Month: August 2024

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots may still come to PC and current-gen consoles.

Don’t lose hope, Metal Gear fans! Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots may still come to PC and current-gen consoles. 

Last year, Konami released the Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1, featuring the first five games in the popular action-stealth franchise, including Metal Gear, Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake, Metal Gear Solid, Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, and Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater.

Ever since, fans have been eager for the studio to re-release Kojima Productions’ Metal Gear Solid 4 next, which has lived on the PlayStation 3 since its launch in 2008. 

They’re also hoping for a Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 2, considering the fact that they discovered placeholder buttons for Metal Gear Solid 4, Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain, and Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker on the official website in June last year.

Now, in a new interview with IGN, Konami producer Noriaki Okamura has strongly suggested that the company is planning to do just that. 

“We definitely are aware of this situation with MGS4,” Okamura said, when asked whether Metal Gear Solid 4 could potentially see a modern release. 

“Unfortunately we can’t really say too much at the moment with Vol. 1 containing MGS 1-3 dot dot dot… you can probably connect the dots!

“Right now we still are internally concerned about what we should be doing for the future of the series. So sorry, we can’t really reveal anything at the moment. But stay tuned!”

Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1 is currently available to play on PC, Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X, and Xbox Series S, which means that a potential Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 2 could see Metal Gear Solid 4 make its multi-platform jump for the first time in 16 years. 

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Apple’s Clean Up feature in iOS 18.1 needs to improve if it’s going to catch up with AI rivals like Google’s Magic Editor.

Apple’s new iOS 18 developer beta contains an artificial intelligence (AI) feature called Clean Up, which uses machine learning wizardry to remove elements from your photos and tidy them up. If you think that sounds a lot like Google’s Magic Eraser, you’d be right – but some early test-runs show that iPhones are still playing catchup with their Pixel rivals.

To use the Clean Up feature, you need to have downloaded iOS 18.1 beta 3 onto your iPhone. Once that’s done, open the Photos app, pick a picture and start editing it, whereupon you’ll see a new Clean Up button. The feature suggests elements that could be removed from the picture, or you can draw over an object with your finger and Clean Up will get to work.

The problem is that the results are, in the early beta at least, somewhat hit and miss. While Clean Up appears to do a decent job of removing objects, it struggles to convincingly fill in the blanks that are left once the selected object is gone – something that a @sondesix comparison thread on X (formerly Twitter) illustrates quite nicely.

Compare that to Google Photos, which also has its own AI-powered image cleanup tool called Magic Editor alongside Magic Eraser. This is also good at isolating and removing objects from images, but right now it appears to do a better job of replacing the removed item with realistic AI-generated content. 

Unlike Apple’s Clean Up tool (which works completely on-device), Magic Editor also lets you choose from several different results, allowing you to pick the best one and not just have to rely on a single AI-created outcome.

Apple is playing catch-up

Google launched Magic Eraser (above) on Pixel phones back in 2021 (Image credit: Google)

With Apple’s Clean Up tool clearly a few steps behind competitors from Google and others, it’s tempting to ask whether other Apple Intelligence features are up to snuff. Having tried a few of them myself (mostly on macOS, admittedly), I can say that Apple Intelligence is a bit of a mixed bag at the moment, with some features impressing while others are underwhelming – or not yet available.

This is all uncharted territory for Apple, so it’s not surprising to see it trying to find its feet. We shouldn’t be too harsh on Clean Up, since it is still in beta and could see some significant improvements over the coming weeks and months. 

We’ve seen reports that many Apple Intelligence features could be delayed into the new year, so we shouldn’t be too shocked to see one of them (Clean Up) needing a bit more work before it’s ready. Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman has also suggested that Clean Up could even be given a ‘beta’ label in the Photos app, to start with. 

At the same time, Apple has said that most of its Apple Intelligence features are performed on-device, meaning your information is not sent to Apple’s servers. That’s much better for your privacy compared to rival services, but it could limit the abilities of features like Clean Up and perhaps goes some way to explaining why it’s a little behind its rivals.

