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You've spent years amassing that stunning DVD collection, so it's only right that you want to make sure it's secure and easy to watch. That's why it's a great idea to rip your DVDs to your computer. By backing up your hard copy you no longer need to worry about damaging and losing those rare copies of movies you can't find anywhere else. It also makes watching them easier, no matter where you are, since you can enjoy on your laptop, phone, tablet and more. So, you've realised ripping your DVDs is a good idea. Why is it important to get the right software to do it with? This is because that choice could make the difference between getting the best quality version of the original DVD, and a sub-standard copy where you lose some of the original quality and, frankly, the magic. There are ways to rip a DVD on the cheap using software like Handbrake, but as the old adage goes, you get what you pay for and when it comes to WinX DVD Ripper from Digiarty Software, you get a whole lot more. How to rip a DVD with WinX DVD RipperAll you need to get your DVD ripped is a computer with a DVD drive and the WinX DVD Ripper software. As long as the machine is powerful enough to run the software, the rest of the process is super simple. Load the DVD you want to rip into the DVD drive. Then open the WinX DVD Ripper application. At its most simplistic the software can be up and running in three steps. Step 1. Select the Disc option in the top left. (You can also load ISO images and DVD video folder) Step 2. Select an output profile you want to create, like MP4, ISO image, iPhone, iTunes, Huawei, etc. Step 3. Simply hit the Run icon and you'll be up and ripping. Of course you can dive deeper for more features in Output Settings, like cropping, codec type, bit rate, aspect ratio and plenty more besides. If you want to run everything at maximum hardware potential for the quickest result, enable CPU Core Use or the Hardware Accelerator box. Then select Use High Quality Engine or Deinterlacing for the highest quality. How to rip a DVD with HandbrakeOnce downloaded and installed, Handbrake can be used to rip DVDs. But for most discs you'll also need to download and install the libdvdcss. Then you'll need to load in a disc and dip into the files to find the actual video that you need. Unfortunately you'll usually just need to guess this based on timestamps, which isn't ideal for DVDs with lots of shows on it, for example. Then you'll want to select the Presets which gives you a few output options, before hitting the Start button and beginning the wait for the process to finish. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/KpXTixqWNudr4GJAziWsBD.jpg Why rip a DVD with WinX DVD Ripper instead of Handbrake?The most important features that WinX (download this DVD ripper) sports over alternatives like Handbrake is the ability to rip discs at a fully hardware accelerated speed, in high quality and with a lower end result file size. So while WinX DVD Ripper will rip a DVD in nine and a half minutes at 355 frames per second, maintain 98 percent quality and leave a 1.24GB file; Handbrake is limited to 297 frames per second, takes 11 and a half minutes to rip, only maintains 70 percent quality and leaves a massive 6GB file. The test is done on a Windows 10 (64 bit) PC [intel Core i7-8700K CPU]. WinX can rip your DVD even faster based on different computer/DVD drive speed. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/YPStqQV7iVPG3kVJcpT8XJ.jpg WinX DVD Ripper doesn't require extra plugins to run, while Handbrake does, yet WinX is able to offer over 210 file types to output to, where Handbrake only offers MP4, MKV and sometimes M4V. WinX DVD Ripper is also able to rip damaged DVDs, special Japanese DVDs, the latest movies and workout DVDs plus region-free 99-title DVDs – all of which Handbrake cannot. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/Jb4s5fWpoabGgntrxFkQGM.jpg Another advantage of WinX DVD Ripper is its ability to let you copy a DVD to hard drive as an ISO image or MPEG-2 file with original quality and 5.1 Channel AC3/DTS Dolby audio for later burning. Handbrake can offer ISO files but not backup DVDs without quality loss. WinX DVD Ripper does all this while also putting less strain on your computer meaning it is an excellent longer term choice. Go to WinXDVD homepage to dig more information. http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/software-news/~4/fdRe5l3xI7g

The holidays are an expensive time, so we’re bringing you a special treat: a full, free Windows program to download every day until Christmas. The 13th program in our free downloads advent calendar is Steganos Safe 19 – a secure digital vault to protect all your more important and personal files. Download Steganos Safe 19 then request your free serial numberSteganos Safe is designed for the data you don't want anyone else to see, whether it's stored on your PC, an external drive, a USB stick, or in the cloud. This incredibly hand program can create safes up to 2TB in size, and secure them with 384-bit AES-XEX encryption. You can secure them with alphanumeric passwords, PicPass, or a USB key to keep out snoopers, and hide them in plain sight as ordinary files. Once you've unlocked your safe, it integrates seamlessly with Windows and behaves just like any other drive until you re-lock it. Steganos Safe is incredibly easy to use. Download it, request your free serial number and start protecting your files today. Download provided by SteganosIn case you missed it...Day one: Ashampoo Burning Studio 2018Day two: Ashampoo WinOptimizer 2018Day three: Ashampoo Uninstaller 6Day four: Ashampoo Photo Commander 15Day five: Ashampoo Snap 9Day six: Ashampoo Backup 2018Day seven: Ashampoo UndeleterDay eight: Ashampoo Music Studio 2018Day nine: Ashampoo Disk-Space-ExplorerDay 10: Ashampoo Snap 2018Day 11: Ashampoo Photo RecoveryDay 12: Ashampoo Photo Optimizerhttp://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/software-news/~4/fDsI8iuYjBU

AMD Radeon Software has seen several annual updates over the last few years, however, Adrenalin 2019 Edition is bringing some of the biggest and most unique features we’ve seen yet, particularly introducing VR and game streaming to your phone. AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin 2019 Edition’s single biggest feature has to be ReLive for VR, which essentially lets players stream VR games running on their PC to a phone-powered VR headset (i.e. Google Daydream View and Samsung Gear VR) and standalone VR headsets (i.e. the Oculus Quest and HTC Vive Focus). This all might sound bananas, but it really works well. During a short demo, we hardly experienced any lag or slowdown in frame rate that would have caused us a bout of nausea. Instead, we were able to freely look around just as if we were playing VR games with a traditional headset hooked up directly to a PC. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/htX5gjfj38FDbqDWyT3syX.jpg By linking AMD’s Radeon Software on PCs with the Radeon ReLive VR app on phones and standalone VR headsets, players can access their full catalog of Steam VR games. Of course, visuals take a small tick down, as they’re tuned for low-latency and to ensure a seamless experience. At the same time, the program utilizes low-level hardware acceleration to optimize streaming from your PC to a mobile VR headset. Not only does this give users a great way of experiencing completely wireless VR, they can also experience more high-end VR games that were typically locked to the PC. It’s especially important to give PC-based VR games another place to live, as there seems to be no new Oculus Rift in sight and companies are now focused on introducing more standalone headsets. The AMD Link app will only initially available on the Google Play Store and HTC Viveport marketplace, but AMD also plans to release its app on the Oculus Store soon. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/dYtQxWe3SffwtGXyokm9Eb.jpg Game streaming finally arrivesAt long last, Adrenalin 2019 Edition also introduces game streaming. Players will now be able to use their AMD Link app on iOS and Android smartphones to play games running on their PC through their phone. What’s more, players can expect up to 4K resolutions at 60 frames per second (fps) with low-latency while gaming on their tablets and phones. AMD claims its game streaming solution is even up to 44% faster than (unspecified) competitive solutions. To get started, users simply need to pair up the AMD Link app with their PC and – presto – they’ll be able to launch games with just a tap. The interface will introduce on-screen controls, but users will also be able to hook up their phone to a Bluetooth controller. Outside of gaming, AMD Link will also allow users to streaming their PC desktop, which will come in handy if you ever need to remote into your PC or just stream 4K video from your PC. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/3TrCKz7VCNZ8m3xDqAgUk6.jpg Live streaming for prosAside from VR and game streaming, Adrenalin 2019 Edition is also enhancing the way you can live stream broadcast to an audience. To this end, AMD is introducing a new Scene Editor to ReLive that allows users to pull in multiple recording sources and add graphics to create a dynamic streaming overlay. With the added ability to transition between scenes using hotkeys or the Radeon Overlay, this is essentially AMD’s version of OBS or XSplit for the Twitch broadcasters out there. ReLive has also received a few other smaller improvements including high-quality audio recording with support for multi-channel audio (i.e. all your teammates talking), in-game replay as well as easy GIF creation and sharing. Everything elseThere are almost too many Adrenalin 2019 Edition improvements to mention, and as much as we’d like to spend all day writing about them, here's a list of the rest of the most important upgrades: Installer: streamlined with a simple one-click install process.Project ReSX: delivers improved FPS performance and 99th percentile frame times for popular PC eSports games to ensure a faster click-to-response time.Game Advisor: in-game performance testing that recommends quality setting changes to improve performance or increase image quality.Radeon WattMan: improved performance with auto-GPU overclocking and undervolting, memory overclocking and application-bound tuning. fan speed control and unlocked DPM state customization for Radeon RX Vega-series graphics cards.Radeon Chill: up to 20% greater power savings in games such as Fortnite, Overwatch and PUBG.FreeSync 2 HDR: improved auto-tone mapping for a more detailed picture across the frame and different levels of lighting across the frame.Virtual Super Resolution: enhanced detail on ultra-wide 21:9 monitorsRadeon Overlay: added WattMan access while in-game and expanded performance metrics display.AMD Link: added voice control, Radeon WattMan access, Enhanced Performance Metrics access and live stream editing to create playback videos.Up until now, we've always felt that AMD's Radeon Software had a it bit more polish than Nvidia's GeForce Experience – but not nearly as many features. With Adrenalin 2019 Edition, it now seems AMD may have even surpassed Nvidia's software suite for the time being. Meanwhile, the war of the best graphics cards rages onhttp://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/software-news/~4/g1Ug9N80OpA

