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It will eventually allow you to make payments across the company’s four major platforms – Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp – but is limited to just Facebook and Messenger at the time. You’ll need to go to the Facebook Pay section of either app’s settings page in order to enable the payment service. It’s also restricted to just the U.S. at launch, though the company is promising a wider rollout in the future.…

Brave is a web browser that promises to maintain the privacy of its users, protecting them from a variety of third-party ads, autoplaying videos, and trackers. Since launching the beta in January 2016, Brave was drawing in eight million monthly users before it officially let loose its first stable release. A good majority of web ads include some form of tracker that ties your identity to your browsing habits in order to better target you for advertising, and Brave blocks these. While users may rejoice at the idea of not being fed any intrusive advertising, ad-blocking does negatively affect the websites that serve those ads. Brave is claiming to offer a solution to this imbalance via a rewards program in which users can earn tokens by “viewing privacy-respecting ads” and…

T-FORCE DELTA MAX SSD Light up your data. $TBA 250GB, 500GB, 1TB | TEAMGROUPINC.COM Team Group’s T-Force Delta Max RGB SSD comes in a 2.5-inch/9.5-mm SATA form-factor and is based on Silicon Motion’s SM2258 controller paired with Micron’s 64-layer or 96-layer 3D TLC NAND memory. From a performance point of view, we are dealing with fairly standard mainstream SATA drives: the SSD is rated for up to 560/510 MB/s sequential read/write speed as well as up to 90K/80K random read/write IOPS. True to its name, the SSD features an oversized addressable RGB LED module on top that features built-in rainbow colour water flowing lighting effect and can be controlled using software from leading motherboard manufacturers. ASUS ROG STRIX ARION PCIE SSD ENCLOSURE NVMe SSD speeds to go. BYO SSD. $129…

If you’ve kept track of the full impact of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, or you’re one of the people that tout that ‘big data is the new oil’, then you’ll be fully aware of how powerful information on populations is and how easily it can be misused in the current regulation climate. The latest installment in the data wars concerns the announcement by Google in November that it intended to purchase Fitbit, and all the data that comes with it, for US$2.1 billion. Since Google’s acquisition announcement was accompanied by another separate press release explicitly stating the Google has no intention of using Fitbit’s health data to inform advertising, it appears that Google is infinitely more aware of the general public’s concern for the dark arts of big data than…

There’s something rather enticing about the Zenbook Flip 13, but we can’t quite put our finger on it. Convertible laptops can be hit and miss, but the latest in Asus’s Zenbook line feels as though it might have struck gold. Lightweight but not flimsy, silent but not underpowered, this is the ideal on-the-go tablet or at-home work laptop, but at just under $1,300, it’s not exactly the most affordable notebook in the business. You get a lot for your money, though. Our model comes with an Intel Core i5-8265U – a more powerful i7 version is also available – along with 8GB of RAM, a 256GB PCIe SSD, and integrated Intel UHD Graphics 620. It’s whisper-silent, thanks to passive cooling, and has a smaller footprint compared to its predecessor, with…

Throughout 2019, most of the salvos in the ever continuing CPU war have been fired by AMD. While Intel has held its own under lightly threaded workloads, it’s been falling behind under loads that can make use of a high number of cores. The Core i9-9900KS is Intel’s attempt at rebalancing it flagship’s performance. It does this by combining its well documented single threaded performance with a rather stunning 5GHz sustainable all core boost. From what we know of the identical 9900K when it’s overclocked, we know the 9900KS will be fast, but is it enough to win hearts and minds? The 9900KS is simply a higher binned and overclocked 9900K. It comes with a base clock of 4.0GHz, up from the 3.6GHz of the 9900K. The headline feature is…

When I first took the Asus Prime X299 Edition 30 out of the box, I fell in love. It’s one of the most attractive motherboard designs (and packages) I’ve ever seen. Though admittedly looks are not at the top of the list when evaluating a high end motherboard, it just oozes appeal with its subtle modern finish and the way the gorgeous OLED panel looks when the system is powered up. It screams “I am premium” and if the looks don’t do that, then the price tag will. At $1,149 the Edition 30 is one of the most expensive consumer motherboards on the market. Is it worth the price? The Asus Prime X299 Edition 30 comes with pretty much every connectivity and expansion feature that a 2019 era motherboard could…

