Friday, April 10, 2020

Apple : Travelex forked out multi-million ransom to restore its systems

Apple : Travelex forked out multi-million ransom to restore its systems

Travelex forked out multi-million ransom to restore its systems

Posted: 10 Apr 2020 03:32 PM PDT

After suffering a ransomware attack earlier this year, Travelex reportedly paid a $2.3m ransom payment to get its systems back online after they were encrypted.

Back in January of this year, hackers deployed the Sodinokibi ransomware throughout the foreign exchange company's network which led it to shut down operations at 1,500 stores around the world.

The cybercriminals behind the Sodinokibi ransomware were able to encrypt the company's entire network, delete backup files and copy more than 5GB of personal data. To make things worse, this data allegedly contained dates of birth, Social Security numbers and credit card data.

In order for Travelex to recover its files, the cybercriminals demanded a three million dollar ransom and threatened to release the data if they were not paid. When it seemed like the company wouldn't pay the ransom, they began to post threats on hacker forums saying they would release the data if their demands were not met.

Ransom payment

According to a new report from the Wall Street Journal, Travelex eventually did end up paying a $2.3m ransom to get its network back up and running. A person familiar with the matter told the news outlet of the transaction, saying:

"Travelex, known for its ubiquitous foreign-exchange kiosks in airports and tourist sites around the world, was shut down by a computer virus that infiltrated its networks early this year. It responded by paying the hackers the equivalent of $2.3 million, according to a person familiar with the transaction.”

The company suffered a ransomware attack in early January but it resumed operations on January 17 which suggests that Travelex did in fact pay the ransom to have its files decrypted.

Travelex may be back in business but those whose data was potentially compromised could still be at risk of potential cyberattacks or identity fraud.

Via Bleeping Computer

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These malicious websites could put your computer at risk

Posted: 10 Apr 2020 02:41 PM PDT

The recent surge in coronavirus-based cybercrime has gotten so serious that security officials from the US and UK have issued a joint advisory warning that they're currently tracking over 2,500 coronavirus-themed threats.

The UK National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) have compiled a database of malicious websites and email addresses that are using the coronavirus outbreak as a lure to trick users into falling for a variety of scams online.

In their advisory, the agencies also warned about a rise in video conferencing hijacking or zomb-bombing as well as phishing emails which include malicious files. They have even detected hackers scanning for vulnerabilities in VPN software and other remote working tools from companies such as Citrix, Pulse Secure, Fortinet and Palo Alto.

Assistant director for cybersecurity at the DHS Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, Bryan Ware stressed the need for people to remain vigilant during these trying times, saying:

“We urge everyone to remain vigilant to these threats, be on the lookout for suspicious emails and look to trusted sources for information and updates regarding COVID-19. We are all in this together and collectively we can help defend against these threats.”

Malicious websites and emails

The database of malicious websites will be continually updated by both agencies and you can find it under the Indicators of Compromise section in the DHS warning.

The sites listed in the database appear to offer information or products that would appeal to those who are concerned about the ongoing pandemic. Some examples from the list include covid19-ventilator.com, covid19designermasks.com and covid-19finance.co.uk.

Many of the email addresses in the database appear to come from official bodies such as the WHO. Some examples include who.int-covid19-communityspread@whoint.us and diseasecontrol@who.org.

The NCSC recommends that all uses look out for emails that claim to be from someone official, are overly emotional, offer something that is currently in short supply such as masks or require recipients to respond within a certain time frame.

Via Forbes

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Apple and Google plan to trace Covid-19 using your phone

Posted: 10 Apr 2020 12:34 PM PDT

Normally bitter rivals, Apple and Google are now teaming up to create the Covid-19 contact tracing system that the world may need and staunch privacy advocates fear.

The companies' proposed solution works by tracking phones. Your smartphone will act as an anonymous identifying beacon, using Bluetooth along with the iOS and Android platforms to power this forward-thinking tracing system. As you come into contact with people, you'll exchange anonymous identifying keys, according to official documentation.

When a person tests positive for the novel coronavirus, they can log their test result into an app created by public health authorities (not necessarily an app by Apple and Google, mind). Even if it's days later, people they came into contact with will see an alert – but they will not get the name of the person who tested positive, for privacy reasons.

The idea here is that Apple and Google's mobile platforms will act as much-needed beacons, and while you won't be able to trace the origin of a possible coronavirus encounter, you'll have a notification informing you to get tested for the virus.

The contact tracing system should go live in 'the coming months' according to a joint statement from Apple and Google. In May, the two companies will release APIs to allow interoperability between Android and iOS devices to use apps released by public health authorities.

What about privacy?

While China and South Korea have used smartphone apps to help track Covid-19, proposals for equivalent methods in the US and UK have been treated skeptically. People are (rightly) concerned about how they'll be tracked and the implications of such a mass-monitoring system – like how it may be used during or after the coronavirus outbreak. 

Apple and Google built some privacy safeguards into the system. It doesn't collect personally-identifiable information (PII) or user location data, and the list of people encountered won't leave anyone's device. If a user discloses they've tested positive for Covid-19 to a public health app linked to Google and Apple's system, the system needs the user's consent before alerting others they've been in contact with over the last 14 days.

That need for consent means folks might withhold their positive status and limit the system's accuracy. But governments will likely assure privacy to increase participation in systems like the one developed by Apple and Google:  “In Europe and the US we’re not going to do this in a way that has been done in China,” University of Oxford professor Michael Parker, who is working on a UK smartphone tracking system, told The New York Times.

The other worry is that, despite assurances by Apple and Google, the US government will enact aggressive measures and justify them under the umbrella of  Covid-19 pandemic management. After all, the US government continues to lock people indefinitely in concentration camps on the US-Mexico border in the name of immigration management. 

Whether Apple and Google can safeguard individuals' PII lies in their system's design – which allegedly only transmits anonymized identifier keys – as well as both companies' reputations for protecting user data. 

Apple has gone to court to keep from unlocking user devices at federal request, and company CEO Tim Cook has gone on record multiple times to lambast other companies for selling or sharing user information. Google's data-sharing record, on the other hand, reflects a ready willingness to sell personal info to commercial clients, as the Electronic Frontier Foundation explains. And on the government side, Google's contracts building tech for both the Department of Defense and ICE has led to repeated employee protests, per The Guardian. 

Both Apple and Google insist that this Covid-19 tracing system will be a privacy-first solution, and while there are obviously going to be questions about how it operates, people are eager to get back to interacting in public again while stamping out this virus. This seems to be an inventive solution, even if it raises concerns.

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Best CDN providers of 2020 to speed up any website

Posted: 10 Apr 2020 12:13 PM PDT

A content delivery network (CDN) works to accelerate almost any website by caching its files in servers around the world. Whether your visitors come from Europe, North America, Asia or anywhere else, content is automatically served from the nearest location for the fastest possible speeds.

