TechRadar News

Our iPhone 16 event live blog is up and running ahead of the big show later on today, but it seems that one expected device might be missing: a well-placed source says the Apple Watch Ultra 3 won't be launching alongside the new iPhones.

This comes from Mark Gurman at Bloomberg, who is usually one of the more well-informed reporters on the Apple beat. Considering that we got the Apple Watch Ultra in 2022 and the Apple Watch Ultra 2 in 2023, it would be a surprise if there wasn't a new version of the premium smartwatch for 2024.

That said, there will be a new version, sort of, according to Gurman: a black titanium option will apparently be unveiled for the Apple Watch Ultra 2. Right now it's only available in a single natural titanium color as far as the casing goes.

As you can gather from our Apple Watch Ultra 2 review, it wasn't a huge leap forward from the original Apple Watch Ultra, which would make the lack of a third-generation product this year even more disappointing for premium smartwatch buyers.

Watch this space

I don’t expect Apple to announce an Apple Watch Ultra 3 tomorrow. Instead, I expect the Ultra 2 sticks around and — finally — gains a black color option. I also wouldn’t rule out a delay to the new Watch SE.September 9, 2024

Gurman also goes on to say there could well be a delay to the successor to the more affordable Apple Watch SE 2, which launched in 2022. We were expecting an updated model to show up at some point this year.

What isn't mentioned is any reason why these smartwatch refreshes aren't appearing today, so we can only speculate as to the reason. Perhaps Apple doesn't think there will be any significant boost in sales, or perhaps there are new Apple Watch Ultra 3 features that haven't quite been finished in time.

The Apple Watch 10 is virtually guaranteed to make an appearance, however. New features apparently on the way for this wearable include a refreshed design, upgraded sensors, and the ability to detect potential sleep apnea problems.

It all means the Apple Watch Ultra 3 vs Apple Watch Ultra 2 debate just got more interesting. The Apple 'It's Glowtime' event gets underway at 10am PT / 1pm ET / 6pm BST (3am on September 10 for those in the AEST time zone), and as mentioned you can follow along via our Apple event live blog.

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There's seemingly more bad news for Sonos. New reports say that the new Ace headphones, which the company expected to be a huge hit, have been doing disappointing numbers: where Sonos expected to make 2,500 headphones per day to cope with huge demand for its high-end cans, it's allegedly only doing a fraction of that: just 250 pairs a day. That means instead of expected sales of around 1 million units per year, it's on track to do around one-tenth of that.

That's according to reports from both Mark Gurman at Bloomberg and NotebookCheck. And the bad news keeps on coming: both reports also claim that Sonos has laid off employees "likely in part to cope with the mounting costs and loss of sales", and that its codename Pinewood, a Roku-style set-top-box, has been delayed once more. After initially being put back to January 2025, it's now scheduled for March.

This isn't the arc Sonos wanted

It's fair to say that 2024 has been disastrous for Sonos, and there's still plenty of 2024 to go. What was supposed to be a triumphant year with significant revenues from brand new product categories – such as the Ace headphones and the Pinewood project – as well as key updates to core products such as the Arc soundbar has instead been spent dealing with the ongoing fallout from the Sonos app update. 

That app was released way back in the spring, but Sonos is still working on fixing it; it apologized to customers back in July and has been working on a fortnightly app update cycle for months now, but as we said after the most recent update "there's still a lot of work to be done before users are going to be happy again."

As Bloomberg reports, it's hitting Sonos in the pockets – and in the pockets of its shareholders. Bloomberg says that Sonos's stock is down 32% this year while the rest of the S&P 500 Index is up by 13%, and instead of raking in cash from new products it's spending huge sums on the app issues.

There's no doubt that the firm makes superb soundbars that are among the very best in the business, but the app issue isn't the only software concern we've seen: in 2023, Sonos eventually admitted that there was a problem with Dolby Atmos on its Arc soundbars after many months of upset customers talking about it on forums; the initial response to concerns over the app issues was similarly dismissive. 