Now that Nvidia’s Super RTX cards are out in the market, it’s time for attention to turn to the GTX Turing cards. First up is the GTX 1660 Super. It’s to be followed by the GTX 1650 Super in late November. The short version of this review is that it’s identical to the GTX 1660, with one significant and performance impacting change. Gone is the 1660’s GDDR5 memory, replaced by GDDR6 on the 1660 Super. It might sound like a rather boring change, but as you can see in the benchmarks, this has the effect of pushing the 1660 Super a good 10-15% in front of the 1660 in many cases. Like we saw with the other Turing GTX cards, there is no reference or Founders Edition card. Instead, Nvidia…

TT’s newest AIO CPU cooler is its flagship in the range, and supersedes the Riing coolers – which are excellent and still widely available. The new design has a lot going for it. Superficially it appears almost identical to the Riing range of coolers, but there have been some useful refinements. The Riing was always well regarded for its near-silent operation, and the new Floe DX is still among the quietest, but it sees a slight bump in fan speeds, from a max of 1400 to 1500rpm, now. While a small increase, the Riing was arguably most appealing for its quietness, rather than its performance relative to much of the market, so this increase in airflow is welcome. At the same time the new Floe DX is a little quieter…

FREE Butterflies Australia has been built with government funding (which apparently still exists?) in order to record all the different species of butterfly in Australia. If you’re not an avid butterfly watcher, or familiar with the processes involved in cataloguing butterflies, then a lot of the functionality is going to be locked off from you – the ‘Survey’ option immediately confused me. But regardless of your investment in butterfly populations, the app’s field guide, and its list of every type of butterfly found in Australia – complete with photos, maps, descriptions and lists of behaviour traits and habitat preferences – is cool. The app might feel like a glimpse into a world you’re not necessarily familiar with, but the catalogue they’ve built up is impressive. The photography is great throughout,…

Everyone needs a password manager. You simply can’t get by online these days relying on a handful of easily guessable passwords – just take a trip to https://haveibeenpwned.com to confirm your trusted passwords of yesteryear have almost certainly been exposed by now. The value of a password manager can’t be overstated, whether it’s generating unique, random, lengthy passwords that are almost uncrackable, or storing them securely in a vault protected by strong encryption and – if you’re diligent – extra layers of security. But it’s not necessarily all good news. Where is your password vault stored, and who can access it? Services like LastPass and 1Password that make it easy to sync and access passwords between mobile, desktop, and browser store your encrypted vault on their own online servers. They…

We last looked at DRAM prices back at the end of 2018. That was at the peak of the DRAM shortage, during the period when Samsung and Micron were both having teething problems ramping 18nm and 17nm production node rollouts for their memory divisions. This created a shortage of DRAM in the market, which the only other major memory maker in the market, SK Hynix, couldn’t take advantage of, ultimately meaning less stock and thus higher prices. Checking in almost a year later it is quite obvious that the DRAM shortage is well and truly over. We took a snapshot back in May this year of some basic DRAM kits available and their prices at the time during the peak, which seemed to last a little longer than everyone was…

If you’re assembling a budget gaming PC, grab a Ryzen 5 2600 right away. Not only is it a great deal for a paltry $120, but it comes packaged with three months of Xbox Game Pass on PC, which includes access to recent releases such as Gears 5, Blair Witch, and Metro Exodus. We’ve made some small savings elsewhere in this build, too. Price fluctuations in 8GB memory kits spurred us to head back to America and trade our Team T-Force RAM for the Patriot Viper 4 kit – functionally identical with the same latencies and speed, but a few dollars cheaper. Lastly, the Corsair VS450 is becoming hard to find, but the CX450 is – a simple enough swap to keep our price down. We made a small saving…

Ultra HD – also known as 4K – displays aren’t just for gamers, media enthusiasts or graphics professionals. The ability to have three or four non-overlapping windows on-screen at once is beneficial even if you’re just surfing the web or editing documents. And with prices now around $400 for entry level models, there’s never been a better time to upgrade your monitor to 4K. Viewing such a high resolution - particularly on smaller (24 or 27-inch) monitors – can result in tiny text and icons, making things difficult to read. Thankfully, both Windows and your monitor manufacturer (we’ve used LG in this tutorial as an example) provide tools to help alleviate these issues, which is where we come in. Read on to discover how to set up your display to…

