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Just in time for the Super Bowl, B&H Photo is offering a huge price drop on the top-rated OLED 4K UHD TV. Starting today you can save just over $1,000 on the LG OLED TV available in 55 and 65-inch models. Watching the game on an OLED TV means you'll enjoy incredible picture quality with brilliant colors and crisp images on a stunning display. The a7 Intelligent Processor provides deep blacks and whites and vibrant colors resulting in a life-like viewing experience. The LG OLED TV also features AI Thin IQ which can turn your TV into a smart home hub. Just connect your compatible Amazon Alexa or Google Home devices to the TV and control everything from the LG remote with the command of your voice. LG OLED TV Deals:Shop more Super Bowl 2019 TV deals herehttp://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/software-news/~4/Hhuwmi3kXkQ

We’ve seen plenty of rumors of Microsoft making a foldable Surface product, but this is the first time we’re hearing that the company is reprogramming Windows 10 to support them. A new build of Windows 10 (numbered 18313.1004) coded with references to foldable devices has appeared, according to Buildfeed. Within the build, users can find this specific string: 'rs_shell_devices_foldables.190111-1800.' It seems likely that this new Windows 10 build has been designed to support Microsoft’s long-rumored Andromeda devices, which we’ve heard will include dual-screens and foldable devices. Even without Microsoft’s help, we’ve already seen a range of dual-screen Windows 10 devices including two generations of Lenovo’s Yoga Book, the Asus Project Precog and Intel’s prototype Tiger Rapids. Although Microsoft seems to be nowhere near ready to produce a dual-screen Surface, the market is already ripe for foldable hardware, and it’s about time for Windows 10 to start supporting them. We're also still holding out hope for Google FuchsiaVia The Verge http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/software-news/~4/DIifRgmT35Q

So you want a smartwatch… but you don't want one of those gadgets that looks like a smartphone strapped to your wrist, and which is constantly lighting up and pinging you notifications. You're in luck: a new trend over the past couple of years has seen manufacturers making 'hybrid' smartwatches, which include some tech but look like a traditional watch. These are devices that look like a regular watch you'd pick up in a jewelry store, but which also feature smart tech such as step tracking, sleep monitoring and even notifications from your phone. We've tested lots of the big-name hybrid watches you can buy, and below we've put together a list of our favorite devices, ranked according to the features on offer, price, design, how well they work with your phone and much more. We'll be updating this list as we review more hybrid watches, but for now here are our favorite watches with added tech that you can pick up. Don't want a hybrid? Our best smartwatch guide may be for youLooking for something active? Check out our list of the best fitness trackersHave an iPhone? We have a specific guide for the best smartwatches for iPhonePrefer Wear OS? Check our selection of the best Wear OS smartwatchesThe top hybrid smartwatch we recommend right now is the Misfit Phase, which offers a sleek and stylish design paired with some genuinely useful functionality when it's connected to your phone. Misfit's Phase is thick, but the design looks classic and no one will immediately realize you're wearing a smartwatch when you've got this wrapped around your wrist. The battery life is impressive – it'll last around six months with a single watch battery inside – but the fitness features here are limited, as there's no heart-rate tracker or GPS. Misfit's true highlight here, though, is the price: the Misfit Phase is one of the cheapest hybrids money can buy, so you'll want to get this if you're looking for an affordable watch that can buzz when you've got notifications and look great too. Read our full Misfit Phase review Looking for a small hybrid watch that looks fashionable but can track your heart rate and has a comfortable strap for the odd jog? The Withings Steel HR (sometimes known as the Nokia Steel HR) may be the perfect watch for you, and it sits in second place on our list of the best hybrids. It has a small second dial so you can see your daily step count (your target can be set in the app), and there's a small screen above it to show other stats. If you want to know your heart rate it'll appear on the screen along with your step count and notifications such as incoming calls, messages and events coming up in your calendar. There's a single button on the right of the watch that's sort of disguised as a crown, while the watch is waterproof, so you can wear it in the shower without ruining it. Read our full Withings Steel HR review A year of battery life, notifications and some basic fitness-tracking tech are the highlights of our third-place watch: the Misfit Command. At first you may think this watch looks complicated to use, but it's actually quite easy once you know how it works. The days of the month are displayed on the right of the face outside the time markers, and the days on the week on the left. When you get a notification through to your wrist the watch will vibrate, and the sub-dial will display the notification type – text message, alarm or calendar notification; this dial also displays your daily step count. You can create contacts in the app and assign a number from 1 to 12 to each one, and the clock hands will point to the corresponding number when you get an incoming call. The two buttons on the right-hand side of the case enable you to play and pause music, among other things. The Misfit Command also looks great – we reckon it's one of the most attractive hybrid watches you can buy. Read our full Misfit Command review The Withings Steel HR Sport is very similar to the Nokia Steel and Nokia Steel HR on this list (the company has recently been renamed Withings) and while the design looks similar there are some important differences. It comes with better notifications as well as VO2 Max monitor that will be able to give you an overall fitness score that you can improve over time. The battery is meant to last for around a month, and it has connected GPS and heart rate monitoring that means this is suitable for more fitness activities than a lot of other devices on this list. Read our full Withings Steel HR Sport review The Misfit Path is one of the most simplistic devices on this list, and while it does track some fitness stats this is much more designed to be an elegant timepiece than a flashy smartwatch. We love the long battery life - it should last around six months - and the fact you can customize one of the smart buttons for whatever you want from your phone. The Misfit Path isn't as affordable as some other hybrid smartwatches, but if you're looking for a trim piece of wristwear that'll look good this would be a great choice. Read our full Misfit Path review While this is perhaps the sportiest device on our list, don't be fooled by the fact that it carries the Garmin name. The Vivomove HR isn't going to give you high-end running watch features like the brand's Fenix 5 range. It does, however, offer a heart rate monitor and step tracking, and there are also gym tracking features for when you're doing indoor cardio or recording reps during a weights workout. The Vivomove HR will also work in the pool as it's waterproof, but it's not particularly great at tracking your swimming, so don't buy it specifically for that task. There are stress-monitoring features, which is something you won't get on any other hybrid watch, and we found that these worked well. If you're after a good-looking watch with some hidden fitness features, the Vivomove HR from Garmin may be the perfect device for you. Read our full Garmin Vivomove HR review The Withings Steel is very similar to the Steel HR higher up our list, but there are a few key differences you'll want to know about. First off, it's a touch smaller than the Steel HR, making it a great option if you want a lighter and smaller device on your wrist. It also doesn't have a heart rate tracker, but there are features such as step counting and sleep tracking. There's also no screen on this watch, so you'll be relying on the smaller step count dial and the app to view your stats. The biggest difference between the two Withings (sometimes called Nokia) is the price – the Steel is quite a bit cheaper than the Steel HR, and that may encourage you to go for the smaller and more limited watch. Read our full Withings Steel review One of the most stylish hybrid smartwatches available right now comes from Fossil, and it's called the Q Commuter. Fossil specializes in hybrid watches (although it makes Wear OS watches too), and this is one of the best-looking of the bunch, with a vast array of finish and strap combinations to match your look. The Q Commuter can give you a variety of notifications – although these are sometimes hard to notice as the vibration isn't particularly strong – and there are some limited fitness features here too. One of the real highlights is the battery life, which can run to a year or more. Read the full Fossil Q Commuter review Best smartwatch 2018: the top choices you can buyEveryone knows what a watch is and nowadays most of us can identify a smartwatch too. But what’s a hybrid smartwatch and why are so many brands making them? Put simply, a hybrid smartwatch blends a traditional, mechanical watch design with modern smartwatch technology that can track fitness, send notifications, monitor your heart rate and much more. That’s why it’s called a hybrid, because it sits somewhere between a regular watch and a smartwatch. Although, some are more smart than others. For example, the Garmin Vivomove HR is a hybrid smartwatch with a discreet display, activity tracking sensors and a heart rate monitor packed into a minimal design. In contrast, the Fossil Q Accomplice looks much more like a regular, high-end watch. Although it has some fitness tracking, it’s basic and much more aimed at those who want a vibrating notification sent to their wrist rather than much else. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/HfiKby8NVAorXukJPmzwoY.jpg The Fossil Q Accomplice could be mistaken for a traditional, mechanical watch rather than a hybrid smartwatch. As you can tell, just because a device is a hybrid smartwatch, it doesn’t mean it’s necessarily packed with tech. Some devices have just one or two smartwatch features, whereas others might resemble smartwatches more than their hybrid equivalents. One of the biggest differences between a hybrid smartwatch and a regular smartwatch is in the design. Generally, a hybrid smartwatch doesn’t have a bright touchscreen and looks much more like a regular watch than all-out smartwatches like the Apple Watch 4 or the Fitbit Ionic. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/86REShpfDVf5S7vVDUgPuf.jpg There’s no denying the Apple Watch 3 is a smartwatch through and through. See the difference? The other big difference is battery life. Without a whole host of smart features and a screen that’s throwing out 1,000 nits of brightness whenever it's on, hybrid watches tend to last much longer than their smarter counterparts before they need charging - and some don’t even need charging at all. Some people are bound to miss the bright screen, super modern design and added smarts of a smartwatch. But for many others, the longer battery life, traditional watch face and, more often than not, way more stylish design is very appealing. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/8n6565Pw3QBuRFkV9s2mVP.jpg Meet the Misfit Command, a subtle and stylish wearable with notifications, fitness tracking and a battery that lasts a whole year. Why are hybrid smartwatches good? One of the biggest differences between a smartwatch and a hybrid smartwatch is in their design. Because most resemble traditional watches, they tend to be more stylish and less obviously a piece of tech. This is really appealing to some, especially those who want to try out some smart features but love a traditional watch design and buying their wrist candy from traditional watch manufacturers. For example, Fossil, a brand that’s been creating traditional watches for decades, has been creating a number of smartwatches and hybrids over the past few years. Many people are likely to feel more at home with a Fossil-branded hybrid watch and trust its accuracy and design more than a tech company that’s new to them. The design is appealing to those who like their watches to strictly look like watches, whether that’s because they’re used to that design or feel they better compliment their outfits or lifestyle. There are also plenty of other benefits to a design that resembles a regular watch. For example, most hybrid smartwatches are water resistant, the standard size means you can pick and choose from a huge range of straps and often the designs are more appealing to those with smaller wrists. Next up, the biggest pro of a hybrid smartwatch over a smartwatch is the battery life. Because hybrid smartwatches are packing less tech and don’t have a bright touchscreen, their battery life is way more impressive. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/iryLDnZQKwzm7NUUuFJiiZ.jpg The Fossil Q Commuter is a great-looking watch with subtle smarts For example, the hybrid Misfit Command and Fossil Q Commuter have batteries that should last a year. Whereas another hybrid with HR tracking, like the Garmin Vivomove HR has a battery that will last 4 days with all its smart features on and around 2 weeks with them off. There’s a big difference between how smart the hybrid smartwatches are, and therefore how long their battery is likely to last. But regardless, they still fare better than more standard smartwatches. For example, in our review the Apple Watch 3 had a battery that lasted 2 days without LTE and some fitness tracking, just over 24 hours with LTE and some fitness tracking. The Fitbit Ionic smartwatch lasted about 4 days. That means hybrid smartwatches, on the whole, win in the battery stakes. But it really does depend on how much you’re using your device. For example, using all of the Garmin Vivomove HR’s features and taking it for long runs will see you use a similar amount of battery life to the Fitbit Ionic if you don’t take it for long runs. There’s a difference, but it’s not always big, depending on which watch you go for. Another benefit is that the notifications you receive to a hybrid smartwatch are often subtle. The method differs depending on which watch you go for. For example, some Fossil hybrid smartwatches notify you by moving the hands round to a specific number and other hybrid smartwatches may have another small LCD screen specifically for alerts. This is appealing to those who are happy to be alerted of a notification, but might find a WhatsApp message displayed on their wrist on a smartwatch too intrusive. Essentially, it's for those who want to be alerted, not bombarded. Finally, because hybrid smartwatches aren’t packing as much advanced tech as standard smartwatches, they can be cheaper. Although given some are focused on high-end design, that’s not always the case. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/P7EvbZ7ZMTEcp3yepiiSAU.jpg The Nokia Steel hybrid is an achingly simple hybrid that’s perfect for those who want just a few smart features. What are the negatives of hybrid smartwatches? Put simply, they’re not smartwatches. If you’ve been toying with the idea of investing in a smartwatch because it’s jam-packed full of features and apps, a hybrid smartwatch may fall short for what you need. This is particularly the case if you’ve been after a bright screen, you’re serious about fitness and want best-in-class tracking or you’d like to actually read notifications from your wrist rather than just being alerted with a vibration. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/f6ihYu4Tf37wCqZMQtzPxZ.jpg The Garmin Vivomove HR has solid gym tracking features, despite being a hybrid. Of course design plays a big part too. Many hybrid smartwatch fans boast about how they’re better designed and resemble traditional, mechanical smartwatches. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll appeal to everyone. The Apple Watch 3’s super modern, minimal design has already had mainstream appeal. And for those who don’t like the fact it’s rectangular can opt for a whole host of other circular smartwatches, such as the Ticwatch E and the Misfit Vapor. It really all comes down to a matter of taste and what matters to you. Ready to buy? Check out our guide to the best hybrid smartwatcheshttp://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/software-news/~4/ZxutHhkBrOQ

So what is the Epic Games Store? It's early days for Epic's video game marketplace, which launched December 2018, seemingly out of nowhere. While Epic Games has a long and illustrious history in making games, especially shooters – Unreal Tournament, and the free-to-play Fortnite, to name just two – the Epic Games online store is the result of several recent developments. Epic Games to take on Steam with its own digital storeFortnite has proved a huge money-spinner for the company, as a massive online game that's technically free-to-play but comes with numerous cosmetic items and skins you can pay to upgrade your character with – and has become a global phenomenon off the back of it. Epic had to build up a huge infrastructure for managing those transactions, which placed it in good stead for opening its own store for PC and Mac titles. But why open its own video game marketplace? Can't you get everything on the Steam Store anyway? Read on below for everything you need to know about the Epic Games Store. [update: Tom Clancy's The Division 2 isn't coming to Steam, instead opting for the Epic Games Store.] http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/NXJGeXnexKehbCeupH5uaD.jpg Epic Game's Fortnite has been a global hit What is the Epic Games Store?The Epic Games Store is a marketplace for video games you can play on your PC and Mac. They have a website where you can browse and download individual games – some of them exclusive to the store – though for the dedicated application you'll be downloading an install file from the Epic Games Store website. It's free to make an Epic account, which you can link with a PlayStation, Microsoft, Facebook, Google, or even Nintendo account for your login details – though if you play something like Fortnite you'll have an Epic account already. The service currently has a "hand-curated" selection of titles for PC and Mac, with plans to expand to "Android and other platforms throughout 2019" – so you could well be buying some mobile games here rather than the Apple App Store or Google Play. Why set up the Epic Games Store in the first place?Running out of steam The elephant in the room here is Steam: the massive PC game marketplace launched by Valve in 2003. The Steam Store has grown to immense proportions, with tens of thousands of titles available and a vice-grip monopoly on where most PC gamers today buy their games. Not that everyone is happy with Steam, though. The platform is bloated, and Steam has little incentive to clean things up as long as the money is coming in. Its decision to allow 'controversial' content to be published on its platform, as long as it was technically legal, has also brought a string of bad publicity. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/RoCLe4UksegJaFtuYn6boR.jpg Valve's multiplayer shooter Team Fortress 2 Valve to allow 'controversial' content on its Steam StoreThere's been outcry from smaller-size developers over how Steam's algorithms prioritize big-name AAA titles like Fallout 4 and Far Cry 5, making it difficult for indie titles to be discovered if they don't already have a large marketing budget. Not to mention the 30% cut Steam takes on everything published on its platform, which, although an industry standard, seems harder and harder to justify for devs whose games simply aren't being seen. Real community Epic's game store is turning heads specifically for its 'developer-first' focus. Here devs will only pay a 12% cut to Epic, while games built in Epic's Unreal engine will see the usual 5% surcharge waived. "As developers ourselves, we wanted two things: a store with fair economics, and a direct relationship with players," Epic said in a blog post. Devs will control their own game pages, with no external advertisements taking attention away from their titles. They'll also be able to reach players who have purchased their games, with "game updates and news" sent directly through the Epic Games Store newsfeed, or via email. The Epic Games Store also links up to Epic's 'Support-A-Creator' program, which allows you to send a slice of the game's revenue to YouTube or Twitch streamers who first got you interested in the game. It's a community-focused approach, and one that could chime with many players and developers tired of fighting Steam's algorithms for the service they want. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/PUKH9DkZ3LEhwb3KMv5tHY.jpg Hades (Early Access) What free / exclusive games are on the Epic Games Store?A growing pile of exclusive games Part of what's turning heads is the beginnings of Epic Game Store's platform exclusives. Supergiant Games – the devs behind Bastion and Transistor – have released an Early Access version of its upcoming title Hades exclusively to Epic Games Store. The store will also be the only way to play the PC version of Journey, which was previously only available to play on PlayStation consoles. In addition, Tom Clancy's The Division 2 will not be released on Steam, as publisher Ubisoft has opted to make the PC version of the title a semi-exclusive release on the Epic Games Store. According to a report by Polygon, Ubisoft and Epic Games are teaming up to bring select future Ubisoft PC titles to the Epic Games Store Other titles on the Epic Game Store include Epic's Unreal Tournament, Shadow Complex, Fortnite, and Ashen – with the likes of Subnautica, Maneater, Super Meat Boy Forever, and Darksiders III set to land in the coming months. While some of these are still available on Steam, the App Store, and the like – and there are really aren't many titles here yet – we could well see Epic-branded properties like Fortnite use its pulling power to draw players to the store. Epic has already pulled its popular series of Infinity Blade mobile games from the Apple App Store – while there don't seem to be plans to re-release them, it might be that they find an eventual home or possible reboot on Epic's own platform, if only on Android or PC. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/4Rn9GKh3fR8Y8jMUHnAPyW.jpg Journey (2012) Free games every two weeks While players can sign up to use the store for free, you'll also get free games bundled in every two weeks, in the vein of PlayStation Plus or Xbox's Games with Gold. Underwater exploration sim Subnautica is free December 14-27, while the hard-as-nails cartoon platformer Super Meat Boy is free from December 28 to January 10. The free-to-play Fortnite alone is sure to draw players in, while the steady release of free titles – and good ones, so far – won't hurt either. Whether Epic can take on a behemoth like Steam is uncertain, but it already looks to be carving out a space in digital distribution that many of us have been waiting for. How to download and play Fortnite on mobileBest PC games 2018: the must-play titles you don't want to misshttp://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/software-news/~4/KzP3Ue_wejk

