This week, we reviewed Samsung’s latest foldables (including the best-in-class Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra), and we found out when Google Assistant will shut down for good.

To catch up on all this and more, scroll down for our roundup of the week’s seven biggest tech news stories.

And when you’re all caught up, be sure to test your knowledge in our weekly quiz.

7. Kojima Productions collabed on a CD player

As Sony plans to wind down the production of PlayStation game discs, auteur game developer Hideo Kojima is celebrating physical media with a new collaboration. His studio, Kojima Productions, has teamed up with the boutique Japanese audio brand km5 to produce a limited edition version of the Cp1 CD player inspired by the world of Death Stranding 2: On the Beach.

This special model comes in a luminous translucent orange inspired by the BB Pod from the game — that's the glowing jar that contains the adorable baby used to detect invisible enemies in its post-apocalyptic world.

It has all the same features that make the regular Cp1 a capable pocket-size CD player. This includes Bluetooth 5.3 support and a 3.5mm headphone jack for all your connectivity needs, a rechargeable battery with roughly eight hours of juice to take it on the go, and even a little LED display to display the track number.

• Read the full story: Hideo Kojima is celebrating his love of physical discs with a new limited edition version of my favorite mini CD player

6. The Google Assistant got an official shutdown date

It’s now over a decade old, which makes it a veteran by Google standards — but this week we finally learned when the Google Assistant will be retired on Android and Wear OS.

According to emails sent out to many Assistant users, the shutdown will begin on September 4. This means you won’t be able to use Google’s original Assistant on Android phones, tablets, paired wearables, and Android Auto after that date.

Instead, Google Gemini will inevitably take its place. You can download Gemini now from the Play Store, and if you want to see your old Assistant interactions, they’ll be available on the Web & App Activity page in your Google account. Goodbye, Assistant — it was nice knowing you.

• Read the full story: Google Assistant will shut down for good on Android and Wear OS in September — here’s what you need to do next

5. We experienced a two-screen e-reader

Samsung’s new foldable phones, the Galaxy Z Fold 8 and Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, are the talk of the town right now, but this week also saw the announcement of a unique foldable ereader for avid notetakers.

The InkLeaf is a notebook-like, dual-screen ereader that’s “built for the way you actually work,” according to its manufacturer — and the USP here actually makes sense. Kindles are great for reading, but not note-taking. iPads are great for note-taking, but not reading. And while a reMarkable tablet lets you do both, you can’t read and write simultaneously. By opening up to reveal two distinct 10.3-inch E Ink Carta displays, the Inkleaf aims to let you do just that.

These screens are separated by an aluminum frame — so this isn’t a foldable device in the modern sense — but they can also display the same type of content, so you can annotate documents or even treat the Inkleaf like a hardback novel. Who says reading is dead?!

• Read the full story: The InkLeaf is a dual-screen e-paper tablet that lets you read on one display and take notes on the other

4. We learned ogres are like Bose headphones

Initially, we were perhaps a bit harsh on that limited edition ‘Eucalyptus’ finish at TechRadar HQ. The DreamWorks Animation hero they put us in mind of is a household name, but ogres aren’t known for their winsome looks.

The thing is, team members are now saying words such as ‘wasabi’ and ‘matcha’ to describe them, and you know what? The more we look at those Shrek-green cans, the more we kinda like ’em.

What you’re looking at is the Bose QuietComfort Headphones (Gen 2). It's been three long years since the Bose QuietComfort Headphones landed (which weren’t an inaugural set exactly; they simply updated the iconic Bose QuietComfort 35 II from way back in 2017, without all the odd letters and numbers).

What you need to know is that the brand has finally updated this model, which now slots into Bose’s headphone lineup as a more affordable option to the flagship QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen).

The Bose QC Headphones (gen 2) also bring a range of upgrades over the original pair alongside a price that’s the same as, or even a little lower than, the 2017 set, depending on where you live.

• Read the full story: Bose's mid-range headphones just got their first upgrade in years

3. Grand Theft Auto’s next teaser will debut on Netflix

Grand Theft Auto 6 marketing is finally getting into gear. With the game set to arrive on November 19, excitement is high, and Rockstar Games is kicking things off with a… Netflix documentary?

