The Sound BlasterX G6 is an external sound card for game consoles

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Creative has a new external sound card device for console gamers who want to amp up the sound on their gaming headset.

The Sound BlasterX G6 is a high-resolution gaming DAC amp and USB sound card you can plug into a PC or any of the current consoles including the Xbox One, PS4 or Nintendo Switch. Likewise, the Sound BlasterX G6 works with any old headset including those not made by Creative, as long as they use standard 3.5 audio jacks.

Creative claims that by incorporating precision audiophile components and bi-amplification technology, the G6 can power each channel separately to deliver a whole new level of audio fidelity with superior clarity and accuracy.

The external sound card also provides plenty of additional features such as Dolby Digital decoding, 7.1 virtual surround sound and sidetone-speaker volume control.

The Sound BlasterX G6 isn’t Creative’s first external sound card built for gaming, however, the company’s general manager Low Long Chye noted how their fans purchased the earlier G5 for PlayStation 4 and other consoles

“[It was] a departure from its traditional usage with PCs” Chye said. “As more and more people discover the value of great audio outside of the world of the PC, we wanted to offer another option with even better performance and components.”

The Sound BlasterX G6 is available now on the company’s website and other retailers for $149 (about £120, AU$200).

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Xbox All Access packages a console, Xbox Live and Game Pass for one monthly fee

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Microsoft is moving ahead with its plans to create an Xbox One subscription service that will go by the name of Xbox All Access. The plan includes a console, 24 months of Xbox Live Gold and 24 months of Xbox Game Pass for a flat monthly fee. 

Right now, Microsoft has two packages planned for the US market: an Xbox One S package that will run you $21.99 a month and an Xbox One X package that includes Microsoft’s 4K powerhouse console for $34.99 per month. (Around £17/AU$29 or £27/AU$47, respectively, if Microsoft ever offers something similar for the UK or Australia.)

Because both packages come with Xbox Live Gold and Game Pass, you’ll have over 100 titles to download from the moment you open the box and dozens more available to you for free over the next two years thanks to Microsoft’s Games with Gold program.

The catch to this is that you’re signing a 24-month contract for the console and the deal is only available to “qualified customers”. If you bow out before the contract is up, you’ll owe Microsoft the remainder of the cost for the system … which could be even more than if you had purchased the console and the services separately. 

The other potential hurdle is that you’ll need to sign up for the deal in-person at a Microsoft Store where you’ll need to apply for a Dell Preferred Account – basically the holder of the payment plan for the next 24 months. 

The pros and cons of payment plans

For gamers of a certain age, Microsoft’s All Access pass is a great deal: You get a console and everything you need to play online for one affordable price. You don’t have to plunk down a chunk of change upfront, and after two years the console looks like it will be yours to own.

The problems here is that, very obviously, if you miss a payment, you’ll end up paying a significant penalty. It’s interest-free … but only for 24 months. After that, the Dell Preferred Account plan can charge up to 29.99% APR. Even worse, if you decide to drop out of the plan after a month, you could be staring down at a bill of $800 in the case of the Xbox One X package – far more than you would’ve spent if you would’ve just bought the console outright.

All that said, if you’ve got good credit and are willing to make the payments, Xbox All Access could be a solid deal. 

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The new iPad Pros may support keyboards in portrait mode

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Here’s something of interest if you’re patiently waiting for the 2018 iPad Pros to break cover – a shot of an updated case uploaded to the web shows a mysterious cut-out on the back of the device, perhaps to attach a keyboard when the tablets are in portrait mode.

The hole is in a similar position to where the Home button is on the existing tablets, but it’s around the back of the tablet not on the front. Apple has supported keyboards that prop up the iPad vertically in the past, but it would be something new for the iPad Pro line – if indeed the picture is genuine and the cut-out we can see is for a Smart Keyboard.

As you would expect, the iPad Pros will still support the use of keyboards in landscape orientation, and the case also shows space for a Smart Connector along the edge of the devices too, in a similar position to where it is on the latest iPad Pro tablets.

iPad Pro 3 case (Credit: SlashLeaks)

It’s possible that the case space is reserved for a brand new accessory that Apple has yet to tell us about – or it’s possible that someone 3D printed this to fool us all. For the time being, take this intriguing leak with a pinch of salt until we know more details.

