Apple : The 5 best laptops of Computex 2019: the most exciting laptops from the show

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• The 5 best laptops of Computex 2019: the most exciting laptops from the show
• Apple WWDC 2019: keynote date and what to expect
• Warriors vs Raptors live stream: how to watch the 2019 NBA Finals online from anywhere
• Apple, WhatsApp criticize GCHQ surveillance plans
• Chrome will limit full ad blocking to enterprise users
• Sprint 5G network launches today in Atlanta, Dallas, Houston and Kansas City
• NordVPN ups security with new encryption tool
• Call of Duty Modern Warfare trailer shows us the bleak future of combat – again
• Best free anti-ransomware software 2019
• Prime Day preview: Amazon's Fire TV devices are on sale today
• Computex 2019 has made me excited for the future of laptops
• 5 things 5G will do that you didn’t expect
• Starfield: latest trailers, rumors and news
• Best WordPress themes (paid and free) of 2019
• Best website defacement monitoring service of 2019
• Anthem: update news, DLC, tips, patch notes and more
• Why IoT security should be top of your list
• 24 hours with the OnePlus 7 Pro 5G: the UK's first 5G phone
• Netflix UK subscriptions are getting more expensive

The 5 best laptops of Computex 2019: the most exciting laptops from the show Posted: 30 May 2019 02:18 PM PDT Computex 2019 is clearly the biggest computing trade show of the year, focused almost exclusively on the latest in desktop PCs and the components that power them. However, it has increasingly become a show about laptops, too, and 2019 is the biggest year for them yet at the Taipei show. We’ve sifted through a veritable ton of laptop news and hands-on reviews to bring you the absolute most exciting highlights from the show. You’ll find dual-screen wonders, incredible new redesigns and bold, fresh directions that will make 2019 a landmark year in mobile computing – all debuting at Computex 2019. Check out all of TechRadar's Computex 2019 coverage. We're live in Taipei to bring you all the breaking computing news and launches, plus hands-on reviews of everything from fresh laptops and desktops to powerful new components and wild overclocking demonstrations. Asus has been experimenting with additional displays on its laptops for about a year or two, but the Asus ZenBook Pro Duo is on a whole new level. This notebook adds an entire "Screenpad Plus" display above the keyboard but below the 'main' screen. This secondary 4K screen can be used to present document editing controls, making editing video and image content at 100% 4K resolution on a primary laptop display a reality. Of course, Asus plans to bring the goods to back up such endeavors with a larger 'main' display, allowing for Intel Core i9 and Nvidia RTX 2060 graphics configurations. This certainly isn’t a thin or light notebook, but really the point is to serve as a one-stop shop for content creators that also like a little bit of gaming on the side. While we don’t yet have a price, we can’t wait to see what this laptop can do with those two displays. The new flagship Dell XPS 13 2-in-1 laptop from Dell heralds the firm’s new XPS design aesthetic that started earlier this year with the revamped Dell XPS 13 for its hybrid line. Sure, the webcam has moved to above the display, but we’re more excited by the laptop’s brand-new, quieter MagLev 2 keyboard – not to mention its cooling system that allows for full-fat, 10-nanometer Intel mobile processors. This is a 2-in-1 laptop that can promise to deliver on power, much unlike so many that has come before it. It also delivers a larger display than before – bigger than even the straight-laced XPS 13 – with a new 16:10 aspect ratio. As you can see, just about everything regarding Dell’s leading 2-in-1 laptop has seen a revamp or upgrade, making us quite excited to give it a full review later this year. The next phase for MSI’s desktop replacement gaming laptop obviously brings on the power by packing in the latest components from Intel and Nvidia, but that’s not the biggest story here. The real buzz behind the MSI GT76 Titan is the aesthetics. Everything about this laptop’s chassis has become more worthy of its astronomical price tag. Gone are the plastic trappings of last year, replaced by an aluminum shell and RGB lighting strewn throughout the chassis – including per-key backlighting. This is a laptop that truly looks the part when you see the massive price tag. Throw in desktop-grade, overclock-ready parts, and you’re looking at a PC gaming desktop setup in a box … one that you can actually haul around. While these laptops sadly weren’t available for hands-on review in Taipei, we have to commend HP’s interesting design direction with its upcoming HP Envy Wood series of Ultrabooks and 2-in-1 laptops. All of HP’s 2019 Envy laptops will feature real wood aesthetics on their palm rests. Across the three available colors for these laptops, there is a unique type of wood that comes as a placard in the palm rest, trackpad and even fingerprint reader, including walnut, pale birch and ceramic white birch. Naturally, HP promises that this wood will be sustainably sourced. We don’t know how much these laptops will cost when they launch later this year, but we’re a lot of intrigued folks will be willing to pay up.  We are ecstatic to see Dell and Alienware bring that rad Area-51m design to the Alienware m15 and m17 laptops. The design translates to the thin and light trappings of the product line perfectly, making laptops that look less like the mothership that is Area-51m and more like light, nimble fighters in the fleet. This new design also brings plenty of previously absent practicality to Dell’s thin-and-light Alienware laptops, vastly improving their cooling design as well as visual aesthetics. Now, we are a bit miffed by the entry-level pricing. But Dell certainly adds a lot of value to the more expensive options, particularly Tobii eye tracking, which is used by Alienware’s very own competitive gaming tutors (via Alienware Academy) to train your reflexes. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Apple WWDC 2019: keynote date and what to expect Posted: 30 May 2019 02:12 PM PDT Update: Apple has released a blog post in anticipation of WWDC telling stories about passionate members of the Apple community: a young app developer fresh out of college and an older CEO of AssistiveWare, which has had a long relationship with the company improving accessibility. This is very typical of Apple: few hints for the big show, but the inspirational stories will tide us over. The Apple WWDC 2019 keynote date is days away on Monday, June 3. This close to the big event, we're predicting what will likely come from Apple CEO Tim Cook. In short? A lot of software updates. WWDC 2019 stands for Worldwide Developer's Conference 2019, so it traditionally appeals to app developers by giving early access to upcoming tools immediately. And for everyone else, especially iPhone and iPad owners, the show grants a first look at the company's digital offerings slated to come later in the year, and that's exciting, too. The mid-year Apple hype machine will almost certainly start with the iOS 13 beta, which thus far has only been rumored through a series of leaks. We'll almost certainly see macOS 10.15, watchOS 6, and tvOS 13 updates for the first time at the McEnery Convention Center venue. Apple confirmed the WWDC 2019 time and date back in March, and also gave us a preview of its expanding subscription strategy on March 25 when it announced Apple Arcade and Apple TV Plus. We may finally see the Apple Arcade price and release date information that was missing two months ago. Will new hardware grace the WWDC 2019 keynote stage? The Apple event series has been hit or miss for introducing new products. Two years ago, we saw the HomePod and iMac Pro for the first time, as well as new iPads and MacBook Pros. But last year was all silent on the hardware front: Apple opted to save the new iPad Pro 11 and iPad Pro 12.9 for October. Ready for our Apple WWDC 2019 what to expect guide? Let's start out by explaining the date and time so you don't miss it: the keynote starts at 10am PT / 1pm ET / 6pm BST on June 3, and the lasts through June 5, but the latter days are mostly filled with developer sessions. 1. iOS 13 at Apple WWDC 2019 The iOS 13 beta is poised to be the chief news story out Apple's WWDC 2019 keynote simply because it affects every iPhone and iPad user in the world. We fully expect Apple software engineering chief Craig Federighi to talk up the fact that iOS 13 is going to be faster than last year's update. To make the speed increase percentage even more Apple-dramatic, we may see Federighi cite the overall speed increase since iOS 11 (as iOS 12 offered a speed increase, too). iOS 13 is going to launch the long-rumored Dark Mode, according to the latest leaks. It'll turn your white-and-light-gray UI backgrounds into black-and-dark-gray colors that are infinitely easier on the eyes at night. Reminders, Health, iMessage, Screen Time Books, and Find My (a combination of Find My iPhone and Find My Friends) will be tweaked in iOS 13, says Bloomberg. Important for iPad users, we're allegedly going to see a native functionality using the iPad as a secondary display (akin to Duet and Luna Display), a revamped home screen design, stackable app windows for easier multi-tasking and maybe even mouse support. Apple is trying to make the iPad running iOS 13 more like a computer. We have a full list of changes, a rumored device compatibility list, the expected beta release date schedule in our iOS 13 explainer page. 2. macOS 10.15 We loved macOS 10.14 (aka Mojave) for finally introducing system-wide Dark Mode and additional creative tools, but we haven't heard much at all about macOS 10.15 – which doesn't even have a cool nature-themed codename yet (in keeping with recent releases, it will likely reference a California biome). We don't know much about what's officially coming, but macOS 10.15 could include iOS features like Siri Shortcuts (and potentially the Shortcuts app), Screen Time, improved Apple ID management and special iMessage effects. We've also seen rumors that iTunes will be split into four different apps: Music, Books, TV, and Podcasts.  There's also the possibility that macOS 10.15 enables Mac users to link up their iPads as secondary displays. On the other hand, it's also possible that we'll only see incremental improvements, as happened with the move from 10.13 Sierra to 10.14 High Sierra. If that's the case, perhaps we'll see that minimal upgrade in the name – Dry Mojave, maybe? Apple ruffled feathers when it raised minimum system requirements for macOS Mojave and locked out older machines, so we don't expect those thresholds to change this time around. To be specific: we expect anything newer than a 2015 MacBook, mid-2012 MacBook Pro, any late 2012 MacBook Air/Mac mini/iMac, late 2013 Mac Pro or 2017 iMac Pro to be able to run the next macOS. Assuming Apple runs its usual schedule, it will introduce macOS 10.15 and release it in late September. 