This week the developer announced that Netflix subscribers will be able to watch a special ‘Grand Theft Auto 6: An Extended Look’ video at 3PM ET / 12PM PT / 8PM BST on August 27. It’s not exactly clear what this means, but it sounds like it could be some kind of behind-the-scenes video talking about the highly anticipated game’s development.

It’s expected to contain at least some new gameplay footage, though, making it a must-watch for eager fans. If you’re not a Netflix subscriber, then you don’t have to worry about missing out. The developer said that the video will come to YouTube a few hours after it premieres.

• Read the full story: We could finally be getting the next GTA 6 trailer as Rockstar announces a special 'extended look'

2. Our Garmin Cirqa review dropped, and it's a Whoop-beater

We've been wearing the Garmin Cirqa for 10 days now, and it's finally time to give it a score. It beats Whoop in terms of value, and Fitbit Air in terms of features, to land the coveted title of 'best screenless fitness tracker to buy in 2026'. It's generally very accurate when measured against an electrical heart rate monitor, and provides a certainty in tracking that other screenless wearables don't have thanks to the addition of a tactile start-stop button to sit alongside its automatic activity detection. It's also comfy enough for constant wear. We've got a video review embedded in the article too, so you can see it in action for yourselves.

• Read our full Garmin Cirqa review

1. We reviewed the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra

At a glance, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra is unchanged since its predecessor, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7, but far more than just the name changed. In my review, I found the flagship foldable has a more powerful CPU, lots of AI, better cameras, and overall improved photography.

And this only scratches the surface. Perhaps the most surprising and delightful bit about the new Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra is that it unfolds flat and the crease is almost gone (mostly thanks to a pair of titanium panels). Overall, it's a great folding phone and is — despite the existence of the new Galaxy Z Fold 8 (it’s wide!) — my current favorite folding phone.

• Read our full Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 review

Now that you’re all caught up on the news, are you ready to take on our news quiz?

Meta may dominate the smart glasses zeitgeist, but it's far from the only player — my favorite brand in the space is actually Xreal, with its range of impressive but pricey wearable-display specs. And with the launch of its new xbx brand, Xreal's lineup now includes more budget-friendly options too.

If money were no object, Xreal’s One Pro glasses are easily the crème de la crème of smart specs. Their Bose-tuned audio is impressive for such a small package, their electrochromic dimming tech is perfect for swapping between clear vision and shaded for optimal viewing conditions, and their unique optic engine displays their image more vividly than the competition, with fewer visible distortions.

The only issue is their price — $649 / £579 (they aren't available directly in Australia), absent any discounts, although they can be found on sale occasionally.

If you’re on a budget, my preferred pick has instead been RayNeo. Its Air 4 Pro specs debuted earlier this year, and not only are they affordable at just $299 / £289, they still come with solid specs, including HDR10 support.

With its new xbx a01+, however, Xreal might have just claimed the budget crown for itself.

Budget brilliance

Now the elephant in the room is that Xreal's specs cost a bit more. At their current $299 / £269 discounted price at Xreal.com they're on par with or cheaper than RayNeo's glasses; however their official price is $359 / £349, and while they aren’t discounted at the moment, we’ve regularly seen the RayNeo Air 4 Pros selling for $249 / £249 (RayNeo also doesn't seem to sell directly to Australia) or cheaper.

At the same time, the Xreal xbx a01+ glasses boast a handful of improvements which warrant a slightly higher price.

For a start, their brightness tops out at 1,600 nits, while the RayNeo Air 4 Pro can only hit 1,200 nits. This extra brightness should allow you to get more out of the HDR10 support, offering more room for the light vs dark contrast and vivid colors to breathe across the video format’s visual range. Highs can look more high, helping lows look lower by comparison.

Aiding the image quality are the swappable lens covers.

While advertised as giving you the ability to choose which color of sunglasses cover you most want to complement your style, the xbx's box also includes a completely opaque black cover you can use with your specs. Because the specs are essentially virtual projectors, a darker environment ensures the highest-quality viewing conditions, though I found the regular sunglasses were fine even in bright sunlight.

The xbx glasses are lighter too, weighing just 62g compared to the RayNeo Air 4 Pro's 76g. Admittedly I haven't found them majorly more comfortable, but as I kicked back with them in a sun lounger while on vacation for hours on end I was relaxed enough to doze off on several occasions.

