Amazon is bringing a couple of updated versions of its outdoor Ring security cameras to Australia, claiming sharper video quality at a more affordable price.
While it’s not quite at the low price point of Amazon’s budget Blink range of security gear, the 2nd Gen versions of the $279 Ring Spotlight Camera and $329 Floodlight Camera compete closely with other mid-range smart home security cameras.
Previous versions of these cameras recorded 1080p footage, while the new models use what Ring calls “Retinal 2K” quality. Retinal refers to the brand’s clearer video quality, first introduced with its 4K cameras last year. In addition to the boost in resolution, it’s also meant to improve low-light visibility.
As the names of the latest cameras suggest, seeing in the dark is something of a speciality. On the 2nd Gen Ring Spotlight Camera is a 550-lumen light to help brighten up dark areas. Meanwhile, the new Floodlight Camera goes even brighter, with its built-in floodlights rated at 2,000 lumens. Aside from increasing visibility at night, the lights also act as a deterrent to would-be intruders.
Both cameras have a field of view spanning 140 degrees horizontally and 85 degrees vertically. Each one uses Wi-Fi 4 technology, only supporting the 2.4GHz network band. Although more smart devices are starting to support 5GHz bands these days, 2.4GHz is still widely used due to its increased range.
Like most floodlight security cameras, the 2nd Gen Ring Floodlight Camera relies on a wired connection. On the upside, it means ongoing power without worrying about battery life, and support for continuous recording, which requires an add-on purchase with a Ring Protect subscription. The less power-hungry Spotlight Camera is available in a few other configurations, including battery, wired, and a plug-in model.
Apple has switched on its free Apple Sports app for Australian iPhone users, part of a global rollout that adds the app to more than 90 new countries and regions.
The app, which serves up real-time scores, live stats and play-by-play tracking, is now available in over 170 countries around the world. The Australian launch arrives alongside a fresh set of features built for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, which kicks off in just over a month across the United States, Canada and Mexico.
A customisable home for live scores
Apple is positioning the app as a second-screen companion for live sport. Fans choose their teams, tournaments and leagues during setup, and the Home screen scoreboard arranges fixtures in the order they want. The layout remains focused on the action, with scores ticking over as games unfold.
Customisation runs deeper than just team selection. Users can prioritise how leagues and tournaments appear, follow an entire competition instead of a single side, and reorder the scoreboard to put their most-watched events up the top.
Scorecards, favourite teams and more can be found in the Apple Sports app. Credit: Apple
New features for the 2026 FIFA World Cup
For the World Cup, Apple has added a tournament bracket view. The scrollable layout shows matchups and results for every round, letting users follow their team from the group stage through to the final without flicking between schedules.
Game cards have also been redesigned. Each match shows visual starting lineups with on-field formations, giving viewers a quick read on tactics before kickoff.
A new One-Tap to Apple News feature sends fans straight to editorial coverage from inside Apple Sports, including World Cup announcements and post-match analysis. So it’s more like one-stop hub for fans who would rather not bounce between sources.
Available now
Apple’s Sports app announcement is just in time for the build-up to the World Cup, the next major event on the global sporting agenda. It’s great that Australian fans now have a place to track scores on their iPhones, with no ads, no subscription and no sign-in barrier.
There’s also an Apple Sports widget for Macs, iPads and iPhones. Source: Apple
Apple Sports is available now as a free download from the App Store. Users who already have the app installed will see the new World Cup features and expanded country coverage land via an update.
Ten years on from the original MDR-1000X, Sony has decided the anniversary calls for something a bit more indulgent. Enter 1000X THE COLLEXION, a new premium addition to the 1000X line that sits alongside, rather than replaces, the WH-1000XM6 that landed earlier this year.
At the press event, Sony was clear that the 1000X isn’t replacing the M6, which is already a favourite. This is a parallel option for those who want their listening experience to feel more like a special occasion.
It will set you back $999.95 AUD, available now in Platinum and Black.
Built to be touched
When trying them out, one of the first things I noticed was the headband design. Beyond the thick cushion, Sony has gone with hand-finished metal: a matte, sandblasted body offset by gloss edges, with each piece actually hand-polished by a craftsperson. It’s the sort of detail you’d expect on a watch, not a set of headphones.
The earcups and headband padding are wrapped in a soft faux leather that apparently took Sony two years to develop. Sony says this is more pliable and more sustainable than the real thing, and it feels the part, with a supple, warm texture that’s more forgiving than the M6’s finish. The earcups are bigger too, and the headband cushion is wider, both aimed at spreading weight more evenly for long sessions, and long flights.
