ICYMI: the week’s 7 biggest tech stories from Samsung’s XR headset reveal to Apple’s 17 favorite App Store apps

Welcome, folks, to a week that has included some of the biggest announcements we might see before CES 2025, in what was an uncharacteristically busy few days so close to the holidays.

Samsung dropped a buzzer-beating announcement to keep its promise we’d find out about its XR tech “this year,” Apple Intelligence finally dropped its most-hyped features, and the Nintendo Switch 2 possibly broke cover. Phew!

To help you get all caught up, scroll down for our picks of the seven biggest tech news stories of the week. Once you’ve recapped the news, why not check out our picks for the seven new movies and TV shows to watch this weekend (December 13).

7. Sony’s PlayStation Wrap-Up broke day one

It’s the end of the year and that means Spotify Wrapped clones for everything – not just your music. PlayStation got in on the action with its own gaming Wrap-Up, but either because it was too popular or due to some glitch it was down for a while after launch.

Thankfully it’s back up now, so you can finally head to the official PlayStation Wrap-Up 2024 page to see your stats – I apparently played nearly 200 hours of Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth in my hunt for the Platinum Trophy, and over 50 hours just of Balatro, TechRadar’s Game of the Year.

6. We celebrated the lighter side of (wild) life

From more than 9,000 images 45 finalists were shortlisted for this year’s Nikon Comedy Wildlife Awards 2024, with Italian photographer Milko Marchetti scooping the top award for a hilarious image of a squirrel looking like it’s stuck head-first in a tree.

Every image is an inspiring look at what artists can achieve with the best cameras on the market, and some creativity.

A free exhibition is happening from 11-15 December in the Gallery@Oxo in London, but if you can’t make it, all of 2024’s finalists can be seen on the Nikon Comedy Wildlife Awards website.

5. We saw the Switch 2, maybe

The Nintendo Switch 2 is one of tech most poorly kept secrets. The follow up to the hugely popular Nintendo console has been the subject of multiple leaks over the past few months, and we might now have our first glimpse of it thanks to a now-deleted trailer from third-party accessory manufacturer Satisfye.

The video was for the Zengrip 2 specifically, and the trailer for the add-on seemingly showed us a blurry Nintendo Switch 2 model which highlighted a similar overall design to the original but with the rumored extra button which has been teased.

There are questions around whether this leak is legitimate or merely a way to stoke up hype for a Nintendo Switch grip, but with a release date announcement for the Switch 2 possible before the end of 2024, even, we might not have long to wait before we see the console for real.

4. Apple crowned the 17 best App Store apps

Following Google’s recent announcement of the best Android apps of…