We’re almost at the end of 2025, but the tech news shows no signs of stopping. We’ve got seven more essential stories you need to know from iRobot, Samsung, OnePlus and more.
The biggest among our seven include Meta smashing its third-party VR headsets and iRobot filing for bankruptcy, and to catch up on those and five more stories, you simply have to scroll down.
7. iRobot went bankrupt, but it’s not dead yet
The iRobot Roomba was a pioneer of robotic vacuum cleaners, with the first model launching in 2002. Unfortunately, tough competition in the robovac space forced iRobot to file for bankruptcy this week, but that’s not the end of the much-loved brand.
It has been acquired by Picea Robotics, a company that had already been building Roombas for iRobot. For now, iRobot says there will be no immediate changes for Roomba owners to worry about and that the vacuums will continue to operate as usual. The future is a little more uncertain, however, and iRobot co-founder Colin Angle told us the bankruptcy is “a tragedy for consumers.”
6. ChatGPT finally got an app store
ChatGPT has been steadily collecting some useful plugins for Photoshop and Kayak over the past few months, and this week, OpenAI gathered them all into one app store so we can peruse them.
The ‘App Directory’, which is available in the app or on the web, already has a number of useful options, including Spotify and AllTrails. Once you’ve added them, you can call up apps within your ChatGPT conversations to create playlists or discover new hiking trails. We’ve rounded up our top favorites below.
5. Warner Bros. rejected Paramount
The latest episode of the hit entertainment drama we hate to love aired this week: Warner Bros. Discovery announced that Paramount’s trailers haven’t changed its mind; Instead, he stays true to his true love, Netflix.
But like a rom-com franchise that peters out, this won’t be the last time we see this love triangle dynamic. It was simply that WBD executives rejected the offer and highlighted their problems in a letter to their shareholders: owners of WBD shares could still choose to sell out to Paramount’s hostile takeover.
Additionally, Paramount could come back with a better offer, something its CEO David Ellison sneakily joked about in leaked text messages to WBD CEO David Zaslav, in which he noted that the offer did not include the words “best and final.” If you do, a bidding war will almost certainly materialize.
4. Your television was called a “mass surveillance system”
What if we told you that your TV is watching what you watched and that we use that information to create a profile and then offer marketing and other details and offers based on that? That, among other things, is the argument of the Texas Attorney General, who is now suing the largest TV manufacturers, including Samsung, TCL, Hisense, LG and Sony.
And spoiler alert: We found the Automatic Content Recognition (ACR) setting on one of our LG TVs (no one knows if it was on by default or not), and we can show you how to turn it off.
3. Micro-RGB comes to smaller televisions
Samsung surprised us earlier this year with a 115-inch Micro RGB TV that seriously impressed us after a hands-on test. However, at that size and high price, it wasn’t for most consumers. However, that will change next year.
In the run-up to CES 2026, Samsung has confirmed that it will expand its Micro RGB line to include more sizes, including smaller models like 55 and 65 inches, all of which still feature micro RGB technology for brighter, more immersive colors and a more engaging viewing experience. Samsung isn’t sharing pricing yet, but the hope is that bringing Micro RGB TV technology to more sizes will expand pricing beyond a single option. Time will tell.
2. The OnePlus 15R landed
The OnePlus 15 may have only debuted in October, but OnePlus is back with the 15R, a device that costs less but boasts impressive specs, including a 7,400mAh battery that’s larger than the 15 proper.
Other highlights of the OnePlus 15R include its 6.83-inch AMOLED display, 32MP front camera, 50MP main camera, and 12GB of RAM.
Although it comes with a Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 chipset and an 8MP ultra-wide snapper. So the 15R doesn’t quite compete with the OnePlus 15, but at a cost of just $699.99/£649, it doesn’t need to. OnePlus is not officially available in Australia.
In a move that seems both expected and disappointing, Meta revealed this week that it has “paused” its third-party VR headset development program, meaning the announced Asus and Lenovo HorizonOS headsets won’t see the light of day. At least not running the Meta operating system.
Announced over a year and a half ago, you could say this writing was on the wall when none of the devices showed up at Meta Connect 2025.
Meta has committed to “focus on building the world-class hardware and software necessary to advance the virtual reality market.” Although our resident XR expert can’t help but wonder if this Meta could have cemented Android XR as the Android of XR instead of Horizon OS.