Christmas is, as we all know, the time of the year for VPN deals and cyber security...right? Well it certainly feels like it when a company knocks over $300 off the price of its offers and that is exactly what NordVPN has done. 75% off NordVPN's three year plan is what you're getting here, that is an absolutely massive discount! This brings the price down to $107.55 (£94.51) for the three years - down from $430.20! - which is the equivalent of paying just $2.99 (£2.63) a month for ultimate protection online. This package gets you access to 5,229 servers worldwide, the option to log six devices at the same time, peace of mind about your online security and not to mention the ability to watch Netflix shows on your holidays. See this deal in full below or check out our best VPN service guide for all of your other options. There are some great deals going round right now so there is bound to be something for you. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/VgyagGS9HpAEPUQtUJBfrg.jpg 75% discount on NordVPNWhat can I do with a VPN?If you're looking for a VPN deal we can only assume that it is for one of these two reasons: Firstly, you want to avoid restrictions. You can use a VPN to stream Netflix in different countries, watch sports events not available where you live or even get cheaper tickets for travel. The second reason is privacy. If this is something you're more concerned about, a VPN could protect you on untrustworthy Wi-Fi hotspots and limit the tracking of your data for safer exploration of the internet. http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/software-news/~4/coo7UO0ZDzk

As you’ve more than likely noticed, the holiday season is now in full swing, and that means – at least for some folks – that it’s time to don a whole range of ridiculously tasteless clothing, from silly bobble hats through to the traditional gaudy sweater, and Microsoft is apparently poised to release a Windows 95-themed offering when it comes to the latter. According to the firm’s official Windows Twitter account, at some point today, we can expect not a new piece of software, but a new piece of ‘softwear’ – did you see what they did there? – with an image provided of what looks like a chunky-knit sweater displaying a Windows 95 logo. Bob hatWhether this will be the only offering, or whether Microsoft is planning a few pieces of clothing themed around 90s nostalgia and its software ecosystem, we shall have to see. Maybe we’ll also get a Microsoft Office 95 scarf decked out in a colorful jigsaw pattern. Or a Microsoft Bob bobble hat. Or maybe we won’t. Only time will tell. We were hoping to buy a more contemporary Windows 10 tank top ourselves, but it looks like these won’t be ready in time now, as apparently the production line was halted by Microsoft earlier this week, after compatibility issues were discovered with some of the different color wool threads… Re-live the good old days by installing Windows 95 as a desktop appVia On MSFT http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/software-news/~4/2RL3-bykLzM

The number of emails sporting potentially dangerous attachments has risen sharply, and your security platform may not be doing enough to stop it, new research has claimed. The latest figures from Mimecast uncovered a 25 percent rise in possibly malicious emails during the last three months compared to the previous year, due partly to shortcomings in many leading detection services. The company's latest quarterly Email Security Risk Assessment (ESRA) examined more than 180 million emails over the period, finding that 16,581 of these contained a dangerous file type. The best email provider of 2018Email securityOverall, the report claims that 21,183,014 spam emails, 17,403 malware attachments, 42,350 impersonation attacks and 205,363 malicious URLS were all missed and delivered to users’ inboxes. This means that around 12 percent of all secured and filtered email were unwanted emails and thus were false negatives. Mimecast highlighted a number of attack trends rising in the last quarter, including key executives being targeted with cloud storage services exploits, impersonation attacks targeting legal, finance and administrative assistance, and social engineering attacks against the C-suite. “Cybercriminals are constantly adapting their email-based attacks, looking for new ways to bypass security solutions that rely too heavily on reputation-based detection or file signature matches,” said Matthew Gardiner, cybersecurity strategist at Mimecast. The best antivirus software for 2018http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/software-news/~4/_-3IAsBlDg4

The holidays are an expensive time, so we’re bringing you a special treat: a full, free Windows program to download every day until Christmas. Take a look behind door number 12 on our free downloads advent calendar to find Ashampoo Photo Optimizer – an incredibly quick way to get your snaps looking their best and ready to print. Download Ashampoo Photo OptimizerThe software analyzes your pictures for potential problems (unsaturated colors, excessively warm or cool color temperature, over or under exposure), and rectifies them with a single click. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/ChppQLic62oVBZeiau5Yn4.jpg The automatic optimization tool has been fine-tuned using feedback from 5,000 customers to make sure it delivers the results photographers are looking for. The software also includes quick tools for cropping, rotating, resizing, rotating and adjusting colors manually. Download it free and take it for a spin. Download provided by AshampooIn case you missed it...Day one: Ashampoo Burning Studio 2018Day two: Ashampoo WinOptimizer 2018Day three: Ashampoo Uninstaller 6Day four: Ashampoo Photo Commander 15Day five: Ashampoo Snap 9Day six: Ashampoo Backup 2018Day seven: Ashampoo UndeleterDay eight: Ashampoo Music Studio 2018Day nine: Ashampoo Disk-Space-ExplorerDay 10: Ashampoo Snap 2018Day 11: Ashampoo Photo Recoveryhttp://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/software-news/~4/Y4knkEtqZDY

Microsoft is in fresh hot water on the privacy front, with the apparent revelation that the data Windows 10 collects on what you’ve been doing on your PC is stored in the cloud – even if you’ve told the operating system not to upload it. This issue was flagged up by a Reddit user (as spotted by How-To Geek), and it’s quite easy to check it for yourself on your Windows 10 PC. Simply head into Settings > Privacy, and click on Activity History in the left-hand sidebar. Activity History records what you’ve been doing on your PC with apps, documents, and so forth, assuming that you allow Windows to collect information on these activities by ticking the relevant box. However, there’s also a box to ‘Let Windows sync my activities from this PC to the cloud’, and this is where things get thorny. Even if you’ve left this unchecked – in other words, you don’t want Windows to sync what you’ve been doing to the cloud – the operating system still goes ahead and does so. You can see a record of your activities online – even if said box is unchecked – by clicking on Privacy Dashboard (top-right, under ‘Know your privacy options’). You may have to log into the Microsoft account linked to your PC (if you aren’t already signed in), and after doing so, when you click on the Activity History tab, you’ll be presented with a full list of your activities. The apps you use, the website you’ve visited, and so forth. Just to underline that all this is recorded in the cloud even if you haven’t ticked the box to allow Microsoft to do so – and we all know there’s a world of difference between storing data on your PC, and online. Even worse, if you click the Clear Activity History button on the Windows 10 Activity History page under Settings, these details held in the cloud aren’t actually deleted at all. They remain present on your online Privacy Dashboard. Confusion reignsSo what’s really going on here? In short, this is all a rather confusing mess. There has been some speculation that this happens because folks have got their Windows 10 diagnostic data set on ‘full’ – this is another privacy-related option under Settings > Privacy > Diagnostic & Feedback – but the problem is evident on our PC, and we are set to ‘basic’ for diagnostic data (which doesn’t allow for sending info about the apps used, websites visited and so on). So this certainly seems like something Microsoft should address pronto, because in recent times, the company has been driving ahead with a major effort to make things more transparent on the privacy front where Windows 10 is concerned. Historically, the desktop operating system has not had a good track record on this front. Plus, incidents like this really don’t help reinforce any trust or goodwill Microsoft is attempting to accumulate when it comes to taking care of user data in a responsible manner. The relevant settings need to be adjusted so they actually work correctly, which doesn’t appear to be the case right now. This also highlights that the overall privacy settings still need a greater level of clarity (and should be collected all in one place), with it made easy for the user to see and adjust exactly what permissions they are giving Windows 10 concerning their data. Particularly when it comes to sending that data online. Some of the best laptops of 2018 run Windows 10Via Betanews http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/software-news/~4/r-9txGYzb84

As cities around the world are planning their own smart city initiatives, BlackBerry has announced that it will help the private and public sector join forces to accelerate the development of smart cities and intelligent transportation systems with a Security Credential Management System (SCMS) service. The company is addressing this need by offering automakers and public offices the use of its SCMS service with no service fees. BlackBerry's SCMS provides the mechanism for vehicles and infrastructure, such as traffic lights, to exchange information privately and in a trustworthy manner using digital certificates. As connected vehicles make their way onto public roads and exchange information with one another, they will require a security system to ensure that users can trust the validity of information received from other systems. Public key infrastructureThe SCMS service is based on BlackBerry's own Certicom technology and provides a secure and reliable hosted public key infrastructure (PKI) which can be used to manage certificates for an organisation or for an entire ecosystem. The service has also been designed to scale to support both national and transnational deployments. This allows OEMs and public officials to utilise a turnkey cloud-based service for vehicle-to-infrastructure (v2X) certificate issuance and lifecycle management. BlackBerry also has the ability to support hybrid SCMS solutions optimised for high-volume vehicle production. The company's executive chairman and CEO John Chen explained why it decided to make its SCMS service available to organisations and public offices, saying: “The future of autonomous vehicles cannot be realized until intelligent transportation systems are put in place. By removing barriers such as security, privacy, and cost, we believe our SCMS service will help accelerate the many Smart City and Connected Vehicle pilot programs taking place around the world.” Interested in smart cities? Check out our guide to the Internet of Things (IoT)http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/software-news/~4/l-dQ0taXP4U

Sick of typing out Instagram Direct messages like a chump? Well, you're in luck, because the latest version of the popular photo sharing app (ver. 73.0.0.22.185) now allows users to send their friends quick voice recordings. All you have to do in order to start communicating walkie-talkie style, is open any Direct message thread, then tap and hold the microphone icon to begin the voice recording process. Once you've offered your two cents, release your finger from the recording icon to send your voice message. This will work with either individual or group message threads. Unlike walkie-talkies, your messages will stick around, allowing your buddies to reply to your recordings at their leisure. The new feature arrives just six months after the introduction of video calling on the platform. Instagram Voice Messaging is available now for both iOS and Android devices. Image via TechCrunch Instagram now has photo descriptions for the visually impairedhttp://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/software-news/~4/p_fTjgMF6g0

