Apple : Starz free trial: how to to stream shows and movies on-demand for a discount |
- Starz free trial: how to to stream shows and movies on-demand for a discount
- VoIP specialist Ooma wants businesses to cut the internet cord once and for all
- iPhone 11 and 11 Pro deals US: get the best prices for April 2020
- Breath of the Wild 2 release date, news and trailers for the next Zelda game
- AMD Ryzen 9 might be coming to ultra light laptops
- Business continuity in times of crisis - why it matters and how to achieve it
- Cybercriminals are living the dream – here’s how to stay safe
- GTA 6 news and rumors: when will Grand Theft Auto 6 be announced?
- Apple AirPods sale: the latest model AirPods get a $20 price cut at Best Buy
- Chrome 81 goes live with support for AR and NFC
- Things to do at home: 35 fun ideas while you're stuck in self-isolation
- Google Stadia now has a free two-month trial to entertain self-isolators
- How to watch Masterchef UK 2020 online for free in the UK or abroad
- iPad deal alert: get the latest model Apple iPad on sale for $299 at Best Buy
- Best Windows hosting services of 2020
- HP first off the line with Ryzen-4000 business laptops
- Best e-commerce hosting providers in 2020
- Sonos One and Beam deals are offering big savings across the US and UK
- Best Asus router 2020: the top Asus routers for any budget
- Best Wi-Fi extenders of 2020: top devices for boosting your WiFi network
| Starz free trial: how to to stream shows and movies on-demand for a discount Posted: 08 Apr 2020 01:57 PM PDT Of all the premium streaming services out there, Starz might be the stingiest when it comes to handing out free trials of its service. Sure, you can sign up for a discounted rate on its website – which we recommend if you know you definitely will be watching for more than a month – but if you’re looking to just sample some of best Starz shows like Outlander, American Gods, Black Sails and Power, you’re lucky, as there's a seven-day free trial out there. Of course, while seven days should be enough time to binge a season or two of your favorite Starz series, there is one way to get 30 days of free service... and you might already be eligible for the offer and not even know it. Starz free trial: how to get 30 days for freeTo maximize the amount of free time you have on Starz, the best thing you can do is sign up for the service when you buy and register a new Roku device on Roku.com. If you do so within 30 days of buying a new device you can select a free trial of the service – that comes with both Starz and Showtime – for the first 30 days.
Here’s the catch: after the 30 days are up, the services are set to automatically renew using your credit card info (which sadly needs to be on-file with Roku to take advantage of the offer). At that point you’re looking at $8.99 per month for Starz and $10.99 per month for Showtime Anytime. There are other offers – like the seven-day free trial that we’ll talk about below – but this is by far the best way to get the most amount of days of free Starz. Just make sure you cancel the subscription through Roku before the 30 days are over so you don’t get charged. Starz free trial: how to get seven days for freeIf you don’t have a brand-new Roku device to reap the rewards from, there are still a few ways to get a free Starz trial – especially if you’re already an Amazon Prime member or plan on subscribing to Hulu. If you’re a Prime member, you’re probably aware that you have access to Amazon Prime Video – Amazon’s add-on streaming video service that has great shows like The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Good Omens, Fleabag, Goliath and Man in the High Castle.
What you might not know is that there’s a tangential service called Amazon Prime Channels that lets you tack on premium cable channels like HBO, Showtime and Starz for an additional monthly fee. While all those channels are worth checking out via their corresponding free trial offers, Starz has a deal with Amazon Prime Channels that nets customers a seven-day free trial. You can sign up for Amazon Prime below, if you haven’t already: Now, Hulu has a similar partnership with Starz but you have to be a new or eligible returning customer to take advantage of the trial. The good news is that you only need to sign up for the base Hulu service that costs $8.99 per month, and not the Hulu with Live TV package that costs $54.99 per month. That said, after the trial is over you should expect to pay the normal $8.99 per month fee for Starz on top of your $8.99 per month Hulu subscription.
Starz discount: three months for $5 per monthAs we mentioned earlier, the best option out there for folks who plan on keeping Starz for more than seven days is to sign up directly through Starz’ website. Doing so locks you into a rate of $5 per month for the first three months, and then puts you on an $8.99-per-month plan after that, saving you about 40% of the cost over those three months. Getting Starz this way is cheaper than the Amazon Channels offer, at least for those first three months, but there's no seven-day free trial offer to test things out.
Starz shows and moviesIt’s more than likely you already know what you want to watch on Starz – hence the reason you’re here looking for a free trial of the service – but if you don’t know the scope of Starz’ service, buckle up because there’s a ton of great content on Starz. Among the tentpole series are Outlander, American Gods, Black Sails and Power, but there’s also Now Apocalypse, The Spanish Princess, Ash vs. Evil Dead, The White Queen, Pillars of the Earth and Spartacus, too. On the movie side, there are a few decent documentaries exclusive to the service but you’ll really want to keep an eye out for films that have just left theaters to join the service. Currently that includes Venom, Zombieland 2, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Spider-Man Far From Home, MIB International and Dragon Ball Super: Broly. (Yeah, the last one was a surprise for us, too.) Obviously the newest films are going to change out every month – so if the current crop of just-released films aren’t what you’re looking for it might be worth holding out for a bit to see if it pops up, or check out another premium streaming service like HBO Now to see if it’s streaming over there. Whichever Starz option you choose, however, you can rest easy knowing that you got a way better deal than paying full-price.
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| VoIP specialist Ooma wants businesses to cut the internet cord once and for all Posted: 08 Apr 2020 01:14 PM PDT VoIP specialist Ooma has introduced a new solution called Ooma Connect which will provide small and mid-sized businesses with fixed wireless internet and business phone service. Millions of business locations in the US are unable to get high-speed internet access and instead are forced to rely on DSL, cable or satellite connections that can be slow, unreliable and expensive. To make matters worse, an even larger number of businesses don't have internet backup which leaves them vulnerable to significant financial loss during internet outages. Ooma Connect is the company's answer to these problems as it delivers internet connectivity and Ooma Office phone service for as little as $50 a month. The solution requires an Ooma Connect Base Station and Ooma LTE 460 Adapter to provide wireless internet through a nationwide LTE-Advanced network.
One company already using Ooma Connect reported that the solution allowed it to lower its monthly bill for internet and phone service from $600 a month to less than $200 a month. Manager at Wireman Fence, Sergio Gonzalez explained how Ooma's new solution is helping the company stay connected while also being more productive, saying: “We’re getting work done more quickly now that we don’t have to wait for web pages and emails to download. Our team is also more connected to our customers because we’re getting voice messages forwarded to our email and through the Ooma Office mobile app, which lets us take business calls on our cell phones when we’re out of the building.” Ooma ConnectIn addition to helping businesses improve their internet speeds, Ooma Connect can also eliminate the wait time for service from a local bandwidth provider when setting up a new business location. A franchise outlet or even a pop-up store can quickly get phone service and internet access through the company's new solution. Ooma Connect can also be combined with a business' existing broadband connection to provide wireless backup for phone and internet service during outages. According to the U.S. SMB Internet Outage Report from Independence Research, small businesses in the US will suffer more than $40bn in lost productivity due to internet outages in this year alone. Ooma is also introducing a new patent-pending feature with Ooma Connect called Continuous Voice. Essentially this feature allows for calls in progress to continue through the LTE-Advanced network when wired broadband access goes down. Ooma Connect is even ready for 5G as the Ooma Connect Base Station is designed to support future 5G wireless adapters while the Ooma LTE 460 Adapter includes a powerful 2x8 MIMO antenna that should allow increased data speeds when cellular networks are upgraded to 5G. Vice president of corporate development at Ooma, Chris Burgy provided further insight on the company's new solution in a press release, saying: “We aim to democratize access to advanced services through the Ooma Connect. Small and medium-sized businesses can’t afford the cost or tolerate the complexity of today’s disjointed solutions for business continuity and cloud-based phone service. Ooma is empowering all businesses with the same cutting-edge technology as large enterprises while also giving millions of businesses a long sought-after alternative to costly DSL and satellite internet access.”
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| iPhone 11 and 11 Pro deals US: get the best prices for April 2020 Posted: 08 Apr 2020 01:03 PM PDT The iPhone 11 and 11 Pro is Apple's latest smartphone, and it's available to order from all major carriers and retailers like Walmart and Best Buy. To help you wade through all the different plans, we've listed the best iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro prices and deals that are available in the US today. The Apple iPhone 11 features a 6.1-inch LCD display, while the iPhone 11 Pro comes with a Super Retina XDR OLED display in either a 5.8-inch or 6.5-inch size. The iPhone 11 and 11 Pro both have updated camera hardware with a Wide and new Ultra-Wide camera on the back of the iPhone 11 and Wide, Ultra Wide and Telephoto cameras on the iPhone 11 Pro. iPhone 11 deals from US carriers:iPhone 11 Pro deals from US carriers:iPhone 11 Pro Max deals from US carriers:The iPhone 11 Pro Max, the bigger version of the 11 Pro, is priced at $1,099 from carriers such as AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint, and Verizon. Sprint is offering the Pro Max for $45.84 on a Sprint Flex 18-month lease, and Verizon is offering up to $500 off with select trade-in and Unlimited. AT&T is offering up to $700 off when you switch to AT&T and port-in your number, or up to $500 off without port-in. Learn more about the newest iPhone with our hands on iPhone 11 review, iPhone 11 Pro review, and iPhone 11 Pro Max review. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Breath of the Wild 2 release date, news and trailers for the next Zelda game Posted: 08 Apr 2020 12:22 PM PDT Dust off your climbing boots and paraglider, gamers: Nintendo has confirmed that a The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild sequel is in development, with a breathtaking trailer pointing to a darker turn for the next mainline Zelda game. Nintendo dropped the bombshell at the end of its E3 2019 presentation, confirming our suspicions after the Japanese publisher appeared to be hiring for a 3D level designer in 2018. However, we've been kept in the dark regarding an official release date. But what will Breath of the Wild 2 do differently from the first game, and when will we finally get our hands on it? Breath of the Wild was a masterclass in open-world game design, breathing a huge gust of fresh air into the Zelda franchise while somehow retaining everything that made the series special. Widely considered one of the best games of 2017 – if not all time – it's no surprise Nintendo is working on a direct sequel. Nintendo hasn't given us a whole bunch to go on, but we've gathered up everything we know so far about The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2 below for your perusal. Cut to the chase
Breath of the Wild 2 release dateNintendo hasn't shared much information other than the trailer and a few sparse comments – run through below – but the trailer did close off with a line stating the Breath of the Wild sequel was "in development". We certainly don't think we'll see the game being released in the coming months, though. Last year, leaker Sabi (via wccftech) suggested that Breath of the Wild 2 is due for release in 2020, but warned that, "Zelda release dates are historically delayed, internally or publicly". And it seems they were right, as the leaker has since claimed that Breath of the Wild 2 has been delayed, likely into 2021. While it's always worth taking rumors with a big pinch of salt, Sabi is a pretty reliable leaker. The Twitter user leaked most of the big announcements from E3 2019 before they happened – reportedly even earning himself a cease and desist order from Nintendo. Breath of the Wild 2 trailersWe got our first glimpse of BOTW 2 at E3 2019, with this spooky trailer that shows Zelda and Link exploring an underground chamber – with some mysterious runes, glowing hands, and a brand-new haircut that has set the internet on fire. Suffice to say: we're excited. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2 trailer is just 82 seconds long and there's no dialogue whatsoever – but there are some clues to be gathered from it. It features a torch-carrying Link and Zelda traversing a dark dungeon beneath Hyrule (no big surprise there). Spirit-like tendrils creep around the musty tomb they're exploring, with the pair riding a large elephant-like beast. Something shocks the pair, and then we cut to what appears to be the resurrection of some long-dead (and creepy looking) warrior. Could this be the return of Ganondorf? The video then cuts to a long shot of Hyrule Field, with Hyrule Castle in the distance. There's a tremor, the castle is smothered with dust... and that's the end. The clip finishes with a message that reads: "The sequel to Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is in development." We wouldn't usually expect so much animation to be done so early in development, but it probably helps that Nintendo already has the in-game engine from Breath of the Wild. Breath of the Wild 2 news and rumors
Could Zelda have a bigger role this time around? (Image Credit: Nintendo) E3 uncertainty and a Mario-dominated 2020 With E3 2020 officially cancelled (physically and digitally) it's currently unclear what Nintendo is planning to do with regards to its traditional June Direct in which it lays out its plans for the latter half of the year and beyond. Though it was by no means certain that there would be any kind of Breath of the Wild 2 news during Nintendo's E3 Direct fans were no doubt hoping for at least an indication of how the game is progressing. Since the cancellation Nintendo has said it will “continue to be flexible and redirect our efforts to other ways of keeping our fans up to date about our activities and products" but no specifics have been confirmed meaning Zelda fans aren't sure what to look forward to next in terms of a date with potential for more information. Interestingly, a recent report from Eurogamer and Video Games Chronicle has said that for the rest of 2020, the Nintendo Switch's first-party lineup is going to be very Mario-heavy in celebration of the franchise's 35th anniversary. Though this report hasn't been confirmed by Nintendo, if it's true then 2020 being heavily dominated by Mario doesn't bode well for any kind of Breath of the Wild 2 release. It's worth pointing out, though, that February 2021 is The Legend of Zelda's 35th anniversary so if Nintendo does go big for Mario there's a precedent for it doing the same for Zelda next year in some form or another. It would certainly be the perfect year to focus on Breath of the Wild 2. Of course, this is just conjecture and we won't know anything for sure until Nintendo makes some official announcements about the game. Rumors spreading It's been a long time since anything solid on Breath of the Wild 2 has been announced and, as ever, in the absence of solid news rumors tend to creep in. The latest rumor has come from Tyler McVicker. Known primarily for his YouTube channel dedicated to Valve rumors, McVicker has recently announced he's setting up a Nintendo news channel and on a recent stream (around the 11 minute mark) teased some unconfirmed information (via NintendoLife) on the Zelda sequel. According to McVicker, Breath of the Wild 2 will take players back to the same Hyrule layout but introduce new things like "miasma"-like corruption and dungeons to add depth and detail to the map, taking inspiration from Red Dead Redemption 2 and another unnamed game. Anything said about Breath of the Wild 2 that hasn't come from Nintendo itself should naturally be taken with a huge pinch of salt. A 2020 release date? It may be delayed And it seems they were right, as the leaker has since claimed that Breath of the Wild 2 has been delayed, likely into 2021. Monolith recruitment Hiring extra hands for the development of such a highly-anticipated game can't be a bad thing and suggests that the teams are working hard on getting the game ready for whatever the as-yet-unrevealed release date is. Behind the scenes We haven't seen much from the game since this trailer but some are hoping that we'll get an update sometime soon. More hiring calls One hint comes from a Nintendo Japan tweet regarding some job listings for a “scenario planner” and a “level designer” for the game. The fact that such core roles are still being filled suggests that the game is still in the fairly early stages of development and isn’t likely to be a 2020 release. We can’t know for certain, of course, until Nintendo confirms an exact release date but we’re inclined to say later rather than sooner. All the DLC that never was "Initially we were thinking of just DLC ideas," says Anouma. "But then we had a lot of ideas and we said, 'This is too many ideas, let’s just make one new game and start from scratch.'" A darker turn for the series We've heard from Zelda series producer Eiji Aonuma that the game is going to have a darker tone than Breath of the Wild, and will even be "a little bit darker" than Majora's Mask (via IGN). The trailer certainly supports this, with what looks like Ganondorf's corpse being resurrected by a disembodied hand, and seemingly imagery from 2006's Twilight Princess, which saw Hyrule turned into a bleak shadow realm – largely in response to the far cheerier and cartoonish The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker.
