With the Galaxy Note 20 launch just a week away, all eyes will be on what upgrades Samsung brings to the table. While the chipset might remain unchanged, there might be a silver lining. While Samsung flagship like the Note series and the S series are powered by Snapdragon chipsets in the US and European markets, they come with Exynos chipset in Asian markets such as India. It often tends to lose out on the performance front against Qualcomm Snapdragon counterparts. However, a new leak suggests some good news in this regard. Samsung Galaxy Note 20 release date, price, news and leaks Upcoming smartphones in India: Specs, launch date, price (Image credit: Samsung/WinFuture) According to a tweet by Anthony, a Youtuber, Samsung Galaxy Note 20 will continue to be powered by the Exynos 990 chipset, but with major improvements in terms of the performance and efficiency. These optimizations should bring it closer to the Snapdragon 865 series. He even suggested that it is almost li...
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Future battlefields: how the wars of tomorrow will be fought
Main image: How far are we from a future where battlefields where Terminator-style autonomous robots do the fighting instead of human soldiers?
It is often said that nothing ages quite so quickly as yesterday’s vision of tomorrow.
In the mid-20th century, consumed by the aftermath of two world wars, the public was sold a chrome-plated vision of the future, a world at peace, and a world of spaceships, jetpacks and laser beams.
While spaceships are as far away now as they were when sci-fi movies first gripped audiences in the 1950, elsewhere we've seen unrelenting technological progress – but we've also come to accept that war will be with us for a long time to come.
And right now no field of technology promises quite so many outlandish and futuristic ideas as defense, from railguns and ray guns to hypersonic missiles to killer robots. So what will the weapons and wars of the future look like?
Let’s play a gameIn 1983, the movie WarGames explored a dystopian vision of computer warfare, in which a teenaged Matthew Broderick was able to put the world on the brink of nuclear Armageddon from his bedroom. In 2018, the situation is only slightly less worrying.
Much has been written about the potential of cyber-warfare to change how conflict will take place around the globe – and certain nations are already flexing their muscles in this arena. In 2007, Russian-backed hackers threatened to destabilize the entire nation of Estonia with a large coordination attack on public infrastructure, and then did the same in Ukraine in 2017.
More recently anonymous hackers have coordinated devastating attacks on the UK's National Health Service and other organizations – the threat of state-sponsored, large-scale aggressive online action is now very real, affecting governments, militaries and civilians alike.
This threat is only becoming more severe. The rapid growth of the internet of things means household gadgets from fridges to lightbulbs now come with a Wi-Fi chip installed. It's a similar story in the military field, with weapons and other hardware increasingly being made ‘smart’, and as more tech goes online, so it becomes vulnerable to hackers across the globe.
Dabney Coleman, Matthew Broderick and Ally Sheedy in WarGames, in which a teenage hacker brought the world to the brink of nuclear war. Credit: MGM
Hackers can shut down power plants, water supplies and more, and it was only a matter of time before they turned their attention to military targets. An example of what can be accomplished by a significantly motivated and funded operation is the ‘Stuxnet’ computer virus attack, allegedly developed as a joint project between the US and Israeli militaries.
Released at an Iranian nuclear plant in 2010, this used specific vulnerabilities in the Windows operating system to proliferate (likely from a USB stick) at an alarming rate once in the internal systems of the plant. This caused turbines to rotate at dangerous levels, putting many out of commission and setting the Iran's uranium-enrichment project back many years.
The attack was modeled on the specific characteristics of that particular plant, and likely tested many dozens of times in virtual situations, and it's just a taste of what might be to come – future wars may begin and end without a single shot being fired, moving from the realms of the physical to the digital and changing the character of conflict forever.
Autonomous weaponsOf course, we won't need hackers to bring us to the brink of nuclear annihilation if computers figure out how to do it on their own, and the revolution in artificial intelligence has brought with it fears that computerized defense networks could become too smart for their own good, and decide to get rid of mankind once and for all, as SkyNet does in the Terminator series of movies.
Our defense systems may be some way from becoming self-aware, but governments and militaries are working to bring intelligent and autonomous weapons to the battlefield. This raises a whole host of ethical issues, with moves afoot to stop the deployment of 'killer robots'.
At the moment drones such as the Hellfire missile-equipped Predator are still controlled by humans – but for how long?
Of course, ethical considerations haven't stood in the way of advances in weaponry in the past, and several countries are ploughing on with developing self-aware killing machines. Drones – although, for now still controlled by humans – have become a feature of the modern battlefield. The US, meanwhile, is working on an AI system to anticipate and defeat nuclear missile launches, which would be capable of operating independently.
The Internet of Battle Things, a research paper published by the US Army Research Laboratory in 2016, offers insights into the future of land warfare that are in equal parts fascinating and alarming. The authors imagine a future where swarms of robots of various shapes and sizes control the battlefield. Reconnaissance drones the size of dragonflies would flit in and out of buildings, scouting for the enemy, before calling in larger armed drones and other automated weapons systems to do the fighting.
Soldiers in future wars could be relegated to virtual bystanders as drones and other automated systems do the fighting
Masses of information would be generated and transmitted between the machines, making the battlefield only more dangerous for those soldiers left to monitor the situation, and requiring increasingly specialized training on their part. As more automation comes in to play, the size of standing armies will shrink and budgets will shift accordingly.