Or it could simply be because Apple needs to catch up on rivals like Google, which has been developing AI features like this for years. Whatever the case, we’ll find out over the next few months and years whether Apple can close the gap and improve its AI tools, all while preserving user privacy.

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Update your MSI motherboard now to get a new ‘turbo mode’ if you own one of these mid-range Zen 5 processors.

AMD’s mid-range Ryzen 9000 processors are set for another speed boost, at least if a new option MSI has introduced with its AM5 motherboards is anything to go by.

Wccftech spotted that MSI’s new BIOS (with AGESA 1.2.0.1) has a fresh option to turn on a ‘105W TDP’ mode for AMD Ryzen 9700X and Ryzen 9600X processors.

Normally these run at 65W, so increasing the power usage to 105W means that the chips can muster additional performance (at the cost of that raised power consumption, naturally).

Kuroberu on X first highlighted this and observed that with the new 105W mode running, the Ryzen 9700X hits a multi-core score of 23,153 in Cinebench R23, which is appreciably faster than in its standard 65W configuration where it scores 20,409.

That’s just over a 13% increase in performance, albeit for a single benchmark run, so obviously we need to be cautious about reading too much into this.

That said, pumping 60% more juice to the CPU is inevitably going to bump up performance to some extent, no matter what you’re doing – but it remains to be seen if that’ll only deliver relatively modest gains in other scenarios.

We assume this mode is disabled by default, but that isn’t made clear. Given that the official spec for these CPUs is a TDP of 65W, this should surely remain the default – and whether to engage the 105W mode would be the decision of the user (who may, or may not, do so, given other considerations regarding their CPU cooler and PC thermals in general).

(Image credit: Shutterstock)

Analysis: Realization of that power ramp-up rumor

As you might have noticed, Ryzen 9000 CPUs have rather stumbled out of the gate, and the 9700X and 9600X failed to impress reviewers certainly in terms of gaming performance. Sales have also been flat going by reports, not helped by the relative pricing of Zen 5 silicon at full MSRP compared to now considerably discounted last-gen Ryzen 7000 models.

And, wrapped up in all this, there have been rumors AMD is considering a shift to a TDP of 105W with an inbound BIOS update to make Ryzen 9000 a bit more attractive – and this now appears to have arrived, at least from MSI. The crucial difference is that this is not an across-the-board power usage increase, but an option to do so if you feel the need to get the most out of your mid-range Zen 5 CPU (and you have decent enough cooling, as mentioned).

The question now is: will other motherboard makers follow MSI’s lead? Presumably they will, although Wccftech suggests that the 105W mode isn’t supposed to come in until AGESA 1.2.0.2, later in September or October, and that MSI has moved unexpectedly early in getting it into its AGESA 1.2.0.1-toting BIOS release.

If this new 105W mode really is coming for all motherboards, there’ll be a lot of eyes keenly watching the gaming performance boost that’s delivered. Of course, we’ve already had huge news on that front for Ryzen 9000 and 7000 processors, whereby a new Windows 11 preview update which is available right now boosts gaming frame rates by a massive (almost unbelievable, frankly) amount.

None of this will hurt Ryzen 9000’s chances in the wider war of the best CPUs, of course, but Intel’s Arrow Lake chips are also close to launch at this point, and that’ll change the terrain of the battlefield again.

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Apple is apparently going full-steam ahead with mass production of M4 Pro and M4 Max MacBook Pros ahead of an October reveal.

While hype is building for Apple’s September 9 event, where it’s expected to launch its new iPhone 16 lineup, fans of the company’s Mac and MacBook devices could have a more exciting launch to look forward to in the coming months, with new rumors suggesting that PCs and laptops coming with Apple’s M4 Pro and M4 Max chips are just about to enter mass production.

Those rumors, first reported by DigiTimes, claim that production of the next generation of MacBook Pros will ramp up in August, and if correct, it means we could see an official launch very soon.

