etechwire-blog

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The Sound BlasterX G6 is an external sound card for game consoles

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The Sound BlasterX G6 is an external sound card for game consoles

Creative has a new external sound card device for console gamers who want to amp up the sound on their gaming headset.

The Sound BlasterX G6 is a high-resolution gaming DAC amp and USB sound card you can plug into a PC or any of the current consoles including the Xbox One, PS4 or Nintendo Switch. Likewise, the Sound BlasterX G6 works with any old headset including those not made by Creative, as long as they use standard 3.5 audio jacks.

Creative claims that by incorporating precision audiophile components and bi-amplification technology, the G6 can power each channel separately to deliver a whole new level of audio fidelity with superior clarity and accuracy.

The external sound card also provides plenty of additional features such as Dolby Digital decoding, 7.1 virtual surround sound and sidetone-speaker volume control.

The Sound BlasterX G6 isn’t Creative’s first external sound card built for gaming, however, the company’s general manager Low Long Chye noted how their fans purchased the earlier G5 for PlayStation 4 and other consoles

“[It was] a departure from its traditional usage with PCs” Chye said. “As more and more people discover the value of great audio outside of the world of the PC, we wanted to offer another option with even better performance and components.”

The Sound BlasterX G6 is available now on the company’s website and other retailers for $149 (about £120, AU$200).

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Xbox All Access packages a console, Xbox Live and Game Pass for one monthly fee

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Xbox All Access packages a console, Xbox Live and Game Pass for one monthly fee

Microsoft is moving ahead with its plans to create an Xbox One subscription service that will go by the name of Xbox All Access. The plan includes a console, 24 months of Xbox Live Gold and 24 months of Xbox Game Pass for a flat monthly fee. 

Right now, Microsoft has two packages planned for the US market: an Xbox One S package that will run you $21.99 a month and an Xbox One X package that includes Microsoft’s 4K powerhouse console for $34.99 per month. (Around £17/AU$29 or £27/AU$47, respectively, if Microsoft ever offers something similar for the UK or Australia.)

Because both packages come with Xbox Live Gold and Game Pass, you’ll have over 100 titles to download from the moment you open the box and dozens more available to you for free over the next two years thanks to Microsoft’s Games with Gold program.

The catch to this is that you’re signing a 24-month contract for the console and the deal is only available to “qualified customers”. If you bow out before the contract is up, you’ll owe Microsoft the remainder of the cost for the system … which could be even more than if you had purchased the console and the services separately. 

The other potential hurdle is that you’ll need to sign up for the deal in-person at a Microsoft Store where you’ll need to apply for a Dell Preferred Account – basically the holder of the payment plan for the next 24 months. 

The pros and cons of payment plans

For gamers of a certain age, Microsoft’s All Access pass is a great deal: You get a console and everything you need to play online for one affordable price. You don’t have to plunk down a chunk of change upfront, and after two years the console looks like it will be yours to own.

The problems here is that, very obviously, if you miss a payment, you’ll end up paying a significant penalty. It’s interest-free … but only for 24 months. After that, the Dell Preferred Account plan can charge up to 29.99% APR. Even worse, if you decide to drop out of the plan after a month, you could be staring down at a bill of $800 in the case of the Xbox One X package – far more than you would’ve spent if you would’ve just bought the console outright.

All that said, if you’ve got good credit and are willing to make the payments, Xbox All Access could be a solid deal. 

[etechwire-blog]

The new iPad Pros may support keyboards in portrait mode

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The new iPad Pros may support keyboards in portrait mode

Here’s something of interest if you’re patiently waiting for the 2018 iPad Pros to break cover – a shot of an updated case uploaded to the web shows a mysterious cut-out on the back of the device, perhaps to attach a keyboard when the tablets are in portrait mode.

The hole is in a similar position to where the Home button is on the existing tablets, but it’s around the back of the tablet not on the front. Apple has supported keyboards that prop up the iPad vertically in the past, but it would be something new for the iPad Pro line – if indeed the picture is genuine and the cut-out we can see is for a Smart Keyboard.

As you would expect, the iPad Pros will still support the use of keyboards in landscape orientation, and the case also shows space for a Smart Connector along the edge of the devices too, in a similar position to where it is on the latest iPad Pro tablets.

iPad Pro 3 case (Credit: SlashLeaks)

It’s possible that the case space is reserved for a brand new accessory that Apple has yet to tell us about – or it’s possible that someone 3D printed this to fool us all. For the time being, take this intriguing leak with a pinch of salt until we know more details.

What we do know for definite is that new iPad Pros are on the way. Apple is tipped to be bringing the iPhone X style to its iPad line this year, which means a display notch on the front, Face ID instead of Touch ID, and very thin bezels so more of the front of the device can be given over to the screens of whatever size Apple decides on.

As for a launch date, all signs point to early September, so it’s likely that new iPad Pros are going to get unveiled alongside new iPhones. It could be an expensive month for anyone planning to go all-in on the latest and greatest Apple hardware for 2018.

Via 9to5Google

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A new Google Pixel 3 XL unboxing video confirms all the rumors

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A new Google Pixel 3 XL unboxing video confirms all the rumors

Google’s latest flagship is due to make an official appearance some time in October, but leaks and rumors of both the Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL have been coming in thick and fast. 

While the availability of the Pixel 3 XL on the Russian black market has pretty much taken away any surprises, a new unboxing video of the larger Google flagship handset has landed on YouTube and leaves absolutely nothing to the imagination.

The professional high-quality video reveals the Pixel 3 XL in all its hi-res glory, along with everything else that comes in the box.

First discovered by Android Authority and posted by YouTuber In DIGI, the two-and-a-half-minute video shows off the glass-backed phone, along with the wired USB-C Pixel Buds said to be accompanying the forthcoming Google flagships, as well as the usual charging gear. The video also reveals a Quick Switch adapter and #teampixel stickers.

Once the phone is booted, the video confirms there’s a notch on the large screen and that it’s powered by Android 9. Also demonstrated in the video are the phone’s selfie capabilities.

As for what’s reportedly under the hood, the Pixel 3 XL is expected to sport a Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 processor with either 4GB or 6GB of RAM.

We’re expecting a new 2018 iPhone to be announced before the Google flagships

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Microsoft Surface Go was reportedly almost an ARM Windows tablet

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Microsoft Surface Go was reportedly almost an ARM Windows tablet

Sources speaking to Paul Thurrott have said that the Surface Go, Microsoft’s latest miniaturized version of its flagship Windows tablet, was originally intended to use an ARM processor. It reportedly wasn’t until Intel ‘petitioned Microsoft heavily’ that it went with a Pentium Gold processor.

The report deals with a response many had to the Surface Go: why did Microsoft choose an Intel processor for its smallest Surface tablet instead of an ARM-based one, considering the latter’s supposed benefits to battery life and mobile-centric use?

