Apple : Obama: Why we need to save the Internet now |
- Obama: Why we need to save the Internet now
- Russia bans sale of gadgets without Russian-made software
- The best Motorola phones of 2019: find the best Moto smartphone for you
- Black Friday at Best Buy: early deals on TVs, laptops, iPads, headphones and more
- The best swim watch 2019: what you should be wearing in the pool
- Microsoft Surface Earbuds aren't coming until Spring 2020
- CES 2020: Here's what you can expect to see at the world’s biggest tech event
- How to watch RuPaul's Drag Race UK Finale 2019 online: stream from home or abroad
- Xerox says it may launch a hostile bid for HP
- Cheap Samsung 4K TV deal: grab up to £300 off these top early Black Friday deals
- This is the ugliest RAM ever but you can't argue with this awesome Black Friday deal
- Half-Life: Alyx is anything but Half-Life 3
- The best cheap TV sales and 4K TV deals in the UK in November 2019
- Adobe will fix Photoshop for iPad by mid-2020, thanks to these incoming features
- Wilder vs Ortiz 2 live stream: how to watch boxing online from anywhere this Saturday
- Best email providers of 2019: Free, Paid and business services
- Rise of the Internet of Things (IoT)
- Best e-commerce platform of 2019: get an online store now!
- HP aspires to sustainable development in IT
- Trump wants Apple to work on 5G
| Obama: Why we need to save the Internet now Posted: 21 Nov 2019 01:34 PM PST Former US President Barack Obama has urged the technology industry to do more to combat the spread of misinformation and harmful content online. Speaking at the Dreamforce 2019 event in San Francisco, the 44th President of the United States reflected on the potential damage being done by a lack of control over what is published online. And he hinted that some of the blame may lie at the feet of the companies responsible for introducing new technologies, which whilst bringing new innovation to the world, can also drive people apart.
Dangerous“When you have big disruptive internet technology, it can be a dangerous moment,” Obama said during a fireside chat with Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff. ”Part of what happens is people don’t know what’s true and what’s not, and they don't know what to believe." “In part fed by social media and technology, we’re chasing after the wrong things, we want the wrong things,” Obama continued. “So much of the anger and frustration has to do with issues of status.” He noted that this constant drive for bigger and better things is part of an ongoing issue in modern society, and instead of getting caught up in what modern tech promotes, people should take a step back and think about what their actual needs are. “Part of solving big problems is not just a matter of finding the right technical solution, but also figuring out, 'how do we restore some sense of our common values?'” he said. “One of the biggest challenges we face is getting a common conversation and common culture going.” President Obama noted that ultimately, technology does have a vital role to play in our society, but more needs to be done to make it more inclusive and less divisive - although this will be a long process. ”I still believe the Internet could be a powerful tool for us to see each other and unify us,” he concluded. “But it is splintering right now, and it’s going to take a lot of work to fix it.”
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| Russia bans sale of gadgets without Russian-made software Posted: 21 Nov 2019 01:29 PM PST Russia has passed a new law which bans the sale of certain devices unless they come pre-installed with Russian software. The law is expected to go into effect in July 2020 and it covers smartphones, computers and smart televisions. Supporters of the legislation argue that its aim is to help promote Russian technology while also making it easier for Russian consumers to use the devices they purchase. However, there are also growing concerns that Russia could use the law for increased surveillance of its populace and that it might lead device manufacturers to no longer sell their products in the country.
Devices from other countries can still be imported and sold in Russia but the country's software will have to be installed on them alongside their normal software. Pre-installed Russian softwareThe legislation was recently passed by Russia's lower house of parliament but it still needs to be passed by the upper house of parliament and signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin before it becomes law. Co-author of the bill, Oleg Nikolayev explained to Interfax news agency that the law would help promote competition in Russia by giving consumers domestic alternatives to Western apps, saying: "When we buy complex electronic devices, they already have individual applications, mostly Western ones, pre-installed on them. Naturally, when a person sees them... they might think that there are no domestic alternatives available. And if, alongside pre-installed applications, we will also offer the Russian ones to users, then they will have a right to choose." Manufacturers and distributors in Russia have criticized the new law and the Association of Trading Companies and Manufacturers of Electrical Household and Computer Equipment (RATEK) said it will not be possible to install Russian-made software on some devices. While pre-installed Russian apps on devices could be beneficial to the country's consumers, the security implications as well as the logistics of pre-installing Russian software will likely be a huge burden for device manufacturers to overcome.
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| The best Motorola phones of 2019: find the best Moto smartphone for you Posted: 21 Nov 2019 01:22 PM PST Motorola phones, alongside Nokia phones, and certain LG phones, are champions of the budget smartphone market. That means if you're looking for a decent handset that won't break the bank, you're in the right place - especially if you're looking to pick up one at a discount on Black Friday. Motorola's smartphones run the gamut of lower-end price points, but each has impressive features that may convince you to pick one up. The Moto Z handsets can support additional features - including 5G - with Moto Mods; the Moto G range consists of budget devices with certain impressive specs each; and the Motorola One handsets are wacky and interesting in even more novel ways. Of course, these phones won't compete with the likes of the iPhone 11 Pro or the Samsung Galaxy S10, but they won't cost you as much either. They're reliable, with impressive specs for their price tag. The exception, of course, is the officially unveiled Motorola Razr, a throwback to the original's iconic design with a flexible inner screen that technically makes this a foldable. Despite its hefty pricetag - it's fully three times the cost of a Moto Z4 - it isn't the fastest phone; instead, it folds into a footprint half the size of any regular smartphone. But the Razr isn't on sale - yet. Once it starts rolling out to consumers (and we've had a chance to test it at length), we'll add it to the list. Until then, we're hopeful for this nostalgia-baiting phone that could break the deadlock of smartphone design. Motorola has a lot of phones, and tends to release a bunch of new ones at the same time, so it can be a little tough getting your head around the products. That's why we've made this list of the best Moto phones to guide your hand. We also update this list regularly, when Motorola releases a new phone, or when software updates cause the rankings to shift, so keep checking back to see which devices we recommend the most. We're approaching the time where Black Friday and Cyber Monday Deals are coming our way - and we're expecting that a few cases deals might start popping up then. So if you think you're OK to wait and not damage your device, you could save some cash - but if the worst does happen then perhaps bookmark our Black Friday iPhone deals page... it could save you a heap of cash. Best Moto phones 2019 at a glance:
Image credit: TechRadar The Moto Z4 is a safe move from Motorola - it looks nearly identical to its predecessors, with only minor shifts in size and shape - but that likely arises from the company's decision to keep supporting the Moto Mods, which require phones to keep roughly the same shape. Thus, the phone doesn't look like it's changed. Look closer and you'll find some improvements, like an expanded 6.4-inch screen to the edges (around a top notch), an in-screen fingerprint scanner, and the return of a 3.5mm headphone jack. Gone also is the dual 12MP lenses in the rear camera bump; instead, the Moto Z4 follows the midrange (and Google Pixel-like) trend of dropping lenses and using software to make up for it. We found the Moto Z4 took slightly better photos with its lone 48MP rear camera, and similar improvements with its 25MP selfie lens. The phone is speedy enough, though its performance might drag on over the years: instead of packing an older but still flagship chipset like its predecessor, the Moto Z4 opted for a Snapdragon 675 - a new, but definitively midrange option. This is more speculation - we'll have to see whether this chipset lasts longer than we expect - but the phone's 4GB RAM (only option) isn't promising for longevity either. Read our in-depth review: Moto Z4 Lenovo spent 2019 releasing many Motorola One phones, and the highlight of this series is the Motorola One Zoom. The Motorola One Zoom has a whopping four rear cameras, which is loads for an affordable handset like this. They include a depth sensor, a telephoto lens, and a wide-angle snapper, as well as the main sensor. Beyond that, there's a decent battery, and a good-looking screen. However, we found there were some sacrifices to be made to keep the price so low, like middling processing power and a design that leaves a little to be desired. Motorola is a budget and mid-range champion, and this is pure Moto class, with decent specs and a low price. Read our in-depth Motorola One Zoom review Motorola’s One range all run Android One - so