News

Apple expands Apple Intelligence features across devices

AI on iPhone, Mac, and more

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Apple Intelligence

At WWDC 2025, Apple unveiled a major upgrade to Apple Intelligence. The company introduced new AI-powered features across iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, and Apple Vision Pro. This enhancement builds on Apple’s commitment to integrating intelligent systems seamlessly into everyday workflows while maintaining strong privacy protections.

AI-Powered Enhancements

Apple Intelligence | Live Translation

Live Translation

Apple Intelligence now offers Live Translation, enabling real-time, on-device translation in Messages, FaceTime, and Phone. This ensures that users can communicate across languages without relying on cloud-based services. Meanwhile, Visual Intelligence brings improved screen awareness. It allows users to search for products, highlight objects, and integrate event details directly into their calendars.

Image Playground with ChatGPT

Image Playground with ChatGPT

Apple also remixed Genmoji and Image Playground, which enhance personal expression by allowing users to generate custom emoji and creative images, with optional integration with ChatGPT for more advanced styles.

AI for Developers

Notes

A landmark announcement from Apple now grants developers direct access to the on-device large language model (LLM) powering Apple Intelligence. This framework allows apps to integrate AI-driven features while ensuring fast processing and offline availability.

For instance, an educational app can generate personalized quizzes from user notes. Meanwhile, an outdoors app could introduce natural language search capabilities— without requiring costly cloud-based AI inference.

Privacy-Focused AI

Unlike cloud-based AI models, Apple Intelligence runs directly on devices, meaning sensitive data stays secure. For tasks requiring larger models, Apple introduces Private Cloud Compute, an advanced system ensuring user data is used solely to fulfill requests and is never stored.

Apple Intelligence will roll out in a public beta in July 2025 and become widely available this fall on supported iPhone, iPad, and Mac devices.

For more details, visit Apple’s official announcement.

Luxury Smart Home

Sony brings cinema home with new BRAVIA 3 II TV, BRAVIA Theatre lineup

Full cinema-style experience

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Bravia 3 II | Bravia Theater

Sony is expanding its home entertainment push with a new range of BRAVIA Theatre audio products and the BRAVIA 3 II TV. The lineup aims to make a full cinema-style experience more accessible. That’s true whether you’re starting with a soundbar or building a complete surround setup.

Soundbars designed to fill the room

Leading the audio lineup is the BRAVIA Theatre Bar 7, a compact yet powerful soundbar built with nine speaker units. It includes up-firing and side speakers. These work alongside Sony’s 360 Spatial Sound Mapping to create a wider, more immersive sound field from a single unit. Room calibration further optimizes audio based on your space. There are also optional subwoofers and rear speakers unlock deeper bass and fuller surround.

For a more accessible option, the BRAVIA Theatre Bar 5 offers a 3.1-channel setup with a wireless subwoofer. It focuses on delivering clear dialogue and strong bass, using S-Force PRO Front Surround and Vertical Surround Engine to simulate a three-dimensional listening experience.

Both soundbars support Dolby Atmos and DTS:X, integrate with compatible BRAVIA TVs for unified control, and can be managed via the BRAVIA Connect app.

Expanding the surround experience

Sony is also introducing a set of optional speakers designed to complete the home cinema setup. The BRAVIA Theatre Sub 9 and Sub 8 deliver deep, room-filling bass, with the Sub 9 featuring dual opposing drivers to reduce distortion. Notably, the lineup now supports dual subwoofer configurations for the first time.

Meanwhile, the BRAVIA Theatre Rear 9 adds height and depth to rear channels through its up-firing speaker. This helps create a more convincing surround environment when paired with compatible soundbars.

A bigger screen to match

Alongside the audio products, Sony is rolling out the BRAVIA 3 II, a mid-tier TV available in sizes up to 100 inches. Powered by the XR Processor and XR Triluminos Pro, it aims to deliver natural colors, strong contrast, and refined detail.

The TV supports Dolby Vision, Dolby Atmos, and DTS:X, and is also positioned as a capable gaming display. It comes with 4K at 120Hz and four HDMI 2.1 ports. Sony is also introducing a new Inclusive Remote with improved button layout and a Remote Finder feature for easier accessibility.

Price and availability

In Singapore, the BRAVIA Theatre Bar 7 will be available starting May 2026. Suggested retail price is SGD 1,299. Meanwhile, the BRAVIA Theatre Bar 5 follows in June 2026 at SGD 599.

The BRAVIA Theatre Sub 9, Sub 8, and Rear 9 will arrive in July 2026, priced at SGD 1,099, SGD 799, and SGD 899, respectively.

The BRAVIA 3 II TV will be available from June 2026 in sizes ranging from 43 inches to 100 inches, with pricing starting at SGD 1,499.

