It’s no secret by now that Apple will soon be announcing a new generation iPad Pro featuring OLED displays for the first time in both screen sizes. However, as the announcement nears, we now have more details about what to expect – and a new report claims that Apple is using the best OLED panels on the market for the 2024 iPad Pro.
2024 iPad Pro to use advanced OLED panels
Analyst Ross Young of Display Supply Chain Consultants (DSCC) has once again reported that the new iPad Pro models will indeed be equipped with OLED displays. However, Young was emphatic in saying that Apple has chosen the “best OLED tablet panels on the market” for its new tablets.
OLED panels use organic materials that emit light when an electric current is applied. These panels don’t need a backlight, unlike LCD displays, and each pixel is illuminated individually. This results in more contrast and deeper blacks, since the display can simply reduce the brightness or completely black out pixels in dark areas of the image.
However, OLED also has its downsides, such as reduced brightness compared to backlit panels and being susceptible to burn-in. When Apple brought OLED to the iPhone X in 2017, the company said it had addressed these concerns.
“The OLED iPad panels are expected to be by far the best OLED tablet panels on the market with LTPO, 120Hz refresh, a tandem stack and glass thinning resulting in ultra-thin and light displays with high brightness, extended battery life and long lifetime,” the analyst said in a note to investors.
What does that mean for consumers?
Phil Schiller on OLED displays
To make these displays brighter and also more efficient, Apple opted for panels with a two-stack tandem structure. This means that the display has two emission layers, which doubles the brightness compared to traditional OLED panels. The two-stack tandem structure panel also significantly increases the lifespan of the display, which is important for a product like the iPad.
Young also notes that OLED panels are much thinner than LCD panels due to the lack of backlighting. Rumors suggest that the 2024 iPad Pro models will be much thinner, which is probably due to the new display technology.
Apple currently uses a regular LCD panel in the 11-inch iPad Pro and a mini-LED panel in the 12.9-inch iPad Pro. For those unfamiliar, mini-LED uses multiple points of backlighting for increased contrast – but it’s far from reproducing perfect blacks like OLED. An OLED panel can also help save battery life in some situations.
A wasted day Well, I’ve been playing the Fallout 4 next gen update all day and I have to say: what a waste of time! The most obvious problem is the bugs, which… I know this is Bethesda but this is beyond a joke. You’re owned by the world’s biggest company now and still your fans are better at bug-fixing than you are!
I’ve had the thing crash on me, there’s all the usual graphical glitches, and I’ve been caught in the scenery twice. An ordinary day in the Fallout wasteland but why do we put up with this?
Needles to say the graphics have barely changed at all. I think maybe the draw distance got better, but I’m not sure. I know all the people’s faces still look like potatoes and while the game is nine years old that’s really not the problem. Not only were the graphics outdated at the time but even the next gen patch is late. Xbox is talking about an actual next gen in two years! Heathcliffe
Multiple conclusions I like Fallout as much as the next person but the thing that interests me most about Fallout 4’s success is here’s a nine-year-old, complex, janky, single-player game, with bad storytelling, and it’s the most popular game on the planet at the moment.
That is a complicated list of attributes and I bet other publishers (and probably Microsoft) are going to ignore the nuance of it all and come to only one conclusion: successful TV show equals massive game sales. Even though we’ve had successful shows and films before, and it hasn’t made a jot of different.
As a previous reader has said, the fact that Fallout 4 and the rest are virtually being given away at the moment is also a major factor. There’s so much to dwell on here, that suggests companies don’t have to make only live service games, but I’m not very optimistic they’re going to taking the positive lessons. Dallas PS: The fact that the TV makers are also top-draw talent also has a major influence on all this but I’m sure that’ll be ignored too, in the rush to make Heavy Rain: The Show or whatever (seriously, can you imagine David Cage being involved in a show or movie?).
Magnetic excitement I don’t think it would be difficult to keep the current rail system for the Switch 2’s Joy-Cons and have them be magnetic as well, but it’s difficult to say because Nintendo’s track record with backwards compatibility is patchy. They’re generally quite good about it, but because their consoles are all so different, and their account system is so primitive, it causes more problems than they realise/care about.
Although the other question is why are they magnetic? That’s a pointless question with Nintendo, because it could be anything from just a bit of extra strength to it working with the new elephant-shaped controller they’ve invented. These little titbits are exciting, but I really wish we could get the official announcement soon. Gadfly
Fading away Funny to think that Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door may end up being the last Nintendo game for the Switch. It’s a great game but it is only a remaster and I would’ve preferred for things to go out with more of a bang. Consoles never really do though, they just sort of drift off into irrelevance and then you suddenly realise you haven’t turned it on for six months.