Starting today, Amazon is trialling a new crowdsourcing program for its Alexa smart assistant - one that will look to users like you to fill in the gaps of its knowledge. (No pressure.) The Alexa Answers program has begun inviting select customers to take part in the beta, which allows you to browse through unanswered questions on various topics - science, technology, trivia, and the like - and offer your two cents. Those answers are then offered up to other users who can vote the suggestion up or down in order to rate its accuracy or helpfulness. There's no claim to fame for upvoted answers, sadly, but Alexa will let you know if its used "an Amazon customer" as a source. There are naturally filters for keeping out profane language; there will always be those determined to muck around, though we imagine Alexa will be able to prevent 'unhelpful' users from submitting ever more answers. The best Alexa skills and commands: what to ask your new Echo speakerHelp a brother outFor a smart assistant whose main use is in offering information to those who need it, Alexa sure can get things wrong. Alexa uses a variety of sources for gathering information from across the web - via Bing searches, online dictionaries, or crowdsourced sites like Wikipedia - with the margins for error that entails. The key thing to remember is that the internet is littered with mistakes and misinformation, and that inevitably trickles down to the answers users find on Google, Wikipedia, social media, and naturally AI like Alexa or Siri. Amazon already relies on human-sourced reviews for rating and advertising its products, so the Alexa Answers program is in some ways just a natural extension of that philosophy. Whether adding another human element to the mix will make things better, or worse, will depend on how motivated users are to help. Best Amazon Alexa deals this Christmas 2018: this year's stocking filler?Via The Verge http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/digital-home/~4/yFed-nyGCto

There's a lot of hype around holiday deals. It's fine to get excited about saving $10 or $20 on your favorite game or Blu-ray, but ridiculously good deals – like $150 off a $200 Amazon Echo Look – are hard to come by. That said, for today until it sells out, Amazon is offering its Amazon Echo Look (a style-savvy smart camera) for $49.99 – a 75% discount on its regular $199 MSRP. It's going to disappear fast, though! Blink, and you might miss it. (Get it?) Want Alexa without the camera?Not sold on the idea of style assistant? The Amazon Echo Dot (3rd Gen) is also on sale today for a less-impressive, but still-appreciated $29.99. While both the Amazon Echo Look and the Amazon Echo Dot come with Alexa built-in, the Dot focuses its attention on playing music, answering inquiries and helping you control your burgeoning smart home. It's one of our favorite budget gifts of 2018, and makes a good stocking stuffer. Speaking of gifts, don't miss TechRadar's 2018 Holiday Gift Guidehttp://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/digital-home/~4/Q8GE8u4G3yI

Neato Robotics create some of the best robot vacuum cleaners on the market, with unprecedented control over the movements and machinations of your obedient vacuum. Today, Neato is rolling out a new software update to allow users to customize their cleaning even further. The Botvac D7 Connected, Neato's flagship robot vacuum, is able to scan individual rooms to create its own virtual floor plan and figure out a practical cleaning route. Following the update, users will now be able to break those floor plans down into smaller 'zones' for more targeted cleaning – say, if there's a section of the carpet that regularly tracks in dirt, or part of the kitchen more prone to culinary debris. Users just have to open the Neato smartphone app and set the zone parameters – with the option of multiple, overlapping zones for whatever your cleaning needs are that day. The Botvac D7 connected retails for £799 / $799 (around AU$1,080). Thou shall not passThe update will also be enhancing the capabilities of the Neato Botvac D3 Connected vacuum, which offers more basic smart features and less suction / battery life than the D7 flagship. Instead of zone cleaning, the D3 Connected will instead be receiving a feature already available on the D7: 'No-Go Lines' to ensure parts of your home stay off limits during autonomous cleaning. The update arrives on Tuesday 4 December, for Neato app version 2.8.0 and robot software version 4.3.1. Both models are compatible with Apple Watch, or through voice-activated smart home speakers Amazon Echo and Google Home. Best robot vacuums 2018: get a robot to do the dirty work for youBest vacuum cleaners 2018: will cordless, wired, or robot vacuums catch your eye?http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/digital-home/~4/KyHnmkO3XL0

A smart home system is a smart investment. It can make your home energy efficient, safer, and a more fun place to be. But you need to make sure you make the right choice when you jump on-board. Don’t miss Bosch Smart Home. Bosch is a brand you can rely on. As well as being over 100 years old, established in 1886, it ranked no. 2 in YouGov’s 2018 index of UK home appliance brands. Bosch has now taken its famed expertise as a world leader in heating, power tools and almost every imaginable kind of home appliance, and applied it to the exciting new world of the smart home. Meet the Bosch smart homeBosch Smart Home offers a full array products, focused on making your home safer and more convenient, and saving energy. Made a start on your own smart home setup? Bosch’s family can already communicate with Amazon Alexa and Philips Hue. This is not an insular smart home system. But what products are in this family? The Bosch Smart Home Controller is heart of the system. It communicates with all your other Bosch Smart Home products, and lets you control them with the easy-to-use Bosch Smart Home mobile app for phones and tablets. Even if you’re stuck on the motorway 300 miles from your home Wi-Fi. For example, the Bosch Smart Home Radiator Thermostat lets you control your heating away from home. Or from the sofa. And unlike some smart heating systems, you can set the temperature per room, helping you save even more energy and money. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/vkxA7QpLrLnbirSmTPjXnJ.png Add several in different rooms and you can create a full zoned system, with a different schedule for each room. The Smart Home Smart Plug offers similar advanced control, but for any plug-in appliance you like, from TVs and game consoles to the lava lamp in the kids’ room. You just plug its adapter into the Smart Plug: no more worrying about whether you left something on after leaving home. You can just check on your phone or tablet, and switch things off from the Bosch app. Smart tech made for real homesBosch also knows it’s sometimes good to get away from constantly looking at screens, so it made the Smart Home Universal Switch. This lets you create endless custom “scenarios” switched between with a quick button press. Each applies different settings for your Bosch Smart Home devices. Perhaps you’ll want one scenario for normal evenings, one for movie night, one for weekends and another for when you leave the house for work. One of the more refreshing parts of the Bosch Smart Home system is that it doesn’t try to take over or change your home. All of the products are simple and unobtrusive, not the smart home equivalent of a prop from a sci-fi movie, even if what happens behind the scenes is just as clever. If you want to save energy, and make your home more convenient to control, you might want to buy Bosch’s Smart Home Climate Control Starter Kit. This includes two radiator thermostats, the Smart Home Controller and Door/Window Contact. These use a sensor that lets you know if you’ve left a window open or if someone tries to break in. You save on energy, and get peace of mind too. That brings us to the other side of the beach Smart Home: security and safety. Priceless peace of mindThe Smart Home Motion Detector sends you a notification when it detects motion while armed. It’s clever enough to be able to tell between an intruder and your cat too, and uses both infrared, so it can work in all lighting, and a temperature sensor. If your house is broken into, it can set off the companion Smart Home Smoke Detector. This is another great buy, and lets you call the emergency services direct from the app as soon as you receive a smoke alert. The other two core Bosch home security products, its cameras, can be used either on their own or with the wider system. You don’t necessarily need a Smart Home Controller. Bosch’s Indoor Camera is one of the most interesting smart home security cameras around. Its camera is motorised, letting it pan to cover a full 360 degrees. You get an even better view than an ultra-wide angle camera. The privacy mode also makes the camera lens retract into the base. You can assure any guests they aren’t being watched. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/mkJhM533gh26HsuVViBZmJ.png For outdoors use you’ll want the Eyes Outdoor camera. It can record clear 1080p HD video at day or night, doubles as a motion-activated security light and even an intercom thanks to its integrated microphone and speaker. Unusually for a smart home camera, there are no monthly payments to worry about here. There are no hidden fees or nasty surprises with the Bosch Smart Home system. And as the system has been tested and certified secure by independent IT security test provider AV-TEST, you can be sure you’re as protected from digital security threats as physical ones. To get your home primed with smart security, check out the Bosch Smart Home Security Starter Pack. This includes the Smart Home Controller, Smoke Detector, Motion Detector and a Smart Home Door/Window Contact. For more information on Bosch’s Smart Home range, head to its website and e-Shop here. http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/digital-home/~4/RmFVvDZ6WGc

After years of feuding, it looks as though Apple and Amazon are ready to make up and play nice. The first sign of a budding friendship? Apple is bringing its widely used Apple Music streaming service to Amazon Echo devices starting on December 17. It’s certainly a strange move for the two companies who have, at several points in the last few years, removed streaming services from one another’s platforms and refused to sell each other’s hardware in their respective stores – and that’s not even mentioning the fact that Apple has its own smart speaker, the Apple HomePod, that could use a little more attention – but it could be the start of something good. Whatever Apple’s motivation is, starting mid-December, you’ll be able to use the full breadth of Apple Music on Amazon Echo devices, according to a post on Amazon's Day One blog. That includes Beats Radio stations, Apple-curated playlists and access to the service’s massive song catalog. To use Apple Music on your Amazon Echo Show, Amazon Echo Dot or any other Amazon Echo device, you’ll need to enable the Apple Music skill from the Alexa Skill Store. Once enabled, you can use commands like "Alexa, play Bebe Rexha on Apple Music". Specifying Apple Music is important, remember, because the Echo also supports other big name streaming services like Pandora, Spotify, iHeartRadio and TuneIn. Don't expect Apple to stop gloating over how it made the best smart speaker now that Apple Music lives on Amazon Echo devices, but it might be the first signs of a thawing friendship between two of tech's biggest powerhouses. These are the best smart speakers in 2018http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/digital-home/~4/2ffNZpgbSYk

