What did we miss?

The light blinded me as I climbed out of my cave. For many, time essentially stopped around March and didn’t restart until their very last exam. I was one of those people, and until a few hours ago I was convinced that nothing happened in the world of tech for the past three months.

Holy crap was I wrong....

And so were you, probably. Here’s an update on everything you’ve missed if you’ve just emerged from the darkest, gloomiest corners of the library.

In complete antithesis to all the math and thinking that’s behind us we’re going to do this in no particular order at all.

OnePlus 6 Event:

Let’s turn this into a bit of an op-ed piece for a second – I’m no fan of notches. I like my bezels uniform and symmetrical. Despite my gripe with some aspects of the flagship’s appearance, OnePlus has put together a respectable phone on paper with a price tag that yet again undercuts most competition. If it ain’t broke don’t try to fix it.

Introduced alongside their phone was a pair of Bluetooth earbuds for just £69 – I for one welcome this as any competition to Apple’s costly offering means a potential increase in Bluetooth adoption and helps stifle any (righteous, for now but not for much longer I hope) criticism that customers shouldn’t have to pick between an obsolete solution (the jack) and a subpar one (Bluetooth). Thankfully, Oneplus kept the headphone jack too.

Apple’s WWDC:

Well, it’s Apple we’re talking about, so let me guess – they rendered a few old iPhones obsolete, added another camera on the back of the iPhone 8S, and introduced a couple more bugs into High Sierra? All wrong – Apple surprised everyone by announcing iOS 12 would not only be supported by all the iPhones featuring iOS 11, but also aim to fix the countless bugs that turn your phone into a paperweight should it try to display the wrong character.

“Apple is pushing improvements in usability, not new features”

We didn’t see the introduction of any iPhones or MacBooks at the conference. Instead, Tim Cook and co. announced MacOS Mojave which brings a true dark mode but, more importantly, a complete revolution in how you use your desktop.

If you’re anything like me, you treat your desktop the way you would a serial killer in your room – keep your distance, throw stuff at it, and most importantly don’t make any direct eye contact. With Mojave, a feature known as sets will attempt to organize your desktop by file type while a new viewing mode for finder will make scrolling through thousands of unwanted photos that much more fun.

If you ask me, I’m happy with the direction this year’s WWDC has taken. Both Apple’s mobile and desktop OS need not new features but rather improvements in usability and the ironing out of bugs. Microsoft, watch and learn.

E3???:

Oh right, E3 happened! Among the announcements was Naughty Dog’s guarantee that many more tears will be shed by console gamers this year – The Last of Us Part II is upon us.

Bethesda’s trailer for “Skyrim Very Special Edition” featuring a satirical introduction of Skyrim to a new platform – Amazon’s Alexa. Poking fun at their inclination to try earn money off the Skyrim brand in any way possible, the protagonist in the trailer plays a variation of Dungeons and Dragons with his Amazon Echo. I could complain about Bethesda for being, for the lack of a better term, woke, but I’m really just happy to see Keegan-Michael Key in a skit again.

Of course, within the past three months, countless startups have brought about their innovations and hundreds of other companies unveiled their exciting products like Asus’ laptop with a screen replacing the touchpad. Keeping tabs on the aforementioned trifecta of events should, however, spare you for some embarrassing ignorance in the next few days.