are guaranteed security updates monthly for at least two years. This is a great reason to go for the One Macro that sports a camera designed to excel with close-up images. Unfortunately, as this is a budget phone, the cameras are not as good as we’d hoped and shouldn’t be the phone you buy if you want a premium camera smartphone. But the solid design, decent battery life and clean, up to date Android software mean the One Macro has a lot going for it. The display is better than the price suggests and performance is surprisingly good, too but there’s no NFC for mobile payments. It’s a fine Moto phone if you’re on a budget, just don’t buy it expecting amazing cameras, despite the marketing. Read the Motorola One Macro review. Considering the price it’s amazing that the G8 Plus fits in small bezels, triple rear cameras, stereo speakers and decent battery life. It looks great too, with an attractively simple version of Android 9 Pie to boot. The Snapdragon 665 means the phone has decent battery life but we found the performance wasn’t as good as hoped with occasional stuttering. You can forget high-end gaming, too. Despite this Motorola is promising two years of security updates and a software update to Android 10 making it a good, large-screened Moto option. The triple cameras and great stereo speakers add some excellent upgrades over the G7 range, too. Read the Moto G8 Plus review. The Motorola One Action has lots in common with the other Motorola One phones, like its chipset and screen quality, but it has one novel feature that makes it an interesting prospect for phones buyers. As well as its main and depth sensing cameras on the back of the device, the Motorola One Action has an 'action cam' which is designed for impressive video recording. You can record in landscape while holding the phone in portrait, and the camera is great at picking up video detail: all in all it's a great device for people who take a lot of videos. On top of that the handset is actually cheaper than lots of other Motorola ones, so you could do a lot worse if you're looking for a device with an intriguing extra feature. Read our in-depth review: Motorola One Action Image credit: TechRadar The Moto Z3 is still a solid pick in the Moto line, with a comparable (if not slightly faster) chipset than the Moto Z4. Best of all? It's still the cheapest way to access 5G through the 5G Moto Mod. When this Moto add-on first came out, it made the Moto Z3 the first 5G-capable phone to hit the market in the whole world. Of course, there are a lot of caveats to that fact – namely, that the mod is only coming to Verizon in the US, and will only work in that carrier's very limited 5G coverage areas – but it's still an impressive claim for a sub-flagship phone. Yes, the phone doesn't have the beastly specs of top-tier flagships – but at half the price, the Moto Z3 boasts impressive value. It sports a Snapdragon 835, which is respectable if dated, and comes in two average if unimpressive versions: 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage, or 6GB of RAM and 128GB of space (expandable via microSD to up to 512GB). That's enough for streaming multimedia and moderate gaming, which look good on the phone's 6-inch (2160 x 1080) AMOLED display. Combine that with basic dual 12MP rear cameras and an 8MP front-facing selfie shooter and you have a good phone sitting somewhere below the OnePlus 6T and lesser-performing midrange phones. The phone's glass back and side-mounted fingerprint scanner are similarly middle-luxe – a good compromise if you want performance at a lower price. Read our in-depth review: Motorola Moto Z3 Image credit: TechRadar No, Motorola One Vision is not inspired by the Queen song, but it is one of the royalty of Moto handsets – its clean and clear Android One operating system (OS) cuts away the bloat and excess of normal Android, and the phone itself has an attractive and clean design. The Motorola One Vision's 21:9 aspect ratio may be questionable to some, however, as the jury's still out on whether this is the future of smartphones or just an annoying gimmick. If you're on-board with the phone's unwieldy length, and don't mind its weak specs in a certain few areas, the Motorola One Vision sits at a happily affordable price point and does impress in a few major ways. Read our in-depth review: Motorola One Vision Image Credit: TechRadar Why list the Moto G7 here? Sure, it's slightly less powerful than the G7 Plus, but it's also available in more regions (including the US), so we're covering our bases in case you don't want to pay international shipping on your budget-plus phone. You don't miss much going for the G7, either: its Snapdragon 632 chip is a bit less powerful, sure, and its frame is plastic instead of aluminum. But the rest of its specs are essentially the same, which means you're getting a phone that's nearly as nice at a discount. That means 4GB of RAM and 64GB of space, a 6.2-inch LCD display and dual 12MP + 5MP rear shooters/an 8MP front-facing camera for a great price. Plus it comes with Android 9 Pie right out of the box. Read our in-depth review: Moto G7 Image credit: TechRadar If you're looking for the ultimate Moto value, think about digging back into the reserves. The Moto Z2 Force came out in mid-2017, but it's still a relative powerhouse – and you can find it for a bit cheaper than the newer Moto Z3. Despite over a year between releases, the Z2 Force packs the same Snapdragon 835 processor as its successor. Its screen is even higher resolution at 2560 x 1440, though its 5.5 inches are smaller than the Z3's display. Unfortunately, the Z2 Force shows its age in its chin and top bezels, which are significantly larger than those on phones released today. But if you don't mind not sporting the sleekest phone on the block, the Z2 Force has most of the newest top-tier Moto phone at a lower price. And it works with Moto Mods -- including, eventually, the Moto Mod 5G, which will expand functionality to the earlier Z2 phones at some point after it's released on April 11. Read our in-depth review: Moto Z2 Force Image credit: TechRadar The Motorola Moto G7 Plus has been superseded by the G8 Plus, but is the top performer of the brand's G7 family, which counts four phones. The G7 Plus is the standout model, though it may not reach your region: Motorola confirmed the device isn't coming to the US. But if you can pick the phone up, you won't be sorry. For sub-midrange price, you'll get a Snapdragon 636-powered phone with a decent 4GB RAM and 64GB of storage (expandable up to 512GB). The phone even has one up on the more powerful Moto Z3 with its 3.5mm headphone jack. So why the G7 Plus and not, say, an older (but still hefty) Moto Z2 Play? Simple: Android 9 Pie out of the box. That leads us to recommend the phone even over other more powerful Moto phones (like the Moto Z2 Force, which is nearly identical to the Z3), and the G7 Plus has other benefits of a later release date, like speedier Fast Charging and a higher screen-to-body ratio. Read our in-depth review: Motorola Moto G7 Plus Image credit: TechRadar The third phone in the budget Moto G7 line is the G7 Power, which doesn't vary much from the standard G7 – aside from its enormous battery. Yes, for those of you who tire of recharging your phone everyday, here's one with a 5,000mAh battery. Other phones have reached such heights, but they're either expensive flagships (like the gaming-focused Huawei Mate 20 X) or battery-focused brick-thick novelty items (like the Energizer Power Max P18K). The G7 Power is a much more affordable, sensible and normal-looking phone than others that offer its level of battery capabilities. Otherwise, the phone is basic but not bottom-tier, with a Snapdragon 632 and either 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage (in the US) or 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage (elsewhere). Its 6.2-inch LCD screen is large but not terribly impressive (1570 x 720px). But in combination with the giant battery and an accessible price of $249 / £179 (around AU$330), the Moto G7 Power is a great bargain. Read our in-depth review: Moto G7 Power review This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Black Friday at Best Buy: early deals on TVs, laptops, iPads, headphones and more Posted: 21 Nov 2019 01:09 PM PST Black Friday 2019 is just around the corner, and Best Buy is giving us a preview with a 'Beat the Rush' sale that you can shop right now. The early Black Friday Best Buy deals include massive discounts on best-selling items, which include TVs, iPads, laptops, phones, headphones, and so much more. This is a fantastic opportunity to get a head start on your holiday shopping and snag a killer deal before the madness of Best Buy's Black Friday sale officially begins. Learn more about the November sale event with our guide to Black Friday 2019 and the upcoming Cyber Monday 2019 sale. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| The best swim watch 2019: what you should be wearing in the pool Posted: 21 Nov 2019 12:46 PM PST Running and cycle tracking tech has grown incredibly over the past five years with GPS watches, form-fixing sensors and power meters expanding the universe of performance insights for us try-hard weekend warriors. Even amateur soccer is now catered for with GPS monitors now available for casual players. For swimmers, though, it’s been a different story. It’s taken a while for people who like a bit of pool time to feel as much love as their land-loving fellow fitness types. Brands like Fitbit, Apple and Samsung are racing to upgrade sports watches and fitness trackers with new waterproof designs and swim tracking tech built in. While there still aren’t many dedicated swim trackers, the best all-round fitness trackers now offer automatic stroke detection, accurate lap and distance tracking in the pool and open water, and some even offer fairly accurate heart rate monitoring in the water. But prices range from well under $100 / £100 to over $500 / £500, so we’ve tested the leading products on the market to find the best swimming watch for every budget.