Have you ever wanted to speak to Santa? If you celebrated Christmas as a kid, then chances are that a phone call with the big guy was right at the top of your bucket list. Well, if you have a Google Assistant smart speaker like the Google Home (or you have Google Assistant on your smartphone), you can do just that thanks to one of seven new holiday-themed features from the tech giant. All you have to do is say "Hey Google, call Santa", and you'll be put through to the North Pole where Santa is busy rehearsing for a musical concert and needs your help to make his song the best it can be. If you have a smart display like the Google Home Hub, the call is also accompanied by fun graphics, which is fantastic for getting small children (and adults) into the Christmas spirit. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/mavUp7pboCpsq8umJ8gY5.jpg Google's Santa Tracker should also be up and running on December 24 Pretty pleaseThe call to Santa is only one of seven new features designed to enhance the holiday period for Google Assistant users; you can now have beloved Christmas stories read aloud to you with sound effects and music, sing along to your favorite songs with lyrics on your smart display with Google Play, and keep track of your gift ideas using notes and lists. Google Assistant now also recognizes when you say "please" and "thank you", and will give you an equally polite response in return, making the AI software more human-like than ever before. When combined with Google's annual Christmas program 'Santa Tracker', it looks like these new features could make the holiday period even more special for Google Assistant users – young, and old. The technology could make Google Assistant and Alexa better listenersVia MakeUseOf http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/digital-home/~4/kKSNJP5rkMk

BBC R&D has launched a new interactive radio drama for Amazon Alexa that's different for everyone who hears it. The Unfortunates is adapted from a BBC Radio 3 play starring Martin Freeman, which was based on an experimental 'book in a box' novel by BS Johnson. The story contained 27 unbound sections, with only the start and end points specified; the rest could be read in any order. The story, which was originally released in 1969, follows a sports journalist whose memories of a friend are triggered when he is sent to report on a football match, and according to the author, the format is intended to convey "the mind's randomness". The new radio drama is split into 17 sections, which are shuffled with each listen. As with Johnson's book, only the first and last chapters are fixed in place. Degrees of interactionLast year, BBC R&D released its first interactive audio drama for smart speakers: sci-fi story The Inspection Chamber. The production cast the listener in an active role, speaking with other characters as the story progressed. "[We] found a perfect example of a story we could bring to smart speakers, creating something which would sound and interact like a traditional radio programme but also take advantage of new technology"Henry Cooke, BBC R&D Afterwards, senior producer and creative technologist Henry Cooke carried out a detailed survey to find out how listeners felt about such productions, and discovered that people fell into two distinct groups. One set of listeners wanted more interaction, creating an experience more like a game, while the other preferred not to interact with a story once it was in motion. However, even among the latter group, people were interested in a story that could change in interesting ways; they just didn't want to be interacting with it constantly. While considering that split, Cooke had a conversation with his colleague Tom Armitage, who mentioned Radio 3's adaptation of Johnson's book. "We dug into it a little more, and found a perfect example of a story we could bring to smart speakers, creating something which would sound and interact like a traditional radio programme but also take advantage of new technology," says Cooke. Restoring randomnessThe order for the radio adaptation was picked live on a special edition of radio programme The Verb, but after that it was frozen, losing the randomness of the printed version. "Near the beginning of this year, I collaborated on a quick prototype with BBC R&D alumnus Tom Howe, chopping up the Radio 3 broadcast back up into its parts and building a player for Alexa which shuffled those parts into a new order – essentially, a randomized playlist," says Cooke. "We then took that version to a meeting with the Radio 3 creative team – producer Mary Peate and writer Graham White – who had no idea what we’d been up to! "Luckily, they loved what we’d done to their show, and were very supportive of our new version. This meant that the hard work of building out our prototype into a full skill could begin." Cooke has described the full process of adapting the drama for smart speakers on the BBC R&D blog, including how the team overcame challenges like managing she sheer number of audio assets, controlling the flow of conversation, and creating artwork for Amazon Echo devices with screens (like the Echo Show). The interactive version of The Unfortunates is free to download. To listen, ask your Alexa device to enable The Unfortunates, find it in the Alexa Skill Store, or get it from the BBC Taster website. The best smart speakers 2018http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/digital-home/~4/c6I8pLYfhlc

The bass is back. That’s right, the most popular gift of 1999, Big Mouth Billy Bass, has returned; and this time it’s smarter with help from Amazon’s Alexa digital assistant. Gemmy Industries – the company you had no idea was behind the first Big Mouth Billy Bass, and which also makes those hideous blow-up Christmas lawn ornaments – has made Bluetooth connectivity the hallmark feature of Billy’s triumphant return. With this, the talking bass placard can pair with an Amazon Echo speaker for enhanced features. How could you possibly improve the technological marvel that is Billy Bass, you ask? Well, now the thing can dance to the beat of Amazon Music played through an Echo speaker, for one. Alexa pairing also allows the doodad to respond to Alexa voice commands, lip syncing the speaker’s responses and reacting to timers, notifications and alarms you've set through Alexa. Oh, and Billy sings his very own song titled Fishin’ Time – whoever owns Don’t Worry, Be Happy must have lawyered up. Anyway, the new-and-improved Billy Bass was made possible using Amazon’s Alexa Gadgets Toolkit development suite for device makers, and costs $39.99 (about £31, AU$55) on Amazon for pre-order. An expensive gag gift, but a limitless one. These are the best smart speakers – bar nonehttp://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/digital-home/~4/CMDvwwVjHT0

Microsoft Build is starting in just a few days, and with it we’ll see what Microsoft has in store for us in the coming year. With the first keynote starting around 8:30am PST (11:30am ET / 4:30pm BST / 1:30am AEST) on May 7, 2018 – Microsoft has a lot to talk about, with Redstone 5 and Microsoft Office likely being at the center. Some of the major updates we’re expecting to see at Microsoft Build 2018 teases of Redstone 5 (the codename for the next major Windows 10 update), Windows Mixed Reality updates and some AI news. It’s unlikely that Microsoft will announce anything beyond software, so you shouldn’t be expecting the next Surface devices here. So, let’s dive in to what we expect to see next week during the Microsoft Build 2018 keynotes. And, be sure to keep this page bookmarked, as we’ll keep it updated throughout next week. Cut to the chase What is it? Microsoft’s developer conference When is it? May 7 - 9, 2018http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/fNtdxhC4MvRcHfmtUE75FY.jpg How to watchIf you don’t want to pay the $2,000 to attend the event in-person, you can fortunately watch the keynotes for free right here from the comfort of your home. You’ll be able to catch them live on May 7 and 8 at 8:30am PT (11:30am ET / 4:30pm BST / 1:30am AEST). What we expect to seeMicrosoft Build is sure to include some impressive updates for Windows 10, new software, advanced in AR and VR, here everything we expect from the show next week. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/P8PXpL3eMC8k4wZm77e5Ji.png Redstone 5Sure, we just got the Windows 10 April 2018 Update, but Windows Insiders are already testing Redstone 5. So, we expect to hear a bit about the exciting features rumored for the next major update to the landmark operating system. This is the update where we’re expecting to see Microsoft’s cool new Sets feature – which will allow users to group different apps and websites together in one window, much like tabs in a web browser. We’re also expecting to see some quality-of-life improvements to the Windows 10 Taskbar and Search. Office 365/Office 2019It might not be the most exciting thing to non-professionals, but we’re expecting a focus on Microsoft Office 2019. The software maker just released a preview build of Office 2019 for businesses, and seeing how we haven’t seen a perpetual release of Office since 2016 – Microsoft Office 2019 is going to be a big deal. We probably won’t see much for Office 365, as users already have access to all of the new features in Office 2019 – rolling updates is the main selling point, after all. However, that doesn’t mean that Microsoft doesn’t have any surprises up its sleeve. We’ll just have to wait and see. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/trSxsnYDQzUYfDVmpbUkX9.jpg Windows Mixed RealityWe just got a slew of Mixed Reality updates in the Windows 10 April 2018 Update, but we don’t think Microsoft is going to slow down here. We’re not sure exactly what Microsoft has planned for Mixed Reality in Redstone 5 and beyond, but we’re expecting to at least see a continuation of their recent efforts to improve performance and ease-of-use. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/f2ac0ca97b5666b35a48c5bfa9d948f5.jpg More AIAI is one of the biggest things in the tech industry in 2018, and Microsoft has already made huge steps to capitalize on it – and you can be sure it’ll be a huge focus at Microsoft Build 2018. Windows Machine Learning (WinML) is an API allows developers to incorporate machine learning models into their apps. And, because WinML is a relatively recent technology, we’re expecting Microsoft to go into a lot of detail about it. This is a developer event, after all. Whether it’s improvements to the WinML API introduced in the Windows 10 April 2018 Update or just showing off its capabilities to developers, we expect a lot of sessions to focus around AI, its capabilities and maybe some new features. Azure and the cloudAzure, Microsoft’s cloud computing service, has always been a big piece of the Build conferences and we see no reason for the trend to stop now. Especially as the segment grew by whopping 17% according to the company’s latest quarterly financial results. As with previous events, we expect Microsoft to wax on about all the improvements they’ve made and how it will meet developers’ every demand. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/CkPygi2B8nccSSRbJuwT3c.jpg Smart home and IoT devicesIt isn’t hard to see that in 2018, Microsoft is a little bit behind Google and Amazon when it comes to the smart home. However, we can see Microsoft trying to implement its Cortana virtual assistant into more devices – perhaps even announcing some new hardware partnerships. Thanks to the Cortana Skills Kit, Cortana is more capable than ever before – and even cares if you live or die. So, we should see Cortana improve over time, it has a huge install base, after all – it’s a potential goldmine. As for what devices Cortana will make an appearance on? Who knows. However, the Harman Kardon Invoke, while it wasn’t particularly popular, was still a promising device, so we may see a follow-up. http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/software-news/~4/FEH4TR-Smtw