The only tradeoff is, I'd say, the audio, which doesn't seem to involve Bose tuning this time, and isn't quite as impactful as the Air 4 Pro's. That said, I'll almost always use earbuds or headphones with my display glasses, because they’re better in terms of quality and minimize sound leakage, so this downgrade didn't bother me.

Who wins? You decide

You'll also have to contend with Xreal's standard optic engine too. This is the prism that reflects the micro-OLED display into your eyes, and the standard design is susceptible to external reflections — most commonly light bouncing off the top of the specs and into your view. Pictures will also be a little smaller thanks to a reduced field of view, and can be a little blurrier at the frame edges.

Only Xreal's One Pros boast the improved design, but having experienced it, it's tough to go back to the standard optic engine.

To be fair, though, that’s mostly a me problem, and if you’re new to the display glasses world the Xreal xbx a01+ and RayNeo Air 4 Pros should be perfectly adequate performance-wise.

As for which of the budget specs you should go for — whichever is cheaper would be my suggestion.

The technical improvements of the xbx specs are solid, but if you can save $40/£40 or more on the RayNeos, their few deficiencies can be overlooked.

That said, if stylish, colorful designs are a must, alongside a marginally better image quality, then you'll be very pleased with the new Xreal xbx a01+ glasses.

I’ve tested dozens of smart glasses for TechRadar, but every time I get a new pair of Meta Ray-Bans to try, I’m reminded why they’re so popular — because yet again my past three weeks with the Ray-Ban Meta Optics have been a joy.

Mostly.

Much like Meta’s previous smart specs, you’ll find a host of technological features crammed into the eyewear.

There are speakers for open-ear audio, which is perfect for listening to casual tunes, taking a call, or hearing the AI’s responses to your queries — with the glasses’ microphones also doing a great job at picking up what you’re saying with minimal noise disruption.

Dedicated earbuds will sound better for sure — the bass isn’t as emphatic as I like with Meta’s Optics glasses (or its other models) — though I did enjoy listening to music through my glasses for hours on end with no major complaints.

As mentioned, there’s also Meta’s AI, which is accessed through the connected phone app and voice commands on your specs. It can answer questions you ask it and, with your permission, see what you see by accessing the Meta Optics’ camera to provide additional context to your questions, and interact with connected apps to play music requests or tell your health and fitness stats.

I’m not a big AI user except when I’m on holiday or just generally acting like a tourist. On our honeymoon, my wife used Look and Ask to check the ingredients on hair care products to make sure she wasn’t allergic, and I got the AI to supply me with phrases to use when I realized my limited Spanish wasn’t going to cut it.

The AI’s also perfect for identifying landmarks and telling you more about historic sites. I relied on it so much on a trip I took to Italy with my other Meta glasses a while ago — it helped me understand the ruins of Pompeii and better learn the history of the Colosseum.

Beyond identifying foreign signs and buildings, the cameras are ideal for first-person video. I used them to snap photos and videos of my wife and me, and they came out really well — they're the ideal way to record memories digitally, as you can still live in the moment rather than being cut off behind a phone screen.

I’ll talk more about cameras in a moment, but before that I want to focus on the key way the Optics is different to Meta’s other Ray-Ban smart specs: it's comfort and fit.

Built to last all-day

Meta’s smart glasses are chunkier than non-intelligent eyewear, which can make them feel more rigid and less comfortable than regular specs. To make the Optics better suited to all-day wear (something I can confirm they handle effectively after wearing these glasses for hours on end over the past few weeks), you’ll find interchangeable nose pads and adjustable temple tips to help you sculpt them to your face shape.

The correct nose pads have helped the specs sit better on my head without slipping down, while the temple tips can be carefully manipulated (either at home or at an optician) to help the Optics grip your face without applying too much pressure to the sides of your head.

If you’re considering getting some yourself, my final design note is this: pay extra for transition lenses.

The Ray-Bans I’ve been testing are outfitted with the Transitions XTRActive option, meaning they change between clear and shaded when exposed to sunlight — even when I’m in the car — and the lenses changed so quickly as I moved between different environments (something I noticed a lot when going between indoor and outdoor spaces on my honeymoon to Tenerife).

My non-smart eyeglasses boast Transitions Gen S lenses, and I’m also happy with them, or you can opt for polarized Transitions if you want even more light protection, if you’re also willing to pay a bit extra.