With each generation, the Apple Watch becomes a more serious fitness device. Along with its updated heart rate skills, the combination of Apple Watch 5 and watchOS 6 has improved swimming smarts. Built for both pool and open water swimming like the Apple Watch 4, the Watch 5 boasts auto stroke detection, automatic sets and detailed splits that you can filter for 25m, 50m and 100m all in the Workout app. You can also use third party swim tracking apps if you feel like you're not getting enough from Apple's offering. We like the fact it has a handy little feature to eject water from the speaker, just turn the Digital Crown and it'll deliver a burst of sound. The addition of an always-on display is also good to see. It’s a great swimming all-rounder, but we think there are better options for more serious swimmers who hit the pool daily. Read the full Apple Watch 5 review. The Samsung Galaxy Watch is a great all-round fitness tracker and swimming is one of the activities it can track thanks to the fact it's water sealed and has a 5 ATM rating. You can customize the information within the swim tracking screen, including your target, what data you want to display as you swim, pool length (25m is the default) and guide frequency. Like a lot of similar smartwatches, it disables touch sensitivity so you need to use the buttons on the side to control it as your swim. And, like the Apple Watch 4, you can press the button to reactivate the touchscreen and a little sound plays to clear out the speaker. Once you're done swimming the data is fairly detailed, you can see your fastest length, duration, calories, pace, heart rate and more, all assuming you've set the right pool length. It may not be as advanced as some trackers built solely for swim tracking, but for casual swimmers it's a solid option. Read the full Samsung Galaxy Watch review. Like many of the other devices on this list, the Moov Now does much more than just keep tabs on your pool workouts. As such, we’d describe this as a capable all-round fitness tracker with skills that carry into the water - justifying it as our top fitness tracker of 2017. The small, super lightweight tracker fits into a comfortable soft, silicone strap that you wear on your wrist and uses on-board sensors to tracks laps, distance, time, speed, swimming style and stroke count. We really loved that Moov broke our session data down to individual lengths where you can see how many strokes you pulled, how long it took, your turn times, any breaks or pauses you made, and what stroke you were swimming. With attention to detail like this, the Moov Now comes close to being one of the most capable products on the list; however there are some significant drawbacks. Firstly, you have to start your session from your phone. In most cases this means doing it in changing rooms where you can leave your smartphone safe and dry back in your locker. A bit annoying and made worse by the lack of screen on the Now itself, which means you can’t see what’s going on while you’re swimming. We were often left wondering if it was actually tracking at all. It also struggled a little with accuracy, dropping laps and miscounting strokes per length. But then look at the price tag, for £50 / $60 / AU$79 and with a battery life that lets you log more than 200 workouts, you get a lot of bang for your buck and if you’re an occasional swimmer as part of a wider fitness regime then this is hard to beat. Read the full Moov Now review The Fitbit Versa 2 is full of fitness features and allows you to track them in a really intuitive and straightforward way. Thanks to 5ATM waterproofing, the Versa 2 can track your swimming and displays the lengths and meters swam alongside the time taken. It accurately tracks your laps in a pool, recognizing in real-time when you’ve reached the other side and kicked off to start your next lap. What really took us by surprise was that the Versa 2 was able to offer clear and concise on-screen information with its brightly-lit display under the water. Although the data it collected from our swims wasn't really detailed, it presented more than enough data for casual swimmers and you can dig deeper by opening up the Fitbit app. Just bear in mind there’s no GPS, so you can’t track your route if open-water swimming. Read the full Fitbit Versa 2 review. While some of the other devices on this list cater for general fitness, the Garmin Forerunner 935 is as serious as multi-sport devices come. A bit like combining the features of a Fenix 5 with the looks of a Forerunner 635, this triathlon watch combines dedicated pool smarts with overall training and performance features that make it the top choice for competitive amateur swim-bike-run athletes. The watch comes with built-in activity profiles for pool and open water swimming, and you can also create your own workouts, or download sessions via Garmin Connect - plus check out your SWOLF score - AKA your swim efficiency. You get your SWOLF score by adding together your strokes per length, and the time it took to complete the length. e.g. 25m length at 30 seconds in 20 strokes is a SWOLF score of 50. The lower your SWOLF the more efficient you are. Why is this important? Well for a start it lets you compare your performance for swims in different size pools more easily. In the water, the Forerunner 935 automatically detects stroke type as well as lengths, distance, pace and stroke count. There are also time and distance alerts, a handy countdown start, advanced rest timers and open-water swim metrics. One thing we really loved, mainly because the other trackers failed to offer it, was the option to input drills manually. This means you can also log all the hard work you do that’s not based on stroke alone, for example kick and single-arm drills. However, we did find it missed tracking the odd length here and there. Once your sessions are done, the new Training Status feature helps you spot if you’re undertraining or overdoing it by evaluating your recent exercise history and performance indicators, making this fantastic for monitoring training, performance and recovery. There’s no heart rate from the wrist in the water but you can pair the Forerunner 935 with a HRM-Tri or HRM-Swim heart rate monitor for added insights. You can also sync data wirelessly via your smartphone to Garmin Connect and then into the Speedo On web platform for added Strava-like competition, community, training tips and advice. Read the hands on Garmin Forerunner 935 review If you only use swimming as part of a general fitness regime, knocking out a few lengths each visit, then the Fitbit Ionic's simple, easy-to-use interface and length, distance and pace tracking should prove more than sufficient for your tracking needs. The fact that the app shows your swim in terms of your overall daily fitness goals is also a nice touch. If, however, you’re a competitive swimmer or take your pool time seriously then you’ll find Fitbit’s first smartwatch somewhat on the basic side. The same can be said of the newer Fitbit Versa as well. Like many of the all-round fitness trackers there’s no way to input drills – so a length of kick won’t register, for example – and because there’s no automatic stroke detection, changing stroke in the middle of a length can lead to data registering incorrectly. The watch is easy to wear in the water and the sheer number of spacing holes on the strap mean it stays put even on smaller wrists. The swim tracking function is self-explanatory; pick 'exercise' from the apps, swipe to swim (yes, swiping worked surprisingly well in the water) and go. There’s a settings button where you can easily input the length of the pool for tracking, and the fact that the screen stays off unless you’ve set a cue – showing you distance, laps and time every 100m for example – is beneficial, as a flashing screen entering your eye line when you’re doing your best Phelps impression can prove distracting. You can also set the tracker to automatically recognize different exercises, including swimming, so if you do forget to press go you’re sorted. The tracking itself, however, is where the Ionic swam into trouble. Despite inputting the pool length as 25m, we got readings of 8 lengths as 100m and 22 lengths as 450m instead of 550m. Fitbit say that some inaccuracies may come from shorter swims, stopping to rest in the middle of the pool and stopping for more than 60 seconds at the end of a length (which we probably did when trying to work out why the 100m cue we’d set didn’t go off after four lengths). For these reasons, they recommend you should be able to swim between 6-12 lengths without stopping to track your swims – so it’s probably not suitable for those just starting out. Read the full Fitbit Ionic review This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Microsoft Surface Earbuds aren't coming until Spring 2020 Posted: 21 Nov 2019 12:07 PM PST Microsoft announced a suite of Surface products earlier in October, and that included a new audio option in the form of the Surface Earbuds. The earbuds had originally been planned for a 2019 release, but Microsft Chief Product Office Panos Panay has just confirmed their launch is being pushed back globally to Spring 2020 (March through May for the southern hemisphere). Panos announced the delay in a Tweet. A number of Twitter responses to the Tweet from Panay are positive about the company's choice to delay the product rather than launching it in a sub-par state. That being said, it's especially important for Microsoft to make sure it gets the Surface Earbuds right, as they will come at a launch price of $249 (about £199, AU$360), which is more expensive than almost all of the best wireless earbuds, and just as expensive as the Apple AirPods Pro. Made for many purposesPart of what could be holding up the Surface Earbuds is just how much they can be used for: The dual-microphones on each bud can cancel out background noise while taking calls or talking to a digital assistant. And, the earbuds can handle dictation. They also have a number of touch gestures on the round surface of each bud. All that, and the Surface Earbuds will be supporting devices running Windows 10, iOS 9 and later, and Android 4.4 and later. That is a wide array of devices to support a wide array of features on, and may be part of Microsoft's difficulty in getting everything working just right. Despite the delay, the Surface Earbuds have a lot going for them. They will have an 8-hour battery life bolstered by an extra two full charges in the carrying case, plus fast charging for an hour of playtime in 10 minutes and three hours of playtime in 15 minutes. In the time since the Surface Earbuds were announced, Apple released the AirPods Pro. That increases the competition the Surface Earbuds will face when they launch, and with this delayed release date potentially pushing back the release as late as June, Microsoft may have even more competition. Via: The Verge This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| CES 2020: Here's what you can expect to see at the world’s biggest tech event Posted: 21 Nov 2019 12:02 PM PST Update: We now have all the dates and times of this year's CES 2020 keynotes. You can find them in each individual company's section below. It no longer goes by its Consumer Electronics Show monicker, but CES is still the place to see the latest and greatest tech companies have to offer, whether that’s a 5G phone, a transparent Ultra-HD TV, a personal drone that can fly you around or something completely unexpected like a robot dog. That said, while this year’s show - CES 2020 - won’t be too different from shows past, it will have a greater focus on travel and tourism, data analytics and improving customer experiences, plus the usual slew of TVs, speakers, headphones, laptops and phones - many of which will be optimized for the 5G/8K revolution. After facing blowback last year for its exclusion and revocation of an award from a sex toy company, CES 2020 will broaden the scope of its Health and Wellness sector to include sex toys 'on a one-year trial basis' and will be partnering with the Female Quotient to ensure that more diverse voices are heard at the show. Beyond the cavalcade of products, we're expecting to see a lot of conversations happening about digital health and the commoditization of personal data, two big problem areas for the industry. Whatever kind of tech you're into, however, CES will offer something new and interesting for everyone, whether you’re deep into enterprise, stuck into future trends or just keen to see what comes next. Here's what you can expect. When is CES 2020?If you’re going by the official dates, CES 2020 runs from Tuesday, January 7 through Friday, January 10, 2020. That said, however, journalists will pour into the city a few days before that to cover the news conferences that kick off on Sunday, January 5 at 12 pm PST and continue through Monday and Tuesday. It’s during that time we’ll hear from Sony, Samsung, LG and several other electronics makers as they introduce us to new products at their on-stage keynotes. Traditionally, the biggest of these keynotes happen on Monday as that’s when LG, Samsung and Sony all hold their events, but some CES-related announcements will arrive starting on Sunday night as news begins to trickle out of the conference. How do you get tickets for CES 2020?Registration for CES 2020 is available now on the CES 2020 website, and are free for qualifying members of the media. For non-media folk, Early Bird tickets are available for just $100 if you just want access to the show floor from January 7 - 10 and the keynotes, though that price will shoot up to $300 starting on December 18, 2019. If you want a bit more than the basic pass, you can buy the CES 2020 Starter Conference Pass that includes a curated list of events around the show’s biggest trends for $700 or the Deluxe Conference Pass that includes 14+ partner sessions for $1,400. CES 2020 Keynotes and Press ConferencesToward the end of November, the CTA released the full schedule of announced CES keynotes and conferences, listed below for your convenience: Sunday, January 5 2020