It always happens, no matter what console it is, so I’m sure it won’t be any different with the Switch but I’d still like a proper ending for such a great machine. Bearfac30
GC: Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD is scheduled for June 27, but it’s hard to imagine that’s going to be the last first party game on the Switch, even if whatever they have for Christmas is just more remasters.
Booted off Has anyone noticed that Mortal Kombat 1 seems to have been a much smaller hit than usual? I hardly ever see anyone talk about it and there’s been very little about DLC or more characters lately. I don’t get the impression anyone had any particular problem with the story reboot though, and the game played as well as usual, so it’s not clear why it hasn’t done better.
I like to think it’s the ugly monetisation that has got too much for people. It’s steadily been getting worse in the games but it’s now quickly turning into something like FIFA and NBA, which I’m sure is exactly what Warner Bros. was aiming for.
I don’t like to see such a long-running series struggle but if it has to suffer so that publishers stop doing this then so be it. Lokey
Time to play I don’t agree with the Reader’s Feature about Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom over the weekend but I won’t argue about it, as it’s just one person’s valid opinion. What I will say though is that there wasn’t any mention of playing the game in handheld mode.
I certainly won’t argue that Tears Of The Kingdom is a big game, with a lot of distractions, but obviously that’s a big part of its appeal. It’s also true that many people don’t have as much spare time as they’d like nowadays.
I know I wouldn’t have been able to beat Tears Of The Kingdom if it wasn’t for the fact that it can be played in bed and at work and so on. That’s why I was nodding my head along with the PlayStation Portal Reader’s Feature, even though I don’t have one.
Gaming is usually at its best on a big TV but that’s often a convenience you can’t afford and, as the reader said, the satisfaction at being able to complete games and clear your backlog is immense. I’m not surprised to hear Xbox is thinking of making a hybrid of its own. Jules
Consistent quality Did a fresh install on my Xbox Series X of Fallout 4 and its big ‘upgrade’ and two times in a row it has crashed. Guess I have to wait for another patch. Sigh.
I’ve yet to try the PC version but I have read that some people have lost a save and I do not want that.
Do they not have quality control at that young start-up firm Microsoft? Bobwallett
GC: Apparently, it’s much worse on PC, yes.
Greatest Armageddon Fallout 4 now updated with the prospect of getting back into the game is definitely something to behold. The fact that New Vegas is back in the spotlight is also awesome in this day and age!
These games’ open-ended adventures throughout the wasteland is just so addictive and I can see this franchise going for ages. The modders for Starfield are non-existent whilst the modders for New Vegas are huge and varied.
The amount of lore you get in all the communities gives layers of intrigue and makes exploration of the wasteland so satisfying and addictive. Can’t think of any game getting as close to Fallout which proves it is the ultimate post-apocalyptic game.
The perks and special upgrades and character stats are amazingly addictive to learn and the V.A.T.’s attack system never gets boring. I, for one, have spent hours and hours in these games and New Vegas is quite possibly my favourite due to the nature of all the ways the faction interactions evolve and how these shape the world you’re in, leading to the climatic end game.
So, as the excellent TV show has proven – when the developers respect the franchise as much as us gamers then good things will definitely happen and that just warms my heart. Alucard
GC: Starfield’s doesn’t have an official mod system yet.
Inbox also-rans Fallout: London and Miami? And they both look good? Why aren’t Bethesda making these official expansions, rather than us wait till 2030 or whenever for a new game? That company is its own worst enemy. Focus
If I was the developers I wouldn’t bother with The Evil Within 3. The other games have their moments but they’re just a poor man’s Resident Evil and I don’t see the point of doing another one instead of trying something new. Stence
The small print New Inbox updates appear every weekday morning, with special Hot Topic Inboxes at the weekend. Readers’ letters are used on merit and may be edited for length and content.
You can also submit your own 500 to 600-word Reader’s Feature at any time via email or our Submit Stuff page, which if used will be shown in the next available weekend slot.
You can also leave your comments below and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter.
Updated April 28: article originally posted April 27.
As Apple prepares to launch a new iPad model after an eighteen-month gap, will the MacBook Pro lose out?
With the launch of the M1 Apple Silicon chipset in 202 and its subsequent inclusion on the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro, Apple disrupted not only its own laptop and desktop business but also that of the competition. It kept the pressure on with the M2 release, and only now, with the M3 iteration nearing competition, are we seeing the potential of ARM-based competitors driven by Qulacomm’s new Snapdragon X Elite.
