ICYMI: The 7 biggest news stories of the week, from spectacular AI upgrades to new iPads and Fujifilm cameras
We get it: It’s not easy to check Ny Breaking every hour of the day, because there’s so much else going on. Well, it’s been a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it case this week – because the last seven days have been packed with big stories.
That’s where our weekly ICYMI roundup comes in: all the week’s top tech stories, in digested format, for your reading pleasure. Within a few minutes you will be up to date, and then you will be ready for the flood of technical news that will be coming your way next week.
It’s been another hectic week on the technology front, with new iPads to discuss, the big Google I/O 2024 developer conference, significant upgrades to ChatGPT’s AI capabilities, and more than one major teaser trailer from the entertainment world. Let’s start.
7. We reviewed the sensational new iPads
We got our hands on the new iPad Air 13-inch (2024) and iPad Pro 13-inch (2024), and these are truly fantastic tablets from Apple: they both scored 4.5 out of 5 stars on Ny Breaking experts, and they’re living up to the hype that accompanied them last week at the Apple Let Loose event.
It’s the first time we’ve seen the more affordable Air in this larger 13-inch screen size, and we were impressed with that screen – as well as the excellent battery life and performance levels possible thanks to the M2 processor under the hood .
The Pro model jumps all the way to the M4 processor and is the first iPad we’ve seen with an OLED display. We described it as an “absolute powerhouse” of a tablet, and it’s without a doubt the best Apple has ever made. Our review will tell you whether this is the best Apple tablet for you too.
6. Apple released iOS 17.5 – with a serious bug
A new version of iOS is always big news, and this week Apple shipped iOS 17.5 to millions of users worldwide. Most importantly for users in the EU, they gained access to third-party web app downloads for the first time as Apple complies with antitrust requirements set by regulators.
Other new features, including upgrades to Apple News Plus and better support for third-party device trackers, were available to everyone. There’s also a new setting that allows you to continue monitoring your iPhone even if it needs to be repaired.
However, the rollout hasn’t gone entirely smoothly for everyone, with some users reporting seeing deleted photos coming back from the digital grave. It only seems to affect a select group of users running iOS 17.5, but it’s a worrying bug that we hope Apple will patch soon.
5. We have the first trailer for season 2 of The Rings of Power
We were already looking forward to the second season of The rings of power even before the first trailer dropped – but the 103-second teaser released this week has ramped up expectations even further. It looks like we’re ready for epic fantasy action and intrigue that will surpass anything in Season 1.
While showing us the first trailer, Amazon also confirmed a release date: The rings of power season 2 will hit the screens from Thursday, August 29. There are only 104 days left until we can binge again.
If you need help getting through everything revealed in this trailer, Senior Entertainment Reporter Tom Power can help with his detailed Rings of Power Season 2 trailer overview, which takes apart every scene, look, glimpse, and utterance. But be warned: you may want to deviate from it if you want to go into the second season completely spoiler-free.
4. Fujifilm launched two extremely desirable cameras
We’ve really been spoiled for choice in the digital camera department this week, as not one but two excellent Fujifilm models came our way. In our full Fujifilm X-T50 review, we found it offered more performance and versatility than we expected, considering its X-T30 II predecessor was an entry-level model.
In fact, we awarded the Fujifilm X-T50 just half a star versus a full five-star rating, and if you read our review you’ll find out why. This is a camera model that handles itself very well and obviously produces fantastic photos and videos.
We also managed to get some hands-on time with the Fujifilm GFX100S II, another camera that gives you a lot of bang for your buck (even if you have to part with a lot of money for it). Ny Breaking Camera editor Tim Coleman currently describes it as “probably the best medium format camera for most people”.
3. ChatGPT has received another major upgrade
Google had a lot of new AI features and tools to show off this week – with more in a minute – but OpenAI came in first with some impressive ChatGPT announcements and demos. At the center of all this was the new GPT-4o model (or GPT-4 Omni), a new multimodal engine that is comfortable with audio, images and text in real time.
The demonstrations that the OpenAI team has undergone show just how advanced ChatGPT and its AI have become. We’re getting very close to the stage where Joaquin Phoenix talks to his AI bot in the movie Her – although we’re hoping for a less depressing ending.
These upgrades make ChatGPT less of a chatbot and more of a true personal assistant you can chat with. There was also news of a desktop app for macOS users (there’s no Windows equivalent yet), as well as a revamped interface and more features for free users (including memory capabilities for the AI).
2. The ambitious Google Project Astra AI was unveiled
Not to be outdone, Google had a lot of AI announcements to share this week at the Google I/O 2024 developer conference. One that particularly caught our attention was Project Astra: a multimodal AI engine, like GPT-4o, that comfortably looks around at the world and processes video and voice input.
The idea is that you’ll get more natural and context-sensitive responses from your artificially intelligent assistant, and US Mobiles editor Phil Berne got to work with the new technology – finding it impressive, but not quite ready for the masses.
The Astra AI is already smart enough to play Pictionary, tell stories and adapt to new input in real time, and it seems perfect for a device like smart glasses – although, to be clear, Google won’t do that again has said version of Google Glass was somewhere in the pipeline.
1. Google pushed the boundaries of AI at I/O 2024
Google had a lot more to share besides Project Astra at Google I/O 2024 this week, and we discussed it all live. We had a new video generation tool, new AI features for Android, a new AI-powered way to search through your photos and videos, and even bots that can guide you through yoga exercises (we’re not sure about that). by).
Google’s flagship AI model, Gemini, is set to get a slew of upgrades in the coming months so it will be smarter and more reliable wherever you access it and whatever task you need it to do.
That could be helping kids with their homework, searching through the files you’ve stored in the cloud, or summarizing large parts of the internet for you. Look for more of these upgrades to reach more devices in the coming years, including almost certainly the rumored Google Pixel 9 phone.