This week we were treated to new Microsoft AI and laptop announcements, the arrival of Sonos’ first ever headphones and the launch of the new Sonos Roam 2 speaker.
To keep you informed on these and other issues, we’ve rounded up the top seven tech news stories from the past seven days.
Scroll down to read them, and we’ll see you next week for another quick roundup of tech news.
7. The Sonos Ace has landed with Dolby Atmos and ANC
In a week where the multi-room audio pioneer has faced criticism from fans over the way it handled its recent controversial app overhaul, Sonos would much rather you focus on its shiny new product additions – including its first-ever headphones.
They’re called the Sonos Ace and they’re wireless over-ear cans with nice slim ear cups. Yes, the aesthetic is remarkably similar to the Apple AirPods Max, but with more pill-shaped ear cups and a softer Sonos white finish. However, as you can imagine, the feature set is very different. They have built-in Wi-Fi and can connect to a Sonos soundbar to play all the sound from your TV, in head-tracked spatial audio. That said, this feature will only work with Sonos Arc at launch, but will come to the Sonos Beam, Sonos Beam Gen 2, and Sonos Ray in the future.
What can’t they do? Surprisingly, they cannot work with your Sonos multi-room system. To explain, they can’t do what the Bowers & Wilkins PX8 lets users of Bowers & Wilkins Formation products do: easily switch between listening at home (perhaps on their Zeppelin or Formation Wedge speakers) and listening on the go with their black white headphones . That was an industry first, but given Sonos’ admirable collection of speakers, it’s surprising not to see some form of audio transfer solution in its debut headphones…
6. Sonos casually released the Roam 2
Sonos also unveiled a follow-up to its Sonos Roam – one of the best Bluetooth speakers – this week with the Roam 2, although there was much less fanfare for this product than for the Ace headphones.
Perhaps because, apart from a few minor design changes, the logo now matches the color of the speaker; there are more color options with green, blue and red options that match the black and white of the original; and there’s a dedicated Bluetooth button – the Roam 2 doesn’t seem all that different.
The $179 / £179 / AU$299 price, IP67 waterproofing and measly 10-hour battery life all remain. We’ll have to test the audio capabilities to see if they’ve improved, but if you already have a Roam, it looks like a Sonos Move 2 might be a better upgrade option.
5. Microsoft has unveiled some serious MacBook Air and iPad Pro rivals
Apple’s M-series chips were a game changer for MacBooks and iPads when they hit the market a few years ago, and this week Microsoft fought back in spectacular fashion. The new Surface Laptop and Surface Pro feature new Snapdragon X chips, which should mean blistering performance, battery-saving efficiency and AI smarts.
The early signs are promising too, with early benchmark tests suggesting that Microsoft’s new laptops could even be better than the M3 MacBook Air in terms of performance and battery life (albeit with the help of built-in fans). Our hands-on Microsoft Surface Laptop review argues that this could be “the most important laptop of the decade”, while our early Microsoft Surface Pro review suggests the iPad Pro will get serious value for money.
In other words, watch this space – our guide to the best laptops could soon get the biggest shake-up in history once the full Surface reviews are in.
4. Copilot has been upgraded
As part of Build 2024, Microsoft followed the recent trend of software demonstrations by demonstrating new AI-powered features for its Copilot assistant.
Copilot will be integrated into the Windows 11 operating system and ChaGPT-4o will also be added. This allows you to ask the AI to help you navigate an app or game you haven’t tried before – sort of like an interactive walkthrough tutorial. We saw it walk someone through Minecraft… and it was actually surprisingly useful (although you should take these curated AI demos with a grain of salt).
It also announced some new Copilot+ features that will be exclusive to powerful hardware. Unfortunately, not everyone is a fan of some of the new tools, cough Recall’s potentially disastrous consequences for privacy.
3. Microsoft’s controversial Recall feature could already be in trouble
Also announced at Build 2024, Copilot+ PC users (with powerful enough hardware) will have access to a tool called Recall. This allows their computer to track everything they do – and even take screenshots every minute – so it can remember something it did before.
Billed by Microsoft as a handy assistant, many users are terrified of the privacy implications of this software and in Britain, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) (which oversees data privacy and related regulations) is investigating this feature.
Microsoft has said that it has taken several precautions, such as only storing this data locally, and that it will not be used to train its AI. Yet these promises have not allayed many people’s fears. We’ll just have to wait and see what ICO and others think of the situation.
2. ChatGPT lost its Sky vote
When OpenAI debuted its new Sky voice for ChatGPT last week, many people – including us – noticed that it sounded a lot like Scarlet Johansson’s AI character in Her. It turns out Johansson was thinking the same thing, and she’s apparently annoyed about it.
She told NPR that she was “shocked, angry and in disbelief” that OpenAI would apparently “use a voice that sounded so eerily similar to mine,” especially since she had apparently turned down a deal to license her voice to them – after being asked twice , with one request coming very soon before last week’s showcase.
OpenAI has in turn rejected claims that Sky is based on Johansson. But that hasn’t stopped them from taking the vote off the stage under pressure from Johansson’s lawyers, and their statement could be somewhat undermined by a Sam Altman tweet made after the showcase that simply said ‘her’.
Some users took to social media to beg OpenAI to return the Sky voice to ChatGPT, although that will likely depend on how this dispute between OpenAI and Johansson continues.
1. Panasonic took on the Fujifilm X100VI with its full-frame Lumix S9
This week, Panasonic announced the Lumix S9, a vibrant and compact new full-frame mirrorless camera clearly designed for social media stars.
Its size (it’s Panasonic’s smallest full-frame L-mount camera ever) makes it easier to throw in your bag when you go on holiday, and it can be combined with a special Lumix Lab app, so you can share photos directly to your phone. , and with your followers.
If you want to buy one, it’ll cost you $1,499 / £1,499 / AU$2,699 for the body, then $219 / £219 / AU$349 for the new 26mm f/8 pancake lens, and so far We’ve found that it packs a lot of advanced video features into a nice package. However, we have some negatives, which we discuss in detail in our Panasonic Lumix S9 review.
