Thursday, March 19, 2020

Apple : Elon Musk says Tesla will make ventilators if supplies run low

Apple : Elon Musk says Tesla will make ventilators if supplies run low

Elon Musk says Tesla will make ventilators if supplies run low

Posted: 19 Mar 2020 01:28 PM PDT

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has said that his company has the ability to produce ventilators if US hospitals run into a shortage of breathing aids as a result of the ongoing coronavirus outbreak.

When a Tesla owner reached out to Musk on Twitter asking him to repurpose the automaker's factories to make ventilators, he responded saying he would if there is a shortage, saying:

"Ventilators are not difficult, but cannot be produced instantly. Which hospitals have these shortages you speak of right now?" 

According to NBC, the American Hospital Association recently warned that there are limited supplies of ventilators while also urging the public to practice social distancing.

Essential businesses

While Musk has said that Tesla's factories could be repurposed to make ventilators if there is a shortage, the factories are still running despite the shutdown to meet consumer demand for its electric vehicles.

However, the company was recently told by the Alameda County Sheriff that its auto business is not an “essential business” such as grocery stores or hospitals. Tesla will be allowed to maintain “minimum based operations per the Alameda County Health order” though.

BuzzFeed News also reported that the company is allowed to operate with a quarter of its usual workforce during the coronavirus outbreak. In an effort to help workers practice social distancing, Tesla's Fremont, California facility will temporarily reduce its workforce from 10,000 to 2,500 people.

If the situation in the US deteriorates further, expect other businesses to be called upon to help out with the government's efforts to curb the spread of the coronavirus.

Via ZDNet

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Exercise at home with deals on treadmills, indoor cycling bikes, weights and more

Posted: 19 Mar 2020 01:26 PM PDT

The coronavirus pandemic is affecting people all over the world, and as a result, gyms and workout studios are closing their doors among safety concerns. If you're worried about staying in shape, then building at a home gym and exercising from home can be a temporary solution.

Luckily for you, several top retailers like Amazon, Walmart, and Best Buy are discounting a selection of workout equipment which include treadmills, indoor cycling bikes, weights, yoga mats, and more.

Our top home exercise deals include discounts on stationary bikes like the NordicTrack GX 4.7 on sale for $379 and the Schwinn Upright Bike Series on sale for $199.99. Perfect for small spaces, Amazon has the OppsDecor Folding Treadmill on sale for $259.99 and a $49 price cut on the XTERRA Fitness TR150 Folding Treadmill. You can also find bargains on workout accessories like a set of dumbells on sale for just $25.18 and the Life Energy yoga mat on sale for $29.98.

Shop more at home exercise equipment below and keep in mind, these discounts are limited-time offers so you should take advantage now before it's too late.

The best home exercise deals: 

You can also see our roundup of our top working from home essentials.

Need a movie with your meal? You can see our list of the best Netflix movies: 21 amazing films you should watch in March 2020 and the best Netflix documentaries.

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New to remote working? Take a lesson from the gig

Posted: 19 Mar 2020 01:00 PM PDT

As world events push employees towards a remote working model, people are looking to technology to help bridge the gap between day to day communication and business operations. The coronavirus crisis is triggering a new way of working entirely, but for some workforces, it doesn’t necessarily come naturally. 

For businesses that rely on gig workers, remote working has been a way of life for some time. Think beyond Uber and Deliveroo: gig workers cover a huge variety of occupations, including graphic designers, web developers, copywriters, and the thousands of customer support workers supporting brands globally. Businesses have been employing these people, on demand, to provide remote support for many years. Between the technology they use and the methodologies they put in place, businesses that are fuelled by gig workers can teach the new generation of remote workers a thing or two about what it takes to make remote working a success. 

The following is business advice from the front line of the gig.

Be proactive and adapt your customer support

Managing customer expectations is critical in times of serious disruption, and most people are aware that there are some reductions in service out of their control. However, those organisations which can operate with this highest level of business continuity will naturally see less long-term impact on their bottom line. Adaptability and a willingness to adopt new ways of working to ensure business continuity is key. 

By now, many, many companies have already moved their current workforce to remote working due to self or forced isolation, and this includes customer support. However, the way we think about customer support, as well as the technology we use to provide it needs to change. 

Firstly, communicate to your customers on how you are redesigning support, so their expectations are being managed at all times. Secondly, it’s essential to make sure your customer support staff are prioritising their workload and deprioritising tasks that are not business critical. Look to your technology to make sure support tickets are being ordered according to these priority levels. 

If you have a platform in place, can your workers access it easily from home, and securely?  And can you provide continued support if your workforce has reduced capacity due to illness?

This may be a time to consider moving entirely to digital support through chat or messaging, providing 24-7 digital support through gig workers. This may be well received compared to fragmented telephone support with long wait times. During longer periods of isolation, some businesses may experience an increased demand, which will mean an increase in customer service queries. So, ramping up customer service capacity and getting the right technology in place is a business operation improvement.

Get savvy with online engagement

Online engagement skills are essential: most gig workers may never meet their managers, but they need to feel close to the businesses they support to be successful. Providing them with instantaneous support and all the tools and coaching they need to do their jobs to the best of their ability is critical. Personalising the engagement is key, don’t just send long one-way memos, build out a way for them to engage in conversation in a scalable way. 

Do you have a knowledge base and the ability to add and answer frequently asked questions? This may be made available via collaboration tools. It will be a cornerstone of ensuring that a majority-remote workforce feels connected, rather than a loose group of workers.

Gamify

Managers in the gig economy know that they need to keep remote workers incentivised in order to retain them. This is often done via gamification, which usually involves creating status levels to promote progression, or rewards. 

Gamification can also be used in social media sharing tools, and employee engagement platforms. These platforms can also be used to amplify messages of how you are supporting your employees and customers. It’s critical that brands are seen to do the right thing by all their stakeholders, and those that do that well will weather the storm.

Stay connected

One of the most difficult parts of managing a gig workforce is making remote workers feel valued. I’ve long believed that the best way to make remote workers feel valued is to connect them. For example, there are gig customer service platforms, which enable the customer to provide instant feedback on their experience with the gig worker. This “thank you” has an incredible effect and really spurs gig workers on to continue providing amazing service. 

By putting similar technology and measures in place, businesses may find that they adapt well to having a remote workforce, and that remote working becomes part of a new operational model going forward, particularly surrounding customer support. With the gig customer service economy flourishing, there are plenty of great examples to go by, and as we navigate uncertain times, plenty of potential to improve the way we work, communicate with each other and serve our customers. 

Megan Neale is COO and Co-founder of Limitless

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Xbox Series X to harness the power of Direct X 12 Ultimate ray tracing

Posted: 19 Mar 2020 12:31 PM PDT

Microsoft and Nvidia have announced DirectX 12 Ultimate, a new application programming interface (API) that will bring next-gen graphics features to Windows 10 PCs and the Xbox Series X.

Shown off during a virtual GDC 2020 press conference on Thursday, DirectX 12 Ultimate – which Microsoft is touting as “the culmination of 25 years of work on DirectX”, is the first universal graphics API designed to work across consoles and PCs and aims to bring "unprecedented alignment" between Windows 10 and Xbox Series X gaming.



Its headline feature is DirectX Ray Tracing 1.1, which has been built by Nvidia in conjunction with Microsoft and AMD. This upgrade to ray tracing rendering will bring better lighting, reflection, and shadow effects to a greater number of future games. It's also slated to make a number of current games look better, with Minecraft listed as one of the big-name examples.

