ICYMI: the week's 8 biggest tech stories from the Oura Ring 4 to the Verzion network outage

Date:
Sat, 05 Oct 2024 07:00:00 +0000

Description:
ICYMI here's the biggest tech news stories from Oura, Amazon, Disney Plus, Verizon and more.

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This week Amazon's early Prime-exclusive sale gave us some great deals, the Oura Ring 4 was announced, and Sonos said its app is almost fixed.

In case you missed these or any of the other biggest tech news stories of the week we've gathered the eight most important ones here so you can get up to speed.

Once that's done you might want to catch up on the new Mac computers Apple is likely gearing up to announce later this month , and you'll want to check out our picks for the seven new movies and TV shows to stream this weekend . 8. Voting for the TechRadar Choice Awards 2024 opened (Image credit: Future)

The TechRadar awards are back for 2024, and this year you can help decide the winner in a record 90 categories, split among the following sections: Phones
& Cameras Computing & Gaming TV & Audio Fitness & Home Tech

You can vote in every category, or just a few, but make sure all of your
votes are cast before 00:01am PST / 03:01am EST / 08:01am BST on Friday October 11th 2024, otherwise it wont count.

Once were done counting the votes well combine the scores with the rankings
of our expert judges to decide the final winners with the one exception
being the Readers' Choice Award which is 100% decided by you. Winners in
every category will be announced during our big TechRadar Choice Awards Week, starting Monday, October 28th. Read more: TechRadar Choice Awards 2024 voting is open now 7. Amazon Big Deals Day early sales began (Image credit: Future)

Amazon Big Deals Day a sort of Prime Day 2 ahead of this years Black Friday sale kicks off officially on October 8, but that hasnt stopped plenty of discounts going live as part of the early sale across Amazon US and Amazon UK .

There are plenty of discounts across a wide range of products from Amazons
own tech even the brand new Amazon Fire HD 8 tablets are up to 50% off as well as some of our favorite gadgets like LG TVs and Ninja kitchen appliances .

Just like with Prime Day, however, you must be a Prime member to access the exclusive Big Deals Day discounts though some items are on sale for
everyone, so you might be able to save big on the item you want without shelling out for a Prime subscription. Read more: Here are 17 deals that are worth buying right now 6. Sonos app apology tour has an end in sight (Image credit: Sonos)

Sonos app launch in May was one of the biggest tech blunders of 2024, but
this week it announced that 100% of the apps missing features will be
restored in the coming weeks and that 80% have already made their return.

Whats more Sonos said that itll be extending the warranty of all Sonos products that are still under warranty by a year by way of an apology to disgruntled customers, and it now has made four pledges with the goal of "addressing the root causes of the problems with the app release" to ensure
it never happens again.

If you read about what reportedly went wrong with the Sonos app launch some
of the new commitments sound like theyre simply trying to change the company culture back to what it was before its recent major shake-up, but words are words and actions are actions. On that note, well have to see if Sonos sticks to its promise and can start to claw back consumer confidence after what can be generously described as a rough few months. Read more: Sonos says it's extending warranties as part of its apology tour 5. Disney responded to fans after axing highly rated shows and movies (Image credit: Shutterstock / Ivan Marc)

Were back here again, folks. The physical versus digital media debate has reared its ugly head once more after fans noticed that Disney Plus and Max have removed some critically acclaimed and popular movies and TV shows from their back catalogs this week.

After its latest streaming library cull drew particular fan ire, Disney responded by saying the removals accounted for less than 2% of our total titles , which has gone down as well as you might expect with many of its subscribers. As more and more films and series are permanently axed from the worlds best streaming services , it might be time for you to restart buying DVDs and/or Blu-rays. Read more: Disney responds to fan ire over axing of highly-rated Disney Plus shows 4. We reviewed the Samsung Galaxy S24 FE
(Image credit: Future)

Samsung launched the Galaxy S24 FE alongside the Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra last week, and weve since put the new phone through our full review process. The verdict? Its a shining example of how to do a more budget-friendly phone right. For a cheaper price than the standard Galaxy S24, the Galaxy S24 FE delivers a high-quality display, strong performance levels, and a capable suite of cameras not to mention the full gamut of Galaxy AI features that have become synonymous with the best Samsung phones .

According to our tester, Samsungs latest FE is an AI-powered phone that's light on sacrifices, heavy on value, so if youre in the market for a near-flagship upgrade that wont break the bank, the Galaxy S24 FE is absolutely worth considering. Read more: Our full Samsung Galaxy 24 FE review 3. Oura Ring 4 announced with a new sensor design (Image credit: Oura)

Several new challengers may have entered the best smart ring, er, ring, but Oura isnt about to go down without a fight. This week, it introduced the Oura Ring 4 . Its not a major redesign on the outside we suppose theres only so much you can do to tweak a simple band shape but inside Oura is improving
its devices measuring accuracy (no matter its orientation), making the fit more comfortable, and giving the app a refresh too.

This rejigged sensor array dubbed Smart Sensing sounds like it could be a major convenience win for users. If youve never used a smart ring before, a quick TL;DR is they have a specific orientation that they like to be in so that the sensors are in the right place to take accurate measurements. If the ring rotates out of this preferred place then your readings will be less accurate, and even perfectly fitting rings can spin out of place throughout the day when you use your hands or while you toss and turn in your sleep.

The Oura Ring 4 eliminating this need for the ring to always be worn
perfectly is a step in the right direction, and were even more excited to
hear its not getting a price hike. Its ready to preorder now ahead of its October 15 launch in in sizes 4 through 15 (in either Silver, Brushed Silver, Stealth, Black, Rose Gold, and Gold) starting at $349 / 349 (not available in Australia). Read more: Oura Ring 4 is putting the Samsung Galaxy Ring on notice 2. Gemini Live now wont cost you a dime to use (Image credit: Shutterstock)

Gemini Live a chatty version of the Google AI has rolled out to all Android users for free. It was originally reserved only for paying subscribers, but now the voice assistant can be accessed by anyone who downloads the Gemini
app though it can only speak English for now.

After choosing one of ten voices , you can start conversing with the AI in a more natural way than you might be used to with Google Assistant or Alexa. Gemini will even respond in more human-like ways using casual language, or sounding like it's brainstorming, rather than just responding to direct instructions.

If youve been waiting to try out Gemini Live nows the best time to. Read
more: Gemini Live is here, free, and feeling chatty 1. Verizon had a serious outage (Image credit: Getty)

If you live in the US and use Verizon, here's one story you wont have missed; from around 10 AM ET on September 30 the Verizon network experienced some serious issues until it was fixed over nine hours later.

Affected customers couldnt make calls, send text messages, or use data or receive calls or messages from unaffected customers using AT&T and T-Mobile.

The FCC reportedly began an investigation into what caused the outage,
however at the time of writing we dont know what went wrong and might not
find out for some time. Read more: Verizons network outage as it happened



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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/tech/icymi-the-weeks-8-biggest-tech-stories-from-the -oura-ring-4-to-the-verzion-network-outage


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