Apple : Best hard drives 2019: the top HDD for desktops and laptops

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• Best hard drives 2019: the top HDD for desktops and laptops
• The best motherboard 2019: the top Intel and AMD motherboards we've seen
• AMD vs Intel: which chipmaker does processors better?
• Nvidia vs AMD: which should be your next graphics card?
• Nvidia Turing release date, news and features
• Sprint 5G: all the phones coming to the next-gen network
• USB 3.2 to take over the world's computers – but not how you think
• Pandora Stories teaches you the history of your favorite songs
• Researchers compromise bare-metal cloud servers
• SAP wants to power the next generation of IoT
• Cheaper Nvidia GTX 1660, 1650 graphics cards might be coming soon
• BlackBerry acquires Cylance for its intelligent security technology
• Best roguelike games: a beginner's guide to the die-a-lot genre
• Samsung Galaxy S9 prices set to rise - grab one of these great deals before they go
• Best remote desktop software of 2019
• Best gadgets 2019: the top tech you can buy right now
• Best website defacement monitoring service of 2019
• Huawei Mate X and others win big at TechRadar's MWC 2019 awards
• Nvidia Graphics Card deal at Walmart: save $129 on the GeForce RTX 2080
• Satya Nadella defends Microsoft's Pentagon contract

Best hard drives 2019: the top HDD for desktops and laptops Posted: 26 Feb 2019 01:51 PM PST The best hard drives are obviously not as fast as the best SSDs, but they are much cheaper and more capacious. Yeah, you’re not going to find one in an Ultrabook, but the best hard drives are definitely useful as an extra drive or an external measure – especially if you have a lot of data to back up. Finding the best hard drive for your needs ultimately boils down to what you need to do with it. If you’re looking for the best hard drives for game consoles, you’ll want a 2.5-inch drive, or maybe one of the best external hard drives. However, if you’re rocking one of the best gaming PCs, and you just want the biggest drive you can get, you’ll want a hard drive with a ton of space – and a ton of speed. It’s a lot to take in, but we went ahead and gathered up the best hard drives you can buy today.  Image Credit: Seagate Seagate’s BarraCuda lineup is the indisputable face of the best hard drives. And, it’s not without good reason – they offer a great ratio of gigabyte per dollar and speed benefits to top it off. The 2TB model hits a sweet spot by balancing high performance and affordability. Since this drive combines 7,200rpm platters and high density data, computers outfitted with this drive will be able to read data extra fast.   Image Credit: Toshiba Even if its laptops aren’t as popular as they used to be, Toshiba is still a huge name in computing, and has a lot to offer. When it comes to the best hard drives, the Toshiba X300 is a high-capacity, high-performance champ worth taking a look at. The X300 drives boast great gigabyte-to-dollar value without sacrificing on performance. These drives all spin at 7,200 rpm and include 128MB of cache for higher speeds. The only downside is the warranty only lasts two years, which feels short for a drive meant to store so much important data. Image Credit: Western Digital When it comes to PC gaming, it’s better to be fast than capacious. So, if you’ve been resisting the allure of an SSD, and looking to kick it old school with one of the best hard drives, the WD VelociRaptor should be up your alley. Not only does this drive have a whopping 10,000 rpm spin speed, but you’re going to want to pay attention to it. With capacities up to 1TB, the VelociRaptor drives are ready to store large game libraries, and the super fast platters will help your games launch and load quickly. This product is only available in the US and UK at the time of this writing. Australian readers: check out a fine alternative in the Seagate FireCuda  Image Credit: Western Digital Western Digital offers a solid bargain with its line of WD Blue hard drives. With a wide variety of storage options from a small 500GB to a capacious 6TB, the WD Blue is a viable pick for almost any type of PC build that’s sticking to a budget. The best value comes from the larger drives – they’ll give you much more storage per dollar spent. And, if you’re looking for a bit more speed, there are also 7,200rpm models available that don’t come with too much of a price hike.  Image Credit: Seagate SSDs are all the rage these days, and it’s not hard to see why. But if you need a lot of fast storage, hybrid hard drives – which contain a small amount of solid state storage to bump of their speed – are a great option. The SeaGate FireCuda is the best hybrid drive out there, it can fit up to 2TB of data, and then its 8GB of solid state cache storage learns and stores the data you use most to access it faster. That speed boost is even sweeter when you consider this drive spins at a fresh 7,200rpm. With its 5-year warranty and approachable price tag, it’s easy to see why it’s one of the best hard drives out there.  Image Credit: Seagate It’s a little unfortunate that the Seagate IronWolf NAS drives come at a premium, but they aren’t priced much more expensively than a standard hard drive at their capacity. However, their native NAS optimization makes that premium totally worth it. These drives are capable of running at a fast 7,200rpm spin rate 24/7 without having to worry about drive failure. Really, if you have one of the best NAS devices for your business or home, the Seagate IronWolf NAS really is your best bet.  Image Credit: Seagate Upgrading the storage in a laptop in a hard drive can be tough, since they typically require a smaller drive to fit. A lot of the 2.5-inch options aren’t terribly attractive, as anything fast comes with a serious markup, but Seagate’s 2.5-inch FireCuda hybrid drive strikes a nice balance. It offers an easy way to add lots of storage to a laptop while also giving it a speed boost thanks to 8GB of flash storage. A 5-year warranty on the drive will also help ensure it for as long as almost any laptop’s lifespan. Image Credit: Western Digital Game consoles hard drives fill up fast with massive libraries. And, like laptops, the upgrade path for 2.5-inch hard drives isn’t all that great, but that’s where an external drive comes in. The WD My Book strikes an amazing balance of storage and price, offering enough room for massive game libraries. Running on USB 3.0, it may not be quite as fast as an internal drive upgrade, but it will run games and offer more storage at a cheaper rate. Image Credit: G-Technology A lot of people seem to think that the best hard drives are ancient and dead technology in 2019. However, with devices like the G-Technology G-Drive, you can show the naysayers in your life that spinning disks have their own place in the future. Not only does this external hard drive offer huge amounts of storage – up to 10 TB – but thanks to Thunderbolt 3 compatibility, it can even charge your laptop while you work. If you have a MacBook Pro, it’s hard to think of a better work companion. Read the full review: G-Technology G-Drive  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

The best motherboard 2019: the top Intel and AMD motherboards we've seen Posted: 26 Feb 2019 01:49 PM PST When you’re getting ready to build a PC, the best motherboards typically don’t get the love that the best graphics cards and processors do, and that’s unfortunate. The best motherboards are arguably the most important part of your entire PC. They essentially serve as the backbone of your computer, helping your hardware reach its full potential by pushing it to its limits – utilizing and optimizing every inch of performance. In other words, you can overclock better with a good motherboard. But, because they’re so important to your PC build, you should only opt for the best motherboard you can get your hands on. If you cheap out and get a sub-par motherboard, it could die and force you to rebuild your entire computer from scratch – and that’s not a good time, trust us. So, do yourself a favor and pick up the best motherboard today, so you won’t have to replace it tomorrow. There are dozens of motherboards out there, and the marketplace can get confusing. That’s why we went ahead and created this list of the best motherboards on the market. So, let us help you find the best motherboards that we’ve tested ourselves. Not only will they do everything you need them to and more, the best motherboards are built to last. When Coffee Lake Refresh CPUs hit the market, Intel promised that they would be the best processors for gaming, and we knew that meant kitted out motherboards were on the way. And, lo and behold, the Z390 Aorus Gaming Pro Wifi – the best Intel motherboard on the market right now. It’s packed with gaming-centric features like reinforced PCIe slots and enough RGB lighting to blind you. It’s hard to find a better motherboard, especially at this price point. Sometimes, when building a new PC, you’re just want  to throw your hands up and say “just give me everything.” In times like this, you’ll want the Asus ROG Maximus XI Code Z390 Gaming. Packed with every feature that Intel’s new Coffee Lake Refresh processors support and then some with a RGB-lit shroud covering every inch of circuitry on this motherboard.   So, Coffee Lake Refresh is out, and you want to take advantage of all the performance it has to offer, but those more exotic motherboards are out of reach. If that sounds familiar, you might want to take a look at the Gigabyte Z390 UD. This doesn’t have the same level of RGB bells and built-in Wi-Fi whistles, but what it does have is great value. You’re getting all of the essential features that Z390 has to offer, while sacrificing some unnecessary features like SLI or extra M.2 slots. If you’re a budget gamer, the Gigabyte Z390 UD is the best motherboard out there. If you’re looking for an edge on the competition, and you don’t have a lot of extra room on your desk, you’re going to want a Micro-ATX motherboard – you’re going to want the MSI MPG Z390M Gaming Edge AC. What you’re getting here is a Micro-ATX motherboard with all the features a full-sized ATX part, but a fraction of the price. Despite it’s reduced size, you still get getting dual M.2 slots, SLI and Crossfire support and all the scalding performance that Intel Coffee Lake Refresh has to offer. If you’re looking for a smaller motherboard, you can’t afford not to get the MSI MPG Z390M Gaming Edge MC.  If you need the smallest motherboard that you can get, without compromising on key features of your CPU, you should consider the Asus ROG Strix Z390-I Gaming. With this motherboard you don’t have to compromise on features or power. You don’t even need to settle for a measly 32GB of RAM, thanks to Asus’ double capacity memory compatibility – you can have up to 64GB of memory in the tiniest motherboard you’ve ever seen. Unfortunately, like most Z390 boards, it’s a bit pricey, so prepare yourself for that. With the X470 Aorus Gaming 7 Wi-Fi, Gigabyte further illustrates is mastery of motherboard design. Rocking the new AMD X470 chipset, allowing full support of the new AMD Ryzen 2nd Generation processors, this is the best motherboard if you’re looking to side with Team Red. What’s more, it supports Quad-GPU SLi and extremely fast RAM (up to 3,600 MHz) for peerless expandability, and thanks to its multi-zone RGB lighting, it looks good while kicking butt.  For the longest time, AMD has been the reigning champion of budget builds, and in 2018 that doesn’t seem to be changing. Marketed exclusively to gamers, the MSI X470 Gaming Plus is loaded front to back with features like two PCIe M.2 slots and quick performance tweaking buttons to make sure you’re on the top of the leaderboards at all times. And, since it’s a gamer-focused motherboard, it comes with all kinds of flashy RGB lighting that you can even customize it from your smartphone. These days, small form-factor PCs are all the rage and with motherboards like the ASRock B450M-HDV, we think they’re going to stay that way. Now, while this motherboard doesn't do SLI and supports only up to 32GB of RAM– it is a B450 unit, after all – it is still compelling due to its low price. Outside of these omissions, you still get a slot for a NVMe SSD and four USB 3.1 Gen 1 ports around back. If you’re looking to build a solid budget gaming PC, this is going to be the best motherboard for you.   Asus aims to prove that big things can come in small packages with the ROG Strix X470-I. Featuring the latest and greatest AMD chipset, everything in this tiny board is designed with performance in mind. Even down to the BIOS, where you can find a stress test for overclocks before you even boot into Windows. This board even elevates beyond the constraints of the Mnii-ITX form factor by including an M.2 Audio Combo riser, so that you can install your M.2 NVMe SSD without getting in the way of other components.  The X-series processors are here and they're spectacular, so if you want to take advantage of all they have to offer, you need an X-series motherboard. This ASRock X299 is an excellent choice, with support for overclocked memory speeds up to 4400MHz(!!!) and 8 different slots for memory modules. It also supports up to 128GB of RAM, so with an X-series processor and a good graphics card (or 3…) this thing will absolutely tear apart anything you throw at it. If you’re the type of builder with lots of cash to burn and an ‘everything and the kitchen sink’ build method, the Ryzen Thredripper X399 Professional Gaming board is for you. Not only does it support 4-way SLI or Crossfire configurations, but you can also pack this thing with up to 128GB DDR4 memory. It even features a ton of flashy RGB lighting, so that people can’t help but stare at your rig when they walk in the room. And, if you upgrade to Ryzen Threadripper 2nd Generation, you can use this board, but keep in mind you may have to update your BIOS.  Coming to terms If you’re unfamiliar about what makes the best motherboards, well, better than the rest, we’d like to include a primer for anyone who might not know that much about them. Motherboards are available in a broad range of different form factors, the most common of which being ATX and Micro ATX. However, there are plenty of more less common form factors including mini ITX and E-ATX. Don’t worry though, most of the best PC cases will support multiple form factors.  Moreover, in our rundown of the best motherboards, we detailed the socket type that each mobo adheres to. For those not in the know, the socket is the part on the motherboard that the CPU locks into. Typically, newer Intel processors use either LGA 1151 or 2066 while the latest AMD Ryzen architecture is designed for the AM4 chipset. Next up, these are the best gaming monitors you can buy this year This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

