Technology

Here are some hints — and the answers — for Connections No. 456 for Sept. 9.

Here are some hints, and the answers, for the Sept. 9 Strands puzzle, No. 190.

The launch of the iPhone 16 is less than 24 hours away, but according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman in his Power On newsletter, Apple's Glowtime event won't be its last major unveiling of the year – more announcements are expected in October.

We’ve already been teased by the potential arrival of a redesigned Mac mini, as well the possibility of seeing M4-powered MacBooks, but now Gurman expects an October reveal of a new iPad model as well.

The iPad mini 7 has been rumored for quite some time. While initially expected to debut alongside the iPhone 16 and Apple Watch Series 10 at today’s (September 9) event, Gurman’s prediction makes sense as we already have a good idea of what to expect from Apple's Glowtime event. 

No matter when the rumored iPad mini is announced, this is good news as the last model was the iPad Mini (2021), so a refresh is long overdue.

iPad Mini 7: what to expect

We have a wishlist of what we want to see from the iPad mini 7, but the key rumors suggest a new chipset and a more compact design than its predecessor. While we’re not expecting the rumored M4 chip to power an iPad mini like it does the iPad Pro models, Gurman speculates that it might include Apple Intelligence support, which means it could be powered by the A17 Pro chip at the very least.

Gurman's use of "iPad models" in his speculations also makes us question the whispers of a larger 8.7-inch iPad mini with an OLED screen (compared to an 8.3-inch LCD display in the standard model), which we had previously written off as early iPad mini 8 rumors. But do we really need multiple iPad mini models?

There’s a reason we’ve questioned whether the iPad mini can survive. With plus-sized iPhones, the iPad 10.9 (2022) and the 11- and 13-inch iPad Air and iPad Pro already having carved a place for themselves, most use cases are covered. Still, a mid-sized and mid-priced tablet around eight inches might just be the sweet spot for users who want a decent tablet for gaming, streaming and reading – while still being able to hold in one hand.

October’s announcements, potentially featuring a whole new Mac lineup and new iPads, are certainly something to look forward to but, before that, there’s still a big event happening today at 10am PT / 1pm ET / 6pm BST (or 3am AEST September 10 AEST) that will see the debut of the latest Apple flagship phones and wearables. As always, we’ll have boots on the ground covering the event, and you can follow along with our live blog to ensure you don't miss a thing.

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Quordle was one of the original Wordle alternatives and is still going strong now nearly 1,000 games later. It offers a genuine challenge, though, so read on if you need some Quordle hints today – or scroll down further for the answers.

Enjoy playing word games? You can also check out my Wordle today, NYT Connections today and NYT Strands today pages for hints and answers for those puzzles.

SPOILER WARNING: Information about Quordle today is below, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers.

Quordle today (game #959) - hint #1 - Vowels How many different vowels are in Quordle today?

• The number of different vowels in Quordle today is 4*.

* Note that by vowel we mean the five standard vowels (A, E, I, O, U), not Y (which is sometimes counted as a vowel too).

Quordle today (game #959) - hint #2 - repeated letters Do any of today's Quordle answers contain repeated letters?

• The number of Quordle answers containing a repeated letter today is 1.

Quordle today (game #959) - hint #3 - uncommon letters Do the letters Q, Z, X or J appear in Quordle today?

• No. None of Q, Z, X or J appear among today's Quordle answers.

Quordle today (game #959) - hint #4 - starting letters (1) Do any of today's Quordle puzzles start with the same letter?

• The number of today's Quordle answers starting with the same letter is 0.

If you just want to know the answers at this stage, simply scroll down. If you're not ready yet then here's one more clue to make things a lot easier:

Quordle today (game #959) - hint #5 - starting letters (2) What letters do today's Quordle answers start with?

• C

• B

• T

• M

Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.

Quordle today (game #959) - the answers

(Image credit: Merriam-Webster)

The answers to today's Quordle, game #959, are…

• CHIRP
• BEADY
• THETA
• MINUS

Quordle appears to have had one of its periodic leveling up transformations, with the main game now split into three: Daily Chill, Daily Classic and Daily Extreme. These give different numbers of guesses and a variable level of difficulty, as you'd expect – and I can confirm that Extreme is very tough indeed.

For now I'm going to continue to focus on the Classic variety, which today was relatively tricky with a repeated T in THETA and a couple of fairly uncommon words.

How did you do today? Send me an email and let me know.

