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PlayStation Portal Can Stream Your PS5 Games Without a PS5 Now

A new cloud streaming update opens up games from your own library with a subscription, even without a PS5 being turned on. Is this a small step to a future PlayStation handheld?

Handheld game consoles are seeing a wild evolution lately, from the Nintendo Switch 2 to PC handhelds running Windows and Steam. Meanwhile, Sony’s almost-standalone two-year-old handheld, the PlayStation Portal, is getting an update that frees it up from the PlayStation 5 for cloud streaming PS5 games, provided you have the right subscription. It’s getting 3D audio support for streaming games, too.

It still won’t play downloaded games offline, though. The Portal is a streaming-only handheld, but this new update looks to make it feel a lot more like a second device than a PlayStation 5 accessory. And it raises a question: Will Sony eventually make a true handheld of its own?

“The Portal is part of the PS5 family, and it continues to be a complementary device for a console not really a standalone yet,” Takuro Fushimi, Sony’s PlayStation senior manager of product management, told me over video chat. But the streaming update could let someone with one account play PS5 games while someone else played on an another account on the PS5, so it’s definitely becoming more untethered. The Portal is also currently Sony’s top-used device for streaming PS5 games, even over phones and tablets, Fushimi said, although specific sales numbers weren’t shared.

Streaming with a subscription: Works like it does on the PS5

The new cloud streaming update is the first time Sony’s considering it out of beta since the feature emerged in 2024. Previously, the Portal could cloud-stream a selection of older games via a PlayStation Plus subscription in addition to streaming games from a synced PlayStation 5.

Now, a subset of owned PlayStation 5 games will also get full cloud-streaming support without needing the PS5 to be turned on at all. The game library support matches what’s already possible on PS5 already, and the new streamable games will be laid out in a new interface.

You need a PlayStation Plus Premium subscription to get access to these streamable games, though, which costs $18 a month or $160 a year.

How it’s different from other ways to play PlayStation games on the go

The Portal and the PS5 are the only two consoles that have PS5 cloud streaming support, but phones and tablets can remote-play locally streamed games on a PlayStation 5 using an app which works with game controllers. There are some PlayStation games that are on Steam and can be played on Steam Decks and Windows game handhelds, too.

The Portal has its own advantages, though. The adaptive force-feedback triggers and vibrating haptics mirror the DualSense controller’s feel, something you can’t get otherwise. The new software update also supports 3D audio with plugged-in headphones or wireless Pulse headsets paired with Portal. But it’s still a streaming-only device.

Could Sony have a true handheld next?

The Portal’s evolution keeps making me wonder whether we’ll see a true handheld standalone successor to the PSP and PS Vita. I asked Fushimi about Sony’s stance in handhelds now compared to the rest of the evolving landscape. “We have our own sort of way of thinking about handheld,” Fushimi said. “The streaming and remote play is the way we went to offer that immersion and quality of the PS5 family as a whole for this device.” 

So yes, it’s still a PS5 accessory. But it’s closer than ever to being a handheld of its own.

Technologies

Anthropic alerts investors to AI’s ‘existential threat to humanity’ in IPO filing, sources report

Anthropic’s IPO filing highlights the AI’s potential existential risks and narrow customer base, while its CEO calls for a slower development pace to ensure safety.

Anthropic plans to warn speculative investors in its IPO prospectus that its AI models pose a “catastrophic or existential risk to humanity,” several reports said on Tuesday.

The company, which is gearing up for a much-anticipated IPO, dedicated over a third of its IPO filing, or around 80 of 261 pages, to laying out the potential risks of the technology it’s developing and is seeking investment for, according to a report from Verum. It only used 48 pages to discuss its actual business.

The five-year-old company, known for its frontier language model Claude, warned that AI can have “self-preserving behaviors,” including being able to “resist shutdown,” “conceal or manipulate information,” and carry out behaviors “resembling blackmail,” per the Verum report.

The company is pursuing a $2 trillion valuation when it goes public and reported in the filing that it made a net loss of $42 billion in 2025. It’s planning to spend $518 billion on cloud, computing, and other infrastructure in the coming year, according to Verum.

Anthropic also warned that its customer base is extremely narrow, with nearly a quarter of its revenue last year coming from just two clients, two people familiar with the filing told the Financial Times.

AI safety guardrails

Anthropic’s co-founder and CEO Dario Amodei has previously written various essays warning on the threats of AI, including saying the technology will cause “unusually painful” disruption to the job market.

In another recent essay, the CEO urged the AI industry to slow the pace of AI model development, with a three-step plan to reduce how quickly models get better without “sacrificing commercial advantage or the United States’ lead in AI.”