AMD vs Intel: which chipmaker does processors better? Posted: 26 Feb 2019 01:26 PM PST Although the battle between Coffee Lake Refresh and AMD Ryzen 2nd Generation is still raging on, the war between Ryzen 3rd Generation, Ice Lake and Sunny Cove is about to begin. It’s also time for us to dive into the perennial deathmatch: AMD vs Intel. Essentially acting as the brain of your computer, the best processors are behind everything your PC does. This is why it’s so important to find the one for your specific needs – you don’t want to pay for features you don’t need.  If you’ve been following the frantic war of Intel vs AMD as closely as we have over the years, you probably already know that AMD and Intel have traditionally focused on different segments of the CPU market. Where Intel has focused on higher clock speeds and efficiency with low core counts, AMD has focused on upping its core counts and boosting multi-threaded performance. Still, there’s room for the coexistence of AMD and Intel – they cater to different audiences, with direct competition in the middle. If you’re not quite sure whether to pledge allegiance to either Team Red or Team Blue, continue on to the next slide for a constantly updated look at the AMD vs Intel clash. Gary Marshall originally contributed to this article For bargain shoppers on the prowl for the next hottest deal, it used to be assumed that AMD’s processors were cheaper, but that was only because the Red Team did its best work at the entry level. Now that Ryzen processors have proven AMD’s worth on the high-end, the tide has ostensibly turned. Now Intel reigns supreme in the budget CPU space, with its $64 (about £46, AU$82) MSRP Pentium G4560 offering far better performance than AMD’s $110 (about £80, AU$140) MSRP A12-9800. Even among mid-range, current-gen chips, Intel is leading the pack by offering 8th-generation Coffee Lake CPUs as low as $117 (about £83, AU$152) for the Core i3-8100T.  Much of this is due to the Advanced Micro Device company’s reluctance to move beyond simply iterating on its antiquated Bulldozer architecture and onto adopting the current-generation ‘Zen’ standard it’s already introduced with pricier CPUs.  Still, on the low end, Intel and AMD processors typically retail at about the same price. It’s once you hit that exorbitant $200 (around £142, AU$252) mark where things get trickier. High-end Intel chips now range from 4 up to 18 cores, while AMD chips can now be found with up to 32-cores. And, thanks to some recent price cuts you can find the AMD Ryzen 5 2400G and the Ryzen 3 2200G for $160 (around £129, AU$208) and $105 (around £84, AU$135), respectively. While it was long-rumored that AMD’s Ryzen chips would offer cutting-edge performance at a lower price, benchmarks have demonstrated that Intel is remaining strongly competitive. If you can get your hands on one, the Core i7 9700K is  is $409 (£499, AU$659), while the still more-capable Ryzen 7 2700X is priced at $329 (about £230, AU$420). And, if you’re looking to get your hands on the new hotness, the Intel Core i9-9900K is available for $579 (£599, AU$859.)   For anyone looking to dip their toes into the realm of the HEDT processors, AMD and Intel are very close right now, especially on the heels of the AMD Ryzen Threadripper 2990WX CPU, at $1,799 (£1,639, AU$2,679). That might seem like a lot, but compared to the $1,999 (£1,649, AU$2,729) Intel Core i9-7980XE, it’s a downright bargain – especially given that AMD’s offering has nearly double the cores.  If you're building a gaming PC, truthfully you should be using a discrete graphics card, or GPU (graphics processing unit), rather than relying on a CPU’s integrated graphics to run games as demanding as Middle Earth: Shadow of War. Still, it’s possible to run less graphically intense games on an integrated GPU if your processor has one. In this area, AMD is the clear winner, thanks to the release of the Ryzen 5 2400G that packs powerful discrete Vega graphics that outperforms Intel’s onboard graphic technology by leaps and bounds.  Yet, as we mentioned before, Intel has officially started shipping its high-end H-series mobile CPU chips with AMD graphics on board. In turn, this means that hardier laptops powered by Intel can now be thinner and their accompanying silicon footprints will be over 50% smaller, according to Intel client computing group vice president Christopher Walker. All of this is accomplished using Embedded Multi-Die Interconnect Bridge (EMIB) technology, along with a newly contrived framework that enables power sharing between Intel’s first-party processors and third-party graphics chips with dedicated graphics memory. Even so, it’s too early to tell whether this is a better solution than the purebred AMD notebooks slated for the end of this year. Intel might be aiming to shake things up though as it has announced that it’s planning on releasing a GPU aimed at gamers by 2020. And, if we could see Intel putting some of that effort into improving integrated graphics. Still, if all you're looking to do is play League of Legends at modest settings or relive your childhood with a hard drive full of emulators (it's okay, we won't tell), the latest Intel Kaby Lake, Coffee Lake or AMD A-Series APU processors for desktops will likely fare just as well as any forthcoming portable graphics solution. On the high-end, especially in cases where you don’t need to worry about on-board graphics, Intel’s processors are typically on top – its Core i9-9900K handily beats out the workstation-class Ryzen Threadripper 2970WX for less than half the price.  AMD typically provides better multi-threading performance, as a result of higher core and thread counts. Ryzen CPUs also offer more PCIe lanes, which come in handy if you want multiple NVMe SSDs alongside  SLI and CrossFire multi-GPU performance. While there is no clear winner in the graphics department, survey says AMD is the better option for integrated graphics, while hardcore gamers who don’t mind shelling out the extra cash for a GPU will find that Intel is better for gaming alone – although with Ryzen 2nd Generation AMD is closing that gap. Meanwhile, AMD is superior for carrying out numerous tasks at once. If you're building a gaming PC, truthfully you should be using a discrete graphics card, or GPU (graphics processing unit), rather than relying on a CPU’s integrated graphics to run games as demanding as Middle Earth: Shadow of War. Still, it’s possible to run less graphically intense games on an integrated GPU if your processor has one. In this area, AMD is the clear winner, thanks to the release of the Ryzen 5 2400G that packs powerful discrete Vega graphics that outperforms Intel’s onboard graphic technology by leaps and bounds. AMD has also launched an updated driver for its mobile Ryzen chips, which leads to up to 20% better performance in games like CS:GO and Fortnite. Yet, as we mentioned before, Intel has officially started shipping its high-end H-series mobile CPU chips with AMD graphics on board. In turn, this means that hardier laptops powered by Intel can now be thinner and their accompanying silicon footprints will be over 50% smaller, according to Intel client computing group vice president Christopher Walker. All of this is accomplished using Embedded Multi-Die Interconnect Bridge (EMIB) technology, along with a newly contrived framework that enables power sharing between Intel’s first-party processors and third-party graphics chips with dedicated graphics memory. Even so, it’s too early to tell whether this is a better solution than the purebred AMD notebooks. Still, if all you're looking to do is play League of Legends at modest settings or relive your childhood with a hard drive full of emulators (it's okay, we won't tell), the latest Intel Kaby Lake, Coffee Lake or AMD A-Series APU processors for desktops will likely fare just as well as any forthcoming portable graphics solution. On the high end, such as in cases where you'll be pairing your CPU with a powerful AMD or Nvidia GPU, Intel’s processors are typically better for gaming due to their higher base and boost clock speeds. At the same time, though, AMD provides better CPUs for multi-tasking as a result of their higher core and thread counts. While there is no clear winner in the graphics department, survey says AMD is the better option for integrated graphics, especially on mobile with its Ryzen chips for laptops.However, Intel is working on improving its own integrated graphics in 2019, with its Gen11 graphics – we’ll have to see how well they work when they actually ship.  Hardcore gamers who don’t mind shelling out the extra cash for a GPU will find that Intel is better for gaming alone. Meanwhile, AMD is superior for carrying out numerous tasks at once. When you buy a new computer or even just a CPU by itself, it's typically locked at a specific clock speed as indicated on the box. Some processors ship unlocked, allowing for higher clock speeds than recommended by the manufacturer, giving users more control over how they use their components (though, it does require you know how to overclock). AMD is normally more generous than Intel in this regard. With an AMD system, you can expect overclocking capabilities from even the $129 (about £110, AU$172) Ryzen 3 1300X. Meanwhile, you can only overclock an Intel processor if it's graced with the “K” series stamp of approval. Then again, the cheapest of these is the $180 (£160, AU$240) Intel Core i3-8350K. Both companies will void your warranty if you brick your processor as the result of overclocking, though, so it’s important to watch out for that. Excessive amounts of heat can be generated if you’re not careful, thereby neutralizing the CPU as a result. With that in mind, you’ll be missing out on a few hundred stock megahertz if you skip out on one of the K models. Intel’s more extravagant K-stamped chips are pretty impressive, too. The i9-9900K, for instance, is capable of maintaining a whopping 5.0GHz turbo frequency in comparison to the 4.3GHz boost frequency of the Ryzen 7 2700X. If you’ve access to liquid nitrogen cooling, you may even be able to reach upwards of 6.1GHz using Intel’s monstrous, 18-core i9-7980XE.   In the end, the biggest problem with AMD’s desktop processors is the lack of compatibility with other components. Specifically, motherboard (mobo) and cooler options are limited as a result of the differing sockets between AMD and Intel chips. While a lot of CPU coolers demand that you special order an AM4 bracket to be used with Ryzen, only a handful of the best motherboards are compatible with the AM4 chipset. In that regard, Intel parts are slightly more commonplace and are often accompanied by lower starting costs, too, as a result of the wide variety of kit to choose from. That said, AMD's chips make a little more sense from a hardware design perspective. With an AMD motherboard, rather than having metal connector pins on the CPU socket, you'll notice those pins are instead on the underside of the CPU itself. In turn, the mobo is less likely to malfunction due to its own faulty pins. When it comes to availability in the latter half of 2018, it gets complicated. While both Coffee Lake and AMD Ryzen 2nd Generation processors are widely available, Intel is going through supply shortages, and AMD is starting to catch up to Team Blue’s titanic market share. In fact, financial analysts have downgraded Intel’s stock in the face of both 14nm shortages and Cannon Lake’s constant delays, according to a report from CNBC. AMD really has a chance to steal the crown here. Still, you can pick up processors from both companies today, though Intel chips like the Intel Core i7-8700K might have some increased pricing. AMD APUs like the AMD Ryzen 3 2200G are still great options for anyone on a budget, though. Future speculation  It really shouldn’t come as a surprise that AMD had a great year in 2017 with its Ryzen processors – especially the high-end Threadripper processors. And, now that the Ryzen 2nd Generation CPUs have been released, AMD is claiming more and more of Intel’s market share, up to 50% at the time of writing.  And, if AMD keeps putting out processors as good as the Ryzen 5 2600X and the Ryzen 7 2700X, we think this trend will only continue. As for Intel, it continues to struggle with 10nm production, which has seen its Cannon Lake processors pushed back again and again. We’re not sure when Cannon Lake is going to come out at all as Intel recently announced its 10nm Sunny Cove architecture, which will be behind whatever Ice Lake, Lakefield and a host of other chips we hope Intel will launch in 2019.  