These are dangerous waters for Sonos to be swimming in. Sonos isn't just selling interchangeable audio kit here: it's selling an ecosystem of premium-priced products in an intensely competitive marketplace. That means it's not good enough to make great hardware. The software and any response to customer concerns deed to be top-notch too. It does look like the damage to Sonos's brand reputation will take even longer to repair than its app.

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• See our pick of the best Dolby Atmos soundbars
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If you’ve been playing Star Wars Outlaws, then chances are that you’ve already been frustrated by its overly punishing stealth sections. Being spotted by an enemy will cause your current mission to instantly fail, often sending you right back to the start of an area and erasing minutes of progress at a time.

It can be incredibly annoying but, luckily, developer Ubisoft Massive seems to agree and intends to fix the problem. Speaking in a recent interview with our sister site GamesRadar+, the game’s creative director Julian Gerighty said that the punishing difficulty “is a mistake, and [...] something that we’re going to work on improving.”

As for what this could mean, he clarifies that: "I don't think it means removing the fail state completely, but I do think there are millions of low hanging fruits where we can make it so much more enjoyable and understandable."

Many of the worst offenders are located right at the start of Star Wars Outlaws, in the opening world of Mirogana, which doesn’t make for a very good first impression when you’ve just installed the sprawling open-world game. Thankfully, it appears as though players won’t have to wait long for a fix.

“We just don't want it to feel unfair. And today, I think it feels unfair. And believe it or not, this wasn't our intention. This is more of something that crept in in the last week or so, and that we're correcting already for a patch that's coming out maybe in 10 days,” Gerighty explained.

This will be great news for anyone thinking of picking up the game, or those eager to get started on a second playthrough.

Although we flagged these frustrating stealth sections as one point of friction, Managing Editor Rob Dwiar was otherwise very impressed with everything that the title brings to to the table in our Star Wars Outlaws review. He praised its impressively authentic world, which is filled with breathtaking landscapes and movie-accurate details that are sure to be a treat for any long-time series fans.

Star Wars Outlaws is available now for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, and PC.

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We’re now just hours away from the launch of the iPhone 16 line – you can follow the build-up at our iPhone 16 event live blog – with Apple set to unveil these phones later today (September 9). The leaks haven’t stopped rolling in even at this late hour, and one last-minute leak contains several pieces of potentially good news.

In a post on X, reputable leaker Mark Gurman (via 9to5Mac) claimed that the iPhone 16 Pro’s starting price isn’t likely to be raised above the $999 of the iPhone 15 Pro. He didn’t talk about pricing for other regions, but for reference the current model starts at £999 / AU$1,849 in the UK and Australia, so it might be that Apple sticks with those prices too.

We weren’t specifically expecting a price rise prior to this leak, but we certainly hadn’t ruled one out either, so it’s encouraging to hear that Apple’s most expensive new phone after the iPhone 16 Pro Max might not come with a price hike.

I expect the touch sensitive camera button to be on all iPhone 16 models tomorrow. The slimmer bezels on the Pro line are noticeable, as are battery life improvements. I don’t expect the Pro entry price to be raised from $999. Big focus will be on AI & A18 chip across the board.September 9, 2024

Gurman also claimed that we'll see noticeable battery life improvements for the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max, and that their bezels will be noticeably smaller than on the current models.

That’s in line with previous leaks which suggested the iPhone 16 Pro Max could have the smallest bezels of any phone, and that the Pro models could both have bigger batteries than their predecessors.

Echoing reports we've heard repeatedly from other sources, Gurman also said that all four iPhone 16 models will probably gain the widely rumored Capture button, for controlling the camera, and that Apple’s focus at the launch event will be AI and the new A18 chipset.

We'll find out very soon

While we should take all of the above with a pinch of salt, Mark Gurman has a superb track record for Apple leaks, and most of this is in line with things we’ve heard previously anyway.

We’ll know for sure soon enough, as Apple’s iPhone 16 launch starts at 10am PT / 1pm ET / 6pm BST, which is 3am on September 10 for those in the AEST time zone. 

We’ve already got an Apple ‘Glowtime’ event live blog up and running, where you can read about any more late leaks ahead of the event followed by all the announcements as they happen. And if you want to tune in yourself, here’s how to watch the iPhone 16 launch event live.