Autonomous fighting machines aren't quite all-conquering yet – issues with dust and moisture ingress and temperature means that currently they wouldn't be effective in anything short of optimal conditions. There’s also the issue of maintenance, malfunctions, and dedicated counter-weapons such as EMP (electromagnetic pulse) strikes that can fry the electronics of every system for miles around.
Set phasers to killRay guns and laser beams are a staple of science fiction for decades, and the ideas have been around for getting on for a century. In the 1920s Nikola Tesla, the visionary scientist and competitor to Thomas Edison, envisioned ending wars by arming countries with a 'death ray' that could be used for defensive, but not offensive, means. It was never developed due to a lack of funding, and to this day laser weapons remain an obsession for the militaries of the world.
The ZEUS-HLONS project is one of the first laser armaments deployed to the field in a modern conflict. Consisting of a ‘gun’ mounted to a modified jeep, it directs a beam of radiation focused on a specific point – usually unexploded field ordinance. This is then heated to such a point that the trigger mechanism in the ordinance is activated, detonating it at a safe distance; it's proven to be effective in theaters of conflict where improvised explosive devices have been used by insurgents.
Several militaries are working on laser weapons that can shoot down incoming missiles
Several variations on this concept have been mooted, including by Israel, which is working on deploying laser weapons in an upgrade to its existing missile-based Iron Dome defense system.
Obstacles to implementing laser weapons remain, including the fact that they produce enormous amounts of heat and require a lot of energy to power them, and as such are exceptionally difficult to miniaturize while maintaining efficacy, which in turn raises issues of mobility. Perhaps in the future soldiers will be running around zapping one another with Star Wars-style blasters, but for the foreseeable future traditional firearms will continue to dominate the battlefield.
While some of the above tech is on the verge of being implemented, there's also a whole sub-genre of weird and wonderful weapons being worked on. Exo-skeletons promise to turn soldiers into terminator-like killing machines, bioweapons could wipe out entire populations with one sneeze from 'patient zero', while unstoppable hypersonic nuclear missiles could vaporize entire cities – it seems nothing is too far fetched when it comes to dreaming up new and more efficient ways to kill our fellow human beings.
TechRadar's Next Up series is brought to you in association with Honor
Google launches “Abtal Al Internet” initiative to teach children online safety habits
Aiming to encourage children to be confident online explorers while avoiding potential cybersecurity pitfalls, Google has launched “Abtal Al Internet” (Internet Heroes) initiative in Arabic, a free online platform full of learning resources and interactive activities on online safety for kids, parents and educators. This move seems in line with Google’s Be Internet Awesome initiative launched last year.
Children now access the internet at very young ages and are vulnerable to online predators and scams whether it be on social media or online games. To that effort, Abtal Al Internet is designed to teach kids the fundamentals of digital citizenship and safety and help them confidently navigate the online world by being smart, alert, strong, kind and brave.
Also part of the online learning program is an online adventure, A’lam al Internet (Interland), that allows kids to develop good digital habits such as not sharing information online to those they don’t trust, building strong passwords, staying away from fake profiles and phishing scams, being kind to others online and reporting inappropriate content.
According to Google’s survey, majority of teachers in the Arab world believe that online safety should be part of curriculum and have reportedly witnessed concerning online incidents. To that end, Abtal Al Internet aims to provide guidance for educators and parents to teach kids about digital safety in homes as well as classrooms through videos, activities and more.
The program has been developed in collaboration with online safety experts including Family Online Safety Institute, the Internet Keep Safe Coalition and ConnectSafely. It can be accessed here: g.co/abtalinternet
Ryder Cup live stream: how to watch Sunday's Europe vs USA singles golf wherever you are
And so it begins! If Sunday at the 2018 Ryder Cup is anywhere near as exciting as the first two days, then you're in a for a real treat today. It's time for the Day 3 Singles and we'll tell you how to live stream the Ryder Cup finale no matter where you live - it's even FREE to live stream if you're in the US.
It's surely Europe's for the taking? Four points up going into the Sunday of a Ryder Cup certainly suggests that, but the US team will inevitably have been watching videos of Brookline and Medinah on repeat for inspiration for an unlikely turn around.
Sunday sees every player of each team play in singles matchplay golf. That means there are 12 points in total to play for - more than enough for the USA to overturn the deficit. Justin Thomas and Rory McIlroy go out first at 12.05am local time (11.05am BST, 6.05am ET, 3.05am PT), with Bryson DeChambeau vs Alex Noren finishing things off. Leading the European troops at Le Golf National is Thomas Bjørn, desperate to wrestle back the Ryder Cup. But opposition captain Kim Furyk has no shortage of talent at his disposal to stop him.
Find out who will come out on top in 2018 by following the instructions below and tuning into a 2018 Ryder Cup live stream from wherever you find yourself in the world without paying a penny.
Great news for golf fans in North America and Canada – the Ryder Cup's official site will be showing all the action for free. There may be some late nights/early mornings involved for US viewers to catch the action from France, but tuning in online should be a breeze wherever you are.
