Saturday, March 14, 2020

Apple : EA live esports events suspended due to coronavirus

Apple : EA live esports events suspended due to coronavirus

EA live esports events suspended due to coronavirus

Posted: 14 Mar 2020 12:55 PM PDT

EA is now suspending all of its live esports events as coronavirus cases continue to rise around the world, according to GamesRadar.

Live EA games events have now been officially suspended until further notice by the Redwood City company. It’s all in an effort to “limit the spread of the coronavirus pandemic" as well as protect not only the competitors, but also employees and the gaming community, amidst growing coronavirus concerns. 

These live events include the Apex Legends Global Series, Madden NFL 20 Championship Series, EA Sports FIFA 20 Global Series and the FIFA Online 4 Live Events. Third-party events running under license from EA are suspended as well.

According to the EA website, the company will “continue to monitor the situation around the coronavirus and receive updated guidance from health officials around the world, we will use this time to determine next steps for moving forward with all of EA’s Competitive Gaming live events and online broadcasts.”

The suspension, however, doesn’t apply to “online events, where participants and staff are remote and separated" so there's a bit of good news.

 Coronavirus sweeping across the globe 

While the number of the novel coronavirus infections seems to be slowing down in places like China and South Korea, it’s only gaining momentum in other parts of the world. Italy is now on lockdown and Spain soon will be as well, while countries like the US and Turkey are banning all flights to/from many European countries.

In fact, COVID-19 has swept across Europe like wildfire in the last few days, clobbering many industries from tourism to tech along the way. 

The tech world is definitely one of the several industries to take the brunt of the hit, with factories shutting down, supplies depleting, sales declining, and many events and conferences either being cancelled or switched to online only.

The EA live esports events are only the latest in the growing list of tech events that met their demise this year, following the cancellations of MWC 2020 in Barcelona, Game Developers Conference (GDC) 2020 in San Francisco and E3 2020 in Los Angeles.

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Why BT Sport and Sky should refund subscribers for the suspended football

Posted: 14 Mar 2020 10:30 AM PDT

Flick through your BT Sports channels or Sky Sports planner this weekend and you'd be forgiven for thinking it's 2014 – with the coronavirus cancellations affecting all but a smattering of non-league football matches in the UK, the major broadcasters have dug deep into their archives for re-runs and nostalgic filler that's normally reserved for daytime TV.

This is, of course, perfectly understandable. As recently as Wednesday 11 March, BT Sport had a packed schedule of Champions League football, including the live broadcast of a match in Liverpool where it was considered perfectly safe for over 50,000 people from around the country and abroad to be packed tightly into a football stadium.

The coronavirus cancellations then came with unparalleled speed and, of course, there are considerably more important things than football to worry about. And yet, one of those things for the millions of BT Sport and Sky subscribers who now face work uncertainty or higher household costs is their bank balances. 

Yes, the broadcasters are covered by their contracts' terms and conditions, but an unprecedented situation demands an equivalent response – one which, so far, doesn't look likely. Here's why, from a football fan's perspective, the prospect of continuing to pay that hefty monthly premium just doesn't add up...

BT Sports

The Big Freeze

Who’d have thought fresh-faced Mikel Arteta would be the man to bring the Premier League juggernaut to its knees?

Just hours after the UK government had announced that sporting events would be going ahead as normal – despite the escalating measures being taken by other countries around the world to inhibit the spread of coronavirus – it was announced that the former Everton midfielder and current Arsenal head coach had tested positive for Covid-19.

Without football, TV subscriptions would be a fraction of what they cost now.

The Gunners’ game against Brighton & Hove Albion on Saturday afternoon was postponed, and after Chelsea’s Callum Hudson-Odoi joined the Spaniard on the infected list the next morning, the decision was taken to suspend the entire Premier League (and all other professional matches) until at least the 3rd of April. Many fixtures in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have also been called off.

Normally it takes a lot to prevent a top-flight game going ahead. Manchester United’s match against Bournemouth in 2015 was delayed for two days after a suspect package was found inside Old Trafford, and Liverpool vs Newcastle was postponed when the whole country lost its proverbial over the death of Princess Diana in 1997. 

But you have to go back to the ‘Big Freeze’ of 1963, when Britain recorded the coldest month of the 20th century, to find games being postponed in large numbers and for any real length of time. That year, an FA Cup tie between Sheffield United and Bolton Wanderers wasn’t played until three months after its originally scheduled date, but we haven’t seen a widespread suspension like this one since World War II.

Sky Sports

A taste of this weekend's Sky Sports schedule.

Expensive tumbleweed

Of course, the game is very different now to what it was back then. Today, TV calls the shots, moving five Premier League games per typical matchday weekend to fill up its schedules: usually two on Saturday, two on Sunday and one on Monday night. 

That’s only 7.5 hours if you take each one to last 90 minutes, but add in all the preamble and post-match analysis and it makes up a significant proportion of the programming, not to mention the hours and hours of games from the EFL, Germany’s Bundesliga and other foreign leagues that are also televised.

Surely the broadcasters can't justify charging £42 a month for golf, rugby league and WWE?

The suspensions have left gaping holes in the channels’ weekend schedules, with back-to-back episodes of Sky’s Premier League Years where games featuring Aston Villa, Chelsea, Wolves and West Ham should be. With fans paying a significant chunk of their monthly subscription fees to access the sports channels (currently £42 a month for both Sky Sports and BT Sport), shouldn’t they expect to be reimbursed for all the games that aren’t on?

Without football, TV subscriptions would be a fraction of what they cost now. The rights to show Premier League games live on TV between 2019 and 2022 were sold for over £4.4 billion in February 2018 and those costs are passed onto the viewer. 

Sky Sports, in particular, has doubled down on Premier League games in recent years, giving up its rights to Spain’s La Liga and the Dutch Eredivisie as the costs involved in showing the English top-flight spiralled. While BT Sport shows fewer Premier League games than Sky, the suspension of the Champions League and Europa League will eat into its offerings next week and possibly beyond. 

Surely the broadcasters can’t justify charging £42 a month for golf, rugby league and WWE, particularly when wrestling’s not even a real sport?

Sky Sports

The response so far

Neither Sky or BT Sport have made any commitment to refunding subscription costs – and when we asked whether there were any plans to do so, both broadcasters made almost identical announcements. 

Sky Sports managing director Rob Webster said: “We recognise that it is a fast-moving situation and we are working at speed to ensure we continue to deliver for all of our customers. A number of sporting events have been postponed, but not cancelled, so we expect to be able to show these when they are rescheduled.” 

A similar statement from BT Sport read: “We apologise to customers about the changes to the BT Sport schedule this month due to the impact of Covid-19. The situation is evolving rapidly and we are working with the leagues to continue to broadcast live sport wherever possible and broadcast games when they are rescheduled over the coming months.”

As it stands, though, a resumption of matches early next month seems unlikely at best. With the virus not expected to peak in the UK until May or June, The Guardian claims that “senior administrators” within the game expect the disruption to last much longer, while an executive at a Premier League club believes there’s a realistic chance that the current season will never be finished. Hard luck, Liverpool fans, the wait goes on.

A sporting gesture

It’s almost certainly still too early to say, and the health of those individuals affected should be everybody’s first priority here, but whether it’s the TV companies or the Premier League itself that coughs up the cash, subscribers deserve to be reimbursed for whatever they end up missing out on. 

Of course, those who are on a contract-free monthly pass can simply cancel, or perhaps just make the timely switch to a Now TV entertainment pass. But subscribers should be compensated – after all, it’s their money that has enabled the Premier League to become the all-conquering force that it is today. Oh, and a bit of financial help for the lower-league teams that rely almost entirely on gate receipts for survival wouldn’t go amiss either.

While the armchair fan is hardly the most put-upon of football supporters, a 2019 study by eToro found that the average match-going fan spends 40% more on TV subscriptions now than they did five years ago. Considering the TV companies often seem unmoved by inconveniencing supporters and costing them unnecessary expense with awkward kick-offs, isn’t it time they felt the pinch too?

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The Witcher 4: what we want to see in a new Witcher name

Posted: 14 Mar 2020 09:30 AM PDT

The Witcher 4 is upon us! Sure, we’ve got the massive, sprawling world of Cyberpunk 2077 to get through first – which won’t happen overnight – but we now know that developer CD Projekt RED is gearing up to develop a new The Witcher game as its next title.

The new Witcher game won’t land soon, that’s for sure. Given The Witcher 3 landed in 2015, and Cyberpunk 2077 is coming in 2020, we may be waiting another five years before CD Projekt RED is ready to drop another open-world RPG.

It’s still good news, though, and means we may start to see a back-and-forth release schedule for both franchises, in a similar vein to Bethesda’s handling of the Elder Scrolls and Fallout game series. And in the meantime we’ll have The Witcher season 2, that animated Witcher movie, and the back catalogue of Witcher games and Witcher books to keep us busy.

So, what would we want to see in a new The Witcher game, possibly ten years after its previous entry? Here’s everything that’s on our minds.

1. More folklore creatures

It’s no secret that many of The Witcher’s beasties are – in some way or another – based on creatures from European folklore, but we would love to see the appearance of some other folklore monsters that haven’t made it into the bestary yet. Maybe throw in Selkies, or a dark version of a leprechaun, or even the cat/snake hybrid Tatzelwurm from Austrian mythology. 

There’s so much folklore to play with and we would live to see CD Projekt RED’s twisted take on as many as possible – before we slay them of course. 