If you're new to the technology then it might seem intimidating, and there's no doubt that prices can be high, but don't let that put you off. A CDN is not just for massive corporations. You can set up the simplest services in less than five minutes, and if you choose your plan wisely, it might not cost you anything at all.

Whatever your website, from a simple blog to a sprawling site for a big business, we've picked out some of the best services around to help point you in the right direction. If you find anything that looks interesting, give it a try – you can explore many of these CDNs for free, without handing over payment details or signing up for any contract.

Cloudflare is a hugely popular American content delivery service that combines novice-friendly ease of use with expert-level features and functionality.

Setup is simple, with no need to edit your code. Just update your DNS nameservers to use Cloudflare and the service kicks in automatically, caching content and serving it to visitors from their nearest location.

But there's much, much more. Web filtering can block bots, limit content spam, keep you safe from hackers or detect and mitigate DDoS attacks. Smart image optimizations can reduce image file sizes by up to 35%, further improving speeds. There's wide support for standards like IPv6, HTTP/2 and SPDY, clever page rules to help you manipulate traffic, and a REST API allows developers to take full control of what the service is doing. Also, Flan Scan, a lightweight network vulnerability scanner is thrown in the mix too.

Cloudflare's free plan allows you to see what the service can do, without making any commitments. It's very usable, with unlimited bandwidth and no annoying restrictions to try and force you to upgrade.

Upgrading to the Pro plan costs a reasonable $20 (£16) a month, and adds the image optimization rules, extra configurability and improved support.

Whatever you choose, Cloudflare delivers great performance. As we write, the benchmarking site CDNPerf ranks Cloudflare at ninth place for worldwide HTTP request response times out of a field of 20 top CDNs.

Fastly provides CDN tricks for some really big organizations, including the likes of Spotify and Reddit, and the firm lives up to its name, delivering impressively fast performance levels. Going by the rough guideline of CDNPerf’s rankings, it’s the second fastest CDN for the UK, and worldwide speeds are mostly good, too.

Perhaps Fastly’s strongest point, however, is just how configurable the service is. For example, there’s diverse support for different types of video caching, and tons of low-level controls for those who want to get stuck into the likes of manipulating HTTP headers to customize how content is served.

Of course, some know-how is required to set up everything, and novices to the CDN world will doubtless be confused by all the options on offer. But for those who need this level of flexibility and configurability, it’s priceless to have.

Speaking of the price, Fastly operates a pay-as-you-go model with a minimum charge of $50 (£37) per month. In addition, you can test up to $50 of traffic for free.

KeyCDN is an easy-to-use budget CDN that might be a good pick for first-time users.

Getting started couldn't be much simpler. Sign up with your email address and you get an immediate 25GB to play with, no payment details required. A well-designed web dashboard enables creating your first zone with the minimum of clicks, and there are guides to help you integrate the service with WordPress and other apps. 

Worth mentioning is that as of late November 2018, KeyCDN fully supports IPv6.

More experienced users will appreciate options like Origin Shield – this allows you to specify a KeyCDN server to be the source for updates rather than the origin, reducing your server load. You're able to manipulate headers, cache or strip cookies, or set up a custom robots.txt. Once the service is running, a capable set of reporting tools enable watching CDN performance in near real-time. Also, all customers have access to Image Processing feature, which is great for image optimization.

KeyCDN's standout feature has to be its low prices. Bandwidth charges start at $0.04 (£0.032) per GB, less than half the price you'll pay with some of the high-end competition. The minimum usage is a tiny $4 (£3.2) per month and the minimum payment is $49 (£38). The company doesn't even try to cash in on the extras, for example offering shared SSL and custom Let's encrypt SSL certificates for free.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, these low prices don't get you leading-edge performance, but there's still plenty of power here and you do get a lot for your money.

MetaCDN is an Australian company which combines the CDNs of Amazon Cloudfront, Fastly and Verizon's EdgeCast into a single speedy service.

Why? It's all about performance. When a visitor accesses your site, MetaCDN has three networks and more than 120 locations to choose from – way more than anyone else. In other words, there’s a much greater chance any visitor will have a server near them.

This matters because every CDN delivers its best performance in different areas. EdgeCast scores highly in North America, for instance, but Fastly is quicker in the UK. MetaCDN automatically chooses the best network for every visitor's location, giving you the best of all worlds.

This approach does have a catch. When you sign up with a single CDN, you can get access to all its individual settings and options, but combining three means you only get settings which apply to all of them (for obvious reasons). Which essentially means MetaCDN has barely any configuration options at all. (Check the Support site to get a rough feel for how the system works.)

Still, MetaCDN is nicely user-friendly and it could be a good pick if speed is your top priority. Pricing is complicated (although not bad for access to enterprise-level CDNs) and there are three plans, Basic, Lite and Pro. The most popular one, Lite, is $50 on a monthly basis (you can also choose a yearly rate, for a $39 a month).

This CDN provider focuses mainly on the West, with 14 points of presence (PoPs) in North America, and nine in Europe. There are only five PoPs in Asia, and two in Australia and South America (Brazil).

StackPath is user-friendly, complete with a straightforward web console to manage your settings, and if you do get stuck, there’s extremely efficient technical support available via either live chat or phone.

Performance seems good in the US and UK, and indeed Europe, but further afield you may see things tail off a bit, which is hardly a surprise given StackPath’s aforementioned focus on Western nations.

Another strength here comes on the security front, with this CDN giving users free shared SSL (or the option to use your own SSL certificate, if you prefer). There’s also anti-DDoS technology, a capable Web Application Firewall, and EdgeRules, a powerful tool that lets you customize the behavior of StackPath's CDN at different phases of the CDN request.

All in all, this is a tempting offering with a baseline plan that charges $20 (£15.5) for up to 1TB of bandwidth per month. The first month is also free.

One of the oldest and most popular providers, Akamai offers a great CDN service and according to the company they serve up to 30% of all internet traffic. Being one of the oldest providers their server coverage is impressive with around 275,000 servers in over 135 countries. Akamai also provides great 24/7 customer support which is to be expected from someone this long in the business.

Setting up might be a bit problematic for newbies though. This doesn’t mean newbies can't do it or that they would have much trouble, it’s just that the whole service is more leaned toward advanced users, generally speaking.

Akamai has a good number of features and the performance is quite impressive, among the best in fact. For instance, the benchmarking site CDNPerf, ranks Akamai at the second place worldwide.

Pricing is a bit tricky, as there is no definitive information to be found on their website. This just means you’ll have to contact them directly to get the exact quota. Thankfully, they are easy to contact and you can do it by live chat, email or phone.

Amazon CloudFront is the CDN facet of AWS (Amazon Web Services), so it’s certainly part of a heavyweight operation. And indeed CloudFront offers a raft of advanced features as you might expect, and you can customize all manner of things such as enabling automatic GZip compression for better speeds.

