This week we watched Alex Honnold in free solo Taipei 101 on Netflix while terrible comments played over it, and Samsung announced its next major phone launch.
To keep you up to date with all this and more, we’ve rounded up the seven most important tech news stories of the week here for you, with links to the full stories as well.
7. Netflix Proved It Didn’t Understand Live Events
This week, the world of streaming gave us The Bridgerton Chronicles Season 4, Wonderful manAnd Contraction Season 3, among others, but the livestream sporting event of the year was also broadcast: Skyscrapers liveand fans were quick to make their anger known at the end result.
It starred Alex Honnold, of Free singleplayer fame, and his attempt to solo free (climb alone, without ropes or safety equipment) Taipei 101, which was, at one point, the tallest building in the world. The climb was at least a feat of human ability, but the comments – which were filled with nerves and often talked about Alex – were not well received.
Some said the show was “the worst live sports production I’ve ever seen in my life”, although one of the hosts has since stepped in to address fans’ frustrations.
6. Xreal Glasses Got a 3D Upgrade
Xreal’s smart glasses are impressive entertainment specs that will display your favorite shows, games and movies on a giant virtual screen, as long as they’re connected to a compatible device. Now they can also create this content in 3D.
That’s thanks to Real 3D, which just debuted on Xreal’s One and One Pro glasses, and it’s an incredible tool that works on any device or content because all the processing is handled on the glasses.
Granted, it’s a work in progress, but it simply improved some of the world’s best smart glasses – and made Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s comment about AI one day allowing us to “jump” into any video, less far-fetched.
5. We played Resident Evil 9
We have more than four hours of Resident Evil Requiem under our belt, and we’re now convinced that it’s poised to become the best entry in the long-running survival horror series.
The return of Léon Kennedy, however, worried us. How can you create a sense of fear when your star is an infected, killer one-man army? You pair him with a much less combat-capable partner.
Leon’s segments are like a New Game Plus version of the Resident Evil 4 remake on steroids: you are an ultra-powerful killing machine; Meanwhile, new protagonist Grace’s sections are meant to deliver some serious scares. They take place in wonderfully complex environments, expertly constructed for tense exploration, desperate resource scavenging, and disjointed combat that always puts you on edge.
4. OpenAI admitted to making a mistake
ChatGPT’s most ardent users are quick to voice their frustration when OpenAI botches an update, and now CEO Sam Altman has admitted that the company “messed up” with ChatGPT 5.2.
Criticism focused on AI providing overly technical and complicated answers to questions, rather than the easy-to-digest answers that AI users typically hope to receive.
“We decided, and I think for good reason, to put most of our effort in 5.2 into making it super capable in intelligence, reasoning, coding, engineering, that sort of thing,” Altman revealed. “And we have limited bandwidth here, and sometimes we focus on one thing and neglect another. »
Let’s hope, however, that OpenAI can learn from this mistake and better manage the aspects of its vision that it must sacrifice as it releases successive iterations of its chatbot.
Speaking of sacrifices, OpenAI also said this week that it’s time to finally retire GPT-4o, and once again, fans are furious.
3. Apple finally gave us a new AirTag
The original AirTag launched in 2021 and quickly gained an unwanted reputation as a tracking accessory. With those issues now largely resolved, Apple has released a more powerful suite with better range and louder speakers.
A new Bluetooth chip allows you to find the new AirTag 1.5 times further than with the previous version. This new speaker also means it’s 50% louder, which is handy if you’re trying to find keys buried at the bottom of a couch.
While it’s not exactly a bargain, the new AirTag retains the same $29 / £29 / AU$49 price as the original.
2. Garmin leaked its Whoop alternative
The same week, Whoop blasted the Australian Open for its “ridiculous” decision to force tennis stars to remove its tracker, and after testing a slew of fitness tracker alternatives, it appears Garmin’s Whoop alternative has just leaked.
Normally we’d ignore leaks here until they’re confirmed, but the spoiler was shared by none other than Garmin itself.
Eagle-eyed Garmin fans were able to screenshot the page before it disappeared, pointing us to the “Garmin Cirqa smart bracelet,” which could be released in about “4 to 5 months,” either May or June depending on shipping details.
Crucially, we didn’t get an award for the band, but even so, Whoop has competition on the way.
1. Samsung revealed the S26 Ultra’s biggest upgrade
Flagship smartphones have struggled to offer dazzling new features in recent years, but the upcoming Galaxy S26 Ultra appears to have bucked that trend. This week, Samsung revealed its flagship phone’s new “privacy screen,” which it calls “a new frontline in privacy.”
What makes this display technology so interesting is that it allows you to hide parts of your screen – like a private message – from viewers while keeping it visible to you. The OLED display apparently does this by emitting light in specific directions. We haven’t seen the technology in person yet, but if it lives up to the hype, this could be the most useful smartphone upgrade we’ve seen in a while.