Daily Sequence today (game #959) - the answers

(Image credit: Merriam-Webster)

The answers to today's Quordle Daily Sequence, game #959, are…

• STONY
• ULCER
• BRIAR
• KITTY

Quordle answers: The past 20

• Quordle #958, Sunday 8 September: TEASE, AGATE, PRIDE, PLATE
• Quordle #957, Saturday 7 September: LASSO, TILDE, BUNCH, PRONG
• Quordle #956, Friday 6 September: FARCE, WOOLY, LOCAL, NIGHT
• Quordle #955, Thursday 5 September: SNIDE, EGRET, AMONG, SHINY
• Quordle #954, Wednesday 4 September: POINT, WITTY, GAFFE, ABUSE
• Quordle #953, Tuesday 3 September: ATOLL, ANGER, OCEAN, SWEEP
• Quordle #952, Monday 2 September: HABIT, LODGE, PLAIN, DRIFT
• Quordle #951, Sunday 1 September: RABBI, CRAWL, GUPPY, BRAND
• Quordle #950, Saturday 31 August: AWOKE, TIBIA, ITCHY, SNACK
• Quordle #949, Friday 30 August: ARISE, OLDER, ISSUE, ERUPT
• Quordle #948, Thursday 29 August: DECAY, DRUID, AVOID, KNEED
• Quordle #947, Wednesday 28 August: VIOLA, GONER, CAVIL, SHARE
• Quordle #946, Tuesday 27 August: ABYSS, DAILY, AGONY, MUSKY
• Quordle #945, Monday 26 August: NEVER, CHUNK, AUNTY, CROUP
• Quordle #944, Sunday 25 August: APTLY, LEVER, STORK, WIDOW
• Quordle #943, Saturday 24 August: EVENT, APNEA, SWATH, IRONY
• Quordle #942, Friday 23 August: LAUGH, SATYR, CACHE, CLONE
• Quordle #941, Thursday 22 August: BEARD, PAYER, BROWN, TRUCK
• Quordle #940, Wednesday 21 August: ALOFT, SNUCK, LAPSE, COMIC
• Quordle #939, Tuesday 20 August: CHIEF, SNORT, OUNCE, MILKY

Good morning! Let's play Connections, the NYT's clever word game that challenges you to group answers in various categories. It can be tough, so read on if you need clues.

What should you do once you've finished? Why, play some more word games of course. I've also got daily Wordle hints and answers, Strands hints and answers and Quordle hints and answers articles if you need help for those too.

SPOILER WARNING: Information about NYT Connections today is below, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers.

NYT Connections today (game #456) - today's words

(Image credit: New York Times)

Today's NYT Connections words are…

• COACH
• FLUSH
• NONSTOP
• FLIGHT
• SOLID
• PLATTER
• FULL HOUSE
• GLOW
• BURN
• STRAIGHT
• SAMPLER
• BLOSSOM
• COMMUNITY
• TASTING
• CONSECUTIVE
• BLUSH

NYT Connections today (game #456) - hint #1 - group hints

What are some clues for today's NYT Connections groups?

• Yellow: Facial color change
• Green: Keep going with no break
• Blue: Menus
• Purple: Funny situations

Need more clues?

We're firmly in spoiler territory now, but read on if you want to know what the four theme answers are for today's NYT Connections puzzles…

NYT Connections today (game #456) - hint #2 - group answers

What are the answers for today's NYT Connections groups?

• YELLOW: GET RED IN THE FACE
• GREEN: CONTINUOUS
• BLUE: FLAVOR ASSORTMENT
• PURPLE: SITCOMS

Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.

NYT Connections today (game #456) - the answers

(Image credit: New York Times)

The answers to today's Connections, game #456, are…

• YELLOW: GET RED IN THE FACE BLUSH, BURN, FLUSH, GLOW
• GREEN: CONTINUOUS CONSECUTIVE, NONSTOP, SOLID, STRAIGHT
• BLUE: FLAVOR ASSORTMENT FLIGHT, PLATTER, SAMPLER, TASTING
• PURPLE: SITCOMS BLOSSOM, COACH, COMMUNITY, FULL HOUSE

• My rating: Easy
• My score: 1 mistake

Luck is always likely to be a factor in Connections, because unless you are incredibly well read you're unlikely to always know every answer in every category. Today, for instance, I could see that PLATTER, SAMPLER and TASTING were all types of menu, but had no idea what the fourth one was. But looking at the remaining possibilities, I went with FLIGHT on a hunch and that proved to be correct to give me the blue FLAVOR ASSORTMENT group. I have no idea what 'FLIGHT' refers to here, but it didn't matter – because I got it right anyway.