Another strength here is the in-depth analytics on tap, showing you details of your visitors’ device type, OS and so forth. There’s also the handy ability to set up alerts, meaning you can be warned when data transfer usage goes above a certain level.

The downside to all the options on offer is that relative novices to the CDN world may find CloudFront’s control panel a little intimidating, at least initially.

The other slight sticking points are that calculating pricing can be a rather tricky matter, and if you aren’t an experienced user familiar with CDN basics, tech support isn’t free – if you need help, you’ll have to fork out for it. Prices vary depending on region, but the good news is there’s a free tier (which gives you 50GB of data per month for one year).

Performance levels are fairly average, too, but there’s no denying the power and configurability that Amazon offers to the slightly more tech-savvy user.

As you’re doubtless aware, Microsoft Azure is a big old stack of integrated cloud tools for building and managing applications and services, with a wide range of coverage including a CDN offering, which is what we’re focusing on here, naturally. Note that this doesn’t use Microsoft’s own edge servers, but rather three plans that use other CDN networks: Standard Akamai, Standard Verizon, and Premium Verizon.

We fully discuss these various plans in our review of Microsoft’s CDN service, linked below, but suffice it to say that in terms of pricing – which can be somewhat confusing to work out – this isn’t the cheapest offering around. Still, those who want integration with other Microsoft technologies and services may well find the price worth paying.

You get a web dashboard which is absolutely crammed with features, although as ever, this means it’s not particularly easy to use for beginners (and the setup process is pretty involved, too). Performance levels are impressive, and at the time of writing, according to CDNPerf, Azure CDN is the third fastest content delivery network in the US and fourth worldwide.

This has to be a tempting prospect if you’re using other Azure services, or if you’re a developer who will appreciate the likes of .NET or PowerShell management features. You can create a free account and get started with 12 months of free services.

CDN77 is a big-name player in the content delivery game, with some heavyweight clients signed up including the European Space Agency. It has an expansive CDN network with over 30 data centers across the globe, with many of those in Europe and the US, but there are also locations in South America, Asia and one in Australia.

The web console interface is very streamlined and keeps any jargon to a minimum, making it suitably user-friendly for novices to the CDN world. The flipside of this is that there aren’t a huge amount of options, although you can do some tweaking of various settings.

In terms of performance, CDN77 is solid enough, and it ranks as a lower-to-mid pack player that’s unlikely to disappoint, but certainly isn’t the fastest CDN network we found when reviewing these various services.

You get a free Let's Encrypt SSL certificate, and CDN77 is pretty good value for money overall in terms of its per-GB pricing, although it’s not the cheapest outfit we’ve highlighted here. Pricing starts at $0.049 per GB of data for US and European locations, with Asia and Latin America being more expensive. If you want to test the waters, there’s a 14-day risk-free trial, and you don’t need to supply any payment details for this.

If you need a powerful CDN, look no further than Leaseweb, an enterprise-level operation which is still suitable for regular business users – just about, although we should say upfront that it isn’t cheap, as you might imagine.

Pricing starts at $113 (£88, €99) per month for an entry-level plan with a 2TB data allowance, the good news being that even with this ‘basic’ subscription, you get all the same security and CDN features as the heavyweight enterprise plans. That being said, you might need to contact them for exact price due to recent website changes they made.

That includes a smartly designed console for overseeing your CDN needs, complete with an extensive raft of potential settings and tweaks, featuring many options you don’t get with your average service (like the ability to set the cache-control header, or determine how long to cache 404 responses).

There’s also an in-depth statistics section which displays graphs and charts showing many interesting stats, such as visitor and traffic breakdowns, cache performance and the top file types which are seeing action.

The one somewhat bleak spot is Leaseweb’s performance, which seems somewhat off the pace going by CDNPerf’s findings, although it’s difficult to gauge exactly what results you’ll get in practice. Users who want a powerful range of features in their CDN could give the 30-day trial a go to find out.

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How to make online tuition work for students

Posted: 10 Apr 2020 12:00 PM PDT

With schools closed for the foreseeable future, teachers have valiantly turned to a variety of video conferencing platforms to deliver ongoing education, but many face technical hurdles using platforms that were never designed with their needs in mind. They continue to do their best and we’re seeing them heroically persevere.

Remote teaching

We’ve all seen the images in the press and on social media of multiple children on a video conferencing call. This is heart-warming and a great way of ensuring communication between isolated students. In these difficult times, schools are utilising the online classroom with students who are at a similar level. However, it’s hard to maintain the attention of 30 children for mixed ability classes.

Other platforms, meanwhile, combat varying abilities by hugely reducing the teacher-student ratio, varying learning times and conducting thorough initial attainment assessments.

By establishing a benchmark for every student, you ensure you don’t lose them by moving too quickly or neglecting to focus on areas in which they’re not proficient. This is more important than ever now as children will be all over the place in terms of attainment with some parents home-schooling and others doing relatively little (through no fault of their own).

The scheduling factor is also important. We’ve found some of the alternative provision students we work with learn better outside of the standard school timetable, and this is reflected in the current Covid reality. With parents desperately scrabbling to work for home while looking after their children, flexibility in terms of when learning happens is key to delivering a decent level of education. Interestingly, giving excluded pupils more flexibility regarding the times they study, has increased attainment and attendance rates (from three percent to 55 percent in some instances). 

But not all tutoring platforms are created equal. Some use university students to deliver lessons, and while they may be well-intentioned, these students are not teachers. Teachers spend years training to teach and are not easily substituted, a fact which I’m sure is quickly dawning on the UK public.

Capable substitute

Online tuition is often considered inferior to its face-to-face equivalent. However, in some instances it’s better suited and we may find that the current reality permanently changes the poor perceptions of this form of education. Online tuition is commonly used for students who have been excluded from school, and it has proven a uniquely effective way of keeping students on task while they’re outside of the classroom.

Of the 123,100 fixed period exclusions across the UK in 2017-18, the most common cause was persistent disruptive behaviour – accounting for 30 percent of fixed period exclusions. A significant cause of disruptive behaviour in class is anxiety surrounding education. However, remove the student from the environment, provide them with dedicated support and you can give them a chance to get back on track. You can also pair them with the most appropriate teacher – one teacher on our books lives on an Hebridean island and works fantastically well with some of our most challenging students.

Online teaching means that the teacher is not encroaching on the student’s space and there is no peer pressure or classmates to disrupt. This makes many children feel more comfortable and focused, subsequently increasing attainment. Many students, including those with special educational needs, also find it easier to communicate online than in person, and are more prone to ask questions than if they had to raise their hand in class.

Lesson learned

The Education Endowment Foundation’s (EEF) 2018 trial showed that low-cost, personalised tutoring, can boost struggling pupils’ maths results by three months. We’ve certainly experienced this with some students making as much as four weeks progress in as little as  one hour.