Live stream the Ryder Cup Day 3 from anywhere
There are number of options for watching the 2018 Ryder Cup golf if you're stateside:
- That live stream at RyderCup.com is the obvious way. Although you'll be limited to what the website wants to show you and we doubt the coverage will have the sheen and depth of most dedicated broadcasters.
- If you're at home and have cable, then NBC is the official broadcaster. The network will be splitting coverage between its main sports channels and it's specialist station, the Golf Channel, which is available from most cable providers. NBC has promised 220 hours of coverage to get right under the Ryder Cup bonnet this year.
- If you're outside the US this weekend but want to access one of the above options, then you can use a VPN service to effectively transport your computer, phone or tablet's IP back to a US location.
Sunday's Ryder Cup singles schedule:Rory McIlroy vs Justin Thomas starts at 12.05pm local time (11.05am BST, 6.05am ET, 3.05am PT)
Paul Casey v Brooks Koepka starts at 12.17pm local time
Justin Rose v Webb Simpson starts at 12.29pm local time
Jon Rahm vs Tiger Woods starts at 12.41pm local time
Tommy Fleetwood vs Tony Finau starts at 12.53pm local time
Ian Poulter vs Dustin Johnson starts at 1.05pm local time
Thorbjorn Olesen vs Jordan Spieth starts at 1.17pm local time
Sergio Garcia vs Rickie Fowler starts at 1.29pm local time
Francesco Molinari vs Phil Mickelson starts at 1.41pm local time
Tyrrell Hatton vs Patrick Reed starts at 1.53pm local time
Henrik Stenson vs Bubba Watson starts at 2.05pm local time
Alex Noren vs Bryson DeChambeau starts at 2.17pm local time (1.17pm BST, 8.05am ET, 5.05am PT)
Europe team for the 2018 Ryder Cup Paul CaseyTommy FleetwoodSergio Garcia Tyrell HattonRory McIlroyFrancesco MolinariAlex NorenThorbjørn OlesenIan PoulterJon RahmJustin RoseHenrik Stenson US team for the 2018 Ryder Cup Bryson DechambeauTony FinauRicky FowlerDustin JohnsonBrooks KoepkaPhil MickelsonPatrick ReedWebb SimpsonJordan SpiethJustin ThomasBubba WatsonTiger Woods
Image courtesy of RyderCup.com
How to watch the Russian Grand Prix: stream F1 live from anywhere
Hamilton or Vettel? Vettel or Hamilton? We were so obsessed by the two-horse race that is the 2018 Formula One Drivers' World Championship that we almost forgot about Valtteri Bottas, who has stolen pole position from them both. What we're more sure about however, is how you can stream F1 live at the Russian Grand Prix from absolutely anywhere with our advice in this guide.
40 points. 40 precious points. That's the cushion Lewis Hamilton now has in the 2018 Formula One standings over Sebastian Vettel. And with only six races left - including this weekend's Russian Grand Prix - it's hard to say whether that will be enough.
So who will succeed in Sochi? Lewis Hamilton has won twice here before, which bodes well for the Brit. While Vettel has never had a victory in the sort history of the Russia Grand Prix. And Hamilton is certainly the man in form, with two straight wins at Italy and then Singapore. And what of the rest of the field? Valtteri Bottas is the only other active driver who has won the Russian Grand Prix, so Mercedes must be the most confident team heading into Sunday.
Keep reading to see all of your F1 live stream options - it doesn't matter where in the world you live. You can even watch for free in certain regions!
Images courtesy of Formula1.com
20 ways to promote your website
We’re all familiar with the term ‘one hit wonder’, and many artists or groups have had huge success with a single song, then subsequently nosedived into commercial oblivion with their following tracks.
The lifecycle of a website can be disturbingly similar, at least to a point. There’s a kind of gravitational force which acts on all websites, pulling them down the search engine rankings as they’re replaced with newer, fresher, more successfully promoted sites.
If you want to defy this natural force, you’ll need a promotional plan, many clever tricks, and a concerted effort from your web development team. With that in mind, here’s a list of 20 ways in which you can promote your website, and keep it as visible as possible.
We’ve chosen the best web hosting services right here
Most of the time, your website will be found via a search engine, and the vast majority of folks out there are using Google for search duties. And where your site is placed in terms of the rankings in any given search is heavily influenced by how Google matches the words and phrases that people are using to search.
Consider altering the site’s content to include popular phrases that people are searching for, and find the magic words that you need using the Google AdWord keyword planner. This process – although there’s a lot more to it – is known as SEO, which stands for Search Engine Optimization.
2. Get reciprocalThe more links that external websites have to your site, and the more links you make to them, will be seen by search engines as a good reason to elevate your importance as a web location.
Therefore if you have commercial relationships, you can strengthen those by exchanging links and building a flow of traffic between your mutual sites. This is especially useful if you are part of a bigger conglomerate, where the group site can link to all the subsidiaries without the need for permissions.
3. Facebook adsIf you want to sell door-to-door, then you need to turn up when people are at home, and the web equivalent of this is catching them on social media. Despite some recent flattening of growth, many millions of people still use Facebook, and this platform has the advantage that you can target users of a specific age or gender, those with certain interests, or those who follow particular brands or celebrities.