A Gerudo corpse, possibly Ganon, is grabbed by a mysterious force (Image Credit: Nintendo) The Twilight realm We know that BOTW's dev team originally toyed with the idea of an alien invasion, and seeing shadow creatures teleport out of the sky could well have been what they have planned this time around. A clue in the audio u/ReroFunk also suggests we could see the demon king Demise return for the next Zelda game. Demise was the final boss in Skyward Sword, and revealed to be the original form of Ganondorf. The below still from the Zelda trailer also looks a lot like Demise when you think about it.
Ganon, Demise, or something else entirely? (Image Credit: Nintendo) Lots of dungeons (and an extended map) Zelda's turn in the spotlight? Zelda's devs have seemed pretty dismissive of the idea of a female Link in the past – sadly – but we may in this game see sections playing as Zelda, or at least with her playing a more active role in the story.
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| AMD Ryzen 9 might be coming to ultra light laptops Posted: 08 Apr 2020 12:04 PM PDT It looks like AMD may be preparing to add a new flagship APU to its recently launched Ryzen 4000 U-series lineup in a bid to better challenge Intel’s 10th-generation Comet Lake-U parts. When AMD debuted the Ryzen 4000U lineup in January, the Ryzen 7 4800U was the highest-spec model, with no sign of a Ryzen 9 chip. However, it looks like that will soon change as leaker @TUM_APISAK has spotted the so-called Ryzen 9 4900U sitting pretty on UserBenchmark.
The rumored flagship APU, which will be destined for thin and light laptops, will be based on AMD’s 7nm Zen 2 architecture. Specs-wise it looks to sport a similar setup to the Ryzen 7 4800U with 8 cores, 16-threads, 8MB of L3 cache and a 15W TDP. Oddly, UserBenchmark lists the Ryzen 9 4900U as having a 1.8 GHz base clock frequency and a 2.35GHz average boost clock, though it’s likely this information is inaccurate. As noted by Tom’s Hardware, given the Ryzen 7 4800U has a 4.2GHz boost clock, it’s likely the Ryzen 9 4900U will come with a higher boost clock of 4.3GHz or more. In terms of benchmark results, it’s a similar story, as the UserBenchmark listing suggests the Ryzen 9 APU is very much an engineering sample – it falls short of the Ryzen 7 4800 in every test, although its 1-core and 2-core scores of 136 points and 198 points, respectively, show some promise. This non-final performance is confirmed by UserBenchmark, which notes: “Relative power n.a. – insufficient samples” next to the Ryzen 9 4900U’s results. It’s unclear when AMD’s Ryzen 9 4900U will make its official debut, though Lenovo has prematurely confirmed that the APU will power its next-generation Yoga Slim laptops, which are expected to launch later this month.
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| Business continuity in times of crisis - why it matters and how to achieve it Posted: 08 Apr 2020 12:00 PM PDT With the coronavirus outbreak continuing to gather pace, many businesses around the world are having to provide remote access for all their employees, sometimes for the first time. This is being done under pressure to tight time constraints. It’s difficult for anyone to do their best work with deadlines looming, and worries and concerns about the current situation playing on their mind. IT staff are no different. Mistakes and misconfigurations are inevitable and that will potentially give hackers opportunities to exploit. At the same time, with network under growing strain from increased traffic and surges in demand, the potential for outages to occur is also increasing. In this and other crisis scenarios, from cyberattacks to winter storms and natural disasters, there is therefore a higher premium than ever on secure remote access and network resilience - and business continuity is becoming even more vital.
At the same time, if outages do happen in such crises, businesses may find getting the network up and running even more complex. With travel restricted or impossible, sending engineers out to remote sites to address downtime issues and resolve network faults may risk compromising their health and safety and therefore not be in any sense realistic. For every organisation operating today, keeping the business up and running is likely to be a key concern and the need for network resilience has risen in line with this. When disruption occurs, companies need to be prepared. They need a plan that enables them to recover quickly. The current crisis may have focused minds within networking teams and senior leadership to carry out risk analysis and put measures in place to reduce those risks. But what is clearly required is a new approach that goes beyond simply adding redundancy or even improving uptime to add a layer of intelligence – effectively a resilience quotient to the network’s plan B. That is because for organisations that need to ensure business continuity today, network resilience is key. Network resilience is the ability to withstand and recover from a disruption of service. One way of measuring it is how quickly the business can get up and running again at normal capacity following an outage. True network resilience is not just about providing resilience to a single piece of equipment whether that be a router or a core switch for example; in a global economy it is important (especially given today’s circumstances) that any such solution can plug into all of the equipment at a data centre or edge site, map it and establish what is online and offline at any given time and importantly wherever in the world it is located. That enables a system reboot to be quickly carried out remotely. That’s hugely beneficial at all times but especially at the moment where engineers and other workers are often unable to travel to either the data centre or edge location because of lockdowns and everything has to be done from afar. This is a scenario that looks likely to get more severe – in the short-term at least. We are already seeing interconnection providers starting to restrict access to sites with Equinix a case in point. Alternative arrangementsIf the remote reboot does not work, of course, it might well be that an issue with a software update is the root of the problem. With the latest smart out-of-band devices this can be readily addressed, because an image of the core equipment and its configuration can be retained, and the device rebuilt remotely without the need for sending somebody on site. In the event of an outage, it is therefore possible to deliver network resilience via failover to cellular, while the original fault is being remotely addressed, enabling the business to keep running even while the primary network is down. Building in resiliency through the OOB approach does cost money, of course, but it also pays for itself: certainly over the long-term and often also in just a one-off instance, depending on the outage and associated costs. You might only use this resiliency a couple of times a year, say – but when you need it, you really need it. Indeed, given the current situation, the cost of network resilience is a small price to pay for business continuity. OOB supports easier provisioning of new remote sites to flex and grow the network as well as fast speed of response. It is about insurance, but also remediation and maintenance. Why prevention is better than cureIt is worth highlighting that time is critical in these scenarios. When network outages occur, the damage is cumulative so businesses need to pre-plan and ensure that they are putting in place network resilience as a preventative rather than a reactive approach. Often today the issue is not fully considered upfront. Organisations often defer discussions around network resilience based on the optimistic hope that a network outage never happens to them. In fact, network resilience should be built into the network from the outset. It should be a tick box exercise but typically it is not. Organisations generally either think that their network is somewhat resilient through the in band path or they are not thinking about their branches or remote sites as much as they should. Of course anyone that has just suffered a network outage will understand the benefits of out of band (OOB), as a way of keeping their business running in what is effectively an emergency but as referenced above it is likely to be much better to plan for resilience from the word go. After all networks are the ‘backbone’ to almost every organisation today, and many businesses will benefit from bringing network resilience into the heart of their approach from the outset. Alan Stewart-Brown is VP of EMEA at Opengear
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| Cybercriminals are living the dream – here’s how to stay safe Posted: 08 Apr 2020 12:00 PM PDT The ongoing pandemic has demonstrated how efficient cybercriminals are in exploiting the fear and anxiety that has been generated on a global basis. They do this through social engineering methods and taking advantage of unsecured channels of communication. Businesses have had to adopt a new way of working with the majority, if not the entirety, of workforces transitioning to working from home. Technology has been embraced on a new level with video-conferencing tools and communication channels adopted as the principal way of sharing data, not always with the correct security measures in place. So, with VPN networks overloaded and fake news more prolific than ever, cybercriminals are currently ‘living the dream’. What are the necessary steps that businesses need to employ in order to stay safe when we are all at our most vulnerable, both professionally and personally?