Smartwatches have developed into great gadget companions for your wrist. Despite their compact size, today's smartwatches couple date and time displays with various notifications, fitness uses and additional apps – so it's no wonder some might think you can't get a good smartwatch without spending lots on it. That's not entirely true though. The affordable end of the market when it comes to smartwatches is limited, there's no denying that, but there are also solid budget options out there that won't disappoint you. We've put together this guide on the best affordable smartwatches right now – just the good cheap buys, mind you – so unlike our best smartwatch guide this isn't as fit to burst with the latest and greatest products. Instead this is more of a selection of our favorite products we've tested from across the spectrum, but the aim here is to only recommend products that cost under $150 / £150. Prices may vary over time, so you may see some of the prices in this list edge just above that. None of the devices on this list should hit extortionate levels though as they're all more affordable choices anyway. Scroll down below for our selection of the best affordable devices you can strap to your wrist. Looking for a bargain? Here's our guide to the best smartwatch dealsDon't want a smartwatch after all? The best cheap fitness trackersOr perhaps you specifically want to run? The best cheap running watchesThis isn't the cheapest device on the list, but it's one of our absolute favorites. Sporting Wear OS software that's compatible with both iOS and Android devices, this full blown smartwatch offers access to all of the Wear OS apps the Google Play Store has to offer. There's GPS as well as a heart rate sensor so it's suitable as a basic fitness device, but it's also suitable to wear day-to-day with a solid design that suits most occasions. Don't expect this to be the fastest, most powerful or have the longest battery life on a smartwatch. That said, it does everything quite well for an affordable price, making it our number one pick for best cheap smartwatch. Read our full TicWatch E review What's next? Mobvoi just announced the TicWatch E2 that can go in the pool and it's not much more expensive than the TicWatch E. It may feature in this round-up once our full review is published. OK, this isn't the most inventive smartwatch you're going to find to buy in 2018, but it is one of the cheapest. In fact, it may even be the most affordable watch that is actually worth buying. It looks quite like an Apple Watch, but this device is a whopping six times cheaper than a top-end Apple Watch Series 4 when bought brand new. It doesn't do anywhere near as much as the Apple Watch, but it does sport some incredible battery life at 45 days and lots of features for cyclists and runners including a heart rate sensor. Read our full Amazfit Bip review The Garmin Forerunner 30 is the first dedicated fitness watch you'll find on this list, and this is mostly built for runners. It's a device you'll want to wear if you're big into your jogging, but it does have some features suitable for cyclists too. It has GPS onboard, a heart rate monitor - that we found to be accurate in our testing - and a few other features that make is stand out as one of the most affordable running watches. It has a VO2 Max monitor, which allows you to record your fitness level over time. That's something that is usually reserved for top-end devices, and this is one of the cheapest devices to feature that. There's no touchscreen here to interact with the watch, but it does have a fantastic app that you'll be using to control it. Read the full Garmin Forerunner 30 review The Polar M200 is one of the most affordable running watches money can buy and you'll find it includes almost all of the fitness features you'll want from a smartwatch. We found the GPS could be a little slow at times, and the design isn't as premium as some of the other devices we've seen from Polar, but apart this is a solid running watch with great battery life. This won't offer notifications and apps like some of the other devices on this list, but if fitness is the main aim for you the Polar M200 is an affordable choice that offers a variety of top features. Read the full Polar M200 review OK, this one isn't strictly a smartwatch. Again, like some of the watches above this, it won't offer a full blown smartwatch experience and tries to be much more of a fitness tracker with a smartwatch look. We decided to include it here though as the price has dropped in recent years, and it's in the right price bracket. We prefer the Fitbit Versa, but it's still a touch too expensive for us to refer to it as 'cheap'. The Fitbit Blaze may not be the best looking device, but it comes with a heart rate tracker and all the benefits of the Fitbit ecosystem. Just note this won't run the same Fitbit apps you've seen on your friend's Fitbit Versa or Fitbit Ionic. This is a much more parred down experience, but it may suit you if you're looking for a device that looks like a watch and offers notifications as well as some health tracking options too. Read the full Fitbit Blaze review Ready to spend a little more? Here's our guide to the best smartwatcheshttp://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/software-news/~4/i6lCIAGYcLg

Nvidia’s chief executive officer, Jensen Huang, has been in a chatty mood of late thanks to CES, recently firing flak at rival AMD’s freshly unveiled GPU, and now he’s been talking about the GeForce Now streaming service, and how it can never fully replace a dedicated gaming PC. This is perhaps a bit more surprising, but then Huang really does have to be realistic about exactly what a game streaming service can offer. As you might be aware, GeForce Now is currently up and running, albeit still in testing as a free beta. And Huang says it’s going great guns. In fact, in response to a query about how well the service is doing in a press Q&A session at CES, as reported by VentureBeat, Huang noted: “It’s fantastic. We have hundreds of thousands of concurrent users.” But he further clarified that with the statement: “If your question is, ‘How long before streaming can be as good as a PC?’ the answer is never.” And of course he’s right: streaming can never be quite as good as a local experience – playing the game right there on your PC – because there will always be a little lag introduced. Huang observed: “The reason for that is because there’s one problem we haven’t figured out how to solve, and that’s the speed of light. When you’re playing esports, you need the response in a few milliseconds, not a few hundred milliseconds. It’s a fundamental problem. It’s just the laws of physics.” So while GeForce Now is currently aiming to be able to stream games to an average (non-gaming) laptop allowing players to benefit from frame rates of 60 fps (or better, depending on the exact game) in Full HD resolution with a lag of something like 16ms – as we saw recently – that won’t be enough for professionals. Something in the order of 16ms is great for your average gamer – and probably not even a noticeable amount of lag to them – but to an esports pro, the difference between that amount of delay and near-zero latency is the difference between life and death. And of course, as we noted when we tried out GeForce Now a few months back – being very impressed with its performance – you won’t always have an ideal internet connection, and things could obviously get very laggy if that’s the case. PC is at the coreNvidia’s CEO underlined the importance of the PC, stating that: “Our strategy is this: we believe PC gaming is here to stay. We believe everyone will at least need a PC, because apparently knowledge is still important. “You can’t do everything on TV. You can’t live with TV online. But you could live with a PC alone. PCs are used by young people all over the world. It’s their first computing device, or maybe second after a mobile device. Between those two devices, those are the essential computing platforms for society. We believe that’s here to stay.” Huang further observed: “Our core starts with PC. That’s our center point. That’s why GeForce Now plays PC games.” In other words, the PC is the linchpin that the streaming service is built around, and GeForce Now gives gamers the added ability to carry on with whatever they’re playing when they are out and about using a mobile device. Nvidia’s broad message, then, seems to be that in a world of ultra-fast internet and 5G mobile connectivity, the PC will still be a vital piece – indeed the central piece – of the computing puzzle. These are the best graphics cards you can buy in 2019Via Wccftech http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/software-news/~4/XjcraThp2bI