4. Connect with influencersPerhaps you can’t get an A-list star to blog about your products or services, but maybe you could find a blogger who has a dedicated following that they can influence.
Compared with celebrity endorsements, the costs will be minimal, and some might even cover a product for a free sample if asked.
Google may be the search giant of the world, but not everyone uses it. For example, in China, more surfers use Baidu. Submitting to all those other search engines aside from Google and Bing is a worthwhile exercise, especially if you do business in locations outside of the US and Europe.
Instead of submitting to each engine in turn, use a tool like Submit Express to hit a large number in a single operation.
6. Use YouTubeThe right video on YouTube can rapidly attract tens of thousands of views, and can subsequently generate links in Facebook and Twitter. Even if it’s just a recording of a seminar speech or something made to promote a new product line, it’s all worth placing on YouTube to create interest and attract visitors to your website.
7. Be adaptableTracking and analyzing information from your website will tell you where visitors typically enter, and the pages they most often access. You can then concentrate on enhancing the more popular areas of your site – and deprioritize the sections which see less traffic – and that should hopefully see your visitor count grow. Not only that, but those who do visit will be more likely to come back, elevating your status with search engines.
Modestly labelled as the ‘front page of the internet’, any news story or press release from your company should be put on here, with links to bring people back to your site.
However, be advised that Reddit users can take a dislike to anything perceived as overtly corporate, so be careful about how you position content and interact with the denizens of the site.
9. Be a community playerAs a representative for your business, you might want to join appropriate Facebook and Google+ groups, so that you can tap into what they’re thinking, and how they react to product launches and promotions.
10. Be professionalIf you post images on your website or social media, then make sure they’re really good quality ones, and even consider having them link to the full resolution original.
The same goes for video footage. Avoid portrait recordings made by a phone with no image stabilization, at the very least.
11. Answer questionsPeople love online experts who can answer questions, so be one of them. There are numerous question-and-answer forums run by the likes of Quora, Yahoo, and so on, which are all free to join.
You might also consider adding a question page to your site. You could then take the best answers, and use them to construct a FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions).
Infographics are those charts which you see here and there about the web, which graphically illustrate an interesting trend or the breakdown of a market by percentages. Making one that relates to your business, or the market that it operates in, and then distributing this infographic is an excellent way to get visitors.
13. Incorporate a blogThis is a method that both Google and Microsoft (and many others) employ, where they have senior staff blog about new or interesting products that they’re working on.
Visitors react better to people than corporate entities, and personalizing product development, in particular, can be highly influential. Often this is a much better way to release company news, rather than an official press release.
This is most useful if you run a local business where customers can physically come to your office or store to collect products, or engage in personal interaction. The Google My Business tool allows your company to appear on a Google Map search so that you can be found easily by anyone looking for you.
A nifty added benefit of being on here is that if your company name is searched via Google, the result returned will also bring up a map showing where you are.
15. Get a webmaster accountMost search engines have special accounts for those who run websites, and once you have this connection with them, you can use it to interact with the company about how you might improve your search ranking.
A Google account, for example, is an excellent way to make sure that the site is indexed correctly, and isn’t being ignored for some spurious reason.
A timely reminder to previous customers or a nudge to potentially new ones is an effective way to stimulate web traffic. It’s also a great idea to include links to new and interesting content within the marketing email, stimulating the recipient to visit.
Just make sure that those who get the emails have a means to decline receiving any further messages, or you’ll get a reputation as a spammer.
17. Cross-marketingOnce you have a web presence up and running, make sure that the web address is clearly visible on all stationery, printed promotional materials, giveaway pens, T-shirts or other merchandize.
The more places that your web address is visible, the greater the chances that new folks will see the URL and decide to visit.
18. Have an email signatureAll company emails should have a branded signature, and in that information, a link to the website should be included. By doing this, you ensure that any email which is forwarded to another person will include the link, and allow the recipient to click through to your site with the minimum of effort.
Search engine marketing allows you to promote the position you will appear at on a search, and those links that are present on the first page of results will get the majority of traffic for any given keyword.
Paying for a sponsored link enables this to happen, assuming you pay more than your competitors for each link that is clicked. Depending on the keyword, each click might cost you very little or a good bit more, but the fact that most large companies use this method demonstrates that it’s an effective marketing strategy.
20. Use WikipediaMost companies have a Wikipedia page, and those that don’t need to make one.
Not only is this a good place to chart the growth of the firm and how it compares to competitors, but it can also provide a good linkage to the main website that anyone researching a subject related to your business might run into.
Intel, ESL and the future of esports in the UK
Last week, over 300 leading figures from sports, technology and esports attended the biggest esports business conference in Europe: ESL London. During the two-day conference, the esports industry’s best and brightest took part in discussions and debates surrounding the most pressing issues facing their field.
The primary focus: what does the future hold for the thriving esports industry? An economy which, according to Newszoo’s 2018 Global Esports Market Report, is expected to be worth almost one billion dollars in the coming year. That’s a year-on-year increase of a whopping 38%.
We caught up with Intel’s UK gaming & esports lead Scott Gillingham, ESL COO Rob Black and ESL’s UK managing director James Dean at EGX 2018 to chat about where they see esports heading in the next few years and why the UK has fallen behind the rest of the world.
