Snap unveils £1,995 SPEC smart glasses, SpaceX overtakes Amazon in valuation

Snapchat’s parent company, Snap Inc., has unveiled its new augmented reality (AR) smart glasses, a decade after its original hardware push resulted in significant financial losses. Unveiled by chief executive Evan Spiegel at the Augmented World Expo in California, the eyewear, named SPECS, represents a strategic move toward standalone wearable technology. Priced at £1,995 in the UK and $2,195 in the US, pre-orders have opened with a $200 refundable deposit ahead of shipping this autumn. SPECS feature see-through lenses powered by an AI assistant and dual Snapdragon processors, allowing users to play AR games, get directions, watch videos, and overlay digital elements onto the physical world. Tech Digest

SpaceX has overtaken Amazon to become the world’s fifth most valuable company days after its stock market debut. The milestone came as Elon Musk’s company agreed to buy the startup behind the AI-powered coding app Cursor for $60bn (£44bn), in an attempt to capitalise on the technology’s success as a coding tool. SpaceX is the parent of Musk’s AI business, xAI, which will be able to boost its capabilities in an area – AI systems writing code – that has proven to be a strong commercial success for Anthropic, the rival company behind the Claude chatbot. The Guardian 

Roblox has revealed new safety measures, just as the government announces it will ban under-16s from social media and potentially some gaming platforms… like Roblox.  The company insists its new measures are simply a response to feedback that “Roblox was complicated” and are not an attempt to avoid being banned in the UK or elsewhere. The new accounts are rolling out globally today and were first announced in April. But the timing is, for Roblox, a happy coincidence – one we have seen repeatedly of late. Sky News

At last, Sonos is making some real progress fixing its mobile app. A major refresh is due this week, which should make it a lot more intuitive to use. If you’re late to the party, let us fill you in. Back in April 2024, Sonos redesigned its app to coincide with the launch of the Ace, its first pair of wireless headphones. It was a disaster – the new app was buggy, and lacked a lot of the old one’s features. (It didn’t help that the headphones weren’t much cop either.) WhatHiFi

Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) will keep building petrol-powered Range Rovers and bet big on the US in a further retreat from its plans to roll out electric cars. The British company said it would focus on “propulsion flexibility” as part of a strategy rethink under PB Balaji, its new boss. Mr Balaji stressed there was “no way” JLR would phase out petrol vehicles because they remained popular in the US and the Middle East, although Jaguar would still be an all-electric brand. Telegraph 

Microsoft is launching the new Surface Pro and Surface Laptop, now powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X2 chips. The Surface Pro 13″ comes in Platinum, Black, and Dune colorways, and the company says it “combines the flexibility of a tablet with the capability of full Windows”.

It starts at $1,499 and uses the Snapdragon X2 Plus (10 Core) or Snapdragon X2 Elite (12 Core). It has a 13-inch touchscreen (optionally OLED) with up to 120Hz refresh rate, 16 to 64GB of RAM, 256GB to 1TB of storage, Wi-Fi 7, and battery life is rated at up to 15.5 hours of local video playback. If you max everything out the price reaches an uncanny $3,549. GSM Arena