Metadata – the art of ‘tagging’ your photos, films and music with extra information to help identify it – may not sound like the sexiest of subjects, but when you’re setting up a new media server or wanting to browse your photos through an app like Shotwell, you can instantly recognise your files and organise them as you see fit. Metadata is, according to the Merriam Webster dictionary, “data information that provides information about other data”. The other data in this case is your media files; the data information is everything from a TV show’s episode title to the composer of a music track. Broadly speaking, metadata resides in one of two places: within the database of a related program such as your music player or media server, or embedded…

Bethesda closes one studio, opens another HUMAN HEAD STUDIOS SHUTTERED IN FAVOUR OF ROUNDHOUSE STUDIOS. Just days after the release of its latest action RPG, Rune 2, Human Head Studios has been closed by its parent company Bethesda. The studio was responsible for the original Prey, but most of its team has been rolled into a brand new studio by the name of Roundhouse Studios, which is already at work on some “mystery projects”. Assassin’s Creed creator once again confirms Amsterdam 1666 is still happening “I’M BACK AT IT,” DÉSILETS SAYS. At Reboot Develop Red in Canada, Eurogamer asked Asassins Creed creator Patrice Désilets how serious he is about working on Amsterdam 1666 now that Humankind Odyssey is out. Désilets told Eurogamer he’s so serious he almost lost his house…

FREE BIT.LY/EVERHOOD | PC This Undertale-style adventure deposits you in a familiarly wacky underworld, where a thieving gnome rubs shoulders with an ATM and a boogying Dracula. Everhood shines, as a dreamlike adventure that blends genres in a fascinating way. While you’re traipsing around each screen, this looks like a typical JRPG. There are battles, but these take the form of intense minigames against a series of outlandish foes, including that sentient ATM machine, and whatever the hell the final boss is supposed to be. Its minimalism is refreshing with the game stripping away the demeaning busywork we’ve learned to live with in RPGs. What remains is a procession of duels, interspersed with exploration and enjoyably off-kilter, if a little empty, conversation. And what duels. Similar to Guitar Hero, notes rain…

FREE | POLYDUCKS.ITCH. IO/MUSHROOM-HUNT | BROWSER While most text adventures these days take the form of branching narratives where choice is your primary interaction, Mushroom Hunt harkens back to ye old days, offering the player a puzzle challenge that will test their lexicon and powers of observation. While many text adventures have you thinking on grand terms, as you try to survive in a hostile fantasy realm or attempt to solve a murder mystery, here you’re primed – on your mushroomy quest – to look in bushes, and around trees, and under piles of discarded junk for edible puffballs. It’s mostly a case of examining or taking things here – the list of useable verbs is actually quite small – so this would be a good gateway game for those…

ISSUE 475, CHRISTMAS 2019 Please note that these exclusive downloads will only be available for a limited time, from 02/12/2019 to 19/01/2020. CREATE BEAUTIFUL PRESENTATIONS WOW FAMILY AND COLLEAGUES ALIKE WITH ASHAMPOO SLIDESHOW STUDIO 2019. FULL VERSION WORTH $20 Ashampoo Slideshow Studio 2019 easily turns images and sounds into stunning slideshows with complementary music, transitions, fades and opening/closing credits. It’s the perfect way to present your photos as dynamic videos at home, at school, in the office or any other occasion. Add your own voice narration, texts, logos and sound effects to give your work an individual touch. There’s no need for any previous knowledge thanks to the straightforward interface. On top, a built-in wizard guides users from start to finish to help them tell their story in just a…

AMD is set to close out the year on a high note. As promised, the company will be delivering its latest 16-core Ryzen 9 3950X processor, built with two 7nm TSMC chiplets, to the consumer platform for US$749. Not only this, but AMD has lifted the covers on its next generation Threadripper platform, which includes Zen 2-based chiplets, a new socket, and an astounding 4x increase in CPU-to-chipset bandwidth. The announcement revolves around several parts, in completely different markets: Ryzen 9 3950X, TR 3960X and TR 3970X, new TR40 motherboards, and the budget Athlon 3000G. One key takeaway from the announcements is how AMD is moving the traditional desktop and high-end desktop markets. When CEO Dr. Lisa Su was asked earlier this year what will happen to Threadripper as the…

