Winners and Losers: We’re heading into summer software update season with news about Apple and Google, but it’s a streaming stick and video game taking this week’s honours.
It’s been another huge week in tech, starting with some intriguing iPhone and iPad rumours. We learned that iPadOS may get more Mac-like later this year, thanks to a macOS-esque Menu bar automatically appearing when a Magic Keyboard is connected.
The same source reckons iOS 19 will enable iPhone owners to have far greater flexibility when connecting to external displays via USB-C. Reports say it’d be a Stage Manager-like experience that improves multitasking, rather than simply mirroring the iPhone’s display.
Sticking with Apple, another rumour suggested the iPhone 17 Air mightn’t be that much of a compromise after all. A trusted analyst believes Apple will equip the ultra-thin phone with the same 12GB of RAM as the Pro Max variant.
Sticking with 2025 ultra-slim phones, the Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge is reportedly just weeks away from a May launch and the price may be right.
Samsung is also reportedly paying Google an enormous sum to host the Gemini app on Galaxy S25 phones, while Gemini itself is set to come to Android Auto during Google I/O next month.
Sticking with Gemini, Google made perhaps its smartest feature free to Android users this week. Meanwhile, Pixel 7a owners might have the perfect excuse to upgrade to the Pixel 9a if their battery is swelling. Google’s attractive appeasement options for affected users, as part of a free repair program, include a healthy cash sum.
In the gaming realm, LG smart TVs are now Xbox consoles in the cloud, while YouTube TV’s best feature is getting much better to celebrate YouTube’s 20th birthday.
Now, it’s time to crown this week’s winners and losers.
Winner: Roku’s tiny streamers
I didn’t think I’d be putting the red rosette on Roku this week, but there’s something so eminently cute about Roku’s tiny new Streaming Stick range that makes us want to put it in our weekend bag, curl up in a hotel bed, plug it-in, order room service, and binge watch Netflix shows.
The new Streaming Stick and Streaming Stick Plus are 35% smaller than rivals’ sticks without compromising on performance. They’re also coming to the UK too, after a few years where Brits didn’t get updates. The Streaming Stick offers HD video and a voice enabled remote for £29.99, and the Stick Plus has 4K HDR video for just £10 more (£39.99). Better still they’re so efficient they can be powered by the USB out on most TVs rather than needing an adaptor, making it great for travel.
They replace replace the Roku Express and Roku Express 4K and also include more reliable Wi-Fi connections. That represents great value compared to models like the Google TV Streamer.
If that’s not enough to float your boat, the company also announced there’ll be projectors coming with the RokuOS smart TV interface on board. A press release spoke of “an all-new Roku TV Smart Projector reference design, available to all Roku TV partners.“ Colour us intrigued.
Loser: EA Sports FC 25
There are freemium games, which you get for free but have to pay for anything half decent and then there are premium games, which you pay for upfront. EA Sports FC 25 is the latter, but it is now offering paid Premium Passes to gamers who’ve already shelled out for the game. That’s not only bad form, it’s worse than Arsenal’s after a few injuries.
Gamers can pay for the Season 7 Pass for $9.99 (that’s 1,000 FC points) or in the in-game currency (50,000 Ultimate Team coins). For that they’ll get exclusive content, including team of the season (TOTS) cards and an Immortal Icon card (Franck Ribery) that can be used in Ultimate Team modes.
“This new premium tier is an additional ladder to the standard seasonal ladder available through FC Points and Football Ultimate Team Coins, and will include new tradable rewards, Player Items, Evolutions and more,” the EA Sports FC team writes in a blog post.
It just doesn’t feel right. Granted, EA Sports FC (like FIFA before it) is usually reduced to about £20/£30 by Christmas, but that’s more a result of the unnecessary annual release rather than doing the decent thing and just keeping the price high and updating the squads and kits every summer while it worked on worthwhile new features.
It breaks the established rules a little bit, especially when the Ultimate Team is heavily monetised and is tantamount to gambling. If EA Sports wants to go down this route then fair enough, just don’t be charging £70 for the game itself. Go the whole hog and make it free to play, like Fortnite.