The days when you had to buy a dedicated gaming rig and spend a load of cash for a quality gaming experience are long gone. Thanks to the iPhone (and iPod touch) and the App Store, you can get an excellent mobile gaming experience for just a few bucks (or quid, for that matter), or even less. In fact, a lot of the games out there are free. But can you get great games for nothing at all, or is the 'free' section of the App Store just a shoddy excuse to bombard you with in-app purchases? The answer is, of course, both. The trick is finding the gems amongst the dross, and what follows are our picks of the bunch: our top free iPhone games, presented in no particular order, including both long-time classics and brilliant cutting-edge recent releases. We've even included a VR game for you... aren't you lucky? New this week: Rowdy Wrestlinghttp://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/h3P3MhpLys9FGkKohUPN5U.jpg Rowdy Wrestling is a sports game that doesn’t take itself remotely seriously – and that says a lot, given the spectacle it’s simulating. But all the weirdness of pro wrestling has nothing on this game, which features ludicrously bouncy physics and fighters whose arms whirl around in an entertainingly cartoonish manner. There’s the feeling throughout that you’re only just in control, whether trying to dropkick an opponent in the face, or unceremoniously hurl them out of the ring. But when Rowdy Wrestling clicks, it grabs hold for good. Just as well, then, that you get a range of modes – Tag Team; a solo career; and the ‘last man standing’ Rumble – along with multiple fighters to unlock. Want to learn more about the latest iPhone? Check out our overview of the iPhone X below! Friday the 13th: Killer Puzzle is more or less classic sliding puzzler Sokoban infused with South Park-style humor, and dressed in the garb of a famous horror series. As horror icon Jason Voorhees, you slide around each tiny scene to capture campers, cops, inmates, and more besides. On grabbing them, you’re greeted to a splattering of cartoon gore, while the levitating decapitated undead head of your mother offers sagely advice. This could so easily have been a gimmicky release, but Friday the 13th: Killer Puzzle gets everything right. The puzzles are smartly designed, forcing you to find labyrinthine paths to targets; there’s a sense of progression as you unlock new worlds; and the dark sense of humor at the heart of the game gives it a real sense of character. Super Fowlst is an arcade game featuring a flappy chicken out to stop angry red demons from taking over the world. This heroic fowl can flap left or right at the command of one of your thumbs, briefly flying in an arc – or plummeting to the ground when you don’t prod the screen again. The aim throughout is to biff enemies (while avoiding the projectiles they spew), grab bling, and make for the exit. As you travel through the procedurally generated levels, you’ll discover secrets, weird bits of landscape, and ferocious bosses looking to turn you into a roast dinner. Fortunately, coins you collect can be traded for upgrades, including the ability to fire rockets from your behind. Clucking great? You betcha. Slydris 2 whiffs a bit of Tetris. It has similar shapes that drop into a well, the aim being to form solid lines that vanish. Breach the top of the well and your game ends. Simple. Only Slydris 2 then performs a handbrake turn and gleefully speeds off in an entirely different direction. For a start, it’s turn-based. Also, several shapes drop into the well each turn, and you can only move one (whether it’s ‘hanging’ or already in the well). This subverts the classic formula, transforming it into a smart, unique game of strategy. Everything you thought you know goes out the window as you figure out how to shatter pieces, make use of power-ups and survive long enough to get a high score. Top stuff, then, and just as compelling as the game that inspired it. PAKO Forever seemingly takes place in a world where law-enforcement really doesn’t want you mucking about in what appears to be the world’s largest parking lot. The second you move, police cars are on you like a shot, and if one smashes into you, that’s your lot. Pretty quickly, you figure out that you need to drift and snake about to survive – and then you start seeing gigantic gift boxes bouncing along. Snag one of those and your car temporarily balloons to giant size, or acquires a handy ball and chain to smash the cops. Visually, the game’s quite crude, and the staccato nature of missions can pall, but for a quick blast of breezy endless driving larks, it’s a decent install. Candies ’n Curses is a single-screen platform game, featuring a protagonist who’s taken on the role of solo ghostbuster in a very haunted house. As you swipe, she zips back and forth, and jumps from platform to platform, zapping spooky critters with her weapons. On obliterating the requisite number of scary creatures, she gets to fight a boss, before moving on to the next room. There are only six in all, but you’ll be hard-pressed to see more than a couple in your initial goes, because Candies ’n Curses has a ‘take no prisoners’ attitude to difficulty. But grind a bit, grab some upgrades, and you’ll find your more equipped heroine can make a bigger dent in the undead’s population. Just remember that “I ain’t afraid of no ghosts” isn’t a smart catchphrase here – if in doubt, run! Pivotol is an endless puzzle game akin to Tetris and Columns, in that you drop shapes into a well and then eradicate them to create space for more shapes. In this case, you work with neon squares, which explode when six or more connect. Connections are made by pivoting four blocks about a central point, spinning them until you find the optimum position. Since the game gradually ramps up how many blocks are dropped at any given moment, you must create combos, and cunningly use special blocks that blow up anything nearby. Fortunately, Pivotol gives you time to think, because it’s turn-based rather than having pieces continually fall. That said, it will still keep you on edge, especially when the well starts to fill, and you can’t see an obvious path to clearing it. Bacon reasons you should put bacon on everything, to make it taste better. You start by dropping a slice on to a sizzling pan. Another tap and it’s flipped on to a cheeseburger for an instant food hack. Next up: pancakes. Everyone knows pancakes taste better with bacon. Next up, it’s, um, a piña colada, and then a map of the United States of America. You’re invited to create ‘Napoleon Baconaparte’, add bacon to the MSCI World Index, and make an iOS alert extra tasty by draping bacon on top of it. Not the most sensible of games, then, but Bacon’s a great way to infuse tasty fun into the odd spare moment. The bacon physics is great, the objects you’re faced with are imaginative, and some of the levels are surprisingly challenging. Train Party is an arcade-oriented puzzle game designed for multiple people to play together. Between two and 12 people on the same Wi-Fi network do their best to keep the train on time, largely by laying down tracks in front of it. In order to avoid disastrous derailment, you must also figure out how to deal with roaming wildlife and a renegade track bomber. There are two ways to play: collaboratively and competitively. In the former case, the train always heads to the player with the most complete track, so you can keep going for as long as possible. In competition mode, though, the train goes around devices in order, and the winner is the last person not to turn the 9:45 to Washington Union Station into a crumpled heap of twisted metal. Super Cat Tales 2 is a platform game that works brilliantly on your iPhone. That in itself is rare, but also this isn’t a stripped-back one-thumb leapy game. Instead, it’s a full-fledged 2D platforming experience reworked for the touchscreen. The game features a group of cats, determined to save their world from a robot invasion. They sprint, jump, grab coins, and occasionally hop into tanks to eradicate the metal aggressors. It’s a visual treat – all vibrant colors and chunky pixels. The controls are fab too – a two-thumb system that’s ideal for touchscreens, flexible enough to allow for a range of actions, and that transforms challenges into feats of choreography. In short, this is one of the very best platform games on mobile, and it would be an insult to the creator to not give it a try. Golfing Around transports you to a simpler age of golf video games. You don’t get lush 3D visuals, enough club choices to give a pro caddie a nervous breakdown, or inch-perfect takes on real-life courses. Instead, you have basic controls, minimal top-down visuals, and a handful of holes dreamed up by the developer. On iPhone, though, this works really well. The visuals provide clarity, and the straightforward controls afford Golfing Around immediacy. There’s some nuance too – push the power meter into the red and your aim wobbles about, your dream of extra distance at risk from potentially smacking the ball in the wrong direction. All this ensures Golfing Around makes the cut, but it’s boosted up the leaderboard by a construction kit. Making and sharing your own courses is a cinch. Probably don’t spell out “I prefer soccer actually” using water traps, mind. Bendy in Nightmare Run dumps you in a world of seriously messed up cartoons. Crackly audio and glitchy black-and-white visuals recall 1920s animation, but with content apparently ferried in from a nightmare dimension. Each level has your hero run towards the screen, fleeing a pursuing horror and its legions of tiny – yet equally ferocious – minions. You swipe between three lanes and lob collected weapons behind you with a tap. Do this enough times and your aggressor finally gets the hint and slinks off. In gameplay terms, there’s little here you’ve not seen before – Bendy is more or less Temple Run flipped 180 degrees – but the presentation alone makes the game worth an install. Just be aware this nightmare run has a difficulty level that, if not nightmarish, is at least very challenging. A Way to Slay is a game of epic sword fights reimagined as time-attack turn-based puzzling. You begin each round surrounded by enemies eager to separate your head from your shoulders. A quick double-tap on any of them and you strike with a killing blow – but then your opponents get their chance to move, and if you’re too near one of them, your innards end up sprayed across the sparse landscape. Assuming you don’t mind quite a lot of ‘red’ as you go about solving its challenges, A Way to Slay proves itself to be a novel take on turn-based puzzling. And even though your view’s more limited on an iPhone than an iPad, you can use gestures to pan and zoom the screen like you’re directing your very own stabby Hollywood epic. Alphabear 2 introduces you to a world where bears have made a major blunder with a time machine, and need you to fix things by… spelling words. Even the in-game protagonists don’t seem convinced by that setup, but it’s a fun hook on which to hang the sequel to one of the iPhone’s best word games. As in the original Alphabear, you make words from Scrabble tiles on a grid. When tiles are used, bears expand into the gaps. Tiles also have countdown timers, and turn to stone if you don’t use them in time, thwarting your ability to make full-screen bears. There’s a lot going on, including several modes, oddball ‘bear speech’ victory screens, a smattering of (horrors!) education, and a mildly baffling bear collection meta-game. In all, though, it’s furry much worth a download. Asphalt 9: Legends is a madcap, streamlined racer. Much like Super Mario Run has the plumber ‘auto-run’, leaving you to time jumps, Legends corners and steers while you focus on timing. You must perform show-off drifts, jumps, and control frequent blasts of nitro. The notion of a driving game stripped of steering might seem odd, but it works. Races are exhilarating and the courses become puzzle-like as you figure out where and when to perform the correct actions. If letting the game do the work is not your cup of tea, there is also a manual option which puts you back in control. As with all Asphalt games, you spend an unfeasibly long time hurtling through the air; car pinwheeling in a manner that would make even the most maverick stunt-person’s eyes widen. For a visually dazzling, entirely over the top slice of mobile-focused arcade racing, Asphalt 9: Legends is hard to beat. Soosiz is a side-on classic platformer – of a sort. Most such games echo Super Mario Bros, having you sprint from left to right, jumping on enemy heads, grabbing bling, and hot-footing it to an exit. Soosiz takes that basic framework, but has you explore tiny chunks of land floating in space, each of which has its own gravitational pull. As you run, the screen flips and lurches; your brain flips, too, as you try to figure out which way is up, locate a bunch of tiny critters who’ve got themselves lost, and not accidentally careen into the void due to a misdirected jump. But once everything clicks, what amounts to a 2D take on Super Mario Galaxy proves to be a smart, engaging mobile platformer, putting a new spin on the genre. Sneak Ops is a stealth game that wants you to “get to the chopper”. The snag: between you and your airborne escape route are rooms packed with enemy soldiers, traps, and – occasionally – inconveniently unbreathable air. Also, you’re unarmed. Thanks, budget cutbacks! You must therefore sneak about, avoid detection and unsportingly wallop enemies over the head whenever you get the chance. Along the way, you grab floppy disks, which for some reason are used to buy restart points. Perhaps evil dudes are all retro gamers at heart. It’s tense, pacy stuff, with some fab visuals. Even better: there’s a new mission every day – and everyone gets the same one, thereby pitting you against many thousands of other wannabe strategic operators. Wordgraphy looks like a stripped-back crossword puzzle with letters crammed into a grid, but the letters are muddled up and you can’t just drag them wherever you fancy. Tap any letter and you’ll be presented with a small set of possible destinations. The aim is to ensure you create complete words. It’s often easy enough to make one or two, but then you’ll be left with the likes of CCRZK along one axis, and a realization that perhaps your other words aren’t the right ones. A smart, interesting piece of logic word puzzling, then, and a game that’s suitably different from its contemporaries when you’re getting bored with more conventional fare. Kind of Soccer will be catharsis in gaming form for anyone who ever felt their soccer team was wronged by an official. That’s because although this game has a pitch and a ball, points are scored by belting the ball directly at the referee’s head. The controls are a straightforward slingshot – just drag an arrow indicator and let rip. At first, your only danger is bad aim – kick the ball out of bounds and a point is awarded against your team – but in later rounds, defenders attempt to save the ref from a beating. Fortunately, you can continue your unsporting rage by using bonuses that pop-up, including laser sights, and one option that entertainingly turns every opposition player into a tree. Fortnite is a massively multiplayer online ‘battle royale’. You’re dropped into a playfield with 100 other players, each aiming to be the last standing. To achieve that goal, you must explore your surroundings, find a dangerous weapon, and use it to do some serious violence. This in itself isn’t unique – even on mobile. But Fortnite differentiates itself in key ways. It has a sense of humor – and a sense of style that isn’t dull military fare. Also, rather than just shooting things, Fortnite encouragers you to build, creating strategic defensive barriers. The relatively complex controls are, naturally, a problem on iPhone, and can frustrate in the heat of a battle. For the most part, though, this is impressive and ambitious multiplayer gaming that makes your iPhone feel like a console. Look, Your Loot! takes the basics of free-roaming RPGs and shoves them into a grid-based interface not dissimilar from puzzlers like Threes! The rodent protagonist – a heavily armed mouse – moves about the grid as you swipe, his energy being depleted during battles or replenished on grabbing elixirs and shields. Whenever you enter a new tile, something new appears from the opposite side of the grid. The key to survival – and a high-score – is carefully planning your route, ensuring you don’t end up trapped between a number of powerful and angry adversaries. It’s the sort of RPG-lite that’s perfect to quickly fire up during a few minutes of downtime; but multiple level layouts and surprising depth in the mechanics also make Look, Your Loot! a rewarding game to master over the longer term. DROLF is mini golf combined with scribbling and a smattering of route-finding. Courses start in bare-bones, incomplete fashion. You see a ball, a hole, and perhaps a few walls. You then draw on the screen to add new barriers, before dragging a line to smack the ball on its way. This isn’t a game that cares a jot for realism. The ball has endless momentum and merrily bounces around enclosed spaces like a trapped fly before – with luck – finding the hole, or exiting the screen. But DROLF wants to be played, and so the only limitations are your pot of scribbling ink (for which you get unlimited undos) and your cunning planning powers when battling later stages packed full of magnets, fans and moving walls. As a tactile touchscreen reimagining of a fun pastime, it’s more hole-in-one than out of bounds. Pocket Run Pool reimagines pool for the solo player. It gives you a table from above, with the twist that each of the pockets has a multiplier on it. Your score comprises the number on the ball multiplied by the number on the pocket, and you lose one of your three lives every time you miss a shot or pocket the white. Aficionados of videogame pool may grumble at this game’s basic nature. The visuals are 2D and minimal, and there’s some major hand-holding regarding aiming. But any such complaints miss the point. Pocket Run Pool isn’t about slavish realism, but taking a fresh look at pool, and fashioning a modern, quick solo game around scoring and taking risks, rather than getting soundly beaten again and again by a computer opponent on a 3D table. Letterpress is a mix of Boggle and Risk. Two players (you and an online or computer opponent) face a five-by-five grid of letters and take turns tapping out words. But the key isn’t to show off your vocabulary; instead, you must strategize to secure territory. Captured letters turn your color, but those surrounded by your tiles become a darker shade and cannot be flipped by your opponent during their turn. With careful play, you gradually chip away at the board; to win, you must secure every tile. It’s a simple premise, but one that makes for surprisingly exciting battles. Games can turn on a smart play you didn’t see coming; many become like a tug of war, with you and an opponent trading blows. The claustrophobic board further adds to the intensity, and makes a nice change from countless Scrabble clones. Shadowgun Legends is a first-person shooter with swagger, which depicts you as a show-off gun for hire, partaking in a probably prescient mix of wiping out evil aliens and reality TV. After arriving in the game’s hub, you immediately find yourself on missions, which mostly involve following fairly linear pathways, violently shooting everything that moves – and some things that don’t. Control mostly happens by way of two thumbs (movement and gaze), with the odd trip to special power-up buttons. For anyone deep into the world of console shooters, Shadowgun Legends may feel stripped back and reductive, but you’d have to be a misery to not have fun blasting away, gradually working your way through dozens of missions. Just remember when your worryingly eager fans build a statue of your wonderful self to worship, they’ll ditch you the second their next hero comes along. Colorblind begins with a twist on a gaming cliche – the hero’s girl is kidnapped, but she happens to be an eyeball. So is the hero, Right Eye, who suddenly finds his world bereft of color. Naturally, the hero sets out to rescue his love, and defeat the nefarious cloud pirates. But all is not as it seems in this world of monochrome platforms and hazards. Grab an easel and specific items spring vividly to life – coins, monsters, traps and platforms. You must make best use of the color (and waterfalls to wash it off) to work your way through the three unique worlds. Don’t be fooled by the cutesy visuals and sweet-natured music, though – Colorblind also has an eye for old-school platforming classics. This means you’ll need tight reflexes and precision to succeed. Orbia is a one-thumb action game where you dash between targets, avoiding orbiting monsters. The path onwards is always pre-set, so this game is all about timing – waiting for the exact moment to sneak through a gap rather than ending up getting horribly killed. It might not be particularly innovative, but although you’ve probably seen a game like this before, Orbia is worth downloading. It looks pretty great, with a nicely cartoonish vibe. The levels and approaches are nicely varied, as is the pace, which veers between Matrix-style slo-mo and like someone’s slammed down a fast-forward button. With hundreds of levels and a slew of skins to collect (each of which offers unique abilities), Orbia should keep you dashing for some time. Golf Up is an endless golfing game. However, as its name might suggest, this isn’t about forever belting a ball across a horizontal landscape - the holes here head towards the heavens. Everything about Golf Up is pretty basic. The visuals are clean, and the audio sparse. The controls are straightforward, too: drag a finger to set direction and power. A little aiming arc even helps predict where the ball will go. A simple game, then, but Golf Up quickly proves itself to be a relaxing, meditative arcade experience, with a hint of strategy and risk. There’s no timer and no rush, but you always know you’re only one shot from your ball falling into the abyss, ending your latest attempt at a new high score. Retro Highway marries the accessibility of modern mobile titles with the high-skill challenge and aesthetics of old-school racers. Visually, it comes across like Hang On and Enduro Racer (or, if you’re not old enough to recognize those titles, those weird games your dad used to play). But in gameplay terms, we’re very much in endless survival territory. As you zoom along, you collect coins and jump high into the air using ramped trucks, gradually unlocking better bikes and new places where you can ride them. It’s not a very deep experience, but Retro Highway is fun to dip into when you fancy an exhilarating blast of weaving between lorries at breakneck speed, regularly leaping from ramps, and only occasionally splattering your hapless rider against an overpass. Up a Cave is a platform game that seemingly plays out in a world of ice. As you leap about, collecting gems and stars, you quickly realize the square protagonist slides all over the place. And that’s a problem, given that the titular caves are strewn with square-killing spikes and other horrors. This game cleverly mixes precision and speed. One minute, you’re carefully picking your way up a wall; the next, you’re zooming along like a blocky Sonic. The tension is sometimes further ramped up when you’re pursued by a mean-looking eyeball covered in spikes. The one snag is a fairly obnoxious lives system (wait 30 minutes for five, or watch an ad) that lacks an IAP buy-out. Still, the quality of this freebie is such that you’ll put up with the inconvenience, to get another crack at the latest tricky cave. Will Hero is a superb one-thumb arcade game that features a blocky hero dashing through a world of levitating islands, being all heroic and duffing up enemies. His foes are mostly bouncing cubes, and you must carefully time dashes to pass beneath them, or engineer collisions to knock them into the abyss. Crack open a chest you find on your travels, and you’ll get weapons that transform dashes into violent attacks. Add in the game’s collectible helms (from unlocking loot crate chests), and you’ll end up with many potential weapons to choose from, including missiles and colossal swords. Will Hero is fast-paced, inventive, and a lot of fun. It has a unique feel, and pleasingly bucks convention when you rescue a princess. When you do so, she tags along on subsequent adventures, gleefully hacking away at the enemies who once imprisoned her. A Hollow Doorway finds a rectangular doorway spinning into the void. Its survival depends on your thumb – dragging left and right to align the doorway with an endless number of rapidly approaching concentric walls. Imagine Super Hexagon, if the game was instead called Super Rectangle, and only required one of your thumbs for controlling things, rather than two. Initially, the overt simplicity makes A Hollow Doorway seem throwaway, and surprisingly basic from the brains behind superb platformer Circa Infinity and the insanely tricky Yankai’s puzzlers. But there’s nuance here. Each of the game’s nine zones has its own character, often melding with the excellent audio. And for the long-term, these zones have a theoretically infinite range of difficulty modes – enough to push even the twitchiest of dexterous thumbs to its absolute limits. Cobalt Dungeon finds an explorer roaming dungeons, battling monsters, going on quests, and occasionally getting a bit shoppy. The action’s turn-based, and success often depends on engaging your chess brain to think several moves ahead. When you’re surrounded by enemies, you must figure out in which order to dispatch them. This infusion of puzzling isn’t uncommon in top-down games of this kind, but it plays out really nicely in Cobalt Dungeon. When you’re surrounded by roaming floating eyeballs, you might initially panic. But then you’ll spot a narrow path to coax them down, to off them one by one, or figure out how to exploit their sluggish movement patterns. With procedurally generated dungeons and in-game upgrade stores, every game is different. But more importantly, Cobalt Dungeon’s clever design means that every game is fun. Flipflop Solitaire reasons that a card game you play on an iPhone should be designed for its screen and mobile play rather than a table. To that end, it takes spider solitaire as a basic framework, then messes around with the formula. You’re still working with stacks of cards, aiming to sort them back into suits. However, in this game you have only five columns to work with and the height of your iPhone’s display provides a vertical limit. Flipflop Solitaire shakes things up more by letting you stack cards in increasing or decreasing value. This single change proves transformative, turning every deal into a solvable puzzle, and games with a single suit into frantic, entertaining speed-runs. Disc Drivin’ 2 is a turn-based racing game. That might make no sense on paper, but it translates well to the screen, effectively mashing up shuffleboard with high-tech levitating tracks full of speed-up mats, gaps, and traps. You can play alone, tackling a daily challenge or partaking in speed-runs. The latter option is ideal for getting to know the tracks – essential when battling other players online. You then swap moves – bite-sized chunks of gameplay where you inch your disc around the circuit, in races that can last for days. There are freemium shenanigans going on, mostly for cards that unlock new disc powers, and the fixed camera can be frustrating – although if you’re facing the wrong way, you should probably resolve to learn that track’s layout a bit better. Those minor niggles aside, this is a compelling, entertaining racer that rewards extended play. Slime Pizza is a platform game, with running and jumping replaced by catapulting the protagonist around like one of the characters from Angry Birds. The hero here (a delivery drone for Slime Pizza) is a gloopy blob that sticks to ceilings and walls, and his world is one of lethal traps, gigantic spiders, and annoyingly efficient guard dogs. Your aim is to grab scattered pizzas and make your way ever further into a game continually finding inventive ways to kill you. With its unconventional controls and restart points that only appear every half-dozen or so screens, Slime Pizza can frustrate when you hit a tricky bit and repeatedly have to fight your way back for another go. On the whole, though, it’s a novel mobile platformer with enough charm and smarts to make you stick around. The Battle of Polytopia is more or less a classic version of Civilization played in fast-forward. You start off with a single city, surrounded by the unknown. You then explore, research technologies, and give anyone who gets in your way a serious kicking. Unlike the sprawling Civilization games, Polytopia is focused and sleek. The technology tree stops before guns arrive, the standard game mode limits you to 30 moves, and new cities cannot be founded – only conquered. For the more bloodthirsty, there’s a domination mode, where you aim to be the last tribe standing. The maximum map size expands and online asynchronous multiplayer opens up if you pay for more tribes. However you play, this is a furiously addictive, brilliantly realized slice of mobile strategy. Six Match is a match-three game with a twist. Rather than arbitrarily swapping gems, you control a character with the oddly literal moniker Mr Swap-With-Coins, and as the game’s name suggests, he has just six moves after every successful match to make another. The game wrong-foots you from the start. Any muscle memory you have from the likes of Bejeweled evaporates as you figure out the most efficient way to make the next match. The result is a game heavy on puzzling and light on speed. Just when you think you’ve got it worked out, Six Match throws new mechanics into the mix: diamonds you clear by dropping them out of the well, deadly skulls and cages that push entire lines of coins. The layered strategy should keep you matching for the long term, as you figure out new ways to crack your high score. ARcade Plane – with emphasis in the ‘AR’ – combines the complex and the simple, providing you with an augmented reality gaming experience controlled by a single digit. The game projects a tiny city on to a nearby surface, above which a plane circles. It’s low on fuel and – for reasons unknown – must grab a set number of stars before it lands. The tiny snag: the city is rather suspiciously surrounded by extremely tall, spiky hills – and between them is where the stars are found. You hold the screen to dive, carefully timing doing so to snatch up stars, then release the screen so your plane briefly soars heavenward again. All the while, your city grows and you unlock more planes. Simple stuff, then, but an effective and fun use of AR that anyone can get into. It’s Full of Sparks finds you in a world where firecrackers are cruelly imbued with sentience. Aware of their imminent demise, they make a beeline for water to extinguish their spark and therefore not explode. Your aim is to help them make a splash. Each of the 80 hand-crafted levels takes a mere handful of seconds to complete – at least when you master the precise choreography required. Before then, there’s plenty of trial and error as you tap colored buttons to turn hazards and chunks of the landscape on and off, and grab rotors that let you soar heavenward. Despite occasionally slippy controls, this one’s a joy – full of personality and smart level design. It’s likely to put a smile on your face even when your firework goes out with a bang. Amazing Katamari Damacy is a deeply weird endless runner. It’s based on a popular PlayStation 2 game, where a tiny prince rolls a magical ball (the titular katamari) into smaller things to make it grow. On iPhone, the original’s free-roaming nature has been dispensed with, but its bonkers premise remains. You start off rolling nails into your ball, but it quickly balloons to take on toys, vehicles, and entire buildings. The controls are a touch slippy – although better in tilt than swipe – and games can be lengthy. But this one’s a visual treat, with an interesting twist that makes it worth a look even if you’re tiring of games where you endlessly sprint into the screen. Beat Street is a touchscreen brawler that wears its influences on its sleeve. The pixelated art recalls classic beat ’em ups, and the stop-start gameplay - with occasional unsporting use of baseball bats to bash enemies around the head - smacks of Double Dragon and Streets of Rage. Yet this isn’t slavish retro fare. The game feels familiar, but its set-up is entertainingly oddball (liberating a city being terrorized by sentient, bipedal, suited rodents), and everything is controlled by a single thumb. The controls could have spelled the end for Beat Street, but - amazingly - they work brilliantly, enabling deft footwork, punches, kicks, special moves, and the means to smash an evil rat’s face in with a brick. Apart from unnecessary grind-to-unlock levels, Beat Street’s the perfect freebie iPhone brawler. Duke Dashington Remastered is a fast-paced single-screen platform game featuring dapper explorer Duke Dashington. Suitably, given his moniker, this treasure-hunting gent doesn’t so much walk as dash. Press left or right and he hurtles in that direction until hitting a wall. Prod up and he shoots towards the ceiling. This turn of speed is handy, given that his adventures take place within four crumbling dungeons. He must escape each room before a ten-second timer runs down, or end up being a kind of buried treasure himself. Smart level design turns each of the 120 rooms into something akin to a tiny puzzle. And although the entire game can be dashed through in a couple of hours, a time-attack mode gives hardy and dextrous armchair adventurers a reason to return. Cally’s Caves 4 continues the adventures of worryingly heavily armed pigtailed protagonist Cally, a young girl who spends most of her life leaping about vast worlds of suspended platforms, shooting all manner of bad guys. For once, her parents haven’t been kidnapped (the plot behind all three previous games in the series) – this time she’s searching for a medallion to cure a curse. But the gameplay remains an engaging mix of console-like running and shooting, with tons of weapons to find (and level-up by blasting things). But perhaps the best sections feature Bera, Cally’s ‘ninja bear cub’ pal. His razor-sharp claws make short work of enemies, resulting in a nice change of pace as the furry sidekick tears up the place. Infiniroom is an endless runner set inside a claustrophobic room. The dinky protagonist leaps from wall to wall, going in circles and avoiding electrified boxes that periodically pop-up. Every now and again, a chunk of surrounding wall turns orange, before vanishing and opening things up a bit. But sometimes space within the room turns red – a warning that it’s about to become wall again, and that you really shouldn’t be there when it does. Lasers and whirling saw blades add further complications. Each character in the game has a special power, designed to increase their longevity. But make no mistake: this is intense twitch gaming of the Super Hexagon kind. Managing to survive for a minute requires almost superhuman reactions. Just be aware all those short games add up – Infiniroom might be brutal and frustrating, but it’s also hugely compelling. Sonic Forces: Speed Battle re-imagines Sega’s long-time mascot’s adventures as a 3D lane-based auto-runner. Which is to say that it’s an awful lot like Sonic Dash and Sonic Dash 2, which you may have already played. The twist here is in the ‘battle’ bit, which pits you against three other human players. As you belt along the track, avoiding traps, you can grab pick-ups – many of which happen to be weapons. This transforms the slightly throwaway Sonic Dash format into a tense and competitive on-rails racer closer in nature to Mario Kart. Naturally, there’s still a load of freemium shenanigans stinking the place up a bit, but even for free there’s plenty of blazing fast fun to be had. BotHeads looks like a low-rent Badland game, with its colorful backgrounds, and levels full of silhouettes. But BotHeads plays very differently, being more about precision than semi-controlled chaos – even if you’re often pelted along against your will. Your BotHead has two thrusters to keep it aloft. You travel rightwards, towards periodic checkpoints that allow a few seconds’ breathing space. Levels are full of hazards, from pinball-like bumpers that hurl you off-course to giant saw blades. That wouldn’t be so bad, but the aim is to get through the entire game in one go. By means of ‘encouragement’, the trails of ex-BotHeads from failed attempts appear in the background of subsequent attempts. It all combines to make for an immediate, compelling blend of styles and ideas that’s perfectly suited to iPhone. Super Phantom Cat 2 is an eye-searingly colorful side-scrolling platform game. Like its predecessor, this game wants you to delve into every nook and cranny, looking for hidden gold, unearthing secrets, and finding out what makes its vibrant miniature worlds tick. It’s also a game that never seems content to settle – and we mean that in a good way. It revels in unleashing new superpowers, such as a flower you fire at walls to make climbing vines, or at bricks to increase their fragility. It also wants you to experiment, figuring out how critters who are ostensibly your enemies can be coerced into doing your bidding. The only downside is the presence of freemium elements (ads and an ‘energy’ system) - although both can be removed with inexpensive IAP if you agree this is one cool cat to hang out with. Anycrate takes the idea of a gunfight and hurls it headlong into absurdist territory. There’s no ‘20 paces’ nonsense here – instead, the two protagonists are on floating stone platforms, leaping about like maniacs and blasting each other with gigantic bullets. You can share your device to play against a friend (which is admittedly more suitable with an iPad) or play against the AI. And given that we’re firmly in arcade territory, it should come as no surprise that there are all sorts of power-ups that affect the game in various ways. Medical kits patch up your tiny soldier, but you’re just as likely to blast a crate that unsportingly sends fiery meteors your opponent’s way. Given that you only get two buttons (Jump and Shoot), there’s a surprising amount going on in Anycrate, not least when you venture into the co-op mode with a friend, and find yourselves battling to protect a pile of bling from tiny ‘magical’ thieves. No, we weren’t expecting that twist either. Train Bandit isn’t exactly nuanced. It depicts a showdown on top of a train, where a bandit faces off against an endless stream of foes, all of whom are quick on the draw – and armed to the teeth. The bandit’s not going to take his impending demise lying down – instead, he’ll take as many of the enemies with him as he can. You therefore tap left and right to dart between carriages, kicking enemies in the face before they shoot you. Make one wrong move and you’re dead. Misread the type of enemy you’re facing and you’re dead. Pause for a fraction of a second too long and you’re dead. You get the picture. But the great thing about being a bandit in a videogame – you can always be resurrected for another quick go. Data Wing is a neon-infused story-driven racing adventure. It’s also brilliant - a game you can’t believe someone has released for free, and also devoid of ads and IAP. It starts off as an unconventional top-down racer, with you steering a little triangular ship, scraping its tail against track edges for extra boost. As you chalk up victories, more level types open up, including side-on challenges where you venture underground to find bling, before using boost pads to clamber back up to an exit. The floaty world feels like outer-space, but Data Wing actually takes place inside a smartphone, with irrational AI Mother calling the shots. To say more would spoil things, but Data Wing’s story is as clever as the racing bits, and it all adds up to the iPhone’s most essential freebie. Tappy Cat is a rhythm action game, with you playing as a musical moggie. Your cat sits before a ‘tree guitar’, and notes head out from the middle of the screen along two rails. These must be tapped, held, or tapped along with another note, depending on their color. This is routine for a rhythm action game, but it’s the execution that makes Tappy Cat delightful. It feels perfectly tuned for iPhone (your thumbs can always reach the notes), and there’s a cat-collection meta-game, rewarding you with new kitties when you totally nail a tune. The only bum notes are a lives system (a video ad will give you five lives – although there is also a $2.99/£2.99/AU$4.49 endless lives IAP for those who want it), and the way in which a single major blunder ends your latest attempt at musical superstardom of the furry kind. Flat Pack wraps a two-dimensional platform game around three-dimensional shapes. You control a little flying creature tasked with collecting every side of a cube before finding a level’s exit. But figuring out where to head isn’t straightforward, because in applying a 2D game world to 3D wall surfaces, you can end up facing a different way when entering a plane from a new direction. Fortunately, the game has a gentle difficulty curve – death means restarting a level, but not collecting cube parts you’ve already found. And Flat Pack slowly introduces its new ideas, such as enemies defeated by smashing them from below. Should you find the main game discombobulating, there’s also an augmented reality mode, which has you walk around a puzzle with your iPhone. It’s a weird but effective experience. Memory Path is a simple memory test that showcases how polish and smart design can transform the most basic of concepts into an essential download. Across 50 levels, you tap left or right to move along a path toward a goal. The twist is the path disappears shortly after you enter a level. Initially, remembering where to go isn’t tough, but later levels are likely to find your adventurer regularly impaled before you finally succeed. Levels complete, you’ll feel fully trained for the endless modes. Random shuffles the order in which you tackle levels; and Race Path is all about speed – how far you can get before the road ahead vanishes. Sharp isometric graphics, a gentle soundtrack, and unlockable characters further boost the game’s longevity. Power Hover: Cruise is three endless runners (well, surfers) for the price of one. It borrows the boss battle levels from the superb, beautiful Power Hover, and expands on them. You get to speed through a booby-trapped pyramid, avoid projectiles blasted your way by an angry machine you’re chasing through a tunnel, and whirl around a track that snakes through the clouds. This is a gorgeous game, with silky animation and minimal, but vibrant objects and scenery. The audio is excellent, too – the rousing electronic soundtrack urging you on. There are a couple of snags: games can abruptly end due to difficulty spikes, and the controls initially seem floaty. But we grew to love the inertia, which differentiates Power Hover: Cruise and makes it feel like you’re surfing on air. As for the difficulty, spend time learning the hazards and mastering the game, and you’ll soon be climbing the high score tables. Finger Smash is more or less whack-a-mole with fruit - and a big ol’ dose of sudden death. You get a minute to dish out tappy destruction, divided up into seconds-long rounds. In each case, you’re briefly told what to smash, and set about tapping like a maniac. Hit the wrong object, and your game ends with a flaming skull taunting you. (Lasting the full minute is surprisingly tough.) This is a simple high-score chaser, and so there’s understandably not a lot of depth here. However, there are plenty of nice touches. The visuals have an old-school charm, and the music is suitably energetic. But also, there’s the way you can swipe through multiple items, the bomb that ominously appears during the final ten seconds, and varied alternate graphics sets if you feel the need to squish space invaders, fast food, or adorable cartoon robots. Great stuff. Spin Addict is an endless runner set in a landscape of endless industrial cogs and sparks. You control a piece of metal you set spinning with a swipe, subsequently tapping to leap, and swiping downwards to flip the ground beneath you. In the endless mode, played in portrait, you try to get as far as possible – easier said than done when massive pieces of machinery regularly want to flatten you, and your power must be constantly replenished by grabbing golden targets. There’s also a 15-level challenge mode, which plays out in landscape. This is more about pathfinding – getting to the end of each course intact, having collected as many gems as possible along the way. However you play, Spin Addict is a wonderful app with a properly premium feel (bar the inevitable ads, which can be removed for $0.99/99p/AU$1.49). Leap On! is an endless jumper with a sadistic streak – at least as far as its bounding protagonist goes. The two-eyed ball is tied to a central spiked star by a huge piece of elastic. Whenever you hold the screen, the hero moves in a clockwise direction. The snag is hitting the spiked star spells instant doom – as does touching anything else that’s black. At first, this mostly means jumping on white orbs, and avoiding the odd lurking blob, but before long, the star starts lobbing all manner of ball-killing stuff your way. You can fight back by grabbing power ups and smashing the white bits of projectiles, while chasing dual high scores – how many white orbs you hit, and your furthest distance from the star. Leap On! is admittedly a bit one note, but the pacy, chaotic gameplay very much appeals in short bursts. Built for Speed is a top-down racer with chunky old-school graphics, and a drag-and-drop track editor. Make a track and it’s added to the pool the game randomly grabs from during its three-race mini-tours; other users are the opposition, with you racing their ‘ghosts’. Handling’s simple – you steer left or right. Winning is largely about finding the racing line, not smacking into tires some idiot’s left in the road, and not drifting too much. Initially, though, the game’s so sedate you wonder whether someone mistook an instruction to make it “very 80s” by having it seem like the cars are driven by octogenarians. But a few upgrades later and everything becomes nicely zippy. The only real snag is the matchmaking doesn’t always work, pitting you against pimped-out cars you’ve no chance against. Still, even if you take a sound beating, another tour’s only ever a few races a way. Knight Saves Queen is a turn-based puzzle game, based on a knight leaping about a chess board. He moves in a standard ‘L’, aiming to bump off every adversary on the board, before rescuing the queen. Initially, he’s only faced by pawns, but soon other pieces enter the fray, forcing you to carefully plan your path. Over time, allies also appear, allowing you to further manipulate the opposition, which takes pieces every chance it gets. The bite-sized nature of the game combined with the smart puzzle design make it ideal freebie fare for mobile. We do, however, take exception at needing perfect runs on every level set to unlock the next – unless, of course, you buy coins via IAP. Still, if nothing else, this forces you to properly tackle every puzzle, rather than blaze through with the least amount of effort. Flick Soccer is all about scoring goals by booting a ball with your finger. It looks very smart, with fairly realistic visuals and nicely arcade-y ball movement. You can unleash pretty amazing shots as you aim for the targets, and occasionally bean a defender. The game includes several alternate modes, providing a surprising amount of variation on the basic theme. There’s a speed option that involves flicking at furious speed, and the tense sudden-death Specialist, which ends your go after three failed attempts to hit the target. Rather more esoteric fare also lurks, demanding you repeatedly hit the crossbar, or smash panes of glass a crazy person has installed in the goalmouth. Like real-world sport on the TV, Flick Soccer is a bit ad-infested. You can, though, remove ads with a one-off $0.99/99p/AU$1.99 IAP, or – ironically – turn them off for ten minutes by watching an ad. Drop Wizard Tower is a superb mobile take on classic single-screen arcade platform games like Bubble Bobble. Your little wizard has been thrown in jail by the evil Shadow Order, and must ascend a tower over 50 levels to give his enemies a good ‘wanding’ (or something.) It’s all very cute, with dinky pixelated enemies, varied level design (skiddy ice; disappearing platforms; watery bits in which you move slowly), and fast-paced boss battles against gargantuan foes. Most importantly, it’s very much designed for mobile. You auto-run left or right, and blast magic when landing on a platform. Said blasts temporarily stun roaming enemies, which can be booted away, becoming a whirling ‘avalanche’ on colliding with cohorts. The auto-running bit disarms at first – in most similar games, the protagonist stays put unless you keep a direction button held. But once the mechanics click, Drop Wizard Tower cements itself as a little slice of magic on your iPhone. One Tap Rally distills the top-down mobile racer into a one-thumb effort. Press the screen and you accelerate; let go and you slow down. In the nitros mode, you can also swipe upward for an extra burst of speed. It feels a bit like slot-racing, but the tracks are organic and free-flowing, rather than rigid chunks of plastic. Learning each bend and straight is essential to get around without hitting the sides – important because such collisions rob you of precious seconds. You’re also not alone – One Tap Rally pits you against the online ghosts of other players. Each time you better your score, you improve your rank on the current track, ready to face tougher opponents. This affords an extra layer of depth to what was already an elegant, playable mobile racer. Crazy Taxi is a port of a popular and superb Dreamcast/arcade title from 1999. You belt around a videogame take on San Francisco, hurling yourself from massive hills, soaring through the air like only a crazy taxi can, and regularly smashing other traffic out of the way. Given the ‘taxi’ bit in the title, fares are important. Getting them where they want to go in good time replenishes the clock. Excite them and you’re awarded bonuses. Go ‘crashy’ rather than ‘crazy’ and the fare will take their chances and leap out of your cab, leaving you without their cash. Crazy Taxi looks crude, but still plays brilliantly, and even the touchscreen controls work very nicely. For free, you must be online to play, however – a sole black mark in an otherwise fantastic port (and one you can remove with IAP). In Fish & Trip, you command a single smiling fish, happily swimming in the ocean depths. Using your finger, you direct the fish towards eggs and other stragglers, the latter of which join you to gradually form a school. Unfortunately, everything else in the sea is hungry for a fish dinner. At first, you’ll spot spiky anemones and the occasional sluggish green fish with big teeth. But eventually, you’ll be zig-zagging through claustrophobic seas, trying to find new friends to keep your school alive, and avoiding massive sharks that show up to the theme from Jaws. It’s all rather simple, and may eventually pall. But in the short term at least, Fish & Trip is one of those wonderful and rare iPhone games pretty much guaranteed to plaster a smile on your face. Topsoil, like its subject matter of gardening, is something that only really works if you’re willing to put in the investment. And that’s because it’s a puzzler that’s easy to grasp within seconds, but that rewards long-term play, as you slowly master new strategies to lengthen your games. The board is a four-by-four grid, into which you add plants. Every four moves you can harvest a plant – or group of adjacent plants – which turns the soil. A reckless approach soon leaves you with non-contiguous chunks of land and no chance of removing loads of plants at once. Even when planning ahead, the game’s inherently random nature can rapidly end a game. But Topsoil’s charm and gradual drip-feeding of new items to plant makes for a leisurely and enduring brain-teaser ideal for filling spare moments. rvlvr. is an easy game to dismiss. Despite the pleasant piano soundtrack and clear visuals, it doesn’t seem like anything special. You get a bunch of interlocking circles with dots on, and must select and rotate them so the puzzle matches the image at the top of the screen. Easy! Only rvlvr. is anything but. Once you’ve blazed through the initial levels, everything becomes a mite more complicated. You end up staring at half a dozen or more rings with dots liberally sprinkled about, realizing one wrong move might wreck everything you’ve to that point worked so hard for. This mix of progression and challenge, alongside rvlvr’s quiet elegance, will keep it rooted to your home screen. And that you can skip any of the 15,000(!) puzzle combinations is a nice touch, ensuring you won’t remain stuck on a single test you can’t get your head around. There’s ambition at the heart of Full of Stars, which so easily could have been yet another run-of-the-mill tap-based survival game. Much of your time is spent in space, tapping screen edges to deftly weave your ship through space debris. When possible, you scoop up stardust to charge up your weapons system and a hyperdrive that blasts you towards your destination at serious speed. But Full of Stars is also a role-playing game of sorts, finding you immersed in a plot that puts humanity on the brink. Along with your deft arcade skills, you’ll need to manage resources and make vital decisions to ensure your survival. It can get repetitive, and the arcade sections are sometimes harsh, but Full of Stars is a commendable effort at trying something different – a story-driven journey that demands both arcade and strategic smarts. Swordigo is a love letter to the classic side-scrolling platform adventures that blessed 16-bit consoles. You leap about platforms, slice up enemies with your trusty sword, and figure out how to solve simple puzzles, which open up new areas of the game and move the plot onwards. The plot is, admittedly, nothing special – you’re embarking on the kind of perilous quest to keep evil at bay that typically afflicts videogame heroes. But everything else about Swordigo shines. The virtual controls are surprisingly solid, the environments are pleasingly varied, and the pace ranges from pleasant quiet moments of solitude to intense boss battles you’ll struggle to survive. All in all, then, a fitting tribute to those much-loved titles of old. Playing football on your own can be dull – that is, unless you’re the sporty hero of Footy Golf. As ever, scoring is the main aim – and there’s a goal to be found somewhere on each course. But along the way, you can also collect coins someone’s generously left lying around. The controls are straightforward (aim with a directional arrow and then let rip); much of the challenge comes in trying to maximize your star rating by reaching the goal using the fewest possible kicks. You’ll also have to navigate increasingly complex courses as you move through a city, caverns, a factory, and a scorching desert. The game’s a bit ad-infested, with a mildly hateful level unlock mechanism that encourages grinding, but played in bite-sized chunks, it’s definitely more ‘match winner’ than ‘own goal’. Although, at its core, this is a fairly standard lane-based survival game (swipe to avoid traffic; don’t crash), Dashy Crashy has loads going on underneath the surface. It’s packed full of neat features, such as pile-ups, a gorgeous day/night cycle, and random events that involve maniacs hurtling along a lane, smashing everything out of their way. It also cleverly adds value to mobile gaming’s tendency to have you collect things. In Dashy Crashy, you’re periodically awarded vehicles, but these often shake up how you play the game. For example, the cop car can collect massive donuts for bonus points, and an army jeep can call in tanks – just like you wish you could when stuck in slow-moving traffic. Flinging a plastic disc about isn’t the most thrilling premise for a game, which is why it’s a surprise Frisbee Forever 2 is so good. The game finds a little toy careening along rollercoaster-like pathways, darting inside buildings and tunnels, and soaring high above snow-covered mountains and erupting volcanos. You simply dart left and right, keeping aloft by collecting stars, and avoiding hazards at all costs – otherwise your Frisbee goes ‘donk’ and falls sadly to the ground. Grab enough bling and you unlock new stages and Frisbees. This game could have been a grindy disaster, but instead it’s a treat. The visuals are superb – bright and vibrant – and the courses are smartly designed. And even if you fail, Frisbee Forever 2 lobs coins your way, rewarding any effort you put in. Pixel Craft takes no prisoners. No sooner have you found your feet in your little auto-firing spaceship than hordes of aliens blow you into so much stardust. Before long, you clock formations and foes, learn to dodge huge arrows fired by a massive space bow, figure out how to avoid kamikaze ships, and discover how to best an opponent that’s apparently ambled in, lost from arcade classic Caterpillar. Then you face a massive boss and get blown up again. It’s staccato at first, then – even grindy. But Pixel Craft has a sense of fun and urgency that makes it worth sticking with. The aesthetics and controls are impressive, and death always feels fair – to be blamed on your fingers failing you. But with perseverance comes collected bling and ship upgrades. Then you’re the one dishing out lessons in lasery death! (At least until you meet the next boss.) If you’ve played Super Dangerous Dungeons, you’ll be well aware developer Jussi Simpanen knows how to make a cracking platform game. Even so, Heart Star is a disarmingly charming treat. You aim to guide two friends to a goal in each of the 60 tiny single-screen levels. The chums are typically surrounded by platforms, spikes, and switches – and that’s before you consider the perilous drops into a bottomless void. Also, there’s usually no obvious way for both to reach the goal. It’s a head-scratcher until you start utilizing Heart Star’s world-swapping. Prod a button to switch character, whereupon the other friend’s platforms vanish. With a combination of brainpower, deft finger-work, and having the friends collaborate – often by one hopping on the other’s head – a solution should present itself, allowing you to continue on your journey. It’s another vertically-scrolling endless survival game, where you’re pursued by a world-eating evil, but Remedy Rush is novel in subject matter and the way in which it plays. The basics are familiar: you direct the protagonist by swiping about, aiming to keep ahead of your inevitable demise for as long as possible. But in Remedy Rush, you play as an experimental remedy (such as a cookie or sunglasses) exploring a grid-like infected body. As you scoot about, toxins are destroyed to open up pathways, and health bursts can be collected to take out any cells and germs that are in your way. Over time, the host gets sicker and the fever more ferocious; when the end comes, you can try again with a new remedy, each one having its own game-altering side-effect. King Rabbit has some unorthodox enemies. Having kidnapped his rabbit subjects, said foes have dotted them about grid-based worlds they’ve filled with meticulously designed traps. Mostly, this one is a think-ahead puzzler, with loads of Sokoban-style box sliding. But instead of being purely turn-based fare, King Rabbit adds tense swipe-based arcade sections, with you running from scary creatures armed with rabbit-filleting weaponry. Really, this isn’t anything you won’t have seen before, but King Rabbit rules through its execution. Visually, everything’s very smart, from the clear, colorful backgrounds to the wonderfully animated hero (and the little jig he does on rescuing a chum). But the puzzles are the real heroes, offering a perfect balance of immediacy and brain-scratching. There’s a bit of cheating going on in Moveless Chess. Although your opponent plays a standard game, you’re some kind of wizard and apparently don’t want the hassle of moving pieces. Instead, you’ve limited action points, which are used to transform pieces you already have on the board. (So, for example, with three points, you can cunningly change a pawn into a knight.) The aim remains a game-winning checkmate, and, presumably, avoiding the ire of your non-magic opponent. It’s chess as a puzzler, then, and with a twist that’ll even make veterans of the game stop and think about how to proceed at any given moment. After all, when you get deep into the game’s challenges, you might find wizarding powers don’t always make for a swift win when you can’t move your pieces. We’re sort of in Crossy Road territory here, but instead of a chicken hopping along an endless landscape of roads and rivers, Redungeon finds a little knight dumped in a seemingly infinite dungeon full of traps. Credit to whoever wanted to make the knight suffer, because said traps include endless inventive ways to kill someone, from squelching blobs of goo to massive metal panels that slam together, squashing flat anyone daft enough to get in their way. As ever, you’re being chased by some kind of unrelenting evil (here depicted by loads of spooky red eyes) and so can’t hang about. As such, you’ll mostly fail by swiping the wrong way when in a panic, thereby impaling your knight. Still, grab enough bling on your journey and you can upgrade your character (and unlock new ones), giving them a fighting chance – well, at least an extra 30 seconds. Given Laser Dog’s tendency to make infuriatingly difficult games, Don’t Grind at first seems like a departure. You control a little cartoon banana, keeping it in the air – and away from massive saw blades – by tapping the screen and swiping to move a bit. It’s like a pleasant keepie-uppie effort – for a few seconds. After that point, all hell breaks loose, with your worried-looking fruit having to escape a squishy, painful death by avoiding laser guns, rockets, and all manner of other hazards intent on shoving it towards the blades. Collect enough stars while tapping the screen and you can unlock new victims. If you’re terrible, there are no shortcuts to bolster your collection either – the only IAP is to get rid of the ads. Brutal. If you’re a fan of knocking metal balls about, you’re likely frustrated with iPhone pinball. Even an iPhone Plus’s display is a bit too small, resulting in a fiddly experience replete with eye strain. Enter PinOut!, which rethinks pinball in a manner that works perfectly on the smaller screen. In PinOut’s neon-infused world, you play against the clock, hitting ramps to send your ball further along what’s apparently the world’s longest pinball table. Rather than losing a ball should it end up behind the flippers, you merely waste vital seconds getting back to where you were. When the clock runs out: game over. The result is exciting and fresh, and the relatively simple mini-tables are ideal for iPhone. Moreover, the game’s immediacy makes it suitable for all gamers, overcoming pinball’s somewhat inaccessible nature. The Mikey series has evolved with every entry. Initially a speedrun-oriented stripped-back Mario, it then gained swinging by way of grappling hooks, before ditching traditional controls entirely, strapping jet boots to Mikey in a kind of Flappy Bird with class. With Mikey Jumps, the series has its biggest shift yet. Scrolling levels are dispensed with, in favor of quick-fire single-screen efforts. Now, Mikey auto-runs, and you tap the screen to time jumps so he doesn’t end up impaled on a spike or plummet to his death. It sounds reductive, but the result is superb. Devoid of cruft and intensely focused, Mikey Jumps is perfect for mobile play, makes nods to previous entries in the series (with hooks and boots peppered about) and has excellent level design that sits just on the right side of infuriatingly tough. Minimal arcade game Higher Higher! is another of those titles that on paper seems ridiculously simple, but in reality could result in your thumb and brain having a nasty falling out. A little square scoots back and forth across the screen, changing color whenever it hits the edge and reverses direction. Your aim is to tap a matching colored column when the square passes over it. The snag is that the square then changes color again; furthermore, the columns all change color when the square hits a screen edge. To add to your troubles, Higher Higher! regularly speeds up, too, thereby transforming into a high-octane dexterity and reactions test. Combos are the key to the highest scores and, as ever, one mistake spells game over. Satellina Zero is a somewhat abstract game that borrows from endless runners and rhythm action titles. You play as a white hexagon, sliding left to right to scoop up green hexagons streaming in from the top. You can also tap, which jumps you to the relative horizontal location while simultaneously switching deadly red hexagons to green (and greens to red). It sounds complicated, but it really isn’t. Survival is reliant on observation and quick thinking, where you must constantly ensure whatever hexagons are coming up are the right color, jump across at the perfect moment, and slide to scoop them all up. Last long enough and you unlock new modes and music. It would have been interesting to see choreographed levels with percentage scores, rather than games comprising semi-randomized waves that always end on a single missed hexagon; nevertheless, Satellina Zero is a fresh, compelling arcade experience. Blokout is a furious, high-speed color-matching game that punishes you for the slightest hesitation. The initial mode plonks you in front of a three-by-three grid, and you have to swap colored squares, Bejewelled-style, to make complete lines, which then vanish. The timer is the key to the game. A clock sits in the upper-left of the screen and rapidly counts down, giving you only a few moments to complete a line. If the timer runs dry it's game over; make a line and it resets, giving you another few seconds. The intensity is therefore always set to maximum, nicely contrasting with the game's friendly, bold colors (which amusingly turn stark black and white the instant you lose); and if you stick around, you'll find further challenges by way of boosters and tougher modes. Aptly named, given that it has loads of platforms and aims to make you panic, Platform Panic is a high-speed single-screen platform game. Whenever you enter a new screen, you’ve a split second to work out what’s going on before you forge ahead, trying to beat its various traps. As is so often the way on mobile gaming titles, a single slip up spells death. There’s auto-runner DNA in Platform Panic, since your little character never stops running – although you can change their direction with a swipe and, crucially, leap into the air. Over many games, you’ll figure out how to beat each screen, and then it’s just a question of chaining together a number of successful attempts. This is easier said than done, mind. Scores of over a dozen are something to be proud of in Platform Panic’s world. Still, games are short enough that when your little cartoon avatar is rudely impaled, there’s always time for another go. Apparently turned off by chess’s commitment to beauty, elegance and balance, the developer of Really Bad Chess set out to break it. You therefore start your first game with a seriously souped-up set of pieces: several queens, and loads of knights. Your hapless computer opponent can only look on while lumbered with a suspicious number of pawns. One easy win later and you’re full of confidence, but Really Bad Chess keeps switching things up. Rather than the AI getting better or worse, the game changes the balance of your set-up. As you improve, your pieces get worse and the computer’s get better, until you’re the one fending off an overpowered opponent. It’s a small twist on the chess formula, to be sure, but one that opens up many new ways of playing, whether you’re a grandmaster or a relative novice. In Maximum Car, you careen along winding roads, smashing your chunky car into other similarly Lego-like vehicles. When possible, you lob missiles about with merry abandon, boost, drift, and generally barrel along like a lunatic. It’s a bit like a stripped-down Burnout or a gleefully violent OutRun. Your terrorising of other road users (through near misses and blithely driving on the wrong side of the road), rewards you with coins to spend on powering up your ride. Do so and Maximum Car speeds up significantly, veering into absurd and barely controllable territory. Takedowns (as in, smashing other cars off of the road) are also positively encouraged; destroy the same car over enough races and it’ll be unlocked for purchase. Along with a tongue-in-cheek commentary track, this is all very silly entertainment – great for quick bursts of adrenaline-fuelled racing, and absolutely not the sort of thing to play before a driving test. This third entry in the Dots series, Dots & Co, will be familiar to anyone who's played the previous efforts. The aim is to collect a pre-set number of colored dots on each level, which is achieved by dragging out paths through dots of the same color. Manage to draw a square and all dots of the relevant color vanish. Complications come by way of odd-shaped levels that often leave you with small groups of dots stranded within awkward shapes, and obstacles that need clearing. Cartoon 'companions' help a bit here, blasting away at the board once you've powered them up, and there are also a few special powers to make use of. It's here the charms of Dots & Co fade slightly – as the game progresses, you can't help but feel you're being given impossible tasks, and that an awful lot of luck is required to beat levels without resorting to buying tokens to spend on powers or extra moves. Despite this, Dots & Co remains a pleasant and engaging time sink. As its name implies, Looty Dungeon tests your survival skills as you loot your way through endless dungeons teeming with traps, bosses, and falling floors. Pick up coins to purchase additional heroes, each with different powers and stats, keeping the game fresh. Hidden dangers can easily put an end to your looting, so tread carefully and carry a big sword - which is just good advice for life really, isn't it? Well, maybe not a sword. Perhaps a sense of self-confidence... life can sometimes be about metaphors too. PKTBALL takes ping pong and turns into an endless arcade addiction. Outsmart your opponents to get the best score you can, get money, and unlock lots of colorful playable characters, each with their own court and soundtrack. Once you've mastered the basics you can challenge your friends in local multiplayer matches or simply smash your way to the top of the leaderboards. This is the kind of game that you'll start playing while making dinner and only look up from when the fire brigade are breaking down your door. A kingdom of Disney characters can be unlocked in this alternative look at the popular road-crossing game - intelligently titled Disney Crossy Road. It's a 'magical take' on a game that has been downloaded over 50 million times, and designed to attract a new raft of players. Cross as many roads as you can and collect coins to purchase even more stars spanning various Disney films, each with their own music and world for all you film fans out there. And as you can imagine (if you've played the 'normal' Crossy Road before), you'll see how far you can survive with your favorites from Toy Story, Lion King, Zootopia, and many more. At some point, a total buffoon decreed that racing games should be dull and grey, on grey tracks, with grey controls. Gameloft's Asphalt 8: Airborne dispenses with such foolish notions, along with quite a bit of reality. Here, then, you zoom along at ludicrous speeds, drifting for miles through exciting city courses, occasionally being hurled into the air to perform stunts that absolutely aren't acceptable according to the car manufacturer's warrantee. Three bushes make a tree! Three gravestones make a church! OK, so logic might not be Triple Town's strong suit, but the match-three gameplay is addictive. Match to build things and trap bears, rapidly run out of space, gaze in wonder at your town and start all over again. The free-to-play version has limited moves that are gradually replenished, but you can unlock unlimited moves via IAP. Few free games are quite as polished as Hearthstone, but then this is a Blizzard game, so we hardly expected anything less. There are dozens of card games available for iPhone, but Hearthstone stands out with high production values and easy to learn, difficult to master mechanics, which can keep you playing, improving and collecting cards for months on end. Matches don't generally take too long either so it's great for playing in short bursts. Think you know stress? You haven't experienced stress until you've played Spaceteam, a cooperative multiplayer game that requires you to all work together as a crew (and bark orders at your friends). Sounds easier than it is; failure to cooperate will probably end with your ship getting sucked into a black hole. The clue's in the title - there's a quest, and it involves quite a lot of punching. There's hidden depth, though - the game might look like a screen-masher, but Punch Quest is all about mastering combos, perfecting your timing, and making good use of special abilities. The in-game currency's also very generous, so if you like the game reward the dev by grabbing some IAP. Tap! Tap! Swipe! Rub! Argh! That's the way this intoxicating rhythm action game plays out. Groove Coaster Zero is all on rails, and chock full of dizzying roller-coaster-style paths and exciting tunes. All the while, you aim for prodding perfection, chaining hits and other movements as symbols appear on the screen. Simple, stylish and brilliant. This latest rethink of one of gaming's oldest and most-loved series asks what lies beyond the infamous level 256 glitch. As it turns out, it's endless mazey hell for the yellow dot-muncher. Pac-Man's therefore charged with eating as many dots as possible, avoiding a seemingly infinite number of ghosts, while simultaneously outrunning the all-devouring glitch. Power-ups potentially extend Pac-Man's life, enabling you to gleefully take out lines of ghosts with a laser or obliterate them with a wandering tornado. Although there's an energy system in Pac-Man 256, it's reasonably generous: one credit for a game with power-ups, and one for the single continue; one credit refreshes every ten minutes, to a maximum of six, and you can always play without power-ups for free. If you don't like that, there's an IAP-based £5.99/$7.99 permanent buy-out. The endless rally game Cubed Rally Redline is devious. On the surface, it looks simple: move left or right in five clearly-defined lanes, and use the 'emergency time brake' to navigate tricky bits. But the brake needs time to recharge and the road soon becomes chock full of trees, cows, cruise liners and dinosaurs. And you thought your local motorway had problems! If you're of a certain vintage, you probably spent many hours playing Solitaire on a PC, success being rewarded by cards bouncing around the screen. Sage Solitaire's developer wondered why iOS solitaire games hadn't moved on in the intervening years, and decided to reinvent the genre. Here, then, you get a three-by-three grid and remove cards by using poker hands. Additional strategy comes through limitations (hands must include cards from two rows; card piles are uneven) and potential aid (two 'trashes', one replenished after each successful hand; a starred multiplier suit). A few rounds in, you realise this game's deeper than it first appears. Beyond that, you'll be hooked. The single £2.29/$2.99 IAP adds extra modes and kills the ads. http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/software-news/~4/b5wGjwGPPjw