What we do know for definite is that new iPad Pros are on the way. Apple is tipped to be bringing the iPhone X style to its iPad line this year, which means a display notch on the front, Face ID instead of Touch ID, and very thin bezels so more of the front of the device can be given over to the screens of whatever size Apple decides on.

As for a launch date, all signs point to early September, so it’s likely that new iPad Pros are going to get unveiled alongside new iPhones. It could be an expensive month for anyone planning to go all-in on the latest and greatest Apple hardware for 2018.

Via 9to5Google

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A new Google Pixel 3 XL unboxing video confirms all the rumors

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Google’s latest flagship is due to make an official appearance some time in October, but leaks and rumors of both the Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL have been coming in thick and fast. 

While the availability of the Pixel 3 XL on the Russian black market has pretty much taken away any surprises, a new unboxing video of the larger Google flagship handset has landed on YouTube and leaves absolutely nothing to the imagination.

The professional high-quality video reveals the Pixel 3 XL in all its hi-res glory, along with everything else that comes in the box.

First discovered by Android Authority and posted by YouTuber In DIGI, the two-and-a-half-minute video shows off the glass-backed phone, along with the wired USB-C Pixel Buds said to be accompanying the forthcoming Google flagships, as well as the usual charging gear. The video also reveals a Quick Switch adapter and #teampixel stickers.

Once the phone is booted, the video confirms there’s a notch on the large screen and that it’s powered by Android 9. Also demonstrated in the video are the phone’s selfie capabilities.

As for what’s reportedly under the hood, the Pixel 3 XL is expected to sport a Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 processor with either 4GB or 6GB of RAM.

• We’re expecting a new 2018 iPhone to be announced before the Google flagships

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Microsoft Surface Go was reportedly almost an ARM Windows tablet

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Sources speaking to Paul Thurrott have said that the Surface Go, Microsoft’s latest miniaturized version of its flagship Windows tablet, was originally intended to use an ARM processor. It reportedly wasn’t until Intel ‘petitioned Microsoft heavily’ that it went with a Pentium Gold processor.

The report deals with a response many had to the Surface Go: why did Microsoft choose an Intel processor for its smallest Surface tablet instead of an ARM-based one, considering the latter’s supposed benefits to battery life and mobile-centric use?

Not to mention that Microsoft was expected to set an example for Windows on ARM. Earlier this year, the Windows on ARM platform debuted to poor performance, so an improvement was expected.

Update: A Microsoft spokesperson has provided us with the following statement: 

“Part of being product makers is listening to our customers and pushing ourselves to evolve and improve with every generation of devices we create. The Intel Pentium Gold processor is great for Surface Go and we worked closely with Intel to optimize Surface to deliver the best power and performance for our customers, and a consistent experience across the Surface family of devices. The performance from this device provides over 2x that of Surface 3 – and when compared to Surface Pro 3 GPU, 33% more than the i5 and 20% more than the i7.  Only this processor could deliver that kind of performance in a device this small and just 1.15 pounds.”

Why the last minute change?

It still remains unclear why Microsoft ultimately went with the Intel processor, but these issues with performance wouldn’t likely have been resolved before the Surface Go’s release. 

Even the updated Snapdragon 850 processor for late-2018 Windows devices isn’t likely to match the power that users have come to expect from Windows laptops and tablets running on Intel chips.

Furthermore, ARM-based Windows devices still cannot support a large number of apps that Intel and AMD-based ones inherently do. 

This is because the vast majority of apps on Windows 10 were created to interface with Intel’s x86 instruction set architecture, and therefore are incompatible with the ARM processor without emulation.

Not only does this emulation introduce an additional level of overhead on the ARM processor to drive the virtualized environment in which to run these apps, Windows 10 can only emulate 32-bit x86 apps so far – a majority of Windows 10 apps are 64-bit, but this limitation is almost through. 

