Having tested the feature last year, Netflix is now making it official: the ability to watch shows and movies at a faster or slower speed is rolling out to its app on Android devices, and coming soon to iOS and the web.
Netflix confirmed the move to The Verge, and in an official post, Netflix's Keela Robison said that the feature has been "much requested" by subscribers. Robison also notes that playback speed controls have been available on DVD players and DVRs for years.
"Most important of all, our tests show that consumers value the flexibility it provides whether it's rewatching their favorite scene or slowing things down because they're watching with subtitles or have hearing difficulties," writes Robison.
Netflix also says that user surveys suggest that "perceptions of the content's quality" aren't affected by changes in the speed. Even so, content creators are unlikely to be pleased with the move, and Robison says Netflix will be listening to feedback.
Speed up, slow down
If you want to slow down your binge watching, 0.5x and 0.75x speeds will be available; if you want to speed it up, you can opt for 1.25x or 1.5x. Similar options have been accessible on YouTube for years, though Google's platform gives you a choice from 0.25x all the way up to 2x.
Settings won't be 'remembered' across multiple titles, so everything you watch will start playing at normal speed until you change it. In other words, there's no master switch to watch everything on Netflix at half speed.
The feature should start appearing on Android from today, but Netflix hasn't provided any timeframe for bringing the controls to iOS or its web player ("testing" will now begin on those platforms, apparently). There's no mention of this coming to smart TVs or other platforms yet.
Whatever the thoughts of directors and producers, Netflix will point to the accessibility benefits of the playback speed controls to sell them – closed captions will automatically adjust with the speed, so they could be really useful for people with hearing difficulties, for example.
Maintaining an electric bike isn't difficult, but there are some important things to know if you're going to keep it in top condition and get the best performance every time you head out on a ride.
To find out exactly what you need to know to keep your e-bike in perfect shape, TechRadar spoke to Julian Thrasher, Head of Training at Shimano. Buy your Shimano products and support local bike shops at www.freewheel.co.uk.
What checks should you do before riding?
Before heading out on your electric bike, a few quick checks will help make sure you're getting the best, safest ride possible.
"Mechanical and electrical checks are the key thing," says Thrasher, "so from a mechanical point of view, tire pressures and if you’ve got any mountain bike suspension settings as well. Mainly because if you’re riding an e-bike with deflated tires then you may not get the range out of the bike that you want."
You'd normally notice if you're riding a bike with deflated tires or worn gears – you'll have to work harder than usual – but an e-bike will compensate, effectively masking the problem and draining the battery faster than necessary,
"It’s also really important that your brakes are working properly because the e-bikes are slightly heavier," says Thrasher. "I’d have a check of the brakes and gears before you go on a ride. Just a spin around the car park or just down the side of your house, just to make sure everything’s operating mechanically as it should.
Before you head out, check your tire pressure; the motor can mask the effect of deflated tires, but the battery will drain faster as a result(Image credit: Shutterstock)
"From an electrical point of view, making sure that the battery’s got a full state of charge," he says. "You’d ideally do this with enough time to make sure that you can put charge into it. There’s nothing worse than rocking up to a ride and finding that you’ve got one bar of battery. It’ll either be a very difficult ride, or the ride won’t happen.
"And a quick check of the cables as well. Speaking from a Shimano Steps point of view, the cables are quite delicate and they carry all the data through the system, so if they’re slightly damaged or you’ve managed to hook it on a car when you’re taking the bike off a rack, they can get damaged and that can cause an error to occur. So it’s definitely worthwhile checking."
You should also check that the cables are correctly plugged in. Shimano has a special wire tool (catchily named the TL-EW02), which makes sure that you're pushing on the correct part of the wire and not damaging it.
Also take a look at the magnet for the speed sensor. "It’s a bit like the old school cycle computers that you had where the magnet went round and it told you how fast you were going," Thrasher explains. "The e-bike has a drive unit that knows how much pressure you’re putting through the pedals – there’s an in-built power meter – but it also has a speed sensor to work out how fast you’re going. With those two metrics it can work out the right amount of power delivery, but if the magnet gets knocked then it can’t see that, and then the drive unit won’t work."
It's quite common for that magnet to get knocked out of place, either in transit or being out on the trails. Just make sure that the magnet is in line with the sensor, with the correct distance between it."
Make sure your electric bike's battery is secure in its mounting before heading out(Image credit: Shutterstock)
If your bike has a Shimano Steps drive system, also watch out for an error code called WA13. Thrasher explains that this is a torque sensor error, and is easily fixed.
"This happens when someone hops on the bike, they start pedalling it off down the road or down the trail, and then they think ‘Oh no, I haven’t turned it on!’ So they turn it on, and then the system sees that there’s pressure going through it, which it doesn’t expect. What it then does is say ‘Well, that must be a problem’. So then it beeps and comes up with a WA13 error code.
"The easiest way to clear this is to stop the bike, get off the bike, turn the battery off, ideally if it’s a downtube-mounted battery remove it – that clears everything from the system – put the battery back in, turn the system on again without any pressure on the pedals. Nine times out of 10, that clears the WA13 error code."
Finally, make sure that the battery is secure in its mounting. That's not easy to do for an internal battery, but for an external one, make sure that there's no play between the battery and its mount. Any movement can cause intermittent faults.
How can you make the battery last longer?
There are lots of ways to eke greater mileage out of your e-bike's battery, some of which are more obvious than others. "We always think about marginal gains in cycling, but they’re all things you can do to improve the life of the battery, and certainly the range of the battery," says Thrasher.
"We spoke before about the tires being correctly inflated and things like your brakes rubbing. You notice all these if you’re a human being pedalling a bicycle, but with an e-bike they’re quite good at masking those little things."
Taking your bike for a blast on its top power setting means you won't go nearly as far, but it's a lot of run(Image credit: Shutterstock)
Also think about which of your bike's modes you're going to be using. Most e-bikes have a set of different options that give varying degrees of assistance. "On Steps we have three modes – we have Eco, Trail and Boost modes – and there are two factory preset modes for these of Dynamic and Explore, but you can also customize it, Thrasher explains. "We have an app on the phone called E-Tube, and through this E-Tube app you can customize Eco, Trail and Boost from a low, medium and high setting.