It’s long been rumored that a fourth Samsung Galaxy S10 model would sit above the Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus at the top of the range, but until now we weren’t sure what to call it. Well, we’re now hearing that it could be called the Samsung Galaxy S10 X. That’s according to a report on ETNews, which notes that the ‘X’ both emphasizes that this is the tenth anniversary of the Galaxy range (as if the ten in the name didn’t already do that), and also stands for “eXperience” and “eXpansion”. The report adds that the Samsung Galaxy S10 X will apparently land in South Korea on March 29, though it’s not clear from this report whether it will be available anywhere else on that date, and an earlier rumor suggested that only South Korea and the US would get this model. In any case, that date is a few weeks after the rest of the range might land, as those phones will apparently go on sale in the country on March 8. But that extra time will give you time to save, which you might need to do, as the S10 X could range in price from 1.6 million won (around $1,430, £1,110, AU$1,980) to 1.8 million won (roughly $1,600, £1,250, AU$2,230) according to this report. That’s around double what the Samsung Galaxy S10 Lite might cost, as that will supposedly be around 800,000 won (roughly $710, £550, AU$990) to 900,000 won (around $800, £620, AU$1,110). Serious specs and a secret weaponSo what do you get for all that extra money? The headline feature of the Samsung Galaxy S10 X is its support for 5G, but this report also points to a 6.7-inch Super AMOLED screen, a quad-lens rear camera, a dual-lens front-facing camera, a 5,000mAh battery, 1TB of storage, and more than 10GB of RAM. That’s all stuff that we’ve heard before. Finally, the report talks about an AI-powered “life pattern” mode that would automate or adjust aspects of the phone based on a user’s usage pattern. This is described as a “secret weapon” and it sounds like all of the Galaxy S10 models might have it. We’d take all of this with a pinch of salt, especially as it’s not clear where the site got its information from, but when it comes to the specs of the Galaxy S10 X – or whatever it launches as – there’s a good chance they’re true, as they’ve been rumored multiple times. We should know soon, as while the S10 X might not go on sale until late March, it will probably be announced alongside the rest of the range on February 20. Loads of Samsung Galaxy S10 information has recently leakedVia BGR http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/software-news/~4/qmtRA5uLatY

