Welcome to the latest Week in Review! It’s occurred to me that regular readers may have noticed that my job title changed a while ago, to Managing Editor, Core Tech; I just want to reassure you that, while it might sound like a made-up job, it’s all-too real, and rather time-consuming – but it does give me a great overview of what’s happening on the site, which helps when it comes to compiling this newsletter.
What’s also real is that this has been a long week. I’m still reeling from all the announcements at CES, and making sure we get our hands on the most exciting tech that was shown off, so we can put it through its paces. I’m especially looking forward to trying out Lenovo’s Yoga Book 9i, a dual-screen OLED wonder that reimagines the humble laptop.
Then, on Tuesday, Apple surprised us all by announcing three new products: the MacBook Pro 14-inch (2023), MacBook Pro 16-inch (2023) and Mac mini (2023). The two new MacBooks are running on Apple’s brand-new M2 Pro and M2 Max chips, promising super-powerful performance, while the Mac mini is available with either the original M2 chip or the M2 Pro.
I thought the previous MacBook Pros, especially the MacBook Pro 14-inch (2021), were brilliant, with the 14-inch model making it onto our best laptops list. So, I’m really excited to see what the latest versions are capable of.
Whenever Apple launches new tech, there’s always a flurry of excitement as we cover the breaking news, so the team was understandably pretty wiped out after Tuesday; and then, the very next day, Apple dropped a brand-new HomePod.
I’m happy to report that the team managed to survive this Appleocolypse, and has been pumping out some great content all round this week – so read on, and I’ll highlight some of the best. And be sure to drop me an email with your thoughts (include 'NEWSLETTER' in the subject line so I don’t miss it).
Don't try making popcorn in an air fryer – you could set your kitchen on fire (Shutterstock / Chamille White)
Everyone I know who has an air fryer raves about them, but I’m a bit confused. For a while, I thought it was essentially a deep fryer that only uses a tiny amount of oil, and lots of hot air, to get a similar deep-fried effect.
The thought of something that could fry crispy chips, perfect spring rolls and home-made onion bhajis without the unhealthy aspects piqued my interest – and frankly it sounded too good to be true.
Apparently it was, as someone later explained to me that an air fryer is actually more like a countertop fan oven. That sounds a lot less exciting, but still, the rave reviews from people who’ve used them have made me think again about getting one.
However, I do worry that my confusion over what air fryers actually are will cause me to try to cook something completely unsuitable in one, and end up with a huge mess, a broken air fryer and, worst of all, food that doesn’t taste very nice.
Helpfully, Michelle Rae Uy, TechRadar’s Buying Guides Editor, has come along to save the day/my kitchen/my dinner with her excellent guide to what food you shouldn’t put in an air fryer.
It’s got some great advice, and the tip about not using wet batter finally banishes my foolish idea of an air fryer being like a deep fryer – no homemade donuts in this thing, then. The advice to not put raw rice into an air fryer is less surprising, and I’m a little concerned that some people would actually try to do that.
If and when I do get an air fryer, and in lieu of donuts, I’d probably give cookies a try… just as soon as our own Jennifer Oksien has perfected the recipe.
As I mentioned in my intro, Apple has been a busy little bee this week, launching a range of new products. This is both super exciting, as I always look forward to what new gadgets the company has been cooking up, and also exhausting, as myself, and most of the team, work hard to cover everything to keep our readers informed.
Apple is generally very good at keeping its secrets and avoiding leaks, so when it does quietly launch products without a big event, it’s genuinely a surprise – and that means there’s no time to plan, you just have to write!
As I mentioned above, I love the MacBook Pro 14-inch (2021), and I think the new 14-inch model will be the standout product among the new releases, while the MacBook Pro 16-inch (2023) will no doubt be excellent as well, offering the same M2 Pro or M2 Max chip options as the 14-inch model.
I preferred the 14-inch 2021 Pro model, because having that level of performance in a relatively small laptop that’s easy to take with you is incredibly impressive, so I hope the new 14-incher is more of the same.
The new Mac mini with an M2 Pro chip is also one to keep an eye on, as this is the first time the tiny PC has packed such a powerful chip. The mini is also available with last year’s M2 chip, which is still a great performer, and the base model starts at a relatively affordable $599 / £649 / AU$999 – that's actually cheaper than the previous model, which is a nice change from the usual ever-rising prices of tech gadgets. In fact, it’s such good value that it could even make our Computing Editor, Christian Guyton, give up his life-long Apple aversion.
