The year might be coming to a close, but there’s still a few more weeks of 2024 for the tech giants to cram in some announcements ahead of 2025 and CES in January – and that’s exactly what they’re doing.
Hot on the heels of Black Friday and Cyber Monday we’ve had some major moments take place such as PlayStation turning 30 – sorry if that makes some of you feel old – and Spotify Wrapped 2024 highlighting what our year looked like in music. One of our colleagues listened to Beyonce for over 17,000 minutes this year (or over 12 days) and we can’t decide if that’s far too much or not enough.
To catch up on all that and more (tech news we mean, not 17,000 minutes of Beyonce) then scroll down for this week’s seven biggest tech news stories. And once you’re all up to speed check out our picks for the seven new movies and TV shows to stream this weekend.
7. Sony turned the big 3-0
Even if you missed out on the quick-to-sell-out 30th Anniversary edition PS5 consoles and accessories, you can still celebrate the 30th anniversary of PlayStation (which officially took place on December 3) with some limited-time digital cosmetics and gaming deals.
The first are new free PS5 themes which aim to mimic the look and sound of PlayStation eras on your dashboard, with options for PS1, PS2, PS3, PS4, and a general 30th anniversary theme. The catch? They’re only available for a limited time but this writer hopes Sony changes course so they’ll get to keep using their PS2 theme for years to come.
Then there’s the Anniversary sale which boasts sales and a large range of iconic PlayStation titles across PS4 and PS5 consoles. Of note, The Last of Us Part 1 is 50% off, the Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy is 60% off, and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, received a massive 80% price cut. The sale will run until December 20.
6. IKEA smart lights got brighter
IKEA smart tech – such as its bulbs, fixtures, and lamps – might not be as expensive as the competition but they can offer a lot of the same useful features at fraction of the cost. And thanks to an update this week they just got a feature to more closely match the smarts of Philips Hue lights – now IKEA’s smart lights can intelligently adjust their settings throughout the day
The feature just dropped onto the iOS version of IKEA’s Home Smart app, with this dynamic adaptive lighting tool automatically adjusting the bulbs to cooler temperatures during the middle of the day, and warmer hues towards the beginning and end of the day.
So if you’re looking to update your smart home on a budget IKEA’s bulbs might have just become a more appealing offering.
5. DJI Flip leak teased the foldable drone
A new DJI Flip drone could land soon, according to new leaks. It’s not entirely clear where the tiny foldable drone will sit in DJI’s line up – although it will most likely be a DJI Mini series successor to rival the HoverAir X1 Pro and DJI’s own Neo.
A recent Federal Communications Commission (FCC) filing suggests the Flip could have a Mini 4 Pro-beating battery life, and the latest Lidar-powered obstacle avoidance sensors, much like in the pricier Air 3S. Leaked images of the Flip appear to show it has a gimbal-stabilized camera, too.
The DJI Flip is a mysterious new drone but we expect more leaks that will clear a few questions up in the build up to its launch. It appears that the threat of a US ban has only served to accelerate DJI’s drone-making powers.
4. Star Wars: Skeleton Crew impressed us
Star Wars projects over the past few years could politely be described as a mixed bag. While some projects (like Visions season 2 and Tales of the Empire) earned critical acclaim, The Acolyte was cancelled just one month after its season 1 finale. So fans may have been cautious about Star Wars: Skeleton Crew, a new story about four kids who discover a star ship buried on their home world and accidentally transported halfway across the galaxy.
Writer Tom Power says that three episodes in the new show “possesses an unmistakable individuality that other Star Wars series lack” and calls it “one of the best Disney Plus shows of 2024.”
Hopefully Disney and Lucasfilm learn from Skeleton Crew’s successes, but we’ll have to wait and see what future projects and episodes of the series have in store for us.
3. AI said “I’m Batman”
This week we were exposed to one of the most impressive-looking AI-made films yet, with Reddit user kavan-the-kid showing off a Batman movie that was created using virtually every consumer tool going – including KLING AI, Hailuo AI, Runway Act-One, Midjourney, Topaz Labs AI, Lima Dream Machine, Eleven Labs, Magnific, Blender, Character Creator 4, Adobe Premiere Pro, Adobe After Effects, Adobe Photoshop and Davinci Resolve – over the course of three weeks.
It takes a lot of visual cues from Matt Reeves’ The Batman, even borrowing the likeness of key actors. And there’s certainly something uncanny about the movie, from the way the characters look and talk to the movie’s sound effects, which are noticeably off much of the time. But considering where AI video was at the start of 2024 and where it appears to be now, to reference a different billionaire superhero, it’s a stark improvement.
2. Spotify Wrapped 2024 exposed our musical secrets
Spotify Wrapped was simultaneously the biggest highlight and letdown of the week, depending on which Spotify fan you ask. Some enjoyed the annual recap’s new AI podcast feature, which turned the cringe dial to 11 as two Google-powered AI hosts praised their listener’s immaculate music taste.
But others, including TechRadar’s resident Spotify guru Rowan Davies (a top 0.8% worldwide listener, no less), were aghast at the lack of genre breakdowns and the more superficial nature of Wrapped 2024’s new AI features. Whatever you thought of it, everyone can agree that ‘Pumpkin Spice Hollywood Indie’ is best left on an artisanal coffee shop menu rather than in our musical recaps.
1. We reviewed the Amazon Kindle Scribe
The new Amazon Kindle Scribe fixes all of my complaints about the last Kindle Scribe and adds AI and it’s … actually good?! Amazon AI does the best job of any writing tablet at recognizing my chicken scratch handwriting and it offers summaries of all my notes. Amazon has also added tons of books to the Kindle book store that you can write on with a Kindle Scribe, and there are new tools to write notes on the page of any book you own.
The Kindle Scribe (2024) is more expensive, but it’s a better Kindle Scribe than before, especially in that sweet Metallic Jade color. And if you want to upgrade, the good news is that all the older cases and pens will work with the new Kindle Scribe. It’s available now for $399.99 / £379.99 / AU$649 with 16GB of storage or for $449.99 / $429.99 / AU$729 for 64GB (and the Jade is only 64GB, sadly).