Main image: Mars is getting more attention than ever. The Mars 2020 rover is modeled on Curiosity. Read more: A helicopter for Mars and four other audacious concepts for space explorationISRO Mars Orbiter Mission 2 (MOM 2)Launch: 2021-2022 Touchdown: 2021-2022 Official mission pageIndia is going planet-mad. It won’t be India’s first launch to Mars; in 2014 it sent the Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) – also called Mangalyaan – whose Mars Colour Camera (MCC) continues to send stunning photographs back

There’s a new wireless standard in development that could substantially enhance Bluetooth. It’s called TAP TV (Tempow Audio Profile TV) and it would allow you to connect any Bluetooth speakers (Bose, Jambox, etc.) you have laying around to your TV to produce a true home theater experience without investing in a traditional surround sound system. TAP TV would integrate with Bluetooth-enabled TVs and set-top boxes at the chipset or OS level, which means it wouldn’t require any additional hardware,

Marvel Powers United VR launches on July 26, giving those who own an Oculus Rift headset the opportunity to play as The Hulk, Captain America, Storm, Spider-Man, Wolverine and 13 other Marvel superheroes. If you don’t already own a Rift headset, you can pick up a special bundle that includes the game, essentially for free. You see, the Marvel Powers United VR Special Edition Rift + Touch bundle costs $399, which is the price you pay for the standard Oculus Rift and Oculus Touch controller packag

The MacBook Pro with Touch Bar (13-inch, Mid-2018) is a welcome, but mostly straightforward, improvement to a capable laptop. DesignOn the outside, the 13-inch MacBook Pro 2018 appears almost identical to last year’s model, even down to the similar size and weight. As with 2017’s MacBook Pro, there’s no change to the Retina display’s resolution. Its presence on the 13-inch MacBook Pro ought to be welcomed by students, writers and other mobile workers. 2TB is the maximum capacity for the 13-inch

Earlier this week, online retailer Mobile Fun listed the price and details of the Sony Xperia XZ3 with price and specs for the UK. The rendered images of the Xperia XZ3 line up nicely with leaked photos we’ve seen before. The most notable change in design is the inclusion of a second camera sensor on the back of the Xperia XZ3. The flash, camera, and fingerprint scanner are still all lined up vertically, but now there’s second camera in the mix. But, with Sony still quiet on the subject, there’s

Singapore has been hit by a major cyber attack that saw a database containing the personal information of about 1.5 million people, more than a quarter of the population, stolen. The attack was first detected on July 4th and came weeks after SingHealth, the entity managing the state’s health service, declared that it was going to cut off staff access to cloud storage (such as Dropbox, and OneDrive) on July 1st. Who was behind the attack? The systematic siphoning of the SingHealth database went u

Nvidia has partnered with several laptop makers and retailers to deliver to you some of the most affordable gaming laptops ever issued. The deals come at the perfect time: Back to School season, giving you at least a month of solid PC gaming before the boring stuff begins again. Just don’t expect to see mega-powerful gaming laptops at huge discounts – it’s the ones that already start low where you’ll find the most attractive deals. Also, if you’re holding out for an even better deal, we’re told

If you think the CPU war is crazy now with 32-core Ryzen Threadripper 2nd Generation processors at the high end, AMD next generation Zen 2 architecture could double core counts for the mainstream yet again, if the latest rumors hold weight. What’s more, TR4 (aka Ryzen Threadripper) processors will purportedly continue to feature a maximum of 32 cores, though SP3-socketed server silicon may see a bump up to 64-cores. Dr.Lisa Su, AMD CEO & PresidentWhat we do know officially is that AMD has been h

The latest patch for Civilization VI has stripped out the game’s Red Shell software, a controversial product that tracks the ads which the user has viewed outside of the game. Civilization VI is the latest big-name title to ditch the software. However, it’s not surprising that the software has provoked the reaction we’ve seen, and the fact that game publishers are swiftly dropping Red Shell tells its own story. As Rock Paper Shotgun, which spotted this development, points out, you can opt out of

In this guide we’ll show you how to speed up Ubuntu 18.04, currently the most recent version of the Linux distribution from Canonical. Over time however, your Ubuntu 18.04 installation can become more sluggish. In this guide on how to speed up Ubuntu 18.04, you’ll discover our ten best tips to make sure your Ubuntu 18.04 system fires on all cylinders. An easy way to speed up Ubuntu 18.04 is by shutting down your machine every day when you’ve finished using it. While you’re spring cleaning, you c