2. Little influence from the TV show

The worst thing CD Projekt RED could do at this point would be to try and angle development of The Witcher 4 around decisions made in the TV show. The Netflix series will no doubt draw a lot of new players to the game, but we just don’t want to see a game diluted or made to appease CD Projekt RED’s new friends at Netflix: the games are exceptional just as they are.

3. A strong narrative – with the right amount of distractions

There are plenty of open world games that are content to let you explore to your heart’s content, but few of them offer such a well-crafted main storyline to repeatedly pull you back from the fringes of distraction as The Witcher 3. 

The main storyline and end boss fight of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild paled in comparison to the game’s moment-by-moment exploration, for one – and we’re hoping that The Witcher 4 doesn’t ditch one of its greatest strengths (the forward pull of its central narrative) for the sake of scaling up its world.

4. Continued save data from the Witcher 3

This seems doable, given the sheer number of platforms that The Witcher 3 is playable on – and since The Witcher 3 allowed you to import your save data from the previous entry in the franchise.

Wherever The Witcher 4 takes us, if it does take place after the events of Wild Hunt, it’d be a crying shame not to let the hours you sunk into the last title have some bearing on its world and characters.

5. Some serious bard action

More songs! More jests! More Jaskier! Underscoring the game’s action with Toss A Coin To Your Witcher might be a stretch, but the fan base wants music, and it will bang a fist on this inn’s beer-filled table and jeer at the entertainment until these demands are met.

6. Expanded signs

One of the best parts of The Witcher’s world is its casual use of magic – with ‘signs’ that let you form protective shields, send telekinetic blasts at your enemies, or simply set things on fire. An evolution of The Witcher 3’s sign system, which lets you pick and choose which abilities to expand and refine, is a must-have. More in-depth dialogue options when using the mind-control sign (Axii), too, would be a fun development for those big on their role-play interactions.

7. A Nintendo console port

It was pretty astounding to see the The Witcher 3 ported to the Nintendo Switch – a relatively underpowered console compared to the PS4 or Xbox One. 

A new Witcher game likely won’t be able to do the same from launch – and we certainly don’t expect Cyberpunk 2077 to do it any time soon – but we’re hoping CD Projekt RED will port it over to whatever Nintendo console the Switch has been replaced by, when it becomes technically feasible, so the biggest possible audience can enjoy the game.

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Apple AirPods 3: all the specs and features we want to see in 2020

Posted: 14 Mar 2020 09:02 AM PDT

It’s barely been a year since Apple launched the upgraded AirPods (2019), but there are already murmurs that the Apple AirPods 3 could come crashing onto the true wireless earbuds scene in 2020.

Since the original Apple AirPods launched in 2016, the true wireless earbuds have dominated the headphones market, becoming an icon of the company’s slick design customs and user-friendly technologies. 

They weren’t perfect though – and in 2019, the upgraded AirPods (or AirPods 2, if you will) were furnished with Apple’s H1 chip, which brought with it faster pairing times, longer battery, and a cool hands-free ‘Hey Siri’ feature. 

These second-gen true wireless earbuds were a definite improvement upon their predecessors – but they were still easily eclipsed by the likes of the Sony WF-1000XM3, the Cambridge Audio Melomania 1, and Apple’s own AirPods Pro in 2019.

While we haven’t heard any confirmation from Apple that it will be launching the AirPods 3 this year, we’ve still had plenty of time to come up with a wish list of all the features we’d want to see from the company’s next true wireless earbuds. 

Better sound than the AirPods 2

The AirPods (2019) were an improvement upon their predecessors in terms of connectivity, but the sound remained exactly the same as the originals – and that audio technology is now four years old. 

They have a lively, powerful presentation, although they can sound slightly harsh when it comes to higher-frequency sounds, and they aren’t the bassiest earbuds on the market.

Since the launch of the original AirPods, the sound quality offered by true wireless earbuds has soared; just look at the Sony WF-1000XM3 or the Cambridge Audio Melomania 1. 

There’s no reason why Apple couldn’t take a cue from these companies and really develop the sound of their earbuds, with more accurately-tuned drivers for improved bass response and rolled-off trebles.

Adjustable eartips

While we did respect Apple’s refusal to amend the design of the AirPods – for a time – we think it’s time that it furnished the true wireless earbuds with adjustable eartips, just like it has with the AirPods Pro. 

Why? Well aside from catering to more ear-sizes, silicone or foam eartips provide a better seal, and therefore superior noise isolation, and passive noise-reduction – making your music sound better, while simultaneously preventing the entire world from earwigging on your favorite songs.

The AirPods (2019)

Better battery life

True wireless earbuds like the Lypertek Tevi have shown that cutting the cord doesn’t have to mean sacrificing your battery life – and there’s really no need for the AirPods to only be offering a measly five hours of playback in 2020. 

Sure, the charging case offers a further 20 hours of battery, but that number is far surpassed by lots of models on the market these days – and many of them are far cheaper, too. 

Bluetooth 5 and aptX HD support

Again, Apple needs to get with the times in this respect – Bluetooth 4.2 is positively dated these days, with most new wireless headphones coming with support for the latest wireless transmission standard, Bluetooth 5 (and some, like the new Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 2 even support Bluetooth 5.1). 

Bluetooth 5 brings longer pairing distances, more reliable wireless connectivity, and more efficient power usage, which means headphones that support it come with longer battery lives.

Meanwhile, aptX HD support would allow for wireless streaming of Hi-Res Audio codecs at 24-bit/48kHz – which Qualcomm claims makes for better-than-CD quality.

The AirPods (2019)

What about the AirPods Pro Lite?

Before we see the AirPods 3, we’re expecting the release of the so-called AirPods Pro Lite, an entry-level version of the noise-cancelling AirPods Pro.

November 2019 brought us the AirPods Pro, which came with active noise cancellation, a better fit, and superior audio quality. Despite no official confirmation from Apple, and very hazy details on the earbuds, we even heard reports on how the current coronavirus outbreak will stall production on the AirPods Pro Lite – and then later reports disparaging these claims. 

Taiwanese industry publication DigiTimes (via MacRumors) reported that production on these earbuds will start at the end of Q2 this year, which suggests that Apple will start making the AirPods Pro Lite around the end of March / beginning of April. 

That means we could hear an announcement about the AirPods Pro Lite at Apple’s annual March event – after all, that’s when the upgraded AirPods were launched in 2019, alongside Apple Arcade and Apple TV Plus. 

Otherwise? We could be waiting until WWDC 2020 in June, which we now know will be an online-only event.

In the meantime, don’t miss our wishlist of all the things we’re hoping to see from the AirPods Pro Lite.

The next Apple headphones could be an over-ear model like the Beats Studio 3 (pictured).

Will the AirPods 3 be over-ear headphones?

It’s possible that the next Apple headphones we see in 2020 will be a pair of over-ear cans – but we don’t think they’ll be called the AirPods 3.

Instead, its rumored that the first over-ear Apple headphones will be called the AirPods X, after a recent Target product listing went live, accidentally leaking the rumored Apple headphones, and revealing a $399 (about £300 / AU$699) price tag. 

According to a report by respected analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who correctly predicted the release of the upgraded Apple AirPods and the AirPods Pro in 2019, the wireless headphones will launch alongside a number of new products in the first half of 2020.

Like the AirPods Pro Lite, that means we could see the over-ear Apple headphones anytime between now and June – though rumors of both new models are still to be confirmed by the tech giant.

Whether we see the AirPods 3, the AirPods Pro Lite, or the AirPods X first in 2020 remains to be seen – either way, we think it’s going to be a big year for Apple headphones. 

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Apple is shutting all its stores outside China until March 27

Posted: 14 Mar 2020 08:21 AM PDT

If you live outside China you won't be able to walk into an Apple Store for the next couple of weeks – they're all being shut down until March 27 to help prevent the further spread of the coronavirus around the world.

You'll still be able to shop and get support for your Apple products through the Apple website, but in terms of physical retail stores, everything is being paused for the time being.

"The most effective way to minimize risk of the virus's transmission is to reduce density and maximize social distance," explained Apple CEO Tim Cook in a statement.

"As rates of new infections continue to grow in other places, we’re taking additional steps to protect our team members and customers. We will be closing all of our retail stores outside of Greater China until March 27."

Risk management

"There is no mistaking the challenge of this moment," added Cook, admitting that it's not clear when the "greatest risk" will have passed and everything can start getting back to normal. Apple Store staff will still be paid in the meantime.

"The entire Apple family is indebted to the heroic first responders, doctors, nurses, researchers, public health experts and public servants globally who have given every ounce of their spirit to help the world meet this moment."

The coronavirus outbreak has already caused chaos with tech events worldwide, with Apple, Google and Microsoft all switching their major developer conferences to an online-only format.

And the health crisis looks likely to delay numerous product launches too – the iPhone 9 and 2020 iPad Pros are some of the devices that are rumored to have already had their launch dates pushed back.

Via MacRumors

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WWDC 2020 goes online - which other tech shows are disrupted by COVID-19?

Posted: 14 Mar 2020 08:19 AM PDT

We’re just a quarter of the way through 2020 and, CES aside, it’s shaping up to be the year of no tech shows. The spread of coronavirus has raised concerns over large-crowd events, and some of the biggest events in tech and gaming have responded by canning major events.

Apple is the latest brand to alter its plans based on the COVID-19 threat - it has moved to an 'online-only' event, and is donating to local businesses to allow for the drop in revenue from the lack of thousands of visitors.

In February, Mobile World Conference’s cancellation tipped the first domino in many that have since fallen, and it’s likely to continue until the spread of COVID-19 is contained.