“Scenarios with many complex shaders will run better with dynamic-shader-based ray tracing, as opposed to using massive inline ray tracing uber-shaders,” writes Microsoft. “Meanwhile, scenarios that have a minimal shading complexity and/or very few shaders will run better with inline ray tracing.”

DirectX 12 Ultimate also includes mesh shaders, which enables the GPU to control how it manages the level-of-detail, along with sampler feedback to reduce load times and stuttering by more efficiently loading in assets.

Maximum compatibility

During Thursday’s virtual presser, Nvidia announced that DirectX 12 Ultimate games will be fully compatible with its GeForce RTX technology.

Separately, AMD - which will power Microsoft’s next-generation Xbox - has said that it has also worked closely with Microsoft on the development of DirectX 12 Ultimate, and confirmed that its forthcoming RDNA2-based Radeon graphics cards will also support hardware ray tracing and the new standard.

“With DirectX 12 Ultimate, advanced effects such as ray tracing are expected to reach more games sooner, and it makes developers’ lives easier by allowing them to create games using the same common graphics API and graphics architecture for both PCs and consoles,” Team Red said in a statement.

For gamers, DirectX 12 Ultimate but it should lead to games with more life-like visuals and smoother gameplay. Or, as Microsoft describes it, the standard will make things easier for developers while also providing gamers with “assurance that their hardware meets the highest bar for feature support in next-generation games.”

What’s more, next-generation games that use DirectX 12 Ultimate features will still be able to run on non-DX12 Ultimate hardware, albeit with some of the newer features disabled.

Microsoft hasn’t yet said when it’ll release DirectX 12 Ultimate, but it’s no secret that it will be a big part of its Xbox Series X console, which will make its official debut later this year.

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Best laptop docking stations of 2020

Posted: 19 Mar 2020 12:31 PM PDT

Getting the best laptop docking station for your needs is a great way to expand the functionality of your laptop, while making it easier and more comfortable to work on.

The best laptop docking stations can really help you work from home as well. These handy peripherals can effectively turn your laptop into a feature-packed desktop replacement. This is especially important if you've got a laptop with limited ports, such as a MacBook.

The docking stations in this list of the best laptop docking stations let you expand the connectivity options of your laptop, making it an even more versatile machine by adding ports such as additional USB ports, Ethernet LAN ports and video connections as well.

So, what do you need to look for when shopping for the best laptop docking stations? Well, you need to make sure that whatever solution you’re looking at will provide any features and ports you may need in your day-to-day workload. With the best laptop docking stations, you can have the best of both worlds: a portable laptop that has the connectivity of a bulkier desktop PC.

With this guide, we’ll dive into all the best laptop docking stations that’ll give you everything you need to stay productive and to turn your trusted laptop into a fully-featured work machine.

Make sure you check out our guide to the best laptops as well, where we highlight the top devices money can buy.

StarTech Thunderbolt 3 Dual-4K Docking Station

StarTech claims its Thunderbolt 3 docking station is the most advanced dock ever. Often, docking stations require multiple leads, but StarTech’s latest offering avoids that. The device has been designed to work with thinner notebooks and uses only one cord. 

As the name suggests, it supports dual 4K displays (at 60Hz) and harnesses the raw power of Thunderbolt 3, offering 40Gbps bandwidth while keeping portability in mind. That’s not all, though. It can be used with up to three USB 3.0 devices and you also get Gigabit Ethernet capability. There’s also the ability to charge mobile devices, and you benefit from Direct DisplayPort integration. This accessory will set you back £312, which is a hefty whack, but not a bad investment if you’re in the market for a powerful dock.

Targus USB 3.0 Dual Video Docking Station

Targus offers this Dual Video Docking Station which won’t break the bank, and comes with integrated laptop recharging facilities that are compatible with most 90W notebooks. So even if you’ve forgotten your charger, you’ll be good to go with this nifty device.

You can hook up two displays to this dock, and in terms of ports, you get a pair of USB 3.0 ports, alongside a pair of USB 2.0 connectors, plus two powered USB 2.0 ports, and Gigabit Ethernet. Targus also offers a Multiplexer Adaptor which makes this docking station USB-C compatible.

AmazonBasics USB 3.0 Universal Laptop Docking Station

AmazonBasics is a great brand if you want simple and affordable peripherals, and its AmazonBasics USB 3.0 Universal Laptop Docking Station is a brilliant budget laptop docking station. You can connect up all your peripherals via six USB ports, and use two displays simultaneously. That’s certainly handy if you need multiple displays for work purposes. 

Four of the USB ports are version 2.0, while two are USB 3.0 – and they give you access to transfer speeds of 5Gbps. Despite its low price, this is a brilliant way of expanding your laptop's capabilities.

Kensington USB 3.0 Docking Station

Kensington is a well-known and respected brand which has developed a reputation for its docking stations. Its latest USB 3.0 model can be used with MacBook or Windows laptops. 

This device will let you transform one USB port into six (it sports four USB 2.0 ports around the back, and a pair of USB 3.0 affairs on the front). You also get a DVI connector and adapters to use it with either HDMI or VGA leads, and there’s an optional multi-display adapter for hooking up more than one monitor. 

It sits nicely next to your laptop, and is affordably priced – it really is one of the best laptop docking stations around right now.

Toshiba Dynadock V3.0+

Toshiba is another big tech name that makes laptop docking stations. The Dynadock V3.0 is one of the firm’s most popular offerings, and is targeted at Windows laptop users who want to benefit from expanded capabilities.

Like most docking stations nowadays, the Dynadock offers USB 3.0 ports, although more than many as you get four of these here. There is also a DVI connector (with adapters for HDMI or VGA) along with an Ethernet port, and the dock uses one cable connection for ease-of-use and portability. And because the Dynadock sports an upright design, it’ll fit nicely on even the most cramped desk environment.

Microsoft Surface Dock

Microsoft is a company known primarily for its software prowess, but in recent years, it has been increasingly working on the hardware front. The Surface line-up of tablet hybrids demonstrates this perfectly. If you own one, you’ll be happy to learn that you can also reap the rewards offered by a docking station.

The Surface Dock will let you turn your Surface convertible into a fully-fledged desktop PC. It’s compatible with the Surface Pro 3, Surface Pro 4 and Surface Book. Connectivity-wise, there are two Mini DisplayPorts, one Gigabit Ethernet port, four USB 3.0 ports and an audio-out jack. This dock doesn’t come particularly cheap, though.

J5Create JUD500 USB 3.0 Ultra Station

The J5Create Ultra Station is a neat and compact dock indeed, being a thin bar which you can attach to the back of your notebook. It provides a variety of connectivity options for Windows laptops and MacBooks: you get a pair of USB 3.0 ports (one of which has power for charging) and a USB 2.0 port, along with VGA and HDMI ports, Ethernet, plus speaker and mic jacks.

However, that’s not all. There’s also a nifty ‘wormhole’ USB connection that allows you to hook up another computer – as well as your initial laptop – and do things like share files by simply dragging and dropping them across from machine to machine. This can also be used to share your keyboard and mouse between devices, and works cross-platform (i.e. you can hook up and share things between a Windows notebook and MacBook).