Why is social engineering so effective in a crisis?Social engineering is a method to urge people doing something in the interest of the attacker, by using different emotional motivators - like a sense of urgency, fear, anxiety or curiosity. And mass media stories are a source for such pretexts. When something is happening, people are looking for new updates, and the attacker can provide such updates in exchange to people doing something, for example, clicking on a link in an email - activating a malicious script. This has been prevalent during the Covid-19 pandemic when anxiety has been high on a global scale. People have been forced to work from home and can feel lonely, making them more vulnerable to social engineering. According to the UK cybercrime reporting centre, Action Fraud, March saw a 400% increase in the number of coronavirus scams. These have included numerous phishing campaigns under the guise of respected bodies like the UK Government offering grants, tax rebates or compensation in exchange for the submission of sensitive data. Most recently, social engineers have taken advantage of the lockdown situation by sending fraudulent text messages supposedly from the UK Government saying that a penalty needs to be paid for breaching the lockdown restrictions with a link to pay directly to a non-government website. Cybercriminals love video conferencesWhile many businesses are transferring to remote working to keep in line with lockdown restrictions, new methods of digital communication are being embraced by companies on a global scale. The adoption of video conferencing has made companies like Zoom a household name. Even Boris Johnson has been using this piece of software to conduct meetings whilst in self-isolation, nearly falling prey to a data breach himself by accidentally posting a screenshot of a cabinet meeting with the login details visible to all. But how vulnerable are these video conferencing tools? Often, they require the installation of plugins and executable modules via a link shared in a meeting invite. Attackers can use this channel of executable installation, together with spear-phishing emails, to install backdoors on users’ computers. Also, video-conferencing systems can have critical vulnerabilities that allow attackers to get access to sensitive data, such as grabbing a video input from the camera without the users’ consent. For example, in July 2019, such a vulnerability was discovered in the Zoom Video conferencing system. The company has vowed to spend the next 90 days thinking about its privacy and already has upped its security game. Whose responsibility is it - employees or employers?The simple answer is both! Responsibility needs to be a mutual endeavour. Employers need to increase the awareness level for employees - providing them with validated remote collaboration tools and clear communication instructions on how to deal with unexpected situations. Employees, in turn, should treat information assets more seriously whilst working remotely, since it is more difficult for them to quickly obtain assistance in case something goes wrong. Cyber insurance headacheThere’s no doubt that the situation with Covid-19 has been stressful for the insurance market. Some travel insurances, like InsureandGo, are even waiving compensations for impact during the travel chaos caused by the pandemic. It has certainly flagged the importance of cybersecurity insurance when it comes to protecting data. In recent years there has been a rise in cybercrime with 4.5 million incidents in England and Wales in 2018. Yet a recent study found that more than 8 in 10 businesses have neglected to take out insurance policies against the impacts of a potential breach, leaving them increasingly exposed in the current environment. However, with cyber insurance, not everything is clear and still, there are processes to clarify the ‘rules of the game’ initiated by the major players in the market. The industry view is that Covid-19 will definitely have an impact on the cyber insurance situation, especially if there is a logical connection of data breach and the virus outbreak as the cause. Safety steps every company should takeAs a minimum, companies should implement HDD encryption for their users’ laptops to avoid a data breach if the laptop is lost or stolen. Also, secure VPN solutions to connect to companies’ back-end systems are required. And this is the challenge - since not all VPN solutions are designed to deal with such a rapid increase in the number of connections and traffic volumes. Simply said, most systems are probably not ready to support all employees working from home. Due care should be taken by employees to minimise inadvertent sharing of sensitive data. A clean desk policy should be followed. Documents which users are working with should be taken to a minimum. Also, special attention should be paid to keeping all software up to date, all security patches should be installed. Depending on the technology of the IT support team, it could be more difficult to keep updating computers that are connected remotely through VPN. Also, the most important step should probably be having an alternative trusted communication channel that can be used to verify the sender of a critical message. Businesses should be implementing a well-balanced set of practices, including awareness campaigns, training sessions, checking vulnerabilities in the software, monitoring of systems, proper incident management procedures. The strength and security of each system depend on the weakest link, therefore it is necessary to keep up with everything, gradually increasing the maturity level. It's a learning curveInterestingly, the Chinese word for ‘crisis’ is made up of the Chinese characters for ‘danger’ and ‘opportunity’. This is sometimes misinterpreted in the Western world to mean ‘danger plus opportunity’. Each crisis should be viewed as an opportunity. So, the current ‘work from home policy’ in many organisations is a real test of the robustness of their infrastructure, including their ability to deal with cyber threats. Lessons learnt during this time will certainly help companies to become more mature and deal with more serious threats in future. Andriy Lysyuk is Head of Cyber Security at Ciklum
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| GTA 6 news and rumors: when will Grand Theft Auto 6 be announced? Posted: 08 Apr 2020 11:44 AM PDT Is GTA 6 on the way? While the next instalment in the Grand Theft Auto franchise is yet to be formally announced by its developer Rockstar Games, that doesn't stop those of us hungry for more trying to figure it out. It's been a whole seven years since GTA 5 launched on consoles, so we're expecting GTA 6 to be in the pipeline, and the latest news and rumors suggest that it could be on its way sometime soon. Although 2020 is still in its early days, a release this year doesn't seem likely, especially without any kind of development announcement. But, with the PS5 and Xbox Series X consoles coming at the tail end of the year, hopes are increasing that we might hear something from Rockstar some time soon - even if a release date is likely to be a long way off. Details may be thin on the ground, but that doesn't stop us gathering together the best pieces of gossip, rumor and fact for your personal pleasure. Here's everything we know so far about GTA 6. [UPDATE: March 25 has come and gone without an announcement and a GTA 5 voice actor has asked fans to stop believing "clickbait" leaks.] Cut to the chase
GTA 6 release date : when can I play it?
Grand Theft Auto (Image credit: Rockstar Games) Red Dead Redemption 2 has now been in the wild for nearly two years now, which means we're hoping a GTA 6 announcement isn't far away – even though we're likely to be waiting a while to play it. According to some rumors, we could see the next Grand Theft Auto announced in 2020, with a potential release in 2021, which would make sense considering we're heading into a new console generation at the end of 2020. However, Rockstar has been focused on getting Red Dead Online up and running - and GTA Online is still raking in the dough - which may have diverted attention, not to mention the delays potentially caused by Dan Houser's departure from Rockstar. However, according to reputable industry analyst Michael Pachter, the game's actual release could be as far away as 2022. In an interview with Gaming Bolt, Pachter said that he thinks a 2020 announcement with a 2021 release would be the best case scenario, while a 2021 announcement with a 2022 release or later would be more likely. Given 2020 is still in its infancy, expecting any news of GTA 6 in the immediate future is unlikely. But the Xbox Series X and PS5 are due to launch at the end of the year and if GTA 6 followed the release pattern of its predecessor, Grand Theft Auto 5, it'd be released at the very tail end of the current generation, comfortably released on the new generation and straddle both for the widest install base possible. With no announcement thus far that seems optimistic but, hey, anything could happen.
GTA 6 trailer: when can I watch one?
The thing about Rockstar Games is that it’s an incredibly secretive games publisher. No trailer is getting out of that studio unless someone seriously screws up. Just look at what Rockstar did with both GTA 5 and Red Read Redemption 2. It teased an announcement a few days before dropping the first trailer for either game. If there’s a GTA 6 trailer, you’ll know about it because the internet will explode – and we'll let you know too, of course. But we're not expecting one anytime soon. GTA 6 news and rumors: what do we know so far?
Grand Theft Auto (Image credit: Rockstar Games) Below we've collected together all of the latest leaks and rumors that hint at when GTA 6 might be launched – and what we can expect from the new game. As always, take these details with a pinch of salt – some are old, some are from now deleted sources and others might just be keen fans getting carried away. March 25 leaves no announcement After leaks, website updates and unlisted Rockstar videos fuelled suspicions that there would be a GTA 6 announcement on March 25, nothing has appeared. The game is still considered an inevitability but with this heavily-rumored date having now passed, at the moment there's no clear sign on when we'll hear anything from Rockstar so the waiting game continues. GTA 5 voice actor calls for fans to stop believing 'leaks' After a fairly calm stretch, rumors around Grand Theft Auto 6 have been creeping up more often over the past month. Very recently there were serious suspicions that an actual game announcement was imminent and fans are hungry for new information. GTA 5 voice actor for the character Michael de Santa, Ned Luke, has been getting questions about the series' next steps for a long time and he's taken to Instagram Stories (via GameSpot) with Franklin Clinton voice actor, Shawn Fonteno, to tell fans to stop believing "clickbait" rumors and leaks, saying "if you hear it from Rockstar, then you know." The video has since disappeared from Instagram but was posted to Twitter: PS5 exclusive? The original poster also claimed that "Sony paid 'huge money' in order to secure a 1-month PS5 exclusive". It's possible GTA 6 will have PS5-exclusive launch content like Red Dead Redemption 2 did, but a one month timed exclusive release on PS5 seems a bit short. Is an announcement coming on March 25? We don't think so... An announcement was rumored for March 20, but this date passed with no news. But some fans on the GTA forums believe that a GTA 6 announcement trailer is still coming on March 25 - there's even a countdown timer for the announcement. Rumored "Fall 2021" release date
Website artwork The first piece of artwork is an android hugging a champagne bottle with the year 1998 on it (that's Rockstar's founding year) while the second is a red and blue logo with Rockstar's various slogans on it. Like we said, this isn't much at all but any changes Rockstar makes tend to grab the attention of fans hoping for some kind of new game announcement. After all, the announcement of Red Dead Redemption 2 was preceded by a Twitter logo change so it's not like subtlety like this would be off the cards. Or this could simply be Rockstar updating its website with some interesting new evergreen imagery—the fact that the images are generally relevant to Rockstar as a company and that they appear in the background of the site's menu suggests that they're not hugely important. Until any kind of official announcement is made we won't know for sure. Take-Two plays down AAA releases "Given that we're a company that depends on our creative teams to make as close to perfect products as possible," said Zelnick, "we have to be willing to live with the vagaries of product deliveries. And that means, sometimes, we will have thin frontline years." Dan Houser leaves Rockstar Houser, who has variously acted as writer, producer and voice actor at Rockstar, led Rockstar Games to become one of the biggest developers in the industry. It's currently unknown whether this will have an impact on GTA 6's development. CJ voice actor shoots down rumors This doesn't rule out the return of CJ as a character entirely (Rockstar could always cast someone else in the role) but it does confirm that Bellard isn't involved and doesn't intend to be if asked. Rockstar hasn't commented on rumors and we won't know anything certain about any cast for GTA 6 until it speaks out. Steven Ogg at Brazil Game Show Ogg's reasoning, rather than any kind of inside knowledge as far as we can tell, is that Rockstar games "take 7-8 years to make, do the math." Doing the math from GTA 5's 2013 release date would mean that GTA 6 could release in 2020 or 2021, right in time for the next generation of consoles. That seems very soon for a game we've seen very little about but, hey, it's not impossible. We'll be watching this space. Scouting areas in Florida The letter was to a Florida store asking permission for Rockstar Games to inspect the premises, presumably for use or inspiration in the forthcoming game – mentioning a location scout Leah Sokolowsky who hinted at a large digital media client in a podcast back in May 2019 (via Daily Star).
Grand Theft Auto (Image credit: Rockstar Games) Project Americas Regardless, it's still fun to get our imaginations going for what the future of the Grand Theft Auto franchise may hold. According to the Reddit poster behind the leak, the game, known as Project Americas, has been in production since 2015 though it was placed on ice while Red Dead Redemption 2 was the focus. GTA 6 could be expansive, set across multiple decades (1970s to 1980s) and locations (one of which is Vice City, another Liberty City and another is a fictional city based on Rio de Janeiro). The game will apparently deal with one playable protagonist named Ricardo and play through their story as a rising drug lord with heavy inspiration from Netflix's Narcos series. The story will be told through chapters, with a heavy emphasis on the visuals of changes in time as the story progresses. While there's no estimated release date given, the post says that the plan is to release the game for the next generation only. While it's unlikely that the whole report is true (even the poster says that the game's pre-alpha status means things are likely to change) that's not to say some elements are impossible. Certainly a next-gen only release seems entirely plausible. Before you get too excited,though, the post has already been debunked by Kotaku's Jason Schreier. Another rumor leak? According to the post, GTA 6 will allow players to travel between several big cities, including Liberty City and Vice City. The poster also claims you start off as a small-time drug runner before joining an infamous gang and kicking it with the big dogs. In addition, the post claims Rockstar is waiting to see how the new-generation consoles sell as GTA 6 wouldn't be able to be released on the PlayStation 4 or Xbox One due to memory restrictions. The anonymous poster also claimed GTA 6 will feature both major cities along with a vast stretch of highways and Blaine County-like countryside in the middle of it all. Finally, the post claims that, despite the game being set in a timed era, there will be flashbacks between missions and Red Dead Redemption 2-type stranger dialogues that implement the greet/antagonise format. While location rumors seem to be leaking in abundance, the anonymous Pastebin post has been backed up by review on Glassdoor by a Rockstar Games QA tester, which has since been removed (via Dexerto). Alongside reading out Rockstar for its institutionalized crunch, the post leaves a cryptic message that sees the first letter of each sentence spelling out 'GTA6LSVCLC'. This may be pointing to the potential locations of Grand Theft Auto 6: Los Santos, Vice City, and Liberty City. Wonder what these locations would look like together as an actual map? Graphic designer RealityDesign posted a concept image on GTA Forums, showing what this map could potentially look like. Check it out below:
Image credit: RealityDesign Job listings The Know report on Vice City The reason for this code name is apparently because players will be able to fly between the US and South America in the game, though the majority of the action will take place in the former. This in combination with the source's assertion that the game will largely be set in Vice City (the Rockstar version of Miami) suggests there could be a focus on drug running which would draw on the popularity of shows and movies like Narcos and Tom Cruise's Made in America. Particularly if Rockstar holds on to that 80s setting. With no comment from Rockstar, these rumors remain nothing more than, well, rumors. But they do pose an interesting proposition that would seize upon the particular fondness many fans of the series have for Vice City.