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As Oasis almost sang, if you're looking for a cute portable speaker with Auracast compatibility, you gotta Miniroll with it. The new Ultimate Ears Miniroll is a go-anywhere portable Bluetooth 5.3 speaker from one of the best-known audio brands, and unlike an Oasis ticket, it's not going to treble in price when you try to buy it.

The key selling point here is the small size and light weight: it weighs less than a pound (it's 279g, just under 9oz) and it's just 48 x 122 x 105mm high, long and wide, which makes it smaller than the vast majority of the options in our guide to the best Bluetooth speakers. It has a couple of hooks on the back that can attach it easily to your hiking gear, your clothing or anything else of a suitable size, including rods with diameters from 20mm to 35mm.

The speaker's small dimensions means there's room for just one active speaker, a 45.6mm full-range dynamic driver, but it's teamed with a passive radiator to boost the low end for a bit of extra bass. But the most important feature may be this speaker's sociability, because it's made with multi-speaker sound in mind.

Ultimate Ears Miniroll: key features, availability and pricing

The most interesting bit of tech here is what Ultimate Ears calls PartyUp with Auracast. It's a way of connecting multiple speakers together over Bluetooth, and here it enables you to connect an unlimited number of Miniroll speakers together – handy if you have multiple Minirolls or if your friends do. And with a promised 12 hours of playback between charges it's long-lasting enough for a day at the beach, a hike in the woods or just a day under the duvet.

The Miniroll is drop-proof to 1.2 meters and it uses more recycled materials than before: it's made from 100% post-consumer recycled plastic and at least 40% recycled plastic parts. 

The Ultimate Ears Miniroll is available in four colors (depending on regional availability) – Gentle Black, Majestic Blue, Revive Grey and Calming Pink – from today, 9 September. The price is $79.99 / £69.99 / AU$119.99, and that means it has stiff competition in the apparently-growing 'speakers you can hang off your bag' market from the excellent JBL Clip 5, which costs around the same. We look forward to putting them head to head!

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If you’re a guitar player then you've probably heard about, or used, the Ultimate Guitar app for Android and iOS, for finding the chords and lyrics to thousands of popular songs. If you produce podcasts or record your own songs, then you’ve probably also heard of Audacity too, which we named the best open-source audio editor in our best audio editor of 2024 round up. Muse Group, the creator of both these apps, has been one of the early adopters of AI technology, and it's using AI right now to turn people into better guitarists.

As a keen amateur guitarist I’ve often used the Ultimate Guitar website and app for its catalogue of tabs for popular songs. While not quite proper musical notation, tabs are one step up from simple lyrics and chords listings. Tabs show you where to put your fingers on the strings in a visual way, without having to know how to read music. So, if you want to know how to play Wonderwall, you search for it in Ultimate Guitar and you’ll find the lyrics and chords, or the tab versions people have submitted.

Trying not to look back in anger, searching for Oasis tabs (Image credit: Ultimate Guitar/Google)

Usually it’s up to you to work the song out next, but Ultimate Guitar subscribers have access to an AI-powered Practice Mode which can detect if you’re hitting the right notes at the right time, and give you feedback. It can also adjust the scrolling speed of the musical notation on screen as you play, using AI to determine where you are in the song. We asked Martin Keary, VP of Product at Muse Group, about how the company was using AI to help people learn instruments and if its listening mode signaled the end for traditional guitar teachers.

“At Muse Group we’ve taken the approach that you can never really replace a guitar teacher with AI”, Martin told us, “but what you can do is get AI to help them teach. If you think about it, what a lot of a guitar teacher gives you as homework, it’s scales, it’s playing chords, all those things the AI can help you get better at by telling you if you’re doing it right. But so much of playing guitar is physical, it’s fixing your hand position, it’s fixing your posture as you play. You’ll always need a teacher for that.” 

The AI tools in Ultimate Guitar require a subscription, which costs $39.99 / £39.99 / AU$59.99 a year. Can it, I wondered, teach a tone-deaf person to play guitar?

“Well, tone-deaf, I’m not so sure, but I’m going to say, yes!“ says Martin. “I think with the help of Practice Mode you get such direct feedback on what you’re playing that over time you’d have to improve”.

