Our pick of the month’s smartest tech
…a step forward for virtual reality
Oh look… another VR headset. While it would be easy to brush this off as yet another company trying to make VR usable, this one comes from Meta, the company that used to be Facebook before it spent billions rebranding itself as the leading light of virtual universes. The pricey £1,499 headset is thinner than the Meta Quest 2 headset and comes with smarter controllers. In terms of visuals, processing power and the overall spec sheet, this is the most powerful VR headset yet. Maybe this can finally resolve the trainwreck that is the Metaverse…
Meta Quest Pro £1,499, meta.com
Meta’s new headset aims to improve your ability to interact with VR environments 
…a tech-heavy sleep mask
Therabody has released the SmartGoggles in the hope of breaking into the booming sleep tech industry. Essentially, it’s an eye mask, but the £174 price tag gets you more than just something to block out light. It uses customised patterns of heat and vibration to lower your heart rate, reduce headaches and give gentle massages to help you sleep more comfortably… provided you can ignore the giant headset strapped to your face.
Therabody SmartGoggles £174, therabody.com
…a remote control for earbuds
It’s always nice to see a tech company try something new – even if it doesn’t always work. JBL’s new earphones take a unique approach to their controls by incorporating a touchscreen into the charging case. It can be used to change songs, send messages, answer calls and check the time. It’s by no means a revolutionary feature, but it is one that prioritises function over style – a big move to make in the world of tech.
JBL Pro Tour 2 Earbuds $250 (£TBC), jbl.com
…a truly immersive gaming chair
The ‘ultimate immersive entertainment experience’. That’s how Cooler Master describes its new gaming chair. Hyperbole aside, the chair creates haptic feedback by using sound waves to translate the audio of a game or movie into vibrations. The recoil of a gunshot, the cheers of a crowd in an intense game on FIFA, or even the gentle rumble of a tractor in Farming Simulator – we won’t judge your gaming choices here.
Synk X Haptic chair £TBC, coolermaster.com
…a smartwatch for adventurers
In typical Apple style, the new Watch Ultra is over-the-top, stylish and expensive. At £849, this massive device is not for the average person. It’s made for adrenaline junkies who need a watch that can be hit repeatedly as they climb mountains, dive off cliffs and perform other insane feats. The battery is huge and it can track a whole host of metrics, including your ovulation cycle and blood oxygen levels because… why not?
Apple Watch Ultra £849, apple.com
IDEAS WE DON’T LIKE…
…SWITCHING OFF AND DOWNGRADING
The Simple Phone does exactly what it says on the tin – it keeps things simple. Instead of an Android OS running apps like Gmail, Photos and Chrome, you get Simple’s own ‘SimpleOS’, which includes the key features like calls and texts, a calendar, clock, camera and music player. In some ways this is a nice idea – removing the distractions of the online world – but it does mean you’re paying €399 for what is essentially an outdated smartphone. With a four-year-old processor, dated design, low-resolution display and an unspecified version of Wi-Fi, you’d be much better off just deleting the apps you don’t want from your existing smartphone.
Simple Phone €399 (£340 approx), simplephone.tech
…YET ANOTHER CREEPY ROBOT
We’ve all seen the videos of robots backflipping, laughing like a human and generally acting as nightmare fuel. But now, there’s a new robot to kickstart your fight or flight response. This one’s from the mind of Elon Musk: the man making flamethrowers, brain chips and rockets to go to Mars. While Musk sees the Tesla Bot eventually taking over human jobs and implanting into society, based on the first impressions of robotics and AI specialists, the Tesla Bot has a lot of catching up to do before it can even be seen as competitive.
Tesla Bot $20,000, tesla.com
