Google is acting against what it describes as ‘intrusive’ adverts, by firing up an integrated ad blocker in the Chrome web browser as of tomorrow, February 15. Normal ads will still run, which is handy, as many websites make their money from them in order to remain free to access. So, this seems like a sound move overall, as not many people will argue against having those more frustrating and annoying ads blocked. Hopefully the system will play nice with websites which detect and issue warnings

Huawei has responded to claims from top US intelligence agencies that it poses a potential risk, telling TechRadar it “poses no greater cyber security risk than any ICT (information and communications technology) vendor”. Recently six different directors of US agencies, including the FBI, CIA and NSA, jointly claimed Chinese phone manufacturers pose a security risk to everyday consumers. A statement from the agencies leaders specifically called out Huawei and ZTE for posing a security risk for b

Just in time for Valentine’s Day, ZTE is offering something sweet for ZTE Axon 7 users. The company’s beta for Android Oreo will be opened up, allowing any owner to register for access before the final version hits later in 2018. It’s near-stock Android, meaning it’s almost piece-for-piece what you’d see in, say, the Google Pixel . In addition, it stood out as one of the few phones to be compatible with Google Daydream . Bringing Oreo to the phone might be a little late to the party, but it’s st

EA’s classic survival horror romp Dead Space is now dead free for PC gamers if they head on over to the Origin store. Do note, though, that Dead Space will only be free for a limited period of time, so if it tickles your fancy, then the best idea would be to grab it sooner rather than later. Lighter loadThe further good news is that even if you have an old PC, this is a game which dates back a decade, and hence has pretty light system requirements. It’ll run with a 2.8GHz CPU, 2GB of system RAM

A new smartphone modem from Qualcomm has launched, boasting speeds of up to 2Gbps and giving us a glimpse of the 5G future we can expect to see rolling out on phones from next year. The Snapdragon X24 LTE modem is not only the first modem to offer 2Gbps speeds, it’s also the first to use the 7nm FinFET process. Qualcomm says that the fiber-like internet speeds that the X24 LTE modem is capable of will give us “mobile experiences such as immersive 360-degree video, connected cloud computing, rich

We’ve teamed up with Blueberry Software to offer TechRadar readers an exclusive 40% discount off the premium screen recording and video editing suite FlashBack Pro. With FlashBack Pro, you can record video from your PC screen or webcam, with sound from your PC or microphone. That’s an impressive set of features, but really sets FlashBack Pro apart from the crowd is its built-in video editor. Once you’ve finished editing, FlashBack Pro can encode your video in any of the most popular file formats

At this stage it’s probably easier just to list the tasks that Alexa and your Amazon Echo can’t do, such is the expanding reach of Amazon’s digital assistant. The latest smart gadgets to come under Alexa’s spell are selected televisions from US manufacturer Vizio. More assistance neededThe aim of the new skill is to make life more convenient for users, according to Vizio Chief Technology Officer Bill Baxter. Now you don’t even have to reach for the remote control to get your smart TV to do your

According to a recent report, Activision is planning to remaster the early titles of the Spyro the Dragon series and release them on PlayStation 4 later this year. Kotaku UK states that sources close to the matter have said the plan is to remaster the original trilogy, which includes Spyro the Dragon, Ripto’s Rage! Like the Crash Banidcoot N. Sane trilogy released in 2017, the Spyro remaster is said to be coming from Vicarious Visions and will have an updated save feature, new assets, animations

We’ve previously seen rumors and speculation that the Samsung Galaxy Note 9 would have a fingerprint scanner built into its screen, but it seems that’s probably not to be. However, hope of an in-screen fingerprint scanner on a Samsung handset is not lost, as the sources add that Samsung is still working on such a solution. Choices, choicesApparently the company hasn’t yet chosen which supplier or technology to use for an in-screen scanner, but has recently rounded down the possibilities. We may

Soon it may be able to, as the company has announced it’s bought Twine Health and may absorb its features soon. Twine Health is a coaching platform for health that allows you to monitor chronic conditions as well as enact what it calls “lifestyle interventions”. Exactly how Twine Health will integrate with Fitbit is unclear. There’s already the Fitbit Premium service that offers personalized training alongside video workouts and audio coaching, so the company may bring its Twine Health features

In a move which, at least to some extent, seems to be running interference with AMD’s recently released (and well-received) fresh APUs, Intel has unveiled a single new 8th-gen Core i3 processor aimed at ultraportable laptops and 2-in-1s. The Core i3-8130U is a dual-core CPU with four-threads, clocked at 2.2GHz with Turbo up to 3.4GHz. You get integrated graphics in the form of Intel’s UHD Graphics 620 (with a base frequency of 300MHz, maximum of 1GHz), and the chip has a TDP of 15W. Stick, no tw

