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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 third program in our free downloads advent calendar is Steganos Safe 18 – a secure digital vault to protect all your more important and personal files. Download Steganos Safe 18 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. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/UBuCUGvCSXBodMVc9457pQ.jpg 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 SteganosGrab a free anti-ransomware app to avoid being locked out of your own fileshttp://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/software-news/~4/gx-A63ULihg

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. Look behind the second door on our free downloads advent calendar to find a full copy of ASCOMP PDF Conversa – a fantastically useful tool that takes the hassle out of working with PDFs. Download ASCOMP PDF ConversaOnce you've downloaded the software, register for a free account using the link at the top right of the program window to unlock the full version. Editing PDF documents is a real nuisance, but with PDF Conversa you can turn them into Word documents in seconds, ready to tweak and change to your heart's content. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/bhMtjY7RoFKebvyoqxmDiY.jpg You can integrate fonts into converted PDFs, compress text, and determine the quality of pictures contained within documents. You can even convert password-protected documents; ideal if you've accidentally locked yourself out. Grab PDF Conversa today and you'll wonder how you managed without it. Download provided by ASCOMPNeed a free PDF reader? Check out the best optionshttp://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/software-news/~4/7EH87D4X4xw

The race to create the best "connected home" system is in full swing now, especially with new, serious competition from the likes of Amazon. As such, it's hard to be surprised by a new report from the Wall Street Journal that Google's parent company Alphabet is considering merging Google and Nest again. Unfortunately, the sources who relayed the information don't give much more information than that. TechRadar asked Google for a response, and Google merely replied that it declined to comment. Find the best Google Home and Google Home Mini deals todayGoogle and Nest — a home automation company — were split in 2015 following the creation of Alphabet, only a year after Google bought Nest for $3.2 billion. Apparently this type of independence hasn't been working out as well as planned. The seeds of the rumored merger were already in place last year, when a number of Nest employees were brought over to Google to integrate voice commands with Nest's thermostats and camera feeds. A closer relationship could mean we'll see more and better connected home systems in the future, and better communication between the two entities could push us toward the reality of a voice-controlled home sooner than expected. For Google Home, Google Home Mini and Google Home Max, a merger with Nest could lead to advancements across Google's smart speaker lineup. Nest reportedly has around 1,000 employees, but there's no word as to how they might be affected by the merger. Black Friday top seller: it's our Amazon Echo Dot reviewhttp://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/digital-home/~4/eQceddLOcMc

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. Each day, we’ll open a door on our advent calendar to reveal a new app, ready to download and enjoy completely free. From free VPNs to website builders and song downloaders, there's always something brilliant to look forward to. Check back tomorrow for your first free festive download! Downloads provided by ASCOMP, Steganos, Ashampoo, Incomedia, Abelssoft, Apowersoft and IObit. Can't wait? Download some fantastic free software right nowhttp://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/software-news/~4/93pW8AI0nqg

After months of speculation, Amazon has finally announced that its Amazon Echo smart speaker range, which are powered by the company’s Alexa smart AI assistant, will be arriving in Australia early in 2018. Much like Google’s recently-launched Home and Home Mini devices, the Amazon Echo is a small web-connected speaker that’s host to a voice-enabled smart assistant, which the mega-retailer’s dubbed Alexa. The Echo can be used as the central hub for smart home and connected devices, or simply as a hands-free method for checking the weather or news, playing streaming music, and other such functions. Amazon’s stated that Alexa will be getting her own Australian voice too, complete with a familiar accent and customised commands centred around “local knowledge and skills”. Developer's dreamAlong with the products launching for Aussie consumers, Amazon is making available its development platforms, Alexa Skills Kit (ASK) and Alexa Voice Service (AVS), to anyone who’s interested in bringing their own customisation to the service. Developing Alexa’s skills will give the assistant increased functionality and integration with other local services, and a variety of Australian companies, including Sky News, Fox Sports, Qantas and more, have already committed to creating their own skills. Providing developer-access to the Alexa Voice Service, on the other hand, means that Australian hardware developers will be integrate Alexa directly into their devices. Although there’s currently no firm release date, we have the promise of “early next year”, so keep your eyes peeled for a launch in the first few months of 2018. Meanwhile, JBL is the first to bring Google Assistant to a big-brand portable speaker in Australiahttp://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/digital-home/~4/8V7Bou6n4uc

Amazon rolled out software that makes it easy for its Alexa voice assistant to recognize individual voices last month, and today it announced that it's going to let third-party developers get in on the fun sometime early next year. The actual feature is known as "Your Voice by Amazon," reports TechCrunch, and it recognizes up to 10 different voices associated with a single Amazon account. Developers will now be able to use this technology to create different skills, or the voice-operated apps that make up a big part of the Alexa experience. Currently the feature only works for simple, built-in skills such as Amazon Music and shopping lists, but independent developers will likely come up with much more interesting uses for the technology. Off the top of my head, developers might be able to use it for a trivia game that keeps track of individual speakers' scores. Extending the technology to third-party developers is a significant leap, as competitor Google still hasn't announced third-party support even though it supported voice commands from multiple users long before Amazon. Nota beneAmazon also took the opportunity to announce that it's also extending the ability to use notifications on Echo speakers to a wider bunch of developers, and developers can hop into projects for that right now. As for how it works? When you get a notification, you'll hear the speaker chime, and then you'll be able to tap the device for your notification or simply ask Alexa what you missed. We've prepared a more in-depth explanation here. Amazon Echo Dot is still enjoying a Black Friday discounthttp://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/digital-home/~4/G1uTAv7zPXI