I also noticed that the buttons and mic openings are integrated cleanly into the metalwork, so there’s none of the visual clutter you sometimes find on premium headphones, which can look a bit overdone.
Credit: Sony
What’s new under the hood
THE COLLEXION gets a bespoke driver, a high-rigidity dome made from unidirectional carbon composite with a soft edge, which Sony says delivers cleaner separation between instruments, more detail at the top end and a wider soundstage.
Tuning was handled in collaboration with a handful of GRAMMY-winning and nominated mastering engineers out of the US. The deliberate brief, Sony says, was to avoid imposing a ‘house sound’ and instead stay faithful to what the artist intended. We’ll be putting that claim through its paces in our full GadgetGuy review.
THE COLLEXION is also the first Sony headphone to ship with DSEE Ultimate, which uses Edge-AI to upscale compressed music in real time, restoring detail and dynamic range that the source is lacking. The model has been trained on Sony Music’s library using millions of samples.
Credit: Sony
360 Reality Audio Upmix gets a workout too, expanding to three modes (Music, Cinema and Game) accessed via a dedicated Listening Mode button on the cup. The idea is the same big-room spatial effect across all three, just tuned for the content you’re pointed at.
Familiar 1000X strengths
The active noise cancelling (ANC) is the same setup as the M6, with 12 microphones feeding Sony’s Multi-Noise Sensor tech and the Adaptive NC Optimizer, plus real-time analysis adjusting to whatever environment you’ve walked into. Call quality, app support via Sound Connect, and the 24-hour battery (with a five-minute top-up good for three hours) all carry across as well. Ear pads remain user-replaceable.
Credit: Sony
On the sustainability side, around 25% of the plastic in the product is recycled, and the packaging is plastic-free, using Sony’s sugarcane-bamboo paper mix. The carry case has been designed with accessibility in mind too, with a magnetic closure, like the M6’s case, that’s easier to open than a zipper.
<h2>And a new colour for the M6</h2>
Alongside THE COLLEXION, Sony has added a fifth colour to the WH-1000XM6 range. Sandstone joins the existing four, with the same audio performance as the rest of the line, just a warmer, more neutral finish for those who’d rather not pick between black and silver. RRP is $699.95 AUD, available now.
First impressions
Credit: Sony
Overall, the 1000X THE COLLEXION builds on an already well-proven and excellent M6 platform. Only these ones are luxurious, in terms of texture, feel and finish. That extends to the case, too, which has a more considered, almost bag-like feel in the hand, and I like the hole in the middle. On my head, they’re more comfortable and padded than the M6s that I usually wear. They really do lift the experience for those who want to feel just a little bit special when kicking back and visiting old vinyl friends, or simply winding down to a favourite flick. A full GadgetGuy review, including how they actually sound, is coming soon.
It feels like 5G hasn’t been around all that long. When you think of how long we’ve been texting and making phone calls, 2019 is a short seven years ago. Technology doesn’t stand still, however, which is why Telstra is working with Ericsson to prepare for 6G connectivity.
Announced overnight, the partnership between Australia’s biggest telco and the Swedish networking company sees the duo intending to work together on the future of connectivity. Both parties will spend time split across Sweden and the Gold Coast to research and test 6G technology as part of an information-sharing agreement.
By testing the latest technologies in different regions, the telcos hope to assess how 6G works based on various factors. Telstra and Ericsson previously worked together on 5G technology, with the newly inked partnership the latest in a long-running relationship between the pair.
In announcing the 6G collaboration, both companies referred to the technology as “AI-native”. Neither telco elaborated on the specifics, but it appears to relate to how AI is built into the network from the ground up.
“6G will redefine what a network fundamentally is – not just an AI-native technology platform, but a platform that senses, adapts and orchestrates resources to deliver outcomes for enterprises and society at scale; simply an intelligent fabric,” said Erik Ekudden, Ericsson Chief Technology Officer.
Shailin Sehgal, Telstra’s Group Executive of Global Networks and Technology, claimed that “6G will be the most intelligent network yet”, with the “ability to sense the environment around the network”.
“[This] opens the potential for new use cases for public safety, agriculture, weather detection and more,” Sehgal said.
There’s no set timeline at this stage for when to expect 6G as a publicly available technology. Considering it’s still in the research and development stage, expect it to be a while away.
HP is the latest computer maker to launch its Intel Core Ultra Series 3 range of PCs in Australia, predominantly focusing on faster processing speeds and better overall performance.
Design-wise, HP’s new range doesn’t reinvent the wheel. Its laptops continue with the tried-and-true clamshell form factor, without adding any new bells and whistles. Most of this year’s changes are on the inside, with the PCs sporting faster chipsets and the latest graphics cards.