With E3 and Build also falling and finding other ways to display their messages to developers and fans, it's clear that 2020 is going to be a year of disruption in the tech world, and that's going to have an impact on the new devices we'll be able to buy and when.

We've rounded up all the cancellations that have already occurred, and what we're expecting to happen later in the year as we navigate 2020.

MWC

The biggest annual smartphone show was the first to go; on 12 February the GSMA (Global System for Mobile Communication) announced it had canceled Mobile World Congress 2020. The confirmation came after Nokia, LG, Facebook, Sony, and other major names had already pulled out.

The impact: MWC has been a mixed bag of late when it comes to truly groundbreakling phone launches, but this year was set to be a big moment for 5G. 

As CCS Insight put it, “the focus would have evolved from far-reaching demonstrations such as flying taxis and remote airships, to more realistic and pragmatic scenarios”. Without that futuristic vision being passed around the industry, it could slow down the impact of new and innovative ways of using 5G we've not yet thought of.

The phone launches themselves haven't been cancelled, as some brands who were lined up for the show still made announcements, just with less fanfare. For example, Sony revealed its new Xperia 1 II flagship with a YouTube presentation and others are lined up to launch later in the year.

Then there’s the economic impact on Barcelona itself. “We’re looking for solidarity and everybody bearing their own costs,” Mats Granryd, director general of the GSMA, told Bloomberg in an interview. “We’re an NGO and we don’t make a profit. We don’t have huge amounts of funds, and all our proceeds are funneled back into the industry.”

Facebook F8

Facebook’s big developer conference was set to kick off May 5 this year. Mark Zuckerberg usually opens F8 with a keynote in which he’ll make some vague, non-commitment to privacy, which will be followed by several announcements about the company’s different products and services.

The impact: Probably not huge for users, but developers won’t get the benefit of face time with the company. 

In a statement, Facebook said, “We plan to replace the in-person F8 event with locally hosted events, video and live-streamed content.”

And as for Oculus, the company usually holds its own Connect conference in the fall – and right now we assume that’s still on track.

GDC

GDC 2020

If you’re an independent game dev, the Game Developers Conference, held in February/March each year in San Francisco, is as big as it gets. 

E3 might have the spectacle, but it’s GDC where smaller games find a home and hardworking developers get their first big break. It's indefinite cancellation is a big blow for multiple people working in the industry, and will have ramifications later on in development cycles.

“I think the cancellations of both GDC and E3 will have a major impact on the video game industry, but not a lot of it will be public-facing,” Jason Schrier, News Editor at Kotaku, tells TechRadar. 

“The companies that planned to announce their games at those shows will still find ways to make announcements. 

"What people don't realize is how much happens behind the scenes at both of these events - how many games get signed, how many negotiations get started, how many networking events lead to game deals down the road. I think the repercussions will be severe.”

The impact: Self-publishing is tough, and these smaller developers often have to spend beyond their budget to come to GDC. So there will be an economic hit on many developers who aren’t able to recuperate their costs.  

But more important than that, GDC is a place where developers come to meet publishers and demo their games. 

Not having the opportunity to make those relationships and, in many cases, find a way to publish their game, has obvious ramifications.


SXSW

South by Southwest (known to its friends as SXSW or South By) is Austin’s biggest annual event; a huge melting pot of tech, music and film consuming the city for two weeks each March.

After weeks of pressure to cancel the conference, the decision was made by Austin’s mayor Steve Adler who declared a local state of emergency. It came after companies including Facebook, Twitter, Amazon, Netflix and Apple had already pulled out of the conference. 

Even Trent Reznor and Ozzy Osbourne had dropped out, and if Osbourne won’t risk it, you should probably pull the plug.

The impact: For larger tech companies like Facebook and Twitter, the ramifications probably won’t be huge; but it’s a different story for smaller companies and artists. 

For many indie filmmakers, having a movie premiere at SXSW can launch their career. The cancellation will surely be a setback to many artists who had been given a shot. 

There will also be wider implications on Austin itself. SXSW is a major economic driver that attracts hundreds of thousands of attendees each year. Even the local press, who rely on the events of SXSW, will be harmed by the cancellation.


Google I/O

Google IO

Google’s developer conference, held at its Mountain View headquarters in California, is the company’s biggest public-facing event of the year. It’s essentially what WWDC is to Apple, but still bigger than the company’s Made by Google hardware event held in the fall. 

Google I/O 2020 was due to take place May 12-14, but on March 3 the company announced the show wouldn’t go ahead owing to concerns around the coronavirus.

The impact: I/O is where Google announces some of its biggest news to entice both developers and product users. 

Previous I/O shows have been live streamed, and given that we expect Google to still make some major announcements around that time – it’s where we expect to learn more about Android 11 – we wouldn’t be surprised to see it deliver some sort of stream. 

Like GDC, the biggest impact will be felt by developers who use GDC to network and learn about the nuts and bolts of Google’s plans and products. 

There are heaps of talks held throughout the days and attended by developers – that’s where the impact will be felt hardest. However, we're still expecting the launch of the Google Pixel 4a and the new Airpods-rivalling Pixel Buds, providing they're not delayed by production issues (which we've not heard any rumor of just yet).

E3 2020

The world’s biggest gaming convention is now officially canceled. Scheduled to take place June 9-11 in Los Angeles, E3 2020 was set for another explosive year, despite dwindling support from major companies.

In a statement, the ESA said it is “exploring options” with its members to coordinate an online experience in June - and that's going to be important for the future of the event.

The impact: The LA convention has been slowly fading in significance. In 2013 Nintendo replaced its press conference with an online presentation, and has continued to do so each year since. In 2019, Sony pulled its presence completely, and had already committed to doing the same in 2020 before E3 was canceled.

Nonetheless, all eyes were on E3 2020 as it would be the last show before the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X launch in time for the holidays. Granted, Sony wasn’t set to attend anyway, but we’ve been expecting third-party developers and publishers to announce at the event. 

Microsoft will be hit hardest here. It wanted to use E3 to drum up hype and will now host a digital event instead.

So will next year be business as usual? Possibly not. The ESA’s statement closed with an interesting choice of words: 

“We thank everyone who shared their views on reimagining E3 this year. We look forward to bringing you E3 2021 as a reimagined event that brings fans, media, and the industry together in a showcase that celebrates the global video game industry.”

A “reimagined event” sounds like this year’s cancellation could have been the last straw, and that next year’s show could look quite different. 

Our own Gerald Lynch even believes that this delay could actually be better for developers:

"Recent E3 shows have called the event’s relevancy into doubt. Increasingly, large gaming announcements are made independent of E3, with some companies choosing not to exhibit at the show entirely. 

"On the eve of its reveal of the PlayStation 5, Sony stated that it would not be attending E3 2020 (prior to the current health scare), while Nintendo has for years preferred to host its own web stream rather than an E3 conference (though it always has a substantial presence on the show floor). And so, it seems, will everyone else this year."

However, Kotaku’s Jason Schrier believes the impact will be felt hardest among developers who rely on E3 for forming vital connections. “The networking opportunities will be sorely missed and it's hard to measure just how significant the consequences will be,” he says.


Microsoft Build

When: 19-21 May

Microsoft Build was set to kick off on May 19 in Seattle, but with the number of coronavirus cases in Washington rising, it’s now gone online only.

In a statement to The Verge, Microsoft wrote: "The safety of our community is a top priority. In light of the health safety recommendations for Washington State, we will deliver our annual Microsoft Build event for developers as a digital event, in lieu of an in-person event. 

"We look forward to bringing together our ecosystem of developers in this new virtual format to learn, connect and code together. Stay tuned for more details to come."

The impact: Not devastating to users as there's little hardware announced at this conference, but it will definitely suck for developers. 

We were expecting to hear more about platforms that would power things like dual-screen (or even flexible) devices - that will still be given out on the virtual conference but developers will have to wait longer to get direct information and testing with it.

Microsoft Build has become more of a spectacle in recent years, but with around 6,000 developers in attendance it’s a great way to get vital facetime with the company -and other key developers - as they assess how they can interact with the company's new announcements on platform and software.

WWDC 2020

Will we see WWDC 2020?

When: Unconfirmed, but it’s usually the first week of June.

Apple’s developer conference, typically held at the San Jose Convention Center in June, has now moved to an 'online only' show.

Apple announces its shows quite late in the day, which gave the company a little more time to see how the COVID-19 situation plays out. 

But with May conferences currently canceling and June creeping up, Apple decided to make sure that flights weren't booked and developers wouldn't be disappointed. And in true Apple style, it decided to barely not to any virus and focus on how  positive it was that this 2020 is no longer a physical event:

“We are delivering WWDC 2020 this June in an innovative way to millions of developers around the world, bringing the entire developer community together with a new experience,” said Phil Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. 

“The current health situation has required that we create a new WWDC 2020 format that delivers a full program with an online keynote and sessions, offering a great learning experience for our entire developer community, all around the world. We will be sharing all of the details in the weeks ahead.” 

The impact: WWDC is, obviously, a big show for developers who get the opportunity to speak with engineers at Apple and gain important insights. 

But it’s also when Apple unveils the next big updates to its software across its products; this year we’ll get our first look at iOS 14 and watchOS 7.

Although these software updates won’t roll out until the new products launch in September, Apple needs to get developers excited and prepared to build the next wave of software, and that requires teaching and communication. 

After all, you want your new iPhone to have working apps, right? While Apple is talking up the online-only platform as 'innovative', not having the opportunity to connect with info directly could still stifle third-party app innovation.