"So if you went out on your bike and you wanted the best life out of the battery then you’d ride it in Eco with Eco set to low, because you’re just going to receive a small amount of power through the system. So you’re not going to go as fast as going up a hill in Boost, but you are going to get a lot of life out of the battery, or range out of the battery."
Your e-bike's app may allow you to customize its power settings so you can tailor its power output to suit your ride(Image credit: Shutterstock)
There's really no substitute for knowing your route. If you're planning a whole day out with lots of good hills, don't hit them all in Boost mode or you'll end up riding without any assistance at the end.
If you just want to go for a blast in Boost mode, you won't be able to go nearly as far, but it'll be a lot of fun.
"The last thing I’d add to that is that lithium-ion batteries do like to be charged, so don’t let your battery run all the way out and then leave it run out," Thrasher says. "The battery can enter a sort of hibernation mode, and then it can be very difficult to wake that battery. What we recommend is that even if you’ve just used a bar of battery, put it on charge. It likes that. You’ll increase the life of it if you charge it often.
What if your bike has an electrical fault?
If your bike has an electrical fault, never try to disassemble your bike's battery or drive system. You might void your warranty, cause more damage, or even give yourself a bad electric shock.
"The first thing I’d say is visit a professional bike shop, or we prefer a Shimano Service Center," says Thrasher. "They’ve got a tool called an SM-PCE02, and this is a linkage device that checks the electrical internals of each component that’s on the bike. So the motor, the display and so on, and that’s something that’s very difficult to do at home."
A bike shop or service center can look at error codes on your e-bike's display and work out the solution(Image credit: Shutterstock)
You might occasionally see error codes on your e-bike's display, which an expert at a bike shop or service center can interpret into a solution. "So to give you an example, we’ll have an E010 error code, which will appear on the display in combination with an E013, says Thrasher.
"What the first error code means is a general system error code. The second error code is a torque sensor error code. So from a bike shop’s point of view, you look at both of those and you go ‘I’m pretty sure I know where that problem is.’
"And they also need to look at well, has that been caused through a mechanical issue, and they’re much better equipped to do that. They look at your bike as a whole and then offer you a solution, whereas when you’re at home, you can really only make the problem worse."
Are there any other things you shouldn't do?
"Definitely don’t disassemble the battery or the drive unit because you’ll give yourself a big shock," Thrasher says. "The other thing is don’t poke things into the terminals of the battery, because that could also give you a huge shock."
Poking and prodding is a bad idea, but you should make sure that the male terminals on the battery are nice and clean. "Those are fine once you’ve got the battery out and off the bike it’s not going to hurt you, so you can clean the other parts."
Thrasher gives the example of one of Shimano's sponsored riders who was having an error code in his bike. It turned out the problem was down to the dust he'd been riding in; once he cleaned out the dusk, the error code went away.
Take care not to get lubricant in your bike's wire ports(Image credit: Shutterstock)
"Don’t spray any lubricant into the wire ports – that’s really a no-no – and treat the cables with care," Thrasher adds. "If at any point you don’t think it’s going in, don’t use more force because that generally ends up with something breaking. Don’t force them into the components, and if you can, do use the wire tool that I spoke about.
"Don’t try to get into the motor or the battery, but you should ensure that the bolts that are mounted to the frame are tight, and there’s generally only six bolts that do that, and there’ll generally be a torque setting from the manufacturer. That’s really good because that can lead to creaks coming from the bike, but they’re quite easy to solve. Do make sure those bolts are tight.
"If you’re cleaning the e-bike, don’t point a high-pressure hose directly at the electrical components – they don’t really like that – but do keep it clean. We say use a clean cloth and then a clean T-shirt afterwards just to dry it down."
How should you store your e-bike after a ride?
When storing your electric bike, the most important thing is to keep it clean, dry, and fully charged. "Really the best way is to make sure the e-bike’s ready for the next ride," says Thrasher. "Make sure it’s ready when you get back from the last ride. Keep it clean, inspect it for damage.
"These are all things that are really stressful when you’re about to go out for a ride, but actually if you spend five minutes just looking over the bike when you get back, it’s nice to know that you’ve put that bike away in a state that you can just pick it up, turn it on and go for a blast on it on the next ride. It relieves some of the stress."
Take care of your bike after each ride and you won't need to worry next time you want to head out(Image credit: Shutterstock)
You don't have to take the battery off the bike when you're storing it, Thrasher explains. "A lot of people to take the battery off the bike to charge it, which is fine, you can do that, but some e-bikes have remote on switches on the top tube, and they also have a cell inside them that needs a little bit of the power of the battery to make them operable. So we say every four times, just put the battery into the bike to charge it on the bike. They do benefit from that."
Storing your e-bike somewhere damp or humid might cause corrosion of the electrical parts, which can cause issues down the line,
"Don’t hang your oily rags over the charger or the battery because they get warm and that can lead to fire," Thrasher adds. "Definitely don’t cover anything up – don’t cover the charger up, don’t cover the battery up. Make sure you’ve got lots of free space around where you’re charging the bike."
Finally, don't let the battery run out of charge completely and leave it that way.
How often does your e-bike need servicing?
Getting an ordinary bike serviced once or twice a year helps nip any potential problems in the bud and keep it running smoothly. It's very similar for an electric bike, and provided you care for it properly, as described above, taking to the professionals every six to 12 months is fine.
"A lot of the things you need to consider are like a regular bike," says Julian Thrasher. "We’re lucky in that Shimano Steps is a pretty robust e-bike system, so if you do take care of the bike in terms of keeping the chain oiled, keeping the pads replaced, the need to take it in for a professional service isn’t all that often."
Your bike will be thoroughly examined for mechanical issues, but for an e-bike it's also your opportunity to get any new firmware updates. Thrasher explains that i's very much like updating your phone, but can only be done professionally.
