OPINION: It’s Sunday and that means it’s time for us to announce this week’s winners and losers from the wild and exciting world of tech.
Google caught our attention this week with an early Pixel 9 launch, packed with Gemini AI updates and features. At the same time, Google’s Search AI Overviews arrived in the UK after receiving mixed reactions in the US.
Apple confirmed that third-party apps will soon be able to use the NFC chip in the iPhone, while ChatGPT expressed fears that users could become “emotionally dependent” on the chatbot’s new voice mode.
Read on to find out who our winners and losers were this week.
Winner: Realme
This week’s winner is Realme as the company introduced a groundbreaking new charging speed to its fans in China.
The 320W SuperSonic Charge technology can charge a 4400mAh smartphone battery from 0 to 100% in just four minutes and 30 seconds, making it the fastest phone charging technology in the world.
Furthermore, a 50% charge took less than two minutes, while a 25% charge took just one minute. That’s incredibly fast, beating rival Redmi’s 300W charging record by 25 seconds, even when faced with a larger battery.
The technology requires the Realme 320W Pocket Cannon power adapter, which also supports UFCS, PD and SuperVOOC standards and has two USB-C ports for charging the phone and laptop simultaneously.
To achieve the speeds mentioned above, the adapter would need to be paired with a phone that supports 320W charging. The closest one available right now is Realme’s 240W GT 3, but this remains an exciting glimpse into what Realme might have planned in the future.
Loser: Sonos
Our loser this week is Sonos as the company continues to struggle with its buggy S2 app.
If you haven’t been keeping up with the Sonos drama, the company launched its brand new S2 mobile app in May, ditching the older S1 app in favor of a new look, improved controls, and increased customization for users. But it’s safe to say this update got off to a rocky start.
Customers have reported a range of issues, from problems connecting to speakers and the inability to group devices, to music libraries not loading and songs not queuing. Additionally, the app has apparently been draining battery on iOS devices. These are just a few of the bugs that have been reported since the new app launched earlier this summer, and Sonos’ update schedule to fix all of these bugs doesn’t end until October.
Shockingly, these fixes reportedly cost Sonos between $20 million and $30 million, which may have prompted the company to lay off 100 employees across marketing, product and engineering, platform and infrastructure, and software quality earlier this week. Sonos also delayed the launch of two products to prioritize fixing the S2 app.
The latest update to the saga is that Sonos executives are reportedly discussing a relaunch of the S1 app. This isn’t necessarily a bad idea, as it would at least allow customers to use their Sonos speakers as normal while S2 is being repaired. However, it’s certainly not the quick fix everyone was hoping for.