Advantages inherent in online tutoring have set us up well to respond to the global coronavirus pandemic and we’ve been rushing to recruit more teachers – both ones usually involved in face to face tuition as well as supply teachers who no longer have physical lessons to cover.

A focus on current ability and teaching schedule flexibility are important to ensuring online platforms can pick up wherever schools were forced to leave off. Ultimately, we hope that this experience will allow us to prove to the world that online tutoring isn’t just a poor substitute for ‘real’ teaching, but a valuable service which caters to every child as an individual learner.

Simon Barnes is Founder and CEO of TLC Live

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Phishing emails impersonate the White House

Posted: 10 Apr 2020 11:49 AM PDT

Scammers have begun to impersonate US President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence in new phishing emails that distribute malware or try to trick users into falling for extortion scams.

The email security firm Inky has discovered a series of phishing emails in which cybercriminals try to impersonate the White House. In these emails, the cybercriminals state that they are sending out the latest “Coronavirus Guidelines for America” on behalf of President Trump and ask recipients to click on a link to download a document.

Once a user clicks on the link though, they are brought to a webpage that impersonates the White House and contains another link to “Download and read the full document”.

The second link then downloads a malicious Word document that requires a user to “Enable Editing” and “Enable Content” to view it. If a user does this, malicious macros will launch that install malware on their computer. Since the site pushing the malware has been taken down, it is unclear as to which malware was being distributed in this attack.

Vice President Pence phishing scam

A separate phishing scam was also discovered that impersonates US Vice President Pence though it appears more like an extortion scam than an attempt to install malware on a user's device.

In this scam, users receive an email from the Vice President who claims to have just finished attending a security meeting about the recipient's company. The email says that the company is involved in human trafficking, drug dealing and money laundering and that Pence wants to come to an “agreement” before bringing the matter to President Trump.

While this scam does not distribute malware, it does present the opportunity for the victim to respond and reach an “agreement” with the scammer which likely involves sending Bitcoin or some other cryptocurrency to keep the Vice President from talking.

Everyone should remain vigilant during this difficult time to avoid falling victim to the numerous coronavirus-related scams making their way around the internet at the moment.

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

Via BleepingComputer

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NASA facing rise in cyberattacks

Posted: 10 Apr 2020 10:34 AM PDT

NASA has seen increased malicious activity from both nation-state hackers and cybercriminals who have begun to target the US space agency's systems and staff working from home during the global pandemic.

Mitigation tools and measures put in place by NASA's Security Operations Center (SOC) were successfully able to block a wave of cyberattacks though the agency has reported seeing double the number of phishing attempts and malicious sites being blocked as well as an exponential increase in malware attacks.

In a status report memo, the Office of the Chief Information Officer warned all NASA personnel and contractors about these heightened threats, saying:

"NASA employees and contractors should be aware that nation-states and cybercriminals are actively using the COVID-19 pandemic to exploit and target NASA electronic devices, networks, and personal devices. Some of their goals include accessing sensitive information, user names, and passwords, conducting denial of service attacks, spreading disinformation, and carrying out scams."

Targeting NASA personnel

NASA has also observed that threat actors are increasing sending malicious emails with the aim of infecting employees with malware in order to obtain sensitive information which could be used later to gain access to the US space agency's systems and sensitive data.

Once again cybercriminals are using the coronavirus outbreak as a lure in phishing attacks with requests for donations, tax refunds, safety measures, fake vaccines, updates on virus transmissions and other disinformation campaigns.

Some of the recent attacks against NASA employees also targeted their mobile devices in order to trick victims into revealing sensitive information. The Office of the Chief Information Officer provided more details on these attacks in its memo, saying:

"This is not specific to computers, there are also phishing attacks occurring against mobile devices with similar lures, such as text messages or advertisements within applications, designed to entice victims to click on links designed to secretly have their sensitive information and account credentials harvested."

Both NASA contractors and personnel have been advised that these cyberattacks will remain at an elevated level throughout the pandemic which is why the US space agency recommends exercising caution while using internet-connected desktops and mobile devices during the coronavirus outbreak.

Via BleepingComputer

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How to watch new Simpsons movie: stream Maggie's Playdate with Destiny online free

Posted: 10 Apr 2020 09:01 AM PDT

The Simpsons is one of the jewels in the Disney Plus crown and fans are being rewarded for their loyalty with the release of a fresh short-film starring their favorite Springfield family. Read on and we'll explain how to watch The Simpsons: Maggie's Playdate with Destiny today - stream the new Simpsons movie wherever you are with the help of our guide. 

This isn't the first Simpsons episode to track the antics of Maggie, though. Back in 2012, we got treated to something similar in the form of 'The Longest Daycare' short. And before that, fans of the show learnt she was the silent assassin who (nearly) killed Mr. Burns in a famous two-part episode with eerie and hilarious parallels to the O.J Simpson trial.

Apologies if that ruined 1995 for you, but surely that can't class as a spoiler at this stage?

Whatever the case, it's safe to say that we're seriously excited about the release of the new Simpsons Maggie movie onto Disney Plus - which is currently offering a FREE 7-day trial and costs just $6.99/£5.99 a month otherwise. With that in mind, here's how to watch new Simpsons short Maggie's Playdate with Destiny online from nearly anywhere in the world.

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How to watch the Simpsons online: stream Maggie's Playdate with Destiny online for free

This is the best bit - Disney Plus now has the new Simpsons Maggie movie available to stream across all of its core services - including the US, UK and Australia.

That means there's no waiting around for global audiences - which has regrettably been the case with previous Disney Plus exclusives like new Pixar flick Onward and even Frozen 2.

It's doubly good because when you take out such wait times, Disney Plus has quickly emerged as one of the very best - and best value - TV streaming services on the planet. With a catalogue full of Pixar hits, Marvel epics and the entire Simpsons back catalogue, it's got pretty much every you need to survive a lockdown and still stay firmly in love with your TV.

Better still, can get a 7-day FREE TRIAL to Disney Plus, meaning you can enjoy the new Simpsons Maggie movie and all of the service's other content without paying anything! Binge as much as you want and it won't cost you a penny, provided you cancel in time.

Disney Plus has apps for iOS and Android (of course), and is available to watch online via the likes of Amazon Fire TV Stick, PS4, Xbox One and Roku streaming devices.

disney plus

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Nvidia reportedly readying GeForce MX450 to challenge AMD and Intel

Posted: 10 Apr 2020 08:59 AM PDT

Nvidia is reportedly preparing a Turing-based successor to its Pascal-based GeForce MX300 series of entry-level graphics cards in order to better compete against AMD and Intel.

That’s according to a 3DMark database spotted by hardware leaker @_rogame, which suggests that the MX GPU - which will end up in entry-level notebook designs - will be based on the TU117 architecture, have 2GB GDDR6 memory running at 10Gbps, a base clock of 540MHz and a TDP of 25W.


