{"id":289111,"date":"2026-01-17T11:09:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-17T11:09:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/289111\/"},"modified":"2026-01-17T11:09:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-17T11:09:10","slug":"icymi-the-weeks-7-biggest-tech-stories-like-apple-losing-to-google-and-meta-giving-up-on-vr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/289111\/","title":{"rendered":"ICYMI: the week’s 7 biggest tech stories like Apple losing to Google, and Meta giving up on VR"},"content":{"rendered":"

This week, Meta turned its back on VR, and Apple<\/a> caved to Google<\/a> in its hunt for an AI update for Siri.<\/p>\n

To catch up on these and the other seven biggest tech news stories of the week, scroll down to see our recaps of the big things that happened.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

When you’re done, check out the seven new movies and TV shows to watch this weekend.<\/a><\/p>\n

You may like<\/p>\n

7. DJI fans in the US finally got some good news<\/p>\n

\n

\"DJI\n<\/p>\n

(Image credit: DJI)<\/p>\n

It hasn\u2019t been a great time for drone fans in the US, with the FCC recently banning the sale of new, foreign-made drones \u2013 and a separate proposal from the US Department of Commerce taking aim at all Chinese drone imports (including existing models that have already been launched).<\/p>\n

Well, fortunately, a U-turn from the latter has removed that particular restriction from the equation for now. That means that stock of previously approved drones like the DJI<\/a> Mavic 3 Pro and the Antigravity A1 can still be legally imported into the US.<\/p>\n

Still, with the FCC effectively banning the sale of foreign-made drones that it hasn\u2019t approved (in other words, all new models), the future still looks bleak for Stateside drone fans.<\/p>\n

6. Sophie Turner served Lara Croft<\/p>\n

\n

\"A\n<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Amazon MGM Studios)<\/p>\n

We got our first look at Sophie Turner as filming on Amazon<\/a>\u2019s Tomb Raider TV show begins, and the recreation of the character\u2019s iconic video game look is perfect, highlighting to fans of the games how seriously Amazon is taking this adaptation.<\/p>\n

Sign up for breaking news, reviews, opinion, top tech deals, and more.<\/p>\n

Obviously, this is just a still of Turner in her costume, but she is undeniably Lara Croft in it, and if similar care and attention has been paid to the rest of the cast (which includes Jason Isaacs, Sigourney Weaver, and Martin Bobb-Semple, among others) as well as the show\u2019s story, we could be in for a real treat.<\/p>\n

No release date has been given yet, but we can\u2019t rule out a mid- to late 2026 launch.<\/p>\n

5. Spotify made people mad<\/p>\n

\n

\"The\n<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Spotify)<\/p>\n

Over the past few weeks, Spotify Premium subscribers have been encountering AI-generated music recommendations in their Discover Weekly and Release Radar playlists, prompting the music platform to introduce labels to identify AI-generated music in a monster Reddit thread.<\/p>\n

You may like<\/p>\n

According to users who have experienced this, the issue with AI music on Spotify is only getting worse; the problem doesn\u2019t lie with AI music itself, but with the deception on Spotify\u2019s part, which is what\u2019s getting under people\u2019s skin. This has led many paying users to think it\u2019s part of a wider, secret business plan and that Spotify is deliberately doing this to avoid paying artists further.<\/p>\n

In other news, Spotify has also raised subscription prices for US members, affecting all tiers. It marks the third price increase since 2023, which many people are attributing to the maintenance of Spotify Lossless.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n

\"Meta\n<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Meta)<\/p>\n

This week, Meta seemed to give up on VR as it slashed Reality Labs jobs, including closing down several VR game studios, and ending updates for the excellent VR fitness platform Supernatural.<\/p>\n

The news is a tragedy for fans of the Meta Quest system as it suggests Meta\u2019s future support for its headsets will be at least a little lackluster, and Hamish Hector argued that, as things stand, he\u2019s only interested in the Steam Frame.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s no secret Reality Labs has been hemorrhaging funds for some time, but this major about-turn from Meta might lead some to wonder if you can trust the company not to change course again if its new AI glasses focus starts to go awry.<\/p>\n

3. Gemini got an upgrade<\/p>\n

\n

\"Gemini\n<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Getty Images \/ NurPhoto)<\/p>\n

Google has just dropped “Personal Intelligence” for Gemini, and it might be the most significant leap for AI assistants yet. This upgrade allows Gemini to securely tap into your personal Google ecosystem (Gmail, Photos, Search, and YouTube<\/a>) to provide deep, individualized context for your queries.<\/p>\n

The capabilities are genuinely impressive: imagine Gemini diagnosing a car issue by checking your Gmail purchase history for the model, scanning your Photos for service records, and pulling DIY solutions from YouTube. It\u2019s the “true” AI assistant we\u2019ve been waiting for. Interestingly, given the newly announced Apple-Google AI partnership, this looks like a sneak peek at how the next-gen Siri might function in iOS 27.<\/p>\n

2. Siri got a Gemini upgrade<\/p>\n

\n

\"Apple\n<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Apple got served a huge slice of humble pie this week, as it conceded Ai supremacy to Google announcing that Siri\u2019 s next-gen version will be backed by Gemini.<\/p>\n

A lot of questions remain, but in a joint statement Apple and Google revealed \u201cThese [Gemini] models will help power future Apple Intelligence features, including a more personalized Siri coming this year.\u201dApple first unveiled its plans to launch an AI-upgraded Siri during WWDC 2024<\/a> but almost two years later we\u2019re still waiting for the upgrade. The company has since promised a Spring 2026 launch, and with Google Gemini it might finally make that happen.<\/p>\n

1. Verizon had a major outage<\/p>\n

\n

\"Verizon\"\n<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Verizon)<\/p>\n

Well, we have officially had the first major outage of 2026, and it was a massive, nearly 8-hour outage that took out Verizon’s cell service for customers across the United States on January 14, 2026. You can see our full reporting in the live blog linked below, but it was a serious, hours-long event that saw folks with Verizon swap 5G and network bars for SOS with no access to voice, text, and data across much of the country.<\/p>\n

Down Detector reports swelled around 12:30 PM ET, with Verizon confirming the issue at 1 PM, but many folks did not see any signs of recovery until closer to 8 PM ET that evening. The carrier didn’t have the best communication during the event, with only a few statements that came hours apart. The day after the outage, Verizon confirmed each account would receive a single $20 credit, which, simply put, many customers were not pleased with. The carrier also confirmed to TechRadar that it was a software issue tied to a cyber incident.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This week, Meta turned its back on VR, and Apple caved to Google in its hunt for an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":289112,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[260],"tags":[18,19,17,82,286,287,288],"class_list":{"0":"post-289111","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-virtual-reality","8":"tag-eire","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-technology","12":"tag-virtual-reality","13":"tag-virtualreality","14":"tag-vr"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115910132705895868","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=289111"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289111\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/289112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=289111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=289111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=289111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}