HomeKit is Apple's attempt to bring all your smart devices together into a single connected ecosystem. In Apple's vision of the home of the future your smart door-lock will talk to your smart lights, and your smart thermostat will be able to work seamlessly with your smart ceiling fan. Since iOS 10, Apple has allowed you to control all your HomeKit-supported devices through a single app, and the ecosystem of products it supports is rapidly growing. Of course any smart home ecosystem is only as good as the devices that support it, so without further ado, here's our pick of the most interesting gear that currently works (or plans to work) with HomeKit. HomeKit Smart speakershttp://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/QvdFezUpPVCCNDNpdkBAf6.jpg Smart speakers are the element of the smart home that seem to be getting the fastest integration into people's everyday lives, and are often the element that unifies a smart home, allowing you to talk to your digital assistant and request a light dimmed, a radiator heated or a door locked. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/U6D3ofXKriRQ8SrHtFkjL4.jpg HomeKit thermostatshttp://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/e00fcd09f76929dcc2cf0dc7464baedf.jpg Smart internet connected thermostats were one of the first areas in which the connected home began to take hold, but unfortunately the market leader, Nest, has not announced HomeKit support. Whether this will arrive at a later date, or whether Google's ownership of the company will prevent it permanently is unclear, but thankfully there are a number of other HomeKit enabled thermostats that are still very much worth your consideration. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/U6D3ofXKriRQ8SrHtFkjL4.jpg Other thermostats worth consideringNetatmo - UK exclusive Elgato Eve Thermo - connected radiator valve iDevices Thermostat - US exclusivehttp://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/U6D3ofXKriRQ8SrHtFkjL4.jpg HomeKit light bulbshttp://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/fc998cf4a77928f38557451b8123bc2d.jpg With the ability to change color, turn on and off with a pre-planned schedule, and even dim to suit your mood, smart lightbulbs are an essential part of any self-respecting smart home setup. There's something immensely satisfying about turning your lights off with your voice, you can use them as a burglary deterrent by having them come on while you're away, and you get the added benefit of never having to worry if you've left a light on. There are quite a number of smart lightbulbs on the market now, with more getting added to the list of HomeKit connected products regularly. Below are just a few of the ones that we think it's worth you knowing about. Just make sure that you buy the correct light fitting for your region. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/U6D3ofXKriRQ8SrHtFkjL4.jpg Other bulbs to consider / coming soon:iDevices Socket - converts your light fittings to 'smart' fittings so you can still use standard bulbsLifx - one of the most reliable innovators in the field, the bulbs also integrate with other smart home ecosystemsC-sleep - provides different types of light at night and in the morning to compliment your sleep cyclehttp://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/U6D3ofXKriRQ8SrHtFkjL4.jpg HomeKit switcheshttp://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/TiWZ8hwAs4xHawQSmtJJpg.jpg If you want to make your lighting smart without changing all of your bulbs, you can change your light switches for smart switches, and then control your lights from your phone, or with your voice. What's more, because all of your devices are connected using HomeKit, you can program your switches so they control far more than just your lights. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/U6D3ofXKriRQ8SrHtFkjL4.jpg Other smart switches to consider / coming soon:iDevices Wall Switch – US onlyLeviton Decora – US onlyHomeKit power outletshttp://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/017c1ca77e366d5a55e7de0ac3f31016.jpg The range of products that are becoming 'smart' seems to be growing on a weekly basis, but undoubtedly you aren't going to want to replace everything in your home, and there are certain products that are going to take a long time before they make the switch, if ever. That means that some products that have the highest 'Did I leave that on?' factor are frustratingly left behind. Well, smart plugs can help you control your more antiquated technology using your phone by switching them off at the wall. This not only means no more leaving your iron on when you're running late for work, but also that you can schedule lamps to come on at specific times, and stop your TV from running up your power bill on standby mode. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/U6D3ofXKriRQ8SrHtFkjL4.jpg Other power outlets to consider / coming soon:iHome Control Smart PlugConnectSense Smart Outlethttp://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/U6D3ofXKriRQ8SrHtFkjL4.jpg HomeKit Lockshttp://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/727a2c0013171a5b2a4bfc1ac5edfa5b.jpg You might be hesitant to entrust your home's security to a smart connected device, but HomeKit certification requires security to be built into the hardware of the device itself. So long as your smart lock has the stamp of approval from Apple you know that the data it's sending is end-to-end encrypted, which should prevent anyone from hacking your front door. If you do decide to invest in a smart lock you'll find it has a number of advantages, from being able to gain entry to your house using your phone, assigning 'guest keys' to friends, and even remotely letting people into your house. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/U6D3ofXKriRQ8SrHtFkjL4.jpg Other smart locks to consider / coming soon:Kwikset PremisHomeKit Doorbellshttp://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/9FayTqY7WgFWRdYpKZSoWL.jpg Distinct from smart locks, smart doorbells are (you guessed it) doorbells with smarts. You may be thinking 'How can you make a doorbell smart? You press a button and it rings.' Well, it turns out that the humble doorbell has been distinctly lacking in some features you never knew you needed. As well as the button, there is usually a camera and a speaker in the unit too. This means you can use your smartphone to see who's at your front door from the comfort of your couch, or even at the office. And with that handy speaker you can use the doorbell as a tannoy to tell the delivery driver that you're happy for the package to be left with a neighbor. Most come with the option to record as well, meaning if you're uncertain about a caller you have a record of them, and if you're trying to figure out who's ringing your doorbell and running away, wonder no longer. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/U6D3ofXKriRQ8SrHtFkjL4.jpg HomeKit Sensorshttp://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/7GBhgAedqAX4USJc7sPq9Y.jpg There are quite a range of different kinds of sensors you can kit your house with, from motion sensors, to weather sensors, to your more traditional smoke alarms and CO2 detectors. Smart smoke alarms allow you to learn (should the worst happen) that your house is on fire from your phone, and when paired with HomeKit can allow for potentially life-saving features such as having all your lights turn on to allow you to more easily escape your house. There are also sensors that you can attach to your windows, doors and safes that alert you when they are opened, so you know that your house and your valuables are safe. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/U6D3ofXKriRQ8SrHtFkjL4.jpg Other security cameras to consider / coming soon:Onelink by First Alert Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Alarm ConnectSense Temperature & Humidity SensorConnectSense Water SensorHomeKit Security camerashttp://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/0a1727c5be013f567145db3730478cdc.jpg We've already discussed smart doorbells that come equipped with security cameras, but a number of companies are also producing HomeKit enabled cameras, which you can use to protect and monitor your house. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/U6D3ofXKriRQ8SrHtFkjL4.jpg Other security cameras to consider / coming soon:Kidde RemoteLync Camera with RemoteLync bridge - coming soonLogitech Circle 2 - coming soonhttp://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/U6D3ofXKriRQ8SrHtFkjL4.jpg Haven't found what you're looking for? For a full list of every single item currently supported by Apple HomeKit, check out the official Apple HomeKit page. Confused about Apple's home automation suite? Here's a full guide to Apple HomeKit.http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/digital-home/~4/vROqx1qykk8

Excellent news for Aussie shoppers who also happen to use Google Assistant – a new feature has arrived just in time for Christmas, allowing you to use voice commands to search for products on eBay, as well as look up the value of a particular item that you might be hoping to sell. If you use the commands “Ask eBay” or “Talk to eBay”, Assistant will allow you to search for the product you’re after from over sixty million listings across ebay.com.au, automatically selecting the best deal it finds. When using this feature from your Google Home (or Google Home Mini), the Assistant will then ask if you want to send this product to your phone, allowing you to continue browsing on your device, offering what eBay is calling “a unique, personal shopping experience that you can start in your kitchen, living room or your car, and continue on your phone”. Lazy market researchThe other feature being introduced is the ability to determine the price range that a particular product sells for, using the command “what’s it worth”. For example: “What’s my iPhone 6 worth?”. This can be very useful if you’re looking to sell something and need to know what it’s worth. This task includes being able to narrow down certain criteria such as whether it’s new or used, which version of the product it may be, and so on, in order to give the most accurate value estimate. This feature will work across any Assistant-enabled device, be it Google Home, Home Mini, or Android and iOS devices running the Google Assistant app, and is available to Australian users now. Want to check out some Christmas deals the good ol'-fashioned way? Take a look at our Australian tech deals pagehttp://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/digital-home/~4/BylS59n-t_8