Dell USB 3.0 UHD Triple Video Docking Station

Although there are universal laptop docking stations out there, of course, many models are built by manufacturers for their own notebooks. Dell’s USB 3.0 dock exemplifies this. It works with most of the company’s latest laptops in the Inspiron series and, like much of the competition, uses USB 3.0 as the prevalent port – it has three USB 3.0 connectors, along with two USB 2.0 ports.

As the name suggests, 4K screens are catered for, and you get a DisplayPort along with a pair of HDMI ports, meaning you can hook up a total of three external monitors (one of them 4K) if you wish. Dell bundles an HDMI to DVI adapter, to support older displays still using DVI, and this dock also boasts an Ethernet port along with audio/headphone jacks.

Plugable USB 3.0 Universal Laptop Docking Station

The Plugable USB 3.0 Universal Laptop Docking Station for Windows makes for a strong budget option for those who want extra connections. The specs include a SuperSpeed USB 3.0 (5Gbps) link from PC to dual video, as well as connections for Ethernet, audio input/output, and two USB 3.0 ports. The HDMI port can support a single display of up to 2560x1440, though if two displays are set up this reduces the maximum resolution to 1920x1200.

However, it is only compatible for Windows machines. Additional limitations are that it cannot be mixed with non-DisplayLink USB graphic adapters, such as MCT, j5, or SMSC. It also doesn't support DVI dual-link or Displayport connections, HDCP, or the playback of protected Blu-ray disks. Despite these limitations it's still a useful piece of budget hardware that's good for many uses.

Wavlink Universal Docking Station

The Wavlink Universal Docking Station is a very versatile piece of kit that is compatible not just with Windows machines but also Intel-based Macs. It includes dual display outputs for monitors, and it supports HMDI and DVI/VGA displays with resolutions of up to 2048 x 1152. In theory this means you can expand you laptop to have three display monitors.

There are also no less than six USB ports, two of which are Superspeed USB 3.0, with the other four being USB 2.0 for use with other hardware such as printers, keyword, scanner, or a digital camera. There's also an Ethernet port, as well as earphone and mic audio sockets. This is a strong and flexible piece of hardware that comes in at a surprisingly low price.

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Rise in remote work leads to major cloud-based VPN growth

Posted: 19 Mar 2020 12:13 PM PDT

With more employees working remotely as a result of the coronavirus, NordVPN's business VPN solution, NordVPN Teams has recorded 165% growth in new users.

The VPN industry as a whole has seen increased growth during this difficult time and according to Google Trends, the search term “VPN” has skyrocketed since last week. In the US, searches for VPN grew by 25 percent and the UK also saw a rise in searches at 20 percent. 

Countries in Europe had even more searches for VPNs with Germany seeing a 30 percent increase and Spain seeing a 40 percent increase. However, Italy, which has suffered the largest coronavirus outbreak in the region, saw the most searches at 55 percent and these numbers are also reflected in VPN sales.

Using a VPN is crucial for those who work from home because businesses need to secure their internal communications and coordination. Employees also need to access all of their organization's internal resources while ensuring that these assets are protected from potential attackers.

Cloud-based VPNs

One of the reasons cloud-based VPNs have seen such tremendous growth is due to the fact that they offer many advantages over traditional corporate VPNs. For instance, NordVPN Teams can be installed very quickly as a result of the service's virtual plug-and-play setup.

Cloud-based VPNs also allow new clients to be connected very smoothly. Digital privacy expert at NordVPN Teams, Daniel Markuson explained how the company is dealing with this huge influx of new users, saying:

“At NordVPN Teams, we are working in three shifts and connecting up to 200 new users per hour. We are also expanding our server network to satisfy the growing demand for cloud-based VPN services.” 

Cybercriminals are well aware that more people are working from home and they've already begun to exploit this by launching increased phishing attacks as well as other forms of cyberattacks. By using a VPN, remote workers can add an additional layer of security that can help protect them and their data from coronavirus-related cyber threats.

  • Also check out our complete list of the best VPN services

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Disney Plus UK release date, movies, TV shows, deals, Sky Q and more explained

Posted: 19 Mar 2020 10:53 AM PDT

Disney Plus UK is just days away – and Disney has explained pretty much everything about what you can expect on day one, including TV shows and movies to stream. The Disney Plus release date in the UK and Ireland is March 24, and you can sign up early if you want to. Here's the full list of Disney Plus UK movies and TV shows, so you can see what's worth watching on day one. 

With Disney Plus, you can watch all the Star Wars, Disney, Marvel and The Simpsons you can handle. It's a little like Netflix, but focused specifically on Disney-related and Disney-owned content. 

The launch line-up is looking very healthy, even compared to the existing libraries in the US and Australia. Pre-orders are open for just a few more days, and you can pick up a year of Disney Plus for just £49.99 until Monday. 

The usual Disney Plus UK price is £5.99 per month or £59.99 per year, so it's a decent deal, but it's only available until March 23. Save £10 here:

Disney Plus previously launched back in November in territories like the US and Australia, but if you were hoping we'd get every episode of The Mandalorian at launch in the UK, episodes will only start to 'roll out' on the March 24 launch. Still, Disney has now confirmed you'll have two episodes to watch at launch, with new episodes of all originals being added at 8am every Friday.

Existing DisneyLife customers will be migrated onto Disney Plus – though we're not sure how that'll work yet. 

Below, we'll talk you through everything we know about Disney Plus's UK launch, price, compatible devices, free trial, shows, movies and official confirmation of Sky Q integration. 

Disney Plus UK release date: March 24

Disney Plus has an imminent release date in the UK: March 24, a week earlier than initially planned. It launches in Ireland, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Austria and Switzerland at the same time. It's been a long wait, but it'll hopefully be worth it. 

In early March, Disney UK confirmed that 30 seasons of The Simpsons will be available at launch. Watch the trailer below:

It does feel like the delayed rollout of the service has made piracy Disney Plus's worst enemy, even knowing a firm date is on the horizon for many European countries.

Even with the Disney Plus UK release date coming months after the US, though, programming like The Mandalorian is rolling out on a weekly basis. So you won't see it all at once. 

Disney Plus: UK pre-order deal, price and subscription tiers explained

Disney has confirmed that Disney Plus will cost £59.99 for an annual subscription, or £5.99 per month. As mentioned above, until March 23 you can pre-order a year's subscription and bring the price down to £49.99. Monthly and yearly, then, are the two available tiers, and you can cancel at any time. Unlike in the US, where it's bundled in with ESPN and Hulu, in the UK Disney has so far only been announced as a standalone service. 

Either tier gets you four concurrent streams, unlimited downloads with a maximum of 10 devices and the option to create seven profiles. Disney UK doesn't specifically mention 4K resolutions, just 'high-quality' viewing. Since it's available in the US and Australia, though, expect to see that for the same price tier. We'll explain more about compatible apps below. 

In the US, you can gift a year of Disney Plus either digitally or in the form of physical cards, but no such option has been announced for the UK yet.

Disney Plus UK: compatible devices and apps

Disney Plus will launch on pretty much any device you can name in the UK, including mobile devices, games consoles, streaming media devices and smart TVs. You can take Disney Plus shows on the go, too, downloading as many movies and shows as you can fit on your device, as long as you have an active subscription and connect to the internet every 30 days.  

Disney Plus UK will launch on LG TVs, Sky Q, Apple TV, Roku streaming devices, Android, iOS, PS4, Xbox One, Hisense TVs, Google Chromecast and Amazon's Fire range of streaming devices. One notable exception is the Nintendo Switch, which is still pretty poor at supporting streaming services. 