3. watchOS 6 We haven't heard anything about watchOS 6, but we're assuming that update will be announced at WWDC 2019 for owners of the newer Apple Watches. Perhaps it will be the long-awaited sleep tracker feature (Apple did buy sleep tracking company Beddit two years ago), though that's rumored to be coming to Apple's wearables in 2020. But sources told Bloomberg that Apple plans to sever its wearable's close dependency on iPhone by adding an App Store directly to Watch (and ergo, watchOS). This opens the door to third-party developers (finally!) but Apple reportedly also plans to toss in some basic apps that have been on iOS for years, liek Calculator, Voice Memos, and the ability to send Animoji and Memoji stickers. There will also be two new health apps: one called 'Dose' to monitor pill reminders and the other 'Cycles' to track menstrual cycles. watchOS 6 will almost certainly be compatible with the latest Apple Watch 4 and previous Apple Watch 3, while support for Apple Watch 2 is likely. We don't have high hopes for the original Apple Watch, however, as it stopped getting updates with watchOS 4. We expect Apple to follow precedent and launch a watchOS 6 beta shortly after WWDC 2019, then release a final public version in September. 4. tvOS 13 If you thought we hadn't heard much about Apple's other probable software updates, we know even less about tvOS 13, which we expect to be announced at WWDC 2019.  But Apple TV devices will certainly support the company's new streaming services. Apple TV Plus will have exclusive shows from big names like Oprah, Steven Spielberg, Reese Witherspoon, Jennifer Aniston and M. Night Shyamalan, and is expected to launch in later 2019. That's around when Apple Arcade is set to launch, which will have a host of games you can play across iOS, macOS and tvOS devices. At last year's WWDC, Apple mentioned very little about the then-upcoming tvOS 12, which brought Dolby Atmos overhead surround sound, Dolby Vision HDR standard and zero sign-on that auto-filled passwords from your home Wi-Fi network (for US users, at least). We don't know about any features coming with the supposed tvOS 13, but if it follows precedent, it will arrive in mid-September. 5. Mac Pro...and more Apple is reportedly considering introducing a new version of the Mac Pro, according to Bloomberg. While we didn't get any details of how the desktop machine might be revamped, but there's plenty to update, given the second and last generation Mac Pro came out in 2013. This fits last year's news that Apple was aiming for a 2019 release of a wholly revisioned Mac Pro, per a lengthy TechCrunch report. Gone is the 'trash can' design, as the company is allegedly considering a ground-up revision. Apple is also preparing its own brand of external monitor (going by the codename J290) that will pack HDR support, per Bloomberg. Other rumors suggest a 31.6-inch 6K screen with mini-LED backlighting, according to Pocket Lint. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Warriors vs Raptors live stream: how to watch the 2019 NBA Finals online from anywhere Posted: 30 May 2019 01:56 PM PDT The 2019 NBA Finals lineup is set and the Golden State Warriors will take on the Toronto Raptors in a best-of-seven series to see which team will be this year’s NBA champion. If you’re looking for a Warriors vs Raptors live stream, then you’ve come to the right place. Keep reading and we’ll show you exactly how to watch the 2019 NBA Finals online wherever you happen to find yourself in the world. For the first time in franchise history, the Toronto Raptors have advanced to the NBA Finals. The team may have lost two games to the Milwaukee Bucks in the Eastern Conference Finals but thanks to a run led by Kawhi Leonard, the Raptors managed to win Game 6 and earn themselves a spot in the Finals. The Golden State Warriors on the other hand, swept the Portland Trail Blazers 4-0 in the Western Conference Finals to advance to the final round. The Warriors are back in the Finals for the fifth straight season and the team will be shooting for their third title in a row. If they can pull it off, they’ll be the first team to three-peat since the Los Angeles Lakers pulled off the feat back in 2002. Either way, the 2019 NBA Finals are set to be an exciting time for fans of both teams and lead to an historic outcome. Whether you’re rooting for Golden State or Toronto, we’ll show you how to tune into all the action either on your TV or online. Get the info you need in this Warriors vs Raptors live stream guide. NHL fan? Then get yourself a Bruins vs Blues live stream in the Stanley Cup How to watch the 2019 NBA Finals online from outside your country Living in the US, UK or Australia and want to catch the Warriors vs Raptors? Scroll further down the page and we'll explain how to watch a 2019 NBA Finals live stream, whether or not you have cable. But if you can't watch because you're not in your home country and so your coverage is geo-blocked then we can suggest a clever alternative (and no, it doesn’t involve finding some dodgy feed on Reddit). Using a VPN - or Virtual Private Network - you can change the IP address to one in a different state or country which does have the stream so that you can watch the series from anywhere in the world. The process is very straightforward…  Watch the NBA Finals on TV in the US If you've already signed up for an NBA League Pass then we're afraid that won't help you get a live stream of the Warriors vs Raptors. The NBA's own streaming service doesn't show any NBA Finals games live online. The best it can do is to show the games on replay three hours after they air on TV.  To watch on TV then, ABC is your only option as the network has secured the rights to broadcast the NBA Finals live. We wish watching the NBA Finals was easier on TV but you can get around network exclusivity deals by opting for a streaming service that gives you access to every channel showing the playoffs and all of which coming with some kind of free trial. fuboTV $44.99 for the first month - fuboTV doesn't include ESPN but you do get access to TNT, NBA TV and ABC in most markets. The service also includes Cloud DVR so you can record games to watch them later and if you forget to record a game, the company's 3-day replay allows you to replay nearly any game, show or movie that aired in the last three days. FuboTV even offers a free 7-day trial so you can test out the service. Hulu with Live TV $44.99 per month - Hulu with Live TV gives you access to ESPN, TNT and ABC in most markets but the service doesn't include NBA TV. The service supports a wide variety of streaming devices and even includes its own Hulu Originals in case you want a break from watching sports. Playstation Vue starting at $44.99 per month - Playstation Vue has four plans: Access, Core, Elite and Ultra but you'll need to opt for the Core plan at $49.99 per month to watch sports. The service's base plan gives you access to ESPN, TNT and ABC in most markets but you'll need to check to see if the plan you choose has NBA TV. There is also a 5-day free trial available. DirecTV Now $50 per month - DirecTV Now gives you access to ESPN, TNT and ABC in most markets but only some plans offer NBA TV. You can stream on up to three screens simultaneously and with the DirecTV Now app you can watch live TV on the go. New customers can take advantage of a 7-day trial but you'll have to purchase on of DirecTV Now's packages first. Sling TV starting at $15 per month - Sling TV's Sling Orange or Sling Blue packages each cost $15 or you can combine them for $25 per month. However, each package contains different channels so make sure the one you choose has the channels you want to watch. Sling TV gives you access to ESPN, TNT and ABC in limited markets with NBA TV available as an add-on. YouTube TV $49.99 per month - YouTube TV gives you access to ESPN, TNT, NBA TV and ABC in most markets. The service also offers NBA League Pass. With YouTube TV you get free unlimited DVR storage space to record games for later and you can stream the service on three devices simultaneously. A free 14-day trial is also available so you can test it out for yourself. - Discover our pick of all the US's best sports streaming sites How to watch the Warriors vs Raptors in the UK  Basketball fans in the UK will be able to tune into the NBA Finals on Sky Sports. The service will air the majority of the Warriors vs Raptors games at 2am BST. If you’re not already a Sky Sports subscriber and don’t feel like paying for the service just to watch the NBA Finals, don’t worry as you can buy a daily, weekly or even monthly Sky Sports Pass on Now TV. This will allow you to watch the NBA Finals and all other sports shown on Sky. When it comes to streaming basketball online our first choice is NBA.com.  With the NBA League Pass you you can watch hundreds of Live and On-Demand games on all of your favorite streaming devices including Apple TV, Chromecast, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Xbox, Playstation and even on mobile. It costs £39.99, and will give you access to all remaining NBA games live. And if you find yourself outside the UK at any stage during the playoffs then don't forget that you can always use a VPN to change your IP address back to the UK and watch any of these streaming services as if you were back at home. How to get an NBA Finals live stream in Australia If you're up for a bit of morning NBA watching Down Under (the games are due to start at 11am AET), there are plenty of options on TV and online. If you have Fox Sports, then you'll want to turn to channel 508 for the ESPN channel. If it's a phone or laptop you'd sooner watch from, then there's the ESPN Player instead. Or you can live stream NBA action via the Kayo Sports streaming service, which features no lock-in contracts and also includes access to over 50 sports, both live and on demand. Kayo Sports Basic Package costs $25 per month and allows users to stream across two devices simultaneously. Alternatively, the service also offers a Kayo Sports Premium Package, which provides three concurrent streams for $35 per month. The Foxtel Now and Kayo Sports apps means you can access this from your chosen device wherever you are (although you'll need a VPN if you're taking that abroad). This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Apple, WhatsApp criticize GCHQ surveillance plans Posted: 30 May 2019 01:49 PM PDT Apple and other tech firms have rallied together to criticize a GCHQ proposal which would enable the UK government to eavesdrop on encrypted chat services. The iPhone maker, together with WhatsApp and 50 companies, civil society organizations and security experts, have signed an open letter calling on the GCHQ to abandon it so-called “ghost protocol” and instead focus its efforts on “protecting privacy rights, cybersecurity, public confidence and transparency”. Technical director of the UK's national cyber security centre, Ian Levy and head of cryptanalysis at GCHQ Crispin Robinson first raised the proposal back in November of 2018. Together they suggested a technique that would require encrypted messaging services to share any encrypted messages sent with a third recipient in addition to those already in a chat. US and UK governments call for mandatory backdoors in encrypted chat Five Eyes nations want access to your encrypted communications data The war for encrypted data Levy and Robinson made the case that their proposal was “no more intrusive than the virtual crocodile clips” already used today in wiretaps of non-encrypted communications. GCHQ surveillance opposition The open letter sent to the GCHQ in opposition to its plan argues that the proposal “requires two changes to systems that would seriously undermine user security and trust”. Under the proposal, service providers would be forced to inject a new public key into a conversation that would turn a two-way conversation into a group chat with the government being an additional participant. Additionally, the GCHQ's proposal would require messaging apps, service providers and operating systems to alter their software by changing the encryption schemes used. They would also be required to mislead their users by blocking the notifications that appear when a new user joins a chat. The proposal may not call for back doors into encrypted messaging services but it would undermine user trust in security as a whole. Levy replied to the open letter in such a way as to suggest that the proposal could be scrapped following the backlash it has received, saying: “We welcome this response to our request for thoughts on exceptional access to data - for example to stop terrorists. The hypothetical proposal was always intended as a starting point for discussion. We will continue to engage with interested parties and look forward to having an open discussion to reach the best solutions possible.” We've also highlighted the best VPN Via The Guardian This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Chrome will limit full ad blocking to enterprise users Posted: 30 May 2019 01:03 PM PDT The days of easily blocking ads in Google Chrome may soon be over thanks to a proposed change to the browser's extensions system called Manifest V3 that Google announced back in January. Manifest V3 would prevent current ad blockers from working efficiently and despite overwhelming negative feedback, the search giant is sticking to its guns concerning Chrome's ad blocking changes. However, enterprise users will not be affected and will be able to continue utilizing current ad blocking capabilities going forward. Once Manifest V3 goes into effect, Chrome's extension system will see a revamp to its permissions system as well as a fundamental change to how ad blockers operate.  Latest Google Chrome update draws government and telecom concerns Popular Chrome ad-blockers could be crippled under proposed design changes Google Chrome update blocks fake ads Ad blockers such as uBlock Origin and Ghostery, which rely on Chrome's webRequest API to block ads before they're downloaded will no longer be able to do so as under the Manifest V3 proposal, Google will deprecate the API's ability to block requests before a page is loaded. Manifest V3 Now that months have passed since the changes were first proposed, Google has responded to some of the issues raised by the community by offering more details on how permissions and ad blockers will be affected. Extensions developer advocate, Simeon Vincent clarified the company's changes to ad blocking and privacy blocking extensions in a Google Group discussing Chromium extensions, saying: “Chrome is deprecating the blocking capabilities of the webRequest API in Manifest V3, not the entire webRequest API (though blocking will still be available to enterprise deployments).” Essentially Google is saying that Chrome will still be able to block unwanted content but this feature will now be restricted to paid enterprise users. However, enterprise users will likely not be blocking ads and will instead develop in-house Chrome extensions that can block unwanted content for employees. Now that ad blockers can no longer use the webRequest API, they'll have to switch to a rules-based system similar to the one currently in use by AdBlock Plus. However, Chrome imposes a limit of 30,000 rules which will likely makes things difficult for developers trying to switch to a rules-based approach. Advertising is Google's main revenue stream and by allowing ad blockers to continue to operate unchecked, the company was cutting off a significant portion of its own revenue. Enterprise users will be able to continue blocking ads because they pay for the company's services unlike most of its users. We've also highlighted the best VPN Via 9To5 Google This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Sprint 5G network launches today in Atlanta, Dallas, Houston and Kansas City Posted: 30 May 2019 12:58 PM PDT Sprint has officially launched its 5G network in a handful of US cities: Texas, Georgia and Kansas/Missouri today, with aims to expand to more including Los Angeles and New York City by the end of 2019. The carrier is the third to join the 5G race this year after Verizon and AT&T back in April. Sprint 5G is live today in Atlanta, Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, and Kansas City. Customers can access the network by picking up a Sprint 5G phone – the LG V50 ThinQ 5G or an HTC 5G Hub, or the Samsung Galaxy S10 5G in the coming months (‘summer’ in the northern hemisphere).  Unlike the ‘millimeter wave’ 5G in Verizon and AT&T’s nascent networks, Sprint is opting to spread their low-frequency network essentially on top of its existing 4G LTE one – literally, with the carrier deploying its 5G Massive MIMO radios (which broadcast on the 2.5 Ghz mid-band spectrum that Sprint already uses) on existing 4G cell sites. The 5G network should then have similar (if not identical) coverage to its current 4G range. Pros and cons in the early days of 5G We’ll have to see whether Sprint’s 5G network performs better than its competitors; almost two months after launching, Verizon 5G mmWave has demonstrated over 1 Gpbs download speeds, but only within a few blocks in Chicago and Minneapolis.  Thus far, reporters have noted speeds of 100 Mbps up to 250 Mbps, with some claiming up to 700 Mbps. That’s obviously lower than Verizon’s 5G speeds, but lower is expected from Sprint’s sub-6 network – the bigger question is how far that coverage extends, at least in the early days of both networks. If Sprint’s 5G network continues to underperform, we’ll have larger concerns, but building out a new network on top of the old is promising. Sprint has only some of the 5G phones on the market – check out our list This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

NordVPN ups security with new encryption tool Posted: 30 May 2019 12:16 PM PDT NordVPN is known for providing VPN services to users around the world and now the company is expanding its offerings with the announcement of a new tool for securing files stored locally or in the cloud. The company's new cybersecurity tool called NordLocker will secure files stored on a user's computer or in the cloud with end-to-end encryption. NordVPN's CMO, Marty P. Kamden explained how NordLocker will make data security more accessible to all users, saying: “We at NordVPN believe that the digital environment must be better than it is today. As a company, we strive to move towards becoming an all-around cybersecurity solution that people trust. By releasing NordLocker, we want to make top-notch data security available for everyone – regardless of their tech skills. To achieve this, we combine the best usability practices with the highest encryption standards.”  NordVPN kills popular free trial due to widespread abuse BullGuard and NordVPN announce new partnership The encryption debate is at a dead end NordLocker When it launches later this year, NordLocker will be available for both macOS and Windows and it will help protect user's data by encrypting files on their device as well as those stored in the cloud. The file encryption app will use the two most secure encryption algorithms available today, the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES-256) and 4096-bit RSA. NordLocker will also utilize NordVPN's own zero-knowledge encryption process to ensure ultimate security. In addition to encrypting their files, users will also be able to share them securely by managing access permissions. NordLocker is currently going through internal stress-tests to ensure that it is ready for its launch later this year. However, interested users will be able to get their hands on the first beta version this summer. You can sign up for early access on NordLocker's website and we'll fill you in on more details regarding the new app as we get closer to its launch. We've also highlighted the best VPN This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Call of Duty Modern Warfare trailer shows us the bleak future of combat – again Posted: 30 May 2019 12:00 PM PDT After laying dormant for close to a decade, Activision has finally announced the next game in the Call of Duty Modern Warfare franchise called… well, Modern Warfare.  The game was unveiled in a new trailer posted by Activision that stars one of the game’s protagonists, Captain Price, and gives us our first look at some of the locales we’ll be visiting in our next tour of duty. (We’ve posted it down below.)  