“For me, it’s almost the only opportunity in the year where I dedicate full time to learn and test the new frameworks and tools,” Joaquin Durand, a developer from Houston, Texas, who has attended several past WWDC events.

”Lots of people go there just for networking or go to the labs to speak directly to Apple’s engineers about their projects. For them, not talking about their issues in the labs could be a problem”.

What’s currently still happening

We’re only three months into the year and already a large handful of conferences have been cancelled, while others hang in the balance. 

Here are the upcoming tech and gaming events that could feasibly be cut, and what each could mean.

Computex 2020

When: 2-6 June

Computex is the biggest show in the computing world every year, with everything from big name manufacturers like Dell and AMD to super niche products and wacky custom PC builds on display. 

But beyond the sheer scope of different computing products on display, Computex is historically a show where we see the biggest computing launches of the year. This year we're expecting AMD Ryzen 4000 processors for mobile along with a load of the best Ultrabooks we'll see over the next year or so. 

Now, though, we're starting to see a lot of conferences being cancelled, even E3, which is all the way in June, the week after Computex is scheduled to go through. Especially considering that Computex is traditionally held in Taipei, which is just a short plane flight from Wuhan, we could see the show being delayed or cancelled. 

However, according to a statement from Walter M.S. Yeh, CEO of TAITRA – the organization behind Computex – Taiwan is perfectly safe, and measures have been put in place across the entire country to make sure both visitors and residents are completely safe.

The impact: Computex is without a doubt the most important show in the computing world, as there are so many smaller manufacturers that are both trying to get their name out there and looking for industry buyers. 

If Computex does get pushed back or cancelled, huge manufacturers like AMD, Nvidia, Dell and HP will be fine – they have the resources to make huge launches on their own. But, on the lower end of the industry, it could have a larger impact. 

IFA 2020

When: 4-9 September

IFA is still arguably Europe’s biggest tech show, and although it’s a few months away, the sheer scale of the Berlin conference means attendees and vendors will need plenty of warning if it’s not going ahead. 

As of writing, IFA is still full steam ahead, and with a hugely unclear future in terms of the spread of the virus, it's impossible to say whether events in the summer will still be vulnerable.

The impact: Cancellation of this show could be pretty heavy. Like MWC, IFA is a bit of a mixed bag in terms of importance to the industry. It’s become less relevant over the years as major companies have chosen to make their big announcements outside of the show. 

Even Samsung, the usual headline act in Berlin, makes less of a splash at its annual IFA press conference. That is, unless you’re mad about connected fridges, in which case you could be in for a bad September.


The iPhone launch

When: (likely) 8 September

Looking even further ahead, the failure to contain COVID-19 could spell a move for Apple’s hardware event – its biggest of the year. It’s here where the iPhone 12 and Apple Watch 6 will certainly be unveiled, among other things. Again, 5G could play a major role if Apple finally embraces it on the iPhone 12.

The impact: This is a big one, and for reasons different to WWDC. Apple’s fall hardware event has become a product itself, and without an audience of baying fans and tech journalists poised to dry-run its products, it won’t generate the same amount of buzz.

If it is canceled, we expect the company to still livestream the big reveals, while Apple might seed products directly with journalists straight after the event in order to generate those important hands-on previews which drive momentum to the on-sale date.

However, an Apple event is no good without products. Foxconn, Apple’s primary iPhone assembler, had to reduce its output in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, although at the time of writing has ramped its efforts back up as China slows the spread of COVID-19.

But even if production is running smoothly by the fall, Digitimes reports that Apple’s self-imposed travel restrictions are delaying testing of the new iPhone, which could cause the announcement to be pushed back.


So, what now? 

Right now, it’s impossible to calculate the impact these canceled conferences will have; in some cases the ramifications could ripple through the industry for years to come, but others will matter less.

Carolina Milanesi, Principal Analyst at Creative Strategies, attends many of the conferences mentioned above. For developer conferences, she believes the cancellations won’t be a huge issue for companies. “Because the number of developers attending is usually a fraction of the overall base, these events always have digital sessions available,” she tells TechRadar. 

“Of course developers who were supposed to attend will miss the hands on and the social side of getting together to learn from each other.”

It is, however, the response of the markets as a result of this year’s events that could have the most harmful long-term effects. “Overall I think the ramifications of the coronavirus will go beyond supply chain and events,” says Milanesi.

“We will see an impact on demand coming from a weaker consumer confidence as well as a repurposing disposable income.”

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The Samsung Sero TV is weird – so why are the speakers so good?

Posted: 14 Mar 2020 08:00 AM PDT

The Samsung Sero TV was one of the most eye-catching sets we caught sight of at CES 2020 at the start of the year – for reasons good and bad. As a set that can shift between portrait and landscape viewing at the click of a button, it offers a very different utility to the majority of televisions out there.

The rotating screen is unlike any other Samsung TVs – or anything anyone else is doing, for that matter – but it’s also geared so strongly towards the TikTok generation as to seem largely irrelevant to the majority of TV users. However, the Sero’s audio capabilities may do something to temper the aversion many TV consumers are likely feeling towards it.

Why’s that? The Sero TV features 60W speakers in a 4.1 surround sound configuration, far beyond the capabilities of the average home television, which usually sits at 10-20W in stereo for acceptable-but-uninspiring audio.

The Sero’s speakers are housed in its TV stand, with forward-firing drivers aimed right at the viewer. "When playing videos, games and music, The Sero’s speakers provide a vivid and clear sound because they are positioned to face front and deliver sound directly to listeners," says Chris Jo, head of products and operations at Samsung Electronics America's TV division.

You’re not getting Dolby Atmos support, so those after truly high-end audio will want to look at some Dolby Atmos speakers – or a set like the Samsung Q950TS QLED, which really goes above and beyond when it comes to sound output. But the speakers of the Sero still offer more than we might accept for what the TV is being angled for – namely, portrait videos.

Portrait artist

Mobile videos, such as those made and shared through TikTok and Snapchat, are rarely high-quality affairs. Although an increasing number of smartphones are able to record 4K video, built-in microphones for smartphones aren’t anywhere near the level of professional recording booths, let alone the premium audio mastering of blockbuster films.

TechRadar’s phones writer, Tom Bedford, tells us that, "While some expensive flagship smartphones have impressive mic recording capabilities – like the iPhone 11 and Samsung Galaxy S20 – the majority really don't.”

We’re told by Samsung that the Sero is “Geared toward younger users with an interest in viewing experiences such as the ones found on their mobile devices,” such as “social media content, streaming services and gaming”. 

We can’t imagine most smartphones being capable sources to cast high-resolution video or detailed audio – even with the Sero’s upscaling abilities – but the speaker setup is still pretty decent for general TV use, such as Netflix shows or movies from a 4K Blu-ray player.

It’s clear that Samsung’s range of designer TVs are more focused on being lifestyle products than purely AV devices – as we saw when we reviewed the original The Frame TV back in 2018. 

The Frame TV made a gorgeous piece of decor, even if its visuals weren’t overly up to scratch. But the QLED panel inserted into the 2019 Frame TV model, and the upmarket audio on offer in the Sero, shows that these sets are more than just pieces of furniture with screens. Whether you want them, though, is a matter entirely for you.

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Samsung Galaxy Watch Active deals: save on a cheap smartwatch this weekend

Posted: 14 Mar 2020 06:23 AM PDT

If you've been looking for a cheap smartwatch over the last few weeks, we've got some excellent Samsung Galaxy Watch Active deals that might just bring that search to an end. While the UK is some seeing price cuts on the two models available at the moment, US shoppers can take advantage of savings of up to $94 on an already cheap smartwatch. 

You can pick up the classic Samsung Galaxy Watch Active for just $137 this weekend  - a fantastic price considering they usually go for closer to $200. You'll find the same cheap smartwatch available for £169 in the UK, a smaller £30 saving but still a decent price for the all-in-one wrist piece. 

The original model is still a worthy contender in the smartwatch space, offering a plethora of fitness tracking options and fantastic smartphone integration not usually seen at this price point. However, if you're looking at these Samsung Galaxy Watch Active deals for a cheap fitness tracker, you might want to consider the later model. 

The Watch Active 2 offers improved sensors for fitness monitoring, as well as a wider variety of size options and a generally streamlined design. You'll find it available for just $205 / £249 at the moment thanks to these excellent savings. 

These US Samsung Galaxy Watch Active deals come from Microsoft and will run out on March 15th, so be sure to snag yours before the deadline to take advantage of some of the lowest prices we've seen yet. 

Today's best Samsung Galaxy Watch Active deals in the US

Today's best Samsung Galaxy Watch Active deals in the UK

We're tracking all the latest smartwatch deals to get you the best prices around. If you want to head directly to more Samsung Galaxy Watch Active sales we've got you covered, but we're also keeping an eye on the latest Apple Watch deals as well. 

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Daniel Craig's James Bond movies are serialized, but they don't fit together

Posted: 14 Mar 2020 06:00 AM PDT

There are two groups of people given to lengthy discussion about characters named Mr White: Reservoir Dogs fans, and the Double-0 division of MI6. All in all, when No Time To Die releases in November, Bond will have spent 14 years and five films tracing the steps and life story of the elusive Spectre lieutenant. Yet all but the most dedicated Bond nuts would struggle to remember anything about him beyond his favourite color. I wouldn’t imagine that his actor, Jesper Christensen, gets recognized a lot in the street.

You might say he’s emblematic of Spectre’s capacity to be everywhere yet unseen; that sounds like a line you might hear in one of the Craig-era Bond films. But really, it’s an indictment of just how flimsy and forgettable the larger arc of those movies has been. 

The idea was always exciting in principle – that each of Craig’s missions wouldn’t exist in isolation, but contribute to a slow build of intrigue, every villain part of a greater conspiracy conducted by the criminal organization that featured throughout Ian Fleming’s novels and the early Bond films of the ‘60s.

In reality this background plot has been inconsistently applied, like a slapdash paint job – sometimes clumping over otherwise smooth stretches of film, sometimes fading into nothing. It cannot truly hope to tie these movies together since, fundamentally, they don’t belong together. They might all star the same actor, but the Craig years have run the gamut tonally.

Casino Royale was wilfully ‘60s, from its analogue gadgets to the sweat that seemed to cling to Craig’s face in every other scene. Yet Quantum of Solace – the direct sequel which picked up events after just an hour had passed off-screen – was conspicuously contemporary. The wrongdoing at its centre saw an eco-philanthropist misuse funds to chop down forests and deprive desert-dwelling Bolivians of water – a very modern kind of evil. Viewed back to back, it’s as if the Cold War begins and ends in the space of four hours.

Where Solace globetrots breathlessly, the Sam Mendes movies that follow can’t wait to get back to London, exploring its strange underground spaces and exposing the Secret Intelligence Service building to long, mournful shots across the Thames. And while Casino Royale opens with grounded pugilism in a bathroom, the action under Mendes has tended towards the spectacle of the illogical: Bond driving a heavy-duty vehicle across a train, exposing his chest to depleted uranium bullets; Bond braining the pilot of a helicopter as it veers towards a crowded square in Mexico City; Bond chopping the wings off his plane so that he can plunge its nose into an SUV containing an innocent he’s sworn to protect.

Even the way Craig talks has changed since he donned that first tailored tux in Montenegro. Casino Royale, you’ll remember, was written as an implicit response to Bourne; its dialogue is taut, a reflection of Bond as a “blunt instrument”. Any wordplay is reserved for special events. “That last hand,” Craig deadpans when returning to the poker table after a poisoning, “nearly killed me.”

By Skyfall, he’s practically playing quip tennis with Moneypenny, knocking double-entendres back and forth as if they’re standard issue from the quartermaster. Innuendo? In-your-endo. That’s not a direct quote, but it probably made a draft.

Any lingering sense that Bond was ‘rebooted’ when Craig stepped aboard can be quickly picked apart; two thirds of Casino Royale’s writing team, Neal Purvis and Robert Wade, are the men who brought Die Another Day into the world. Director Martin Campbell was brought in as a safe pair of hands, having ushered Pierce Brosnan into the series a decade earlier. While Casino Royale succeeded in stripping away the bloat of the Brosnan era, it did so by returning to the same well.

These are not films of a kind, then, and moreover, serialization has not been kind to them. Spectre in particular suffers for its dedication to the cause, trawling through the history of the White family as if the viewer had accidentally agreed to sit through their holiday photos. When Blofeld claims to have been the author of all Bond’s pain, you suspect he’s self-published. Is it really so shocking that an MI6 agent has had numerous encounters with an organization that professes to control all crime? You might as well claim responsibility for making binmen’s hands dirty.

There’s no doubt that continuity has imbued some series with a powerful, slow-burn excitement. Avengers: Endgame became the highest-grossing movie of all time partly on its individual merits, and partly because it promised the conclusion to a story told across 22 films. But Marvel works at a different cadence to Bond; an overarching plot doesn’t necessarily benefit movies that can be four or five years apart. You’re probably not even living in the same property you inhabited during the release of Spectre. Being asked to remember what happened in Quantum of Solace feels more like a cruel reminder of mortality than the thrilling unfurling of an ongoing story.

Speaking of which, poor Craig was catapulted from the first kills of Bond’s career to dinosaur status in the space of just three films. He’s spent a full half of his tenure as an “old dog”, used as a vehicle to explore themes of legacy and redundancy. If his prime years ever happened, we didn’t see them.

What has worked as an anchor through the changing weather of the Craig years? In a word – and if an anchor isn’t too insensitive a metaphor, given her fate – Vesper. That trauma, and the convincing complexity that makes Bond both complicit and victim of her death, has lasted the years. Ultimately it turns out to be character, not plot, that can keep the flame burning in the fallow years between Bond films.

Lately, the series has been working to transform plot into character – the imprint of Spectre lives on in Madeleine, Mr White’s daughter, who represents a chance for Bond to resolve the “inconsolable rage” left in the wake of Hurricane Vesper. There’s hope that No Time To Die might connect in the same way Skyfall did: through matters of the heart.

In the long term, it’s better surely to celebrate the rare sense of occasion that comes with each Bond film; to treat each as an opportunity to remix the man and his situation, rather than the latest episode in a serial nobody can quite remember. Let’s see Spectre become a ghost, and Vesper live on.

Best Netflix movies

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Wales vs Scotland live stream: how to watch the Six Nations online today from anywhere

Posted: 14 Mar 2020 05:17 AM PDT

There may be only be pride at stake for both sides today, you can still expect a full-blooded encounter in Cardiff today - don't miss a moment of the rugby, no matter where you are in the world, with our guide. Here's how to watch a Wales vs Scotland live stream for the Six Nations 2020.

Home side Wales saw their slender hopes of defending the Six Nations title they won so spectacularly last year evaporate against England at Twickenham last Saturday. It was a third consecutive defeat for Warren Gatland's side and seems to indicate that some serious rebuilding work is needed if they're to reestablish themselves as one of the world's top teams.


While the Welsh rallied late on to score 14 points, that was largely off the back of their opponents being reduced to 13 men, so they'll likely be desperate to give a better account of themselves in front of a home crowd today.

It was a different story entirely for Scotland in the last round of fixtures. Gregor Townsend's men pulled off the shock of the Six Nations so far by wrecking France's Grand Slam hopes with a 28-17 win at Murrayfield - and in turn blowing the tournament wide open. The Scots clearly aren't content with just that result, however, and their starting line-up this week sees Magnus Bradbury, Stuart McInally and Sam Skinner shuffled in.

Today's showdown in Cardiff is the only match to have survived the coronavirus scare, so if you're a rugby fan in the UK, you'll no doubt be relived to hear it will be broadcast free-to-air by the BBC. Our guide explains how to watch the Six Nations  and find a reliable Wales vs Scotland live stream right now.

How to watch the Six Nations for free: Wales vs Scotland live stream details for the UK

How to live stream the Six Nations when you're not in your country

If you're abroad and outside of your home country, trying to live stream your regular native broadcaster's coverage of the Six Nations isn't likely to be possible, as the stream will be location restricted. Fear not, however, as you'll still be able to watch all the action by using a VPN. 

All you need to do is download and install the software or an app from one of the many VPN services out there that will spoof your computer into thinking that it's located home. This means you'll be able to enjoy your home coverage (so long as you comply with the broadcaster's TS&Cs), without having to hunt around dodgy websites for an illegal stream.

Wales vs Scotland live stream: how to watch the Six Nations in Australia

Live stream Wales vs Scotland in New Zealand

Watch Wales vs Scotland for free: live stream information for Canada 

usa

How to watch a Wales vs Scotland live stream online in the US

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LG OLED TV deals can save you a massive amount of cash on premium displays this weekend

Posted: 14 Mar 2020 05:16 AM PDT

If you want to take your weekend TV to a whole new level, we've got the best OLED TV deals to bring you premium displays for far less than their usual prices. That means you can save an eye-watering amount of money on a high-quality TV right now, with 55 and 65-inch models available for up to $700 / £1,200 off. 

The cheapest OLED TV deals we've found in the US this weekend start at just $1,296.99 for a 55-inch LG B9 model, with the UK seeing fantastic offers on this LG B8 OLED TV coming in at under £1,000. Of course, as you move up the price scale you'll start finding larger models with more powerful processors available for a little more, so whether you're looking for an entry model or a premium high-end display, you'll find the cheapest OLED TV deals right here. 

It's safe to say these TVs are the best of the best. OLED TVs are known for their powerful, high-contrast picture quality, achieved through using pixels that each emit their own light, rather than relying on a backlight to display an image - like regular LED models. Not only are LG OLED TVs some of the most visually spectacular displays you'll find on the market, but LG has also been leading the way in OLED TV deals recently as well.

Such high-end displays obviously carry the price tags to match, so if you're a little taken aback by those costs, you might want to take a look at the QLED TV deals we're featuring further down the page. You'll find prices starting at $697.99 in the US, with UK offers beginning at £499.

There are some fantastic LG OLED TV deals available below, but if you're after more you can check out the latest OLED TV sales right here on TechRadar. 

If those OLED TV deals are still looking a little pricey, you might find better luck with a Samsung QLED. QLEDs still rely on LED backlights rather than having individual pixels transmitting their own light, but they offer an extra layer of quality in their quantum dot color panels placed over the existing LED display. The result isn't as mind-blowing as an OLED, but it still offers a competitive advantage of a standard 4K TV. We've spotted some fantastic QLED TV deals in both the US and the UK this weekend. 

QLED TV deals in the US

QLED TV deals in the UK

Fancy taking a look at some other brands? We're always keeping an eye on the best OLED TV deals around, but if you're looking for something a little cheaper you'll also find plenty of 4K TV deals available right now. 

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Disney Plus UK: 5 major highlights from the launch line-up

Posted: 14 Mar 2020 05:00 AM PDT

There's just over a week until the £10 off pre-order deal for Disney Plus UK expires and the service finally releases on March 24. Is it worth getting? Well, we've used the service extensively since it launched in the US, and for £49.99, which is the price of a new game, it's pretty decent for what it is. The cadence of original shows is slower than we would like, but the archive of content is unbeatable if you love Disney or one of the many things it owns, like Marvel or Pixar.