'Scuse me while I kiss the sky

AI has also been used in other Muse Group products, like the popular Audacity audio editor. Audacity is much loved, because it has always been a great free option for recording audio on your Mac or PC. There’s a plug-in called OpenVINO that will use AI to take any recording and separate the different instruments out into different tracks, which you can turn on or off. So, if you wanted to jam along to something on the drums you could remove the drum track from a song, then play along to it. The plug-in runs 100% on your local PC using your processor, rather than calling on servers from the cloud for help.

Something Martin is keen to stress is the strong ethical position Muse Group is taking with AI. “One thing we’ve done is to build our own AI technology ourselves, and make sure it’s only trained on music that has no copyright associated with it.”

As the recent RIAA lawsuit involving popular AI music creation software Suno has proved, we are in uncharted waters when it comes to the legality of AI and its use of copyrighted material for training purposes. ChatGPT is encountering similar issues.

Another thing AI does very well is imitate famous people in the form of chatbots. What does Martin think about, for example, the idea of getting guitar tips from an AI-generated Jimi Hendrix, or Kurt Cobain?

“This is something we’ve discussed a bit," he says. “It’s certainly possible, but it would have to be done with the complete agreement from the individual artists, or their estates. I'd imagine it would be incredible if somebody like Jimi Hendrix could demonstrate how he'd approach playing a given piece of music you're trying to learn. I should mention at this point that we are not actively developing this idea right now.“

If all the legal agreements were in place, I personally, would love a guitar lesson from AI Jimi Hendrix. I can just imagine him saying, “Well, you could play it like that man, but I think this way is much more beautiful, here let me show you how...”

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Hybrid smartwatch maker Withings has just announced a couple of fresh color options for the ScanWatch Nova and with it, a slightly new name in the ScanWatch Nova Brilliant. Intended to be more of an elegant, dress watch – as opposed to the more diver-centric style of the current ScanWatch Nova – customers in the US and Australia (UK availability is TBC) have the choice of titanium silver or “bicolor silver and gold” finishes. 

To coincide with the new color options, Withings has also bestowed a white dial upon the ScanWatch Nova Brilliant, with a white sub-dial at 6 o’clock to track progress towards a goal you define in the companion app, and the now-customary OLED display at 12 o’clock to show notifications and other health-related information. 

Adding to its dress-watch nature is a smaller watch face of 39mm compared to the standard Nova’s 42mm, making it not only easier to slip under a shirt cuff but making it better suited to smaller wrists, too. It’s also not quite as water-resistant, being good for up to 50 meters (5ATM) compared to the 100 meters (10ATM) of the Nova. 

Inside, it’s very much business as usual for Withings, with a number of health tracking and monitoring features – which can also be found on the ScanWatch 2 – including a heart rate monitor, SpO2 sensor and an on-demand medical-grade electrocardiogram (ECG), which can help to detect irregular heartbeats. It once again misses out on built-in GPS, but can use the capabilities of your phone to track distance travelled during workouts. 

It also boasts a 30-day battery life and launches at the same price as the ScanWatch Nova in the US ($599.99) and Australia (AU$799.99). 

Hybrid design, now a little less hybrid-ey

I’m a big fan of Withings smartwatches. I think the hybrid design is clever and a great option for anyone who wants health-tracking smarts, but without the obvious all-digital face on their wrist. I appreciate traditional analog watches, and so the current Nova is a perfect smartwatch – as you’ll find out in my Withings SmartWatch Nova review – but I’m not quite sold on the Withings ScanWatch Nova Brilliant for one glaring reason. 

It certainly does look like an analog watch – the Rolex Day-Date is an immediate comparison that comes to mind – and I like the use of a white dial as a means to offer customers something different to the black of the Nova. But the digital display at 12 o’clock remaining black is a slight faux pas in my opinion. 

The black dial on the Withings ScanWatch Nova does a better job at hiding the OLED display (Image credit: Future)

The appeal of Withings watches to me is that they hide the fact they have a digital brain, something that is amplified by the use of black dials to camouflage the OLED screen. But having the obvious contrast of both white and black dials in the ScanWatch Nova Brilliant ruins that illusion. Something I think Withings could have done was produce a sort of ‘panda’ watch, a term in the world of horology to reference watches with white dials and black sub-dials at 3 o’clock and 9 o’clock. 

