Thursday, January 3, 2019

Apple : Is this Xiaomi’s foldable tablet?

Apple : Is this Xiaomi’s foldable tablet?

Is this Xiaomi’s foldable tablet?

Posted: 03 Jan 2019 12:47 PM PST

Foldable devices are getting more and more buzz, and we might even see one this year. Notable tipster Evan Blass tweeted a video of what could be a Xiaomi tablet that folds into thirds, though he noted that he couldn’t verify its authenticity.


Though it’s unclear if this is actually a Xiaomi product, or even if it’s anywhere near market-ready, the tablet does seem to function and respond to touch gestures before folding up without seams. 

But is it a real product, or is it a “gadget porn deepfake” as Blass noted in his tweet? If it’s an actual device, it’s far ahead of what other manufacturers have been capable of in their revealed products.

The race to reveal foldables is on

While Samsung has been working to release a foldable device for years, it finally demonstrated the so-called Galaxy X on (a very shadowed) stage last fall. That phone’s ‘Infinity Flex’ display folds along a single crease, clamshell-style, with another screen on the front.

In contrast, the purported Xiaomi tablet bends in thirds down to a size comparable to a smartphone. Other manufacturers are trying different methods to achieve both form factors: the Royole FlexPai, which might be the first foldable device to market, folds in half (though the hinge is still large enough that it doesn’t fold flat). 

Other big phone manufacturers are racing to reveal their own foldable phones, especially after Google confirmed Android will support foldable phones. Oppo claims it will unveil its foldable device at Mobile World Congress in February, and while LG was supposed to show off its own device at CES 2019, that reveal might be delayed for awhile. 

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The best 4K TV deals in January 2019

Posted: 03 Jan 2019 11:00 AM PST

If you didn't score a new TV during the holidays, and you're still in the market for one, then you've come to the right place! January is one of the best months to find great deals on TVs, and Walmart and Amazon are currently offering big savings on some of their best-selling 4K sets.

We've scoured both sites to find the best TV deals from top brands including Samsung, Vizio, and Sharp.

The best deals we've spotted include the TLC 43-inch TV for $259.99, the Samsung 50-inch TV for $377.99 and the Vizio 70-inch TV for $798.

Walmart is offering the Sharp 55-inch 4K Smart TV for only $349.99, a brilliant price for a mid-size 4K TV. That's a $150 price drop, and the best price we've seen for this top-rated smart TV. 

Scroll down to shop more of our top 4K TV deals.

January 2019 4K TV deals: 

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Best smart bags: suitcases, luggage and rucksacks for the future of travel

Posted: 03 Jan 2019 10:03 AM PST

Let’s face it – the golden age of flight is over. Sure, we can get around the world with relative ease, with all but the most far-flung and remote locations accessible by air. 

But unless you’ve paid for the first class, premium experience you’re going to be about as comfortable as a cow in an overheating barn.

So it’s becoming ever-more important to be able to enjoy air travel with as little extra stress as is possible, able to bring your prized entertainment gadgets along for the ride and keeping them easily at hand and fully charged.

The answer to super-smooth travel? Smart luggage. Here’s what you need to know.

What is smart luggage?

So-called smart luggage includes cases and bags designed to keep your gadgets charged while you travel. 

At their most basic, they’ll include a rechargeable battery pack that can be used to power your devices on the go, and at their most advanced they may include a GPS luggage tracker, putting your mind at ease as to the location of your baggage as it travels alongside you. 

Some brands, such as Horizn Studios even include a personalised travel service, managing bookings and reservations on your behalf. 

While not strictly tech-infused, gadget-friendly backpacks and rucksacks can also be a lifesaver when travelling, with secret pockets for valuables and dedicated pouches putting gadgets easily within reach when you’re rushing through security.

Travel restrictions

However, the rise of smart luggage has not been a straightforward one. With airports on high alert due to never ending terrorism threats and passenger safety paramount, some earlier attempts at smart luggage have been banned on flights.

Remember the exploding Samsung Galaxy Note 7 debacle? Or flaming hoverboards? They’re to blame – with airlines unable to verify the safety of onboard batteries, luggage that contained lithium-ion batteries were banned from the hold – and in the case of some airlines, from being taken onboard as hand luggage too. 

Major airlines like American Airlines, Delta and Alaska Airlines have all put restrictions on smart luggage. But all is not lost, provided you know what you’re travelling with.

So what can, and can’t, you take on board? Essentially, if you buy a suitcase that has a removable battery pack onboard, you should be fine – they’re allowed in the cabin and, so long as you eject the battery before check in, they can be stored in the hold, too. 

However, some airlines are still a little touchy about cases with battery compartments built in, so just to be on the safe side, eject your battery pack before you go through security even if you’re taking it as carry on luggage.

What you definitely shouldn’t do is buy a case with a battery pack built in that can’t be removed. This is a sure-fire way to get you held up at the gate, where you and your belongings will be stranded unless you purchase a new, dumb case.

The best smart luggage: cases

If you’re after the best of the best smart luggage, the best we've tried so far would be the cases built by Away. It makes smart cases in a range of sizes, including two different carry-on capacities, and a kid friendly case too.

The Carry-On with Pocket is our pick of the bunch. Capacious with a 38L main compartment, and lightweight at 3.8kg when empty, it comes complete with an ejectable 10,000mAh battery tucked under the slide-out handle with two power-out ports for charging a pair of gadgets at once. 

Its polycarbonate shell is tough while still having enough give to overstuff the bag in a pinch, and 360-degree Hinomoto wheels let you glide around the airport concourse. 

A dedicated pocket at the front also lets you slip a laptop or tablet in and out in seconds to help a speedy sprint through security. 

An inner compression system maximises the amount of clothes you can fit inside, while a TSA-approved combination lock keeps your valuables safe while also letting authorities safely open your bag if required without resorting to tearing the the thing apart. 

Other brands to consider include Horizn Studios and  Incase

The best smart luggage: rucksacks

If you’re after a rucksack we’d suggest trying wares by ModernistLook and Horizn Studios. We've not tried these ourselves, but from our research these look by far the most sensibly-designed, with all the elements we're looking for.

The more tech-savvy of the two is the ModernistLook Smart Pro. Large enough to house a 15-inch laptop, it has an integrated USB port to which you can connect up any portable charging pack on the inside. 

Then, it’s just a matter of plugging your depleted device into the port on the outside of your device to charge while on the go. With a hidden rear pocket for valuables against your back and a luggage strap for hooking your bag onto your suitcase, it’s feature rich.

The Smart Pro isn’t the best looking bag we’ve seen. If you’re feeling fashion conscious, and don’t mind losing out on the USB port, check out the Horizn Studios Gion, which has a classier pod-like look, ample easy-access storage space and water resistance.

Lightspeed luggage – the cases of the future

The future of luggage? It's looking like it'll be hands-off, and ride-on. With GPS trackers mastered and onboard charging as standard, the future suitcase will look to do the really hard work for us – wandering aimlessly through cookie-cutter departure gates while dragging our stuff behind us.

Take for instance the forward-thinking Modobag, as seen in the video above. Not only is it a vessel for your vestments, it also doubles up as a 6mph motorised scooter, turning a trip to the airport lounge into a makeshift Mario Kart track. Though released in 2016, there's still little out there yet to match it.

Or how about Xiaomi's Puppy 1 Smart Suitcase? Remote control powered with a secure finger print lock, it'll follow its owner around, complete with a parking brake and bi-directional steering, with sensors allowing it to adjust to different inclines and adapt its center of gravity accordingly to avoid tipping over.

The Panasonic Personal Porter Robot (GIF courtesy of Gizmodo UK)

And what about if you want to be buddies with your luggage? The Panasonic Personal Porter Robot concept was shown off in late 2018, and features facial recognition tech which lets it lock its contents off to anyone but its owner, whom it'll follow around like a faithful dog. While it's intended more for a trip to the shops than an overseas jaunt, its mere existence makes it easier to imagine a future where we've all got our own personal luggage-bot to carry our belongings around for us. Let the AI worry about your passport and dirty laundry while you hope off the plane and find the nearest beach.

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The first Samsung Galaxy S10 photo leaks along with new wireless charging feature

Posted: 03 Jan 2019 09:56 AM PST

A new Galaxy S10 photo suggests that Samsung's flagship smartphone will sport a fresh all-screen design with a pinhole camera, according to a new leak today.

Samsung Galaxy S10 rumors have previously hinted at less bezel around the display by moving to a 'punch hole' cut-out in the screen to fit the front-facing camera.

But this is the first alleged live Galaxy S10 photo – not just a render – we've seen, and it comes from smartphone leaker Evan Blass. He drops the codename as 'Beyond 1'.

We could see further hints of the Galaxy S10 at CES 2019 next week (Samsung did tease the Galaxy S8 at CES 2017), but expect it to officially launch closer to MWC 2019 at the end of February.

Wireless charging of other devices?

The Galaxy S10 may have a new (well, new for Samsung) trick up its sleeve, according to a follow-up tweet by Blass:

"One cool feature I haven't heard mentioned previously is this model's ability to wirelessly charge other compatible devices like handsets and watches," he says.

The Huawei Mate 20 Pro that launched in October of last year is able to wireless charge other devices that support Qi charging. Samsung may be taking this 'reverse wireless charging' idea mainstream, which would be a first in some markets like the US where Huawei phones aren't sold.

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Samsung’s Space Monitor is perfect for minimalists

Posted: 03 Jan 2019 09:20 AM PST

Samsung has ‘unboxed’ a trio of monitors ahead of CES 2019, and while we’d normally gravitate to the screens featuring the highest resolutions and ridiculous screen sizes, we’re most interested in the company’s latest Space Monitor.

The new monitor seems an average 27-inch QHD monitor (also available in 32-inch 4K models) but it’s also bolted onto a fully-integrated monitor arm that clamps onto your desk. 

Unlike traditional monitor arms, though, this one is more like a flat post that folds down in sections to allow you to adjust the monitor’s height and tilt.

We briefly tested this ourselves, and while there are some articulation limitations with this type of arm, it’s a uniquely clean and minimalistic setup that should attract users looking for clean lines on their desk.

Samsung CRG9

Same big screen, more resolution

The second monitor that offers something new is the 49-inch CRG9, a follow-up to the brand’s previous ultra-wide CHG90 QLED Gaming Monitor, and one that now features an even sharper dual QHD resolution. 

Where the CHG90 ran with a 3,840 x 1,080 resolution, the CRG9 ups the ante to 5,120 x 1,440. This practically gives you the screen real estate of two QHD monitors fused together.

On top of the increase in resolution, this 32:9 ultra, ultra-wide monitor features a 120Hz refresh rate, 1,000 nit peak brightness, HDR10 support, FreeSync 2 HDR technology and 1,800 R curvature that feels as if it threatens to engulf you as you sit in front of it.

Samsung UR59C

Create content like a king

Lastly Samsung has introduced a 32-inch, curved 4K UR59C monitor designed for content creators. The 3,840 x 2,160 screen features a 2,500:1 contrast ratio, support for up to one billion colors and a more moderately-enveloping 1500R curvature.

According to Samsung the Space Monitor and the UR59C are available now for pre-order through Best Buy, Amazon and its own retail site. 

However, we’ve yet to see product pages go up for these displays. We’ll be sure to update this post with pricing as soon as they appear.

Samsung also hasn’t revealed pricing or a launch date for the 49-inch CRG9, but we can expect to hear more about it going into next week and CES 2019.

  • Looking for the latest and greatest displays? We've picked out the best monitors

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Vuzix Blade AR glasses cost as much as an iPhone XS

Posted: 03 Jan 2019 08:59 AM PST

Vuzix, the company that wowed CES last year with its Vuzix Blade augmented reality (AR) glasses, is finally selling a finished product just in time for CES 2019.

As promised, the Vuzix Blade pair of AR glasses are available directly from Vuzix for $999.99/€1,099 (about £793, AU$1,431). This is a mighty steep price for AR glasses with Amazon Alexa inside.

The cost includes immediate access to the Vuzix Blade Developer Center, which offers product documentation, support forums, sample code examples and downloads. With included software features like this, it’s clear that this first public run of Vuzix Blade is intended for developers and enterprise end users  – not regular consumers.

For a start, these glasses aren’t exactly fashionable, and we found that they weren't terribly comfortable during our hands-on test of them at CES 2018. However, there are prescription lens options for people who wear glasses already. Also, the centered orientation of the AR content displayed on the lenses suggests support for more focused use cases (i.e. work) than simply walking around town.

Still, if you’re super bullish on augmented reality and want to jump on on the next phase right now, here’s your chance. Expect to see your pair of Vuzix Blade glasses within four to six weeks of ordering. 

However, no matter how innovative these AR glasses may be, at that price point it might not make the kind of impact Vuzix is hoping for.

Via Tom’s Guide

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Fake apps and IoT attacks top 2019 threats

Posted: 03 Jan 2019 08:56 AM PST

Adversarial AI, increasingly sophisticated IoT attacks and an increase in fake apps are just some of the security trends that consumers need to be aware of in 2019 according to Avast's annual Threat Landscape Report.

The security firm reviews around one million new files daily and prevents two billion attacks each month which gives it the volume necessary to provide valuable insights on the latest threats as well as the ability to map growing trends and predict future attacks.

Adversarial AI

Last year a new class of attacks that leverage AI-generated content to evade AI security controls emerged. These 'DeepAttacks' were used by researchers to fool human users and one of the best examples of their potential misuse was the fake Obama video created by Buzzfeed where the former president convincingly delivered fake sentences.

Avast predicts that we will see even more DeepAttacks deployed in 2019 as hackers attempt to evade both human detection and smart defences.

Sophisticated IoT threats

The rapid growth of smart home devices has made it increasingly difficult to buy appliances or home electronics that are not connected to the internet.

Avast research has shown that smart device manufacturers often overlook the security of their products to keep costs low. However, since a smart home is only as secure as its weakest link, this could provide hackers with an easy way into consumer's home networks. We can expect to see IoT malware evolve to become more sophisticated and dangerous just as PC and mobile malware did before it.

Evolving mobile threats

In 2019, advertising, phishing and fake apps will continue to dominate the mobile threat landscape according to Avast.

Last year the company tracked and flagged countless fake apps using its apklab.io platform with some even appearing on the Google Play Store. Fake apps are difficult to counter from a security standpoint because as soon as one is flagged for removal, another one pops up to take its place.

This trend will likely continue as fake versions of popular apps find their way on to the Google Play Store.

Avast's President of Consumer, Ondrej Vlcek offered further insight on this year's threats, saying:

“This year, we celebrated the 30th anniversary of the World Wide Web. Fast forward thirty years and the threat landscape is exponentially more complex, and the available attack surface is growing faster than it has at any other point in the history of technology. PC viruses, while still a global threat, have been joined by a multitude of malware categories that deliver more attacks. People are acquiring more and varied types of connected devices, meaning every aspect of our lives could be compromised by an attack. Looking ahead to 2019, these trends point to a magnification of threats through these expanding threat surfaces.”

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The best January sales 2019: where to find the best deals today

Posted: 03 Jan 2019 08:42 AM PST

Happy New Year, reader and thanks for dropping by to check out our roundup of the very best deals in the January sales 2019. A few stores launched sales straight after Christmas, with not many holding back for the traditional January sales, so we've had plenty of time to dig through the best offers. But of course, we've added some brand new ones today too as we start our daily deals coverage with a bang in 2019.

After all, you're probably back at work soon, so don't be daft getting involved with those horrible queues at retail park car parks or looking for the non-event deals on the highstreet. Online's where the best bargains to be had - just like Black Friday. And we'll save you the time of trawling through loads of different online stores trying to spot the bargains. We've got our eye on prices all year round, so we know a good deal when we see one.

So sit back, scroll down a little and you'll see we've listed the best offers of the day so far. We'll update this page throughout the day and tomorrow too, as some of these deals may go on for a few days - although if you see something you like today, don't bank on it being around tomorrow, just to be safe.

January sales: quick links

The best January sales 2018

The best January sales picks so far

We've shown you where the best January sales are happening today. But we thought we'd also highlight some of favourite individual offers from the best sales we've seen, followed by deals in a range of specific categories. We'll be updating this page throughout the sales, so feel free to keep coming back to check out the freshest discounts.

Nintendo Switch January sales

PS4 January sales

Xbox One January sales

So who's having a January sale?

All the big stores get stuck in. With so many keen shoppers going online over the Christmas period in recent years, it's just too good a chance for them to finish 2018 off with some extra money in the bank and get 2019 off to a good start too. Let's take a look at the big hitters below and what you can nab from each.

When do the Boxing Day sales start?

Not a silly question at all. As we just said, a lot of stores are starting today and we expect even more will go live on Christmas Day - yes they're pretty keen. If just before Christmas is the time to scramble for last-minute gifts, anytime from the day itself onwards is the chance to treat yourself or use those gift vouchers to make a great deal a truly spectacular bargain.

When do the January sales start?

Expect an early start here too. Although if we're going off the last few years, the January sales haven't been particularly special. It's been all about the Boxing Day deals really, although we're pleased to report some of the better ones stayed online a good few days into January. January sales are more of a continuation of the remaining Boxing Day sales so you can probably expect to see many stores simply rebrand the sales to 'January sales' the day after Boxing Day on December 27th. 

Given many workplaces are off until around January 2nd, retailers are keen to show you the best deals as soon as possible while you've got time off at home rather than try to push deals on you while you're heading back to work or nursing that New Year's Eve hangover.

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The best Apple Watch apps we've used in 2019

Posted: 03 Jan 2019 08:34 AM PST

It’s been an interesting year for Apple Watch apps. In the spring it seemed as if the Watch had lost its sparkle, with many big-name apps either languishing or being pulled from the Watch altogether. The problem wasn’t that Apple Watch apps are a bad idea, though. 

Far from it, as our selection here demonstrates. It was that sometimes, apps were designed to answer the wrong question: “could we make a Watch app?” but not “should we?”

Now, the Apple Watch is onto its fourth generation, and the aptly-named Apple Watch 4 is proving pretty popular - so that's why you're probably here checking out the new apps. In fact, it's one of the best smartwatch options out there, and now we're at the fourth generation it's becoming a particularly accomplished smart option for your wrist.

Our favourite apps, the apps that are still here after a bumpy year, both should and could have been made. They exist because they’re useful, or because they’re entertaining, or because they make your life that little bit better. 

In this round-up you’ll find apps for podcasting and procrastinating, for getting fit and getting stuff done, for messing around and for sorting stuff out. 

Before you get into our list remember to head into the Apple Watch main app on your iPhone - that's where you'll see a list of the apps already installed on your phone that can also be transferred to your Watch. If you see any you like the look of here, you'll need to download them to your iPhone first.

And make sure to check this article weekly, as we'll add a new app each week, highlighted below.

Apple Watch app of the week: HomeRun for HomeKit

HomeRun doesn’t do much, but what it does do it does very well. It’s a companion for Apple’s HomeKit framework, which enables you to control various smart home devices, and it addresses one of the key problems with Apple’s own Home app: Home is a bit of a mess, cramming lots of stuff on screen and making what should be really quite simple rather confusing.

HomeRun takes a different approach. Its interface uses icons rather than text, so for example if you want to change a smart thermostat you could choose to have buttons showing a thermometer: a blue one for colder and an orange one for warmer. And it focuses solely on scenes, with up to 12 scene icons shown on your Watch at once. Effectively it’s a bunch of toggles: turn this on or off, turn that up or down, make that louder or quieter.

It’s simple to use and just as simple to configure, with the iPhone app making it easy to create the scenes you want on your wrist. You can also create Apple Watch complications, so for example you might put an on/off toggle in the corner of one of your Watch faces for quick control of something.

Best Apple Watch apps for fitness and running

There's no denying that the main thrust of the Apple Watch since the second model is for fitness: it's packing GPS, heart rate, water resistance and improved sensors to make the most of the fact people like to work out with this thing - it even connects to gym equipment.

This list of Apple Watch fitness, running, wellbeing and health apps are nearly all must-have - if you're going to do one thing with your new Watch, use it to become a healthier you in mind and body.

Strava

Strava is one of the most popular running and cycling apps around, but it’s always required you to have your phone or a non-Apple smartwatch to track your travels and record your vital statistics. Not anymore.

If you have an Apple Watch 2, the Strava Apple Watch app can use its GPS to record your run without requiring you to strap a phone to anything. The interface isn’t as pretty as the iPhone app’s interface, but when you’re running or cycling that doesn’t matter: the information you need is presented cleanly enough and the app is simple and straightforward to use.

The main app is free and offers essential features including distance, pace, speed, elevation and burned calories, and there’s a premium service for $5.99/£5.99/AU$9.99 per month or $59.99/£54.99/AU$89.99 per year that offers more detailed post-exercise analysis, live performance feedback and personalized coaching - although not through the Watch.

However, if you’re someone who uses the premium features like Beacon on the main app, you might not find Strava on the Apple Watch to your liking compared to using it on the phone.

Nike Run Club

The ongoing love-fest between Nike and Apple continues to bear fruit: the latest iteration of the Nike Run Club app introduces some welcome improvements. 

It now integrates with Siri Suggestions, which means the app can now suggest good times for a run based on your previous runs (the feature is off by default so it won’t nag you if you don’t want it to), and there are new Apple Watch complications including one for the Infograph face that shows how far you’ve run this month.

There’s hardly a shortage of running apps in the App Store but Nike’s budget is a bit higher than most, so the app feels a lot more premium than many others. It tracks and stores all your runs thanks to your Watch’s built-in GPS, enables you to listen to audio guides as you run, offers a range of challenges to keep you motivated and has good social sharing features, so you can turn your friends into cheerleaders. 

It’s very well designed and the Watch app doesn’t sacrifice substance for style: while visually it’s very attractive it also shows all the information you actually need as you’re pounding the pavements. It’s a really good running app.

ECG

  • Pre-installed
  • Free

Apple’s much-heralded ECG app has finally arrived. It’s available for free to Apple Watch users and should automatically appear in your list of available apps as part of the watchOS 5.1.2 update, but you’ll only get it in a select few territories: the US, the US Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico and Guam.

If you really, really want the app and you don’t live in any of those places you can get around it by changing the system region to one of the countries where it is available, although of course that will affect the other apps on your Watch too. For users in the UK it may be the only way to get the ECG app for the foreseeable future.

The app itself is simple and potentially life-saving. You simply put a finger on the Digital Crown, wait 30 seconds and the app analyzes the electrical impulses in your body; this enable it to detect some cases of atrial fibrillation. The emphasis here is on ‘some’: the app can generate false positive results, and it’s no substitute for a real doctor. However, by detecting issues that may otherwise go unnoticed it’s a useful thing for your Apple Watch to offer.

Cardiogram

We’ve written about Cardiogram before: it’s a very valuable health tracker that enables you to see how your heart is working over time, and which enables you to look for spikes related to what you eat, how you exercise and whether you’re particularly stressed at work. All you need to do is wear your Apple Watch, which checks your heart rate every five minutes. Cardiogram then crunches that data to give you an insight into what your body’s doing.