Not to mention that Microsoft was expected to set an example for Windows on ARM. Earlier this year, the Windows on ARM platform debuted to poor performance, so an improvement was expected.

Update: A Microsoft spokesperson has provided us with the following statement: 

“Part of being product makers is listening to our customers and pushing ourselves to evolve and improve with every generation of devices we create. The Intel Pentium Gold processor is great for Surface Go and we worked closely with Intel to optimize Surface to deliver the best power and performance for our customers, and a consistent experience across the Surface family of devices. The performance from this device provides over 2x that of Surface 3 – and when compared to Surface Pro 3 GPU, 33% more than the i5 and 20% more than the i7.  Only this processor could deliver that kind of performance in a device this small and just 1.15 pounds.”

Why the last minute change?

It still remains unclear why Microsoft ultimately went with the Intel processor, but these issues with performance wouldn’t likely have been resolved before the Surface Go’s release. 

Even the updated Snapdragon 850 processor for late-2018 Windows devices isn’t likely to match the power that users have come to expect from Windows laptops and tablets running on Intel chips.

Furthermore, ARM-based Windows devices still cannot support a large number of apps that Intel and AMD-based ones inherently do. 

This is because the vast majority of apps on Windows 10 were created to interface with Intel’s x86 instruction set architecture, and therefore are incompatible with the ARM processor without emulation.

Not only does this emulation introduce an additional level of overhead on the ARM processor to drive the virtualized environment in which to run these apps, Windows 10 can only emulate 32-bit x86 apps so far – a majority of Windows 10 apps are 64-bit, but this limitation is almost through. 

What’s even worse for ARM is that Intel is publicly against this emulation and possibly prepared to lawyer up over it on patent infringement concerns.

All told, ARM’s success on Windows has been an uphill battle for years, and is likely to be that way for at least a while longer. App compatibility and performance issues are more easily solvable problems – Qualcomm’s already planning an update following Snapdragon 850 for 2019 – than potential patent infringement lawsuits.

Intel, meanwhile, has had trouble keeping pace with rivals in moving onto smaller processor design architectures, with its 14-nanometer process now several years old and its 10nm process delayed to mid-2019. 

This news shows how heated the competition in the silicon industry has become in the past few years.

Via The Verge

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Windows 10 gets Intel’s patches for worrying new Foreshadow flaw

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Windows 10 gets Intel’s patches for worrying new Foreshadow flaw

On the security front, Microsoft has pushed out a new batch of microcode updates for Windows 10 which mitigate against the Foreshadow vulnerability, along with additional Spectre variants.

As ZDNet spotted, the microcode patches, piped over from Intel, address the following flaws in the company’s processors: Spectre variant 3a (‘rogue system register read’) and variant 4 (‘speculative store bypass’), along with Foreshadow, a fresh vulnerability that came to light earlier this month, which hit the firm’s high-end Core and Xeon processors.

The patches have been released for all versions of Windows 10, as well as for Windows Server.

Alternative channel

Microsoft started releasing Intel’s microcode updates to Windows users back in March, hoping to bolster security for the users of the OS, and offering an extra channel to receive protection in case users haven’t had the CPU patches through from hardware manufacturers (via firmware updates, which can take some time to concoct and deploy).

Obviously, it’s good to see these sort of countermeasures pushed forward by whatever means possible, particularly when a new threat has popped up. Foreshadow is a worrying little beast which is (unsurprisingly) impervious to the protection put in place for Meltdown and Spectre, and it doesn’t leave any traces either, so the user won’t likely know that they’ve been hit.

Intel has promised that CPUs released down the line will have protection against Foreshadow baked in.

[etechwire-blog]

Google has already helped patch a serious flaw in Fortnite for Android

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Google has already helped patch a serious flaw in Fortnite for Android

Epic Games has decided to release Fortnite for Android outside of the Google Play Store, presumably because it doesn’t want to give Google a 30% cut of its revenue. The Fortnite installer has to be downloaded from the Fortnite website instead.

One of the potential problems that brings with it is security: apps outside the Google Play Store aren’t subject to the same checks and scans as those inside it. Well, it turns out Google is still keeping an eye on Fortnite – it recently identified a security flaw in the Fortnite installer, which Epic Games has since patched and made safe.

The Fortnite installer grabs the main app and downloads it to a phone. The security flaw, however, allowed any other app on the device to intercept that request and substitute it for another – essentially installing a different app unbeknownst to the user or the installer.

Flaws for thought

Obviously that’s quite a serious issue – and given the popularity of Fortnite it’s probably one that hackers would’ve tried to exploit. Since Epic Games patched the problem, though, the installer is once again safe to use to get Fortnite downloaded to devices.

It would appear Epic isn’t best pleased that Google made the issue public so early: “Epic genuinely appreciated Google’s effort to perform an in-depth security audit of Fortnite,” the company said in a statement. “However, it was irresponsible of Google to publicly disclose the technical details of the flaw so quickly.”

It’s unclear if the security issue was actually exploited by anyone, but if you want to be on the safe side, uninstall and reinstall Fortnite for Android and start again from scratch. Old, unpatched versions of the uninstaller will now no longer be allowed to run.

Via Android Central

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Honor Play is coming soon, and it's designed to offer great mobile gaming

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Honor Play is coming soon, and it's designed to offer great mobile gaming

Alongside its range of products like the Honor 10 and Honor 7X, the Honor brand has just revealed that the Honor Play is coming to the UK after launching in China back in July. 

We don’t currently know if it will be on sale in the US or in Australia, plus we are currently unclear on pricing and we don’t expect to hear more on that until Honor’s IFA 2018 press conference on August 30.

We have tried out the phone though and you can read all about it in our hands on Honor Play review.

It features the largest screen on an Honor phone to date at 6.3-inches with a 19.5:9 aspect ratio, a Full HD+ resolution and 409 pixels-per-inch. Design-wise it has a metal unibody and comes in the colors of Midnight Black or Navy Blue in the UK.

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The Ultra Violet version you can see above is restricted to other markets, as are two versions called the Player Edition Black and Player Edition Red.

The Honor Play uses the top-end HiSilicon Kirin 970 chipset that has featured in other phones like the Huawei P20 Pro, plus it comes with 4GB of RAM in the UK. Some markets also have access to a version with 6GB of RAM.

Gaming central

There’s 64GB of storage available as standard plus you can add a microSD card of up to 256GB.

The camera on the rear of the phone is a dual-sensor one with one lens toting 16MP and the other being a 2MP depth sensor. This isn’t likely to get you as strong photography as the Honor 10, but it should be able to take some good shots.

Selfies should look great too thanks to a 16MP front-facing camera. The Honor Play is running Emotion UI 8.1, which is the company’s own reworking of Android 8.1 Oreo software.

There’s a 3,750mAh battery here too, which we hope will allow the phone to keep playing games for hours on end.

