The world of technology never sleeps and it can be difficult to keep up with the latest developments. But if you’re feeling a little behind on the news, you’ve come to the right place. Our ICYMI (In Case You Missed It) roundup covers all the biggest tech news from the past seven days, bringing you up to speed in just minutes.
And what a week it’s been: big surprises from Apple and Google, a massive Cloudflare shutdown that took half the Internet with it, the latest challenger to take on ChatGPT, and much more. So, settle in for a delicious digital summary that will keep you in the know before you can say “AirDrop works with Android”…
7. Black Friday started early
The Black Friday discount extravaganza is supposed to start on November 28, but what is the fixed date in the calendar when you can start posting bargains early? That seems to be the attitude among retailers, and if it means you can make some serious savings without having to wait, that’s fine with us too.
We’ve been tracking all the latest sales and picking out the hottest discounts on our live blog pages, so be sure to check them out below if you’re looking for a deal or two. From appliances and smart home kits to laptops, headphones, smartwatches and more, there are deals across the board.
6. Apple and Google named best apps of 2025
As the year draws to a close, Google and Apple – the gatekeepers of the Android and iOS app stores – are beginning to award prizes for their favorite apps from the past twelve months. This year was no different, with both companies announcing their shortlisted winners within a day of each other.
Google was the first to reveal that Hank Green’s Focus Friend was its top app of the year. Other names honored include Luminar, Edits, Wiser, and Pingo, and many other names have been recognized for their efforts in the Android ecosystem.
A day later, it was Apple’s turn, and the company pulled out all the stops by nominating no less than 45 apps and games across a wide range of categories, each with three winners. BandLab, Ladder, and Tiimo took first place as joint App of the Year winners, and they were joined by apps designed for iPad, Mac, Vision Pro, Apple Watch, Apple TV, and more.
5. We tested the Nano Banana camera
It’s safe to say that in this day and age, if there’s a tech gadget, someone has built artificial intelligence (AI) into it. This is as true of the Caira camera as anything else, but in this case the end result is something you might actually want to use.
In fact, it’s more than that, as Caira is a great camera boosted by the AI editing intelligence built into Google’s Nano Banana model. The device snaps magnetically onto your iPhone, works with real DSLR lenses, and is built into a dedicated Sony sensor. The real intrigue comes after capturing an image, when you can enter a command into an AI prompt window and have the onboard intelligence modify your images as needed.
We tried it out and were impressed with its capabilities – it’s not a cheap toy that you’ll get bored of quickly. But does it enhance your creativity or just take over? This is something we can’t really decide.
4. Disney and YouTube TV have bridged their differences
Last October, a series of Disney-owned channels began disappearing from YouTube TV, the result of the two companies failing to agree on a new streaming deal. But now that’s in the past, and like two longtime friends reconciling after a nasty argument, there’s no more water under the bridge.
We noticed earlier this week that Disney Channels had made a return to YouTube TV, all thanks to Disney and YouTube signing a multi-year deal to get things back to the way they should be. There was even a pleasant surprise in the mix in the form of ESPN Unlimited.
Simply put, YouTube TV subscribers now have access to ESPN Unlimited, including premium content such as live WWE events. This wasn’t available to YouTube TV members before Disney and YouTube temporarily split, showing that good things can come from bad breakups.
3. Google somehow made Android work with AirDrop
If there’s one thing we know about Apple, it’s that the tech giant doesn’t like sharing. It prefers to keep its proprietary technologies to itself, so it was a huge surprise to learn this week that Google had found a way to make its Quick Share feature work with Apple’s AirDrop.
This means you can now send a file from your Android device and an Apple fan will be able to accept it using AirDrop on their iPhone. And all of this was apparently done without Apple’s direct involvement – and perhaps even without its knowledge.
We can’t imagine Apple is very happy about being blindsided in this way, but there’s not much it can actually do. On the one hand, stopping Google’s new trick might be difficult to achieve from a technical standpoint. On the other hand, forcing Google to reverse course would likely attract the attention – and anger – of the European Union, which has been eager to force Apple to abandon the jewels of its ecosystem and make them available to its bitterest rivals.
There’s no way of knowing how this situation will play out, so we suggest you sit back, buckle up, and grab the popcorn.
2. Cloudflare notified us of our latest global outage
Even the most terminally ill among us probably don’t give too much thought to what keeps the internet afloat, but reality dawned on us this week when Cloudflare suffered a major outage, taking down dozens of websites and crippling our ability to rot our brains and post cat memes when we should be working.
In case you didn’t know, Cloudflare provides a range of services to a huge range of websites, from providing images to preventing DDoS attacks and much more. When Cloudflare crashed, users found that they were unable to sign in to their favorite sites, including ChatGPT, X, Canva, and more.
After initially suspecting a cyberattack, Cloudflare revealed the true cause: an error in its backend system caused a key file to double in size, which then automatically spread throughout Cloudflare’s network. Because the file now exceeded the software’s size limit, Cloudflare crashed, as did a large number of sites that relied on its services. Like the AWS outage in October, it was a great demonstration of the centralization of the Internet and the risk it represents.
1. Gemini 3 has landed to take on ChatGPT 5.1
ChatGPT has been the number one AI chatbot since its launch, and while there have been many challengers, few have been able to seriously claim its crown. However, Google hopes that all this will change with the release of Gemini 3.
We decided to see if Gemini 3 could walk the talk, comparing it to ChatGPT in a series of tests and challenges as part of TechRadar’s special AI week. The result? A stalemate, with ChatGPT ahead on some occasions, Gemini on others.
What was remarkable was how much the two models had in common, the differences seeming more like accents than radically different philosophies. If anything, it shows how far AI chatbots have come in ChatGPT’s reign to deal with such a powerful threat.
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