While Memorial Day commemorates fallen military men and women, it has also come to symbolically mark the start of summer. Relatedly, it's also one of the biggest shopping weekends, with Memorial Day sales being some of the most popular retail events of the year. As with other big shopping days, you'll see just about everything on sale, from clothing to appliances and everything in between. When it comes to consumer tech, the best deals will be on older models as stores begin to make a concerted effort to clear out old stock in time for the winter holidays. If you don't mind last year's televisions or laptops, you could score a good deal. The best deals, though, will be on appliances, specifically things for the kitchen. It's the best time of the year to buy a new refrigerator, as well as small appliances. Department stores and home improvement stores like Home Depot, who had discounts of up to 50% off last year, will offer some of the best prices of the weekend. When will Memorial Day sales begin?This year Memorial Day falls on May 28, but that doesn't mean you'll have to wait until to shop Memorial Day sales. Unlike Black Friday, stores will unveil their deals days — if not weeks — before the actual holiday. The holiday weekend begins two days earlier on May 26, but judging from past years, we may see Memorial Day sales start as early as the second week of May. Memorial Day sales retailer quick linksHome DepotWalmartAmazonSam's ClubJetSearsJCPenneyMacy'sKmartCostcoLowe'sOffice Depot & Office MaxKohl'sTop Memorial Day salesBe sure to bookmark this page and check back regularly as we'll be updating with sale prices as they come in!http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/digital-home/~4/UHO1cPlQ-70

Whenever you’re sent an important document via email – maybe a contract or an invoice – it’s likely that it will be in PDF format. Adobe invented the PDF back in 1993, so it’s not only one of the most commonly used files, but a veteran file format, too. The main aim of the PDF (Portable Document Format) is to send important information to another person quickly and easily. Despite the fact that this file type is so old, its capabilities haven’t changed much over the years. It’s still a highly versatile way to combine text and multimedia within one document. Another reason why PDF files have become commonplace in today’s interconnected world is that they work with almost all applications, hardware and operating systems. These documents use the PostScript language, which makes it possible to display a range of text fonts, graphics and other media in a single, universal file. Of course, while virtually all operating systems support PDFs, that’s not to say they can handle everything that pertains to this file format. Upon receiving a PDF, you should be able to view it in your browser without any trouble, but what if you want to print the file out, for example? Fonts or other formatting may not come out quite right, and these elements aren’t exactly easily tweaked from the OS level. However, that’s why PDF readers exist: not only do these apps allow you to easily view and print PDFs, but they often give you tools to pull off more advanced tricks like editing, converting or sharing these documents with ease. In this article, we’ve picked out five of the best PDF reader apps for Mac users. We’ve also highlighted the best free PDF readershttp://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/KnK3ZCRECx5CUKeLr7eqmF.jpg PDF Reader Premium Available to download directly from the Mac App Store, PDF Reader Premium from Kdan Software is one of the most powerful and popular PDF management tools for Apple computers. It functions as a file manager, file converter and page editor. With the software, you can easily edit PDF files by adding freehand writing, text boxes, sticky notes, hyperlinks and annotations. And to ensure that important documents don’t get mixed up, you’re able to label them by adding tags and color-coding. What’s more, to keep track of all your saved files, you can make use of an import history feature. The app works with iCloud, too, meaning you can back up and access saved documents on an iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad. There’s even compatibility with Dropbox, so you can easily import documents from devices that run on other operating systems. Overall, you should find the app smooth and quick to use. It’s powered by a proprietary rendering engine, which aims to ensure that large files are processed and loaded without any lag. Currently, the app costs $59.99 (£42), although there is a free version that you can try before you purchase. You can download PDF Reader Premium herehttp://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/3UW3mpZpaoQwW8pnrVumdW.jpg iSkysoft PDF Editor If you’re looking for a powerful business-targeted document management tool for the Mac, then it’s definitely worth checking out iSkysoft PDF Editor. The software makes it a breeze to create, edit, convert, sign and watermark PDF documents. Used by the likes of IBM, Pfizer, Colliers International and Nike, the app is one of the most versatile PDF management tools out there. It offers some nifty time-saving capabilities like batch processing, which is handy if you have a host of documents that need uploading and editing at the same time. So, for example, you can convert, number and watermark hundreds of identical PDFs. You also get optical character recognition (OCR) here, allowing you to scan and turn PDF documents into editable and searchable files. Furthermore, you can add signatures to electronic documents, which is handy in many areas of business. And if you’re working with documents that contain sensitive data, as is likely the case, you’ll appreciate the security features iSkysoft has implemented, including the ability to password protect documents. A single license costs $99.95 (£72), but there is a free trial available to give the product a spin first. You can download iSkysoft PDF Editor herehttp://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/FfaFGidgzYH6iZMQz3XY6m.jpg Adobe Acrobat Pro DC Adobe not only invented the trusty PDF document in the first place, but the company has also created some top-notch apps to manage them. Acrobat Pro DC is a great example, and it supports both Windows and Mac devices. The software allows you to create, edit and convert PDF files with ease. Whether you happen to be using a desktop PC, laptop or tablet, Acrobat lets you turn any paper document into a PDF file. You just have to snap a photo of the piece of paper and upload it to Adobe’s platform, then you can subsequently edit it. Acrobat also lets you convert PDFs into any Microsoft Office file format, preserving all fonts and formatting. Thanks to integration with Excel, you can even edit data in scanned tables, making it easier to edit and analyze financial data. Just like Kdan Software’s PDF Reader Premium, you can keep track of the changes you and your colleagues make to PDF documents. Acrobat is capable of detecting the differences between two versions of the same PDF, too. You can sign up for a business plan for £15.17 ($21) a month, which gives you the option to add more team members in the future. You can download Adobe Acrobat Pro DC herehttp://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/PsecY88YKkxa2aaAwuBKzV.jpg PDF Expert PDF Expert is a robust and easy-to-use solution for managing business documents. And with a four-and-a-half star rating in the Mac App Store, it seems to be one of the most popular options out there for Mac users. The software gives you the ability to read, edit and annotate PDF documents from a central dashboard. One of the great things about PDF Expert is that it’s fast and slick to use. Thanks to smooth scrolling and a fast search function, you can quickly find what you’re looking for across multiple PDF files. This app lets you edit images, text and links, plus the software can automatically detect fonts, size and opacity of writing. Plus, if you happen to own an iPad Pro and Apple Pencil, you can add annotations and notes to documents on-the-go. Like most PDF apps out there, PDF Expert comes with a free download option, but the premium plan costs £54.49 ($75). You can download PDF Expert herehttp://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/NRjKfx5SGdb5bSWFuVicTh.jpg PDFelement Wondershare has developed a Mac version of the popular PDFelement app, which is positioned as an easy way to edit PDF documents. It gives you the tools to add text, images, links, backgrounds, watermarks, headers and footers to PDF documents. The software provides an extensive selection of PDF editing options. Not only can you add text to documents, but you can also tweak the font type, size and style. There’s the ability to rotate, extract, replace and crop images too. PDFelement is a great option for teams in particular, with powerful collaborative capabilities, letting you add sticky notes, comments, text boxes and more. And you can use the tool to fill out business documents such as contracts and tax forms. The software costs $59.95 (£42), but once again, you can sign up for a free trial. You can download PDFelement herehttp://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/software-news/~4/bo4MNmtXeGA

