8. We choose our favorite technology from the World Cup.
Yes, the World Cup has officially started, but it’s not too late to fine-tune your settings. Far from it: with more than a month of football left, we’ve put together everything you need for a successful tournament at home.
From setting up our dream viewing party to sound bar upgrades and the best World Cup tech deals, you’ll have no shortage of ways to enhance your viewing experience. And once you’re all sorted, you can dive into our ultimate guide to watching the World Cup for detailed information on how to watch every match, from anywhere in the world.
7. Ocarina of Time reborn
To close out the week-long celebration of games that is Summer Game Fest and the exhibits surrounding it, Nintendo’s Direct showed off an exciting mix of trailers, including a sneak peek at a The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake on Nintendo Switch 2.
Little has been revealed so far beyond child Link’s design, and full voice acting is hinted at as the Great Deku Tree is heard narrating the introduction as he does at the start of the N64 game.
Perhaps best of all, the trailer ended with a release year: 2026. So we won’t be waiting too long to get this. zelda game in our hands and find out if this is the series Resident Evil 2 Remake moment, as many hope it will be.
6. The Trump phone is not “made in America”
Probably surprising no one, after serious delays, changing promises, and accidentally misleading its buyers: iFixit has taken apart the Trump Mobile T1 phone, and it turns out that the “proud American design” is just a gold-skinned HTC U24 Pro, aka a Taiwanese phone released in 2024.
To be fair, it has a couple of adjustments. The design has been adapted with a new shape of the camera bump, and the battery is slightly larger at 5,000 mAh, compared to 4,600 mAh, although it only offers 30W charging instead of the original HTC’s 60W.
iFixit notes that the markings on the phone say it’s “assembled in the USA,” which is notably different from being “made in the USA,” which comes with some very specific FCC requirements that, ironically, the Trump Mobile phone doesn’t seem to meet.
The teardown company puts it best: “against all expectations, the T1 is well priced compared to the U24 Pro with equivalent specifications, and the only thing you give up is 60W fast charging and your dignity.”
Read the full story: Trump Phone Unmasked as a ‘Gold Painted HTC U24 Pro’
5. Valve ditched physical gift cards
It’s bad news for PC gamers on Steam this week, as Valve announced that it will no longer be restocking physical Steam gift cards. Because? Because scammers take advantage of consumers.
This isn’t exactly something new; Steam scams have been around for years. However, Valve clarifies that it has indeed been forced to end physical gift card restocks as “scammers have adapted,” even after actively working with retailers and authorities to thwart the scams.
Physical gift cards are a great gift option for less gaming savvy people to give to their PC gamer loved ones, and can be useful for parents to replenish funds to their child’s Steam account without needing to link a credit card. However, once they’re gone, Steam digital gift cards will be the only option, as soon as stock runs out at various retailers, and one can only hope that scammers don’t end up forcing Valve to restructure digital gift cards as well.
Read the full story: Valve officially ends physical Steam gift cards
4. Philips launched a virtual skylight
Philips introduced a new ceiling lamp called ‘Philips Skylight’, designed to mimic the effect of natural light for indoor use, combining advanced LED technologies and Philips NatureConnect. Starting at 499.99 euros (around $580 / £430), the ceiling light comes in four different models and will be available later this month in most regions. It will arrive in the United States in September.
Each Philips Skylight variant comes with a slim ceiling mounting profile, a remote control, five preset lighting scenes and Philips’ Day Rhythm tool, which automatically adjusts color temperature and brightness throughout the day. But despite its wealth of features, it’s no Philips Hue.
This means that, unfortunately, it doesn’t connect to Wi-Fi or work with Matter over Thread, so you can’t integrate it into your existing smart home setup and you’ll have to use the included remote to control it manually.
3. Apple revealed some major software surprises
Siri AI (see #1 below) was the undoubted star of Apple’s WWDC event this week, but the software showcase revealed hundreds of other updates for iPhones, Macs, Apple Watches, and more. And not everyone did well.
You can read our pick of the best features coming to iPhones in iOS 27, or macOS 27 highlights below (in entry #2). But there were also some notable surprises, including the next version of watchOS dropping support for some recent models and Apple controversially adopting generative AI in Photos.
Apple also went to great lengths to push parental controls at the event, leaving us feeling like it had one eye on child safety and another on increasingly demanding government regulators.
2. macOS 27 called Golden Gate
Tim Cook’s last WWDC as Apple CEO gave us a glimpse into the future of its software, including the upcoming version of macOS 27, called Golden Gate. However, unlike previous years, this is not the most exciting.
There’s Liquid Glass and other design tweaks that will make your Mac feel more usable, plus there’s new and improved search to help you locate almost anything on your machine. There are some performance improvements too, with apps said to be more responsive, and of course there’s the debut of Siri AI, more on that below.
While it’s not the flashiest update, it’s a solid improvement from the looks of it, although if you’re not a fan of AI it may feel like a downgrade.
1. The Siri AI update has arrived
It’s been a long time coming with at least one false start, but the new Siri that’s already in some people’s hands, thanks to the iOS27 Dev Beta, which arrived with the WWDC Keynote, is the Siri that Apple promised us in 2024 and beyond.
Sure, Apple is basically playing catch-up with OpenAI and Google, but in what may later be considered one of the shrewdest moves in this AI race, Apple adopted the best Google Gemini models and created something new. Siri AI and Apple Intelligence updates feel familiar and at the same time a completely Apple experience. Yes, it even creates fake photorealistic images.
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