While the Honor Play clearly has a lot of power, leaving it capable of running top-end games, there’s little here to distinguish it as a gaming phone. Instead the company seems to have focused on making an all-round smartphone that can also play games well as a bonus, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

We expect to hear more about the price and release date of the Honor Play at the company’s IFA 2018 press conference on August 30.

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How to watch Valladolid vs Barcelona: live stream for free on Eleven Sports from anywhere

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How to watch Valladolid vs Barcelona: live stream for free on Eleven Sports from anywhere

Live stream Valladolid vs Barcelona – where and when

Valladolid vs Barcelona takes place in the Estadio Jose Zorrilla on Saturday, August 25.

Kick-off is a late 10.15pm locally, which is 9.15pm BST, 4.15pm ET, 1.15m PT and 6.15am AET on Monday morning. 

The new season means new coverage of football around the world, with live matches even reaching Facebook. Real Valladolid against Barcelona is one of the latest fixtures to be hosted on the social network, and we’re here to help you tune in to the free live stream regardless of where you are in the world.

Barcelona were in imperious form as they swept past Alaves on La Liga’s opening weekend. Now donning the captain’s armband, Lionel Messi scored twice in spectacular fashion with Phil Coutinho thumping home the other. If that combination isn’t enough to worry their opposition on Saturday, there’s the added threat of Luis Suarez who will be hungry for his first goal of the season. 

Valladolid are among La Liga’s new boys having won promotion from the Segunda Division via the play-offs last season. One of the few players they spent money on this summer was midfield man Ruben Alcarez, who will need to be at his best to stifle Barcelona’s possession football on Saturday.

Are we set for another Messi masterclass or could an upset be on the cards? Find out by following the instructions below and grabbing a free live stream of Barcelona vs Real Valladolid in La Liga.

If you’re in a country that’s not showing the Valladolid vs Barcelona match on TV, don’t sweat. With a VPN service you can connect to channels from a country that will have the match – including the UK which has free access to the whole game thanks to the Eleven Sports Facebook page.

Follow the three simple steps below and get ready to live stream the whole of this La Liga contest for free. 

1. Download and install a VPN You can scroll down to find out your La Liga viewing options in some of the major football-watching countries around the world. But if the place where you live doesn’t have it, you can always use a VPN. A VPN allows you to change your IP address so you appear to be in a completely different location. We’ve tested hundreds of VPNs and can recommend these as the best VPN services currently available:

Express VPN (comes with a 30 day money back guarantee) This is the #1 rated best VPN in the world right now. You can watch on many devices at once including Smart TVs, Fire TV Stick, PC, Mac, iPhone, Android phone, iPads, tablets etc. Check out Express VPN

IPVanish supports up to 10 devices, so great on the go

VyprVPN: blazing speeds make VyprVPN a great choice for 4K video

2. Connect to the appropriate server location Simply open the VPN app, hit ‘choose location’ and select the appropriate location – in this instance, the UK.

3. Go to the Eleven Sports Facebook page Eleven Sports is really making a splash in the live sport stakes, nicking all of the La Liga and Italian Serie A matches from Sky this season – and they’ll be showing free games on Facebook every weekend without you even needing to sign up. Luckily, Valladolid vs Barcelona is one of those matches, so go and watch it there.

How to stream Valladolid vs Barcelona live in the UK 

As mentioned above, little-known subscription service Eleven Sports has nabbed the La Liga rights from Sky Sports, meaning Spanish football has a brand new home in the UK. Kick-off for this one is 9.15pm BST and the good news is that this fixture is one of Eleven’s weekly picks to be shown for free on its Facebook page – we’re just hoping the glitches of last weekend have now been ironed out.

If you’re outside the UK, you can tune in to Eleven Sports by downloading a VPN, setting your location to the UK, and tuning in that way. 

How to watch Valladolid vs Barcelona: US live stream 

BeIN Sports is the La Liga broadcaster in the USA, with kick-off for this one at 4.15pm ET and 1.15pm PT. If you’re a BeIN Sports subscriber and want to stream the coverage to your laptop or mobile device, BeIn Connect is the service you need.

Alternatively, you can follow the VPN route and stream for free via the Eleven Sports UK Facebook page.

How to watch Valladolid vs Barcelona: Canada live stream 

BeIn Sports is also the 2018/19 La Liga broadcaster in Canada. Kick-off is at 4.15pm Toronto time and if you’re a BeIN Sports subscriber and want to stream the coverage to your laptop or mobile device, BeIn Connect is the place to go. 

As stated above, you could also follow the VPN route and head to Eleven Sport’s UK Facebook page which will be streaming the match for free. 

How to watch Valladolid vs Barcelona: Australia live stream

The BeIN Sports La Liga monopoly stretches to Australia too. Barcelona’s match at Valladolid kicks off at 6.15am Sunday morning down under, so stay in on Saturday night and set those alarms if you want to catch this one live.

If you’re not a BeIN subscriber, you’ve also got the VPN option above, enabling you to stream for free via the Eleven Sports UK Facebook page.

Where else can I watch La Liga football using a VPN

A VPN will enable you to watch La Liga from literally anywhere – even if it isn’t being broadcast in that country. So that obviously includes the following: Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Denmark, Egypt, France, Germany, Iceland, Iran, Japan, Mexico, Morocco, Nigeria, Panama, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Serbia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Tunisia, Uruguay and many more!

How to stream all the online action straight to you TV

The ability to live stream all the football to your phone or tablet is undeniably useful – you don’t have to miss a single goal, even if you’re out of the house. But if you want to stream La Liga football from the internet to your TV, then picking up a streaming box might be useful. Check out our guide to the best streaming media players, where the likes of Apple TV, Roku and Amazon Fire are all included.

Image courtesy of fcbarcelona.com

Best for

Privacy and unblocking

Torrenting and P2P traffic

Performance and security

Balance of options and ease of use

[etechwire-blog]

Intel 9th-generation Coffee Lake S processors may be closer than we thought

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Intel 9th-generation Coffee Lake S processors may be closer than we thought

Intel Core i7-9700K and i9-9900K processors have showed up for preorder on European retailers, fueling speculation that the release is right around the corner. 

We previously reported on a leaked Intel roadmap which pointed to the Core i5, i7 and i9 Coffee Lake-S models launching on October 1. CentralPoint, the retailer that posted the early pre-order (and has since taken it down), said that it would be getting stock on September 7, as reported by Wccftech. If this is true, it would seem to back up that October 1 release date. 

The Core i9-9900K is being listed by Netherlands-based retailer Dutch Computer Centre for €561 (about $652, £507), which would fall in line with what we’d expect a Core i9 processor to cost. This is likely a placeholder price, though, and we’ll see official pricing once Intel actually announces these next-generation processors.

Intel is at it again 

What we want to know is what’s going on with the rest of the 9th-generation lineup. We’ve only really seen solid information about the high-end parts, with only shaky leaks and speculation to guide our hand when it comes to the Core i5 and i3 lineup. 

