world of AI as OpenAI tries to catch up with the seriously impressive Google Gemini 3.
The new AI model for the world’s most popular chatbot is a subtle improvement, delivering upgrades across the board, according to Sam Altman, who says it is “the smartest generally-available model in the world.”
The headline improvement is reasoning. OpenAI says GPT-5.2 is better at working through multi-step problems, keeping hold of context in longer chats, and delivering answers that feel more considered rather than rushed. In practice, that means clearer plans, more structured explanations, and fewer moments where the model confidently goes off in the wrong direction.
Initial reactions are quite mixed, with some users taking to Reddit to discuss how “boring” and “corporate” the new model feels. That said, it’s still early days, and we’ll need to properly test ChatGPT 5.2 over the next week or so to get a clear sense of how it compares to 5.1 and Gemini 3.
1. The Android XR mystery was revealed
The shape, size, weight, and experience of Android XR glasses are no longer a mystery. We got to try not one, but three different Android XR-powered glasses, including a lightweight pair with two displays (for stereoscopic visuals) and a connection to your Pixel phone for all the processing power.
In general, this looks like a promising start to the lightweight Android XR wearable journey and perhaps a better foot forward than the Samsung Galaxy XR, which is quite good but still expensive and not something you’ll wear outside the home or office.
So get ready for video phone calls, turn-by-turn directions, and instant access to an ever-watchful Gemini (if you allow it) in your future, and all right before your eyes.
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hamish.hector@futurenet.com (Hamish Hector)
