TWO OPERATING SYSTEMS EACH WITH UNIQUE STRENGTHS CONTRADICTORY STATISTICS INDICATE EXTENT OF RIVALRY Two reports recently emerged shedding some light on not only how tight the competition continues to be between the operating systems of iOS and Android, but also how dramatically Apple and Google differ in their mobile strategies. For, while 2016’s third quarter … Read more
Slim and speedy external storage The latest external SSD to arrive at APC Towers is this slimline stick that’s pretty Mac-like, with its metal body and gentle curves. The design is attractive and the USB-C port supports USB 3.1 Gen 2 connection to PCs and Macs that are capable of that (theoretical) 10 Gbps bandwidth. … Read more
Peak performance in your pocket. [sc name=”Youtube”] EXTERNAL STORAGE With portable SATA SSDs now almost at commodity level, the next step up to dramatically increase speed is to move to the NVMe protocol. In essence this is a Samsung 970 Evo feeding through one of Intel’s Alpine Ridge Thunderbolt 3 controllers to connect directly to … Read more
More Than Just A Signal – Spread the net, far and wide, to many devices and stream HD content seamlessly If you ever find that your WiFi range is insufficient, it’s time to get a new router. Sometimes the stock router that comes together with your ISP just doesn’t cut it when it comes to WiFi … Read more
The most powerful personal backup utility in the business now with ransomware protection as standard You can imagine the software architects at Acronis scratching their heads as each annual release rolls around, trying to dream up new features for a backup suite that already contains the kitchen sink. In fact, one of this year’s most significant enhancements … Read more
Tough-looking shroud that provides excellent cooling X Marks the Spot Simple yet intuitive overclocking controls With the introduction of Intel’s latest 8th Generation processor, a swathe of new chipsets has also rolled out. Those getting Intel’s flagship 8700K or 8600K entries will certainly want a motherboard that can unlock the CPU’s full potential. [sc name=”Youtube”] ASUS, … Read more
The Aorus X399 Gaming 7 is perhaps the best point of entry to Ryzen Threadripper ownership out of the three boards we tested for this roundup, based on the price point compared to featureset and user experience. Having said that, it’s a very tight race and we can see end-users being happy with any of the … Read more
When we tested the Threadripper this month, it came with the Asus X399-powered Zenith Extreme. We were kind of expecting a slightly more affordable than Intel’s X99 platform for its Xeon processors, but it wasn’t to be. Having said that, the Zenith Extreme has every feature a professional user could ask for, where these kinds … Read more
Two ports can be ganged together to provide a single 2Gb/sec link The Asus ROG Rapture GT-AC5300 is incredibly expensive, but it brings together just about every feature you could want. As well as the latest AC5300 Wi-Fi support, it includes eight Gigabit Ethernet ports, two USB ports, built-in lifetime protection against online threats and … Read more
Synology follows up the excellent DS115 with something even better Looking through the specs of the DS116 was a curiously moment for this reviewer. Having just covered Synology’s DS216j, lots of components in it are remarkably similar. It uses the same processor, a Marvell ARMADA 385 88F6820 dual-core ARM chip, except it runs at 1.8GHz … Read more
Sky Q Hub, free with internet package The Sky Q Hub isn’t for everyone: it’s specifically designed to work solely with Sky’s own broadband services, so it’s off the table if you’re set up with a different broadband provider. Frankly, though, you’re not missing out on much. Probably the best aspect of the Sky Q … Read more
Officially, the BT Smart Hub only works with a BT Broadband connection. However, with a bit of Googling you’ll find homebrew instructions for making it work with various other ISPs, or for setting it up as a wireless access point. That could be a worthwhile upgrade on whatever you’re using now. Although the Smart Hub’s … Read more