One of the most striking parts of the trailer, however, is all of the nightvision scenes, where the footage seems almost identical to real-life raids. According to Activision, everything in the trailer was in-game footage, so that seems really promising. According to information sent to TechRadar in a press release, the game won’t feature a traditional season pass and will instead offer at least some of its map packs for free. We’ve also seen reports that Modern Warfare will support cross-play between the three platforms - though, thanks to some pre-existing deals between Sony and Activision, PS4 might get DLC ahead of the other platforms. The game will be developed by Infinity Ward, the studio behind the original Modern Warfare and its sequel, Modern Warfare 2, and is set to arrive on October 25 for PC, PS4 and Xbox One with pre-orders beginning today. Need something to play right now? Here's our list of the best PS4 games This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Best free anti-ransomware software 2019 Posted: 30 May 2019 11:16 AM PDT Of all the malware attacks you can experience, ransomware has to be one of the worst. While some paid-for anti-virus programs will protect against ransomware, most free ones do not. The result is that most PC's are likely vulnerable to this particularly nasty form of attack. Ransomware became big news when WannaCry first appeared in 2017, crippling organizations all around the world, and while attack volume has lessened since then, the threat of attack has now become routine. There are two main forms of ransomware. The first encrypts your files so you can't access them, unless you pay a ransom, usually to an anonymous bitcoin account, to the attacker. The other form locks up your PC so that your only apparent option is to pay to gain access to your PC again. This is why it's all the more important to ensure that you have some form of protection on your PC against ransomware attacks. And while we list five of the best white knights who aim to help recover your PC from ransomware, it remains a stressful process you're best avoiding by having protection in the first place. This is our best antivirus buying guide See how a free VPN can help keep you safer online If you haven't yet fallen victim to a ransomware attack and want to protect your PC proactively, consider a dedicated prevention tool like ZoneAlarm Anti-Ransomware, which uses behavioral analysis to identify processes that act like ransomware – even if it's not yet a specific known threat – and automatically backs up your files if it detects anything. It carries a subscription fee, so we haven't included it in our main roundup, but $1.99 per month for one PC is a modest fee compared to the ransoms charged by criminals. Discover the best free antivirus software Want your company or services to be added to this buyer’s guide? Please email your request to desire.athow@futurenet.com with the URL of the buying guide in the subject line. Image credit: Avast Not all ransomware encrypts data in the same way, so security software providers have to create specific solutions as new threats emerge. At the time of writing, the security experts at Avast have developed Free Ransomware Decryption Tools to tackle 21 different strains of file-locking ransomware. To help you work out which one you need, Avast has provided a detailed description of how each form of ransomware works, what extension you’ll see on the encrypted files, and an example of the type of message the virus creators have prepared for their victims.  Once you’ve downloaded the appropriate tool, it will guide you through the process of wiping out the ransomware without paying the criminals. You’ll need to provide two versions of the same file – an encrypted one, and the original. This will be easiest if you made a backup before the infection, but Avast also suggests locations where you might be able to find unaffected original files. The  tool will then compare the two and use the results to determine the password. Download here: Avast Free Ransomware Decryption Tools Image credit: Trend Micro Trend Micro Ransomware File Decryptor is updated regularly with new ransomware definitions, and at the time of writing it can release files locked by 27 different types of ransomware and their variants. Unlike Avast, Trend Micro bundles all its decryption tools into one bundle, but you still need to tell it what form of ransomware it’s dealing with. Trend Micro’s site provides information to help you identify your particular infection, plus contact details for its technical support department if you’re not sure. Once that’s done, provide a sample file for the Decryptor to analyze, and it will get to work. Decryption can take anything from a couple of minutes to several hours, depending on the type of encryption used.  The File Decryptor Tool isn’t perfect – some forms of ransomware are particularly tricky, and can only be partially decrypted – but the company is constantly working to improve it, and it’s an excellent tool for use in an emergency.   Download here: Trend Micro Ransomware File Decryptor Tool Image credit: Trend Micro  There are two Trend Micro Ransomware Screen Unlocker Tools – one for PCs that are locked so you can’t log into Normal Mode, but you can access Safe Mode with Networking via the BIOS menu, and another for situations where both mode are blocked. The first of these can be downloaded directly on the affected PC in Safe Mode with Networking. Once it’s installed, reboot the PC into Normal Mode (with the locked screen) and tap [Ctrl]+[Alt]+[T]+[I] to scan for ransomware and remove it,  The other version of the tool has to be downloaded using an uninfected computer and saved to a USB stick. You can then use to boot the locked machine. Once initiated, the unlocker will perform a scan, then remove any ransomware it detects, releasing your PC. Like Trend Micro’s File Decryptor, the two versions of Screen Unlocker benefit from regular updates to combat new forms of ransomware. Download here: Trend Micro Ransomware Screen Unlocker Tools Image credit: Bit Defender There are lots of superb free antivirus programs around, but not all offer dedicated protection against ransomware. If your you’re concerned about the risk, Bitdefender Anti-Ransomware is a handy supplemental security tool that runs alongside your usual security software to protect against some of the most common forms of ransomware and their offshoots. Bitdefender Anti-Ransomware currently protects against VTB-Locker, Locky, Petya and TeslaCrypt, and starts defending your PC from these threats immediately. However, it’s only a preventative measure; if your computer has already been infected with one of these malicious programs, you’ll need to use one of the tools mentioned above instead. If you currently use Bitdefender Antivirus, the Anti-Ransomware module is already installed. Download here: Bitdefender Anti-Ransomware Image credit: Kaspersky Ransomware on your home computer is bad enough, but an infection that locks you out of your business PCs could be an absolute disaster. Your accounts, customer data, client information and work could all be encrypted – and it could affect multiple machines on the same network.  Kaspersky Anti-Ransomware Tool for Business is designed to help small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) protect their data from such a catastrophe. Like Bitdefender Anti-Ransomware, it’s a preventative tool designed to prevent infection in the first place rather than decrypt files or unlock your desktop. Kaspersky Anti-Ransomware Tool runs happily alongside your regular security suite, monitoring network activity for anything that matches known ransomware behavior. Its threat database is stored on Kaspersky’s cloud servers, so updates are pushed out to all users immediately  Download here: Kaspersky Anti-Ransomware Tool for Business This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Prime Day preview: Amazon's Fire TV devices are on sale today Posted: 30 May 2019 10:28 AM PDT If you don't want to wait for Amazon Prime Day to snag deals on best-selling devices, then you should take advantage of today's sale on Fire TV sticks. You can get the best-selling 2nd generation Fire TV stick on sale for just $29.99. That's a $10 discount and the best price we've found for the streaming media player. Amazon also has the 4K Fire TV stick on sale for $39.99. The Fire TV stick allows you to stream thousands of movies and TV shows, and gives you access to thousands of apps, games and Alexa skills. You can also browse websites like YouTube and Facebook or stream your favorite songs through services like Apple Music and Spotify. The 2nd generation streaming device now features an Alexa voice remote so you can launch Netflix, browse movies, turn on the TV and more with the command of your voice. You can also ask Alexa to control other compatible smart home devices using the remote. If you want to stream your favorite movies and TV shows in 4K Ultra HD, Amazon also has the 4K Fire TV stick on sale for $39.99. That's a $10 discount for the streaming media player that's powered by Alexa. You can shop more Fire TV device deals with the best Amazon Fire TV deals, prices and sales that are happening now. Learn more about Prime Day with our guide on Amazon Prime Day 2019: everything you need to know for the July deals event. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Computex 2019 has made me excited for the future of laptops Posted: 30 May 2019 10:11 AM PDT Laptops have been around for 40 years, and in that time – let’s be honest – not much has really changed. Sure, the hardware has got faster and more powerful, and the bodies thinner and lighter – but the laptops of today are still pretty similar to those of decades past. Clamshell designs, a built-in screen and webcam on the top half, a keyboard and trackpad on the bottom. It opens and closes, opens and closes. How very… well…boring. In fact, most laptop makers have gotten so good at what they do, that their yearly updates sometimes feel like they are simply tinkering around the edges. Perhaps they’ll shave a few millimeters off the bezels around the screen, or move the webcam from the top to the bottom of the display (and then back again when everyone hates how it gives their Skype contacts intimate views up their nostrils). But, apart from a few tweaks and a bump in spec, there hasn't much to get excited about for a long while. However, at Computex 2019, I saw a number of devices that have made me fall back in love with laptops. Laptop design has been stuck in a rut. (Image credit: Shutterstock) Thinking outside the box Perhaps the most exciting laptops we’ve seen at Computex 2019 have been devices that radically depart from that tried and tested form factor that laptops have been using for decades. For example, the Asus ZenBook Pro Duo is a dual-screen laptop with a built-in second display which doesn’t feel like a gimmick – it could potentially make laptops even easier to use – especially for gaming and multitasking. Apple has dabbled with a second screen with the Touch Bar, but has never really gone far enough in our view. The ZenBook Pro Duo won’t be the only dual-screen laptop, either, with Intel coming up with a new form factor concept, code-named “Honeycomb Glacier,” which all feature second screens – amongst other innovations. HP has also shown that it can do interesting things with the standard laptop form factor by making a laptop that’s (partially) made out of wood. Perfect for the lumberjack –or hipster – in your life. The Asus ZenBook Pro Duo does something