Philips has confirmed its Android-based smart TVs will support Disney Plus, and Amazon has confirmed its Fire TV devices will feature the service too. 

Disney Plus UK: shows and movies, including The Simpsons 

The full list of Disney Plus UK movies and shows has been revealed. Click that link for more on what you can expect on day one. Every Star Wars movie minus The Rise of Skywalker is confirmed for day one, as well as a near-complete list of Pixar movies and Marvel movies. You'll also get 2019's Aladdin and The Lion King movies on day one. No word on Frozen 2 yet, which just launched in the US. 

Star Wars series The Mandalorian is the clear highlight of Disney Plus originals. As mentioned, episodes will only start to 'roll out' on March 24. At launch, you'll have episodes one and two to watch of the live-action Star Wars show, as well as two episodes of the final season of The Clone Wars. 

In the UK, all new episodes of original shows on Disney Plus will be released at 8am each Friday. Expect one new episode for each Disney Plus original show per week, except The Clone Wars, which will get two episodes per week until the show catches up with the US. 

Expect the live-action Lady and the Tramp, High School Musical: The Series, Encore!, The World According to Jeff Goldblum, Togo, Diary of a Future President, Forky Asks a Question and The Imagineering Story at launch, too. Expect one episode for each original at launch. 

The Simpsons was initially left out of initial marketing for Disney Plus UK, but the service has confirmed the animated sitcom is coming on Twitter. You can stream 30 seasons of the show on day one. 

In the future, Disney Plus is getting plenty of big exclusive shows. From the Marvel Cinematic Universe side of things, new shows include The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (August), WandaVision (November), Loki (2021), Hawkeye (2021) and animated show What If?. Further off, expect TV shows based on Moon Knight, Ms Marvel and She-Hulk. Unlike Marvel's Netflix shows, too, these will canonically be part of the MCU, and feature actors crossing over between the movies and these TV series.

Lucasfilm has a second season of The Mandalorian coming in October 2020, then further off it's making shows featuring Ewan McGregor's Obi-Wan Kenobi and Diego Luna's Cassian Andor from Rogue One. 

Disney Plus free trial UK: watch seven days for free at launch

If you don't want to subscribe to Disney Plus right now, expect a 7-day Disney Plus UK free trial at launch similar to what we've seen in other territories. It's easy to cancel if you don't want to commit (here's how you cancel Disney Plus). 

Disney Plus will launch with Sky Q and come to Now TV at a later date

Disney Plus has made a deal with Sky to integrate Disney Plus on its Sky Q platform at launch. That means you can watch Disney Plus alongside all your other Sky content – it'll just be added to your Sky bill. This is a major convenience win for users of the service. 

Disney Plus will be available on Now TV in the coming months, too. 

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Best home printer 2020: top versatile printers for use at home

Posted: 19 Mar 2020 10:40 AM PDT

If you don’t think you need one of the best home printers in your house, think again. Just like in the office, you need a printer in your household that can handle printing without a snag. After all, your time at home is just as important as your time at work.

The best home printers need to be more versatile than regular printers since the modern household needs to print out a wide range of documents. You'll often find you need to print out forms and documents in your day to day. Plus, a home printer that can do an excellent job printing your holiday snaps will save you from shelling out a lot of money. And, unlike big and bulky business printers, these are all-in-one printers that take up a small bit of space.

No matter what size of household and family demands you have, you’ll find the best home printer for you on this list. And, our price comparison tool makes sure you get the best deals on the one you pick as well.

Best home printer - at a glance

  1. Epson EcoTank ET-3760
  2. Brother INKvestment MFC-J995DW
  3. Kyocera Ecosys P5026 
  4. Canon Pixma TS9120
  5. Brother Compact Monochrome Laser Printer, HLL2395DW
  6. Samsung Xpress C1810W
  7. HP LaserJet Pro M15w
  8. Brother MFC-J5945DW
  9. HP Envy 5055
  10. Epson WorkForce WF-7210DTW
  • Want your company or services to be added to this buyer’s guide? Please email your request to desire.athow@futurenet.com with the URL of the buying guide in the subject line.

Epson EcoTank ET-3760

Whether you’re trying to run a more eco-friendly household or you’re just fed up with having to run out go get ink at the most inconvenient times – in the middle of printing your important documents, for example – you might love the Epson EcoTank ET-3760. This all-in-one printer is cartridge-free and comes with refillable bottles that contain up to two years’ worth of ink instead. It doesn’t have a massive paper capacity, only 150 sheets at a time, that’s hardly a deal-breaker, especially if you’re just mostly using it for personal stuff. It’s a bit expensive, but think of all the money you’ll save not having to run to the store and get replacement cartridges all the time.

Brother INKvestment MFC-J995DW

Despite its compact size, the Brother INKvestment MFC-J995DW is a monster printer. It’s incredibly efficient, being able to print for up to a year without having to change its ink cartridge. And, it’s also a feature-rich and intuitive machine perfect for any home or small business office. You can print to it from just about any device wirelessly and, for mobile, you don’t even need a network to do it, thanks to its NFC (near field communication) technology that connects directly to the printer. While interfacing with its 2.7” color display, you can even print from and scan to the cloud.

Best home printer

Image Credit: Kyocera

This stout laser printer takes up relatively little space, given its high capacity for paper and toner. It means you can keep printing quickly and efficiently and with lower running costs than an equivalent inkjet. The display is rather fiddly, but in all other respects, this colour printer is easy to use and can be relied upon for immaculate mono and colour documents time after time.  

Read the full review: Kyocera Ecosys P5026cdw

Canon Pixma TS9120

Thanks to its 6-color individual ink system, the Canon Pixma TS9120 delivers exceptional photo quality results. The Canon also is very flexible with its connection capabilities, allowing for both bluetooth and wi-fi to print. And you’re not limited to any device. If you want to print from a tablet or smartphone or even from the cloud, the Canon can handle it. The printer also comes with some photo-specific features such as Photo Blue ink as part of the 6-color system and built-in creative filters to add something a little extra to your photos. Lastly, this printer comes in a choice of three different two-tone color options, giving you some cosmetic choices that you don’t really see with printers.

Brother Compact Monochrome Laser Printer

Image Credit: Ricoh

The Brother HLL2395DW is an ideal printer for any small business that needs to do a lot of printing and to do it quickly. So while you may be limited to black and white with this printer, you’ll be able to print up to 36 pages in a minute and could probably spit out a whole book before having to reload the printer, thanks to a 250 page capacity. Like other recent Brother printers, it has an intuitive display that allows you to print from and scan to cloud services like Dropbox and Google Drive as well as its NFC “touch to connect” printing which allows you to access it from a mobile device without even needing a network connection. All-in-all, this is a pretty nifty printer.

Best home printer

Image Credit: Samsung

Samsung’s smart-looking laser printer is equipped with both Wi-Fi and NFC for easy mobile printing and is supported by a sophisticated mobile app. It’s an easy size to accommodate at home, but you can fit a useful amount of paper and toner inside, making it good for a monthly cycle of 40,000 pages. It won’t automatically print both sides of the page, but it does have a manual duplex mode.

Best home printer

Image Credit: TechRadar

When we tested it, this was the smallest laser printer around and likely to remain so. Being as small and inexpensive as an inkjet, yet with all the speed, economy and consistency of a laser, the LaserJet Pro M15w is in many ways the ideal home printer. It manages to hold one hundred sheets of paper and print on them at the respectable rate of 19ppm. There’s no duplex mode, sadly, and no display, but at this price it’s hard to argue.  