The app is really nice to use, too, with grouped content and age restrictions if you don't want your children watching The Simpsons episode where Frank Grimes electrocutes himself. 

For most adults, Disney Plus UK won't be their number one streaming service, as the content range is too age-limited. But if you've got children, it's perfect, and the incoming Marvel shows and second season of The Mandalorian means there's plenty to look forward to during year one for everyone. Below, we've rounded up five reasons you should be excited about the launch line-up. 

1. A surprising number of X-Men movies

Fox's X-Men movies didn't arrive on Disney Plus in the US on day one, so it was a nice surprise to learn that two Wolverine movies, the original X-Men trilogy and Days of Future Past will all be there at launch. Only X-Men: Apocalypse, Dark Phoenix and First Class are missing, along with mature movies like Deadpool and Logan. 

2. All of The Simpsons (obviously)

The Simpsons

It was looking precarious, there, but Disney UK confirmed late in the game that it'd have 30 seasons of The Simpsons to watch on day one. The best years of the show are undoubtedly seasons 2-10, but it'll sure be an adventure to stream all of those other episodes over the next few months. 

3. More Marvel movies than Disney Plus US 

Disney Plus in the US is still yet to get the Marvel movies Avengers: Infinity War and Ant-Man and the Wasp, but in the UK we'll get those films on day one, along with most of the MCU. The missing movies belong to other studios: the two Tom Holland Spider-Man movies and The Incredible Hulk. 

4. Marvel TV worth checking out

The Runaways is one of the better Marvel TV series, having recently wrapped up its three-season run on Hulu in the US. The first two seasons will be available to stream at launch. Both seasons of Agent Carter are worth checking out, too, and it's the only show that really connects to the continuity of the movies, with Jarvis (James D'Arcy) later appearing in Avengers: Infinity War. 

5. Classic animated series

Your appetite for classic kids TV is probably a lot smaller than you think it is, but the Spider-Man and X-Men series from the '90s are legit, and both on Disney Plus at launch. You're more likely to enjoy those in 2020 than the likes of the Gummi Bears, but Recess and Disney's Doug are still worth checking out. 

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Windows 10 sucks – can Linux save us all?

Posted: 14 Mar 2020 05:00 AM PDT

Sigh. You know, Windows 10 used to be great. Maybe it was because Microsoft could have released almost anything after Windows 8 and it would seem brilliant in comparison, but at the time it seemed like the new operating system had fixed almost all its predecessor’s problems.

No longer did Microsoft force its ugly Metro interface on us, insisting on a big and ugly touch-screen interface for people who don’t have touchscreens. Instead, the good old Start menu was back!

And, while Windows 8 felt like a bloated piece of software that struggled to run on PCs that matched its minimum system requirements, Windows 10 felt like Microsoft had actually tried to make a piece of software that could run on older, or less powerful PCs.

While Microsoft will probably never release a lightweight operating system to compete with the likes of Chrome OS, many of us were pleasantly surprised with how well Windows 10 ran on its minimum specifications. It wasn’t perfect, but it was better than Windows 8.

So, what happened? Why is Windows 10 now such a mess? Recently, Microsoft has released update after update that appear to break more things than they fix. Then, when Microsoft scrambles to release a fix for those new problems, it seems like it introduces even more.

Many of those new problems even result in the notorious Blue Screen of Death. This error screen was once so widespread in earlier versions of Windows, it became iconic. Thought you’d finally seen the last of it with Windows 10? Well, it’s back. With a vengeance.

Now, Windows 10 has such a big install base, that even with plenty of reports of problems, for the majority of users, Windows 10 still works fine. And that’s a lot of people.

However, even if you’ve not been affected by a dodgy Windows 10 update, the steady stream of news about people who have been affected, and are now staring despondently at a blue screen, can’t help but lessen your confidence in Windows 10. Sure, it works for you now. But is it just a matter of time before Microsoft breaks your PC?

What can you do?

So, what can you do? Stopping Windows 10 from updating is a decent short-term fix. It means you can pause the updates from installing, wait to see if there are any reported problems (and going by Microsoft’s track record, there will be), and then decide whether or not to install it once you’re confident that it won’t impact your PC.

We explain how to stop a Windows 10 update, which takes you through the process. However, stopping Windows 10 updates should only be temporary. Most of the time, these updates include important security fixes, so you don’t want to run an unpatched operating system for too long.

So, maybe it’s time for a more drastic change. Maybe it’s time to leave Windows 10 behind.

Is Linux the answer?

One of the easiest ways to ditch Windows 10 is to get a new MacBook or Mac, which runs macOS, or a Chromebook, which runs Chrome OS.

That, of course, is a pricey option. However, if you want to keep your exciting PC or laptop and move away from Windows, then it’s time to seriously consider Linux.

Linux is an open-source operating system, and it’s incredibly popular. It’s free to download and install (apart from some versions that are for enterprise users) and it runs on any PC that can run Windows 10. In fact, due to it being more lightweight than Windows 10, you should find it runs better than Windows 10.

Perhaps best of all, Linux comes in a wide variety of shapes and sizes. Called distributions, or distros, these different spins of Linux are aimed at different people. There are hardcore distros for Linux experts, as well as beginner distros, and ones that are built for running on old and underpowered hardware.

If you’re new to Linux, then Ubuntu and Mint are the distros to check out, as they are extremely easy to use. Mint in particular is good for Windows migrants as it has a user interface that’s very similar to Windows 10, so you’ll feel right at home.

Thanks to the popularity of Linux, many programs (and an increasing number of games) you use in Windows 10 will have Linux versions. And if not, there are plenty of excellent alternatives. While Microsoft Office doesn’t run on Linux, LibreOffice is a great (free) alternative, for example.

There’s also projects like WINE (Wine Is Not an Emulator) which let you run Windows 10 apps within Linux.

So, there’s plenty of reasons to switch to Linux if Windows 10 is bugging you. While it’s not ideal having to switch operating systems, if Microsoft keeps breaking Windows 10, it will leave many people with no other option – and that may in turn may shock the company into sorting out its mess.

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The Pixel 5 may not have the flagship processor we were expecting

Posted: 14 Mar 2020 05:00 AM PDT

Apart from the Pixel 3a mid-rangers, every time Google has pushed out a Pixel phone, it's arrived with the best available Qualcomm chip fitted inside – but there are signs that the Pixel 5 isn't going to follow that trend.

9to5Google did a bit of digging into unreleased code for the Google Camera app, and found that the Pixel 5 and Pixel 5 XL are most likely referred to as Redfin and Bramble inside Google's apps.

Those are the Redfin and Bramble devices that have previously been linked to the Snapdragon 765G processor from Qualcomm: no slouch in the performance department, but not as speedy as the top-end Snapdragon 865.

This is all speculation and informed guesswork for now, but the suggestion is that the Pixel 5 might be positioned as a more affordable flagship phone, as Google looks to undercut the premium handsets offered by Samsung and Apple.

Specs appeal

Google already makes mid-range versions of the Pixels of course. We're expecting the Pixel 4a to arrive around May time, and that will have its own mid-range processor on board – perhaps the Snapdragon 730.

That would potentially make the Pixel 4a and the Pixel 5 a lot closer in terms of performance, though there may be differences in terms of the camera setup and the other features on board.

At this stage it's too early to be sure what spec the Pixel 5 is going to rock up with, or to know precisely why Google might go for a less-than-top-end CPU inside – though cutting costs would be an obvious reason.

Expect to hear more about both the Pixel 4a and the Pixel 5 in the coming months, when hopefully we'll get a bit more clarity about what to expect.

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Surprise! Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker has released early on digital download

Posted: 14 Mar 2020 04:14 AM PDT

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is now available to buy digitally in the US, releasing several days before its intended 17 March release date. This mirrors the fact that Disney is releasing Frozen 2 on Disney Plus on Sunday, three months earlier than planned. It arrives as a lot of people across the world are spending more of their weekends indoors. Amazon has it to buy right now for $19.99. 

There's no word on whether other territories will get The Rise of Skywalker early, but it seems unlikely, since the UK is scheduled to get Episode 9 a lot later on, from 13 April. If you decided not to catch the movie after its mostly middling reviews, this is a pretty good opportunity to complete the Disney trilogy, although it'll come to Disney Plus later in the year as well if you can wait. 

There's no official announcement to mark this release, unlike Frozen 2, which Disney revealed on all major channels. 

What other Star Wars stuff can you enjoy this weekend?

The seventh and final season of The Clone Wars is ongoing right now on Disney Plus, plus it's got every previous season to stream, as well as fellow CG-animated Star Wars series Rebels. If you missed last year's Jedi Fallen Order game, that's a movie-quality slice of Star Wars storytelling, wrapped around a Dark Souls lite-style game.

Otherwise, you'll find a payload of older Star Wars games on stores like Steam and GOG on PC. There's as much Star Wars to enjoy as you can handle, basically.

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Canon EOS R5: everything we know so far about the new mirrorless marvel

Posted: 14 Mar 2020 04:00 AM PDT

Updated 2/3/20: We've updated this page with some fresh rumors about the Canon EOS R5's card slots and some extra conclusions from its appearance at the recent WPPI Expo in Las Vegas. 

The Canon EOS R5 is what happens when Canon fully releases the handbrake on its flagship mirrorless cameras. A full-frame mirrorless powerhouse with unprecedented power, the EOS R5 is only a development announcement for now, but the picture is slowly becoming clearer as we get closer to its expected launch in Summer 2020.