On the laptop front, a new HP OmniBook Ultra 14 is the flagship device. With a 3K OLED display on the outside, the inside houses up to an Intel Core Ultra 9 processor with integrated graphics, 64GB of LPDDR5X memory, and a 2TB SSD. HP claims that the laptop’s 70Wh battery lasts up to 30 hours on a single charge.
In Australia, the 2026 HP OmniBook Ultra 14 starts at $4,499 for the base configuration. Alongside it is the HP OmniStudio X 27, a 27-inch all-in-one desktop PC that comes with a wireless keyboard and mouse, making it a ready-to-go PC out of the box.
HP’s OmniStation includes ports aplenty. Image: HP.
Equipped with an Intel Core Ultra 5 processor, Intel Arc Graphics, 32GB of DDR5 memory, and a 512GB SSD, the desktop PC costs $2,999 locally. You can even spec it out with an Nvidia RTX 5050 GPU if you want a bit more graphical grunt. Its 27-inch IPS display supports a 120Hz refresh rate, with a 2560 x 1440 resolution. You also get a fair selection of ports, including two Thunderbolt 4, four USB-A, one HDMI 2.0, one audio jack, and an RJ-45 port.
Also joining the 2026 HP range are the work-focused ZBook X G2i and Flip models, as well as various HyperX Omen gaming PCs. HP’s latest PCs are starting to arrive in Australia now.
With ‘pet’ in the name, there’s little surprise as to what the new Tineco Pure One Station A70s Pet vacuum is made for. It’s one of three new stick vacuums recently launched by Tineco in Australia, with powerful suction and long-lasting batteries a common theme throughout.
Tineco is usually known for its wet-dry vacuums — the S9 Artist Steam is a particular favourite — so the recent launch serves as a reminder that its appliances clean carpets as well as hard floors. Alongside the $1,299 Pure One Station A70s Pet, are the $1,099 P50 Pro and $699 P30 Pro models, all three of which feature 200 airwatts of suction power.
Another common thread between the vacuums is the use of Tineco’s “ZeroTangle Brush with Clogless System”, which is designed to untangle hair as it gets vacuumed, straightening it out to avoid getting stuck in the brush.
The P50 Pro can fold to reach under tables. Image: Tineco.
Both the P50 Pro and P30 Pro vacuums include a 180-degree foldable tube design. Instead of needing to bend down to reach under furniture, it’s designed to help you get into tough-to-reach spots. The P50 Pro has an estimated battery life of up to 95 minutes while using ‘Eco Mode’, while the P30 Pro lasts up to 65 minutes on a single charge.
Positioned as the top model of the new range, the Pure One Station A70s Pet lasts up to 100 minutes. It doesn’t have the same 180-degree foldable design as the P50 or P30 models, but it does have a fully automated self-cleaning system. Included with the vacuum is an auto-empty docking station that empties the vacuum’s dustbin and cleans the appliance’s internals.
Each model is available in Australia now via Tineco’s online storefront and various vacuum cleaning retailers throughout the country.
How long has it been since you’ve upgraded your printer? Many older printers rely on cartridge refills, regardless of whether they’re of the inkjet or laser variety. Over time, they add up in cost, plus there’s the environmental element associated with disposing of used cartridges. In recent years, Epson has moved towards a format it calls ‘EcoTank’, and now it has a new range of printers out in Australia.
A bit different to your printer of 10-plus years, Epson’s EcoTank printers don’t rely on disposable cartridges to top up ink levels. Instead, you buy a bottle of ink and use it to fill up a printer compartment. Epson claims that this is cheaper, and you also get more ink per refill.
To use Officeworks as an example, a $28 black ink cartridge for the Epson WorkForce range is good for roughly 350 sheets. Conversely, a $17 EcoTank ink bottle should last up to 4,500 pages. These estimates vary depending on various factors, like printing frequency, but that’s still a big difference.
Three new Epson EcoTank models are out now in Australia: the ET-1910, plus the ET-2910 and ET-2911 — the only difference between the latter two is either a white or black printer colour. The $299 ET-1910 is solely for printing, while the $399 ET-2910 and ET-2911 let you copy and scan too.
Aimed at home offices and small businesses, all three printers support Wi-Fi connectivity, so it doesn’t matter where you put them. Plus, you can also print directly from your phone using Apple AirPrint.
These printers might cost a bit more upfront than budget inkjet alternatives, but if you do lots of printing, you’ll likely save on ink over time. It’s an appealing proposition; no unnecessary subscriptions or fiddling around, just a bunch of printers designed to be economical.
