A selection of tech stories from the weekend that grabbed my interest. Hopefully they’ll interest you too!
In Tech News Today, I muse over news stories from the past 24 hours (or in this case the weekend) that catch my attention.
Nice EV. Want a subscription with that?
In the UK, VW’s ID.3 range of EVs come with additional fees if you want to access the full power of their batteries, with the automaker introducing an “optional power upgrade” that will cost consumers £16.50/month or £165 annually or £649 for a lifetime subscription.
Alex’s Quick Thoughts: Oof. This does feel inevitable (on the businesses-like-money side), if only because subscriptions are a great way to ensure an ongoing source of revenue, but I don’t agree with VW’s assertion that this is no different from a consumer buying a “performance” version of a fuel vehicle relative to the regular model.
That “performance” version had different physical hardware and tuning, you were paying for that. Here you’re being asked to pay to unlock hardware YOU ALREADY OWN. Not a fan of that.
Server hardware is big and heavy, right? Well… not always
Servers were traditionally big chunky bits of hardware that did one task, and did it well — but not cheaply. But one enterprising hacker (via HackADay) decided to work out if they could instead turn an old smartphone into a functional server.
Alex’s Quick Thoughts: Sure, why not? I mean, a smartphone is just a small computer, and the kinds of computational power available to them would have made some old-school servers weep with envy. Nice to see here that the battery is thought about, because for hopefully-obvious-not-starting-fires-reasons, you shouldn’t leave any smartphone plugged in 24/7.
Is Apple charismatic? Its next OS might just be
Apple has long been rumoured to be developing yet another device-specific OS, probably called “HomeOS” for a range of smart Home Screen-based devices. According to current reports, the current version is codenamed “Charismatic” and may see light of day in a smart home display in 2026 and tabletop robot in 2027.
Alex’s Quick Thoughts: Product codenames are quite geeky to get obsessed about, but it’s also a somewhat foolish game to absolutely bet on Apple doing anything — or at least on guaranteeing timeframes for products.
I’ve been doing this long enough to remember when the rumours du jour were all around the Apple flat-screen TV that was DEFINITELY COMING ANY DAY NOW… or for that matter the Apple Car.
I’m still waiting for either of those.
Does Rover want a dead bacteria treat? Has Rover been a good boy? Has he? HAS HE?
A Portuguese lab is developing a range of dog treats made from… dead microbes.
Yeah. That’s a thing, or at least it will be, and the plan is to expand it out into human snacks as well.
Alex’s Quick Thoughts: Is Rover still feeling hungry? Are you?
The Galaxy S26 may be bigger than the Galaxy S25… in more ways that one
The Galaxy S26 series of phones is likely to launch around the January/February 2026 timeframe, which means it’s time for the rumours to start flowing. The current crop of rumours suggests that the baseline Galaxy S26 will feature a slightly larger screen (6.27 inches compared to the Galaxy S25’s 6.2 inches) and a 4,300mAh battery, up from 4,000mAh in the current model.
Alex’s Quick Thoughts: Nothing terribly surprising here; phone screen sizes are creeping up across the board, and a larger battery would probably be welcome, though as I’ve noted in the past in many reviews, more capacity might just hide worse battery performance rather than leading to extra hours of usage.
I wasn’t able to get the Galaxy S25 in for review this year (I did ask, Samsung didn’t seem keen), so all I’ve reviewed of this year’s crop was the Galaxy S25 Ultra, a review you can read here. Spoiler: I rather liked it.
Yes, I’m experimenting with a format. Let me know your thoughts below!
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