SoftMaker Office 2018 is coming to Mac, and you can download the public beta free today. SoftMaker Office is an affordable alternative to Microsoft Office, with no rolling subscription. The software has been available for Windows, Linux and Android for some time, but this is the first time it’s been available for macOS. “For us, a completely new chapter begins with the Mac version of our Office suite,” said Martin Kotulla, managing director at SoftMaker. Download SoftMaker Office for Mac free

The Document Foundation has released LibreOffice 6.0 – the latest major upgrade to the open source free office suite. “This is the start of a new development cycle,” explained Italo Vignoli, co-founder of The Document Foundation. LibreOffice Impress 6.0 includes new templates and a default aspect ratio of 16:9The default slide size in LibreOffice Impress has switched to 16:9 to suit modern screens and projectors. The Document Foundation has added 10 new templates to suit the new aspect ratio, an

Netflix may be about to claim another big Hollywood scalp for its stable, with legendary French director Luc Besson said to be preparing to sign a multi-movie deal with the streaming company. Besson, who directed classics including The Fifth Element and Leon: The Professional, would have a $30 million budget per movie, with the films coming under the Netflix Originals banner. Besson has as much, if not more, to gain from the deal than Netflix. We were lucky enough to have Luc Besson act as TechR

While the Apple HomePod made waves earlier in the week when its February 9 release date was announced, it’s now Sonos’ turn to snag some of the spotlight with these excellent Sonos deals. Get 2 Sonos One speakers for $349 @ SonosOk, we’ve got to admit, the deal is super enticing. Considering that just one Sonos One speaker costs $199 on its own, getting $50 off a second one is a great deal. View DealGet 2 Sonos One speakers for £349 @ SonosIt’s great to see the UK getting a discount too. View De

If you’re currently the proud owner of an Echo device you’ll know that you can send messages between Echo devices, but this new feature allows you to send more traditional text messages using only your voice. There’s no word yet on whether this feature is going to be coming to iOS devices or other regions. Alexa, text Wife I’m losing my voiceWhat’s quite cool about this new feature is that although you won’t be able to send MMS messages (or group messages, or message 911), it looks like you’ll b

Samsung has been quite open about its plans to launch a foldable phone as soon as possible, and some rumors even point to a launch by the end of 2018. At the very least, production of the phone – currently known as the Samsung Galaxy X – might well start this year, as in its Q4 2017 earnings statement Samsung has mentioned that in 2018 its display panel business will “reinforce its competencies in new applications such as foldable [displays].” A foldable futureIn fact, in the same statement Sams

Along with the record-breaking zoom range, there’s a new-generation autofocus system with an HLD (High/Low torque-modulated Drive) motor. That makes optical stabilization pretty much essential for handheld shooting towards the long end of the Tamron’s zoom range. Rated at 2.5 stops, the VC is good, but not as great as in some other recently launched Tamron lenses, such as the Tamron SP 24-70mm f/2.8 Di VC USD G2, which have a five-stop rating. Superzoom lenses are somewhat notorious for compromi

Facebook has banned all adverts for cryptocurrencies, so you won’t see the likes of Bitcoin or any other virtual coinage being plugged across the social network going forward. Essentially, the move has been made to protect the Facebook user base from scams which are trying to exploit the current popularity of cryptocurrencies, given the recent meteoric rise (and fall) of Bitcoin which has emblazoned it on the mainstream consciousness. As Recode reports, Facebook has instigated a new blanket ban

The latter are going well, but these are cheaper models, so they’re something of a headwind for that ASP. AMD doesn’t produce separate figures for GPUs, lumping them together with processors in the computing and graphics division, but there have been question marks over how Vega is performing. Su further explained that the problem in producing more graphics cards is actually down to the memory side of things, with GDDR5 and HBM shortages being the primary bottleneck right now. It’s good to hear

The Nintendo Switch has barely been on sale for a year, but it’s already outsold the company’s previous console, the Wii U.Impressively, this means the Switch has sold more units over an 11 month period than the Wii U managed in the five years it was on sale up until December 2017. It launched alongside The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, received an excellent Mario Kart remake within its first two months, and a top-tier Super Mario game in the form of Super Mario Odyssey. All of this has m