In the ScanWatch Nova Brilliant, there could have been a black sub-dial at 6 o’clock to balance the overall look. Of course, with many ‘panda’ watches falling into the sports or aviation-style watch categories, and the Nova Brilliant being more of a dress watch, this may not have worked.

The Breitling Premier B01 is a classic example of a 'panda' watch. (Image credit: Breitling)

The other option would be to give the digital display at 12 o’clock a white background with black numbers and characters. It’s an OLED display after all, so it’s something that can definitely be done. At the very least, it would have been nice to have seen an option in the companion app that allows you to change the background in a similar fashion to how we can change the theme of other smartphones to light or dark. But, there’s no mention of this in the official press release, and there’s currently no such option available for the ScanWatch Nova, so I’m not expecting it to show up for the Nova Brilliant. It’s also not possible to make the display white on the white-dialled ScanWatch 2, only adding to the expectation the ScanWatch Nova Brilliant will also go without.

I think it’s a shame, because as much as I enjoy Withings’ watches, I personally can’t see myself wearing the ScanWatch Nova Brilliant to a formal event. I’d prefer to wear something a little more understated, or at the very least attract attention for the right reasons. Having an obvious black OLED screen on show isn’t such a good look in my book. But, maybe I’m a watch snob?

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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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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.

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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• The iPhone 16 Pro Max and Galaxy S25 Ultra could have similar designs
• Better battery life is rumored for the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra

It's Glowtime! Well almost... The next Apple event takes place tomorrow (Monday, September 9) and we're expecting to see a huge number of new devices including phones, smartwatches and headphones, plus some major AI updates.

We'll be live on the ground in Cupertino to bring you all the big reveals from the launch, which takes place at 10am PT / 1pm ET / 6pm BST (3am on September 10 for those in the AEST time zone). 

In the meantime, I'm here to bring you all last-minute leaks, rumors and insight ahead of the event, where we expect the reveal of the iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max. We also expect the Apple Watch 10 to make an appearance, maybe joined by an Apple Watch Ultra 3. And for the audio lovers, there's room for the AirPods 4, AirPods Pro 3 and AirPods Max 2. Plus expect to hear a lot about Apple Intelligence and its role in these products. 

Of course, as well as following our live blog below you can catch the whole thing yourself via Apple's stream, and we've got full details on how to do that in our guide to how to watch the iPhone 16 launch event live. 

This showcase could be the biggest Apple event of the year, so without further ado, let's get into it. 

Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening, wherever you are. We're a little over 24 hours away from the September 9 Apple event, which will almost certainly be one of the biggest tech product launches of the year. 

I'm here to give you a rundown of what to expect, the juiciest rumors so far, what I want to see, and more. So let's do this! 

(Image credit: Future | Alex Walker-Todd)

Right then, let's start at the latest leaks or rumors. And they come in the form a storage bump and improved video recording tipped for the iPhone 16 Pro models. 

This comes courtesy of analysts at TrendForce who have claimed that both the iPhone 16 Pro and the iPhone 16 Pro Max are going to start at 256GB of storage this year. That would be a bump for the smaller phone, and a change I'd certainly welcome; after all the iPhone 15 Pro starts at 128GB of storage, which seems a tad miserly for a phone of its price. 

On the video recording side, 9to5Mac 's sources claim the iPhone 16 Pro and 16 Pro Max will be capable of capturing footage at a 4K resolution at 120 frames per second. That's a boost from the 60 frames per second on the current models. So for content creators, such a capability could be a worthy upgrade. 

(Image credit: Apple)

I feel the camera quality of the models you'll find on our best phones list are so high (at least for smartphones) that there's not much to differentiate the top models besides a preference for certain photography styles.

However, video capture could be the next frontier for phones to really battle it out in. And Apple has long led the way, so it's promising to see that the Cupertino crew could embrace 4K at 60fps video capture to put the next-gen Pro iPhones in line with the on-paper capabilities of the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra but add some Apple video processing magic on top of it. 