Yet Apple is about to draw the public’s focus away from the MacBook Pro and MacBook Air. The year of the Mac is over, long live the iPad.
With the announcement of its next live event on Tuesday May 7, Apple has all but confirmed the launch of a new iPad and a new Apple Pencil through the artwork on the invitation. The iPad line-up has not seen any new products since October 2022. Two versions of the iPad Air are expected to launch, a 10.9 inch and a 12.9 inch version.
Srolling through Netflix on an Apple iPad Pro (Photo by Phil Barker/Future Publishing via Getty ... [+] Images)
Future Publishing via Getty Images
Update: Sunday, April 28: One significant upgrade has come to light this weekend. Writing for Bloomberg’s Power On newsletter, Mark Gurman reports on the Apple Silicon that will sit inside the new iPad Pro tablets. It will not be the M3 chipset currently found in the consumer-focused MacBook Air and MacBook Pro; it’s the next-generation M4 chipset.
The M4 will have the natural bumps in specifications that you see between annual chip upgrades, but it will have one key feature not present in the M3: artificial intelligence. Apple uses AI in several apps and processes (notably image processing and predictive typing). Still, it has fallen behind competing manufacturers shipping silicon with dedicated hardware to assist the AI revolution.
With the M4 chipset, Apple can bring its “large” hardware into the AI game alongside the “mobile” A18 that will debut with the iPhone 16 family this September. If the iPad Pro announced in May comes with the M4 chipset, it will be Apple’s first AI-focused hardware, beating the iPhone and the Mac family to the punch.
A brand new Apple iPhone 15 pro titanium (Photo illustration by John Keeble/Getty Images)
Getty Images
Apple has always emphasized the iPad family's role as a replacement for a traditional computer. With a stylus, a touchscreen, and a keyboard available, the iPad Pro could satisfy the core needs of consumers who would normally turn to the MacBook Air and Pro models. You will be limited to those apps Apple deems safe to list in the iPad’s App Store. These will, in general, be simplified versions of apps you can find on the macOS platform; good enough for social media, casual use, and office tools, but don’t expect to be able to stretch the iPad platform in the way with the Mac platform.
With the new iPads finally arriving you can expect Apple’s PR team to focus on the hardware for the next few months. The power of the iPad, the ability to do everything you need while on the move, the power of the hardware and the apps that unlock it...
Apple will be hoping that the pent-up demand for a new model will contribute to a successful period of sales. It just has to diminish the promise of the MacBook while it does so.
Escape from Tarkov developer Battlestate has u-turned on a decision to lock an "exclusive" PvE mode to its €300 Unheard Edition following player feedback, but insists it is not reneging on its promise to give End of Darkness edition owners "all subsequent DLCs" because "PvE gamemode is not DLC".
Late yesterday (26th April), Matt reported that Escape from Tarkov developer Battlestate had drawn fan ire after unveiling a €250 (€300 after tax) special edition that, alongside special advantages some are calling pay-to-win, contains an exclusive co-op PvE mode that won't be made available to those that bought a previous edition.
As we reported at the time, it's this inclusion of an exclusive new co-op PvE mode that's caused the most consternation as Tarkov's previous Edge of Darkness Edition - now discontinued - promised purchasers would get "free access to all subsequent DLCs".
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"Let me clarify the situation in a little more detail regarding owners of the EoD version and access to the cooperative mode, and also other issues," COO Nikita Buyanov wrote on the game's subreddit.
"First of all, PvE gamemode this is not DLC. DLC in our understanding is the major additions to the game, including various functionality and content that are released after the official release of the game as a themed DLC pack (Scav Life DLC for example, which will add a lot of new mechanics and content for Scav gameplay and leveling).
"Secondly, this specific functionality of the PvE mode is necessarily located entirely on a separate network infrastructure, because, essentially, you play on our servers, only in closed mode. At this stage, it is not possible to launch all players who are EoD holders - right now we simply do not have the required amount of resources for this," the statement added.
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Consequently, in light of players' "dissatisfaction", the team said it has "decided that the functionality of the PvE mode will be available for free to all owners of the EoD version at the release of the game, when the server infrastructure will be improved to the required capacity" – but that's only when the mode comes out of early access, which could be years from now.
Before that point, any players who don't upgrade to the Unheard Editon but would still like to try the PvE mode will have to pay to "have the opportunity to test the PvE mode" in early access.