Some of these low-end processors did show up on a leaked microcode revision, but as it wasn’t published by Intel directly, we have to take it with a grain of salt. 

Either way, October 1 is coming fast, so we’ll see whether any of this information is accurate one way or another. We expect the pricing at least to change. Hopefully Intel will cater to the mid-range as well – Ryzen 2nd Generation is unforgiving competition these days. 

[etechwire-blog]

New Philips Hue lighting kits bring boring walls to life

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New Philips Hue lighting kits bring boring walls to life

If you’re a proud member of generation rent, you may find it hard to decorate your walls without putting your security deposit in jeopardy – but now you can now safely add color to you living room with Philips’ new Hue Play and Hue Signe lighting kits. 

Although previous Hue lighting kits can be used to illuminate walls, the new Hue Play and Hue Signe lighting kits are specifically designed to bounce colored light off your walls and create ambience. 

The Hue Play and Hue Signe can be connected to the Hue Bridge and Hue smartphone app, allowing you to choose from an intimidating 16 million different colors. Like all Hue products, you can also control these lights with Siri, Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa. 

Immersive color

Designed to sit in front of or behind your TV, the Hue Play can be synchronized to your entertainment systems, making home cinema and gaming sessions even more immersive without any unwanted glare.

The Hue Signe, however, is a vertical fixture which comes either as a floor or table lamp, and is best placed next to your TV or against a feature wall. It can also be synced up with entertainment, music, and gaming systems or simply used to add a splash of color to your home. 

The Internet of Things

Philips has long been a market leader in ‘smart’ lighting, and the popularity of internet-connected domestic gadgets is growing every year, with the market predicted to reach $8.9 trillion by 2024.

Smart home devices fall under the ‘Internet of Things’; in other words, physical devices with Wi-Fi connectivity and electronic sensors that allow data transfer. In the home, this can include everything from the iKettle to smart bike locks.

Pre-orders for the Philips Hue Play and Hue Signe start in September, with shipping due to commence in October. The Play starts at $70 (£55 / AU$ 76), increasing to $130 (£102 / AU$178) for a two piece kit, while the Signe starts at $160 (£126 / AU$220) for the table lamp size, and $250 (£196 / AU$343) for a floor based model.   

Via Engadget

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Re-live the good old days by installing Windows 95 as a desktop app

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Re-live the good old days by installing Windows 95 as a desktop app

Windows 95 is still the most beloved iteration of Microsoft’s operating system, and you can now relive those halcyon days on any modern macOS, Windows or Linux computer by downloading it as an app.

Windows 95 v1.0, as it’s known, was created by developer Felix Riesenberg, and is free to download from GitHub. 

Granting a 13-year-old operating system free rein over your computer would be a security nightmare, so the app runs safely sandboxed with no access to networks or files stored on your device.

Sadly that means you’ll miss out on the classic Internet Explorer experience, but that’s a small price to pay to keep your rose-tinted glasses intact.

Blue screen thinking

You can while away the hours with Freecell and Solitaire, create a pixelated masterpiece in the classic Microsoft Paint, and compose missives in Notepad – all accessible via a good, old-fashioned Start menu.

There’ll be no interference from Cortana ether, though you might miss her when Clippy starts chipping in.

[etechwire-blog]

DJI Mavic 2 Pro hands on review

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DJI Mavic 2 Pro hands on review

The DJI Mavic 2 Pro is the most powerful consumer drone you can buy thanks to its gimbal-stabilized Hasselblad camera with a 1-inch CMOS sensor for stunning aerial 4K video and photos.

It’s one of two foldable drones Chinese brand DJI just launched, further cementing it as the king of drones in 2018 and giving us a sequel to the likeable DJI Mavic Pro (which we’ll call the Mavic Pro 1 in this hands-on review for convenience).

What’s new? It mostly comes down to the camera quality and the smarter modes for capturing video and photos. The picture is brighter on the DJI Mavic 2 Pro vs the DJI Mavic Pro 1 without being blown out. You’ll to see a difference side-by-side.

Comparisons matter when it comes to the price, too: it’s noticeably more expensive. And even with superior 10-bit HDR video, an adjustable aperture, and a built-in Hyperlapse mode, the alluring power behind the Mavic 2 Pro doesn’t guarantee it will sit at the top of our best drones 2018 list. It’s not that easy; DJI has DJI to blame.

The new DJI Mavic 2 Zoom is slightly cheaper and features a 2x optical zoom lens – it can shift from 24mm to a 48mm in 4K (for a 2x zoom), and simulate 96mm in Full HD (4x the zoom). It’s all done with a gesture on your smartphone that sits inside the controller clamshell. The downside? It uses a smaller 1/2.3-inch CMOS camera sensor.

DJI just made your life more difficult by introducing two compelling drone choices if you’re looking to spend considerable cash on a consumer drone. Everyone else with a smaller budget should look no further than the still-excellent DJI Mavic Air, our pick for first-time fliers.

Release date and price

DJI dropped a bombshell on us at its launch event when it announced that the DJI Mavic 2 Pro release date was August 23 – that very day – with orders going out right away. The Mavic 2 Zoom is ready to ship within one business day, too.

The Mavic 2 Pro price is decidedly more expensive than the Mavic Pro 1 worldwide. It costs $1,499 (£1,299, AU$2,299). Compare these prices to the Mavic Pro 1, which was  £899, $999 and AU$1,349 at launch.

Right in between those prices is the Mavic 2 Zoom at a little more tolerable $1,249 (£1,099, AU$1,900), but still considerably expensive. Whichever new drone you get, you’re going to expect a lot for your money. 

We’ll continue to test the new DJI drones before rendering a judgment in a full DJI Mavic 2 Pro review, but this appears to be the foldable drone to buy if you want the best on a consumer level. While we test it, enjoy these photos of the drone from the launch event.

Design

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Bank holiday sales: these are the best deals from Amazon, Currys, AO, Argos and more

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Bank holiday sales: these are the best deals from Amazon, Currys, AO, Argos and more

The bank holiday sales are in full swing right now and there are some fantastic deals to end the summer sales season on a high. Digging out discounts is what we do, not just every bank holiday, Black Friday or Amazon Prime Day, but every day of the week, so you know we’ll steer you to the best ones.

There are some tempting offers for everyone this weekend with TVs, laptops, smart home devices, gaming consoles, Kindles, mobiles phones, cheap broadband packages, Sky TV deals, home and garden items and much more. September is usually the start of the sales lull ahead of Black Friday and Christmas with late October usually signalling the start of silly season again. So this could be your last chance for a while to get deals as good as these.

When do the bank holiday sales start?

The bank holiday itself technically starts Monday August 27th in the UK. The sales actually started super early this time though, with Amazon kicking off a week-long sale already with fresh deals arriving every day August 29th. We’ll be updating our highlights throughout the long weekend.