The tweet, which doesn’t tell us much else about the incoming sequel to the MX350, is accompanied by a screenshot of the cards performance on UL’s 3DMark, in which the “Generic VGA” is paired with a Comet Lake Core i7 10510U CPU.

Earlier rumours via Notebookcheck claim that Nvidia’s incoming GPU, referred to as the “N18S-G5” internally, will arrive to counter Intel’s Xe DG1 iGPU that will be part of the chipmaker’s incoming Tiger Lake-U processors, along with AMD’s 7nm Vega Integrated GPUs.

The same report claims that the so-called N18S-G5, which could arrive as the MX 400 series, will be available in two variants “A” and “B”. It confirms that both will be based on the Turing TU117 architecture and fabricated on the 12nm process node and that each GPU will deliver PCI Gen4 speeds, 64-bit GDDR6 VRAM, and have a 25 W TDP envelope.

The difference between the two will lies in the package size, Notebookcheck claims, with the N18S-G5-B set to come in a 29 x 29 mm package, compared to the N18S-G5-A1's 23 x 23 mm.

As per the report, the “A” variant can be configured to have GDDR5 VRAM at 3.5GHz or GGDR6 at 6GHz, while the “B” model has only the option of GDDR6 VRAM at 5GHz. While GPU core clocks and CUDA Core counts are still unknown, the report says that performance will be similar to that of the GTX 1650 Max-Q.

The N18S-G5-A variant is expected to enter mass production in May, followed by the N18S-G5-B variant with GDDR6 in the early June. Both GPUs are expected to feature in Intel Tiger Lake-powered laptops that are set to arrive sometime in the second half of 2020.

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iOS 14 might let you try out apps before installing them

Posted: 10 Apr 2020 08:34 AM PDT

Code spotted in an early build of iOS 14 suggests that Apple is working on a new feature called Clips, which would let you test out dynamic and interactive content from apps without actually installing them.

As 9to5Mac reports, the idea is that you could watch a video from YouTube, for example, without actually having YouTube installed. Users would be able to try out various features before they commit to downloading the app.

Based on the Clips API, it would kick into action when you scanned a QR code or tapped on a link for an app that wasn't installed on your iPhone. In addition to YouTube, apps for Yelp, DoorDash, OpenTable and PS4 Second Screen are specifically referenced in the code.

App developers will need to specify in the App Store which parts of their apps are available before installing. There will then be the option to install the full app, if required. A similar sort of tech is available in Android with Slices.

What's coming in iOS 14

Like everything else that has been spotted in the iOS 14 code ahead of time, Apple may decide to scrap the idea between now and June, when we're expecting the first official preview of what the software will bring.

Previous leaks have suggested that Apple is thinking of adding extra home screen and wallpaper customizations to iOS 14. We've also seen hints of changes coming to the app switcher.

iOS 14 is expected to be compatible with all the iPhones that can currently run iOS 13, which would mean everything since the iPhone 6S from late 2015 and the iPhone SE which launched in 2016. It's always possible this could change, but we haven't heard that more phones will be left off the upgrade list.

We traditionally get our first look at new iOS versions at Apple's annual WWDC event, held at the start of June. This year's event has been called off in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, though Apple's announcements are likely to still arrive around the same time.

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Animal Crossing on PC? The best alternatives on Steam

Posted: 10 Apr 2020 08:30 AM PDT

Look, we get it. You’re probably sick of people posting about Animal Crossing: New Horizons on the internet. What’s the big deal with it, anyway? It’s just a bunch of cutesy characters, running around an island doing menial tasks to pay off an ever increasing debt to a money-hungry raccoon. 

And yet for some reason you want it – crave it, even. You want to chat with anthropomorphic villagers; you want to toil the land and enjoy the fruits of your labor. But the mere prospect of buying a Nintendo Switch solely to experience one game just isn’t right. 

Well, what if we told you there are some great PC games that can give you those Animal Crossing feels... and they’re all on Steam. Who cares if they aren’t the real deal  – these Animal Crossing PC alternatives will make you feel a little less envious of your friend’s island life, at the very least.

Graveyard Keeper


1. Graveyard Keeper

No, this isn’t a joke recommendation. Graveyard Keeper is kind of similar to Animal Crossing, albeit the subject matter is a lot less cheery. Grab a shovel (and some bodies) as you manage your own graveyard and do whatever it takes to make a thriving business.

Despite being a game largely about putting people six-feet under, Graveyard Keeper is full of dark humor and will make you appreciate your real world job quite a bit more. Sure, you might have back-to-back meetings and the printer is jammed yet again, but at least you don’t have to grind up organs to sell to the local butcher for a quick buck.

2. Stardew Valley

A genuinely amazing game in its own right, Stardew Valley combines the best of Harvest Moon and Animal Crossing to create a compelling and utterly addictive experience. With farming at its heart, enjoy the simple life as you live off the land, grow crops, tend to livestock and craft more efficient equipment. 

Head into the bustling town and forge relationships with its citizens - you never know, it may even lead to marriage and kids! There’s so much to do in Stardew Valley that you’ll wonder why you don’t possess these productivity levels outside of the game. 

Oh, and with the recent multiplayer update you can now fish, fight, plant and sow your seeds with your closest farmhouse friends online. It just gets better and better. 

Garden Paws

3. Garden Paws

Instantly adorable, Garden Paws is the equivalent of Sylvanian Family: the video game (which sadly doesn’t exist). You play as a pint-sized animal tasked with building up a prospering community. Run a shop to earn coins, battle through dangerous dungeons, and take on exciting quests as you work your little paws to the bone.

With over 500+ hours of content to enjoy, Garden Paws continues to grow with regular updates and new gameplay modes to try, like online multiplayer where you can play with up to 32 furry friends. Aww.

My Time at Portia

4. My Time at Portia

A new life awaits in the enchanting town of Portia, but before you get too comfy, you’ll have to restore your father’s dilapidated workshop to its former glory. Befriend the townsfolk, farm like harvest is just around the corner, and become a house designer as you collect and craft all sorts of furniture.

To aid you on your adventure, you can level up your character with numerous skills to boost a variety of skills to fit your playstyle. Become more social, or put all your efforts into combat - the choice is yours. 

There’s so many tasks to tackle in My Time at Portia, that you’ll only wish you had an infinite amount of time to get everything done.

Little Dragons Cafe

5. Little Dragons Cafe

Have you ever wanted to work at a cafe and raise a dragon? Of course you have! Little Dragons Cafe will help you realize that strangely specific life-long dream as you train your very own scaly companion from a weak-winged baby into a fire-breathing adult. 

You’ll also get to run a quaint olde cafe, preparing delicious dishes, serving customers and managing a team of staff and visitors who think keeping a dragon as a pet is totally normal.

To keep your cafe stocked with supplies, you’ll need to venture out into an expansive world filled with secrets, wildlife, and dangers to overcome as you collect ingredients to cook new recipes at your cafe. What a lovely existence.