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Gaming

Razer Blade 16 (2026) packs more cores, faster memory

Razer’s thinnest gaming laptop yet

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Razer Blade 16

Razer has officially unveiled the 2026 version of its Blade 16, doubling down on what it does best: squeezing high-end performance into an ultra-slim chassis.

This year’s refresh focuses on meaningful internal upgrades. That includes a new Intel Core Ultra 9 processor, faster LPDDR5X memory, and NVIDIA’s latest RTX 50 Series laptop GPUs — all while keeping the Blade 16 as the thinnest gaming laptop in Razer’s lineup.

Performance gets a serious bump

At the core of the new Blade 16 is the Intel Core Ultra 9 386H, featuring 16 cores and up to 4.9GHz boost clock. Razer claims a 33% increase in core count versus the previous generation, translating to stronger performance across gaming, content creation, and AI workloads.

There’s also an integrated NPU capable of up to 50 TOPS, enabling faster on-device AI tasks like image generation and live translation.

Memory gets a notable upgrade too. The Blade 16 now supports up to 64GB of LPDDR5X-9600MHz RAM, which Razer positions as the fastest available in a laptop today. The result: quicker responsiveness for heavy multitasking, creative apps, and AI-assisted workflows.

On the graphics side, NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 50 Series (Blackwell architecture) brings DLSS 4 and enhanced AI capabilities for both gaming and creator use cases.

Display and design stay premium

Razer isn’t fixing what isn’t broken. The Blade 16 retains its signature CNC-milled aluminum chassis, measuring just 14.9mm thick and weighing around 2.14kg.

The display remains a highlight. You get a 16-inch QHD+ OLED panel with a 240Hz refresh rate, now brighter and certified for VESA DisplayHDR TrueBlack 1000. It supports full DCI-P3 coverage, Calman calibration, and NVIDIA G-SYNC, making it just as suited for creators as it is for competitive gaming.

Battery life and efficiency improve

Despite the performance gains, Razer is also pushing efficiency. Thanks to Intel’s newer architecture and system-level optimizations, the Blade 16 can hit up to 13 hours of productivity use and up to 15 hours of video playback under ideal conditions.

That’s a notable improvement for a machine in this class, especially given its slim form factor.

Connectivity and audio step up

The 2026 Blade 16 gets a future-ready connectivity suite, including Thunderbolt 5, Wi-Fi 7, and Bluetooth 6.0. There’s also a full set of ports, from USB-A to HDMI 2.1 and an SD card reader.

Audio gets an upgrade too. The six-speaker system now supports THX Spatial Audio+ with virtual 7.1.4 surround, aiming to deliver more immersive sound both on speakers and headphones.

Price and availability

The Razer Blade 16 configured with an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 (16GB VRAM) and 32GB LPDDR5X-9600MHz RAM is priced at US$3,499.99 / €3,599.99 MSRP.

It is available now, exclusively via Razer.com and select RazerStores worldwide.

Still the Blade, just sharper

At a glance, the 2026 Blade 16 doesn’t reinvent the formula. But under the hood, it pushes performance, memory speed, and efficiency forward in ways that matter.

It’s still the same idea: a no-compromise gaming laptop that looks like it belongs in a minimalist workspace — just faster, smarter, and a bit more future-proof this time around.

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Entertainment

Forgotten Island is an upcoming film based on Filipino culture

The film features the talents of H.E.R., Liza Soberano, and Lea Salonga.

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Despite all the Filipino actors in Hollywood today, it’s still difficult to feel scene in an industry where Filipino stories aren’t as abundant. Now, it’s time for the Philippines to shine. DreamWorks Animation has just released the first trailer for Forgotten Island, an upcoming animated film based on Filipino culture.

Played by H.E.R. and Liza Soberano, Jo and Raissa are childhood best friends about to go their separate ways after one decides to study abroad. However, during their last night together, they discover a magical portal that takes them to Nakali, the Forgotten Island.

The island calls itself home to an army of creatures from Philippine mythology including The Dreaded Manananggal (voiced by Lea Salonga). Dave Franco also plays a weredog named Raww.

Besides the presence of all these monsters, the island has an even more dangerous quirk. The longer that Jo and Raissa stay on Nakali, the more of their memories are erased until they eventually forget each other. It then becomes a race to find their way home before they lose memories of their friendship forever.

Supporting the main cast, the film will feature the voice talents of Manny Jacinto, Jenny Slate, Jo Koy, Dolly de Leon, Amielyn Abellera, and Ronny Chieng. It will be made by Joel Crawford and Januel Mercado, the prolific team behind the critically acclaimed Puss in Boots: The Last Wish.

Forgotten Island premieres in Philippine cinemas on September 23.

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