It’s the last work week before the Christmas break, but the tech news continues to bear gifts. Here are this week’s technological stuffed stockings and lumps of coal.
Where to start? Well, how about the exciting news for Android fans? The OnePlus 13 will finally be announced for the western world on January 7, after arriving in China way back in October. It won’t be the only big Android hitter arriving in January either. The Samsung Galaxy S25 launch date has been all but confirmed.
On the iPhone side of things, there’s a feeling the previous rumours about the iPhone 17 design might have missed the mark, while Apple Intelligence fanciers were warned not to expect any major new AI additions in iOS 18.3.
The week did begin with with some potentially big Apple news… coming in 2028. Apparently, the first Apple foldable will be the ultimate iPad Pro.
Onto gaming now, and the word on the street is Lenovo will be next to launch a handheld Steam Deck rival for PC gaming. And, staying with handhelds, there was further online scuttlebutt surrounding the Nintendo Switch 2.
However, the big winners and losers are yet to be revealed. Read on to discover who’s on the nice and naughty list for the penultimate time in 2024.
Winner: Panasonic Lumix
We get nostalgic for tech that just does what’s asked of it, and does it really well.
There’s no AI to worry about, there’s no data grabs associated with it, no barrage of notifications to deal with, no mental health struggles associated with usage, and no privacy and security fears about accounts.
That’s why we loved the news about Panasonic bringing its popular Lumix point-and-shoot camera range back to the fore. Millennials are flocking back to devices that just take great pictures, away from the need to share on social media immediately. However, thanks to the smartphone giants, hardly any of the top manufacturers were bothering with making compact cams anymore.
But the Panasonic Lumix ZS99, its first major renewal in the category since 2016, could change all that.
It looks the part and holds up its end with the specs too. There’s the long 30x optical zoom from the Leica DC Vario Elmar lens, with a 24-720mm focal range. It’ll take 20.3-megapixels stills, while you can also grab HD video at 120 frames per second, or 4K/30fps. There’s also 5-axis optical image stabilisation too.
The proposition has been somewhat modified with a virtual video recording mode that’s designed for future updates to social media. That’s accompanied by a new Send button in the body of the camera that enables easy transfer of the content to a companion smartphone. There’s also Bluetooth 5.0, an upgrade to USB-C for charging, and Wi-Fi 2.4GHz.
Loser: The lost iPhone subscription plan
Apple makes a ton of money on subscriptions these days. Apple TV+, Apple Music, Apple News+, Apple Fitness+, Apple Arcade, and iCloud+, for example.
So why wouldn’t it get into subscriptions for hardware? Well, mainly it seems because government regulators would kick off about it Apple’s plans to mange payments through an Apple account and cut out a bunch of middle men.
Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman now reckons Apple has now abandoned its plans to offer an iPhone subscription that’d ensure iPhone owners always have the latest handset at their disposal, just as they would the latest tunes from Apple Music.
Gurman reckons that the Apple personnel responsible for plotting the scheme have been reassigned, with the company deciding upsetting the regulators and its mobile network partners wouldn’t really be worth the hassle.
Thankfully, Apple Card owners can still pay in instalments interest free, while the iPhone Upgrade Program still exists for those with a need to snap-up a new iPhone every year without buying upfront.