According to a report from The Wall Street Journal, Google is currently working on a project, code-named Cache, which will see it move beyond payments and into the banking space. VP of product management at Google, Caesar Sengupta explained that the company does not intend to sell customers’ data but instead it wants to help users handle more of their finances online, saying: “If we can help more people do more stuff in a digital way online, it’s good for the internet and good for us.” Google isn’t the only tech giant to look into this move, with Apple recently launching its Apple Card through a partnership with Goldman Sachs and Amazon reportedly in talks with JP Morgan Chase to create a checking account for its customers. While details surrounding…

1,585 The number of software vulnerabilities, including but not limited to those in Windows, discovered by Google’s Project Zero between July 2014 and July 2019. The outfit gives vendors 30 days to address the problem, usually with a software patch, before going public. 11Gbit/s The theoretical maximum combined data rate of a Wi-Fi 6 device. The new wireless standard, aka 802.11ax, is starting to appear on devices now. 27% Of smartphones have smashed screens. According to a survey of 2,400 office workers. 2% of those are completely unusable. KB45 15384 Is a Windows 10 update causing some people trouble with connecting to the internet. If you’re affected, try rolling it back. 60 YEARS Have passed since the COBOL computer programming language was first designed. Based on work by US rear…

Acer has zeroed in on a key problem with the computer hardware market: Content creators are experiencing a dearth of purpose-built systems, instead opting to buy powerful gaming PCs for their 4K video-editing needs. That wouldn’t necessarily be a problem, if it weren’t for the fact that many working professionals don’t want a giant, glowing RGB unit shooting red and blue lighting all over the place. So, the ConceptD 500. The standard desktop model in the ConceptD range (which includes laptops, monitors, and more) is a high-powered system, meant to integrate seamlessly and unobtrusively into office spaces with a simple, aesthetically pleasing design. Convenience is a cornerstone of this system’s design; the faux-wood finish on top includes a Qi wireless charging pad hidden beneath, enabling you to drop your phone…

We’re very happy to see the return of the small form factor Impact to Asus’ line up, having been absent from the last couple of generations. Impact boards always seemed like a labour of love for Asus engineers, with their one-off daughter boards and unique implementations. The X570 equipped Crosshair VIII Impact (C8I) looks like it does justice to the Impact legacy. One obvious area of departure for the C8I is its form factor. Whereas Impact boards have previously been true mini-ITX designs, the Crosshair VIII Impact is instead a mini-DTX board, where the PCB is about 3cm longer at the bottom part of the motherboard. While a mini-DTX board won’t fit in a true ITX case, most of them do allow for a dual slot graphics card so it…

“Impressively, the EXO almost scored top SpeedTest scores at all levels – only dropping when two floors up, by 10Mbps.” A few months ago we tested a collaboration with Intel and McAfee that saw a D-Link router running McAfee’s Secure Home Platform on Intel System-On-Chip hardware. The resulting rice-cooker-looking D-Fend DIR-2680 offered decent performance, good network and client security but only three ethernet ports and a whopping $500 price tag. Purchasers of that might feel put-out to see the DIR-3060, which offers similar security and pimped-up performance for just $379. It’s a little disappointing to see AC-based tri-band Wi-Fi rather than the all-conquering Wi-Fi 6 but the promises of potential 3,000Mbps speeds partly allay any fears. Nonetheless, we tested its performance against our favourite, TP-Link Archer AX6000 (Wi-Fi 6) router…

Razer’s Viper gaming mouse became an instant favourite among PC gamers when it launched earlier in the year thanks to its incredible responsiveness, thoughtful design and lightweight build. So how do you improve on something that’s already near-perfect? Make it wireless, of course! It’s also sporting Razer’s brand-new Focus+ optical sensor, which is said to be 25% faster than competing technologies, the Viper Ultimate carries a mind-boggling maximum sensitivity of 20,000 dots per inch (even higher than the 16,000 DPI of its wired equivalent). Of course, that’s likely overkill for most people, which is why Razer has included a button on the bottom of the mouse that lets you easily cycle through a number of different sensitivity settings. Along with an IPS (inches per second) rating of 650 (effortlessly out-tracking…

FROM $46.99 | SPARKLEAPP.COM | NEEDS OS X 10.9 OR LATER Good news – if you can make a document in Pages, you can make a website in Sparkle. It’s a flexible and useful web design tool for people who want something other than a WordPress site. There are three versions: Basic, for one site of up to 10 pages; One, which removes the page limit; and Pro, which adds both Instagram and multi-site support. The app opens with a blank page and an open toolbar with common items such as text areas and images, but the simplest way to use Sparkle is just to download one of the free templates and mess around with it. The program’s library contains some genuinely useable contemporary designs, an area that lets down some…