Smart speakers, virtual assistants or smart home speakers, whatever name you decide to call them, they're pretty cool, unbelievably handy and aren't going anywhere anytime soon. In fact recent reports reveal the best smart speakers are now owned by one in six Americans and UK smart speaker ownership has doubled in six months. That's because many consider smart speakers to be the future of home automation, not only controlling your smart home devices, like your Philips Hue bulbs or your smart locks. But they also contain the smarts within them to manage your schedule, record your shopping list and even learn more and more about your preferences over time. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/kBQXXsfmZ7rnqmPhVaTDGd.jpg Each of the speakers in our guide below has something called an artificial intelligence (or AI) inside of them. All of the tasks above (and many, many more) are carried out with help from the AI and without it, the Amazon Echo, Google Home and Apple HomePod would just be regular old speakers. All of the smart speakers below are more than capable of making your smart home smarter, playing tunes and keeping tabs on your family. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/Va9Qkj3qCgHafJXfeMrzMR.jpg But we know you're here because you want to find the best smart speaker for you - the one that plays nicely with the devices you already have, understands you the best and, ultimately, sounds the best when it's time to rock out. So take a look at our guide below and find one that suits your current set-up, your budget and the aesthetics of your home. Remember: Be sure to keep checking back, as we'll be updating this list with the best smart speakers, as well as the top rumors of the new speakers to expect soon at the end. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/YatiiLLqFqRSTTn8y44bNJ.jpg The highly-anticipated Apple HomePod finally entered the smart speaker battle for your bookshelf in early 2018. The obvious benefit of an Apple HomePod over an Echo or Google Home device is that it'll play nice with your other Apple products. So if you're a die-hard Apple fan the HomePod may be a no-brainer. But it's worth asking the same question you should always be asking yourself when you want to splurge on a new Apple product: how much of a premium should you pay for owning a device that fits only seamlessly into the Apple ecosystem? When we reviewed the device we were torn because we were really reviewing two things at once: how the HomePod weighs up as a premium speaker and how it fares as a smart home hub. In the former category, the HomePod is excellent, it boasts incredible sound and a very intuitive set-up. But in the latter Siri is only middling in its implementation, and the fact that you're not able to break out of the Apple ecosystem for many key functions also rankles. Read our full review here: Apple HomePod reviewAlready got a HomePod? Check out our guide to the best tips and trickshttp://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/M6eoMWCckYFnpJKM9WjSgB.jpg http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/6U6493TjzNqjiUJ4t8WNTV.jpg If you're after a smart speaker that's affordable and sounds good quality enough to play your favorite tracks, the latest version of the Amazon Echo is your safest bet. In fact it's our current top pick for the best smart speaker on the market right now. The newest, 2nd generation Echo sounds better than Amazon's Echo Dot, but it's cheaper than the Echo Plus and Apple's HomePod. We don't think you should be using it to replace your hifi, but it's a really great place to start if you want to try out what the smart home life is like. Amazon has also improved the Echo's style since the first version was released in 2015. The new fabric finishes will suit most living rooms better than the brushed aluminium of the original. The only downside is the Echo doesn't have the neat volume dial of Amazon's Echo Plus. It's also worth mentioning that Alexa often doesn't seem quite as intelligent as Google Assistant. At the price, though, it's a great option that should suit most people's needs. Read our full review here: Amazon Echo Review (2018)http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/M6eoMWCckYFnpJKM9WjSgB.jpg http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/acKySqa5piHKF9g6feVE3j.jpg For starters, you might never appreciate just how much music is on YouTube without buying a Google Home. We’re not saying Google Home is capable of playing any song you can think of, but after dredging the depths of the ’90s we still couldn’t find a tune Google Home couldn’t find. While Google Home excels as a DJ, it’s also a surprisingly intelligent smart home hub. It already hooks into some of the largest platforms now available by including Nest, Philips and Samsung’s SmartThings, and given a few months that number will grow even more. But we're torn when it comes to recommending the Google Home. In some ways it's disappointing and doesn't live up to be the coveted center of the smart home Google has marketed it as. That's because it's just not there yet. It’s a little too rigid in its language comprehension, its list of smart home devices is growing but still a bit underwhelming, and, perhaps the biggest disappointment of all, it doesn’t have many of Google’s core services built into it. It has the potential to develop to compete with Amazon's Echo in the future, but for now the Google Home is simply a smart novelty with access to YouTube Music, built-in Google Cast and the ability to save you a trip to the light switch. It's also worth mentioning a more recent update: Google Home can now make calls to landlines in the UK! This was a feature unveiled at last year's Google IO, and has now finally made its way into the home. Read our full review here: Google Home Reviewhttp://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/M6eoMWCckYFnpJKM9WjSgB.jpg http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/aKfXqNipKmifRrYCfMsuDZ.jpg Ultimate Ears is an audio brand that's known for its great quality and sturdy Bluetooth speakers. With its new Megablast speaker it’s gone and thrown Amazon’s Alexa smart assistant into the mix. The result is one of the best-looking and sounding portable speakers around with the Megablast. And thanks to the Amazon Alexa integration, it's also one of the smartest too. With the Megablast you get the 360-degree sound, portability and durability of the excellent UE Boom speaker with the smarts of an Echo. It’s a marriage made in speaker heaven. But unfortunately, it's still lacking some key features months after launch and for those looking for a straightforward smart speaker, its price may be too high. The Amazon Echo is significantly less expensive than this speaker. At $299.99 / £269.99 (and that's not even including the dock) the Megablast will set you back more than the most recent Amazon Echo or a Sonos One speaker. Overall, the Megablast is a great addition to the Ultimate Ears lineup and may be its best sounding speaker yet. It hasn’t quite lived up to all of our expectations but when it gets Alexa support for a wider range of music services and can create a multi-room speaker network it’ll be pretty close. Read our full review here: Ultimate Ears Megablast Reviewhttp://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/M6eoMWCckYFnpJKM9WjSgB.jpg http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/krB3xdvs2gXzV49vmmcvaJ.jpg In many ways, the Home Mini is similar to the Amazon Echo Dot. It's Google’s attempt at getting the Assistant into as many homes as possible. The huge amount of capabilities that the Google Home brings, in addition to its minimal, premium build and its low price make it an instant star. This means if you’re in the market for a cheap speaker, the Google Home Mini will do the trick for many. But do keep in mind that it’s best viewed as a supplement to the Home family rather than the foundation. This device’s specialty, aside from being oh-so smart, is mainly to reward those who are already within Google’s Cast-enabled ecosystem with a cheap, new device. Yes, the Google Home Mini is less than half the price of the larger Google Home, and half its size, too; however, it just doesn’t sound like we’re getting half its performance – we’re getting something a bit less. Read our full review: Google Home Mini Reviewhttp://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/XHoRBAbgRZC3LjL6dZaaeB.jpg The Echo Show, like the Echo before it, is more of a fun, ancillary device rather than a true necessity or smart home hub in its own right. The addition of the 7-inch touchscreen is unique, and helps separate the Show from the crowd. Like the 5MP camera, the Show hasn’t quite made the most of the touchscreen, but that can – and likely will – change down the road. However, it adds value by combining devices you already have and ones you could buy at a lower price elsewhere – just look at the Amazon Echo Dot, for example. But all-together the Show is a marked improvement on the original Echo, and one that deserves a spot on your kitchen counter. Read our full review: Amazon Echo Show Reviewhttp://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/M6eoMWCckYFnpJKM9WjSgB.jpg http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/HVWU6LjKB298ninxbajvXd.jpg Sonos’ debut Alexa speaker is a cleanly-designed, feature-rich and great-sounding device that brings together the best of both ecosystems. You’ve got the ever-improving Alexa on the one hand, and on the other you’ve got Sonos with its own multi-room smarts. The one downside is that it initially launched without Spotify voice support, but this has now been remedied. If you’re prepared to pay the price premium over Amazon’s own Echo speaker, the One is a very capable device. It feels as though the Sonos One could eventually end up being the perfect Alexa speaker. Fundamentally this is because it’s underpinned by audio quality that’s a step above what’s available on Amazon’s current generation of Echo hardware, but it’s a speaker that also integrates fantastically well with the rest of Sonos’ multi-room lineup. Yes, it was certainly a shame that it launched without support for the most popular streaming service in the world, Spotify, but kudos to Sonos for bringing out the update in good time. The speaker is now just as effective as an Amazon Echo at playing your music, and sounds much better than Amazon's own speaker. With Google Assistant support expected in 2018 and many more updated to Alexa sure to come over the years, the Sonos One is only going to get better over time. Read our full review here: Sonos One Reviewhttp://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/M6eoMWCckYFnpJKM9WjSgB.jpg http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/95Z2QVnzVrfjG9MG9Pa7mK.jpg Amazon’s Echo Dot is a great little product. It maintains almost everything that made the original Echo so great, while also bringing a substantial cut in price. Being able to use an external speaker means the Dot is genuinely a great way of listening to music around the house, but its internal speaker is also surprisingly adept at dealing with simpler requests too. If you’re curious about the Amazon Echo experience, then the Dot is a great way of trying it out at a much cheaper price, and in some ways its audio output options mean it’s actually the superior device. We’re not quite living in the age of Tony Stark’s Jarvis just yet, but if developers continue to rally behind Alexa by developing ever more intelligent skills, then the future may be just around the corner. Read our full review here: Amazon Echo Dot Reviewhttp://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/M6eoMWCckYFnpJKM9WjSgB.jpg http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/JUkfPHh4hhvhMfeVPn96QC.jpg The JBL Link 300 is a great sounding Google Home speaker that gets loud and pumps out loads of bass. While not everyone will like the warm tonal balance, the speaker represents good value compared to the competition. We hope Google and JBL can work to make its voice detection better via a software update. The JBL Link 300 is the sweet spot in the company’s Google Home speaker line. For the money, you get a good-sounding speaker that gets loud, drops serious bass and features handy physical controls. Its design may be a little forgettable, but that’s forgiven since the speaker works so well. The speaker isn’t perfect though. Voice recognition is average, as we have to shout at the speaker when music is playing loudly. There’s also no way to make voice calls currently, which is something that the cheaper Google Home and Google Home Mini can do out of the box. Up against competitors, the Sonos One offers more balanced sound, but only supports Amazon Alexa at the moment. The company promises to bring Google Assistant support to the speaker in 2018, but the feature hasn’t appeared yet. Read our full review here: JBL Link 300 Smart Speaker Reviewhttp://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/M6eoMWCckYFnpJKM9WjSgB.jpg http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/iBwWyyXfRVRUUksWGfAcdV.jpg The Amazon Echo Plus is the higher-end choice among its tower speakers. You should consider buying one if you want decent sound quality but don't want the display of the Echo Show or Echo Spot. It's louder and bassier than the standard Echo, particularly useful for music. Does it sound as good as the Sonos One? No. But like Amazon’s other Echo gadgets, its price is competitive. It costs $149.99 (£139.99) with a Philips Hue bulb included to kick-start your smart home future. Like other smart home systems, Amazon Alexa is a work in progress. However, it’s easy to recommend the Amazon Echo Plus. It’s a convenient one-stop solution for both audio, smart assistant functions and Internet of Things controls, with Alexa still going strong as the most feature-rich voice assistant. But the strength of the Echo range, especially at the lower price tiers, still makes these top-of-the-line models a harder sell. The Echo Dot has comparable smarts for a fraction of the price, it just doesn't sound as good. Likewise, the built-in smart hub is a great addition, but isn’t yet feature-complete, meaning committed smart home users may not want to make the jump just yet. In short, if you’re looking to enter the world of the connected home, the Echo Plus is a great place to start. Just be aware that more economical options may, for the time being at least, suit your needs just as well. Read our full review here: Amazon Echo Plus Reviewhttp://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/M6eoMWCckYFnpJKM9WjSgB.jpg http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/dP8LtKvfYYZuQ8dZ5wrLQk.jpg The UE Blast is a portable Bluetooth speaker first and a smart speaker second. The inclusion of Alexa makes the Blast useful in the home when paired with the optional Power Up dock - but, even when you're away from Wi-Fi, the Blast is still an excellent-sounding Bluetooth speaker. The UE Blast is a slightly confusing product as its tries to be both a smart and portable speaker. As a portable speaker that you don’t have to worry about taking to the beach, the Blast is excellent like the older Boom 2. However, don’t expect the UE Blast to be great in the home with its poor voice recognition and lack of the included dock. When smart speaker competitors like the Sonos One retail for about the same price, it’s hard to justify using the UE Blast in the home as the Sonos One works with the company’s mutli-room technology and platform that supports just about every streaming music service under the sun. Plus, you’ll get the option of using Google Assistant in a future update. Read our full review here: Ultimate Ears Blast Reviewhttp://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/M6eoMWCckYFnpJKM9WjSgB.jpg http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/5yoe7KpvzhZNQ5BQ3SRJuL.jpg In our opinion, the Amazon Echo Spot is the best-designed Alexa device Amazon has ever created; it’s a gadget you’d happily have in your bedroom, on your desk, in your kitchen. The Spot is versatile - it doesn’t have a chameleon-like ability to adapt to the room you put it in but this is certainly not just a smart alarm clock, something Amazon has been very clear about. It does everything the Echo Show does, but it all feels better in this smaller form factor. The design is great - it's available in black and white - and we can easily see the Spot being used in the bedroom, kitchen or even on a desk. In fact, you may want it in all of these places. That's the thing with the Amazon Echo Spot – much like other Echo devices, Amazon wants you to have a multitude of them in your home so you always have access to video chat no matter where you are. Essentially, they want the Echo Spot to replace the Echo Dot. The Amazon Echo Spot is a little more expensive than the new Echo, though, and in turn much more expensive than an Echo Dot. This is because of the addition of the screen. While we still haven't seen that killer Skill for the screen, it does enhance the look of the Spot and opens up the possibilities for it being much more than just a smart speaker. We’re just hoping that Amazon’s Skills become much more video friendly - once this happens, the Amazon Echo Spot will become an absolute must have. Read our full review here: Amazon Echo Spot Reviewhttp://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/M6eoMWCckYFnpJKM9WjSgB.jpg What could be coming soon?They're all of the best smart speakers on the market right now, but with the huge success of these voice-activated smart home assistants, this selection is likely to be just the beginning. Right now a number of other companies, including some of the biggest names in tech, are also working on their own smart home audio products. Whether they shake-up the market or turn out to be a load of hot air remains to be seen. But in the meantime, here are just a few of the highly-anticipated upcoming releases and rumors circulating right now: http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/spxMbb6KgdEAjHK932ZqeM.jpg Spotify smart speaker There are loads of speakers on the market that already allow you to connect your Spotify account. But that doesn't mean the popular streaming service can't make its own product to compete with the biggest names in tech. Rumors suggest Spotify has been working on its own voice search interface, but it hasn't yet lifted the lid on a speaker that could compete with the likes of the Amazon Echo or Google Home. That hasn't stopped us from dreaming up what a Spotify smart speaker might look, sound and behave like. Read our Spotify speaker wish-list, what we want to see in a Spotify smart speaker. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/aoygpqA6qEkXdNkmvUHyse.jpg Facebook's smart speaker is rumored to offer almost twice the screen real estate as LG's 8-inch WK9 Smart Speaker. Facebook smart speaker According to recent reports, Facebook is working on not one but two smart speakers. Based on a report from Digitimes, Facebook may be looking to jump into smart speaker market with two devices focused more on the luxury crowd, developed by their Building 8 division and slated for release by July 2018. Codenamed “Aloha” and “Fiona”, these devices will launch with 15-inch touchscreens built by LG Display—more than doubling the Echo Show’s screen size. They will support voice commands, and will focus on “video chat” and other unnamed “social networking functions”. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/BpjUk7iDxSPuPekg6vtEhc.jpg Samsung Bixby smart speaker 2018 could be the year that Samsung fans, especially those who bought into Samsung’s SmartThings ecosystem, will finally get their comeuppance. In a report from Bloomberg, sources told the publication that 2018 will be the year Samsung’s smart speaker should be announced and be available to buy. We're yet to get an official release date, but it looks like it'll be on the way soon. While the sources couldn’t provide too many details on the shape, size or feature-set of the speaker, they did corroborate earlier reports that it would utilise Bixby, Samsung’s proprietary smart assistant that works like Apple’s Siri or Amazon’s Alexa. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/Hj7bCGQUW4ACjtQ8c5W2Ro.jpg Everything is a smart speaker Maybe the future isn't about which smart speaker you should buy after all, but will be much more focused on integrating voice-activated smart assistants into other products. Earlier this year at CES, lots of manufacturers were boasting of voice assistant integration; Alexa and Google Assistant found their way into cars, bathroom mirrors, and even smoke alarms. While that may sound a little gimmicky, it actually solves one of the major niggling points of the smart home: you want to have access to your voice assistant in every room but don’t really want to fill your home with speakers. Don't miss our Amazon Echo vs Google Home vs Apple HomePod showdownhttp://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/digital-home/~4/pf6uLBuuW5U