Grand Theft Auto (Image credit: Rockstar Games) GTA 6 is definitely coming and there are ideas “We don’t know what GTA 6 will be, but we’ve got some ideas,” said Benzies in the interview. Okay, so it’s not much, but it’s certainly a snippet of solid information direct from the source. Benzies went on to talk about what kind of ideas get the creative juices flowing over at Rockstar. “We’ve got about 45 years’ worth of ideas we want to do,” he added. “We’ll pick the right ones.” “It comes from the idea first. Where it is going to be set is the first question. That then defines the missions; you’re doing different things in LA than in New York or Miami. “The map and story get worked up together, and the story is a basic flow of how it works out so you can layer the mission in.” We’re just pleased that Rockstar has so many ideas for what it wants to do with GTA 6. We just hope it sorts them into some kind of organised system and gets that game to us sharpish. GTA 6 map: where will GTA 6 be set?
Grand Theft Auto (Image credit: Rockstar Games) Although there haven’t been any concrete reports as yet, every online titbit and juicy gossip morsel is pointing towards GTA 6’s map being absolutely massive. We’re even not talking city-size massive, we’re talking potentially the entire of the United States massive. Some rumors are suggesting that GTA 6 may end up spanning the entirety of the US, with some kind of teleportation system that cuts down the journey time between cities. There are even some incredibly exciting rumours that Rockstar Games might have a ‘70s theme up its sleeve, so crack out those old bell-bottoms and disco balls. But there’s also another rumor that’s gathering strength, which would put GTA 6 a little closer to Rockstar Games’ British home – a London setting. The reports actually started with a comment from Rockstar Games’ co-founder Dan Houser: “At the moment, it feels like GTA’s DNA is contemporary-ish, American-ish, English-speaking-ish, because that’s what it has been… But that doesn’t necessarily limit it to those, that’s just what we’ve done so far.” Rockstar Games sources suggest that London is the only non-US location to be whispered as a potential GTA setting. For our money, we think a return to Vice City is on the cards, which would tie in to the rumors mentioned above. A recent report from The Know suggests that a return to Vice City in the 80s is actually in the works and that players will explore the rise in drugs at the time through the missions. In this rumored game, players will move between Vice City and South America, which would create a very interesting and entirely new kind of map. The GTA 3 trilogy was set across three locations, Liberty City, Vice City, and San Andreas. This mirrored the original Grand Theft Auto Game, which was also set across the same three locations. The most recent Grand Theft Auto games, GTA 4 and GTA 5, have so far been set in Liberty City and San Andreas respectively, meaning that Vice City is the only location yet to be explored by the recent games. The only question now is whether Rockstar will be tempted to complete the set.
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| Apple AirPods sale: the latest model AirPods get a $20 price cut at Best Buy Posted: 08 Apr 2020 11:39 AM PDT You can score a price cut on the latest model AirPods at Best Buy's Apple Event Sale. For a limited time, Best Buy has the Apple AirPods with charging case on sale for $139.99. That's a $20 discount and a fantastic price for truly wireless earbuds. The Apple AirPods received an upgraded H1 Chip that results in faster pairing and seamless connectivity. The H1 chip also allows you to use your voice to ask Siri questions. You can adjust the volume, skip songs, and even make calls completely hands-free. The earbuds also come with a charging case that provides 20 hours of battery life and up to three hours of talk time on a single charge.
Apple AirPod deals:Shop more offers with our roundup of the cheapest AirPod prices, sales, and deals that are also going on. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Chrome 81 goes live with support for AR and NFC Posted: 08 Apr 2020 11:32 AM PDT After being delayed due to the ongoing coronavirus outbreak, Google has finally released Chrome 81 with support for WebXR and initial support the Web NFC standard. The update was initially planned to be much larger but a number of features were dropped from the Chrome 81 release such as a UI redesign of Chrome's web form elements and the removal of support for the TLS 1.0 and TLS 1.1 encryption protocols. The UI redesign didn't make it in to Chrome 81 because Google's engineers were not able to put the finishing touches on it in time. However, the new form controls are now scheduled to be released with Chrome 83 which is expected to arrive in mid-May.
Google's plans to remove the TLS 1.0 and TLS 1.1 encryption protocols from its browser have been pushed back to Chrome 84. The search giant's decision to delay removing these protocols is related to the coronavirus outbreak as many critical government healthcare sites still use these protocols to set up their HTTPS connections. WebNFC and WebXR supportThe release of Chrome 81 brings support for the new Web NFC standard to Google's browser through the new WEB NFC API. While most modern smartphones already support NFC, before now users had to download a separate app to scan NFC tags in the real-world. The new WEB NFC standard will allow websites to interact with NFC tags without requiring users to have a special app installed on their smartphones. Google believes that by adding the Web NFC standard to Chrome, it could lead to more NFC tags being used in places such as museums, art galleries and conferences as well as on websites and corporate intranets. As of now, the feature won't be available to all users but instead will only be available as a field trial. The field trial will run from Chrome 81 to Chrome 83 before the feature goes live for all users in Chrome 84. Initial WebXR support has also been added to Chrome 81 to allow users to use augmented reality in Google's browser.
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| Things to do at home: 35 fun ideas while you're stuck in self-isolation Posted: 08 Apr 2020 11:16 AM PDT Update: Our things to do list has been refreshed to include another fun and free idea now that Google Stadia has a two-month free trial. Check what's new below. We've completely reorganized our in-depth things to do just list in case you're stuck in self-isolation and quickly growing bored. We have 35 fresh ideas for you. Everything mentioned here can be done at home. Think of it this way: we're your digital tour guide to help you ride out the coronavirus outbreak, and the world's seemingly indefinite confinement. Let us be your distraction from today's surreal situation, as we point you in the direction of entertaining and productive activities. Finding things to do at home when bored has become the premier challenge we didn't foresee when making 2020 predictions. We'll keep doing our bit to help make self-isolation bearable, and keep you safe, as we all ride out these challenging times. 1. Watch Pixar's Onward for free with Disney Plus
Pixar, known for its big-budget CG films, is settling for a small screen premier with its latest movie: Onward. Disney launched it came out for digital purchase on March 20, while Disney Plus subscribers, as of April 3 in the US and Canada, can watch it for free (at no extra cost besides the Disney Plus subscription, of course). We've opined that this weekend is best time to subscribe to Disney Plus (see the free trial offer above), at least in North America. Everyone else, like those in the UK, can still soak in episodes of the Mandalorian, The Imagineering Story and The Simpsons. 2. Watch at-home movies that released early
There are a number of big movies that are supposed to either still be in theaters or weren't due to be available on demand until much later. Theaters are closed down, so major studios have turned to streaming them to you at home early. New movies to buy: Sonic the Hedgehog sped up its release to meet the demand at everyone bored at home and looking for things to do, and so did Bad Boys for Life, The Invisible Man, Call of the Wild, Bloodshot, Birds of Prey, The Hunt, Dolittle, Emma, I Still Believe and The Wayback. All are priced to own. New rentals to rent: 1917, Jumanji: The Next Level, Richard Jewell, and Bombshell, while Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker has now hit pay-to-own status. We've put together a series of short videos to help keep you entertained and informed at home – see below for our roundups of the best headphones, webcams and tablets, advice on cleaning your phone and more... 3. Watch 'Tiger King' rule Netflix with absurdity
Update: Tiger King is apparently getting more content, but the sequel won't be on Netflix. The Joe Exotic will next be seen on US TV network Investigation Discovery. Also, one of the stars of the streaming series is also teasing another episode of the show on Netflix, although that has yet to be confirmed. Everyone is watching the new Netflix series Tiger King, and even if your video quality has been downgraded, it's worth streaming all seven episodes. It's our new favorite true crime documentary, surpassing The Staircase (also a winner if you haven't seen it). Right away, Tiger King and its colorful characters border on being so ridiculous, you'd swear they're not true. PSA: we've known some big cat lovers who couldn't stand watching it for more the five minutes, so, for them, we suggest February's rave documentary miniseries instead, HBO's McMillions.
4. Watch Quibi to see if the new service is any good
Quibi just launched and everyone's immediate first question is: what in the world is Quibi? Fair question, especially if you didn't see the Quibi Super Bowl commercial. It's a mobile-only streaming video service with big Hollywood names attached to it – in front of and behind the scenes. All of the short videos here work in landscape or portrait, and they're run time is just long enough to watch on your lunch break. This is everyone's second question: Is Quibi worth subscribing to? Our ongoing Quibi review notes that there's a Quibi free trial that lasts 90 days, and right now that's the best asset of the service. The current lineup of shows can be hit or miss, and we're going to need time to come to a verdict on this evolving mobile streaming platform, especially as new creators come onboard. 5. Tune into late-night shows – they're back
The world need comedy right now, and late-night comedians are providing just that this week after a brief hiatus due to coronavirus self-isolation. No, they're not in their usual studios, but Conan O'Brien, Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon, Stephen Colbert, and James Corden are yucking it up at their respective home. The production quality, well, that varies. But the laughs are authentic enough that is has some charm. There are a couple of options to tune in: Sling TV, YouTube TV, Hulu Live and, for the two Late Shows, CBS All Access. 6. Watch something new on Netflix or Prime Video
Netflix and Amazon Prime Video have been our saviors boredom, consistently giving us the easiest new recommendations in our weekend things to do list updates. We've outlined five new shows and movies on the two streaming services (which you likely have already – if not, there's an free Prime Video trial above). Included a new movie called Coffee and Kareem starring Ed Helms (The Office, The Hangover). If sinking into a fresh comedy is what you need right now, you'll find it on Netflix. Amazon Prime Video, meanwhile, has the 1950s Rio de Janeiro-set Invisible Life and new sci-fi drama Tales from the Loop. 7. Watch an epic movie series in order
Nothing eats up more time than a good, long TV series, but because movies typically have bigger budgets and higher production value (outside a select few TV shows), we're switching it up (and also we ran out of TV shows to watch this weekend). Now is the perfect time to go through an entire movie franchise – in order. There are a couple different ways to watch the Marvel movies in order, and we have the links to where you can watch most of the 23 Marvel movies (Disney Plus being the easiest way to watch a majority of them). If you're looking for things to do during the coronavirus self-isolation, this will take you a total of 60 hours. We also have lists for how to watch Star Wars movies in order, Batman movies in order, James Bond movies in order (sadly 'No Time to Die' is on hold), Star Trek in order (including the new-ish Picard series), Harry Potter movies in order, and, if you're in the mood for some mindless Vin Diesel-helmed entertainment, Fast and Furious movies in order. 8. Watch Epix for free with Apple TV Channels
You probably didn't pay much attention to Apple TV Channels, which launched along with Apple TV Plus late last year, but now it's important – now that we're running out of TV shows and movies to stream for free. Epix, the small US premium network, is free until May 2, giving you almost a month with the channel that has a catalogue of movies you may have missed.The Elton John biopic Rocketman, the comedy The Hustle and the first Avengers movie are all free to watch. Missed The Lincoln Lawyer? It's worth it (and free, too), and so our older James Bond flicks. Original shows on Epix include a new War of the Worlds series, Godfather of Harlem, Berlin Station, and Deep State. The best part is that while Apple TV Channels offers a few premium channel free trials (ShowTime Anytime, History Channel Vault and Smithsonian Channel Plus, the Epix trial doesn't require you signing up or inputting a credit card number at all. 9. Rewatch the iHeart Living Room Concert
Coronavirus and self-isolation knows no bounds – royalty, movie stars and musicians have been affected by this novel virus. With many performers forced to cancel tours, iHeart Radio and Fox came up with an idea: stream a concert from celebrity homes. It raised $8 million during and after the streaming concert, with the money going to the First Responders Children's Foundation and Feeding America. The actual video is free, but you may need a cable login or VPN to watch it, depending on your location. The hour-long video is hosted Sir Elton John, with performances by Alicia Keys, the Backstreet Boys, Billie Eilish, Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong, Mariah Carey and Tim McGraw. Don't miss: Dave Grohl does a wonderful acoustic version of the Foo Fighters' "My Hero" and it's dedicated to selfless caretakers fighting Covid-19. 10. Sign up for Google Stadia's two-month free trial
Google is lending a hand to self-isolators, offering a two-month free trial to Google Stadia, its game streaming service. This opens you up to nine free games, including GRID, Destiny 2: The Collection, Thumper, GYLT, SteamWorld Dig 2, SteamWorld Quest: Hand of Gilgamech, Serious Sam Collection. Our Google Stadia review notes that your mileage may vary depending on how your connection fares during this unprecedented work-from-home era. Faster speeds will get you better lag-free performance and 4K resolutions (although you have to switch it in the app, as it's set to 1080p by default on the free account). 11. Pre-order Final Fantasy 7 remake
It took 23 years to get a proper Final Fantasy 7 Remake, but it couldn't have come at a better time. This now-fabulous-looking jRPG is ready to eat up the rest of the self-isolation lockdown period, no matter how long it goes. The official FF7 remake release date is Friday, April 10, although some retailers have broken the street date (like, weeks ago!). People were hoping this would mean that Square-Enix would launch the digital version early, too, but that hasn't happened.