The Nokia 9 PureView launch could be just a few weeks away, with a new leak regarding the five-camera handset suggesting it will be revealed before MWC 2019. The huge mobile show - MWC 2019 - kicks off in Barcelona, Spain on February 25, and according to GizChina the firm behind the Android-toting Nokias (HMD Global) wants to launch its new flagship phone before the event gets underway, so it doesn't get lost in the noise. We've already learned that Samsung will reveal its next flagship phone a few days before MWC starts, with the Samsung Galaxy S10 launch date set for February 20. If the Nokia 9 PureView launch date follows suit, we'll be in for a busy end of the month. Five rear camerasThe main talking point from all the Nokia 9 PureView rumors are the multiple mentions of the handset's penta-lens setup on its rear. It's tipped to boast five rear cameras which means there will be a lot of focus on its photography potential, with the PureView name harking back to the 808 PureView and Lumia 1020, which both packed 41MP snappers. According to this report the phone will also have a 5.9-inch 1440 x 2560 OLED screen, 6GB or 8GB of RAM, a 4,150mAh battery, 128GB of storage, an in-screen fingerprint scanner, wireless charging and IP68 water resistance. Disappointingly it also lists the Snapdragon 845 chipset, which launched in 2017 and has been rumored for the phone before. However, the new GizChina report adds that there will be a more powerful version of the handset launched later in the year, with a version using the Snapdragon 855 apparently landing in August. We won't have long to wait to find out what the exact specs will be though, with the release just a few weeks away. Everything we know so far about the Nokia 9 PureviewVia XDA Developers http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/software-news/~4/4akd6RLbyhE