Getting your e-bike serviced once or twice a year can help nip potential problems in the bud(Image credit: Shutterstock)
"This is something that you would need to visit a professional bike shop or a Shimano service centre for," he says. "They ensure that any bugs in the system that [the developers] have found are taken out, that all the components speak effectively together, and sometimes there can be little upgrades. "Basically there’ll be features that come out that the new firmware accommodates. So it’s a really good virtual upgrade."
"People don’t need to be scared that you need to be taking the bike in every five days to be looked at," he says. "They’re pretty robust, so the main thing is the firmware, to take it in and to just get it checked over to make sure there’s nothing that you may not have seen that a professional bike shop could see."
Fix Your Bike scheme
If you live in the UK, you can apply for a £50 voucher towards maintaining your e-bike through the government's new Fix Your Bike scheme. Vouchers cover essential repairs and services, and are available through retailer including Halfords and Evans Cycles, plus smaller bike shops.
This week's energy news round-up starts with a report that electric vehicles could offer a cheaper and greener alternative to the UK's energy storage problems than large-scale batteries.
There's also positive news for energy bills; and the announcement of a new energy price comparison service that aims to help users find the best energy deals in their area. Here's what's happened in energy over the last seven days...
Electric vehicles could create 'mega battery' to help stabilise the grid
When it comes to stabilising the grid from peaks and troughs in energy demand, plug-in hybrid and electric vehicles (EVs) could offer a much cheaper solution than continually deploying large-scale energy storage systems. That's according to Andrew Cruden, Professor of Energy Technology at the University of Southampton.
"When an electric vehicle is plugged in for re-charging, it is effectively enabling the electricity grid to access its battery," says Cruden. "When you have many vehicles all plugged in at once, they create a very large aggregated battery store."
This is known as vehicle-to-grid storage (V2G). It's still early days for the tech - it requires two-way charging equipment that can communicate with the vehicles, plus high-level aggregator control systems. But as the transport sector continues to electrify, V2G could result in a larger, greener and cheaper alternative energy store than stationary large-scale battery systems.
Digital startup to launch new energy comparison service
London-based digital bank startup Revolut is working with price-comparison expert Decision Tech to establish a new energy comparison service. It aims to help bill payers compare prices for energy and other services, and will encourage them to switch energy supplier where possible.
The 'Essentials' service will be rolled out in the UK via a mobile phone app, according to a company press release. The app will also offer customers access to a range of suppliers and exclusive deals.
The latest deployments in UK offshore wind could generate electricity so cheaply it would produce another fall in energy bills, according to findings by researchers at Imperial College London.
So far, offshore wind farms have benefited from government subsidies, Engineering and Technology reports. But the most recently approved projects are expected to produce power so cheaply they will enable operators to pay the government money – so-called ‘negative subsidies‘ – and in turn, enable a reduction in household energy bills.
New Gov figures show the UK broke its clean energy generation record in 2019
New figures released by the Government’s Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) show that in 2019 a record 37.1 per cent of UK energy was generated by renewables - up from 33.1 per cent in 2018.
Onshore and offshore wind accounted for 20 per cent of total domestic generation. Domestic wind, solar and hydropower in combination produced an 11 per cent increase in clean energy, while output from bioenergy also increased, by 1.6 per cent.
Ofgem, the UK energy regulator, is determined to crack down on rogue energy brokers that are overcharging charities, community groups and care homes by concealing exaggerated commission charges.
Some customers are paying far more than they need to for energy. Ofgem now intends to introduce new measures requiring energy suppliers to monitor the conduct of their brokers more closely and to ensure greater transparency.
Find the best energy deal for your home
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In the great photography jungle, an invasive species called the smartphone has forced cameras to evolve – and as the new Sony A7S II and Canon EOS R5 show, the biggest ones are mutating into 'full-frame hybrids'.
What are full-frame hybrids? In theory, they're the 'everything cameras', the ones that sit right at the top of the creative food chain. These uncompromising beasts promise pro-level image quality for both stills and video, but in bodies that are small enough to slip into backpacks or hide behind rocks when smartphones attack.
But despite the Sony A7S III and Canon EOS R5 both being incredible specimens, perhaps the best cameras of their kind so far, neither of them quite reaches the hybrid perfection that their early hype (perhaps unfortunately) suggested they might reach.
(Image credit: Sony)
Whether it's market segmentation, pesky physics or a combination of the two, both cameras have strong leanings towards video or stills that make them tools for different jobs.
And that's okay – they can do things that none of their rivals can, and are as versatile as current camera tech allows.
But despite packing the latest processors and sensors, both show that there still isn't a do-it-all, professional full-frame hybrid that's the undisputed king for both video and stills. Not that they don't come pretty close...
Built for 4K
In fairness to the Sony A7S III, it was never expected to be the company's true 'hybrid' camera. That remains the somewhat aging (and hopefully soon to be replaced) Sony A7 III. But it is a good example of why there still isn't one full-frame hybrid to rule them all, at least for professional video and photos.
Like its predecessors, the Sony A7S III has a 12MP sensor. That sounds incredibly low-resolution, even compared to the latest smartphones. But there are a couple of good reasons why it's only 12MP. Firstly, the original Sony A7S became a hit with videographers (despite not being able to record 4K video internally) because of its impressive low-light performance.
A 12MP full-frame sensor, which is over 30 times bigger than the sensor in your iPhone 11 Pro, has huge individual photosites. This helps reduce noise and allows the A7S III to perform admirably at high ISO sensitivities (in our tests, images captured at ISO 4000 looked like they were shot nearer ISO 400).
(Image credit: Sony)
But the main reason why the Sony A7S III's 12MP resolution makes it a videographer's dream is because it allows it to shoot 4K video for long periods. In our tests, we were able to record 4K/60p video for up to an hour without any overheating warnings, whereas the Canon EOS R5 has a maximum 35-minute limit in that mode.
The differences become even more stark in high frame-rate modes like 4K/120p, with the EOS R5 only managing 15 minutes and a needing a far longer cooling down period than the A7S III.
It should be said that some Sony A7S III tests, particularly those shot in direct sunlight like those by YouTuber Dan Watson, have discovered that the camera can overheat in some situations. But overall, there are good reasons why the A7S III is one of the best 4K cameras for shooting things like interviews and weddings – that 12MP resolution means its processor doesn't have to work as hard for 4K video.
