This week, Meta turned its again on VR, and Apple caved to Google in its hunt for an AI replace for Siri.
To compensate for these and the opposite seven greatest tech information tales of the week, scroll right down to see our recaps of the large issues that occurred.
7. DJI followers within the US lastly acquired some excellent news
It hasn’t been a good time for drone followers within the US, with the FCC just lately banning the sale of latest, foreign-made drones – and a separate proposal from the US Division of Commerce taking intention in any respect Chinese language drone imports (together with present fashions which have already been launched).
Effectively, luckily, a U-turn from the latter has eliminated that individual restriction from the equation for now. That implies that inventory of beforehand authorized drones just like the DJI Mavic 3 Professional and the Antigravity A1 can nonetheless be legally imported into the US.
Nonetheless, with the FCC successfully banning the sale of foreign-made drones that it hasn’t authorized (in different phrases, all new fashions), the long run nonetheless seems to be bleak for Stateside drone followers.
6. Sophie Turner served Lara Croft
We acquired our first take a look at Sophie Turner as filming on Amazon’s Tomb Raider TV present begins, and the recreation of the character’s iconic online game look is ideal, highlighting to followers of the video games how critically Amazon is taking this adaptation.
Clearly, that is only a nonetheless of Turner in her costume, however she is undeniably Lara Croft in it, and if comparable care and a focus has been paid to the remainder of the solid (which incorporates Jason Isaacs, Sigourney Weaver, and Martin Bobb-Semple, amongst others) in addition to the present’s story, we might be in for an actual deal with.
No launch date has been given but, however we will’t rule out a mid- to late 2026 launch.
5. Spotify made folks mad
Over the previous few weeks, Spotify Premium subscribers have been encountering AI-generated music suggestions of their Uncover Weekly and Launch Radar playlists, prompting the music platform to introduce labels to establish AI-generated music in a monster Reddit thread.
In accordance with customers who’ve skilled this, the difficulty with AI music on Spotify is barely getting worse; the issue doesn’t lie with AI music itself, however with the deception on Spotify’s half, which is what’s getting underneath folks’s pores and skin. This has led many paying customers to assume it’s a part of a wider, secret marketing strategy and that Spotify is intentionally doing this to keep away from paying artists additional.
In different information, Spotify has additionally raised subscription costs for US members, affecting all tiers. It marks the third worth improve since 2023, which many individuals are attributing to the upkeep of Spotify Lossless.
This week, Meta appeared to surrender on VR because it slashed Actuality Labs jobs, together with closing down a number of VR sport studios, and ending updates for the superb VR health platform Supernatural.
The information is a tragedy for followers of the Meta Quest system because it suggests Meta’s future assist for its headsets shall be a minimum of just a little lackluster, and Hamish Hector argued that, as issues stand, he’s solely within the Steam Body.
It’s no secret Actuality Labs has been hemorrhaging funds for a while, however this main about-turn from Meta would possibly lead some to surprise for those who can belief the corporate to not change course once more if its new AI glasses focus begins to go awry.
3. Gemini acquired an improve
Google has simply dropped “Private Intelligence” for Gemini, and it is likely to be probably the most vital leap for AI assistants but. This improve permits Gemini to securely faucet into your private Google ecosystem (Gmail, Pictures, Search, and YouTube) to supply deep, individualized context to your queries.
The capabilities are genuinely spectacular: think about Gemini diagnosing a automotive concern by checking your Gmail buy historical past for the mannequin, scanning your Pictures for service data, and pulling DIY options from YouTube. It’s the “true” AI assistant we’ve been ready for. Curiously, given the newly introduced Apple-Google AI partnership, this seems to be like a sneak peek at how the next-gen Siri would possibly operate in iOS 27.
2. Siri acquired a Gemini improve
Apple acquired served an enormous slice of humble pie this week, because it conceded Ai supremacy to Google asserting that Siri’ s next-gen model shall be backed by Gemini.
Loads of questions stay, however in a joint assertion Apple and Google revealed “These [Gemini] fashions will assist energy future Apple Intelligence options, together with a extra personalised Siri coming this yr.”Apple first unveiled its plans to launch an AI-upgraded Siri throughout WWDC 2024 however nearly two years later we’re nonetheless ready for the improve. The corporate has since promised a Spring 2026 launch, and with Google Gemini it’d lastly make that occur.
1. Verizon had a significant outage
Effectively, we have now formally had the primary main outage of 2026, and it was a large, almost 8-hour outage that took out Verizon’s cell service for patrons throughout the USA on January 14, 2026. You’ll be able to see our full reporting within the reside weblog linked under, but it surely was a severe, hours-long occasion that noticed of us with Verizon swap 5G and community bars for SOS with no entry to voice, textual content, and knowledge throughout a lot of the nation.
Down Detector stories swelled round 12:30 PM ET, with Verizon confirming the difficulty at 1 PM, however many of us didn’t see any indicators of restoration till nearer to eight PM ET that night. The service did not have one of the best communication throughout the occasion, with only some statements that got here hours aside. The day after the outage, Verizon confirmed every account would obtain a single $20 credit score, which, merely put, many shoppers weren’t happy with. The service additionally confirmed to TechRadar that it was a software program concern tied to a cyber incident.
