Tech News, Without The Hype

DJI's second 360 camera is in Australian stores this week. The Standard Combo is A$899 and the Adventure Combo is A$1,079, which puts it about A$150 under Insta360's X6.

HTC's camera glasses went on sale in Australia on 14 September at A$799, through Vive's own store and selected Harvey Norman stores. Two years of the AI subscription is included, then it costs extra.

Sony has added three party speakers to its ULT range. The ULT Tower 5 is A$549, the Tower 7 is A$799 and the flagship Tower Max is A$1,999, and Sony says all three are available now.

The 2026 Zenbook 14 is on sale in Australia in its Snapdragon X version at A$2,099. Asus quotes anywhere from 21 to 33 hours of battery across the range, and the model you can buy today sits at the low end of that.

Amazon Australia has locked in its spring sale, and it's a week long here: 29 September to 5 October. The US gets two days on 6 and 7 October. Prime membership is required.

Valve opened Steam Frame reservations at 3am Tuesday our time. The 256GB headset is A$1,609 and the 1TB is A$1,969, Australia ships direct from Steam, and the power supply is a separate A$49.

Everyone was watching the folding one. Meanwhile the iPhone 17 went from A$1,399 to A$1,549 on Apple's Australian store and the 17e went from A$999 to A$1,149, with no announcement of any kind.

The iPhone 18 Pro is A$2,099 and the Pro Max is A$2,299, both A$100 more than last year. Pre-orders open 10pm Saturday 12 September and phones land Friday 18 September. The main camera gets a variable aperture, the A20 Pro is a 2nm chip, and there's no standard iPhone 18 at all.

Apple's first foldable is the iPhone Duo: a 5.4 inch phone that opens into a 7.6 inch screen, titanium, IP68, two batteries, Touch ID instead of Face ID, and A$3,499 to start. Pre-orders open 16 October and it ships 23 October, more than a month after the Pro phones.

Both new Apple Watches get a new heart sensor and an S11 chip that reads your heart rate every five seconds, plus a daily readiness number. Series 12 starts at A$649, Ultra 4 at A$1,349, pre-orders are open now and they're in stores Friday 18 September.

AirPods 5 are A$219, or A$249 with the wireless charging case, and every model now has Active Noise Cancellation. Apple says they block up to 50 per cent more noise than the AirPods 4 with ANC. Pre-orders are open, in stores Friday 18 September.

iOS 27 is a free update on Tuesday 15 September in Australia. It brings the rebuilt Siri AI as a beta, new parental controls, and a footnote that says the cloud AI features have daily usage limits, with paid access coming later.

Corsair's TC80 is a A$279 fabric gaming chair that joins the TC100 and TC500 in its range. Corsair's whole pitch is the 30-odd durability tests it's been through, including 100,000 drops of a 57kg weight on the seat. It's on sale now, black only, two-year warranty.

Xiaomi's 18 Fold is a wide, short foldable running Xiaomi's own Xring O3 chip, with a 6,000mAh battery and Leica cameras, from 10,999 yuan in China. It goes on sale there on 10 September. There is no Australian date or price.

Dyson's first toothbrush has a tiny camera in the head that spots the gaps between your teeth and fires a jet of mouthrinse into them while you brush. It is listed at $799 on Dyson Australia and already showing out of stock.

Nintendo Australia's price rise on the Switch 2 took effect on 1 September. The console has gone from $699.95 to $769.95. New Zealand copped a bigger jump, and the original Switch is unchanged.

Samsung announced a new entry-level 14-inch Galaxy Book6 on 1 September. It starts at US$799 and £799, claims 25 hours of video playback, and is the first Galaxy Book in a Violet Silver colour. No Australian price or date yet.

Acer announced the Predator Atlas 7 at IFA in Berlin on 2 September. It shrinks the 8-inch Atlas down to 7 inches, keeps the Intel Arc G3 chips and an 80Wh battery, and arrives in Europe in November. Australia and pricing are unconfirmed.

Apple has confirmed its September event for 10am Pacific on 9 September, which is 3am on Thursday 10 September in Queensland. The date is the only thing Apple has actually said. Everything else is rumour, and there is a lot of it.

