ICYMI: here's the week's 7 biggest tech news stories from the Google Pixel 11 launch to Honor's revolutionary Robot Phone | Tech Radar
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ICYMI: here's the week's 7 biggest tech news stories from the Google Pixel 11 launch to Honor's revolutionary Robot Phone
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This week Google debuted its Pixel 11 tech, and Honor wowed us with a Robot Phone. Though we doubt it's the next i Phone revolution.
To catch up on all this and more scroll down for the week's seven biggest tech news stories, plus links to the wider picture if you're desperate to learn more.
And before that test your memory against last week's biggest tech news stories with our quiz.
We spent months with the latest Garmin Fenix Pro 8 smartwatch — it survived heatwaves, blizzards and 4,000m altitudes — and our reviewer decided to declare it “the pinnacle of multisport smartwatch performance.”
Why? Well, it boasts the full suite of Garmin functionality from sleep tracking to a bewildering array of activity tracking options, as well as the ability to follow stats like altitude and atmospheric pressure. Plus, it can operate as a full-on dive watch, and boasts satellite messaging for the extreme wilderness wanderers amongst us.
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The only downside is that it costs significantly more than the AMOLED version and has a shorter battery life (it’s still four days, though, and turning the always-on display off will see it jump to over 10), but these don’t stop it from being the champion of the sports tracking world right now.
Earlier this week, Spotify announced its new AI Persona tags, a new feature designed to differentiate human artists from those that are AI-generated. The tags are tipped to roll out in mid-September.
Once AI Persona becomes available, it will give users some peace of mind knowing that they’re listening to music that hasn't been generated by AI. Spotify added that artists with AI Persona tags will be excluded from all personalized recommendations by default — which is an added bonus.
Artists can disclose to Spotify if they are AI musicians, but Spotify will conduct reviews of profiles where it thinks an artist’s images have been created using generative AI to imitate a lifelike persona. The only caveat is that Spotify uses an artist’s image to determine if they’re an AI Persona, and not the music itself.
Read more: Spotify is introducing AI Persona tags to differentiate real artists from fake ones
Look. We love to call out marketing department hyperbole as much as the next tech news outlet, but while we must disagree with Honor’s attempt to position its new device as the evolutionary successor to the i Phone — the best-selling phone of all time — it is fair to say the Robot Phone is unlike anything we’ve seen before.
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Tech Radar’s Axel Metz was among the first tech journalists to touch and test the new phone, and the device’s unfolding gimbal is genuinely impressive as a content capture tool — effectively combining the DJI Osmo Pocket with Honor’s flagship Magic 8 Pro.
It also allows the phone’s assistant, YOYO, to express itself in a physical way. This is the definition of gimmicky, though controlling the gimbal with hands-free controls can be genuinely useful.
Read more: I spent two hours with the Honor Robot Phone, and this ridiculous, remarkable device made me feel like a kid again
The peak of the Perseid meteor shower, with perfect viewing conditions and a rare six-planet alignment, was a celestial treat on August 12, but it was the total solar eclipse hours before that captured the world's attention. In select parts of Europe, northern Spain and in Iceland, totality lasted around 2 minutes while a partial eclipse could be seen as far afield as northern North America. Viewers lucky enough to get solar glasses could enjoy the phases around totality, while others came outside with their DIY pinhole cameras and colanders. Predictably, we've been treated to spectacular images in the aftermath of this once-in-a-generation show.
Read more: 9 of the best photos from Europe's 2026 solar eclipse
Apple’s Air Tags launched over five years ago, and we now finally have a Google-made equivalent for Android fans. The Pixel Tag is a little tracker that weighs only 12g and helps you follow the location of your keys, luggage, or devices via a web browser or Android app.
Unfortunately, it won’t actually be launching until November, but when it does, you’ll be able to buy one for
However, as you can read below, the Find Hub network still has weaknesses compared to its Apple Find My equivalent, which we hope Google addresses by the time its Tag launches in a few months.
Read the full story: The Pixel Tag is here — but it won't be an Air Tag for Android until Google fixes these Find Hub issues
Along with Google's cornucopia of new phones, the Google Pixel Watch 5 was also released in two sizes and with the same teardrop design as previous years. However, we've got a bunch of new features and improvements at play, with more accurate GPS, the redesigned Google Health app with its AI coach, better on-device Gemini, and a suite of Health Guardian features. These include Breathing Emergency Detection, which alerts emergency services and contacts if you have a consistent blood oxygen drop, and Insulin Resistance Trends, which helps users control their blood sugar levels. Apple and Samsung haven't quite cracked this technology yet, and we can't wait to test them for ourselves — although hopefully we don't have any breathing emergencies during our review.
Read more: Sorry, Apple and Samsung — I test smartwatches for a living, and the Google Pixel Watch 5 specs beat the Series 11 and Galaxy Watch 9 in these five key areas
Of course, the stars of Wednesday's Made by Google 2026 event were the debut of new Pixel 11 phones.
They boast the usual slew of updates you should expect from flagship refreshes by now, but also a brand new ‘Hi Light’. This is an array of LED lights built into the camera’s flash module, which can alert you to calls from favorite contacts via customized color glows when your phone is face down and silenced. And these lights will also pulse when Gemini is listening, thinking, or responding.
Not everything is an improvement, disappointingly. You'll only get 12GB of RAM as standard rather than 16GB, perhaps a reflection of the surging computer memory costs.
Read more: I’ve used the new Pixel 11, Pixel 11 Pro, and Pixel 11 Pro XL, and Google's made nearly all the improvements I wanted to see
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Hamish is a Senior Staff Writer for Tech Radar 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.
Amelia Schwanke Senior Editor UK, Home Entertainment
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