Sunday, August 3, 2014

Google Now launcher becomes available on all Android Jelly Bean devices

Google Now launcher becomes available on all Android Jelly Bean devices

Google Now launcher becomes available on all Android Jelly Bean devices
The Google Now Launcher is now available on the vast majority of Android devices, thanks to a new roll out this weekend.
The tool, which allows users to view upcoming appointments, weather, traffic conditions, public transport, sports scores and more, can now be downloaded for all devices running Android 4.1 Jelly Bean and up.
Previously the launcher, which arrived as a standalone app in February, had only been available for t he Nexus and Google Play Edition family of devices.
The arrival of the app for all Jelly Bean devices means users can get the Google Now launcher directly on their homescreens and say "Ok Google" to launch voice searches.
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Swipe right

Once installed, Google Now cards can be accessed by swiping right on the home screen.
The launch also offers one tap searches, access to Google apps like Maps, YouTube, Mail and more.







Buying Guide: Best gaming laptops: top 5 gaming notebooks reviewed

Buying Guide: Best gaming laptops: top 5 gaming notebooks reviewed

Buying Guide: Best gaming laptops: top 5 gaming notebooks reviewed
You don't even need to tell us what happened when you told your friends that you want to buy a gaming laptop. Their inner elitist got the best of them, and bashed you for not just outright building a gaming PC. But we get you. Building a gaming PC takes knowledge and dexterity that you just don't have or care to develop.
That's where the gaming laptop shines, as the fast lane to PC gaming. No need to build a case or even buy a monitor. Of course, that convenience comes with quite a price tag. Most vendors start their asking prices at around $ 1,400 (about £818, AU$ 1,492) for 13 and 14-inch products, whereas the biggest and beefiest 17 and 18-inch models can skyrocket upwards of $ 3,000 (around £1,753, AU$ 3,195).
If you consider that a gaming laptop will never come close to a comparably-priced gaming desktop, then your decision is already made. But again, the gaming notebook is a device of convenience and portability over raw power. Without further ado, here are our favorite gaming laptops that we've reviewed thus far.
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MSI GS70 Stealth

Best gaming laptops
best gaming laptops
The MSI GS70 Stealth (starting at $ 1,599, £1,699, AU$ 2,899) breaks away from familiar desktop replacement conventions: instead of being bulky, heavy and ugly, it's little thicker than an Ultrabook and half the weight of some rivals â€" and it's one of the best-looking laptops we've seen for q uite some time.
The GS70 is only 22mm thick, but it includes an Intel Haswell processor, current-generation Nvidia graphics card and two SSDs. The high-end specification and superb design means that the GS70 isn't cheap, but it'll be well worth your money.

Origin EON17-S

Best gaming laptops
best gaming laptops
Hands down, the Origin EON17-S (starting at $ 1,576, about £939, AU$ 1,630) is a superior value in face of the competition, despite it's seem ingly enormous price. If you lack the time or patience to pore over power supplies, cases, monitors and more, this is a solid starting point and a more mobile solution.
It will always be more cost-effective to build your own gaming PC, but the service and support that Origin provides is impossible to replicate going that route. Plus, the extra niceties included in that price, namely the bundled mouse, could leave you set with this gaming laptop for a while.

MSI GS60 Ghost Pro 3K

best gaming laptops
best gaming laptops
MSI and Nvidia have together proven that 3K gaming is possible on mobile setups, albeit with a few conceits to texture detail and other settings. Is it worth it? That's up to how much stock you put in resolution. What's important is that it can be done, and within reason.
This gaming laptop is a great value even at the high end, but starting at just $ 1,699 for the 1080p version with a GTX 860M is a steal in comparison. At the moment, the Ghost Pro is no doubt one of the 15-inch gaming notebooks to beat.
The MSI GS60 Ghost Pro 3K (starting at $ 1,699, £1,399, AU$ 2,549)is not only a beauty to behold, it offers more hardware in nearly as premium a package as the big boys. But unless you're seriously intent on getting into post-HD gaming right now, save yourself a few hundred bucks and opt for the 1080p version.

Alienware 17

Best gaming laptops
Make no mistake, this is undoubtedly the complete package and then some, offering the glitz and glamor of a boutique gaming PC in the laptop form factor. Not to mention that this AMD graphics chip inches dangerously close to desktop-level performance.
Save for some nagging (but ultimately fixable) problems, the Alienware 17 (starting at $ 1,499, £1,199, AU$ 2,499) is one of the best gaming laptops money can buy. From its sharp metallic and soft-touch build to a host of powerful components, this is a one-stop shop for getting into PC gaming with a single click.