12. Play through Resident Evil 3 remake
Our new game of the week is Capcom's Resident Evil 3 remake, and it dates back 21 years, when the original Resident Evil 3: Nemesis first launched in 1999. Today, it's a very different experience: we played it in 8K at over 60fps (though there are some big sacrifices), and tested its performance with today's biggest graphics cards. Warning, the game's plot line of a city infected with a biological weapon may hit too close to home right now, but it's even better than Resident Evil 2 remake, in our opinion. 13. Play Doom Eternal to make life seem less chaotic
In March, two new video games came out that couldn't be more different, and we're thankful for the variety provided by Bethesda Softworks and Nintendo.
Doom Eternal is a beautiful, but brutal reinvention of the first-person shooter series that actually makes life at the moment look... not so bad. This ride through Hell is one of the best experiences you'll have in 2020. Our full Doom Eternal review agrees, with a five-star rating and an Editor's Choice award. It's fast-paced at 60fps and has surpassed our expectations even when it played it in 8K with a $2,500 graphics card. 14. Play Animal Crossing to forget about life's chaos
Animal Crossing: New Horizons is on the other end of the spectrum – it's a ready to lull you into a sense that nothing is wrong whatsoever like a good ASMR. This is fine. Everything is fine, says main character Tim Nook. Nintendo's cute social life sim is ideal for today's self-isolation situation. Read our Animal Crossing: New Horizons review and think happy thoughts. One thing to note: while the new Animal Crossing is a must-have Nintendo Switch-exclusive, Doom Eternal is available on a wider set of platforms: PCs, PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and even Google Stadia.
15. Apple Arcade's latest is built for the whole familyOur best Apple Arcade games list now includes Crossy Road Castle, a platform title that thrives on its four-player local multiplayer gameplay (fear not, single-player is a choice, just in case confined at home alone). The frantic action reminds us of all the New Super Mario Bros. games and the old Castle Crashers game that never made its way to iOS somehow. Developer Hipster Whale provides the next best thing. What's great about a game like Crossy Road Castle is that it's easy to get the entire family in on the multiplayer action thanks to Apple's family share feature. You're able to share this game with anyone in your iCloud family, and we just re-upped out Apple Arcade subscription (it's $4.99 / £4.99 / AU$7.99 a month) to do just that. 16. Find your live sports fix in these games
Normally, our things to do at home when bored list includes live streaming sports games, especially baseball at this time of year. That's all caput thanks to this self-isolation period, and the brief thought of teams playing without crowd was quickly scrapped when NBA players started testing positive for coronavirus. Here's the next best thing – and one that keeps everyone safe: you are the one going through the season playing at your favorite sports teams in various video games. No Wimbledon? No problem.
17. Take a trip... to a virtual museum or national park
You can't go outside to do small things like go to a movie theater, never mind make much bigger plans like embarking on an expedition to another country. Trust us, it's a much better idea to stay at home during this coronavirus outbreak. Good news: our 10 virtual tours: see museums and the world without leaving home list allows you to visit world's most popular museums and US national parks virtually. You can use a VR headset, but these tours also work with a smartphone or tablet. Highlights include Machu Picchu in Peru (without the walking), The Louvre Museum in Paris (Mona Lisa told us to says "Hi"), and the Georgia Aquarium in the US (without all of the school students somehow completely blocking the giant Beluga whales). 18. Discover a new podcast
Podcasts are by-and-large free and often strike the right balancing between being entertaining and informative. Notable podcasts including This American Life, Serial, and Stuff You Should Know – they're consistently in the top 50 on podcast platforms. If we can be a bit biased for a second, you should really check out Noise Cancelling, the best new tech podcast around. This is our new weekly podcast that talks about what's happening in tech, expanding on the daily written coverage of TechRadar. 19. Trivia is back in session, right on your phone
There are multiple ways to partake in trivia, even though your local bar is closed. First up is HQ Trivia (iOS and Android), the once-popular live game show app that shut down in February. It's back at 9PM ET, at the exact time we need it. No, you won't find Scott Rogowsky hosting this 'trivia train' but Matt Richards was at the helm of Sunday's first game and regular quizzes followed. Shut-down bar trivia companies have transitioned to Twitch streaming due to self-distancing rules. Prominent brands include King Trivia (Sundays and Wednesdays at 10pm ET / 7pm PT) and Geeks Who Drink. It was one of the social of the things to do weekly in-person that has survived in a whole new isolation-friendly format. 20. Make a movie with free Final Cut Pro X
Final Cut Pro X and Logic Pro X are free for 90 days, meaning you have three months to make a movie or produce a song about your life in confinement courtesy of Apple. That's enough time to learn advanced techniques like color-grading without having to pay $299 / £299 / AU$499.99 for FCPX or $199 / £199 / AU$319.99 for Logic Pro X. While Adobe Premier Pro CC has become popular on Windows machines, Final Cut Pro is still king of Mac computers when it comes to making videos. 21. Read one of 100 top ebooks
Do this... but indoors or away from people, please. It's easy to put off reading books when life gets busy and you have a commute. But you're probably free from your commute if you're working from home. So basically you have no excuse to flip through a few pages of an ebook. Where do you start? That's sometimes the hardest part, but we've been impressed with Amazon's 100 books to read in a lifetime list. Not all will be your cup of tea, but there's something here for everyone and most ebooks are conveniently discounted. Not a fan of reading? Hate the sound of your own voice in your head? Audible is the best remedy for that. The Amazon-owned audiobook company still offers a free 30-day membership. The best parts? Both ebooks and audiobooks are delivered instantly and Amazon won't run out of inventory on either. 22. Buy a webcam to chat with friends (and maybe work)
We've seen a dramatic uptick in usage of video conferencing services and apps, and that has caused everyone to rummage through their drawers to search for that long-lost webcam. Like us, you probably can't recall the last time you saw it. Or maybe it's sitting in your locked-up office. Either way, we have a solution to get you up to speed: we've created a list of the best webcams for 2020 so you can chat with friends and work from home. Supplies of webcams is strained, so we're also highlighting where webcams are still in stock, too.
23. Play board games online with friends
Self-isolation gaming isn't all about video games and trivia. Traditional board games have also begun to migrate to the online sphere for distant friends and families. The age-old cure for boredom? Board 'em. You can utilize a webcam to play certain bored games (ones that don't require you to keep secrets, while some games, like those on Tabletopia (paid and free), bring the experience online. Don't forget, your smartphone or tablet has multiplayer-friendly board games, too. 24. Play 'Cards Against Humanity' online with friends
You might not be able to get together to play games with your friends and family in person like usual, but you can still play Cards Against Humanity online with a variety of services that feature virtual cards. There are three options in our guide, and they offer a safe way to play while remaining in self-isolation. We're also highlighting the physical version of the game, just in case you're confined with family or roommates and want the real deal. 25. Organize your digital life
Among the best things to do this week are those 'adulting' digital clean-up tasks that you never got around to doing before the Covid-19 outbreak. Now is the best time to tackle them. No excuses. In fact, here's a running list to help you get started:
26. Clean your gadgets of germs
We launched a series of how to clean articles, which is timely given you've probably put this off for a long time in the lead up to the coronavirus outbreak. It's among the top things to do if you haven't wiped-down your filthy, germ-collecting gadgets. The biggest offender is your smartphone, so we launched a how to clean your phone guide, which mirrors our advice on how to clean your iPad or tablet and how to clean your laptop screen. It's very easy to forget about cleaning your AirPods, but they too could use a good rubdown, whether or not you see visible wax. Don't forget about your Nintendo Switch and cleaning all of your gaming peripherals. You'll hug those tightly during gaming marathons and they become germ magnets. 27. Stock up on cleaning supplies
A quick amendment to that last suggestion on our things to do list: we own a lot of gadgets to clean and that makes it hard to conserve cleaning supplies. That's why we're keeping an eye out for things like Clorox wipes, hand sanitizer, and cleaning clothes. Other things to consider are compressed air and DW40, all of which we've used on gadgets and mechanical devices we own, smart and dumb. 28. Buy a robot vacuum
One of the best investments we made during last year's Black Friday was to buy a discounted robot vacuum. With us cleaning our home more than ever, it's extremely convenient to have a device to shoulder the burden. We're also standing away from the dust and dirt that can get kicked up in the air, not behind the barrel of a traditional vacuum. You'll want to check out our best robot vacuum buying guide and our highlighting of robot vacuum sales to get the best vacuum at a decent price. 29. Exercise while safely self-distancing
Getting exercise is crucial given our suddenly-even-more-so sedentary lifestyles. You, like us, may have a hard time staying motivated, and it's understandable. That's why we've turned to fitness trackers to keep reminding us that we haven't moved nearly enough while in self-isolation. They work at home or, if your government allows it, when going outside. We just highlighted that the new Apple Watch deals, though nearly as many people are clamoring for the best version on our Apple Watch 5 deals page. Android users should turn their attention to Fitbit deals and Samsung Galaxy Watch Active deals (both work with iOS devices, too) and our overall picks for best smartwatch deals. 30. Reserve a grocery delivery time slot now
The best thing to do at home mirrors what we liked doing when going out: eating. It's a harder now, sadly, with grocery store delivery time slots backed up globally and services like Instacart and Amazon Fresh facing employee strikes. To the best of our ability, we're highlighting the best grocery delivery services in the US and grocery delivery services in the UK and, when we can, highlighting rare open time slots. It's best to do this now before all of the other fun things to do. 31. Become a master chef with a meal kits service
Now is your chance to become a master chef with the best meal prep kits delivering step-by-step recipes to you along with the necessary ingredients. Blue Apron is our favorite in the US, while HelloFresh is available in both the US and UK. If you're not ready to flex your culinary skills, there are food delivery services in the US and similar takeaway apps in the UK that will get you ready-made foods from the restaurants you'd normally visit. You order get breakfast, lunch and dinner, and you'll be supporting many of the distressed restaurants in your area. 32. Support your local restaurant with take-out orders
We have a list of the best food delivery services in the US and food delivery apps the UK, and these guides have become all the more important in 2020 as local restaurants are hurting during the Covid-19 lockdown. While stocking up on food from grocery stores is important, so its supporting your favorite restaurants with food delivery and take-out orders that want to stay in business and keep workers employed. Buying gift cards is also a way to help show your support. 33. Don't forget to feed your pets
Self-isolation can be rough on your pets You can also buy pet food online, so it's not just people food that you're able to have delivered to your front door. That's good news for your dog, cat, etc. We've been highlighting various stores in the UK and UK in our guide, with names like PetCo and PetSmart sending our deliveries in the US. The UK includes stores like Pet-Supermarket, Pets at Home, and even Amazon among the top choices. 34. Cancel wasteful expenditures (trips, gym, etc)
Most airlines and hotels are offering free cancellations or at least vouchers in light of the coronavirus outbreak, although phone lines are jammed. This happened to us twice on a recent visit, leaving us with penalties both times. The good news is that most companies will right their wrongs – eventually.