My task was made easier, admittedly, by the fact that yellow (GET RED IN THE FACE) and purple (SITCOMS) were both pretty easy today. With hindsight, so was green (CONTINUOUS), but sometimes these things aren't obvious until after the fact.

How did you do today? Send me an email and let me know.

Yesterday's NYT Connections answers (Sunday, 8 September, game #455)

• YELLOW: VERBS IN A CAKE RECIPE BAKE, BEAT, FROST, PREHEAT
• GREEN: WHAT A HEART DOES WHEN EXCITED POUND, PUMP, RACE, THROB
• BLUE: ECCLESIASTICAL TITLES BISHOP, PASTOR, POPE, PRIOR
• PURPLE: ___ BOYS BAD, BEACH, HARDY, PET SHOP

What is NYT Connections?

NYT Connections is one of several increasingly popular word games made by the New York Times. It challenges you to find groups of four items that share something in common, and each group has a different difficulty level: green is easy, yellow a little harder, blue often quite tough and purple usually very difficult.

On the plus side, you don't technically need to solve the final one, as you'll be able to answer that one by a process of elimination. What's more, you can make up to four mistakes, which gives you a little bit of breathing room.

It's a little more involved than something like Wordle, however, and there are plenty of opportunities for the game to trip you up with tricks. For instance, watch out for homophones and other word games that could disguise the answers.

It's playable for free via the NYT Games site on desktop or mobile.

Strands is the NYT's latest word game after the likes of Wordle, Spelling Bee and Connections – and it's great fun. It can be difficult, though, so read on for my Strands hints.

Want more word-based fun? Then check out my Wordle today, NYT Connections today and Quordle today pages for hints and answers for those games.

SPOILER WARNING: Information about NYT Strands today is below, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers.

NYT Strands today (game #190) - hint #1 - today's theme What is the theme of today's NYT Strands?

• Today's NYT Strands theme is… Go play outside!

NYT Strands today (game #190) - hint #2 - clue words

Play any of these words to unlock the in-game hints system.

• MAIN
• CENT
• SHOW
• HOLE
• QUEST
• SHOE

NYT Strands today (game #190) - hint #3 - spangram What is a hint for today's spangram?

• Just add grass

NYT Strands today (game #190) - hint #4 - spangram position What are two sides of the board that today's spangram touches?

First: top, 3rd column

Last: bottom, 6th column

Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.

NYT Strands today (game #190) - the answers

(Image credit: New York Times)

The answers to today's Strands, game #190, are…

• BOCCE
• CROQUET
• CORNHOLE
• HORSESHOES
• BADMINTON
• SPANGRAM: LAWNGAMES

• My rating: Moderate
• My score: 2 hints

Is it just me or was this a really random selection of LAWNGAMES, as the spangram would have it? I've never heard of BOCCE, but I now gather it is similar to bowls or boules… and absolutely doesn't have to be (and often isn't) played on a lawn. BADMINTON is an Olympic sport that is often played on a hard court or indoors. CORNHOLE and HORSESHOES probably fit the bill, as does CROQUET, but it's all a bit odd. Of course I could be missing something; I'm not an expert and maybe there is some kind of official designation for what is a lawn game and what isn't. Who knows…

Either way, I had to solve this one mostly by trial and error, which never makes for the most enjoyable of Strands experience. Hopefully tomorrow will be more satisfying.

How did you do today? Send me an email and let me know.

Yesterday's NYT Strands answers (Sunday 8 September, game #189)

• LILAC
• MAUVE
• MAGENTA
• VIOLET
• PLUM
• LAVENDER
• ORCHID
• SPANGRAM: PURPLES

What is NYT Strands?

Strands is the NYT's new word game, following Wordle and Connections. It's now out of beta so is a fully fledged member of the NYT's games stable and can be played on the NYT Games site on desktop or mobile.

I've got a full guide to how to play NYT Strands, complete with tips for solving it, so check that out if you're struggling to beat it each day.

There's something deeply lovely about the design of a Roberts radio: my family had one in the kitchen when I was growing up, and I remember it as much for its gorgeously retro looks – it wasn't that different from the very distinctive Roberts R66 of the 1950s, even though ours was decades more recent – as for its sound quality, which made other radios sound embarrassingly bad. So I'm delighted to see that the latest Roberts radios have packed their distinctly modern tech in designs that Harry Roberts himself could have created.

Roberts has unveiled three new additions to its Rambler family: the Rambler Uno, the Rambler Midi and the Rambler Max. And while they wouldn't have looked out of place in my childhood kitchen they're packed with today's tech.