different – and that's good. (Image credit: Asus) Evolving laptops "Its these sort of innovations that could reignite the laptop market and make laptops feel like modern – and essential – devices once more." One of the biggest challenges to laptops is that our computing behaviors have changed. What we would once use laptops or PCs for, such as browsing the internet, creating documents and even playing games, we now use smartphones or tablets for. While our habits have evolved, laptops hadn’t, which meant that these devices seemed positively archaic to some people, hence the continued decline in laptop sales. People had moved on. But, at Computex 2019, we saw laptops that had taken the best bits of smartphones and tablets, and has resulted in new devices that can keep up with modern user’s demands. So, we’ve got Intel’s Project Athena, which aims to create laptops that can wake up instantly – just like a smartphone does – allowing you to use it straight away. Intel also shared its vision for ‘ambient’ PCs, code-named “Mohawk River”, that will remain on when closed, and will intelligently know when its owner is nearby (and what sort of tasks said owner will want to perform on the laptop) by using a frankly astounding array of sensors. While the idea of an intelligent laptop that knows more about you than you do yourself is a bit freaky, it’s also very cool as well. Meanwhile, Qualcomm has continued to strive to make a laptop that combines the best of smartphone and tablet features and technology, and with its Project Limitless collaboration with Lenovo, it showed off the first ever 5G laptop at Computex 2019 that might actually achieve those lofty goals. Powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8cx platform, Project Limitless is a laptop that offers instant-on, always connected internet and – most excitingly of all – multi-day battery life. Its these sort of innovations that could reignite the laptop market and make laptops feel like modern – and essential – devices once more. Intel's dominance over laptops is waning. (Image credit: Intel) More choice about the hardware that powers them While Intel did a lot at Computex 2019 to get me excited about laptops again, one of the best things to emerge from the event in Taiwan was how its rivals are now viable alternatives when it comes to the hardware that powers our laptops. For too long, Intel was the only choice when it came to powering laptops – and that near monopoly meant the company had a huge influence over how laptops should look and act – which is probably why many laptops felt so similar and uninspiring for so long. Now, we have an ascendant AMD offering its hardware to a growing number of laptops – such as the Acer Nitro 5 and Swift 3 notebooks – alongside Qualcomm’s Snapdragon-powered notebooks. More choice for the consumer is always a good thing, and it means we’ll be getting laptops that aren’t beholden to Intel’s vision. This increased competition also means Intel needs to keep innovating to stay relevant – which is probably why the company was so keen to show off its vision of the future of laptops at Computex 2019. After Computex 2019, I feel excited about the future of laptops once more. That’s something I didn’t think I’d have ever felt again. Let’s hope Computex 2020 brings a similar renaissance for desktop PCs. Check out all of TechRadar's Computex 2019 coverage. We're live in Taipei to bring you all the breaking computing news and launches, plus hands-on reviews of everything from fresh laptops and desktops to powerful new components and wild overclocking demonstrations.  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

5 things 5G will do that you didn’t expect Posted: 30 May 2019 10:00 AM PDT Download a 4K movie in three seconds! That’s the headline feature of 5G according to the lazy mainstream media, which is probably why the public aren’t yet as excited about 5G as they should be.  So 5G isn’t about downloading movies quickly? No, though the focus on 5G’s incredible speeds is no surprise. After all, 5G networks will bring speeds of about 1gbps.  Compare that to the 4G LTE networks we have in the UK right now that offer real-world speeds of about 20mbps; 5G will be 100 times faster, and in the long-term it’s expected to jump to up to 20gbps.  However, this is just the eMBB (enhanced Mobile Broadband) feature of 5G, which is only a small part of the story. To understand 5G, you need to know that 5G networks will be able to support up to a million devices per square kilometer thanks to massive Machine Type Communications (mMTC) and that they’ll also have Ultra-Reliable and Low Latency Communications (URLLC). Jargon? Yes, but by being super-fast, super-dense and enabling real-time, latency-free communication, 5G will bring changes to the tech world we can only imagine. Luckily, we can imagine quite a lot already… besides, who still downloads movies? What is 5G? Everything you need to know 5G is really about ultra-fast wireless home broadband. (Image credit: Jamie Carter) 1. Ultra-fast wireless home broadband Probably the most misunderstood aspect of 5G is that it’s only for smartphones and mobile gadgets.  It’s really not. 5G is for the home. Think of it as wireless fibre, with speeds that are almost as fast or, at least, fast enough for anything you might want to do online at home. In fact, some 5G trials in the US have concentrated almost solely on 5G-powered modems for homes; you place one in a window with a line-of-sight to a 5G mast, and with the help of a router it spreads ultra-fast 1gbps WiFi around your home.  That being said, you shouldn't overlook the 5G-powered revolution coming to mobile video. 4G has made watching TV and YouTube on a smartphone possible, but let’s be honest, it’s often not much fun at all. Web pages that take an age to load, constantly buffering video, apps that freeze and photo uploads to Instagram that stall and splutter…4G can be a real headache. So 5G will likely bring an instant and more reliable internet. That’s the theory, anyway. However, the advent of 5G is likely to kick-start a new era of real-time low-latency mobile gaming and/or more immersive virtual reality experiences that will try to make full use of the vast broadband capabilities (and probably buffer). The capabilities of tech are constantly being pushed, and 5G won’t change that.  5G telepresence and remote robotics is coming. (Image credit: Jamie Carter) 2. The ‘tactile internet’ 5G’s URLLC feature is all about low latency. Latency is the time it takes for a communication to start, stop and then start again, which you can experience every time you try to load a webpage on a smartphone.  On a 4G network it takes at least 40 milliseconds, but 5G promises to reduce that to just a single millisecond. Think about it; 5G could change everything we do online by making it instantaneous. Cue the ‘tactile internet’. Defined as instant, interactive communications, the tactile internet could enable a revolution in industry, with robots able to receive instructions in real-time, essentially allowing them to collaborate on complex tasks. In healthcare, surgeons could be able to see body scans and brain scans in real time, examine a patient remotely using a telepresence unit, and perhaps even remotely operate on patients using a surgical robot controlled across the internet. 5G will mean CD-quality audio streaming become normal. (Image credit: Amazon) 3. Hi-Res Audio everywhere Although a lot of the 5G talk is around video-based entertainment, a lot could change in the music world. After all, why persist with compressed MP3 and iTunes AAC files when hi-res uncompressed 24-bit/192kHz audio as FLAC, WAV and MQA music files are just as easy to stream over a 5G network?  Hi-Res Audio (HRA) is lossless audio codec capable of reproducing the full range of sound from recordings that have been mastered from better-than-CD quality music sources.  The massively increased bandwidth coming with 5G will likely popularize and normalize high-quality audio, which for now is a relatively small niche among audiophiles.  It's growing though, with Tidal, Deezer and Qobuz already offering hi-res music, while Amazon is reportedly about to launch a hi-res audio streaming service. There’s also Spotify Hi-Fi that offers listeners lossless CD quality. Let’s just hope 5G phones come with unlimited data plans… AR overlays for navigation, such as Skyline, will go real-time with 5G. (Image credit: ViewRanger) 4. Mixed reality Those planetarium-style smartphone apps that overlay a map of the stars and planets on the night sky are what the future looks like.  No, not interstellar exploration, but 5G-powered instant overlays of real-time data on, well, everything. While those planetarium apps have all their data built-in and no need for real-time input and the augmented reality (AR) apps of the future are unknown, 5G could enable better navigation assistance, object recognition and even real-time face recognition on smartphones and smart glasses.  Take another, even simpler example; you have a boiler that needs fixing, so instead of getting a heating engineer around, you talk to one via your smart glasses and they show you exactly which knobs to twiddle in real-time to diagnose and physically fix the problem.  That’s going to be empowering. Everything from science, medicine, employee training and advertising could benefit from an explosion in AR overlays. However, these rich, immersive ‘digital experiences’ will also spill over into virtual reality video, which could yet prove 5G’s ‘killer app’. Real-time VR is presently not possible, but let’s be honest, how impressive really are VR headsets? They lack pixels – badly. Nothing looks real. What they need, of course, isn’t 4K, or even 8K, but probably 16K resolution, or multiple 4K video streams, and that’s what 5G could deliver. In real-time. 5G will support a million devices per square kilometer. (Image credit: Jamie Carter) 5. An internet of (many) things A core 5G feature is mMTC, and that’s about density. It’s great news for sports fans. Never again will you sit in a packed stadium and be unable to use your phone. That’s because 5G networks can support up to a million devices per square kilometer – but face-timing at the football is only one tiny aspect of what 5G will enable. With that kind of support, the number of connected devices will explode. That Fitbit on your wrist? Why bother when you could have sensors all over your body – perhaps in clothes – that communicate with each other, and with the cloud via the 5G network, in real-time?  Everything you own could be connected to the network, such as your backpack, the belongings inside, headsets, headphones, bikes, car…and family members.  