A brief history of esports
Esports (or electronic sports) are professional, organized video games competitions. In other words, people play videogames against one another competitively, often for large sums of money and prestige.
While the assumption is that esports are only a recent phenomenon, in reality the first esports competition was held back in 1972, when Stamford University students competed in a Spacewar tournament. But, while the quiet rumbling of future craze were present, the 80s focused more on beating high scores and enjoying videogames as entertainment rather than something you could make a career out of.
However, as gaming became more popular, the '90s became the first decade when esports (which wasn’t a well-known term then) began to really take off, with companies such as Nintendo and Sega holding professional gaming tournaments. This is also when we began to see the money becoming a factor in professional gaming - people were no longer merely playing for kudos but for $15,000 jackpots.
It was from the noughties that we began seeing what we now know to be modern-day esports. As streaming platforms such as Twitch and YouTube took off, people began to show interest in not only playing videogames but watching them too. In addition, prize pools got eye-wateringly large. The Dota 2 tournament earlier this year had a prize pool of over $25 million, making it the largest in esports history, and the total prize pool for esports tournaments in 2017 was $112 million.
And this is only the start, as Newzoo predicts that global esports revenue will reach $906 million in 2018, with North America account for $345 million of the total and China for $164 million.
In addition, Newszoo’s report suggests this figure will grow to $1.4 billion by 2021. But how does the esports industry expect to achieve this growth and where does the UK fit in?
Gathering the Intel
Two of the UK’s major driving forces behind esports are Intel and ESL, who partnered up 12 years ago to create the Intel Extreme Masters, which is the longest running global pro gaming tour in the world.
The Intel Extreme Masters originally started with an attendance of 500 people in 2006, but by 2017 that attendance had grown to 173,000 people - a staggering 53% increase from the previous year. In addition, this year’s IEM had a viewership of 1.8 million in the UK.
“One of key things is supporting esports and helping esports grow and I think our partnership does that very well,” Intel’s UK gaming and esports lead Scott Gillingham told TechRadar. “It's our way of giving back to the community - by putting on big esports tournaments.”
"Being able to sponsor these big events and creating those events with ESL is something the community love, appreciate and get behind.”
However, Gillingham acknowledges the UK esports industry has a way to go to catch up with its US and Chinese cousins despite being the fifth largest gaming market in the world.
"You look at some of the top four - the US, Asia etc - they have very big game business but they have big esports leagues,” Gillingham explains. “I think a lot of that has been the investments into those leagues and maybe in the UK we've had that stigma about esports and it's kind of been a little bit behind because of that. But it's now growing.
“This year has been a big growth in esports. We've had ESL one - again partnered with Intel we brought that tournament with ESL to the UK. I think people are a bit dubious whether it was going to be a big tournament and the whole tournament sold out in 24 hours. It was the fastest selling tournament for ESL globally and over 24,000 people attended that event. So yes, it's a little bit behind compared to other countries but it is growing and we are seeing that develop.”
It’s all well and good to appeal to appeal to those who are already gamers and who understand the industry however, as esports grows, the gap between those who ‘get it’ and those who don’t arguably grows increasingly wider. That’s where influencers, or gaming personalities, play a major role.
“We have Sacriel, JackFrags and the TechChamp [among others],” Gillingham explains. “That's another route of getting a message out there and also showing people that gaming is fun.”
Growth spurt
So how do you bridge the gap and encourage young people to pursue a career in esports? “There's a lot of perception to it,” ESL COO Rob Black explains. “I think actually this year is probably a tipping point for us.”
ESL has been trying to do just that, working with Intel on a campaign called Memories which showcases videos on how the biggest names in esports got to be where they are now.
“Sujoy is on there and he was like the first pro gamer from the UK - that was in 2000,” Black tells TechRadar. “People don't really know that we've got a heritage in esports and I think it's important for us to acknowledge the fact that we have history there, and that we have a lot more talent and a lot more people in esports globally than is obvious.”
The Memories campaign is part of ESL and Intel’s goal to get more young people involved in esports and to understand the industry involves more roles than being a gamer. Alongside this, ESL UK ran a Future Generations competition at EGX 2018, which seen the company searching for the best young talent in esports commentating.
“The only way they can [progress] is if they're being given a platform,” ESL’s UK managing director James Dean explains. “You can't go from playing in a bedroom to playing on a stage. You have to progress so that's where the importance of grassroots is.”
“We've been working with universities in the UK to help students to understand that working in esports is way more than just being a player,” Black continues. “We have 40 people in ESL UK at the moment and we've got accountants who like gaming, a paralegal who likes gaming, so there's a lot there that's not just your standard run-of-the-mill 'I could be a player or a manager’.”
Grassroots is at the heart of sustaining a skyrocketing industry such as esports, especially given the industry is so new that it’s difficult to estimate where exactly it will go in the future. So how do you evaluate which steps to take?
“The community dictates that,” Black tells us. “In that regard, we will always follow what people want.”
Life inside a pro-esports team house with Fnatic: streaming, training and burritos
New 3rd-gen Chromecast appears in store before being announced
Google probably wanted to keep details of its 3rd-generation Chromecast under wraps ahead of its big hardware show on October 9, but Best Buy has ruined those plans – one of its stores mistakenly put the new dongle on sale too early, and a customer who managed to get hold of one has posted details on Reddit.