Roberts Rambler Uno, Rambler Midi and Rambler Max: key features and specifications

The 2024 Roberts Rambler Uno (Image credit: Roberts)

The Rambler Uno is the most affordable of the new radios, and it's a replacement for the Rambler Mini. It's a DAB, DAB+ and FM radio and alarm radio with a full-range speaker and passive bass radiator, a clear OLED panel and Bluetooth, and it runs on four AA batteries. It's really pretty and pretty affordable for a Roberts, with a price tag of £129.99 (which is around $171 or AU$254, give or take a dollar). You can choose between duck egg, navy blue or pastel cream.

Next up there's the Rambler Midi at £179.99 (so, around $237 or AU$350). This is a new design that's much more compact, although it shares the same design DNA as the rest of the Rambler range. Once again it's a radio and alarm radio with DAB, DAB+ and FM with Bluetooth, and this time the single full-range driver is ported for better bass. There's a front-facing LCD display and once again it runs off four AA batteries and comes in duck egg, navy blue or pastel cream. 

The 2024 Roberts Rambler Midi (Image credit: Roberts)

The Rambler Max is the smartest of the bunch, supplementing its radio features with Spotify, Deezer and SmartRadio integration. a TFT display and an optional Lithium battery pack. There's no cream option for this one so far; the choice is between navy blue and duck egg. The Roberts Rambler Max has an RRP of £199.99 – around $263 or AU$390.

The Roberts Revival Petite 2 is the company's most recent success – yes, it's proudly among the best DAB radios we've ever tested, along with two older Roberts options. Will a product from Roberts' new Rambler trio soon join it? We're working on that…

All three new Rambler radios are available now from RobertsRadio.com and from the usual retailers.

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What sparks an iPhone upgrade? It might be a revolutionary design change like flat edges to curves or the introduction of Face ID. More likely, it's a photographic feature like a decent telephoto lens or when Portrait Mode first arrived and transformed every new iPhone 7 Plus into a virtual pro-level camera.

Sometimes, it's not so much the features alone that inspire an upgrade – it's the FOMO. I know that anyone who saw my Portrait Mode images from that iPhone 7 Plus was so agog that they looked dismissively at their likely iPhone 4s or 5s and almost immediately began researching the trade-in prospects and costs for that new device.

On the eve of the Apple iPhone 16 Event ("It's Glowtime!"), I was reading Mark Gurman's latest Bloomberg newsletter, which discusses some smartphone industry watchers' hopes that Apple Intelligence sparks a supercycle of upgrades. Gurman doesn't believe this will happen, and I'm inclined to agree – mostly.

The problem with artificial intelligence, as perceived by most people, not in the tech space, is that it is both a colossus capable of anything and a black box that has no obvious utility to their everyday lives. Consumers are undoubtedly intrigued and inundated with the possibilities of these generative tools. They marvel at videos created by OpenAI's Sora and how Google Gemini, ChatGPT, and Copilot can answer questions and summarize vast swaths of text. 

Some people need these things, but most average consumers and many millions of iPhone owners are likely wondering what they might do with any of these new fangled tools. What's the purpose of a Genmoji? Do I really need to keep deleting Aunt Mable from every photo with an Apple Intelligence magical eraser? Is the iPhone 16 Siri better because it makes the whole iPhone screen glow instead of just a tiny little orb near the bottom?

We need a killer app

What we must consider as consumers wonder if its time to trade in the iPhone 15, iPhone 14, or iPhone 13, is if anything that arrives as part of Apple Intelligence next week will be the killer app.

Like many new tools Apple introduces at a platform level, Apple Intelligence will simply arrive with new phones, much as Apple Journal and Shortcuts once did. By my measure, those two tools are not widely used and have not sparked upgrades.

Apple Intelligence, though, is different. It's more pervasive, living across Siri, messaging, writing of all kinds, imaging, image creation, and more. Not all of that will ship with iPhone 16 phones when they arrive in a few weeks (all running iOS 18 and, I'm guessing, featuring Apple Silicon capable of supporting Apple intelligence).

The lack of complete Apple Intelligence integration in the early going might dampen enthusiasm for upgrades, that is, of course, if that's the reason people are choosing to do so.

Putting the old out  to pasture

More likely, though, any tsunami of iPhone 16 upgrades will be driven by tremors more deeply bedded in the long-term use of Apple's well-built and longly-supported handsets. There are people still using iPhone 11 phones out there (there might even be some iPhone 7 or iPhone 8 handsets in pockets and hands, too). As platform and app support runs out on some of these aging models, people will look to the next big thing. 