There are some important tips. Airlines and travel sites like Expedia.com are asking customers to call them about changes no more than 72 hours before departure. The thinking is that people with immediate travel plans still in jeopardy will have a chance to get through. Online cancellations weren't possible (probably made it harder to cancel) before when we tried in March, so companies are adapting. You'll also want to cancel or pause your gym membership and make sure Groupon extends the expiration dates of your coupon vouchers. It's the little things that end up being costly when you forget about them. 35. Track wasteful recurring expenses
You're probably paying for more subscriptions than you realize, and getting charged a hefty fee every month. That's where the Truebill budgeting planner app becomes a handy tool. It dives into you bank and credit card accounts in order to figure out which recurring expenses you get hit with every month. Here's what floated to the top of our accounts: Netflix, Hulu, Disney Plus, Amazon Prime. Are we really getting use out of all of them? How all of about those Apple subscriptions? iCloud storage (do we really need that much cloud space?) and Apple Arcade are taking small amounts from our bank accounts monthly. We've found Truebill to help highlight these expenses. and it's free to monitor your accounts. It starts costing money if you want the service to do the legwork and cancel or negotiate your payments for you. We'll keep this list of things to do updated as the weeks of confinement continue and so long as we feel we're offering helpful advice. We're not in a global call to arms, but a worldwide call to couch – and we understand that can be difficult if you run out of fun ideas. We often give people buying advice, but we're just as happy to deliver enjoying advice. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Google Stadia now has a free two-month trial to entertain self-isolators Posted: 08 Apr 2020 10:50 AM PDT As gamers self-isolate around the world, Google Stadia gets a two-month free trial for Stadia Pro subscription service for anyone in the 14 countries supported by the service. Already signed up foe Google Stadia? You’ll get two months free, too, according to a blog post by Stadia VP Phil Harrison. This is the first widely-available free trial for Google’s game streaming service; those who bought the Google Stadia Founder’s Edition belatedly received a three-month trial they could give to a friend, though that obviously limited it to the pool of early adopters. There are a few caveats to the Stadia free trial: only nine games are available to play, which include GRID, Destiny 2: The Collection, Thumper, GYLT, SteamWorld Dig 2, SteamWorld Quest: Hand of Gilgamech, Serious Sam Collection, Spitlings, and Stacks on Stacks (on Stacks), per Polygon. Several of these games had been free picks available every month to Google Pro subscribers, and it’s unclear if this selection will change or add new monthly games cycling in. You can, of course, use the service to play one of the 38 Stadia-supported games you've bought yourself.
Free Google Stadia – mostlyIn another caveat, Google will stave off potential network strain by changing the default video resolution from 4K to 1080p. The good news is that you can apparently opt out by swapping data usage in the Stadia app. After two months, folks can keep the subscription at $10 per month, should they so choose. They can look forward to the 120 games Google claims are coming to Stadia in 2020, including 10 exclusive to the service.
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| How to watch Masterchef UK 2020 online for free in the UK or abroad Posted: 08 Apr 2020 10:47 AM PDT Now in its 16th series, the battle to win the title of the UK’s best amateur cook is in full flow - read on to find out how to stream Masterchef 2020, no matter where in the world you are, by following our guide below. With 60 initial contestants ranging from cattle farmers, hairdressers and architects, this latest incarnation of the culinary competition has already been one of the most fiercely contested. John Torode and Gregg Wallace as ever are fronting proceedings, while the guests offering up their palates for the nerve-racking Critics Table challenge include William Sitwell, Grace Dent, Jay Rayner and Jimi Famurewa. This year's hopefuls will be aiming to reach a final set of daunting culinary challenges that begin on the island of Mauritius where they will need to complete a gastronomic challenge of recreating both high-end local fine-dining dishes and traditional street food tutored by the islands top chefs. Following that test, the remaining contestants return to London where they must impress Albert Adria - widely regarded as the world’s best pastry chef, before delivering the best three-course menu of their lives for John and Gregg, in the final bid to claim the prestigious Masterchef title. The show has a decent track record of producing winners that have gone on to big things by opening up their very own restaurants and writing books, including 2019 champ Irini Tzortzoglou. Knives and forks at the ready - its time to find out how to stream Masterchef 2020 online – no matter where in the world you are - with our guide below.
Watch Masterchef 2020 online for free in the UK:As is usual, Masterchef will be shown on free-to-air in the UK on TV on BBC One. Or if you would prefer to use your laptop, phone, iPad or other device, you can use the BBC iPlayer app to stream the episodes instead. You can also head over to the free to use TVPlayer.com which has good quality streaming as well as the rest of the Freeview channels on one easy platform. The semi-final stages are set to air on BBC One at 9pm BST on Wednesday April 8 and then Thursday April 9 at 7.30pm BST before heading into finals where it airs on Wednesday, April 15, and Thursday, April 16, at 9pm. Series 16 of MasterChef concludes with the grand final on Friday, April 17, at 7.30pm. Streaming Masterchef 2020 anywhere else in the world for free:For those outside of the UK that don't want to miss a second of this year's culinary competition, the best bet is a VPN service. This means that if you're temporarily abroad during the lockdown, don't panic you can still get your Masterchef fix, you just need an internet connection. Once you get the right VPN you can enjoy a secure and speedy connection, even on open Wi-Fi networks like hotels, enabling you to tune in. And even if you're not that tech friendly, don't worry. Getting a VPN is super simple. We've listed how to do it in three easy steps below....
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| iPad deal alert: get the latest model Apple iPad on sale for $299 at Best Buy Posted: 08 Apr 2020 10:39 AM PDT If you're looking for a cheap tablet deal to keep you entertained while you're stuck indoors, then you've come to the right place. Best Buy has the latest model Apple iPad on sale for just $299. That's a $30 discount and the best price we've found for the 32GB tablet. If you're looking for more storage, you can also get the 128GB iPad on sale for $379. The 2019 iPad includes Apple's powerful A10 Fusion chip and is available in a 32GB or 128GB storage option. The tablet features a 10.2-inch Retina display that's now able to support a full-sized smart keyboard. The updated tablet runs on iPadOS, which allows for seamless multitasking and the use of the Apple Pencil. The iPad also includes a 1.2MP front-facing camera and has the voice-assistant Siri built-in. iPad deals:Interested in other iPad models? We've listed even more of the cheapest iPad deals and refurbished iPad sales. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Best Windows hosting services of 2020 Posted: 08 Apr 2020 10:34 AM PDT Most web hosting packages run on Linux servers, and it's easy to see why: the operating system is fast, reliable, secure and free, with an impressive software ecosystem that includes some of the best web applications around. For all these benefits, Linux won't be the right setup for everyone. If your site is based on Microsoft technologies like ASP.NET or .NET, or you're intending to run Exchange, Microsoft SQL Server or some other Microsoft stack product, you'll need to choose a Windows plan. Opting for Windows hosting doesn't restrict you to Microsoft products. Most plans offer one-click easy installation of popular apps like WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, PrestaShop, phpBB and more. There's no cPanel, but something similar (like Plesk) will make it easy to view your website status, create email accounts, tweak settings and generally manage your plan. Select a VPS or dedicated hosting plan and you'll also be able to use Remote Desktop to manage the server from its own desktop. Windows hosting has some issues. You won't get the same choice of applications as with Linux. There's less help available for troubleshooting apps like WordPress on the Windows platform. There are Microsoft licence fees to pay, too, so it's a little more expensive than Linux plans. Overall, though, if you need to take advantage of Microsoft technologies, Windows hosting can deliver a great service for a surprisingly low price. Read on for five top Windows hosting providers you might want to check out first.
Windows hosting has a reputation for being costly, but 1&1 IONOS's shared Windows range shows it doesn't have to be that way. Prices start at $1 (£1 for UK page) a month for the first year, $7.99 (£5 for UK page) afterwards, yet even the most basic plan is better specified than some of the Linux competition. You get 1 website, 100GB web space and unlimited bandwidth, along with 25 email accounts with 2GB storage per account, plus daily backups, 24/7 phone and email support, a free domain and an SSL certificate thrown in. Windows-specific features include five Microsoft SQL databases of up to 1GB each, ASP.NET 4.7, ASP.NET Ajax and MVC 3, 4 and 5. There's support for SQL import, SSI and dedicated app pools, and your plan will be running on Windows Server 2019 (many hosts are still using 2012). Ramping up to the top-of-the-range Expert Windows plan gets 500 databases (1GB SSD), 500 email accounts, a dedicated IP, regular malware scanning and an integrated Cloudflare-based CDN. Again, this is good value at $1 (£1 for UK page) a month for the first six months, $14 (£7 for UK page) afterward. These are shared plans and don't give you full control over the server, but more flexible VPS and dedicated plans are also available at very low prices, and opting for Windows instead of Linux will cost from an extra $14 (£10) a month. Factor in the one-month trial and 1&1 IONOS could be a sensible choice for novices looking to try out Windows hosting with the minimum of risk.
A2 Hosting is a capable provider with a huge range of plans covering everything from basic shared products, managed WordPress and email hosting, to reseller plans, cloud VPS and dedicated servers. A2's Windows offerings include a capable Swift plan priced at $5.88 (£4.5 for UK) a month initially, $11.99 (£9.27 for UK) on renewal. This is a shared product, but a good one, with unlimited websites, subdomains, email addresses, databases and more. Highlights include free site migration, SSD storage as standard, virus scanning, automatic backups, free Let's Encrypt SSL, Anycast DNS, and Cloudflare Free CDN for a claimed average of 200% faster page loads. Your site will be hosted on Windows Server 2012, although you can choose Windows Server 2016. Windows Server 2016 debuted many new features – Nano Server, containers, ReFS, Linux Secure Boot support – but you won’t be using these capabilities on a shared hosting plan. What you do get with the Swift plan is support for an array of current and legacy Microsoft products and standards: ASP.NET 2.x, 3.x and 4.x, classic ASP, .NET Core 2.2, ASP.NET MVC 4 or 5, IIS 8.5 and Silverlight 4 or 5. And if your needs are more cross-platform, there's PHP 5.6, 7.0, 7.1 or 7.2 support, phpMyAdmin, and one-click installers for PrestaShop, WordPress, Drupal and more. If shared hosting isn't enough, A2 also provides managed Windows VPS plans. These are well specified and priced fairly from $25 (£19.32 for UK) a month initially, $49.99 (£38.65 for UK) on renewal, which represents decent value for the features and support you get.
While there are plenty of low-cost shared Windows hosting packages around, they're not the best choice for everyone. We suspect that many users who need a Windows website will also require more speed and functionality than the average customer, and budget hosting may not be good enough. Hostwinds' Windows VPS hosting offers no less than 10 plan configurations, making it much easier to find and purchase the precise level of service you need. The baseline specification is impressive. Every plan offers free site migrations, SSD storage, and 1Gbps network connectivity (100Mbps is common with other plans). You also get the ability to use Windows Server 2008, 2012 or 2016, along with fast response times for any support issues (30 seconds for chat or phone, 5 minutes for tickets), and 99.999% uptime guaranteed overall. The starter Tier 1 plan offers relatively limited resources, with one CPU core, 1GB RAM, 30GB disk space and 1TB traffic per month. But it's also good value at $9.89 (£7.6) a month for the first term, $10.99 (£8.4) on renewal. Those prices are for a monthly billing cycle, too – no lengthy contract required. Upgrading to a higher tier gets you more power. The mid-range Tier 5 plan offers four CPU cores, 8GB RAM, 150GB disk space and 3TB bandwidth, for example, and is priced at $45.89 (£35.20) a month initially, $50.99 (£39.1) a month afterwards. Optional extras are reasonably priced. You could add cloud backups for $1 (£0.70) a month, for instance, while spending $5 (£3.60) on basic server monitoring will see Hostwinds watch your system and automatically raise a support ticket if it goes down. Put it all together and these seem well-designed hosting plans which are powerful, configurable, with excellent support and a generous 60-day money-back guarantee. If basic Windows hosting isn't enough, Hostwinds could be worth a try.
Many web hosts provide some level of Windows support, but it's often limited to a specific set of products, such as dedicated servers. That could become an issue if you decide you'd like to upgrade or downgrade your hosting at a later date, so it makes sense to look for hosts which offer more flexibility. HostGator has a range of Windows plans covering personal and business-friendly shared hosting, and ranging up to highly-specified dedicated servers with the power to run just about anything. Most of these products are distinctly short on limits and restrictions. The starter Personal plan may only support one website, but you're allowed unlimited subdomains, emails, MySQL and Microsoft SQL Server databases, and unmetered bandwidth and disk space. It’s priced from $2.64 (£2) a month if you sign up for the three-year plan, $6.95 (£5.3) on renewal, which is cheaper than the equivalent Linux plans of some providers. There is a potential downside in HostGator's relatively dated software: Windows Server 2008 R2, IIS 7.5, MSSQL Server 2008 R2 Web Edition, Access Databases 2007, 2010, ASP.NET up to 4.5, PHP 5.2.17 and PHP 5.3. This won't matter to everyone, but check your technical Windows requirements before you sign up. HostGator's dedicated plans are a little more up-to-date, though still lagging behind some of the competition, with Windows Server 2012 R2, IIS 8.5, SQL Server 2014 Express, and ASP.NET from 2.0 up to 4.6. Headline prices are reasonable, with the Value Server plans starting from $119 (£85) a month, and occasional special deals as low as $79.99 (£57) for legacy servers. Be sure to carefully check the small print, though – you might have to sign up for three years to get these prices, and large introductory discounts mean that you could pay more than double on renewal.