Sonos has renamed its software Sonos 27 and is pushing it to every S2 speaker as a free update from 8 September. Portable speakers become rear surrounds, and outside AI assistants can control the system.

Sonos announced the Beam Ultra soundbar and Ace Ultra headphones on 1 September. Both land in Australia on 29 September, and the Beam finally gets real upward-firing speakers.

Samsung announced the Galaxy S26 FE overnight and Samsung Australia has already put local prices on it. It starts at $1,149 on 4 September, fifty dollars more than the S25 FE, and most of the hardware carries straight over from last year.

Apple has put its first 2 nanometre chip in the Mac mini and confirmed Australian pricing at A$1,449. Less than two years ago the same machine started at A$999, and both of those numbers come from Apple's own Australian newsroom.

The Mac Studio now runs M5 Max or M5 Ultra, Apple's first four-die chip. Australian pricing starts at A$4,299 for the Max and A$9,499 for the Ultra, and the 512GB memory configuration does not ship until late October.

Both the earbuds and the charging case have batteries you can swap out with a screwdriver that comes in the box. They ship on 3 September at 299.95 US dollars, and Australian pricing is being reported at two different numbers.

The OpenRun Air 2 is a smaller, lighter bone-conduction headset at 129.95 US dollars. The OpenFit Air 2 is the lightest ear-hook bud Shokz has made. Neither is on the Australian site yet.

Roborock has stood up an Australian site for its robot mower range, running from a small-yard model up to a four-wheel-drive machine that handles 5,000 square metres a day. The Australian prices doing the rounds are not on Roborock's own pages.

A see-through limited edition of the ROG Xbox Ally X with a new OLED panel, sold on its own at 1,299 US dollars or in a collector bundle with AR glasses at 2,499. Australian pricing is being listed but I could not confirm it on ASUS's own pages.

Garmin launched the fenix 9 and fenix 9 Pro overnight. The Pro is the first fenix with a titanium case, satellite messaging now comes in all three sizes, and Garmin has only confirmed US pricing so far.

Insta360's new flagship 360 camera went on sale 12 August with 1-inch equivalent sensors, 8K50fps capture and an AI editor that cuts your footage while the camera charges. It starts at US$699.99, a step up from the X5.

DJI launched its second-generation 360 camera in China the day after Insta360's X6 went on sale worldwide. Reported specs have it ahead on paper and under on price, but there is no global date and nothing confirmed for Australia.

Six USB-C ports, 240 watts, and a colour screen that shows the live wattage on every port. Satechi's biggest ChargeView yet costs US$149.99, with no confirmed Australian price.

The Pixel 11 range is on sale in Australia from today, 20 August, and the local pricing question from launch week is now settled. The range runs from $1,499 to $3,349, and the telco discounts are doing the heavy lifting.

SoundPeats has brought its UU2 open-ear clip earbuds to Australia as part of an international rollout that started 10 August. US$49.99 list, LDAC on the spec sheet, and available here while CMF's rival clip still is not.

Google announced the Pixel 11, 11 Pro and 11 Pro XL at Made by Google on 12 August. New Tensor G6 chip, a camera bar that is 40 per cent thinner, and every single model now starts at 256GB. On shelves 20 August.

A gearless hinge, a glass fibre composite back and ceramic cover glass. Google is making durability the whole pitch on its new foldable, which tells you what it thinks the problem has been.

Google's new watch adds Breathing Emergency Detection, blood pressure trends and insulin resistance tracking. Read the fine print though, because the headline feature launches in Europe first and a lot of the rest is still coming soon.

Stainless steel, a year of battery, a built-in speaker and the Find Hub network behind it. US$29 for one or US$99 for four. The catch is that it does not go on sale until 11 November.

The immersive audio Bose kept locked in the Ultra range for three years is now in the standard QuietComfort. New design, better noise cancelling for glasses wearers, and lossless over USB-C. Shipping from today.

Clip-on open-ear buds with Hi-Res Audio, LDAC and 32.5 hours of battery for US$99. On sale 15 August in the UK, US and Japan. Everywhere else waits until September, and Australia has not been named.

A motorised camera on a titanium arm that pops out of the back, deploys in under a second and tracks you around the room. It launched in China today. Whether it ever reaches Australia is a different question.