The tech launches show no signs of slowing down as we head into October, with another generous round of tech treats being served up this week to help us wash down the help from Microsoft Copilot, Amazon’s Alexa AI and iOS 17 from last week.
This time it was Meta’s turn to take the stage at Meta Connect, where it made the unsurprising full announcement of the Meta Quest 3, alongside some big AI news. You can read about both below, alongside our verdict on DJI’s new Mini 4 Pro drone (spoiler: it’s awesome).
Between all that, we were sorely tempted to pre-order a new Raspberry Pi 5 so it can sit back on our shelf collecting dust, and we also found time to celebrate Google’s 25th anniversary . So if you were too busy this week living in real life instead of virtual reality, let us fill you in on all the tech news you missed…
7. Google turned 25 – and we celebrated in style
Okay, most birthday celebrations involve party hats, candles, and coworkers awkwardly fighting over a piece of cake. But for Google’s 25th anniversary this week, we decided to honor it the only way we know how: by writing a series of articles delving into the big G’s biggest successes, mistakes, and exciting future projects.
We looked back on how on earth we survived before Google (if you remember Altavista, Hotmail, and Netscape, be sure to read that), praised our favorite unsung Google apps and services, and lamented the Google graveyard projects we wish were still existed. .
Naturally, we’ve also ranked the best Google Doodles of all time, as well as the best Google Easter Egg surprises hidden within its various apps and services (including, most recently, Android 14). And as a nightcap, we looked ahead to Google’s next 25 years and its most promising future projects.
6. The Raspberry Pi 5 has arrived to power your DIY projects
Partially on a DIY coding project? The Raspberry Pi has always been a great board for the hobbyist tinkerer – and now a powerful fifth version has just been launched with a new CPU and more.
Okay, there may be some availability issues despite pre-orders kicking off ahead of the October launch, but it looks like the Pi 5 will be worth the wait. The main boost is a quad-core Arm Cortex-A76 CPU running at 2.4GHz, and a major upgrade from the Pi 4’s 1.8GHz chip.
But you also get a new VideoCore VII GPU for a boost in graphics performance, Bluetooth 5.0, and two HDMI outputs (in addition to a pair of USB 3.0 ports) that let you connect it to two 4K displays (at 60 Hz, with HDR support) . Not bad at all for the price tags of $60 / £60 / AU$125 (4GB version) and $80 / £79 / AU$95 (8GB).
5. Dune became our next Netflix must-watch
Well, we didn’t expect that Duneone of the best movies of 2021, to experience an ornithopter based journey Netflixbut that’s exactly what’s happening very, very soon.
That’s right, one of the best Max movies joins the world best streaming service on October 1, meaning more of us can stream Denis Villeneuve’s epic film adaptation of Frank Herbert’s groundbreaking book whenever we want. You can find out if it’s worth watching by reading our Dune judgement First.
Will it make it to ours? best Netflix movies list? Most likely, but DuneThe arrival of Netflix on Netflix would have been so much better if the sequel would still be released in early November. Unfortunately, Dune part two has been postponed until March 2024which means you should get your spice-laden fix of Arrakis via the first film in the coming months.
4. The iPhone 15 encountered some teething problems
This week we saw the first iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro phones delivered to their new owners – and while most were excited to receive their new pocket companions, some discovered a few minor issues with Apple’s first batch of new phones.
Apple has responded to a number of these issues, namely an iOS bug that caused the phones to freeze when transferring data directly from another iPhone, plus a fingerprint issue on the new titanium finish of the Pro models. An iOS update (17.0.2) fixed the former, while Apple updated its support page for cleaning up the iPhone 15 series.
Yet anecdotal evidence suggests that other minor issues persist for some, including the odd manufacturing defect and, later this week, reports of overheating incidents. We didn’t discover any of these issues in testing and there’s no indication they’re widespread, but it’s something we’ll keep an eye on (and ask Apple about) over the next week.
Meta has been quietly making significant progress in the world of artificial intelligence – and at this week’s Meta Connect event it unveiled a number of AI-powered tools coming to the likes of WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger.
Perhaps most useful is a new AI image generation and editing feature for Instagram, which will soon let you apply effects like a watercolor filter or convert to black and white. But Meta also adds a lineup of 28 AI characters to the three message-ups, making them more like a “social” version of ChatGPT.
These characters are inspired by celebrities like Kendall Jenner, Mr. Beast, Paris Hilton and Snoop Dogg. You can have direct conversations with these ‘personas’ and even inquire about Paris Hilton’s favorite lip gloss. As you chat with these characters, their profile images are dynamically animated, adding an engaging visual element that is often missing from conversations with typical AI chatbots.
2. The DJI Mini 4 Pro landed and became our favorite little drone
If you’re looking to delve into aerial photography and videography, the DJI Mini 3 Pro has long been our recommendation for beginners – and this week it was followed by (you guessed it) the Mini 4 Pro.
Okay, not much has changed on the camera front, with the Mini 4 Pro offering the same 24mm f/1.7 camera as before – it has a 1/1.3in sensor for taking 48MP photos and 4K -video.
But what has been upgraded is the drone’s obstacle detection, which is now omnidirectional for safer flying, plus the addition of Ocusync 4.0 connectivity and waypoints (for pre-determining a route for your drone to fly through). Not a major upgrade, but the Mini 4 Pro still does enough to inherit the crown as the best drone for most people.
In addition to its new AI personalities, Meta has finally unveiled the Meta Quest 3 – and based on our experiences with it so far (which you can read more about in our hands-on Meta Quest 3 review) it’s the best VR headset you can buy to buy.
Thanks to the Snapdragon . Best of all, the Quest 3 comes at a reasonable price: just $499.99 / £479.99 / AU$799.99 for the 128GB version.
Sure, it could have had higher RAM, and eye tracking would have been appreciated, but we don’t think you’ll find a nicer VR headset at this price.