Monday, January 6 2020
How big is CES and where does it take place?CES is massive and takes over the vast majority of the Las Vegas Strip and the surrounding streets. In fact, in terms of square footage, there’s 2.75 million net square feet of exhibit space between the Las Vegas Convention Center, The Sands, Mandalay Bay and The Venetian, nearly all of which plays host to the convention and its exhibitors. Fun fact: There are around 160,000 hotel rooms in Vegas and around 180,000 attendees each year. As you’d expect given those numbers, hotels fill up fast and the roads leading to the convention center get pretty crowded that week. Thankfully, the CTA (the company that puts on the show) offers free shuttles to almost all of the major hotels on the strip from the Convention Center, and has buses running to and from the Sands between 9 and 6 pm. All that said, be prepared to walk. The convention center itself is massive and so is The Sands. Walking either can easily take between one and two hours, and you’ll easily rack up three to four miles on your pedometer along the way. Which companies are attending CES 2020?Pretty much every major tech company will be there, minus Apple. (You can find a complete list on the CES 2020 website.) Confirmed exhibitors include Amazon, Canon, Facebook, Intel, LG, Lenovo, Microsoft, MSI, Nikon, Samsung, Sony and many, many more. Now, admittedly, not everyone is there to show off new products. A fair majority of companies are there for business, while others are there to collect feedback and have a presence, rather than debut something new. That said, there will still be hundreds of new products making their debut this year in nearly every category. CES 2020 trends and company-specific predictionsIn a meeting with TechRadar, the CTA outlined a number of trends that would take center stage at this year’s show. The list included transportation and tourism (Delta Airlines have a keynote this year for the first time in the show’s history), data analytics and privacy, digital health, the global race for 5G, the consumerization of AI and, of course, 8K displays. These are rather dense, multifaceted topics and will surely be the topic of many presentations during the show. If you want hard product news, that will come from many of the same suspects as last year, all of whom are listed below. AMD at CES 2020Keynote time: Monday, January 6, at 2:00 pm PST We're fully expecting AMD to come out with a line of high-end GPUs next year - maybe even as early as CES 2020. In past years, AMD has taken to the stage on Monday to deliver a keynote, and could potentially do the same this year. Last year AMD showed off its first ever 7-nanometer GPU, the Radeon VII, at CES 2019, so expect big things this year. LG at CES 2020Keynote time: Monday, January 6, at 8:00 am PST Like Samsung, LG’s plans are easy to predict - it’s probably going to show off a new series of OLED TVs, plus give an updated release date for last year’s rollable OLED. Speaking of far-flung TVs we can't afford, CES 2020 will probably be the place LG officially debuts its transparent OLED prototype that it was showing behind closed doors at last year's show... though it will likely only be for businesses at first. LG also uses CES to debut its new line of appliances including smart washers and dryers and nifty household gadgets like air purifiers and robot vacuums. Last year we saw a home brewing system and a smart cupboard that steams your clothes. Featuring a mirrored door with integrated display, automatically moving hangers, and a smart steaming system, it was a wildly different product than we were expecting to see at a tech trade show. CES is also the time LG debuts its mid-range mobile phones. Last year we saw the LG V40 ThinQ, while back in 2017 LG brought the Stylus 3. Don't expect any flagship phones at this year's event,but it's Android phone fans should expect something. Intel at CES 2020Keynote time: Monday, January 6, at 4:00 pm PST Last year was a big show for the chip maker. The company came out guns blazing at its CES 2019 keynote, announcing the first 10nm Ice Lake processors based on its Sunny Cove architecture – and even showing the chip powering a running laptop. The new chips aim to bolster modern PC performance, while Intel's new Project Athena initiative hopes to push mobile computing to the next era with thinner and lighter hardware across industry partners like Huawei, Asus, and Lenovo. Intel also announced six more 9th-gen processors, ranging from Core i3 to Core i9, making it one of the biggest launches yet for the company. This year could be the year that company debuts its long-rumored discrete GPU which we saw a mockup of at GDC 2019 earlier this year, or Intel could use the congregation of journalists to announce new 10nm desktop CPUs now that 10nm mobile chips are out on the market. Nvidia at CES 2020Now that it's been unveiled to the public, the new Nvidia Shield is all but guaranteed to make an appearance at CES this year. Last year Nvidia revealed its GeForce RTX Mobility graphics cards at CES 2019, alongside the RTX 2080 and other cards for gaming laptops. Will CES 2020 bring more of the same? We’ll just have to wait to find out. Samsung at CES 2020CES is always a big show for Samsung. It’s the place the company picks to roll out its latest QLED TVs, concept screens and monstrous custom-installs. Last year, the company debuted a new 219-inch TV called The Wall and gave us an updated look at its Tizen operating system that included Apple TV. This year, our money is on new QLED TVs with zero bezel - a rumor that has recently been corroborated by a patent filed with the European Union Intellectual Property Office. On the computing side of things, Samsung debuted the Notebook Flash and Notebook 9 Pro, and could offer updates on those this year. Samsung has also been doing a lot more with its monitors and solid-state drive categories, so be sure to keep an eye out for those at the show, too. Sony at CES 2020Keynote time: Monday, January 6, at 5:00 pm PST Sony didn’t have a ton of new products to show off last year, but did bring its new Master Series Z9G TV to the show and debuted its new 360 Reality Audio format. We’ll likely see more of the latter this year as well as a few new TVs in the 950, 850, Z- and A-Series lineups plus some new 2.1 soundbars with Dolby Atmos. Outside of the AV space, Sony will probably tease some PS5 news ahead of its official debut and talk up its gaming peripherals like the PlayStation VR. A full debut of the new console seems unlikely, especially considering the rough history Sony consoles have with CES, but we wouldn’t be surprised if it at least gets a mention during Sony’s Monday evening keynote.
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| How to watch RuPaul's Drag Race UK Finale 2019 online: stream from home or abroad Posted: 21 Nov 2019 11:01 AM PST Gentlemen start your engines and may the best woman win! The library will soon be open and mother will arrive for one final time as sadly this glamorous and emotional hit TV series is coming to an end. The time has come for the eleganza extravaganza of the finale which raises the ultimate question..who will be crowned the first EVER RuPaul's Drag Race UK winner? Can't wait to find out? Keep reading to find out how you can watch RuPaul's Drag Race UK Finale online. We've been served fish, glam-rock, body, bond girl glamorama, queen of your hometown and so much more! And now we're all ready for some emotional and dramatic finale realness. So you better sissy that walk and shantay you stay to watch what is meant to be an iconic final episode of season one of RuPaul's Drag Race UK. To make it even better the choreographers in the finale will be AJ and Curtis Pritchard! The final three queens - Divina De Campo, Baga Chipz, The Vivienne - will also be joined by the fellow eliminated queens who will be coming back to witness the ultimate episode. Although this is the last episode don't be too upset - RuPaul has confirmed that the hit TV series will return next year for a whole new season. Who will be crowned the first ever RuPaul's Drag Race UK winner and who will sashay away? Want to find out? Keep reading to find out how you can watch RuPaul's Drag Race UK online.
How to watch RuPaul's Drag Race UK Finale online for free in the UK:For those trying to watch RuPaul's Drag Race UK, BBC Three is the place to be. The finale will air on Thursday, November 21 at 8pm UK time. BBC Three no longer features on your freeview channels or Sky tuners, so you'll have to go online or login through iPlayer (where they'll stay well after the event) to watch. Live stream RuPaul's Drag Race UK Finale from outside your country:As well as the UK above, we'll tell you about your viewing options in the US, Canada and Australia further down this page. Planned a holiday at the wrong time? Had to go on a business trip? Don't panic, you can still watch RuPaul's Drag Race UK online. This is by using a VPN to bypass the whole geo-location situation. Which VPN is the ideal one for you? Our top pick is ExpressVPN. And how do you use that to watch RuPaul's Drag Race UK? We're glad you asked... How to watch RuPaul's Drag Race UK Finale online in the US:RuPaul's Drag Race UK is available in the US on Logo and WOW Presents Plus. You can get fairly cheap subscription to WOW Presents Plus, with subscriptions starting at $3.99 a month with a 30-day FREE trial. To watch it on Logo you simply need a TV subscription that includes the channel, plus luckily for you logo has an app so you can download it to watch on your tablet or smartphone. RuPaul's Drag Race UK Finale will air in the US on Friday, November 22 at 8pm PT. Where to watch RuPaul's Drag Race UK from anywhere elseNeither in the UK nor the US? Don't worry hennies we have tracked down other countries where you'll be able to watch RuPaul's Drag Race UK Finale online. In Canada, subscription services Crave and OUTtv have picked up the rights. While it's WOW Presents Plus and Stan in Australia. Crave and OUTtv will air the episodes the same day as they air in the UK- which means the premiere of this fabulous series is already available and waiting for you to watch it. The same goes for Stan and WOW Presents Plus - they have already added the premiere of RuPaul's Drag Race UK. You will need a subscription to the service that you wish to watch it on (Crave, OUTtv, WOW Presents Plus or Stan). If you're elsewhere, maybe holidaying abroad or living in a country not on this list? Don't worry, you can always get a VPN and stream the show from one of the countries above. Who are the RuPaul's Drag Race UK Contestants?Without further ado we introduce to you the final Queens:
Who has been eliminated?
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| Xerox says it may launch a hostile bid for HP Posted: 21 Nov 2019 10:15 AM PST After HP's board unanimously rejected its first bid, Xerox is now threatening a hostile takeover of its much larger rival in the printing business. The firm sent a letter to HP's board of directors in which it urged the company to reconsider its buyout offer or it would be forced to take its case directly to its shareholders. Vice chairman and CEO of Xerox, John Visentin penned the letter in which he argued that there was no reason to delay the combination of the two companies, saying:
“The Xerox Board of Directors is determined to expeditiously pursue our proposed acquisition of HP to completion—we see no cause for further delay. Accordingly, unless you and we agree on mutual confirmatory due diligence to support a friendly combination by 5:00 p.m. EST on Monday, November 25, 2019, Xerox will take its compelling case to create superior value for our respective shareholders directly to your shareholders. The overwhelming support our offer will receive from HP shareholders should resolve any further doubts you have regarding the wisdom of swiftly moving forward to complete the transaction.” Xerox and HPIn its initial offer, Xerox agreed to pay $22 per share for HP and this would consist of 77 percent in cash and 23 percent in stock. However, HP's board unanimously rejected the bid and argued that Xerox's offer significantly undervalued HP and was not in the best interest of its shareholders. HP is also a much larger company with a market value of $27bn which makes it about three times the size of Xerox. HP's board called Xerox's declining revenue into question when it rejected the firm's initial bid, saying: "We note the decline of Xerox's revenue from $10.2 billion to $9.2 billion (on a trailing 12-month basis) since June 2018, which raises significant questions for us regarding the trajectory of your business and future prospects. We have great confidence in our strategy and our ability to execute to continue driving sustainable long-term value at HP." John Visentin did include a deadline of November 25 for both companies to reach an agreement before appealing to HP's shareholders in his letter, so we'll have a pretty good indication of Xerox's next move soon.