A single frame of 4K UHD video has a 3840 x 2160 resolution, so the A7S III's 12MP sensor can do a 1:1 pixel readout to produce 4K video, with no need for techniques like 'pixel binning'. In other words, it doesn't need to do the same intensive, heat-creating maths for each frame as a camera like the Canon EOS R5, which has a 45MP sensor and shoots 'oversampled' 4K video.
One for all
What does this all mean? Well, despite the hype around Sony and Canon's new flagships, there are still different pro cameras (and, in particular, sensors) for different jobs. That resolution debate flips around when it comes to shooting photos – for many photographers, the A7S III's 12MP resolution simply doesn't give them enough wiggle room for cropping into photos to pull out extra details.
The Canon EOS R5, then, could ultimately prove to be the better pro hybrid camera for those who predominantly shoot stills, alongside short video clips. While it doesn't appear to be well-suited to being the primary 4K camera on a pro video shoot – and to be fair to Canon, this was never its claim – the EOS R5 is a formidable 45MP camera with some impressive video features.
(Image credit: Canon)
That resolution means that it's capable of shooting 8K video, which is a first for a mirrorless camera. As we've previously explained, the benefit of this is less to do with delivering 8K video for the handful of TVs that can support it, and more about having the flexibility of cropping into that footage, effectively having two cameras in one.
Again, the same processing and heat bottlenecks apply, and we'll be putting those to the test in our full Canon EOS R5 review soon. But that 8K mode remains another practical tool for a certain job – you just have to be aware of the limitations, rather than expecting the EOS R5 to be a fully-fledged 8K camera (or at least a practical one).
Hybrid stakes
This new era of full-frame hybrids is still a huge milestone for pro cameras. The Sony A7S III can do most of things that pro videographers need, with class-leading video quality and great practical features, all in a small, lightweight body. That's why we gave it a rare five-star rating. It's just not really a direct rival to the likes of the Canon EOS R5 for stills shooters, and vice versa.
This doesn't mean we won't eventually get the ultimate mirrorless hybrid for pro creatives. After all, there are already great options for non-professionals that are pretty flawless all-in-one options for stills and video – for example, the excellent Fujifilm X-T4.
(Image credit: Sony)
But pro stills and video shooters have specific, exacting demands that mean we'll continue to see segmentation in the likes of the Sony A7 series and Canon EOS R system for a while yet. Choosing which one is best for you means having a clear idea of the specific creative jobs you need a camera for.
Right now, the Sony A7S III is our pick of the hybrid full-frame cameras for video –we'll find out soon if the Canon EOS R5 can achieve a similar accolade for pro stills shooters in our full review very soon.
BT might be the UK's most popular supplier of broadband deals but it has a tendency to rank in the upper-ends of cost. But luckily, this week BT is looking to compete with the cheaper names out there, slashing costs and going big on rewards.
With both BT's Fibre 1 and Fibre 2 packages, prices have been brought right down. In the case of the cheaper Fibre 1 option, BT has once again hit its lowest ever price of just £26.99 a month.
While that is already pretty near to some other cheap fibre broadband deals, BT can get closer. When you take into account the £50 Mastercard BT is throwing in on top, you're effectively paying just £24.90 per month.
Go for the more powerful BT Fibre 2 and the price does see a jump up but both the speeds and value of the Mastercard also increase. You can see both of these BT broadband deals below.
BT broadband deals: see this discount in full
BT Fibre 1 |24 months | Avg. speed 50Mb | Weekend calls | FREE delivery | £26.99/pm + £50 Reward Card BT has been running this deal at almost £30 a month for a little while but now, we're back down to its lowest price of £26.99 per month. While that is already pretty affordable - especially by BT's standards - it does get cheaper. Right now, BT is throwing in a £50 Mastercard, effectively bringing your costs down to £24.90. View Deal
BT Fibre 2 |24 months | Avg. speed 67Mb | Weekend calls | FREE delivery | £31.99/pm + £70 Reward Card BT's more expensive Fibre 2 plan has also recently seen a drop in price, now offering bills of £31.99 a month. While that is obviously higher than the above plan, it gives you a boost in speeds up to an average of 67Mb. The Mastercard reward also sees an increase, now worth £70 instead. View Deal
What is a BT Reward Card?
The Reward Card that BT sends out is a pre-paid credit card that you can use anywhere that accepts Mastercard. In short, that's around a million shops, cafes and restaurants around the world, so you shouldn't find it difficult to find places to spend.
It's an old-fashioned chip and pin card, rather than contactless. But do make sure that you claim your Reward Card within three months of installation, otherwise you'll lose out on all that cash.
Google will soon introduce biometric authentication to the Chrome Autofill feature on Android devices, in a bid to make conducting online purchases via its browser more convenient and secure.
Users will still need to input their information manually when using a credit card for the first time but, for future purchases, Chrome for Android will allow users to bypass CVV checks and authenticate transactions using face ID or fingerprint alone.
Google Chrome will also apply a similar process to logging into online services. The new touch-to-fill feature will bring up a list of accounts attached to the webpage a user is currently browsing and allow them to verify their identity using biometrics.
Beyond the obvious convenience benefits, the Chrome Autofill upgrade also delivers an important boost to security.
Previously, an unauthorized third party with access to a device could gain entry to the owner’s online accounts via the Autofill feature (which required no additional authentication). Using biometrics, however, puts paid to this possibility - unless twins are involved, of course.
For security conscious users, the common advice was never to use a browser’s autofill function and opt for a secure password manager instead. But with the imminent upgrade to Chrome for Android, it’s possible account credentials will be just as safe stored in-browser.
To ensure sensitive biometric information remains secure, Chrome utilizes the WebAuthn standard when registering fingerprint and facial data. Google has also assured users that biometric data will always remain on-device, never transmitted to the cloud.
The new feature also significantly reduces the risk of falling victim to elaborate phishing scams. While a fake landing page hosted on an illegitimate domain might deceive an unwitting user, the browser itself will not be so easy to dupe.
Already available on Chrome for Mac and Windows, biometric authentication is set to land on Android devices within the next few weeks.