We’ve already been busy digging through the bank holiday deals to bring you lots of TechRadar-friendly discounts on the latest tech below. But we’re keeping a savvy eye out for plenty of other deals types too. So if you’re after a bit of home improvement, you’ll find discounts on multiple categories at the likes of Wickes and B&Q. If you’re looking for furniture, home decor, lighting and other home styling options then you’ll want to check out the bank holiday sale happening at Wayfair right now too. To stay tuned on all our regular deal updates, bookmark our deals page or follow us over on Twitter.

Bank holiday sales: quick links

Amazon: great discounts on Amazon devices and more.

Argos: cheaper items for your garden and lots of tech inside you home.

Currys: another huge clearance of TVs, fridges, laptops and much more.

Sky TV: available from just £20 a month.

AO: going big on cheap TVs, laptops, household appliance and electricals.

ebuyer: fresh discounts on the best laptops and TVs.

B&Q: time for a bit of home improvement or a new BBQ?

boohoo: A different sale type every day!

John Lewis: home, fashion and electricals with a price match to boot.

Very: home, tech, outdoors, fashion and more.

Our Top 10 bank holiday sale deals:

Philips Hue Starter Kit and Google Home Mini: £204 £149 at Currys This an excellent bundle for the Philips Hue bulbs as it has everything you need to get started including three bulbs, bridge (the brain box) and a dimmer switch. You can then control the colours and tone of the bulbs via an app or better yet, with voice commands via the Google Home Mini smart speaker that Currys has thrown in. With a £60 saving today, you don’t want to miss out.View Deal

Hisense H60NEC5600UK 60-inch Smart HDR 4K TV £799 £649 at AO.com An unbelievable price for a 60-inch TV with smart features and a 4K HDR display. This was originally an already-decent £799, so we’re surprised to see the price go this low. You only have to look at the other prices in the size category to see what a huge saving this Hisense TV deal provides even before today’s discount. View Deal

Amazon Echo: £89.99 £69.99 at Amazon Originally £90 this is an excellent discount on the Echo smart speaker. We’d go for this version over the smaller Echo Dot as the speaker packs more of a punch, making it far superior as a music player. View Deal

NES Classic Mini: £49.99 £45 at Amazon The original batch of NES Mini console sold out pretty much straight away at launch, with stock proving impossible to find at the proper price – eBay resellers had a field day. We’re super excited to see a new wave of stock below the original £49.99 price though.  

PlayStation Plus 12-month subscription: £49.99 £31.99 at CDKeys This is the cheapest PlayStation Plus deal in the UK for a 12-month subscription with other retailers only knocking a few quid off the £49.99 RRP. CDKeys will send you a digital PSN code straight away, so you don’t even have to wait for delivery. We’ve been using the site for years for PS Plus, Xbox Live Gold codes and game codes and we’re not surprised to see it with the cheapest price as it has great form. View Deal

Save 49% on Express VPN and get 3 months free If you’ve been considering a VPN for a while this is TechRadar’s #1-rated service. Express VPN is ideal for changing your location and keeping your internet usage private. Fans of the US version of Netflix especially love this VPN. Better yet, there’s a 30 day money back guarantee. View Deal

Lenovo Yoga Book 2-in-1 laptop: £549.99 £349.99 at Amazon This beautiful laptop/tablet convertible is a fantastic piece of kit for regular PC work and artists alike. Instead of a regular keyboard you have a dynamic secondary touch interface where a keyboard will illuminate when required. Or you can use the bundled pen to draw and edit artwork on the same surface. This version comes packing Windows 10 Pro and is £200 cheaper than usual.  View Deal

Acer Chromebook 14-inch CB3-431: £249 £199 at AO It’s not just the bling that caught our eye with this champagne gold Chromebook deal. Actually, it’s mainly that, but this is actually quite  a capable model too and a great price considering this is a larger 14-inch Chromebook and we usually only find great discounts on the 11-inch ones. This Chromebook deal comes with 2GB of RAM and 32GB of storage but should be fine for basic browsing, emails, document editing and streaming movie content. The silver version is on offer at £189.99 at Amazon. View Deal

Bank holiday TV deals

TCL 43DP608 43-inch 4K HDR TV: £349 £279 at Amazon TCL is new to these shores, but they’ve grown massively in recent years in other countries around the world, emerging as budget TV specialists. Amazon has just knocked £70 off this already cheap 4K TV deal too. Astonishing value given you’re getting a 10-bit HDR panel. View Deal

Hisense H43A6250UK 43-inch HDR 4K TV: £359 £349 Argos This is a new model from Hisense and the reviews have been strong  too. You’re getting a 4K screen with HDR features, which is great news for gamers with a PS4 Pro or Xbox One X. Movie/TV fans can enjoy the same high quality visuals via the built-in Netflix and Amazon Prime apps. View Deal

Hisense H60NEC5600UK 60-inch Smart HDR 4K TV: £799 £649 at AO.com An unbelievable price for a 60-inch TV with smart features and a 4K HDR display. This was originally an already-decent £799, so we’re surprised to see the price go this low. You only have to look at the other prices in the size category to see what a huge saving this Hisense TV deal provides even before today’s discount. View Deal

Bank holiday laptop deals

HP Stream 14-inch laptop: £249 £169 at AO.com Looking for a stylish cheap laptop deal? The HP Stream models are a popular choice in both blue and purple formats and this is a great back to school laptop as it comes with a year of Microsoft Office 365 access along with 1TB of cloud storage. View Deal

Acer Chromebook 14-inch CB3-431: £249 £199 at AO It’s not just the bling that caught our eye with this champagne gold Chromebook deal. Actually, it’s mainly that, but this is actually quite  a capable model too and a great price considering this is a larger 14-inch Chromebook and we usually only find great discounts on the 11-inch ones. This Chromebook deal comes with 2GB of RAM and 32GB of storage but should be fine for basic browsing, emails, document editing and streaming movie content. The silver version is on offer at £189.99 at Amazon. View Deal

ACER CB3-131 11.6-inch Chromebook £199 at AO.com If you’re happy to say goodbye to Windows and take advantage of the very capable Google/Android ecosystem services for basic laptop needs this 11.6-inch Chromebook comes with a respectable 9-hour battery life. Shame about the small 16GB hard drive, but you can always expand with a portable drive or USB. View Deal

Lenovo Yoga Book 2-in-1 laptop: £549 £349.99 at Amazon This beautiful laptop/tablet convertible is a fantastic piece of kit for regular PC work and artists alike. Instead of a regular keyboard you have a dynamic secondary touch interface where a keyboard will illuminate when required. Or you can use the bundled pen to draw and edit artwork on the same surface. This version comes packing Windows 10 Pro and is £200 cheaper than usual.  View Deal

Asus FX503VM gaming laptop £899.99 £779.99 at Amazon Amazon has just knocked £120 off this very capable gaming laptop. You’re getting a slick 120Hz Full HD screen, i5 processor, 8GB of RAM, 256SSD and a Nvidia GTX 1060 graphics card. All of which adds up to a laptop that’ll have a crack at any game with some decent settings too.  View Deal