What’s interesting about Cardiogram now isn’t the app itself, but the partnerships that are starting to emerge.

In the US, Amica Life and Greenhouse Health Insurance are offering life insurance for Cardiogram users with any version of the Apple Watch: simply use the Cardiogram app and you can be eligible for up to $1,000 (around £775/AU$1,400) in accidental death cover for 12 months, with the option to purchase up to $50,000 (roughly £39,000/AU$70,000) more from within the app. $1,000 isn’t a lot in the great scheme of things, especially in America, but it’s a lot for free.

You don’t have to share data either, the insurers bet that people who use Cardiogram are more likely to take steps to improve their health than people who don’t.

As with most health things, such partnerships are subject to regulatory approval, and the Cardiogram partnership is currently available in Wisconsin, Arizona, Indiana and Georgia. Expect more states and more partnerships soon.

MySwimPro

This is a tale of two apps, depending on which version of Apple Watch you have. If yours is a first-generation model then it’s a useful but limited way to track your swimming stats: the first-gen watch shouldn’t be submerged, so you shouldn’t wear it while swimming.

However, if you have a second-generation Apple Watch (Apple calls it the Apple Watch Series 2) then you can take it into the pool - and that makes MySwimPro a much more useful application. You can log your workouts while you’re still in the water, and you can also follow the app’s workouts to set goals and monitor your heart rate during your swim.

Once you’ve dried off you can pick up the iPhone or iPad app, which syncs data from your Watch and enables you to see your progress in much more detail: miles swum, hours spent swimming, top times for specific distances and so on.

You can share your triumphs online, or you can just watch videos showing how other swimmers do particular types of workout. It’s probably overkill if you only do the odd couple of laps at the gym swimming pool, but if you’re serious about swimming it's worth wearing on your wrist.

Nike Training Club

Nike and Apple are best friends forever, so it’s not a huge surprise to see Nike unveil another Watch app. This one’s really good, too. Describing itself as “your ultimate personal trainer”, Nike Training Club has more than 180 workouts covering strength, endurance, mobility and yoga, and they’re all free. There are daily personalized picks based on your previous activity, flexible training plans to help you achieve your fitness goals, and tips from top trainers.

The app splits jobs between phone and Watch. The former is where you do the planning and tracking; the latter is what you wear while you’re actually working out. By necessity as well as design that means focusing only on the information you really need right now, such as your heart rate and how many reps you still have to do before you can undo all your efforts with some cake and beer.

The app is by no means unique in its combination of Watch and workout tracking, although it does have Nike’s immediately recognizable and individual visual style. But what’s significant about this app is that none of its many workouts are hidden behind in-app purchases or pricey subscriptions. Everything in the app is free.

Gymaholic

The main selling point of Gymaholic isn’t in its Watch app: it’s an augmented reality avatar of you, and its muscles glow to show you what muscles you’ve worked and what ones you need to work a little more.

It also boasts a virtual trainer to show you how you’re supposed to do each exercise without landing yourself in the ER. It has the usual progress tracking and stats, although the presence of your 3D avatar does make it feel rather like the character creator in an online RPG.

You get 3D models in the Watch app, but they’re so small they’re just getting in the way. The rest of the app is pretty straightforward fitness fare, showing you the different exercises in your workout, tracking the reps and telling you whether your heart is about to explode. It also provides written instructions on how to carry out specific exercises, so for example it describes how to lift weights when you’re doing an incline dumbbell press.

It’s worth noting that there are some in-app purchases, but they aren’t expensive and you don’t need a pricey membership to use the app. Plus, many of the available programmes, such as the 4-day programme and chest-focused programme, are completely free.

Round Health

The longer we’ve had our Apple Watches, the more we’ve come to appreciate simplicity: while the App Store is full of apps that offer all kinds of features, the ones we actually use every day tend to do one thing very well. Round Health is that kind of app: it’s designed to make sure you take your medicine, and it does so with the minimum of fuss. You can also have it as a complication, so you know exactly what you need to take next.

Whether it’s vitamins or medication, most of us have had that “did I take it today?” thing. That’s no big deal if you’re just topping up your vitamin D in winter, but for people taking birth control or who have serious and/or chronic conditions it’s often very important to take certain medicine at certain times.

With Round Health you can set simple but persistent reminders that make sure you take what you need to take, and it supports more complex medical regimes involving multiple medications and schedules as well as tracking when you need to renew your prescription.

The term ‘life-changing’ is bandied around a lot to describe rather ordinary apps, but Round Health is a great way of helping you stay on top of your health.

Lifesum

Like many health-related apps, Lifesum really wants you to take out a subscription: that’s $44.99/£34.99/AU$69.99 per year, though it sometimes runs a 30% off promotion. The core app is free, though. Its goal is to help you think about what you eat and what activity you do and to make positive changes to make yourself healthier.

On the iPhone, Lifesum enables you to count calories and track your meals, discover healthy recipes and track your progress towards your goals. It works with other apps too, so for example if you’ve got a Fitbit or use Runkeeper it can get data from them.

On the Watch it’s a much simpler affair, urging you to stay hydrated, showing your progress towards your resting, moving and stretching goals and doing everything through a kind of little Tamagotchi character.

It pulls data from the Apple Health app as well as the Lifesum app to ensure you get the widest possible picture of your intake and activity, and you can add data as well as view it: for example, you can take a note of what you’re eating via the Watch app and then enter more details on the iPhone later. Unusually there isn’t a Watch complication, but the app does tie in with the Watch’s notification system to keep you updated.

Headspace

If you’ve ever felt that life is just that bit too busy or stressful, Headspace could help. It’s based around mindfulness, which is all about getting you to feel calmer without too much effort. In fact, it’s the opposite of effort: mindfulness is about taking a break from the rush.

The Apple Watch app is part of a wider offering for iPhone and iPad: it acts as a reminder and a coach, urging you to pick an exercise and focus on it for the allotted time. It also has an SOS mode for when things feel too much and you need help instantly. But it’s the main app that does most of the work, with daily mindfulness exercises and sessions designed to help with everything from workplace stress to sleep problems.

It’s very well done but one thing that might raise your stress levels is the cost: while the app is free to try it really needs a subscription to unlock its most useful features, and that subscription is $12.99/£9.99/AU$19.99 per month or $94.99/£74.99/AU$149.99 per year. That’s an auto-renewing subscription too, so you need to disable that in iTunes if you don’t want it to recur automatically.

WebMD

Medical apps don’t just exist to persuade you that your mild headache is terminal brain cancer. They can help keep you healthy too. While WebMD does indeed let you compare your symptoms with various illnesses and conditions to scare yourself silly, that’s not the most interesting thing about it or its Watch companion app.

WebMD enables you to detail your medication schedules, with dosage information and the option to be reminded of what you need to take and when you need to take it. This can be in the form of a notification, or you can have it as a Watch face Complication so it’s right there in the middle of the display.

It can also remind you of any prerequisites, such as whether you need to take your medicine with food or on an empty stomach. It’s the sort of simple but very useful thing the Apple Watch does well.

Over on the main iPhone app there’s plenty more to discover. You can read up on the side effects and precautions of specific pills or patches, find out if you need to go hiding from the flu or just catch up on the latest health and wellbeing news from various credible sources.

HeartWatch

How’s your heart? If you don’t know the answer, this app can shed some light. It might even save your life, as it did for James Green: the app alerted him about an unusual spike in his heart rate, and it turned out to be a pulmonary embolism. If it weren’t for the alert, Green might well have died.

You don’t really need more of a sales pitch to justify spending three dollars on staying alive, but HeartWatch isn’t a one-trick app. It pulls information from the Watch’s heart rate sensor to track what it’s doing when you wake, when you sleep, when you work out and when you just go about your day.

The reason for the different types of activity is simple: you don’t want your app warning you about elevated heart rate if you’re doing something designed to elevate your heart rate, an issue that used to drive us daft when exercising with our Apple Watch set to the defaults.

It won’t work without the Health app installed - that’s the route by which it gets its data - but you can also import data from other health apps if you use other kinds of connected health monitors.

One Drop Diabetes Management

We’re increasingly intrigued about HealthKit, Apple’s framework for health monitoring apps: we’ve already seen apps that can warn of rare but potentially lethal heart conditions, and now we’re seeing a whole host of specialist apps that can integrate with specific monitoring hardware to help with particular conditions. As the name suggests, this one’s for people with diabetes.

One Drop makes Chrome, a Bluetooth blood glucose meter that’s sold as a package with testing strips. If you have the meter the app gets information from each test, but if you don’t it’s still a useful app to help monitor your diabetes.

The app enables you to log your activity, your food intake and your medication and to share that information with HealthKit and the Health app (if that’s what you want to do). As ever the main iPhone app is where all the detail is, with the Watch app taking care of quick data recording and progress notifications.

The iPhone app builds on the basics with a database of foods’ nutritional information, historical data, insulin pump data and the ability to schedule reminders for your medication.

WorkOutDoors

If your idea of good exercise involves going far from the madding crowds, you’ll like WorkOutDoors. It’s a workout app that’s based around vector maps that you can easily rotate and zoom, tracking your location and your progress.

It uses the Watch’s GPS (if you have a GPS-enabled Watch) so there’s no need to take your phone on a hike, cycle or snowboard run, and features such as breadcrumb tracking, custom points of interest and customizable stats displays enable you to make the app truly your own.

In a nice touch you can export your workouts from the iPhone app in GPX format, which can be imported into many other workout apps and sites.

It’s very, very well thought out. For example, something as simple as the stats display is available in a variety of sizes to suit different kinds of activity (not to mention different levels of eyesight).

It makes good use of color-coding to make routes crystal clear, waypoints can provide extra information such as directions, and the map automatically rotates as you move so you’re always sure of the right direction. It’s a brilliant app for pretty much any outdoor activity.

Streaks

The trick to living better isn’t to damn near kill yourself on a treadmill and then give up after a few weeks. It’s to make smaller, lasting changes to your life, changes that you can and will actually stick to. And that’s what Streaks offers.

Whether you’re trying to eat more healthily, exercise more or break a smoking habit, Streaks enables you to track positive and negative habits. It offers a range of reporting tools so you can see exactly how well you’re doing, and you can track up to 12 different tasks at once.

They needn’t be exercise or eating tasks: you can remind yourself to walk the dog, study, take vitamins or practice a musical instrument. It’s good to see wheelchair users included in the default tasks list too.

Where Streaks really shines is in its integration with the Health app, which enables it to pull data to use for monitoring suitable targets you’ve set. That reduces a lot of the form-filling of similar apps, and it’s particularly effective if you’re trying to work on good healthy habits or eliminate unhealthy ones, or both.

There’s a Complication too, so that you don’t forget your goals, and the whole thing is customizable so that you can get it just-so.

Elevate Dash - Brain Training and Games

We’re not convinced by the supposed science of brain training - it’s a sector that makes bold claims based on very flimsy evidence - but there’s no doubt that spending time learning or practicing useful things is better for you than mindlessly swiping through trivia on Twitter.

Elevate claims that its brain training app will “improve critical cognitive skills that are proven to boost productivity, earning power, and self-confidence”, and it does so by setting little tasks for you: choosing the correct meaning of words, calculating percentages and so on.

Correct answers earn points, and you can track your progress on the main iPhone/iPad app as well as on your Watch. The Watch’s small screen means the games you get are very simple ones, but that works well when you’re on the move.

The app is free and lets you play 4 mini-games. If you want to access the full selection of 40+ Elevate games you’ll need your iPhone or iPad and a subscription to the premium membership package, which is $4.99/£3.99/AU$7.99 per month or $44.99/£34.99/AU$69.99 per year.

If you could do with a boost to specific skills - working out restaurant tips, perhaps, or improving your vocabulary - then you might feel that’s well worth the money.

Peak - Brain Training

From a team of developers, psychologists and neuroscientists, Peak is a great app for keeping your brain active. The Watch version offers three games, ideal for the smaller screen. Some of these seem simple at first, but they quickly become more challenging.

There are workouts to test memory, focus and problem solving – all of them fun, engaging, and the ideal to while away the daily commute. 

Runtastic Six Pack Abs Workout

If you've been meaning to get that six-pack tummy but just don't have time to go to the gym, this iPhone app has high-quality videos of avatars performing crunches, situps, stretches and core twists that you can do in your own time on your bedroom floor, say.

Initial workouts with Runtastic are free, more come as in-app purchases. And if squinting at your precariously perched iPhone isn't doing it for you, the Watch app means you can see an animation on your watch, with vibrations on your wrist to start and end a set. It's easy to use and works well. Now you'll have to find another excuse not to work out.

MyFitnessPal

Information is power and if you're trying to lose weight, calorie tracking is a good way to stay focused. MyFitnessPal works out a daily calorie allowance based on how much weight you want to shed. Eat a meal and your allowance is spent, take exercise and you earn credit.

The Watch gives you a running total of remaining calories and how that breaks down into protein, carbohydrates and more. It can integrate with your steps total so you don't have to add those manually. It's simple but convenient and helpful.

Walkmeter GPS Pedometer

If walking's your thing, Walkmeter helps track your every step, showing your perambulations on a map and generating detailed graphs. The Watch app has clear data reporting and you can start and stop a walk from your wrist using the Watch's Force Touch actions.

Apple's own Workout app does a lot, but this app has more detail and the mapping detail on the iPhone is great. The app is free but for full Watch performance you need to upgrade to the Elite version for $9.99/£9.99/AU$14.99. There's a lot here, including training plans and announcements as you hit targets or distances.

CARROT Fit

You may know CARROT from its weather app, which combines Dark Sky-style weather forecasting with sarcasm and lies. But CARROT wants to make you unhappy in many other ways - and what’s better for a sadistic AI than being in control of a fitness app?

Enter CARROT Fit, which takes a somewhat unusual approach to motivating you to get healthier and lose weight.

CARROT promises to “get you fit - or else”. To achieve that it offers a dozen punishing exercises (more are available via in-app purchases) accompanied by threats, ridicule, bribes and the occasional compliment.

It’s rude, crude and much more entertaining than trying to complete the rings on Apple’s own activity tracker, and we’re pretty sure it’s the only fitness app that rewards progress with cat facts. But there’s a proper fitness tracker in here too: it’ll track your steps and weight loss, remember your workouts and add data to Apple’s health app.

Most of the personality is in the main iPhone app, but the Watch alerts include such cheery prospects as “seven minutes in hell”. If you find getting fit or losing weight a little bit tedious, CARROT might be the, ahem, carrot that you need to get motivated.

Lose It!

If your Watch strap is feeling a little more snug than it used to, this app may be the answer: it’s designed to help you achieve your weight loss goals “without the unsustainable gimmicks, fad diets, restrictive foods, on-site meetings, or large price tags of other weight-loss companies.”

It tracks the calories you’ve consumed and the goals you’ve set, focuses on nutrition as well as overall calorie intake, works happily with other fitness apps and trackers and provides an online peer group where everybody encourages each other to achieve their ideal weight.

It also enables you to set exercise goals and focus on general wellness, so it’s not just about losing weight.

The Apple Watch app doesn’t replace the phone app completely - for example, you’ll need your phone handy if you want to use the barcode scanner to automatically record what you’re eating, and the team-based features such as group challenges are phone-based - but it’s a great way to focus on your goals, monitor your progress and keep your motivation no matter how sorely tempted you may be.

The program is $39.99/£29.99/AU$62.99 per year but you can explore the app for free without signing up.

Mount Burnmore

Fitness fanatics look away now: for those that find exercise really boring, and their get up and go often gets up and goes while they stay sedentary. Mount Burnmore could be the answer to that lethargy: it turns fitness into a game.

The concept is quite clever. Mount Burnmore depends on “active energy”, which it pulls from the Health app: the more calories you’ve burned, the more active energy you have in the game.

When you have sufficient energy you can attempt to solve the game’s puzzles, which involve finding routes around the titular mountain, collecting in-game items and smashing things with a pickaxe.

There’s a Complication that enables you to see your progress without launching the full game, and the app makes good use of the Digital Crown to help you navigate around larger levels later in the game. There are also leaderboards to compare with other players and in-game challenges to win freebies.

It’s bright, breezy and a bit brash, and we suspect it’s best suited to older children rather than grown-ups - although if you do give this one to the kids you might want to disable in-app purchases, as they can be used to buy in-game items.

Happier

Mindfulness, the art of focusing on being present and aware in the world instead of being constantly distracted by things and thoughts that don’t matter, isn’t something you’d associate with the Apple Watch. If you aren’t careful with your notification settings your Watch pings away merrily all day, interrupting countless trains of thought.

But the Happier app hopes to use the Watch to make you feel better, not more harassed.

The app itself is free, but it’s designed as a gateway to paid-for mindfulness courses. If you don’t go for them you can still take advantage of the app, though. You can tell the app how you’re feeling - we suspect “meh” is the most-used option - and it then responds with uplifting quotes to help you feel a bit more optimistic.

It can pop up to remind you to take a meditation break, and you can dictate a positive thought to a private journal or to the Happier community. That’s not as daft as it sounds: there’s some evidence that keeping a journal of positive things can boost your mood over time.

Just be careful what and how you share: one iTunes reviewer says that they were able to locate their private journal with Google.

Best Apple Watch apps for sleep tracking

It's worth noting that there aren't a lot of apps for sleep tracking, as the Apple Watch can't really last overnight on battery.

That said, there are some clever apps to do it, and many people are now on their sequel Apple Watch and can even have one for the day and one for the night - so sleep tracking with your 'Night Watch' is possible.

Sleep Cycle Alarm Clock

The App Store isn’t exactly short of sleep tracking apps, but Sleep Cycle offers more than just tracking. It can wake you up at the right point in your sleep cycle so that you jump out of bed like an excited puppy instead of rolling out of it with a woozy head.

That doesn’t mean it’ll start bleeping four hours before you need to get up, though. You set the 30-minute window in which you need to be woken and Sleep Cycle will find the optimum point during that window.

Unusually for a sleep tracker, Sleep Cycle doesn’t expect you to wear your Apple Watch to bed. Instead, it listens to you and detects vibrations from you, and that means it can detect and yell at you if you start snoring.

It’s just like having a partner, except you don’t have to put your partner on a wireless charging mat every night. And because it’s designed to be used by humans, of course there’s a snooze option: if Sleep Cycle wants to wake you and you really don’t want to get out of bed, you can shake or double-tap your phone.

The main app is free but if you want to take advantage of heart rate monitoring, reporting and goodies such as Hue smart lighting integration there’s a subscription service for $29.99/£24.99/AU$39.99 per year.

Sleep Watch

The massively improved battery life of the current generation Apple Watch makes it much better for sleep tracking: you can now wear your Watch in bed, pop it off while you get ready for work or school and leave home with a full charge for getting on with your day.

And that means there’s been an influx of new sleep apps, many of which take the basic idea of sleep monitoring and add additional reporting and insight.

When you use Sleep Watch you’ll get used to the daily question, how well rested do you feel? The app tracks that as well as your heart rate and the quality of your sleep to give an indication of how good or otherwise your sleep has been.

It offers daily sleep briefings (we’d love an abusive CARROT-style AI for the days when the report clearly says we’re knackered) and trend analysis, and it highlights whether your heart rate is dropping normally during rest - a potential warning sign if it isn’t.

It’d be good if we could also add blame, such as a heavy night out causing us to get up all through the night, but maybe that’ll be in a future version.

Best Apple Watch apps for music, podcasts and audiobooks

Spotify Music

At last! Spotify finally makes its way to the Apple Watch with an app that does everything you might expect it to do. It plays music! It pauses music! It connects to other devices via the magic of Spotify Connect! It gives you playlists! It has a shuffle button!

The one thing it doesn’t do, though, is stream: the music you hear via your Watch is coming from your iPhone, not directly to the Apple Watch. We’d expect that to change in future versions of the app. It hasn’t been optimized for the larger display of the Apple Watch 4 either, so it looks a bit odd on the most recent models.

We’re big fans of and subscribers to Spotify: its catalog is enormous and it’s enormously sociable too, with apps for every conceivable platform. Being able to pay once for an ad-free subscription that works on your phone, tablet, Watch, TV, console and in the car is a fantastic thing.

While the ad-funded version isn’t too annoying we think the higher quality and convenient offline listening features (already available on iPhone but coming soon to the Watch app too) of the paid-for Premium version are well worth the money.

djay 2

We’re big fans of Algoriddim’s clever DJ app, and it’s a particularly fun thing to have on your iPhone: its clever algorithms and straightforward interface make it easy to mix like the pros, its Spotify Premium integration means your DJ box is almost infinite and its Automix feature does a really good job of working out the best places to transition and the right fades and effects to apply.

But sometimes you want to take part without necessarily firing up the full djay app on your phone, for example if you’re in party mode and want to quickly change tracks or just show off a bit.

Enter the Apple Watch app, which enables you to DJ in much the same way as you would if you were a giant in a world of really tiny people: don’t expect to do much scratching, but you can fade from one track to another, pause and sync, add special effects or turn Automix on and off. It’s effectively Apple Music’s watch integration brought to the world of DJing, and that means it’s an absolute hoot.

The watch integration is little more than a remote control, but that’s okay: the main app is really clever and enormous fun.

Overcast

If you love to listen to podcasts and you don’t already have Overcast, you’re in for a nice surprise: it’s a superb app, and its Watch integration is particularly well thought out.

In addition to the usual controls and lists of shows and episodes, it gives you quick access to two really useful features: Smart Speed, which can make the podcast play more quickly without turning into Alvin and the Chipmunks; and Voice Boost, which can make indistinct speech noticeably clearer and compensate for podcasters who can’t pick a single spot in front of the mic.

If you’ve ever strained to hear something only for the host to move closer to the mic and nearly blow your eardrums out, you should be rushing to the App Store already

Overcast is free, or $9.99/£8.99/AU$12.99 without the ads. We’d recommend going for the ad-free version, because while the advertising isn’t too invasive this is an app that’s been put together by people who really care about the end user experience, and paying for the full app is a great way to ensure that they’ll keep on caring. 

Castro Podcasts

The Castro podcast app has been around for a while and has developed a loyal fanbase, and it’s just been given a major overhaul as well as an Apple Watch companion app.

On your wrist it’s really very simple: it enables you to move around the audio, change the volume or move between episodes.

On the iPhone the main app has been completely rebuilt with a brand-new playback engine to significantly boost speed and responsiveness, and the player screen now incorporates AirPlay controls for easier streaming to compatible hardware.

It’s a very good app, and there are extra features if you go for the optional Castro Plus subscription, including getting rid of silent sections, mixing stereo down to mono, episode limits to prevent your device from downloading entire volumes of podcasts, and automatic start positions to skip past standard intros and other pre-content content.

You can set these preferences on a per-podcast basis, which is a really useful option for power podcast users. You can try Castro Plus for a week before deciding whether to get it, and it’s available as a quarterly or yearly sub.