These are budget–friendly displays, but they should still do a good job. We used a Datacolor Spyder5Elite colorimeter to check a number of factors, particularly color accuracy. On–screen controls are often difficult, so we explored making adjustments with these, and we also considered the range and ease–of–use of their physical adjustments. HIGHER… EIZO COLOREDGE CS2420 EIZO.COM FROM $1,499 Where image quality and precision is paramount and price isn’t an object, Eizo’s ColorEdge CS2420 is a great, if costly, option. …OR LOWER? BENQ GW2480 BENQ.COM AROUND $200 If price is critical then the BenQ GW2480 is worth considering. It’s a couple of years old but still a good wallet–friendly option.…

MSI MPG X570 Gaming Plus $299, WWW.MSI.COM Yes, it does look as though it was designed by Reaper from Overwatch. That’s OK, though; at just $170, the MPG X570 Gaming Plus delivers a lot of high-end motherboard features, from M.2 heat shielding to server-grade PCB, and intelligent power delivery systems. It’s the perfect accompaniment to a midrange Ryzen 3000 chip, such as the 3600X, provided you can look past the black and red design. A tricked-out rear I/O, including HDMI for integrated graphics and a gen-3.2 USB-C port, is just the perfect cherry on top. MSI also happens to be one of our favorites when it comes to straightforward BIOS UIs, so that’s a bonus, too!…

Storing photos in iCloud is a wonderful thing, but it isn’t a backup. That’s because of two things. One, if someone else gets your login details you’re stuffed; and two, it’s a single point of failure: if something goes wrong on iCloud, the problem could then be synced across all your devices. Not great when you’re talking about priceless photos and videos. Backups should be separate from your Mac, there should be more than one and you should back up regularly. If you’re happy to back up manually, stick a recurring reminder in Calendar – but we’d recommend using a dedicated backup app, such as SuperDuper, and an external drive with a large storage capacity to ensure backups happen on time. MIXED MEDIA Think carefully about your choice of backup…

1 REMOVE TAGS Click this button to remove all tags from the currently selected file or files. 2 SWITCH VIEW Click these buttons to switch between directory tree view and browsing by artist/album. 3 NAVIGATION TREE Use these two panes to find and then select files; Ctrl-click or Shift-click for multiple selections. 4 EDIT MANUALLY View and edit individually selected tracks’ metadata from this pane. Just click and type. 5 EMBED IMAGE Switch to the Images tab to physically embed album or single artwork in the file. 6 QUICK EDITS Right-click a field to reveal additional options, such as quickly converting the letter case of a tag.…

1 GET PREREQUISITES Start by verifying that Java is installed: Assuming it’s not installed, type the following to install it together with libmediainfo: 2 INSTALL AND RUN TINYMEDIAMANAGER Open your browser and head to www.tinymediamanager. org to download the Linux version. Extract its contents to a suitable folder. Once done, return to the terminal and use the following commands (they’re case-sensitive): 3 CONFIGURE BASIC SETTINGS Follow the wizard’s steps. When prompted to specify film datasources, click + to select the parent folder containing all your films (we recommend separating TV shows and films into two separate folders). Click Next, then choose your preferred metadata agent and fine-tune its settings, say for English. Click Next to repeat the process for your TV shows. 4 MATCH FILM TITLES After clicking Finish, select…

This latest sequel/reboot has sold itself as a return to the setting that “started it all”. It’s a snappy marketing line and it’s not entirely misleading. The warfare is once again modern and Captain Price is your squad dad. Yet it’s Modern Warfare’s moments of unfamiliarity that impress me – rebuilt weapon handling, new modes, and characters that aren’t the cookie-cutter operatives we’ve seen in the last decade. Unfortunately this evolution is only half-realised in multiplayer. Here the relics of 2007 clash with fresh ideas. Modern Warfare aspires to be grounded and tactical while also giving you the power to pilot your own heav y gunship, and it doesn’t work. It’s easy to forget about that complaint in the heat of a match, because Modern Warfare’s action is exceptional. Weapons…