What’s even worse for ARM is that Intel is publicly against this emulation and possibly prepared to lawyer up over it on patent infringement concerns.

All told, ARM’s success on Windows has been an uphill battle for years, and is likely to be that way for at least a while longer. App compatibility and performance issues are more easily solvable problems – Qualcomm’s already planning an update following Snapdragon 850 for 2019 – than potential patent infringement lawsuits.

Intel, meanwhile, has had trouble keeping pace with rivals in moving onto smaller processor design architectures, with its 14-nanometer process now several years old and its 10nm process delayed to mid-2019. 

This news shows how heated the competition in the silicon industry has become in the past few years.

Via The Verge

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Windows 10 gets Intel’s patches for worrying new Foreshadow flaw

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On the security front, Microsoft has pushed out a new batch of microcode updates for Windows 10 which mitigate against the Foreshadow vulnerability, along with additional Spectre variants.

As ZDNet spotted, the microcode patches, piped over from Intel, address the following flaws in the company’s processors: Spectre variant 3a (‘rogue system register read’) and variant 4 (‘speculative store bypass’), along with Foreshadow, a fresh vulnerability that came to light earlier this month, which hit the firm’s high-end Core and Xeon processors.

The patches have been released for all versions of Windows 10, as well as for Windows Server.

Alternative channel

Microsoft started releasing Intel’s microcode updates to Windows users back in March, hoping to bolster security for the users of the OS, and offering an extra channel to receive protection in case users haven’t had the CPU patches through from hardware manufacturers (via firmware updates, which can take some time to concoct and deploy).

Obviously, it’s good to see these sort of countermeasures pushed forward by whatever means possible, particularly when a new threat has popped up. Foreshadow is a worrying little beast which is (unsurprisingly) impervious to the protection put in place for Meltdown and Spectre, and it doesn’t leave any traces either, so the user won’t likely know that they’ve been hit.

Intel has promised that CPUs released down the line will have protection against Foreshadow baked in.

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Google has already helped patch a serious flaw in Fortnite for Android

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Epic Games has decided to release Fortnite for Android outside of the Google Play Store, presumably because it doesn’t want to give Google a 30% cut of its revenue. The Fortnite installer has to be downloaded from the Fortnite website instead.

One of the potential problems that brings with it is security: apps outside the Google Play Store aren’t subject to the same checks and scans as those inside it. Well, it turns out Google is still keeping an eye on Fortnite – it recently identified a security flaw in the Fortnite installer, which Epic Games has since patched and made safe.

The Fortnite installer grabs the main app and downloads it to a phone. The security flaw, however, allowed any other app on the device to intercept that request and substitute it for another – essentially installing a different app unbeknownst to the user or the installer.

Flaws for thought

Obviously that’s quite a serious issue – and given the popularity of Fortnite it’s probably one that hackers would’ve tried to exploit. Since Epic Games patched the problem, though, the installer is once again safe to use to get Fortnite downloaded to devices.

It would appear Epic isn’t best pleased that Google made the issue public so early: “Epic genuinely appreciated Google’s effort to perform an in-depth security audit of Fortnite,” the company said in a statement. “However, it was irresponsible of Google to publicly disclose the technical details of the flaw so quickly.”

It’s unclear if the security issue was actually exploited by anyone, but if you want to be on the safe side, uninstall and reinstall Fortnite for Android and start again from scratch. Old, unpatched versions of the uninstaller will now no longer be allowed to run.

Via Android Central

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Honor Play is coming soon, and it’s designed to offer great mobile gaming

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Alongside its range of products like the Honor 10 and Honor 7X, the Honor brand has just revealed that the Honor Play is coming to the UK after launching in China back in July. 

We don’t currently know if it will be on sale in the US or in Australia, plus we are currently unclear on pricing and we don’t expect to hear more on that until Honor’s IFA 2018 press conference on August 30.

We have tried out the phone though and you can read all about it in our hands on Honor Play review.

It features the largest screen on an Honor phone to date at 6.3-inches with a 19.5:9 aspect ratio, a Full HD+ resolution and 409 pixels-per-inch. Design-wise it has a metal unibody and comes in the colors of Midnight Black or Navy Blue in the UK.