The first of these appears to be Ice Lake, rather than Cannon Lake. Ice Lake will be behind the next generation of Ultrabooks, and will feature built-in Thunderbolt 3, WiFi and Gen11 graphics. Intel is making some promising claims for Ice Lake, like that it will be able to search for images twice as fast as Whiskey Lake. As with all Intel’s on-stage demonstrations, take that with a grain of salt though.  AMD, on the other hand, has announced the Ryzen 3000 series of CPUs, based on the new Zen 2 architecture. And, while we don’t know any specifics beyond the nameless 8-core processor it showed off at CES 2019, there are plenty of rumors floating around. For instance, we’ve seen a 12-core, 24-thread chip show up in a leaked UserBenchmark result. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Nvidia vs AMD: which should be your next graphics card? Posted: 26 Feb 2019 01:24 PM PST If you ask a console gamer, they’ll go on at length about the perennial rivalry between the Xbox One X and PS4 Pro, and which you should choose to play Fortnite on. However, PC gamers have a similar feud: Nvidia vs AMD. And, even if you’ve never heard about it before, the sheer amount of competition and innovation that’s resulted from this battle is nothing short of amazing. Still, if you’re not willing to pledge loyalty to one of these tech behemoths, it can be hard to decide what the best graphics card for your needs is. Don’t worry though, we here at TechRadar have decided to sit down and figure out once and for all the true winner in the battle of Nvidia vs AMD. (Spoiler: it never ends). These days, the Nvidia vs AMD battle is in an awkward position. Almost two years after the release of the Nvidia GTX 10 series, it released the Turing architecture with the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti, RTX 2080, RTX 2070 and RTX 2060 –  GPUs that are much more expensive than their predecessors. However, the GTX 1660 Ti bucks the trend a bit. And, while AMD launched Vega back in 2017 and AMD Navi is off in the distance, AMD’s new Radeon VII directly competes with the RTX 2080. But, that doesn’t mean it’s forgotten about the budget market –  AMD keeps releasing new Polaris cards, like the Radeon RX 590, aimed at the budget-focused 1080p segment.  No matter how you slice it, neither Nvidia or AMD graphics cards all over the place, so that’s why we crafted this guide – to dive in and figure out how they differ. From their exclusive features to their price-to-performance ratio, even down to their drivers, and you can’t forget all those pesky exclusive features, either. There are graphics card choices for days Image Credit: TechRadar Price Anyone who browses Reddit or comment sections on tech websites will tell you that AMD is widely known for its affordability, and Nvidia for its high-end performance and high prices. But, are they actually right? Well, kind of. The Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Ti is listed at $1,199 (£1,099, AU$1,899), which is almost twice the price of the last-generation GTX 1080 Ti. This price bump continues down the line, with the RTX 2080 at $799 (£749, AU$1,199) and the RTX 2070 at $599 (£569, AU$899). During the reveal keynote, Nvidia claimed that they would start at lower prices, for instance, the 2080 Ti should be starting at $999 (about £760, AU$1,385) – but we haven’t seen any cards offered at these prices.  Right now, the most affordable Nvidia Turing card is the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660, which starts at $279 (£259, AU$469). Luckily, Nvidia Turing finally got an affordable graphics card. As for AMD, you can find a Radeon RX 500 card for a pittance in comparison. But, AMD is competing with Nvidia again at the high-end with the AMD Radeon VII, which will set you back $699 (£799, AU$1,169), for performance that is almost equivalent to the RTX 2080 in most cases. At the end of the day, the better price is going to depend on where you’re lucky enough to find a discount. Image Credit: Nvidia Performance When you’re trying to build a PC that’s more powerful than your arch-enemy’s, buying a graphics card isn’t a matter of price but performance. Packing the best performance for the lowest cost is the arguably the most pertinent factor in driving GPU sales.  Right now the RTX 2080 Ti completely blows away every other consumer-grade graphics card with 11GB of GDDR6 memory and high-end Tensor and RT cores that will enable AI-controlled super sampling and real-time ray tracing. AMD right now doesn’t have anything in the same ballpark – but does that even matter? AMD has always been known for being the clear value champions, whereas Nvidia usually has more powerful hardware. But, at CES 2019, AMD revealed the Radeon VII. And, now that we’ve got our hands on it for testing, we can say that it’s on equal footing with the RTX 2080 – at least until you turn DirectX 12 on. However, with its 16GB of HBM2 memory, the AMD Radeon VII will shine for any aspiring creatives out there. The lowest end current-generation graphics card in the RTX lineup is the Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060, with performance that outmatches the AMD Vega 56 at the same price point. And, while the prices for these two GPUs are mostly comparable, AMD is currently dominating the budget-to-mid-range product stack with cards like the AMD Radeon RX 580. However, Nvidia just launched the GeForce GTX 1660 Ti, which directly competes with the AMD Radeon RX 580 in both price and performance. At the end of the day, AMD and Nvidia are occupying completely different sides of the marketplace right now, so the best choice is going to rely on what games you’re trying to play and at what resolution.  If you’re trying to play games like Assassin’s Creed Odyssey at 4K, you’re going to want to go with Nvidia. But, if you just want to play Overwatch at 1080p with a high refresh rate – go with AMD. However, that Radeon VII is looking promising for 4K performance, too – especially with that 16GB of HBM2 memory. Image Credit: AMD Software, drivers and features One key draw to using Nvidia hardware over AMD is the Green Team’s GeForce Experience software.  Because it delivers driver updates and optimizes games in addition to letting you broadcast gameplay and capture screenshots as well as videos directly from its easy-to-use interface, Nvidia GeForce Experience is posited as the one PC gaming application to rule them all.  Meanwhile, AMD’s newly announced Radeon Software Adrenalin 2019 Edition aims to overtake Nvidia’s solution. The latest update is  stacked features including automatic overclocking (that doesn’t need tensor cores) and stream games to your mobile device. AMD’s latest GPU software will even let you stream VR games to your phone or standalone VR headsets. So, you can leverage the power of your AMD graphics card to play the best VR games without slowdown. Radeon Software’s underlying benefit, of course, is also more consistent updates driver updates to account for every major game release. As of December 2016, you could already livestream via Radeon Crimson ReLive, but now you can really customize your broadcast with a Xplit/OBS-style program from AMD and multi-channel audio control. Image Credit: Nvidia Still, GeForce Experience has the game optimization features we’re all crazy for. So when you don’t know what settings are best for your computer in The Witcher 3, Nvidia takes care of the heavy lifting for you.  AMD users can download and install Raptr’s Gaming Evolved tool to optimize their gaming experience. However, the add-on is less than ideal considering its biggest rival’s audience can accomplish nearly everything from within GeForce Experience. That includes using Nvidia Ansel to take way cool in-game photos at resolutions exceeding 63K (16 times that of which a 4K monitor can display). Nvidia also has a leg up when it comes to streaming games whether it’s to another gaming PC with at least a Maxwell-based GPU, as well as the company’s self-made tablets and set-top box. Not to mention, Nvidia also has a cloud-based gaming service call GeForce Now available to Windows 10 and MacOS users. Image Credit: Nvidia Exclusivity It was once rumored that AMD and Nvidia were enacting shady tactics, “paying off” game developers to show preferential treatment towards one or the other. Were this the case, it would certainly explain why certain games run better using GeForce graphics than Radeon and vice versa.  Fortunately, besides new technologies like ray tracing and deep learning super-sampling in the new Nvidia Turing cards, we don’t see these concerns from PC gamers as much anymore – but they still exist. Following its Capsaicin & Cream livestream event at GDC 2017, we spoke with AMD its to discuss its strategy in contending with Nvidia. The news that the company would partner with Bethesda Softworks to optimize its games for Radeon, Ryzen or both was worrying to say the least. And it still is.  At the time, the potential for games operating more smoothly on AMD systems meant that Nvidia could fight back by partnering with an equally large publisher. Although the latter maneuver hasn’t happened yet, early Wolfenstein II performance comparisons, such as this one from TechEpiphany on YouTube have exhibited better performance and lower temps coming from the AMD Radeon RX 64 when pitted against Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 1080. We’re not saying there’s a bias towards AMD in Bethesda’s technical design decisions, however we aren’t ready to take off our tin foil hats quite yet either. Of course, Bethesda is hardly the only company to show favoritism to either team red or green. If you ever see an AMD or Nvidia splash screen ahead of the title page when you start a game, you can bet it will run better with that company’s hardware. So, which is better? Neither There’s so much to love, and in some instances “dis-love,” about both Nvidia and AMD graphics. In the end, both of these companies rely on competition with each other to thrive. Suffice to say, the Nvidia vs AMD debate requires that you understand there’s a reason Radeon and GeForce GPUs are so similar in performance right now.  Each company is doing its best to keep up with the mindshare of the other, and that’s good for us. They’re basically fighting for our money, learning from each other’s mistakes and legislating marked improvements along the way.  It’s up to you who wins the fiery contest of Nvidia vs AMD, although we will say this: Nvidia is unmatched in the 4K market right now. If it helps any, the RTX 2080 Ti is probably your best bet if you want your PC to keep up with your Ultra HD display – as long as you can afford it. If you’re on a budget, though, Nvidia and AMD graphics cards will be about the same, at least until lower-end Turing cards make their way to the public. These are the best PC games you can play right now This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Nvidia Turing release date, news and features Posted: 26 Feb 2019 01:23 PM PST The wait for Nvidia’s next-generation Turing graphics cards was excruciating, but finally, the latest and greatest GPU architecture is here. It was a long wait, but the sheer power of Nvidia Turing was definitely worth it. Now that we finally have Turing-powered Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Ti, RTX 2080, RTX 2070 and RTX 2060 cards in our hands, we know they’re the best graphics cards for the games we’ll be playing for the next few years. Nvidia Turing will be behind some creative work too, thanks to the recently introduced Nvidia Titan RTX. Real time ray tracing is the premiere technology with Nvidia Turing, bringing this holy grail of graphics tech to a mainstream GPU for the first time. This could bring about a revolution in the way the best PC games are rendered. Of course, if you’d rather game with RTX off, Nvidia has launched the GTX 1660 Ti. It’s not quite as powerful as its RTX cousins, but it’s more affordable. And, it looks like Nvidia is getting ready to release even more affordable GPUs. Be sure to keep this page bookmarked, as we’ll update it with any new Nvidia Turing information or rumors we find.  Cut to the chase What is it? Nvidia’s latest graphics card architecture When is it out? September 20 What will it cost? $599 (£569, AU$899) - $10,000 (£7,830, AU$13,751) Image Credit: Nvidia Nvidia Turing release date All of the currently-announced Nvidia Turing GPUs are now out in the wild – the RTX 2080 Ti, 2080, 2070, 2060 and GTX 1660 Ti. Thankfully, the RTX-series cards are readily available now after some initial limited availability, and you’ll likely find more than a few models on sale everyday. And, at CES 2019, we didn’t just finally get an RTX 2060 announcement, but also over 40 gaming laptops sporting Nvidia RTX graphics. The best gaming laptops of CES 2019, like the Alienware Area 51m, were all packing the latest Nvidia Turing graphics, and they’ll start hitting the market in the latter part of January 2019. And, if you were looking for a graphics card that you won’t have to take out a personal loan to afford, the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 Ti has hit the street. And, there are rumors that the GTX 1660 will release on March 15, followed by the 1650 releasing on April 30. We’ll be sure to update this article as soon as we get some official word on these graphics cards’ release dates.  Image Credit: TechRadar Nvidia Turing price Although the Nvidia Turing series started with the Quadro RTX GPUs, we're far more interested in the graphics cards available for consumers. If you wanted to check out these enterprise-leaning parts head on here, otherwise read on for the prices of the announced consumer cards below:  Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Ti: $1,199 (£1,099, AU$1,899)  Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080: $799 (£749, AU$1,199)  Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070: $599 (£569, AU$899)  Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060: $349 (£329, AU$599) Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 Ti: $279 (£259, AU$469)  Overall, the prices for Nvidia's newest graphics cards seem to have risen with the Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Ti  taking the place of Nvidia’s past Titan cards. This shift up can sadly be seen across the entire lineup.  