Bank holiday Amazon devices sale

Amazon Echo: £89.99 £69.99 at Amazon Originally £90 this is an excellent discount on the Echo smart speaker. We’d go for this version over the smaller Echo Dot as the speaker packs more of a punch, making it far superior as a music player. View Deal

Fire TV (4K) with Alexa voice remote: £69.99 £54.99 at Amazon You can save £15 today on the regular price of the Fire TV 4K dongle. This is essentially a 4K upgrade over the Fire TV Stick allowing you to stream 4K content. Netflix in 4K is the more expensive tier you may need to upgrade to, while Amazon Prime’s 4K content comes at no extra charge. You could always sign up for an Amazon Prime free trial to check out the video streaming service and free next day delivery options for thousands of items on Amazon.co.uk. View Deal

Amazon Echo Plus and Philips Hue bulb: £139.99 £94.99 at Amazon Amazon has knocked a massive £45 of this enhanced smart speaker and thrown in a free Philips Hue smart bulb too. Unlike the other Echo speakers, this has a smart home hub inside that can act as a bridge (something you usually need a buy separately) to connect the Philips Hue bulbs so you can control them via the app or voice commands. View Deal

Smart home bank holiday sales

Philips Hue Starter Kit and Google Home Mini: £204 £149 at Currys This an excellent bundle for the Philips Hue bulbs as it has everything you need to get started including three bulbs, bridge (the brain box) and a dimmer switch. You can then control the colours and tone of the bulbs via an app or better yet, with voice commands via the Google Home Mini smart speaker that Currys has thrown in. With a £60 saving today, you don’t want to miss out.View Deal

Google Home: £129 £99 at Currys You certainly won’t find this deal on Amazon as it’s a direct rival to the Echo smart speaker range. The Google Assistant speaker is arguably much better thanks to Google’s powerful well of knowledge and this speaker is great for music too. View Deal

Google Home Mini: £49 £34 at Currys The main difference between the Mini and its larger sibling is the slightly less powerful speaker inside the Mini. It’s just as smart in all other aspects though. If you’re after a smart speaker for the voice-assistant tech more than playing music though then this is the one for you. View Deal

Gaming bank holiday sales

NES Classic Mini £49.99 at Amazon The original batch of NES Mini console sold out pretty much straight away at launch, with stock proving impossible to find at the proper price – eBay resellers had a field day with hugely inflated prices. We’re super excited to see a new wave of stock at the original £49.99 price though. View Deal

Grand Theft auto V £19 PS4/Xbox One at Amazon Featuring a huge range of improvements over the original PS3/X360 release, GTA V is still enormously popular thanks to its in-depth campaign and still-growing online options. It’s never too late to find out why this is the most popular game yet in the series. View Deal

Bank holiday broadband deals

Onestream Flow Unlimited Broadband | 18 month contract | 11Mb average speed | Line rental inc. | FREE activation | £9.99 delivery | £15.99 per month Dear reader, we organised this super cheap broadband only deal just for you. It will cost you £15.99 for the first year of the contract, and then £24.99 for the other six. Nobody beats that price for the first 12 months. View Deal

TalkTalk Fast broadband | 12 months | 11Mb avg. speed | Line rental incl. | £9.95 upfront | £17.95 per month + £55 Gift Card TalkTalk’s entry-level ADSL broadband is already cheap enough, but add a £55 Gift Card for your choice of Amazon.co.uk, Argos, Tesco or Ticketmaster in to the mix, and you’re laughing. HAHAHAHAHA!

ENDS AUGUST 26View Deal

Sky Fibre Unlimited | 18 months | 36Mb avg speed | Line rental inc. | £9.95 delivery | £25 per month + £75 prepaid Mastercard Dammit – a few days ago, the reward card you got with this Sky fibre deal was up at £100. Still, you can’t sniff at what is effectively free money just for taking out broadband with one of the biggest names in the industry. View Deal

Vodafone Superfast 1 | 18 months | 35Mb avg speed  | Line rental inc. | FREE upfront | £25 per month + FREE tech gift Vodafone used to be outright the cheapest fibre broadband deal provider. Prices went up, but then they unleashed some pretty eye-catching free gifts up to the value of £200. Choose from GoPros, Fitbits, Amazon Echos and more. View Deal

BT Superfast Fibre Unlimited | 18 months | 50Mb avg speed | Weekend calls | £9.99 delivery | £29.99pm + FREE BT Sport BT broadband deals are constantly being chopped and changed. Bad news for us trying to keep tabs, great news for you as it means some great offers. For example, it’s just removed its activation fee for Superfast fibre and is offering a £90 reward card to spend. And 50Mb speed is nothing to be sniffed at. View Deal

Bank holiday mobile phone deals

Samsung Galaxy Note 9 | O2 | £160 upfront | 30GB data | Unlimited minutes and texts | £46pm This immediately jumps out at us as the very best Samsung Note 9 deal you can order today in terms of overall value. It’s actually less than we predicted in the run up to launch, with monthly bills coming in under the £50-mark. The upfront price is high, but check out all of that beautiful data. A fair price on a phone this good…and big! Total cost over 24 months is £1264

Get the best value Galaxy Note 9 deal at Mobiles.co.uk

If the above deal isn’t for you, our exclusive promotion from Carphone Warehouse may just help you make your mind up. Order by September 1 from Carphone, and you’ll get your choice of £40 Gift Card from Amazon.co.uk, Currys/PC World or Marks & Spencer – and that’s as well as the free wireless charger it’s also giving away.

Click here to take advantage of TechRadar’s exclusive Note 9 offer

Samsung Galaxy S9 | Vodafone | £100 upfront (with DEAL20 code) | 4GB data | Unlimited minutes and texts | £23pm Yes! This best ever Samsung Galaxy 9 deal is back. £650-odd overall for a phone this good is exceptional, so we’d recommend buying it while you can and before it disappears completely. 4GB data will suit a lot of people just fine and those £23 monthly bills are just staggering value. Just make sure you tap in that DEAL20 voucher code at the checkout to get the best price. Total cost over 24 months is £652

View this Galaxy S9 deal at Mobiles.co.uk

Samsung Galaxy S9 | EE | £15 upfront | 30GB data | Unlimited mins and texts | £33pm If you require 30 glorious GB of data for all your streaming and surfing needs away from Wi-Fi, then look no further than this Samsung S9 deal from Affordable Mobiles. You won’t pay much upfront and then it’s a perfectly reasonable £33 per month. Tremendous value, and it just came down in price…again. Total cost over 24 months is £807