Hokko Life

Hokko Life 

Hokko Life mirrors the Animal Crossing formula so closely, that you might be forgiven for thinking it’s nothing more than a cheap imitation. But that damning judgment would be rather unfair, considering the game has yet to be released and does bring a few fresh ideas to the table.

For example, Hokko Life lets you craft your own furniture using materials you find in the world. The level of customization goes far beyond what’s possible in Animal Crossing, too – swirl your own paints, upholster a deck chair, or create catwalk-worthy outfits – you can personalize the game however you like. 

With a release date set for 2020, we’ll have to wait and see whether Hokko Life can go toe-to-toe with Nintendo’s charming simulation series.

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Cheap 4K TV deals at Best Buy: save on Samsung, LG, Sony, and more

Posted: 10 Apr 2020 08:25 AM PDT

Score a cheap 4K TV deal at Best Buy with price cuts on top brand TVs like Samsung, LG, Sony, and more.

Best Buy's standout TV bargains include the best-selling Samsung 55-inch 4K TV on sale for $349.99, the TCL 50-inch Roku TV on sale for $259.99, and the Toshiba 43-inch Fire TV on sale for only $249.99.

If you're looking for a bigger screen size Best Buy has the LG 65-inch 4K TV on sale for $479.99 and the Hisense 70-inch Roku TV on sale for $499.99.

Shop more of Best Buy's top TV deals below and keep in mind, while Best Buy has closed its stores due to the coronavirus pandemic, the retailer is now offering curbside pickup. This means, depending on your location, you can select the 'Use Curbside Pickup' option when ordering online, and when you drive up, Best Buy will bring your items to your car.

Best Buy TV deals:

Shop more TV offers with our list of the best cheap TV deals and sales that are happening now.

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Now is the perfect time to buy a new fitness tracker – here’s why

Posted: 10 Apr 2020 08:00 AM PDT

While you’re on lockdown you might find your health and fitness suffers, with limited access to the outdoors and a cupboard full of snacks taking its toll on the waistline. There’s a solution though, in the form of fitness trackers.

Now that exercise time is a valuable commodity in most countries, it’s more important than ever to make the most of it, and a fitness tracker or health-focused smartwatch can do this. They can help you track your exercise and overall activity levels, both when you’re outdoors and stuck inside, and keep you thinking about your fitness without breaking the bank.

To help you understand why exercise wearables are so useful right now, we’ll talk you through five ways they can help you right now, and give examples of some of the best to look at too.

Fitbit Charge 3

They let you maximize workout time

If workout time is brief, it’s worth finding ways to make the most of it, and fitness trackers can help you track how much exercise you do. This can help you see how far you went, as well as see how many calories you burnt and how many steps you did along the way.

Most fitness trackers have different modes for running, walking, cycling, and usually plenty of others too, so no matter what outdoor activity you’re doing, fitness trackers could be really useful to keep on top of your fitness.

In addition, in countries with mandated limits to exercise time, a fitness tracker with a timer (as they nearly all have) can help you make sure you’re not out too long, or don’t walk too far.

Currently the Fitbit Charge 3 tops our list of the best fitness trackers; check out the best prices in your region for the device below:

Honor Magic Watch 2

They can help you improve fitness

Exercise bands and fitness-centric smartwatches don’t just track your workouts, but can provide feedback, activity logs and advice to help you actively improve the way you get fit, and that’s going to be doubly useful if you’re working your way up from locked-down couch potato.

Some wearables can break down your workout, telling you if you pushed too hard, went too far, slacked off a little, or kept the right pace throughout. Others can give you detailed feedback like cadence, pace and altitude, and can let you track these metrics over time to help measure your progress and assess your performance on different routes (hill sessions are great for your fitness, but can't be compared like-for-like with a long, slow weekend run).

Especially useful are fitness trackers with 'body battery', sleep and rest trackers, which can tell if you’re well rested, and help you plan your workouts to avoid over-training. This can be especially useful if you’re trapped indoors a lot, because you can often push yourself too hard if freedom is only a brief treat.

One of the best wearables for helping you build your fitness is the Honor Magic Watch 2, and you can see its prices in your region below:

Fitbit Versa 2

They can provided some needed company

Exercising alone can be a challenge if you're used to working out with a club, but wearables can help. While you'll use your phone for communication and connectivity more than an fitness tracker, some bands and watches can give you a sense of exercising together with community features.

For example, Fitbit devices are well known for their accompanying app, which lets you see the weekly or daily steps, and other stats, from your friends and family, letting you compete in some friendly rivalry to see who can walk or run further.

The ability to see how far your loved ones have walked is an okay stand-in for actually going on walks with them, and a sense of competition is great motivation to make the most of the scant free time you can get to exercise.

You can also link the Fitbit app to Strava – one of the best apps around for keeping you connected to your regular workout buddies. You can join virtual clubs for running, walking, cycling, aerobics and more; leave kudos and comments for your friends; share photos from your daily activities and avoid the loneliness of exercising solo.

If you want a great Fitbit that’ll keep you connected to people, with some decent features too, perhaps check out the Fitbit Versa 2. The best prices for it in your region can be found below:

Garmin Vivosmart 4

You can use fitness trackers indoors too

Your fitness tracker isn’t just going to assist you when you’re out and about exercising, but they can also be a huge help when you’re indoors.

As well as all the features they have like telling the time, passing on notifications and counting all those steps between your bedroom, the kitchen and the bathroom, many have indoor exercise modes.

So if you’ve got a treadmill, exercise bike, rowing machine or cross trainer, for example, fitness trackers will let you record your exercise on the machine including heart rate and fat burnt, more accurately than the machine will.

Even if you’re simply performing bodyweight exercises like press-ups and sit-ups, or makeshift weight training with the side of your bed or bags of sugar, a fitness tracker will let you know how well you did.

One of the most versatile fitness trackers available now is the Garmin Vivosmart 4, which is designed for more amateur exercisers than Garmin’s more premium smartwatches. Check out its prices in your region below:

Fitbit Inspire HR

Fitness trackers don’t break the bank

One of the best perks of a fitness tracker (as opposed to a smartwatch with exercise monitoring functions) is that most of them are pretty affordable – in fact, the majority only cost double-digit sums.

You won’t be out of pocket, then, if you want an exercise band that can track your steps and workouts, as well as sometimes your sleep too. Some even have smartwatch features like notification handling, all for a really low sum.

So if you’re looking to save money right now, that doesn’t mean you can’t get tech to help your fitness. We’ve even got a round-up of the best cheap fitness trackers so you can easily get your exercise companion. 

At the top of that list right now is the Fitbit Inspire HR, and you can check out the best prices for that in your region below:

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Latest Final Fantasy 7 Remake trailer all but assures that a PC version is coming

Posted: 10 Apr 2020 07:51 AM PDT

Final Fantasy 7 Remake dropped today, and is a fantastic time according to our review. However, fans who would love to get in on the adventure on PC are missing out on the excitement – but maybe not for long. 

