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Two-minute review Sony’s 50th full-frame lens, the FE 70-200mm F4 G OSS II, is a comprehensive update of the (almost) 10-year-old Sony FE 70-200mm f/4 G OSS stalwart. It’s part of a recent wave of smaller and lighter second-gen Sony lenses, in this case, it's 15% smaller and lighter than its predecessor, weighing 794g / 28.1 oz, and measuring 149mm / 5.8in long.  Lens size is a big deal when you shoot with Sony cameras – they are smaller than most and can feel off-balance with a big chunk of glass on the front. I paired the 70-200mm F4 II with the Sony A7C R , which is one of the best travel cameras , plus the crop-sensor Sony A6700 (with which the lens focal length is increased 1.5x), and both cameras proved an excellent fit with the lens.  If this mark II version of the lens was only smaller and lighter it could be worth an upgrade for that reason alone, but it’s also the beneficiary of a total redesign, which has given it sharper image quality, faster autofocus and n...

Review info Platform reviewed: PC Available on: PC, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One Release date: October 3, 2023 After you’ve beat up enough jackbooted thugs in an alleyway, the brilliance of The Lamplighters League reveals itself. The turn-based strategy game comes from Harebrained Schemes, better known these days for their work on stompy mech-’em-up BattleTech , but the scuffles here couldn’t be further from BattleTech’s city-leveling conflicts.  Here the fighting jumps from the pages of pulp adventures, where your cast of daring scoundrels biff, pow, and blast baddies in a variety of locations: a winding alleyway, a hotel in the desert, or a snowy forest. While the stakes are the same - the end goal is to save the world from a horrible fate - the methods in which you try to seize victory often involve a poison dagger, a hand grenade, or even just a pair of revolvers. The change is a good one. Bringing the camera in close lets us see the characters, and it’s these that...

CDNetworks CDN Pro (previously known as CDN360) is a powerful and professional CDN from cloud computing experts CDNetworks, who also offers a host of other high-end cloud services (object storage, media streaming, edge computing, web application firewalls and more.) CDN Pro scores an immediate thumbs up from us for its vast network of 250+ Points of Presence (PoPs) located all around the world. There's decent coverage for North America and Europe, not so much for Africa and South America, but the real highlight is Asia, Oceania and CDN Pro's extensive China coverage of 70+ cities (even a giant like Cloudflare 'only' has 37.) CDNetworks CDN Pro has locations all around the world, but it's especially strong in China (Image credit: CDNetworks) CDNetworks uses QUIC (HTTP/3), GZIP and Brotli compression and its own custom technologies to accelerate all kinds of content, from simple static downloads, to dynamic traffic, video streaming and more. Want to t...

Nanoleaf Matter Essentials smart bulb: one-minute review The Nanoleaf Matter Essentials smart bulb is a minor update to the original bulb that was launched in 2021. Not a lot has changed with the new smart bulb, with the sole exception of the addition of Matter connectivity. This makes Nanoleaf’s new light a more futureproof option for a smart home setup. Before I go into the smart bulb review itself, let’s quickly run through why Matter matters . It’s a connectivity protocol that allows devices from different brands to interact with one another. This makes things like lightbulbs, appliances and other smart gadgets compatible with more brands, and in the case of the Nanoleaf Essentials smart bulb, means it can be controlled with more smart home hubs – Google Home, Amazon Alexa, Apple Home and Samsung SmartThings. If you ever decide to switch platforms, you won’t have to replace any gadgets that are Matter-enabled. Physically, the Nanoleaf smart bulb hasn’t changed – the Matter Esse...

The Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses Collection aren’t officially called the Ray-Ban Stories 2, but they might as well be. They take everything that made the original Meta and Ray-Ban collaboration stand out, while improving upon those glasses to become worthy successors. You’ll find improved design options, with two frame styles, five frame colors, and a slew of lens options that allow you to customize your glasses between over 150 different combinations. The charging case, meanwhile, looks more classically Ray-Ban without losing any of the functionality of the case that came with the Ray-Ban Stories. The cameras get a resolution bump up to 12MP, and image stabilization has been improved to help keep your recordings from looking too shaky. The built-in speaker’s audio has also been given a boost, and there’s a handy voice assistant that lets you control the glasses hands-free. I had the chance to try out the new Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses ahead of their launch, and while I want to spend...

I’ve not spent a lot of time with the Meta Quest 3, but my roughly 30-minute demo with the new headset has given me a taste of what it has in store for users when it launches on October 10 – and I’m already hungry for more. The improved performance and graphics provided by the new Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2, the slimmed-down design, and the superior mixed reality experience it offers combine to create a VR gadget that feels like an excellent successor to the Oculus Quest 2 . Yes, the Quest 3 is pricier than the Quest 2 was at launch (coming in at $499.99 / £479.99, Australian pricing to be confirmed by Meta) for its cheapest model instead of $299.99 / £299.99 / AU$509.99) but its improvements certainly seem to justify the higher cost. I’ll need to spend more time with the headset to get a proper feel for how it stacks up against the competition, but I already feel this may be the best VR headset out there; maybe finally replacing the ol’ reliable Oculus Quest 2, which has been my go-to h...