Regardless of which type you opt for, Transitions lenses are essential because they maximize the usefulness of your smart specs. Without them, you’re limited to either clear glasses you can only use indoors or on darker days, or shaded glasses that can only be worn outdoors when the sun is brightly shining.

Why did there have to be a but?

Now, the elephant in the room is that Meta’s smart specs are facing increasing amounts of scrutiny from the public because of their cameras.

News stories showcasing bad actors harassing women, recording secretly by modding their specs, or revealing that Meta contractors might be able to see more of your recorded content than you realize have been populating our timelines throughout 2026.

The upshot seems to be a wave of negativity: I conducted a poll through one of my recent stories, and over half of all respondents said they think smart glasses should be banned.

For its part, Meta is doing plenty to combat these issues: it cracked down on Facebook Marketplace listings for glasses modding services and issued an update to prevent the camera from working if the recording light on your smart eyewear is disabled, and it’s also tackling Instagram profiles belonging to creeps like pickup artists who promote using the glasses to harass people.

I still think more needs to be done on the privacy side of things — at the very least being much more explicit about what features share captured content with Meta, though ideally all of your content would remain private through an Apple-like Private Cloud Compute server setup.

As of now, I’m admittedly very nervous to wear my Meta Optics. I haven’t been worried about going around wearing my Meta Ray-Ban and Oakley specs in the past, but with growing public anger over the way smart specs are being misused, I have a genuine concern someone will see me wearing them and act violently towards me.

Or I could simply be banned from entering a space while wearing them. Some Comic-Cons, offices, and courts don’t let you in wearing Meta-style smart glasses. Especially for something as essential as prescription glasses, and pricey ones at that, being constantly nervous while wearing them or barred from entering certain spaces isn’t ideal.

There is genuinely so much to love about the smart glasses, and if you haven’t yet got a pair and wear prescription eyeglasses, the Meta Ray-Ban Scriber Optics styles are the ones I’d most highly recommend.

If you’ve had to struggle through a heatwave like the one cooking the UK right now (where I’m based), then you know that you’ll do anything to try to stay cool: bumping up the AC if you have it, or turning on as many fans as you can find, and drinking gallons of water.

And I have a new cooling hack for you: sitting in a cooling office chair. Because thanks to Prime Day you can get the AutoFull M6 Pro Gaming Chair for $424.99 at Amazon, saving you 15% off the usual price. In the UK, Amazon has the AutoFull M6 Pro on sale for £299.99 — that's £150 off the usual price.

• • Browse the full Amazon Prime Day sale

I’m currently chilling in my DXRacer Martian Pro as it pulls cool air through my shorts thanks to in-built ventilation fans. It’s not like sitting on a block of ice — and I still have a Dyson Cool CF1 desk fan blasting at my face — but the chair’s cooling has been a noticeable improvement compared to a desk fan-only setup.

I’m much less sweaty, and I don’t feel bothered by the heat baking my upper-floor flat — the only trouble is, it makes the times I need to get up and out of my seat a little less bearable by comparison.

Now, I have some bad news: the Martian Pro I ride is out of stock in the US and UK right now — but there’s a solid alternative that we’ve tested, and which is not only in stock, but on sale at Amazon thanks to Prime Day deals.

Last year during the UK’s 2025 summer heatwave we took the AutoFull M6 Ultra for a spin, and our reviewer Christian Guyton can confirm that the cooling fans made a noticeable difference after sitting in the chair for a while — which matches my DX Racer experience.

Looking for more deals on cooling tech? Check out our pick of the 3 best super-quiet fans to help you sleep comfortably, and the best fan and air-con deals for beating the UK heatwave.

Today's best gaming chair deals

What’s extra special about these ventilated chairs is that they’re perfect right now in the sweltering heat, but they'll also keep you cosy in the winter thanks to in-built heaters. Much like their cooling fans, the seat warmers are again very effective at keeping your body comfortable.

And these seats aren’t just electronic gimmicks. You’ll find a full suite of comfort features like 4D armrests, neck and lumbar support, and your usual recline and height options.

The only thing that might be a slight let-down is the massaging which the chairs can provide. It can be fun and relaxing during a stressful gaming session or day at work, but it isn’t super rigorous.

