An Instagram iPad App, a New Motorola Razr, and Gemini's Latest—Here's Your Gear News of the Week
Plus: Nothing teases a new CMF smartphone, Specialized's latest mountain ebike starts at $8,000, and Teenage Engineering revamps its sampler. Photograph: MY24, Teenage Engineering; Getty Images
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An iPad Instagram app might be on the horizon. According to The Information, a Meta employee claims the long-asked-for app is finally in development, fueled by Meta's desire to ramp up user activity on Instagram as a whole.
Right now, Instagram is available on the iPad, but it's the iPhone version and is designed for smaller, narrower displays—so it doesn't take up the full screen. Images and Reels maintain the same aspect ratio, resulting in an awkward experience.
But the terrible user interface hasn't been enough for Instagram chief Adam Mosseri to green-light a version designed for the iPad. Still, Mosseri hasn't been quiet on the topic—despite past pleas, he's taken to posting on X multiple times over the last few years to explain that there's not a big enough group to make an Instagram iPad app a priority. But as TikTok's future remains unclear, Mosseri might have changed his tune.
As the report outlines, Instagram is using the looming ban as an opportunity to drive more users to its app. Before the short-lived ban in January, Instagram released an update centered solely on enhancements to Reels—its short-form video feature—to steer users from TikTok to its app. The company extended the maximum length of videos, changed the profile grid to a rectangular format (specifically a 4:5 aspect ratio), and launched a new video app called Edits (similar to CapCut from TikTok's parent company, ByteDance).
Instagram hasn't confirmed the iPad app's development, and so we don't have a release window. The TikTok ban has been extended for another 75 days, so keep your eyes peeled on the App Store. —Brenda Stolyar A New Razr Is on the Way
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Motorola has given us a date for the launch of the next Razr: April 24. This folding flip phone follows on the success of the Razr and Razr+ from 2024, and while the teaser video shows us a silhouette of a phone that looks identical (in multiple colors), the words 'AI' flash on the screen at the end. Motorola's Moto AI has been in beta since late 2024—it's an AI companion that can remember things about you, summarize notifications, and transcribe and summarize recordings. Maybe it'll finally come out of beta with the Razr 2025?
The Razr isn't the only phone Motorola announced this week. There's a new Moto G Stylus 2025, which retains the $399 price of its predecessor. It remains the only smartphone that comes with a stylus under $500, and Motorola is putting a little more emphasis on it this time around. You'll be able to turn basic sketches into AI-generated art, write down math problems and have them convert to text with the solution in tow, and you can even use it with Google's Circle to Search.
The Moto G Stylus is also IP68 water resistant now, is powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon 6 Gen 3 chipset, and still features a headphone jack, OLED 120-Hz screen, and wireless charging. It launches on April 17 for $399. Nothing's Next CMF Phone Is Almost Here
Last year, the CMF Phone 1 blew me away with its stellar performance and design—it outperformed several phones that cost more money, all while looking far more stylish. CMF is Nothing's sub-brand that focuses on affordable tech, and we're about to get a successor to the Phone 1 at the end of the month.
A teaser was posted on Nothing's Community forum, with video glimpses of the CMF Phone 2 Pro. The focus seems to be on the phone's build, with Nothing stating, 'Ultra-slim. Ultra-light. Ultra-sleek.' Nothing also highlighted a new finish that's textured. We'll be able to glean more details on April 28 at 9 am ET, where Nothing will also take the wraps off three new wireless earbuds: CMF Buds 2, Buds 2a, and Buds 2 Plus. Google's Gemini Live Gets a Video Upgrade Photograph: Julian Chokkattu
Got a Google Pixel 9 or Samsung Galaxy S25? If you're on Google's Gemini Advanced subscription, you now have a new perk: camera sharing with Gemini Live. Rolling out this week, this feature supposedly lets you have a free-flowing conversation with Gemini when it's in Gemini Live mode with your phone camera open. Gemini will be able to see everything you show it. That means you can ask it for a product's name by just pointing the camera at it, or ask for inspiration or ideas on how to redecorate your office.
This is powered by Google's Astra technology, which will soon be inside Google's smart glasses. If you don't want to use Gemini Live, you can also attach photos, files, and documents to the standard version of Gemini and ask questions about them. While the new live video function is rolling out to Pixel 9 and Galaxy S25 users now, it'll be broadly available to all Gemini Advanced subscribers on Android devices later on. Specialized Drops the S-Works Levo 4, Its Latest Electric Mountain Bike
If you like mountain biking but don't have the free time to get out and get as strong as you used to be, then it's time to get an electric mountain bike. It's been several years since Specialized updated its pedal-assist Levo line, so I'm excited to see the announcement of a full-power electric S-Works Levo 4 this week.
The new bike has a 720-watt S-Works motor with 111 Nm of torque, promising 27 percent more power than its predecessor, and the ability to haul you up much steeper, more technical climbs, with a huge 1,120-Wh onboard battery so that you don't find yourself stranded powerless in the middle of nowhere.
The bike also purports to offer much more refined power assist, so that you don't accidentally bike yourself into a tree on technical terrain, and there's even downtube storage inside the bike for easy access to the battery and an extra tube for your tires. It weighs about 52 pounds (23.6 kg), which, although not light, is comparable to its competitors like the Trek Slash. We're excited to take it out on some singletrack soon. —Adrienne So Sony's New Speakers Want to Get the Party Started
If you've ever felt your portable speaker has let you down in either bass or vibes, Sony's new party speakers are promising to deliver both, with a trio of newcomers joining the ULT Power Sound series—tagline: 'Maximum Bass. Ultimate Vibe.'
They are all quite different—starting with size. With its detachable shoulder strap and compact size, the ULT Field 3 is probably the kind of portable speaker you think of when you hear 'portable speaker,' and promises a powerful sound from the two-way active driver design. It'll last 24 hours and is IP67 rated.
The ULT Field 5 is a bigger speaker that stands upright and has the ability to access two different kinds of bass boost for more low-end wobble. It has the addition of Sony's 360° Party Lights, and 25 hours of battery life, plus it's IP66 rated for outside play. Both the ULT Field 3 and Field 5 are additionally salt-water resistant, making them a safe option for beach parties.
The ULT Tower 9, on the other hand, is the kind of portable speaker I imagine you might own if you really disliked your neighbors. This enormous speaker is officially portable because it comes with wheels and a handle, but that is the beginning and end of its portability. Wheeling it much further than your garden feels unlikely, but it has karaoke and guitar inputs for turning the party up to 11 and more volume than most people will know what to do with. The speakers will cost $200, $320, and $900 respectively, and are available now. —Verity Burns Teenage Engineering's Sampler Gets a Winning Update
One thing that's a rarity in the world of portable music-making gear is proper software updates. That changes with Teenage Engineering's K.O. II sampler. The company, a purveyor of gorgeous music-making tools for creative nerds, has dropped a big software update for its sampler that offers owners and new buyers cool new features.
You can now resample things for remixing, chop sounds up, and side-chain your beats for more pump-y mixes, among even larger changes to the playback engine. Folks who want to make more use of playing stuff first and putting it together later will enjoy that you can now arrange tracks of up to 9,801 bars, and will enjoy that there is increased polyphony (the number of samples you can play at once) and better MIDI support for live performances with a laptop and DAW.
That's … a lot of changes for a $299 sampler and portable recorder that looks like a calculator from the 1980s. If TE supports its affordable products this well after launch, it makes us want to keep buying. —Parker Hall Photograph: Teenage Engineering
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