A Turkish software developer has publicly revealed via Twitter that he has uncovered a massive security bug in macOS High Sierra, Apple’s latest operating system. The flaw grants anyone using a Mac machine admin access by just clicking ‘other’ on the login screen and using ‘root’ as the username, no password needed. In fact, access to the computer can also be achieved using the username ‘root’ via System Preferences where, to change essential settings on locked Mac devices, users would normally need to enter their login details. This bug seems to present in macOS High Sierra 10.13.1 – the current version – as well as in the macOS 10.13.2 beta, but does not affect older versions of macOS, like Sierra or El Capitan. This doesn’t bode well for users on the latest release of macOS – leaving a Mac unattended could make anyone system administrator without any authentication, even when accessed remotely, revealing sensitive information. Apple has confirmed that it is aware of the bug and is “working on a software update to address the issue.” The Cupertino-based giant released a statement describing how users can, in the meantime, temporarily fix the vulnerability by enabling the root user with a password. How to download and instal macOS 10.13 High Sierra right nowAlready running macOS High Sierra and facing problems? Here’s how you can fix them.http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/software-news/~4/CGZcC9DV_q8

You can now use what’s effectively a freebie version of Microsoft Office on a Chromebook – or at least one of Google’s Chrome OS-powered notebooks which will run Android apps. Yes, after a long wait, the Office Android apps have arrived for such Chromebooks, the software being available to download from the Google Play store for every Chromebook out there. So Chrome Unboxed reports, having tested the Office apps across a number of different Chromebooks, and also taking into account widespread reports across the net. Note that Microsoft hasn’t made an official announcement about this. Rocky roadThis has been a rocky road ever since compatibility with Android apps was brought to the first Chromebooks, because while Microsoft promised that the productivity suite would be available across all these notebooks, previously it has only showed up for a small number of models. But any frustration users have experienced has now come to an end, and the full arrival of Microsoft Office Android apps will certainly be welcomed by many. Even those who aren’t that bothered about Office, and are happy with G Suite (Google’s online productivity suite) anyway, may still find the apps useful when it comes to compatibility with the occasional Office file they’re sent. Another thing Chromebook users can look forward to is Google Assistant arriving on the notebooks. One Chromebook makes the cut for our best laptops listhttp://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/software-news/~4/OMaQ2sbfuWM