Audible

You may know Audible already: it’s the Amazon-owned audiobook service that enables you to devour books on the move, in bed or anywhere else you can get comfortable. The catalog is vast, books are often narrated by very big names and the overall quality is very high. And now, you can use it without taking your phone with you thanks to its Apple Watch app.

The app is compatible with every Apple Watch made so far and enables you to transfer audiobooks to your Watch, provided of course that you have enough available storage.

It’s important to note that Audible doesn’t stream to your watch: you need to sync your audiobook(s) from your iPhone, which can take a while over the Watch’s desperately slow connection. But once the book has been transferred you can play, pause, fast forward and rewind. You could listen via the Watch’s speaker but we wouldn’t recommend it; Audible is best experienced on a decent pair of wireless headphones.

We think the Audible Watch app is best suited to environments where you don’t want to have your phone: the gym is the one that springs immediately to mind: we can’t be the only people who’d rather listen to a book than pumping techno on a treadmill.

Musixmatch Lyrics Finder

Here’s a fun thing you can bring to your Apple Watch: real-time lyrics for whatever song you’re currently listening to. Musixmatch claims to be the world’s largest lyrics catalog, and in addition to the original lyrics it can deliver translations for those songs performed in languages other than English.

The Watch app feels rather like Shazam, with a pulsing “listening” icon as it attempts to find the right lyric for songs your microphone can hear, and it works with both Apple Music and Spotify. The latest update brought Siri Shortcuts support, so you can ask Siri to identify the song that’s playing on the radio.

The main app is free, but if you want some of its more advanced features you’ll need to shell out $3.99/£3.49/AU$5.99 a month. That removes the ads, enables offline mode for songs already recognized and offers a party mode with karaoke-style word-by-word displays.

We’re not sure the premium features are compelling enough to make us want to take out a subscription, but if they appeal to you then the price is the equivalent of a monthly cup of coffee so it’s hardly breaking the bank.

Best Apple Watch apps for photo and video

GoPro

  • GoPro
  • Free + in-app purchases

The GoPro app used to be called Capture, but its new name suits it better: after all, what else would you call the companion app for GoPro cameras? Like most camera apps for the Apple Watch, the bits you can do on your wrist are fairly limited. It’s really just a viewfinder and remote control, which is perfectly useful if hardly revolutionary.

The main iPhone app is more ambitious. It features Quikstories, which automatically turns your GoPro footage into a finished video complete with effects and background music. You can view the images and video you’ve captured on your camera, trim videos down and share to social media or via text or email.

One nice feature is the ability to overlay data such as GPS paths and locations on top of your footage. You can even detail the G-force you felt when you were doing whatever extreme thing you’ve been recording. There’s also video stabilization for Fusion cameras and the ability to turn 360-degree photos into videos.

It’s pretty good, but make sure your camera is compatible. The app is currently limited to Fusion, HERO6, HERO5, HERO4, HERO Session, HERO+ LCD and HERO+ cameras.

Camera Plus

While using Apple’s Watch as a remote control or viewfinder can be handy - we can’t be the only ones who use it to see what’s on top of cupboards or to read the meters when there’s loads of stuff between them and us - the app has always felt as if it could do more. That’s where Camera Plus comes in.

As an iPhone/iPad app it’s an interesting and fun alternative to the iOS 11 default, with a useful feature that enables you to control the camera on one iOS device with the Camera Plus app on another. It adds an extra function to the Watch too.

The Apple Watch bit is obviously a lot less ambitious, but it’s still useful. As with the Apple app, you can remote control the iPhone or iPad camera, turn the flash on or off, use a countdown timer and switch between the front and rear cameras. But where the Apple app offers the ability to turn Live Photos on or off, Camera Plus gives you the option to switch between photo and video.

The main iOS app is clearly the driver here, with some fun and useful features including flexible flash levels for better exposure and the aforementioned iOS-to-iOS remote control. But the Watch app is a handy, or perhaps wristy, companion.

Halide Camera

The Apple Watch version of Halide is very much the same as the Apple Watch version of Apple’s own Camera app: it’s a viewfinder with a shutter button and a timer that you can use to remotely trigger the iPhone camera. Remote triggering isn’t just a gimmick: it’s useful for taking long exposure shots or just enabling you to be in your own snaps.

The main app has been given a significant upgrade for the latest generation of Apple cameras, and it’s particularly good on the iPhone X where it can take full advantage of the TrueDepth cameras front and rear.

In a nice touch you can export photos’ depth maps as standalone PNGs, which opens up some interesting creative possibilities. The developers have clearly had a lot of fun with the dual sensors, because you can review depth captures and virtually move around the scene in augmented reality. It makes photos feel more like video game locations and it’s a lot of fun.

Halide’s developers have a pedigree: Ben Sandofsky was the iOS tech lead for Twitter, and Sebastiaan de With was a designer at Apple. That might explain why Halide feels so much more organic than some other camera apps, and why it’s such a pleasure to use.

VLC Remote

As you’ve probably guessed, this app is a remote control for VLC. If you’re not familiar with those initials they belong to one of our very favorite apps, the VLC media player.

It’s a kind of Swiss Army Knife for playing or streaming music and video, and it’s available on iOS and on desktop computers too. We love it for many reasons: it’s fast, it’s free and it can read media formats most of us forgot ever existed.

The remote app solves a simple problem with computer media playback: if you’re on the sofa you probably aren’t anywhere near the computer that’s got all your media files on it.

It works with VLC on Mac, Linux or Windows, automatically finds any running copy of VLC on your local network and enables you to control the on-screen action with your phone.

The Watch app reduces that to bare bones: it gives you volume and transport controls, shows cover art and offers additional options - repeat, shuffle, audio on/off and subtitles on/off - via Force Touch.

If you’ve made VLC the heart of your home entertainment, this app should save you from wearing a path in the carpet between computer and couch.

HomeCam for HomeKit

You can probably guess what this one does from the title: it’s an app for cameras that use Apple’s HomeKit. The app is a remote viewer that enables you to check multiple cameras simultaneously, and if your hardware supports features such as temperature and air quality monitoring you can then take action by invoking other HomeKit devices such as connected air conditioners or heating.

It can also combine data from multiple devices together, so for example you could overlay temperature data over a live camera feed, and it’s fully compatible with the new Siri Shortcuts feature in iOS 12, which enables you to create automated actions. You can also use it to control HomeKit features such as the lighting in a room, and you can add a Today widget for even faster access from your lock screen.

The main action happens in the iPhone and iPad app, largely because of screen real estate: the Watch has many good features, but a giant screen isn’t one of them. That means the Watch app shows a single-camera view. 

It can use your Watch’s microphone and speaker as an intercom (again, if your camera hardware supports audio), but it’s best suited for quick camera checking when your iPhone isn’t handy.

FiLMiC Pro

  • FiLMiC Pro
  • $14.99/£14.99/AU$22.99 plus in-app purchases

Here’s an odd one: FiLMiC Pro has a distinctly average App Store rating of 2.3 out of 5 at time of writing, and yet the developers’ shelves are groaning under the weight of the app’s many awards from reputable websites and publications who say that for video, it’s the best thing since bread came sliced. What’s going on?

The short answer is that when you have hardly any reviews, one or two disgruntled users can send your rating down the drain. That’s clearly what’s happening here.

Negatives first. FiLMiC Pro costs more money than many apps, and it can kill your phone battery in prolonged use. But it’s an incredibly powerful iOS camera app used by film-makers, journalists and hobbyists alike. Pair it with a decent editor and your iPhone is a pro-level film studio.

The Watch app is really just a remote for the main event. You can record, pause and resume your recording and see what the phone camera’s pointing at, and you can play back what you’ve just recorded. It’s not really different from Apple’s own camera Watch app. 

But the app it connects to is a powerhouse: people complaining about the price tag should really be marveling that it’s possible to get something so good for so little money.

Best Apple Watch apps for notes, passwords and making life easier

Fantastical 2

Getting Fantastical 2 up and running on your watch can be time consuming, but it’s worth it: one of the very best iPhone calendar apps around develops even more powers when you add its app to your watch.

You can also add it as a complication, which means you’ll see details of your schedule right there in the watch face.

To actually make it work you’ll need to install Fantastical to your watch and then open the iPhone app, not the Apple Watch one. This is where you specify what information should be sent to the watch, and the options are extensive.

You can choose from events, calendars, reminders and lists, include a map of the event location, show end times and specify how reminders should appear, and you can even specify what should happen if you tap on the Fantastical 2 complication on your watch face.

It’s that kind of thought and attention to detail that makes us love the app so much.

The best thing about Fantastical 2, though, is that it understands you. Force Touch the app, tap on Add Event and Siri starts listening.

It knows what you mean by “lunch with Dave”, automatically putting the appointment at 12 noon, and it knows that if you say “to-do get dinner on the way home” you’re adding an item to a to-do list. Siri’s voice recognition performs brilliantly when it’s limited to such a specific set of instructions.

SimpleCommands

This is an intriguing one. SimpleCommands enables you to connect your Apple Watch to various other devices – LIFX lights, TP-link switches, Wink doors, Nest thermometers, Netatmo home automation and so on – and soon, services such as Spotify, Lyft, IFTTT, Todoist and Twitter.

Once you’ve established a connection, you can then control that connection via your iPhone or Watch (you need to set them up in the iPhone app first). Your Watch then becomes what the developer calls a listener.

All you then need to do to make something happen is tell the listener what to do. The main benefit is that to paraphrase Radiohead, everything’s in its right place: whether it’s your aircon or your lighting system, it’s all done from a single app on your wrist.

Brilliant, right? Well, potentially. The list of coming soon connections is longer than the list of currently supported ones, and early adopters say it’s a bit flaky: we’re still in version one-point-something territory, so you should expect bugs.

But if you’re fed up having to use different apps to control every different digital thing in your life, this could be the thing to make your digital life much more comfortable.

IFTTT

If This Then That, IFTTT for short, may be one of the most useful things on the internet. As the name suggests, it enables you to create scenarios where if this happens, it does that. And the ‘that’ can include all kinds of things, with a selection of connectors for software and hardware alike.

For example, you can automatically change your thermostat based on the weather forecast, or send someone a message when you’re near the shops, or backup your photo collection to a cloud storage site at a particular time or when a particular event occurs. It’s absolutely brilliant, and the main iPhone app enables you control more than 600 different apps as well as smart home devices such as Hue lights and Nest thermostats.

As you’d expect the Watch app doesn’t do everything. What it does do is provide quick access to IFTTT functions you’ve already installed or created on your phone, so for example you might post a quick tweet or turn your smart lights on or off.

That simplicity is no bad thing, because of course the whole ethos of IFTTT is to reduce the amount of effort you use to communicate with your various bits of technology.

1Password

  • 1Password
  • $3.99/£3.49/AU$5.99 monthly subscription

A reliable and secure password manager is a must-have in these days of security breaches and hacks, and 1Password is one of the best. And it turns out that it’s also one of the best password managers you can use on your Apple Watch.

Our favorite apps don’t just port entire iPhone apps across. They think about what you’re actually likely to need on your wrist, and do that instead. In the case of 1Password that means you choose the pieces of information you want available on your Watch, so for example you might want details of a few logins, one credit card and a couple of notes, or perhaps the PIN codes for everyday locks.

If you’ve ever frantically scrolled through an iPhone app or contacts list to try and find the PIN for a bank card you don’t use very often, the appeal should be obvious.

Where 1Password gets particularly clever is in its support for team and family accounts, so you can share sets of information with everybody who needs it. And if a site you use has been compromised, 1Password will alert you to change your password. It’s great stuff, and comes with a glowing recommendation from Apple.

Drafts

On the face of it, and by face we mean Apple Watch face, Drafts doesn’t seem to offer much for six quidbucks: it enables you to dictate text and save it for later. But it turns out that it does an awful lot...it just does it in a really simple way.

On the iPhone, Drafts is designed to make it easy to capture ideas, thoughts, to-dos or anything else.

It has an email-style interface for easy navigation and it enables you to send your Drafts to a whole bunch of other apps and services: email, message, apps in your Share sheet, social media and so on.

It supports Markdown for easy formatting, and it hooks into the iMessage app to provide stored “snippets” of text and/or emoji for instant replies.

Bringing Drafts to the Watch makes it even faster. Tap on the microphone icon to capture and it does just that - but it also enables you to add to existing drafts using either your voice or the Scribble input, which means it’s brilliant for those moments when you think of something really clever to write or something you’d missed from your to-do list. It’s the kind of app you’ll quickly learn to love.

Hours

  • Hours
  • Free / in-app purchases

Many of us need to track the time we spend on specific tasks, but the team behind Hours rightly point out the three big pitfalls of time tracking: we forget to start tracking in the first place, forget to stop when we change tasks, or just forget to stop the timer(s) altogether. Hours hopes to address that by making it really, really easy to start and stop and switch.

The iPhone app is a very beautiful thing, with a visual timeline that makes it easy to see what you’ve been up to. The Watch interface is much simpler, but just as effective: you can see the list of tasks with a timer icon for each, and if you tap on a task you can add a verbal note as well as starting or stopping the timer.

There’s a Complication for instant access, and the app will prompt you from time to time to see if you want to keep the selected timer running.

The standard version is free and ideal for self-employed or freelance types, but the $7.99/£5.99/AU$12.99 upgrade to Pro adds multi-device synchronization, web access, reporting and data visualizations, team creation and management, and online backup, which means it’s a great team tool too.

Cheatsheet Widget

Sometimes it’s hard to remember everything, especially when you’re traveling. What level did you park the car on? What’s the hotel room number? What did you change the combination on your locker to this time? Say hello to Cheatsheet Widget, which is designed to remember the things you probably won’t.

It’s important to stress that Cheatsheet is not a secure app: it’s not designed to store any sensitive information. What it does instead is make it really easy to jot down all the little bits of information you might need during the day, from registration plates to flight numbers, bus routes, clothes sizes and bike lock codes.

It has 160 icons you can use to label each bit of information for easier identification, and you can add, edit and delete bits of information without having to open the phone. If you wish, you can use a Complication that shows your top memory-refreshing nugget of information right on the Watch face.

The main app is offered free, but if you want to use it on your Apple Watch you’ll need the Unlock Everything in-app purchase, which is currently $2.99/£2.99/AU$4.49. If you’re constantly juggling, looking for or misplacing Post-It notes and scribbled-on scraps of paper, this app might just change your life.

Just Press Record

One of the most useful things about the Apple Watch is that it enables you to do things without having to take your phone out of your pocket or bag. Just Press Record brings that handiness to voice recording, enabling you to capture bright ideas, rambling monologues or memos when you’re out and about.

The interface is just a big red button with a picture of a microphone on it, and as you might expect you tap it to start recording. The phone app can transcribe your recording to turn it into text - which means your recordings become searchable by keyword - and it recognises formatting commands such as “new paragraph” and “comma”.

To use it is to feel like you’re living in the future: we remember when dictation and transcription required a powerful PC and endless patience, and now you get much better results with a watch. Isn’t technology brilliant?

In addition to its recording and transcription features, the app syncs automatically via iCloud, so you can access it on all your devices - including macOS, for which there’s a separate app - and it uses the Watch’s own local storage so that you can record even if your phone isn’t currently connected.

Evernote

Organize your life better with Evernote, the brilliant note-taking app which saves photos, text, recipes, bookmarks, voice notes and more. On Apple Watch you can set reminders and check off tasks easily enough.

You can dictate new notes for those brilliant ideas you mustn't forget just by tapping the Plus button or Force Touching the screen. The Watch app can search existing notes using voice – though this wasn't as reliable as I'd have liked. Even so, if you're an Evernote fan it brings an extra level of convenience.

OneNote

If there’s one thing the App Store isn’t short of, it’s note-taking apps. But it’s worth taking a look at OneNote, especially if you work across a range of Mac and PC devices, because as it syncs via Microsoft’s cloud, it’s a very good cross-platform app with particularly well-designed iPhone, iPad and Mac apps to organize pretty much everything.

We use it for shopping lists, to-do lists, random scribbled ideas in the wee small hours and anything else we think we might need to refer to later, and unlike some rival cross-platform services it’s completely free. Microsoft hopes you’ll like it so much you’ll embrace Office, which is available for a very low price as part of a premium OneDrive plan.

Microsoft has become rather good at keeping its Watch apps simple, and OneNote is no exception: tap the cross icon to dictate a new note, or tap a notebook or note to see its contents.

And that’s pretty much all it does - and that’s all it needs to do, because any watch screen is poorly suited to complex tasks. We’d much rather have speed and simplicity than any ill-conceived bells and whistles.

Epicurious Smart Timer

The food site Epicurious isn’t scared of technology: it attempted to make a recipe app for Google Glass (although that didn’t quite work out). Its Watch efforts are much more successful, with the Watch doing what watches do best: timing. Think of it as an egg timer that can do more than eggs.

Using the app is simple. Choose the kind of food you want to time, such as a roast chicken or a steak, and tell the app how heavy it is and, where appropriate, how well done you want it to be. The timer lets you know when to flip or remove it from the heat.

It then tells you what to do, so for example in the case of your steak you’re urged to let it rest for five minutes and then slice across the grain. You’ll also see photos so you can compare what your food looks like with what it should look like.

It’s not the most comprehensive app around, but it isn’t supposed to be: it’s designed for relatively inexperienced cooks and the 40-odd items it does know about cover all the basics. If you’re unsure of cooking times or just easily distracted, it’s a great app to have.

AeroPress Timer

You can’t get much more hipster than this: an Apple Watch app for the AeroPress coffee maker, enabling you to use a gadget costing hundreds of dollars to work out how to make a cup of coffee.

But while it’s easy to mock it’s actually a really useful and well-designed app, assuming of course you have an AeroPress. It’s the kind of thing that watch apps excel at: it does one thing, and it does that thing very well.

AeroPress Timer’s thing is to help you make the perfect cup of coffee. The app features coffee recipes from the 2014 AeroPress world championship, and takes you step by step through the process for each: how much coffee to use, when to stir, when to steep, and when it’s time to take a sip of your masterpiece.

It’s not just about fancy award competitors either: the app also includes the instructions you need to make standard recipes, two cup recipes and to improve your brewing prowess in general.

If you’re the kind of person whose eyeballs are vibrating with caffeine by lunchtime, you’re going to love the convenience of having everything you need to hand. Or rather, on your wrist.

Owaves

Owaves is an interesting app: it’s a 24-hour day planner that’s designed for people who want to focus on their physical and mental health. That means scheduling and prioritizing me-time and play time as well as work time, a kind of Getting Things Done for the mindfulness generation.

Owaves is based around what it describes as the five key ingredients for a happy life: sleep, nutrition, exercise, relaxation and social interactions. You can still schedule work things, chores and day to day admin, but they’re not the sole focus as you’ll find in other planning apps. The idea is to make room in your life for your life.

The bulk of the action - scheduling events, seeing your entire schedule and so on - happens on your iPhone, and the Watch app has been designed as a companion rather than a replacement: it tells you what’s coming up rather than trying to replicate the main app’s functions.

You can add it as a watch face complication, which is particularly good on the Modular watch face: if you make it the main complication in the center it’s got room to tell you not just what you’ve scheduled now but also what you’ve got happening afterwards.

Voice in a Can

Voice in a Can is famous, or perhaps infamous: it hit the headlines because it brings Amazon’s Alexa to the Apple Watch, something neither Amazon nor Apple have decided to do so far. That’s an interesting idea, because in our experience Alexa is much more reliable than Siri on our various devices: she’s much better at recognizing our commands and doing what we want. However, while the idea’s interesting the execution isn’t great.

The app works, but there are some important restrictions. You can’t use it to control your music, play podcasts or make calls, and only some flash briefings work. If your watch goes into standby mode it drops the Alexa connection. The developers recommend extending the timeout period for apps on your Watch, which is effectively admitting that it just doesn’t work quickly enough.

Until or unless Amazon or Apple offer Alexa support this is the only way to have Alexa on your wrist, and the app is a handy way of controlling smart home devices if you’re committed more to Amazon than to Apple. However it’s very limited, very much a side project for the developer and more of a proof of concept than an app you’re going to use for everyday Alexa stuff.

Knock

  • Knock
  • $5.99/£5.99/AU$9.99

Passwords are essential, but they’re also rubbish. The ones you can remember are easy to guess, the ones that are hard to guess are equally hard to remember, and if you do passwords properly it can be a pain to enter complicated strings of text and characters when you’re in a hurry.

Wouldn’t it be better if you could prove your identity to your Mac with your Watch? That’s exactly what Knock does.

Knock is a simple idea brilliantly executed. Provided your Mac is of relatively recent vintage - an Air from 2011 or better, a MacBook Pro or iMac from late 2012, a 2013 or later Mac Pro and so on - you can use Knock to automatically unlock your Mac or Macs by tapping the Apple Watch app.

It’s connecting via Bluetooth Low Energy - hence the reliance on relatively recent Macs; older ones don’t have Bluetooth LE - which uses tiny amounts of energy, so you don’t need to worry about the app killing your Watch’s battery any more than usual, and it works instantly if your Mac isn’t in sleep mode.

It may seem quite pricey for such a simple app, but think about how much time you spend locking and unlocking your Macs in a year.

Note that you may not need this if you have a recent Mac running macOS Sierra, as there’s a similar feature built in, but Knock is compatible with slightly older Macs too.

Authy

Passwords aren’t good enough anymore. The easy ones are too easy to crack, and the hard ones keep getting compromised when big-name firms get hacked and all their customer data gets compromised. 

You can make your various online services much more secure with two-factor authentication, which adds an extra level of security to everything, and that’s what Authy offers.

The big benefit of Authy is that it isn’t insecure like SMS is, so you can be sure that your two-factor authentication code isn’t going to be intercepted and used by the bad guys. 

Authy is compatible with Google Authenticator, so any service that accepts the Google tool will accept it – so you can use it not just with Google but with Microsoft and Amazon accounts too. There’s a growing number of Authy-supporting websites as well.

As ever, the bulk of the work happens on the iPhone app, with the Watch component simply providing access to the time-limited tokens so that you can enter the appropriate code into the site you want to access. That’s not a weakness: the whole point of two-factor authentication is to make life harder for the criminals without making it more annoying for you.

Find Near Me

Guess what this does. Go on, guess. Yep: it finds things near you. Sadly that doesn’t mean the TV remote, your keys or the gaming controller – whoever finds a way of doing that which doesn’t involve sticking Bluetooth tags to everything will become a trillionaire – but it does mean cash machines, bars and coffee shops. The only in-app purchase is $2.99/£2.99/AU$4.49 to remove adverts from the iPhone app.

It works exactly like you’d expect. First, you choose the category of thing you want to find. Then, you scroll through the results. And to finish, you tap the one you want to find out more about. From there you can then be guided on foot, in the car or on your bike.

The app makes extensive use of Google Maps, and that means it’s only as good as the Google Maps data: some users report inaccuracies such as long-shut businesses. If you’re wondering why you can’t just use Google Maps and cut out the middleman, it’s because Google canned its Apple Watch app last year: if you want Google Maps on your wrist, you need a third-party app that hooks into it. Like this one.