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| Cheap Samsung 4K TV deal: grab up to £300 off these top early Black Friday deals Posted: 21 Nov 2019 10:08 AM PST This is one deal that just keeps on going - Currys has got a top deal on a great budget telly, and it's still live days after launch. If you're in the mood for a sweet 4K TV deal on Black Friday - then this is one of the best Black Friday TV deals at Currys. The deal is for the Samsung RU7020 4K LCD TV – dropping an outstanding £300 for the largest model, and bringing top savings for the smaller options. We recently reviewed the 43-inch model, awarding it a coveted four out of five stars for its impressive colour and motion-handling, efficient scaling, and outstanding operating system, which gives you access to Apple TV, Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, YouTube, and all the other streaming platforms you could want. Available in 43-, 50-, 65-, 70-, 75-inch sizes, the RU7020 range comes with HDR10+ compatibility and the same Tizen-based smart TV interface as Samsung’s flagship sets, despite the displays' wallet-friendly price. These 4K TVs even work with Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant, allowing you to control your television with your voice alone using a compatible smart speaker. While the remote control could be better, and the sound quality won't blow you away, these great Currys Black Friday deals mean that you'll have money left over to treat yourself to a new soundbar. Today's best Samsung TV dealsTechRadar is scouring every retailer and rounding up all the top deals over the Black Friday period, and we’ve put all the best Black Friday deals and Cyber Monday deals in easy-to-navigate articles to help you find the bargains you’re looking for. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| This is the ugliest RAM ever but you can't argue with this awesome Black Friday deal Posted: 21 Nov 2019 10:02 AM PST When you're building or upgrading a PC, RAM can quickly become a huge expense, especially if you want to get a healthy amount of it. However, this Black Friday RAM deal makes upgrading your PC super affordable – even if the RAM itself is super ugly. Now, you may have taken a look at this XPG Gammix D30 RAM and felt the temptation to turn the other way and run, but trust us, this is actually an amazing deal. XPG is a trustworthy manufacturer, and getting 16GB of reasonably fast RAM for just $50 with this Newegg Black Friday deal is kind of a no brainer, especially if your case doesn't have a clear side panel. With $50, you'll be getting a 2 x 8GB kit of RAM, clocked at 3,000MHz. It's not the fastest RAM on the market – we're starting to see memory hit up to 5,000MHz in commercially available kits. But, for most people 3,000MHz is more than fast enough to get things done. However, you will have to keep in mind that in order to get that advertised speed, you'll have to go into your computer's BIOS (basic input-output system) and manually set the clock to 3,000MHz. Still, even at the base 2,133MHz, a 16GB kit of RAM for just $50 is kind of a steal. If you've been waiting to upgrade from 8GB, this Newegg Black Friday deal might be the perfect time to make that upgrade – that is, if you can stand to look at this ugly kit.
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| Half-Life: Alyx is anything but Half-Life 3 Posted: 21 Nov 2019 10:00 AM PST Valve announced earlier this week that a new Half-Life game is in development, but Half-Life: Alyx isn't exactly the sequel we were hoping for. Releasing in March 2020, Half-Life: Alyx is a full-length VR entry in the Half-Life franchise which will be compatible with all PC-based VR headsets. However, we can't help but be disappointed that this new entry isn't the long-rumored Half-Life 3 that we've all been waiting for.
What's the story?According to Valve, Half-Life: Alyx is set between the events of Half-Life and Half-Life 2, and sees "Alyx Vance and her father Eli secretly mount the resistance to the brutal occupation of Earth by a mysterious alien race known as The Combine." Unsurprisingly, given the name, you play as Alyx in a bid to "take the fight to the Combine to save the future of humanity". Half-Life: Alyx looks pretty good on paper, but it's certainly not the full-fledged sequel we've been waiting for. However, according to Valve, Half-Life: Alyx has been "designed from the ground up for virtual reality and features "all of the hallmarks of a classic Half-Life game: world exploration, puzzle solving, visceral combat, and an intricately woven story that connects it all with the characters iconic to the Half-Life universe". It sounds pretty legit, but we've seen VR entries in franchises before and this certainly isn't the long-awaited Half-Life 3. However, it's nice to see Valve following through on a Half-Life project as the company has run hot and cold on whether we would ever see another entry in the series. But we forever live in hope for a Half-Life 3. Check out the trailer below: “Everyone at Valve is excited to be returning to the world of Half-Life,” Valve founder Gabe Newell wrote in a press release. “VR has energized us. We’ve invested a lot of ourselves in the technology. But we're also game developers at heart, and to be devoting ourselves to a VR game this ambitious is just as exciting." Hopefully this breath of life into the franchise makes Half-Life 3 a bit more possible. We can only hope. Half-Life: Alyx is available for pre-order now for $59.99, while Valve Index VR headset owners can get it for free.
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| The best cheap TV sales and 4K TV deals in the UK in November 2019 Posted: 21 Nov 2019 09:54 AM PST It's the best time of year for the best cheap TV sales and we've been busy scurrying across the web to bring you the strongest savings of them all. Prices on amazing Ultra HD 4K TVs have been steadily falling in the run-up to Black Friday, but we're seeing some stunning cheap 4K TV deals in this week's round-up. We've got you covered if you're looking for TV deals in the US too. We've found something for everyone here. We've got you covered for multiple size categories and we've looked at both ends of the pricing scale so you can get a cheap TV on a low budget, or a higher quality set for a lower price than you expected, even if those super new 8K models aren't coming down any time soon. Not to worry though, as some of these HDR 4K TV deals will make your jaw drop. Netflix, Amazon, Sky TV and the like are all increasing their 4K content too so you won't be short on Ultra HD content to watch. Standard HD content will be upscaled on these TVs too, so you can feel the benefits of 4K straight away. We keep our eye on the latest TV deals throughout the year, so we're poised to find you the best price whenever the need to replace your old TV arises. We're fully behind the 4K TV movement too as a competitive market has seen prices reach affordable levels much quicker than when HD tellies first came around. One look at the prices below and you'll see what we mean. So much so, we've stopped covering the older standard HD TVs now seeing as Ultra HD TV deals are so cheap today. The best Black Friday TV deals and pricesWhile you can still find fantastic discounts below, it's never too early to start thinking about the upcoming November sale event. Black Friday and Cyber Monday are always great times to pick up a new 4K TV and, with the market expanding so much in recent years, deals will be abundant. We've collected the best Black Friday TV deals so you can browse the top discounts in one place. As for all the other amazing offers, we'll be highlighting them too on our Black Friday deals guide. Finding you the best cheap TV dealWe've split our carefully curated 4K TV deals into different size categories immediately after our pick for cheap TV deal of the week. Whatever your budget, we're sure we can find something for you. Note: all of our selected TV sales highlights are for 4K/Ultra HD TVs and include a built-in freeview tuner as standard. Pretty much every deal comes with Smart TV functionality built-in along with HDR technology. If they don't, we'll clearly mention it. The best cheap TV deals you can buy todayExtra retailer cheap 4K TV sales links:Not found the right cheap TV for you today? Or maybe you'd prefer to directly browse the offers at your favourite retailers instead of our highlights of the best cheap TV deals? We're updating this page on a regular basis, so you may have better luck another day. If you want to take a look for yourself now though, here are the direct links to a the full collection of TV sales at multiple stores. More large screen 4K TV salesIf you're after more seriously large TV deals, we should warn you, they don't come cheap. However, if you want to see some more large screen TV deals -we're talking about 65 to 85-inch TVs- we'd recommend heading over to John Lewis, Currys and Amazon as they seem to stock more models than most UK retailers. If you'd like a headstart on some of the very finest TVs money can buy, be sure to take a look at our guides for the best 55-inch TV or if you're going large we've got the best 65-inch TV models covered too. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Adobe will fix Photoshop for iPad by mid-2020, thanks to these incoming features Posted: 21 Nov 2019 09:45 AM PST Adobe has applied a spot healing brush to the reputation of its new Photoshop for iPad app by releasing a list of incoming features, which many users were hoping to see when it launched a few weeks ago. As we noted recently in our Photoshop for iPad review, the app is currently a very basic imitation of the desktop version due to a paucity of tools and a lack of support for Adobe Camera Raw. But the company has now released a roadmap of features, including Lightroom integration, to confirm that the app will soon start building on its promise.
By the end of 2019, the app will receive a new AI-powered subject selection tool to help you automatically choose a subject to start working on. This will be a much-needed addition to the Quick Selection tool already present in Photoshop for iPad, which is only enough for very rough-and-ready cutouts. Also coming at some point in 2019 are improvements to cloud documents, which will apparently ensure swifter upload and download speeds for documents saved between the app and the desktop version of Photoshop. But it's the features coming by mid-2020 that will see the app really start to realize its potential. Adobe's 2020 visionOne of our biggest criticisms of the current version of Photoshop for iPad is the lack of tools to make pro-level cutouts of tricky subjects like hair or fur. Well, Adobe will be addressing that in the "first half of 2020", with the addition of the Refine Edge brush, which is helpful for selecting objects that are a mix of soft and hard edges. In the same timeframe, Adobe will also be adding more granular retouching control, thanks to the addition of Curves for tonal adjustments and improved brush sensitivity. But perhaps the biggest news is that Lightroom integration will also be arriving by mid-2020. This will mean you'll be able to process raw images in Lightroom premium on your iPad, before importing them in Photoshop for further tweaks. The Photoshop for iPad roadmap certainly doesn't cover our entire wishlist of features for the app, but it's a start that suggests it could soon turn from a place to sort out ideas into somewhere that pros and hobbyists will actually include as part of their workflow.