Apple announced late in 2018 that it would be switching from its Lightning adapter technology to USB-C for the latest iPad Pro range, and it may be doing the exact same for the iPhone in the near future. A new report from trusted Apple blog Macotakara cites "those who are working on it" as their source, and they say the company is working on a switch to USB-C tech. The site clarifies that the company has yet to reach the reference design stage with a USB-C port, so it may not be something we see on 2019's iPhones. So instead of being on the iPhone 11 it may appear on the next generation of handsets. Macotakara has a relatively solid history of leaking Apple news, but it hasn't been perfect at predicting the company's movements, so it may well be that this never comes to pass. Essentially, take all of this news with a big pinch of salt. Fancy an MP3?The same blog has also shared news that Apple may be working on a next-gen iPod Touch. The last one was announced and released by Apple in 2015, and Macotakara believes this next iPod Touch will be ready and on sale before the end of this year. There aren't any spec details for the new iPod Touch, but it's just said to be a refresh of the last model. The iPhone range has come a long way in the last four years so it may be a major upgrade under the hood and in terms of its features. A 32GB iPod Touch cost $199 (£159, about AU$280) in 2015, so we'd at least hope for more storage and there may even be an even higher capacity variant, as the last model only went up to 128GB, while the most recent iPhone range can go up to 512GB. We expect to hear officially about the new iPhone later in the year - we usually hear about new Apple devices in September - and we might hear about a new iPod Touch then too. Everything we know so far about the iPhone 11Via MacRumors, The Next Web http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/software-news/~4/P7ZenS1tC6I

If you’re a PC gamer, there’s a very good chance that you use the Steam store to buy your games. Valve, the company behind the store, has announced that the store is getting a big redesign, with plenty of new features that will make finding and buying new games easier. First of all, the Steam client – which is the desktop application you use to buy games and launch them – is getting a substantial overhaul. According to Valve, the Steam Library (which lists all your purchased games) will be reworked, based on the update to Steam Chat that Valve shipped in 2018. Valve is also working on a new recommendation engine powered by machine learning that will recommend games to players based on their tastes. According to Valve, “Algorithms are only a part of our discoverability solution, however, so we're building more broadcasting and curating features and are constantly assessing the overall design of the store.” Other updatesValve also announced that it is bringing Steam to China in partnership with Perfect World, with more details coming soon. There will also be a new way of finding events such as tournaments, streams and weekly challenges, and Valve is working on expanding Steam TV so that it supports more games. Valve is also introducing a feature known as Steam Trust. Based on the anti-cheat Trusted Matchmaking tools used in Valve’s popular CS:GO online game, the technology is getting an upgrade and will become an integrated feature in Steam that will be available to all games. According to Valve, this will help you identify players who are likely to be cheating at a game. There will also be a new Steam Chat mobile app, and the Steam PC Café Program will see Valve working with Internet Cafes to provide a better gaming experience. So, we can expect some big changes to Steam in 2019, which is just as well, as it faces growing competition from established rivals, as well as the recently-launched Epic Games Store. The best Steam games 2019http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/software-news/~4/LC20fBDbIdI

It seems the Uncharted movie is finally back on track after losing director Shawn Levy last month due to scheduling conflicts. According to Variety, 10 Cloverfield Lane director Dan Trachtenberg has signed on to direct Sony's film adaptation of the adventure game series. Alongside 10 Cloverfield Lane, Tractenberg's credentials include directing the Black Mirror episode Playtest - remember the one where Wyatt Russell tests an advanced video game? Though we currently don't know that much about the Uncharted film, and production hasn't started yet, we do know Tom Holland is set to star as a young Nathan Drake and the movie focuses on his first meeting with his cigar-touting mentor Sully - though we don't know who will be playing the grizzly criminal yet. We won't be seeing the Uncharted movie for a few years yet, but let's hope it looks something like the surprise fan film we saw last year starring Nathan Fillion... Best PS4 games: essential PlayStation 4 releaseshttp://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/software-news/~4/hcQFiaqt7Z8

With headphones of all types, colours and styles flooding the market, it’s hard knowing which ones to pick – do you go for the premium model you’ve always wanted, or are you better off just grabbing a cheap set from the discount bin? Well, it’s worth remembering that cheap headphones are cheap for a reason, so even if saving money is priority we can’t recommend those $2 discount-bin variety that you find all over the world. And, as you’ll find out below, you don’t always have spend a lot of dosh to snag a great set of headphones either. To save you the time and effort, we’ve put together this dedicated guide to the best bargains on great-sounding headphone. We constantly monitor major Aussie retailers and go a-huntin’ to bring you the most worthwhile deals on a variety of sets – from in-ear buds to noise-cancelling cans – so check out our continually updated list below to discover the best current headphones deals in Australia. Best cheap over-ear headphones this weekBest cheap in-ear headphones this weekhttp://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/eaV3kfiKqe8HZw8guGnRxS.jpg The best deals on our favourite headphonesTo help you decide which headphones work best for you, we've decided to put together a little buying guide with a list of our favourite recommendations. The headphones you'll find here have tons of features to help you to get the most out of your music, or any other form of audio-visual entertainment you prefer, however you like to listen to it. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/qBejV8YxE8qYcjtY2BQufh.jpg For the most part, when shopping for noise cancellation headphones we've gotten used to making a compromise between shutting the world out and wanting great sound performance. But no longer. Sony's WH-1000XM2 cans are a great redesign of the already-excellent MDR-1000X and offer not just perfect noise cancellation but also score top marks in sound quality. These headphones easily outclass Bose's flagship QC35 II in terms of both soundscape and feature set. Read more: Sony WH-1000XM2 review http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/6WafE8EUQBbKRZZwQVjKkW.jpg The very popular and excellent Bose QC35s underwent an upgrade and now come with Google Assistant at your beck and call. For a premium price, not only do you get Bose's world class noise cancellation and good sound quality, you also get a personal butler and an incredibly comfortable set of cans. And with up to 40 hours of battery life, you'll get through any long-haul flight. Read more: Bose QuietComfort 35 II review http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/B34Y8BbRDo42ixJaY8GyDW.jpg For a little over $100, it's hard to recommend a better sounding pair of 'buds than the 1More Triple Driver in-ears. It's hard to fault the headphones, if you can put up with the rubber cable and the plastic remote. Even that is just us nitpicking. For the price, it's our top recommendation of in-ear headphones if your phone still has a headphone jack or you don't mind using an adaptor. Read more: 1More Triple Driver in-ear headphones review http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/SScjtqGXAMmGFKBBWNccPP.jpg If you're a frequent flyer, or commute long distances daily, you'll understand the need for a great pair of noise cancelling headphones. Unfortunately, most of them cost a pretty penny. But not the Plantronics BackBeat Pro 2. These headphones offer not just good sound and shut the world out, but do it at pretty much half the cost of the usual suspects of Sony, Bose and Beats. They also have a useful feature that turns the headphones off when you're not wearing them, saving battery. And did we mention you can pair two devices at once as well? If that isn't great value, then we don't know what else is. Read more: Plantronics BackBeat Pro 2 review http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/WkDwA62Uw3dvNsHtx7jdJN.jpg With headphone jacks fast disappearing from flagship handsets, wireless headphones is the way to go. But not everyone likes the feel of a set of cans on their head and cables, no matter how small, can get annoying. If that's describing you, then true wireless 'buds are the answer to your prayers. While most of them compromise on sound quality, the Jabra Elite 65t not only sound good but offer ambient noise isolation as well. They're an excellent substitute if you aren't too keen on the other-worldly look of Apple's AirPods. Read more: Jabra Elite 65t review http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/pqy447RVJWWKjQePHS835j.jpg It's hard to find the Optoma NuForce BE Sport4 wireless 'buds, but if you're after a set of no-frills headphones that don't compromise on sound quality, you'll want to look for these. They do an excellent job of isolating sound when in a noisy environment and boast up to 10 hours of battery. And with a 15-minute quick charge, you'll get an additional two hours of playback out of them. Read more: Optoma NuForce BE Sport4 review If you're after more information on headphones in different form factors, take a look at some of our other dedicated audio articles: The best headphones of 2018: Our pick of the best of the bestThe best earbuds available todayThe best on-ear headphonesThe best wireless headphones of 2018The best noise-cancelling headphoneshttp://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/software-news/~4/C2FvjVEkYRk

The moment that Rocket League fans have been waiting for has arrived, with the game's developer Psyonix announcing that full cross-platform play is now available, allowing PS4 players to finally engage in cross-play with not only PC players, but Xbox One and Nintendo Switch players as well. "Today's announcement is an important one for us here at Psyonix, because we know how much our community has wanted FULL cross-platform support for quite some time," said Psyonix's Jeremy Dunham in the announcement. Previously, PS4 owners were limited to playing against players on their own platform or with owners of the PC version of the game, with Sony's strict policy regarding cross-play being the only major hurdle obstructing play with other consoles. Feeling crossThe change in Sony's heart comes only a few months after the company's decision to allow cross-play for Fortnite on the PS4 due to the game's immense popularity. "Following a comprehensive evaluation process, SIE has identified a path toward supporting cross-platform features for select third party content," said Sony's PlayStation team at the time. According to Psyonix, the 'Cross-Platform Play' feature will now be enabled by default, and will allow players to create or join private matches across all platforms, with a major update bringing cross-platform party support later in the year. 7 tips to help you be a better Rocket League duellerhttp://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/software-news/~4/sX-OUBb-0l0

Any encounter between Australia and India is going to make all right-minded cricket fans sit up and take notice. And after India's historic Test series win Down Under, eyes are now on their three one day internationals. Don't miss a moment of the action - tune into an Australia vs India live stream from wherever in the world you are. Yep, India certainly got the better of the Aussies in the Tests, recording their first ever series win on Australian soil. But the hosts bounced back in the first of the ODIs in Sydney as their bowling attack - and, in particular, young Jhye Richardson shone - to give them a 1-0 lead. Still without suspended Steve Smith and David Warner, Australia are relying on the likes of Richardson, Aaron Finch and Glenn Maxwell to help them to take the series win. While the superstars of India including Virat Kohli, Ravindra Jadeja and the effervescent MS Dhoni will be looking to make it one win apiece. It's an unmissable week of international cricket, and you can watch Australia vs India wherever you are in the world with a live stream. Below we'll talk you through how you can do that on your TV or via a stream to your favorite devices. Tennis fan? See how to also live stream the Australian Open 2019http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/VgyagGS9HpAEPUQtUJBfrg.jpg How to watch the cricket from anywhere in the worldBelow we have details of where you can watch Australia vs India in those two countries, as well as in the UK, USA and Canada. But outside of those territories, you may find it harder to get coverage. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/D39crXd3gob7KPsE3LAFUo.jpg How to watch the cricket in AustraliaThe Australian broadcaster for the ODI battles between the Aussies and India is Fox Sports, a subscription service. But - and it's a big one - the cricket.com.au website and app is showing the matches absolutely FREE of charge. So as long as you don't mind watching on your laptop, phone or tablet, then there's no need to go and pay Fox for a sub. And if you find yourself outside Australia, you'll probably experience geo-blocking from many locations. That's where downloading and installing a VPN can help you, as you can change your laptop's location back to Australia and watch as if you were sitting at home. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/VgyagGS9HpAEPUQtUJBfrg.jpg http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/WWQ7UGT97CVJAVBcELPxRQ.jpg How to watch India vs Australia in IndiaThe Australia vs India match will be shown on the Sony Network in India. Sony Six & Sony Six HD will have English commentary, while Sony Ten 1 & Sony Ten 1 HD will provide commentary in Hindi. For those hoping to stream on a computer or mobile device, Sony Liv is the platform you need. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/VgyagGS9HpAEPUQtUJBfrg.jpg http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/B9XNGCRYNHKJzN5zVfTMje.jpg How to live stream Australia vs India: UK live streamUsual UK cricket broadcaster Sky hasn't bothered with these encounters - probably something to do with the unseemly hour the matches are being shown. So BT Sport has stepped in to show Australia vs India. If you subscribe you'll be able to watch the match live on your TV or you can live stream it to your phone or tablet using the app. Don't forget that you can still watch the coverage, even if you're out of the UK. You just need to use a VPN as described above. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/VgyagGS9HpAEPUQtUJBfrg.jpg http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/x4WvmjGdnEUCFeqhMUrnWo.jpg Australia vs India cricket live stream in North AmericaWillow TV, the official cricket broadcaster for the USA and Canada, will have live coverage of the action between Australia and India. The channel comes as part of numerous satellite and cable packages such as Dish and Sling. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/ebGZgkd4qVX7mUuvz3WNkH.jpg Main image courtesy of cricket.com.au http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/software-news/~4/sR1qFidh8gA