It’s strange – even six months after founder and returning CEO of Canonical, Mark Shuttleworth, announced that the Unity project was dead – to hear Unity 8 described as a “bad investment” by a Canonical employee. Will Cooke, desktop manager at Canonical, seemed quite comfortable with the new narrative when we spoke to him on release day, although he preferred to use the term ‘parked’ in relation to Unity 8 rather than closed, which would appear to open the possibility of Unity 8 being reversed out of its ‘parking bay’ in the future. His initial comment on Mir was quite open-ended as well: “Mir still exists, the display server still exists and is in development and that’s especially interesting to IoT device manufacturers, but for the time-being we’re using Wayland on the desktop now.” However, given the widespread support for Wayland now, and the Ubuntu desktop team’s own support of Wayland, it seems unlikely that Mir will become the default display server on Ubuntu’s desktop distro. Whatever you think of Gnome 3 returning as the default desktop, Ubuntu 17.10 is a defining fork in the road for the distribution that’s used by millions of Linux users, so for this interview we were mostly concerned with the transition. Question: Can you tell us how the run-up to 17.10 has gone? Will Cooke: We decided that Gnome Shell was the right toolkit for our users. We’ve used Unity 7 for six or seven years and all the core set of applications were built around the Gnome desktop, so going to Gnome made the most sense. The transition path between Unity 7 and Gnome on the desktop was hopefully going to be fairly straightforward, quite smooth and it’s turned out to be that way. So now we’ve got the latest Gnome desktop running on Ubuntu. We’ve put our stamp on it to make sure the users that have been using Unity 7 for the last six or seven years don’t suddenly upgrade one day and find that the desktop that they are used to using, in the way that they have been using it, indeed all of the examples and the screenshots on the internet, are still relevant to the new desktop. So we’ve added a couple of extensions in there to add the launcher back and a few features that we felt were missing from the desktop that were there in Unity and not in Gnome. [...] All that work was done with the blessing of the Gnome community and with the blessing and support of those extension developers. Any new features we’ve added there or bug fixes, have been done upstream rather than hosting it ourselves and keeping it for Ubuntu only. The plan is that when you upgrade to 17.10 you’ll see something familiar and something that you feel at home with. Some of the user interactions are a bit different, but we don’t think they are so different that people are going to struggle with Gnome Shell and the initial results say, yes, that is the case, so we’re very pleased that people are able to get it working and use it and don’t feel they have to overcome or learn a new way of working. Q: You mentioned session-override. Could you explain that for our readers? WC: All the things that we’ve changed to make it Ubuntu are completely temporary. When you log in, they are applied and when you log out, they are gone. Your settings will continue to be your settings, but all of the tweaks that we make are applied at session time, so there’s no patches to Gnome, or source code, to make stuff work the way that we want it to work. It’s just upstream Gnome with a few tweaks to it. There’s no Ubuntu secret sauce in there: anybody could recreate what we’ve done by taking upstream Gnome code, compiling it and applying our settings. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/eyGDQTnGVVehvKkbYCzZvT.jpg Will Cooke, desktop manager at Canonical Q: How was GUADEC in Manchester for you and the team this year? WC: It was great. We had quite a strong showing there. I think we had six or seven people there. People from Europe and the US and even New Zealand. We sent a good team of people there who have worked with Gnome in the past and have been active members of the Gnome community for a long time, so we know a lot of the guys there and they know us and so we went along without any preconceived ideas about what we were going to do – no real agenda. We just wanted to go and speak to them and get some ideas from them, hear their input on the way we wanted to do things and what our ultimate goal was and they were extremely welcoming to us. We had some good conversations during the conference itself and afterwards there’s the unconference for the hacking sessions where people get together and do some code and we stayed for all of that as well. We had plenty of discussions in the hallways and some of the sessions, to talk about the way we wanted to do things, and that’s what led us to be able to ship the Ubuntu-specific code, the Ubuntu session, as a session override. Rather than having to patch Gnome, we could implement our own stuff: take vanilla Gnome and add our stamp to it without having to patch lots and lots of pieces of software. That was a direct outcome from GUADEC and it worked really well for all of us […]. Q: Was Tim Lunn, Ubuntu Gnome technical lead, walking around with a cheesy grin on his face? WC: [Laughs] Yeah, he was there. There was some confusion about whether or not Tim worked for Canonical or not, so it was good that we were there to explain the situation. He’s an active member of Ubuntu Gnome and has been for a long time and there was confusion about what was going to happen to the Ubuntu Gnome project – was it going to continue? Was it going to be killed off? Who was working for who now? And so we were able to explain that Ubuntu Gnome and Ubuntu are now effectively the same project and people working on Ubuntu Gnome would continue to work on the things they were passionate about. It just happens that the fruits of their labour would now be in front of millions and millions of users, so it’s worked well. Q: Have there been many challenges moving to Wayland from Mir? WC: Not challenges necessarily. There’s still work to do to get it stable and we’re contributing to that upstream as well. One of the main Wayland developers is out in Taiwan and we went out to meet with him for a week and work on HiDPi fixes and fractional scaling in the shells so you can scale it up by 0.5%, rather than 1% each time. That gives much more of an ability to work better on various display sizes that support HiDPi, whereas before they were on or off. Now it’s much more fluid and so we started that relationship with Wayland developers and that’s gone really well [...]. We’ve got patches contributed upstream and they’ve helped us to fix a few bugs. We found a bug yesterday which affected AMD Radeon users. We found out about it at 2 o’clock in the afternoon, the day before release and they had to fix really quickly [...]. There’s still work to do to make it better and we’ll do that this cycle. Q: Is there a transition in terms of software compatibility? WC: Most of the applications we’re using are all using Gnome GTK toolkit and, of course, that has supported Wayland for a long time. That solves a lot of the problems and for everything else there’s the Xorg. The Xorg stack is still compatible with the majority of applications that are out there. There are a few that don’t work perfectly; a few we’ve had to patch, but on the whole everything is compatible for our core applications, at least. Q: There’s a belief that moving to the Gnome Shell makes the Ubuntu desktop OS project more manageable. Is that your experience? How big is the desktop team now at Canonical? WC: Yes, ultimately there’s a much bigger community around Gnome Shell than there ever was around Unity. More people to help on that project overall is a good thing, so I think it’s fine and will be fine. For pure desktop we’ve got 17 people. Still a very sizeable team and we’re mostly Gnome developers now. There are still some Qt and KDE people on staff, but on the desktop we are now primarily a Gnome-focused team and we have been for a long time. We’ve got that depth of knowledge of the entire Gnome stack, which is making things a lot easier. Q: Leading on from that, what Gnome technologies are you excited about and keen to collaborate on? WC: Wayland is definitely the future and I think by us testing it front and centre, publicly standing by Wayland and wanting to move it forward. I hope we’ll get that critical mass of adoption which means the development moves forward that much quicker because we’ve got millions and millions of people testing it now on their everyday machines. Wayland will be the key thing we’ll be contributing to and there’s general usability, tool improvement and stability fixes. Gnome’s pretty stable, but we spot a lot of bugs hidden away in dark corners, so I think just improving the Gnome toolkit and the speed and reliability of it is what I’m excited about this cycle; as it’s an lTS [referring to 18.04], you want everything to be absolutely rock solid. Q: It’s always nice to talk about the next release, but how many of the missing default experiences (e.g. lenses and scopes, HUD, global menu, Alt+Tab behaviour) do you think you will want to include for 18.04 LTS, or is it more a question of users diving into Gnome extensions from now on? WC: We still want to maintain being easily identifiable as Ubuntu. We have a particular style and set of ideas about how we think things should work and our users tell us the way they want to work. I don’t think there will be much friction there. I think the way that we’re setting up the desktop to allow people to install default Gnome or Ubuntu’s version means that everybody can get on board and use it relatively easily. I don’t think we’re going to go to a default Gnome experience any time soon. We’ve set the bar now: this is what to expect; we will have a launcher, you will have other bits to tweak, but ultimately the Gnome design is going to shine through our changes. We’re not going to try to hide it all away. We want people to get the best of both. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/BSTPwjFNuYt4z4Lqu4YtR9.jpg Ubuntu 17.10’s main achievement is managing to avoid a jarring experience for Unity users while developing an Ubuntu session that didn’t require patching the Gnome Shell Q: What’s your hot tip when it comes to Gnome extensions? Have you got a favourite? WC: Well, Dash to Dock is the one that I find the most useful. Having that launcher there and having that quick access to all the applications is the thing that makes my workflow so much smoother. I don’t know whether that’s because I’ve been using Unity for so long and I’m stuck in my ways or if it’s an easier way to get at the things I need to get at. I think it’s probably a bit of both, to be fair. Q: With Ubuntu flipping back to GTK+, what’s Ubuntu’s position on Qt now? WC: We’re still fully supportive of the Qt project. We have a good relationship with the KDE guys. They have just announced that their preferred packaging will be snap and they have a whole load of snap builds [...]. I think we’re still a member of the advisory board and we see a lot of Qt in the IoT area, it’s a bit more standard than Gnome in ioT – things like in-car entertainment and those kind of things. It’s still definitely the predominant technology. Q: How do you see the Ubuntu desktop OS changing over the next five years? WC: We’re not going to see a sudden flurry of people adopting Ubuntu or Linux on their desktop. What’s interesting is the speed in which services are moving entirely online via a web browser and the way that things are going, the concept of making applications is becoming less and less important and everything you can do, you can do through a web browser. At which point why do you need to run Windows, for example, if you’re literally using it to run a browser? At that point, Ubuntu and Linux general becomes a much more attractive and viable operating system of choice for the vast majority of people, I think. If what they are doing is sitting down on an evening and getting a laptop out and going on the web and learning stuff [...] and chatting with people [...] then why pay money for an operating system when you could get one for free, but also have something that is more secure and reliable? Q: Given the focus on profitability at Canonical, does it concern you that the desktop OS doesn’t make any cash for the firm? Or is that a misconception? WC: Sure, so we see Dell shipping laptops pre-installed and we see other OEMS shipping Ubuntu preinstalled on their machines. The work that we do on the desktop is sometimes directly applicable to the server and the more people that are running server in their cloud, the more chance they are going to want to run it on their laptop because they can test whatever it is they are going to deploy to the cloud. They can test with the exact same software, on their laptop on the train, for example, before they get to work as they would do in the cloud. So Ubuntu desktop is popular, particularly with the likes of Dell. It generates revenue and using the same platform for your day-to-day development and testing as you do in your deployed environment is a very compelling story to developers. Q: What are you particularly proud of in this release? WC: It’s a bit low-level, but what we’re proud of is the fact that all the customisations that we’ve done on the desktop do not impair the ability to run a vanilla Gnome desktop session on there. We haven’t said it’s the Ubuntu desktop or nothing [...]. None of our settings and extensions and that kind of thing affects that session at all. If you want a very pure upstream experience, we’ve made that very easy to get. I think that’s good for us to show that we’re not trying to block Gnome’s design decisions out of Ubuntu at all. They are there. We have a slightly different view, but the two can co-exist perfectly. I think that’s a good metaphor for our relationship. To coincide with the release of 17.10, Canonical has opened a new community hub which, Will Cooke says, is a way to make it easier for people to engage with Ubuntu: “We’ve got loads of different places for people to get involved with forums, ask Ubuntu and launchpad and all the subreddits, but what we wanted to do was put something front and centre that people know is the place to start.” The hope is that its more contemporary design will make it easier for people to get involved in projects and find other folks interested in working on similar things. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/8gckWgxhLt44gtYKoVUZ2k.jpg Ubuntu has a stylish new community hub to go with its 17.10 release Once the hub becomes established, Cooke says, they are planning various community events: “For instance, we want to do a community-driven theme for 18.04. Our own theme will be the default, but we’d like to also ship a community-derived theme and we’ve got our design team ready to offer consultancy and assistance to the team we hope will form around the new theme via the hub.” At the time of writing, the theme was yet to be officially announced. “We’ll also start finding community champions to help flag bugs we think are relatively easy to fix,” says Cooke, in a rerun of the popular 100 cuts initiative that focused on minor bugs that the community could help to fix. Canonical will help people get on board, explaining how to run the project in launchpad, where to upload their code and get those patches in: “We’ll be upstreaming as many patches as we can,” says Cooke. “It’s in our interests to have all these fixes upstream in the product rather than trying to maintain hundreds of patches and then every time a new version comes out we have to port those patches and make sure they still work. That’s hard, complicated and tricky work.” (This interview was first published in issue 185 of Linux User & Developer). http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/7iZmgCLAdq7CCGx9C6ypqa.jpg Time is running out! Subscribe to Linux User and Developer today by using code: 20NOV and get an extra 20% off our Xmas subs. That’s up to 43% off PLUS an extra 20% off!http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/software-news/~4/27EGznqcDcQ