Traditionally, the Mac has been regarded as a safe and secure haven compared to other desktop platforms – particularly Windows – and a common line of thinking has been that Apple computers don’t need antivirus defenses, because security is tight enough anyway, and threats are relatively scarce.
But is that still true today? The latter point most certainly isn’t…
Our definitive list of today's Mac antivirus software
Looking for even more protection? Grab the best VPN
See why we rate Bitdefender so highly in our testing
Growing threat level
Mac threats might once have been far thinner on the ground than malware targeting other operating systems, but that’s no longer the case. Just a quick glance at a recent security report will tell you that.
Malwarebytes found in its latest annual report detailing the current ‘state of malware’ that over the course of 2019, Mac threats increased by 400% year-on-year, and for the first time ever, more threats were found per endpoint (ie Mac) than with Windows machines.
If any statistic will make a Mac user sit up and take notice on the security front, it’s the revelation that there were 11 threats per endpoint compared to 5.8 with Windows – in other words, nearly double the amount with Apple machines.
That stark headline isn’t the full story, though. The big caveat here is that much more malware is still aimed at Windows PCs, with the Mac getting hit more with adware and potentially unwanted programs (PUPs), or ‘malware light’ as Malwarebytes dubs it. These kind of efforts aren’t nearly as serious or dangerous as the full-fat malware out there, but they can certainly be unpleasant in at least some cases, hijacking your browser, changing your default search engine or perhaps serving up sponsored results to the benefit of the author.
Of course, we must also bear in mind that this is just a single report, and it’s unwise to put too much emphasis on any one source in isolation. However, we’ve also seen a regular drip of articles about Mac malware hitting the headlines. Witness, for example, the recent revelation of a new strain of Mac ransomware (the first such sighting in some four years).
So given this, and the apparent increase in Mac threats – which is doubtless tied into Apple’s machines becoming more popular – anyone who has been following all this will likely have become more concerned about Mac security, and rightly so.
(Image credit: Shutterstock; Apple)
But isn’t my Mac secure by design anyway?
Despite these growing dangers, you may well ask: but isn’t my Mac secure by design anyway?
It is true that macOS is built to be seriously secure, and Apple implements a number of measures within the operating system to that end. The firm incorporates features such as XProtect antivirus protection, and the likes of Gatekeeper, insisting that all software is digitally signed (or notarized, in other words, checked by Apple for issues or malicious code). All this helps protect those downloading software from outside of the official App Store.
There’s no doubting that the level of security provided by Apple is sterling stuff – but nonetheless, these systems aren’t fool-proof, and we have seen ways to get around Gatekeeper in the past, or attempts to trick users and foil this built-in security. Vulnerabilities at a hardware level can be another dangerous potential attack vector against Mac systems, too, as we’ve seen in the past with the likes of ZombieLoad.
Besides, as Malwarebytes points out, Apple’s integrated security measures aren’t so great about picking up the ‘malware light’ efforts we mentioned above. As the security company notes: “macOS’ built-in security systems have not cracked down on adware and PUPs to the same degree that they have malware, leaving the door open for these borderline programs to infiltrate.”
And as we’ve noted, those ‘borderline’ apps may not wreak havoc on your system like a traditional piece of malware, but you still don’t want those kind of things hanging around on your Mac.
Do I really need antivirus for Mac?
When you weigh everything up, given the increasing amounts of Mac malware – albeit with much of it not as serious as the malicious software targeting Windows – and the possibility of exploits managing to get around Apple’s (admittedly good) security, there is certainly a valid argument for backing up the core protection provided by macOS with a second layer of defense in the form of an antivirus.
Particularly considering that you can easily get the best Mac antivirus app these days, and they don't even have to cost that much.
Netflix is working on a feature film adaptation of Ubisoft’s Beyond Good & Evil, the streaming platform has revealed on Twitter. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the project is still in early development and still in in the midst of looking f...
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The Samsung Galaxy Note 20 is almost certainly going to be unveiled at the Samsung Unpacked virtual product launch event on August 5, but there are still several things we don’t know about the Android phone.
Samsung has traditionally releases its stylus-packing phones in August, and it always seems to incorporate the features introduced in that year’s S-series phones from six months prior. But there’s still plenty to wonder about the Note 20.
Will the Note 20 pack all of the Samsung Galaxy S20's cameras and specs? Will it be as big, or bigger, than the Galaxy S20 Plus? Will there be a top-specced Note 20 Ultra model?
Then there are all the other Note-specific questions we have for the next phone in the stylus line: will there be more features for the S Pen? Will the display be even bigger than last year’s models? Will productivity tools like DeX get improvements, too?
We’ve still got plenty of questions, but we’re going to narrow them down to the five biggest things we still don’t know about the next flagship Samsung phone line.
(Image credit: Future)
Will there be a Note 20 Ultra in addition to a Note 20 Plus?
Perhaps the biggest question is whether we’ll see a Note 20 corollary to the Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra with an appropriately huge screen and extreme specs.
At this point, it’s hard to be certain – heck, early rumors strongly suggested we might not even see a Note 20 Ultra. Given we’ve seen more and more leaked images of the supposed extra-large model, we suspect that rumors we initially assumed referred to the Note 20 Plus were, instead, about the Note 20 Ultra – especially since a recent specs leak referred to just the base and Ultra models, with no mention of the Plus.
We could still see a Plus model, but Samsung might be splitting the difference and dividing its choices between a smaller, more basic model and a max-specced Ultra version.
(Image credit: TechRadar)
Will the Note 20 come in a 4G version, too?
Given most 2020 flagship phones support 5G, we’re expecting the Note 20 line to follow suit – especially since it will most likely pack the leading Snapdragon 865 or 865 Plus chipset, which require a discrete 5G modem. But given the nominal price bump we’ve seen to get 5G phone connectivity, is there a cheaper 4G-only Note 20 phone in the works?
We’ve seen pricing leaks that deliberately call out a 4G version – and recent certifications from US and Thailand regulatory agencies (FCC and NBTC, respectively) have surfaced revealing a 4G-only device is at least registered in those markets. Whether they’ll end up coming to more regions is another question, as phonemakers don’t always release all variants of their phones globally – or might wait some time to do so, like with the Samsung Galaxy Note 10 Lite.