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The Ultra Violet version you can see above is restricted to other markets, as are two versions called the Player Edition Black and Player Edition Red.

The Honor Play uses the top-end HiSilicon Kirin 970 chipset that has featured in other phones like the Huawei P20 Pro, plus it comes with 4GB of RAM in the UK. Some markets also have access to a version with 6GB of RAM.

Gaming central

There’s 64GB of storage available as standard plus you can add a microSD card of up to 256GB.

The camera on the rear of the phone is a dual-sensor one with one lens toting 16MP and the other being a 2MP depth sensor. This isn’t likely to get you as strong photography as the Honor 10, but it should be able to take some good shots.

Selfies should look great too thanks to a 16MP front-facing camera. The Honor Play is running Emotion UI 8.1, which is the company’s own reworking of Android 8.1 Oreo software.

There’s a 3,750mAh battery here too, which we hope will allow the phone to keep playing games for hours on end.

While the Honor Play clearly has a lot of power, leaving it capable of running top-end games, there’s little here to distinguish it as a gaming phone. Instead the company seems to have focused on making an all-round smartphone that can also play games well as a bonus, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

We expect to hear more about the price and release date of the Honor Play at the company’s IFA 2018 press conference on August 30.

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How to watch Valladolid vs Barcelona: live stream for free on Eleven Sports from anywhere

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Live stream Valladolid vs Barcelona – where and when

Valladolid vs Barcelona takes place in the Estadio Jose Zorrilla on Saturday, August 25.

Kick-off is a late 10.15pm locally, which is 9.15pm BST, 4.15pm ET, 1.15m PT and 6.15am AET on Monday morning. 

The new season means new coverage of football around the world, with live matches even reaching Facebook. Real Valladolid against Barcelona is one of the latest fixtures to be hosted on the social network, and we’re here to help you tune in to the free live stream regardless of where you are in the world.

Barcelona were in imperious form as they swept past Alaves on La Liga’s opening weekend. Now donning the captain’s armband, Lionel Messi scored twice in spectacular fashion with Phil Coutinho thumping home the other. If that combination isn’t enough to worry their opposition on Saturday, there’s the added threat of Luis Suarez who will be hungry for his first goal of the season. 

Valladolid are among La Liga’s new boys having won promotion from the Segunda Division via the play-offs last season. One of the few players they spent money on this summer was midfield man Ruben Alcarez, who will need to be at his best to stifle Barcelona’s possession football on Saturday.

Are we set for another Messi masterclass or could an upset be on the cards? Find out by following the instructions below and grabbing a free live stream of Barcelona vs Real Valladolid in La Liga.

If you’re in a country that’s not showing the Valladolid vs Barcelona match on TV, don’t sweat. With a VPN service you can connect to channels from a country that will have the match – including the UK which has free access to the whole game thanks to the Eleven Sports Facebook page.

Follow the three simple steps below and get ready to live stream the whole of this La Liga contest for free. 

1. Download and install a VPN
You can scroll down to find out your La Liga viewing options in some of the major football-watching countries around the world. But if the place where you live doesn’t have it, you can always use a VPN. A VPN allows you to change your IP address so you appear to be in a completely different location. We’ve tested hundreds of VPNs and can recommend these as the best VPN services currently available:

Express VPN (comes with a 30 day money back guarantee) This is the #1 rated best VPN in the world right now. You can watch on many devices at once including Smart TVs, Fire TV Stick, PC, Mac, iPhone, Android phone, iPads, tablets etc. Check out Express VPN

IPVanish supports up to 10 devices, so great on the go

VyprVPN: blazing speeds make VyprVPN a great choice for 4K video

2. Connect to the appropriate server location
Simply open the VPN app, hit ‘choose location’ and select the appropriate location – in this instance, the UK.

3. Go to the Eleven Sports Facebook page
Eleven Sports is really making a splash in the live sport stakes, nicking all of the La Liga and Italian Serie A matches from Sky this season – and they’ll be showing free games on Facebook every weekend without you even needing to sign up. Luckily, Valladolid vs Barcelona is one of those matches, so go and watch it there.