Microsoft has released a new preview build of Windows 10 which contains a host of changes, including a fresh spin on screen grabbing and a small but useful tweak to Focus Assist that gamers will appreciate. Build 17661 is for Redstone 5, the update expected to arrive towards the end of the year (which we might anticipate will be thrillingly called, let’s say, Windows 10 November 2018 Update). It has been delivered to those on the ‘fast ring’ as well as ‘skip ahead’ testers (and going forward, those on the ‘fast ring’ will receive RS5 builds, following the release of the April 2018 Update). In this build, Microsoft is offering what it describes as a ‘modern snipping experience’, which aims to more effectively allow you to screen grab, and scribble notes on those grabs. Now you can hit ‘Windows key + Shift + S’ (or you can change this to simply hitting Print Screen, or a pen button – if you have a stylus) to bring forth a snipping toolbar that allows you to take a grab of the full screen, or snip a rectangle or freeform shape. This is dropped straight into the clipboard, and a notification pops up allowing you to swiftly open the Screen Sketch app with your snip inside (letting you annotate it and so forth). Yes, Screen Sketch has been made into a standalone app – it was previously part of the Windows Ink Workspace – meaning it gets all the benefits of being an application, such as updates from the Microsoft Store, support for multiple windows, and indeed multiple tabs within Sets. Speaking of Sets, this is Microsoft’s new feature which brings the concept of tabs from the web browser to the wider desktop interface, and ‘skip ahead’ testers have been playing with it for several builds now. They will continue to do so, and most new ‘fast ring’ testers will now also get Sets, although for the time being, a minority won’t. Presumably that will change in time. Afford focusAnd gamers will appreciate that Focus Assist – the ‘do not disturb’ mode that kills notifications, previously known as Quiet Hours – turns itself on automatically when you’re playing a game (although you can always disable that behavior, should you wish). http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/iL6gzkzhN79fp59TXyyFYb.jpg Furthermore, Microsoft has pushed forward with the Fluent Design interface, and Task View now gets the benefit of acrylic (a nifty blur effect for the background). Windows Defender Security Center has also been given a more succinct name: Windows Security. Bigger changes are in the pipeline here, with Microsoft promising refinements in terms of the presentation of actions which demand the user’s attention. On top of that, there’s the usual big list of general tweaks and fixes, which you can digest in full if you want to peruse Microsoft’s blog post. We’ve highlighted the best laptops of 2018http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/software-news/~4/Eu9cFbXuYgs