Get this Samsung S9 deal at Affordable Mobiles

iPhone X 64GB | Vodafone | FREE upfront | Unlimited calls and texts | 40GB data | £59pm If it’s an iPhone X deal on Vodafone that you’re after, then you may as well just forget about the rest at the moment and go straight for the big guns at 40GB worth of data. This is relatively good value for a monumental amount of data on Vodafone, and going for less barely costs much different over the two year term. Total cost over 24 months is £1416

Buy this iPhone X deal from Affordable Mobiles

iPhone 8 64GB | Vodafone | £200 upfront (with DEAL20 code) | 4GB data | Unlimited calls and texts | £23pm This is currently one of the cheapest ways to get the iPhone 8 on Vodafone, but it involves a huge spend upfront (slightly dampened by Mobiles’ DEAL20 code). You get 4GB of data for your money, which will suit a lot of people. But the standout feature here is those delectable £23 bills. Total cost over 24 months is £752

View this iPhone 8 deal at Mobiles.co.uk

iPhone 8 64GB | Vodafone | £99.99 upfront | 15GB data | Unlimited calls and texts | £34pm O2 is so often the go-to network where decent data plans on the iPhone 8 are concerned. The best of those at the moment comes from Carphone Warehouse and it’s 15GB of data a month tariff. Unlike many, this has actually just fallen in price. So at £34 a month and a penny less than £100 to pay at the start, this is one of the cheapest ways to go for the iPhone 8 right now. Total cost over 24 months is £915.99

Take advantage of this iPhone 8 deal from Carphone Warehouse

More great bank holiday sale picks

Fitbit Alta HR: £138.99 £119.99 at Amazon This is one of the most popular fitness trackers in the Fitbit range thanks to its discrete lightweight design, built-in heart-rate monitor and low cost. And Amazon has knocked £19 off the price for the bank holiday sales too.

Fitbit Blaze smart fitness watch: £159 £129.99 at Amazon If you’re looking for a fitness tracker with a more traditional watch design then this deal is for you. Amazon has knocked £30 off this Fitbit today but stock is already running low. This price is currently available on the black and plum versions in small and large sizes. View Deal

boohoo Holiday shop from £5 This ever-popular online fashion retailer enjoys a sale on most weekends, but there are some huuuuge savings this weekend with loads of holiday items available from just £5 in the boohoo sale. So if your wardrobe needs a late update for summer this is a great chance to do it for less. The sale includes thousands of items in both women’s and men’s categories. View Deal

Save 49% on Express VPN and get 3 months free If you’ve been considering a VPN for a while this is TechRadar’s #1-rated service. Express VPN is ideal for changing your location and keeping your internet usage private. Fans of the US version of Netflix especially love this VPN. Better yet, there’s a 30 day money back guarantee. View Deal

5 Blu-rays for £30 at Amazon Oh this is a great Amazon Prime deals, as you can even get them delivered tomorrow for no extra charge if you’re on Prime. There’s a wide range of movies to choose from including Kong: Skull Island, Heat, Interstellar, Blade Runner: The Final Cut, Deadpool, Batman Vs Superman: Ultimate Edition (urgh with an extra 30 mins over the cinema version if you can imagine), Jurassic World and more. View Deal

If you’re after something specific that’s not included above, you’ll probably find it in one of our other regular updated deals hubs. We’ve got a massive list of super cheap TV deals, or maybe it’s time for a new cheap laptop? If gaming’s your thing and you’re looking for a new console we’ve got you covered for a cheap PS4, or maybe Xbox One deals, or maybe you’re after a Nintendo Switch bundle? We’ve seen some fantastic mobile phone deals too. Bank holidays are also usually a great time to get a cheaper Sky TV deal.

[etechwire-blog]

Sony Aibo hands on review

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Sony Aibo hands on review

Buying Sony’s new AI-powered robo-puppy, Aibo, will cost you about the same as a purebred, show-dog: $2,899 (or around £2,250, AU$3,950). 

But, unlike its canine counterparts, Aibo will never ruin your rug or whine for food … however, it’s still liable to ignore your voice commands if you don’t give it the love and training it needs. 

We got the chance to play with the pooch at Sony’s New York City headquarters, where the rebooted, 6th-generation robo-pups melted our jaded journalist hearts, due in no small part to its expressive eyes, dog-like behavior and powerful, cutting-edge innards. 

Running on a Qualcomm Snapdragon 840 and Amazon’s cloud-based AWS server, Aibo can memorize up to 100 faces and learn an endless stream of new tricks – and while its intelligence certainly showed through during our demo, the tech we saw wasn’t without its kinks. 

Ultimately, did a slew of sensors and neat party tricks justify its expensive pedigree? Could it stand shoulder-to-adorable-shoulder with the best toy robots on the market today? And did Aibo ever actually replace the fleshy puppers we’ve come to love? 

Here’s what we found out.

Price and release date

Back at CES 2018, Sony suggested that Aibo would retail for less than $2,000 in the US. Now, it looks like Sony thinks its newest breed of robot should cost much more. 

The Aibo First Litter Edition robot will launch this September for $2,899 (around £2,269, AU$3,999). For that price, you receive a three-year Cloud subscription, access to the My aibo app, some toys – a pink ball, paw pads and an Aibone – a charging station and a customized dog tag. 

This bundle will go on sale sometime in September, and your dog would arrive “in time for the holidays”, according to Sony’s reps. 

The discrepancy between Sony’s estimated and actual price makes us wonder what kind of value Sony ascribes to its Amazon-backed AI Cloud service. With it, your pup will have access to the collective machine learning of every Aibo, which will help it become more intelligent over time in areas like object recognition. 

Of course, your Aibo would also upload its experiences to the Cloud, forming a “database of memories”. Note that this may or may not include uploading some data about your house and family to the Cloud for the dog to “remember”, which some might see more as an invasion of privacy than a perk. 

Right out of the gate, Aibo will be a premium pooch. If you wait you may find a cheaper deal on Aibo down the road, but you’ll likely have to pay extra for the cloud-based edge learning (and cute accessories) that make Aibo special. 

Design, specs and stats

All that said, if you’re looking for a smarter breed of dog, Aibo is it. To navigate around your house, Aibo uses two cameras, six sensors, a motion detector, a light detector and four microphones – and, using the cameras, Aibo is able to memorize up to 100 faces, and can also apparently recognize and respond to your pets. 

Under its adorable exterior, Aibo comes with 4GB of RAM and 32GB ROM memory to go with its Snapdragon 820 processor. All of that hardware will help Aibo understand what it’s seeing through its cameras and pass data along to the cloud.

Speaking of the cloud, Aibo connects to the Cloud over your Wi-Fi network, but it can also connect via AT&T’s LTE network if you take it outside your home. Aibo has a three-hour battery life, which will let it wander around your house for much longer than most other robots currently available. It’ll then automatically head back to its charging station for at least a couple of hours. 

In both some good and bad news, Aibo isn’t open for community development – for now, Aibo doesn’t appear to have a publicly available SDK for developers. 