We're rounding up the best Argos Cyber Monday deals. Cyber Monday is always the first Monday after Black Friday. It's a big deal in the US but in the UK it's never caught on in the same way. Retailers like Argos tend to just run their Black Friday deals all weekend. So Monday is your last chance to get cheap deals on popular products this side of Christmas. And we also do usually see a few last minute deals thrown in especially for Cyber Monday too. On this page you'll see what we think are the best Argos deals available on Cyber Monday this year. See the best Cyber Monday deals at Argos.co.ukSee all Argos Cyber Monday dealsArgos Cyber Monday TV & Entertainment dealsArgos Cyber Monday Mobiles & Computing dealsArgos Cyber Monday Home Appliances dealsArgos Cyber Monday Toys dealsArgos Cyber Monday Gifts dealsArgos Cyber Monday TV dealshttp://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/U6D3ofXKriRQ8SrHtFkjL4.jpg Return to top Argos Cyber Monday Computing dealshttp://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/U6D3ofXKriRQ8SrHtFkjL4.jpg Return to top Argos Cyber Monday Gaming dealshttp://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/U6D3ofXKriRQ8SrHtFkjL4.jpg Return to top Argos Cyber Monday Phone dealshttp://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/U6D3ofXKriRQ8SrHtFkjL4.jpg Return to top Argos Cyber Monday Tablet dealshttp://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/U6D3ofXKriRQ8SrHtFkjL4.jpg Return to top Argos Cyber Monday Smartwatch dealshttp://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/U6D3ofXKriRQ8SrHtFkjL4.jpg Return to top Argos Cyber Monday Smart Home dealshttp://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/U6D3ofXKriRQ8SrHtFkjL4.jpg Return to top Argos Cyber Monday Headphone dealshttp://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/U6D3ofXKriRQ8SrHtFkjL4.jpg Return to top Argos Cyber Monday Camera dealshttp://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/U6D3ofXKriRQ8SrHtFkjL4.jpg Return to top Argos Cyber Monday Home dealshttp://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/U6D3ofXKriRQ8SrHtFkjL4.jpg Return to top Argos Cyber Monday toys dealshttp://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/U6D3ofXKriRQ8SrHtFkjL4.jpg Return to top http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/digital-home/~4/8vuTzGGx-_w

If you haven’t yet, you are going to be bombarded with deals today. It’s Cyber Monday - literally the peak online shopping day of the entire year. And while there are hundreds (thousands?) of deals vying for your attention right now, there’s one that’s better than all the rest: The Amazon Echo Dot is on sale right now for $29/£35 on Amazon. Why is that such a good deal? Well, Amazon’s speakers usually run you $49.99/£49.99. If you live in the US, you can almost buy two of the Amazon Echo Dots using today’s deal for the price of one - or three for the price of two if you’re looking for a reason to deck out the house with smart speakers. Folks living in the UK don’t have it quite as good, but an extra 15 quid in your wallet are better than none! The best Amazon Echo Dot prices for Cyber MondayObsessed with deals? Check out our Cyber Monday 2017 deal page!http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/digital-home/~4/OlUvIHzPWi0

Currys is one of the UK's most popular electronics retailers and it's been discounting hard since Wednesday last week for the Black Friday weekend. Today is Cyber Monday though - the last day of the deals bonanza. So if there's anything you still haven't bought or you still haven't had a browse of the deals, you've got until the end of the day before they all start disappearing forever. See below for our picks of the best Currys Cyber Monday deals. Cyber Monday 2017: Quick linksJump straight to the Cyber Monday page at the major retailers: Amazon.co.uk - Cyber Monday saleJohn Lewis - Black Friday / Cyber monday eventArgos - Cyber Monday saleMobiles.co.uk - cheapest ever phone dealsVery.co.uk - Cyber Monday dealsAO.com - Cyber Monday appliance dealsASOS - 20% off everythingMicrosoft Store - deals weekendCurrys Cyber Monday deals 2017Best Currys Cyber Monday dealsCurrys Cyber Monday gaming dealsCurrys Cyber Monday laptop dealsCurrys Cyber Monday printer dealsCurrys Cyber Monday TV dealsCurrys Cyber Monday tablets and ereader dealsCurrys Cyber Monday audio dealsCurrys Cyber Monday smart home dealsCurrys Cyber Monday home and kitchen dealsCurrys Cyber Monday camera dealsCurrys Cyber Monday wearable dealsCurrys Cyber Monday gadget dealshttp://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/digital-home/~4/tbMDAA5tzME

