ICYMI: the week’s 7 biggest tech stories like Apple losing to Google, and Meta giving up on VR
This week, Meta turned its back on virtual reality and Apple gave in to Google in its pursuit of an AI update for Siri.
To keep up with these and seven other biggest tech stories of the week, scroll down to see our recaps of the big things that happened.
7. DJI fans in the United States finally received some good news
It hasn’t been a good time for drone fans in the United States, with the FCC recently banning the sale of new foreign-made drones — and a separate proposal from the U.S. Department of Commerce targeting all imports of Chinese drones (including existing models that have already been launched).
Well, thankfully a turnaround from the latter has removed that particular restriction from the equation for the moment. This means that previously approved drones like the DJI Mavic 3 Pro and Antigravity A1 can still be legally imported into the United States.
Yet with the FCC effectively banning the sale of foreign-made drones that it hasn’t approved (in other words, all new models), the future still looks bleak for drone fans in the United States.
6. Sophie Turner served Lara Croft
We got our first look at Sophie Turner as filming for Amazon’s Tomb Raider TV show begins, and the recreation of the character’s iconic video game look is perfect, highlighting to fans of the games just how seriously Amazon is taking this adaptation.
Obviously this is just a photo of Turner in her costume, but she is undeniably Lara Croft, and if the same care and attention was given to the rest of the cast (which includes Jason Isaacs, Sigourney Weaver and Martin Bobb-Semple, among others) as well as the show’s story, we could be in for a treat.
No release date has been given yet, but we can’t rule out a mid-to-late 2026 launch.
5. Spotify made people crazy
Over the past few weeks, Spotify Premium subscribers have encountered 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.
According to users who have experienced this, the problem with AI music on Spotify is only getting worse; the problem is not with the AI music itself, but with Spotify’s deception, which is what gets people under their skin. This has led many paying users to believe that this is part of a larger, secret business plan and that Spotify is doing this deliberately to avoid paying artists more.
Separately, Spotify has also increased subscription prices for US members, affecting all tiers. This is the third price increase since 2023, which many attribute to keeping Spotify Lossless.
This week, Meta appeared to abandon virtual reality by cutting jobs at Reality Labs, including shuttering several VR game studios and ending updates to the excellent VR fitness platform Supernatural.
The news is a tragedy for fans of the Meta Quest system because it suggests that Meta’s future support for its headsets will be at least a little lackluster, and Hamish Hector has argued that, as things stand, he’s only interested in the Steam Frame.
It’s no secret that Reality Labs has been losing funds for some time, but this major turnaround from Meta might have some wondering if you can trust the company not to change course again if its new focus on AI glasses starts to go awry.
3. Gemini got an upgrade
Google just dropped “Personal Intelligence” for Gemini, and it could be the most significant advancement for AI assistants yet. This upgrade allows Gemini to securely access your personal Google ecosystem (Gmail, Photos, Search, and YouTube) to provide deep, individualized context for your queries.
The capabilities are truly impressive: imagine Gemini diagnosing a car problem by checking your Gmail purchase history for the model, scanning your photos for service records, and pulling DIY solutions from YouTube. This is the “real” AI assistant we’ve been waiting for. Interestingly, given the recently announced Apple-Google AI partnership, this looks like a preview of how next-gen Siri could work in iOS 27.
2. Siri got a Gemini upgrade
Apple was handed a huge slice of the pie this week, conceding Ai supremacy to Google by announcing that the next-gen version of Siri would be supported by Gemini.
Many questions remain, but in a joint statement, Apple and Google revealed: “These [Gemini] Apple first revealed plans to launch an AI-enhanced Siri at WWDC 2024, but nearly two years later, we’re still waiting for the upgrade. The company has since promised a spring 2026 launch, and with Google Gemini, it could finally happen.
1. Verizon experienced a major outage
Well, we officially had the first major outage of 2026, and it was a massive, nearly 8-hour outage that shut down Verizon cellular service for customers across the United States on January 14, 2026. You can see our full report in the live blog linked below, but it was a serious, multi-hour event that saw people at Verizon trading 5G and network bars for SOS without access to voice, text, and data in a large part of the country.
Down Detector reports increased around 12:30 p.m. ET, with Verizon confirming the issue at 1 p.m., but many people didn’t see any signs of recovery until 8 p.m. ET that evening. The carrier didn’t have the best communication during the event, with only a few statements spaced several hours apart. The day after the outage, Verizon confirmed that each account would receive a one-time $20 credit, which, simply put, didn’t sit well with many customers. The operator also confirmed to TechRadar that this was a software issue related to a cyber incident.