However, if they were holding onto their old iPhone because they couldn't afford the latest and greatest, they might look for price reductions on, say, the iPhone 14 or 15, or maybe even the iPhone SE. This assumes that Apple will continue selling one or two legacy models.

It's worth remembering, though, that older models will not support Apple Intelligence. As it is, only the iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max and the powerful A17 Pro chip support Apple's version of AI. In other words, if you want Apple Intelligence, you have to swing big and go for an assumed iPhone 16 option.

I like what I see in Apple Intelligence and applaud Apple for finally getting into the generative AI game. It does not matter that it is late because the Cupertino tech giant owns such a commanding position in the market and is a cultural touchstone for the technology zeitgeist. Putting Apple Intelligence in so many new phones at once will likely create some of its own momentum.

Messaging from iPhone 16-owning consumers about their Apple Intelligence experience to the interested and disinterested public will either trigger FOMO and launch a more aggressive upgrade cycle or fall on deaf ears as most people still think AI is for somebody else.

No Apple Intelligence by itself is probably no reason to upgrade to the iPhone 16 – at least not yet.

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Add this must-have item to your baby shower registry.

In April 2023, I reported on Discord fixing one of its biggest problems: increasing the free upload limit for file sizes in serves. It had been a pathetic 8MB for years for non-paying users but was increased to 25MB. Great news, right? 

It truly was a sign that the extremely popular text and video chat social media site had finally been paying attention to the vast majority of users and their needs. Unfortunately, it paid attention again just recently and not in a good way.

The official Discord support page detailing how Nitro Basic and Nitro — the site’s two paid subscription tiers — work also contains a brand-new clause explaining that Discord has lowered the upload limit from its juicy new 25MB back down to 10MB. According to the support page, “storage management is expensive,” and “in order to maintain our service without compromising on quality of storage, we decided to reduce the free file size upload limit.”

(Image credit: Future)

Apparently, Discord analyzed how much storage non-paying users actually use and found that “99% of users” tend to upload files smaller than 10MB. As such, it decided to reduce the storage limit to that amount. Of course, we have to take Discord at its word here, as it did not publish the results of this study, but the reason for this change sounds reasonable at first glance.

Storage is quite expensive and even more so for a site as widely used as Discord. There’s also the fact that once you upload a file to it, it stays on the server permanently unless you or someone else with the right permissions deletes it. Discord reviewing its operating costs and its average user’s site usage, then came to a logical conclusion as to what is sustainable for the site is nothing particularly noteworthy.

Then why did Discord do it? 

Then again, if the vast majority of users aren’t using more than 10MB of storage, why is so cost-efficient to reduce the upload limit? Is that reported 1% of users so high that in just over a year, Discord is already calling it quits? 

There’s also the fact that if Discord was able to review this user data now, it already had to have studied said data beforehand, which begs the question of why didn’t it foresee that the costs would be ‘too high’ for it to afford?

Finally, when discussing this issue, it’s vital to mention Discord's worth. Since Discord is still a private company, it’s not required by US law to report its finances. 

However, there are estimates of its net worth, with its highest value at $14.5 billion in 2021 and the most current estimate of $8 billion now. Regardless, this company is worth quite a bit of money, which makes the “storage management is expensive” statement a bit odd.

How does it affect you?

Most likely, a vast majority of users won’t be impacted by this storage limit rollback because while file sizes have increased dramatically over the years, it’s still rare to come by a file that comes close to 25MB. On the other hand, for the same reason, it hardly seems worth changing this policy back to 10MB if the amount of users uploading large files is truly that small.

It seems like Discord is stirring unnecessary, well, discord by taking away such a universally popular upgrade. Burying it on the support page without properly informing users of such an important change (as its official X account never reported this) is also not a great idea.

It’s to the point that I’ve seen Discord users even theorize that it would soon cut the upload limit for Nitro from 500MB to 250MB. While there’s, of course, no evidence that this would happen, it points to the level of distrust that this decision is already cultivating among those who have been using the site for years.

Piling on other recent negative press, it’s generated, like the updated Terms of Service adding a forced arbitration clause, laying off 17% of its workforce, and changes to its AI policy, it had to walk back, and it’s more than understandable why this would be a thought process.

Discord seriously needs to rethink its PR strategy regarding decision-making policies. It’s an incredibly popular site used by millions of people, and it would be devastating for the gaming community to lose such a vital asset if enough people started mistrusting it enough to affect userbase numbers. And it’s not impossible, either.

After all, Skype, at one point, was synonymous with text, voice, and video chat.

Here are some highly rated series to watch on Max, plus a look at what's new in September.