Deliveries

Is there anything more annoying than missing a delivery of something you’re really excited about? Yes: there’s missing a delivery of something that you really need to have in a hurry. Deliveries can help ensure that neither of those things happen to you.

It supports stacks of services including UPS, FedEx, US Postal Service, DHL, TNT, Canada Post, City Link and Royal Mail, can track packages, can add delivery dates to your calendar and can record past deliveries in case you need to refer to them later.

It’s unnecessary for the odd package, but it’s useful if you do a lot of online shopping or if you’re in the middle of a project, such as furnishing a flat.

On the Watch the app acts as a ready reminder of what’s in and what’s incoming, so for example it’ll show you if an item has just been delivered as well as the ETA of any other outstanding deliveries.

There’s a Complication too, which works particularly well on the Utility watch face and shows you the most recent delivery. If you have the macOS version of the app too you can automatically sync between Mac and mobile via iCloud or the developer’s own cloud sync service.

Clicker

We’ve described the iPhone as the Very Hungry Caterpillar of tech, munching its way through entire product categories as stand-alone devices become iOS apps. We’re often delighted by the simplest things, and Clicker is one of those things. 

It’s a replacement for those hand-held clickers people use to count things, and it’s appropriate for counting people, days, laps, drinks or anything else you might want to quantify. 

To use it, just tap on the screen and tap again when you want another click. Haptic feedback means you don’t need to look at the watch, and you don’t need to have the clicker display all day: when you’re ready for a new click you can pull it up from its Complication. You can record up to 2,147,483,647 taps.

And that’s pretty much it: there are only two other options: subtract, to remove a mistaken click, and reset, to start again.

It’s hardly a must-have but it’s actually very handy, so for example we’ve seen users tracking how often they smoke during the day or how many glasses of water they’ve had. We wouldn’t recommend using it for counting sheep, though - or at least, not on the first-generation Apple Watch, whose battery isn’t really up to working nights.

Stocard

One of the things we hoped Apple’s Wallet/Passbook app would deliver was an end to purses and wallets full of loyalty cards: our purse is so packed with the damn things that if we sit down with it in a back pocket one of our buttocks is a good six inches higher than the other. Wallet hasn’t quite changed that yet, but Stocard has a pretty good try.

Stocard enables you to scan and store your loyalty cards (and some other cards such as some membership cards; generally speaking if it has a barcode or QR code on it, Stocard can probably digitize it), and then access them from your iPhone or Apple Watch when you’re at the checkout.

Whether it works or not depends on the store infrastructure: until recently the self-scanners in Tesco didn’t like it, but now that they’ve been upgraded they scan happily. The cards are automatically added to your Apple Wallet as well as kept inside the Stocard app.

The main benefit for you is convenience, as not only does Stocard reduce the amount of cards you have to carry without forcing you to miss out on loyalty points, but it also provides you with details of relevant special offers as you shop.

Best Apple Watch apps for email, chat and messaging

Chirp for Twitter

You’d think Twitter’s brevity and the Apple Watch’s usefulness would be a match made in Heaven, but Twitter isn’t interested in maintaining an official Watch app and our favourite iPhone Twitter app, Tweetbot, is very limited on the Apple Watch. Enter Chirp, which promises to bring all the features you need to your Watch - and unusually, it does so without playing second fiddle to an iPhone app. Chirp was designed purely as a Watch app.

Chirp delivers on its promises: it does an excellent job of bringing Twitter to your wrist, with the ability to see tweets as well as their popularity in terms of likes and retweets. You can browse Twitter trends, see embedded photos, retweet or like other people’s posts, and you can actually interact with others.

You can post your own thoughts or reply to other people’s tweets, and the most recent update added support for sending Direct Messages and for viewing lists. Some of these features are restricted to the paid-for Pro version, but it’s a very cheap in-app purchase and the main app is free to use so you can try it before you decide whether you need the pro features.

Telegram

Oh, the drama: Telegram 5 initially dropped its Apple Watch companion app, but now it’s back! Back! BACK!

The reason for this is that Telegram 5 has been rebuilt from the ground up to make it faster and more efficient; the Watch update simply wasn’t ready in time.

Telegram is a secure instant messaging service that works on iPhone, iPad and once again, Apple Watch. It enables you to group chat with up to 30,000 people, which is more than enough for most of us, and unlike other messaging services it’s really good at sharing things like documents, zip files and other useful things.

It’s both free and ad-free, and if you’re worried about privacy you can take part in Secret Chats where messages self-destruct after a specified time. As with all private apps that doesn’t stop somebody taking a screenshot, taking a photo or duplicating content in some other way, but the end-to-end encryption does mean you can be confident that others aren’t listening in.

Telegram’s main selling point is its efficiency. It’s designed to do its job with the minimum amount of data transfer necessary, something that’s important in places with poor network coverage or for people with metered data connections, and it’s also designed to operate with the minimum load on your battery.

Facebook Messenger

Facebook Messenger on Apple Watch got a late start, but it finally lets you respond to those pressing messages to friends and family without opening up the sioled-off app on your phone or website on a computer.

You can initiate and reply with a thumbs up (which I see as kind of curt and rude) or dictate a reply. Sending Facebook's ugly smiley face or your current location can be done with the press of one or two taps too. No, there's still no WhatsApps for Apple Watch, but this is the next best thing from Facebook.

Tweetbot 4

If you aren’t already familiar with Tweetbot 4, it’s the best Mac and iOS Twitter client bar none. This is why it can charge $4.99/£4.99/AU$7.99 for an iOS app and people gladly pay it, and it’s worth checking out on the Apple Watch too.

Tweetbot doesn’t unleash the Twitter firehose onto your wrist - we can’t think of anything guaranteed to kill your battery more quickly - but it does give you exactly the information you need when you aren’t looking at your phone.

The developers have rightly assumed that if you have your phone to hand you won’t be using the watch instead, so they’ve concentrated on making an app for when you can’t or don’t want to pull your phone out of your pocket or purse. And that’s clever.

Its Activity pane shows you what’s happening in your feed, so if somebody’s followed you or replied to you or tweeted you then you’ll see it in Activity. Tapping on the item opens the appropriate tweet or user page, and with tweets you’ll see icons for a quick reply, a retweet or a like.

If you push into the screen using Force Touch you get an offer to create a new tweet, and both it and the reply option use Siri for dictation, because on-watch typing would be frankly horrible - and you can dictate a direct message or follow/unfollow accounts from the app too.

Outlook

Microsoft earned well-deserved death stares from many Watch users when it bought and retired the excellent Sunrise Calendar iOS app, but its Outlook app is worth adding to your wrist.

It’s from the new, interesting Microsoft, not the staid bore of old: it works well, looks great and won’t crash your watch.

Outlook is a combined email and calendar app that connects to Microsoft Exchange, Office 365, Outlook.com, Hotmail, MSN, Gmail, Yahoo and iCloud, and its main claim to fame is the focused inbox: instead of showing you everything emailed, it shows the most important stuff only and learns by watching your swipes.

It’s particularly good in a corporate environment, where its talents cope admirably with endless meeting requests, time changes and backside-covering email traffic, enabling you to prioritize things that matter and forget about things that don’t.

That doesn’t mean it’s only for corporate types, though. Outlook is a really, really good email app and boasts a useful Complication that enables you to see what’s next on your schedule from the main Apple Watch display. If you have a busy life, a busy inbox or both it’s a very useful app to have on your arm.

Spark

There’s no shortage of apps promising to make email fun again, and Spark is one of our favorites: on our Mac and on our iPhone it does a superb job of showing us what we want and hiding what we don’t.

The Apple Watch app is as well thought-out as its siblings, with the ability to use Messages-style quick replies as well as emoji and dictation. It’s quite possible to reply to most everyday emails without reaching for your iPhone, although the option to Handoff is there if a message is too long to bother scrolling through on your wrist.

The main selling point for Spark is its Smart Inbox, which groups messages from multiple accounts into personal, notification and newsletter categories. It then displays how many unread messages you have for each category in the Watch app’s home screen.

You can pin messages for quick access, and you can snooze them to hide them for a specified period of time. We find ourselves using that last one a lot: messages we can’t process properly on our wrists are quickly snoozed so they’ll resurface when we’re back at our Macs. If you have to handle a lot of email Spark is a massive time saver.

Twitterrific

There are lots of reasons to love Twitter, but there are lots of reasons to find it annoying too. Promoted tweets filling your timeline, people talking about subjects you couldn’t care less about, people retweeting people you couldn’t care less about, Piers Morgan… wouldn’t it be great if you could have a Twitter without all of those things? Don’t look to the official app for that any time soon. Go for Twitterrific instead.

Now in its fifth incarnation, Twitterrific on iOS is a superb Twitter tool. The Watch features require a $2.99/£2.99/AU$4.49 in-app purchase to work fully, and they’re worth paying for: you can track your stats, be notified about direct messages, favorites, new followers and other action, use Handoff to start replies on your phone, compose tweets via dictation and block idiots instantly.

We’d recommend keeping notifications to an absolute minimum unless you only follow a few people - Twitter can be incredibly noisy when you follow and/or are followed by lots of people - but the Watch app is a great way of staying on top of Twitter while you’re out and about. It also reduces the risk of picking up your phone and thinking “while I’m here I’ll just check…” and losing hours to trivia.

Canary Mail

Canary Mail is a first: it’s the first third-party email app to use the Apple Watch 3’s 4G/LTE connection so you can access your email without lugging your iPhone around.

The feature is officially in beta but if you’re in the market for a new email app it’s a compelling reason to consider Canary over other iPhone email clients. The Watch support delivers short extracts of emails and the ability to quickly reply via scribbling or voice dictation.

The main iPhone app is very good indeed, supporting all the main email providers (including iCloud and, if IMAP’s enabled on the server, Exchange) and enabling you to use PGP, to use natural language search and to bulk-delete irrelevant or spammy emails. It offers email templates for frequently used messages, easy unsubscribing and integration with cloud storage, to-do and calendar services, and the none-more-black interface looks particularly good on the iPhone X’s OLED display.

It’s worth keeping an eye on the price if you’re considering Canary: it’s gone from being offered as a free trial for a few days with in-app purchases to $4.99/£4.99, and then to the current price of $9.99/£9.99/AU$14.99.

Best Apple Watch Games

Pokemon Go

Pokémon Go isn’t a new app, and its Apple Watch companion app isn’t exactly brilliant, as it needs the iPhone to be nearby in order to be useful. But that’s about to change with a new future called Adventure Sync. It’s a way of earning candy and hatching eggs in the Pokémon Go app without actually using the iPhone app.

Adventure Sync works by taking the Apple Health data your phone and watch generate and using that in the game. That means if you just go for a walk or a run wearing your Apple Watch, the distance you travel is recorded and then the Pokémon Go app can get that information to hatch more eggs and earn more candy. Nintendo promises a weekly activity summary, rewards for achieving specific milestones and ongoing progress monitoring, and you can opt in at any time.

The Watch app remains a companion app rather than an alternative to the iPhone app – it’s more of an information app than something you play – but it’s good to see a bit of lateral thinking when it comes to smartwatches. Using their data is much more interesting than trying to cram an entire iPhone app into a watch.

Tamagotchi Classic

Readers of a certain age will remember Tamagotchi, the infuriatingly addictive electronic pets that took over the world in the late 1990s with their incessant demands for care and attention.

And now they’re back! Back! BACK! And this time, they’re on your wrist - which is fitting, because Tamagotchi is apparently a portmanteau of the Japanese words for egg and watch. If you’ve never used your watch to raise a virtual pet, here’s your chance.

This app is the Tamagotchi L.i.f.e Gen1, and it uses the Apple Watch in several ways: when your Tamagotchi wants your attention it’ll pop up on your wrist, you can monitor your Tamagotchi’s health, and you can carry out care actions - such as feeding it a meal or making it go to the toilet.

There are two modes to choose from: toy mode, which recreates the originals, and App Mode, which adds special colors. The app also enables you to put multiple Tamagotchi into a gallery, where you can then take pictures of them, and save said digital snaps to your Camera Roll.

It’s spectacularly pointless, of course, but it’s also pretty cute and faithful to the original toys - so it’s an app for rose-tinted spectacle wearers as well as for people who’ve never encountered Tamagotchi before.

Best Apple Watch apps for education and learning

Daily Dictionary

Daily Dictionary is a great example of the kind of apps that really work on your wrist: rather than blast you with notifications or try to cram tons of things into that relatively tiny screen, it delivers a little nugget of information that you might otherwise miss.

That nugget, of course, is a word. Every day, Daily Dictionary comes up with a new word. That can appear in your Apple Watch face’s complication, or as a push notification, or you can call the app directly. The complication is well designed, as it also includes today’s date, so you don’t need to have as separate date complication, enabling you to use your limited complication space for something else.

The word selection is practical rather than esoteric. The aim is to provide you with words you’ll actually use, so there’s no jargon or scientific terms you’re unlikely to use in your everyday conversations or writing. And the app enables you to see recent updates to catch up on any words you might have missed.

The core app is free, although a small purchase of just £2.99/$2.99/AU$4.49 a year unlocks the ability to customize the Apple Watch display.

Keynote

If you deliver a lot of presentations tied to a computer or iPad you might watch Apple keynotes with envy. Wouldn’t it be great if you could stride around the room like that, surreptitiously tapping a button to move to the next slide instead of hovering over your hardware?

There are plenty of electronic clickers to do just that, but why get another bit of hardware you’ll probably lose when you can control Keynote from your Apple Watch?

Don’t expect speakers’ notes, views of upcoming slides or other presentation app goodies: the Watch app is designed simply to play presentations and move to the next slide when tapped. Everything else happens on devices more suited to editing: your phone, or your iPad.

And provided there’s decent Wi-Fi or you’re close enough to the presenting iPad or iPhone for Bluetooth it works really well. It’s surprisingly functional-looking for an Apple app - it isn’t remotely pretty, and looks like it was designed in a tea break - but then how much design do you really need when you’re using your Watch as a clicker?

Do you prefer Office to Apple’s apps? Microsoft has a PowerPoint app for the Watch right here.

Babbel

Sometimes the best way to learn new things is to have fun, and that’s particularly true of languages: we can’t remember a taught word of the languages we rote-learned in school, but we can remember all the swear words and rude ones our peers snickered about on the bus home.

Babbel takes a more mature, but no less effective, approach to language learning, using data from the check-in service Foursquare to tell you about nearby words you need to find and translate on its Watch app. For example: you might learn the foreign word for a type of drink when you’re at a coffee shop.

The main iPhone app is more formal but still concentrates on real-world language, so you’re more likely to learn how to ask if somebody’s married or if they want some wine than tell them that your aunt’s pen is in the garden.

It’s proven to be effective and has more than a million subscribers, making it one of the most popular language learning tools around.

Just watch out for those in-app purchases, though: each language pack costs money, but some cost a lot more than others.

Rosetta Stone

Rosetta Stone is one of the big brands in language learning, and its various apps have won shelves full of awards for its combination of effective teaching and user-friendly app design. The Apple Watch counterpart to its main iPhone app is a good example of how the Watch can be used to supplement more fully featured apps: it’s tailored to the kinds of environments where the Apple Watch is the perfect device for a quick practice.

Rosetta Stone is all about real-life situations: ordering in restaurants, choosing things in shops, saying hello to people and so on. The Watch is ideally placed to practice that, and it’s set out with sensible categories and simple and fast navigation to get you to the bit you need, with audio examples of how to do it.

The main thing to watch out for here is the price: while the app itself is free, it’s useless without a language subscription. There are 24 languages to choose from and they start at $109.99/£93.99/AU$159.99 per year per language, with bundles for languages such as Spanish and French offering 5 levels for $199.99/£199.99/AU$319.99. Think of the app as a demo for the Rosetta Stone service rather than a stand-alone app.

Best Apple Watch apps for news and sports

BBC News

Of course, bigger screens such as phones and, you know, TVs are best for expansive looks at the news, so the Watch's little face is reserved for headlines and photos with BBC News. These appear in Glances and tapping on one takes you to a very slightly fuller version, and lets you access the other headlines.

You can create a personalised news list on the iPhone and these show up in the Watch app, too. Ideal for snacking on headlines and letting you follow up with the main story elsewhere. 

NHL

  • NHL
  • Free (in-app purchases)

NHL isn’t just for American hockey fans, its app is one of the few legal ways to watch NHL games in the rest of the world.

The official NHL app has been given an extensive update for the 2018/2019 season, including the addition of Apple Watch support to display scoreboards and summaries and to notify you of the most exciting happenings. Sensibly there’s also an option to turn off notifications if you can’t tune in live and don’t want to spoil your viewing later.

The main iPhone/iPad app is very comprehensive, offering highlights, radio broadcasts and video streams as well as tons of in-game information. For US fans actually visiting the games, it even shows you where to get food and drink in the arena. In a nice touch you can also customize the app to reflect your favorite team’s colors.

High quality sports apps don’t tend to come cheap, and NHL is no exception: if you want to access the NHL.tv video you’ll pay £17.99/AU$27.49 per month to access the content from outside the US or $24.99 if you’re a US customer. We’re hoping the latest update crushes some of the bugs that seem to have plagued earlier versions of the app. There’s nothing worse than an app that freezes just before something really exciting happens.

Best Apple Watch apps for math and money

Calzy 3

We’ve raved about the excellent PCalc calculator app, but Calzy is a worthy rival. The latest version, version 3, is a significant redesign that’s been optimized for iOS 11.

The most obvious difference is that the operators – plus, minus and so on – are on the same screen as the numbers, and that means it’s much faster to carry out multiple calculations, provided your fingers are fairly accurate: more buttons means a smaller tap area for each one.

It also shows you the running total as you go along, so for example if you’re doing a calculation where it’s this plus that times whatever you’ll see the results as you tap. It’s not as comprehensive as PCalc, but if all you need is a straightforward calculator on your wrist it’s a good bit cheaper.

The main iPhone app, as you might expect, does a lot more than the Watch app. It has light and dark themes, a customizable keypad, Handoff support and even a searchable history of every calculation you’ve made. It also offers currency rounding to keep numbers to two decimal places, and you can tap and hold to edit part of a formula if you realize you’ve made a mistake halfway through.

PCalc

  • PCalc
  • $9.99/£9.99/AU$14.99

The apps we tend to love the most are the ones that solve real-world problems, and PCalc falls into that category. Yes, it's a fantastically useful calculator and scientific calculator, but much more importantly it prevents fisticuffs in restaurants.

That's because of its handy bill splitter. Simply tell it how much the bill comes to, how many people are paying and how big a tip you want to leave, and the Watch app calculates how much each person should hand over. It supports watchOS 3's Scribble feature too, so you don't need to dictate or tap on a tiny keypad if you've downed that second bottle of wine. Alternatively you can use the Digital Crown to enter the figure in the tip calculator.

That's not all the Watch app can do, though. It includes a converter for distances and other measurements, and if you Force Touch the app you'll see a Send To iPhone icon as well as the clear and undo buttons.

And on the iPhone the main app is a great tool for serious calculating (and quick sums: there's a mini-calculator if you Force Touch the app icon). It's not the cheapest calculator app, but it's worth the money.

Pennies

Pennies was a recent Apple Editor’s Choice, for good reason: it’s a very simple and effective budgeting app that allows you to get on top of your spending without having to spend too much time doing so.

You can set weekly, monthly, bi-weekly, bi-monthly, one-off and custom budgets, track in multiple currencies - great for holidays or business travel - and on the Watch, all you need to do is record how much you’ve spent against a particular budget, so for example if you have a shopping budget you’d tap it, tap Spend, and then enter the total.

The app then recalculates the amount you’ve got left, and if you wish you can have it displayed as a permanent Complication on the Watch face.

Pennies isn’t interested in what you’ve bought; just what budget it should be allocated to. As the developer puts it, “it’s all about keeping things easy and flexible so you can get on with having fun, spending what you want, and saving money at the end of the month.”

If like us you find personal finance a mix of tedium and terror, Pennies might be the app that helps you take control of your cash.

XE Currency

Currency converters abound on the iPhone and XE Currency is one of the best. While the Watch version doesn't have the calculator feature found on the phone, it's a clear chart of how many euros, Argentine pesos or Australian dollars a British pound buys.

You can add more currencies on the phone version – whatever's there is replicated on the Watch. A button at the base of the screen lets the iPhone app control the refresh rates, so you can avoid roaming charges.

Best Apple Watch apps for travel, weather and going out

Citymapper

Citymapper is the pre-eminent public transport app, so no wonder it's an Apple Watch essential. It tells you how to get around selected cities including London, Manchester, Paris, Barcelona and New York.

As well as bus, train and subway times and directions, the Watch app even offers cycling routes and bike hire details such as London's rentable bikes. Once you've set up the journey on the phone, step-by-step notifications will appear on the Watch screen.

You can start journeys to home or previously saved destinations right from the Watch, and it will even help you find your way to nearby bus stops and train stations. Brilliant, just brilliant.

Transit

Transit is mainly for American users, but its city coverage extends to more than 50 non-US cities including London and Paris too. It’s a public transport app, and it works on a simple and largely accurate assumption: when you use the app, you’re in a hurry.

That means instant information for departures on nearby routes and a Take Me Home button that tells you how to get home as quickly and simply as possible. In a single screen it offers directions, details of the station, the next three departures and the number of the service.

Public transport tends to bring out the best in designers - think the simple genius of the London Underground map or the colorful signage on the New York subway - and that’s definitely the case here.

Transit makes excellent use of color and typography to provide all the information you need in a very effective way.

It may only shave a few seconds off your travel time, but if you’ve ever harbored dark thoughts when someone at the gate in front of you is wasting time you’ll know that for commuters, every single second counts. If you spend a lot of time traveling, you’ll save a lot of time with Transit.

Microsoft Translator

You know you’re living in interesting times when one of the best apps for an Apple device comes from Microsoft. But Translator is superb.

We refer to the Hitchhiker’s Guide to The Galaxy in another entry, and Microsoft Translator is the closest we’ve come to its Babel Fish - a fish you stuck in your ear to translate the universe’s many languages.

Translator sits on your wrist rather than in your ear canal, but it does much the same thing. Speak into your watch and you’ll see the translation, and it remembers recent translations on Watch or phone so you can find them again easily. You can also pin translations for instant access to essential words or phrases.

It gets even better if you use it on your phone, because it can translate in real time as you message somebody. You’ll see your typing with the translation in the same bubble, and it can even handle simplified Chinese and Arabic script.

The amount of thought that’s gone into Translator is obvious. Want to translate a sign? Point your camera at it. Want to have a conversation in a language you don’t speak? The phone display splits with your words facing you and the translation facing them.

App in the Air

We love a good pun, and App in the Air is a good one. It promises to be your personal flying assistant, and while it doesn’t actually fly it’s a useful assistant for anybody who does. It tracks all the information you need to know: what gate to go to, when you need to go there, how much time you’ve got before they shut the doors and, in the US, how to find the damn gate in the first place.