This could extend to industry as well, with companies’ assets, farm equipment, robots, and even tanks. Another dimension of low latency is the real-time cloud. Instead of needing local processing power, devices like phones, wearables and laptops will link to the cloud for everything – files, data and artificial intelligence – perhaps only storing the absolute essential data on devices.  That means smaller, lighter and essentially ‘dumb’ devices that are little more than conduits to the cloud. 5G Uncovered, in association with Samsung, brings you everything you need to know about the next wave of connectivity - not just how fast it's going to be, but in just how many ways it's going to change your life. Our 5G Uncovered hub is carefully curated to show everything there is to know about the next generation of connection.    Everything you need to know about the Internet of Things This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Starfield: latest trailers, rumors and news Posted: 30 May 2019 09:49 AM PDT We may not know much about Starfield, but by goodness are we excited. Bethesda's upcoming single-player RPG set in outer space marks the gaming giant's first new IP for 25 years.  But just what is the game about? And, more importantly, when will we actually be able to play it? During the game's shock announcement at E3 2018, Bethesda boss Todd Howard called Starfield "our next-generation, single-player epic". However, Bethesda wouldn't divulge any more details apart from a short teaser trailer announcing the game and showing off its logo. However that hasn't stopped us from boarding the hype train with a first-class ticket. There's nothing more exciting than whetting your appetite for a new game by future gazing (or star gazing in this case). So, in that spirit, we've searched the galaxy to bring you the latest news and rumors on Starfield. Here's everything you need to know. [Update: Starfield isn't likely to make an appearance at E3 2019. Read on to find out more.] Cut to the chase What is it? A single-player RPG in outer space from the makers of Fallout and The Elder Scrolls What can I play it on? It's almost certainly coming to PC, PlayStation and Xbox, but we might have to wait for the next generation of consoles When can I play it? No word yet, but we may be looking at later than 2020 Starfield release date So far, what's been released is a title, trailer and, well, promise of greatness to come. With details so thin on the ground, the earliest we'd expect to see a Starfield game would be 2020.  Bethesda Game Studios Director Todd Howard has stressed that "everyone should be very, very patient".  In Bethesda's E3 2018 presentation, Howard referred to the first Starfield game as "next-gen", suggesting it might not see a release before the next generation of consoles (either the PS5 and Xbox Two). He might, however, just mean the game will use the capabilities of the PS4 and Xbox One's recent mid-cycle upgrades, in which case late 2019 or early 2020 would be a more likely window.  In an interview with Eurogamer, Howard elaborated: "What systems we put it out on - what's the hardware requirements - is still to be determined. We're pushing it; we're thinking very, very far in future so we're building something that will handle next-generation hardware. That's what we're building on right now, that's where our mind is, but that doesn't mean it wouldn't exist on the current systems as well." Starfield trailers We saw our first glimpse of the game during E3 2018. it's not much more than a title and setting at this point, but the video does introduce us to an unnamed planet, a floating satellite or space station, and some sort of... glowing wormhole? Check out the teaser trailer below: Starfield news and rumors Starfield may not be coming to E3 2019 after all E3 is the place to announce exciting gaming news but it looks like Starfield won't be making much of an appearance at E3 2019. During a panel at PAX East which celebrated the 25th Anniversary of The Elder Scrolls, Todd Howard responded to a question about some photogrammetry tech being used in Elder Scrolls and Starfield with the news that "it’s going to be a long time! It’s not something we’re going to be talking about, either of those games, at E3 this year, and so patience, please”.   Bethesda's E3 2019 showcase dated and confirmed Bethesda's E3 2019 showcase kicks off at 5.30pm PDT on Sunday June 9, with the horror shooter Doom Eternal taking center stage. But could we see some surprises too? First announced at last year's E3 show, could we finally get a glimpse at Starfield?  It's no secret that Starfield is a long time away from public consumption, but with the PS5 and Xbox Two apparently around the corner, we're hopeful that Starfield could be revealed alongside them. But, as stated above, it seems unlikely due to Howard's comments at PAX East. A whole new world Bethesda has reportedly been talking about making Starfield for years now. There have been rumors flying around about the game since Bethesda publisher Zenimax filed a trademark for the name as far back as 2013.  Given how much mileage Bethesda has achieved out of its other tentpole IPs – Fallout and The Elder Scrolls, which have both seen various spin-off entries and MMO variants – it is presumably hoping to make Starfield a far-reaching franchise in the same vein. ...and whole new systems The idea behind Starfield has been floating around as far back as 2004, and Howard has said it has the recognisable Bethesda DNA to it – so expect deep character customisation and open exploration. But also expect all new ideas entering into the mix – this won't just be Fallout or Skyrim in space. Speaking to Eurogamer, Howard stated "[...] it has a lot of new systems we've been thinking about for a while that fit that kind of game really well." So don't be surprised if there's some sort of on-theme space flight element involved too. Bigger than ever before Both the Elder Scrolls and Fallout series have shared a similar character progression system and open-world backdrop, partially rooted in their sharing of the same gaming engine. While we haven't heard specifics on gameplay, Starfield looks set to follow in the same vein, albeit in a more galactic setting. But the final frontier could hold much larger potential for exploration, allowing players to travel across various planets and encounter unknown civilizations. There's a big gap in the market for sci-fi RPGs With the future of the space-opera RPG series Mass Effect looking uncertain, and the unfulfilled promise of the planet-hopping exploration game No Man's Sky, Starfield will be entering a gaming market hungry for a sci-fi RPG done right. With the proven success of Bethesda's other franchises, could the developer have the next Mass Effect up its sleeves? (Image credits: Bethesda) Keep checking back here for all the latest Starfield news  Keep up to date with all our game coverage of E3 2019 This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Best WordPress themes (paid and free) of 2019 Posted: 30 May 2019 09:36 AM PDT The WordPress platform is one of the simplest ways to create colorful and well laid out webpages. Setup is usually performed with a few mouse clicks, so no coding knowledge is required. The platform supports thousands of various themes, some of which are suited to specific users such as small businesses, whilst others have a more general appeal. When starting out you may feel overwhelmed by the choices available, especially if you’re not sure if a premium theme is worth buying. In this guide, you’ll discover five of our very favorite free and paid WordPress themes. Whether you’re a freelancer on a tight budget or an established business, rest assured there’s a theme for you. Also check out the best web hosting Hestia Hestia is the perfect theme for those with small businesses, startups, online agencies and firms due to its multi-purpose functionality. Users do not have to pay to download this theme. Installation and setup is designed to be user friendly. This theme is best suited to users who want to setup an ecommerce platform. Hestia integrates with WooCommerce, allowing users access to beautifully designed product listings. There is an easy to use drag and drop feature suitable. This theme comes with custom background settings which aid in adding photos to your site and making it your own. It has a multi-purpose one page design, a widget designed footer and a blog or news section. It integrates with Travel Map, Photo Gallery, Flat Parallax Slider and Elementor Page Builder. Hestia is responsive and uses Material Kit for design. As with most WordPress themes, there is a demo for users to sample before downloading. Some users have noted that the free version is buggy and convoluted to use. You can sign up for Hestia here X X is a paid WordPress theme suitable for all types of websites.  The theme comes with four categories of built-in demos. Each of these themes cover a wide variety of potential projects. This means that no matter what you have in mind, X more than likely has a design suited to your needs. Cornerstone is included with X. This is one of the most popular WordPress web page builders. The drag and drop feature is easy to use. Users are able to see exactly what their page will look like live as they are building. This enables users to change and edit while building their site. There are a huge number of customization options, with which users can build a unique webpage. It's also constantly updated and you get features like custom font or inline editing. The newest version introduces Dynamic Content which helps a lot when building out content throughout your site X comes with a feature called ‘the customizer’. This is a handy tool as many premium themes come with their own theme options page that are not entirely compatible with WordPress. ‘The Customizer’ is highly intuitive. It integrates seamlessly with WordPress. It will help you to customize the look and feel of your website. The regular license for X is $59 (£44) which includes future updates and 6 months customer support. Users can opt to extend support to 12-months for an additional $17.63 (£13.2). You can sign up for X here Allegiant Allegiant is a highly customizable WordPress theme that is most suited for small businesses that are just starting out. The theme itself is simple and well laid out. Across the top there is a large header to highlight your most popular services or products. The slides on the homepage can be displayed in any order. The theme offers several feature blocks which can be easily inserted onto your page with details about your business team or your past endeavours amongst others.  