Liquid Web is a popular provider of high-end professional web hosting services, and its current range includes some very capable Windows products. The company's Cloud VPS range hosts your web space across multiple devices to improve performance and scalability, delivering what Liquid Web claims is the "fastest managed VPS hosting on the planet". All plans include features that might be chargeable extras elsewhere – unlimited sites, Gigabit transfer, Cloudflare CDN, DDoS attack protection, US or EU hosting – and run Windows Server 2012 or 2016, yet you can still get a capable setup for $59 (£48) a month ($29 a month if you go annual). Unusual touches include a choice of SQL Server versions. 2014 or 2016 Express come by default and you can add the Web Editions for $35 (£25) a month, but Standard and Enterprise editions are also available if you need them. For even more control, you could opt for one of Liquid Web's Private Cloud Servers, although these are primarily made for organizations considering the price. These give you all the power of a Cloud Dedicated Server, but also allow for creating, managing and using custom VPS instances (separate virtual servers). You could set up a Windows VPS to run your ASP.NET site, for instance, but also create a Linux VPS instance to run WordPress, another for PrestaShop, maybe a third as a Windows development environment – it's up to you. Private Cloud Servers prices start from $1599 (£1261) a month with no long-term contract requirements, and no leap in costs after an initial discount expires. Liquid Web may charge a Windows license fee on top of that, but you'll only pay once per Cloud Server. This allows you to create as many Windows-based VPS instances as you need, at no extra cost. Interestingly, if you remove all Windows instances then the license fee will no longer be charged, a handy money-saver for users who only need Windows support occasionally. Whatever product you choose can be fully managed by Liquid Web's excellent support team, another company highlight. The firm doesn’t just promise to keep your site up and running, there’s a commitment with a 100% uptime SLA (service level agreement), a strong sign of confidence in its services that you rarely see elsewhere.
You might also want to check out our other website hosting buying guides:
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| HP first off the line with Ryzen-4000 business laptops Posted: 08 Apr 2020 10:20 AM PDT To meet the needs of growing businesses and remote workers, HP has unveiled two new laptops which feature the latest AMD Ryzen 4000 series mobile processors. The HP ProBook 445 G7 and the HP ProBook 455 G7 laptops have been built from the ground up to provide SMBs and remote workers with everything they need to get their jobs done from wherever they may be. The company's new laptops also offer powerful performance, long battery life, fast connectivity and enterprise-grade security features.
HP's new ProBook models are the company's first commercial products to feature Ryzen 4000 mobile processors. The laptops are also configurable and can be outfitted with four, six, or eight-core mobile processors for increased performance. Both ProBook models include HP Fast Charge so that users can quickly recharge their PCs and get up to 50 percent battery life in just 30 minutes. Multi-layered security protectionAs these laptops are designed to meet the needs of SMBs and remote workers, HP also included plenty of security features including HP Sure Start, HP Privacy Camera and optional HP Sure View Gen 3. The self-healing BIOs HP Sure Start for AMD automatically recovers from firmware attacks corruption without the need for IT or user intervention. HP Sure Sense meanwhile uses deep learning AI to identify and quarantine never-before-seen attacks to help prevent infections before they happen. The integrated HP Privacy Camera features a physical shutter to block the lens of the camera to prevent malicious surveillance while the optional HP Sure View Gen3 instantly blocks prying eyes from viewing what is on a user's screen by reducing visual light when the screen is viewed from the side which makes it appear dark and unreadable. The HP ProBook 445 G7 and the HP ProBook 455 G7 laptops are ultra-slim devices that have a 180-degree hinge lay-flat design. The new ProBooks feature a durable and stylish aluminum cover that holds the near borderless display and a 3D forged aluminum keyboard deck. Both laptops are expected to be available in late April.
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| Best e-commerce hosting providers in 2020 Posted: 08 Apr 2020 10:05 AM PDT Got a great idea, service or product? Building a quality web store could help you sell it to the masses, and it's easier than you think. Even basic web hosting plans will often include core e-commerce functionality: templates for web stores, PayPal integration, easy installs for popular shopping carts. Ramping up to specialist e-commerce plans will get you powerful product catalogues, stock inventory and other business management tools, and support for more payment methods. While these products can be packed with features, even the high-end e-commerce plans are designed to be simple to use. Choose a layout, fill in forms to build your product catalogue and your store will start to take shape. There's still work to do – opening an account to take credit card payments, perhaps – but even web store novices will be able to figure it out as they go along. Prices are low, too, with one decent starter plan giving you three years hosting for £1.50 ($2.10) a month, or a total of £54 ($76) plus tax. If you're wondering about e-commerce but not quite sure whether it's right for you, this gives you a cheap and easy way to test your ideas. Whether you're a total e-commerce newbie or you're already running a busy web store, we've found five excellent hosting plans that could take your selling to the next level.
If you're new to web selling, building your first store can seem complex and intimidating, but it doesn't always have to be that way. Website builder Wix comes with some gorgeous store templates which can be freely customized via its excellent editor. Site design takes a far more visual approach than most of the competition, so for example you can see designs and layouts before you drag them onto the page. Choose your preferred option and it's displayed with dummy product images, instantly giving you an idea of how the finished store will look. There's plenty of power here. Products can be physical or digital, they may be illustrated with images or videos, assigned custom options (colors, size), promoted with coupons, and you can set up your own shipping and tax rules to cope with tricky situations. Plus, with the introduction of Wix Turbo, your site will load much faster. Wix supports a wide range of payment methods. Exactly what's on offer depends on your location, but when we tested the service from the UK we were offered Square, Stripe, Moolah, Worldpay, Wirecard and PayPal. Whatever your choice, you'll pay the provider only: Wix doesn't charge any transaction fees. Your finished store still won't have as many features as the top e-commerce providers, but Wix is easy-to-use, the $17 (£14) a month price is fair, and it's a smart way for newbies to dip their toes in the web store waters.
Getting your first web store up and running is often an expensive business. Many providers offer little or no e-commerce functionality in their starter plans, and you'll often have to fork out for a high-end specialist plan before you can do anything useful. iPage is a rare exception where even the most basic hosting plan gives you more than enough to get started. A template-based website builder and free web store make it easy to design your shop, for instance. There's PayPal support for taking payments. You also get integration with your choice of shopping cart (AgoraCart, OpenCart, OSCommerce, PrestaShop, TomatoCart, Zen Cart), a free domain for the first year, and 24/7 phone (toll-free in the US and UK) and chat support to handle any urgent problems that might crop up. There are limits, too. The website builder only supports a maximum of six pages, for instance, and many customers will expect to be able to pay by credit card as well as PayPal. (You can do that, but you'll need to sort it out yourself.) Still, the introductory price is very low at $1.99 (£1.50) a month for up to 36 months, $7.99 (£6) on renewal. It could be worth buying just as a learning environment to experiment with the technology and see what you can do. And if you do go online, you shouldn't have to sell many products to make your hosting fees back.
While many web hosts go to huge efforts to highlight e-commerce abilities, others barely mention them at all. SiteGround is a great example: there's no big "build your web store here" headline, and yet when you look at the details, even its most basic shared hosting plan has a lot of e-commerce power. A Weebly-based website builder is available to create your store, for instance. HTTP/2 enabled servers and Cloudflare CDN integration boost speeds, reducing the chance that customers will abandon the site. And when it's time to buy, free Let's Encrypt SSL certificates will give your customers confidence that their payment details are secure. SiteGround plans include the Softaculous installer, which enables speedy setup of big-name shopping cart and e-commerce tools including PrestaShop, WooCommerce and Magento. At the time of writing, the company quotes 99.996% uptime for the last 12 months, good news when you're running something as important as a web store. Although if you do hit trouble, 24/7 support and automatic daily backups should help you quickly recover the situation. The baseline Startup plan gives you all this for $0.33 (£0.33 for UK) a month for the initial term (this is a limited special offer), rising to $11.95 (£8.95 for UK) on renewal. It has some limits – 10GB web space, a suggested maximum of 10,000 visits a month, support for hosting one website only – but these won't be an issue for many smaller stores, and there are more powerful plans available if you need them.
1&1 IONOS eCommerce Website Builder/Online Store is a powerful tool which combines simple template-based web store design with professional features and functionality. High quality design templates help you get up to speed quickly. There aren't many, but they look good, and can easily be customized to suit your needs. 1&1 IONOS's baseline account is a little underpowered, considering its price – $20 (£20 for UK page) a month (the first three months are free though). You get support for up to 5000 items and there's a free domain, an SSL certificate thrown in, and some basic SEO. The range improves significantly with the next plan priced at $25 (£25 for UK) a month. This adds more product support (up to 10000), advanced SEO, improvement to shipping (scheduled pickup and real-time shipment tracking) and some additional extras like Instagram store. The highest plan takes your store to the next level by increasing the product support up to 1 million and allows you to sell on eBay and Amazon Marketplace along with additional improvements. It's an unusual and welcome extra, but the price is relatively high at $45 (£50 for UK page) a month.
Starter e-commerce hosting plans can do a lot for a very low price, but you'll often pay in terms of service quality. Websites based on shared hosting may be slow, or fail entirely, and support is often limited. This might not matter for tiny web stores, but if you're running a big business, it could be a major issue. Liquid Web's hosted WooCommerce plans are far more expensive (higher-performance plans, specifically), with prices starting at $299 (or £230) a month, but it's easy to see why: they trample all over the underpowered baseline efforts of the competition. There are also plans for new stores/beginners with prices starting at $19 a month. These aren't as powerful, but they are worth checking out if you need a more "lightweight" option. Wide product support covers physical goods, digital downloads, virtual products (like online courses), for instance. There are no limits on the number of products you can sell, and you have many powerful ways to present them. The site doesn't just allow customers to choose product variations from a list, for example (color, size, design) – you can show them photos which match their selections. Store management tools are just as flexible. You can define your own custom order statuses and workflows, automatically offer customers related products, set promotions, create coupons, accept product reviews, manage inventory and more. Professional design features include hundreds of responsive themes and a drag-and-drop page builder for editing. Your site is hosted on scalable containers. These are isolated environments which aren't shared with other users, improving reliability. Even better, they don't limit you to some preset amount of system resources. The platform can detect when you're busy and dynamically add RAM and CPU cores as required. Premium touches include performance testing and a staging area to test site features before going live. Jilt's abandoned shopping cart recovery may help you regain lost customers, and support for Glew's analytics will deliver valuable information about your customers and orders. For busy stores, perhaps most important of all is Liquid Web's excellent support. The company isn't just available 24/7/365 to respond to problems: it monitors stores, often detecting and fixing hosting-related issues before you even realize anything is wrong. Put it all together and this is one very impressive range, with more than enough power to run the busiest of web stores. Go take a look. The importance of getting the best ecommerce web hostingToday, e-commerce has become a massively lucrative channel for retailers. However, the quality of the hosting services that many small businesses are using often leaves a lot to be desired. A recent report showed that one in three Britons have abandoned their online transactions because of poor website design and inefficient hosting. Research from hosting company 1&1's '2011 Digital High Street Audit' finds worryingly low levels of consumer satisfaction with the small business websites available to them. The risk to firms from providing a bad online experience is clear – 49% of consumers believe that a bad website makes a worse impact than a business having no website at all. This conclusion has led 37% to walk-away from companies completely, in favour of using a competitor. An additional 9% of Britons have found themselves reducing their spend with small companies as a direct result of being deterred by a poor company website. Oliver Mauss, CEO, 1&1 Internet said: "Research shows that keeping an ugly or badly functioning website online can comprise a risk to sales revenue. Consumers have ever higher expectations, and it is essential that every company website inspires confidence. Businesses that invest carefully in their web experience will see higher levels of customer spend, retention and referral". You might also want to check out our other website hosting buying guides:
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| Sonos One and Beam deals are offering big savings across the US and UK Posted: 08 Apr 2020 09:52 AM PDT We've all been watching a lot more TV than we're used to or listening to more music at home, which means these Sonos One and Beam soundbar deals are perfectly primed to offer big savings on your next upgrade. You can save $50 / £40 on the Sonos One wireless speaker or Sonos Beam soundbar this week, with top deals across the US and UK offering money off high-quality audio. The Sonos One SL is going for just $129 / £139 this week, but if you can stretch the extra pennies, the second generation offers enhanced virtual assistant compatibility at a $149 / £159 price point. If you're looking for a full set up, you'll also find the impressive Sonos Beam soundbar available for as little as $349 / £339 this week. That means you can bring incredibly powerful audio to your movies, shows, and games, as well as virtual assistant compatibility, for less. These deals come courtesy of Adorama in the US, but you'll also find stock available at B&H Photo. Meanwhile, in the UK we're looking to John Lewis thanks to their fantastic two-year guarantee, but if stock runs short you'll also find these deals at Currys. We're rounding up all these Sonos One deals in full below, as well as all the latest smart speaker prices further down the page. Sonos One deals and Beam soundbar sales in the US
Sonos One deals and Beam soundbar sales in the UK
Looking for more? We're tracking all the latest Sonos deals right here on TechRadar, but you might also be interested in top Bose speaker sales, the latest Apple HomePod prices, or the best Amazon Echo deals going right now. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Best Asus router 2020: the top Asus routers for any budget Posted: 08 Apr 2020 09:42 AM PDT The best Asus routers should be on anyone’s radar who’s looking for a fantastic router. They aren’t just among the best in the Wi-Fi router market but are also some of the most popular as well. The company has quite a varied line of models to choose from, so regardless of whether you’re looking for a personal or business solution, there’s something to fill your needs. The best Asus router for you might be one that comes with an affordable price tag but with reliable performance or one with blazing-fast speeds for a gamer. Either way, you’ll find the best option for you, as well as our pick for best overall which combines performance with price, on this list. So no matter what your needs are, you’ll find the best Asus router for you here.
