Technology

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Sony has announced a surprise PlayStation 5 Technical Presentation where it will likely unveil the first official look at its next major console, the long-rumoured PlayStation 5 Pro. 

To get ready for the broadcast, here’s everything you need to know about the upcoming broadcast, including when and where to watch, as well as what we can expect from the showcase.

Start Time

The PlayStation 5 Technical Presentation is scheduled to broadcast later today on September 10 at 8:00am PT / 11:00am ET / 4:00pm BST.

Where to watch?

If you’re looking to watch the PlayStation 5 Technical Presentation live, you’ll be able to tune in to the PlayStation YouTube channel or the PlayStation Twitch channel. 

As with most industry broadcasts, there will likely be a pre-requisite countdown timer leading up to the actual event, just in case some viewers are late tuning in.

What to expect

Sony has confirmed that the PlayStation 5 Technical Presentation will be a 9-minute livestream and be hosted by Mark Cerny, Lead Architect of the PlayStation 5, and will  “focus on PS5 and innovations in gaming technology”.

Although there’s no confirmation at this time, there strong reason to believe that Sony will finally reveal the PS5 Pro, a more powerful and technically advanced version of its 2020 console. 

Rumours about the console have been stacking up for months. More recently, it was reported by industry insider Jeff Grubb that the PS5 Pro could be released over the Holiday season - likely between October and December - and could potentially cost between $600 and $700.

Grubb also predicted that the official console unveiling would arrive in September, like during a State of Play livestream, but the latest PlayStation 5 Technical Presentation announcement seems the most likely.

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The launch underscores the progress made in the foldable phones subcategory.

Squarespace could be about to go private as a looming Permira deal could see the acquisition of the website builder platform become better aligned to take on industry giants GoDaddy and Wix.

The British investment firm has agreed to increase its offer in a nod to its confidence in the company – the deal could be worth $7.2 billion.

Permira’s revised deal sees it offering $46.50 per share in cash to Squarespace stockholders, up from the $44 offered in May 2024, equating to a deal that would have been worth $6.9 billion.

Squarespace offered $0.3 billion in added valuation

Permira’s revised offer comes in response to advice taken by Squarespace investors not to accept the proposed deal. Proxy advisory firm Institutional Shareholder Services suggested the sale process would not offer the best value to shareholders in light of the company’s strong performance.

In its most recent quarter, Squarespace grew revenue by a staggering 20% to $296.8 million. Prior to that, quarterly growth stood at an equally strong 19%.

Michael Fleisher, Chairman of the Special Committee of the Squarespace Board of Directors, commented on the deal: "Our core focus has been maximizing value and certainty for the unaffiliated stockholders. This transaction is the result of a deliberate and thoughtful process and ultimately represents a great outcome that is in the best interest of Squarespace and all of its stockholders.”

Permira Partner David Erlong added: “This best and final offer allows Squarespace stockholders to capture immediate and certain value for their investment.”

By going private as part of the deal, Squarespace hopes to access more resources and flexibility to enhance its portfolio, which could help continue its positive growth trajectory.

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As the head of Alphabet’s AI-powered robotics moonshot, I came to believe many things. For one, robots can’t come soon enough. For another, they shouldn’t look like us.

A privacy feature in WhatsApp was found to have a worrying security flaw, putting its two billion users at risk of sensitive data leaks.

Security researcher Tal Be’ery recently found the bug in WhatsApp's “View Once” feature, which allows disappearing messages. When a user sends a View Once message to someone, that message disappears seconds after being viewed by the recipient. Furthermore, the recipient is blocked from forwarding, or saving the message - and taking screenshots is also blocked.

The feature is supposed to only be available on mobile platforms. Users opening the desktop app, or opening WhatsApp through the browser, would usually see a message saying “You received a view once message. For added privacy, you can only open it on your phone.” However, Be’ery says that there is a way to bypass this protection and not only view the message on desktop/browser, but save it, as well.

False sense of privacy

“The only thing that is worse than no privacy, is a false sense of privacy in which users are led to believe some forms of communication are private when in fact they are not,” Be’ery said in his write-up. “Currently, WhatsApp’s ‘View Once’ is a blunt form of false privacy and should either be thoroughly fixed or abandoned.”

Be’ery reported the bug to Meta, WhatsApp’s parent company, in late August 2024. In a response to TechCrunch, the company said it is aware of the bug and is “already in the process of rolling out updates to view once on the web.”

We don’t know when the patch will arrive. Until that happens, send view once messages only to people you trust. WhatsApp is one of the most popular instant messaging platforms in the world, counting more than two billion users.

Via TechCrunch

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Apple has released the largest iPhone yet, but the distance between the larger phones has shrunk in the iPhone 16 era.

Ahead of the launch of the iPhone 16 series, one thing we heard rumored was that all four models would have 8GB of RAM, and – while Apple never reveals RAM amounts in its phones – it seems that claim was probably right.

MacRumors – with assistance from @iSWUpdates – claims to have found mention of 8GB of RAM for all four models in the latest version of Xcode 16 (an Apple tool for developers).

That would be a 2GB boost for the iPhone 16 and the iPhone 16 Plus, but it would mean that the iPhone 16 Pro and the iPhone 16 Pro Max have the same amount of RAM as their predecessors.

An issue for AI

The iPhone 16 Pro Max (Image credit: Apple)

That latter point is slightly disappointing, especially since Apple Intelligence is likely to need quite a lot of RAM – especially for the stuff that’s handled on device. For comparison, the Google Pixel 9 line comes with between 12GB and 16GB of RAM to help handle all of the many AI features on those phones.