These blocks come with the theme’s plugin ‘CPO Content Types’. The plugin is free and installs very quickly. These pre-built blocks also come with testimonial section. It is very easy to copy and paste information into the blocks. Allegiant integrates with other free popular WordPress themes such as WooCommerce, Yoast SEO, WPML and Contact Form 7. It’s also free to download from the WordPress website.  Some online commentators mention that while the theme is customizable it is not easy to figure out how to do so. They don’t recommend Allegiant for newer users. You can sign up for Allegiant here Astrid Astrid is the perfect choice theme for most businesses.  The theme has an impressive array of built-in widgets that users can take advantage of. Widgets and page templates are available for services and employees amongst others. Astrid comes with a huge variety of fonts and color options. Users can easily edit the full width header to whatever they see fit. Users can also use a ‘call to action’ button with a message over it.  The theme is translation ready meaning that it can still be accessed by those users who do not speak the same language as your business. Users can use visual graphs and displays to show their past work and experience. WooCommerce support is provided for selling products on your website. Astrid helps to make your site look well on tablets and smartphones. Astrid is free to download but those users who want more out of their theme can ‘Go Pro’. The ‘Pro’ option starts at $59 (£44.60) per year for a single plugin which includes one year of updates, one year of support and unlimited domain usage. All packages offer a 30-day money back guarantee. Some online commentators have mentioned that the site can be hard to navigate making it difficult to get started. You can sign up for Astrid here Sydney Sydney works well for freelancers and companies who want to create a strong online presence. It is highly customizable with many options to choose from such as Google Fonts and logo uploads. The theme has more than 600 Google fonts to choose from. For users who want to show off, there is a full screen promotional banner that can be edited to suit your needs. The custom elementor blocks can be designed as you see fit and to suit your promotional needs. Sydney can also display social media icons at the bottom of your page.  The theme is translation ready and provides the necessary tools for a smooth translation process. Users have access to full color control, sticky navigation, header image and a full screen slider. Sydney also offers Parallax background affects. Users can add this to any row in the theme layout. You can sign up for Sydney here Top Image Credit: Astrid / WordPress These are the best website hosting services This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Best website defacement monitoring service of 2019 Posted: 30 May 2019 09:25 AM PDT 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. You can lower that to $20.41 per month with annual billing. 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. The highest tier of subscription simply called "Premium", enables 5 minute tracking with some additional features. 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

Anthem: update news, DLC, tips, patch notes and more Posted: 30 May 2019 09:24 AM PDT Anthem, BioWare's cooperative, team-based shooter is a change of pace for the makers of Dragon Age and Mass Effect. With a focus on cooperative PvE combat popularized by the likes of Destiny, it landed amid a swirl of hype and expectation, which it has so far failed to meet. Anthem has a big challenge in front of it then – with arguments that its endgame content is weak, its loot system broken and its story not up to scratch when compared with previous narrative-driven BioWare RPGs, it's fighting to win back the hearts of those who were initially in awe of its promise. With EA backing it and BioWare's heritage at its heart, there's hope yet that Anthem will be redeemed. It's being touted as a "living" game after all – one that will evolve over time to keep its fans entranced long after launch – and the likes of behemoths such as Destiny and Fortnite all went through rough launches before becoming gaming juggernauts. So what's the latest Anthem news? When's the next update? And what does the future hold for Anthem? Read on for everything you need to know about the Iron Man simulator. As we said in our full Anthem review: "It is a game of oxymorons and inconsistencies. The story is designed to be single-player but the game is clearly not. The gameplay is an absolute joy but is stifled by the repetitive nature of the end-game. The character animations are truly sublime, but most of the characters themselves are cliché and predictable.  "Anthem is a fun game, and a stunningly pretty one, but with flaws in nearly every other aspect of its design. It will improve with patches, updates, and a strong community, but it isn’t a particularly strong foundation. This is less an anthem, and more an annoying earworm..." Anthem review: check out our complete, in-depth verdict in our full review Anthem update news and Anthem patch notes What's new? Anthem won't be at EA's E3 show, despite Cataclysm update Anthem's Cataclysm content update is due to be unveiled today, with a livestream on both Twitch and Mixer – as publisher EA reveals the game will not be part of the company's E3 2019 showcase.  The unveil will accompany the 1.2.0 update for the game, which (as developer BioWare previously stated) focusses on "bug fixes, stability, and game flow" rather than new gameplay moments. Update 1.2.0 delivers "under the hood content you won't see right away, but is setting things up for a future update, the Cataclysm," according to BioWare.  However, there is still no set launch day for the Cataclysm event which was originally meant to release in May.  Cataclysm is (or at least, was) set to be a huge moment for Anthem, setting the stage for the game as a service's long-term ongoing content plans. The time-sensitive update would offer "massive, world-changing events" and the "most ambitious and challenging content" for high-level, endgame players to take part in. Tougher enemies, raging storms and "new mysteries" are all set to be part of the Cataclysm.  We'll be sure to update you with the precise details as soon as they're revealed in the livestream, which will play on both Twitch and Mixer at 3pm Central Time today. Check out the patch notes for Game Update 1.2.0. Anthem tips and tricks guides Anthem is a complex game. With four classes to master, a ton of loot to uncover and large world to explore, it can be daunting for a newcomer, and difficult for even a long term player to master. Get ahead of the pack with our selection of Anthem guides, designed to help you get your Iron Man-like Javelin suit fighting fit as soon as possible. Best weapons in Anthem: how to build the strongest loadout Best Anthem Javelin: which is the class best suited to you Best Anthem gear: how to customize your Javelin's build How to make money in Anthem: your guide to earning shards and coins Anthem DLC – what's next? Anthem is an ongoing project at EA and BioWare, a game that both companies expect to support for many years, with a player base that will grow and evolve along with the game. How do both teams hope to achieve this? Through regular content drops, that's how. As pictured above, EA and BioWare had already mapped out the "ongoing narrative of Anthem", with updates mapped out already until May 2019.  This first "Act" is called "Echoes of Eternity", which was initially scheduled for March 2019 introducing the "Evolving World" chapter, April 2019 the "Stronger Together" chapter and May 2019 bringing the ominous sounding "Cataclysm" chapter. However, as detailed above, BioWare isn't on track to hit its roadmap. So we're not quite sure when these updates will arrive. Evolving World will focus on battles with huge bosses such as Titans of War, Ruin, Bane and Havoc in freeplay mode, as well as new Legendary missions and a Scar Infestation freeplay event. Stronger Together will expand the endgame with a new Mastery System for the skill tree progression, as well as host of new freeplay events, more legendary missions, a new Stronghold called "The Sunken" (which will have its own weekly challenge) as well as the introduction of leaderboards and guilds. As for what the Catyclysm brings, little is known at the moment beyond the promise of new freeplay events, missions and new items. We'll presumably find out more as the year rolls on. But what about paid DLC? EA has yet to announce it's mid-to-long term plans for Anthem. We'd expect it will follow a similar path as Destiny, which had a continued supply of small improvements and features added, interspersed with larger paid-for DLC packs, before an eventual sequel.  That is, of course, if Anthem can prove its staying power... Here's hoping – there's a gem at the heart of Anthem, waiting to be dug out. We're hopeful that we'll one day be playing Anthem at its strongest. More interested in EA's sports offering? Here's everything we know about FIFA 19 All image credits: EA / BioWare This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Why IoT security should be top of your list Posted: 30 May 2019 09:11 AM PDT What are some of the most pressing threats businesses are facing today? The biggest cybersecurity threats facing businesses today are phishing and business email compromise attacks, while ransomware continues to remain a concern. Conventional awareness and training programs are partially effective, meaning novel measures will be required to significantly curtail both phishing and business email compromise attacks in the long run. For ransomware, effective patching remains the best defence.   What is the IoT? Everything you need to know How can organisations embrace the opportunities of the IoT without putting themselves at risk of attack? Firstly, organisations can reduce their vulnerability in IoT and Industrial IoT (IIoT) by defining a perimeter surrounding the Operational Technology (OT) environment. This can be achieved by implementing strict constraints on what traffic can enter and exit the facility. This edge can be as broad as an entire production facility or as narrow as a single IoT-enabled branch office. Second, organisations should look to segment the network within the OT environment, which can interrupt the spread of malicious code and traffic. Finally, firms need to isolate and secure the company’s critical assets within the OT environment. For instance, organisations can disallow updates on key servers, whitelist processes which can run, and also disable services not necessary for the specific device’s function – these efforts combined should ensure the safety of the IoT opportunity. What is Trend Micro doing to ensure its customers remain secure in the face of IoT threats? Trend Micro has a set of offerings to permit both device protection and segmentation, and ensure organisations are able to combat IoT threats. These include next-generation firewall technologies, intrusion prevention and detection capabilities, SDKs for on-device protection, and OT protocol analysis through our TXOne joint venture with Moxa.   (Image credit: Pixabay) Who ultimately should bear responsibility for IoT security? We've seen the UK government this week announce plans for a minimum security standard for IoT products - but should customers and security vendors also shoulder some of the responsibility? Product manufacturers must assume liability for services, including security patching throughout the life of the device. In cases where a device manufacturer abandons a product line, some form of owner maintenance, such as the “right to repair,” should be available. It’s worth noting that if a device is sealed with no user interface, it is impossible for a user to accept any responsibility for a defective piece of technology. In the face of growing threats, how can Industry 4.0 ensure it stays protected from threats? Without doubt, regulation will establish a baseline, but specific industry segments will often require more than baseline security capabilities, just as critical industrial processes have more stringent performance requirements for key sensor and PLC technologies.   Ultimately it will be on the manufacturers to provide adequate cyber security, just as it is with them to provide baseline safety and operational resilience. Organisations exploring Industry 4.0 will have to include their specific security requirements in their Request for Proposal (RFP) or Request for Quote (RFQ) process, which will inform and incentivise manufacturers to provide adequate security capabilities. What changes need to be made to the IoT security landscape to ensure the technology can be used to help benefit as many organisations as possible? Conformance to Cybersecurity Certificate Programs such as IEC 62443 would be a good start, particularly for manufacturers of Industrial Control Systems (ICS) as well as for the organisations deploying it. Standards like the ISA’s IEC 62443 establishes a baseline set of controls for ICS, paralleling ISO 27001. It’s crucial that manufacturers design not only tools, but systems as well to help minimise data gathering for privacy purposes and to maximise security capabilities. This would improve authentication and authorisation issues, data confidentiality, data integrity, and non-repudiation. This set of capabilities is actually included in ISO 7498-2, which provides a general description of security services and related mechanisms. Bill Malik is VP of Infrastructure Strategies, Trend Micro This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

24 hours with the OnePlus 7 Pro 5G: the UK's first 5G phone Posted: 30 May 2019 09:10 AM PDT We've got our hands on the UK's first 5G phone, the OnePlus 7 Pro 5G, and will be updating this article over the next 24 hours with details on how EE's 5G network, and the phone, performs. 5G in the UK: everything you need to know 11am: say hello to 5G We picked up our OnePlus 7 Pro 5G near the BT and EE offices in St Paul's, London - an area of the city particularly well covered by EE's new 5G network. It's one of the most congested areas for mobile network traffic in London, and EE has focused on these high-usage areas for the first phase of its 5G rollout.  It's one of six 5G sites EE turned on ahead of its May 30 launch, so it could test its network. The other locations are Covent Garden, Kensington Gardens, Soho, The Strand and Chancery Lane. However the coverage, we're told, extends north to about Highbury & Islington, east to Mile End, as far south as about Southwark and west to Ealing. That means most of central London is covered - however there are still 5G blackspots within that. The first thing we do when we get the OnePlus 7 Pro 5G in our hand is run a speed test on the Fast app, which gives us a speed of 220Mbps. That's some way off the 1Gbps+ speeds 5G should be able to deliver consistently in the future, but it's comfortably more than the 15-20Mbps we were able to manage on our 4G device. 12pm: and then there was 4G As we've mentioned, there isn't blanket 5G coverage across London, and as we stepped off the tube at Lancaster Gate (near Hyde Park), a check of the phone revealed we only had 4G connectivity. This area along with Paddington, we're told, isn't currently covered by EE's 5G network, and a speed test of our 4G connection returned a result of 35Mbps. That's still pretty quick for 4G, but it's some way off the speeds we were enjoying just a few miles east. While the speeds in 5G areas are impressive, this highlights the fact that for many this patchy coverage could cause frustration. For most, you're probably best holding off a 5G upgrade for the moment. EE says it is upgrading around 100 sites every month to 5G and by this time next year (May/June) it plans to have 5G in 50 cites and towns around the UK. Again, coverage in these locations may not be a blanket - it depends on the size of the city and the compliance of councils and landowners for upgrading/building masts. 1pm: the OnePlus 7 Pro 5G There's little visual difference between the OnePlus 7 Pro 5G and the standard 7 Pro. Image Credit: TechRadar Back in the office and we're taking a closer look at the OnePlus 7 Pro 5G. Apart from its 5G connectivity and a small 5G logo on its rear, it's identical to the non-5G version. It has the same 6.67-inch QHD display, Snapdragon 855 chipset, 8GB of RAM, 256GB of storage, triple rear cameras and Android 9 operating system. While it may look the same, OnePlus has actually had to do some major rearranging under the hood. During testing it found the antenna arrangement it was using in the 4G variant wasn't performing as efficiently in the 5G setup.  This meant the 10 antennas on the 5G model had to be redesigned, which resulted in most of the internals also getting shifted around - plus a larger heat sink, which should provide more effective cooling.  The result is a phone which internally, is completely different in the way it's put together - not that you'd ever know from looking at it. Read our in-depth OnePlus 7 Pro review 2pm: check your 5G coverage Before setting out in search of more 5G, we decided to check the EE website for its 5G coverage maps. It offers a downloadable map of each of the six cities it's launched 5G in, which gives you a clearer indication of where you'll be able to get 5G, and where it won't be available. 4pm: in search of 5G A new 5G speed high! Image Credit: TechRadar Having located a patch of 5G walking distance from the office we set out, but as we approached the coverage area (according to EE's map) our phone still said 4G. Walking further in and it did, thankfully, switch over to a 5G connection. While the coverage maps will give you a rough idea of where you can get 5G, don't take it as a guarantee - there are still small pockets where it simply doesn't reach in these early days. Having settled into our new position we ran another speed test on the Fast app - and we can a new high speed with the OnePlus 7 Pro 5G showing 550Mbps. That's an impressive improvement over the speed we got earlier, but as we were now in a quieter part of the city it's not overly surprising, with fewer handsets in the local area. That said, the speed you get is still highly variable. We ran the test twice more, with results of 320Mbps and 410Mbps. It's still way more than our 4G phone though, which was topping out at around 25Mbps. 5pm: downloading... While speed tests are all well and good, they don't give us any idea of real world usage. So we downloaded a 1GB video in 'best quality' from Amazon Prime, and it took the OnePlus 7 Pro 5G just 43 seconds to get it on our device. We then did the same download on our 4G (with a Three SIM) OnePlus 7, and after 43 seconds we only had 20% of the same video downloaded. This is a very basic example of the power of 5G, and while faster downloads are good, in the coming years 5G will be able to offer much more. However, every new technology has to start somewhere and in the early days it's these fast downloads you'll likely hear a lot about. We're still in our first 24 hours with the OnePlus 7 Pro 5G, and we'll be updating this article with more information as we go. Every 5G phone that's been announced so far This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Netflix UK subscriptions are getting more expensive Posted: 30 May 2019 09:02 AM PDT Netflix has confirmed that its raising subscription prices by up to 20% for UK customers. According to The Guardian the cost of a Standard plan is set to rise by £1 to £8.99, while a Premium plan is increasing by £2 to £11.99. There's good news for Basic plan subscribers though – that price remains unchanged at £5.99 per month.  The best Netflix series in the UK Best movies on Netflix this month Disney Plus vs Netflix: who will win? The Basic plan gives you access to all of Netflix's TV shows and films in standard definition, and limits you to watching on one device at a time.  The next step up from that is the Standard plan, which gives you HD 1080p streams, and allows you to watch on two devices at any one time. Finally, you have the Premium subscription package, which lets you watch on up to four devices concurrently, as well as giving you access to Netflix's growing 4K, HDR library of films and shows.  Increased competition  Netflix says that new customers will pay the increased prices immediately, while the company's existing 10 million UK users will see the higher costs being rolled out "over the coming weeks". The price hike shouldn't come as a huge surprise to anyone who's been following the price changes in the US, which came earlier this year.  The streaming behemoth's increased pricing comes ahead of the launch of Disney Plus, which is set to host a huge number of Disney-owned and Disney-produced films and shows, including titles from Pixar, Marvel, and Star Wars. The service is due to launch in the US on November 12, 2019, and we're expecting it to come at around the same time for UK customers – although Disney is yet to confirm an official UK release date.  At just $5.99 per month (around £4.60 based on current conversion rates), it's set to undercut even Netflix's cheapest plan. Will Disney Plus eclipse Netflix now that the world's biggest streaming platform has raised it's prices? Only time will tell, but the news means there's sure to be a lot of unhappy UK customers who are wondering how to cancel a Netflix subscription.  TV stands: give your Netflix binge an aesthetically pleasing stand to rest on Via The Guardian This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

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