Redditor GroveStreetHome wasn't able to get the device up and running – it keeps asking for an update – but thanks to some photos we know the new Chromecast will get a slightly refreshed look, with the Chrome symbol replaced by a Google logo (as on the Chromecast Ultra).
We knew a new Chromecast model was coming: filings made with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) indicated a new device with added Bluetooth powers was on the way. Improved Bluetooth connectivity might open the way to Chromecast peripherals, including, perhaps, gamepad controllers.
The new Chromecast? (credit: GroveStreetHome/Reddit)
GroveStreetHome reports that the 3rd-gen Chromecast is being sold at the same price as its predecessor, $35 (or £30 in the UK). The updated version was marked as unavailable until October 9 in the Best Buy system, but because the Redditor had already picked one up, it was put through as a 2nd-gen model.
We're assuming the Best Buy in question has now hastily pulled the new edition of the Chromecast from shelves until October 9 rolls around. We'll have to wait for Google's event to get all the details on what this new streaming dongle has to offer.
There's plenty more coming at the October unveiling of course. Google is expected to reveal the Pixel 3 and the Pixel 3 XL, as well as a 2-in-1 Chromebook and possibly some other goodies too (though maybe not a Pixel Watch). We'll be covering the event live, ready to bring you news of all the new Google devices as they're announced.
These are the best apps you can install on a Chromecast right nowVia 9to5Google
Things we are excited to see in Mate 20 launch in October
Apple released the iPhone XS last weekend with a price tag that can run as high as AED 6,000 (US$ 1,600) and as good of a phone as it is, you might want to wait some time before committing that much money. There are tons of new Android phones being announced in October from the likes of LG, Samsung, HMD and Huawei. And based on recent leaks, the Huawei Mate 20 is shaping up to be the phone to beat this year.
Where the iPhone XS and the Galaxy Note 9 were minor upgrades from last years models with not much in terms of innovation, the Huawei Mate 20 is looking to be brand new handsets with technologies that will power the next generation of smartphones.
Let’s take a look at some of the features that are expected on the Mate 20 series based on the recent leaks leading up to the launch in mid-October.
DesignAccording to a leak on Weibo, the Huawei Mate 20 series might feature a smooth and symmetrical body This source also suggests that the Huawei Mate 20 series features the world’s first design where the speaker and microphone are integrated into the USB Type-C port.
Other than that, some "official marketing pictures" have been picked up by WinFuture and show three color options, with black and blue finishes showing up alongside Huawei's stylish Twilight, two-tone finish.
There is a feature which is noticeably absent - a fingerprint scanner. This could indicate that the Huawei Mate 20 Pro could come with face recognition technology as its main biometric function, but according to the same source it will also feature an in-display fingerprint scanner.
ChipsetThe Huawei Mate 20 Pro will pack the new Kirin 980 chipset which was the world’s first officially announced 7nm silicon and boast an octa-core setup. We’ve covered this new chipset from Huawei claims is 75% faster than its previous generation as far as the CPU is concerned and 46% faster when it comes to the GPU.
Besides being very speedy, power efficiency is supposedly 57% better on the processor and an extremely impressive 178% better on the the GPU. These advancements should make the Kirin 980 faster and a lot more efficient.
Huawei has continuously pushed the boundaries with camera technology on their smartphones. The Hauwei Mate 20 series is expected to continue with the three camera setup found on the Huawei P20 Pro released earlier this year. There are bound to be improvements which are most likely be on the software and AI side.
The latest leak suggests that the Mate 20 Pro could have the best camera on a smartphone with the highest DXO Mark score of 116. That's a full seven points higher than the previous top score of 109, achieved by the Huawei P20 Pro, but since the Mate 20 Pro is likely to have an upgraded version of that phone’s camera it’s believable.
One feature that has been lacking on Huawei phones is wireless charging and looks like Huawei is set to make a grand entry with that. An image posted on Weibo shows Huawei's wireless charger LZ80 with a 20W output.
To put things in perspective, Samsung's latest wireless charger has an output of 9W. Whilst Qi wireless charging standard only supports up to 15W, it is believed there will be some kind of custom chipset in Huawei devices that would allow it to take advantage of the charger’s full power. This could be built into the Kirin 980, meaning the Mate 20 will be able to use the full 20W, while other Qi compatible devices will only have access to 15W.
Huawei is expected to reveal the Mate 20 series on October 16th in London. TechRadar will be there to cover the event and report about any of the above and all other exciting announcements from the launch.
Real Madrid vs Atletico Madrid live stream: how to watch the La Liga derby online
Real Madrid have a chance to avenge the 4-2 Super Cup defeat to local rivals Atletico Madrid last month – and you can live stream the latest Madrid derby simply by following the instructions in this guide.
Real have so far adapted pretty well to life after Ronaldo. Gareth Bale even commented that his teammates are now playing with more freedom without CR7, and the fine form of the Welshman and fellow forwards Benzema, Isco and Asensio suggests he may be right.
