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It’s been another busy week in the world of tech.
Apple’s legal battles continued with new monopoly accusations being levied at it by the US Department of Justice and several states, Amazon’s Big Spring Sale offered us some solid discounts, and the first Star Wars: The Acolyte trailer dropped.
We know keeping on top of everything can be a challenge so to lend a hand we’ve collected eight of the most important stories here in a roundup so you can get back in the loop within just a few minutes.
8. Apple was accused of being a monopoly in the US
The US Department of Justice and more than a few States Attorney Generals unveiled a sweeping suit against Apple, accusing it of operating a monopoly iPhone business, one that crushes the competition by squeezing them out in innumerable ways.
Apple plans to fight and calls the charges unfounded.
It’ll be months before there’s any resolution but in the meantime, you can ponder if you chose the iPhone because you love it or because you thought you had no other choice. Guess it all depends on whom you believe.
7. Amazon’s Big Spring Sale boasted major deals
The Amazon Spring Sale has been live in the US and UK this week with thousands of deals across TVs, laptops, appliances, phones, tablets, smart home tech and so much more. It hasn’t been as expansive and the discounts haven’t been as strong as those we see during Amazon Prime Day or Black Friday, but there are still several bargains to be had this week.
We’ve searched through the sale and picked out all the best ones that we recommend so check out our full coverage for all our top picks before the sale ends on March 25.
6. OLED burn-in became a thing of the past (maybe)
Thanks to research by the University of Cambridge we could see the beginning of the end for OLED burn-in, as well as having OLED TVs that last longer and are more efficient.
The crux of this lies in blue OLED diodes that emit light along the narrowband spectrum. Without going down a rabbit hole of science, this can suppress the undesirable energy transfer that affects current OLED panels. And better energy transfer could make for OLED TVs that are more power efficient and have a longer lifespan.
It may be a few years before we see this research yield a new generation of OLED TVs and displays. Yet it’s a promising step in the effort to fully remove concerns over OLED burn-in.
5. The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 ran into some folding issues
This wasn’t a great week for Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 owners, with a growing number of reports pointing to a potential issue with the screen’s hinge design.
While it isn’t yet clear how widespread the problem is, a chorus of complaints across X (formerly Twitter) and Reddit suggest it’s more than a few isolated cases. Unfortunately, the problem has left some Z Fold 4 owners unable to fully open the phone’s screen, which is a fairly big issue for a foldable.
We’re still waiting for some official comment from Samsung about the reports, but it may also be affecting the Z Fold 3 and Z Fold 5. Owning a foldable can still come with some early adopter headaches, it seems.
If you haven’t already downloaded the latest Meta Quest 3 update – Meta Quest 3 update v62 – then don’t. That’s the advice of some users who have been plagued by an annoying popup for weeks after downloading the update – with it constantly warning them there’s a problem with their USB-C port even though it’s fine.
Meta is aware of the issue, and has been able to replicate it, but hasn’t yet said when a fix will be available – much to the chagrin of the unlucky Quest 3 owners affected by the bug.
Our best advice (beyond dodging update v62) is to only use the official Meta Quest 3 cables, and to not play any VR experiences while your headset is plugged in as some users have reported this seemed to cause their issues.
3. A new Android 15 developer preview landed, and teased major updates
We’re one step closer to Android 15 being released, with Google launching the second developer preview of its mobile OS for app creators to test out. While it’s still early days there are already some notable features catching our eye.
The continued improvements for satellite communications support in the Android 15 update suggest the Google Pixel 9 coming later this year could boast the feature seen on the iPhone 14 and iPhone 15. Plus there’s new loudness controls so you should notice programs are more consistent with their volume as you swap between them, and there are new tools that should make it easier for apps to take advantage of the small cover screens seen on folding phones such as the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5.
If you want you can check out the update yourself but we wouldn’t recommend it unless you’re a developer or have a spare android device lying around as these in-progress builds can suffer from stability issues.
2. The Acolyte’s first trailer showed us a new kind of Star Wars story
It’s almost time to forget everything you thought you knew about the Jedi and the Sith. Star Wars: The Acolyte, the next big Star Wars show coming to Disney Plus, will boldly go where no other Lucasfilm movie or TV series has gone before. Indeed, it’s set to explore The High Republic era in a live-action capacity for the first time – and it’ll subvert your expectations of the iconic galaxy far, far away when it does so.
We don’t have much longer to wait to see what Russian Doll showrunner and self-confessed Star Wars nerd Leslye Headland has got in store for us, either. This week, The Acolyte’s Disney Plus release date was finally revealed, with the highly anticipated series out in early June. We also received a first trailer, too, which teases an ominous disturbance in the Force ahead of its Disney Plus debut. Color us extremely excited.
1. IKEA made us some bargain fast chargers
Need a spare USB-C charger for your phone, tablet or laptop? This week IKEA took a break from Billy bookcases and gave us two new impulse buys with its impressively cheap Sjöss chargers.
The single-port Sjöss 30W USB-C charger ($7.99 / £5) is designed for phones and tablets, while the more powerful Sjöss 45W two-port version ($14.99 / £10) can charge laptops or two smaller devices simultaneously with 22W of power.
Both support the latest PD 3.0 fast-charging standard and also undercut the prices of rival chargers from the likes of Apple, Google and even Anker. You can buy the chargers right now in the US, but they won’t go on sale in the UK until July.
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