(Image credit: Future)
Will it have all the S20's cameras? Or have even more advanced tech?
The Galaxy S20 line has a well-rounded suite of rear cameras, with a main 12MP f/1.8 shooter, 64MP telephoto with 3x optical zoom, and 12MP f/2.2 ultra-wide camera, along with 8K at 24fps video recording and its new Super Stabilization feature. The S20 Ultra even packed a 108MP main camera, which enabled its staggering 100x ‘Space Zoom’ feature.
Is all that coming to the Note 20 line? Hard to say: leaks claim that the Plus or Ultra will have a 108MP main, 12MP ultra-wide, and 13MP telephoto lens with periscope tech, though another rumor suggests it won’t reach the 100x maximum zoom of the S20 Ultra. Instead, expect a more modest 50x zoom, but it’s unclear whether this will come to both the standard Note 20 and the Ultra.
What’s more interesting is that the Note 20’s selfie camera could ditch the punch-hole for an under-display camera, according to rumor and even a video tease by Samsung itself. While it could be a pop-up camera, that’s not really Samsung’s style (not outside of the Samsung Galaxy A80’s pop-and-flip cameras, anyway). But again, will such a prestigious feature come to both the standard Note 20 and its pricier sibling?
(Image credit: Future | Amit Mishra for TechRadar India)
What about the Note 20 chipset and specs?
We’re still not certain about the Note 20’s set of specs: given the line’s productivity focus, we expect more battery but not exactly show-stopping internals.
Some rumors presume the Note 20 will get the same Snapdragon 865 chipset as the Galaxy S20 line, while a leaker believes it will instead opt for the slightly more powerful Snapdragon 865 Plus chipset instead. While the Note 10 and Note 10 Plus didn’t upgrade its processor over the Galaxy S10 (both go the Snapdragon 855), including one would give the Note 20 an edge to compete with other mid-year flagships that have launched with the Snapdragon 865 Plus, like the Asus ROG 3.
Outside the US, we’ve heard the Note 20 will get Samsung’s Exynos 992 chipset, which would be a slight upgrade on the Exynos 990 appearing in the Galaxy S20 line, though another leak suggests the new phone could just stick with the Exynos 990, too. We love conflicting rumors!
The rest of the Note 20 specs are even less known, with one source claiming a baseline 128GB of storage, while that Exynos 990 leak also suggests the phones will come with 12GB of RAM.
There’s been more chatter about Note 20 battery life, though, with estimations from a minimum of 4,000mAh capacity in the standard Note 20, a more recent leak suggesting 4,300mAh, and up to 4,500mAh in the Note 20 Plus/Ultra. At least we have a range.
(Image credit: Future)
Will there be more S Pen gestures and productivity software?
Sadly, there’s even less we know about improvements that might come for the Note 20’s signature feature, the S Pen stylus.
We have heard rumors that you’ll be able to use the S Pen as a more proper pointer with mid-air gestures allowing navigation around the interface, which could iterate on some similar (and rather clumsy) way to get around with the Samsung Galaxy Tab S6 S Pen.
What’s more exciting for the productivity-minded user: DeX, the Samsung feature that used its smartphones and tablets to power a desktop-computing experience through an external monitor, may finally be going wireless. Instead of requiring a dedicated dock and/or cord, you may be able to fire up the PC experience (with a Windows-like file system) wirelessly, according to this rumor.
Storage startup Pliops has announced sampling of its Storage Processors to select tier-one cloud and enterprise companies and was on track to start commercial production of the processors later in 2020.
The Storage Processors ASICs are said to increase performance of NAND flash storage solutions, such as SSDs, by over 10 times and also decrease latency by up to 1000 times in various database applications.
“As the success of GPUs and AI processors has shown, there is a pressing need for specialized solutions that accelerate the pace of workflows,” noted Steve Fingerhut, president and chief business officer for Pliops. “Because data growth is absolutely booming at a time when storage and data processing is slowing, now is the time to take this approach and apply it to mainstream workloads like unstructured and structured databases, analytics and virtually any application that uses flash storage.”
The concept of Pliops’ Storage Processor (PSP) relies on software and hardware. The software layer consists of an NVMe driver as well as a Pliops Kernel Module that replace traditional storage engines thus removing ‘layers of the database, file, block, and storage management accumulated over decades by legacy architectures’ and eliminating bottlenecks.
Meanwhile, the ASICs designed to accelerate processing of data-intensive workloads (such as databases) offloads processing of compute-intensive functions from CPUs while using a fraction of power that a general-purpose processors need to perform the same tasks, the company said.
(Image credit: Pliops)
Applications accelerated by Pliops include MySQL, MariaDB, mongoDB, Redis, Oracle, Apache Spark, and Cassandra. The company emphasizes that deployment of its Storage Processor is relatively easy and does not require changes to ‘most’ programs that are in use today.
According to Pliops, increasing performance using its Storage Processors can reduce expenditures on CPUs and SSDs and even make lower-cost 3D QLC NAND-based drives viable for mainstream workloads. Furthermore, PSPs can also reduce power consumption of servers and datacenters. Reduction of hardware and power costs naturally lower overall costs and greatly increase value of solid-state storage.
Pliops has raised money from various companies and venture capital firms, including Intel Capital, Mellanox, Western Digital, Xilinx, SoftBank, Somv, and Viola Ventures.
The NASA Mars Perseverance Rover has successfully launched – and it's carrying a record number of cameras to help it hunt for signs of life on the red planet.
The six-wheeled robot, which is the successor to the Mars Curiosity Rover, took off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida and is expected to touch down on the surface of Mars on 18 February 2021.
Its younger sibling landed on Mars in August 2012 and remains there, investigating to this day, living off its radioactive isotope power source.
So why has NASA launched another Mars rover and what's so special about the many cameras it's taking for the ride? We've taken a closer look at its imaging tech – and some of it has a surprising amount in common with the earth-bound camera in your pocket...