CEDIA Expo provides a unique opportunity for custom installation industry professionals to experience cutting-edge technology via ongoing home theater demonstrations. Attendees line up outside the pre-fabricated booths where these demos take place, eager to sink into the plush home theater seating – another popular product category at the show – and take in carefully curated movie and music clips. 

For me, these demos are CEDIA Expo’s highlight, because, unless you’ve got the cash to pay for a truly awesome home theater installation, you’ll never get to see and hear movies sounding this good outside of an IMAX or Dolby Vision theater. In a word, it’s showtime, and manufacturers painstakingly fuss over the presentation quality in their booths. I was amazed to hear that one demo at CEDIA, booth, gear, and all, had been initially set up and fully calibrated in Italy, and then shipped overseas and re-assembled with its audio and video calibration almost perfectly intact for the show.

To tie a bow on TechRadar’s Home Theater Week coverage, I’ve compiled a list of 5 demos that left a strong impression on me at CEDIA Expo 2024. Since these demos took place in fully darkened rooms, my accompanying images only hint at the high-tech happenings going on inside, but a look at the equipment listed for each should give you an idea of the hardware horsepower behind the scenes. Wish you were there!

(Image credit: Future) Barco / madVR / Seymour-Screen Excellence / Kaleidescape / Trinnov / Perlisten / Officina Acustica 

This was the first home theater demo I caught and it set the standard for what was to come at CEDIA Expo 2024. The system used a Barco Nethus RGB laser projector with 32,000 lumens brightness paired with a madVR Envy Extreme MK2 video processor and a Kaleidescape Strato C Movie Player and Terra Prime server. An 189.3-inch Cinemascope aspect ratio Seymour-Screen Excellence Enlightor Neo screen was used for the screen.

A Trinnov Amplitude audio processor (check out our How room correction upgrades your home theater sound feature for more information on Trinnov and the unique Waveforming tech used for this demo) fronting a Perlisten speaker system with 19 speakers and 14 subwoofers – yes, fourteen subwoofers, eight in front and six in back – provided the system’s audio. All of this was installed in a custom-built Officina Acustica home theater room, the same one shipped from Italy mentioned above.

The demo started with music, specifically, Eric Clapton playing an acoustic version of Layla, followed by Ashes to Ashes from Sting: Live at the Olympia Paris. Both tracks had exceptional vocal clarity and impeccably clean and deep bass. Next up was the final transformation scene from the film Lucy, and the white background of the opening image was so bright that I literally winced. A typical home theater projector can’t touch the pro-level Barco Nethus when it comes to brightness, and this one even had its light calibrated down to a more standard-for-home-theater 300 nits. 

(Image credit: Future) Christie / Lumagen / Seymour-Screen Excellence / StormAudio / Ascendo / Moovia  

This stunning demo used a Christie Griffyn 4K35-RGB laser projector capable of 36,500 lumens and 98% coverage of the Rec. 2020 color space. The projector was paired with a Lumagen Radiance Pro 5244 video processor, with a Kaleidescape movie player and server system – a standard component in CEDIA demos – serving as a source. A 13.5-foot wide Seymour-Screen Excellence Enlightor-PRO (0.9 gain) acoustically transparent screen surface mated to the company’s 4-way Adjustable Ratio Theater (ART) Masking System was used for the screen. 

On the audio front, a StormAudio ISP Elite 32 Digital AoIP MK3 processor was paired with an Ascendo Black Swan hybrid AoIP 13.12.10 system, with the system’s AoIP network-enabled amplifiers digitally connecting to the Black Swan speakers and subs via Cat6 cable. Last but not least, the theater featured three rows of super-comfortable Moovia Marbella seating.

If you caught Dune 2 in an IMAX theater, you will have some idea of how powerful this demo looked and sounded. A clip where the Fremen do battle with the Sardaukar started with the roar of a giant sandworm, and the effect of that roar and ensuing fighting was the very definition of immersive sound. Another demo clip, from Ford Vs Ferrari, had Matt Damon’s character recklessly piloting an airplane with a group of terrified auto executives onboard, and when that plane zipped above a crowd of people, the accompanying sound effect traversed the theater’s ceiling with pinpoint precision. 

(Image credit: Future) Digital Projection / Kaleidescape / Screen Innovations / JBL Synthesis

JBL is an old hand when it comes to explosive CEDIA home theater demos, and the Synthesis system they were showing off total system cost: $156,666) continued that tradition. I didn’t get details on the video portion other than they were using a Digital Projection projector and 222-inch Screen Innovations perforated screen, but the audio part consisted of 15 SCL-series speakers and 4 SSW series subwoofers, all of it powered by a JBL SDP-58 16-channel processor and 6,800 total watts of class-D amplification.