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| Wilder vs Ortiz 2 live stream: how to watch boxing online from anywhere this Saturday Posted: 21 Nov 2019 09:35 AM PST Deontay Wilder returns to Vegas to defend his WBC heavyweight crown in a potentially dangerous rematch with Luis Ortiz. Will the champ remain undefeated after tonight, or will King Kong climb new heights and exact revenge? You can find out by grabbing a Wilder vs Ortiz live stream wherever you are using this handy guide. The challenger dominated the early rounds when the two fighters first met back in March last year, only for Wilder's class to eventually show in the 10th round when he delivered a TKO. For Wilder, all roads currently look to lead to Tyson Fury and a win against Ortiz should ensure a rematch with the Gypsy King. The champ also has his hugely impressive 42-fight unbeaten record to protect. Forty-year-old Cuban star Ortiz may have age, height and reach against him as he goes in to face Wilder once more, but he knows he can hurt the champ following their last back-and-forth encounter. Ortiz also has some momentum going into the fight, having chalked up three impressive wins together on the spin. Tonight's fight has all the ingredients for being one of the year's best dust ups. Read on to find out how to get a Wilder vs Ortiz live stream from absolutely anywhere in the world.
How to watch the Wilder vs Ortiz fight from outside your countryYou can scroll down this page for information on who'd broadcasting the fight in different territories. But if you want to watch the boxing outside of your country you may find that the content is geo-restricted. That could mean that, despite having access when on home turf (and having potentially paid for pricey subscriptions), you are blocked while away. Fret not, that can be rectified with the use of a clever piece of software called a VPN and won't involve lurking around dodgier parts of the internet for a ropey old stream. How to watch Wilder vs Ortiz: US streamingHow to stream Wilder vs Ortiz live in the UKHow to live stream Wilder vs Ortiz in AustraliaThis posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Best email providers of 2019: Free, Paid and business services Posted: 21 Nov 2019 09:16 AM PST Getting hold of an email account is easy. Sign up with an ISP and you’ve got one account for starters. Creating an account with Google and other big names will get you more. Buy a decent web hosting package and you'll probably get enough email addresses to power a large business, all for no extra charge. Getting the right email account is more difficult, as there's a lot to consider. What are the spam filters like? How easy is it to keep your inbox organized? Can you access the account from other email clients? And what about using the service with a custom domain and address of your own (yourname@yourdomain.com)? Keep reading and we'll highlight some of the best email providers around. All have decent free services, perhaps with ads and some limits, but we'll also talk about their business-friendly commercial products which deliver the power, functionality and enterprise-level extras that demanding users need.
The best email services of 2019 are:Image credit: Proton Technologies Signing up with an email provider will often involve some privacy compromises. Yahoo Mail asks for your name and mobile number, for instance. Gmail and other services might scan your messages to carry out useful actions (such as adding events to calendars), and just about everyone serves you with ads. ProtonMail is a Swiss-based email service which focuses on privacy above all else. You can sign up anonymously, there's no logging of IP addresses, and all your emails are end-to-end encrypted, which means there's no way ProtonMail (or anyone else) can read their contents. Also, address verification (which allows you to be sure you are securely communicating with the right person) and full support for PGP email encryption is available. In late April 2019, elliptic curve cryptography was introduced, which adds additional security and faster speeds. There are some significant limits. The free product has a tiny 500MB storage space, only supports sending 150 messages a day, and is distinctly short in terms of organizational tools (no folders, labels or smart filters). As the end-to-end encryption is specific to ProtonMail, it also ensures that you can't use the service with other email clients. Still, it seems a little unfair to complain about a service which is no-strings-attached free, and doesn't even show ads. In reality, ProtonMail is a specialist tool which is intended for use alongside services like Gmail – not to replace them – and overall it performs its core tasks very well. If you do need more, ProtonMail's $5 (you can choose to pay in USD, Euro and CHF) a month (or $48 yearly) Plus account gives you 5GB storage, a 1,000 message-per-day allowance, custom domains (you@yourdomain.com) and support for folders, labels, filters as well as some addition features like contact groups. A further Professional plan brings more storage, email addresses and a second custom domain, as well as adding a catch-all email address and multi-user support. It's priced from $8 per month per user (75$ yearly), which is reasonable if you need ProtonMail's security, although it's also notably more expensive than the business accounts of the big-name competition. Image credit: Google First released back in 2004, Google's Gmail has become the market leader in free email services with more than a billion users across the globe. Gmail's stripped-back web interface is a highlight. Most of the screen is devoted to your inbox, with a minimum of toolbar and other clutter. Messages are neatly organized via conversations for easier viewing, and you can read and reply to emails with ease, even as a first-time user. There's plenty of power here. Dynamic mail makes Gmail more interactive, with the ability to take action directly from within the email, like filling out a questionnaire or responding to a Google Docs comment. Messages can be automatically filtered into tabbed categories like Primary, Social and Promotions, helping you to focus on the content you need. Leading-edge spam blocking keeps your inbox free of junk, you can manage other accounts from the same interface (Outlook, Yahoo, any other IMAP or POP email), and there's 15GB storage for your inbox, Drive and photos. You can also access Gmail offline, although you'll need Google Chrome for that to work. Furthermore, there is a neat snooze feature that allows you to, well, snooze an email for a specified amount of time (it also automatically labels that email as important). Other features are more questionable. Instead of organizing messages into folders, for instance – a simple metaphor which just about every user understands – you must filter them using a custom labelling system. This works, and has some advantages, but isn't popular with all users. Still, Gmail is an excellent service overall, and a good first choice for your email provider. Google makes a paid business-oriented version of Gmail available in the shape of its G Suite product. This more professional product drops the ads and allows using a custom email address on your domain (yourname@yourcompany.tld). Business-oriented migration tools can import mail from Outlook, Exchange, Lotus and more. Storage space doubles to 30GB on the Basic plan, and you get unlimited group email addresses, 99.9% guaranteed uptime and 24/7 support. G Suite is Google's answer to Microsoft Office, so of course you also get apps for working with documents, spreadsheets and presentations. Shared calendars keep you better organized, there's video and voice conferencing for online meetings, and again, there’s 24/7 support to keep your system running smoothly. This more Office-like power makes for a more expensive product than the email-only competition, with prices starting at $6 a user for the simplest plan. You're getting a lot for your money, though, and if you'll use G Suite's features then it could be a smart choice. A 14-day free trial provides an easy way to help you find out.
Image credit: Microsoft Outlook's web interface follows the same familiar style as its desktop incarnation, and most other email clients: folders and organizational tools on the left, the contents of the current folder in the center, and a simple preview pane on the right (with adverts in the case of the free account). A toolbar gives you speedy access to common features, and right-clicking folders or messages shows you just about everything else. If you've ever used another email client, you'll figure out the key details in moments. Despite the apparent simplicity, there's a lot going on under the hood. The service automatically detects important emails and places them in a Focused Inbox, keeping any distractions out of sight. Events including flights and dinner reservations can automatically be added to your calendar. It's easy to share that calendar with other Outlook.com or Office 365 users, or you can save your events to a Family calendar that everyone can access. In addition, there are some interesting features too, like the ability to add polls directly to your Outlook emails. Excellent attachment support includes the ability to directly share OneDrive files as copies or links. You can also attach files directly from your Google Drive, Dropbox and Box accounts, and a chunky 15GB mailbox allows storing plenty of files from other people. This all worked just fine for us, but if you're unhappy with the service defaults, there's a chance they can be tweaked via Outlook.com's Settings dialog. This doesn't have quite as many options as Gmail, but they're well organized and give you plenty of control over layout, attachment rules, message handling and more. If that’s still not enough, Microsoft offers a bunch of app-based integrations to take the service further. You get built-in Skype support via the beta, and apps give you easier access to Evernote, PayPal, GIPHY, Yelp, Uber and more. Upgrading to Office 365 gets you an ad-free inbox, 50GB mail storage and a vast 1TB of OneDrive storage. Extras include offline working, professional message formatting tools, phone or chat-based support, file recovery from malicious attacks like ransomware and more. Oh, and the latest versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint. All this can be yours for the equivalent of $7 a month on the single user Office 365 Personal plan or you can pay 70$ for a year. Image credit: Yahoo Yahoo Mail doesn't make the headlines so much, these days, but its latest version is a polished and professional service which stands up well against the top competition. The well-designed interface resembles Gmail, at least initially, with a large view of your inbox, one-click filters for common messages and content (Photos, Documents, Travel), and easy browsing of all the emails in a conversation. But you can also organize mails into custom folders, and the layout can be tweaked to display a message preview in a couple of clicks. Mobile users have some additional features like the option to unsubscribe to newsletters and such, without ever leaving the Yahoo Mail inbox. A powerful underlying engine can integrate with Facebook, supports sending SMS and text messages, is accessible via web, POP and (in some situations) IMAP, and can forward email to another address. Valuable extras include disposable email addresses to protect your privacy, and a mammoth 1TB of mailbox storage means you can keep just about everything you receive, for a very long time. Demanding users might find issues, over time. Mail organization can't quite match the flexibility of Gmail's labelling scheme, for instance, and there aren't nearly as many low-level tweaks, settings and options as you'll often see elsewhere. But overall, Yahoo Mail is an appealing service which needs to be on your email shortlist. As with other providers, Yahoo offers a Business Mail plan with more features. The highlight is an option to use the service with a custom domain (yourname@yourdomain.com), although there are other advantages, too. The service can import contacts from Facebook, Gmail, Outlook and more. You can view all your mailboxes on the same screen, and there are all the usual business-friendly productivity tools (multiple calendars, document handling, analytics and more). Prices start from $3.19 per mailbox per month, billed annually, and they drop as you add mailboxes – $1.59 for 5, $1.19 for 10, and for 20+ you'll need to contact them. Additionally, another pricing plan called Yahoo Mail Pro is available at $3.49 per month. This gives you ad-free inbox, priority customer support and additional features. There's even a free domain name included, and not just the initial registration: Yahoo will also renew it for as long as your subscription is active. Image credit: Zoho Zoho Workplace is a business-oriented email service which throws in an online office suite, document management, and a host of collaboration tools and other extras. Zoho's free plan supports up to 25 users, although there's an extra 25 available if you can refer others to the service (update: Zoho is currently remodeling the referral program so this isn't available at the moment), each with 5GB of mailbox storage, and can be used with one domain of your own. These are features you'll normally only find in commercial products, and when you factor in the spreadsheet, word processor, presentation and other tools, it looks like a real bargain. The email service is easy-to-use, and provides a decent set of features to help organize your emails: folders, tags, filters, smart searches, and more. You can also create custom hotkeys to expand and replace easy abbreviations of your choice with full words and phrases as you type. The free plan is still a little basic. It gives you web access only, for instance, and there's no support for email forwarding. Fortunately, the Zoho Standard plan fixes that. A mere $3 per user (paid annually) gets you IMAP and POP access, email forwarding, active sync, multiple domain hosting, domain aliases, 30GB storage, a 30MB attachment limit (up from 25MB with the free plan) and some major improvements elsewhere (the ability to send cloud files to non-Zoho users, for instance). You also have Lite plan which is a cheaper Standard plan ($1 per user) with less features, and a Professional ($6 per user) plan which adds more features. A number of these features are available elsewhere for free, of course, but businesses or anyone who will use the custom domain support or Office tools will find a lot to like here. Well worth a closer look.