"Now you have the opportunity to test this mode by purchasing the Unheard edition of the game, or upgrade to this version. We also decided to give a 50 per cent discount when upgrading to the Unheard version from the EoD version," the team added.
"We plan to send one free Left Behind Edition key to everyone who has already upgraded to Unheard Edition at the old price from the EoD version.
"For EoD owners there will be a 70 per cent discount on the purchase of early access to PvE."
Perhaps unsurprisingly, this update has not gone down all that well with the fanbase, either, with many fans refuting Battlestate's claims that the new mode isn't DLC.
"Last time I checked, a brand new game mode that the game has never had before is a pretty major addition to the game," said one respondent, whilst another simply said: "WRONG, try again tomorrow".
Users may have noticed that the arrow button for sending photos has turned from blue to green, while the notification on the right-hand side of unopened chats has also changed from blue to green.
The platform said the move was to use the colour ‘more intentionally’ so users can ‘focus on the things that matter most’ on the screen, as it brings in a ‘modern, new experience.’
And if you’re yet to see the colour shift, it’s only a matter of time.
Whatsapp new update being green is enough for me to delete the app
Meta, who own the app which has around two billion monthly active users, said: ‘If you can’t see these changes yet, there may be a short wait before they reach everyone. Please make sure to keep WhatsApp updated to the latest version in the meantime.’
It’s something that is happening whether you like the shift or not, as Meta says it’s ‘not something you can opt out of.’
Many have taken to social media to share their thoughts on the changes.
One anonymous person wrote: ‘WhatsApp too green for me rn.’
Another posting under the name ShopAndrella wrote: ‘My WhatsApp turning green on my iPhone was not what I expected this year.’
A third named Freya commented: ‘Whatsapp new update being green is enough for me to delete the app.’
Hey @Meta STOP TRYING TO CHANGE WHATSAPP. LET IT BE. WHY THIS GREEN CHANGE. KEEP IT BLUE. FIRST THE Online/Typing and now this?!!!! STOP IT.
The colour scheme is not the only change the app has made in the past few weeks.
Users have also noticed the messaging service adding capital letters to its status bar.
Inside chats users are told whether a person is ‘online’ or ‘typing’, which has been updated to ‘Online’ and ‘Typing’.
WhatsApp has made their dark mode ‘even darker’ to make text easier to read and more white space has been added when in light mode.
Some parts of the app are more spaced out than before, and Android users will notice that the tabs that were previously at the top of their screen will now be at the bottom, to make them ‘easier to access.’
A new update has been released for the nine-year-old video game Fallout 4, the first of its kind for the hit title since 2017.
It follows the roaring success of the Fallout TV show, which this month became the most-watched programme on Amazon Prime Video, overtaking both The Grand Tour and Clarkson's Farm.
Game publisher Bethesda issued free next-generation iterations for the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series consoles, to boost graphics, frame rates and fix bugs.
PlayStation players are the biggest winners from the update, as the Xbox Series X already upscales graphics and framerates of older titles, while PC gaming giant AMD's FidelityFX Super Resolution product achieves the same effect.
The release of the TV show has propelled Fallout game titles back into the Top Sellers category on the PC game platform Steam, with two Fallout games in the top 10 most-sold, with Fallout New Vegas even beating Call of Duty Warzone (which is free), at time of writing.
HBO's smash hit, The Last Of Us, based on Sony Interactive Entertainment's platinum intellectual property raised the bar for future game adaptations, but producers breathed a sigh of relief when pre-release reviews were universally positive.
The franchise is a jewel in the crown of publisher Bethesda, which was purchased by Xbox in a $7.5bn (£6bn) acquisition in 2021. Other popular titles include The Elder Scrolls and their latest release Starfield.
The Fallout story begins in 1997 when the first iteration was released by a North American publisher, Interplay, on Windows MS-DOS to critical acclaim and successful sales.
Fallout 2 followed just a year later (developed in a third of the time of its predecessor) to an equally positive reception and was deemed to be a worthy successor.
Image:Walton Goggins plays The Ghoul in the Fallout show. Pic: Amazon/Everett/Shutterstock
The award-winning move to 3D
The first-ever 3D version came in 2008 following the partial sale of the Fallout IP to Bethesda, in the form of Fallout 3.
It beat the sales records of both its predecessors in the first week alone, and received outstanding reviews across the board.
By the end of the following year, Fallout 3 had won multiple awards, and in 2012, was displayed in The Art of Video Games exhibition at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, earning the franchise a permanent place in the public's cultural consciousness.