Read the full review: HP LaserJet Pro M15w

Best home printer

Image Credit: TechRadar

This big Brother blurs the line between home and office printer by combining the fast print speed and high capacity of a laser machine with the superior photo finish of an inkjet. We would recommend it for both applications because although it is smaller than the laser equivalent MFC-L8690CDW, the inkjet MFC-J5945DW can handle A3 paper. There’s really nothing that this fully featured 4-in-1 can’t do and it carries out all tasks satisfactorily.   

Read the full review: Brother MFC-J5945DW

Best home printer

Image Credit: HP

This humble all-in-one can scan and copy, but its real strength is in printing photos. Frustratingly, there’s no Ethernet port, nor a USB port for printing from a flash drive and it churns very slowly, but the results are surprisingly good for such an affordable inkjet. The supplied starter cartridges are rather light on ink, but if you replace them with high-capacity carts, then the running cost is competitive too.

Best home printer

Image Credit: Epson

Printers aimed at the home office that can handle A3 paper are not common, but ones that can automatically print on both sides of an A3 page are downright rare. The WorkForce WF-7210DTW is one such beast and it does so quite successfully. Print quality is impressive, be that monochrome text, or a glossy photo. The long list of features includes both Wi-Fi and  NFC connectivity and the two paper trays can hold 500 sheets combined.  

Read the full review: Epson WorkForce WF-7210DTW

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Alibaba Cloud offers AI platform to support coronavirus medical research

Posted: 19 Mar 2020 10:31 AM PDT

Alibaba Cloud is now offering its AI-powered technologies to medical professionals in an effort to help provide data insights on the coronavirus while also speeding up diagnosis.

The cloud computing arm of the Chinese tech giant hopes that it can support medical professionals worldwide in fighting the virus by providing them with a suite of applications developed by its cloud experts, researchers from its subsidiary DAMO Academy and engineers from its communications platform DingTalk. According to Alibaba, the AI-powered applications were developed using insights and lessons learned during the initial outbreak of the coronavirus.

While DingTalk was used by over 120m Chinese students to attend live-streamed online classes, its team also launched DingTalk's International Medical Expert Communication Platform on Alibaba Cloud which provides free communication for medical workers all over the world.

Through video conferencing and real-time AI translation into 11 languages, Alibaba Cloud is also trying to build a virtual community where doctors from China can share their experiences and answer questions from their peers around the world.

DAMO Academy applications

Alibaba's research arm DAMO Academy also revealed that it would make three applications available as a free trial to medical professionals and researchers.

The firm's CT Image Analytics Solution can help improve testing accuracy as well as detection speed when diagnosing Covid-19. By running deep-learning algorithms trained on data from China, the AI model has the ability to predict the probability of different pneumonia types. The system is also able to compute the proportion of lesions and affected volume ratio to the entire lungs by using lung segmentation methods.

DAMO Academy's Epidemic Prediction Solution is able to map epidemic characteristics of the coronavirus in a particular region by generating estimates of size, peak time and duration of the epidemic. It can also estimate how quickly the coronavirus will spread under three conditions: optimistic, neutral and pessimistic.

The firm's Genome Sequencing for Coronavirus Diagnostic Solution provides further analytics on the coronavirus including viral genetic data screening, protein structure analysis and diagnostic reporting. The AI-powered platform is said to be able to diagnose new coronavirus cases within 14 hours.

Having dealt with the cornavirus at the beginning of the outbreak, it's great to see that Alibaba is doing its part to share its experience and knowledge with medical professionals around the world.

Via ZDNet

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AMD Ryzen 4000-powered Microsoft Surface device may be coming soon

Posted: 19 Mar 2020 10:29 AM PDT

Microsoft could be gearing up to launch Surface devices equipped with AMD’s newly-launched Ryzen 4000 APUs.

Microsoft launched its first AMD-powered Surface device last year in the form the 15-inch variant of the Surface Laptop 3, which packs a custom Ryzen 7 CPU with integrated Radeon RX Vega 11 graphics. At the time, the two firms touted the chip as  “the fastest mobile processor AMD has ever made.”



It seems this won’t be the last time Microsoft decides to ditch Intel in favor of Team Red, as a listing in the 3DMark 11 database shows an incoming Surface machine that packs an AMD Ryzen 5 4500U paired with a Radeon RX 5300M graphics card.

The listing, spied by hardware leaker @_rogame, doesn’t reveal much else about the mysterious device, nor does it confirm whether it’ll join Microsoft’s Surface Laptop, Surface Book or Surface Tablet lineup.

The tipster speculates the model listed is likely a new variant of the Surface Book, though another Twitter user points out that the detachable screen feature “is built around Intel parts.” With that in mind, it’s perhaps more likely that Microsoft is planning an AMD variant of the upcoming Surface Laptop 4.


Diving in

While the device’s identity remains unknown, it looks set to be a powerful machine, with leaks claim the Ryzen 5 4500U easily outperforms Intel’s 10nm Ice Lake Intel Core i7-1065G7 CPU; early benchmarks show Intel’s 10nm chip is some 29% slower when compared to its unreleased AMD rival.

The processor is a hexa-core Zen 2-based Renoir APU manufactured on TSMC's 7nm FinFET process that’s designed with thin and light devices in mind. The 15W chip has a base clock speed of 2.3GHz and a boost clock of 4GHz, and in addition to the APU’s six CPU cores, it also integrates a Radeon RX Vega 6 integrated GPU that runs up to 1,500MHz.

However, as pointed out by Tom’s Hardware, the leaked listing suggests Microsoft could be planning to ramp things up in the GPU department by pairing the APU with a discrete graphics card from AMD. It doesn't specify the exact model of the device's GPU but points to 3GB of onboard memory.

We don’t yet know when Microsoft is planning to show off its next-generation Surface devices, but if Redmond sticks to its typical launch schedule, expect to see another AMD-powered device from Microsoft sometime in October.

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Nokia reboots the 5310, but this isn't the 'Original' we were hoping for

Posted: 19 Mar 2020 10:13 AM PDT

There's a new rebooted, 'classic' Nokia phone. Following on from the rebooted 3310 and 8110, the Nokia 5310 is the third handset in a slowly growing series of feature phones from Finnish smartphone manufacturer HMD Global.

It's a low-cost 2G device (meaning no mobile internet) and comes with a 2.4-inch display, 8MB of RAM, 16MB of storage, SD card slot (up to 32GB in size), dual stereo front facing speakers, FM radio, a 1,200mAh battery which can last a month and dedicated music buttons on the side.

At €39 (around $40, £35, AU$70) the Nokia 5310 is certainly inexpensive, and is aimed mainly at developing markets when it goes on sale in March. Although HMD is hoping that this 'classic' device will also appeal to those with found memories of the Nokia brand and its former devices - however, with this latter point, it may have missed the boat.

When we think back to the 'classic' Nokia handsets of the 90s and 00s, the 5310 doesn't make the cut. It doesn't have the same nostalgic charm as the 3310, or the famous movie tie-in as the 8110. It's just another old Nokia phone.

The original Nokia 5310 XpressMusic

The true Nokia Originals

The rebooted Nokia 3310 grabbed headlines and tugged nostalgic heartstrings when it was revealed during the relaunch of the Nokia name on phones announcement at MWC 2017. 