Not to mention  that the prices on the store for the RTX 2080 Ti and RTX 2080 were a bit higher than what Nvidia CEO and founder Jensen Huang revealed at the Nvidia Geforce Celebration at Gamescom 2018 – at the time of writing. For instance, the 2080 Ti was initially revealed at $999, but that price is rarely reflected outside of some occasional discounts. Then there’s the GTX Turing cards. Right now, there’s only one on the market, the $279 (£259, AU$469) GTX 1660 Ti. However, there are rumors of two more affordable Turing cards launching later this year. And, while there are some rumored prices for these cards, they haven’t been confirmed, so you should take them with a grain of salt.  Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660: $229 (about £175, AU$325) Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650: $179 (about £135, AU$250) Image Credit: TechRadar Nvidia Turing specs The headline feature of Nvidia Turing is the inclusion of ray-tracing tech that can render more realistic visuals and lighting in real time without having to fall back on programming tricks. These specialized RTX cores essentially calculate how light and sound travel in a 3D environment at a rate of up to 10 GigaRays on the RTX 2080 Ti.  These specialized cores will also supposedly allow Nvidia Turing-based graphics cards to process ray tracing up to 25 times faster than Pascal. When these RTX Cores aren’t in use for processing ray tracing, they’ll essentially switch off, ceasing to draw any power.  In addition to these RTX cores, the Turing Architecture will also feature Tensor Cores, like the ones found in Volta. These specialized cores enable artificial intelligence and neural networking so that Turing cards get better at rendering over time – something previously exclusive to supercomputers.   With the ability to deliver 500 trillion Tensor operations a second, this technology accelerates deep learning training and inferencing. This will allow Nvidia to offer Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS), which could be a version of super sampling that won’t bring your computer to its knees.  Even for games that don’t support this new DLSS tech, these AI-fueled cores should deliver traditional anti-aliasing much more efficiently – up to eight times. As with Volta, Nvidia Turing is adopting GDDR6 memory – up to 11GB in the RTX 2080 Ti, which can clock in at up to 14Gbps, quite the leap over the Pascal-powered Nvidia Titan Xp that clocked in at 11.4Gbps. The Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Ti is an absolute behemoth of a GPU. With 4,352 CUDA cores, 11GB of GDDR6 VRAM with a 352-bit memory bus and 18 billion transistors, it’ll be  capable of 4K Ultra gaming at high refresh rates for years to come. It’s no wonder it comes with such a high price tag.  The more mainstream RTX 2080 and RTX 2070 are both also quite impressive and absolutely destroy the previous generation of GPUs. The former will feature 2,944 CUDA cores, 8GB of GDDR6 memory and clocks in at a 1.5GHz base frequency. The 2070, though is be a bit weaker, coming with 2,304 CUDA cores 8GB of GDDR6 VRAM and clocked at a 1,410Mhz base frequency. And, while the RTX 2060 is basically just a cut-down RTX 2070, with the same TU106 GPU, but with 1,920 CUDA cores, 6GB of GDDR6 VRAM and a boost clock of 1,680 MHz, it’s still a formidable graphics card. Nvidia has also launched a non-RTX card in the GTX 1660 Ti. This entry-level card features 1,536 CUDA cores, 6GB of GDDR6 VRAM at 12Gbps, and a base clock of 1,500 MHz. It’s slower than the RTX 2060, but it’s a substantial upgrade over the GTX 1060 it replaces. And, there are rumors that there are more budget-minded Turing cards coming out later this year. We found a list of speculated specs over at Wccftech, as follows:  Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 6GB: 1,280 CUDA Cores, 6GB GDDR5 Memory, 1,785 MHz Boost clock Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 3GB: 1,280 CUDA Cores, 3GB GDDR5 Memory, 1,785MHz Boost clock Now, we have seen some rumors of a GTX 1650, too, but we’re not sure what the specs are going to look like.   Nvidia Turing Performance  And, as long as you have the high-end specs to back them up, the new Turing RTX cards are able to perform much faster than their Pascal equivalents, and will be able to push it even further once DLSS or deep learning super sampling is more widespread. And, thanks to the AA improvements in the Tensor cores, we’re seeing about a 20-40% increase in games that don't support DLSS. In our benchmarks, the GeForce RTX 2080 outperforms the GeForce GTX 1080 Ti by about 11% and the Nvidia GTX 1080 by a more impressive 32% in Middle Earth: Shadow of War in 4K. This performance difference is even more massive when you look at the Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Ti which not only is 20% faster than the RTX 2080 in the same title, but beats out the last-generation 1080 Ti by a massive 30%, destroying the GTX 1080 with a 45% performance delta.  Unfortunately, the Nvidia RTX 2070 is less impressive. While it does absolutely wipe the floor with the GTX 1070, it is essentially neck in neck with the GTX 1080 – barely hitting a 10% performance increase at 4K in Shadow of the Tomb Raider. At its price point we were hoping for more, especially after seeing the RTX 2080 and RTX 2080 Ti’s impressive performances. The RTX 2060 is obviously the weakest of the bunch, but you shouldn’t dismiss it outright. The mid-range Nvidia Turing card far outclasses the GTX 1060, but what’s more surprising is that it surpasses the GTX 1070 Ti – for a lower asking price. We were able to get 90 fps in Shadow of the Tomb Raider at 1080p, whereas the 1070 Ti lagged behind at 86 fps. That’s not a huge difference, but the 2060 is $100 cheaper at launch.  In traditional games, there’s no question that Nvidia Turing marks a total upgrade from Pascal. And, over time as drivers mature and users get ready to start overclocking their Turing cards, the difference is only going to grow. That’s not to mention the inclusion of incoming DLSS and ray tracing in games, which should only increase the Nvidia Turing performance gap. When it comes to ray tracing, there’s only one title that supports it right now: Battlefield V. And, in that title, the Nvidia Turing cards use a hybrid rendering technique – combining both traditional rasterization and ray tracing in order to produce playable frame rates. Nvidia utilizes “Bounding Volume Hierarchy,” or BVH to track large portions of the scene being rendered for whether or not a ray is being bounced. The RTX cores will then dig deeper into these large rendering zones until it finds the polygon that’s getting hit by the light ray.  This method impacts performance far less than tracking each ray live, but it’s still very demanding. In our own testing, you’ll be stuck at 1080p if you’re looking for smooth gameplay with ray tracing turned on. However, with Nvidia’s latest RTX drivers, it’s claiming to increase performance by up to 50% for ray tracing. We’ll be sure to test this and report back, but we have to wait for the new Battlefield V patch to do it.  As for the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 Ti, you can expect much better performance than the GTX 1060 for less money – up to 56% faster in Shadow of the Tomb Raider at 1080p in our testing. That makes the 1660 Ti a beast when it comes to value.  Meanwhile, this the latest in AMD Vega This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Sprint 5G: all the phones coming to the next-gen network Posted: 26 Feb 2019 01:03 PM PST Sprint has unveiled its plan to deploy one of the first 5G in networks in the first half of 2019, rolling out the fast service to metro downtown areas in nine cities. So what phones will it be able to use?  First, let’s clarify where Sprint’s 5G network will show up first. Starting in May, the service will go live in Chicago, Atlanta, Dallas and Kansas City, and will then spread to Houston, Los Angeles, New York City, Phoenix and Washington, D.C. “in the first half of 2019,” per a Sprint press release. This 5G network won’t be available across these entire cities at first, mind – only particular parts of their downtown metropolitan areas. New York City’s coverage will start at 30 square miles between Midtown and lower Manhattan, for example. Meanwhile it will start in 230 square miles of the Dallas-Fort Worth region and 110 square miles in Kansas City, according to the Kansas City Star. In total, the initial 5G coverage area will span more than 1,000 square miles across all nine cities. Sprint will surely continue to expand their 5G network as the year rolls on, and is using Massive MIMO radios to augment coverage and simultaneously meet consumers’ 5G and LTE needs. Once they’re up, though, expect a ridiculous upgrade in speed: in one demo video, Sprint showed someone getting 421 Mbps download speeds within their Chicago coverage area.  But you won’t get those speeds unless you use certain phones – not just ones that play nice with Sprint’s network, but also pack the tech (specifically, processors and modems) designed with 5G in mind. Without further ado, here are the phones you’ll be able to use on Sprint’s 5G network. Image credit: TechRadar LG V50 ThinQ 5G The first phone you’ll be able to use on Sprint’s next-gen network is the LG V50 ThinQ 5G, which is coming to the service sometime this spring. LG introduced the phone at MWC 2019 as one of the first 5G phones that will hit the market, and it will be the initial device consumers can use on Sprint’s fastest network yet.  The V50 looks very similar to the V40, though it packs more of a punch thanks to the brand-new Snapdragon 855 processor (essential for hooking up to 5G networks). It has the same 6.4-inch OLED screen as its predecessor, yet features a larger 4,000mAh battery, ostensibly to watch more media and for longer with those hyper-fast connection speeds.  We still don’t know how much the V50 5G will cost, but given its predecessor cost $900 (around £690 / AU$1260) at launch, we expect the new version to be around or a bit higher than that. Samsung Galaxy S10 5G One of the biggest, baddest flagship phones will be coming to Sprint’s 5G network sometime this summer. No, literally: the Samsung Galaxy S10 5G’s 6.7-inch AMOLED display is one of the largest we’ve seen in a flagship phone, at least until the foldables start rolling out.  Everything else about the handset is equally big, from its Snapdragon 855 chipset to its 256GB storage and 8GB of RAM. Like the Galaxy S10 and S10 Plus, the 5G variant has three rear lenses (12MP wide, 16MP ultra-wide and 12MP telephoto) along with a time of flight (TOF) sensor to measure depth. It’s even got one of these TOF sensors on the front to augment your selfie game.  We also don’t know how much the Galaxy S10 5G will cost. Given that it has another camera and twice the storage capacity of the baseline S10 Plus, which retails for $999 / £899 (about AU$1,398), we expect the S10 5G to be priced above its less powerful kin. HTC 5G Hub Okay, this definitely isn’t a phone – but until Sprint announces more compatible handsets, the standalone HTC 5G hub might not be a bad substitute, especially if you already have a powerful device.  The mobile smart hub (the first of its kind, Sprint claims in its press release) lets up to 20 users hook up to it for smooth 5G speed. It even has a 5-inch HD touchscreen for easy setup. It's unclear how much the hub will cost or when you'll be able to pick one up – presumably when Sprint's 5G network starts coming online in late spring/early summer. Here's our rundown of all the 5G phones we're expecting to come out this year This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