At MWC in February 2017, Oppo showed off phone camera technology that allowed for a 5x optical zoom, and while it never saw the light of day in any smartphone currently on the market, we could soon see that impressive spec double. According to Chinese tech site My Drivers, Oppo has sent out invites to a January 16 launch event with the tantalising (and roughly translated) tagline of “ten times the view” (十所为见). The design of the invitation itself is another strong indicator that the announcement being made at the special event will be related to optics, with the graphic resembling light focusing through what could well be a lens. Oppo Find X reviewhttp://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/dHvUKQFkie9wrjcGkrhJZd.jpg Invitation to Oppo's January 16 event [courtesy of My Drivers] While there are plenty of smartphone cameras capable of high levels of digital zoom, getting artificially close to the action in this way means having to sacrifice image resolution the more you zoom in. This results in not only pixelation of the image but also the addition of noise and loss of detail. Optical zoom, on the other hand, relies on the lightplay of a system of lenses to zoom in on the camera’s subject without any loss in quality, but given the inherently thin design of smartphones, the limited space for lenses typically results in a maximum optical zoom of 2x. Although it’s been almost two years since Oppo announced its potentially game-changing 5x optical zoom compact lens system, we are yet to see a consumer handset that features the technology, so here’s hoping the rumored 10x zoom will find more focus on the market. How Oppo’s new 5x Dual Camera Zoom could change phone photography foreverhttp://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/software-news/~4/N3wBox03cA8

After integrating Rich Communications Services (RCS) into Android Messages almost two years ago, and talking up the advantages of the SMS successor at last year’s MWC, the company just announced that it has added RCS to its mobile pseudo-network, Google Fi. In short, RCS has a lot of the features we already enjoy on iMessages, WhatsApp and other data-based messaging services. These include higher-res images and video, indicators to show when a partner is typing, group chatting, read receipts and messaging over Wi-Fi/data. What RCS doesn’t have is end-to-end encryption like security-minded services like iMessage or Signal have achieved, as The Verge pointed out. RCS is comingInstead of half-heartedly releasing yet another messaging app, Google has been quietly pushing RCS for years to establish a new standard. In April 2018, the company had reportedly planned to call its newly-backed standard “Chat” and got dozens of telecoms and phone manufacturers backing up its quest for greater adoption. By not relying on one app or service, Google will have to get all players involved for Android phones to enjoy the same rich features that iPhone (and iPad) users have been able to enjoy for years, thanks to Apple’s absolute control of devices that run iOS. Thus, RCS remains fragmented for the Android ecosystem, even with Google’s news today: If you’re using a phone designed for Google Fi, "RCS will be automatically enabled," according to Google’s post. Check this branching list to see if your phone/provider combo is compatible. As a secondary announcement, the company has upgraded Google Fi service in 33 countries to faster 4G LTE coverage (on phones designed for Fi, at least). These are mostly in Europe from the UK to Greece, but also include Israel, Kuwait, Kazakhstan and Hong Kong. Traveling with Google Fi? Take a look at our top small cameras to take with you.Via Android Authority http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/software-news/~4/EwIdyZ_RZKA

The wait for Nvidia’s next-generation Turing graphics cards was excruciating, but finally, the latest and greatest GPU architecture is here. It was a long wait, but the sheer power of Nvidia Turing was definitely worth it. Now that we finally have Turing-powered Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Ti, RTX 2080, RTX 2070 and RTX 2060 cards in our hands, we know they’re the best graphics cards for the games we’ll be playing for the next few years – as long as you’re willing to pay. Nvidia Turing will be behind some creative work too, thanks to the newly announced Nvidia Titan RTX. Real time ray tracing is the premiere technology with Nvidia Turing, bringing this holy grail of graphics tech to a mainstream GPU for the first time. This could bring about a revolution in the way the best PC games are rendered – just as soon as we have more than one game that supports it. Cut to the chaseWhat is it? Nvidia’s latest graphics card architectureWhen is it out? September 20What will it cost? $599 (£569, AU$899) - $10,000 (£7,830, AU$13,751)http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/iB7PcRkKvLKeknD3F3tusC.jpg Nvidia Turing release dateAll of the currently-announced Nvidia Turing GPUs are now out in the wild – the RTX 2080 Ti, 2080 and 2070. Though, the RTX 2080 Ti still has limited availability, and you’ll likely have to pay more than MSRP to get your hands on one for a while. And, at CES 2019, we didn’t just finally get an RTX 2060 announcement – arriving on January 15 – but we also saw some gaming laptops with Nvidia RTX graphics. The best gaming laptops of CES 2019, like the Alienware Area 51m, were all packing the latest Nvidia Turing graphics, and they’ll start hitting the market in the latter part of January 2019. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/35hRhD5oKnkFEDftVJY2RM.jpg Nvidia Turing priceAlthough, the Nvidia Turing series started with the Quadro RTX GPUs, we're far more interested in the graphics cards available for consumers. If you wanted to check out these enterprise-leaning parts head on here, otherwise read on for the prices of the announced consumer cards below: Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Ti: $1,199 (£1,099, AU$1,899) Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080: $799 (£749, AU$1,199) Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070: $599 (£569, AU$899) Overall, the prices for Nvidia's newest graphics cards seem to have risen with the Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Ti taking the place of Nvidia’s past Titan cards. This shift up can sadly be seen across the entire lineup. It should be noted that the prices on the store are a bit higher than what Nvidia CEO and founder Jensen Huang revealed at the Nvidia Geforce Celebration at Gamescom 2018 – at the time of writing. For instance, the 2080 Ti was initially revealed at $999, but that price isn’t currently reflected in the online store – or anywhere else. These prices might make you want to spring for the Pascal-based GTX 1080 Ti, and we wouldn’t blame you. However, you should also know that store stocks of these older cards are disappearing quickly. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/rx4WetTFcGhgHmhHasCCpL.jpg Nvidia Turing specsThe headline feature of Nvidia Turing is the inclusion of ray-tracing tech that can render more realistic visuals and lighting in real time without having to fall back on programming tricks. These specialized RTX cores essentially calculate how light and sound travel in a 3D environment at a rate of up to 10 GigaRays on the RTX 2080 Ti. These specialized cores will also supposedly allow Nvidia Turing-based graphics cards to process ray tracing up to 25 times faster than Pascal. When these RTX Cores aren’t in use for processing ray tracing, they’ll essentially switch off, ceasing to draw any power. In addition to these RTX cores, the Turing Architecture will also feature Tensor Cores, like the ones found in Volta. These specialized cores enable artificial intelligence and neural networking so that Turing cards get better at rendering over time – something previously exclusive to supercomputers. With the ability to deliver 500 trillion Tensor operations a second, this technology accelerates deep learning training and inferencing. This will allow Nvidia to offer Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS), which could be a version of super sampling that won’t bring your computer to its knees. Even for games that don’t support this new DLSS tech, these AI-fueled cores should deliver traditional anti-aliasing much more efficiently – up to eight times. As with Volta, Nvidia Turing is adopting GDDR6 memory – up to 11GB in the RTX 2080 Ti, which can clock in at up to 14Gbps, quite the leap over the Pascal-powered Nvidia Titan Xp that clocked in at 11.4Gbps. The Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Ti is an absolute behemoth of a GPU. With 4,352 CUDA cores, 11GB of GDDR6 VRAM with a 352-bit memory bus and 18 billion transistors, it’s going to be capable of 4K Ultra gaming at high refresh rates for years to come. It’s no wonder it comes with such a high price tag. The more mainstream RTX 2080 and RTX 2070 are both still quite impressive, though, and will absolutely destroy the previous generation. The former will feature 2,944 CUDA cores, 8GB of GDDR6 memory and will clocked at 1.5GHz at its base frequency. The 2070, though will be a bit weaker, coming with 2,304 CUDA cores 8GB of GDDR6 VRAM and clocked at 1,410Mhz base. And, while the RTX 2060 is basically just a cut-down RTX 2070, with the same TU106 GPU, but with 1,920 CUDA cores, 6GB of GDDR6 VRAM and a boost clock of 1,680 MHz, it’s still a formidable graphics card. Nvidia Turing Performance Now that we’ve been able to test the RTX 2060, 2070, 2080 and 2080 Ti, we have a better picture of how they perform, and the two high-end cards are beasts. As long as you have the high-end specs to back them up, these new Turing cards are able to perform much faster than their Pascal equivalents, and will be able to push it even further once DLSS or deep learning super sampling is more widespread. And, thanks to the AA improvements in the Tensor cores, we’re seeing about a 20-40% increase in games that don't support DLSS. In our benchmarks, the GeForce RTX 2080 is outperforming the GeForce GTX 1080 Ti by about 11% and the Nvidia GTX 1080 by a more impressive 32% in Middle Earth: Shadow of War in 4K. This performance difference is even more massive when you look at the Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Ti which not only is 20% faster than the RTX 2080 in the same title, but beats out the last-generation 1080 Ti by a massive 30%, destroying the GTX 1080 with a 45% performance delta. Unfortunately, the Nvidia RTX 2070 is less impressive. While it does absolutely wipe the floor with the GTX 1070, it is essentially neck in neck with the GTX 1080 – barely hitting a 10% performance increase at 4K in Shadow of the Tomb Raider. At its price point we were hoping for more, especially after seeing the RTX 2080 and RTX 2080 Ti’s impressive performances. The RTX 2060 is obviously the weakest of the bunch, but you shouldn’t dismiss it outright. The mid-range Nvidia Turing card far outclasses the GTX 1060, but what’s more surprising is that it surpasses the GTX 1070 Ti – for a lower asking price. We were able to get 90 fps in Shadow of the Tomb Raider at 1080p, whereas the 1070 Ti lagged behind at 86 fps. That’s not a huge difference, but the 2060 is $100 cheaper at launch. Still, in traditional games, there’s no question that Nvidia Turing marks a total upgrade from Pascal. And, over time as drivers mature and users get ready to start overclocking their Turing cards, the difference is only going to grow. That’s not to mention the inclusion of incoming DLSS and ray tracing in games, which should only increase the Nvidia Turing performance gap. When it comes to ray tracing, there’s only one title that supports it right now: Battlefield V. And, in that title, the Nvidia Turing cards use a hybrid rendering technique – combining both traditional rasterization and ray tracing in order to produce playable frame rates. Nvidia utilizes “Bounding Volume Hierarchy,” or BVH to track large portions of the scene being rendered for whether or not a ray is being bounced. The RTX cores will then dig deeper into these large rendering zones until it finds the polygon that’s getting hit by the light ray. This method impacts performance far less than tracking each ray live, but it’s still very demanding. In our own testing, you’ll be stuck at 1080p if you’re looking for smooth gameplay with ray tracing turned on. However, with Nvidia’s latest RTX drivers, it’s claiming to increase performance by up to 50% for ray tracing. We’ll be sure to test this and report back, but we have to wait for the new Battlefield V patch to do it. Meanwhile, this the latest in AMD Vegahttp://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/software-news/~4/hks8lCQnnzA

We've gone through top retailers such as Amazon and Walmart to find new savings on a variety of products that are worth checking out, now that we're post-CES 2019. Today's top deals include $20 off the best-selling Google Home mini, a $10 coupon on the top-rated Eufy RoboVac 11+, and the Amazon Echo Input for only $19.99. The upcoming Super Bowl means you can also find great discounts on TVs right now. We found the Vizio 50-inch 4K TV on sale at Walmart for only $298. That's a fantastic price for 50-inch 4K TV that features smart capabilities that allow you to stream your favorite shows from apps directly on the TV. Scroll down to see more of today's top deals. Today's top deals:CES 2019 gadgets you can buy right nowhttp://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/software-news/~4/bZ1Ym9-ec5Q

American rapper, producer and serious game enthusiast Soulja Boy has released another new console this week, one that bears a striking resemblance to Sony's ill-fated PlayStation Portable discontinued in 2014. The system released by Soulja Boy, the SouljaGame Handheld, is identified on Soulja Boy’s shop as a rebranded version of the Portable MP5 Game Player Console, and has a 4.3-inch LCD screen with a 480x272 resolution (the same specs as the PSP). Unlike the PSP, however, Soulja Boy is releasing the his handheld for a paltry $99 (around £77, AU$137). Want to feel like you're getting a bargain? Well, the newly launch system is curiously marked down from its regular $200 price. There’s no word if the SouljaGame will come with any hacked ROMs or emulators like the rapper’s previous consoles (all of which now appear to be pulled from the store), but older versions of the MP5 can be seen on Amazon with 2,000 pre-loaded games including Advance Wars, F-Zero, Contra and Madden NFL 2005. If you're hoping to get your hands on the rapper's new console, however, you're out of luck – it's currently sold out on Soulja Watch... not that we condone buying one even if it were in stock. Via Engadget Ultra-ultra settings: how 8K TVs are going to transform gaminghttp://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/software-news/~4/Pb9Br3KenaA

Chromebooks have long had local storage in the form of the Downloads folder of Chrome OS, but very little could be done with this pocket of space on the hard drive. Now, MSPowerUser has discovered that the latest version of Chrome OS contains changes to blow Chromebook storage wide open. Found in the latest beta version of Chrome OS, 72, a flag is now available within the code – ‘enable-myfiles-volume’ – that allows users to turn the entire My Files folder into a read-write drive, with customizable folders and file names. According to MSPowerUser, the flag content reads: “Enables use of MyFiles as a read/write volume. This should be only used for testing or for trying to restore the previous Downloads content.” Will this new approach to the file management in Chrome OS become the default? That’s entirely possible, and would be a sensible move. The increasing complexity of Chrome OS could be served better by addressable storage. These are the best Chromebooks we’ve testedVia LaptopMag http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/software-news/~4/Ktxbn5GKsVw

