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Showing posts from January, 2019

The best 13-inch laptops in India for February 2019

Best TV 2019: which TV should you buy for the Super Bowl?

Best laptops under Rs 40,000 in India for February 2019

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The top laptops under Rs. 40000 now often feature a dedicated graphics card for mild gaming on a budget, without compromising on other aspects of the device. The sub 40K is most the most asked price segment when it comes to notebooks. From students to office-goers, everyone can easily get a laptop that does basic day to day tasks with an ease.  If it's about the add-ons, many of them offer a dedicated graphic card, or multimedia features or sometimes you may get additional power for intensive tasks. But certainly  not enough power to suffice the need of a video editor or a graphic designer for that matter.  Still, finding the best laptops among the options available can be a little challenging. There are many configurations available, some with newer processors and some with older ones. Some of the previous generation laptops may also be better than newer ones when you consider the specs-to-price ratio.  As always, we’ve tried to make the job of selecting the best laptop under

The best ebook readers for Australians in 2019

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Even for the most ravenous of book lovers, dedicated ebook readers can be a fairly easy idea to dismiss. After all, if you've got a modern big-screen smartphone or a tablet, it's dead simple to just download Amazon's Kindle app to get your ebook fix. According to a 2014 report from the Stanford Center for Teaching and Learning, however, the way we read on our smartphones and PCs is different from how we read on paper. Thanks to the internet, we've trained our eyes to skim and dart around on screens, constantly hunting for the information we're after – a non-linear behaviour the Stanford paper calls 'surface reading'. When reading from a paper book, by contrast, our brains switch to a more concentrated form of information processing – dubbed 'deep reading' – and it's a mode that actually helps us better absorb and comprehend what's on the page. To us, that sounds like a great argument for giving books their own space, away from the distract

NBN plan comparison: best value options (updated February 2019)

With the NBN rollout well underway and expected to reach its completion target by 2020, there's a good chance you've already got access to the nation's high-speed network. While different addresses and areas have access to different connection types, one of the toughest choices customers will face is deciding which provider to go with, which speed tier to choose, and how much data they'll need. On this page, we'll break down the best NBN plans currently on offer, whether it be the most affordable offering, the highest speeds and data allowances, or the overall best value. Along with our hand-picked choice offers, this page will feature a live tracker of the best NBN plans as, and when, they're put on offer, so you can be sure to get the best deal available right now! Cheap NBN plans compared: the best internet deals in Australia The fastest NBN plans in Australia Best NBN plans After years of waiting, many Australians are now finding that the NBN has fina

Best noise-cancelling headphones 2019: the best headphones for travel and commuting

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Best Noise-Cancelling Headphones Buying Guide: Welcome to TechRadar's round-up of the best noise-cancelling headphones you can buy in 2019. Commuting well and truly sucks - but it doesn't have to. Sure, trains, buses, or even walking down a busy street can be awfully noisy, but there are tools to help block out the noise and help you reach audio nirvana. The best tools in the anti-sound arsenal are noise-cancelling headphones, with some of the best models from audio manufacturers like Sony, Bose and Sennheiser. Put a pair on and say goodbye to the days of suffering from honking traffic, crying babies, and noisy conversations. These wonders of the modern era totally tune out any unwanted sounds, while simultaneously making your music sound even better than a pair of in-ear earbuds.  They're just as vital as your laptop, TV or mobile phone and to help you pick out a pair of headphones that deliver all of the above in spades, we've put together a list of the top 10 noi

What is Amazon Prime? Amazon’s subscription service in Australia explained

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UPDATE: The introductory offer for Amazon Prime in Australia has expired. Starting February 1, the membership cost is $6.99 for existing and new customers. For the latter, there is a 30-day trial period, with all the free perks included.   Scroll down to find out more about Amazon Prime.  Although Amazon launched locally in Australia in December 2017, the online retail giant’s famous Prime subscription service – already well-established in other markets like the US and the UK – took a little longer to arrive. It finally made landfall Down Under some six months later in June 2018, and brings with it a range of savings and benefits for Aussie shoppers for a flat monthly fee of $6.99. So what’s included? In a nutshell, if you sign up for Amazon Prime in Australia, you’ll get: Free two-day delivery on domestic purchases Free standard delivery on orders over $49 made from the ‘global’ section (ie. international purchases) Access to Prime Video, Prime Reading and Twitch Prime Earl