Of course, we still can’t quite take this leak as a confirmation that every iPhone 16 model has 8GB of RAM. We’ll have to wait for teardowns for that, but we’d say it’s very likely accurate.

For one thing, Xcode files have accurately revealed RAM amounts in previous iPhone models, and for another, it makes sense that the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus at least would have 8GB, since the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus don’t support Apple Intelligence, and that’s likely at least in part because they only have 6GB of RAM.

That again though shows how important plenty of RAM probably is for Apple’s AI, so it will be interesting to see whether the Pro models feel less than Pro when carrying out AI tasks.

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With the announcement of a PS5 Pro being on most folks' bingo cards for this year, it seemed likely that we were going to get official confirmation sooner rather than later. Especially with the rumor mill hitting a fever pitch. 

And with Sony just yesterday announcing a PlayStation 5 Technical Presentation to be aired today (September 10) at 8am PDT / 11am EDT / 4pm BST, it seemed like we were finally going to be able to put the rumors to bed. But then again, there's always room for it to be something else, right?

Well, no, actually. As spotted by Wario64 on X / Twitter, it looks like today's technical presentation will indeed focus on the PS5 Pro. A screenshot of an unlisted video displays the title 'PS5 Pro' with the technical presentation's teaser as the video itself. You can still check the link out, but the video has since been renamed to 'PlayStation 5 Technical Presentation - September 10' as was likely intended in the first place.

an unlisted YouTube video confirms it's PS5 Pro (duh) https://t.co/TkuEPocXcW https://t.co/aCh54rS5xP pic.twitter.com/E8R50AZf1NSeptember 9, 2024

It's not the first sign of the PS5 Pro trying to breach containment before its official reveal. The mid-gen refresh was seemingly accidentally revealed (or potentially even deliberately teased) in the promotional material for PlayStation's 30th anniversary celebrations. Looking at the image here, you can spot what appears to be a new-look PS5 wedged between the PlayStation logo and the '3'.

Still, while revealing the PS5 Pro announcement before the technical presentation was undoubtedly a flub, Sony might welcome the distraction considering it quietly bumped up the price of its DualSense Wireless Controller by $5 / £5 over at PlayStation Direct and other retailers.

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Representatives from MI6 and the CIA have revealed the agencies have adopted generative AI in the fight to improve intelligence activities.

In a joint opinion piece, the agencies pointed to the ‘sea of data’ they need to comb through in order to identify and tackle security threats.

The intelligence chiefs describe the ‘accelerated’ challenges brought about by advances in technology, with an ‘unprecedented array of threats’ that the two countries face. The pair identify the war in Ukraine as the first of its kind in combining open-source warfare with ‘cutting-edge battlefield technology [..] high and low sophistication cyber warfare, social media, open-source intelligence”

A special relationship

The move is perhaps not hugely surprising, with Microsoft confirming it designed generative AI models specifically for use by intelligence services. For example, the large language model developed for data analysis uses an ‘air gap’ to ensure a separation from any unsafe internet connections.

The piece indicated China’s rise to power is the primary intelligence and geopolitical challenge of the 21st century for both the CIA and SIS - stating that both have reorganized services to reflect the new priority.

This directional change is supported by foreign policy moves, with the US in particular placing restrictions which aim to curb China’s technological power.

Since cyberattacks from both Russia and China have become more prevalent threats, the chiefs confirm the strategy, noting “We are training AI to help protect and “red team” our own operations to ensure we can still stay secret when we need to. We are using cloud technologies so our brilliant data scientists can make the most of our data, and we are partnering with the most innovative companies in the US, UK and around the world.”

The partnership of course don’t confirm the exact uses of their algorithms or AI operations, but it is clear that technology will play a crucial role in intelligence and public policy for the future.

Via Financial Times

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DOOM, the 1993 cult classic, has turned into somewhat of an internet meme. Playable on nearly everything, from microwaves to electric toothbrushes, it’s more of a question of what can’t play DOOM rather than what can. Now, thanks to Google’s AI GameNGen, AI can even generate a playable version of one of the most beloved video games of all time, and it’s seriously impressive. 

GameNGen is a new video game engine that is powered by a neural model able to generate gameplay based on different prompts. In the case of this recreation of DOOM, GameNGen is essentially learning to play the game as masterfully as possible, dodging bullets, slaying demons, and interacting with the environment.

Once the AI has understood exactly how to play the game, GameNGen then uses a diffusion model to recreate a perfect image of the content it has just consumed. The game is produced in real-time with the AI model generating each individual frame based on the last one.

The recreation of DOOM is something to behold, but with GameNGen only able to recreate the game at around 20fps, it’s obviously not comparable to id Software’s 120fps in DOOM Eternal, or the graphics we’ve seen of the upcoming DOOM: The Dark Ages. However, considering that artificial intelligence has imagined one of the most famous video games and it's playable, we're impressed.

More than just a DOOM Slayer

GameNGen’s powers are not limited to DOOM, while the game engine might not be able to recreate any game on the planet very well, in theory, it should be able to reimagine most of your favorite games — albeit in a way that will probably cause motion sickness, with all the frame drops.

Just earlier this week, Virtuals Protocol demonstrated MarioVGG, an AI video tool that recreated a glitchy version of Super Mario Bros. While it leaves a lot to be desired, this appears to only be the beginning of AI’s involvement in video game development with an exciting, and potentially terrifying, future upon us. 

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