For more on the cameras we're expecting to see from the higher-end iPhones, check out our rundown on the iPhone 16 Pro camera rumors and predictions. 

Another rumor that caught my eye and has somewhat turned my stomach is one claiming the iPhone 16 Pro will come in a so-called 'Desert Titanium' color. 

This shade seems to sit in between gold and bronze. But whereas real bronze can develop a patina from age, which makes it mellow rather nicely in my humble opinion, it won't do that on a titanium chassis. From my experience using the iPhone 15 Pro Max, the titanium on the phone doesn't seem to scratch let alone stain and age in the same way as the steel on the rather lovely iPhone 13 Pro. 

So I'm not convinced that 'Desert Titanium' is the color iPhone fans have been waiting for. But I am prepared to be proved wrong, if indeed this rumor does come to fruition.  

There are four colors in total in the iPhone 16 Pro Lineup: white, black, gold and gray.The desert titanium color is kind of dark gold, similar to the old purple color, relatively discreet and deep pic.twitter.com/uDiNiBI4IzAugust 18, 2024

(Image credit: Future / Apple)

Speaking of colors, we've got a roundup of rumored iPhone 16 colors and the tipped iPhone 16 Pro colors. 

As someone who perhaps lack a bit of imagination when it comes to colors, the Space Black shade that's been hinted at for the iPhone 16 Pro could be the color for me; it's likely to take after the Space Black iPhone 14 Pro. 

Equally, I'd love to see the return of the dark green color Apple cooked up with the iPhone 13. As I write this I'm wearing a watch with a similar colored leather strap and just adore how the color looks close to British Racing Green; but I'm a Brit so of course i'm going to take a fancy to that. 

(Image credit: Future)

Right enough about colors and my peculiar preferences. Let's talk specs. 

As you'll see in our rundown of the tipped iPhone 16 specs, not a lot of change is expected externally. But under the hood, so to speak, we can expect a new chip, likely one that'll have enough power to drive Apple Intelligence features. So that means Apple could equip the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus with the current A17 Pro chip or perhaps a rumored A18/A18 Pro chip. 

My hope is Apple will aim to use the same chip for all four tipped iPhone 16 models so there's a degree of parity between them all, meaning they'll be ready to run with new AI features. And that should then aid the adoption and use of such smart tools, given the large reach of iPhones. 

Take a look at the rumored specs table below. 

(Image credit: Sonny Dickson)

On the iPhone 16 Pro specs side, it's predicted that the standard and Max Pro models will have a new chip, likely the aforementioned A18 Pro. But to help power AI tools, 8GB of RAM has also been tipped for the iPhone 16 Pro models. 

While I think there's some cool potential to AI features, I'm more enthused about the extra power an new A-series Pro chipset could bring to the table. The A17 Pro could handle genuine console-quality games, albeit with limited frame rates and lower-end settings. So I'm hoping a new chip for the Pro iPhones will improve upon that and give a genuine performance boost to the likes of Death Stranding, which got ported over to iOS. 

(Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)

On the battery side of things, three out of the four tipped iPhone 16 models are expected to have a bigger battery, with the Plus missing out. 

That information is based on leaked battery capacities from Weibo user OvO Baby Sauce OvO, who claimed that the iPhone 16 Pro Max will apparently have a 4,676mAh battery, which would make it 5.7% larger than the 4,422mAh cell inside the iPhone 15 Pro Max. And the iPhone 16 Pro will reportedly have a 3,355mAh battery, which is up just 2% from the 3,290mAh iPhone 15 Pro. 

The standard iPhone 16 is tipped to have a 3,561mAh battery, which is up 5.8% from the iPhone 15’s 3,367mAh cell. But he poor Plus could get a smaller battery coming in at 4,006mAh, while the iPhone 15 Plus sports a 4,383mAh power pack. 

Of course, take this with a dose of skepticism and do bear in mind that size isn't everything on the battery side; efficiency and optimization is almost as important at getting a phone that has the electrical juice to get you through more than a day's worth of use. 