Apple also announced the new HomePod 2, because apparently it believes tech journalists should never have a coffee break. While I’m not so familiar with the HomePod, as my home is full of Amazon Echo speakers and I don’t have an iPhone, it does look like a nice bit of kit, and it will now support Dolby Atmos for superior audio quality. I’ll be keeping an eye – or should that be an ear? – out for our review.
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Netflix is steering new subscribers towards its 'Basic with adverts' tier (Shutterstock / Vantage_DS)
When Netflix announced its ad-supported tier, I was pretty skeptical. While it needed to do something about its declining subscriber numbers, and while I do think current Netflix subscriptions could be cheaper, especially these days when budgets are tight, I didn’t like the idea of my viewing being interrupted by ads.
Also, I’m a big AV geek, so the fact that the ad-based tier, like the ad-free Basic tier, only offers stereo sound and 720p resolution simply doesn't appeal. The ad-based tier also doesn't give you access to the entire Netflix library, which was the final nail in the coffin for any chance of me signing up.
It seems I wasn’t alone, as Netflix has struggled to get people to subscribe to this tier, and it now seems to be employing some pretty sneaky tactics in an effort to get people to sign up. As our entertainment reporter, Tom Power, has spotted, Netflix is hiding the option for new subscribers to join the ad-free Basic tier, seemingly in the hope that people looking for the cheapest option will go for its 'Basic with adverts' tier instead. The ad-free Basic option is still available, but it’s hidden behind a link at the bottom of the page.
Why does Netflix want people signing up to the ad-supported Basic package, and not the slightly more expensive but ad-free Basic package? After all, it would still get subscription money, and people who want to save money, but don’t want adverts, would have another option.
I imagine that the ad-free Basic tier is running at a loss, so Netflix is pushing the ad-supported version to recoup costs via the adverts. This is just a guess, but whatever the reason it’s not a customer-friendly move, and with many people already falling out of love with Netflix, it could cost the streamer dearly.
How much are you spending on subscriptions each month? (Future)
One of Netflix’s biggest problems is the rise of competitors who also offer a wide range of content in return for a monthly subscription. But while more choice sounds like good news for us customers, it can also become a problem, as all those subscriptions can start mounting up.
Say you’re a fan of both Star Wars and Star Trek. You’ll need to subscribe to Disney Plus for Star Wars content, and Paramount Plus for Star Trek. Throw in Netflix, Game Pass and Spotify subscriptions, and you may be surprised by how much you’re actually paying each month.
Mark Wilson got a shock when he checked his bank statement, and discovered that he was paying around £220 / $270 a month for subscriptions. It wasn’t necessarily the likes of Spotify or Prime Video that were the issue – he uses them regularly, so has no issue paying – but little-used subscriptions that he hadn’t touched in ages, but which were still dipping their hands into his bank account every month.
Rather than curling up in a ball and quietly sobbing over wasting so much money, as I might have done, Mark has instead put together a list of great tips on how to check what you’re spending on subscriptions, and how to cancel any you don’t use. Give it a read – it could save you a small fortune.
Taylor Swift is one of the modern artists that helped to fuel vinyl's comeback (Shutterstock / melissamn)
The vinyl revival of the past few years has been fascinating to behold, especially during a time when other physical media was dying a death, but it looks like George Harrison was right: all things must pass. As Al Griffin reports, after 17 years of growth, vinyl sales in the US have slowed. Sales are still growing, but at nowhere near the pace they were just a couple of years ago.
As a child of the 1980s, I have fond memories of flicking through my parents' record collection and picking out things to listen to simply based on their covers – it’s how I discovered some of my favorite bands. During the 90s, however, I was all about compact discs, and after a brief dalliance with mini discs (RIP) in the early 2000s, I stuck with CD; the audio quality was better, you didn’t have to flip the disc halfway through an album, and they took up a lot less space – especially useful when I moved away to university and took my tunes with me.
Over the years, my collection grew (I should probably have spent more of my student loan on things like food), so when the vinyl resurgence really took off, while I was tempted to expand my vinyl collection, I couldn’t justify rebuying all of those albums. Then, streaming came along, and I ended up hardly listening to the CDs, as streaming was much more convenient (and with Tidal, the audio quality is very high – not quite CD-quality, but close).