The Mars Perseverance Rover has the same Wall-E charm as the Curiosity, but the tech inside is very different.
Curiosity has 17 cameras, Perseverance has 23, including four used to document the landing process, plus the parachute that will help this remarkable 'car' land safely.
Later on we will dig into what these 23 cameras do, but the fundamental technical upgrades deserve some attention first.
(Image credit: NASA)
Curiosity uses 1MP black-and-white cameras to capture the amazing images you can see posted regularly on the NASA website. On the other hand, Perseverance has 20MP full color sensors, much closer to the resolution of your phone or camera.
This means it can take photos without the multi exposure stitching method Curiosity uses. Some of its cameras also have wider-angle lenses, again letting it capture more of Mars’s landscape without panning.
"Our previous Navcams would snap multiple pictures and stitch them together," says Colin McKinney of JPL, product delivery manager for one of Perseverance camera families. "With the wider field of view, we get the same perspective in one shot.”
Portrait mode on Mars
Why does the old Mars Rover have such low-res hardware, which seems old-school even for 2012?
Curiosity was in development long before it launched, obviously, but there was also the data rate to consider. You can’t simply Bluetooth or AirDrop photos from the surface of Mars to Florida. Even with Bluetooth 5.0.
NASA has mitigated this problem by using spacecraft in orbit around Mars as data relays. The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter MAVEN and the European Space Agency's Trace Gas Orbiter will support the Perseverance Rover in this way for two years, which is the initial period of its mission.
(Image credit: NASA)
Perseverance’s cameras also make much greater use of stereoscopy. This is where two cameras are placed near to each other, but with enough distance between that they have a slightly different view of a scene. Those differences are then analyzed to produce a 3D depth map that can distinguish near objects from far ones, and create three dimensional images.
Many smartphones use the same technique for their 'Portrait' modes, which blur the background to emulate the effect of a wide aperture DSLR-style camera lens. For those of us who prefer to read NASA’s blog than take selfies, it means we can expect amazing high-resolution color 'first person' images from the surface of Mars that we can view through a virtual reality headset or Google Cardboard.
That’s not their real role, of course. The 23 cameras and two microphones are Perseverence’s eyes and ears.
“It will sense the air around it, see and scan the horizon, hear the planet with microphones on the surface for the first time, feel it as it picks up samples to cache,” says Thomas Zurbuchen, Associate Administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate.
These cameras can be split into a few categories. There are ones just to record the landing process which, if all goes well, we can look forward to seeing on 18 February 2021.
Then there are the navigation and hazard detection cameras, plus its 'science cameras'. These are the eyes for Perseverance’s investigational tools like its robotic arm. Let's take a closer look at how some of these work.
The Mars rover's head
The images that we’ll see from Perseverance are most likely to come from the equivalent of the rover's 'head', if this were a Pixar character.
Two sets of 20MP Navcams sit at either side of the head on Perseverance’s main mast. These will be used by the team’s engineers to find safe paths for the Rover, and have the visual acuity to "spot a golf ball from 82 feet”, according to NASA.
This may be with the help of the Mastcam-Z units that sit right beside these 20MP “eyeball” cameras.
(Image credit: NASA)
The 'Z' part stands for zoom. Two groups of zoom lens elements sit inside the barrel, providing focal lengths of 28-100mm, comparable with a great all-rounder DSLR lens.
They can focus on objects just two meters away and their 7.4-micron pixel pitch is not far off that of the Sony Alpha A7S III (8.4 microns).
Resolution is far lower, at 2MP (so a max 1600x1200 image size), but the combination of wide and zoom cameras gives Perseverance’s head unit an incredibly versatile view of its Martian surroundings.
See that part above these cameras, which looks a little like a home cinema projector? This is the Perseverance’s SuperCam. Despite the exciting name, it’s not a traditional imaging camera. The SuperCam uses a laser to analyze rocks and soil, focusing on a target smaller than the nib of a pencil.
(Image credit: NASA)
Perseverance also has two rows of wide-angle hazard cameras that let engineers see around the Rover’s feet.
There are four of these cameras on front and two on the back.
You can think of these a little like the parking sensors of a car. They will see rocks and debris not visible to the cameras on the main mast, and can act as a guide to inform where to point the sensors on the robot arm.
Elementary, my dear WATSON
NASA is not afraid of indulging in the odd geeky reference. WATSON and SHERLOC are two teams of hardware sensors on the Perseverance’s robotic arm.
SHERLOC is a spectrometer that uses a deep ultraviolet laser to analyze objects on Mars’s surface, and is aided by the WATSON camera.
(Image credit: NASA)
This offers a wider, more eyeball-friendly view of what the highly focused SHERLOC sensors are looking at.
NASA says WATSON is “almost identical” to the MAHLI camera used on the older Curiosity Rover. That is a 1600 x 1200 (2MP) camera with a magnifying glass-like field of view, used to look at objects as close as 18.3mm. It can also record 720p video.
What's next for the NASA Mars Rover?
The Perseverance Rover will land in Mars’s Jezero Crater, which has a diameter of 49km. This spot was chosen because it is believed to be the site of what was once a body of water.
“The only way that could form geometrically was for it to be a lake,” NASA planetary scientist Dr. Caleb Fassett told the NY Times.
Night-time temperatures in the crater drop to minus 130 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 90 Celsius), so we're hoping the aptly-named Perseverance has taken a coat.
The rover will stay for “at least one Mars year”, which is worth just under two of our Earth years, searching for signs of microbial life, and collecting soil and samples. These will be stored in sealed tubes. Another camera is used here too – the CacheCam looks down the tube as Martian material is collected, to record the process.
One final bit of exciting tech is that Rover will also carry a helicopter drone, known as Ingenuity. It will be the “first aircraft to attempt control flight on another planet”. And thanks to transmission delays, what limited directions it is given by the engineers will have been programmed-in long before the flight actually takes place.
Perseverance is a 1,025kg, 3-meter long, $2.4 billion space car. Let’s hope it makes its way to Mars safely.
In an unprecedented move for the company, Apple has confirmed it has a new iPhone coming in 2020. It's not all good news though; the company has confirmed it'll be out later in the year than it has previously "launched" its flagship phones.