Gigabyte P34G

Best gaming laptops
best gaming laptops
The Gigabyte P34G (starting at $ 1,399, about £819, AU$ 1,649) might not look or feel all that luxurious, but after a week with this power-packed gaming laptop, I felt spoiled by its performance. When it comes down to parts for pennies, this system goes uncontested. And that the P34G can play Titanfall at the highest settings with no problem makes me confident in its lasting power.
While you won't get the flashy lights of the Alienware 14 or the slick build of the Razer Blade, you'll pay less for the same gaming experienc e and then some, framerate wise. You'll want to use a mouse, even when you're just poking around the web, and having a nice mechanical keyboard waiting for it on your desk wouldn't hurt either.
This notebook offers great portability without sacrificing power or ports. All considered, the Gigabyte P34G is an amazing value and a portable beast of a gaming rig.







Flappy Bird is back with multiplayer mode, exclusively on Amazon

Flappy Bird is back with multiplayer mode, exclusively on Amazon

Flappy Bird is back with multiplayer mode, exclusively on Amazon

Flappy Bird, the hit mobile game which caused a bit of a storm when the developer withdrew it at the peak of its success for being too addictive, is back, but right now appears to be an Amazon exclusive.

The new game Flappy Birds Family game has arrived on the Amazon App Store for Android, promising compatibility with the Amazon Fire TV box, remote and dedicated controller.

This time you can get your mates involved as there's a versus mode to enjoy, while floating ghosts will also obstruct your progress as well as those Mario-esque pipes.

More put-down-able

Developer Dong Nguyen also promises this version will be a little less addictive than the original.

Nguyen, who had sleepless nights over how much time people were spending playing the game, has pledged to offer players satisfaction after a few turns rather than hours of gameplay.

There's no news yet on whether the game will be available for iOS or Android devices.








The TIP OFF: TechRadar Tip Off: Save 10% on the Nvidia Shield Tablet at NewEgg

The TIP OFF: TechRadar Tip Off: Save 10% on the Nvidia Shield Tablet at NewEgg

The TIP OFF: TechRadar Tip Off: Save 10% on the Nvidia Shield Tablet at NewEgg

Always wanted an Adroid tablet, but couldn't stand their inability to bring the game? The Nvidia Shield Tablet is your answer.

Here's an excerpt from our hands on review:

"Specs-wise, the Shield tablet has an 8-inch full HD display, Tegra K1 (192 core Kepler) GPU, 2.2GHz Quad Core CPU and 2GB of RAM - meaning this comes off as one premium slate. But you wouldn't expect much less for 'the gamer's tablet,' would you?"

We liked ability to stream games from the Nvidia library, its killer specs and its price.

Today we really like the price because it's on sale over at NewEgg for just $ 269.99 (about £160, AU$ 290) when you use code AFUBTB10 at checkout.

Get the Nvidia Shield Tablet now!

Trading cards

Still rocking a 500 series Nvidia GPU? Treat yo' self to an upgrade by buying the EVGA GeForce GT740. And you should probably do it sooner rather than later because it's a steal at its current price of $ 132.99 (about £79, AU$ 143) on Amazon.

It's compatible with any PCI-E slot and sporting 4GB of GDDR5 VRAM you should be set to handle whatever games 2014 can throw at you.

Get the EVGA GeForce GT740 now!








Saturday, August 2, 2014

Roundup: Best of TechRadar: this week's best features and hottest reviews

Roundup: Best of TechRadar: this week's best features and hottest reviews

Roundup: Best of TechRadar: this week's best features and hottest reviews

How to make an iPhone completely invisible

How to make an iPhone completely invisible

The race to create the first cloaking device is on

Imagine a smartphone that remains "cloaked" until its owner whispers a pass phrase. It's an incredible concept, but could it be that the ultimate smartphone security feature is invisibility? If you think that sounds crazy, how about rendering an entire car or a space ship invisible? Even crazier, it's rapidly becoming science fact rather than science fiction. And that's because it's not only bee n shown to be possible within the laws of physics, but it's being worked on by scientists and researchers right now.

Read: The real science behind tomorrow's invisibility tech

How on Earth can you make a smartphone for £26?

How on Earth can you make a smartphone for £26?

