We're entering the busiest tech season, friends. Apple had its massive iPad 2024 event this week, Google I/O 2024 is coming next week, and there are plenty more announcements on the way.
But before we start next week, we need to catch up on the week we just had. So, to lend a hand, we've rounded up the 8 biggest tech news of the week and grouped them here for you to read. This list includes Apple's iPad news, Amazon's terrible advertising plans, a new Superman suit, and another major Windows 11 bug that could slow down your PC.
If you're looking for more tech news, why not check out episode two of our podcast (just released) and be sure to come back next Saturday for another ICYMI news roundup.
8. A new iPad Pro and iPad Air were revealed.
This week, Apple's iPad category went from a sleepy utilitarian product to the center of its technological universe, introducing not one but two entirely new technologies. First was the surprising inclusion of a new chip: the M4. This is the first time a new part of Apple Silicon debuts inside an iPad. It's powerful and appears to be setting the stage for a big reveal of AI across all Apple products when the tech giant hosts its developers conference (WWDC) in June.
The second big innovation is the Ultra Retina XDR display, which is Apple's fancy way of describing a tandem OLED display, which is also another way of describing two sandwiched OLED panels. The result is an iPad (and maybe tablet) display like no other.
OLED display technology enables another first: Apple's thinnest tablet to date, even thinner than the iPad Air. That line of tablets also got a big boost and is now available in a 13-inch model along with an 11-inch model, both with an M2 chip. And thank goodness, Apple finally moved the Facetime camera to the wider, more horizontal side of the device. Did we mention that the Air is now thicker than the iPad Pro?
7. The M4 chip made its debut… in an iPad?
Apple unveiled its latest piece of Apple Silicon at its iPad event with the M4 chip. This upgraded module houses a 10-core CPU and a 10-core GPU, compared to the base M3 chip's 8-core CPU and 8-core GPU, and supports up to 38 trillion operations per second in its neural engine (the Apple's version of a nuclear unit). It contains 28 billion transistors, up from 25 billion in the M3, and can support up to 128 GB of unified memory.
We don't have direct comparisons to the M3, and haven't had a chance to properly test it yet, but Apple says CPU performance is a 50% increase over the Apple M2, and GPU performance is up. Up to 400% faster than the M2 GPU. The M2 was chosen because that's what the last-generation iPad Pro used.
Unfortunately, this iPad debut could be a sign that Apple is losing faith in its MacBooks, but we hope that's not the case.
6. Apple delivered its best Pencil yet to digital artists
If you primarily use tablets for sketching or sketching, Apple's new Pencil Pro was arguably more interesting news than its new iPads. Unfortunately, the stylus is only compatible with the new iPad Pro (2024) and iPad Air, which is a shame. But on the plus side, it has plenty of new tricks, including a new squeezing gesture for quickly switching between app menus.
Another notable new feature is 'Barrel Roll', which allows you to rotate the Pencil Pro to rotate on-screen objects or change the orientation of a digital brush. There's also now Find My support to help you locate the stylus when it inevitably gets lost, which could save you $129 / £129 / AU$219 on a new one.
5. We found that Prime Video ads could get worse
Earlier this year, Amazon added ads to its Prime Video streaming service for everyone, unless you pay an extra $2.99/£2.99 per month on top of your subscription (Australian viewers are spared for now).
But this week things got worse. Ahead of an upcoming 'upfront', an event where TV networks sell commercial space to advertisers, the streamer revealed three new types of ads that could come to its platform: carousel, interactive and paused ads.
All of them are designed to convince you to buy products from the Amazon store with just a few clicks. It's all very scary and upsetting, and it's one of the reasons this writer is canceling his Amazon Prime subscription.
4. Asus announced the ROG Ally X
Asus officially confirmed that the ROG Ally
We heard a few details, such as improvements to its RAM, ports (with a mention of a proper fix to the SSD port), battery life, and UI Armory Crate. Unfortunately, we'll have to wait a little longer to find out all the details.
A full stream showing all the changes coming to ROG Ally X will be released on June 2, 2024.
3. Windows 11 was found to hurt your SSD performance
According to a new report that came out this week, Microsoft may automatically enable BitLocker software encryption in the next Windows 11 update.
That may not sound so bad (encryption means you're safer, right?), but the problem is that BitLocker can cut your SSD's performance in half. What's more, the encryption it provides isn't even that good: hackers with a $10 Raspberry Pi Pico, physical access to the target endpoint, and general knowledge can easily crack it, so the security benefits are considered negligible. .
Fortunately, there is a way to disable this annoying encryption by diving into your PC settings.
2. James Gun's “Superman” found his suit
James Gunn Superman The film is still more than a year away from hitting theaters, but the co-creator of the DC Cinematic Universe (DCU) is slowly peeling back the layers of one of the most anticipated new movies of 2025.
Earlier this week, we finally got our first official look at the Man of Steel's new suit, which has certainly got fans talking. However, David Corenswet's new Son of Krypton image didn't just show off the costume. It also teased the arrival of another fan-favorite Superman villain (you know, outside of Nicholas Hoult's Lex Luthor), which would be another nice inclusion to the exciting film. July 2025 can't come soon enough for the first DCU Chapter One movie.
1. Sonos introduced a new app and the speakers were leaked
if you thought you They were desperate to get to the weekend, think of the people at Sonos after the last few days.
Let's start with the news that the long-awaited Sonos headphones appear to have a name, a design, and a likely price after a Dutch retailer leaked all three. But that was not the only leak of a new Sonos product: a speaker appeared that pretended to be the Sonos Roam 2. We say pretend, because it seems extremely Similar to the first-generation model, but appears to have some much-desired usability improvements.
Away from the leaks, Sonos launched its new app with nifty music center features, but even this was a mixed blessing because Sonos power users quickly took to the internet to complain about the missing features, and the company is now promising feedback direct. .