Lina is ready to start a new life. When you meet Neo Cab’s protagonist, she’s en route to Los Ojos, a fictitious city reminiscent of Los Angeles. Her taxi holding the last of her belongings, she sets out to reconnect and move in with her best friend Savvy. When Savvy disappears, Lina is all alone in ‘Automation City’, left to juggle the demands of her job, her mental state, and the mystery surrounding the person she thought she knew best. Lina has to ferry a certain number of passengers, called pax, to their destinations each night, and keep enough money to herself to find a place to sleep. However, technology plays a huge part in each encounter, as everyone she meets is using or affected by some gadget. The future…

FREE | LOVELYHELLPLACE. ITCH.IO/PENITENT-DEAD | PC, LINUX You can’t move for Dark Souls clones these days, but where are the games inspired by its super-niche predecessor? I may have answered my own question there, but at least we finally have a candidate in the form of Penitent Dead. There’s really only one reason to play this, and that’s for the majestic setting. It’s as if a doom metal album cover has been fed into a 3D modelling program, and output at the wrong resolution. Nostalgia aside the ambiguous and jittery nature of the PlayStation aesthetic does much to enhance the low-polygon 3D models and blown-up textures. The already striking artwork feels richer and more tactile. It’s just a shame that the era-authentic soundtrack cuts out almost immediately. He’s surprisingly chatty for…

Windows 10X is a new version of Windows 10 that Microsoft says has been built from the ground up for foldable PC experiences in both dual-screen and single-screen configurations. It’s built on top of a new modern version of Windows 10 that guts legacy components and features in favour of contemporary user experiences and enhanced security. This means everything from the Windows Shell to the underlying OS has been re-done with modern technologies, while still maintaining legacy app support for those who need it. Win32 programs, which Microsoft considers to be a legacy app platform, now run in a containerised mode on Windows 10X. This means the components required to run Win32 apps are only active when the user is actively running a Win32 program. This reduces system load when…

By the time you read this, Google Stadia will have launched. At least, it will have done in Europe and North America: Google’s local office hasn’t made a peep about a potential Australian launch, possibly due to our ropey internet infrastructure. To summarise, Stadia is a game streaming service, but that doesn’t quite capture exactly what it is. Sure, you stream game software direct from the cloud, and while it has a subscription model (there will be a free model rolling out next year with certain performance restrictions), this doesn’t provide a la carte access to games in the same way Xbox Game Pass does. In other words, you still need to pay individually for each of the 20-odd launch titles like you would a regular game console, except the…

There’s a new Switch on the block: the Nintendo Switch Lite, and it comes with less in order to cost you less. It also arrives in some hot new colors. MAJOR TECH SPECS ■ Built-in 5.5-inch 1280×720 capacitive touchscreen LCD ■ Custom Nvidia Tegra processor ■ 32GB of internal storage (up to 2TB additional storage via microSDHC or microSDXC card) ■ 802.11a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.1, NFC, USB Type-C port (charging only), and 3.5 mm audio jack ■ Built-in accelerometer and gyroscope ■ Rechargeable 13.6Wh lithium-ion battery ■ Evolved with undetachable controllers KEY FINDINGS ■ We yanked really hard on the controls in the hope of scoring two new bright yellow Joy-Cons, but alas, they don’t detach. A more traditional disassembly is required. ■ The way is blocked by impassable tri-point…

“Both the Surface Laptop 3s come with identical, soft and responsive, glass trackpads and square ten-keyless keyboards that are easy to use” With AMD dominating the desktop CPU space this year, Microsoft has given it the opportunity to compete against Intel in the new Surface Laptop 3s. AMD was given the task of designing a custom CPU for the 15-inch Surface Laptop 3, while Intel was delegated the task of driving the less expensive 13-inch clamshell. Generally, laptop makers give the bigger units more grunt for creative professionals, while the smaller devices appeal to those looking for something that’s better value and more portabile – but because these units have competing chip makers driving them, they’re actually very different laptops that try to achieve different things. Before we dig into…

Last year Nvidia and its partners introduced us to an exorbitantly-priced monitor based on a technology concept called G-Sync HDR which offered dynamic High Dynamic Range adjustment (like TV’s Dolby Vision), but for games. It was maddening to get working but the technology has matured to the point where Asus ROG Swift PG35VQ now exists. Why does this matter? Because, in theory, it should be the best gaming monitor ever made. The clunky original felt like an axe-hewn screen stuck onto one of Asus’ fancy stands. The PH35VQ, however, is much more refined: resplendent with full ROG detailing and programmable Aura RGB lighting at both the base and back. G-Sync HDR has since been re-branded, G-Sync Ultimate but the fundamentals are the same: maintaining colour accuracy and uniform image quality…

