The pace of tech news rarely slows down, which is why we put together this ICYMI roundup (in case you missed it) every weekend, so you can familiarize yourself with the biggest headlines from the past week, even if you didn’t catch the stories the first time.
This week we’ve seen everything from home robots to flagship phones, with cuts from Microsoft, another stranger things Season 5 trailer, the long-awaited triple from Samsung and also new Fitbits on the way. It’s been busy, in a good way.
7. We have the final trailer for season 5 of Stranger Things.
We all return to Hawkins, Indiana for the last time: stranger things Season 5 premieres on Wednesday, November 26, with the episodes running through to the finale on New Year’s Eve, and now we have the final trailer for the fifth and final season.
There’s a lot going on here, and almost all of the main characters in the stranger things The universe, good and bad, gets some screen time. It’s been a long wait for this fifth season, but this should be enough to keep stranger things fans who will attend over the next four weeks.
6. Microsoft caused us another major online disruption
Recently, an Amazon AWS outage left a number of websites, applications and services unresponsive, and this week Microsoft’s Azure platform joined in with its own critical flaw. Millions of users were affected before the issues were finally fixed.
Everything that relies on Microsoft’s digital infrastructure was affected, including Minecraft and the Xbox platform, and Microsoft 365 apps. Fortunately, Microsoft acted quickly to fix Azure again, but these types of outages shouldn’t happen at all.
5. Samsung launched ads on its smart refrigerators.
Ads aren’t really sexy at the best of times, but one place you definitely don’t want them is on your refrigerator, streaming sponsored content to your kitchen. It is strange then that Samsung has decided to start showing ads on the screens of its Family Hub smart refrigerators.
That’s $2000 (or about £1500/AU$3000) for the fridge itself, and then you have to put up with “selected ads” while you try to cook a meal or just have a drink. Understandably, the move has received a rather cold response from users, although you can at least disable them.
4. Google said the new Fitbits will arrive in 2026
Google acquired Fitbit in 2021 and appears to have prioritized the Pixel Watch over any type of Fitbit device since then. The last Fitbit-branded device to launch was the Fitbit Charge 6, which debuted in 2023, and we had almost given up hope of getting new Fitbits.
It’s encouraging then that a Google executive has gone on record to say that we can expect new Fitbit devices over the course of 2026. It’s unclear exactly which devices could be updated, but the compact, lightweight fitness trackers are already in need of an update.
3. The Samsung triple made its public debut
We are moving very slowly towards the official launch of the Samsung triple that we have been waiting for all year. Don’t forget, Samsung first teased this next-gen foldable back in January, and we’re still not sure when it will launch or how much it will cost.
What we do have is the first public sample of the foldable, which appeared at the K-Tech Showcase in South Korea. It was placed behind a glass case so no one could touch it, but we’re hopeful that the Samsung phone isn’t too far away from going on sale.
2. OnePlus revealed everything about the OnePlus 15
One of TechRadar’s many exclusives on the site this week included key information about the new OnePlus 15 flagship phone: when it launches globally, the new camera features it will bring, and the different colors you can buy it in.
All these details came to light in our talk with OnePlus Europe CMO, Celina Shi. We may be approaching the end of the year, but the OnePlus 15 is a great contender for one of the best phones of 2025 – find out everything you need to know about the phone.
1. The first humanoid robot for housework has arrived
Surely in the year 2025 we should get robots to do all our usual and tedious household tasks? Well, maybe 2026 will be the year: 1X has already opened pre-orders for the Neo Home Robot, which can perform tasks like doing laundry and filling the dishwasher.
It’s not cheap, but you might consider it a price worth paying if it means you have more free time. However, there are abilities that are beyond the robot’s reach: it needs to be allowed to be controlled by a remote operator, and it still can’t cook for you or mow the lawn. Maybe we have to wait until 2027 for that.
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