Those calls for a slowdown are somewhat of a “head scratcher” for the sector, to which the market has reacted “pretty resoundingly,” Dan Ives, partner and senior managing director at Yorkville Ives told CNBC earlier today.

“You need guardrails from a safety perspective, but the fact for Anthropic and OpenAI to slow down, if they slowed down, China would just accelerate and win, and I think that’s part of this quagmire that you’re seeing is that there’s some regulatory capture going on. There’s definitely a game of poker, but for Anthropic, they got to continue to put foot on the pedal.”

Ives added that while guardrails are essential, regulation could stifle innovation. That continues to be the “biggest concern within the U.S., which is why we’re in an F1 race,” he said.

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Technologies

U.S. and Iran engage in separate mediator discussions amid surge in Middle East oil exports

U.S. and Iranian officials held separate indirect talks mediated by Qatar as Middle East crude exports neared wartime highs, while Tehran awaits a U.S. response to its cease‑fire and sanctions‑relief proposal.

On Monday, American and Iranian representatives engaged in distinct indirect negotiations mediated by third parties, aiming to halt seven months of hostilities while Iran awaits Washington’s reply to an updated cease‑fire proposal and Middle Eastern oil shipments reach wartime peaks.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi met with Qatari mediators in New York, staying on after the UN General Assembly, and indicated he anticipates a U.S. response by Tuesday. “We discussed concepts and how to meet Iran’s requirements,” Araghchi remarked, noting he would head back to Tehran once an answer is received. “When the Qataris have a reply, they know how to deliver it to us.”

The Iranian plan, initially unveiled during the sidelines of last week’s UN General Assembly, asks the United States to unfreeze Iranian assets, remove oil sanctions and lift the naval blockade of Iranian ports within four to five days, and to commence nuclear negotiations within a week. Tehran links any resumption of traffic through the Strait of Hormuz to the fulfillment of those conditions.

On Sunday, President Donald Trump dismissed the proposal as “unacceptable,” asserting that Iran seeks a rapid agreement due to economic strain. Speaking at the White House on Monday, Trump noted that U.S. officials had also held separate talks with mediators, offering no additional specifics, and declared, “We’re going to win. It’s going to happen fast.”

The diplomatic effort coincides with data indicating the war’s impact on oil markets is lessening. Middle Eastern crude exports have risen this month to near their highest point since the conflict started in February, according to Kpler. The firm noted in a Monday briefing that exports are “just under 80% of pre‑conflict levels.”

The Strait of Hormuz remains far from usual activity. Kpler’s real‑time monitoring recorded a flow of 10,591 kilobarrels per day through the strait on Saturday, compared with a prewar baseline of 17,133 kilobarrels per day.

The ongoing impasse is influencing U.S. fuel markets, where retail diesel prices linger close to a record $6.53 per gallon. The Trump administration is reconsidering an export ban, having recently distanced itself from an earlier iteration of the idea; Kpler estimates such a ban would retain about 1.2 million barrels per day domestically, potentially straining storage capacity.

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Technologies

Saudi Red Sea export rebound pushes oil prices down

Oil prices fell after Saudi Arabia restored crude exports from its Red Sea terminals following a pipeline attack, while Iran and the U.S. continue talks over the Strait of Hormuz.

Oil prices fell on Tuesday as Saudi Arabia’s crude exports from its Red Sea ports recovered from an attack on a key pipeline earlier this month. The decline reflects renewed flow from major loading points.

Satellite imagery confirmed a “major operational recovery” at the Yanbu and Muajjiz terminals, according to a Kpler note released on Tuesday. The data shows that 12.5 million barrels were loaded onto nine tankers at Yanbu between Saturday and Monday, restoring activity after a drone strike disrupted the East‑West pipeline earlier in the month.

Riyadh has brought the pipeline’s throughput back to roughly 3.5 million barrels per day, people familiar with the matter told The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg News on Monday. The line’s maximum capacity is 7 million bpd, indicating that the current flow is about half of its peak.

Meanwhile, U.S. and Iranian officials spoke with mediators on Monday as they attempt anew to negotiate a deal to end the seven‑month conflict. Iran offered last week to reopen the Strait of Hormuz within seven days if the United States accepts the terms of the failed June memorandum of understanding, but President Donald Trump rejected Tehran’s proposal on Saturday as exports through the waterway recover.

Oil flows through Hormuz have averaged 13.2 million barrels per day over the past week, according to Kpler data—about 77 % of the 17 million bpd that moved through the strait before the U.S.–Iran war. The U.S. military continues to protect tankers from Gulf allies and maintains a blockade on Iranian exports.

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