One of the best things about AI is that it can help to improve our smart home experience. I realized this when I was reading, in one of TechRadar’s many excellent Smart Home Week features, about a few things you didn't know your smart lights could do, and noticed that one of those things was creating AI-generated scenes. When you can just talk to smart home tech and tell it what you want, that's a real revolution.
Our Smart Home Week output is full of such gems. Smart devices are smarter and more powerful than ever and, finally, are becoming easier to install and integrate with the rest of your connected home. I just had a great experience with a Ring Doorbell – and we have lots to say as to whether or not you should install such a device.
Smarthome upgrades bring to mind other tech sea-changes, like the introduction of Apple silicon (net positive) and, of course, AI (the jury is still out). Apparently people are now starting to speak like chatbots, so completely is the technology worming its way into our everyday lives, but we’re also learning how to harness their power with far better prompts. Try giving your favorite AI a 'mission' and see how it goes.
Elsewhere this week we’ve been busy comparing smartphones – we learned which handsets can keep their cool when the heat is on, which take the best photos, and why fastest doesn't always mean best. Hopefully the new lineup of Samsung Galaxy foldables, which we expect to see on July 9 at Samsung’s now-confirmed next Unpacked event, will be fast, heat-resistant, and capable of taking some great photos.
This, naturally, leads me to wondering which smartphone the next James Bond will carry. We do now know that his next big-screen outing will be helmed by a world-class auteur who’s better known for sci-fi than for spy-fi, but we still have no clue as to who the next Bond will be, or what gadgets he’ll be packing – but he’ll have to have an AI sidekick, right?
I’ll pass on my thoughts to Amazon (Bond’s home these days) while you enjoy the well-earned respite of the weekend, with your own favorite gadgets at hand to help make it that little bit more restful.
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The week in Apple
Apple silicon has changed the computing landscape (Future)
We're up to the five-year anniversary of Apple silicon being unveiled, so it's an appropriate time to look back at how Apple's switch from Intel shook up the computing world.
Think all Android flagships offer much the same image quality? We did real-world testing with the Galaxy S25 Ultra, Pixel 9 Pro, and OnePlus 13 – and there was a clear winner.
Best Buy is dropping early deals ahead of the 4th of July sales, and we've picked out the 23 best bargains on TVs, laptops, smart home gadgets, appliances and more.
Ring cameras can now use AI to tell you what's happening in a scene – so you'll know if a passing pet or a less welcome visitor has triggered an alert before you see the clip.
We've recently discovered a ChatGPT prompt that can give a real boost to the AI responses you get back from the bot – find out if it works as well for you.
It's an exciting week for TV, with new seasons of Squid Game and The Bear, plus Marvel's latest TV Original in Ironheart, all debuting on the world's best streaming services.
