The saying ‘practice makes perfect’ is as valid for photography as any other activity, so we’ve put together a collection of exercises that will help you become a better photographer. Switching to spot metering puts you in control of where the camera meters from and helps you develop a much better understanding of the tonal range in a scene. It’s often helpful to combine spot metering with AE Lock as this will fix the exposure settings (after metering) while you compose the image. The answer is

I’m thinking specifically about the BFI, and its BFI Player Plus service. The standalone BFI Player Plus looks great, but is a real chore to use. Its apps barely work, and I even struggled to get the browser-build of the BFI Player to work consistently. I’ve noticed a few discrepancies between the BFI Player Plus standalone catalogue, and that which is offered through Amazon. They said:“The Amazon service is provided by them directly, as such they control the content that is included.

Nvidia has revealed a refreshed range of Battlebox PCs in the UK and US – preconfigured rigs made by third-party PC manufacturers, which are designed to be a hassle-free way of getting a new machine capable of churning out some seriously smooth frame rates. The new GeForce GTX Battlebox PCs run with Nvidia’s latest Pascal-based graphics cards and come in two flavors: Essential and Ultimate. Systems which come with a monitor included will have an Nvidia G-Sync capable display. The previous Battle

Beam is dead, long live ‘Mixer’ – the new name for Microsoft’s live-streaming service to rival the likes of Twitch and YouTube gaming. The next level in multiplayer streamingAnd that’s a shame, because Mixer’s new co-streaming functionality is genuinely pretty cool. Using co-streaming, for example, a team of players in the multiplayer game PlayerUnknown Battlegrounds could all stream simultaneously. Beyond co-streamingOutside of co-streaming, Mixer is also introducing a couple of other features

Red Star fully lives up to the Orwellian reputation of the DPRK. Red Star also has a supposed ‘virus scanner’ which can automatically delete censored files. For this reason, you should only run Red Star inside a virtual machine. Development of Red Star has continued under the auspices of supreme commander Kim Jong Un. The default web browser Naenara (meaning ‘My Country’) is a modified version of Firefox 3.5.

Given the fun that can be had from driving it’s not surprising that the idea of driverless cars fills some people with dread. Driverless cars will kill off what is a daily pleasure for thousands, if not millions, of people. But, in spite of this, driverless cars are still overwhelmingly worth the transition, especially since driving will never fully die. In the future, May thinks that driving will survive the growth of driverless cars, and may even get better as a result. Driverless cars might k

Facebook’s original video content is going to have a distinctly millennial feel, if their producing partners are anything to go by. According to Reuters, Facebook is teaming up with Buzzfeed, Vox Media, and Group Nine Media. What we know so far is that the content will apparently fit into a couple of different categories: there will be 20-30 minute shows, and 5-10 minute shows. Money where its mouth isFollowing a similar model to YouTube’s strategy with original content, the revenue will be driv

Tablets can live or die by their media abilities, and the upcoming Acer Iconia Tab 10 isn’t going to go down without a fight, as it’s one of very few slates with a Quantum Dot display. That could make the screen on the Iconia Tab 10 a cut above the competition, although right now we don’t even know what resolution it is, let alone what it looks like in the flesh, so we’ll reserve judgement. But it’s not just the screen on the Acer Iconia Tab 10 that could be set to impress, as the slate also com

Samsung has released a statement that it will be releasing a firmware update this summer that will stop its TVs from automatically switching their HDMI inputs. This will be particularly welcome for Nintendo Switch users as the feature changes to the input that the Switch is using, even when the Switch is in sleep mode. Users have reported that their viewing is being interrupted by TVs randomly switching to the Switch’s inactive input, and showing a blank screen. This has led to much frustration,

There’s a new version of Sony’s Digital Paper tablet that comes with an improved screen and a better interface than the versions that come before it. Sony’s new version includes a 13-inch 1650 x 2200 resolution screen that offers up 206 pixels-per-inch. Sony has also improved the touchscreen layer for the latest release, which should give you better note taking and annotation features. This should make it the ultimate digital notepad that won’t die as quickly as an iPad Pro with an Apple Pencil

It’s early days for Kodi 18 Leia, but stay tuned over the coming months for all the latest news about the media player’s new features. Kodi 18 Leia release dateKodi 18 Leia has only just entered beta, with no official release date on the horizon. It’s not all bad news, as a beta version of Kodi 18 Leia is already available. Kodi 18 Leia confirmed featuresWith Kodi 18 only just in beta, the list of new features isn’t huge at the moment. Kodi 18 Leia SkinKodi updated the skin from Confluence to Es