Best Bluetooth speakers 2019: the best portable speakers for any budget

Apple just broke Google’s internal iOS apps for circumventing data-collecting rules

Apple has purposely broken Google's internal iOS apps for improper use and privacy concerns, reportedly affecting its pre-release beta and employee-only apps software. Revoking Google's enterprise certificate comes one day after Apple did the same to Facebook . Both companies misused their developer certification, which is supposed to be for internal-only apps for employees, to make consumer-accessible ones that collected user data. That's a no-no, according to Apple's rules. Google voluntarily shuttered its own app in question, Screenwise Meter, yesterday after press attention and publicly apologized. Like Facebook’s app, Screenwise monitored how folks used their iPhones.  And while it seems like Google’s app had less access than Facebook’s, it still broke Apple’s policy regarding its enterprise certificate: “Any developer using their enterprise certificates to distribute apps to consumers will have their certificates revoked.”  Apple’s move today to revoke Google’

Amazon's best deals: Save on the Instant Pot, Apple iPad, and Amazfit Bip

As we head into the weekend, we've rounded up this week's top deals from Amazon, which include a variety of best-selling tech gadgets. The highlighted deals include the most recent Apple iPad for $279.99 , $10 off Amazon's Choice 4K Fire TV Stick , and the Cowin noise-canceling headphones for only $49.99. Amazon's best deal this week is the popular Instant Pot Duo Plus, on sale for $79.99. That's a whopping $50 discount and the best price we've seen for this multi-use pressure cooker. The 6Qt pressure cooker replaces nine kitchen appliances in one and prepares dishes 70% faster. The popular pressure cooker can whip up a variety of recipes and foods that include everything from rice and eggs to cakes and yogurt. You can even ask Alexa for guided cooking and 750+ recipes. Other Amazon top deals:  Shop the best Super Bowl 2019 TV deals this week https://ift.tt/eA8V8J Amazon's best deals: Save on the Instant Pot, Apple iPad, and Amazfit Bip

The best 4K monitors 2017: the top Ultra HD monitors and displays

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For a while, the best 4K monitors were the golden ideal of computing, but these days, its available for basically anyone. Which is good, because these days everything is designed for ultra high definition displays, from operating systems to the best PC games . And, just like all the best monitors out there, they’re designed to provide users with a beautifully immersive – or productive – experience. With the new wave of affordable 4K monitors recently hitting the market, considerably cheaper than 4K TVs , they’re naturally all the rage right now. If you’re one of the many currently in the market for a 4K monitor to meet your PC gaming needs while still keeping within budget, we’re here to help you find the right one. Dell’s P2715Q has often been name-dropped as one of the best 4K monitors in the market. With its sharpness, vivid colors, and ultra high resolution, it delivers excellent image quality for an affordable price no less. It also affords a range of features that rival its m

Nintendo Switch 2 might actually be a smaller, cheaper, stripped-down console

The next Nintendo Switch console may not be the new and improved version that many are clamoring for, but rather a shrinking or condensing of the current platform. That’s the latest from Japanese news outlet Nikkei , translated via Nintendo Everything . The outlet reports, citing sources both from hardware partners and game developers, that the console will be both ‘miniaturized’ to emphasize ‘portability’ and will “cut features” to become more affordable.  It’s unknown specifically which features Nintendo plans to cut from this version of the Switch console, but there’s incentive for the company to make such a move. While just about everything is on the up for Nintendo financially, it's technically well short of its original goal of 20 million consoles sold in the fiscal year 2018 with a recent recasting down to 17 million. A more financially approachable console would certainly help drive more sales given the console’s popularity may be at odds a bit with its relatively un-Ni