The Watch app takes care of providing essential information while the main iPhone app also tracks loyalty points, flight history (including TripIt integration), live status changes and anything else you might need to know. It even works where there isn’t a data connection, by sending status updates via SMS, and you can amuse yourself by calculating how many miles you’ve flown and how many different airports you’ve visited.

The catch is that the best bits are subscription services: if you want real-time flight status updates you’ll need the $26.99/£25.99/AU$41.99 annual subscription. That’s not expensive if you fly a lot, but it does mean the app is less immediately exciting to those of us who aren’t frequent flyers.

Night Sky

Night Sky is one of those gee-whiz apps that you use to show off your iPhone, and the introduction of a complication to let you know if the International Space Station was overhead was cute in a geeky way.

But the arrival of watchOS 4 has given the developers plenty of new toys to play with, and that means Night Sky is now one of those gee-whiz apps you use to show off your Apple Watch.

With this version of the app, your Watch now gets the same Sky Tracking features as the iPhone app has: you can now raise your wrist and identify the stars, planets and constellations around you.

There’s a time travel feature too, so you can track how the various heavenly bodies will move. It’s enormously clever and very impressive, and the main iPhone app isn’t bad either, as its Sky View knows of 115,000 celestial objects and enables you to increase or decrease light pollution, explore animated 3D models and customize notifications.

If you sign up for the $1.99/£1.99/AU$2.99 monthly premium subscription you get access to worldwide sky tours that you can save for future use - for example if you’re planning to visit a particular location in the near future.

Foursquare City Guide

Foursquare’s mission has changed somewhat over the years: what started off based around location check-ins and “king of the castle” bragging had to change when Facebook promptly copied the idea.

Robbed of its raison d’être, these days Foursquare has separated the check-ins from the venue recommendations. Foursquare City Guide’s job is to find decent bars and restaurants wherever you are in the world (if you still want to be the mayor of wherever, that’s the companion app, Foursquare Swarm).

The main interface of City Guide has five tappable areas: Search, Favorites, Food, Coffee and Nightlife.

Tapping on the appropriate option takes you to a list of venues, but instead of just filtering by distance the app also filters by Foursquare user ratings - so a rating of 9.5 that’s 500m away will appear below a 9.7 that’s 100m further.

The list gives you the name, price bracket, average rating and distance for each venue, and if you tap on a venue you’ll see reviews, photos, maps and other key information. The big selling point here is Foursquare’s global reach: it’s a really good app for travellers who don’t want to spend their time in the hotel bar or eating in faceless chain restaurants.

Uber

Calling an Uber isn't too difficult, unless of course your hands are full or running down last-second tasks. That's me right before I leave for a flight.

Often times, I'm packing my suitcase with last second gadgets and taking out the trash so it doesn't take on another lifeform by sitting there for a week. The Apple Watch makes it easier to hail the 21st century taxi.

The Uber Apple Watch app is not only simple to use, it lets you see vital information, like the time the driver will take to get there and the car he or she drives, complete with a picture (when they have one). 

ETA - Arrive on time

Like Citymapper, ETA will help you get somewhere. The title refers to its front-and-centre information. You add a location on the iPhone and save it. Then it'll give you timings for driving, walking or taking public transport.

Some watch faces allow it as a complication, where it'll show the time it'll take to your top saved route. It knows what traffic is like so allows extra time for a drive in rush hour, say. On the Watch app you tap the chosen saved destination and it'll take you through to Maps for directions.

Similarly, for public transport directions in select cities Maps will provide the directions.

iTranslate

This powerful translation app works in 90 languages. It's free but for full Watch use you'll need the $6.99/£6.99/AU$10.99 in-app purchase which offers voice recognition and unlimited translations.

A Watch complication means you can tap on the screen to start translating straight away and if you'll let it, iTranslate will use your location to figure out what language it should be translating to or from.

It also responds to Time Travel so by winding the Digital Crown you can see phrases which change such as "Good afternoon" which is replaced by "Good evening" as you scroll forward.

Dark Sky Weather

Dark Sky is the first app we put on any new Apple device, and the Apple Watch is no exception. In fact, we think Dark Sky is at its most useful when you’re wearing it on your wrist.

What Dark Sky does seems very simple, but is actually very clever. It tells you what the weather’s going to do - not in a vague sense, but as in telling you that it’s going to bucket down in ten minutes and that the storm won’t stop for an hour.

That means it’s the perfect app for anybody who’s thinking about going outside for any reason, or who’s already outside and really ought to be getting inside in a big hurry.

In more dramatic climates it alerts of dangerous weather such as storms, and you can set it to notify you of specific kinds of weather that you select in the companion iPhone app.

We use it to decide if now is a good time to walk the dog, if it’s time to get the kids back to the car or if we really shouldn’t be going out dressed like that; you might use it when you’re hiking or biking, or doing any other activity that could be affected by changes in the weather.

If you used Dark Sky in the early days of the Apple Watch and found it painfully slow and unresponsive, give it another go: the current version runs on the watch, not on the phone, and the difference in performance really is dramatic.

Yahoo Weather

Dark Sky and CARROT Weather get all the reviews, but Yahoo’s weather app is a lovely thing on the Apple Watch.

It takes the same colorful, minimalist approach as the iPhone/iPad app, with screens showing trend lines for temperature, precipitation and wind speed, along with sunrise and sunset times and where the sun is right now, whether it’s going to rain and what the temperature highs and lows will be.

You don’t get the right-now weather warnings of Dark Sky or the sass of CARROT, just a clear, easy to understand and really well-presented set of predictions.

It’s not all sunshine and flowers, though. The host app is pretty big - 137MB, which is on the large side for a weather app, given that the UK Met Office app is 80MB and Dark Sky 20.8MB - and the accuracy of the weather forecasts seems to depend on where you live.

US users seem very happy with it, but UK users say it’s a little pessimistic: while it rains a lot in Britain, it doesn’t rain quite as often as Yahoo Weather says it will.

Then again, it’s better to warn of rain and be pleasantly surprised than to predict good weather when the skies are about to open.

Circa

  • Circa
  • $3.99/£3.99/AU$5.99

It’s not a surprise that the Apple Watch attracts a lot of apps built around the idea of time, but few of them are as simple and as useful as Circa. It’s designed for global travellers or people whose life involves communicating with people around the world, and answers a simple and important question: is this a good time?

It may be a simple question, but it’s often a tough question to answer. If you’ve ever tried to find a time for a virtual meeting that works not just for you and your local colleagues but for colleagues halfway across the world you’ll know how much of a pain in the neck it can be.

Are they EST or PST? Are they behind us or ahead of us? Circa remembers these things so you don’t have to, offering crystal clear guides to when people are going to be available and when they should be in their bed.

It’s a niche app, but many of the very best Apple Watch apps are: it’s simple, beautifully designed and does exactly what it sets out to do. If you need this kind of thing, this is exactly what you need.

TripIt - Travel Organizer

Whether you’re a road warrior or an occasional holidayer, keeping track of the various aspects of your trip can be a pain. TripIt solves that by pulling all your travel-related documentation together.

All you need to do is send your travel confirmation emails - flights, hotels, car hire - to TripIt and the app will automatically organize them and tell you the information you need when you need it.

If you use Gmail, Outlook.com or Yahoo mail you can get TripIt to monitor your mailbox automatically, which makes things even easier. If you’re in the US, it even tells you when it’s time to head for the airport.

The phone app stores your itinerary and key documents, and the Watch app lets you know what’s important right now - so if you’re about to board a flight you’ll see the flight number and departure time, if you’re checking in you’ll see a booking reference and so on.

Things get really clever with the Pro subscription ($48.99/£38.99/AU$77.99), which adds live flight notifications, seat tracking and alternative flight finding should your plans change.

That’s probably unnecessary for most people, though: the free version of the app includes all the essentials you need for any kind of travel.

CARROT Weather

We’ve mentioned CARROT Weather before: it’s our go-to app when we want the weather forecast delivered by a hyper-intelligent artificial entity that wishes we were dead. In this massive update the app becomes even more horrible, and we mean that in a good way.

There are complications for your Apple Watch face as well as a completely misanthropic Watch app with all the weather information you could possibly need, displayed silently or spoken aloud depending on your preferences.

We particularly like the way you can specify just how horrible CARROT is to you, along with its political leanings. And on the accompanying iPhone app there’s a really fun feature that uses Apple’s ARKit to bring the forecast into augmented reality.

The developers are upfront about their pricing: if you want to use Weather Underground data instead of the default Dark Sky and take advantage of its radar pictures too, those features cost the devs extra money so you’ll need to pay another $9.99/£8.99/AU$14.49 per year for the Ultrapremium Club in-app purchase.

There’s also a cheaper Premium Club ($3.99/£3.49/AU$5.49pa) that enables you to customize the complications, to receive weather alerts and to have background data updates. It’s worth it.

Best Apple Watch apps for food and drink

Just Eat

Proving that you should never underestimate our basic laziness, Just Eat created an app for people who couldn’t be bothered using the telephone to call for a takeaway. Now, it’s added an app for people who can’t be bothered reaching for their iPhone to open the Just Eat app.

One day historians may look back on this as one of the key steps in the downfall of western civilisation. Then again, easy pizza!

The Just Eat app is UK-only - if you’re in the US, try the Domino’s Apple Watch app instead - and it enables you to choose, order and pay for takeaways from the comfort of your wrist thanks to Apple Pay integration.

You can also choose to collect instead of having the meal delivered, but let’s be honest: if you can’t be bothered getting your phone you’re hardly going to want to go outside to collect your food - although if you’re driving it’s handy to order a pickup with a few taps.

The main iPhone/iPad app is much more attractive and informative, but when it comes to ordering regulars from your favorite local takeaways it doesn’t get much easier than having Just Eat on your wrist.

Yelp

You’ve probably noticed something of a trend in our favorite apps: they tend to approach their mission by asking what useful things the watch can do rather than trying to cram an entire phone app into that tiny screen, irrespective of whether that’s sane or useful. Yelp is a great example of an app that gets it right.

When you open it you’ll see just four icons: Restaurants, Bars, Coffee & Tea, and Hot & New. Tapping on the one you’re interested in then shows you a list sorted by distance, with the all-important star ratings and average cost listed on top of a photograph. Tap again and you’ll get the opening hours and a map, and of course you can read the reviews too - that’s what Yelp is all about.

It’s particularly good for the kind of venues and experiences popular among bright young things in big cities, (the most committed Yelpers), but the database is truly enormous and doesn’t turn into tumbleweed whenever you venture into the countryside. Yelp’s app is very good for finding places in unfamiliar towns, or unfamiliar places in towns you know very well.
 

Chipotle

I sometimes wear my messy Chipotle burritos while scarfing down the healthy-ish Mexican platters, but I'm also purposely wearing Chipotle on my wrist to send order to the store via my Apple Watch.

While it's not the most groundbreak app, I can create a one-tap order with the Chipotle Apple Watch app and have my meal ready to go while I'm on the treadmill at the gym next door. It's as efficient as it is calorie rich. The best part is, I get the skip the always massive line.

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New iPhone 11 release date, price, news and leaks

Posted: 03 Jan 2019 08:31 AM PST

The iPhone 11 release date won't be until September, but there's already a lot of interest in the next new iPhone and what Apple may have in store for us later this year.

The new iPhone 11 is set to be a bigger upgrade than the incremental iPhone XS, although we don't expect the new iPhone to re-invigorate Apple's smartphone line as it was only recently rebooted by the iPhone X in 2017.

However, with news that Apple isn't selling as many iPhones as previously forecast, perhaps the iPhone 11 will offer a more affordable tack on the firm's famous flagship.

The iPhone 11 launch date is today, September 12, which means there really isn't long until we find out exactly what Apple has in store for us.

With three iPhones launched in 2018, we expect Apple to repeat the trifecta this year with the iPhone 11 possibly launching alongside the iPhone 11 Max and the iPhone 11R (names TBC).

So what new features will the iPhone 11 have, and will it still have a notch? Let's investigate what we expect from Apple's next flagship iPhone.

Cut to the chase

  • What is it? The iPhone 11 will be Apple's next flagship
  • When is it out? Launch is likely to be mid-September 2019
  • What will it cost? Likely no more than last year's iPhone XS

New iPhone 11

The new iPhone 11 could end up looking similar to the iPhone XS

New iPhone 11 leaks and latest news

It may still be many months away, but new iPhone 11 leaks have started to slowly appear on the web.

One report points to the inclusion of Sony's next-gen 3D sensors in the new iPhone, which could in turn offer quicker face unlock, better Portrait mode depth sensing and some potentially cool 3D modelling features and Augmented Reality (AR) implementations.

Meanwhile, another iPhone 11 leak suggests the new handsets, and its potentially new siblings, could support input from the Apple Pencil that currently only works with iPads.

Apple usually introduces a new chipset with its new iPhone launches, and the A13 chip is being touted for the iPhone 11, with analysts claiming a manufacturer is already lined up to produce the A13 chip.

New iPhone 11 release date

  • iPhone 11 launch date: Mid-September 2019
  • iPhone 11 pre-order date: Mid- September 2019
  • iPhone 11 release date: Late September 2019

The iPhone 11 launch date may well be a little later than previous years, as Europe's biggest tech show, IFA 2019 in Berlin, is set to run from September 6-11 this year - which may see Apple defer its new iPhone launch to the following week.

That means we could be looking at a potential iPhone 11 launch date of either September 17 or September 18, depending on whether Apple plumps for a Tuesday or Wednesday - both days have been used in recent years.

Apple hasn't launched an iPhone this late since 2011, when it announced the iPhone 4S on October 4, and we fully expect the Cupertino, California based firm to stick with a September arrival for the new iPhone in 2019.

As for the iPhone 11 pre-order date, Apple tends to open them on the Friday following the launch, which would be September 20 by our calculations.

Finally, the new iPhone 11 release date - the day when you'll actually be able to get your hands on the handset for the first time - could be just a week after the pre-orders open, so September 27 if our analysis is correct.

These dates could quite easily shift though, and we wouldn't be surprised if Apple followed more recent tradition and launch the new iPhone 11 on September 10.

New iPhone 11 price

  • iPhone 11 price likely to start around $999 (£999, AU$1,579)
  • There could be a new price strategy

Even without the official iPhone 11 price, we know it'll cost a lot. After all, Apple priced the iPhone XS and iPhone X starting at $999 (£999, AU$1,579). We could see identical prices for the iPhone 11.

With news that Apple isn't selling as many iPhones as it previously forecast, there's a chance the iPhone 11 price will offer a more affordable look - although we reckon a price freeze, rather than a reduction, is a more likely move by Apple.

It could mean good news for the successor to the well-received iPhone XR, with the main complaint about the first handset being it was still a little steep price-wise. If Apple can reduce the price on the iPhone 11R, it may help soften a lofty iPhone 11 price tag.

New iPhone, iPhone 11 or iPhone XI?

What will Apple call the new iPhone 11? It's a puzzling conundrum and there are a variety of different options for Apple to potentially pick from.

It seems Apple has backed itself into somewhat of a naming corner with the recent XS, XS Max and XR monikers - so where does it go from here?

Will it stick to roman numerals, revert back to traditional digits, or ditch them all together? At this stage, with sparse new iPhone leaks around, nothing is off the table.

At this moment in time, we're seeing most of you searching for 'new iPhone', and that's a strong contender. Apple has already ditched numbered increments for Mac, Macbooks, TV and iPads, so new iPhone would be a logical next step.

However, the numbers are a great way to easily distinguish new devices from old, so both iPhone 11 and iPhone XI are very much in the running. Apple never did give us an iPhone 9 though - with the iPhone 8 the final digit before the 'X' revolution - so going back to '11' may look a little odd.

New iPhone 11

The iPhone XS and XS Max are great, but there's still room for improvement

New iPhone 11: what we want to see

The iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max are great smartphones, but there's always room for improvement and human nature desires more every time - which means Apple needs to shake a few things up.

Here at TechRadar we like to think of the whole tech community as one great, big family who help each other out, so we've come up with a few upgrades we reckon would go down a treat on the new iPhone. 

1. No notch (or, at least, a smaller one)

Love it or hate it, the notch has taken the smartphone world by storm, with a sharp influx in the design aesthetic after the arrival of the iPhone X - however it seems many of the competition have already surpassed Apple's implementation.

The Apple notch is distinctive thanks to its size, but that's also its Achilles heel. It takes up a large amount of space along the top of the screen while we seen Android makers bring us dew-drop screens which are only as big a single front facing camera.

What's preventing the notch from simply being ditched is all the tech Apple has crammed into it, and to remove it completely could mean a loss of some features - such as Face ID.

Apple can probably relocate the microphone, proximity sensor and speaker, which in turn may see a reduction in size of the notch - which would be a step in the right direction.

But, no notch would be the killer look - with a clean, elegant design that will surely turn heads.

New iPhone 11

The notch is big... imagine if it wasn't there on the new iPhone

2. A new design

The current design of the XS and XS Max is fantastic - solid, premium and sleek, it's one of the most desirable looks on the market, so is it cheeky of us to ask for something new? We don't think so.

Apple's used the same design for the past two generations, and to avoid the new iPhone 11 being branded another incremental update, a fresh new look would help.

If Apple does ditch the notch as we've so very kindly asked for above, that would be the first step towards a new design, but we'd like to see it go further,

It's already removed the headphone jack and home button, so our focus is now on the alert slider, volume buttons and power key. 

We've seen HTC and Google implement squeezable sides on their phones, and if Apple can hone this technology to make it even more user friending it could be the end of any physical button or switch on the handset.

3. Better battery life

We say this ever year, but the fact remains that iPhones still aren't the strongest performers when it comes to battery life.

The iPhone XS provided an improvement in battery over the iPhone X, but as we noted in our review, it's still "a long way from the best on the market."

It's time Apple really got to grips with battery life, giving the new iPhone 11 a power pack that will see it comfortably through one day and into the next without a panic about finding a charger overnight.

Battery technology isn't going to give us the multiple days of battery life we saw from feature phones back in the early 2000s, but an iPhone that could stretch to two days from a single charge would really get people talking.

4. eSIM only

The latest round of iPhones (the XS and co.) offer dual SIM capabilities, but they can only hold one physical SIM. That's because the other one is an eSIM, which is built into the handset and can be assigned to a network upon activation.

Having to slide a SIM card into a new phone feels rather old fashioned in 2019, so we'd like to see the physical card ditched in favor of a dual eSIM setup in the new iPhone 11.

We'd also want an easy to use setting that allows us to easily jump onto a network of our choosing at a tariff of our choice and, more importantly, be able to easily switch to a different network when our current deal expires.

Plus, it would also mean the removal of the SIM tray, allowing for a sleeker design and potentially freeing up some precious additional space inside the handset for new features (or more battery!).

This is only partly on Apple however, as carriers around the world would have to fully support eSIM technology and at the moment only a handful do so.

However, with the introduction of 5G in 2019 and the presence of eSIM already inside one generation of iPhone, this ask isn't totally out of the question.

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Xbox Two: what we want to see out of a new Xbox

Posted: 03 Jan 2019 08:28 AM PST

For the past few years, the new Xbox was nothing more than a dream. We had hoped Microsoft was working on the next Xbox, and even suspected that might be the case, but until recently, we weren't sure.

Now we can confidently say that not only is a new Xbox - the Xbox Two - now in development, but it's closer than ever to being unveiled (and there is more than next generation console on the horizon).

The official story starts just a few months ago when Xbox Chief Phil Spencer told the thousands of attendees at E3 2018 that the console - or, rather, series of consoles is in development: "Our hardware team is deep into developing the next generation of Xbox consoles, where we will once again deliver on our commitment to set the benchmark for console gaming." 

Since Spencer's announcement details have slowly bubbled up all around the net on the purported system. First we got a codename – Xbox Scarlett – and now we've heard rumblings of the first games to be designed for the next-gen Xbox: The Elder Scrolls 6, Cyberpunk 2077 and Halo Infinite. If these all manage to launch on the console when it releases somewhere around 2020 or 2021, it could be enough to put Microsoft back on top of the gaming world. 

[Update: Next Xbox consoles are codenamed 'Anaconda', 'Lockhart' and 'Scarlett'.]

What's the latest on Microsoft's next Xbox?

Rumors of a streaming-only Xbox started emerging earlier in July and now we know a lot more about how it might actually work.

According to a new report, the Xbox Scarlet Cloud will utilize a semi-custom AMD Picasso chip. In case that series of APUs sounds familiar, these are the same chips AMD is rumored to introduce as its next-generation Ryzen 3000 mobile processors, which have been recently spotted in a few HP laptop benchmarks and even in an upcoming AMD-powered Surface Laptop.

This new streaming Xbox won’t just be powered by a laptop CPU of course. Microsoft will undoubtedly want the chip stripped of unnecessary components and have a custom packaging made for its upcoming console. Interestingly, this new chip is said to offer even better performance to power, which may allow it to fit into an even smaller form factor than the Xbox One S and Xbox One X.

While it'd be nice to have a new console ready for E3 2019, work hasn’t gone so far that we can expect to see the console any sooner than 2019. According to Windows Central’s Jez Corden, two years would be too soon to expect the new Xbox but it would likely still be backwards compatible with the rest of the Xbox family. 

Interestingly, 2019 to 2020 is around the time that analysts are predicting Sony will launch the PlayStation 5. 

If you ask us, we think it's unlikely that Microsoft would let Sony launch a brand new console without answering with its own within a year, but we don't think the company would try to beat Sony to the post given Microsoft’s first foray into true 4K gaming hasn't even been on store shelves even a year yet.

That said, however, that's not going to stop us from thinking ahead to the next Xbox and what it’ll bring - corroborated by information scoured from across the web.

Xbox Two news and rumors

Next Xbox consoles are codenamed 'Anaconda' and 'Lockhart'

According to Windows Central, two consoles are expected to arrive alongside an additional 'Scarlett Cloud' Xbox console - codenamed 'Anaconda' and 'Lockhart'. 

The 'Anacondo' is rumored to be replacing the premium Xbox One X model, which may ship with a solid state hard drive to improve frame rate performance, and is likely to see a boost in graphics and all-round performance. The 'Lockhart', on the other hand, is due to be a successor to the Xbox One S - offering a cheaper alternative. 

It will house some impressive tech

A new job listing suggests that Microsoft is hard at work on the next Xbox. The company is looking for a senior electrical engineer to "come be a part of what's next" in Xbox hardware. 

Xbox is seeking for an engineer to “lead the DRAM solutions for the Xbox console hardware development team" adding that the “DRAM solutions include DDR3, GDDR5, GDDR6 and future DRAM technologies."

This person will be working on "currently shipping and future Xbox design projects." It was already suggested by Jez Corden in 2017 that the next Xbox is being designed and this gives greater credence to that.

Andrew House talks the next generation

Former PlayStation chief, Andrew House, has been talking about the future of consoles at GamesBeat Summit in California recently. Though House wasn't willing to go into specifics on the next PlayStation itself, he did say that he thinks physical media will be around for all consoles for some time to come, thanks to the need to continue breaking into new markets. One would assume this is something that would also be relevant to any future Xbox console. 

