Say hello to DEMOCRACY
From once being the darling of the gaming world, to instantly becoming one of the most hated, Sony’s Helldivers II spent the weekend speedrunning (and then rectifying) their game’s death, which was heralded as one of 2024’s best. This morning Sony confirmed that it has rescinded its short-lived rules that required players on Steam to hook up a PSN account before they can start whooping bug behinds. All in the name of democracy, of course.
For those that haven’t kept up, Helldivers II — a Sony product — graced the Steam store with its presence when it launched earlier this year. Notably, those purchasing the game on Steam could boot up with nothing but their Steam account. Until… Sony made the bold move to begin checking their player base’s PSN credentials and disallowing anyone without one from entering the game, sparking backlash among the entire community and resulting in the game’s reviews going red.
Normally, third-party requirements are worth nothing more than an eye-roll — as long as those rules are enforced from the word go. But by retroactively demanding PSN verification, Sony immediately screwed over any customers hailing from those regions where PSN is not supported. For reference, there are as many as 121 countries that were unable to sign up for the network, and as a result, were locked out of the game.
The ROG Ally (2, Pro,) wants to be more of a gaming machine
When Asus hopped onto the PC gaming handheld bandwagon, we were relatively pleased with how it all turned out. The ROG Ally, as it’s named, was easily lost amid a sea of similarly-minded pieces of hardware like the Steam Deck, MSI Claw and Legion Go to name a few. What none of those have just yet is a follow-up act; a chance to improve on their mistakes and reignite the battle.
Barring any Kendrick Lamar-like drops from those other names shortly, it looks as though ROG will get the first ‘2’ on the market. Back in January, Asus India’s VP confirmed as much during an interview with Techlusive: “We most likely will launch a second-generation [ROG Ally] this year. We will still keep the Windows features, but we will focus more on gaming.”
Unfortunately, that desperation to be the ‘first’ second could be Asus’ undoing. According to early leaks of the Ally follow-up, it appears as though it will turn up with a recycled Ryzen Z1 or Z1 Extreme processor — just like in the original model. That’s all coming from VideoCardz (via notebookcheck), which reckons that “the 2024 model would seemingly have the SD card issues fixed.”
Calling it “the 2024 model” is an interesting bit of terminology, suggesting Asus could be aiming for an annual event rather than a major refresh every few years. We’ll have to wait for Asus to confirm the rumours, which could reportedly happen at this year’s Computex, running from 4-7 June. Until then, a healthy dash of salt should help any
YouTube jumps ahead of the game
If you aren’t yet tired of YouTube constantly mislabelling simple features as “AI-powered”, then news of the platform’s “Jump Ahead” idea might just do the trick. “Jump Ahead” was first announced in March, though it was limited to a small subset of Premium customers, and is now being expanded to the rest of the Premium members in the US, with a global launch waiting in the wings. Wiggling out of this one is looking unlikely.
“Jump Ahead” is as much of a waste of AI talents as it sounds. Combining user data and, uh, ‘AI’ to make it all fit together, YouTube will let users skip to the ‘best parts’ of the video by predicting what they’d like to watch. While we haven’t yet tested the feature, we’re guessing it’ll heavily rely on YouTube’s most-watched feature, either through a happy coincidence — or just because the AI will deem that as the best part of a video.
When the feature does make its way around globally, you’ll be able to use it by simply double-tapping on the side of the screen, after which a “jump ahead” message will appear on-screen for you to click and be mindlessly carried to the next interesting point of the video. “Jump Ahead” is still experimental and will be until 1 June, when YouTube will decide on the feature’s future, globally speaking.
Expect Apple to fold in 2025
With the Apple Vision Pro losing out on a spot in the zeitgeist, Apple has some other tricks up its sleeve to put the brand back there. For years we’ve heard rumours of Apple developing a folding device, and now it might finally have one — a 20.3in foldable — ready by 2025, with a folding iPhone eyeing up the shelves for the following year.
That’s coming from Jeff Pu whose report was seen by 9to5Mac, and ties into what Ming-Chi Kuo has been spouting for several months now: that Apple is working on a 20.3in foldable MacBook. There’s just one difference. While Pu reckons we’ll see the product in 2025, Kuo believes the device will only enter mass production in 2027.
If Jeff Pu is to be believed, Apple is “accelerating” thanks to “increasing visibility” during supply chain checks. Apple wants to position the range as a “new line-up for Apple” that would target the “ultra-high-end market.” Because it worked so well before. If, however, Apple can get its act together for the 2026 folding iPhone, it might just stand a chance, with Pu reporting two screen sizes of 7.9- and 8.3in that Apple is currently exploring.
While Pu is generally considered to be a reputable ‘leaker’ within the Apple realm, it’s still worth waiting for something concrete from Apple’s end. Which probably won’t be until Tim Cook is personally shilling the device during some live stream on YouTube. We’ll just have to wait for something a little more solid before we get our excitement levels up.