USB 3.2 to take over the world's computers – but not how you think Posted: 26 Feb 2019 12:32 PM PST The USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF), an independent technology standards group, has officially rung in the era of USB 3.2 at MWC 2019. However, USB 3.1 and USB 3.0 – as you know them – aren’t going anywhere. While USB 3.2 marks a new level of data transfer speed reached for the standard at 20 Gigabits per second (Gbps), it also will see previous USB technologies become rebranded “USB 3.2” in technical product listings, Computer Base reports. This means that what is known as USB 3.1 Gen 1 today, which offers 5Gbps data transfer speeds, will henceforth be known as USB 3.2 Gen 1. Likewise, what we call USB 3.1 Gen 2 today will now be called USB 3.2 Gen 2, which still offers 10Gbps transfer speeds. USB-C is now more secure against malware sticks The best USB-C adapter deals Microsoft Surface Connector may finally go USB-C Ports and devices carrying the new level of transfer speeds that USB 3.2 introduces – again, 20Gbps – will be known as USB 3.2 Gen 2x2. This increase in transfer speed is achieved by placing another 10Gbps data transfer channel within the connector, which is only possible in the Type-C format that is all but taking over smartphones and laptops. Another quagmire for consumers It’s unknown exactly when we’ll see laptops and other devices bearing ports capable of USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 transfer speeds, but it’s expected that manufacturers will soon adopt the new naming conventions for current and upcoming products that will continue using 5Gbps and 10Gbps USB ports. The USB-IF has attempted to get in front of any potential confusion with suggested marketing names: SuperSpeed USB, SuperSpeed USB 10Gbps and SuperSpeed USB 20Gbps. Unfortunately, this isn’t any different from how the organization has tried to do this in the past, and manufacturers have been historically terrible at adopting this naming convention. It will be up to manufacturers to come up with their own methods of educating consumers on the specifics of their products’ USB ports. Of course, we’ll be sure to take manufacturers to task on this front, too. These are the best laptops the world over Via Tom's Hardware This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Pandora Stories teaches you the history of your favorite songs Posted: 26 Feb 2019 12:32 PM PST If you’re the kind of person who likes to know how a song came to be just as much as the song itself, Pandora’s latest feature – Pandora Stories – is right up your alley.  The feature, brand new to the service at the time of writing, allows artists to add audio commentary to the playlists on Pandora to create a new type of narrated experience. So far, six artists have created stories, including John Legend, Daddy Yankee, Lauren Alaina, Perry Farrell, Tommy Brenneck and Wes Anderson movie collaborator Randall Poster.  Soundtracks sound better on Xbox, thanks to Dolby Atmos upmixing Google Home might support Apple Music in the future We've got a list of the best 4K Blu-rays You'll either need a Pandora Premium account to listen to the stories or go through a 30-second video advertisement if you're still using a free Pandora account. While the feature makes the most sense for musicians to use as a way to provide additional insight into why they made a song a certain way, Pandora says that it can also be used by other celebrities, actors, filmmakers, athletes, authors, podcasters and thought leaders as well … as long as you’re willing to fill out a form on Pandora’s marketing website.  Apple Music vs Pandora  If this idea sounds semi-familiar to you, it’s because there a number of services all developing similar ideas: Apple has its Beats1 Radio that gives artists some air time to sit alongside some world-famous disc jockeys, while Deezer has long had the ability to intersperse podcasts and spoken segments into your daily playlist. What Pandora Stories most resembles is Spotify’s "Behind the Lyrics" feature that shows you some insight into what an artist was thinking or feeling while the music is playing. That feature is powered by the editors and writers at Genius, however, and not by the artists themselves. What makes Pandora Stories slightly different than anything else on Apple Music, Spotify or Deezer is that they allow artists a platform to tell stories alongside their music the same way a commentary track on a DVD or Blu-ray would. If you like to learn while you listen, head on over to Pandora. Don't miss our round-up of the best headphones in 2019 Via TechCrunch This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Researchers compromise bare-metal cloud servers Posted: 26 Feb 2019 11:39 AM PST A new report from the hardware security firm Eclypsium has revealed that hackers can corrupt the firmware of bare-metal cloud servers so that they can regain access to the servers after they've been released and reassigned to other customers. A bare-metal server is a physical server that is rented to one customer at a time and many companies in the cloud services industry offer these servers to their customers because of their flexibility and security benefits. Once a customer is finished with the server, it is released back to the cloud company and the provider wipes the server of any customer data so that it can make it available to others. However, in its latest experiment, Eclypsium discovered that cloud service providers are not doing enough when it comes to properly wiping base-metal servers. Cloud is the biggest security risk facing businesses today Data in the cloud is more exposed than organisations think How to choose a cloud storage and backup provider The team was successfully able to make modifications to a server's baseboard management controller (BMC) firmware which a potential attacker could use to access a server after it was wiped and reassigned to another customer. Bare-metal cloud server security Last year, researchers from Eclypsium discovered vulnerabilities in the BMC firmware of Super Micro motherboards and they used this knowledge to exploit IBM's SoftLayer cloud service which uses Super Micro hardware. The company explained why it chose IBM SoftLayer for its experiment, saying: “We originally chose SoftLayer for our testing environment because of its simplified logistics and access to hardware but noticed SoftLayer was using SuperMicro server hardware that based on our previous research we knew were vulnerable. It should be noted that SoftLayer uses other hardware vendors in addition to SuperMicro, and SuperMicro devices are used by many other service providers." Eclypsium called its successful test Cloudborne and the company's research team was able to update a rented bare-metal server's BMC firmware with one they had prepared in advance which contained just one single bit flip so that they could recognize it at a later point. However, an attacker could add malicious code to the BMC firmware opening a server up to backdoor accounts. IBM responded to Eclypsium's research in a blog post in which it detailed how it had reconfigured its cloud service to reflash all BMC firmware to factory settings and erase all logs and generate new passwords for each client. Via ZDNet We've also highlighted the best cloud antivirus and best cloud firewall This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

SAP wants to power the next generation of IoT Posted: 26 Feb 2019 10:47 AM PST At MWC 2019, SAP unveiled SAP Leonardo Internet of Things (IoT) capabilities to help drive digital transformation for the industrial IoT and Industry 4.0. The company also announced the cloud-to-cloud interoperability of SAP Leonardo IoT with Microsoft Azure IoT Hub to provide customers more choices when it comes to connectivity and device management. SAP is uniquely positioned to bring IoT data and business processes together and SAP Leonardo IoT will help customers increase productivity, redefine their customer experience and grow their revenue streams. IoT technology now vital for business success The future of IoT connectivity Open source may be the key to securing IoT The company's IoT solution will also enable customers to embed IoT into line-of-business (LoB) solutions and enhance their business applications with IoT technology. SAP Leonardo IoT Senior Vice President and Global Head of IoT at SAP, Elvira Wallis explained how committed the company is to IoT technology, saying: “SAP delivers valuable insight and drives business results by embedding IoT data into business processes. With the launch of SAP Leonardo IoT, SAP solidifies its commitment to the IoT, and in particular Industrial IoT. The combination of IoT and our depth and breadth of high-value industry and application expertise helps customers gain greater business value and a stronger competitive advantage.”  SAP Leonardo IoT will allow customers to innovate and enhance their business processes using data-driven intelligence and operational context from machines, products, supply chains, consumers and partners. SAP customers will also be able to use Microsoft Azure's IoT Hub as the connectivity and device management layer for IoT telemetry data which is then seamlessly relayed to SAP Leonardo IoT. At the same time, the company aims to give customers the option to extend support for their business processes locally on top of Microsoft Azure IoT Edge runtime. Essential business function (EBF) modules based on SAP Leonardo IoT Edge are also planned to run in containers on Microsoft Azure IoT Edge to help reduce customers dependency on latency, bandwidth and connectivity. MWC (Mobile World Congress) is the world's largest showcase for the mobile industry, stuffed full of the newest phones, tablets, wearables and more. TechRadar is reporting live from Barcelona all week to bring you the very latest from the show floor. Head to our dedicated MWC 2019 hub to see all the new releases, along with TechRadar's world-class analysis and buying advice about your next phone.  Keep up to date with the latest news from Mobile World Congress 2019 by checking out our MWC 2019 Hub This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Cheaper Nvidia GTX 1660, 1650 graphics cards might be coming soon Posted: 26 Feb 2019 10:07 AM PST Nvidia GTX graphics cards are alive and well following the release of the GeForce GTX 1660 Ti. Apparently, Team Green’s new mid-range GPU will soon be joined by two more affordable models. Digitimes reports there are plans to release a GeForce GTX 1660 on March 15th for $229 (about £170, AU$320). What’s more, there will also purportedly be a GeForce GTX 1650 launching on April 30th for $179 (about £135, AU$250). If this report is true, Nvidia could quickly dominate the entry-level market in the PC gaming world, especially if both of these GPUs are as impressive as the GeForce GTX 1660 Ti. Where are AMD’s reasonably priced graphics cards? Probably with Navi The Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Ti is the most powerful graphics card Find the best processors to go with these newly rumored GPUs Producing GeForce GTX 1660 and the GeForce GTX 1650 cards certainly wouldn’t be a difficult task for Nvidia. The company could just use cut-down versions the its existing Turing TU116 GPU core with fewer CUDA cores or slightly lower operating frequencies to produce more affordable models. According to VideoCardz, the GeForce GTX 1660 will feature 1,280 CUDA cores with either 6GB or 3GB of GDDR5 video memory. The GeForce GTX 1650, on the other hand, is still heavily shrouded in mystery and we’ve only heard it will come equipped with 4GB of GDDR5 VRAM. The motive behind Nvidia’s sudden stream of affordable GPUs is far more transparent. Earlier this month, the company announced its Q4 FY2019 results with revenue dipping to its lowest levels since mid-2017. Part of its poor performance was due to the low sales of high-priced GeForce RTX graphics cards. It’s almost certain that Nvidia is trying to reverse its fortunes for the better by selling as many mid- and entry-level graphics cards it can. Here is our full review of AMD’s latest graphics card, the Radeon VII Via Wccftech This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

BlackBerry acquires Cylance for its intelligent security technology Posted: 26 Feb 2019 10:00 AM PST In an effort to bolster its portfolio of security solutions, BlackBerry has announced that it has completed its acquisition of machine learning and AI-based security tech firm Cylance. The deal will add valuable IP and technologies to BlackBerry's already extensive portfolio of security solutions for today's increasingly connected world. Cylance utilizes advanced AI and ML algorithms to predict, detect and prevent both known and unknown threats which will help enhance both BlackBerry's QNX and Spark platforms for connected cars as well as various other IoT devices. BlackBerry wants to be the software behind smart cities Why BlackBerry wants to secure the IoT Blackberry wants to make your smart speaker more secure IoT and other connected devices are still relatively new which is why potential threats that can harm them remain largely unknown at this time. Advanced AI and ML algorithms, such as those developed by Cylance, can help predict and detect threats, making them a great addition to software platforms running on these emerging devices. Cylance acquisition In total, BlackBerry paid $1.4bn for Cylance which was founded in 2015 by former Intel and McAfee employees. The company's founder Stuart McClure will continue to serve as the president of BlackBerry Cylance which will operate as a separate unit within BlackBerry. BlackBerry's Executive Chairman and CEO, John Chen praised the acquisition in a statement explaining how Cylance's technology will help it achieve its goal of becoming the world's largest AI cybersecurity company, saying: "Today BlackBerry took a giant step forward toward our goal of being the world's largest and most trusted AI-cybersecurity company. Securing endpoints and the data that flows between them is absolutely critical in today's hyperconnected world. By adding Cylance's technology to our arsenal of cybersecurity solutions we will help enterprises intelligently connect, protect and build secure endpoints that users can trust."  Via AnandTech We've also highlighted the best antivirus and the best endpoint security software This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Best roguelike games: a beginner's guide to the die-a-lot genre Posted: 26 Feb 2019 09:49 AM PST Gaming used to be hard because of two things: money and time. As many games were designed to be played in an arcade, they leant into being intensely tricky in order to get your pocket money. Meanwhile, the games that were always destined for consoles usually just weren’t that long. In order to counteract their short playtime, home console games were made more difficult to prevent you feeling like you wasted your hard-earned cash- 30 hours to finish a four-hour story is value for money, right?  As time progress, games changed and developers learnt the benefits of creating longer, less difficult games. However, while that’s something gamers claimed they wanted, in reality many still long for the nostalgia that comes with challenging games. They remind us of the arcade’s frustrating legacy. This has led to titles such as the infamous Demon’s Souls thriving, as saying that a game is ‘hard’ has suddenly become a positive thing in marketing.  This masochistic awakening has seen the revival of a genre, buried by the sands of time, that is designed to kill you and sees your progression tied more to you than your character: the Roguelike… roguelite… rogue-ish.  