ICYMI: the week's 7 biggest tech stories from the Nintendo Switch 2 launch to Microsoft turning 50

Date:
Sat, 05 Apr 2025 07:00:20 +0000

Description:
The week's 7 biggest tech stories from Microsoft, Nintendo, ChatGPT and more for April 5, 2025.

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This week was a momentous one as Microsoft turned 50. On top of that, we finally saw the Nintendo Switch 2 in all its glory, and Sony's new OLED tech floored us.

To catch up on all that and the other biggest stories of the week, we've rounded them up here. There's a quick recap of each story, and links to further reading if you're desperate to know more.

Once you're up to speed on the news, be sure to check out our picks for the 7 new movies and TV shows to stream this weekend (April 4) . 7. Microsoft
turned 50 and celebrated with a big CoPilot upgrade (Image credit: Future)

Not many tech companies have lived long enough to celebrate their golden anniversary, but grizzled tech giant Microsoft hit that impressive milestone this week. Rather than sit back with a well-earned Old Fashioned or embarrass its grandchildren with a chicken dance, it announced a big upgrade to its CoPilot AI assistant instead.

CoPilot is now morphing from a fairly standard, generative AI chatbot into a full-blown companion to rival ChatGPT and Google Gemini. Well, that's the theory anyway the new CoPilot now has a memory to help it "learn who you are deeply", while the mobile apps can use your smartphone's camera to help it understand what you're seeing.

That all sounds both useful and creepy, but will CoPilot have the staying power of Windows, Word or even Clippy? Time will tell we'll let you know in 2075. Read more: Microsoft 50th Anniversary Copilot Event live we're on the ground with all the latest news 6. Nintendo spilled (almost) everything on
the Switch 2 (Image credit: Nintendo)

This week, we went hands-on with Nintendo Switch 2 , which is due to launch
in just a couple of months on June 5, 2025. The new console boasts a number
of significant improvements over its predecessor. These include support for
4K resolution on TV, and 1080p on the handheld. We can also expect variable refresh rate support, 256GB of storage space and frame rates of up to 120fps for supported games.

The Nintendo Switch 2 is priced at $429.99 / 395.99 / AU$699.95 for the console by itself. A bundle that includes a digital copy of Mario Kart World can also be bought for $499.99 / 429.99 / AU$769.95. Though prices could
rise, at least in the US as Nintendo announced it's delaying Nintendo Switch
2 pre-orders in response to the recent Trump tariffs.

Plenty of official peripherals and accessories have been announced. A camera for the new GameChat feature will be sold separately and can be connected to the Switch 2s USB-C ports. Were also getting a Pro Controller 2 and a
wireless Nintendo GameCube controller that will be compatible with Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Packs upcoming Switch 2 GameCube game library. Read more: I spent four hours with Nintendo Switch 2 5. Nintendo showcased the Switch 2 software lineup too (Image credit: Nintendo)

Alongside the Nintendo Switch 2 hardware reveal, we also got a preview of all the software coming to the new console later this year.

The headline was obviously the Switch 2s biggest first-party launch title: Mario Kart World . This open-world rendition of the karting title is bigger and better in every way based on our preview , with some delightful new courses and an expansive map to race across.

Other hits from the showcase included Donkey Kong Bananza , new (albeit
brief) Silksong details, a look at The Duskbloods an exclusive FromSoftware title for the Switch 2 and the arrival of GameCube Classics via the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack service .

The only downside is the games are getting pricier with Mario Kart World starting at $79.99 / 75.99. Not to mention that Nintendos charging for
Welcome Tour an interactive instruction manual it has designed for the
Switch 2. Read more: Nintendo Switch 2 live updates 4. ChatGPT had a rollercoaster week (Image credit: Artur Widak/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Its been a hell of a week for OpenAI. It kicked things off last week by launching native image generation inside ChatGPT . Previously it has relied
on DALL-E for images, but now it could do them itself, and do them better. People quickly realized that it was great at imitating the style of the anime powerhouse Studio Ghibli and a craze for Studio Ghibli-style images of people hit the Internet , resulting in OpenAIs servers going into meltdown as 1 million new users signed up in just one hour. ChatGPT went down at least
three times this week .

Melting servers werent OpenAIs only problem, with many people questioning the legality of producing art in the Studio Ghibli copyright style. Should an AI be allowed to reproduce Studio Ghiblis founder Hayao Miyazakis painstaking frame-by-frame approach to animation with such faithful mimicry?

Its also strongly rumoured that Deep Reasoning, the wildly popular agentic research capability found in ChatGPT Pro and ChatGPT Plus is coming to the free tier of ChatGPT very soon after a member of OpenAIs Technical Staff revealed the information in an online discussion. Lets hope the servers can handle it if and when this does happen. Read more: ChatGPT was down again here's everything we know 3. CinemaCon 2025 gave us film previews galore (Image credit: Getty Images)

CinemaCon 2025 gave us four days of showcase presentations from the biggest names in Hollywood including Walt Disney Studios, Paramount Pictures, Universal Pictures, DreamWorks, Focus Features, Lionsgate, Warner Bros. Discovery, Amazon MGM Studios and Sony Pictures.

There's so much we could talk about but a few highlights include the Spider-Man: Brand New Day title and date reveal , the John Wick 5 announcement, four The Beatles movies are coming in 2026, and we got the
first footage from Wicked Part Two, Avatar: Fire & Ash, and Tron: Ares . Read more: CinemaCon 2025 every big movie announcement 2. We saw Sony's new top-end OLED TV in action (Image credit: Future)

Sony unveiled the new TVs it has coming in 2025, and probably the juiciest
is the Sony Bravia 8 II a follow-up to both the Sony Bravia 8 mid-range OLED and the high-end Sony A95L QD-OLED .

Sony didn't reveal prices, but said that it'll be cheaper than the A95L, despite being a QD- OLED TV, using the latest-gen panel (the same ones found in the Samsung S95F ). With the new-gen panel it'll be brighter than any previous Sony OLED, and should have richer colors. It'll also be only way to get the highest-end QD-OLED screen with a glossy finish, rather than the
matte Glare-Free 2.0 finish used by Samsung.

If the Bravia 8 II can hit the same kind of prices as the LG G5 and Samsung S95F rather than coming in significantly more expensive, like the A95L did then we could be onto something very special from Sony. Read more: I saw Sony's new top-end OLED TV in action 1. Garmin's new subscription caused
chaos (Image credit: Future)

Garmin has unveiled a new and extremely unpopular subscription platform, Garmin Connect+. The company says that its free experience isn't going anywhere, but that hasn't stopped furious users in their thousands protesting the new $7 subscription.

For the monthly fee, Garmin is promising users six paywalled features including Active Intelligence, an AI-powered agent that theoretically gives you more personalized insights into your training and performance.

Generally, fans of the brand are upset about the move because Garmins are often very expensive, making the added cost of a subscription harder to bear. There's also plenty of discourse about the fact that the subscription itself is very thin, and doesn't seem to offer a tremendous amount of value to users given the cost.

Whichever way you slice it, the Garmin Connect+ launch has been a disaster
for the company, and with users already tense over a significant outage and premium devices being left out in the cold when it comes to software, the launch could not have been timed worse. Read more: Furious Garmin users
revolt over new subscription service



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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/tech/icymi-the-weeks-7-biggest-tech-stories-from-the -nintendo-switch-2-launch-to-microsoft-turning-50


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