If you picked up the iPhone 7 Plus, you'll certainly want to keep your investment protected. The best thing to safeguard your purchase is keep it wrapped in a case to ensure its metal body stays unscathed and that its screen is safe from shattering. An unfortunate number of smartphone owners find out the hard way that all it takes is one bad drop for your iPhone 7's screen to splinter into a cracked mess of sharp glass shards. Sure, the phone may still function, but it’s better to just get an iPhone 7 Plus case and avoid those tragedies altogether. Here are our suggestions to keep your iPhone 7 Plus safe and sound for a long life of service, especially now that it's been updated with iOS 12 and should continue to get updates in the foreseeable future. Note: we've ranked these from cheapest to most expensive according to prices at time of writing. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/HwCiGPjnjBNRPVFMy7adhJ.jpg The only thing better than a case is no case, at least until you drop your phone, and this Dockem sleeve aims to combine the best of both worlds, by giving your iPhone 7 Plus a cosy case when you’re not using it, and leaving it naked and free when you are. The inevitable downside of this is that your phone also has no protection when in use, but if you’re more concerned about your phone’s safety when it’s out of your hands than in them this could be a good option, and it doesn’t hurt that it looks suitably classy too. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/3iGdADo2uj7nHqhiKDpx2o.jpg The Torras Slim Fit case is perfect for those who want a simple, inexpensive case that won't glitz up their iPhone 8. It won't have the multi-stage protection of an OtterBox, but buying one of these is certainly better than keeping your phone naked, and this is the next closest thing: aside from a 1mm lip around the camera, the Torras Slim Fit is only fractionally larger than the phone itself. This is the case for those who want a no-frills case that will fit in pockets and small bags. Get it for $11 (£8, AU$15) on Amazon here. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/LMBTy76Mt7BoxKsHHWLwjJ.jpg Wooden cases are arguably among the most stylish around, and definitely among the most unusual. This YFWOOD case mixes things up further though by using three different shades of wood for a distinctive patterned finish. Like most other wooden cases the edges are still plastic, which slightly spoils the look when viewed from an angle, but viewed from the back this is a stunning case and one that won’t break the bank. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/TpZb2ALZfkkhRb83BNakpg.jpg The Spigen Tough Armor [2nd Generation] case offers decent protection for a low price. It has a flexible TPU body that wraps around your phone, plus a polycarbonate plate to cover the backside. The latter includes an integrated kickstand if you enjoy watching media on your iPhone 7. The case retails for just under $16 (£12, AU$22) on Amazon here. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/vUCzKv9uApBFWEyPCHNXMP.jpg Where most wallet cases have little slots to slide cards in, ZVE opted for a fully-enclosed zippered pocket to store your stuff. That likely makes it a bit cumbersome for folks who carry their case-covered phones in their pockets, but at least this would keep your ID and other cards safely tucked away and not scattered on the street. You can pick up the ZVE wallet case for under $16 (£12, AU$22) on Amazon here. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/VVWt6d84Ue6EiMuR7kvnHP.jpg Simple and classy, the Cygnett UrbanShield is the kind of case we can get on with. This year Cygnett has dumped the cut-out for the Apple logo too, and the case looks a lot sleeker as a result. It’s a basic case - a clip-on plastic shell designed to avoid dings to your iPhone’s aluminum frame, but it has some sweet finishes tailored to match the classic pink, silver and black colors. The two silvery versions have a thin plate of brushed aluminum on the back, while the black uses carbon fiber, and the pink a panel of silicone for a soft-touch feel. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/2LBEbWnBih27aFiVVM2bJP.jpg We’ve shied away from featuring too many super-tough iPhone 7 Plus cases, because they tend to add so much girth to the already-large phone’s thickness and width. However, the X-Doria Defense Gear is one of the slimmest cases to boast of having ‘military-grade’ protection. What this means in practice is that you can drop the phone case’d-up from a height of 6 feet 6 inches and it should survive. The case is made from a mixture of rubber, hard plastic and anodized aluminum. The special sauce is what X-Doria calls DropShield. Like most advanced materials used in cases, this hardens on impact, a state change that absorbs a lot of energy. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/RAsHVcV4nAG4dnADCh3WJP.jpg If you want a simple leather case but don’t want to be an iSheep and buy Apple’s own one, take a look at the Knomo Snap-on case. It looks great and is much cheaper than Apple’s, partly because the leather is just an inlay in a fairly standard polycarbonate shell. It’s still real leather, however, and this means the parts that will take the brunt of abuse will be plastic, which don’t rip as a leather veneer can after serious mistreatment. Knomo makes the Snap-on case for iPhone 7 Plus in five different shades, ranging from a pretty eye-popping orange to a much more interior design-inspired “lido†blue-gray. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/7ds5y8vGe6VpXfz9D6kZ97.jpg Torro makes funky-looking leather flip cases that double as stands, and a stand comes in particularly handy with an iPhone 7 Plus, with its big screen just begging to be used for a bit of movie-watching while you’re bored on a long plane or train journey. The case is made of real leather, and there’s neat stitching along the sides for a hand-made look. The black version has red stitching, while the tan one uses thread that blends into the leather much more. Other notable features include a magnet to stop the screen cover flapping about, and a pouch on the front that’ll hold a travel or debit card. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/h2rzgaq9q3wEpTZxhmAmJP.jpg If you want your iPhone to look serious and professional, you can’t go far wrong with a Cygnett UrbanWallet Flip. It’s a simple folio case that uses a real leather ‘lid’ and a plastic shell into which your iPhone 7 Plus clips. There’s a metallic finish on this part that holds your phone, in a semi-successful attempt to trick your eyes into believing the shell is actually metal. The main draw here is that it’s a flip case, though, and a fairly smart-looking one at that. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/9KQLJsZZzyCTAvhPPk6dFP.jpg The tricky part of designing a case is to find ways of sucking up impact damage without effectively wrapping the phone in bubble wrap. Belkin’s Air Protect SheerForce tactic is to use arches in the case's bumper sides, creating little compressible air pockets that absorb force rather than transmitting it to the aluminum sides of the iPhone. It’s a cheap, low-bulk way of protecting the phone. This is a deliberately low-key case, with a transparent or translucent finish. The non-clear ones are tinted to match the various colors of iPhone too. This is a good pick if you want protection without lots of bulk or weird style influences. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/o5eXaHgfeyd3ZT3YPRz9JP.jpg The Spec Presidio Grip case doesn’t just to try to make dropping your phone no big deal, it wants to stop those drops in the first place. As well as some basic protection, this slimline case makes your iPhone much grippier, using embossed strips of rubber across its back. If you do drop your iPhone 7 Plus a layer of - don’t laugh - Impactium will reduce the force transferred to the phone. This compressible material, which sounds like it was nicked from the Marvel universe, sits underneath a hard polycarbonate exterior. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/EczPAUX8QAPzh2zqXubAVP.jpg OtterBox is best known for its ultra-protective cases. But unless you have hulk-like hands, you’re not going to want to live with a brute of a case on your iPhone 7 Plus. It’ll just be too much of a handful. The OtterBox Symmetry does its best to find a middle ground. It’s a slim-ish case, but one with a chunky lip above the screen and dual rubber and plastic construction, to put more layers between the pavement and your iPhone. It comes in a selection of finishes, including the funky pattern you see here. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/7Vh46geY2VS9pY3DLMxjTP.jpg One of the classic iPhone cases is Apple’s own leather model. On the surface, it seems as simple as they come, a clip-on cover that keeps the phone’s aluminum exterior looking good as new without downgrading the look. Leather is as classy as aluminum, right? There are some touches that deserve a mention, though. First, the finish is real “French†leather rather than a synthetic alternative. This means it’ll wear and age naturally rather than starting to peel off six months in. The case also has its own buttons, sitting on top of those on your iPhone, and has a microfiber lining that hugs your phone. It comes in a whopping seven colors too. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/btVvtRaNHPLbs7jNmVibWP.jpg The Portlandia of iPhone cases, the Grovemade Walnut & Leather is all-natural and, as it happens, made in Portland. Its frame is made of walnut wood finished with vegetable oil, its leather rear tanned with vegetable extracts. It’s delightfully artisanal, and pretty delightful all-round actually. As Grovemade says, though, “the wood used in this product may be damaged by drops or other impacts. If a case that may break is not for you, please consider a rubber or plastic case.†You’ve been warned. Grovemade also makes bumper-style cases, an all-walnut standard case and a flip case. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/6cPERpxwG5SKreQXH9A8X.jpg The Otterbox Stada case for the iPhone 7 Plus does an excellent job combining a high level of protection with a premium design. It uses multiple layers to defend the phone from scrapes and drops, while the folio cover can protect the display from damage. On the outside, the Strada case is actually made with leather, which gives it a wonderful look and feel. If you're going to cover up all of the iPhone, it may as well be with a case that looks almost as good. See the Otterbox Stada iPhone 7 Plus case at Amazon here. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/iSWEVQwfgPe9Zddd9VjdJd.jpg If you don't mind covering your iPhone 7 Plus from head to toe in a case, then the Lifeproof Fre is a great option. It covers all sides of the iPhone, even with a display cover. That protects your phone from a lot more than just the occasional ding. Lifeproof claims the case will offer your iPhone protection in up to 6.6-feet of water for an hour. And, that's on top of dust, dirt, and snow protection. Not many other cases try to raise the bar that high, but it comes with the trade-off that you won't see much of your iPhone's original design. See the Lifeproof Fre iPhone 7 Plus case at Amazon here. Make the most of that big screen with the best iPhone gameshttp://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/software-news/~4/xnQYSXCT_Oc

In an effort to deal with a shortage of radiologists affecting hospitals, several European companies have trained AI to detect signs of breast cancer. Kheiron Medical recently announced that it will use AI algorithms to try to diagnose breast cancer with a trial on historic scans launching this month at a NHS trust in Leeds. The company's technology will also be tested against tens of thousands of historic scans in the East Midlands. Google's own AI company, DeepMind has also recently begun a trial with the NHS and the Dutch company ScreenPoint Medical has developed similar technology. All of these companies are testing their algorithms on tens of thousands of mammograms to determine if they can train them to identify signs of breast cancer with the same competency as a human radiologists. Training algorithmsKheiron's algorithm has been trained on half a million scans from hospitals in Hungary and according to the startup, its technology can beat the average performance of a human radiologist when tested against 3,500 scans. The company's clinical director Hugh Harvey explained its testing process to the Financial Times, saying: “The first phase is that we are doing large-scale analysis on historic data and when we’re happy that the algorithm is performing optimally . . . we’ll begin to test it on live patients.” Hospitals in the UK are facing a severe shortage of radiologists and hopefully one day AI will allow them to read scans without the need for human staff. However, we are still quite a ways away from this becoming the norm though great progress has been made in the field so far. Via The Financial Times We've also highlighted the best medical alert systemshttp://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/software-news/~4/aLoveFSUPcM

Safeguarding your phone with a case has always been a great idea, but it's more crucial now that manufacturers have switched to glass backs for their phones. The iPhone 8 was the first Apple smartphone to follow that trend, and it's awful when an accidental drop cracks either of your device's glass sides. Lucky for you, we've curated a list of cases to wrap around your iPhone 8. While it is no longer the newest phone on the market, the venerable iPhone 8 remains a reliable device for a good price that could – and should – last you years... so long as you keep it protected from accidents. To be clear, we haven’t gotten to test out these iPhone 8 cases and can't guarantee all will protect (or look cool) to the same degree. But the list includes many that come highly rated by users, and some look pretty dashing. Here's our list: Note: We've ranked these from cheapest to most expensive according to prices at time of writing. Looking for the best iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max cases? How about Phone X cases? http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/VgyagGS9HpAEPUQtUJBfrg.jpg http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/a5eLECz6SW6GDyuMg3NnPE.jpg The Torras Slim Fit case is perfect for those who want a simple, inexpensive case that won't glitz up their iPhone 8. It won't have the multi-stage protection of an OtterBox, but buying one of these is certainly better than keeping your phone naked, and this is the next closest thing: aside from a 1mm lip around the camera, the Torras Slim Fit is only fractionally larger than the phone itself. This is the case for those who want a no-frills case that will fit in pockets and small bags. Get it for $11 (£8, AU$15) on Amazon here. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/VgyagGS9HpAEPUQtUJBfrg.jpg http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/rrFm3TLDjYRX7wxbCyK5m8.jpg JETech's iPhone 8 case is also its iPhone 7 case (it fits both), which tells you a lot about the design: it fits, it works, it's not complicated. This crystal-clear case should protect against basic drops, scratches and scuffs. In other words, don't expect phenomenal protection from this case, but it's an extremely functional choice for someone who doesn't want to spend much or just needs a quick fix before upgrading to a pricier case. You can get the JETech Case for under $8 (£6, AU$11) on Amazon here. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/VgyagGS9HpAEPUQtUJBfrg.jpg http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/SxqhgCxM5BEzYM3xtnRh2K.jpg Spigen releases Tough Armor cases for plenty of phones, and this iPhone 8 case is much like them: improved protection over basic cases for a bit higher price, but nowhere near as expensive as others in this list. The case has a flexible TPU body wrapped in a polycarbonate back, providing a little extra cushion between the ground and your phone than simple plastic cases. Plus, it's got a little kickstand if you enjoy watching media on your iPhone 8. The Spigen Tough Armor iPhone 8 case is just under $16 (£12, AU$22) and available on Amazon here. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/VgyagGS9HpAEPUQtUJBfrg.jpg http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/uhHU4aNwbWi6uhZu7nunfC.jpg Matone's Crystal Clear case is a simple solution for protecting your iPhone 8 Plus. It's a basic, soft TPU bumper case that goes around the edges and back of the phone to absorb shock when dropped. It comes in four colors, but all of them are see-through, so you'll still be able to show off the full appearance of your phone. And, of course, with simplicity comes a low price tag. See this iPhone 8 Plus case at Amazon here. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/VgyagGS9HpAEPUQtUJBfrg.jpg http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/VnjjoLvvdB7trGsKnaBSzL.jpg Looking for a simple protective cover that will help you grip your iPhone 8? This option from trusted case manufacturer Speck is basic, but does exactly what you need it to. It won't protect the screen of your phone, but the grip material at the back will help you keep hold of your phone when you really need to. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/VgyagGS9HpAEPUQtUJBfrg.jpg http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/t8opfCXEZKSA8K9RxFhVA7.jpg Protection for your pricey iPhone 8 can come at a high cost, but it doesn’t have to. The X-Doria Defense Clear case costs less than most ruggedized cases. One understated feature this one boasts is that it tucks the iPhone 8’s screen under a bit of its lip so as to avoid scratching it on a table if you like to set your phone face down. This case is no frills, but if all you’re looking for is protection on the cheap, look no further. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/VgyagGS9HpAEPUQtUJBfrg.jpg http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/RELHV5GWjdgjAB2AqFbmnF.jpg If you're looking for a case, but don't want to add any heft or thickness to the iPhone 8, this is the one you're after. MNML makes, you guessed it, cases with minimal aesthetic. They are cheap and come in a variety of colors. Better yet, they'll work on your iPhone 7 as well, should you have one laying around. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/VgyagGS9HpAEPUQtUJBfrg.jpg http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/gmJtftcUoHQajvmsgyBnZ9.jpg Tech21 offers a great protective case here that will ensure the back or edges of your phone won't get scratched and will hopefully be able to take a bit of the brunt when you next drop your iPhone 8. There's no front to this case, so you may want to buy a screen protector, but this see through option may be a good idea if you want to be able to see your phone while it's protected. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/VgyagGS9HpAEPUQtUJBfrg.jpg http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/RrqKbb7mJv7EhBbe8SxbQW.jpg Apple makes its own official cases for the iPhone 8, and unsurprisingly they're worthy of inclusion in this list. This one is made from a silicone material that should feel comfortable in your hand. But perhaps the best element is the color choices on offer here. You have the choice of nine colors, including bright red, so you can make your phone look like the red iPhone 7. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/VgyagGS9HpAEPUQtUJBfrg.jpg http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/GMZaS7CfLjoHcCXju7KG37.jpg If style is your modus operandi, this leather case by Mujjo should fit your tastes nicely. In terms of its looks, it’s reminiscent of Apple’s own leather case, but it’s going for the much cheaper rate of about $38 (around £28, AU$47). It likely won’t be the most protective case, given that it doesn’t look to hug the camera unit closely, so it’s probably not the wisest choice for those who like to take their phone out in the elements. That said, if you biff, you’ll really be going down in style. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/VgyagGS9HpAEPUQtUJBfrg.jpg http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/SXmWoAqgQ8v2hd8rTKMNQW.jpg This is another choice you can buy directly in the Apple Store when you grab your iPhone 8, but we really like the leather version of Apple's official case. Apart from the material it's made of, the design is very similar to the silicone version up above and it comes in a great variety of colors too including pink, brown and bright red. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/VgyagGS9HpAEPUQtUJBfrg.jpg http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/S3AJJPBm3Bbf7zV8cB5tE7.jpg If protecting your phone is your number one priority when investing in a case, LifeProof’s signature offering looks to fit the bill with its colorful suite of cases. By hugging around the back and securely over the iPhone 8’s front, it protects its fragile glass build materials on every front. While the phone looks as much like an iPhone 6 as it does an 8 while covered, at least you’ll still be able to take advantage of all the new features, like wireless charging and the improved camera. The big downside is that this ruggedized case is nearly $100. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/VgyagGS9HpAEPUQtUJBfrg.jpg http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/pRK6KLWxMMacyCqNupktRV.jpg Otterbox’s Defender Series of cases is the perfect choice for anyone who wants to ensure their iPhone 8 is safe from just about anything. This case offers multi-layer protection for the front, back and sides of the phone. An attachable clip can even help you keep it easily accessible without making it more prone to falls. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/VgyagGS9HpAEPUQtUJBfrg.jpg http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/yLfpwYcCdRErGGjvTDkCGj.jpg Spigen’s Slim Armor CS is a handy case for the iPhone 8. It not only protects your phone with a two-layer combination of soft TPU and hard PC, but it also lets you store two card inside. Throw a credit card and license in there, and you’re set for a night on the town. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/VgyagGS9HpAEPUQtUJBfrg.jpg http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/4eWcTZrTurEv4JSKctVs4n.jpg Caseology's Parallax iPhone 8 case has a stylish design combining a soft shell with a 3D effect on the back and a hard shell for extra reinforcement. While it might cover up most of the iPhone 8's own design, the Parallax case's look is interesting enough that you might not even mind. Plus, there are plenty of color combinations to choose from. See the Caseology Parallax iPhone at Amazon here. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/VgyagGS9HpAEPUQtUJBfrg.jpg http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/6cPERpxwG5SKreQXH9A8X.jpg Otterbox makes great cases, and the Strada series for the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus sticks to that trend. The case features mutli-layer protection for your phone. And, thanks to its folio style, it can protect your screen as well. It may be pricey, but it's a lot cheaper than a serious repair. It also has room for a credit card, so you can store one in your case if you don't like bringing your wallet everywhere. See the Otterbox Strada case for iPhone 8 at Amazon here. See the Otterbox Strada case for iPhone 8 Plus at Amazon here. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/VgyagGS9HpAEPUQtUJBfrg.jpg We've also made a list of the best iPhone appshttp://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/9Q6enfuHpbPqNY2SEuvGX8.jpg This folio-style wallet is great for anyone who doesn't want to bring their wallet along with their phone. Its faux-leather looks nice (in photos, at least), comes in multiple colors and has three pockets for cards or cash. It may be a bit cumbersome for frequent texters, but it will keep your phone's front screen a bit more protected from damage. Pick up this iPhone 8 faux-leather wallet case on Amazon here for $19 (£15, AU$26). http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/software-news/~4/9aSLtLl4mM8

The Samsung Galaxy S10 launches next month, and all signs point to a 5G version of the phone being there, too. But it might not come to all US carriers at first. It's the bigger Galaxy S10 Plus we're talking about today, and it's set to get faster 5G speeds with 'maxed out' specs – if you're using Verizon, says Max Weinbach of XDA Developers. We covered his tweets about key Galaxy S10 specs, including the RAM, storage, and camera leaks, but Weinbach also goes into a little more detail about the 5G version. He notes Verizon won Samsung's bidding war for the 5G Galaxy S10 Plus, though he adds "not sure how long this lasts." Other carriers like AT&T surely want in too. Exclusives are the pricey path to 5GCarriers want 5G bragging rights, especially in the US and especially when it comes to a top-tier smartphone maker like Samsung. It's much a better business decision for a company like Samsung to sell its 5G phone to single carrier because it'll be expensive to make and mass produce. A phone that's more expensive than the max-out Note 9 isn't going to be the most popular. That means the 5G Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus may be more about boasting than it is about getting 5G into the hands of everyday consumers. It's going to take some time for mass adoption. As we learned from the forthcoming Verizon-bound Moto Z3 5G add-on, the 5G revolution is coming in 2019, making for thicker, expensive, and more power-hungry smartphones that are, so far, exclusive to Verizon. CES 2019 gadgets you can buy right nowhttp://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/software-news/~4/dbcD8dsj3yQ