Square Enix released a trailer where Yoshinori Kitase thanks fans for waiting for Final Fantasy 7 Remake, where he notes that it's been a whopping 23 years since the original game released. But, there's another crucial detail in that trailer: the gameplay was captured on PC, according to an on-screen label. 

For a lot of games, this is pretty standard. The best gaming PCs are simply capable of generating more detailed gameplay, thanks to the sheer power of modern graphics cards and processors. However, most games which take this approach are, you know, coming out as PC games. 

Final Fantasy 7 Remake, at least presently, is only available on PS4, however. The game is a timed exclusive, rather than a permanent Sony mainstay, but a PC version still hasn't been confirmed. With the way things have been going over the last few years, it would frankly be extremely surprising if a PC version of Final Fantasy VII Remake isn't coming, but it's 2020 and we can't be sure of anything anymore. 

Either way, we reached out to Square Enix for comment, but until the publisher announces a PC (or an Xbox One) port, we'll just have to wait and see what the future of the Final Fantasy VII Remake will be. 

Via PCGamesN

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XPS 13 price cut: the powerful Dell laptop is on sale for $1,299.99

Posted: 10 Apr 2020 07:47 AM PDT

We've rounded up Dell's best deals, which include price cuts on best-selling laptops, monitors, webcams, and more. Our top sale pick is the XPS 13 laptop that's on sale for $1,299.99. That's a $57.99 discount and the best price we've found for the powerful machine. 

The Dell XPS 13 laptop features a 13.3-inch Full HD display and packs 16GB of RAM, 512GB SSD, and a 10th Generation Intel Core i7-10710U processor. The powerful laptop received an upgraded battery life of up to 21 hours, and the new 2.25mm webcam is now placed above the display. Perfect for students and travel, the lightweight XPS 13 is Dell's smallest 13-inch laptop and weighs just 2.7 pounds.

Shop more of Dell's best deals below that all qualify for free standard shipping. These offers are limited-time promotions, so you should take advantage now before it's too late.

Dell's best deals:

See more laptop sales with the best cheap laptop deals: prices start at just $129 today.

You can also see more of the best cheap Dell laptop deals and prices.

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IR35 - where are we now?

Posted: 10 Apr 2020 07:30 AM PDT

In March, the Government announced that due to the disruption cause by the ongoing pandemic, it was shelving long awaited and feared changes relating to the treatment of what it describes as “Off-payroll Working”, more commonly known as IR35.  The changes were to take effect from April 2020 and have now been deferred until April 2021.

What is IR35 all about?

The so called IR35 legislation was introduced in 1999 to deal with discrepancies in tax treatment between employees and individuals who provide their services via a personal services company, wholly owned by the individual consultant or contractor (referred to as the contractor for the purposes of this article).

An employee will receive his or her salary subject to deductions in respect of employee’s tax and social security contributions and the employer will be liable to pay Employers National Insurance on that salary at a rate of 13.8% on earnings above a low threshold. 

As a result of the Employers National Insurance obligation, it can be more cost effective for companies to source some services via contractors, rather than to employ staff directly.  The individual providing their services through such a route enjoys a limited tax advantage, arising from the fact that the it is usual  to structure earnings as a payment of  salary at basic rate tax levels, with payment of  the balance of earnings as dividend income to which corporation tax arises, thus avoiding or minimising higher rate tax thresholds.

The 1999 changes, which remain in force and are being increasingly enforced by HMRC, introduced a concept of “deemed employment income”, whereby payments made to an individual by his own company would be deemed to be employment income, leaving the limited company liable to pay employers National Insurance Contributions on the sums paid, regardless of whether they were paid a salary or dividend.

Who falls within IR35?

The basic test HMRC applies is whether it can be said that, were it not for the involvement of the Contractor company, the individual supplying services would be an employee of the client to whom the services are provided.  Despite HMRC assurances to the contrary, this is not a simple or straightforward test. 

In 2018, Public sector organisations became liable to make deductions representing PAYE amounts, including Employer’s National Insurance, from payments to Contractors even where PSC’s were used.  This structure was what was supposed to be rolled out to the private sector from April 2020.  There were always some exemptions, aimed at smaller companies.  For these purposes, a smaller company is one with any two of:

- a turnover of £10.2 million or less
- a balance sheet of £5.1 million or less
- fewer than 50 employees

These businesses were always excluded from the proposed changes, and so will see no change as a result of the deferral.

Whilst clients which regularly contract with PSC’s will largely have breathed a sigh of relief at the deferral, it is important to note that for the contractors, the position is rather different. The existing IR35 rules have not changed and it is reasonable to expect that HMRC will turn its gaze on compliance with those rules by the limited company contractor population. In preparing for the introduction of the broader changes, HMRC stated clearly that if limited company contractors opted to treat themselves as within IR35 from April 2020, HMRC would not necessarily look back at prior years. That may suggest that contractors who do not willing embrace the IR35 regime now may find themselves under closer scrutiny from HMRC, who will surely be under pressure to raise elsewhere the revenues they had anticipated from the changes.

Yvonne Gallagher is a partner at Harbottle & Lewis

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LG GX vs LG WX OLED: how does the new Gallery Series OLED compare?

Posted: 10 Apr 2020 07:00 AM PDT

The LG GX and LG WX OLED TVs may look pretty similar at first glance – and they are. With the same 4K OLED panel, matching HDR format support and identical processors, these two 2020 LG TVs have a huge amount in common, and it may be difficult to know exactly how to choose between them.

The GX, in particular, may be unfamiliar to many TV shoppers out there. That’s because the G Series (or ‘Gallery Series’) OLED range is new for 2020, taking the place left by last year’s LG E9 OLED, which never got a successor.

Thankfully, there are a few differentiators between the GX and WX. This handy comparison guide will take you through the relative pricing for each model, any difference in the display sizes available, as well as what to expect from a 2020 LG OLED in general. 

You can skip to the audio section to find out the main thing that keeps these two sets apart. Otherwise, just scroll down to next section below.

Pricing (and model sizes)

Firstly, how much do the LG WX and LG GX cost?

Well, neither is cheap compared to others in the 2020 LG TV range. Prices for the GX start at $2,699 / £2,299 (around AU$4,500) for the 55-inch model, with a 65-inch version coming in April, and a 77-inch model expected in May.

The WX is available in a single 65-inch model, at £4,499 (around $5,600 / AU$9,200), which launched in April. Last year’s W9 model, however, will be getting a 77-inch size later this year for those of you needing (or wanting) a bigger display.

By comparison, the cheapest LG OLED available right now, the LG B9 (2019) is currently retailing for around half the cost of the GX.

These aren’t TVs you buy for their value, though they do offer something markedly different in terms of their form factors...

Is the Gallery Series GX a work of art, or an imitation?

