Summary: The 8 main technology news stories of the week, from the Oura Ring 4 to the Verizon network outage.
Here is the firmware update corresponding to October 5, 2024.
During this week, the exclusive early sale on Amazon for Prime members took place, offering a variety of attractive promotions. The Oura Ring 4 was also announced, and Sonos communicated that its app is nearing full functionality. For those interested in catching up, we have compiled the eight most significant news stories from the tech world.
Voting for the TechRadar Choice Awards 2024 has begun, allowing users to participate in choosing winners in a total of 90 categories, which cover sections such as phones and cameras, computing and gaming, TV and audio, as well as fitness and smart home technology. Voters must ensure they cast their ballots before October 11, 2024, for them to count.
Amazon Big Deals Day, resembling a second Prime Day ahead of Black Friday, will officially start on October 8; however, numerous deals have already been activated on Amazon US and Amazon UK. Discounts cover a variety of products, including Fire HD 8 tablets, which have up to 50% off. Although most deals are exclusive to Prime members, some items will be available to all users.
Regarding Sonos, after a problematic launch of its app, the company announced that 100% of the missing features will be restored in the coming weeks, and that 80% has already been recovered. To compensate dissatisfied customers, Sonos will extend the warranty of all its existing products by one year and has made commitments to address the app issues and prevent them from recurring in the future.
The controversy over the removal of critically acclaimed series and movies from Disney Plus and Max has reignited the debate over physical and digital media. In response to fan backlash, Disney stated that the removals represented less than 2% of its total catalog, which was not well received by many subscribers.
On a different note, the Samsung Galaxy S24 FE was presented, highlighting itself as an affordable smartphone that offers superior display quality, solid performance, and competent camera capabilities, as well as distinctive Samsung artificial intelligence features.
In the realm of wearables, Oura has introduced the Oura Ring 4, which, while not featuring a significant exterior redesign, improves measurement accuracy and fit comfort. This smart ring is already available for preorder at no price increase, with a launch scheduled for October 15.
Google’s Gemini Live voice assistant has been launched for free for all Android users, allowing for more spontaneous and natural conversations compared to other assistants. For now, it is only available in English and offers ten different voices to choose from.
Finally, Verizon faced a major network issue for over nine hours, affecting its customers' ability to make calls, send texts, or use data. The FCC has started an investigation to determine the causes of this outage.