In his interview, House said, "I don’t have any firm knowledge on this, but my sense is that you will see the disc around in the industry for a while. If you’re going to tap into some of these [developing] markets, then allowing for that more traditional physical purchase model as an option is probably no bad thing."

Despite this, though, House also believes that streaming will be big in the future of gaming – an opinion which ties neatly with Microsoft's Phil Spencer's who emphasised the need for a 'Netflix for video games'. This would be, one would imagine, a natural extension of the download-based Xbox Game Pass in the next generation. 

A console just for streaming

Recent reports from Thurrott suggest we may even see a streaming-only console launch alongside the mainline Xbox Two, to help establish Microsoft's nascent streaming model as a fully-fledged gaming experience of its own.

It would likely be pitched as a low-cost alternative, given the reduced hardware requirements when streaming games directly from the cloud – probably higher in price than a standard streaming box but cheaper than other Xbox consoles. Though it's pretty certain you'd require a monthly subscription to access the Xbox library.

Thankfully, all next-gen games are still expected to run on both consoles (that would get confusing quickly). And if Microsoft manage to fix the latency issues currently holding back the streaming model, we could really see this taking off.

What will the new Xbox be called?

The hardest part of this future-gazing is actually trying to guess what the console might be called, given the naming progression that’s come before. Microsoft isn't going to abandon the Xbox brand anytime soon, surely, but the subtitle is a little harder to pin down. It's unlikely the next Xbox will keep the codenames Xbox Scarlett, Xbox Anaconda or Xbox Lockhart.

If it’s a brand new console generation it’d make sense to call it Xbox Two, but Xbox 720 made a retrospectively perplexing amount of sense at one point so let’s not be too confident in that. We wouldn't be entirely surprised by an Xbox Zero – or even Infinite, to take a leaf from the next Halo game.

The rumored streaming console may also ditch the numerical naming altogether – Xbox Cloud, anyone?

What will it the new Xbox be capable of?

What’s slightly easier is predicting the features that are likely to appear in this new Xbox. 

The Xbox One X is a huge step forward for Microsoft, bringing native 4K gaming and near-PC power into a console. It's currently the most powerful console on the market so where can Microsoft go from here?

A powerful console focused on games

We like to think Microsoft has learned a lot of lessons from the difficult launch of the Xbox One. The Xbox One didn’t have the advantage of being the only HD console option on the market like the Xbox 360 did, and additionally its launch ended up being marred by a Kinect bundle that pushed its price way higher than it should have been.

As a result, the PlayStation 4 took (and has maintained) a commanding lead in terms of market share. 

Microsoft has definitely addressed a  lot of these issues with the Xbox One X. It's  a piece of hardware that's almost entirely focused on games, and it's not bundled with any superfluous hardware. In fact, Microsoft's gone so far as to drop the Kinect port entirely. We imagine this focus will continue into the future. 

Budget and premium options

With the One S and the One X Microsoft is embracing both an iterative and a tiered model. The company is not only launching incrementally better pieces of hardware over time, but it's also supporting previous versions of the console and allowing them to exist as budget options.

As a case in point, the One X is still expensive (much more so than the PS4 Pro), but the Xbox One S is still being presented as a worthy and attractively priced 4K upscaling alternative that will still be capable of playing all the same games, not just from this generation but the previous generation too.

However, after each console has had its chance at being the budget model, they've each fallen away into obscurity. We've already seen this with the original Xbox One, and it's likely that the Xbox Two will eventually have the same effect on the Xbox One S.

We imagine Microsoft may want a certain degree of market saturation for the Xbox One X (or at the very least 4K TVs) before launching the Xbox Two but when the console does launch it’s less likely to feel like the same leap that moving from Xbox 360 to Xbox One did.

An additional streaming-focused console could also prove to be a low-cost alternative, given the reduced hardware requirements needed for cloud-based play.

Trial and error, rather than a jump into the unknown

In some senses we feel that it’s reasonable to assume we’ll be slowly drip-fed a lot of the technology that will end up in the Xbox Two. 

This has the big advantage of allowing Microsoft to establish what works and what doesn't work over time rather than having to take a big leap of faith with a brand new piece of hardware. 

VR and AR support is likely

We've learned that certain things are unimportant for consoles this generation, like motion-sensing and touch-screen, but the new technologies like VR and AR are proving to be very exciting fields for developers.

Microsoft has already confirmed that the Xbox One X will support Windows 10 virtual and mixed reality headsets but it’s not being forceful with pushing them. They were notably absent from the console’s presentation at E3 2017 and we still have plenty of questions.

If PlayStation VR continues to grow in strength we expect Microsoft will be more clear about the Xbox One X’s stance on these headsets and much more active about developing the technology for its successor. Xbox Two could very well be the HoloLens console. If the technology flops, Microsoft can easily phase it out from its next generation plans like the Kinect but much more neatly and less to the detriment of initial sales.

Meanwhile, if the Xbox One X’s 4K visuals fail to make the console appeal as much as Microsoft hopes they will, we don’t doubt they’ll still be a feature of the Xbox Two, but they may be less of a focus in the overall marketing. 

The latest and greatest audio visual technology

Recently Microsoft has been really keen on integrating the latest audio visual technologies into its consoles - Dolby Atmos support, 4K and HDR are all here. This is something we can see continuing into the next generation. 

It’s clear Microsoft wants gaming on Xbox to be a full sensory experience and it’s possible that the next console will include some kind of projection system similar to Project Ariana that Razer showcased at CES 2017 whereby gaming environments were extended beyond the screen and into the player’s room. With something like this, Xbox Two has the potential to be an immersive gaming machine and we already know technology of a similar ilk was being considered in the Illumiroom project from back in 2013.

An increasingly cross-platform ecosystem

In the way that Nintendo is bridging the gap between its handheld and home console divisions with the Switch, we can see Microsoft moving its PC and console users closer as we move onto the Xbox Two. 

Cross-platform play, accounts and digital purchases are being encouraged in the Windows 10 and Xbox stores and this is something we can see Microsoft continuing to push into the new generation, particularly if it’s going to continue to manufacture consoles that boast near-PC specs. However, Sony has vehemently said it will not take part in cross-platform play with competing consoles. 

Learnings from the PC

It’s likely that the new Xbox will likely have more of a Steam-esque interface that puts games first and doesn't confuse the customer. A system with a more indie- and mod-friendly focus is also important (we’re already seeing this with Indie@Xbox), and if the console consumer base doesn't jibe with mid-lifecycle console upgrades, perhaps a more PC piecemeal approach with more swappable parts will be in order. 

When will the next Xbox be released?

So we know we're getting another console (or two), but how soon will it really be with the Xbox One still in its first year?

Rumors suggest Microsoft is planning a 2020 release, which would be only 3 years after the iterative Xbox One X, but 7 years after the Xbox One first came to market and a good time, perhaps, to move onto the new generation. Even if the reports are reliable, we still envisage this being pushed to early 2021, though if the PS5 launched before that it's likely Microsoft won't want to be too far behind.

With the steady and considered steps Microsoft is making and the way the company seems to be listening to feedback from its users more than ever, we anticipate that the Xbox Two could be its most considered launch yet. In the meantime, a lot hinges on the Xbox One X.

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The best free stock video sites 2019

Posted: 03 Jan 2019 08:20 AM PST

A few well-placed snippets of high quality footage can really bring projects to life – whether they're presentations, websites or your own home-made videos. 

Finding the right video clips can be tricky, though. Many stock video sites charge a subscription fee for their best content. Thankfully, there are also places where you can download high quality video clips completely free of charge for both personal and commercial use, with no royalties or strings attached.

We've put the best free stock photo sites under the microscope and picked those that offer the best combination of video quality, variety of clips, and flexible licensing.

It's worth bearing in mind that even if a video clip is in the public domain, you shouldn't use it to create that shows identifiable people in a bad light.

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Pexels screengrab

There are some truly spectacular videos available on Pexels – all under a Creative Commons 0 (ie public domain) license, which means you’re free to use them for personal or commercial projects without attribution. 

The time-lapse videos are particularly lovely, and there are plenty of fun clips from GoPro-wearing divers and climbers. Pexels also include a handy ‘mockup’ category for footage of mobile devices with green screens that can be easily replaced via chroma keying.

Search results include premium videos from Shutterstock, but unlike most stock video sites, Pexels displays these at the bottom so you’re unlikely to mistake them for free clips.

Videos are provided in MP4 format in HD. The only drawback is the lack of clips in 4K, but if Full HD is enough for your project, Pexels should be your first stop.

If you need stock photos, Pexels also offers a great selection of stylish premium-quality stills under the same license. 

Pexels

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Stock Footage for Free screen grab

Stock Footage for Free feels like the video equivalent of free stock photo site Unsplash, focusing on quality rather than quantity. The footage is extremely impressive; we particularly like the selection of landscapes and looping backgrounds.

You’re given a detailed description of the video so you can be sure it’s the right one before downloading it. This is a sensible decision; downloads can take a while because of the large file sizes. The site’s HD videos are provided in MOV format, but there aren’t currently any 4K clips available.

Video clips are free for personal and commercial use, unless it’s a seriously high-budget production. Stock Footage for Free provides a detailed license agreement that makes explicit all the intellectual property information you’re likely to need.

Before you can download files you’ll need to sign up for a free account or log in using Facebook. At the time of writing, an error meant that we were unable to log in using an email address, though the Facebook option worked fine. We’ve reached out to the company to find out if this is an issue that can be resolved.

Stock Footage for Free

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Pixabay screen grab

Pixabay is best known as a resource for free stock photos, but is also has a great selection of video clips available to download and use, no strings attached. 

The videos are all submitted by Pixabay’s community of users, and are generally under a minute in length. The site is a good option for abstract images like clouds, as well as somewhat niche clips (the video of a man preparing pieces of beef is a particularly odd example). 

There’s a small selection of 4K video too, motion graphics, and some infinitely looping clips that are handy for websites.

All clips are provided free for personal or commercial use, with no attribution necessary. The files are provided in MP4 format, in a choice of resolutions.

Pixabay

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Clipstill screen grab

Clipstill is dedicated to cinemagraphs – still photos containing a small repeated animation that plays on a loop. The effect is hypnotic, and a great way to grab viewers' attention. There's only a small selection of cinemagraphs available free (most of the videos on the site are premium content), but they're high quality and change each month, so it's well worth keeping Clipstill bookmarked.

Clipstill's cinemagraphs are available to download as small video files, and are particularly well suited to web design.

It's not essential to provide credit when using Clipstill's videos, but a link back is appreciated. You're free to use cinemagraphs in your own projects unless you're making a commercial product in which it's the main attraction, such as a greetings card or website template (see the licensing page for full details)

Clipstill

Videezy screen grab

Footage from Videezy is royalty free for personal and commercial use, but users are asked to credit ‘Videezy.com’ in their projects.

Most videos are provided in HD resolution, but there’s also a good selection of 4K clips – mostly landscape scenes and abstract clips rendered using Adobe After Effects.

The quality is mixed, but generally high. We particularly like the selection of aerial drone footage 

All videos are supplied in MP4 format, and you can see the resolution below the preview on the download page.

Keep an eye out for search results marked with a green 'Pro' tag; these are premium clips only available using paid-for credits. The first two rows of search results are also sponsored videos from Shutterstock, which also require a paid membership to download.

Videezy

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Videvo screen grab

Videvo offers thousands of videos contributed by its community of users. Quality is variable (a few clips have clearly been shot without a tripod) but they’re generally good, and there’s a huge selection to choose from so it’s highly likely you’ll find something suitable – even if it takes a little while.

If you'd like to contribute your own videos for others to download, you can do so after signing up for a free account.

Videos on Videvo fall under one of three licenses, so be sure to check which one applies to your chosen clip before you start working:

Videvo Standard License, which lets you use the clips in your own work without attribution, provided you don’t redistribute the footage.

Videvo Attribution License, which is the same as the Standard License, but requires you to credit the clip’s creator.

Creative Commons 3.0 Unported, which lets you share and adapt the clip, but requires you to credit the creator and indicate if you’ve made any changes.

Clips marked ‘Editorial use only’ can’t be used commercially, but those labelled ‘All projects and media’ can.

As with many free stock video sites, the top row of search results are actually premium samples from an advertiser (in this case Shutterstock). Scroll past these for Videovo’s own clips.

Some clips are provided as MP4 files, while others are delivered in QuickTime format. There’s a small selection of 4K clips, but half of these are Christmas-themed motion graphics. If you’re specifically looking for 4K video, you’re better off looking at one of the sites listed above.

Videvo

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Asus launches its RT-AX88U Wi-Fi 6 router

Posted: 03 Jan 2019 08:04 AM PST

The Asus RT-AX88U is the latest router to support the latest Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) standard, with the technology – which is expected to become widely available in 2019 – promising big things for home Wi-Fi networks.

The latest 802.11ax Wi-Fi standard brings support for 160MHz bandwidth and Wi-Fi speeds of up to 6,000Mbps to the Asus RT-AX88U, with speeds of 1,148Mbps on the 2.4GHz band and 4,804Mbps on the 5GHz band. This is 2.3 times faster than current 802.11ac dual-band routers.

Asus has also packed the RT-AX88U with some powerful networking tech, including OFDMA and MU-MIMO technology that Asus claims provides up to four times better network efficiency and capacity. 

If you have a home or office with lots of devices connected to Wi-Fi, then the RT-AX88U could make a big difference. According to Asus, the RT-AX88U provides up to 80% greater coverage than previous-generation routers.

Extra features

The Asus RT-AX88U also comes with eight Gigabit LAN ports for wired devices, plus two USB ports for connecting hard drives and printers and sharing them with the rest of the network.

It features a 64-bit 1.8GHz quad-core processor, plus all the network features we’ve come to expect from Asus routers, such as QoS for prioritizing gaming traffic and support for Asus AiMesh, that allows the router to connect to other compatible routers to create a mesh Wi-Fi network.

The Asus RT-AX88U certainly appears to be a forward-thinking and feature-rich router, and we’ll hopefully get to try it out soon. It’s available to buy right now for $349.99 (around £280, AU$500).

This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Get a year of 1&1 web hosting for just $1 / £1 a month

Posted: 03 Jan 2019 08:02 AM PST

It's a whole new year, and that means it's the perfect time to set up that website you've been thinking about – but where do you start? Well a good place to begin is with a web hosting package, and we have a brilliant deal for just that. 

So what's the deal? Well, you can get web hosting including a free domain for just £1 a month with 1&1 IONOS(excluding VAT). That's a ridiculously cheap price, and means you'll spend just £12 for the entire year. If you're located in the US then don't worry, you can also get your hands on this deal for just $1 a month! 

With this package you're getting 100GB of storage, a free domain and enough power to handle around 100 visitors every minute. Not to mention all of the plans offer secure SSL certificates, so you know your domain is safe.

Sound like a deal you'd be interested in? Well you can see all of the details of this deal below, or if you're not sure this is the deal for you, check out our best web hosting services page for all of the options available.

This cheap web hosting deal in full:

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PS5: what's the latest PlayStation 5 news and when will Sony release it?

Posted: 03 Jan 2019 07:41 AM PST

Now that the PS4 is officially reaching the end of its life cycle (that's direct from Sony), our thoughts are inevitably turning to the PS5 – so what exactly is in store for the Sony PlayStation 5 and when can be expect it to release?

Sony is currently keeping tight-lipped when it comes to specific plans for the PS5: but we know that a PlayStation 5 release date will definitely one day exist, thanks to Sony Interactive Entertainment's President and CEO Shawn Layden confirming as much in an interview with Golem.de. In addition, Sony president Kenichiro Yoshida confirmed the company is working on a next-generation console in an interview with the Financial Times.

Back in May, Sony Interactive CEO John Kodera revealed to the Wall Street Journal that the PS5 would not be releasing until at least 2021. However, an investigation by T3 claimed the PS5 could release as soon as Christmas 2019 - earlier than the Xbox Two.

Even though we don't know exactly what to expect from the PS5 (or if that'll even be its name),  we do know that the rumors, wish lists and alarmingly convincing 'leaked' renders in the run up to a console reveal are a big part of the fun.

In that spirit, we've gathered together everything we most want to see from the PlayStation 5 and what its stand-out features might be when it arrives.

[Update: Sony has confirmed it's working on a next-generation PlayStation console.]

PS4

PS4

PS5: release date

With no official word yet from Sony on a PS5 release date, it's difficult to pin down exactly when we might get to see a PS5 console.

Some analysts are predicting the PlayStation 5 release date could be around 2020 or 2021, for example, while others say 2019 – so just the three-year window, then.

Speaking to GamingBolt, Michael Pachter said that though he thinks the PS5 will be a half-step and will be backwards-compatible with the PS4 Pro, he doesn't think we'll see it until "2019 or 2020 but probably 2019".

This would make sense as it would fall in line with predictions for when the 4K TV market in the US will reach 50%. "I think Sony has probably got the next console cycle lined up already," he says, "I think they already know what they've got to do."

More recently Pachter clarified this claim, saying that Sony would most likely release the new console in 2020. He added that at this time he thinks the PS4 Pro will become the base model PlayStation and will see a reduction in price. 

Meanwhile a recent report from Kotaku's Jason Schreier backs up this thinking. He spoke to a number of developers about likely release dates with most of the conversations pointing to a 2020 release. He writes: "There is information about the PlayStation 5 floating around at both first- and third-party companies, but it’s far more limited than it would be if the console’s release was imminent."

A recent Wall Street Journal report points to a release around three years away, with Sony's John Kodera stating: “We will use the next three years to prepare the next step, to crouch down so that we can jump higher in the future." 

Not long after this, Sony's new CEO, Kenichiro Yoshida, released a three-year business plan for the company which predicted the company's profits would dip in the run up to 2021. This is the kind of dip that may come as the PlayStation 4 reaches market saturation, before the launch of the PS5.

So mark your calendars for 2019, 2020 and 2021 then.

PS4 DualShock

PS4 DualShock

PS5: competition

Although we're hideously impatient for news of a PlayStation 5 release date, we can't fault Sony for taking another few years to really milk the last of the PS4, given it's huge and loyal player base. After all, the PS4 Pro is still relatively new to the market and its direct competitor, the Microsoft's Xbox One X, is an even more recent release. 

However, industry insider Jez Corden (and a recent Microsoft job listing) hinted that Microsoft is already thinking about the next Xbox – the Xbox Two (reportedly codenamed "Xbox Scarlett"). That means it's highly unlikely that Sony isn't currently doing the same and is, perhaps, even further along in the process. 

According to gaming industry analyst Hideki Yasuda (via T3), and his firm Ace Economic Research Institute, "the introduction of the PS5 will be at the end of 2019". A 2019 release would be much earlier than expected and could give Sony a real advantage as the next generation console would release before the Xbox Two.

If we're honest, we can't really see any urgent need to start a new generation right now. And given Microsoft's growing commitment to backwards compatibility, we think it's key for Sony to really think carefully about its next steps. 

Despite Yasuda's report, a two to three-year wait make a lot more sense to us. However, it could be Sony is trying to throw Microsoft a sucker-punch from left-field by releasing earlier than expected.

In addition, Slightly Mad Studios has announced it is working on a high-powered next-generation console called the 'Mad Box'.

PS5: news and rumors

Solid news on the PlayStation 5 is pretty thin on the ground at the moment, but as always, we do have rumors about what could be coming down the line – and we've collected and assessed them right here.

Kenichiro Yoshida confirms next-gen

In an interview with the Financial Times, Sony president and CEO Kenichiro Yoshida said: “At this point, what I can say is it’s necessary to have a next-generation hardware."

Ace Economic Research Institute report

Gaming industry analyst Hideki Yasuda, from Osaka-based firm Ace Economic Research, has claimed in a recent report that the PS5 could arrive in time for Christmas 2019 (via T3). 

The report estimates that "the introduction of the PS5 will be at the end of 2019". If this is true, then it'll be a massive blow to Microsoft who has confirmed the Xbox Two (codenamed "Xbox Scarlett") will not launch until 2020.

John Kodera talks life cycles

PlayStation's John Kodera has been discussing the future of the PS4 at a Sony Corporate Strategy Meeting and, by extension, inadvertently creating space for prospective PS5 release year rumors.

During the meeting, Kodera made it clear that Sony is still very much behind the console but warned that sales are expected to slow this year, in line with expectations as market saturation approaches. As a console gets to this point in its lifecycle, it's natural to start looking forward to the next iteration. 

Kodera stated that the time passing from now until 2021 would be a period where Sony would hunker down – which suggests that a new big idea could be around the corner. Perhaps 2021 will be the time to expect the PS5?

No E3 2018 appearance

Now that E3 2018 has come and gone, we know there was no mention of the PS5 during the event. Instead, Sony offered up deep dives into four of its biggest upcoming games: Death Stranding, Spider-Man, The Last of Us 2 and Ghost of Tsushima. Watch this space for E3 2019.

Eurogamer tech analysis

A recent report from Eurogamer has attempted to narrow down a possible release date based on when technologies advanced enough to justify a generational leap will be available to Sony. The most important things that will need to advance will be the console's processor and its memory and in both cases, Eurogamer has determined that we're unlikely to see a new console released before the very end of 2019.

Even if Sony did manage to push its console out at this date, the cost of production would make the PS5 far too expensive, making it more likely that we won't see the console released until the end of 2020, if Sony has any intention of making it an appealing proposition. 

Cyberpunk 2077

Cyberpunk 2077

Andrew House talks the next generation

Former Sony chief, Andrew House, has been speaking about what the next generation of consoles could look like at the GamesBeat conference recently. Though House refused to comment specifically on the PlayStation 5 itself, he did say that he believes physical discs will stick around for a while yet, as a result of the need to continue tapping into developing markets where downloadable titles may not be quite as compatible with limited internet infrastructure.  

In other markets, however, he thinks that streaming games will be a big part of the next generation of consoles.

House also stated that he thinks the PS4 and the PS4 Pro still have a long life in them yet. This doesn't necessarily cancel out the rumors that the PS5 will be with us in the next one to two years; if the reports that the console will be backwards-compatible are true then the PS4 generation will remain relevant long into the lifecycle of the PS5. Regardless, given that House was unwilling to comment on the PS5 despite being pushed, these details can only be considered speculation at the moment.

The SemiAcccurate report

SemiAccurate (via ResetEra) is claiming that it's received some leaked information on the yet-to-be-announced console and says that the number of dev kits which have been distributed suggests the console could be released sooner than expected. 

In addition to this, SemiAccurate also reports that Sony will use this console to push its VR efforts even further, with VR-tech baked in at the Silicon level, and will sport a GPU based on AMD's Navi architecture with a CPU that's potentially a custom item from AMD's Zen line.

Though SemiAcccurate has a decent track record with its reports, having accurately reported Nintendo's Nvidia partnership for the Switch and the PS4 specs back in 2012, we still say take this with a pinch of salt. 

Though the specs sound plausible, a 2019 release date seems a little far-fetched. Regardless of how many developer kits that Sony has distributed, it feels too soon after the release of the PS4 Pro for the next PlayStation console just now... and we're getting towards the end of 2018.