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| Rise of the Internet of Things (IoT) Posted: 21 Nov 2019 09:01 AM PST They are already here. And they might already have outnumbered us. Their proliferation is breath-taking, with an estimated population reaching 125 billion in the next 10 years. IoT devices are the poster boys of a societal digital transformation, poised to revolutionise the way we live, play and work. But, are we really in control of this exponential explosion of Internet connected machines? And, what does this massive machine-to-machine network mean from a security perspective? What are the associated threats and resulting risks of IoT devices, encompassing everything from wearables to the industrial control systems behind power grids? New malware threatsThe last five years have been a playground for a new generation of malware software targeting both embedded devices and IoTs. Slowly, the world is waking up to the consequences of prioritising time-to-market and cost over any security consideration when developing connected or “Smart” devices. Smart meters, smart homes, smart anything, can all be less smart than their names suggest, and they are vulnerable. The mean time required to compromise a vulnerable IoT device on the Internet is now down to around five minutes and within 24 hours threat actors can launch targeted attacks aimed at compromising specific devices. Many of these vulnerable IoT devices are online 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and have significant bandwidth available. This makes them not only attractive targets for conscription into Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) botnets, but also innocent stepping stones for the compromise of internal networks through their backend connectivity. In every element of the threat landscape, from ransomware to cryptomining, there is potential for IoT devices to be used as a gateway both in home and enterprise networks. Technical challengeWithout a doubt, everyone faces an unprecedented technical challenge when it comes to managing IoT risk: Internet-facing IoTs represent only 5% of the total number of devices out there; the other 95%, pose a complex risk and IT service management problem due to their inherent nature:
Even when a software fix or new firmware is released for a device its deployment is often not practical. For example, where is the device? Can it be updated remotely? Does it require physical access and custom-made cables for upgrade? 5G looms aheadAs 5G becomes a reality, billions of humans and trillions of machines will gain access to enhanced mobile broadband for a wide range of applications from mission critical medical surgeries, to emergency services and augmented/virtual reality. And, to make matters worse, all the above issues are exacerbated by the long shelf life of devices. Obsolete and insecure IoT devices are here to stay and will haunt us for years to come. With the sheer number of IoT devices out there that pose a risk either individually or collectively, identification, supervision and asset management capabilities will become even more critical. Inferring the identity (what it is) and function (what it does) of an IoT device by monitoring network traffic is fast becoming, from an operational perspective, a necessity for all network operators. This will allow them to assess their level of risk and the nature of that risk, so that it can be managed appropriately. But, this is no easy task. The visibility needed across a network is both broad and deep. ISPs seek helpInternet Service Providers are already seeking assistance from their trusted partners to provide them with the visibility and monitoring capabilities they need across their evolving service infrastructure. Equipped with an ability to identify the type and location of IoT devices on their networks, operators will be able to defend both themselves and their customers from threats. The Internet of Things has the potential to radically change our lives. IoT devices are driving radical technological and cultural changes, transforming our current IT landscape. Ultra-fast transfer rates, enhanced user experience, augmented and virtual realities are among the numerous applications consumers have been eagerly waiting for their smarter future. But, as IoT starts fuelling innovation in key sensitive industries such as healthcare, transportation and public utilities - bringing in its wake the fourth industrial revolution - the networks of tomorrow will require effective security oversight of IoT devices, to address both the availability and reliability of new services, and the privacy and safety of consumers.
Darren Anstee is the CTO, SBO International, at Netscout.
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| Best e-commerce platform of 2019: get an online store now! Posted: 21 Nov 2019 08:50 AM PST The rise of the web has allowed countless businesses to reach a wider market. Not only that, it has given rise to countless new online-only businesses, fueled by the exponential rise of mobile connections. It's not surprising, then, that one analyst claims that the SMB e-commerce platform market will break the billion dollar barrier. There's no doubt that the web provides a huge opportunity for companies, but it’s important for organizations to make the most of that opportunity. In order to sell your products or services online, your website has to be appropriately equipped. Building an online store from scratch is a mammoth task, and fortunately, an unnecessary one. Today, there is a huge variety of e-commerce platform packages from which to choose. Most e-commerce platforms will provide businesses with standard functionality such as the ability to showcase products in an online catalog, take payments online, manage customers and provide with after-sales. Others will provide more sophisticated functionality, such as online marketing features, the ability to manage or integrate with in-store systems and the provision of APIs. Which e-commerce software is best for your business depends entirely on your specific requirements. If you're an online-only outfit, then POS integration won't be necessary, but you may get a lot of business from overseas, in which case foreign currency support would be a requirement. In this article, we’re going to highlight some of the best e-commerce platforms available right now, before moving on to consider other options you might want to explore in terms of creating your own e-commerce solution. The best e-commerce platform packagesShopify is perhaps the most well known e-commerce platform available. It was set up in 2006 by founders Tobias Lütke, Daniel Weinand and Scott Lake who, as the story goes, felt that there wasn't a simple-to-use e-commerce platform available and so built their own. The company claims that: "You don't need to have any technical or design experience to easily create a beautiful online store." According to Shopify, it's possible to get one of its online stores up-and-running within minutes. Users can choose from a wide range of templates, or they can design the look and feel of their store themselves. It accepts a comprehensive range of credit cards, has Level 1 PCI compliance and 256-bit SSL encryption for security, and it offers 24/7 support via phone, instant messaging or email. The platform provides a full CMS with which users can manage the functionality and layout of their online store. Users can manage their store on-the-go using Shopify's mobile apps, and the platform itself is fully responsive, meaning the store will be optimized for visitors regardless of whether they access it from a desktop computer or a mobile device. Also, a live chat function is available which allows you to have a real time conversation with your customers. Shopify also offers users unlimited hosting for their stores, in-depth analytics of how visitors are using the store, and functionality for marketing such as SEO optimization, a discount and coupon engine, gift cards and email marketing tools. You can test out Shopify with a 14-day free trial. Bigcommerce was established in 2009 and promises to "support your business, not just your store." In addition to offering support via phone, instant chat and email, it also offers articles and videos to help with e-commerce, and access to a team of e-commerce experts who can provide advice and guidance about online selling. Their experts are qualified in both Google Analytics and Adwords. Like Shopify, Bigcommerce provides a variety of templates and themes to help stores look their best and get up-and-running quickly. Alternatively, users can design their own store or use Bigcommerce designers to do so. The platform incorporates a full-featured CMS that allows users to run an entire website, rather than just a store. Users can benefit from detailed and flexible product management, optimized search engine rankings, along with a variety of integrated marketing tools and analytics. Payments can be accepted via 40+ pre-integrated gateways and shipping details can be customized as per the business's requirements. As of late, some new features have been added like support for Amazon Import and Link and Shopping in Instagram Stories. The platform offers automated order processing, flexible tax rules depending on where orders are made and shipped, and support for multiple currencies. You can test out Bigcommerce with a 15-day free trial. Volusion has been around for almost two decades, having been set up in Texas over in the US in 1999. The company touts its platform as being an "all-in-one e-commerce solution", and offers a free 14-day trial (no credit card required). As with other e-commerce platforms, users are offered a variety of templates from which to choose, and can also customize templates if they so wish. Should a more complex design be required, Volusion offers a custom design service that can incorporate branding and a firm's social media presence. The platform provides the site and product management tools you'd expect, marketing functionality for SEO, social media, and affiliate outlets, along with emails and order management functionality for fast order processing, accepting payments, tax calculations and POS integration. In addition to its platform and associated services, Volusion offers apps from its partners, support for users and a knowledge-base for help with e-commerce. Users can draw upon blog posts, guides and webinars. As of October 8th 2018, there are no more transaction fees. CoreCommerce was set up in 2001 and focuses on providing e-commerce services to small and medium-sized businesses. The company places an emphasis on simplicity and transparency, promising that its platform is easy-to-use and that customers will not fall foul of any hidden charges. Perhaps CoreCommerce's most unique aspect is that all of its features are offered to all customers regardless of what plan they are on. Price plans are determined by the number of products, the number of email addresses, the amount of bandwidth and the amount of storage required by the user (and higher-end plans also benefit from additional support). As with other e-commerce providers, CoreCommerce offers functionality for store design, product management, order processing and marketing. Of its headline features, the platform offers unlimited product customization options, a built-in blogging engine, and secure hosting that is provided by Rackspace and comes with a 99.9% uptime guarantee. You can try CoreCommerce out with a 15-day free trial. Having been founded in 1997, 3dcart is the oldest of our featured providers here. It was set up with a view to incorporating as many of the most requested e-commerce features into one platform as possible. The company says it has six core values by which it operates: ongoing innovation, good service, simple solutions, fostering trust, keeping employees and customers happy, and stimulating prosperity amongst employees and customers. Some of the platform's innovative features include a module that users can install to offer gift-wrapping, a purchase order system, the option of running a loyalty program and the ability to offer recurring orders. Many of these features are very specific, meaning that stores can be highly tailored to the needs of each business. Stores can be designed using one of the many templates offered by 3dcart, or users can design their own