Details are slowly being revealed for the upcoming OnePlus 5, and the latest is the confirmation of the phone packing a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 chipset. The announcement was made on Qualcomm’s Twitter, as the firm let the world know that the new OnePlus flagship will have its most powerful chip under the hood. #OnePlus5 is coming soon and we couldn’t be more excited that it’s powered by #Snapdragon 835. We also know the phone will be called the OnePlus 5, not the OnePlus 4, and it’ll launch some

Getting it in well ahead of Computex 2017 festivities in Taipei, Taiwan starting May 30, Acer has unveiled its next affordable gaming laptop, the Acer Nitro 5. If you’re confused by the string of words “affordable gaming laptop,” just look to winners like the Dell Inspiron 15 Gaming. However, those flashy outtake vents have a purpose: Acer’s Coolboost technology is inside this laptop. With Acer getting into this affordable gaming laptop, erm, game among so many others, we’re bound to see Nvidia

Seemingly a fan of computing devices both massive and miniature, Acer has revealed the next version of its Acer Spin 1 convertible laptop ahead of Computex 2017 in Taipei, Taiwan starting May 30. The 2-in-1 laptop is aimed to be a mobile companion for creative types. A just-fine 4GB of memory will be accompanied by your choice of 32, 64 or 128GB of eMMC solid-state storage. Acer has designed the Spin 1 to work with its long-running Acer Active Stylus accessory, though the Spin 1 will not come wi

Although there isn’t any official announcement from Apple, an invisible sale has carved a swathe through some of the App Store’s bigger gaming titles for iOS, dropping a bunch of them to $0.99/£0.99/AU$1.49, and some even coming free. We’ve scrounged together a list of 12 of the more popular and well-regarded iOS games below. It’s worth noting that not all of these offers are available in every region — and many of the discounts don’t specify an end date — so double-check the price before you pu

With its first trailer kicking off by revisiting the fun 2015 hack that saw Netflix running on a 30-year-old Nintendo console, Netflix’s animated Castlevania series immediately aims to appeal to our nostalgia for the classic video game franchise. Thankfully, it also looks like the show is going to do right by fans, with the brief teaser trailer, titled ‘Vengeance’, featuring all the whip-cracking, blood-spurting, levitating vampire action we’ve come to expect from something based on Castlevania.

The Walking DeadThe Walking Dead has been reanimated more times than the zombies that harangue the group of survivors we have all come to know and love. Where to get it: NetflixSeasons available: 5You should also be watching… Fear the Walking DeadWith Season Six of Walking Dead coming to an end with a thump, you can still get your undead helping with Fear The Walking Dead – a show that tries its hardest to be more than a spin-off. Where to watch it: NetflixSeasons available: 5Scream: The TV Se

MSI might be known for producing some of the smallest gaming desktops like the Trident 3 and VR-One Backpack PC, but at Computex 2017 it’s bringing out a big mid-tower system. The Infinite A is part of MSI’s new gaming desktop lineup designed to for gamers who “want infinite possibilities to play the way they want” – read: space for upgrades. Through MSI, the Infinite A can be fully loaded with an Intel Core i7-7700 processor and an Nvidia GTX 1080 (8GB GDDR5X VRAM). The only limiting factor see

Microsoft has announced the debut lineup of titles available for Xbox Game Pass — a Netflix-style subscription program featuring a slew of games from both the Xbox One and Xbox 360’s history. What sets Xbox Game Pass apart from services like PlayStation Now and Nvidia’s GeForce Now is that games are downloaded rather than streamed, meaning higher fidelity and none of the lag that beaming games over the internet can sometimes present. Subscribers to Xbox Live’s premium Gold tier can try Xbox Game

“That said, we continue to sell and support the Xperia X and X Compact smartphones in the US. Premium Standard phones include 2016’s Xperia X and Xperia X Compact, devices with lower (but not lowest) prices and not-quite-premium, not-quite-budget specs. If the category sounds half-baked, the resulting phones were just that; we found in our Xperia X review the phone didn’t fit into any camp and lacked key features, while we outright recommended you buy the Xperia Z5 Compact over the X Compact. We