When the first rumors of a high-end EOS R series camera appeared, it was though the snapper might feature a high resolution sensor of either 75MP or even 83MP.

While we still have no official word on the sensor resolution, Canon has revealed some important details, including the fact that the EOS R5 will be its first camera with in-body image stabilization (IBIS).

Features like this suggest Canon is finally going all-out on its mirrorless camera tech, and it's about time. While the EOS R and the EOS RP were great cameras on their own, they did disappoint when compared to the competition from the Nikon Z7 and the Z6, as well as from Panasonic's Lumix S1 and Lumix S1R. From what little Canon has revealed so far, it seems like the EOS R5 will outdo all the competition, giving us the impression that the Japanese camera maker is fighting hard to please its fans.

And if the Canon EOS 1D X Mark III is anything to go by, the company is out to prove it can still innovate and compete. That brings us to to the EOS R5, which has all the hallmarks of potentially being the most powerful full-frame mirrorless camera so far.

Canon EOS R5

The EOS R5 development announcement was but a tease and there's a lot we don't know about the upcoming shooter, but this is the first time we've got official confirmation of some of its specs.

So, what do we know for sure and what can we expect from the new mirrorless marvel?

EOS R5: pricing and availability

One of the big gaps that was in Canon's EOS R5 development announcement was the price tag the upcoming camera might carry, or even when we might expect to lay our hands on it. 

The cancelled CP+ photography show in late February didn't give us any more updates on this, but Canon Rumors is confident the EOS R5 will begin shipping before the Summer Olympics, which start on July 24.

This fits some previous rumors that pointed to a possible release date sometime in July 2020. It's also possible we might be more information during The Photography Show, which starts on 14 March, after Canon confirmed that the camera would be making its first UK appearance at the show.

While that might seem like a long wait, it's pretty much in line with what Canon did with the EOS 1DX Mark III – the official development announcement was made in October 2019 with shipping of the camera having begun only in February 2020.

As for the price tag, we can only presume it would be competing with the 45.7MP Nikon Z7, or perhaps even the 61MP Sony Alpha A7R IV. If that's the case, be prepared to shell out something well over the $3,500 / £3,500 / AU$4,500 mark.

EOS R5: design

Since Canon shared a small image of the EOS R5 with the development announcement we've seen several real-world shots of the camera, following its recent appearance at the WPPI Expo in Las Vegas.

Japanese publication DC.Watch also managed to get their hands on a whole load of press shots as well, giving us an almost complete look at the camera from all angles.

It's pretty clear the camera will closely resemble the original EOS R physically, though there will be a few differences. The contentious multi-function bar on the back of the camera doesn't appear to have made the leap to the new camera – instead, it'll have a more traditional scroll wheel.

Talking about the button layout on the rear – we were curious to see whether the Smart Controller introduced in the EOS 1DX Mark III (to speed up focus point selection) had made its way to the R5, but the joystick on the rear appears to be a standard one and not the touch-sensitive option. If the Smart Controller has been left out, we think that's a shame as we thought it was a brilliant bit of innovation from Canon.

Otherwise, the EOS R5 appears to have a pretty deep grip, which will be useful when using it with longer lenses like the incoming Canon RF 100-500mm, and the same top-plate controls as the EOS R with a model dial and secondary display for quickly checking your settings. 

Rumors also suggest that the R5 will use a brand-new, larger capacity battery but whether that will affect the overall size of the camera is as yet unclear.

EOS R5: sensor and processor

Canon has kept the sensor resolution of the EOS R5 a closely guarded secret but rumors do suggest it will be 45MP. All we know for sure, though, is that Canon is going to use a "newly designed CMOS sensor" in the new shooter.

We also know for sure that the camera is capable of 8K video capture (more on that later), meaning the camera would require a sensor with 7680 x 5120 pixels. That puts the sensor's resolution in the 40MP ballpark. We'll have to wait and see, though.

While we have no idea about the EOS R5's autofocus system, Canon has confirmed that the upcoming camera will be capable of shooting stills at 12fps bursts when using the mechanical shutter, while matching the EOS 1D X Mark III's 20fps continuous shooting speed when using the silent shutter or shooting in Live View. That's a pretty speedy camera, making it faster than the Sony Alpha A7R IV's 10fps burst speed and the Nikon Z7's 9fps, and quick enough to be used for sports and wildlife photography.

We're expecting the EOS R5 to make use of the new Digic X processor that debuted in the pro sports DSLR recently, although we'll have to wait for confirmation from Canon on that regard.

EOS R5: video specs

This is the headline act: Canon has confirmed that the EOS R5 will be able to capture 8K video. This is the first time such high resolution recording ability has made its way to a consumer-level snapper (matching the newly-announced Samsung Galaxy S20's video prowess), while it's already available on some of Canon's premium cine cameras.

According to Canon, having the ability to shoot in 8K will allow users to extract oversampled 4K video and "extract high-resolution still images from video footage".

We still don't know whether the camera will be able to capture 8K RAW footage, though, and whether there will be a crop factor to take into consideration, or whether it will be able to capture it in 10-bit 4:2:2 color gamut, but this puts the Canon EOS R5 firmly in competition with the Panasonic Lumix S1H which tops out at 6K video.

The adoption of 8K video capture might indicate a sea change happening at Canon. Where it was one of the last camera makers to make 4K recording the norm in its consumer-level shooters, it's the first one to adopt super-high resolutions for movies, although we're not expecting it to become standard on all consumer cameras any time soon.

Frame rates are also an unknown at the moment, but previous reports claim the EOS R5 should be able to capture 8K at 30fps and 4K at up to 120fps.

The processing power that will be required to record 8K movies would generate a huge amount heat though, and it's as yet unclear how the R5 will handle this. From the images we've seen, there doesn't appear to be a heatsink built in, like the one on the Lumix S1H.

EOS R5: image stabilization

Canon has, historically, shied away from adding in-body image stabilization (IBIS) to its cameras, relying on lenses that have in-built stability. Which makes the R5 unique as Canon has announced that the new camera will come equipped with IBIS that "will work in combination with the lens stabilization system" when using glass that comes with built-in stability.

Canon Rumors reported in January that the R5's IBIS would lend 5 stops of stability on its own, but would get bumped to "7-8 stops of correction when used with in-lens stabilization". If true, that would make handheld shooting with the R5 a dream and we can't wait to try it out for ourselves.

EOS R5: connectivity

With both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth available in pretty much every modern camera, the R5 will definitely have both on board, with rumors suggesting the snapper will support 5GHz Wi-Fi for faster transfer speeds. We’re unsure whether the R5 will support just 5GHz wireless or whether, like the Sony Alpha A9 II, it will support both 2.4GHz and 5GHz – having both might appeal to the pros still hanging on to older gear.

While we don't even know if Canon will employ the latest Bluetooth 5.1 standard for wireless connectivity, the company has announced that users will be able to upload images in original resolution and quality directly to Canon's new Image.Canon cloud platform that will be available starting April 2020.

The EOS R5 will also feature dual card slots, although whether they'll both support high-speed SD cards or CFExpress like the EOS 1D X Mark III is anyone's guess. A recent bit of speculation from Canon Rumors, though, suggests that the EOS R5 will have an CFExpress and SD (UHS II) slot. This means you get the option of the lightning fast data transfer speeds of CFExpress, but aren't forced to exclusively use those very pricey cards for less demanding shooting.

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Shutter lag: all the cameras that are delayed by coronavirus, from Canon to Nikon

Posted: 14 Mar 2020 04:00 AM PDT

In the growing list of things affected by the coronavirus, camera launches are way down the priority list – and yet, for photography fans, delays to new models can mean radically reassessing their plans for a hobby (or career) that provides much-needed light relief in trying times.   

So what new cameras from the likes of Nikon, Canon and Sony have been delayed in 2020? And what will the knock-on effects be for an industry that has already been dealing with the effects of shrinking by around 84% since 2010?

Of course, it's still a bit too early to be conclusive about the long-term effects on the photography world. And equally, many of this year's new cameras (for example, the Fujifilm X100V) are far enough into their manufacturing cycle to be already shipping in good numbers. 

But for anyone who has been patiently waiting to upgrade to a particular camera, or perhaps buy their first serious smartphone step-up, here are all of the confirmed and rumored delays to 2020's major camera launches so far...

Nikon D6

  • Pro sports DSLR has officially been delayed until May 2020
  • Nikon promises to "closely monitor" the situation

One of the few cameras to officially confirm that it's been delayed by the coronavirus, the Nikon D6 will now be released in May 2020, two months later than planned.

Naturally, that new date is far from confirmed either – Nikon added that it will "continue to closely monitor the situation and do our utmost to deliver this new camera as soon as possible".

The race against time is a little more urgent for the Nikon D6 than other cameras because it's been designed for pro sports photographers who were hoping to use it at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Then again, it's quite possible that the Games will be delayed too, with a meeting due to take place in April to decide on that.

For Nikon, there's the added issue that the D6's main rival, the Canon 1DX Mark III, is already out there in the hands of professionals and available for pre-order (albeit without a confirmed shipping date). But right now, it's still expected to arrive in time for early summer and the Olympic Games.

Canon EOS R5

Canon EOS R5

  • Rumors suggest the incoming pro mirrorless camera has big supply shortages
  • Canon could either delay the announcement or postpone shipping 

Arguably the most exciting new camera of the year so far, the Canon EOS R5 could be delayed significantly, according to a report from Canon Rumors. Production of the EOS R5 is apparently only running at 25% capacity, due to supply shortages in China and factory closures in Japan.