The notable spin-off Fallout: New Vegas was released swiftly afterwards, quickly cementing itself as a fan favourite. Following the release of the TV programme, New Vegas is currently out-selling Diablo IV, Elden Ring and Grand Theft Auto V on Steam.
Fallout 4 was released in 2015 to a mixed but largely positive reception, introducing some new features such as base-building and managed to please a majority of players.
Image:The Brotherhood of Steel in the Fallout show. Pic: Amazon/Everett/Shutterstock
'Historically bad' and 'pointless' release
Then Bethesda published Fallout 76.
The first 3D multiplayer outing for Fallout ever released also turned out to be the most controversial.
It drew criticism from the press and players alike. Game-breaking bugs, an initial lack of content and poor design - coupled with a fanbase who were more accustomed to the single-player format, made it a victim to '"review-bombing". Forbes called it a "historically bad launch", while the Guardian branded it "pointless".
Imperfect game launches can badly damage reputations, as exemplified by titles such as No Man's Sky, Star Wars Battlefront II and Cyberpunk 2077. All three games have since largely rehabilitated themselves, though a stigmatic miasma remains.
A revival
Thanks to Prime Video's TV adaptation the very same has now happened to Fallout 76.
The TV series has spurred players on to try it one more time, leading them to discover the updates, bug fixes and content releases that have greatly elevated Fallout 76 in the opinion of many fans, and led to positive recent player reviews.
At the time of writing, Fallout 76 occupies Steam's eighth most-sold position, beating the award-winning Baldur's Gate 3, EA Sports FC 24, and Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare III. At its peak this week the game boasted a million active players across all platforms, the highest number since its release.
It may come as a surprise to some to learn Fallout 5 is slated for seven to 10 years' time, though some industry voices theorise Microsoft may use the series' success to justify commissioning an intermediary instalment in the meantime to capitalise on the unexpectedly high levels of public interest.
Fallout show is proof of concept
Fallout's TV success is proof of concept that companies can capitalise on (and sometimes rehabilitate), the public familiarity of their franchises - the box-office-hit Barbie movie being another example.
Games, like toys, will likely continue to spawn more cinematic adaptations, with The Last Of Us and Fallout receiving second seasons, while Bob the Builder, Polly Pocket and Barney The Dinosaur will all be immortalised in film.
Video games are arguably even easier to adapt for television given the narratives and universes are conveniently pre-existing, as opposed to the arduous job of inventing completely original storylines for Bob and his fellow construction workers.
Which game franchise gets the TV treatment next, however, remains to be seen, by players and non-gamers alike.
Samsung is giving away its flagship smartphone for free when you add one of its new Smart TVs to your shopping basket. Even with the best Galaxy S24 deals, you'll struggle to find this cutting-edge Android phone for under £799, showing just how generous this new giveaway really is.
But you'll only be able to claim a free Galaxy S24 if you place an order before May 14, so you'll need to act fast.
With prices starting from as low as £169 for some of its television models, Samsung isn't making the £799 Galaxy S24 smartphone available with every Smart TV sold in its online store. Instead, you'll need to preorder one of the incoming 2024 models from Samsung.
Samsung is using AI to identify the action on-screen and make subtle adjustments to fast-moving objects, removing blur from footballs during frenetic matches, for example
SAMSUNG PRESS OFFICE
These all-new Smart TVs were first glimpsed at the CES tradeshow in Las Vegas back in January, but will finally come to UK store shelves next month. The refreshed line-up includes the Samsung Neo QLED 8K, Neo QLED 4K, OLED and The Frame designs.
Samsung is delivering some nifty new Artificial Intelligence (AI) tricks in some of its new Smart TVs. Its new Motion Enhancer Pro technology monitors what's happening on-screen and then applies deep-learning to enhance the clarity of fast-moving objects. This should prove especially popular with sports fans, with the football no longer reduced to a blurred smear during particularly fast-paced play.
Samsung will also leverage AI to improve upscaling, so older content watched on a 4K or 8K panel will be boosted to take advantage of the additional pixels and improve overall sharpness.
Introducing these features at CES, President and Head of Visual Display Business at Samsung SW Yong said: "Now that we are living through the hyperconnected era, it’s no longer just about delivering quality visual experiences.
"Displays should enhance our lives both on and off the screen. Samsung’s AI screens, powered by on-device AI technology, are designed to be the centrepiece of users’ homes, connecting all compatible devices to offer users a more flexible and diverse lifestyle."
