You’ll likely hear these firms referring to ‘IP rating’. You’ll typically see numbers such as IP67 when referring to the iPhone X or the iPhone 8, while the number IP68 is used when referring to the Samsung Galaxy S8, Galaxy Note 8 or Sony Xperia XZ Premium. The Amazon Kindle Oasis (2017) is waterproof with an IPX8 ratingMostly you’ll only see the number five or six displayed here. The second number in your IP rating refers to how waterproof the device is, and it’s a little more complicated than

Future Google Home smart speakers could feature multi-touch support with a touchscreen device, or at least that’s how it looks based on a new job listing Google posted this week, Variety reports. The position is specifically for a “Touch Sensor Hardware Engineer, Google Home,” and it calls for someone who will “work on the next generation of Google Hardware to enable the best multi-touch user experience.” In addition, whoever gets the job “will lead the touch module development and integration f

Today Amazon announced that it’s bringing the Amazon Echo device family to 28 more countries today, along with its Amazon Music Unlimited music streaming service. Most of the new countries are in Europe and South America, including Iceland, Greece, Sweden, Colombia, Bolivia, Poland and Peru. Amazon’s music service may lag behind Spotify and Apple in terms of subscribers, but one of its best perks is that it offers a relatively inexpensive “Echo Plan” that grants full access to Amazon Music Unlim

Here’s a pairing we didn’t quite see coming: Apple is close to buying Shazam, the music recognition app, according to a new report. While it’s reportedly valued at over $1 billion, TechCrunch sources say Apple is buying it for much less. The most obvious is bringing Shazam’s music recognition capabilities to Apple Music, perhaps helping users more easily find music. Shazam also has a feature that lets users see what popular artists are Shazaming, and this could conceivably make its way to Apple

Google does many things well, but one thing it struggles with is coming up with a paid streaming music service that can keep up with Spotify and Apple Music. It’s already got Google Play Music, YouTube Red and YouTube Music, but in March it’s going to try its luck again with a new service for YouTube that’s tentatively called “Remix,” according to a report from Bloomberg . The new service would reportedly combine the audio-only aspect of Google Play Music and the ad-free video-focused content of

Not only is it a giant E Ink tablet, but it’s also capable of doubling up as a second display for your PC. That’s a first in the world of e-readers, but that’s not all this 13.3-inch, 2200 x 1650 touchscreen slate has going for it. Running a version of Android 6.0, it’s got a 1.6GHz quad-core processor, 2GB of RAM and 32GB of storage space. How well it works as a monitor, too, would be interesting to observe – Windows on an E Ink display, with a low refresh rate, might be a bit of a challenge, m

Selecting the right show for your next TV binge is no easy task, especially when it’s not only the show you have to pick, but the streaming service, too. Yet with so many of us flocking towards the big boys, Netflix and Amazon Prime, the service that houses the best selection of seminal shows often remains overlooked: Hulu. Additionally, unlike its counterparts, Hulu offers next-day viewing for those shows still airing on traditional US TV networks. No more hanging around until aeons after the s

If you’re holding out for a time when you absolutely cannot tell the difference between a CGI human in a film and an actor, special effects guru Dennis Muren believes you won’t have long to wait. TechRadar caught up with Muren – the legendary figure behind some of the most memorable effects in films – to mark Terminator 2’s release in December on 4K Blu-ray and 3D Blu-ray. Muren, who still finds the effects he did for Steven Spielberg and James Cameron’s hits more interesting, think it’s only a

Usenet is home to many web culture referencesMany of the terms we use online and occasionally ‘IRL’ were first popularized in Usenet newsgroups. The firm posted in all of the Usenet newsgroups (a much more realistic feat in 1994) for its legal services relating to the green card lottery. FAQ: A website and message board staple, the ‘Frequently Asked Questions’ acronym was introduced by NASA and adopted by Usenet newsgroups early on. He and fellow computer scientists chatted a lot through Usenet

Amazon Echo Dot vs Google Home MiniAmazon and Google are in an AI war and also a price war right now. Fitbit Ionic vs Apple Watch Series 3Fitbit makes a true smartwatch now, and it still has excellent activity tracking chops to go head-to-head with the brand new Apple Watch 3. Apple Watch is faster, brighter and has a better, refined interface thanks to watchOS 4. iPad Pro 10.5-inch vs Samsung Galaxy Tab S3Apple and Samsung make the best tablets and they had two new flagships in 2017. MacBook Pr