When we look at a platform like Intel’s X299, and AMD’s Threadripper too, for that matter, we often wonder why motherboard manufacturers excessively focus on gaming when the mainstream platforms are better options. Asrock’s Taichi brand doesn’t resort to this tactic, usually delivering an excellent combination of useful features and affordable price. X299 refresh motherboards have undoubtedly taken a step up in price though, and at $799 the X299 Taichi CLX can’t be considered an affordable board any longer. With this in mind, can the latest Taichi land in the sweet spot as we’ve come to expect from Asrock? The X299 Taichi CLX looks every bit a high end board and you’d expect it to have a long list of features. While it’s not a barebones motherboard by any measure,…

We rarely review printers as nowadays they tend to be commoditised, uninteresting, and seldom used in domestic settings. But Brother has turned our heads with a model that it hopes represents the best of breed for SMBs. Indeed, beyond the pun-laden moniker, there’s much to admire. The MFC-J6545DW is a multi-function device that is sturdily built and quite compact considering it’s both capable of printing and scanning A3 images using automatic document feeders. You’ll still need a large desk to support its 18KG bulk, but it’s very quiet and the functionality it affords is well worth the space it takes up. As we’ve seen across the market, inkjet is making many laser printers redundant. Their quality has always been better but now their running costs and speeds are competitive. inkjets…

The success of the Raspberry Pi family of single board computers has spawned a large number of other low-cost SBCs, many of which can be considered compatible with the RPi at one level or another. Some competitors aim to provide RPi performance at a lower price, while others target their products at a higher performance level. From its name, it seems reasonable to assume that the Banana Pi family of products claims compatibility with the RPi. However, a quick glance at the specification would seem to suggest that the Banana Pi Pro (sometimes called just the Banana Pro) doesn’t compare too favourably with the Raspberry Pi on either specification or price. First impressions can sometimes be deceptive, though, so we were keen to take a more in-depth look and put…

“It feels like Google is taking a big step towards the homogeneity of other premium flagships such as the latest iPhones. ” It’s almost immediately apparent that the design of both the Pixel 4 and 4 XL has shifted considerably away from that of their predecessors, with the two-tone rear entirely replaced by matte-glass surrounded by a textured aluminium bumper. While this is still a classy look, when combined with the new square camera bump, it feels like Google is taking a big step towards the homogeneity of other premium flagships such as the latest iPhones. The aforementioned bumper does make for a nice surface to grip onto when in use, and the matte glass feels pleasant to the touch, but these will likely both be buried in a case…

$7.99 (OR 99C/MONTH) | GETMAGPIE.APP | NEEDS IOS 11 OR LATER Magpie is a variation on the Notes app, but instead of text notes or audio notes, it’s designed with photographs in mind. That means it’s best on your iPhone; it’s fine on iPad but the more portable your device, the more convenient Magpie becomes. Magpie describes itself as a digital scrapbook, ‘the beautiful lovechild of Apple Photos and Notes’, although we think it’s closer to Pinterest as a notes app for visual content. It’s ideal for those of us who tend to use the Photos app as an ongoing collection of interesting things, only to wonder what on earth those things are and where they came from. With Magpie, when you see something you want to remember or share, simply…

The monitors examined in this group test all have their good points, and that’s on top of their affordable price tags. You’d probably be happy with any of these, but a couple did stand out above the rest. Samsung’s S24H85 wasn’t the slimmest, but it is higher resolution than the rest. Yet the cost is also highest by far, so it couldn’t take pride of place. At 22 inches, Dell’s P2219HC is slightly smaller than the others, but it’s a strong performer with good connectivity options. (Dell also deserves praise for using no polystyrene in its packaging, something we wish other manufacturers would consider.) It didn’t achieve top scores in our Datacolor colorimeter tests, but the differences between all these units was just a few percent. USB–C isn’t a requirement…

