Welcome to this week’s tech round-up! It’s me, Matt Hanson, back in the driver's seat, and I want to take this opportunity to say a big thank you to Gareth Beavis, who’s moved on from TechRadar, for all his hard work with this newsletter, the team and the website.
Going forward you’ll be enjoying my company, along with that of US Editor-in-Chief Lance Ulanoff; we’ve both filled in for Gareth over the past couple of years, and hopefully we’ll continue to keep you entertained and informed every Friday.
We’re also welcoming a new UK Editor-in-Chief, Marc McLaren, who we know will be a brilliant addition to the team – you may well see him make an appearance here before too long, although as you can imagine, right now he has a rather long ‘to do’ list to get on with.
We’ve got lots to get through this week, including exciting new launches from Amazon, plus great news for all you PC gamers out there. So enjoy – and remember to get in touch via email (be sure to include 'NEWSLETTER' in the subject line) with your thoughts on the topics discussed, and on the tech world in general.
Matt Hanson, Managing Editor, Computing and Entertainment
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The new Kindle Scribe comes with a stylus, a first for Amazon's ereader line (Amazon)
We seem to have entered that time of the year where every company is launching new products, and Amazon is the latest to do just that: on Wednesday the retail and home tech giant showcased a raft of new hardware at an event that even saw the return of its Astro robot.
Despite having some reservations about privacy – I worry that Amazon knows a little too much about me and my buying habits already – I do genuinely like its Echo smart speakers, and have one in most of the rooms in our house. In fact, because I’m now so used to asking Alexa to turn my smart lights on and off, I managed to forget how to use a traditional light switch a few years ago (I may have slightly exaggerated in that article). So, the new Echos certainly got me interested.
The new Fire TV Omni QLED also looks promising, but perhaps the most interesting device Amazon announced was the Kindle Scribe. As well as being a traditional ereader, it comes with a stylus, allowing you to annotate books, and write down notes in a journal or PDF document. It will also work with Microsoft Word in the future.
As a writer, this really appeals to me, as it’s handy to be able to jot down notes without having to scrabble around to find a working pen. In fact, I feel a few lines of verse coming on right now…
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The demise of Google Stadia doesn't come as a shock (Google)
I’m not going to lie: when Google suddenly revealed yesterday that it was indeed killing off Stadia, its game streaming service, I wasn’t too surprised. Google has a long history of brutally culling any service it feels isn’t performing, and Stadia has obviously been struggling for months (in February Google denied reports that it was losing interest in the service).
But now it’s official, with a rushed-out statement from Google confirming that Stadia will be no more – and the cost of any game that has been purchased to be played on Stadia will be refunded.
It’s an ignoble end to an innovative attempt to launch a game streaming service that was supposed to rival traditional game consoles. However, while I’ve been really impressed with Nvidia GeForce Now, a competing cloud service that’s still going strong, I was never interested in Stadia – and it seems I wasn’t alone.
Why? Well, the key issue with Stadia (for me, at least) was that you had to buy games specifically for the Stadia platform – and they were pretty pricey. However, with GeForce Now, I could play PC games I already owned; so, why would I pay twice for Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla, for example, to play it on both PC and Stadia, when I could just buy it once?
While it’s never nice to see a service close – some users are sure to be disappointed, and there’s always a concern about job losses – I’m not going to miss Stadia. I will, however, mourn it as a missed opportunity.
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Spotify has suddenly started appearing on PCs (Future)
If you’re using Windows 10 or Windows 11, you might have noticed a new icon on your taskbar. It seems that Spotify, the music-streaming service, is being installed automatically. It happened to our software writer Daryl Baxter, who promptly uninstalled it.
I hadn’t noticed, as I already have Spotify installed, although I am now using rival Tidal (that’s a nice rhyme) more often, thanks to its superior audio quality, support for Dolby Atmos, and better range of music (artists that have sworn off Spotify, like Neil Young, can still be found on Tidal).
However, I can certainly understand people’s confusion and frustration over an unwanted app suddenly appearing on their PC. It’s not clear why this is happening, but I guess Microsoft and Spotify came to an arrangement to have it installed.
Microsoft tried to launch its own music streaming service, the dreadfully-named Groove Music, but it never caught on; and having done a Google, and killed it off, it appears that Microsoft has turned to its erstwhile rival to fill in the gap (and if there is an agreement, Spotify likely paid Microsoft a decent amount).
While this may be handy for users looking for a music streaming service in Windows, Microsoft and Spotify need to be careful – people don’t like having apps or services forced on them. I’m reminded of Apple’s ill-judged move to force a U2 album on its customers a few years ago. And no one wants that.