John Lewis hasn't made any major changes to its Black Friday deals as we head into Cyber Monday, which means there are still some bargains to grab. The British giant has been offering up some key products all with its usual customer service levels, so its definitely not a bad idea to take a look through and see if you can get something from a retailer which prides itself on never knowingly being undersold. Cyber Monday quick linksAmazon Cyber MondayGAME Cyber MondayCurrys Cyber MondayArgos Cyber MondayTesco Direct Cyber MondayVery.co.uk Cyber MondayAO.com Cyber MondayFrom speakers to TVs, John Lewis goes all-in for the sales weekend and Cyber Monday each year, and thanks to its great warranty offers, it makes it one of the top retailers to keep an eye on when the deals start to trickle in. The best Black Friday deals 2017One of the advantages of stopping by at John Lewis during the Cyber Monday 2017 period is that there's such a variety in terms of the bargains to be had. While we'll be focusing on their gadgets and electricals, it's a good stop for homeware, clothing, furniture and design items, too. Read on to explore the Cyber Monday 2017 bonanza, and have fun shopping! John Lewis Cyber Monday dealsJohn Lewis on Cyber Monday 2017: what you need to knowNo matter what you're shopping for this Black Friday weekend and into Cyber Monday, John Lewis should be in your plans somewhere, whether you're heading to the high street or just opening up a web browser. The retailer is bound to have plenty of tempting tech deals on offer, and you get the added bonuses of free delivery, click-and-collect options, and a minimum two-year guarantee on all electrical goods. John Lewis says the long weekend is "the perfect time to stock up on Christmas presents", and to help you along the retailer is promising even more hot deals in appliances, TVs, computers and other gadgets than the ones already listed above. Don't forget you've got the benefit of the Never Knowingly Undersold policy, a price promise that's been in place since 1925 and which applies all year round.. Simply put, it means John Lewis will happily match any better offer you come across online, as long as John Lewis sells it. Find a better price for what you're after, and John Lewis promises to match it. The top 5 John Lewis Black Friday deals last yearhttp://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/hnepgZvGg3moeg8SFJvqcn.jpg 1. Lenovo Yoga 900S We love a convertible laptop or two, and so does everyone else apparently - the Lenovo Yoga 900S was on sale for less than £1,000 at John Lewis last year, a very popular deal. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/uotUmqeMZnmcfWLLF45EZ4.jpg 2. Microsoft Xbox One S What about that Xbox One S then? John Lewis has had the slimline console on offer with either Gears of War 4 or FIFA 17 for £279.95, which are very good bundles for gamers. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/gpPWg2ajDaL7fLoFpwGDU7.jpg 3. Samsung UE40KU6020 HDR 4K Ultra HD Smart TV 4K prices continue to drop across the board and the Samsung UE40KU6020 40-incher was available for a mere £349 - complete with Freeview HD, Playstation Now and PurColour. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/9JV4LUua97QSbvEuZYV6EA.jpg 4. MacBook Air The MacBook Air lives on and continues to be popular, and during last year's Black Friday event, John Lewis was offering the slimline laptop for £849, a hefty discount of £100. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/zK88oo3qqJhUHbYSUjgwED.jpg 5. Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge The Galaxy S6 Edge launched in 2015 but is still a great phone, and could've been yours last year for just £399.95. Let's hope for some similarly impressive deals this time around. The best Cyber Monday deals 2017http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/digital-home/~4/h9XN52hQnQM

It's true - the final hours of Black Friday 2017 deals in the US are upon us. Don't worry though as there's still time to save on some of the most popular discounts before midnight on the West Coast, the time at which many sales end. We've selected what we feel are the best deals during Black Friday – and these ten are still in stock. Often, the top Black Friday discounts sell out in just a few short minutes, especially on Amazon, Walmart and eBay. What should you buy this holiday season that may have passed you by? Welcome to our online shopping list you just can't miss. Quick links to Black Friday deals (US retailers)Jet Black Friday dealsAmazon Black Friday dealsWalmart Black Friday dealsToys R Us Black Friday dealsNewegg Black Friday dealsNewegg Black Friday dealsGameStop Black Friday dealseBay Black Friday dealsDell Black Friday dealsThe best Black Friday dealsGoogle Home and Google Home Minihttp://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/PQt8X8Er2rSDpkT6ytugrY.jpg Top Black Friday deal Whatever you do, don't pay full price for a Google Home speaker, whether it's the original Google Home or the newer Google Home mini. They're both available at a discount for Black Friday today, and we've got them right here. Apple Watch, iPad and iPad Pro dealshttp://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/FzLSsomZ6FoBqBHQ8HQnkX.jpg http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/GYmJZZpxtRvXWGUtUJHgMh.jpg Cheap PS4, Xbox One and Oculus Rift dealshttp://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/1e0dd0243a26ebe1eb1485da1377b071.jpg Best laptop deals for Black FridayTV and video dealsLaptop and Macbook dealsComputing dealsSmartphone dealsGaming dealsHeadphone and audio dealsCamera and accessories dealsiPad and tablet dealsToys & LEGO dealsWearables dealsSmart home dealsMore Black Friday deals listedThe best stores for Black Friday dealshttp://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/8kPWTm9d4bebsRJ8sCsTAJ.jpg AmazonAmazon has our favorite online deals every Black Friday in the US, and that's just because it sells so many different items, and does so very cheaply in November. And November 2017 looks to be no different. It specializes in video game system bundles, so look for very cheap PS4 Slim and Xbox One S consoles. Sometimes it's a price drop, sometimes it's an extra game or controller packed in, and rarely it's both. We'll keep you updated on our Amazon Black Friday deals page. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/AoJ5cu4BFgWZ8Wi49Qcn5K.jpg Jet already has its Black Friday preview updated, and it's selling everything from the smaller Google Mini speaker with Google Assistant built in, to the new Playskool Tickle Me Elmo doll. Want a brand new 49-inch Samsung TV for under $650. There's a bargain here for you today, and there's way more where that came from, according to the Jet Black Friday early preview page. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/oHKZKn8JPuFKggQrmfdh85.jpg WalmartWalmart sells a little bit of everything, and because of its size, it's willingly to offer deep Black Friday discounts, or what it calls "rollback prices." That means you can get deals on everything from a new Apple iPhone to the latest must-have toys for kids in one quick shopping spree. We've highlighted some of this very deals below and on our Walmart Black Friday page. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/unST73vaEWHWhdyfSqCqRS.jpg Toys R UsWe have some good news and some bad news about Toys R Us. First the bad news is that the kid-focused retailer filed for bankruptcy in September. The good news, for you at least, is that it may be willing to offer massive discounts on everything from bikes to LEGOs to attract buyers. You can smell the discounts (and the desperation) over on our Toys R Us Black Friday deals list. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/KYXkKmcFEg5xTh8XrBwAMB.jpg NeweggSome of the best computer deals can be found at Newegg, where the retailer sells fully built laptops and desktops for cheaper than almost any other US store. It also specializes in components if you're looking to build your own PC. And, of course, it has accessories on sale. Basically, any nerdy gadget you can think of is on our Newegg Black Friday deals page. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/apvxW5jcpUtTgWjuXvEbcG.jpg TargetIf there's one thing Target is known for on Black Friday, it's offering some of the best prices on Apple products, especially the iPad. Right now eBay has the best discount on an iPad Pro, but we're keeping a watchful eye on other tech discounts from this big US retail chain where more often than not, you walk in needing to buy one thing and walk out with a shopping cart full of stuff. Only a few more days to go on our Target Black Friday deals list. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/7431fd98a64c303ce6302c2f9d84052c.jpg eBayWe keep telling people every Black Friday that eBay is for more than just auctions. It often has the lowest prices on electronics throughout the holiday shopping season. 2017 will be no different, which is why you should pay close attention to our best ebay Black Friday deals page. http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/digital-home/~4/1UVJt4veS8M