This system was calibrated using the Harman default target and employed Dirac Live room correction and Sound Field Management processing to correct bass for seat-to-seat variation in the large room. Whatever was going on, Lady Gaga’s vocals when singing Always Remember Us This Way in the movie A Star is Born sounded remarkably lifelike. And when JBL played that insane train escape scene from Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One, the sound of sliding furniture in the various train compartments as they collapsed around Ethan and Grace was frighteningly visceral. 

(Image credit: Future) Sony / Kaleidescape / Focal 

This demo in the Sony booth had a relatively modest video component compared to others at the show – the new Bravia Projector 9 projector, a winner of a TechRadar Best of CEDIA Expo award, only costs $32,000 – but the premium 9.2.4-channel Focal Utopia in-wall speaker system more than made up for it when it came to home theater bling.

The Bravia Projector 9’s picture had stunning contrast despite its modest 3.400 lumens light output compared to other projectors at the show, and its new XR Processor for Projector with features like dynamic frame-by-frame HDR tone mapping provided a standard-setting level of shadow detail for a projector. This could easily be seen in a dark clip from the movie Zero Dark Thirty, while another from the new Bad Boys: Ride or Die demonstrated the projector’s rich color reproduction. 

(Image credit: Future) Sony / Kaleidescape / Wisdom Audio 

Micro-LED video walls remain an option only for the very well-heeled home theater fanatic, but Sony’s demo room utilizing its Crystal LED CH-Series 137-inch video wall gave the rest of us a peek into a luxury micro-LED-based home theater. 

Along with that massive video wall, the system consisted of a Kaledescape Strato S Movie Player and 6TB server. A Sony STR-AZ7000ES 13.2-channel AV receiver was used as a preamp for a 9.4.4-channel Wisdom Audio sound system, which consisted of Wisdom Audio Sage Cinema Line 2 Source (front LR and surround sides and rear), Sage Cinema Series HLS (center), and four SRS RTL subwoofers.

Sony and Wisdom Audio also used Always Remember Us This Way from A Star is Born for its demo (it’s a popular home theater demo clip) and Lady Gaga’s voice sounded as full, clear, and lifelike as it had in the JBL Synthesis room. But he real star of this demo was a pursuit scene from Mad Max: Fury Road, which looked and sounded so over-the-top intense that I was gripping the arms of my plush theater seat.

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When a movie franchise puts out the last installment in its line of movies, it has the same feeling you get when you close the final page of a book – at least that’s what I felt when I watched Breaking Dawn Part Two, the last movie in the series of the Twilight movies. Now Netflix, the best streaming service, is set to revive the franchise with an animated series based on Stephenie Meyer’s novel Midnight Sun. 

While the series is still in early development and Netflix has yet to unveil an official release date, we already have a sense of how the storyline of the new Twilight series will unfold. The animated show will be adapted from the 2020 novel Midnight Sun by Stephenie Meyer – the writer of the Twilight novel series  – which retells the events of the first book from the perspective of Edward Cullen, the teenage vampire who falls for Bella Swan.  

(Image credit: Summit)

Returning to the Twilight production team will be none other than the franchise’s creator herself, Stephenie Meyer, who will assume the position of executive producer with Meghan Hibbett of Fickle Fish Films. Accompanying the two will be Sinead Daly, who’s previous writing experience on one of Netflix Australia's best TV shows The Get Down will be an asset to bringing Edward’s story to life.

Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart played the roles of Edward and Bella in the movie series, which raked in billions of dollars in box office revenue between 2008-2012, but the question as to who will be next to step into the roles for Netflix’s animated series remains unanswered. Regardless of who’s selected and however the series is received, I can tell you that I will be binging it on premiere day.

Netflix, you have my undivided attention 

(Image credit: Summit Entertainment)

I can imagine that a lot of people will have many questions about Netflix’s upcoming animated series because, while the original movies were box office successes, the ratings from critics are catastrophic. As it stands, the first movie, Twilight (2008), has a Rotten Tomatoes score of 49%, which is tied with its final installment Breaking Dawn Part Two. Eclipse follows with 46%, then New Moon with 28%, and Breaking Dawn Part One comes dead last with 25%, meaning that none of them have made our list of best Netflix movies. 

As someone who not only lived through each movie release but once did a non-stop watch party where I watched all five movies in one day (it was lockdown), I admit that the films are objectively bad, but that’s why I’m obsessed with them. And what will undoubtedly annoy me about the upcoming animated series is the snobbish criticism it will receive, which will be purely based on its canon texts. The Twilight movies weren’t designed to be moving and thought-provoking pictures, so why stay mad? 

