ICYMI: the week’s 7 biggest tech stories from Apple’s beautiful Liquid Glass to the Xbox’s surprise handheld launch

It’s been a massive week for tech news, with Apple‘s WWDC taking place and a raft of big announcements in the gaming world.

Missed it all? Never fear – because you can catch up on it by scrolling down for our handy recaps of the week’s seven biggest tech news stories.

And once you’re all up to speed with that, be sure to also check out our picks for the 7 new movies and TV shows to watch this weekend.

7. Xreal told us more about Project Aura

We already knew Xreal’s Project Aura glasses would bring Android XR features to Xreal’s lineup, but we didn’t know too much about the hardware itself. Now we do.

For a start, the device will apparently boast a 70-degree field of view – which is much larger than the FOV found on the 57-degree Xreal One Pro and which will give the Project Aura glasses a massive virtual screen.

It’ll also be tethered to a compute puck which will run Android XR using a Snapdragon chip from Qualcomm, though the glasses themselves will still have a “modified” X1 processor.

The glasses won’t land until sometime in 2026, but when they do this pair of Android XR specs could be something special.

6. Garmin found its Apple Watch Ultra 2 rival

Surprise! Garmin has revealed the Garmin Venu X1, an “ultrathin” smartwatch with a massive 2-inch AMOLED display and up to eight days of battery life.

The new model packs 32GB of internal memory, presumably for on-watch music, plus Garmin’s updated Elevate v5 heart-rate sensor, most recently used on the Garmin Forerunner 570 and 970.

Unfortunately the Garmin Venu X1 doesn’t come cheap, costing $799.99 / £679.99 / AU$1,499. We’ll be testing it as soon as possible to see if it justifies that price tag.

5. New Bose earbuds were cleared for launch

The best noise-cancelling earbuds you can buy right now are made by Bose (which makes sense – the company created the first ever active noise cancelling headphones), and right now we’d suggest not buying them. Why? Because there’s a newer version incoming, and Bose says they’ll be even better.

The Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds 2nd Gen will launch later this summer with a price tag of $299 – which is around £220 or AU$460, although these are guesses since pricing and availability for these regions has yet to be officially announced.

What can we expect? AI algorithms for better filtering of sudden noise spikes via Bose’s ActiveSense system, plus improved voice pickup and call quality, The latter is particularly good news, because that was a weak spot compared to rival earbuds from Technics and Bowers & Wilkins.

Also, the new case will be able to charge wirelessly – the first-gen Ultra Earbuds needed a sleeve to pull off this feat, but it’ll be here by default now.

4. Summer Game Fest 2025 wrapped up

Summer Game Fest 2025 has been and gone, and between PlayStation, Xbox and the event’s own showcase, there was plenty to be excited about.

Some of the most thrilling game announcements came in the form of world premieres such as Resident Evil Requiem, Marvel Tōkon Fighting Souls, Scott Pilgrim EX, and Street Fighter 6’s Year 3 Character Pass.

We also got new looks at anticipated upcoming games like Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, Clockwork Revolution and The Outer Worlds 2.

There’s loads to look forward to, then, and that’s all before we’ve even had a chance to see what Nintendo is cooking up with a new Direct showcase that will likely happen soon.

3. Xbox announced a handheld

Finally, after years of rumors, Microsoft has announced an Xbox handheld: the ROG Xbox Ally. In fact it gave us two.

Unlike Asus’ current ROG Ally and ROG Ally X, the Xbox version has a tweaked design with contoured grips that echo the shape of the current Xbox Wireless Controller. And as one would expect, both Xbox Allys sport the Xbox ‘ABXY’ button layout and a dedicated Xbox home button.

We don’t yet know when it will launch, nor how much it’ll cost, but we expect it’ll be about as pricey as the existing Ally.

2. Apple told us what went wrong with Apple Intelligence

Months after Apple admitted publicly that the Apple Intelligence-infused Siri was harder to deliver than they thought, the tech giant reiterated the statement during its WWDC 2025 keynote, adding almost cryptically that it’ll arrive “in the coming months”.

Most of us still had lots of questions. Fortunately, Apple’s Senior Vice President of Software Engineering Craig Federighi and Apple Global VP of Marketing Greg Joswiak sat down with us (and Tom’s Guide) for a wide-ranging and revealing podcast that finally explains what happened with Siri development, why the smarter version was delayed, and what happens next.

There’s a lot to learn about over-promising and under-delivering and how to avoid similar mistakes, and the full podcast ranges far beyond to cover Liquid Glass, and that surprising iPadOS 26 reveal. Speaking of which…

1. WWDC 2025 unleashed Liquid Glass

Apple’s software event clued us into what’s in store for the next generation of software from the tech giant and a big change is that every OS will now be version 26 – with Apple explaining that this will simplicity and clarity to its somewhat confusing software lineup.

For iOS 26, and every Apple OS, the major update is Liquid Glass, a new foundational design philosophy inspired by visionOS – which is itself getting a slew of enhancements, such as mixed-reality widgets.

However, the real star of the show for many was iPadOS 26, which finally brings some of the Mac’s best features to the tablet – and it nearly made one of our writers cry with joy (that may be an exaggeration).

There was plenty more to dig into from Apple’s big event, so for the full details check out our guide to the 15 biggest stories from WWDC 2025.