WINDOWS LOCAL ACCOUNTS IN WINDOWS With the recently released 1903 update, I decided to reinstall Windows from scratch. During the setup process I was only given the option to create a Microsoft Account using an email address. Has the option to create a local account on a PC been scrapped? Jay Derbyshire The local option is still present in the 1903 update, and in fact is slightly easier to find now – when prompted to create an account, click ‘Offline account’ followed by ‘No’. Some PC manufacturers have hidden the option during the setup process – if you can’t find it, restart the setup process while disconnected from the internet to hopefully force it into view. Similarly, the option for creating new local user accounts in Windows itself is buried…

Summary sheets are commonly used to pull together information. In this example, we’re pulling out a subset of data from a table rather than compiling a new table from multiple sources, using a table of scores for a set of participants in a monthly test. How can we show each participant’s personal progress? Creating a separate table or sheet for every participant would mean a lot of manual duplication. Instead, we can make a single summary sheet that will update with the data for any participant we select. We’ve used a separate sheet for two reasons: firstly, it’s something you might want to print or export by itself; secondly, we can preserve a distinction between Sheet 1, which is only for entering data, and Sheet 2, which only outputs data.…

Learning how to make your own stuff, even just learning how stuff works, is one of the most empowering skills you can gain. Over the years, we’ve shown you how to make all sorts of cool gadgets from drones to digital audio recorders, robots to tiny oscilloscopes – and all featuring small, low-cost microcontroller boards. Microcontrollers differ from your average PC microprocessor in that a microcontroller is a self-contained CPU chip with its own limited amount of RAM and storage, but also a number of input/output (I/O) ports. The RAM and storage are nowhere near enough to run Windows, but more than enough to run your own code to perform cool tasks such as interact with sensors and light up LEDs. Still, it can all seem pretty daunting the first…

It’s a few years old now, but IBM’s oft-quoted statement that 90% of the world’s data is created in the previous two years is mind-boggling when you think about it. Basically, we’re swimming in a sea of data that’s rising at a breath-taking rate. As PC users, we’re used to the idea of multi-core CPUs and multi-threaded apps. However, when it comes to machine-learning this ‘big data’, new processing ideas are needed. What might surprise you is that some of those ideas have made their way into your Android phone. “Many machine-learning algorithms, like most ‘decision tree’ and ‘forest’ algorithms, require the data to all fit into a computer’s system memory. ” WHAT IS MAPREDUCE? Many machine-learning algorithms, like most ‘decision tree’ and ‘forest’ (collections of trees) algorithms, require the…

Afterparty is a branching narrative drinking game set in Hell. Our protagonists are Lola and Milo, two recently deceased college graduates and lifelong best friends. With no memory of how they got there, Lola and Milo seek to escape Hell, but the only way home is to out-drink Satan himself. Most of your time will be spent talking and partying with the denizens of hell, with the occasional game of beer pong or a dance-off to mix things up. As others speak two possible responses appear above Lola or Milo’s head. The responses themselves are either positive or negative, agree or disagree. The third option, which changes depending on what drink you’re sipping, is usually the most entertaining. Hell is full of life. The pub talk is entertaining: people of…

The Outer Worlds is a light-hearted RPG that aims to emulate the Firefly fantasy. You fly from planet to planet, gather a crew of misfits, pick your way through a series of moral quandaries, and shoot people with laser guns. The game’s aesthetics and dark sense of humour pitch The Outer Worlds against Bethesda’s Fallout games, but there are important differences. True, you have ray guns and companions who shoot enemies for you, but this game isn’t a sprawling sandbox experience. You hop between planets and space stations, exploring fairly large zones full of corporate employees staving off plagues and wild animal attacks. Each area is loaded with loot and sidequests, but it’s a tight and prescriptive RPG. That’s not a bad thing, but in a world of 70-hour RPGs…

Asian robots are stealing American robot’s jobs “They took our jerbs!”. Adidas has been experimenting with robotically-made custom clothing for a few years now, opening up micro-factories in various locations around the US and Germany. The intent was for these ‘Speedfactories’ to reduce shipping time and reduce the risk of exploitative supply chains by using high-tech local robots. However, after years of experimenting with this system it was found to be too slow and expensive to be viable. Rather doing away with built-to-order product lines, Adidas has flagged its intention to move its robotic manufacturing to Asian facilities by 2020, where it can produce a wider range of custom garments for less. 13-year-old designs an underground transport system better than Hyperloop 3M YOUNG SCIENTIST CHALLENGE ENTRANT OUT-THINKS ELON MUSK. Elon…