Intel unveils Thunderbolt 5, with some wacky speeds
Intel has announced the next evolution of the Thunderbolt standard, Thunderbolt 5, which promises speeds of up to 120Gbps. For reference, the company’s current-gen Thunderbolt 4 caps out at 40Gbps. If you don’t know what any of that meant: new cable good. Despite the recent announcement showing off Thunderbolt 5’s skills, we won’t be seeing it supported on devices, or accessories until at least 2024. That’s fine. We can wait.
Intel’s built TB5 using the USB4 v2 standard, meaning it’ll be backwards compatible with older USB-C standards and previous versions of Thunderbolt. At its best, it’s capable of transmitting data at 120Gbps, when coupled with a high-bandwidth display. You’ll mostly be hitting speeds of 80Gbps, which theoretically enables support for a 540Hz monitor, 240W of charging and more.
The big idea here seems to be allowing users to connect their PCs to multiple displays. With Thunderbolt 5, you’ll be able to hook up multiple 8K monitors at a time (because we all have those) or three 4K displays at 144Hz. Take it to the extreme and it’ll run a 540Hz monitor, meaning Asus might finally have a few customers picking up the ROG Swift Pro.
All that’s left to do now, is wait.
Unity’s got some backtracking to do
Unity, the game engine that your favourite indie games are built on, like Hollow Knight, Cult of the Lamb and Cuphead, has landed itself in some hot water. On Tuesday, the company announced that it would be increasing its fees – again. It’s not quite as simple as a regular price hike, though. It’s devised a new scheme, with what it calls a “Unity Runtime Fee.” It’s essentially cutting itself a slice of the pie from any game using the Unity engine with a pay-per-download fee that developers will have to foot.
Unity’s making the runtime fee a thing from 1 January 2024, though we’re guessing it won’t live long enough to see October. See, Unity’s initial announcement had some gaping holes. We won’t get into it all here. Had it been left to flourish; however, it would’ve left developers open to mass-install campaigns, wiping out their funds and leaving Unity to count its doubloons, Scrooge McDuck style. It’s also just plain stupid.
Hours later, Unity backtracked. It hasn’t rid developers of the Runtime Fee (yet), but it “regrouped” and made some significant changes to the fee’s rules. For instance, a fee will only be triggered after the initial install of a game and ignore subsequent installs. Demos, too, got a much-needed change, with Unity noting that these “mostly” won’t trigger the fee. That’s all according to @stephentotilo – with Unity clarifying the changes itself soon after.
In the words of Garry Newman, the creator of Garry’s Mod, “Unity can get…”
Channel surfing
Meta’s desire to imitate Telegram at every turn hasn’t abated. That’s obvious from WhatsApp’s latest update, which adds Channels to the app. Not that we’re complaining or anything. It’s a feature we’ve known about for some time, having been trialled in Singapore and Colombia before being released to 150 countries yesterday – South Africa included.
So, what are channels? They’re a broadcast network that lets users receive updates from creators, brands or organisations that they subscribe to, all in one place. That place is the new ‘Updates’ tab found at the bottom of the WhatsApp app where you previously found status updates. And don’t worry – WhatsApp won’t go blabbing about who you’re subscribed to.
The update comes with a few enhancements from its previous iteration, too. Those include a filter that’ll let users filter channels by ‘country’, ‘new’, ‘most active’, and ‘popular’. You’ll have to make do with WhatsApp’s official channels for now – like those new ones “run” by Olivia Rodrigo, Mark Zuckerberg and a few football teams. WhatsApp has said it will make it possible for users to create their own channels “over the coming months.”
PlayStation’s got a State of Play
Still upset over PlayStation’s recent PS Plus price hike? We can’t help you there – but PlayStation might be looking to make amends at its recently announced State of Play – where we might get a peek at the future of PS Plus and why the price hike was necessary. Don’t hold your breath, though. This is Sony we’re talking about.
Whatever the case, you can check out the event for yourself today, 14 September at 14h00 PT, or 23h00 local time. You can watch the event live over on PlayStation’s official YouTube channel, or on Twitch if that’s more your thing.
We’re not expecting anything too big from Sony, here. Aside from the rumours that Sony’s PlayStation price hike would make sense before the show is over, Sony itself said the event would be focusing on indie and third-party titles, which immediately made our sour hearts leap at the possibility of a Silksong release date. We’re not getting our hopes up, though.