The most affordable 2024 model of Samsung Smart TV eligible for the free Galaxy S24 costs £2,099. That'll secure the 55-inch Samsung Neo QLED 4K model— and a free Galaxy S24 with 128GB of built-in storage.
When you add one of the eligible Smart TVs to your basket, Samsung will automatically add its latest Galaxy S phone at no cost
SAMSUNG
If that sounds a little steep, Samsung will discount that Smart TV by an extra £200 if you recycle your current telly. Samsung will collect the television free of charge when it delivers the new Neo QLED 4K model, but the discount will be applied instantly at checkout.
If you want a Galaxy S24+ for free, you'll need to add the more expensive Neo QLED 8K range to your basket. That makes sense given that the Galaxy S24+ starts from a higher price point of £999. Neo QLED 8K starts from £3,699 for a 65-inch screen, Samsung will drop that price tag by an extra £500 if you have a television to trade in during the checkout process.
There's nothing in the small print of the giveaway that prevents you from selling either the Galayx S24 or Galaxy S24+. If you managed to recoupe the full RRP, that would effectively discout the Neo QLED 4K down to £1,300 or £1,100 with trade-in. Meanwhile, the Neo QLED 8K would drop to £2,700 or £2,200 with the maximum trade-in value.
Those are some serious savings — provided you were considering buying a flagship flatscreen from Samsung anyway.
LG 1 has exclusive rights to series such as Wong & Winchester and Paul T. Goldman.
It will also show American musical drama television series Nashville, as well as political drama seriesBoss, led by Fraiser star Kelsey Grammer.
The newly added Lionsgate channels will include MovieSphere, Wicked Tuna, Are We There Yet, Anger Management, Ghost Hunters, Grace & Frankie and Nashville.
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Sony's latest offering in the UK will consist of eight themed channels - which are also available on Samsung TVs:
Sony One Thriller TV: a focus on action-packed thrillers, with series such as Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul and Justified.
Sony One Faves: Timeless classics and fan favourites including Bewitched, Community and Dawson’s Creek.
Sony One Comedy HITS: Well-known comedy classic movies such as Step Brothers, Jerry Maguire and Easy A.
Sony One Action HITS: Dedicated to action and adventure movies like District 9 and the Men in Black and Zombieland franchises.
Sony One Shark Tank: Episodes from the US version of the hit reality series Dragons' Den.
Sony One Dragons’ Den: Watch as aspiring entrepreneurs pitch their business ideas to multimillionaire investors, in the hope of landing investment funds.
Sony One Blacklist: Watch back-to-back episodes from the crime thriller series which follows a most-wanted fugitive who works with a rookie FBI profiler to take down criminals and terrorists.
Freely the UK's new free streaming service
How to find LG channels
LG channels are stations that are streamed via Wi-Fi and they're exclusively available on LG TVs.
They are included on LG Smart TVs made from 2016 to present.
There should be an LG channels button on your remote which will take you straight to them.
Alternatively, you can find it on the LG TV home screen.
How to cut streaming bills with top FREE TV
Netflix, Disney+ and Amazon Prime don't come cheap - and year on year subscription costs seem to go up.
Fortunately there are loads of free streaming TV alternatives not everyone knows about.
And we're not just talking about BBC iPlayer and ITVX.
It mightn't be a huge surprise to hear - given we're talking about one of Steam's most wishlisted games in recent times - but solo developer Slavic Magic's Manor Lords is off to a flying start; the medieval city builder/strategy hybrid is currently Steam's best-selling title and its fourth most played game just hours after launch, with over 156K concurrent players at the time of writing.
Manor Lords has, of course, been drawing admiring glances since the launch of its demo back in 2022. That early look resulted in half a million people adding the game to their Steam wishlists and that number has only grown; another half a million people have wishlisted it this week alone, meaning it had surpassed 3m by the time today's early access release rolled around.
Since launching this afternoon, Manor Lords has steadily worked its way up Steam's most-played charts, passing evergreen big hitters such as Grand Theft Auto 4, Rust, Apex Legends, and Rainbow Six Siege - not to mention a couple of ballsy newcomers (Helldivers 2) and returning favourites (Fallout 4 and Stardew Valley) - along the way. Right now, with 156K concurrent players to its name, there're just three perennially immovable titles - PUBG, Dota 2, and Counter-Strike 2 - between it and the number one spot.
And Manor Lords' success seems well-deserved; even in its initial early access guise, it's an impressive achievement - although there's clearly work still to be done. As Eurogamer's Robert Purchese put it in his early access review this week, "There's a confidence to Manor Lords that belies its one-person development, and what's there can be spellbinding, but it's a pastoral idyll that still needs significant development."