PS4 on stage

PS4 on stage

The Marcus Sellars claims

Renowned leaker Marcus Sellars has been making some bold claims on Twitter recently (via GameRant), alleging that PS5 development kits are already in the hands of third-party developers. He also claimed that Nintendo is planning a Direct stream for March 8 (something which has since proven to be accurate). In fact, Sellars has been accurate with his claims a few times: recently he revealed Metroid Prime 4 was being developed by Bandai Namco.

However, Sellars didn't provide any evidence to back up his claims so they really can't be taken as anything more than rumor at the moment. 

Something which may be interesting in relation to this, though, is that recently CD Projekt Red revealed that their upcoming title Cyberpunk 2077 was being developed for current and next generation consoles which came as a great surprise to many. Whether this means they're one of the third-party developers at work with these rumored kits is yet to be confirmed.

Even if development kits are in the hands of developers, this doesn't mean the PS5 is coming any time soon. It could still be another couple of years before any kind of reveal in terms of hardware.

The patent

Something that does help Sellars case is a recently updated patent for backwards compatibility that's been filed by Sony. Originally filed in 2015, the patent was updated in February to say “Backward compatibility testing of software in a mode that disrupts timing.” This is no guarantee that Sony is actually working on the technology for the PS5 (it could be creating an entirely separate peripheral that makes backwards compatibility possible) but it's not impossible that this could be for a new generation console. 

The PlayStation Plus news

Though there's been no official word from Sony on the development of a PlayStation 5 just yet, a recent announcement in relation to the PlayStation Plus service has ignited some speculation. It's been announced that from March 2019, PS Plus will no longer offer free PS3 or PSVita games and will instead focus on PS4 titles. This has led to some wondering over whether or not Sony is attempting to phase out these older generation titles in preparation for a new generation. This is, of course, pure speculation but it's interesting that Sony would be willing to reduce its game offering to only two games (as it informed Polygon) without any other excuse than wishing to focus on titles for an already highly successful console. Whether Sony is truly making way for the PS5 or whether it's going to offer a higher quality of PS4 game is unclear and it seems we'll have to wait a while to find out what the final plan for PS Plus is.

PS5: can we have proper 4K gaming?

The PS4 Pro offers a tantalising hint of what 4K gaming could be like. But the stark fact remains: it still doesn’t have the grunt to do native 4K consistently. 

Its “checkerboard” technique of taking single pixels and using each to render four pixels in 4K resolution is clever, and it can do native 4K output, but it often has to sacrifice resolution to keep performance consistent. 

Chris Kingsley, CTO and co-founder of developer Rebellion, dangles an even more ambitious technological carrot in front of a putative PS5: “Obviously new hardware should be able to support 4K TVs and possibly even 8K TVs at a push!” 

Native 4K support, surely, will be a basic requirement of the PlayStation 5. And if Sony cracks that particular problem with alacrity, it could even mean that a PlayStation 5 will arrive sooner than anticipated.

PS5 games

PS5 games

Aside from 4K visuals, if recent showings at GDC 2018 are anything to go by we certainly can expect the next generation to offer incredible visual advancements in terms of character models. 

During GDC, we got a glimpse of what the next generation of games might look like and it's left us extremely excited for the PS5.

Real-time ray tracing was revealed to be the next big thing in rendering while Epic Games gave us a taste of how it might be used to create the most lifelike characters ever. Using its capture technology, the Unreal Engine creator displayed a future with character models so realistic they bring us close to crossing the uncanny valley. Watch a performance from Andy Serkis below to see just how capable these new development technologies are:

“Honestly, between five and ten years from now, I don't think you're going to be able to tell the difference between the real and the virtual world,” Epic CTO Kim Libreri told GamesIndustry.biz, “You'll see hardware that can support these kinds of capabilities pretty shortly, and then, finally, the greatest blockbuster with the most complicated effects, within ten years, you'll be able to do that in real-time.”

When Libreri tells us we'll see hardware that can support this technology "pretty shortly" we can't be sure, but we like to think she's talking about the yet-to-be-announced PS5.

PS5: the VR effect

Sony became the first console manufacturer to embrace virtual reality, thanks to the PlayStation VR, but if you examine PlayStation VR closely – and observe how it operates on the PS4 Pro – it invites speculation about how a PlayStation 5 console might take VR to a new level. 

Currently, PlayStation VR operates at lower resolution than the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive – but, as it stands, even its current incarnation almost pushes the base PlayStation 4 beyond its limits. Running a PlayStation VR on a PS4 Pro brings improved frame-rates, which are very handy indeed in terms of the overall VR experience, but even the PS4 Pro can’t overcome the resolution constraints set by the PlayStation VR headset.

Sony will want to return to the market with a second, markedly higher-tech iteration of PlayStation VR

So it’s a good bet that, presuming PlayStation VR is successful (and it already appears to be catching on) Sony will want to return to the market with a second, markedly higher-tech iteration: which would provide an obvious selling point for the PlayStation 5. 

And if a PlayStation VR 2 headset could be sold without an external black box, it should be markedly cheaper, further accelerating VR’s march into the mainstream. A recent report from SemiAcccurate, which claims that the PS5 will have virtual reality capabilities built-in at silicon level, suggests this will indeed be the case. 

PlayStation VR

PlayStation VR

Rebellion’s Kingsley makes another good point about second-generation VR. “Anything that reduces the leads has to be a good thing,” he says. 

The umbilical cord which currently attaches VR headset-wearers to their consoles or PCs obviously goes against VR’s entire immersive nature, and we’re already beginning to see, for example, a third-party implementation for the HTC Vive that renders it wireless. It’s a safe bet that the capacity for running a wireless PlayStation VR 2 will be built into the PS5. 

But Kingsley’s PlayStation VR 2 wish-list goes further: “Wide vertical and horizontal field-of-view would be top of my list, and of course, that would require 4K resolution per eye, and high dynamic range would be great too.” 

HDR and wider fields of view should be achievable but sadly, we don’t reckon full 4K VR is likely to be a possibility even for the PS5. As Kingsley points out, that would require 4K rendering per eye, which equates to 8K rendering overall, which we expect to be beyond the PS5’s capabilities. 

That said, perhaps Sony will find some clever technological bodge to get around that before it releases its fifth PlayStation console.

ratchet and clank

Ratchet and Clank

What form will the PS5 take?

It has been suggested that future consoles like the PlayStation 5 could take radically different forms to current ones, thanks to advances in cloud computing and game streaming, doing away with the components that make today's devices so bulky. However, we reckon it's unlikely that Sony will take a more Nintendo-like approach and put the PS5 in a tiny box.

One reason for that is that with the PS4, Sony has only just committed to using what are basically the innards of a PC – the first three PlayStation variants used proprietary components (and which in the PS3 impacted sales). Developers, certainly, were massively relieved that the PS4 took the PC route. 

"We always want fast CPUs and GPUs, but lots of fast RAM is also very important – it's no use having fast processors if they are starved of data."

Chris Kingsley

“Developers want the ability to make the best games using the minimum amount of effort. We want to focus on being creative and getting things to just work,” Kingsley says. “So the hardware should be based around current console hardware, which is in turn based on PC hardware. We always want fast CPUs and GPUs, but lots of fast RAM is also very important – it’s no use having fast processors if they are starved of data.” 

All the above are achievable, but will the PS5 still have a hard disk? 

Sony Computer Entertainment President and CEO Andrew House spoke at the PS4’s launch about how deciding to put hard disks and 8GB of RAM in the PS4 were both “billion-dollar decisions”. The fact that Sony has now made external hard drive support possible for the PS4 and Pro is a step in the right direction and this is something that could be carried over to the PS5, which will undoubtedly have to deal with even larger 4K assets. 

It seems certain that Sony is very keen to hear what its community thinks – recently a group called PlayStation Voice sent out surveys to members of its closed community asking them what their expectations of the PS5 are. One community member posted the email they received and found themselves removed from the group for breaking its non-disclosure agreements. 

According to PSU, PlayStation Voice is a community run by third-party consumer insight agency, Join the Dots. Once information has been gathered, it's fed back to clients (the client in this case presumably being Sony PlayStation).

Admittedly, this doesn't tell us much about PS5 itself, other than that things are likely to be still in the very early stages. While it's unlikely that Sony would use the information gathered from its communities to decide exactly which features will be included in the console, the ideas of fans can certainly spark a good deal of inspiration.

PS5 and streaming games

Of course, if games were just streamed to the PS5 that problem would disappear entirely, and Sony already has a game-streaming service in the form of PlayStation Now. 

So why isn’t this more of a definite feature rather than something on our wishlist? Well, Sony is remaining tight-lipped about PlayStation Now uptake figures, but we suspect they are pretty unimpressive. It has certainly had issues with setting the right subscription charges, given that PlayStation Now effectively gives backwards compatibility – a “luxury” that was previously free for owners of PlayStation 2s and 3s. 

There would be nothing to stop Sony launching a small form-factor cloud-based version of the console for those with mega-fast broadband

But the biggest issue is broadband speeds. Even 4K TV requires a minimum of 25Mbps broadband in order to provide satisfactory streaming, and it’s doubtful whether 4K game streaming – with extra information on top of the visual side – would even work reliably at such speeds. There would be nothing to stop Sony launching a small form-factor cloud-based version of the PS5 console for those with mega-fast broadband, perhaps with a mobile phone-style subscription model that has an upfront hardware costs (something Microsoft is thinking about). 

But for the PS5 to sell anything like its predecessors, there would have to be a conventional version with similar innards to the PS4. 

Chancellor Philip Hammond has previously announced an infrastructure investment aimed at bringing fast broadband and 5G mobile data to the UK – but the earliest that would have an impact would be 2021, and the PS5 will almost certainly arrive before then. Perhaps its first mid-cycle update, though, will be a streaming version which takes advantage of burgeoning 5G networks?

PS5 games

PS5 games

PS5: optical discs or not?

The rise of downloadable games, which continue to eat into the physical disc market, means that pundits have been predicting that consoles will go discless for about a decade now. However, our guess is that the PS5 won’t be the first system to risk venturing down that road, at least not until it catches wind of Microsoft doing the same thing. 

Sony has taken a lot of (justifiable) flak for not putting a 4K Blu-ray drive in the PS4 Pro – making it a less attractive purchase for film and TV buffs than the Xbox One S or the Xbox One X.

Surveys continue to show that gamers are still attached to the possibility of buying games on physical discs – not least because they can then sell them (a practice that the games industry hates), and keep hard disk space usage at a manageable level.

If Sony were to axe the Blu-ray drive from the PS5, gamers would expect several terabytes of storage in compensation. 

Kingsley gives a developer’s view on the topic: “I think the days of delivering films and games via disc are on the decline, as most people are going digital; however, some people like physical discs, so who knows  whether that decline will level out and remain present but at a lower level than now?”

Download figures have been on the rise over the last year but EA CFO Blake Jorgensen has said that he thinks consoles and disc drives will continue to stick around.

“Consoles and disc drives probably stay around for a long period of time [...] I think it's the consumer deciding what's the easiest way for them to buy a game.

“And it may mean they no longer have a store down the street from them so they decide to buy it [digitally] maybe it's easier for them to do.”

PS4

PS4

So when can we expect the PS5?

Given that the PlayStation 4 was launched in 2013 and Sony’s previous consoles arrived in six-year intervals, it would be easy to project that it will launch the PlayStation 5 in 2019 at the earliest. The sort of technology available then should easily allow full native 4K games without saddling the PS5 with a massive price-tag and, by 2019, 4K TVs will be the norm, rather than the exception, in the average household.

2020 might be the year in which Sony unleashes the PS5 on the world, as the first native 4K console with wireless VR ... as long as Microsoft doesn't get there first

So it would be a surprise if Sony doesn’t want to capitalize on that at the earliest possible juncture. However, Kingsley points at the PS4 Pro, and reckons that could have an effect on the length of the current console cycle: “It’s a difficult one to judge, but overall I think it’s fair to say that the overall cycle will lengthen slightly.” 

Especially if the PS4 Pro wildly outsells the base PS4, which admittedly isn’t something we anticipate happening once it has reached a critical mass of households with 4K TVs. 

So perhaps 2020 might be the year in which Sony unleashes the PS5 on the world, as the first native 4K console with wireless VR... as long as Microsoft doesn’t get there first.

What games can we expect to see on PS5?

If the backwards compatibility patent mentioned above is actually applied, we can expect to see the whole PS4 library available to play on the PS5. Or, perhaps we'll see another round of remasters as we did when moving from the PS3 to the PS4. However, we imagine there will be some games being developed specifically for this new PlayStation 5 console generation and the extra power it's likely to offer.

Already we've seen CD Projekt Red mention that it's developing for this generation as well as the next, and alongside the rumors that there are already developers kits out in the open, we think there's a good chance that Cyberpunk 2077 will be one of the early PS5 titles. 

Check out our PS4 vs PS4:PSVR compared and explained video below.

This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

LG in 2019: Alexa, 8K, and smarter image processing for OLEDs

Posted: 03 Jan 2019 07:25 AM PST

Get ready for some brand new TVs. Ahead of the CES 2019 convention in Las Vegas next week, where LG is expected to showcase their new TV ranges for 2019, we've received official confirmation of at least some of the sets that will be tempting your wallets this year. So what can you expect from the South Korean television manufacturer?

All the OLED

We're sure to see a lot of new OLED televisions. LG is plunging forward with its popular organic LED (or OLED) screens, with new models of the C9, W9, Z9, W9, and E9 replacing last year's C8, W8, and so on. 

There's no mention of a successor to the budget B8 OLED, though we could always see it announced later in the year when sales of the flagships have started to slow. LG's 88-inch Z9 OLED will be on sale for those after a huge 8K screen.

All the new OLED sets for 2019 will come with HDMI 2.1 too, allowing for high-resolution video and audio input from compatible media players and gaming consoles, and smooth motion in action or sports programmes.

LG a9 intelligent processor

TV smarts

A new a9 Gen 2 chip will up the image processing and machine learning on offer in LG's OLED sets, and some choice LCD (or  'NanoCell') televisions, improving noise reduction and enhancing brightness and contrast levels depending on the media being played.

There's a renewed focus on voice commands, with your good friends Alexa and Google Assistant coming built-in to LG's ThinQ AI smart TVs (2018 TVs only came with Google Assistant).

Flagship TVs will also come with Dolby Atmos 5.1 surround sound, while LG's new processor will be able to "up-mix" two-channel audio into 5.1 surround sound: like upscaling for the ears.

We're sure to see more at CES this month, though in the meantime there's already plenty to keep us excited for the year ahead – not least LG's rollable OLED television that's expected to come on sale this year.

  • CES 2019: everything to expect from this year's massive tech expo

This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Best laptop games: 20 games for laptops that won't melt your machine

Posted: 03 Jan 2019 07:25 AM PST

These days, the best games aren’t limited to expensive consoles with online memberships that cost hundreds of dollars per year. And, while the best laptops won’t be able to play some of the best PC games, like Far Cry 5, the best laptop games and their convenience more than make up for the lack of visual splendor.

You can just look at some of the best indie games of the last few years, like Cuphead, and you’ll realize that the best laptops can be beautiful, without relying on complicated graphics. Plus, there are classic titles like Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic that may look dated, but still hold up with stellar gameplay and stories – even if that particular game isn’t canon in the Star Wars universe anymore.

The best laptop games on the market today range from tiny indie games you maybe haven’t heard of, like Thimbleweed Park, to wildly popular triple-A games along the lines of The Sims 4. Whatever your play style, schedule and hardware, we’re willing to bet you’ll find something on this list that you’ll enjoy.

  • Once you're looking for something meatier, check out our best PC games
  • CPU: 2 GHz
  • RAM: 4 GB
  • GPU: Intel HD 3000 or better

Whether he’s at LucasArts, Double-Fine or here and now in a new indie studio, veteran developer Ron Gilbert is also sure to serve up a slice of veritable gaming gold. 

That tradition of impeccable output continues with Thimbleweed Park, a pixel art point ‘n’ click adventure that harks back to the glory days of Maniac Mansion while weaving it together with a very modern eye for creativity.

It’s effectively a murder mystery graphic adventure, where FBI agents Reyes and Ray - who in now way resemble another famous pair of fictional, UFO-chasing member of the Bureau - arrive in a quiet town to investigate a murder most horrid. 

The way it weaves together a genuinely clever story and a cast of peculiar yet instantly memorable characters is something most games with far larger budgets miss entirely.

  • CPU: Intel Core2 Duo E8400, 3.0GHz or AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+, 3.0GHz or higher
  • RAM: 2 GB
  • GPU: Geforce 9600 GT or AMD HD 3870 512MB

You might be turned off by the intimidating amount of challenge it poses, but we assure you, Cuphead is worth a shot. If you don’t already find its colorful, whimsical art style endearing, then maybe you’ll be convinced by some backstory of how it was made.

Cuphead hails from indie developer Studio MDHR (short for Studio Moldenhauer), named after the two brothers who started the project, Chad and Jared Moldenhauer. In fact, the entire company consists of family members and friends who sought out to complete their dream project.

Marija Moldenhauer, Chad’s wife, did all of the inking and clean up in this hand-drawn ode to 2D platforming classics like Mega Man and 1930s Fleischer cartoons like Betty Boop. And, if the 19 bosses aren’t enough for you, Cuphead is getting a major DLC next year with new bosses, areas and a new playable character.

  • CPU: 2 Ghz
  • RAM: 2 GB
  • GPU: 256 mb video memory, shader model 3.0+

If you love farming sims (and, judging by how well the likes of Farming Simulator and Harvest Moon sell, there’s quite a few of you out there), then few games are going to get you jumping for agricultural joy more than the bewitching busywork of Stardew Valley. 

Taking many a cue from the Harvest Moon games, Stardew Valley's top-down POV and cutesy characters feel meld together perfectly.

It’s a dull sounding core concept to be sure - tend your fields, grow produce, raising livestock, etc - but that’s the beauty of it. There’s a moreish peace to the mundanity of SV’s minutia as you expand your farm, fish down at the river and even head into the village to strike up friendships (and maybe something more *wink wink*) with a cast of NPCs. Farming has never been so much fun.

  • CPU: Intel i5 Quad-Core
  • RAM: 4 GB
  • GPU: Intel HD 4000

In many ways, we’re inclined to describe Night in the Woods as Life is Strange meets Bojack Horseman. The interactive dialogue bits derive from the former while the overarching themes of coping with mental health issues rings true in the latter.

Night In The Woods itself was developed in Unity by Infinite Fall, the virtual studio where you’ll find coder and composer Alec Holowka and Twitter jokester slash illustrator and animator Scott Benson. Together, these two have created not just a game, but a gorgeous world full of relatable characters that you will hopefully resonate with.

You’re put in the shoes of Mae, a cat who dropped out of college and recently returned to her hometown of Possum Springs. And, because it’s modern point-and-click adventure game, it’s heavily narrative driven, with very few gameplay hooks that will keep your attention. So, if you like the Telltale games or Life is Strange, we reckon you’ll adore Night in the Woods.

Best of all, it will run pretty easily on integrated graphics, given that it has an appealing, but not highly demanding, art style. Surely, this is a title we’ll be talking about for years and years to come, even if it was snubbed at The Game Awards.

  • CPU: 1.2GHz
  • RAM: 512 MB
  • GPU: DirectX 8-compatible graphics card with at least 32MB of video memory

You’d wonder whether Hotline Miami’s neon-drenched ultraviolence would exist if the film Drive had never been made, and while it’s hard to miss just how vigorously it doffs its bloody mask at the Gosling classic, the end result is an utterly brilliant little indie title.

With a pixel art evoking a top-down look of Grand Theft Auto’s retro years, Hotline Miami indulges in its almost psychedelic violence. The concept is simple: adorn a mask (each one is styled on an animal and adds is own buffs, debuffs and unique abilities), enter a stage and coat the walls with the blood of your enemies.

Add in buckets of neon, a synth soundtrack that’ll have you sewing a scorpion onto the back of a white jacket in no time and one messed up storyline and you’ve got a classic in its own right.

  • CPU: Intel Core i3-2100T @ 2.50 GHz / AMD Phenom II X3 B73
  • RAM: 4 GB
  • GPU: ATI Radeon HD 4850 or NVIDIA GeForce 9600 GT

Even though its a 2018 title, and has a pretty huge following, your laptop’s integrated graphics can still handle Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire. It largely has the same forgiving system requirements that its predecessor does, so if you were a fan of that game, you should be able to enjoy this one as well.

Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire drops players in the Deadfire archipelago and tasks them with hunting down a rogue god. And, much like its predecessor, it features rich storytelling and deep RPG gameplay that harkens to the days of Baldur’s Gate and Neverwinter Nights.

Even though all the backgrounds are in 2D and viewed from a top-down perspective, they’re still lovely to behold. Plus, the myriad spell effects will keep you enchanted as you work your way through the intense and tactical combat.

And, because it's coming from Obsidian, a studio known for making the best RPGs of all time, you can be confident that you’re getting an adventure that’s worth every penny.  

  • CPU: 1.5 GHz Core2Duo
  • RAM: 2 GB
  • GPU: OpenGL 1.4 or better

If someone told you a game about working in a border control office would be one of the most addictive games ever, we’d imagine you’d scoff and walk off shaking your head. 

That is unless you’ve played a little indie gem by the name of Papers, Please. Set in a fictional take on the Eastern Bloc, you’re an immigration clerk tasked with processing refugees from an unfriendly neighbouring nation.

The core concept is simple: check each person’s documents against a clear set of rules, process those who meet the requirements and detain those with false papers. 

The game’s designed to test your attention to detail, but also the strength of your moral compass. Sometimes you’ll have to decide if certain sympathetic characters should be granted asylum, even if it goes against the rules. 

The twist is good performance effectively feeds you family, while mistakes put their lives in danger. It’s dark, but engrossingly so.

  • CPU: Intel Pentium 3 1Ghz or AMD Athlon 1GHz
  • RAM: 256
  • GPU: 32 MB with Hardware T&L

Come on, do we really need to convince you to go out and own a copy of Knights Of The Old Republic? Arguably the greatest Star Wars game ever made (yes, even better than Dark Forces II and Rogue Squadron), KOTOR proved that the most recognisable lore ever could feel fresh and exciting again outside of the silver screen.

Coming from Bioware, the Canadian studio that would go on to create the Dragon Age and Mass Effect series, KOTOR offers compelling characters, intense action that mixes real-time tactics with turn-based mechanics a galaxy of stories that felt tangible and real. Sure, it’s technically not canon anymore, but it still remains one of the greatest games ever coded. Get this in your collection now.

  • CPU: 2GHz+
  • RAM: 3 GB
  • GPU: 512MB

Part role-playing game, part bullet hell shooter, Undertale is a game like no other. The fact that this amazing game is the work of one man is astounding, considering the depth of consequence developer Toby Fox has built into Undertale’s world.