POLL QUESTION:
What's the first thing you'd do if Spotify appeared on your PC?
The Meta Quest 3 is expected to look similar to the Quest 2, above (Meta)
Meta – the company formerly known as Facebook – may be about to tell us more about its successor to the Oculus/Meta Quest 2 headset, likely called the Meta Quest 3, at an event on October 11 (at which it's also expected to reveal its high-end and pricey Project Cambria headset).
According to Hamish Hector’s report on the latest leak, the Quest 3 will look very similar to its predecessor, although beyond that we don't know much in the way of specs – but as Hamish points out, it's going to need to be a decent upgrade to compete with rival headsets such as the Pico 4.
I can't say I'm partiucularly excited about all this. I had high hopes for VR in the past, but apart from a few ‘wow’ moments, it never really landed for me, and my Vive Cosmos is now gathering dust. The setup is a pain, and the games just haven’t been good enough to my mind.
So, the Meta Quest 3 is going to have to be something really special to get me hyped for VR again – over to you, Meta…
The Pixel Watch is set to be unveiled on October 6 (Google)
I’m a fully paid-up fan of smartwatches. When they first landed, I wasn’t convinced – who really needs a watch that you need to charge every day? But, after getting the stylish Fossil Gen 5 (and later the Razer Edition of the Fossil Gen 6 – I told you I was a filthy PC gamer), I fell in love.
It’s great having not just the time, but upcoming meetings (so many meetings), the weather and my health stats on a watch, and it helps me navigate the world with Google Maps – which is handy if I’m lost in a big city and don’t want to get my phone out and signpost that I’m a confused tourist.
And I’m liking the sound of the Pixel Watch more and more. This is Google’s own spin on the smartwatch, and it looks really enticing. Best of all, it seems that it’ll be quite a bit more affordable than the Apple Watch, going on the latest rumor. While I’d never buy the Apple Watch, as I don’t have an iPhone, it’s great to see a wider variety of options to choose from.
Sackboy: A Big Adventure is coming to PC (PlayStation)
It may not surprise you to find out that the managing editor of TechRadar’s computing section (me) is a big PC gamer. However, during previous console generations, I was a big PlayStation fan as well (and a Nintendo and Sega (RIP) fan), so I was pretty certain that I’d be splashing out on a PS5 at some point.
However, Sony’s latest console has proved very hard to come by, and I’m lucky enough to have a very powerful PC that handles 4K (and even 8K) gaming, so I was pretty happy to stick with PC. However, I love Sony’s exclusives, and was beginning to really miss them – until Sony started bringing its games to PC.
I’d played through God of War and Spider-Man on PS4 already, but on PC they were even better, with improved visuals and frame rates, plus a plethora of PC-specific features, such as support for ultra-wide monitors for a truly cinematic experience.
Now, new rumors suggest that two PS5 games I’ve not been able to play – Sackboy: A Big Adventure and Returnal – are also coming to PC. While Sackboy has been known about for a while, Returnal is a very pleasant surprise.
I’d been looking enviously at the glowing reviews of these PS5-only games, and thinking they might tip me over the edge to get the new console. But, with them coming to PC, I’ll be able to play them without shelling out for new hardware, which will make me – and my bank manager – very happy.
An artist's depiction of the DART spacecraft approaching the asteroid Dimorphos (NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Steve Gribben)
Regular readers will know that I’m often scaring myself silly by reading stories I spot on our sister site Space.com that suggest the end of the world is imminent, so it’s great to see a story about how the apocalypse may actually be averted for a change.
This week NASA sent its DART spacecraft (Double Asteroid Rendezvous Test) crashing into an asteroid to see if it could knock it off course… and it appears to have been successful! While this particular asteroid Dimorphos, wasn’t in any danger of hitting Earth, NASA wanted to test this system in case the day comes when a planet-killing lump of rock is headed our way, and it’s needed for real.
I like this sort of forward thinking – in most sci-fi movies, the scientists leave it until the last minute to try out something crazy like this, which usually leads to several hours of what those scientists call ‘squeaky bum time’.
As Elena Adams, DART's mission systems engineer at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (JHUAPL) said after the successful crash: “I think Earthlings should sleep better. Definitely, I will.”
I couldn’t agree more.
The Sign Off
That’s it for another weekly roundup – I hope you've enjoyed my picks. The TechRadar team pulled out all the stops for our Amazon coverage, and I even managed to end this email on a positive note! So, enjoy the weekend wherever you are, and remember to email me with your thoughts.
Have a great weekend!
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