Music streaming mammoth Spotify has snuck a new ‘experimental’ app called Stations onto the Google Play Store dedicated entirely to playlists. Stations is incredibly streamlined compared to the fully-fledged Spotify app, featuring little more than a list of curated playlists to scroll through as well as some of the service’s personalised options, such as Discover Weekly, that use algorithms to suggest new and relevant music. You can customise which of the pre-selected stations appear in your men

The new Fujifilm X-A5 replaces the X-A3, and is the company’s smallest and lightest X Series mirrorless camera to date. It wouldn’t be a Fujifilm camera without an array of Film Simulation Modes, with the X-A5 featuring 11 options to suit a range of subjects, from portraits to moody mono landscapes, while there are also 17 Advanced Filters to choose from. New electronic zoom lensThe X-A5 will also be the first X Series camera with the new Fujinon XC15-45mm f/3.5-5.6 OIS PZ, the company’s first e

Back in 2009, director Duncan Jones announced Mute as the follow-up to his debut film, Moon. Now, close to a decade later, Mute has finally been made by Netflix and we have a brand new trailer to prove it. Starring Alexander Skarsgård (True Blood) as the titular non-speaking character, Leo Beiler, the film is a cyberpunk mystery that takes place in a futuristic Berlin. Mute will be available to stream on Netflix from February 23, 2018, which should give you plenty of time to binge Netflix’s othe

The self-driving car movement continues to accelerate, both in the speed of innovation taking place and the number of autonomous vehicles on the road. Today, Waymo announced that it’s purchased ‘thousands’ of Pacifica Hybrid minivans from long-standing partner Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) to add to its self-driving car fleet. As of right now, Waymo’s service is slated to begin picking up passengers in Phoenix, Arizona sometime this year. The company began testing its self-driving minivans on

At $99, the Sound BlasterX H7 Tournament Edition is an excellent choice with its superb audio performance, extreme comfort and high versatility. Yet the question remains: does Sound BlasterX H7 Tournament Edition hold its own against the sea of competitors, price inconsequential? PerformanceWhere you’ll really get your money’s worth is with Sound BlasterX H7 Tournament Edition’s excellent sound. (Note that the BlasterX Acoustic Engine Lite comes free with the H7 Tournament Edition while the Pro

It’s the best time to buy a smartphone, which also means that it’s the worst time to buy a smartphone. We’ve got to be straight with you: the start of the year is the worst time to buy a new smartphone. If you’re waiting for the next flagship, we’ve listed the features worth waiting for below. Still, the cool factor is undeniable and it might be worth waiting for if a phone’s worth to you is tied to how it looks. But if you’re only out for the best of the best, it’s worth waiting for the right t

A wide range of TVs are on sale, ranging from behemoth 75-inch 4K displays to more modest 32-inch displays offering basic 720p. LG 49UJ6300 for $349 after 50% offComing in at the lowest price is LG’s 49-Inch 4K Smart TV priced at $349 after 50% off. Samsung UN50MU6300 for $479 after $270 offSamsung enters at the middle of the pack with a 50-inch 4K Smart TV for $479 after $270 off. LeEco L654UCNN $649 after $550 offIf you need to go truly big, LeEco has a behemoth 65-inch 4K TV for $649 after a

The R1, developed by a company called Nuro, is a fully autonomous electric vehicle that ferries around goods, not people. Two engineers who formerly worked for Waymo, the self-driving car arm of Google’s parent company, Alphabet, founded Nuro. Whereas companies like Waymo and Uber plan to have self-driving cars ferry around people, Nuro’s mission is to use its self-driving tech to deliver stuff you’ve bought. There are, of course, regulatory hurdles for Nuro to overcome before it’s up and runnin

Email hosting plans are an easy way to get a more efficient and reliable service. You can use an email hosting plan to effectively replace your web host’s service, or you can try one without having any hosting at all. With quality services priced under £3 ($4.20) a user, and free trials available, it’s easy for anyone to check out the email hosting market. Fasthosts Standard Email plan is a stripped-back email hosting plan which offers the bare essentials for a very low price. If you’re solely i

What’s the real story behind the so-called iPhone X cancellation? But, contrary to the tone of some earlier reporting on the topic, it’s not the end of the iPhone X – it’s just the start. Measuring success for contextThe scale in which the success of Apple’s product are measured is different than that of other companies. Given these claims, it’s unlikely that we’re anywhere near the end of the iPhone X story. We’re eagerly awaiting the launch of the iPhone XI in September to find out how Apple’s