Month: October 2023

The launch of the slimmer PlayStation 5 is just weeks away, and one user seems to have already gotten their hands on the updated console. In a series of images posted to X (formerly Twitter), user @phantompainss shows how the updated console stacks against its chunkier counterpart.

The new PS5 looks like it’ll have a slightly smaller footprint when compared to the original console. Not only does it have a slimmer profile than the standard PS5, but it’s also a couple of inches shorter as well. Despite the thinner design, the back of the device appears to retain the same ports as its predecessor, including an HDMI port, two USB ports, a power connector, and an ethernet port.

The images also appear…

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Match Group and Google announced a settlement on Tuesday in Match’s lawsuit against the company. The last-minute decision leaves Google scheduled to go up against Fortnite publisher Epic Games alone in an antitrust trial that starts next week, with Epic alleging that Google Play’s payment policies are anticompetitive.

Match sued Google in May 2022, alleging the company “illegally monopolized the market” for app distribution with Google Play and imposed an “extortionate tax” with the fees it takes from transactions on the marketplace. Its claims dovetailed with an existing complaint from Epic as well as a coalition of state attorneys general. Google and the states announced their own settlement in September.

Under the terms of this latest…

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In addition to a new iMac, Apple announced new M3-powered versions of the 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pro during its “Scary Fast” event on Monday. The new laptops can be configured with either the M3, M3 Pro, or M3 Max chip, all of which should offer larger performance gains than the last-gen M2 chip. Each MacBook Pro is currently available to preorder online ahead of its release date in November, with the M3 and M3 Pro models due to arrive on November 7th, while the M3 Max will ship later.

If you’re wondering how the new laptops compare with the M2 models on paper, we’ve rounded up everything we know so far based on specs and statements from Apple. Stay tuned as well for our full reviews, in which we’ll let you know how well the laptops…

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Bungie is laying off around 100 staffers as well as delaying two of its forthcoming titles: Marathon and Destiny 2’s forthcoming expansion, The Final Shape. The latter is now expected to launch in June 2024, while the former won’t be expected until 2025.

The layoffs, first reported by Bloomberg, are part of ongoing cuts within Sony’s PlayStation division. Ex-Bungie employees have begun posting on social media about the layoffs, which impact around eight percent of the studio’s workforce. Sony purchased Bungie last year in a $3.6 billion deal that was supposed to see the Destiny developer operate as an independent unit within the company.

“Today is a sad day at Bungie as we say goodbye to colleagues who have all made a significant impact…

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Belkin has a new 2-in-1 charging dock that’s all about the looks. Yes, it offers the types of features you’d expect from a $129.95 charger, including letting you fast charge iPhones with MagSafe as well as Apple Watches. But if you do pay up for the new charging dock, you’re probably buying it because it looks great.

Offered in two neutral colors, sand or charcoal (basically white and black), “the dock achieves a stunning stone-like appearance, blending seamlessly into its environment whether it’s placed on a nightstand, kitchen counter or desk,” Belkin writes in its press release. Take Belkin’s marketing language there with a grain of salt, but I do think the charger has a really nice aesthetic.

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Apple’s first foray into the world of prime-time product launches (for those of us on the East Coast, that is) kicked off with a new generation of Apple Silicon, the M3 processor. And announced alongside the new M3 chips were the handful of computers Apple is putting them in — including a new 24-inch iMac, an upgraded 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pro, and a new 14-inch MacBook Pro with a base M3 that kills off the controversial Touch Bar for good (pour one out for an Apple flop).

This may have been a somewhat low-stakes Apple event for the evening before Halloween, but even if none of these new Macs are radically different, a new generation of M-series chips is nothing to sneeze at. The $1,299 iMac shows that Apple hasn’t totally forgotten…

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Apple’s “Scary Fast” showcase has come to a close. During the launch event, Apple took the wraps off of some brand-new Macs that come equipped with the latest version of the company’s in-house chip.

If you’re curious about all the new products, here’s a roundup of the major announcements from the event.

A more powerful line of M3 chips

As expected, Apple’s M3 chips took the spotlight during this month’s event. The new lineup includes the M3, M3 Pro, and M3 Max chips, which Apple says mark the “first personal computer chips” made using the more efficient 3-nanometer process.

In addition to offering a “faster and more efficient CPU,” the trio of chips comes with an updated GPU that supports ray tracing,…

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Apple is finally moving on from the Touch Bar. The company has just announced a new entry-level version of the 14-inch MacBook Pro, replacing the 13-inch MacBook Pro with the Touch Bar keyboard. This new model has the standard M3 chip; the 14-inch model previously was only available with the higher-end Pro or Max chips.

The biggest news about this new MacBook Pro is the M3 chip. As rumored, the M3 is a 3nm chip, and Apple is promising some big performance improvements over the 13-inch M1 MacBook Pro, including Final Cut Pro rendering that’s up to 60 percent faster. As usual, Apple only shared some selective performance stats, so it’s not entirely clear how much of a jump this new chip might have compared to the old M1 model, let alone…

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The 24-inch iMac is finally getting a refresh. At its “Scary Fast” event, Apple announced a new M3 version of the iMac that is supposedly two times faster than its over two-year-old M1 predecessor.

What’s really new this time around is the M3 chip. The M3 has an eight-core CPU, up to a 10-core GPU, with support for up to 24GB of RAM and 2TB of storage. Supposedly, that ought to translate to a much faster all-in-one. Productivity apps, such as Safari or Microsoft Excel, will run up to 30 percent faster. For creators, the new chip enables up to 12 streams of 4K video, and Adobe Photoshop should also process photos up to two times faster. It also now supports Wi-Fi 6E.

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OpenAI is rolling out new beta features for ChatGPT Plus members right now. Subscribers have reported that the update includes the ability to upload files and work with them, as well as multimodal support. Basically, users won’t have to select modes like Browse with Bing from the GPT-4 dropdown — it will instead guess what they want based on context.

The new features bring a dash of the office features offered by its ChatGPT Enterprise plan to the standalone individual chatbot subscription. I don’t seem to have the multimodal update on my own Plus plan, but I was able to test out the Advanced Data Analysis feature, which seems to work about as expected. Once the file is fed to ChatGPT, it takes a few moments to digest the file before…

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