However, I now have a young daughter, and I want her to discover music the same way I did – and scrolling through Spotify and Tidal playlists just won’t be the same. So, I dusted off my record player and decided to see what I could get. I went to a popular high-street music shop in the UK, which now dedicates a huge amount of space to vinyl, and I was shocked. New vinyls were going for as much as £25 / $30. As someone who was used to buying LPs for around £5 / $5, this was a shock. $30 for Fleetwood Mac’s Rumors?! This is an album that should be handed out to every kid for free when they leave school. (There are actually more copies of Rumors in existence than there are grains of sand in the world. That’s a true fact.)
It seems to me that record stores have taken advantage of vinyl's resurgence by hiking prices – and Al appears to agree with me that the industry has misread the reasons why people fell in love with vinyl in the first place, and just seen dollar signs. Oh, and there's even a Taylor Swift connection, for those younger readers wondering who Fleetwood Mac are.
Point-and-shoot cameras are among the gadgets being rediscovered by Gen Z (Giphy)
On the subject of the vinyl resurgence (and yes, I thought I’d squeeze in a The Who reference as well), it looks like young people these days – or Gen Z as they’re sometimes referred to – are embracing all kinds of vintage technology. As Alex Whitelock explains in his excellent article, as well as vinyl, Gen Z is going back to film cameras and clamshell phones that are definitely not smart.
They seem to be less interested in social media as well. Before I finally rid myself of a Facebook account, I’d noticed a general shift from young users to older people. My timeline began to feature less of my friends, and more of their mums. It wasn’t the main reason why I dropped Facebook, but it didn’t help.
As Alex points out – and I agree completely – Gen Z’s dislike of social media is actually encouraging to see. Social media can have adverse impacts on mental health; it did for me, and that’s why I’ve either left various platforms or seriously scaled back my interactions on them.
The idea of using a phone that doesn’t have internet, and loads of apps all fighting for your attention, is also appealing. Modern life can be so hectic and distracting that being able to switch off, and get back to the reason why we had phones in the first place – so we could keep in touch with the people we love – has got me considering digging out my first phone. But, on the other hand, I do really love my new Pixel Pro 7.
Going back to old tech does come with its problems, as I witnessed with one of our younger team members struggling to get their photos developed. The world has moved on, and while photo print stores were once a fixture on our main streets, these days there are very few – and they mostly only deal with making prints from digital images. The one photo shop they were able to find couldn’t develop the film, gave incorrect advice, and offered to send the film off to be developed for an extortionate price.
So using old tech can also come with some annoyances, but I think they’re outweighed by the positives, so I hope this doesn’t put Gen Z off.
The infrared laser beam 'fishes' for lightning in the sky above Switzerland's Säntis mountain (TRUMPF/Martin Stollberg)
It looks like scientists are taking on the likes of Thor and Zeus (other gods of thunder and lighting are available) by using a powerful laser to control lightning.
As Live Science reports, scientists built a 407-foot tower on top of the Säntis mountain in the Swiss Alps, and fired a laser at passing storm clouds in short blasts – roughly 1,000 per second. By doing so, they were able to control the path of lightning strikes.
Not only does this tale of firing lasers into the sky and controlling lightning sound incredibly cool, there’s also a practical application for this technology – in the future it could allow humans to redirect lightning away from vulnerable structures, people and animals, and cause it to strike the ground somewhere safe.
However, I also know that humankind can be idiots, so I worry this tech could be used in weapons – and the fact that I obsessively played Command & Conquer as a kid, and that the image of the tower and laser the scientists used looks exactly like the Obelisk of Light weapon with which I fried many an army, doesn’t help lessen my dread.
Forget about angering the gods – I just hope this technology doesn’t fall into the hands of the Brotherhood of Nod.
The Sign-off
I hope you’ve enjoyed reading this edition of the Week in Review as much as I’ve enjoyed writing it – I feel like we had a really great mix of stories on TechRadar this week, and this was but a taste.
Next week the TechRadar team will be sharing more of our thoughts on all the new Apple products, so do check out our homepage for all the latest news, reviews and opinions. As for me, well I’m now going to sleep for two days. Oh wait, I just remembered I have a toddler…