"The potential is there," Bertie concluded, "the foundations are most assuredly laid, it just now needs to build on top of them." And with Manor Lords currently expected to remain in early access for around a year - as per its Steam page - there's still plenty of time to turn its early magic into something very special indeed.
In the world of AI, what might be called "small language models" have been growing in popularity recently because they can be run on a local device instead of requiring data center-grade computers in the cloud. On Wednesday, Apple introduced a set of tiny source-available AI language models called OpenELM that are small enough to run directly on a smartphone. They're mostly proof-of-concept research models for now, but they could form the basis of future on-device AI offerings from Apple.
Apple's new AI models, collectively named OpenELM for "Open-source Efficient Language Models," are currently available on the Hugging Face under an Apple Sample Code License. Since there are some restrictions in the license, it may not fit the commonly accepted definition of "open source," but the source code for OpenELM is available.
On Tuesday, we covered Microsoft's Phi-3 models, which aim to achieve something similar: a useful level of language understanding and processing performance in small AI models that can run locally. Phi-3-mini features 3.8 billion parameters, but some of Apple's OpenELM models are much smaller, ranging from 270 million to 3 billion parameters in eight distinct models.
In comparison, the largest model yet released in Meta's Llama 3 family includes 70 billion parameters (with a 400 billion version on the way), and OpenAI's GPT-3 from 2020 shipped with 175 billion parameters. Parameter count serves as a rough measure of AI model capability and complexity, but recent research has focused on making smaller AI language models as capable as larger ones were a few years ago.
The eight OpenELM models come in two flavors: four as "pretrained" (basically a raw, next-token version of the model) and four as instruction-tuned (fine-tuned for instruction following, which is more ideal for developing AI assistants and chatbots):
OpenELM features a 2048-token maximum context window. The models were trained on the publicly available datasets RefinedWeb, a version of PILE with duplications removed, a subset of RedPajama, and a subset of Dolma v1.6, which Apple says totals around 1.8 trillion tokens of data. Tokens are fragmented representations of data used by AI language models for processing.
Apple says its approach with OpenELM includes a "layer-wise scaling strategy" that reportedly allocates parameters more efficiently across each layer, saving not only computational resources but also improving the model's performance while being trained on fewer tokens. According to Apple's released white paper, this strategy has enabled OpenELM to achieve a 2.36 percent improvement in accuracy over Allen AI's OLMo 1B (another small language model) while requiring half as many pre-training tokens.
Enlarge/ An table comparing OpenELM with other small AI language models in a similar class, taken from the OpenELM research paper by Apple.
Apple
Apple also released the code for CoreNet, a library it used to train OpenELM—and it also included reproducible training recipes that allow the weights (neural network files) to be replicated, which is unusual for a major tech company so far. As Apple says in its OpenELM paper abstract, transparency is a key goal for the company: "The reproducibility and transparency of large language models are crucial for advancing open research, ensuring the trustworthiness of results, and enabling investigations into data and model biases, as well as potential risks."
By releasing the source code, model weights, and training materials, Apple says it aims to "empower and enrich the open research community." However, it also cautions that since the models were trained on publicly sourced datasets, "there exists the possibility of these models producing outputs that are inaccurate, harmful, biased, or objectionable in response to user prompts."
While Apple has not yet integrated this new wave of AI language model capabilities into its consumer devices, the upcoming iOS 18 update (expected to be revealed in June at WWDC) is rumored to include new AI features that utilize on-device processing to ensure user privacy—though the company may potentially hire Google or OpenAI to handle more complex, off-device AI processing to give Siri a long-overdue boost.
Democracy is especially sweet today, folks. After days of doubt and despair, not to mention coordination and technical issues, the Helldivers 2 community has cleared a Major Order challenging them to defend 10 different planets within a tight timeframe.
Just yesterday, players began to wonder if the objective, which many considered impossible just days into the Major Order with only a small handful of planets checked off, might be possible after all. After a slow start, Helldivers worked their way up to eight defended planets with a full day left on the order.
"They said this MO was designed to show us that we can't always win," wrote one player on April 24. "I say we all dive Varylia and show them we can."
Calls to arms like this cut to the heart of this recent Major Order and what made it so daunting. A major obstacle was getting the massive, largely siloed player base to agree on which planets to target. This resulted in a war on many, many fronts, with several planetary forces spread too thin to make meaningful headway. Even if they were winning the fight, with the Major Order time limit ticking down, they often weren't winning fast enough.