store. A quick edit bar means that making changes to the design of a store is simple. Product images are fore-fronted with 3dcart's auto-zoom feature and products can be sold via Facebook with its store integration. As with some other platforms, users can blog directly from 3dcart and tools are provided for setting up coupons, sending newsletters and affiliate marketing. Users can also make use out of "make an offer" feature, which basically lets you and your customers to negotiate on a price. In addition to its platform, 3dcart offers a number of professional services. Users can request help with SEO, PPC, shopping feed management, social media, Facebook ads and conversion consulting. Help can also be provided to ensure that a user's store is set up to the highest standard. Services such as site cloning, setting up custom tracking, data migration and training are offered. In addition, 3dcart can provide SSL certification. Hosting is guaranteed at 99.9% uptime and 24/7 support is provided via phone, email or online chat. You can test out the service with a 15-day free trial. Also consider: Alternative meansIf you don’t want to go the route of using an off-the-shelf package, what other options are available for you to explore? That’s what we’re going to look at in the second half of this piece… Is eBay right for your business?Opening its doors in 1999, eBay UK now has over 14 million users, with over 10,000 people using the site for a business that is their primary means of income. It's not just about people selling unwanted goods - businesses have used the simplicity that eBay offers to set up lucrative operations. Even the larger brands such as Argos, Debenhams and House of Fraser are using eBay to sell online. With sophisticated tools now available you can be up and running with your store in just a few hours. The eBay Seller Centre has all the information you need. Each store is managed via eBay's familiar user interface, and there are a number of eBay-provided tools to help manage, track and promote your shop once it's established. Using eBay as the platform for your business could be ideal if your business wants to sell goods on a fixed price basis. The complete integration of the PayPal e-payments system into eBay takes care of this essential component of your store. The key with eBay is to look closely at the costs involved and also the transaction fees that PayPal charge before moving forward and setting up your own store. How to create your own e-commerce solutionOf course if you want complete control over every aspect of your new online store, building each page yourself will be the best course of action. Hiring someone to code your website is one option. If you decide to do this follow these steps:
You also don't have to build your site completely from scratch. Buying a template can give you all the basic pages your site needs. You can then either modify them yourself using an application like Dreamweaver, or hire a coding expert to make the changes. Website templates are available from a number of vendors including Template Monster. If you already have a website and want to add e-commerce functionality, this can be easily achieved with a number of applications including: Final adviceWhichever route you decide to take when building your website always remember:
Setting up your online store should be approached carefully and diligently to ensure you put a professional and efficient site live. Internet shopping continues to expand. Make sure your business doesn't miss out on a sales channel that shows no signs of slowing down.
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| HP aspires to sustainable development in IT Posted: 21 Nov 2019 08:41 AM PST Hewlett-Packard has built its reputation on manufacturing a whole wide range of printers, from inkjet printers to laser printers to all-in-one printers and even 3D printers. Now the company wants to turn its attention to sustainable development. Commitments from corporates and brands to address the climate emergency are not new. But change is afoot. Industry is taking action that goes beyond merely ensuring their operations are zero impact on the planet – instead, protecting, restoring and improving the planet is the gold standard IT decision makers are now calling for. As an industry leader, HP is driving action to inspire other IT manufacturers and suppliers to strive for this too. Forests are the futureTrees are the world’s best carbon sequestering technology. Yet nearly half of all global forests are under threat of deforestation and forest degradation – being destroyed at the pace of one football pitch per minute. This is compounding the climate emergency, as well as endangering all the living things that depend on these ecosystems for survival. Protecting, restoring and improving the management of forests is part of the answer. By doing so, we stand to remove between five and seven billion metric tons of CO2. To put those figures into perspective, we stand to make the same impact as we would if we eliminated emissions from all the cars in the world today. But how can we achieve this? Industry should not operate in a silo. Cooperation and collaboration with sustainable impact experts, such as the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), is essential. This is why HP has partnered with WWF to launch the HP Sustainable Forests Cooperative. Starting with an area of forest equivalent to the size of New York City (nearly 200,000 acres), we have committed to protecting, restoring and improving the management of forest ecosystems. As the world’s leading manufacturer of printers for home and office, we understand the importance of our role. Our goal is to make printing with HP directly responsible for the increase in Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and recycled fibre sourcing. But beyond this, our initiative considers the entire forest ecosystem. After all, a forest is greater than the sum of trees; they are living organisms with flora, fauna, soils and water sources. Engaging with the WWF, we are working together on a holistic approach that takes all of these component parts into account – to be forest positive. Economic models are the engine of changeCreating a forest positive future for printing is only the beginning as it is at the start of the supply chain – and our commitment to sustainable impact is at the core of all we do. However, in the UK, our current economic model is not compatible with this. As an industry, we must embrace the circular economy at each stage of the supply chain to make the means of production and operation as efficient as possible. But how does it work? This economic model revolves around recovering and recycling resources and using them for as long as possible – then regenerating them again to give them a new lease of life rather than sending them to landfill. By embracing the circular economy, our outputs can be sustainable by design, and throughout their entire lifecycle. Already, the circular economy is acting as an engine of change and the consequences are clear. IT management, manufacturers and suppliers, including HP, are opting for recycled plastic over virgin plastic. Last year, we incorporated more than 21,000 tonnes of recycled plastic in our products, accounting for seven percent of the overall content. And this is only the start. Recently, we made the commitment to increase our use of recycled plastic to 30 percent by 2025. This year, we unveiled the world’s first PC made with ocean-bound plastics – the HP Elite Dragonfly. It is now one of three products made this way and to ensure our ocean-bound plastics efforts continue to scale, we have committed to including ocean-bound plastic material in all new HP Elite and HP Pro desktop and laptop computers launching in 2020. Looking at the bigger picture, the circular economy could create £3.71 trillion in additional economic output in the UK by 2030 according to Accenture. UK government is backing this shift to a more sustainable system too. In 2018, the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA) and the Environment Agency (EA) published a strategy for England on waste and resources calling specifically for this. Sustainability delivers revenue growthBeyond being the right thing to do, prioritising sustainability pays. We have seen this happen first-hand in our business. Our 2018 Sustainable Impact Report revealed a 35 percent year-on-year increase in deals where sustainability was a requirement – resulting in revenue growth, with an additional £745 million in new revenue won. Sustainability matters to today’s IT decision makers. Millennials have been rising up the ranks and are now in positions of power professionally – with 73 percent of millennials involved in purchasing decisions of their companies, according to Forrester. For millennials, sustainability is important. According to Neilsen, 83 percent of millennials indicated it is important for companies to implement environmental programmes, and 75 percent said they would change their purchasing habits to reduce their environmental impact. What’s more, 66 percent of consumers said they would spend more with a brand they perceived to be sustainable than with a less environmentally conscious competitor. Millennials do not abandon their ideals and principles in the office suite – they do not distinguish between consumer and business IT. They value authentic, lasting relationships and care beyond cost when it comes to IT procurement – corporate reputation is key. If they do believe a company is meeting the sustainability standards they expect, they will wield their purchasing power accordingly. The time to change is upon usIt is undeniable: the climate emergency is one of the most critical issues facing the planet. The time to change is upon us, and we must act now to protect our ecosystems for future generations. As we approach 2020, the urgency is ever more pressing. As a result, IT decision makers are expecting higher standards than ever before. Throughout the supply chain preserving and improving our environment – ultimately, addressing the climate emergency – should be a priority. Especially as it is so good for business, there is an incentive for those within the industry who are behind the curve to keep up. By being forest positive and championing the circular economy, we are driving action to inspire others to strive to the gold standard of going beyond being zero impact on the planet – protecting, restoring and improving the planet instead.
George Brasher is the Managing Director at Hewlett-Packard UK. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Trump wants Apple to work on 5G Posted: 21 Nov 2019 08:13 AM PST Donald Trump says he has asked Apple CEO Tim Cook for the company to get involved with the development of 5G network technology. The two men have formed a constructive working relationship since Trump won the US Presidential Election in 2016 and have spoken on several occasions – most notably about tariffs on Chinese-manufactured goods which would affect several of Apple’s products. This is despite the fact Cook was a supporter of Hilary Clinton’s campaign and that Trump had been critical of Apple for building its goods overseas and for refusing to unlock devices for law enforcement officials.
Apple 5GEarlier this week, Trump visited Apple’s a new facility that will produce Mac computers in Austin, Texas, which is when the conversation supposedly took place. “I asked Tim Cook to see if he could get Apple involved in building 5G in the U.S. They have it all - Money, Technology, Vision & Cook!l [sic],” Trump Tweeted. Trump has repeatedly called for more 5G technology to be developed and made in the US, believing it to be of national importance. The President has also signed an order that effectively bans Chinese vendor Huawei from procuring goods from American companies. However there is no major radio equipment manufacturer in the US, although Cisco, Qualcomm and others will play major roles in the 5G supply chain. It is unclear how Apple would contribute to such a specialised area of technology – even with its significant cash reserves and reputation for innovation. Apple will of course produce 5G-enabled devices, with the first compatible iPhone expected later this year. TechRadar Pro has contacted Apple for comment.
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