If true, this would leave Canon with the decision to either delay the official announcement of the camera – which is currently expected to happen in June/July – or postpone the shipping date until later in 2020. According to Canon Rumors, this could be as far back as October 2020, but right now this just hearsay.

As if to pre-empt a possible delay, Canon has started drip-feeding some more details about this exciting camera. It's confirmed that the EOS R5 will definitely shoot 30fps 8K video using the full width of the sensor, and that its excellent Dual Pixel CMOS autofocus system will be available in all 8K modes.

The mirrorless trailblazer will also have Animal AF too, which means it'll be able recognize dogs, cats and birds and lock focus onto them. In fact, everything we know about it so far suggests it'll be more than worth the (extended) wait.

Fujifilm X-T4

Fujifilm X-T4

  • Fujifilm Russia has said that X-T4 shipping will be delayed by a month
  • But there's no official news on whether this will be the case for other markets

The Fujifilm X-T4, which is shaping up to be one of the best mirrorless all-rounders you can buy, is officially due to start shipping in "late Spring". But the latest rumors suggest that estimate could be pushed the limit.

Fujifilm Russia posted on its Facebook page that "the official start of sales of the Fujifilm X-T4 is postponed to a later date, from April 2020 to May 2020". It also warned about a possible price increase, due to "volatility in the foreign exchange market".

Neither of these things necessarily apply to the US, UK or Australian markets, though, and the last official word we heard from Fujifilm was that nothing has changed from the original "late Spring" shipping estimate.

It would be a little surprising if the X-T4 was able to completely escape the knock-on effects of the coronavirus, so those who are particularly keen might want to consider pre-ordering soon. 

But in general, our advice would be to wait for our full review, or consider the tried-and-tested Fujifilm X-T3 if you don't need the X-T4's new features, like in-body image stabilization (IBIS).

Sony A7 IV

Sony A7 IV

  • Long-rumored camera was expected to arrive in February 2020
  • A separate rumor claims all new Sony Alpha cameras will be delayed this year 

A successor to the Sony A7 III, one of the best full-frame mirrorless cameras we've tested, was strongly rumored to be announced at Japans's CP+ show in February 2020. That event was ultimately cancelled, and our hopes of seeing an A7 IV soon evaporated with it.

Since then, the Sony rumor mill has ground to something of a halt, at least when it comes to new camera bodies. And a source told Sony Alpha Rumors that all forthcoming Sony Alpha cameras – which could also include the mythical Sony A7S III – will be "very delayed, along with much lower capacity in production volumes for many of their current imaging products", due to the impact of the coronavirus.

Sony has just announced that it will be holding a press conference on April 20, but this is simply a livestream of a conference that was originally planned for the now cancelled NAB 2020 show.

This means we're unlikely to get any major camera news there, unless Sony makes a development announcement in the similar vein to the one Canon made for its EOS R5. Which means the wait for a Sony A7 IV, or Sony A7S III, could well continue into mid-2020 at the earliest.

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Android malware steals cookies to hijack social media accounts

Posted: 14 Mar 2020 03:22 AM PDT

Researchers at Kaspesky have discovered two new Android malware modifications that, when combined, can steal cookies collected by user's browsers and social media apps to allow an attacker to discreetly gain control over a victim's accounts.

Cookies are small pieces of data collected by websites in order to track a user's activity online to create personalized experiences in the future. In the wrong hands though, they can pose a security risk because cookies use a unique session ID that identifies users without requiring a password or login.

Once in possession of a user's ID, attackers can trick websites into thinking that they are that person and take control of their account. This is exactly what these two new Trojans with similar coding controlled by the same command and control (C&C) server do.

Stealing cookies

The first Trojan acquires root rights on a victim's device and this allows an attacker to transfer cookies from Facebook to their own servers. However, simply having a user's ID number is not enough to take control of an account in some circumstances. For instance, some websites have security measures in place that prevent suspicious log-in attempts.

This is where the second Trojan comes into play as it is a malicious app which can run a proxy server on a victim's device to bypass security measures to gain access without arousing suspicion. This allows an attacker to pose as the victim and take control of their social networking accounts to distribute undesirable content.

At this time, the aim of the cybercriminals stealing user's cookies is unknown but a page uncovered on the same C&C server may provide a hint. The page advertises services for distributing spam on social networks and messengers which means that attackers could be looking for account access as a means to launch widespread spam and phishing attacks.

Malware analyst at Kaspersky, Igor Golovin explained in a press release that while new, this threat will likely continue to grow, saying:

“By combining two attacks, the cookie thieves discovered a way to gain control over their victims’ accounts without arousing suspicions. While this is a relatively new threat—so far, only about 1000 individuals have been targeted—that number is growing and will most likely continue to do so, particularly since it’s so hard for websites to detect. Even though we typically don’t pay attention to cookies when we’re surfing the web, they’re still another means of processing our personal information, and anytime data about us is collected online, we need to pay attention.”

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Intel’s Core i3-10100 could be the best value gaming CPU ever made

Posted: 14 Mar 2020 02:50 AM PDT

Intel’s 10th-gen Comet Lake desktop CPUs are hopefully set to arrive soon (although we might still be waiting until June) and it’s possible that the minnow of the next-gen range could make the biggest impact in some ways – as an incredibly tempting budget gaming processor.

The Core i3-10100 might sit at the bottom of Comet Lake’s CPU hierarchy, but going by a leak from the SiSoft Sandra database (highlighted by the eagle-eyed Tum_Apisak once again), this chip is actually specced similarly to the Core i7-6700K – a much-respected and still excellent processor for gaming.

As PC GamesN, which spotted this tweet, points out, the respective specs are very similar – both the i3-10100 and i7-6700K are quad-core and eight-thread chips, with the former having a base clock of 3.6GHz and boost to 4.3GHz, assuming this leak is correct of course.

That compares to a boost of 4.2GHz for the 6700K, so you’re actually getting more juice potentially with the Comet Lake i3 offering, although the older Skylake chip has a higher base clock (4GHz).

As one of the people commenting on the tweet put it, they are crying into their i7-7700K, even.

The real point here is that Intel’s i7-6700K was released at an asking price of $350 (back in 2015), and while we obviously don’t know what price the Core i3-10100 will carry, the prospect is that it will be excitingly low compared to that figure.

Indeed, it’s likely to be around a third of the cost, and probably pitched at the $120 mark (given that the Core i3-9100 has an official asking price of $122). Maybe – just maybe – it could even sneak in slightly lower than that, given the pressure Intel is now under from AMD’s incredibly successful Ryzen 3000 processors (with Ryzen 4000 offerings now on the horizon to boot).

Budget assault

Intel needs to do something, and alongside the flagship 10-core Comet Lake offering at the high-end, perhaps its strategy is kind of a pincer movement with the Core i3-10100 providing a compelling assault at the other end – the budget sector of the desktop CPU market.

Exciting processor times indeed, although there are some caveats, including that upgraders will need to bear in mind that they’ll require a new motherboard (with an LGA 1200 socket) for compatibility with the Comet Lake processors.

Also, while quad-core processors remain a fine proposition for many games, there are titles out there which demand more than four cores ideally, and a good deal of gamers are looking for multi-core specifications way in excess of four because of that. From a future-proofing perspective, quad-core obviously isn’t ideal either.

Remember, though, this is a budget gaming CPU, and for just over a hundred bucks, what do you expect? At that price level, if these rumored specs are on the money, Intel could be pushing out a storming and affordable processor for those who want to build a cheap gaming PC that doesn't suck.

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Surprise! Frozen 2 is coming to Disney Plus this weekend

Posted: 14 Mar 2020 01:24 AM PDT

Update: Disney will now release Frozen 2 this coming Sunday, March 15 on Disney Plus in the US. In Australia, you'll be able to watch it on Tuesday March 17. Grab a free Disney Plus trial here if you haven't given the service a go yet.


Original story: Frozen 2 is coming to Disney Plus in the US on June 26, according to a new listing on the streaming service. This update was spotted by user jonnyslats on the Disney Plus subreddit, and it means that only two of Disney's big movies from 2019 lack release dates on the service now – Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker and Maleficent: Mistress of Evil.

On Disney Plus Australia, the listing page says Frozen 2 is coming on July 31. Since Disney Plus UK hasn't launched yet, we're unsure when the film will, ahem, show itself on the UK version of the service.

Over the last few months, Disney Plus has kept things ticking along with a mix of big movies from 2019 and the slow trickle of films arriving from other services as licensing agreements expire. Since January, the live-action versions of The Lion King and Aladdin have released on the service, as have notably-missing movies such as Black Panther.

Frozen 2 will likely be a massive draw for the streaming service: it was the third highest-grossing film of 2019 at $1.449 billion, only behind two other Disney films, Avengers: Endgame and The Lion King. Frozen 2 was released on digital home video on February 25 – so the waiting time for it to land on Disney Plus is almost exactly four months. 

What's worth watching in the meantime?

While Disney Plus continues to have new originals like Diary of a Future President, the movie Timmy Failure and the last season of The Clone Wars, its biggest originals are coming later in the year. The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (August), The Mandalorian season 2 (October) and WandaVision (December) are still a little while away.

That's a long wait, but Disney Plus remains pretty good value at a flat $6.99 / £5.99 / AU$8.99 a month or $69.99 / £59.99 / AU$89.99 a year, particularly if you have children. They should really get around to fixing The Simpsons' aspect ratio, though. 

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