In the diminutive boots of a child who’s fallen into a monster-filled world beneath the earth, you’ll encounter vicious bosses where only the quick thinking survive.

The fact you can befriend bosses as well as fight them changes the fabric of the story, and proves it’s not just NPCs that offer vital moments of dialogue. It’s a game of empathetic reflection, where your actions dictate how a boss or monster reacts to you. 

Aggression leads to more powerful attacks against you, while avoiding retaliation will soften the blows. Strange and seductive in its own special way, Undertale is a curio definitely worth chasing.

  • CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo or AMD Athlon 64X2
  • RAM: 2 GB
  • GPU: NVIDIA GeForce 100 series (512 Mb) or Radeon HD 3xxx or better

When it comes to CCGs (collectible card games), Hearthstone does a pretty great job of keeping you and your deck of animated cards entertained throughout - but what happens when you want something a little less innocuous? You give a CCG with a unique spin such as Chronicle: RuneScape Legends a gander.

Based on the classic lore of Runescape, Chronicle combines card-dealing with the 3D setup of a RPG. Cards represent real characters and enemies that appear across a 3D-rendered pop-up books. 

Cards are played sequentially, with player characters facing each one (ranging from foes to curses to stat buffs), before facing off against one another at the end. It’s bizarre, brilliant and absolutely worth your time. 

Hey, it’s even got new single-player content when you don’t want to test your mettle against other users. Not bad for a low-spec CCG.

  • CPU: 2GHz
  • RAM: 1GB
  • GPU: Card with 128MB+ dedicated memory

FTL sounds like an ultra-hardcore game when you describe it: a real-time strategic space roguelike. A roguelike is a game that makes you start from scratch when you die. However, FTL is actually well-suited to pretty casual laptop gaming. You can even get it for iPad, after all.

You tool up your star ship, recruit your crew and do your best not to get destroyed as you take an important message from one end of the galaxy to the other. Screenshots don't really to FTL justice, as all you just see is a blocky graphic of your ship, not really its spacey surroundings.

However, it's the perfect game for public play: nothing on-screen to make you feel too embarrassed. Or keep fellow passengers glued to your screen if you play on train journeys.

  • CPU: dual-core 2GHz
  • RAM: 2GB
  • GPU: DirectX 9 compatible

Few games stay relevant as long as Skyrim. It should feel ancient, but a mod scene has kept it vital for the past half-decade. Being so old has also meant humble hardware has been able to catch up with its real-life spec requirements.

It'll run pretty well on Intel Core-series processors from the last 2-3 years, and even plays pretty well on some recent Atom/Pentium CPUs on its lowest settings. If you have a real dog of a laptop, there's also a mod that'll cut down the settings even further than the game itself allows, called Ultra Low Graphics Mod. Imaginative naming.

In case you've been locked in a cupboard for the past five years, Skyrim is a massive open-world RPG that won countless 'game of the year' awards when it was released back in 2011.

  • CPU: 1.7GHz dual-core
  • RAM: 2GB
  • GPU: Intel HD 3000 or newer

Remember the game that earned millions and millions of dollars of funding on Kickstarter back when such things were unheard-of? That's Broken Age, the point 'n' click platform made by one of the people who came up with Monkey Island back in the 90s.

While it didn't single-handedly revive the genre, it is a fun tale that is nowhere near as frustrating as most of the early 90s adventures, most of which are best viewed through a pair of rose-tinted nostalgia specs. From a distance.

You play as both male and female characters, skipping between chapters in their respective stories to make sure the narrative doesn't get stale. We're steering clear of spoilers, so we'll leave it at that.

  • CPU: 1.7GHz
  • RAM: 512MB
  • GPU: DX 8.1 compatible card

You might head straight for 2D games when you think of games that'll work with pretty modest hardware. However, some once-fancy 3D games work very well with non-gaming laptops. Valve's Source engine is particularly good at working with lesser GPUs, making classics like Half-life 2 play well on modern integrated graphics hardware.

If you're not up for a thinking person's FPS like Half-Life 2, you might want to check out fantastic first-person puzzler Portal 2 instead. It is also based on the Source engine. Portal 2 takes the portal gun from Half-Life 2, which makes teleporting holes in walls, and makes a whole game out of it. Possible one of the best games of all time, actually.

  • CPU: Intel Pentium D
  • RAM: 2GB
  • GPU: Intel HD

It's easy to think of Minecraft as retro in some way, but it's far more innovative than some of the nay-saying haters would have you believe. It is not just for kids. Try it, you might just like it.

This world-building classic was never out to wow audiences with its Crysis-style graphics, but its highly scalable visuals let you tweak Minecraft to suit any machine. As well being able to fiddle with the draw distance and the few visual effects the game uses, you can change the field of view too.

Minecraft is also well-suited to laptop gaming because you don't need to be super accurate with your cursor, which is handy if you're using a trackpad rather than a mouse.

  • CPU: 1.6GHz
  • RAM: 1GB
  • GPU: x1950 Pro, 7900 gt

Take 90s platform stylings, add a roguelike twist, a thoroughly modern random level generator and a few RPG sprinkles and you have Rogue Legacy. It's one of the most addictive indie games of the last decade.

You play as a knight type, leaping right into a castle full of nasties. When you die, and you will die, you return as one of that warrior's descendants. The castle will be different, as will the class of your character. While you have to start from scratch each time, you can unlock bonuses by collecting gold from chests in the castle.

This is the bit that makes it more accessible than a true roguelike game, where you really have to start from square one when you die.

  • CPU: 2GHz
  • RAM: 1GB
  • GPU: Nvidia HD 4450

Don't Starve is a cracking little game where you wander around in a slightly twisted nightmarish world, exploring and picking up supplies to try to survive, day by day. When the sun goes down, awful creatures start prowling around the shadows. If you don't build a fire, you're a goner.

You have to eat to keep yourself healthy, and even your mental health deteriorates if you don't find out ways to pep yourself up.

There are some nice visual effects in don't starve, but as a predominantly 2D near-top-down game, it's happy to work with all but the most basic laptops.

  • CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo
  • RAM: 2GB
  • GPU: Intel HD 1000

If you don't mind a real risk of addiction in your laptop gaming, Hearthstone is a title not to miss. It is a little like nerd classic card battler game (and also video game) Magic: The Gathering, but much better-suited to quick, casual play.

Like so many modern casual games, though, you'll probably end up playing it for a lot longer than five minutes. And it feels even more "right" on a laptop than a hulking desktop.

It's a Valve game and, like most Valve titles, fares incredibly well on lower-end hardware. It officially supports the Intel HD 1000 integrated GPU, from way back in the Sandy Bridge generation half a decade ago.

  • CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo
  • RAM: 2GB
  • GPU: Intel HD

Is Civilisation the ultimate "PC" game? Many of us have spent a fistful of full days working through Civilization's virtual recap of the ages of man, whether it was back in the 90s, or just last week. Civilization V has more of the casual vibe that previous Civ games, but that makes it more palatable if you're looking for something to kill 30 mins, rather than 3 hours.

It'll work on almost any Intel Core series laptop from the past five years, but if you find yours still isn't up to the task, don't forget Civilization IV. Despite being ancient, it still works fine on Windows 10 through Steam.

  • CPU: Core 2 Duo
  • RAM: 2GB
  • GPU: Intel HD 3000

EA gets a lot of flak. It was rated as the most hated company in America two years in a row, after all. However, it doesn't half know how to court a big audience. And that means making sure games like The Sims 4 work on just about everything.

This infamous lifestyle sim even has a "laptop" mode designed for systems that can barely make it through the title screen of The Witcher 3. The game itself is very much business as usual: you slog through a virtual life, making bucks and designing living rooms. Or doing your best to torture some poor virtual peon by locking them in an inescapable toilet.

Other less casual EA games that work amazingly well on most laptops include Dead Space 1-3 and Dragon Age: Origins.

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Anthem trailers, release date and news

Posted: 03 Jan 2019 07:24 AM PST

What actually is Anthem? BioWare's new upcoming IP looks like a change of pace for the makers of Dragon Age and Mass Effect, with a focus on cooperative PvE combat popularised by the likes of Destiny. 

It was a big surprise when it was first announced at last year's E3 2017, and with pressure mounting on a game that could make or break the developer's fortunes, BioWare has kept its cards close to its chest.

From the short trailer shown at EA Play keynote we got a tiny glimpse of the game world's wall: the only thing that separates the civilized world from a dangerous and savage animals. Flying exosuits (called 'Javelins') also seem to play a big part in surviving in the wilderness, and a player might jump into them as part of the game.

But what is this Anthem we keep hearing about? We don't know much about the artifact at the heart of the BioWare's new game but, according to the studio's director Casey Hudson, that's going to change before the game goes out in February. 

[Update: Anthem's public demo dates have been revealed.]

Cut to the chase

  • What is it? BioWare's newest IP: an online cooperative shooter
  • When can I play it? February 22, 2019
  • What can I play it on? Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC

Anthem trailers

Want more backstory on Anthem? BioWare has been cagey with details, but according to studio head Casey Hudson, that's intentional. 

To start filling in some of the mysteries of the world, BioWare released a trailer that debuted during The Game Awards on December 6.

Check it out for yourself below.

E3 2018 brought a brand new cinematic trailer for Anthem which shows the incredible exosuits in action, with some smooth flying and a look at the sort of enemies you'll be taking on with your team.

You also get a first look at the Scars, an insect-like race you'll be battling throughout the game world – though we've also heard of another opposing warlike faction called Dominion who should pose a considerable threat of their own.

For those worried about the somewhat generic 'mech suit' design in the trailer, there will reportedly be a lot of room for customization and cosmetic upgrades (no loot boxes, thankfully).

Anthem release date

When it was first announced at E3 2017, Anthem was slated for a Fall 2018 release... but then the game got delayed.

We now have a new, firm exact date in hand: February 22, 2019. The release date comes after a report emerged from Kotaku that the game will be delayed until early 2019, citing three sources close to the project.

There is, the report says, now a feeling in BioWare that the future of the company is tied to Anthem and its success. It's for this reason that work on the studio's other titles, Star Wars: The Old Republic and the next Dragon Age, is now reportedly being done by much smaller teams.

It's unlikely, however, the EA will allow development to delay the game any later than March 2019, as that's when the company's fiscal year ends.

News and rumors

Anthem public demo dates

A free free-launch demo of Anthem will be available for Xbox One, PS4 and PC from February 1 to February 3. However those who have pre-ordered the title, or are members of Origin or EA Access, will gain access to the Anthem VIP demo from January 25 to January 27.

Players will start the demo at level 10 but will be capped at level 15. 

Commander Shepard will live on

In celebration of N7 Day (the unofficial Mass Effect holiday), Anthem and Mass Effect lead producer Michael Gamble tweeted an image of N7 armor being worn in the Fort Tarsis hub. 

However, Gamble didn't release any details about when or how this skin will be made available to players

It will support 3D Audio

Through the PlayStation Platinum headset.

It's going to be a graphically-demanding game

As earlier rumors suggested (see below), Anthem was indeed shown off at this year's E3, and it was a stunning looking game that ran in 4K resolution and 60 frames per second. That's all very impressive, but what kind of machine will you need to play Anthem at that kind of graphical level? 

Well, according to Mark Darrah, the game’s executive producer, the E3 demo was running on a PC with two Nvidia GTX 1080 Ti graphics cards. While we expect Anthem to get optimized before its release, we'd still expect you to need a powerful PC to play at 4K and 60FPS. EA hasn't confirmed if the Xbox One X or PS4 Pro will be able to match that performance.

EA Play

EA Play brought us the best look at Anthem that we've had yet. What we learned is that the game  is considered by EA to be "the evolution of a Bioware game" that doesn't bolt on story content to a multiplayer game, but rather integrates those things together in a shared world. It's a little different from the standard BioWare fare since it seems it won't have any player romances available.

You play as a 'Freelancer' who can control the exosuit that we've seen, and you're tasked with protecting the people of Tarthis from a force trying to control the Anvil of Creation. The world is reshaped all the time and, because you're a pilot, you can change out your suit depending on your mission. Exosuit types include the Ranger, Colossus, Storm and Interceptor.

We learned that the game won't have loot boxes and will instead be an online world that expands with more stories as time goes on. Part of the condition of this, however, is that the game won't be playable offline. After the show Mark Darrah confirmed on Twitter that "you need to be online to play" adding that there will also be no PvP modes available at launch, if they're being considered at all, since he added that it's not guaranteed.

Darrah also responded to fan's queries online, saying that players could create multiple Freelancers for each user account, and would be free to use any of the four exosuits that had been showcased.

It'll have a big focus on story

Anthem's developer BioWare has promised a big story for Anthem after Mass Effect Andromeda fell short of fan expectations. Writing in a blog post, the studio's general manager Casey Hudson emphasised the importance of world, character and storytelling and promised that they would be a part of Anthem, "a game designed to create a whole new world of story and character that you can experience with friends in an ongoing series of adventures." 

Hudson goes on to say that though it will be unlike "anything you've ever played", if it's done as planned it will still feel "very distinctly BioWare" – and that he'll continue using the blog to update fans on the development process of the game.

Our World, My Story

One of the ongoing refrains from Anthem's development is the idea of 'Our World, My Story'. For players, that means your time will be split between the outside world – a shared multiplayer environment where you team up with other Freelancers for exploration and combat – and Fort Tarsis, where you develop a single-player experience unique to you.

Fort Tarsis will act as a home hub of sorts, where you face your own decisions and actions, accept contracts and missions, form platonic relationships, and generally act out more of the role-play elements expected from BioWare's usual IPs. By the sounds of it, events in the outside world will affect the individual experiences you have back at the Fort, though how this spins out is anyone's guess.

EA meets its Destiny in Anthem

The premise we know so far is that humanity is holed up in a bastion, cut off from the outside world. Venturing out, it appears, requires a suit of armor that will help fend off the wilds of the Pandora-esque planet.

EA is describing it as "a shared-world action RPG where Freelancers challenge the wilds past the wall, exploring a vast world filled with savage beasts and ruthless marauders, but also teeming with amazing technology and forgotten treasures". If this sounds like Destiny, you're not crazy. 

"Players will be able to join with their friends to unravel the world's mysteries and defeat the forces plotting to conquer humanity." 

Okay, this is Destiny. 

"Throughout their journeys, players can outfit their Freelancers with powerful Javelin exosuits, each of which are equipped with unique weapons and abilities. Freelancers can customize their Javelin with gear they earn and craft throughout the adventure, and leave a lasting mark on the world".

Admittedly, the word Freelancers make the game sound a bit more like a Borderlands game than Destiny, but considering that your class is determined by which Javelin you have on, we're still seeing Destiny written all over it. 

When Anthem was first announced, taking on Destiny 2 seemed like a tall order, but now that Destiny 2 appears to be having some growing pains, Anthem may be able to seize on a dissatisfied playerbase. 

Life after Andromeda

Anthem will be BioWare's first title after the somewhat polarizing Mass Effect: Andromeda. 

Anthem will, apparently, be a science fantasy game more in the vein of Star Wars and offerings from the Marvel universe, rather than hard core science fiction title like Mass Effect BioWare Edmonton general manager Aaryn Flynn has revealed.

In a recent interview with CBC Flynn said that like these franchises Anthem will be a game in which "you see a lot of amazing things happening but we don't worry too much about why they are happening or how they are happening; the science of it.“

BioWare has dipped its toes into the science fantasy genre before with titles such as the RPG Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and the online multiplayer game Star Wars: The Old Republic. Anthem will, apparently, be along these lines and "much more about just having fun in a game world that is really lush and exotic and really sucks you in." Unlike Mass Effect, which Flynn says was a "more a real hard core science fiction IP".

Taking this into account, alongside the game's more online multiplayer leanings, and it seems like BioWare is certainly attempting to step into a space currently dominated by games such as Destiny. It'll be exciting to see what else a developer with so accomplished a background in lore-heavy single player storytelling can bring to this genre. 

  • More interested in EA's sports offering? Here's everything we know about FIFA 19

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Best cloud storage 2019: Top options to keep your photos safe

Posted: 03 Jan 2019 06:55 AM PST

Don't risk your images; whisk them up into the safety of the cloud. Here we test six leading options to find the best cloud storage for photos.

Backing up your photos is hardly a blast, and that was especially the case back when that meant spending time burning them to CDs.

Fortunately, keeping your photos safe is now much easier thanks to the cloud. Put simply, 'the cloud' is just techno-jargon for online storage.

You can choose from numerous websites offering anywhere between 1GB and 1TB of free remote hard drive space.

Backing up like this doesn't just eliminate the hassle of dealing with discs or hard drives, it also enables you to access your photos from anywhere with an internet connection.

The ability to share photos is another bonus, while websites like Flickr let you exhibit your images to the world, with scope for other users to leave feedback.

Of course, if you'd rather keep your photos private, most cloud storage providers make it easy to set restrictions to make images accessible only to your password-protected account, or to anyone with a private web link.

We've compared six of the best cloud storage websites; three aimed at photographers and three suited to general storage.

Dropbox is great for storing pretty much any digital file type. Organising files is a cinch thanks to the intuitive folder system, plus you can access your files on the go with apps for iOS and Android. All this and 2GB of storage is free with a Dropbox Basic account (you can get an extra 500MB of space for referring a friend up to 16GB). A Dropbox Plus account offers 1TB for $9.99 (£7.50) a month or $99 (£74) a year, and you can get 1GB per referral (up to 32GB) . You do get remote desktop wipe, 30-day version history and priority email upload. For its versatility and simplicity, Dropbox is superb, but ultimately Flickr's more attractive interface, social interaction and sheer value make it the better option.

Drive isn't just another cloud storage provider, it's also home to several free business-grade office apps (heck, we even use it in the office here). Like Dropbox, Drive is geared towards file sharing, with multiple users able to modify shared files. You can store photos on Drive, but it doesn't offer the same stylish setting as more photography-focused online storage.

Instead, use Google Photos which offers unlimited storage for high resolution photos which are up to 16-megapixel in size. 15GB of free storage comes with Drive, although this is shared by other Google apps like Gmail. Google uses AI and Machine Learning to automatically label people within pictures and uses metadata (date and place) to make searching easier. Google is in the process of launching Google One - a one sharable plan, so it might not yet be available in your region. You can increase the allocated space to 100GB for $1.99 (£1.5) per month, 200GB for $2.99 (£2.3) per month, 2TB costs $9.99 (£7.5) per month, while 10TB  costs $99.99 (£75.5) per month. Additionally, new plans were added, 20TB for $199.99 (£151) per month and 30TB for $299.99 (£226.5) per month.

Microsoft's cloud storage offers a very similar set-up to its arch-rival, Google Drive. Anyone familiar with the Microsoft Office suite will feel right at home with OneDrive's integrated office apps. OneDrive adopts the same look and feel as Windows 10, so it's easy to navigate. However, it isn't designed solely for photographers, so don't expect the same viewing experience as you get from Flickr. Pricing is close to Google's, with 5GB for free and an extra 50GB costing $1.99 per month. However, Microsoft's 1TB option is better value at $6.99 per month (or $69.99 paid yearly), and includes the Office 365 package. Add another $3 per month and you get six licenses to use, more storage and bonus features like one hour Skype for free. Since October 2nd, subscribers can install Office (both plans) on an unlimited number of devices.

Where most cloud storage providers make you cough up for more than a few gigabytes of storage, Flickr - now owned by Verizon - offers the storage of 1000 photos and videos for free, with unobtrusive adverts covering the cost. If you'd rather go ad-free and with unlimited storage, you can for a $6 monthly fee or $50 annual fee for Flickr Pro+. What makes Flickr stand out is its ability to display your photos in an attractive photostream. Other users can follow your activity and comment on your shots, or you can make images private, making it a real social network for amateur and professional photographers alike. Flickr is designed for presenting your shots rather than just storing them, so it'll only display JPEG, GIF and PNG images. Dropbox is better if you need to upload RAW files but you won't get stats on your photo views or 15% savings off Adobe's Creative Cloud (with the annual plan, you also get discounts for Blurb, SmugMug, and Priime).

Adobe Creative Cloud offers a number of different cloud-based storage solutions specifically for photographers. It provides photography-orientated storage with attractive image galleries. Group Libraries enable friends to add photos to one shared folder, and you're free to make any photo private. There's integration with Lightroom and Elements, and you can make quick edits when needed. Uploading is easy, with apps for Windows, Mac, iOS and Android. There's also support for RAW file formats. The cheapest tier is expensive though at $119.88 per year for 1TB of storage. That's twice what Microsoft OneDrive provides but you do get Lightroom CC. Opt for a lower storage capacity (20GB) and you can get Photoshop CC thrown in for free.

Irista is designed to rival the likes of Flickr and Adobe Creative Cloud, giving you a gallery-driven interface that's for displaying your shots in style. It accepts JPEG and common RAW file formats and is easy to use, with options to filter images by camera or lens type and arrange shots by year, tags and EXIF data. Social media is heavily integrated, so you can upload images to Irista, share them to Facebook or Flickr and track any Likes or comments. Six subscription plans allow you to increase Irista's free 15GB of storage to either 100GB, 500GB, 1TB, 2TB, 5TB or 10TB. You can get the cheapest 100GB plan for $2.25 a month, the most common 1TB plan for $12.99 a month or if you want the 10TB plan for the biggest storage, you'll have to pay $129.99 on a monthly basis.

5 things to look for in cloud storage for photos

Freemium: Most storage providers give you some free space, with extra capacity available for a monthly or annual fee. Prices vary considerably, though, so make sure you get a good deal.

File formats: If you just want to back up or share JPEGs, then pretty much any provider will fit the bill. However, you'll need to choose more carefully if you'll be storing TIFFs or RAW files.

Internet speed: Don't fork out on a premium cloud storage subscription if your internet connection runs at a snail's pace. Consider spending the same cash on a fast external hard drive instead.

Show off: Not all online storage websites will display your photos in attractive galleries for the world to see them at their best.

Keep moving: Cloud storage is great for keeping your photos accessible on the go, so make sure your preferred provider has apps to help view and upload images from your mobile devices.

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Google Pixel 3 deals: Mobiles.co.uk has the best prices right now

Posted: 03 Jan 2019 06:32 AM PST

Now seems to be the perfect time to buy a Google Pixel 3. Prices have dropped across the board and you can get the device for some incredibly cheap prices but one retailer seems to be outdoing everybody else. Mobiles.co.uk has a number of great deals on this device and just in time for you to get a new phone for the new year.

The first Pixel 3 deal from Mobiles gets you the device with 4GB of data for just £23 a month and £65 upfront (with our 10OFF code). That is an incredibly low monthly cost for a handset that is still relatively new. 

Mobiles also has the device with 15GB of data, no upfront costs and monthly payments of £34. While that is already a good deal it gets better. You get £144 in cashback by redemption which means you can knock the effective cost down to £28 a month which is incredibly cheap for a deal with that much data.

You can see both of these deals down below or if neither of them are quite what you were looking for then check out our best Google Pixel 3 deals guide for all of the many options out there. 

These Google Pixel 3 deals in full

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