Image credit: Asus Okay, so our top overall pick for an Asus router might look like the head of a decapitated robot – with dark red eyes and an untidy antenna hairdo – but it’s performance, not appearance, we’re interested in here. The Asus RT-AC86U gives you AC2900 wireless speeds, range boosting for better Wi-Fi coverage around your home, and even gaming acceleration technology. In actual fact, the RT-AC86U is positioned as a gaming router – which explains the aesthetics – but don’t let that put you off. It’s very easy to set up and a fantastic all-rounder. The icing on the cake is that this Asus router, being one of last year’s models, can now be had (at the time of writing) for around a whopping 40% less than its launch price. It’s simply an incredible bargain in terms of price/performance ratio. Read the full review: Asus RT-AC86U
Image credit: Asus For those whose budget can’t stretch to our overall champ above, the Asus RT-AC66U is a sterling more affordable option which still offers great performance levels for the asking price. It’s easy to get going with the RT-AC66U, and speeds remain impressive for what is by now quite an old router (the reason why the asking price has been cut in half compared to the original RRP). You also get a good range of features including Adaptive QoS to prioritize your internet traffic. Think of this as a workhorse Asus router which is still fully capable of getting the job done without breaking a sweat, and can be had without any danger of breaking the bank, too.
Image credit: Asus If you want the cheapest possible Asus router out there, without having to resort to buying some ancient – or indeed possibly dust-caked, second-hand – hunk of plastic which will likely only give you heartache in the long run, this is the model to go for. In fact, we’d argue the RT-AC51U is pretty much as cheap as you can go while still getting a useful router. And it’s a reasonable enough model, offering 802.11ac dual-band Wi-Fi at solid enough speeds with a single USB (2.0) port for hooking up your printer or external storage. It’s a completely no-frills router, for sure, but the best Asus option at the true bargain-basement end of the market.
Image credit: Asus Now, this is a slight curveball in that gamers will be well-served by our best overall router above, the Asus RT-AC86U, and its fantastic value proposition. But if you want to spend more for the absolute best router for gaming, then you need the Asus ROG Rapture GT-AC5300. This is a juiced-up-for-gamers version of the already excellent RT-AC5300, and like that model, it boasts strong tri-band Wi-Fi coverage thanks to eight antennas. While gamers of course swear by wired connections, wireless is still important for general usage (and gaming on mobile devices). Speaking of wired, the GT-AC5300 has no less than eight LAN ports, twice the amount of the RT-AC5300, plus it has a slightly higher spec elsewhere (like double the memory). Moreover, it bristles with advanced features, including gamer-specific adaptive QoS and acceleration to optimize your connection. As a gaming router, it really flies, but it isn’t cheap – although now this router has been around for a couple of years, it’s considerably more affordable than when first launched. The aforementioned RT-AC5300 is a good slightly cheaper alternative, but the price difference is so little at the time of writing, the clear choice for us is the ROG.
Image credit: Asus The RT-AX88U is built around the latest 802.11ax wireless standard (newly renamed Wi-Fi 6, but manufacturers are still using the ‘ax’ label) for the fastest Wi-Fi speeds, while remaining a relatively affordable model – it’s far, far from cheap, but you’ll always pay through the nose for the very latest tech. This Asus router boasts superfast 5GHz speeds, and the 802.11ax tech also helps for better performance in congested wireless environments (where a lot of devices are being used over Wi-Fi). Remember, though, that you’ll need client devices which also support 802.11ax to get the full benefit of the router’s ax speeds, and there aren’t many around right now (Samsung’s Galaxy S10 smartphone is one). The good news, however, is that Wi-Fi performance is still blazingly quick even with 802.11ac devices.
Image credit: Asus If money is no object, and you want the absolute highest-end Asus router bristling with all the very latest whistles and bells, then here it is. The ROG Rapture GT-AX11000 is a gaming model, as the ROG brand denotes, and the device has game boosting features – but it’s good for everything you might want to throw at it, not just online games. Like the above AX88U it sports 802.11ax, the very latest wireless standard (Wi-Fi 6) for extremely fast speeds even throughout a large house (there are eight antennas to help with Wi-Fi coverage). It also has a 2.5Gbit gaming Ethernet port, another nifty innovation. You get a very reliable router that copes well with potential network congestion (thanks to 802.11ax), with plentiful features including Adaptive QoS for prioritizing traffic and parental controls. That said, you do pay for all this.
Image credit: TechRadar While we’ve pointed out some Asus routers with strong Wi-Fi coverage already, if you have a really big house, or other Wi-Fi dead-spot issues – perhaps caused by thick walls for example – then a mesh networking solution could be the way to go for the best wireless coverage. In this case, Asus offers up the Lyra Trio, a three-pack of dual-band mesh Wi-Fi devices. The idea here is that one device acts as a router unit, and the other two are satellites placed throughout the home, grabbing the signal from the router unit and extending the Wi-Fi coverage. The Lyra Trio should cover a two or three story home of up to 375 square meters, according to Asus. The main caveat here is that while we found overall performance solid enough in our review, the Lyra Trio was a tad inconsistent in terms of dropped connections, although potentially, firmware updates since then may (hopefully) have helped remedy this. Otherwise, Lyra is easy to install and configure, and competitively priced compared to rival mesh router products. As an extra bonus, you can also do your ironing with the Lyra Trio (okay, so you can’t – but you’d be fully forgiven for thinking otherwise, looking at the devices). Read the full review: Asus Lyra Trio (AC1750)
Image credit: Asus For those after something a little different with a router – and a device to fit well into any burgeoning smart home – consider the Lyra Voice. This is actually an AC2200 router crossed with an Alexa smart speaker, so one of the immediate benefits is that you’re combining two devices into one. And you’re getting a neat-looking router that will blend in nicely in any living room (or wherever you place it). This tri-band router’s Wi-Fi performance is fairly impressive, and as a speaker, it actually sounds pretty good considering its relatively compact nature. The Lyra Voice is also a doddle to set up (via an app). Downsides are that you only get one Gigabit LAN port (and a WAN port), and furthermore on the wired connectivity front, you don’t get any USB ports to hook up other devices to your network. Still, this remains a novel all-in-one solution which definitely has its appeal.
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| Best Wi-Fi extenders of 2020: top devices for boosting your WiFi network Posted: 08 Apr 2020 09:40 AM PDT The best Wi-Fi extenders are a critical component for anyone whose network doesn’t cover their entire home or office. Large spaces require special solutions and a router doesn’t always cover it. The best Wi-Fi extenders are that special solution, taking your signal and boosting it into every nook and cranny for a secure and reliable connection. Slow or dropped connections are the bane of anyone not living off the grid and there’s no excuse to live with a terrible internet connection. The best Wi-Fi extenders might just be the answer to that problem, especially if you’ve been considering routing network cables to every end of your property to fix that problem. The best Wi-Fi extenders will cover any area where your network starts to deteriorate, taking your original network and boosting it beyond its original boundaries. We’ve rounded up the best options for the best Wi-Fi extenders to help you find the best option for you. So if you’re looking to extend your network, take a look at the options for the best Wi-Fi extenders on the market in 2020.
If you're after a Wi-Fi extender that provides best-in-class performance for expanding your wireless network throughout your home, then the Netgear Nighthawk X6S EX8000 Tri-band WiFi Extender is the one for you. You can use this extender to create a mesh network, so you have a single, large, Wi-Fi network, rather than smaller separate ones. This allows you to easily roam your house, and your device will seamlessly keep connected. It's expensive, but it's the best Wi-Fi extender you can buy right now, offering fast speeds and dependable network coverage throughout your home.
Bring the power and convenience of a mesh network to your home with the Netgear Nighthawk X6 EX7700. Not only does this extend the area of your Wi-Fi network, but it creates a seamless Wi-Fi network throughout your home or office - so you don't need to switch networks while moving around. Thanks to the powerful hardware inside the Netgear Nighthawk X6 EX7700, you can stream 4K content, play games and hook up all kinds of devices to your Wi-Fi network without a hitch. The included Ethernet ports are also a nice addition for bringing your network to wired devices.
TP-Link is a Chinese networking company that has been steadily gaining popularity in the west, and for good reason. With devices like the TP-Link RE650 AC2600 Wi-Fi Range extender, it’s easy to get why: this extender – among the best Wi-Fi extenders you can buy right now – does the job well, and it’s affordable. It’s not going to be the fastest Wi-Fi extender out there, but with the range this extender provides at the price it’s available at, it’s a steal. Finally, thanks to an LED signal indicator on the front, installation is a breeze.
D-Link DAP-1650 boasts features like four gigabit Ethernet ports, and speeds of up to 300 Mbps (2.4GHz) and 867 Mbps (5GHz). The D-Link DAP-1650’s sleek cylindrical form will certainly find an audience among smart speaker users out there. However, that’s not its only selling point here. Among the best Wi-Fi extenders on the market, this device not just extends coverage and improves signal strength. It also boasts features like four gigabit Ethernet ports, for multiple high-speed wired connections, speeds of up to 300 Mbps (2.4GHz) and 867 Mbps (5GHz), and a setup that’s effortless even to folks who are not technologically savvy.
The Linksys Velop offers a solid argument for a wireless mesh network’s ease of setup. Looking to replace both your router and your now-antiquated range extender, the Velop comes at a time when companies like Google and Netgear are trying to accomplish the same thing. The main way Linksys hopes to stand out from its competitors in the wireless mesh networking space is with a user-friendly setup that anyone with a smartphone can easily do. With just a visit to the App Store or Google Play marketplace, you’ll have the Linksys Velop up and running in a matter of minutes. It's certainly a worthy addition to our list of the best Wi-Fi extenders. Read the full review: Linksys Velop
If you need a great way to upgrade your network so you can have fantastic coverage anywhere in your house, a powerline adapter is a remarkable option. Not only do they offer the same functionality as the best Wi-Fi extenders, but the Trendnet Wi-Fi Everywhere Powerline might just be a dream come true. It’s not exactly visually pleasing, and the price tag may be a bit much. However, this unit more than makes up for those issues with sheer performance. And, unlike other powerline adapters, the Trendnet Wi-Fi Everywhere features a clone button that will clone the SSID and WPA key of your network so that it can double as a Wi-Fi extender. Read the full review: Trendnet Wi-Fi Everywhere powerline 1200 AV2
If you want a small, discrete, Wi-Fi extender that will reliably spread the coverage of your network throughout your home or office, then the Linksys RE7000 Max-Stream AC1900+ Wi-Fi Range Extender is a great choice. It's small enough that it won't block other power outlets (like some larger Wi-Fi extenders can do), and it offers pretty good performance for a nice low price. Best of all, it comes with a 'dead spot' finder that allows you to locate where your network strength is the weakest. By installing it there, you should see a nice boost to your Wi-Fi.
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