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ICYMI: the week’s 7 biggest tech stories from GPT-5’s rocky debut to Sonos’ upcoming price hike
This week, ChatGPT got an upgrade, and Tom Holland swung back into action as Spider-Man.
To catch up on all this and more from the world of tech and entertainment, scroll down for our weekly ICYMI round-up. There are some big stories you won’t want to miss.
Once you’re all up to speed, be sure to also read our picks for the 7 new movies and TV shows to watch this weekend (August 8).
7. Spider-Man swung into action
Filming is officially underway on Spider-Man: Brand New Day, with people flocking to Glasgow to catch glimpses of the web-slinger in action.
We got a sneak peek at the new suit, which looks to pay homage to Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield’s live-action iterations of the character.
We also saw that the flick will involve the first usage of practical webslinging in one of the webslinger’s solo MCU movies.
Lastly, we might have gotten a tease of the principal villain of the movie: Mister Negative, as tanks driving through the set are emblazoned with a logo that resembles the Inner Demons logo associated with Negative’s forces.
6. Samsung leaked its own earbuds
Oh Samsung, you were doing so well! Having seemingly quashed the Evan Blass image leak in July, it looked as if all noted tipsters had been warned and deterred. But then, oopsie, a half-finished product listing with pricing and images goes live – on Samsung’s own Panama site.
Two colors are shown (white and a very dark gray), and the price, in Panama at least, is listed as $129. We’re trying very hard not to make a bad joke about the Panama Ear Canal, but at times like thes,e it really is best to laugh.
The Galaxy Buds 3 FE also appears to have silicone ear tips, but everything else is still guesswork since the product page doesn’t include any actual specs or features, which is yet another indication that somebody hit the ‘publish’ button too early.
The Buds 3 FE are the follow-up to the original Buds FE or ‘Fan Edition’. That’s right, there’s no Buds 2 FE, so we really thought Samsung was handling the launch of this potentially confusing iteration with delicacy and care…
5. Sonos announced a price hike
This week, Sonos announced that “later this year, we plan to raise prices” in response to US tariffs.
While the company no longer makes most of its products in China – which is currently facing a 30% tariff – it makes its tech in Vietnam and Malaysia, which are facing 20% and 19% tariffs, respectively (based on rates as of the time of writing on August 7).
Precisely how much of a cost increase the actual speakers will see is yet to be announced, and we don’t yet know exactly when the price hike will come either, but unless things change, it looks like a price hike is coming – so you might want to buy a Sonos speaker sooner rather than later.
4. Harman Kardon took on Sonos
Audio Advice Live is a US-based consumer audio and video show held annually in Raleigh, North Carolina, and at this year’s event, which ran from August 1-3, 2025, we had the opportunity to check out Harman Kardon’s forthcoming Enchant series soundbars and wireless speakers.
The big news about the Enchant series is that it carries many of the same great features found in Sonos soundbars and speakers, including multi-room playback and app-based control. But the Enchant soundbars go beyond popular Sonos models, such as the Sonos Arc Ultra, in offering both Dolby Atmos and DTS:X support, along with an HDMI pass-through input for connecting an external device like an Xbox Series X or PS5 console.
Is the Enchant series primed to topple Sonos? We won’t know that until we get our hands on a system for review, but if Harman Kardon can nail the app part of the equation – a recent pain point for Sonos and its customer base – it could provide a compelling alternative to the Sonos multi-room ecosystem.
3. The Z Flip 7 was tortured
Since their launch, we, like many other testers, have been putting the new Samsung foldables through their paces. But some testers take things to an extreme when it comes to judging durability.
JerryRigEverything seriously put Samsung’s new foldable through its paces with a test that involved setting fire to the phone screens, bathing the gadget in dirt, and attempting to scratch every surface with a knife – before trying to snap the phone in half.
Somehow, the Z Flip 7 survived, but it just goes to show that foldables aren’t as flimsy as they once were.
2. Microsoft teased the future of Windows
A Microsoft exec shared his vision of Windows in 2030, making the rather bold claim that we’ll not be using keyboards and mice to interact with our computers by then, but rather using our voice and AI. We’ve heard this before (remember when virtual assistants like Cortana [RIP] were going to do everything for us with simple voice commands?), and I’m not convinced.
I don’t want to be speaking to my computer when I’m alone, let alone in a busy place or office, and there’s a reason we still use keyboards, mice, and trackpads decades after these peripherals were created: they remain the fastest and most convenient way to interact with our computers for a lot of people.
1. ChatGPT-5 launched
After hyping up its creation for the past couple of weeks, even saying it scared them, Sam Altman and OpenAI finally unveiled GPT-5 – the latest version of the digital brain which powers ChatGPT.
As expected, GPT-5 is said to be better than its predecessor, apparently being more reliable than before – being more honest with gaps in its knowledge rather than lying, or hallucinating, as it’s called for AI – and it’s also meant to be better at maths and coding, making it a more useful vibe coding partner.
Not everyone is happy, however. Many users have taken to social media to call the new bot “horrible” as ChatGPT now only gives shorter answers with less personality, and the prompt cap seems lower, too.
It might not do much to make affected users feel better about the situation, but OpenAI did at least warn of just this ahead of GPT-5’s launch: teasing “probable hiccups and capacity crunches,” as Sam Altman put it.
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