The next major update for Windows 10 (likely to emerge next spring) may well yield better power management functionality – and therefore boosted battery life for notebooks. Any power-efficiency improvements will obviously be very welcome for all notebooks in terms of extending battery life. Qualcomm-powered ‘always connected’ laptops are already set to offer a claimed battery life of up to 20 hours when these devices launch in the spring of next year, possibly to coincide with 2018’s first big W

We’re often asked why there isn’t a TechRadar magazine, and the truth is we’re allergic to paper*. Fortunately, we have some fantastic friends at Future who make the best tech and knowledge magazines around. From camera fanatics to those who simply must have the latest shiny tech bauble, we have a selection of magnificent magazines that would be a perfect gift for Christmas. The best thing about a magazine subscription is that every single month your loved one will get a reminder of just how awe

I pull out my smartphone, load the Yoti app and scan the QR code on the display above the beer tap using my handset’s camera. After posing for a quick selfie (at the app’s request), the screen above the beer tap declares I am of legal drinking age. I pull the leaver again, and to my delight the beer from a London-based microbrewery flows into my glass. This will allow you to still gain access to nightclubs, even if your phone has run out of power. Tombs believes that within five to 10 years, mos

Samsung has been making various vague noises about smart clothing for a while now, but a new patent spotted by LetsGoDigital suggests they’re ready to get serious about producing some tech-enabled threads that consumers can actually buy. Having energy produced by your clothes and your movements is certainly one way of increasing the battery life you’re going to get between charges, assuming there’s some way of hooking the two together. But the idea could also be useful out in the wilderness, a l

Take a look behind the eighth door on our free downloads advent calendar to find Ashampoo UnInstaller 2017 – an incredibly convenient way to remove several programs at once, including the bits their own uninstallers would usually leave behind. When you install a new program, Ashampoo Uninstaller 2017 logs all the changes it makes to your system, making it easy to remove any additional software that’s installed without your knowledge. Ashampoo UnInstaller can remove programs it hasn’t logged too,

With dedicated controls for Lightroom’s core settings laid out clearly on the Loupedeck, your workflow can be sped-up immensely. If you want something a little bit special then The Bowery, even allowing for its premium price, won’t disappoint. It’s clever design means your camera kit sits next to your right, allowing you to quickly and easily raise the camera to your eye. As well as being able to use the supplied pen to make control the cursor, the tablet also supports multi-touch gestures. This

The Samsung Galaxy S9 should be one of the first flagship phones we see in 2018, and we’ve already heard a healthy dollop of rumors about what’s in store for Samsung’s next phone. The most recent gossip surrounds the display, which is apparently going to be the same but different compared with the Galaxy S8. The different bit is the bezels, which are apparently going to shrink even further – and that means more screen space in the same sized device. In fact the screen-to-body ratio is reportedly

The site also claims this phone – which might be the Sony Xperia XZ Premium 2 – has a Snapdragon 845 chipset, 6GB of RAM, 128GB of storage, a dual-lens rear camera and front-facing stereo speakers. Credit: Vortex.ge Image 2 of 4 The two lenses of the higher-end handset’s camera seem oddly separated. Credit: Vortex.ge Image 3 of 4 The lower-end phone looks to have a more conventional design. Credit: Vortex.ge Image 4 of 4 Could these be Sony’s next flagships? Credit: Vortex.geA more conventional

In just a couple of short years, The Game Awards have risen to become one of the most important awards shows in the video gaming calendar. As well as giving out dozens of awards, including a trio for The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, the awards ceremony also played host to a number of exclusive trailer reveals. Bayonetta was one of the best games released on the Xbox 360, and Bayonetta 2 was one of the Wii U’s few exclusive game’s worth caring about. Called, appropriately, Bayonetta 3, th

Hands up who wants more battery life from their smartphone? For comparison, the iPhone X features a 2,716 mAh battery pack, so you get some idea of the improvement. Bear in mind though that battery life depends on a variety of factors, including the size of the screen and the efficiency of the internal components. As we previously reported, Kuo is tipping Apple to use the iPhone X tech on two flagship phones next year. In other words the iPhone X is the blueprint that future iPhones are going to