Under Diego Simeone, Atleti have been formidable at stifling this kind of attacking talent and keeping pace with their city foes, and they'll once again need to be at their organisational best in El Derbi. They also have plenty of threat to pose themselves, with Diego Costa up against Sergio Ramos sure to be an entertainingly physical battle at the Bernabeu.
The Madrid derby is always one of the highlights of the La Liga season so make sure you don't miss out on a live stream of Real Madrid vs Atletico Madrid tonight. Read on to find out how you watch wherever you are in the world.
Find out how to watch every single Premier League game this seasonIf you're in a country that's not showing the El Derbi on TV, don't sweat. With a VPN service you can connect to channels from a country that will have the match. Follow the instructions below and live stream this La Liga clash wherever you are in the world.
Image courtesy of www.realmadrid.com
Dancing, taunts and teabagging: how players abuse harmless in-game emotes
You’re playing an online video game in 2018, and you decide to be nice and wave a little ‘hello’ at your teammates for this round. Ten minutes later, you might be surrounded by anything ranging from ‘what a save’ or ‘thanks’ to an array of obnoxious emotes and pinging noises that are being used in an sarcastic, insulting way, rather than how they should be used.
If you’re playing as a healer on Overwatch and you’re stopped from doing your job, whether it’s because you’ve been killed or simply overwhelmed, you might find empathy or nothing at all, but someone else might use the ‘thanks’ voice-line in a sarcastic way, and to blame you for their death or the team’s loss. There’s more pressure depending on which role you take, and voice-lines don’t help relieve this pressure.
An exchange that was supposed to be kind or funny quickly descends into vitriol and sarcasm, but when did inherently positive mechanics start being used in a negative way? Not everyone uses a microphone when playing online, which prompted developers to create a new way for players to communicate. Text shortcuts and emotes are what we have now, and they’re not always used for their intended purpose.
It’s impossible to avoid the Fortnite craze, so you’ve likely seen many emotes from the game performed on TV or, if you have children, then maybe they’ve been performing the ‘floss’ or the ‘take the L’ dances at home. Emotes are used similarly to emoticons on text-based services such as Twitter and WhatsApp, and they’re used to show emotion in a more theatrical way.
Today, most online team-based games have text options for communicating with your teammates, in case you don’t fancy going on-mic with strangers. Personally, I’ve found that the misuse of these to abuse players is rampant in Overwatch, Fortnite, League of Legends and Rocket League, although it can be found in other games including Hearthstone.
Tea-bagging still happens, but it happens far less often nowadays, and while that was always considered to be poor form, it was regularly only used to taunt an opposing player if they fell in battle. It’s now acknowledged as sexual assault, and it’s banned from being used in competitive esports, but there’s no one stopping players from abusing it general online play. Text shortcuts allow things to get a little more personal, and a whole lot more obnoxious, and they allow people to berate and abuse other players – who are likely simply trying their best and want to have an enjoyable time – without having to flex their vocal chords.
Internet craze or toxicity?
Internet trends come and go – it feels like an age ago that the dab was rampant, no matter where you looked. The hot topic now is Fortnite, and it’s even found its way into professional soccer. Atletico Madrid’s Antoine Griezmann and Feyenoord’s Yassin Ayoub are just two of the many players who’ve performed a Fortnite emote after scoring a goal, which generally tends to be the ‘Take the L’ dance, and while it’s something which can be viewed as a bit of fun, and likely with no ill intent behind it, and the intention is clearly to rub a loss in an opponent’s face.
Emotes are sometimes used in racist ways too, notably when Twitch and KFC teamed up with several popular PUBG streamers to create a KFC bucket of chicken emote. When the ‘Winner winner chicken dinner!’ message appears after a player has won a game, viewers had a chance of winning a $20 KFC gift card if they used the emote. The stereotype that black people are often seen eating fried chicken is outdated and racist, and it’s shocking that Twitch didn’t have the oversight to suspect that this would be used in a wildly racist way. Streamers TriHex, Forsen and Sodapoppin have all spoken out about the emote, going as far as to ban it from their own channels, and blaming Twitch for enabling toxicity when it’s previously pledged.
It’s hard to imagine the battle to stamp out toxicity being anything other than a long and difficult one
There’s nothing wrong with text shortcuts and emotes in themselves, but the issue is that developers aren't doing enough to tackle their misuse. Several of the publishers we reached out to didn’t respond to our emails, including Blizzard, Psyonix, Epic Games and Riot Games.
A number of these publishers have teamed up to form The Fair Play Alliance, a forum where they share research in the hopes that they can utilize it to tackle disruptive behavior. This enables each company to incorporate the same rules for, and expectations of, their fan bases across their games, making it easier to cultivate online communities with less toxicity.
Several of these companies have spoken out about toxicity in their games though, so we can only hope they’re tackling more than just what people type or yell into their mics, because no one enjoys having a simple mistake held against them, or being driven from a game because they’re made to feel unwelcome.
Curbing the issue
With so many opportunities to communicate in-game nowadays, you can be made to feel as if you’ve performed poorly solely because you haven’t performed to another player’s expectations. If you’ve played Rainbow Six: Siege or League of Legends, then you’ve likely experienced being berated because you didn’t follow a self-appointed leader’s aggressive pinging, signalling that they want you to do something specific. Not all games have the mechanics to allow full communication with your teammates, or you might prefer to not go on-mic if you’re playing with people you don’t know, and so if there’s a play you don’t agree with and then decide not to follow, you might find yourself insulted via a personal message, shot in the next game, or further chided in team chat.