On top of that, as the devs confirmed in an April 21 Discord post, a technical issue meant that "unfortunately, we will be unable to provide updates to liberation percentage and ongoing galactic war progress for the foreseeable future." Forces were already in disarray, and now they were literally making stabs in the dark. Fortunately, per a follow-up Discord announcement, the problem was fixed as of April 22.
At the same time, developer Arrowhead was also reacting behind the scenes. The player above is likely referring to recent comments from the devs, with community manager Spitz notably saying: "Frankly, you can't continue to blame the developers when the community came up with a plan, asked me if it'd work, I got direct confirmation from the GM that it would work, told you all that it'd work and encouraged you to do it, the GM tweaked the decay rate to make it even easier, and there still wasn't enough of a player effort to make it happen. Short of handing you the win, there isn't a lot more we can do."
This feels like a big moment for the game. I won't lie, this was looking like a loss. The fact that the Helldivers 2 community was able to rally at the eleventh hour and eek out a dark horse win like this really sells the inherent drama and intrigue of the game's dynamic Galactic War. At the time of writing, we're still awaiting a new Major Order. I like to imagine high command is also too busy celebrating to issue a fresh mission.
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Gran Turismo 7 has been freshly updated to version number 1.46 on PS5 and PS4, with the update adding a new car to the game you won't find anywhere else: the Škoda Vision Gran Turismo. Designed entirely around the Polyphony Digital racer, it's Škoda's first appearance in the franchise and is seen as a "visionary study of a single-seater, all-electric racing concept car".
You'll be able to take it for a spin alongside two other cars once you've downloaded update 1.46: the AFEELA Prototype 2024 and drag racing classic the Chevrolet Chevelle SS 454 Sport Coupe ’70. See them hit the track in the video above.
Elsewhere, the patch adds another Menu for you to complete in the GT Café. Once you reach Collector Level 38, you can learn all about and collect Ferrari 12-Cylinder Engines. Then, in World Circuits, you'll find new events in the Japanese Clubman Cup 550, American FR Challenge 550, and the Vision Gran Turismo Trophy. Finally, there's the chance to visit San Diego in a new Scape for all the Photo Mode enthusiasts.
What do you make of this latest Gran Turismo 7 update? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
One more app joins the passwordless future we’ve been promised. WhatsApp says it’s now rolling out support for passkeys in the iOS version of the app. With the feature enabled, users of Meta’s encrypted messaging app can use iPhone biometrics for login — that is, Face ID or Touch ID — or their phone’s passcode.
WhatsApp already supports unlocking its iOS app with one of these options, but this takes that a step further. Passkey support comes to the iPhone version several months after Meta started distributing it to Android WhatsApp users in October. WhatsApp spokesperson Zade Alsawah iOS users will see the app “in the coming weeks,” so if you don’t see it now, keep checking.
Passkeys are supposed to be the secure (or, at least, more secure; even passkeys have tradeoffs) wave of the future — a version of authentication that does away with passwords and SMS two-factor authentication. It also means you can sign in even when you’re not connected to a network since your phone holds the authentication key. To see if you have the feature already, WhatsApp says you’ll see the option under Settings > Account > Passkeys. Rollouts like this can take time, though.
Alsaweh said users will still scan a QR code from the “Linked Devices” menu in the smartphone app to log into WhatsApp on other devices, “since Mac, Windows and web can’t be primary devices for an account.” That’s similar to, if a tiny bit clunkier than, how passkeys sometimes work when logging in to a service on desktop web browsers — except there, all you have to do is scan the passkey QR code using your phone’s default camera app.
What are passkeys?
Passkeys can replace traditional passwords with your device’s own authentication methods. That way, you can sign in to Gmail, PayPal, or iCloud just by activating Face ID on your iPhone, your Android phone’s fingerprint sensor, or with Windows Hello on a PC.
Built on WebAuthn (or Web Authentication) tech, two different keys are generated when you create a passkey: one stored by the website or service where your account is and a private key stored on the device you use to verify your identity.
Of course, if passkeys are stored on your device, what happens if it gets broken or lost? Since passkeys work across multiple devices, you may have a backup available. Many services that support passkeys will also reauthenticate to your phone number or email address or to a hardware security key, if you have one.
Apple’s and Google’s password vaults already support passkeys, and so do password managers like 1Password and Dashlane. 1Password has also created an online directory listing services that allow users to sign in using a passkey.
Update April 24th, 2024, 6:26PM ET: Added comment from WhatsApp spokesperson.
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