On Wednesday, Xiaomi announced three new products for Indian consumers -Redmi Note 5, Redmi Note 5 Pro and the Mi LED TV 4. Xiaomi Redmi Note 5, the much-anticipated successor to the Note 4 features a 5.99-inch Full HD+ (2160 x 1080 pixels) 18:9 aspect ratio display. The Mi LED TV 4 is the world’s slimmest television and stands at a mind-boggling 4.9mm. The MI LED TV 4 has a 4K HDR panel from Samsung which is just breathtaking. Price and availabilityThe Redmi Note 5 along with Note 5 Pro and the

Sadly, that didn’t happen, and today we know that project as ‘Google Fuchsia,’ which is very much still in the works – and publicly. Likely nothing, as is with Android and ChromeA Google Pixelbook running an early version of Fuchsia OS (Image Credit: Ars Technica)What is Google Fuchsia? Since August 2016, the Google Fuchsia release date has been rumored several times – only to turn out untrue. Sadly, the latest treasure trove of Google Fuchsia information from ArsTechnica’s hands-on time with th

The Tesla V100 and Titan V are out now, but GeForce cards are TBDThe Tesla V100 and Titan V are out now, but GeForce cards are TBD What will it cost? On the other hand, the Nvidia Titan V – released in December 2017 – is considered a consumer device, but you might scoff at the $2,999 (about £2149, AU$3800) price point. Nvidia Volta priceWithout a roadmap for releases, we can’t say for sure what to expect from pricing for Volta-powered GeForce GTX graphics cards. Nvidia Volta specsVolta introduce

Just a short drive away from PyeongChang, the site for the 2018 Winter Olympics, the Welli Hilli ski resort held the Edge of Robot: Ski Robot Challenge , where Korean students and tech organizations competed for a $10,000 prize to see whose robot could navigate a simple alpine skiing challenge the fastest. But when the humanoid-shaped robots started rolling down the slopes, most of them crashed into the flags or skidded right off the course. The winning robot, Taekwon-V, sat the shortest of the

For starters, more brands started selling OLED TVs. Even more importantly, OLED TVs finally started to hit price points that you didn’t have to be an oil tycoon to afford. Here’s our pick of the best OLED TVs you can buy right now. First, it opened up the OLED market to a whole new audience by becoming – alongside its similar OLEDB7 siblings – the cheapest OLED TVs to date. Second, as with all of LG’s current OLED TVs, it delivers slightly punchier, brighter pictures than other OLED brands.

The Samsung Galaxy S9 February 25 launch date is less than two weeks away, and we’re already getting an idea of its performance prowess. What does that mean for Samsung and its impending Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9 Plus phones? Constantly uploading and downloading from the cloud on the Samsung Galaxy S9 will be one of them. Antutu score (higher is better)Apple A11 Bionic (iPhone X): 228,360Snapdragon 845 (Galaxy S9): 256,206 (best)The Samsung Galaxy S9 (and any Snapdragon 845 phone) would be 12% fas

For us, Sony has revamped its X850 series for 2018 – which so far includes both a 65-inch and 75-inch iteration called the XBR-65X850F and XBR-75X850F, respectively. The Bravia X850F incorporates Sony’s X1 image processor with object-based HDR remastering. Further image refinement comes courtesy of 4K X-Reality Pro, Sony’s image enhancement algorithm, and Super Bit Mapping 4K HDR processing. The Sony Bravia X850F is available in both black and silver finishes, at least for the four smaller scree

The Samsung Galaxy S9 may not look very different from last year’s phone, but it’ll at least sound a lot better, according to the latest leak ahead of its February 25 unveiling. It’ll include stereo speakers, reports ETNews , a change that will allow the phone to compete with the LG V30S that’s also rumored to be getting stereo speaker treatment. Samsung’s stereo speaker implementation is likely to be more akin to what we’ve seen in the iPhone X , as 9To5Google posits. Samsung is reportedly tapp

MekaMon – a spider-like quadruped created by UK company Reach Robotics – scampers across the floor and turns to face an enemy robot that’s visible on our iPhone screen and threatening our base, which is projected onto a patterned mat on the floor. “It was a bit of a leap of faith to go from this to augmented reality,” adds chief operating officer John Rees, clipping it back together. A leap of faithReach Robotics was founded in Bristol in south-west England – a city that’s home to Bristol Roboti