If 2018 is going to be the year of the smart home for you, you're going to need a few smart bulbs to get the party started. To that end, there's no better purveyor of smart lights than the folks at Philips Hue. Not only do the same people who make your electric toothbrush make smart bulbs but, honestly, they're pretty much leading the pack when it comes to the technology. And sure, while there are cheaper alternatives out there (cough, Sengled) Philips' catalog of smart lighting products is far and away better than nearly anything else on the market right now. Let's be honest, though, you probably knew all that. You're a bright bulb yourself! No, what you're here for are the deals - well don't worry, there are plenty of those floating around these parts. It is Black Friday after all. Without further ado, these are the best deals we've found on the web for Philips Hue starter kits, Hue bulbs, lightstrips and Hue Go lights. Philips Hue Color Ambiance A19 Starter Kit http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/KU4JXBRr8DGamLBDAVtvSZ.jpg Sure you could build you Philips Hue collection piece-by-painstakingly-expensive-piece or, you could save yourself all the hassle and just pick up one of these excellent starter kits. Inside you'll find three Richer Color bulbs and a Philips Hue Bridge (basically a must-own device that communicates with the bulbs). While three bulbs won't be enough to maintain the party, it's certainly more than enough to get the party started. Philips Hue White Starter Kithttp://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/SN5VSua5wGCJqEhJ6Ro2bc.jpg If fancy colors aren't really your thing, that's OK. Philips makes a flavor of Hue just for you - it's called White. You may have seen it on a lightbulb before. In all seriousness, though, the Philips Hue White Starter Kit is brilliant at the basics: it can add light to any room in your home and be controlled either via an app on your phone or via voice commands to your Amazon Echo or Google Home. It's simple. It's effective. And best of all, it's cheap. Philips Hue Bridgehttp://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/fc998cf4a77928f38557451b8123bc2d.jpg The bridge is like space command in Star Trek. Sure, you can have space ships flying around just fine on their own, but if you want any sort of order to the chaos, you're going to need someone in charge calling the shots. The Philips Hue Bridge lets you do just that. Without it, Philips Hue Lights are just plain ol' light bulbs. No smart functionality. No flashy effects. Nothing. So yeah, you're going to need one of these if you don't plan on buying a starter kit. Philips Hue Gohttp://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/7f72d3101d3f11684b67650d7809fec0.jpg The Philips Hue Go is like a little spotlight that adds a splash of color to the room. It's not going to light up the Hollywood Sign anytime soon, but hey, for the cost, it's actually pretty neat. The idea here is that, like all Philips Hue lights, you can set themes that have certain color schemes. For St. Patrick's Day you might color coordinate your lights to match the Irish national flag. You could do something similar for the Fourth of July with red, white and blue, or go for a spooky Halloween look with orange and purple. Anyways, you get the idea. Philips Hue Lightstrip Plushttp://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/oGbEuKLDp6N7Gnfqq5FgjU.jpg Have you ever tried to string up lights? It's awful. Bulbs blow out faster that you can replace them. The wires get gnarled. And no matter what, somehow, the cord is never long enough to reach the outlet. The Philips Hue Lightstrip Plus sets out to right a lot of those wrongs by offering a convenient - and I daresay fun - way to add a little ambiance to your walls. Under each Lightstrip is an adhesive coating that allows you to stick the strip pretty much anywhere. Want to add some mood lighting to your bar? Now you can! Chimney needs some color? No problem! Want to stick these lights on your hot tub? That's probably a bad idea. Don't do that. Need an smart assistant to go with your new lights? Don't miss our round ups of the best Amazon Echo deals and best Google Home dealshttp://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/digital-home/~4/ZZv-4IMVMZg

Black Friday is here and Currys PC World is getting in on the act with tons of Black Friday deals for you to take a look at. Currys has a whole new range of Black Friday deals including the Fitbit Alta fitness tracker, Surface Pro laptop and Dyson V6 Animal vacuum cleaner. So should you go for early Black Friday deals or should you wait until the big day? There's no right or wrong way to do it really, you just need to make sure you're judging each deal on its own merits. There is no doubt that the best deals will go out on Black Friday itself. But there's no guarantee that the products discounted today will be included. So if you see a product you want at a price you're happy to pay you might as well go for it. But if you've decided you need a new TV, a fridge or something else like that but you're not too bothered about which one you get, in those cases you'd be better off holding on until November 24 when you're guaranteed to find good products at best-ever prices. In the meantime, below we're rounding up the best Currys PC World Black Friday deals currently available in the 'Why Wait' promotion. Black Friday deals quick linksAmazon Black FridayJohn Lewis Black FridayGAME Black FridayCurrys PC World Black FridayArgos Black FridayTesco Direct Black FridayVery.co.uk Black FridayCurrys Black Friday deals 2017Best Currys Black Friday dealsCurrys Black Friday TV dealsCurrys Black Friday laptop dealsCurrys Black Friday tablets and ereader dealsCurrys Black Friday gaming dealsCurrys Black Friday audio dealsCurrys Black Friday smart home dealsCurrys Black Friday camera dealsCurrys Black Friday wearable dealsCurrys Black Friday tech dealsCurrys on Black Friday 2017: what you need to knowOne of the reasons we're big fans of Currys is that the retailer likes to go all-in for seasonal events like Black Friday and Cyber Monday, and it's going to be more of the same this year - you can bet there's going to be many tempting discounts across all of the Currys product categories. The deals are set to go live at 12am on the morning of Black Friday, and will then continue through the day and indeed the whole weekend. In total, Currys has said 10 days of Black Friday discounts are scheduled, building on the success of last year's event (which was apparently Currys' biggest Black Friday ever - 5 orders placed every second during peak times, and over 2 billion seconds spent on the site on Black Friday). Don't forget the price promise you always get with Currys, which means if you find the same item for a cheaper price at any of the retailer's competitors, then Currys will match it. There are even mobile apps you can download to make price comparisons easier, which is another reason to hit Currys during Black Friday. We wouldn't bet against it being another record-breaking year for Currys by the time that Black Friday 2017 is over, and there'll be discounts happening all through the weekend. We'll make sure the best of those are listed above ready for your consideration. http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/digital-home/~4/GfojDNsXFE4