Design, audio and specs

The main difference between the LG GX and WX OLEDs has to do with their audio capabilities.

The gimmick for the W Series has traditionally been – as with 2019’s W9 model – the wall-mounted ‘wallpaper-thin’ TV panel, with a detached soundbar designed to live below the television screen.

This isn’t an ideal audio solution for everyone, though, especially if you already have a soundbar or surround sound setup and don’t want to pay unnecessarily for another. The benefits of a wall-mounted television also aren’t entirely felt if it comes with hardware you need to place on a counter anyway.

That’s where the GX comes in. The LG GX OLED is similarly a wall-mounted TV, but it comes with built-in speakers attached to the display itself. The GX isn’t quite as thin as the WX as a result, but it offers a neat all-in-one solution for those not wanting a separate soundbar along with their new LG screen. The GX’s speakers and WX’s soundbar even boast the same 60W output and 4.2 channel audio – though the former model deploys downward-firing audio, and the latter front-firing.

For comparison, the 55-inch GX protrudes just 5mm from the wall, while last year’s 65-inch W9 stuck out an even smaller 3.85mm.

Both the GX and WX use the same a9 Gen 3 processor – which is also used in this year’s LG CX OLED. The low-end BX model, however, will feature a less powerful a7 Gen 3 chip.

You’ll get the same updated-for-2020 version of LG’s winning webOS smart TV platform, too, which will be a boon on either set – along with the sleek Magic Remote. Both TVs support HDR10, dynamic Dolby Vision HDR, and Dolby Atmos surround sound too, as well as Apple AirPlay 2 and the Google Assistant / Alexa smart assistants.

Not everyone liked the mandated soundbar of last year's W9 OLED

LG GX vs LG WX: takeaway

The LG GX is a pleasing update that corrects the impracticalities of the WX’s design. It’s odd, then, that the GX isn’t a replacement for the W Series outright.

LG decided to discontinue its E Series instead – despite it offering a unique ‘floating’ glass display – and we can’t help but feel that the GX and WX are a bit too similar to really stand out from each other.

If you’re eyeing up the pair of them, though, it all boils down to this: get the GX for built-in audio and no trailing cables, or the WX for a thinner display and add-on soundbar. In all else, there’s really not much separating one from the other. Just remember that you’ll likely need a professional installer to get either one mounted properly in your living room.

Not quite your pay grade? Check out the best deals on 2019 LG TVs below:

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Apple Watch deal: the Apple Watch Series 3 is on sale for just $199

Posted: 10 Apr 2020 06:36 AM PDT

Track your health stats and stay connected with the best-selling Apple Watch 3 that's currently on sale for just $199. That's an $80 discount and the best price we've found for the 38mm smartwatch. If you're interested in a cellular plan with your smartwatch, the Apple Watch 3 with LTE connectivity is on sale for $299.

The Apple Watch 3 is packed with health and fitness-focused features while also keeping you connected. The smartwatch tracks activity, workouts, and calories burned and offers continuous heart rate monitoring. The swim-proof smartwatch will even notify you when an unusually high or low heart rate is detected and features a breathing app to help with everyday stress. The Series 3 watch provides an 18-hour battery life and includes basic smartwatch features such as the ability to make calls, send messages, and receive notifications.

The all-new Apple Watch 5 currently retails for $399, which makes the $199 price tag on the Series 3 smartwatch extremely attractive. Shop the Apple Watch 3 below and keep in mind Apple is currently offering fast, free delivery on every order.

Apple Watch deals:

Discover more Apple watch sales with the best cheap Apple Watch prices and deals or just out our roundup of refurbished Apple Watch deals.

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Google Hangouts officially rebrands as Google Chat

Posted: 10 Apr 2020 05:22 AM PDT

Google has continued the reshaping of G Suite with a rebranding of its Hangouts chat and collaboration service.

Hangouts, which allows users to chat online, will now be known as Google Chat in the enterprise edition of Google's productivity suite, according to The Verge. 

The move marks the complete removal of the Hangouts brand from the enterprise version of G Suite, although the Hangouts name will still live on as part of Google's consumer-facing chat software. 

Google Chat

This version of Hangouts was spun out of the infamous Google+ social network back in 2013, and will not see any changes, the company said in a statement to The Verge. This means that desktop Gmail users, as well as iOS and Android users, will still be able to use Hangouts in the same way.

The rebranding to Chat may cause some initial confusion, as Google gave the same moniker to its RCS-based Android messaging service, announced only a few months ago.

The company's videoconferencing service, previously known as Hangouts Meet, is also getting a refresh. The news was revealed in a Google Cloud blog post, which unveiled the service's new title of Google Meet.

Google Meet will need to move fast to ensure it stays at the front of mind for enterprise users in what has become a crowded market in recent weeks. Many user may have already pivoted to using video conferencing services such as Zoom in response to the global need to work from home following the coronavirus outbreak.

The service has already seen a huge surge in users, with Google revealing that Meet's usage was 25 times larger than what it had seen in January, gaining around two million new users every day.

Last month Google decided to extend some features of Meet, such as allowing 250 participants in video calls and live streaming for up to 100,000 viewers on a domain, to help people stay connected during this trying time. These features are normally only available to G Suite Enterprise customers but the search giant decided to offer them to all of its G Suite customers until July 1, though this deadline has now been extended until September 30.

According to Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian, Google Meet racked up two billion minutes of video calls in March and during that time, the service grew by 60 percent day over day. 

Via The Verge

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Twitch is rolling out Watch Parties for you and your friends

Posted: 10 Apr 2020 05:21 AM PDT

These are trying times for many of us, and Twitch wants to help out: it's announced that it's rolling out a beta version of its Watch Parties product in the US, so you can watch Prime Video content with your friends while you're physically separated.

As per the official tweet, the feature is coming to Twitch partners in the US, before rolling out more generally in the weeks ahead.

When it arrives for you, you'll be able to start a stream from Prime Video, and then invite friends to join you in a remote viewing session, so you can stay in sync and discuss what you're watching over chat.

The service doesn't cover everything on Prime Video, but there's a decent selection of stuff here – Good Omens, Hannah, Mission: Impossible Fallout, Mr Robot, Vikings, Star Trek, The Expanse and more besides.

Binge watching with extras

Watch Parties was first announced last year, but its actual launch is timely: with many of us stuck indoors for extended periods of time, you can add some extra interest to your binge watching by tuning in with friends.

It only works on the desktop though, and you'll need Firefox or Chrome installed to join in with a Twitter Watch Party. Mobile devices and apps on smart TVs are left out of the fun for the time being.

This same group-watching functionality is available in Netflix, but you need a third-party extension (which is free to install) to get it working and to sync a stream across browsers in different parts of the world.

It's more evidence of the changing tech landscape as we all adjust to being apart from each other for most of the time – from digital assistants getting up to speed with Covid-19, to tech companies are giving away free content to help us all through this.

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