That said, I love my cooling gaming chair, and I’m considering picking up a second for my partner having looked at these deals; the AutoFull M6 Ultra 2.0 looks like a solid option in the UK, though I might see if I can stretch to the Ultra+.

More Prime Day deals in the US

• Amazon Devices: Fire Sticks & Echo from $18
• Amazon Haul: viral gadgets, tech & appliances from $1.99
• Apple: MacBooks, AirPods & AirTags from $29
• Beauty: 50% off toothbrushes & hair tools
• Cheap TVs: smart TVs from $69.99
• Garden: tools, mowers, planters from $24.99
• Headphones: 50% off Beats, Bose & Samsung
• Laptops: Apple, HP & Dell from $199
• Mattresses: Sealy, Serta & more from $186
• Patio: outdoor furniture, rugs & decor from $19.99
• Sports: 50% off fitness gear, treadmills & clothing
• Vacuums: Dyson, Shark & Bissell from $34

More Prime Day deals in the UK

• Amazon Prime: get a 30-day free trial
• Amazon Devices: Fire, Ring & Blink from £13.99
• Amazon Haul: up to 30% off
• Apple: up to 33% off AirPods & Apple Watch
• Appliances: up to 45% off Ninja & Tefal
• Beauty: up to 60% off Philips & Oral-B
• Essentials: household goods from £5
• Fans: from £20
• Fashion: up to 50% off
• Gaming: £90 off PlayStation 5
• Headphones: up to 50% off Beats & Sony
• Laptops: from £149
• Tablets: Samsung & Lenovo from £79.99
• Toys: up to 25% off Lego and Tonies
• TVs: from £129.99
• Vacuums: up to 40% off Shark & Roborock
• Wearables: up to 30% off Garmin & Oura

The Samsung Galaxy XR headset is now available for preorder ahead of its July 8 launch in the UK, and while you can’t pick it up at Amazon, that doesn’t mean you can't snag a Prime Day-like deal or two.

Best of all, you won’t need to be a Prime or other subscription service member; Samsung’s discounts are available to every shopper through its online store — you’ll just need to bundle a few things with your purchase, or sign up to PayPal (if you haven’t already) and check out using that as your payment method.

• Browse the full Amazon Prime Day sale

For that PayPal offer, you’ll get £100 off using the code PAYPALXR at Samsung's online store. That’s a serious saving off the £1,699 asking price, but you only have until July 7 to take advantage of this offer.

Plus, if you’re looking to upgrade your Samsung tech, or dive deeper into its ecosystem, it has deals that will save you 10% on Galaxy smartphones, a Galaxy Watch, and Galaxy Buds.

Today's best Samsung Galaxy XR deals

After spending a week with the Samsung Galaxy XR headset, Lance Ulanoff called it “an impressive multimodal AI spatial computer,” though Android XR and the overall experience didn’t hold a candle to visionOS and the Apple Vision Pro, especially the M5 version.

He also noted that, at launch, Gemini felt less deeply integrated as he had originally imagined, and the lack of precision with controls dulled the ‘wow’ factor.

At the same time, the Galaxy XR headset is half the price of the Vision Pro, so technical downgrades are to be expected, and as Google and Samsung iterate on the software, you could find the Samsung Galaxy XR headset seriously ups its game — especially as more apps get XR support.

It delivers some impressive OLED visuals despite costing less, and can integrate with the full G Suite of apps for some spatial productivity. So, if you want something that balances work and play, with great performance, at a more affordable price point, and don’t mind missing out on the Quest gaming library, you’ll struggle to find something better than Samsung’s XR machine.

More Prime Day deals in the UK

• Amazon Prime: get a 30-day free trial
• Amazon Devices: Fire, Ring & Blink from £13.99
• Amazon Haul: up to 30% off
• Apple: up to 33% off AirPods & Apple Watch
• Appliances: up to 45% off Ninja & Tefal
• Beauty: up to 60% off Philips & Oral-B
• Essentials: household goods from £5
• Fans: from £20
• Fashion: up to 50% off
• Gaming: £90 off PlayStation 5
• Headphones: up to 50% off Beats & Sony
• Laptops: from £149
• Tablets: Samsung & Lenovo from £79.99
• Toys: up to 25% off Lego and Tonies
• TVs: from £129.99
• Vacuums: up to 40% off Shark & Roborock
• Wearables: up to 30% off Garmin & Oura