The smart money is on an October launch for the M4 generation of MacBook Pros. For a start, it means that focus during September can be on the new iPhones, and then a month later that can switch to new Macs. If Apple Intelligence, the Cupertino company’s upcoming artificial intelligence (AI) product, is going to debut at the September 9 event, Apple will want to launch its AI-capable Macs while the hype is real – another reason why October makes sense.

Analysis: Finally, some M4 Macs

The launch of M4 Macs won’t be too much of a surprise – but the amount of time we’ve had to wait is. At the moment, there’s only one product that’s powered by the latest M4 chip – the iPad Pro (2024, M4), after Apple took the strange decision to debut its new chip in a tablet, rather than a MacBook, as it has done with previous generations of its M-series chips.

If you want a Mac or MacBook at the moment, you have to make do with the M3 chips – a fine bit of silicon, no doubt, but it means you miss out on the performance and efficiency gains of the M4 chip. Meanwhile, when reviewing the latest iPad Pro, I felt that the potential of the M4 was being held back by iPadOS and only being able to run mobile apps.

For people hankering for M4-powered Macs, then, it seems the wait could almost be over, with 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros coming with the M4 Pro and M4 Max potentially just over a month away.

Recent rumors suggest it won’t just be super-powerful (and expensive) MacBooks launching with M4 hardware, either, with Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman hinting that there will also be MacBooks and a Mac mini that run on the entry-level M4 chip as well.

Hopefully these rumors turn out to be true – and it means for people who aren’t interested in new iPhones (like me), October could be a very exciting month.

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Samsung blames third-party chargers for Galaxy Z Fold 6 paint peeling after it decided to not include an official one in the box.

If you’ve picked up the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 you might want to check what kind of charger you’re using, as Samsung has said using high-speed third-party options could cause your phone’s paint to peel off.

This comes after several reports appeared across social media that Z Fold 6 phones of all colors are having their outer paint coating peel away to reveal the plain metal underneath – not something you want to see happen to your brand new phone – especially one that costs $1,899.99 / £1,799 / AU$2,749.

Paint peeling on Fold 6 from r/GalaxyFold

An official Samsung statement gives two reasons why this issue is happening. The first concerns third-party chargers; if you’re holding the phone while using a “high-speed third-party charger that is not properly grounded” the leakage current can cause the anodized paint to “delaminate,” to use Samsung’s official alternative language to describe the paint flaking off.

To avoid this, Samsung recommends you don’t hold the phone while it charges, and you either use an official Samsung charger or a wireless charger that meets the Qi standard. It also recommends that you take care to avoid counterfeits that claim to meet Samsung’s standards but don’t.

The other excuse Samsung provides relates to phone-powered EMS (Electrical Muscle Stimulation) massagers. Much the same as with the chargers, if you hold the phone while using the massager, the leakage current can cause the paint to come off your phone

The massager issue is perhaps a little understandable as it’s not a standard way to use a smartphone, however, what make’s Samsung’s charger comments all the more frustrating is people wouldn’t have to rely on third-party chargers if it simply included one in the Galaxy Z Fold 6’s box. Instead you just get a USB-C cable – an annoying trend practically everyone in the tech industry is following.

How many fold users are having issues with paint? from r/GalaxyFold

Beyond reeking of victim blaming given this context, the paint peeling explanation feels especially odd because it’s not a problem we’ve seen from other Samsung devices or other smartphones when using third-party chargers. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Samsung’s excuse hasn’t been well received (you can see some of the reactions across various subreddits).

We’ll have to wait and see if Samsung releases a follow-up explanation, or even offers some kind of a fix – perhaps finally including an official charger with the Z Fold 6, and sending one out to people who bought it already – but for now it unfortunately looks like your only courses of action are buy a new phone charger, buy a case to hide the peeling, or see if you can return your Z Fold 6 under warranty and get a new one.

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