HMD Global’s gamble of rebooting an icon became a powerful marketing tool for getting the Nokia name back in the minds of consumers, even if those consumers were more likely to buy one of its new smartphones, rather than a 2.5G feature phone. 

However, the die had been cast and the “Nokia Originals” feature phone range was born.

A year later at MWC 2018, HMD was at it again with the introduction of its second reboot, the Nokia 8110 4G. Also known as the banana phone thanks to its unique curvature, and the inspiration behind Neo’s slider handset in the Matrix movie, the 8110 had the pulling power to capture the imagination of consumers once again.

It didn’t make as big a splash as the 3310 did the year before, but it was still interesting enough to turn heads, plus the addition of 4G allowed for a better onscreen experience with the likes of Twitter, Facebook and WhatsApp all available (albeit as much simpler apps).

These phones weren’t exactly cutting edge, nor were they offering the best bang-for-your-buck, there were (and are) better specced Nokia features phones for the same, or lower price - but the iconic names allowed the brand to stand out from the pack. 

We were finally seeing, after many years of stuck in black rectangle doldrums, a mobile brand doing something different and creating devices which got people excited again.

With the third addition to the Nokia Originals range we were hoping for another major handset to go through the reboot treatment. There are so many better options than the Nokia 5310 to choose from.

Seven superior options

How about the 8210 from 1999? A tiny and iconic handset which would have shown off how much modern tech it’s possible to cram into a compact form factor. Perhaps HMD didn’t want something quite this old, the original Nokia 5310 did launch in 2007 after all (the same year the iPhone did by the way, talking of icons). 

The Nokia N95 arrived the same year as the 5310. At the time of its launch, it was a gargantuan handset with a two-way slider, stereo speakers, impressive 5MP camera and sizable 2.6-inch display. Plenty of scope then, to produce an exciting rebooted handset.

It could even consider the QWERTY keyboard-toting Nokia E71 from 2008 or the mini PDA Nokia Communicator series - especially as there’s a hole in the QWERTY-keyboard phone market now after TCL shut down its BlackBerry Mobile operation.

And if HMD really wanted to gamble, how about the 'teardrop' Nokia 7600, 'lipstick' Nokia 7280 or the gaming-focused Nokia N-Gage for a walk on the wild side?

Of course, price is always going to play a huge part in the product of low-cost feature phones, and HMD can’t spend huge amounts on R&D for handsets which will sell below the $50 mark. 

The N95 and N-Gage will likely require more time and money to produce 2020 versions, but there are a raft of classic Nokia handsets which still hold strong nostalgic value. So thanks, HMD Global, for rebooting another Nokia Original, but for the fourth entry to the series please do consider these options.

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New Nokia phones are here, and one could be the best cheap phone of 2020

Posted: 19 Mar 2020 10:08 AM PDT

Alongside the brand new Nokia 8.3 5G, HMD Global has unveiled two new affordable phones as part of its Nokia range of handsets.

The Nokia 5.3 and Nokia 1.3 debuted alongside the aforementioned 5G phone and offer a far cheaper alternative to HMD Global's top new handset.

The Nokia 5.3 is the higher spec device of the two, with a 6.55-inch HD+ display and a resolution of 1600 x 720. 

There's a Qualcomm Snapdragon 665 chipset inside, and you'll have the choice of 3GB, 4GB or 6GB of RAM. It comes with 64GB or 128GB of storage too, plus the battery is a 4,000mAh cell.

That's some impressive spec considering the more expensive Nokia 7.2 from 2019 was quite a bit more expensive than this handset.

On the rear of the Nokia 5.3 is a 13MP ultra wide camera that works with a 2MP macro shooter and a 2MP depth sensing sensor. There's also an 8MP selfie shooter on the front of the phone.

We don't know exactly where you'll be able to buy the Nokia 5.3 yet, but it's definitely coming to the UK and in Europe it'll cost €189 (about $200, £170, AU$350) with the release date set for some stage in April 2020.

All of this looks quite impressive considering the potential low price in markets like the UK and US. This may even be a contender for our best cheap phone list later in the year.

Looking for less?

The Nokia 1.3 is one of the most affordable handsets from HMD Global, and it runs Android Go software. That's a pared down version of Android 10 that is designed specifically for smartphones with lower specs.

HMD Global has included a 5.71-inch HD+ display with a resolution of 1520 x 720 resolution. It comes with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 215 chipset, 1GB of RAM and 16GB of storage.

On the rear is a 8MP shooter, and on the front you'll find a 5MP camera. The battery is a 3000mAh cell, and HMD Global assures us the phone will last for a whole day from a single charge.

It's set to cost €95 (about $100, £85, AU$170) and we'll also see it land in April this year. HMD Global has confirmed it's coming to the UK, but we don't know whether it'll be available in the US or Australia.

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Nokia julkisti yhtiön ensimmäisen 5G-puhelimen

Posted: 19 Mar 2020 10:05 AM PDT

HMD Global on julkistanut siirtyvänsä 5G-puhelinten aikaan tuomalla loppuvuodesta markkinoille yhtiön ensimmäisen 5G-puhelimen Nokia 8.3:n.

Nokia 8.3 käyttää Qualcommin Snapdragon 765G -piirisarjaa ja siinä on 6,81 tuuman PureDisplay-näyttö, joka yltää 1 080 x 2 400 resoluutioon.

Kameroina toimivat ZEISS-optiikalla varustettu 64 megapikselin f/1,89 pääkamera, ultraleveä 12 megapikselin f/2,2, 2 megapikselin syvyyskenno sekä 2 megapikselin makrolinssi. Edessä on puolestaan ZEISS-optiikalla varustettu 24 megapikselin selfie-kamera. Akku on 4 500 mAh.

Puhelin saapuu markkinoille kuluvan vuoden kolmannen neljänneksen aikana, eli heinä-syyskuussa.

Kolme muuta mallia tulossa kevääksi

Uuden 5G-puhelimen lisäksi HMD Global julkisti kaksi muuta Nokia-älypuhelinta sekä tuoreimman tulokkaan Originals-tuoteperheeseen, jotka kaikki julkaistaan kevään aikana.

Uutuusmalleista Nokia 5.3:sta ja Nokia 1.3:sta on kuultu huhuja aiemmin, mutta nyt ne vahvistettiin virallisesti. Nokia 5.3:ssa on Qualcomm Snapdragon 655 -mobiilialusta, 6,55 tuuman näyttö ja kameroina 13 megapikselin f/1,8 pääkamera, 5 megapikselin ultraleveä linssi, 2 megapikselin makrolinssi ja 2 megapikselin syvyystunnistin. Akku on 4 000 mAh.

Edullisemmassa Nokia 1.3:ssa on puolestaan Qualcomm 215 -mobiilisiru, 5,71 tuuman näyttö, 8 megapikselin pääkamera ja 3 000 mAh akku.

Molemmat puhelimista saapuu kauppoihin huhtikuusta alkaen.

Originals-perheen uudeksi tulokkaaksi saapuu puolestaan Nokia 5310, joka julkaistaan maaliskuussa valkopunaisena ja mustapunaisena.


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Galaxy S20 price cut: get the Samsung Galaxy S20 for just $41 a month at Visible

Posted: 19 Mar 2020 10:04 AM PDT

If you're looking to save on the all-new Samsung Galaxy S20 phone, then you're in luck. If you join Visible and purchase the Galaxy S20 or Galaxy S20 Plus you can pay just $25 for your first month. You can also get a free $200 Samsung gift card when you activate your phone and port-in your number.