What’s worse is that report systems are often abused, and those whose job it is to sift through them to find the legitimate reports are having their time wasted, meaning they have less time to devote to genuine issues. For example, people will report what they consider to be poor skill, or even if they’re simply outplayed and are angry about it. It’s severe enough to put people off reporting at all, because often a player will feel their concerns aren’t taken note of. Publishers, to their credit, have been trying to improve their reporting systems, but many of the same problems that came with the launch of titles such as Rainbow Six: Siege and League of Legends, are still present today.
Riot Games spoke with Polygon earlier this year about the efforts it is putting into curbing toxicity - with the publisher claiming that only 1% of the community are disruptive (which seems pretty far from the truth in my experience). Riot Games implemented the Honor system to encourage good behavior, with the option for players to recognize other players’ good behaviour, teamwork or skill by rewarding them with a small in-game vote. In most of the games I’ve played I’ve seen some form of verbal abuse, or abuse of the game’s emotes to antagonize a rival player – or, worse, a team-mate, and it’s hard to imagine the battle to stamp out toxicity being anything other than a long and difficult one, with no satisfactory resolution.
Games are supposed to be harmless fun, and it’s far better to work together than against each other
So, with toxicity being rampant – and acknowledged – why is it that so many emotes and text shortcuts are being misused in a way to attack and upset other players? It’s hard to believe they’re intended to be merely celebratory, especially when so many of them have negative connotations. There’s only so much that can be done to prevent players from abusing simple terms such as ‘hello’, ‘thanks’, emotes and other forms of in-game communication, but the ways in which they’re abused shows that you don’t even need to be on a microphone to hurt another player. I’d love to see this change, and the Fair Play Alliance is a great step towards encouraging more positivity, but as things are right now, some people don’t feel welcome playing online. Games are supposed to be harmless fun, and it’s far better to work together than against each other when on the same team, and respecting opponents can leave both parties feeling a little bit better, regardless of the outcome. A well-meaning GLHF and a GG can go a long way in brightening someone’s day.
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Voice unlock and more advanced tech tipped for the Huawei Mate 20 Pro
As the official October 16 launch date of the Huawei Mate 20 Pro approaches, we're hearing more and more about what to expect from Huawei's latest premium handset. The latest leaks suggest the phone will come packed with some cutting-edge mobile tech.
According to internal presentation slides obtained by Israeli tech site Girafa, we're going to see something called Bone Voice ID, which will use bundled earphones and bone conduction technology to verify users based on their voice. There will also be an in-display fingerprint scanner on the front of the phone, which we've heard about before.
The slides also show off the Nano SD memory card format that Huawei supposedly has in the works – the primary difference between this proprietary tech and standard memory cards seems to be a smaller size, but we'll no doubt hear more on October 16.
Specs appealThere's also mention of the smartphone specs we've seen mooted before: a huge 6.9-inch screen, the Kirin 980 chipset, 6GB of RAM and a 4,200mAh battery. It looks like Huawei is going to pack everything it's got into the Pro version of the Mate 20.
We've also got confirmation of the specs of the standard Huawei Mate 20 – a 6.53-inch screen, 4GB of RAM and a 4,000mAh battery. This smartphone looks set to arrive without the in-display fingerprint scanner, just a standard one around the back, but both phones will have Voice ID as well as an advanced face unlock mechanism.
Finally, it looks like both the Mate 20 and the Mate 20 Pro will have a 24-megapixel, triple-lens camera pixel camera around the back. Of course the Huawei Mate 20 Lite has already been unveiled, the lower-end of the three handsets.
Huawei Mate 20 and Mate 20 Pro seemingly certified in ChinaVia Phandroid
Chelsea vs Liverpool live stream: how to watch today's Premier League football online
The first major face-off of the fledgling Premier League title race is here as Chelsea take on Liverpool just three days after meeting in the Carabao Cup, and you can live stream what should be a pulsating 90 minutes by following this guide.
Chelsea have adapted to the more attacking style of manager Maurizio Sarri faster than many expected, but drew a blank for the first time last week in a drab 0-0 at West Ham. With Eden Hazard in excellent form, the Blues have one of the biggest threats in the league but Sarri needs his strikers to start firing too – Morata and Giroud have just one goal between them so far this season.
So it's opponents Liverpool who are now the only side in the Premier League with a 100% record. The Reds have breezed to the top of the league with the explosive Salah - Firmino - Mane strikeforce propped up by an in-form James Milner and formidable partnership between Gomez and Van Dijk in defence.
Will Klopp's men be too strong for The Blues or is the Premier League's last remaining 100% record about to be toppled? Find out by grabbing a Chelsea vs Liverpool live stream via the instructions below – and don't forget, we've got the rest of your live stream options covered for the season in our Premier League watching guide.
If you're in a country that's not showing a televised Premier League match, or if you're not by a TV come kick-off time for the big games – don't sweat. With numerous online channels and, crucially, the option of a VPN service, you can tune into this televised fixture no matter where you are in the world. And best of all, it's really easy to do:
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