Roguelikes are all about getting better because you have suffered. Only through great suffering can one attain great power. Only after failing 1000 times can you expect to succeed once. Roguelikes take masochism and gamify it, rewarding your stubbornness in a way that no other genre does.  So this is our little guide to some of the best rogue-inspired games around. A genre full of dying a lot, making mistakes, and scraping through by the skin of your eyes. Yes, your eyes... The Shoot ‘Em Up: The Binding of Isaac Image credit: Edmund McMillen The Binding of Isaac is an eight-year-old game that has been consistently receiving updates up until last year. For many, this is the quintessential roguelike game. You play Isaac – initially at least – a poor boy whose mother has been told by God to strike him down. He goes into hiding and winds up in a dungeon filled with monstrosities that seem intent on killing him. If you guide Isaac down deep enough you actually go through your mother’s womb and even fight Satan. You read that right. The joy of this game comes from the runs where you become all-powerful. You can become a flying laser-firing cyclops that turns to stone when stationery. You can have an army of babies that attack enemies for you. Hell, you can spit teeth at enemies in order to take them out. The game gets harder the better you do, with bosses becoming more difficult and new areas unlocking. The real challenge though is in the other characters.  As things progress you'll unlock more powerful playable characters, less powerful ones, and even biblical babies. Eventually, you unlock The Lost, a ghost baby that can only take one hit. Yes, just one hit and it is game over - to put this in perspective, the latter bosses are all bullet hell fights. You might be wondering why you would do this to yourself, well the only way to truly complete the game is to complete it with every character. The Binding of Isaac will crush you, and you will love it.  The Metroidvania: Dead Cells Image credit: Motion Twin Dead Cells came out last year to widespread critical acclaim - and probably resulted in some broken controllers. It’s a side-on action-platformer game where you get new abilities and unlock new areas as a result of progressing: aka a Metroidvania. You also go back to the beginning when you die, which makes it a roguelike.  The two terms are naturally at odds with each other, due to the former requiring permanent progression and the latter denying it. Nevertheless, Dead Cells balances both perfectly, like balancing a bottle of nitroglycerin on the end of a sword.  The combat in this game is balletic. You flow around levels constantly attacking and double-jumping like a pointy spinning-top (or a Beyblade, for you geeks). You can clamber up walls, grow vines, set traps, and set everything on fire. You upgrade your character over the course of each run and then have it taken away from you when you die, or when you succeed. In the unlikely event that you make it past the final boss, the game restarts.  This time though, you have a boss cell activated that changes the enemies in each level, removes some healing opportunities, and generally turns things up a notch. You can do this several times. The final difficulty gives you three healing chances to last an entire run. Apparently, this is still achievable...  The Turn-Based Strategy: Into the Breach Image credit: Subset Games Into the Breach is such an intensely compelling and enjoyable experience that you often won’t even realize you’ve failed before you’ve started your next run. The turn-based strategy title shows you every move your enemy is going to make and asks you to react perfectly in order to protect the timeline from alien interference.  In order to succeed you need to look past your immediate options, if you can’t think at least three turns ahead then you are doomed to failure. Failure means permadeath, in this case that means teleporting to another timeline and abandoning all but one of your mech pilots - essentially making you start from scratch. The brilliance of Into the Breach lies in the fact that you are always responsible for your failure and you’re forced to live with it - there are no redos. In other games, it is easy to blame an unfair AI or attack however, in Into the Breach , you can see what is going to happen, so it is your fault if you make a bad move.  It’s like playing chess with the ability to see the future; if you still mess it up then it is on you, not the game. You unlock new mechs as you go and can even mix-and-match them to build your own perfect squad - just try not to lose them. If the threat of losing your squad isn’t enough to get the blood pumping then add a soundtrack comparably to audio ecstasy for extra measure.  The Multi-Player Dungeon Crawler: Crawl  Image credit: Powerhoof Crawl is a Lovecraftian local multiplayer dungeon crawler which sees you descend into a pixel art dungeon - hoping not to descend into madness. You will probably die, but that is not the end of you. You see, there are up to four adventurers (controlled by you and your friends) all aiming to make it to the end of the dungeon- but only one can. Queue the literal backstabbing and murder.  Whichever of your friends is lucky enough to kill you comes back to life, while the other adventurers exist as vengeful spirits intent on killing the fortunate survivor. These spirits can possess traps and furniture, and summon monsters in special areas that can be used to attack the living. These monsters gain levels and evolve depending on how strong the adventurer is. The stronger the living becomes, the stronger the dead are. It keeps things in balance. The aim is to be the living adventurer to first slay a boss. Then you get to start it all over again.  While the vast majority of roguelikes are single-player and frustrating affairs, Crawl turns this on its head. Instead, you and three friends can take turns stabbing each other in the back, all to try and be the one who succeeds. It is well-balanced as no matter how strong the hero becomes; the monsters just get fiercer. The more you play the game the more content you unlock. You gain access to new old ones to worship, new items, and deadlier traps. The frenetic rush to be the spirit to deal the killing blow to the adventurer is wonderful, and one that is repeated throughout each game. Why not share the joy of dying a lot with your closest friends? The Card Game: Slay the Spire Image credit: Mega Crit Games  Despite only releasing in January 2019, Slay the Spire has cemented its place in the roguelike genre. On paper, it’s a deck-building card-battling turn-based dungeon crawler, but you have to assume it was created by feeding two genres into a randomizer and just going with the results (in the best possible way).  Your role is to make it to the top of the titular spire. To do this, you journey through different levels, battling various monsters along the way. As you progress, you get new cards to add to your deck and maybe even some fancy equipment. Seems simple, right? Where Slay the Spire excels is in the subtle decisions you have to make. Adding a new card to your deck should be a good thing. The trouble is, doing so lowers the chances of drawing something else. Whenever a new card is offered, you have to figure out if it is worth taking. Do you take the card that is good on its own or do you take the combo card? The good one is good no matter what other cards you have, but the combo card could be instantly lethal if you get the other bits - which is more valuable. Failure means starting again of course, but this time you’ll know more about deck composition and strategy. It really is unique amongst roguelikes.  Read more: How Spelunky, Dark Souls and Isaac made death matter again This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Samsung Galaxy S9 prices set to rise - grab one of these great deals before they go Posted: 26 Feb 2019 09:25 AM PST As much as we've been loving the new Samsung Galaxy S10 its launch last week, it has been a bit of a struggle to see past the price. Instead, we've found solace in the affordability of its predecessor - the Galaxy S9. But now that might not be an option either, with prices set to rise on Samsung's older device. We've been told that the best deals on the Samsung Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9 Plus are set to disappear in the next couple of days. But this is not a time for despair, as it means there is still time to grab one of the many affordable offers still floating around on these devices. Below you can find our picks for the best tariffs available on both the S9 and S9 Plus. But if you would rather see what other handsets are currently available, take a look at our best mobile phone deals page to compare prices. Want to see all of the offers available on these devices? Check out our Samsung Galaxy S9 deals and Samsung Galaxy S9 Plus deals pages for all of the possible options. The best Samsung Galaxy S9 deals in full: Still just want the newer phone? Then take a look at our Galaxy S10 deals guide This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Best remote desktop software of 2019 Posted: 26 Feb 2019 09:22 AM PST Welcome to our list of the best remote desktop software in 2019. Remote desktop software allows you to access one PC from another, even if the PCs are not in the same building – or even country! There are a number of business uses for remote desktop software. For example, you could use a PC in one office to access a PC in another one, to grab important files. You could also use a powerful remote PC to handle complex tasks while showing the results on a lower-powered laptop. The best remote desktop software is also useful for IT admins, who can remotely take control of a PC to help identify and fix any problems. The best remote desktop software is installed on the remote computer (the host) as well as on any other computer you want to use to access the host computer (known as the client). While certain versions of Windows have their own built-in Remote Desktop software, there are a number of alternatives that do a better job and offer more features. Image credit: TeamViewer TeamViewer 14 is perhaps the best-known remote desktop software in the world, and for good reason, as it has support for a huge amount of platforms that allows you to remotely access a PC using a number of devices. Most recently, TeamViewer has added support for Samsung's DeX technology, which means you can use Samsung's smartphones like the Galaxy Note 9 to remotely access your PC.  Best of all, there's a free version for home users, which lets you test out the software before you commit. It supports 4K desktops, includes a VPN alternative and easy file sharing. Easily the best all-round remote desktop software in 2019. TeamViewer 14 Image credit: RemoteUtilities Remote Utilities for Windows is our pick for the best free remote desktop software in 2019. It allows you to connect up to 10 computers, and comes with a number of features that you'd expect to find in paid-for remote desktop software.  Remote Utilities comes in two parts; the Host software, which is installed on the PC you want to control, and the Viewer software, which you install on the computer you want to use to control the remote PC. You can also run the Viewer software without installing it, and there's an iOS and Android version of the app for viewing the PC on a mobile device. The downside is that it only works on Windows PCs, so if you use a Mac, you're out of luck. Remote Utilities for Windows Image credit: Thomas Koen LogMeIn is another big name in remote desktop software, and it's particularly popular with large companies that need a robust and powerful remote desktop platform. Because it's mainly aimed at enterprise users, it comes with a suite of useful tools that can help you manage the application across a large number of users and devices. It also means that this is an expensive package, so it won't be for everyone. There's some nice added bonuses though, such as 1TB of cloud storage and LastPass Premium subscriptions thrown in. LogMeIn Image credit: Remote Desktop Manager Remote Desktop Manager is a great tool for small and medium size businesses that want a secure and stable service for remotely controlling PCs. It comes with a good selection of tools and features in one package, and it's pretty easy to set up and use. If you have a larger company, then there's an option to buy a site licence to cover all your PCs. There's also a limited free edition for individual users, or to check it out before you buy. Remote Desktop Manager Image credit: Google If you want a quick, easy and free remote desktop software, then Chrome Remote Desktop is an excellent choice. It can be quickly installed as an extension for the Chrome web browser. Users can create a PIN to allow other PCs to log in, though you will need a Google account. It's very easy to use, and best of all it's free, so you can give it a try to see if it's right for you. The downsides is that it has limited features  – even compared to other free remote desktop software – and you need to have the Chrome web browser installed.  