Best all-in-one PCs 2017: top compact AIO desktops

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The best all-in-one PCs, unlike conventional PCs, are desktop PCs with displays built-in. You’ll often find a mix of laptop and desktop components in an all-in-one PC, and while that does make it harder to dig in and upgrade to one of the best processors , there are definitely some advantages.  One of the core advantages of the best all-in-one PCs is that they take up much less desk space than the best PCs usually do – as you don’t need to set aside room for a tower, a monitor and all the other assorted peripherals. Plus, there’s less of a mess of cables for people to trip over. This makes the best all-in-one PCs excellent choices for offices that want to maintain a sleek and professional look. It's no coincidence that all-in-one PCs are favored by professionals in the creative industry, especially the Surface Studio 2 . On the flipside, the best all-in-one PCs are often the most affordable desktops that give users plenty of power and a decent screen paired together into one pac

This Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus ‘official’ photo may be the real deal

Didn’t buy a smartphone in 2018? First full-year decline shows you weren’t alone

Think Apple’s lower-than-expected iPhone revenue was worrisome? Multiple market research reports assert that global smartphone shipments had a full-year decline for the first time in 2018.  Q4 2018 was the fifth straight quarter of declining smartphone shipments, rising to a 7% reduction in the latest quarter, according to Counterpoint Research ’s report. It tagged the year-long decline in 2018 at 4%, dropping from 1.56 billion units shipped in 2017 to 1.49 billion this past year. Other market research firms claimed similar reductions between 4% and 6%. “Consumers held on to their devices longer due to the absence of groundbreaking innovations and higher prices of devices being offered by the OEMs,” Tarun Pathak, Associate Director at Counterpoint Research, noted in a press release announcing the report. This was the first year the highest-end devices broke the $999 highwater mark set by the iPhone X in 2017. Flagship phones crept up in price across the board, too.  There are oth

New 'collection' data dump contains 2.2bn usernames and passwords

Earlier this month, Have I Been Pwned's Troy Hunt brought attention to the largest ever online data dump containing 12,000 separate files and over 87GB of data containing 773m unique email addresses and 22m unique passwords. Hunt referred to the wealth of personal data he found on MEGA as Collection #1 and now Collection #2-5 has appeared online containing 2.2bn unique usernames and passwords along with 845GB of data and over 25bn records. Collection #2-5 contains almost three times as many unique records as Collection #1 and Phosphorous.io's founder Chris Rouland explained to Wired that more than 130 people are making the data available to download online.  So far the data has been downloaded 1,000 times which means that the personal details Collection #2-5 contains will likely remain online indefinitely.  Collection #2-5 While the site Have I Been Pwned was a useful resource in discovering if your credentials had been leaked in Collection#1, the site has not yet been u

UK SMEs using technology to overcome their fears

UK SMEs feel positive about the economy and their strategies for the future despite facing a host of challenges in 2019 according to a new study from American Express conducted by Oxford Economics. The research, which is conducted annually among senior executives and decision-makers in SMEs across 15 countries, shows that UK SMES are remaining resilient even when faced with old and new business challenges. Of those surveyed, over two thirds (64%) forecast policy, legal and regulatory changes as the greatest threat to SMEs in 2019 followed by economic uncertainty surrounding Brexit and trade relationships . Cyber and data security is an emerging treat to UK businesses and 31 percent ranked it in their top three external business threats this year compared to only 11 percent last year. Revenue growth may be the most important long-term objective for UK SMEs but organisations have scaled down their profit projections for the year ahead showing they're more realistic about what the

Microsoft Surface Pro 7: what we want to see

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Over the last few years, Microsoft’s Surface Pro lineup has consistently pumped out some of the best Windows tablets and 2-in-1 laptops we’ve seen. But, when the Surface Pro 6 launched with few substantial changes, we started wondering when we could expect more meaningful improvements on the Surface formula. Cue the Surface Pro 7, which we’re starting to see all kinds of patents for coming out of the woodwork that can change how we use Microsoft’s tablets.  With Intel’s Ice Lake processors launching this year, and with the rumors of a new USB-C magnetic charger in the works at Microsoft, the Surface Pro 7 may end up being one of the best Surface devices yet. But, because nothing has been confirmed, keep in mind that this is all rumors and educated speculation. Regardless, we will keep this article updated with all the latest news and rumors alongside our wishes, so you have an idea of what to expect. Cut to the chase What is it? The next Surface Pro tablet When is it out? L