Unfortunately, there's no word on charging upgrades. So even with last year's move to a USB-C port, bringing an end to Lighting port iPhones with the exception of older models, Apple doesn't appear poised to up the electrical throughput the newer ports can support. 

That could be a pity as faster charging is one of the 4 things we reckon the iPhone 16 Pro needs to beat the iPhone 15 Pro and one of the 7 upgrades we want from the iPhone 16. 

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An unofficial render of possible iPhone 16 designs (Image credit: MacRumors)Image 2 of 3

An unofficial render of possible iPhone 16 designs (Image credit: MacRumors)Image 3 of 3

An unofficial render of possible iPhone 16 designs (Image credit: MacRumors)

So I may have inadvertently glossed over this earlier, but in terms of the rumored iPhone 16 design changes, it's been tipped that the standard and Plus models could have a vertical rear camera arrangement and sport an Action button.

I can't say the latter gets my heart racing, as I've always liked the diagonal orientation of the rear cameras on the previous models; a vertical layout is a tad dull and the same as many other phones. But the potential addition of an Action button does have my attention.

While the volume up button could work as a camera shutter trigger, the Action button on the iPhone 15 Pro models just feels better for this. But I also have it configured to switch on the camera flash to act as a quick torch; it's a minor thing but in real-world use is often hugely handy and avoids me needing to tap away at a display. So bringing such a feature to the more affordable iPhones would get a thumbs up from me.

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An unofficial render of the iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max (Image credit: MacRumors)Image 2 of 2

A leaked photo of iPhone 16 Pro Max dummy units (Image credit: Sonny Dickson)

Over to the potential iPhone 16 Pro design and we could be looking at the phones getting larger displays. We’ve repeatedly heard that the iPhone 16 Pro Max will have a 6.9-inch screen, making its display 0.2 inches bigger than the iPhone 15 Pro Max’s, and that the iPhone 16 Pro will have a 6.3-inch screen, a jump up from the 6.1-inch display of its predecessor. 

This change will apparently be achieved by having slimmer but taller phones with trimmed-down bezels, which is a-ok in my book. And I feel to be really 'Max' the iPhone Pro Max does need a display boost. 

Both iPhone 16 Pro models are also tipped to have a so-called 'Capture button' which is meant to act as a camera shutter button but also a means to physically trigger focusing with the likes of a half-press. This has me intrigued and could be a way to make the Pro phones feel more tactile and content-creation focused (pun partially intended). 

The iPhone 15 (Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)

Time to talk iPhone 16 cameras. But don't hold your breath as we’re not expecting any big upgrades. According one leaker, the iPhone 16 will have the same 12MP f/2.4 ultra-wide camera as its predecessor, and will once again have two rear cameras. 

The big upgrades are likely to come on the software side, ideally with improved image processing helping deliver more dynamic photos; sometimes iPhones can lean too hard on natural colors and produce occasionally flat images. 

I'm not too fussed on the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus not sporting any major camera hardware upgrades, as I think two cameras that perform well in point-and-shoot scenarios are plenty for most people. Sure the best camera phones offer more, but you'll pay for the privilege and not always find yourself leaning on the likes of a 5x telephoto zoom. 

The iPhone 15 Pro Max (Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)

Zoom zoom! One of the tipped iPhone 16 Pro camera upgrades is it could get the 5x optical zoom periscope camera of the iPhone 15 Pro Max. 

As a big fan and current user of the 15 Pro Max, I do appreciate the flexibility of a 5x telephoto camera - it’s not overly long like the 10x zoom found on the Galaxy S23 Ultra but it’s also more flexible than a 3x zoom; I think Samsung realized that and dropped the 10x for a 5x zoom in the Galaxy S24 Ultra. 

However, I do still prefer the more compact size of a non-Max iPhone, so I’m enthused by the rumours that the iPhone 16 Pro could get the 5x camera; more zoom in a phone that can be mostly used one-handed, what’s not to like? 

The iPhone 15 Pro (Image credit: Future | Alex Walker-Todd)

In terms of other camera upgrades for the Pro phones, the iPhone 16 Pro Max could also get a new main sensor, one that the smaller Pro won't have. While the camera's resolution will apparently stick to 48-megapixels it could have larger 1/1.14-inch sensor. 