At least that’s the word from sources at Microsoft who have talked to Windows Central about the so-called Surface Phone, which as we’ve reported in the past, won’t be marketed as a phone as such, but appears to be some manner of phone-laptop hybrid. Indeed, it’s billed as a new category of ‘pocketable’ device Microsoft intends to push, running the streamlined and tailored Andromeda OS (which is designed to still deliver a full Windows 10 experience on a smaller device). The grapevine reckons tha

Microsoft have now launched a fleet of discounts across its Xbox One and Xbox 360 game libraries in its annual Ultimate Game Sale. Until July 30, Xbox owners can access over 700 discounted titles through the Xbox games store on their console. You can also get your hands on a three-month Xbox Live Gold or Xbox Game Pass subscription for only $10 during the sale – which will run throughout the month, ending on July 30. You can find our pick of the very best deals in our list below. The best Xbox O

Google has launched a new AI Experiment, Move Mirror, which tracks your movements and finds still photos that match your poses. Grant the Google Mirror website permission to access your webcam, then start throwing some shapes, save the animation as a GIF, and share it online. Move Mirror is an interesting demonstration of what Google calls pose estimation: tracking a person’s body as they move in 3D space. Move Mirror demonstrates how machine learning models can be run right in a web browser, un

Huawei says it is committed to addressing concerns raised by a new UK government report that its telecommunications network equipment poses a threat to national security. The Banbury-based Huawei Cyber Security Evaluation Centre (HCSEC) is a specialist unit formed in 2010 to monitor the use of the equipment in the UK’s network infrastructure. It is overseen by UK security agencies, including GCHQ, and reports to the National Security Adviser. However BT and a number of other British telcos are c

Fujifilm has extended its X Series lens lineup with the announcement of two new lenses, an ultra-wide-angle zoom and a prime telephoto. It’s made up of 20 elements in 13 groups, including four aspherical lens elements to control distortion and spherical aberration, and six ED lens elements (including three super ED elements) to control lateral chromatic aberration. Its optical construction comprises 19 elements in 14 groups, including one large-diameter super ED lens element and two large-diamet

Microsoft has announced its fourth quarter earnings, and the numbers look good. According to Microsoft, it earned a net income of $8.9 billion and a revenue of $30.1 billion for the quarter, which ended on June 30. These results are up 17% year-over-year, and many people will see this as a vindication of CEO Satya Nadella’s renewed focus on hardware and cloud services. This included Windows OEM revenue, which increased by 7%, and OEM pro revenue growing by 14%. Microsoft Office also had a good y

Some were surprised when leaks and rumors began to suggest there wouldn’t be a fingerprint scanner on the Samsung Galaxy Tab S4. It’s almost certain now that the company will include its Intelligent Scan feature – like on the Samsung Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9 Plus – using an iris scanner and facial recognition tech at the same time. The Intelligent Scan feature uses both the iris scanner tech and facial recognition tech at the same time. Goodbye fingerprintThe firmware doesn’t confirm that there’s

We’re less than a month away from the launch of the Samsung Galaxy Note 9, but while it will probably be a good phone and a great seller, it could also be the last handset to carry the Note name, as Samsung is reportedly considering merging the Note and S ranges. The argument made for the merger is that the S range is already very similar to the Note range now that Samsung is selling ‘Plus’ models. The Samsung Galaxy S9 Plus, for example, has a 6.2-inch screen and the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 only

Along with the device’s expected announcement date, we now have further information regarding the LG V40 ThinQ’s photographic capabilities, along with a juicy tidbit about its proposed all-screen design. Backing up previous reports, the V40 ThinQ’s expected camera specifications were mentioned in a report from the Korean site ETNews , with a triple-lens (20MP primary, 16MP wide-angle and 13MP telephoto) camera tipped for the handset’s rear. Meanwhile, the phone’s front is said to sport a dual ca

To celebrate the impending launch of the PS4-exclusive Marvel’s Spider-Man, Sony has announced a limited edition PlayStation 4 Pro bundle at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con. The PS4 Pro console will feature a striking new red paint job emblazoned with Spider-Man’s iconic logo, and it’ll come with a controller in matching red-and-white attire. The console bundle will cost $399.99 and CA$499.99 in the US and Canada respectively, and will be available when the game launches on September 7, 2018. In