ICYMI: the week

This week, Meta turned its back on VR, and Apple caved to Google in its hunt for an AI update for Siri.

To catch up on these and the other seven biggest tech news stories of the week, scroll down to see our recaps of the big things that happened.

7. DJI fans in the US finally got some good news

It hasn’t been a great time for drone fans in the US, with the FCC recently banning the sale of new, foreign-made drones – and a separate proposal from the US Department of Commerce taking aim at all Chinese drone imports (including existing models that have already been launched).

Well, fortunately, a U-turn from the latter has removed that particular restriction from the equation for now. That means that stock of previously approved drones like the DJI Mavic 3 Pro and the Antigravity A1 can still be legally imported into the US.

Still, 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 Stateside drone fans.

• Read the full story: DJI and other drone companies get a partial reprieve in the US – but the ban on new models still stands

6. Sophie Turner served Lara Croft

We got our first look at Sophie Turner as filming on 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 how seriously Amazon is taking this adaptation.

Obviously, this is just a still of Turner in her costume, but she is undeniably Lara Croft in it, and if similar care and attention has been paid 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 real treat.

No release date has been given yet, but we can’t rule out a mid- to late 2026 launch.

• Read more: Amazon reveals perfect first photo of Sophie Turner as Lara Croft

5. Spotify made people mad

Over the past few weeks, Spotify Premium subscribers have been encountering 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 issue with AI music on Spotify is only getting worse; the problem doesn’t lie with AI music itself, but with the deception on Spotify’s part, which is what’s getting under people’s skin. This has led many paying users to think it’s part of a wider, secret business plan and that Spotify is deliberately doing this to avoid paying artists further.

In other news, Spotify has also raised subscription prices for US members, affecting all tiers. It marks the third price increase since 2023, which many people are attributing to the maintenance of Spotify Lossless.

• Read more: AI music is flooding Spotify, and subscribers are furious

This week, Meta seemed to give up on VR as it slashed Reality Labs jobs, including closing down several VR game studios, and ending updates for the excellent VR fitness platform Supernatural.

The news is a tragedy for fans of the Meta Quest system as it suggests Meta’s future support for its headsets will be at least a little lackluster, and Hamish Hector argued that, as things stand, he’s only interested in the Steam Frame.

It’s no secret Reality Labs has been hemorrhaging funds for some time, but this major about-turn from Meta might lead some to wonder if you can trust the company not to change course again if its new AI glasses focus starts to go awry.

• Read more: Meta just killed some of its best Quest 3 game studios

3. Gemini got an upgrade

Google has just dropped “Personal Intelligence” for Gemini, and it might be the most significant leap for AI assistants yet. This upgrade allows Gemini to securely tap into your personal Google ecosystem (Gmail, Photos, Search, and YouTube) to provide deep, individualized context for your queries.

The capabilities are genuinely impressive: imagine Gemini diagnosing a car issue by checking your Gmail purchase history for the model, scanning your Photos for service records, and pulling DIY solutions from YouTube. It’s the “true” AI assistant we’ve been waiting for. Interestingly, given the newly announced Apple-Google AI partnership, this looks like a sneak peek at how the next-gen Siri might function in iOS 27.

• Read more: Gemini gets its biggest upgrade yet ‘Personal Intelligence’

2. Siri got a Gemini upgrade

Apple got served a huge slice of humble pie this week, as it conceded Ai supremacy to Google announcing that Siri’ s next-gen version will be backed by Gemini.

A lot of questions remain, but in a joint statement Apple and Google revealed “These [Gemini] models will help power future Apple Intelligence features, including a more personalized Siri coming this year.”Apple first unveiled its plans to launch an AI-upgraded Siri during WWDC 2024 but almost two years later we’re still waiting for the upgrade. The company has since promised a Spring 2026 launch, and with Google Gemini it might finally make that happen.

• Read more: Apple gives up and lets Google take the AI wheel

1. Verizon had a major outage

Well, we have officially had the first major outage of 2026, and it was a massive, nearly 8-hour outage that took out Verizon’s cell service for customers across the United States on January 14, 2026. You can see our full reporting in the live blog linked below, but it was a serious, hours-long event that saw folks with Verizon swap 5G and network bars for SOS with no access to voice, text, and data across much of the country.

Down Detector reports swelled around 12:30 PM ET, with Verizon confirming the issue at 1 PM, but many folks did not see any signs of recovery until closer to 8 PM ET that evening. The carrier didn’t have the best communication during the event, with only a few statements that came hours apart. The day after the outage, Verizon confirmed each account would receive a single $20 credit, which, simply put, many customers were not pleased with. The carrier also confirmed to TechRadar that it was a software issue tied to a cyber incident.

• Read more: Verizon service restored after a ‘software issue’

Hamish is a Senior Staff Writer for TechRadar and you’ll see his name appearing on articles across nearly every topic on the site from smart home deals to speaker reviews to graphics card news and everything in between. He uses his broad range of knowledge to help explain the latest gadgets and if they’re a must-buy or a fad fueled by hype. Though his specialty is writing about everything going on in the world of virtual reality and augmented reality.