There are also reports that the ultra-wide camera for the iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max will jump up to 48MP from 12MP. And that one or more of the iPhone 16 Pro's lenses will have a new type of coating. 

Finally, there are some hints that the the iPhone 16 Pro Max might get a ‘super telephoto’ camera. This would extend the zoom range from the current 5x to 10x or beyond. However, that rumor is a tad tenuous. Check out the rumored camera specs table for the iPhone 16 Pro below.  

Hacktivism, a fusion of hacking and activism, has become a significant force in the digital landscape.

Driven by social, political, or religious motivations, hacktivists employ various cyber tactics to advance their causes, often targeting organizations or governments they perceive as oppressive or unjust.

They use their technical skills to promote change and their motivations are diverse, ranging from advocating for free speech and anti-censorship to protesting human rights violations or religious discrimination.

DDoS Attacks, Web Defacements, and Data Leaks

A new report by CYFIRMA has detailed that hacktivists see themselves as digital activists and often operate under banners of justice, targeting entities they believe need to be held accountable for their actions. While some groups focus on specific regional or national issues, others engage in broader campaigns that span multiple countries and continents.

One of the most prevalent tactics employed by hacktivists is Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks. These attacks overwhelm websites with excessive traffic, causing disruptions and rendering them inaccessible. Hacktivists use various DDoS tools, including web-based IP stressors and botnet services, to target different layers of the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model.

Web defacement is quite a common tactic, where hacktivists alter website content to display political or ideological messages. This approach embarrasses website owners and spreads the hacktivist message to a broader audience. Exploiting vulnerabilities such as cross-site scripting or SQL injection, hacktivists can deface websites with relative ease. Platforms like Zone-X track and display defaced websites globally, increasing the visibility and impact of these actions.

Data leaks and doxing are also popular methods used by hacktivists to expose sensitive information. By exploiting vulnerabilities in databases or network security, hacktivists gain access to confidential data, which they then release to the public. Doxing involves publicly revealing personal information about individuals, often to intimidate or harass them. These tactics can have severe ethical and legal implications, highlighting the aggressive nature of some hacktivist activities.

Hacktivist groups increasingly collaborate to enhance their impact. These alliances can include partnerships with DDoS service providers, other hacktivist groups, or even state-owned threat actors. For instance, pro-Palestinian hacktivists have formed alliances with pro-Russian groups, while Indian hacktivists collaborate with Nepalese counterparts. Such alliances allow for coordinated large-scale attacks, amplifying the effectiveness of their operations and causing significant disruptions.

One notable example is the 'Holy League,' a coalition of over 70 pro-Russian, pro-Palestinian, and other aligned groups. These alliances facilitate knowledge sharing, joint planning, and resource pooling, making it challenging for targeted nations to defend against these well-coordinated cyber threats.

While hacktivism traditionally focused on ideological goals, some groups have shifted towards using ransomware for both financial gain and political purposes. The availability of leaked ransomware source codes, such as those from LockBit and Conti, has enabled hacktivists to develop their ransomware variants. Some groups, like Belarusian Cyber Partisans, have used ransomware to make political demands rather than seeking monetary ransom, highlighting the evolving nature of hacktivist tactics.

In addition to ransomware, hacktivists have found other ways to monetize their activities. They sell data obtained from breaches, offer training courses on offensive hacking techniques, and even charge for access to exclusive content on private channels. These monetization strategies provide financial support for their operations, enabling hacktivist groups to sustain and expand their activities.

Recruitment is vital for hacktivist groups, as they continually seek new members who share their ideologies. Many recruits are young, often between the ages of 16 and 24, and are drawn to hacktivism by a sense of nationalism or a desire to fight perceived injustices. Hacktivist groups use social media platforms and private channels to spread their messages, organize attacks, and recruit members. These platforms also allow them to showcase their successes, attracting new followers and enhancing their influence.

As hacktivist groups continue to evolve, their impact on digital infrastructure and global affairs cannot be ignored. Governments and organizations must remain vigilant, investing in cybersecurity measures, intelligence sharing, and international cooperation to counter the growing threat posed by these digital activists.

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