The beauty about the Twilight series is that the entire thing is powered by its failed seriousness, which is the case for a lot of young-adult book to movie adaptations of the early-mid 2010s – just look at movies like The Fault in Our Stars (2014) and the Divergent series (2014-2016). Netflix’s attempt at an animated Twilight series could absolutely crash and burn, and if it does, I’m here for it.  

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Cerebras has unveiled its latest AI inference chip, which is being touted as a formidable rival to Nvidia’s DGX100.

The chip features 44GB of high-speed memory, allowing it to handle AI models with billions to trillions of parameters.

For models that surpass the memory capacity of a single wafer, Cerebras can split them at layer boundaries, distributing them across multiple CS-3 systems. A single CS-3 system can accommodate 20 billion parameter models, while 70 billion parameter models can be managed by as few as four systems.

Additional model support coming soon

Cerebras emphasizes the use of 16-bit model weights to maintain accuracy, contrasting with some competitors who reduce weight precision to 8-bit, which can degrade performance. According to Cerebras, its 16-bit models perform up to 5% better in multi-turn conversations, math, and reasoning tasks compared to 8-bit models, ensuring more accurate and reliable outputs.

The Cerebras inference platform is available via chat and API access, and designed to be easily integrated by developers familiar with OpenAI’s Chat Completions format. The platform boasts the ability to run Llama3.1 70B models at 450 tokens per second, making it the only solution to achieve instantaneous speed for such large models. For developers, Cerebras is offering 1 million free tokens daily at launch, with pricing for large-scale deployments said to be significantly lower than popular GPU clouds.

Cerebras is initially launching with Llama3.1 8B and 70B models, with plans to add support for larger models like Llama3 405B and Mistral Large 2 in the near future. The company highlights that fast inference capabilities are crucial for enabling more complex AI workflows and enhancing real-time LLM intelligence, particularly in techniques like scaffolding, which requires substantial token usage.

Patrick Kennedy from ServeTheHome saw the product in action at the recent Hot Chips 2024 symposium, noting, “I had the opportunity to sit with Andrew Feldman (CEO of Cerebras) before the talk and he showed me the demos live. It is obscenely fast. The reason this matters is not just for human to prompt interaction. Instead, in a world of agents where computer AI agents talk to several other computer AI agents. Imagine if it takes seconds for each agent to come out with output, and there are multiple steps in that pipeline. If you think about automated AI agent pipelines, then you need fast inferencing to reduce the time for the entire chain.”

Cerebras positions its platform as setting a new standard in open LLM development and deployment, offering record-breaking performance, competitive pricing, and broad API access. You can try it out by going to inference.cerebras.ai or by scanning the QR code in the slide below.

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The Samsung Galaxy S25 series isn't due until the start of next year, but we've already seen numerous leaks around these three phones – and now we have what made be the exact dimensions of the Galaxy S25 Ultra model.

These dimensions come from the usually reliable Ice Universe, and are said to be 162.8 mm x 77.6 mm x 8.2 mm. For comparison, the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra that launched in January 2024 has dimensions of 162.3 mm x 79 mm x 8.6 mm.

If these numbers are right, then the next Ultra will be thinner than its predecessor – and indeed the thinnest model in the series to date. It also looks as though it'll be taller and wider than the current model, though not by much.

This isn't the first time we've been tipped off about the thinness of the Galaxy S25 Ultra: a previous leak said the phone would be both thinner and lighter than its two most high-profile rivals, the Pixel 9 Pro XL and the upcoming iPhone 16 Pro Max.

Shape shifting

Let me join in the fun.Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra size announced：162.8mm x 77.6mm x 8.2mmSeptember 7, 2024

Part of the shift in dimensions might be because the handset is rumored to be going back to a more rounded look. The Galaxy S24 Ultra has flat edges to its screen, and moving away from that will most probably involve a tweak to the dimensions too.

We're also expecting a very small increase in the screen size of the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra: it's rumored to be going up to 6.86 inches, whereas the Galaxy S24 Ultra sports a display that's 6.8 inches corner to corner.

There's also been talk that the Galaxy S25 Ultra is going to be adopting a more asymmetrical shape front to back, which is more rounded towards the back. That should make it slightly more comfortable in the hand than its predecessor.

Another rumor we've heard about is a boost in RAM up to 16GB, though other specs including the battery capacity and charging speed are thought to be the same as the current model. We should see the phone make its debut in January.

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