Simple answer: don't expect it to be brilliant

Recently launched in India by low-cost manufacturer Karbonn, the Smart A50S looks like a modest smartphone that's unlikely to tear you aways from the Apples and Samsungs of the world. But it has one fantastic USP: it's on sale for just Rs. 2699 (around £26). Its availability online in the UK has quickly led to outrage at the fact we're f orced to spend over £500 for a handset from Apple, Samsung, Sony or HTC â€" so are we being overcharged? Read all about it

Facebook forcing us to download Messenger is a brilliant move

Facebook forcing us to download Messenger is a brilliant move

But predictably, the internet is mad anyway

As you may have heard, Facebook is making a significant change to the way messaging works on its mobile app. Specifically the company is removing the messaging functions from the primary Facebook Mobile app and has begun shunting its users into the separate Facebook Messenger app for chat. And contrary to popular opinion online, Scott Alexander things it's a good thing.

iTunes 12 in OS X Yosemite: why Apple needs to think different

iTunes 12 in OS X Yosemite

Why Apple needs to think different

It's sometimes hard to recall just how revolutionary iTunes was on its debut in 2001. It arrived during a genuine revolution in music, as the industry lurched from the comfort of CDs to the unknown territory of digital. But by iTunes 10, the app had mushroomed into a messy, complex beast. Here's why Apple needs to change course with iTunes in Yosemite

Why your iPhone won't be replacing your doctor just yet

Why your iPhone won't be replacing your doctor just yet

Your smartphone won't see you now

Tracking health and fitness on your smartphone is big business these days with numerous companies developing trackers and apps to help you stay on top. This may sound great, but it's not ready to take our hospitals by storm just yet, as Dr Dushan Gunasekera - founder of the myHealthCare clinic in London - explains. Why your iPhone won't be replacing your doctor just yet

4K TV broadcasts are on the way but there are problems ahead

4K TV broadcasts are on the way but there are problems ahead

Live 4K trials reveal weird time troubles, but look amazing

As the final whistle was blown in Rio, the BBC's engineering team collectively breathed a sigh of relief. Its ambitious trial to deliver 4K live, simultaneously via DTT over the air and the Internet, appeared to have been a resounding success. I was invited along to watch the epochal kickabout at BT Tower, which offered an unprecedented opportunity to compare both feeds on nearly every major brand 4K UHD TV available. The event, organised by the Corporation, BT and Arqiva, was hailed as "a unique moment" in broadcasting history. But it also highlighted some unusual problems and anomalies. Read may on 4K

How HTML 5 is speeding up apps for iOS and Android

How HTML 5 is speeding up apps for iOS and Android

INTERVIEW The perfect test bed for apps?

When HTML 5 first arrived on the scene it promised big things for the web and mobile - one app compatible across all platforms without the need for developers to tinker with code sounded great. Thing is, it hasn't worked out that way just yet. Developers are still stuck with the intricacies of iOS, Android and Windows Phone which demand some level of native programming for each platform. Read all about it

The Last of Us Remastered: PS4 vs PS3 graphics

10 ways The Last of Us Remastered is better on PS4 vs PS3

How PS4 makes this Naughty Dog-developed blockbuster even better

Next-generation consoles aren't backward compatible, so gamers have had to keep their older systems plugged in order to play games like The Last of Us and Grand Theft Auto 5. The Last of Us Remastered for PS4 released this week to help alleviate this messy dilemma within our media cabinets. There's one less reason to cling onto that old PS3 hardware. Developer Na ughty Dog didn't just port the original game to the new system. It enhanced the critically acclaimed post-apocalyptic adventure of characters Joel and Ellie. This has inspired a new debate among early adopters of Sony's new gaming platform: Is The Last of Us Remastered for PS4 worth the upgrade?

Dell Chromebook 11 review

10 things Google should fix on the Chromebook

Chromebooks might be fast, but Google seems slow to fix their problems

There's a lot to like about Chromebooks: they're lightweight, start in seconds, have amazing battery life and of course are dirt cheap. But the platform has problems, too. There's a shortage of quality apps, limited video and audio playback support, various PDF issues, no direct access to network shares, outdated documentation and more. 10 things Google should fix on the Chromebook

Will video kill the photography star?

Will video kill the photography star?

Shooting 3,000 frames a minute you'll never miss a moment

I've been told on more than a few occasions in the last week or so that video is the way forward for all photographers. More specifically, that once we all have the ability to record 4K video with our DSLRs we'll have no need or desire to shoot stills. The smart guys will be pulling 8-millon-pixel still images from their video footage and never relying on chance and never missing a moment.








//PART 2