ICYMI: the week’s 7 biggest tech stories, from Google Gemini to Windows 12
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It’s never too late in the year for a huge tech announcement, it seems. While most tech companies were hunkering down in preparation forCES 2024next month,Googledecided to make its biggest announcement of the year this week with Gemini, its most powerful AI brain so far.
Gemini is a nebulous, shape-shifting beast that’s both in some existing products – likeGoogle Bardand thePixel 8 Pro– and a futuristic concept that shows where Google’s AI is headed. Sure, thedemo video may have been somewhat staged, with Gemini not yet capable of real-time conversation, but it’s still a landmark moment for Google and AI.
Not that this new chapter in the story of artificial intelligence was the only news this week. AGTA 6trailer finally landed and came with the gut punch that it won’t initially be coming to PCs, whileWindows 12got a leaked launch date for 2024.
Been busy doing Christmas shopping? Here are all the biggest tech stories of the week in one handy, five-minute breakdown…
7.Netflix quietly rolled out an HDR upgrade for your 4K TV
Subscribers to Netflix’s Premium plan recently absorbed yet another price hike, making the service’s4KandHDR-enhanced tier one of the more expensive options among thebest streaming services. To make that bitter pill go down a little more smoothly, Netflix followed up with an announcement that it had completed an upgrade to its streaming library, one that specifically improves the video quality of 4K titles with HDR.
The upgrade comes in the form of dynamically-optimized encodes for 4K video streaming, a process that not only enhances the look of Netflix content on TVs, but also on tablets and phones. Will it be enough to keep Premium subscribers from jumping to the more affordable ad-supported tier, or cancelling the service entirely? Only time will tell. But in an increasingly competitive streaming landscape, better-looking 4K movies and shows is an advantage Netflix can take to the bank.
6.Meta teased a VR headset that looks like a next-gen Apple Vision Pro
This week Meta’s director of display systems research, Douglas Lanman,showed a render of Mirror Lakeduring a talk at the University of Arizona College of Optical Sciences. This next-gen VR headset looks like a cross between theMeta Quest ProandApple Vision Pro– with its open-side design taken from the Quest, and a version of the (somewhat creepy) EyeSight found on theAppleheadset.
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It also throws in a few high-end features that would be new to consumer XR headsets including electronic varifocal and HoloCake lenses – optical systems designed to make visuals look more real and the headset slimmer respectively. Unfortunately, while Lanman described the headset as “practical to build now” it’s likely still years away, with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg previously describing Mirror Lake as something we might see “in the second half of the decade." In other words, 2026 and beyond (or maybe late 2025, if we’re lucky).
5.Rockstar gave us a GTA 6 trailer but disappointed PC fans
Even if you have been busy with Christmas shopping, you probably still heard about the firstGTA 6trailer (above) that was leaked and then swiftly released this week. The bad news? Along with the fact that the game is coming sometime in 2025 (so, in a worse-case scenario, potentially two years away), it also isn’t initially launching on PC.
For anyone whose main gaming workhorse is a PC rather than aPlayStation 5,Xbox Series X, orXbox Series Sthen, this news was something of a crowbar to the kneecap.GTA6 will still probably find its way onto PC at a later date, but not until 2026 or later – which means it might be time to finally give into temptation and buy that PS5.
4.The OnePlus 12 landed with a huge battery and more
This week the final flagship smartphone of 2023, theOnePlus 12, landed to a huge cheer from fans of slightly alternative phone brands. It has a big battery, a speedy chipset and loads of RAM – so why isn’t it higher in this list? Right now, the OnePlus 12 is only available in China.
Still, the long-awaited contender for ourbest phonesguide should become more widely available from late January, and it has a strong case for inclusion in that list. That battery has a 5,400mAh capacity and charges at a speedy 100W, and the OnePlus 12 is also powered by the latestSnapdragon 8 Gen 3chipset. It’s certainly looking pretty tempting ahead of that worldwide launch…
3.Disney revealed its Marvel and Star Wars shows for 2024
This week Disney announced its line-up ofMarvelandStar Warsshows that’ll be released in 2024. And while anyone waiting forAndorseason 2 was sadly disappointed, but the entertainment giant did reveal that twoStar Warsand threeMarvelprojects will make their debuts on the streaming giant.
We got the first live-action production to be set during theStar WarsHigh Republic era, calledStar Wars: The Acolyte, whileStar Wars: Skeleton Crew– a series that takes inspiration from beloved ’80s filmThe Goonies– is also en route.
2.Windows 12 gets a leaked launch date and rumored AI skills
Windows 11has struggled to set the world alight, but next year could be different forMicrosoft’soperating system. Fresh leaks this week suggested that Windows 12 could land as soon as June 2024.
While Microsoft hasn’t said anything official yet, these rumorstally with speculation that we’ve heard before– and it seems, somewhat predictably, that AI-powered features could be at the heart of Windows 12. This could mean the arrival of a new wave of ‘AI’ PCs and some bigger changes than the ones we’ve seen from theCopilot assistantin Windows 11. Good news for us, but arguably even better news for laptop makers, who’ve been struggling with a downturn in PC and laptop sales.
1.Google’s new Gemini AI brain sparked awe and controversy
Google Gemini is arguably the tech giant’s biggest announcement of the year – and this week’s news summed up both the good and bad sides of AI hype in 2023. On the plus side, the intense competition between OpenAI, Microsoft, Google and more is clearly producing some speedy improvements in large language models. And that means lots of fun, useful software features for us.
These Gemini-powered tricks include an improvedGoogle Bard, some new tricks on the Pixel 8 Pro like a handy Summarizer tool in its Recorder app, and the launch of Google’s new AI-poweredNotebookLMapp. But taking the steam out of Google’s incredible Gemini demo (above) wasthe asterisk that it was somewhat staged.
These kind of tricks (and the timing of Google’s announcement) show that AI is currently as much a marketing battle as a tech one. But that shouldn’t take the shine off the fact that we’re in for some incredible AI advances in 2024.
Mark is TechRadar’s Senior news editor. Having worked in tech journalism for a ludicrous 17 years, Mark is now attempting to break the world record for the number of camera bags hoarded by one person. He was previously Cameras Editor at both TechRadar and Trusted Reviews, Acting editor on Stuff.tv, as well as Features editor and Reviews editor on Stuff magazine. As a freelancer, he’s contributed to titles including The Sunday Times, FourFourTwo and Arena. And in a former life, he also won The Daily Telegraph’s Young Sportswriter of the Year. But that was before he discovered the strange joys of getting up at 4am for a photo shoot in London’s Square Mile.
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