ICYMI: The 7 Biggest Tech Stories of the Week, From MWC to New iPad and Apple Car Leaks
This week in the tech world we had the Mobile World Conference – MWC 2024 – where tech companies introduced us to the weird and wonderful mobile gadgets they are coming up with.
We went to the show and saw some impressive tech, including the phone of the show, Xiaomi 14 Ultra, the laptop of the show, Samsung Galaxy Book 4, and the best wearable, Humane AI Pin – which was on display alongside others that we summarize in our 11 best gadgets from MWC 2024 roundup.
There was more than MWC, though, so to help you stay on top of the biggest innovations, we’ve rounded up the seven biggest tech news stories from the past week, in case you missed them.
7. We tried the Samsung Galaxy Ring
We got our first hands-on experience with the Samsung Galaxy Ring and we were quite impressed with its claims about next-generation AI-powered sleep metrics. We learned a lot of new information about the highly anticipated wearable, including how it will work with the Samsung Galaxy Watch 6, its motion tracking capabilities, and the specific sensors it will pack.
Although the rings we tried weren’t exactly connected, we were able to learn a lot about the design by wearing these early prototypes. Notably, the concave shape protects the main body of the Ring from scratches, a fault of other smart rings such as the Ultrahuman Ring Air.
6. The first truly affordable foldable phone has finally landed
Foldable phones are great, but so far they often come with ridiculous price tags. This week we saw the arrival of the Nubia Flip 5G, a clamshell that costs almost half the price of the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5. Okay, it’s still not exactly cheap at $999.99 / £1,049 / AU$1,649, but that’s a new low for a foldable phone – and that’s a strong start.
While the Flip 5G is still a bit of an unknown quantity, we certainly like the sound of its specs. It includes a 6.9-inch foldable AMOLED screen with a 120Hz refresh rate, a versatile external display and three cameras (including a 50MP wide-angle lens, 50MP telephoto lens and a 16MP selfie camera on the front).
Even if the Flip 5G’s main legacy spawns a new wave of mid-range foldables, it will have done its job as far as we’re concerned.
5. We wore a smartphone like a watch
MWC is the perfect time for technology manufacturers to show off their weirdest and wildest concepts that aren’t yet ready to hit the market, and Motorola did just that at MWC 2024. It debuted the Adaptive Display, a phone that can bend into different positions and attach to the wrist via a magnetic band.
Most phone batteries are solid rectangles, so they can’t be bent in this way, but the Adaptive Display has a neat trick that can get around this problem. Several smaller batteries have horizontal lines on the back of the concept phone, allowing the rest of the phone to curve around them. Smart things.
The pinnacle of wearable technology probably won’t be something you can wear on your shirt, it will be a small, ultra-thin device that you can put in your eyes. The latest company to make promises for the future of smart contact lenses is Xpanceo. Not one, not two, but four smart lens prototypes were on display, demonstrating four aspects of eye protection innovation.
One promises a mixed reality (XR) vision, the other information, and the other basically gives you a superhero vision.
While the company claims to have built all the working components, no one has worn these smart lenses (they need FDA approval for that) and what Xpanceo showed at MWC 2024 was just one lens on a special stand that you could see through.
The future of smart contact lenses is exciting, but probably still far away.
3. The Apple Car was parked permanently
Apple has apparently parked its long-standing Project Titan EV car project and is ready to move into generative AI full-time. At least that’s the news from a trusted Apple watcher. It’s a big deal, because Apple may have been working on an Apple Car (or iCar) for almost a decade and spent billions on the project.
On this subject, our US editor-in-chief, Lance Ulanoff, said: “I’m certainly not surprised. I’ve written about how bad it was and what Apple never fully committed to for almost as long. Rumor has it that it’s being worked on .
“The automotive industry is nothing like Apple’s other beloved categories: too many partners, too low margins, and a very different sales experience that can often lead to no sales. Moreover, I also think Apple may have missed the moment to intervene ( or acquire) and dominate.”
Less surprising than this apparent news is that whoever remains of the Apple Car team will turn its attention to a much more current Apple project: generative AI for all of the company’s major categories. So yeah, you’ll never drive an Apple car, but your iPhone is probably about to become smart enough to do the driving for you – maybe.
This week, Meta announced that its Quest Plus subscription is getting an upgrade. Now, in addition to the two free apps, you get a month to download and keep for as long as you’re subscribed, and you also get access to a Netflix-style library of rotating VR titles. Best of all, the price of a subscription does not change.
Starting March 1, 2024, 12 titles will be added to the Quest Plus library – including some of our favorites like Sporting battle, Walkabout mini golf And Until you fall – and the two free apps you can keep are shooter Contractors and compelling puzzler Shadow point.
So for $7.99 / £7.99 / AU$12.95 per month, or $59.99 / £59.99 / AU$99.95 per year, you get access to 14 games and apps instead only 2. However, it’s currently unclear how regularly the library of 12 games will change, and whether it will always have twelve titles or if it will grow and shrink from month to month.
1. Apple iPad and MacBook subscriptions have been leaked
If you’re in the market for an Apple MacBook or iPad, you might want to wait, as a leak suggests new models are coming very soon.
We’d heard rumors that new Apple tablets and laptops could arrive in March or April, and Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman – a reliable source for Apple information – has said a spring launch is all but certain. Moreover, MacRumors reported that Apple recently updated internal documents regarding “unannounced or unreleased products” intended to help Apple staff navigate potential customer questions – another sign that new products are likely on the way.
If the leaks are true, we could see a refresh of the 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Air laptops equipped with the powerful M3 chip installed in the MacBook Pro last year. As for iPads, the new Pro models could get an M3, and the iPad Air could get the older (but still impressive) M2 chip. They may also get OLED screens, but we’ll have to wait and see.