Visible is a relatively new cell phone carrier that's owned by Verizon, which means its plans run on Verizon's network. The low-cost carrier offers online-only services with contract-free prepaid plans, so there's no cancelation fee. This limited-time offer allows you to pay just $25 for your first month of Visible when you purchase the Galaxy S20 or Galaxy S20 Plus phone. After that, you'll pay $41 a month with the Visible plan that includes unlimited high-speed data that's free for as long as you remain a Visible member.

This is a fantastic deal if you're looking for a cheap no-strings-attached cellphone plan and want to buy the latest Samsung Phone. We don't know how long this offer from Visible is valid, so you should take advantage now before it's too late. 

Galaxy S20 deals at Visible:

Learn more about the all-new Galaxy phone with our hands-on Samsung Galaxy S20 review, Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus review, and Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra review.

You can also shop more offers with our roundup of the best Samsung Galaxy S20 prices and deals and the best Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus deals and plans.

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Nokia 8.3 5G release date, price, news and everything you need to know

Posted: 19 Mar 2020 10:01 AM PDT

After a short delay due to cancellation of this year's Mobile World Congress, HMD Global - a Finnish smartphone manufacturer - has unveiled four new Nokia-branded handsets, including its first-ever 5G phone.

The new Nokia 8.3 5G is the headline phone from this announcement, and as the name suggests, it’s mostly focused on its 5G elements of the handset. 

This isn’t a top-end flagship device designed to replace the Nokia 9 PureView though; instead, the Nokia 8.3 5G is a slightly cheaper alternative to the phonemaker's top flagship.

Below we’ve put together everything we know about the latest Nokia handset including the specs, when we can will see it come out, and how much it’s set to cost. Read on to learn more:

Nokia 8.3 5G release date and price

Release date details for the Nokia 8.3 5G are currently a little bit complicated, and the company has only confirmed it’ll be releasing the phone at some point from June onwards.

It's confirmed to be launching in the UK, but we've yet to hear if it'll be available in the US or Australia.

We also don’t know exactly where the phone will be available. It’s set to launch in a variety of European countries where it’ll cost €599 (about $650, £550, AU$1,100) but HMD Global has yet to confirm the exact markets.

Design and display

We’ll start with the display here, which is a 6.81-inch Full HD+ screen with an aspect ratio of 20:9. That means the phone’s screen is longer than most handsets in an attempt to have a larger screen without it feeling too large in the hand.

The screen’s FHD+ resolution is 1080 x 2400, which is a pixel density of 386 pixels per inch. That likely means the picture won’t be as clear as you’ll get on a QHD device, but it should be enough for your day-to-day tasks.

The design is similar to what we’ve seen from HMD Global’s Nokia handsets in previous years with a metal edge and Gorilla Glass on the rear of the phone. It comes with a refracted light design that gives it a unique look rather than just a solid color. It’s only available in blue, or as the company is referring to it, Polar Night.

The fingerprint sensor is housed within the power button that sits on the side of the handset allowing you to turn the phone on and unlock it with one press.

Specs and features

5G is the biggest feature here, and this is the first phone from the company to be able to sport it. In fact, the company is referring to this as the world’s first “global 5G smartphone”.

What does that mean? HMD Global believes this is the handset that supports the most 5G bands right now. That claim seems to be correct with the phone able to use a large selection of high-, mid- and low-frequency 5G bands.

Other rival smartphones don't all feature compatibility for bands such as n71 or n5, for example, which are used in more remote areas, but this handset from Nokia does. That should mean you get the best possible 5G signal from this phone.

We won’t know that for certain until we’ve tested the handset, but it’s Nokia’s main selling point for the Nokia 8.3. There won’t be a 4G version of this phone on sale for that exact reason.

There isn’t a top-end chipset inside this phone, and instead HMD Global is using Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 765 chipset inside here. That allows for 5G connectivity, but likely won’t provide as impressive processing as phones that use the flagship Snapdragon 865.

You’ll have the choice of either 6GB of RAM with 64GB of storage or 8GB of RAM with 128GB of storage. There’s also microSD support for cards up to 400GB.

Cameras

The rear camera on this device comes with a 64MP f/1.89 main camera as well as a 12MP ultra wide with an aperture of f/2.2. There's also a 2MP depth sensor working alongside a 2MP macro.

It doesn't quite seem to match the nine-camera shooter on the Nokia 9 PureView, but it may still prove to be powerful. On the front of the phone is a 24MP selfie shooter.

There's a new mode included called Action Cam Mode that is specifically designed to capture smooth video. It uses a higher frame rate - that's 60fps - to improve the footage for fast moving subjects. The Nokia 8.3 5G is also capable of filming in 4K too.

Battery and OS

The phone comes with Android 10 by default, and the company ensures us that it will be provided with software updates for two years and monthly security upgrades for a minimum of three years.

That means you’ll be set to get Android 11 as soon as possible later in the year too.

We don’t know how long the battery will last for, but there’s a 4,500mAh cell inside the phone. That’s quite large for a handset like this, so it should be able to cope with the extra power needed to be able to give the handset 5G.

There’s a USB-C charging port at the bottom of the handset, but it’s unclear if the phone comes with fast-charging features like a lot of other top-end handsets.

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iPhone 11, iPhone 7, Galaxy S20 deals and more cut in price until tomorrow evening

Posted: 19 Mar 2020 09:47 AM PDT

Phone retailers across the market seem to have entered into a race to see who can drop their prices the most, separately launching flash sales, discounts and price drops on top handsets.

The latest to join in is Mobiles.co.uk, launching a 48-hour flash sale of Samsung phone deals and iPhone deals. These plans will then be coming to an end on March 20 at 11.59 pm.

Included in this flash sale is a bargain Samsung Galaxy S20 deal, some low monthly bills on the iPhone 11, a cheap cashback iPhone 7 and a few other options. But obviously, with the time-frame set, you will have to be quite quick.

If you do happen to come too late and the impending clock has reached 0, there are still loads of great offers right now. Use our guide to the best mobile phone deals to see the top contracts currently available.

Price cut Samsung phone deals:

Price cut iPhone deals:

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A new Huawei smartwatch is set to be unveiled alongside the P40 on March 26

Posted: 19 Mar 2020 09:41 AM PDT

The Huawei P40 is coming on March 26, and it looks like Huawei could launch a new smartwatch alongside its big-name smartphone range.

This news comes from Huawei itself, which took to Weibo (a Chinese social media platform) to share some teasers including a video advert for a new smartwatch, which seems to be called the Huawei Watch GT 2e. The video was subsequently posted on YouTube, and you can see it below.

Based on these teasers coupled with previous leaks and the name, it seems that the new device is just a variant of the Huawei Watch GT 2, launched alongside the Mate 30 series in late 2019, but with some slight tweaks here and there.

In particular, the video advert shows lots of 'extreme' sports, with the participants wearing what seems to be the watch. A surfer, skateboarder, free runners and a climber are shown, though it's worth mentioning that for some of these sports, including climbing, it's recommended not to wear a watch.

Perhaps this suggests there will be more sports-tracking options beyond the usuals you find in smartwatches (like running, cycling and walking).

Teaser images which you can see above and which were posted alongside the video show a redesigned strap with more holes, presumably for breathability or better grip, but as they're drawn in a cartoonish style it's hard to glean much information from them.