Apple didn’t specifically call the device the iPhone 12, but this has essentially confirmed the new iPhone range we expected to launch in September will be delayed until at least some point later in 2020.
When will you be able to buy yourself a brand new iPhone? Plus, when will the company be unveiling its new devices? Those are two different things, and below we're going to try and give you the best answers to those questions we have so far.
What’s happened?
During Apple’s Q3 2020 earning call, Apple CFO Luca Maestri specifically referred to a new iPhone and clarified that the company is expecting its launch to be delayed in 2020 when compared to previous years.
Maestri said, “As you know, last year we started selling iPhones in late September. This year, we expect supply to be available a few weeks later.”
This is unheard of as Apple has never previously commented on the existence of a new iPhone, but the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the company’s financials – and future financials with an iPhone 12 delay on the horizon – have changed things a little.
Later, Maestri clarified “I said in my remarks that a year ago we launched new iPhone in late September. And I said that this year, the supply of the new product will be a few weeks later than that.”
That may seem simple at first, but Apple’s terminology here has been very specifically chosen and it may not impact the time that you get to see the company unveil the iPhone 12 range announced on stage.
When did we expect the iPhone 12?
The iPhone 11 Pro Max from 2019(Image credit: Future)
September 8 was the best guess for the iPhone 12 announcement. That was leaked by an established tipster called ihacktu, and it matches what we’ve previously seen from the company is other years.
Typically, Apple announces its new iPhone on a Tuesday at the start of September. It's usually the first or second week of the year. It then often puts the device on sale 10 days after that, with pre-orders happening in that period between announcement and on sale.
Maestri’s wording is specifically about the time you can buy the new iPhone.
He referred to “the supply of the new product”, which means this is Apple specifically commenting about the on-sale date of the new iPhone 12. That doesn’t necessarily mean we’ll see the iPhone 12 announced any later in the year.
We’ve seen a similar situation with the iPhone X in 2017. The handset was designed to be a reinvention of Apple’s devices and it launched on September 12 alongside the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus, but wasn’t on sale until November 3 of the same year.
Apple never publicly commented on why that phone came out later, but it’s thought it was to do with supply chain issues where Apple wasn’t able to get one element of the device for the manufacturing process to take place.
That’s similar to the effect that the iPhone 12 is sure to suffer this year. That's owing to factories and manufacturing plants around the world closing and reopening throughout the Covid-19 pandemic.
Apple may also want to delay the release of the phone to try and coincide with the end of the pandemic. Apple stores across the US are currently shut, and in other countries many are having to limit the amount of customers.
A new iPhone often brings a fervor of excitement in physical stores as well as online sales, so it may be the company wishes to limit that impact by pushing the release date of its phones back a few weeks.
So, what does this actually change?
It may change the date you can buy the new iPhone 12 series, but it's not certain that this means it'll change the time when it’s announced.
If Apple follows a similar schedule to 2017 with the iPhone X, the company may decide to keep an early September event for unveiling its new iPhone. Instead, the delay would impact when you're able to buy the product, not when you find out about it.
It seems the phones will be delayed until October at the earliest. If Tuesday, September 8 for an announcement is correct, then that would mean we would have expected the devices to go on sale on September 18 in a normal iPhone cycle.
Maestri’s terminology of “a few” weeks suggests that is pushed back by at least three weeks. That likely means you won’t be able to buy the phone until October 9, or perhaps even later in the year.
How certain is any of this?
None of this is certain. This is all conjecture that we’re able to suggest based on previous iPhone launches and Apple's specific way of announcing this, but these are strange times with the world trying to cope with Covid-19.
September is still a month away, so things may even change within Apple HQ to see a longer delay. We likely won't know more until we hear directly from Apple on its plans for an event in September, if it's set to happen.
If it does happen, we'll be sure to be one of the first to let you know.
The Eastman Kodak Company gave its CEO 1.75 million stock options just one day before the company’s stock soared amid news that it would receive a $765 million federal loan to manufacture critical drug components, the New York Times reported Friday.
OLOy MD4U322616DJDA 64GB DDR4 RAM -$180.00 at Amazon
(£229.99/roughly AU$250) Sister publication Tom's Hardware has drawn our attention to this seriously cheap 64GB RAM module from a company called OLOy. Upgrading to a dual channel setup is a great way to instantly improve performance, so grab it while you can!View Deal
We've never come across OLOy-branded memory before, but the two-year-old company is said to have consistently delivered some of the cheapest RAM modules on the market.
An investigation carried out by our sister publication Tom's Hardware earlier this year found that the company used industry standard ICs.
“We liked the OLOy WarHawk memory we tested, because of its great overclocking capability and high speeds. In all of our tests the WarHawk either kept pace with or outright bested competitors such as the Adata Spectrix D80 and Patriot Viper Steel," wrote Thomas Sodestrom.
Amazon is selling a 64GB kit called the OLOy MD4U322616DJDA (two 32GB DDR4 RAM 2666MHz, CL16-18-18-36, 288-pin, PC4 21000) for $180/£229.99/around AU$250 - that’s a 5% discount on the suggested retail price (and 10% less than at Newegg).
It's only available in black and doesn’t have any fancy RGB lights, but the memory chips are covered with nice looking heatsinks and the memory modules come with a lifetime warranty.
Overclocking with these is likely to be hit and miss, but compatibility - both with AMD and Intel platforms - is almost certainly guaranteed.
Adding memory, especially in pairs, means that you can instantaneously improve your system performance, particularly if you are upgrading from less than 16GB capacity on a single memory slot. Moving to what experts call a dual channel setup will improve the total amount of memory bandwidth available to your system and make everything feel much snappier.
If Amazon does not ship this product to your region, you may have to take advantage of a specialist parcel forwarding service to take advantage of the deal.
If you've managed to get hold of a cheaper product with equivalent specifications, in stock and brand new, let us know and we'll tip our hat to you.
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President Donald Trump said he plans to sign an executive order banning TikTok as soon as Saturday, according to severalreporters he spoke with aboard Air Force One on Friday evening.