Best TVs for Gaming Buying Guide: Welcome to TechRadar's round-up of the best 4K TVs for PS4 and Xbox you can buy for any budget in 2018. If you're a console gamer, finding the right TV can be a hassle. PC gamers have it easy - all they need to do is find a monitor with a 4K resolution and wickedly fast refresh rate and hit the buy button. Us console gamers have it tougher. That said, nothing is impossible. No high score is too high and no achievement is locked forever. Just like every other challenge, you can conquer this, too. The good news is that you have an ally on the field of battle - us! We're here to help you pick out the best 4K HDR TV that plays nicely with all your consoles, whether you're a member of PlayStation Nation with a PS4 and PS4 Pro, or an Xbox Elite and boast the Xbox One X or Xbox One S. Us console gamers gotta stick together. Specc'd to winSo what exactly does a TV need to be able to do these days to unlock your full gaming potential? Let’s start with arguably the most basic requirement: 4K. Resolution revolution: The Xbox One S outputs all of its games in 4K, achieved via surprisingly good built-in upscaling. The PS4 Pro outputs games in 4K too, using a mix of upscaling and in-game enhancement. The Xbox One X, meanwhile, has been designed with enough power to drive more games than ever before with native, game engine-integrated 4K support. Yes, you can still get non-4K Xbox One and PS4 consoles, and the Nintendo Switch isn’t interested in 4K either. And yes, non-4K games will have to be upscaled by a 4K TV, so won’t be totally ‘pure’. However, upscaling is remarkably good on the best 4K TVs now, and can be done without adding significant delay to the time it takes a TV to render pictures. 4K resolution can be transformative, especially on big screens. And basically 4K is just the way everything is going now (both in the gaming and video worlds), so not being set up for it with your new TV just doesn’t make sense. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/x3EPnYVg6E7URfryqPpeoT.jpg Change your range: Sitting right alongside 4K in today’s video world is high dynamic range (HDR) technology. This delivers pictures with a much wider light range than the standard dynamic range pictures we’ve been living with for decades in a bid to get the pictures we’re seeing on our screens looking closer to the way our eyes see the real world. The Xbox One S supports HDR on some of its games, and via some of its streaming apps. The same situation applies for both the PS4 and PS4 Pro, and naturally the Xbox One X will deliver HDR too. Most people would say that HDR done well delivers more impact than 4K, especially on small screens. The only problem is that HDR puts a lot of pressure on a TV, since it demands both much more brightness than SDR, and better contrast so that the extra brightness and deeper blacks can potentially share the screen simultaneously. In fact, HDR done badly can look worse than SDR done decently well; something to think about if you’re considering buying a very cheap TV. Let there be light! One of the most important elements of a good HDR performance is brightness. Many movies and games target 1000 nits or so for their brightest elements, so if you have a TV less bright than that it won’t unlock HDR’s full potential. Especially in a video game environment, where graphics can be more stark in contrast terms than ‘real life’ tends to be. It’s perfectly possible for TVs to deliver great HDR pictures without reaching 1000 nits and more of brightness. This is particularly true with OLED screens, for instance. But the darker a screen, the harder its processing is going to have to work to try and figure out how to resolve picture information in HDR areas above its capabilities. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/ArX75JxNadcM7LjXpPZu3.jpg Change your range: Sitting right alongside 4K in today’s video world is high dynamic range (HDR) technology. This delivers pictures with a much wider light range than the standard dynamic range pictures we’ve been living with for decades in a bid to get the pictures we’re seeing on our screens looking closer to the way our eyes see the real world. The Xbox One S supports HDR on some of its games, and via some of its streaming apps. The same situation applies for both the PS4 and PS4 Pro, and naturally the Xbox One X will deliver HDR too. Most people would say that HDR done well delivers more impact than 4K, especially on small screens. The only problem is that HDR puts a lot of pressure on a TV, since it demands both much more brightness than SDR, and better contrast so that the extra brightness and deeper blacks can potentially share the screen simultaneously. In fact, HDR done badly can look worse than SDR done decently well; something to think about if you’re considering buying a very cheap TV. Let there be light! One of the most important elements of a good HDR performance is brightness. Many movies and games target 1000 nits or so for their brightest elements, so if you have a TV less bright than that it won’t unlock HDR’s full potential. Especially in a video game environment, where graphics can be more stark in contrast terms than ‘real life’ tends to be. It’s perfectly possible for TVs to deliver great HDR pictures without reaching 1000 nits and more of brightness. This is particularly true with OLED screens, for instance. But the darker a screen, the harder its processing is going to have to work to try and figure out how to resolve picture information in HDR areas above its capabilities. The chosen ones OK, now that the essential buying advice done and you're an AV expert, let’s now pick out our selection of the best gaming TVs you can currently buy, taking in a combination of price and sheer quality. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/Y9cfhKKNqYnJyAa3KnCJL8.jpg This high-end 65-inch Samsung set has a number of unique gaming-friendly advantages. For starters, unique screen filters mean that pictures are almost completely unaffected by ambient light. And trust us: being able to game in daylight and enjoy pictures that look as intense, bright and contrast rich as they do in a dark room is nothing short of a revelation. The set resolves 4K resolutions majestically too, while its heavy duty build quality enables it to produce a fairly potent and distortion-free audio performance (despite its having seemingly no visible speakers). If all that wasn’t exciting enough, the QN65Q9FAM blows out the competition with an exceptionally low 12ms of input lag when using its Game mode. That said, the QN65Q9FAM can suffer with some gentle light clouding issues during very high contrast HDR sequences, and it’s also, alas, painfully expensive. Read the review: Samsung Q9F QLED TV http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/U6D3ofXKriRQ8SrHtFkjL4.jpg http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/mvsyTsQe49NpV4aLDnGQi4.jpg While the OLED55E7 doesn’t have nearly as much HDR-friendly brightness as the Samsung Q9F range, it’s stunning when it comes to the other end of the brightness story, delivering gorgeously rich, deep black colours completely free of the sort of clouding issues that LCD TVs suffer with. Also, while OLED can’t yet go as measurably bright as LCD, the way the darkest pixel in an OLED picture can sit right next to the brightest with no contamination between the two gives the OLED55E7’s pictures a lovely luminous quality that’s particularly effective during dark game settings. It’s great to see, too, that LG has got input lag down to just 22ms across all source types (using its Game picture preset). One last big attraction of the OLED55E7 is its built-in sound bar. This will soon be able to handle Dolby Atmos from the Xbox One S and Xbox One X consoles, and can produce a huge wall of bass-rich sound (provided you run it LOUD) that works brilliantly for gaming without the need for an external audio system. Read the review: LG OLED E7 http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/U6D3ofXKriRQ8SrHtFkjL4.jpg http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/fJJofNLTun5JUj7isPismS.jpg Everyone loves a high-end TV. LG’s latest OLED, Samsung’s spectacularly bright QLED and Sony’s phenomenal LED-LCDs are applauded year round for their amazing performance, picture technologies and technical prowess. Too bad these aren’t the TVs most people buy. If you're looking for a mid-range TV that has all the chops to play games in 4K HDR without skimping on the visuals, check out the Samsung NU8000 Series. It may not be as bright as some of the competition on this page, but give its HDR+ mode a chance, and you'd be surprised at what this underdog can do. Read the full review: Samsung NU8000 http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/U6D3ofXKriRQ8SrHtFkjL4.jpg http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/Wv3UKo6AaCYxUApJPgDZXW.jpg One of second-to-last recommendation for a gaming TV is another big one. This gives us the chance to raise one final issue about gaming on today’s consoles and PCs compared with previous generations: that you really have to think big if you’re going to get anything like the ultimate gaming experience. This is partly because you need a relatively large screen to get the most from 4K resolutions, but also because the main TV brands are increasingly only building truly HDR-friendly color, contrast and brightness performances into their relatively large - and, alas, expensive - TVs. Even a 55-inch Sony model struggles for brightness a little in its bid to make 4K HDR pictures relatively affordable. However, it does a great job with colors within that brightness limitation thanks to Sony’s Triluminos processing engine, while its black level performance is outstanding for such an affordable and edge-lit LCD model. It also only suffers with 21ms of input lag on average - though oddly, lag occasionally slips to around 50ms for a frame or two. Read the full review: Sony XBR-X850E A little more buying advice for the road... If you want to learn more about shopping for gaming TVs, we've added a bit more info below. Read on to level up your AV knowledge skill! Bits and B.O.B.s: Connected to the HDR point, you might want to think about your gaming TV’s bit depth. The best HDR experience requires a 10-bit screen able to support 1024 values of each RGB colour - otherwise you will get an inferior colour performance, including, possibly, colour striping where you should see subtle blends. Most premium HDR TVs these days are 10-bit, but it’s far from a given at the relatively affordable end of the TV market. The Xbox One S and PS4 consoles automatically assess the bit-depth of your TV and select the optimum HDR video output accordingly. The Xbox One S even provides a description of your TV’s capabilities under 4K TV Details in its Advanced Video Settings menu. The Xbox One X will presumably do the same. To be clear, it’s entirely possible for an 8-bit TV to deliver a good HDR colour performance if they have a strong video processing engine. But 10-bit panels certainly have an immediate advantage. One other point to add here is that some TVs - including high-end Samsung models - actually support 12-bit colour management/processing, even though their panels are only natively 10-bit. The Xbox One S and presumably Xbox One X both provide Colour Depth boxes in their Video Fidelity settings that let you select the maximum bit performance for your particular TV. Colour purity: Another advanced setting but important thing to consider for the ultimate gaming visuals is chroma subsampling. This video compression term refers to a TV’s colour purity, and is usually written in such terms as 4:4:4 and 4:2:0. These numbers reveal how many pixels colour is sampled from in the top and bottom rows for every two rows of four pixels. So with 4:2:0, for instance, colour is being sampled from two pixels in the top row and no pixels in the bottom row. From this it follows that the bigger the numbers are, the purer the color performance will be, as there’s less ‘guesstimating’ of what colors should look like. The problem is, full 4:4:4 color support requires a lot of extra image data, and so cannot be handled by the HDMI connections or processing of all TVs. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/xKZ2Ep8cuTsoVNL4MbU35m.jpg In truth, the differences in picture quality between 4:4:4 and 4:2:2 and even 4:2:0 aren’t usually enormous. They can be more pronounced with gaming graphics than video, though, so it’s worth trying to check what a TV you’re thinking of buying can support - even though it’s not information regularly carried in TV spec lists. The latest consoles are pretty good at detecting the optimum chroma subsampling a TV can support, automatically adjusting their outputs according. It’s something that can cause annoying ‘handshaking’ issues with some TVs, though, so both the Xbox One S and PS4 Pro now provide subsampling ‘limiter’ options in their video output menus (‘Enable 4:2:2’ on the Xbox One S, and 2160 YUV4:2:0 on the PS4 Pro). Frame rate handling: Now that the Xbox One X is almost here and promising native 4K resolution games running at 60 frames a second, make sure that whatever TV you buy has the latest specification HDMI sockets. If it doesn’t have at least one HDMI socket built to the v2.0a specification, it won’t be able to receive 4K resolution at anything higher than 30 frames a second. Fortunately far more of this year’s 4K TVs do feature HDMI 2.0a sockets than in previous years, but it’s still something that’s worth double checking - especially if you’re buying a particularly cheap TV. Now you know everything there is to know about gaming TVs! http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/digital-home/~4/Xv7X-03lx68

Starting today you can purchase the latest Nest product that aims to make your home a comfortable place to be. The Nest Temperature Sensor is now on sale for $39 (about £25 / AU$50) for a single sensor, or $99 (about £70 / AU$125) for a three-pack. These little pucks take readings of whichever room they're in, sending the information back to your 3rd Generation Nest Learning Thermostat or Nest Thermostat E (placed up to 50 feet away), so that particular space can be kept at a specific temperature. So, if you want baby's room to be a cozy temp, you can set the Temperature Sensor to make sure the room never gets too hot or cold. It's a nifty little device that should ensure that rooms in your home are exactly the temperature you want them to be. You can even set the time of day, so if you want your bedroom to get toasty before you turn in for the night, you can. The Nest Temperature Sensor is mountable on a wall or placed on a shelf, and promises a battery life up to two years. Best smart thermostat: heating your home using techhttp://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/digital-home/~4/PwmAq-zWLZE