Chrome Remote Desktop Our pick of the best Linux remote desktop clients This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Best gadgets 2019: the top tech you can buy right now Posted: 26 Feb 2019 09:09 AM PST When you insist on only having the best gadgets in your life, money is no object. If you're prepared to splash cash on the crème de la crème of technology, you want to make sure that you're truly getting the finest gear on the market. And so you've come to the right place – TechRadar's Best Gadgets 2019 run down. To help you overcome the problem of researching your own superior tech set up, we've collated a list of the best gadgets available right now. The industry leaders. The best of the best. For each category there is only one entry, and this will only be updated when a new challenger knocks the reigning champ off the top spot – so you know you're seeing the very best gadget in its relative sector. We're not long into 2019, but are already hearing the tremors of new top-line gadgets on the way. You can head to our CES 2019 for the latest devices being announced or unveiled for the first time – even if some won't be on sale for a while. For now though, you can see the best and greatest gadgets that have caught our eye up to the start of the year. So if you're the sort of person who just wants to know what the best is and you don't care about the rest, welcome to your new shopping list... Best phone 2019 TechRadar Senior Editor, Mobile and Buying Guides Matt Swider thinks the Samsung Galaxy S9 Plus is the best phone on the market for a number of reasons, but the write-home-to-mother feature has to be the low-light camera. Samsung is making a big deal about the camera on the S9 range and for good reason, on the back of the S9 Plus are dual 12MP cameras, both with an impressive f/1.5 maximum aperture. At the time of writing the S9 range is the only phone with a camera aperture this wide, making its low-light prowess second-to-none. Add on top of that the 'infinity' screen that the Samsung Galaxy range is now famous for, and this big-screened beauty comfortably takes the top spot. We thought the AR Emoji feature was overrated, but if you're in the market for the best screen and best camera on a phone, this is the handset for you. (If you're keen to wait for something newer, though, you might want to check out its incoming successor, the Samsung Galaxy S10 .) Read the full review: Samsung Galaxy S9 Plus Want to see the best of the rest?  In the US, check out Best phone in the US for 2019: the 10 top smartphones we've tested In the UK, check out Best phone 2019: the 10 top smartphones we've tested In Australia, check out Best phones in Australia 2019: the 10 top smartphones we've tested Best laptop 2019 The Huawei MateBook X Pro is our new pick for the best laptop money can buy in 2019, after years of this list being dominated by the (still excellent) Dell XPS 13, which is now in second place. While Huawei hasn't been making laptops for as long as more established manufacturers in this list, it has absolutely knocked it out the park with the MateBook X Pro.  This is a gorgeously-designed laptop with a stunning screen (albeit with a rather odd aspect ratio), and it comes packed with cutting edge components that allows it to perform brilliantly, and a battery life that runs rings around many of its rivals. It also has a very competitive price, giving you features, design and performance for quite a bit less money. Read the full review: Huawei MateBook X Pro Want to see the best of the rest? These are the best laptops of 2019 Best TV 2019 After an underwhelming debut, Samsung’s QLED technology really needed to bounce back in style in 2018. It didn't surprise us in the least, then, to discover Samsung threw the kitchen sink in with its new Q9FN QLED Series of TVs.  As well as being even brighter and more colorful than last year’s equivalent model, Samsung's 2018 flagship screens use a completely different lighting system to combat its predecessor’s contrast problems: Full Array Local Dimming rather than edge-lit LED lighting. The FALD panel works in tandem with Samsung QLED Quantum Dots to produce a picture that's brighter and more colorful than near any we've seen come from the South Korean manufacturer.  Do those features alone make Samsung Q9FN the best TV on the market? No, but throw in technology like HDR10+ and Q HDR EliteMax – what Samsung bills as its maximum High Dynamic Range experience that’s exclusive to the Q9FN – and there's very little doubt in our mind that this is Samsung's best TV ever. (Even if it may have competition in Samsung's 2019 TV range.) Read the full review: Samsung Q9FN QLED TV (65Q9FN) Want to see the best of the rest?   In the US, check out this version of the Best TVs in the US for 2019 In the UK and Australia, check out this version of the Best TVs 2019 Best games console 2019 The battle between Sony's PlayStation consoles and Microsoft's Xbox series is hard-fought, but right now we think the PS4 Pro has the edge over the Xbox One S or Xbox One X, thanks to a combination of good hardware, great games, and a generous online offering.  An improvement on the already very strong PS4, the PS4 Pro supports 4K and HDR technologies; plus with advances in frame rate due to beefed-up processing speeds, gaming will look cleaner, crisper and smoother. The only thing stopping the PS4 Pro from being the ultimate console is the omission of an Ultra HD Blu-ray drive. Instead you'll have to rely on streaming to get your 4K media fix – or, if you're using Sony's PS Now service, the new download feature to play rented games without your patchy connection dropping the resolution. Until we get a firm release date for the PS5, this the way to go. Read the full review: PS4 Pro  Want to see exactly how it stacks up against the Xbox One S? Xbox One S vs PS4 Pro: Which is better? Best fitness tracker 2019 The Moov Now doesn't have all the bells and whistles you would associate with a fitness tracker. It doesn't have GPS tracking, it doesn't even have a screen; but what it does have is a cheap price tag and six-month battery life. Yes, you read that right: six months. During those six months you can track your steps, your sleep, your fitness, your running technique and a whole lot more. This may be an unconventional fitness tracker, but it's a great one.  Read the full review: Moov Now Want to see the best of the rest? Best fitness tracker 2019: the top 10 activity bands on the planet Best camera 2019 The Nikon Z6 is one of the newest cameras we've had the pleasure to test, and it matches youth with excellent usability. A full-frame mirrorless, it ticks all the boxes for features, performance, and price, with a 24.5MP sensor that offers superb color reproduction and pin-sharp detailing. For the wobbly-handed there's a 273-point autofocus system, alongside a 12fps burst-shooting mode for capturing every moment of a fast-moving scene. Along with these smart touches, it's an ergonomic body, easy in the hand with sensibly-placed controls and a massive, bright EVF.  If you're already on the Nikon train, you'll be pleased to hear that a simple FZT adapter will let all your existing F mount lenses work just fine. Whether a pro or an enthusiast looking to upgrade, there's lots to enjoy here. Read the full review: Nikon Z6 review Want to see the best of the rest? Here are the 10 best digital cameras in 2019 Best tablet 2019 If money is truly no object, there's never been a finer tablet than the 2018 iPad Pro 11 inch slate. It's a superb two-in-one when paired with its folio keyboard case, and a lovely large touchscreen tablet when flying solo. Many of the grumbles from earlier iPad Pro tablets have been ironed out. The Apple Pencil finally connects to the tablet magnetically, the speakers now have the oomph to match the larger real estate, and the screen-to-body ratio has been improved to a point where it's hard to see where Apple can go from here. Is it a true laptop replacement? That's still a tough question, and one worth considering before purchase – the iOS 12 software feels limiting when trying to multitask and perform laptop-like tasks.  Another strictly mobile challenge: it doesn't have a headphone jack. If you want the standard 3.5mm jack in a computer-like device, you'll spring for an actual computer. Those points taken into account, it's a real winner. Just don't go in expecting an actual replacement for your MacBook Pro and you'll come away a happy techhead. Read the full review: iPad Pro 11 Want to see the best of the rest? Check out the best tablets you can buy in 2019 Best smartwatch 2019 Following on from the Gear S3 series and the Gear Sport in 2017, the Samsung Galaxy Watch comes much improved over its predecessors and rightfully knocks the Apple Watch off the top spot for this section of our best gadgets list. Having played around with the larger 46mm version of the Galaxy Watch, you're looking at a rock-soild four day battery life for the wearable – an incredible feat considering most usually conk out after just a single day's use. Tizen is an increasingly capable wearable OS, and the rotating bezel used here to navigate works like a charm. The one drawback remains Tizen's app availability, which pales in comparison to Watch OS and Wear OS. That said, there's a lot of filler on those two platforms, and Samsung's core offering hits all the right notes for what you'd like to get from a smartwatch. Read the full Samsung Galaxy Watch review Want to see the best of the rest? Best smartwatch: the top smartwatches you can buy in 2019 Best VR headset 2019 The HTC Vive is the best VR headset in the world right now. The controls are intuitive to use, the resolution is incredible, with a 1080p screen per eye, and the base stations mean you can play in a space that's 13 x 13 feet in size – that's some serious playing space to swing yourself around in. HTC's close rival Oculus still has designs on the crown, and the incoming Oculus Quest – a wireless VR headset with PC-quality performance, reportedly – could well swing the balance. Like most of the entries on our list this is a premium product at a high price, but for now if you're looking for the best first-generation VR headset around, then the HTC Vive is the one to go for.  Read the full review: HTC Vive Want to see the best of the rest? The best VR headset 2019: which headset offers the best bang for your buck? Best headphones 2019 Sony's done it again. Despite being a new model for 2018, the Sony WH-1000XM3 are the best noise-cancelling headphones in the world two years in a row. How can that be possible?  That's because, even though there's new audio wizardry going on, they are for the most part a small refinement of last year's excellent WH-1000XM2. So what's changed? the WH-1000XM3 uses the newer USB-C charging standard instead of a legacy microUSB connection, and there is also a bit more padding along the bridge to keep your noggin' comfy. But that's about it. At first, that lack of substantial improvement gave us some reservations about recommending them - especially when the 1000XM2 could be found for less online. But those days are over. If you want a critically-acclaimed noise-cancelling headset that's brand-new for 2018 and has two-plus years of experience being the best, the WH-1000XM3 are the way to go. Read the full review: Sony WH-1000XM3 Want to see the best of the rest? Best headphones 2019: the best headphones for any budget This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Best website defacement monitoring service of 2019 Posted: 26 Feb 2019 09:05 AM PST In July 2001, the Code Red worm infected over 359,000 hosts which were running a vulnerable implementation of Windows NT. Visitors to compromised websites were greeted with the message: "HELLO! Welcome to http://www.worm.com! Hacked By Chinese!" Code Red and the phrase "Hacked by Chinese!" have long since passed into internet legend but the danger of website defacement is clear and present. Hackers can target your site at any time, so unless you are viewing a page as its been changed, it's hard to respond quickly. In this guide, you'll discover an elegant solution to the issue of website defacement in the form of the very best security tools on the web today. These automate the task of regularly checking your domains for anomalies and make sure to notify you if any unauthorised changes are detected. There are options to match all budgets from free services suitable for the occasional blogger to premium platforms for large business owners. We've also highlighted the best website hosting services  Visualping Visualping is a deceptively simple tool which offers powerful protection against website defacement. Users of the website or iOS/Android mobile apps need only enter a URL and their email address to receive regular updates of any changes made.   