Playing with Aibo

After the on-stage unveiling, we left the Sony offices and entered into what can only be described as a puppy nursery. Pairs of Aibo models wandered around on elevated platforms while Sony reps explained how they worked and encouraged us to play with them. 

As you’d expect, Aibo responds to voice commands like “Shake!”, “Sit!” or “Play dead!” … however, that’s assuming it chooses to obey you. When we ordered one puppy to sit, its ears tilted back, which means the AI has detected a voice command. But instead of sitting, it just looked at us and barked. 

That was a common theme of the event: the naughty pups consistently ignored about half of our commands. We were told each time to remember that these Aibo’s were “fresh out of the box” and “not yet mature”. Like any puppy, they need training and positive reinforcement before they understand and obey. 

This struck us as rather convenient, since we could never be sure if the problem lay with the dog’s personality or with the mic not properly picking up our command. But we did notice that our dog was more likely to perform easier commands, like “Sit”, than more advanced commands, like “dance”. 

Apparently, it will take your Aibo about a year to “fully mature” and become more loyal and obedient. So an impatient, irresponsible child may not be the best choice for raising an Aibo (just like with a real puppy, it’s a heady responsibility). 

Still, rewarding our dog when it did obey us was undeniably endearing. Each Aibo has touch sensors on its head, beneath its chin and on its back. When you pet one, it will react with obvious pleasure, closing its eyes and leaning into the petting. 

While Aibo is as energetic as most small dogs, it doesn’t move as fast as one. When it walks towards you, it moves at a languid speed, its leg movements distinctly robotic. It’s fair to wonder whether Aibo’s little paws will handle hardwood flooring better than carpeting. 

Its plodding pace made itself most obvious when trying to play “catch” with Aibo. We held out a pink, sensor-filled ball in front of Aibo, encouraging him to roll it back to us. Staring at us for a few seconds, it lifted its ears as it processed the command; then, thinking for a couple seconds, it looked down at the ball, slowly reached out a paw, placed it against the ball, and pushed it forward about six inches towards us. 

Surprisingly, though, Aibo arguably handled itself better without any props, with some tricks showing it capable of complex, choreographed movements. Our personal favorite was “if you’re happy and you know it…”, which had the dog barking along to the popular melody. 

You’ll be able to download dozens of Aibo’s tricks from your smartphone app as Sony releases them over time. You’ll also use the app to customize your Aibo, determining things like its gender, voice pitch and eye color. 

You can also train your Aibo with custom tricks. Move your Aibo’s paws manually into any position you like and then click its paw buttons, and it will remember that pose. Then say “Show me your new trick!” to have it reenact your favorite yoga pose or dance move. Unfortunately, it’ll only remember one custom trick at a time. 

Eventually, Sony’s idealized Aibo will memorize faces and voices, and will be more likely to obey commands or react happily to those who spend the most time with it. 

When you’re not interacting with it, Aibo will wander the rooms of your house in “watchdog” mode, scanning for intruders – though it wasn’t at all clear what Aibo would do if it found someone it didn’t recognize. 

Sony Aibo vs Anki Vector

Of course, Aibo isn’t the only smart toy on the market and could face some serious competition from Anki’s new Vector robot – an app-free, roaming virtual assistant with powerful facial recognition. 

There’s also the similarly-priced Misty II robot that has limitless customization and DIY coding potential; the Segway Loomo that can track you for miles outside using facial recognition and littleBits’ Droid Inventor Kit that teaches kids how to code. 

All of these robots either have reasons to use them on a daily basis, or at least provide hours of fun learning and technical challenges as you tinker with their software. 

Sony Aibo, by contrast, stands out among the group with its primarily pet-focused approach. You raise it, investing your time and energy to teach it tricks, all in the pursuit of a more lifelike experience. 

The tradeoff is that, right out of the box, you can’t really do all that much with it yet. Plus, you have to rely on Sony to provide fun updates rather than code the dog yourself. More casual robot owners may be fine with this, of course. 

Early verdict

If you want a lifelike animal without any of the stress or mess – and enjoy the idea of owning a robot without any technical knowledge – Aibo is shaping up to be quite the companion. But if the idea of a pricey robo-pooch isn’t what you’d consider the best investment, Aibo may not be the perfect pup for your family. 

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[etechwire-blog]

PS4 Cloud Remote control is perfect for movie marathons

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PS4 Cloud Remote control is perfect for movie marathons

Putting down your DualShock controller in favor of a night with some silver screen classics? The PlayStation 4 pad is well suited for navigating the console, but it’s not so adept at controlling your AV gear, is it?

Enter the Cloud Remote for PS4 from PDP. The officially-licensed accessory has Sony’s seal of approval, and uses “advanced cloud technology” to pair up not only with your console, but your home theater set-up too.

Simply download the PDP Cloud Remote App on the console, and it’ll automatically detect all the other gadgets and speakers your console is hooked up to, letting the Cloud Remote then take control of system volume, input settings, power and more.

Familiar look

It’s an evolution of PDP’s existing PS4 remote control, and features all the essential buttons you’d find on a DualShock controller too, including Share and Option buttons. 

Connecting over Bluetooth, all PS4 DualShock face buttons sit just where your thumb naturally rests.

The Cloud Remote is up for pre-order at $29.99 from Amazon and Gamestop, with worldwide availability to be confirmed. Pick up the remote in the US and you’ll also get a 30-day free trial of the PlayStation Vue Core TV plan, which bags you 65 channels of live TV streaming from the likes of ESPN, FX, AMC, Cartoon Network, NFL Network and MLB Network.

[etechwire-blog]

Xbox One controller support is coming to Android Pie

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Xbox One controller support is coming to Android Pie

In a strange turn of events, mobile, console and PC gamers will soon all use the same controller – Microsoft’s Xbox One gamepad. 

News came today that Android Pie, the latest version of Google’s mobile OS, will fix a longstanding issue that incorrectly mapped the Xbox One’s buttons and prevented gamers from using Microsoft’s gamepad with their Android devices.

Theoretically, this problem could’ve been fixed two years ago (when Microsoft first put Bluetooth inside the Xbox One S gamepads), but it wasn’t until this week that Google’s top engineers finally figured out how to get the phone and the controller to play nice.

Gamers, say goodbye to having hold your phone and cover up one-third of the screen with your thumbs.

This is particularly exciting news for fans of the first-person shooter and battle royale genres on mobile who have been using third-party gamepads to get an edge over their opponents. While Fortnite Mobile’s developers haven’t confirmed the exact timing that the game will support the new input mappings, a representative from Epic Games has told CNET that it will support the Xbox gamepad “sometime in the future”.

That being said, Google has marked the mapping issue resolved in the latest batch of code, which means support for Microsoft’s gamepad should be available on the phones running Android Pie – namely, the Google Pixel 2, Google Pixel 2 XL, Google Pixel, Google Pixel XL, and Essential Phone – starting today.

Via XDA Developers