8. We chose our favorite VM technology
Yes, the World Cup has officially started, but it’s not too late to fine-tune your setup. Far from it – with over a month of football left, we’ve rounded up everything you need for a successful tournament at home.
From our dream watch party setup to soundbar upgrades and the best tech World Cup deals, you won’t be short of ways to upgrade your viewing experience. And once that’s all sorted, dive into our ultimate World Cup watching guide to see how to catch every match, anywhere in the world.
7. Ocarina of Time was reborn
Wrapping up gaming’s week-long celebration that is Summer Game Fest and the exhibitions surrounding it, Nintendo’s Direct showed off an exciting mix of trailers, which included a tease for a The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake on Nintendo Switch 2.
Little has been revealed so far beyond the child Link’s design, hinting at full voice acting when the Great Deku Tree is heard narrating the intro, as he does at the beginning of the N64 game.
Perhaps best of all, the trailer ended with a release year: 2026. So we won’t be waiting too long to get this Zelda play into our hands and find out if this is the series’ Resident Evil 2 remake moment that many hope it will be.
6. Trump Phone not ‘made in America’
To probably no one’s surprise — after severe delays, changed promises, and accidentally doxxing its buyers — the Trump Mobile T1 phone has been taken apart by iFixit, and it turns out the “American-proud design” is just a gold-skinned HTC U24 Pro, aka a Taiwanese phone launched in 2024.
In fairness, it does boast a few tweaks. The design has been tweaked with a new camera bump shape and the battery is slightly larger with a 5,000mAh battery – up from 4,600mAh – although it only offers 30W charging instead of the HTC original’s 60W.
iFixit notes that markings on the phone say it’s “assembled in the USA,” which is remarkably different from being “made in America,” which comes with some very specific FCC requirements that the Trump cell phone ironically doesn’t seem to meet.
The teardown company says it best: “against all expectations, the T1 is actually well priced compared to the similarly specced U24 Pro, and the only things you give up are the 60W fast charge and your dignity.”
Read the full story: Trump Phone Revealed as a ‘Gold Painted HTC U24 Pro’
5. Valve abandoned physical gift cards
It’s bad news for PC gamers on Steam this week, as Valve announced that it will no longer be replenishing physical Steam Gift Cards. Why? Because fraudsters take advantage of consumers.
This is not exactly a new event; Steam scams have been around for years. However, Valve clarifies that it has actually been forced to stop rebuilding physical gift cards as “fraudsters have adapted”, even after actively working with retailers and law enforcement to prevent fraud.
Physical gift cards are a great gift option for the less gamer savvy to give their PC gamer loved ones, and can be useful for parents to top up their child’s Steam account without pairing a credit card to it. But with them gone, digital Steam gift cards will be the only option once stock runs out across multiple retailers — and one can only hope that scammers don’t end up forcing Valve to restructure digital gift cards as well.
Read the full story: Valve is officially done with Steam physical gift cards
4. Philips launched a virtual skylight
Philips unveiled a new ceiling light called ‘Philips Skylight’, designed to mimic the effect of natural daylight for indoor use by blending advanced LED and Philips’ NatureConnect technologies. Starting at 499.99 euros (approx. $580 / £430), the ceiling lamp comes in four different models and will be available later this month in most regions. It’s coming to the US in September.
Each variant of the Philips Skylight comes with a slim ceiling profile for mounting, a remote control, five preset lighting scenes and Philips’ Day Rhythm tool, which automatically adjusts color temperature and brightness throughout the day. But despite its many functions, it is not Philips Hue.
This means that it unfortunately doesn’t connect to Wi-Fi or work with Matter over Thread, so you can’t integrate it into your existing smart home setup and you’ll have to use the included remote to control it manually.
3. Apple revealed some big software surprises
Siri AI (see #1 below) was the undoubted star of Apple’s WWDC event this week, but the software showcase revealed hundreds of other upgrades for iPhones, Macs, Apple Watches and more. And not all went down well.
You can read our pick of the best features coming to iPhones in iOS 27 or the macOS 27 highlights below (in post #2). But there were also some notable surprises, including the next version of watchOS dropping support for some newer models and Apple controversially embracing generative AI in Photos.
Apple also went to great lengths to boost parental controls at the event – leaving us with the sense that it had one eye on children’s safety and another on increasingly demanding government authorities.
2. macOS 27 called Golden Gate
Tim Cook’s last WWDC as Apple CEO gave us a glimpse of the future of its software, including the upcoming macOS 27 build – dubbed the Golden Gate. However, unlike previous years, it is not the most exciting.
There’s Liquid Glass and other design tweaks that will make your Mac feel more usable, plus there’s a new and improved search to help you find almost anything on your machine. There are also some performance improvements, with apps said to feel more responsive, and of course there’s the debut of Siri AI, more on that below.
While it’s not the flashiest update, it’s a solid upgrade from the looks of things, but if you’re not a fan of the AI, it might feel like a downgrade.
1. Siri’s AI upgrade landed
It was a long time coming with at least one false start, but the new Siri already in some people’s hands thanks to the iOS27 Dev Beta that came with the WWDC Keynote is the Siri Apple promised us in 2024 and beyond.
Sure, Apple is basically catching up with OpenAI and Google, but in what may later be looked back on as one of the smartest moves in this AI race, Apple has adopted Google Gemini’s best models and made something new. The Siri AI and Apple Intelligence updates feel at once familiar and yet a full Apple experience. Yes, it even creates photorealistic fake images.
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