The tool works by making regular snapshots of the page in question then comparing these on an hourly, daily or weekly basis. It can also be customized to trigger an alert for tiny, medium or significant changes. Visualping is not designed specifically for website defacement. As the developers' website mentions, it will work equally well for checking on the release on concert tickets or a new product launch. However its ability to display superposed 'images' as well as the fact you can control the frequency Visualping checks for changes means it's certainly fit for purpose. The basic free version of Visualping allows you up to 2 free checks per day. Costs vary after this on a very reasonable sliding scale depending on the number of checks required. For instance, to have Visualping check your site 40 times a day (every 36 minutes) would cost just $13 (£9.72) a month. If you need to monitor multiple domains consider installing the Visualping Chrome web extension. Once installed just click the Visualping button to start monitoring the current page. Through to its name Visualping may not be able to detect invisible to changes to pages such as modifications of source code. If malware is a concern consider one of the other tools in this guide. You can sign up for Visualping here StatusCake StatusCake is a many-layered treat for webmasters. This British-based site offers a way to check your pages for defacement and downtime from a variety of locations: the project maintains 48 monitoring centers in 28 countries around the world. Many centers support the more recent IPv6 protocol. This offers subscribers a much more refined experience over simpler competitors. Not only can you adjust the frequency of checks but you can also specify the location from which you want to monitor pages. StatusCake even offers a speed test to show how quickly a page loads when checked. There is a free package which can perform up to 10 checks at 5-minute intervals. This is fine for hobby bloggers and those with very monolithic websites but business owners can benefit more from a paid subscription. These are very competitively priced compared to other monitoring services. StatusCake's 'superior' subscription, for instance, costs only $24.49 (£18.50) a month and performs up to 100 checks at 1-minute intervals. At the time of writing, there was a discount, with the price being $20.41 per month. Regardless of which package you choose, StatusCake includes multiple notification options including email, text message and even push notifications via Android/iOS. This service also works with some party apps such as PagerDuty. You can sign up for StatusCake here Sucuri Sucuri began in 2010 under the guiding hand of developer Daniel Cid who envisioned a tool which could give webmasters better insight into the security status of their websites. It's safe to say that Mr. Cid has been successful. The cloud-based SaaS (Software as a Service) Sucuri works not only as a monitoring platform but contains many tools to help prevent malicious attacks by hackers such as a Firewall, anti-virus and DDoS protection. This may be why Sucuri was acquired by legendary hosting provider GoDaddy in March 2018. The Sucuri Website Firewall can handle malware prevention through use of a dedicated whitelist, so that only authorised parties can connect to your site. Sucuri also regularly monitors changes to your pages and can display appropriate warnings. Furthermore, there is a free website malware and security scanner that you can use at sitecheck.sucuri.net. The service also maintains a dedicated incident response team, who work 365 days a year to assist you with restoring your site if anything goes wrong. Subscribers to the 'basic' Sucuri package for $199 (£149.46) per year are guaranteed a response within 12 hours to all support requests of this kind. The basic tier also includes features such as the firewall (with support for whitelists and blacklists), continuous scanning for defacement and malware cleanup. Sadly, there is no free trial for Sucuri, however the main site offers a money back guarantee within 30 days if users aren't satisfied. You can sign up for Sucuri here OnWebChange OnWebChange is one of the most versatile and useful tools when it comes to defacement protection. Since it was originally developed by Briton Tom Carnell in 2009 the service has exploded and can boast tens of thousands of users. This is due in part to the sophisticated monitoring features. In the first instance, users can select one or more areas to monitor within a web page. This is ideal if you maintain pages with dynamic content. OnWebChange will notify you each time a change takes place, either via email or via push notifications in Android/iOS. Power Users can also use a HTTP CallBacks with their own login data to adjust website content automatically e.g. to restore a defaced page.  The generous free tier offers subscribers advanced CSS (Page Content Selection) as well as the ability to scan both PDF and plain text files for changes. Free tier users are permitted a maximum of 3 tracked sites a month. Checks are made up to 30 times (roughly once a day). Premium subscribers such as those who opt for the 'Solo' package for $1.40 (£1.05) a month, benefit from advanced features such as unlimited trackers and checks every 30 minutes. You can sign up for OnWebChange here IPVTec IPVTec was created in 2014 under the supervision of a founding member of cybersecurity firm IPVSecurity who was unhappy with the monitoring solutions available to clients at the time. Like Sucuri, the monitoring toll IPVmon is cloud-based meaning setup is minimal and you can start monitoring no matter how small the resources of your own network. The monitor routinely checks for website defacement but also contains a number of other handy features such as verifying your SSL certificates are in date, detecting if pages are unreachable, as well as scanning for malware. Emphasis has been placed on pro-active searches for anomalies to prevent problems before they occur. This includes actively scanning for domain hijacking and DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attacks as well as defacement. If any irregularities are detected, users are notified with details via text message and email. Messages include a recommended 'call to action' to remedy the issues. IPVTec also has a dedicated dashboard for viewing notifications. Sadly there is no free version but the IPVTec website offers subscribers a free 30 day trial to accustom themselves to the platforms features. The basic (Pro 5) package costs $24 (£17.94) a month ($19 a month annually) and permits monitoring of 5 pages and a single domain. You can sign up for IPVTec here  Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons (Peter Angritt)   Check out the best website hosting services This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Huawei Mate X and others win big at TechRadar's MWC 2019 awards Posted: 26 Feb 2019 08:59 AM PST Foldable, 5G and phones that can unlock using your veins - MWC 2019 has been a show full of innovation, whether it's good or bad. We've been front and center at all the big press conferences, pushing our way through the crowds to try out the gadgets and exploring the show to ensure we've told you about everything that matters. Now we've put together our collective heads to vote for our TechRadar MWC 2019 Awards where we congratulate the manufacturers of the most exciting gadgets and innovations we've seen unveiled at the show. From our brief time with these products, we can safely say they are the most exciting devices at arguably the most important show at setting the mobile agenda for the rest of 2019. The award winners Below you'll find our top six awards we've given out to manufacturers at the show, with each winner a worthy recipient that showcases the very best, and most innovative, tech at MWC 2019. Huawei Mate X  Image Credit: TechRadar You thought the Samsung Galaxy Fold was the only foldable phone you'd hear about this month? Think again – the Huawei Mate X is our favorite gadget we've seen at MWC 2019, and it looks like it could be a gamechanger. Sure, it's set to be very expensive, but you'll always have to pay lots to be one of the first to try innovations of this level. When unfolded, the Huawei Mate X offers an 8-inch display with a resolution of 2200 x 2480 pixels. Our hands on Huawei Mate X review Xiaomi Mi 9 Image Credit: Xiaomi Nowhere near as innovative as the Huawei Mate X, the Xiaomi Mi 9 takes our next  award for its truly amazing value for money. It features the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 chipset with 8GB of RAM, and the 64GB version is set to only cost €449 (about $500, £390, AU$715) SIM free. It's unlikely you'll see the Xiaomi Mi 9 hogging any headlines, but with a 6.4-inch Full HD display and a powerful triple rear camera with one of the most impressive megapixel counts we've seen on any phone, you're sure to consider the Mi 9 great value. Our hands on Xiaomi Mi 9 review Nokia 9 PureView Image Credit: TechRadar Remember when placing two cameras on the rear of your phone was a novelty? Nokia has taken it three steps further and placed five shooters on the back of the Nokia 9 PureView. The rear of the phone may look like something from War of the Worlds, but our early thoughts on the photo quality have been positive. There's two color lenses paired with three monochrome ones, and each sport spec of 12MP, f1.8 aperture and the benefits of Zeiss optics. Read our hands on Nokia 9 Pureview review Sony Xperia 1  Image Credit: TechRadar  Watch a lot of video on your phone? Sony wants you to go for its upcoming Sony Xperia 1, which may feature one of the best displays we've ever seen on a smartphone. It's a 4K HDR OLED panel – a first for any phone – and it comes in a 21:9 aspect ratio, which makes the phone taller than others on the market.  The idea here is that'll be a better aspect ratio when you're watching films in landscape. Not everything will appear in that ratio on your phone, but if you watch a lot of movies on Netflix it may be perfect for you. Our Sony Xperia 1 first look Microsoft HoloLens 2   Image Credit: Microsoft  HoloLens isn't the augmented reality innovation some originally anticipated it to be, but Microsoft has evolved the concept into a genuinely useful tool for businesses around the world. The HoloLens 2 has double the field of vision of the first-gen device as well as a more comfortable design, but the true innovation comes from the company's software upgrades that may make this the leading tool in the enterprise augmented reality field. Everything you need to know about Microsoft HoloLens 2 Huawei Matebook X  Image Credit: TechRadar If you own a Huawei Matebook X already, it's unlikely you'll be desperate to upgrade to this recently-unveiled version, but it looks like Huawei has improved on most aspects of its excellent Matebook X laptop for the 2019 version. This new and improved version of the laptop includes a way to easily connect your phone to your laptop with just a tap well as some big steps forward in terms of internal power. Our Huawei MateBook X (2019) first look Highly Commended The below missed out on our best in show awards, but we still wanted to highlight them so we've picked six Highly Commended devices in our 2019 MWC awards. MWC (Mobile World Congress) is the world's largest showcase for the mobile industry, stuffed full of the newest phones, tablets, wearables and more. TechRadar is reporting live from Barcelona all week to bring you the very latest from the show floor. Head to our dedicated MWC 2019 hub to see all the new releases, along with TechRadar's world-class analysis and buying advice about your next phone.     This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Nvidia Graphics Card deal at Walmart: save $129 on the GeForce RTX 2080 Posted: 26 Feb 2019 08:56 AM PST If you're looking to upgrade your gaming to new levels of speed, power, and efficiency, then look no further than the EVGA GeForce RTX 2080 graphics card that's currently on sale at Walmart. Walmart is offering the powerful Nvidia Graphics Card in a bundle deal with the Battlefield V and Anthem video games. The GeForce RTX 2080 is on sale for $799.99 which is $130 off the retail price. The bundle deal includes the  Battlefield V + Anthem games which cost over $100 on their own, saving you a total of over $230 with this bundle deal. The EVGA GeForce RTX 20-Series Graphics Cards is powered by NVIDIA Turing technology which gives you six times the performance of previous-generation graphics cards. The XC Ultra Gaming card features 8GB GDDR6 of onboard memory, dual HDB fans, a GeForce RTX 2080 coprocessor and real boost clock that will take you to 1815 MHz. The GeForce RTX 2080 also features RTX hydrodynamic bearing fans that offers higher performance cooling with much quieter noise. Shop this limited time bundle deal below that not only includes savings on the GeForce RTX 2080 but a free copy of the popular Battlefield V and Anthem video games. Read more about the graphics card with our Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 review and also shop our best cheap gaming laptop deals under $1000 that are currently going on. You can also see more of best cheap graphics card prices that are also available. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Satya Nadella defends Microsoft's Pentagon contract Posted: 26 Feb 2019 08:55 AM PST Following employee backlash over its work with the US military, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has come forward to defend the company's multimillion dollar contract with the Pentagon to supply it with augmented reality headsets. In an exclusive interview with CNN Business during MWC 2019, Nadella defended Microsoft's decision to work with the US military, saying: "We made a principled decision that we're not going to withhold technology from institutions that we have elected in democracies to protect the freedoms we enjoy. We were very transparent about that decision and we'll continue to have that dialogue with employees.” Microsoft's HoloLens will be used in US Army combat missions Google urged to work with US military US Army used Android apps with security flaws Dozens of Microsoft employees publicly criticized the contract last week while calling for the company to end its ties with the US military. Working with the US military 50 or so Microsoft employees even went so far as to publish a letter demanding that the company pull out of its almost $480m contract to supply the Pentagon with as many as 100,000 HoloLens devices. The contract, which the company won over competitors such as Magic Leap last November, is part of a project that the Pentagon described as a way of increasing “lethality by enhancing the ability to detect, decide and engage before the enemy” by using AR. Microsoft revealed the second-generation of its HoloLens at this year's MWC though the US military will likely modify the company's headsets so that they can more easily be used by soldiers in the field. Just as Google's Project Maven faced backlash from employees last year, Microsoft's decision to work with the Pentagon while lucrative has drawn similar criticisms from its employees. Via The Verge This is everything you need to know about the IoT This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

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