Either way, there isn't long before we'll get a full, official look at Huawei's new smartwatch, as the date the company posted, March 26, is just around the corner. Soon, then, we'll be able to see both the Huawei P40 and Huawei Watch GT 2e.

TechRadar will be reporting on Huawei's entire event, so stay tuned for all the news, reviews and analysis.

Via GSMArena

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The PS5 will keep 4K Blu-rays alive that little bit longer

Posted: 19 Mar 2020 09:32 AM PDT

The PS5 has come into clearer focus than ever. Sure, Sony still won't show us the console design, and the long list of PS5 specs are a bit of a mouthful to chew over. However, we've had a good look at a lot of the console's capabilities over the previous months, and it's clear Sony is doing a lot of things right – not least its inclusion of a 4K Blu-ray player in the PS5 disc drive.

Digital downloads – rather than retail discs – are getting more popular by the day, though we're not in a disc-free world yet, and it's not that surprising that both the PS5 and Xbox Series X will ship with disc drives for playing games new and old, if just to keep their promises of backwards compatibility.

But being able to play 4K Blu-rays, too, is significant given wavering interest in the technology from plenty of manufacturers: we didn't see a single new 4K Blu-ray player from Panasonic, LG or Sony at CES 2020 this year, and Oppo bowed out of the market a good while ago.

If you’re partial to using your home console for 4K DVDs or Blu-ray discs – often the best way to view a film in high quality without relying on your buffering internet connection – you’re likely to appreciate the convenience of not having to buy a separate 4K Blu-ray player, which are in shorter supply these days as people increasingly consume content via through TV streaming services.

But there’s a larger issue around how long we can expect console makers like Microsoft and Sony to keep supporting disc formats – and this could well be the last console generation to do it.

Blu-ray or the highway

Christopher Nolan wants you watch Dunkirk on Blu-ray

Sony did Blu-ray fans a huge favor by including an HD Blu-ray player in the PS3, which is largely considered as being crucial to the format’s success. For cinephiles, Blu-rays are still seen as offering a superior viewing experience compared to online streaming, with filmmaker Christopher Nolan openly favoring the format for home viewing over Netflix.

However, Microsoft one-upped Sony by including an Ultra HD Blu-ray player in the Xbox One S, putting the PS4's continued reliance on a HD drive to shame. When the PS4 Pro came out in 2016, we were pretty shocked at Sony’s decision not to include the same, especially for what was an explicitly premium console.

As video quality gets more important for viewers and with 4K TVs more or less ubiquitous in our homes, the absence of 4K Blu-ray support could have been a major issue for a console that Sony hopes – and needs – to be seen as a home entertainment center as well as a gaming machine.

The stronger sales of the current PlayStation speak to the strength of the PS4 games available, even without the format support – but there’s only so long Sony could hold out on this feature.

Death of the disc

Xbox One S All Digital Edition

With the rise of streaming platforms like Google Stadia, which allows you to access even AAA games from mobiles, tablets, and browsers, and with games increasingly being bought and played via digital download, there’s clearly a shrinking appetite for the humble disc.

Microsoft has already embraced the future with the All Digital Xbox One S, which ships without a disc drive entirely, while rumors persist of an streaming-only Xbox Series X model that could do the same thing. 

Sony, too, has been pushing PlayStation Now, with a price cut last year likely getting the video game streaming service into a lot more gamers’ lives, and further normalizing the existence of a broad gaming library that doesn't rely on a stack of disc cases below your television.

The PS5's disc drive will be a relief to those of us with a back-catalog of DVDs and Blu-rays which we still need a way of playing, without carting around old hardware – which the current generation of consoles will soon be viewed as. Not to mention its ability to play older PS4 games, given Sony's belated (but appreciated) inclusion of backwards compatibility on the next-gen console.

The PS5’s support for 4K Blu-ray feels a little late, too, given its absence in the last two PlayStation consoles – especially as it may be the last piece of PlayStation hardware to do it. But just as the PS3 helped to put Blu-ray discs on the map, so the PS5 could keep high-quality disc formats alive for that little bit longer.

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Xbox One deals: cheap kids entertainment with these Roblox bundles from Microsoft

Posted: 19 Mar 2020 09:24 AM PDT

Need a quick Xbox One deal to keep the kids entertained? Microsoft has just launched some brand new Xbox One S bundles featuring Roblox, one of the most popular kid-friendly games out there. 

For just $299 / £249 you'll get the base console - an Xbox One S 1TB - as well as a wireless controller, one month of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, a code to download Roblox and some free in-game redeemable goodies.  

Wait, isn't Roblox free-to-play, we hear you asking. Yes, indeed, it is free to download the base game. However, like the recent Fortnite bundle, Microsoft has included some DLC (additional downloadable content) - in this case, you get 2,500 Robux ($R) to spend, plus three exclusive avatar bundles and accessories. If you're not au fait with Roblox, $R 2,500 equates to around $30 of extra goodies to keep the kids entertained, which all adults will agree is a good thing right now.

This week is a great time to pick up an Xbox One deal: the price is fair and there are some excellent games on the Xbox Game Pass Ultimate currently - Gears 5, Sea of Thieves, and Outer Wilds to name just a few of the 400-plus available titles. Microsoft is also offering one month of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate for just $1, which means you can save even more money if you want to extend the free trial included with the Roblox bundle.

Roblox is an online games platform, where users can design and upload their own games, and play games that other people have created. It's a great option for kids because, like Minecraft, it allows them to stretch their imagination and creatively interact with the medium itself, unlike a more traditional video game. It's extremely popular, with 115 million monthly users, making it one of the biggest games platforms in terms of reach worldwide. 

Today's best Xbox One deal in the US

Today's best Xbox One deal in the UK

We're currently keeping our eyes peeled for the cheapest Xbox One bundle deals and sale prices in March 2020, just in case you're looking for something else.  If you want something a little bit more powerful then check out The best Xbox One X prices, bundles and deals in March 2020.

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Worldwide server market records ‘very strong’ Q4 results

Posted: 19 Mar 2020 08:47 AM PDT

The worldwide server market notched up impressive revenue figures in the fourth quarter of 2019, according to a new report from analyst firm Gartner.

Total revenue grew by 5.1% and shipments by 11.7% over Q4 2018, although the two categories declined by 2.5% and 3.1% respectively across the whole year, compared to the previous.

The server market accounted for upwards of $23 billion in revenue in Q4 2019 and nearly 4 million units were shipped over the same three-month period.

Server market performance

Dell EMC took the top spot in both quarterly revenue (17.3% market share) and shipments (14.2% market share), despite a 9.9% decline in revenue year-on-year. Meanwhile, HPE secured second position by the same metrics with 15.4% and 10.8% market share respectively.

IBM, the third largest player in the server market, increased its earnings by more than a quarter (28.6%), representing the strongest growth performance.

Despite promising Q4 results, Gartner warns the server market is not insulated from uncertainties caused by the spread of the novel coronavirus.

“The market returned to growth with a very strong fourth quarter result, largely driven by a return of demand from hyperscalers,” said Adrian O’Connell, Senior Research Director at Gartner.

“However, the outlook for the worldwide server market in 2020 is subject to great uncertainty. The impact of the coronavirus outbreak is expected to temper forecast growth,” he added.

Irrespective of the coronavirus - now classified a pandemic by the World Health Organisation (WHO) - demand from the hyperscale segment is expected to continue through the first half of 2020.

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