How to stream Valladolid vs Barcelona live in the UK 

As mentioned above, little-known subscription service Eleven Sports has nabbed the La Liga rights from Sky Sports, meaning Spanish football has a brand new home in the UK. Kick-off for this one is 9.15pm BST and the good news is that this fixture is one of Eleven’s weekly picks to be shown for free on its Facebook page – we’re just hoping the glitches of last weekend have now been ironed out.

If you’re outside the UK, you can tune in to Eleven Sports by downloading a VPN, setting your location to the UK, and tuning in that way. 

How to watch Valladolid vs Barcelona: US live stream 

BeIN Sports is the La Liga broadcaster in the USA, with kick-off for this one at 4.15pm ET and 1.15pm PT. If you’re a BeIN Sports subscriber and want to stream the coverage to your laptop or mobile device, BeIn Connect is the service you need.

Alternatively, you can follow the VPN route and stream for free via the Eleven Sports UK Facebook page.

How to watch Valladolid vs Barcelona: Canada live stream 

BeIn Sports is also the 2018/19 La Liga broadcaster in Canada. Kick-off is at 4.15pm Toronto time and if you’re a BeIN Sports subscriber and want to stream the coverage to your laptop or mobile device, BeIn Connect is the place to go. 

As stated above, you could also follow the VPN route and head to Eleven Sport’s UK Facebook page which will be streaming the match for free. 

How to watch Valladolid vs Barcelona: Australia live stream

The BeIN Sports La Liga monopoly stretches to Australia too. Barcelona’s match at Valladolid kicks off at 6.15am Sunday morning down under, so stay in on Saturday night and set those alarms if you want to catch this one live.

If you’re not a BeIN subscriber, you’ve also got the VPN option above, enabling you to stream for free via the Eleven Sports UK Facebook page.

Where else can I watch La Liga football using a VPN

A VPN will enable you to watch La Liga from literally anywhere – even if it isn’t being broadcast in that country. So that obviously includes the following: Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Denmark, Egypt, France, Germany, Iceland, Iran, Japan, Mexico, Morocco, Nigeria, Panama, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Serbia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Tunisia, Uruguay and many more!

How to stream all the online action straight to you TV

The ability to live stream all the football to your phone or tablet is undeniably useful – you don’t have to miss a single goal, even if you’re out of the house. But if you want to stream La Liga football from the internet to your TV, then picking up a streaming box might be useful. Check out our guide to the best streaming media players, where the likes of Apple TV, Roku and Amazon Fire are all included.

Image courtesy of fcbarcelona.com

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Intel 9th-generation Coffee Lake S processors may be closer than we thought

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Intel Core i7-9700K and i9-9900K processors have showed up for preorder on European retailers, fueling speculation that the release is right around the corner. 

We previously reported on a leaked Intel roadmap which pointed to the Core i5, i7 and i9 Coffee Lake-S models launching on October 1. CentralPoint, the retailer that posted the early pre-order (and has since taken it down), said that it would be getting stock on September 7, as reported by Wccftech. If this is true, it would seem to back up that October 1 release date. 

The Core i9-9900K is being listed by Netherlands-based retailer Dutch Computer Centre for €561 (about $652, £507), which would fall in line with what we’d expect a Core i9 processor to cost. This is likely a placeholder price, though, and we’ll see official pricing once Intel actually announces these next-generation processors.

Intel is at it again 

What we want to know is what’s going on with the rest of the 9th-generation lineup. We’ve only really seen solid information about the high-end parts, with only shaky leaks and speculation to guide our hand when it comes to the Core i5 and i3 lineup. 

Some of these low-end processors did show up on a leaked microcode revision, but as it wasn’t published by Intel directly, we have to take it with a grain of salt. 

Either way, October 1 is coming fast, so we’ll see whether any of this information is accurate one way or another. We expect the pricing at least to change. Hopefully Intel will cater to the mid-range as well – Ryzen 2nd Generation is unforgiving competition these days. 

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