If you've been holding out for your smart lighting then Black Friday might just have offered up an opportunity that will be difficult to pass up, with a third off on one of the best starter packs. Philips Hue has established itself at the cutting edge of smart lighting, and its wares have never been more popular. Black Friday 2017 has now given a great bargain offering for those looking to buy into Hue, with the Kitchen Bundle down to just £99 on Amazon. This is the larger of the two Kitchen bundles and comprises two Philips Hue 2m Lightstrip plus a Philips Hue White Ambience 5.5W GU10 Twin pack, The setup is Apple HomeKit Enabled and also works with Alexa and would normally come in at £159.99, but the latest Black Friday Hue deal is £60 cheaper than that RRP So, if you're looking to shed a little light on the situation, now might just be the time. http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/digital-home/~4/A4PtcPXm6WM

If you struggle to manage multiple email accounts and want a secure way to keep them all in order, eM Client is the perfect solution – and there's 50% off the unlimited premium edition this Black Friday. Importing your messages is incredibly easy, with support for Gmail, Microsoft Exchange and all the other major email providers. Transferring mail from other email clients is easy too, with one-click import from Outlook, Windows Mail, Thunderbird and many more. There's super-fast search to help you find the messages you want in seconds, a built-in translator, advanced email rules management, mass mail, delayed send and secure encryption. Put simply, whatever frustrates you about your existing email setup, eM Client has a solution. Save yourself some serious headaches and grab it today. Take a look at the rest of this year's best Black Friday deals http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/software-news/~4/ZRDpbDiOQN8

There's never been a better time to snap up a great deal on premium video editing software, and this Black Friday you can snap up the brand new HitFilm Studio suite for just $398 – a massive saving of $199. HitFilm Studio includes the brand new version of professional video editor HitFilm Pro, plus powerful plugin toolkit Ignite Pro. You'll also get the brand new motion building software Action Pro, released today. HitFilm Pro combines video editing, video effects and 3D compositing into one product, packed with advanced animation tools, a powerful particle simulator, and over 800 customizable visual effects and presets. Ignite Pro is an enormous set of over 150 plugins to boost HitFilm Pro even further, including professional green screen tools, procedural fire, heat distortion, lightning, warping and many more. Check out our full guide to the best video editing softwarehttp://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/software-news/~4/MunnLw-TlVo

For Black Friday, Adobe is slashing 20% off Creative Cloud subscriptions. The deal applies to annual plans, which are discounted to $39.99/£39.95 per month, or $479.88/£476.98 pre-paid. A Creative Cloud subscription gives you the entire collection of over 20 creative desktop and mobile apps, including Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator and Premiere Pro – everything you could possibly need. It's all connected via the cloudso moving your work between applications is effortless, and your subscription includes 100GB storage, your own portfolio site, premium fonts and social media tools. This deal won't last long, so sign up while you can. Find more great deals this Black Fridayhttp://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/software-news/~4/a2IrFFPTirQ

The multimedia experts at CyberLink are offering huge discounts on video and photo software for Black Friday. You can snap up CyberLink PowerDVD 17 Ultra for just £39.99 until Friday. In addition to the feature-packed multimedia suite, you'll also get video conversion and burning tool Power2Go 11 Platinum (normal price £54.99) thrown in for free. Plus there's 30GB of free CyberLink Cloud storage (normal price £23.99) in this bundle, bringing the total saving to an amazing £168.47. PowerDVD 17 Ultra plays and streams videos from just about any source, including Ultra-HD Blu-Rays and 4K YouTube clips, and can stream content throughout your home via Roku, Chomecast and Apple TV devices. There's Oculus Rift and HTC Vive support, plus TrueTheater HDR to make videos look better than ever. If you're more interested in making your own videos, CyberLink PowerDirector 16 is discounted to £54.99. With 25GB of cloud storage, extra templates and the full AudioDirector sound editing studio thrown in too, that's a colossal saving of £184.98. PowerDirector 16's intuitive storyboard mode makes it simple to piece together video clips, photos and audio files by dragging and dropping. Intelligent color correction adjust lighting, hue and saturation to achieve a consistent look throughout your video, and there are professional color grading tools too. PowerDirector 16 also makes it easy to combine and switch between footage shot with multiple cameras, transforming them one synced video – no matter what devices they were shot on. There's also support for 360-degree video, creative video blending, motion tracking, image stabilization and much more. http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/software-news/~4/Td3CiGAo0Po

YouTube is finally back on the Amazon Echo Show following a roughly two-month absence after Google disabled access, citing violations of terms of service. At the time, Google claimed the device created a "broken user experience," which appears to be shorthand for the way the Show originally didn't let you engage in secondary YouTube activities such as sharing playlists. Oh, and it originally disabled ads. Feel free to put the pieces together. So, yes, it's back. Unfortunately, as VoiceBot shows, it's a decidedly less ... pretty experience. Essentially, it looks as though Amazon complied with Google's terms of service by merely replacing the Show's custom YouTube interface for individual videos with a display showing the standard YouTube homepage as you see it on a desktop browser. Some users were reporting that videos no longer expand to full-screen, but apparently that's not the case. Simply say "Alexa, zoom in" while playing a video and it should work fine. On the bright side, the old interface remains in some form when you're merely searching for new videos, and you can still use voice command 'scroll right' to see additional videos. And they brought friendsAmazon released a statement to VoiceBot announcing that the return of YouTube also brings support for some other video services as well. "We’re excited to offer customers the capability to watch even more video content from sources such as Vimeo, YouTube and Dailymotion on Echo Show. More video sources will be added over time." Which means they'll also likely be displayed in the same way. On the bright side, the return of YouTube once again makes the Echo Show an appealing prospect for a Black Friday buy. We predict that Amazon will eventually offer the device as part of its Black Friday deals, so be sure to watch TechRadar for updates. These are the best Bluetooth speakers of the yearhttp://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/digital-home/~4/bDgz6H17uyg

Hive has announced that it’s turning up the heat this Black Friday period with 25% discounts on select products in its smart home range. While it has an undeniable appeal, a smart home ecosystem is not the most affordable thing to create, in part because it involves purchasing so many separate devices. As a result, the most cost-effective method of smartening up your home is to purchase items during offer periods like this. Hive’s sale will see discounts on its self-install and professional install Active Heating packages, window, door and motion sensors, smart plugs, and Active Lights range. A 25% discount would, for example, take the Hive Heating system with professional installation from £249 down to a more appealing £186.75. A bright ideaOutside of physical product offers, Hive is also offering 1 month free on its pay-monthly Home Check, Heating, and Welcome Home plans which tend to be good options for those just setting up their smart home. These offers will run exclusively on purchases made through Hive's website across the Black Friday period from November 21 until December 1, but existing Hive customers will be able to access the offers slightly earlier on November 20. Keep up to date with the latest and greatest offers this Black Fridayhttp://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/digital-home/~4/gmJVsV8d3W8