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The iPhone 12 Pro is undoubtedly the most powerful phone Apple has ever released, and on sheer digital muscle, it ranks at the top of benchmarks in our testing. But what does that mean for gaming? We chatted with a handful of devs about how their upcoming high-profile games will play on an iPhone 12 – and what you might miss out on if you don’t upgrade. Broadly speaking, iPhones get better and better internals every year, with better specs powering better graphics. Playing the newest games on older phones means you’ll miss out on effects that add graphical polish, like advanced lighting, depth of field, and environmental touches like clouds or shadows. Gaming on new phones means a superior visual experience, and these days, mobile game graphics aren’t too far behind consoles. When it comes to older and lower-spec phones, developers prioritize something other than graphical flourishes. To preserve playability, they strive for a consistent framerate, explains Ethan Young, development...

If you're looking to pad out your Switch collection this weekend, you'll be glad to know that both Amazon and Best Buy are offering some excellent Nintendo Switch game deals right now. From super cheap compilations to discounts on some of the best first party titles on the market, there's something for everyone here so you're sure to find something for whatever gaming mood you're in this weekend.  Highlights include $10 price cuts on some of the biggest titles to hit the system so far. These offers come from Best Buy, which is shaving that $59.99 MSRP down to $49.99 on everything from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild to Animal Crossing: New Horizons , Mario Kart 8 Deluxe to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate .  If you want to go even cheaper, though, Amazon is returning to some excellent sales prices on a range of 2K titles. These collections pack some excellent value - offering up multiple games in one low price. The Bioshock Collection is currently available f...

Four million Vikings! That’s the latest news from the team at Iron Gate, a small group of Swedish developers who have overseen the most staggering indie game launch of the year so far. Valheim is an early access survival title that has comprehensively taken over Steam, clocking in over 500,000 concurrent players at one time on February 21, just 19 days after the game’s launch. With four million players and counting and an ‘Overwhelmingly Positive’ rating after 90,000 user reviews, it doesn’t look like it’s slowing down anytime soon, either. It’s quite an unusual game to be sitting so high on Steam’s most-played list, just behind gigantic esports behemoths like DOTA 2, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds. In Valheim, you play as a fallen Norse warrior trapped in purgatory who has to craft and explore their way through the realm, building up to progress-gating boss battles.  It’s also nowhere near as refined as its peers. Valheim doesn’t feature sl...

Today's the day, film buffs - the 2021 Hollywood awards season kicks off with the 78th Golden Globes Awards ceremony in Beverly Hills. In keeping with The New Normal, streaming services are front and center, with nominations galore for Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, and others, while the awards show itself is taking on a strange new virtual format. Read on as we explain all you need to know about the show, including how to watch a 2021 Golden Globes live stream, the time of the ceremony, who's hosting, and more. Golden Globes live stream 2021 For those short on time, NBC's Peacock is the place to get a Golden Globes live stream tonight, meaning you can essentially watch for nothing thanks to the FREE Peacock trial currently on offer. Global options are more limited (scroll down for what is on offer), but fortunately for Americans abroad, Peacock works well our No. 1 rated VPN - try ExpressVPN 100% risk-free for 30-days to enjoy tonight's show from anywhere. Taking pla...

One of the many iPhone 13 rumors that have come our way in the last few months is the idea that the device could ditch the Lightning connection entirely and go completely portless – and we just got some more details about how this might be achieved. According to information obtained by Appleosophy , Apple hardware and software engineers are exploring a method of iPhone recovery over the internet, which would use Wi-Fi or Bluetooth rather than a physical cable to reset an iPhone. At the moment, you can return an iPhone to its factory settings through iOS, but if the device won't turn on or the software is corrupted, you need to connect it to a PC or Mac. Under the new system, that physical connection wouldn't be required. We're ready for a new Google Nest Hub Portless phones could be the future Everything you need to know about WandaVision Instead the iPhone would broadcast a sort of help signal via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, which would enable a computer connection, App...

When it comes to VPN services, everyone has their individual preferences, and the same is true of the protocols used to encrypt them. OpenVPN and IPsec encryption protocols have long ruled the roost, but up-and-coming protocol WireGuard is proving that high levels of encryption can be had for less overhead. We caught up with Daniel Sagi, COO at Kape Technologies, parent company of Private Internet Access , to find out about the value WireGuard can deliver and the company's approach to protocols going forward. Check out our list of the best business VPN services out there Here's our list of the best privacy apps for Android We've built a list of the best Windows 10 VPN services around You’ve financially contributed to the WireGuard protocol and now all your desktop and mobile apps support the protocol. The mobile clients are still missing some features such as per-app connections. When will these be available and are there any other features that you are current...

Like so many of Amazon’s other projects, Amazon Luna has slowly been building momentum behind the scenes without making much noise.  The game-streaming service was announced last year and, for the most part, hasn’t been the focus for the company over the last few months.  That changed slightly this week when the company said that it would open up early access to Amazon Fire TV Cube and Amazon Fire TV Stick owners, but until this point Luna has been locked behind an invite-only barrier that few have gotten into. So, now that the limited trial is over and the service is open to everyone, is it worth paying $5.99/month (around £4, AU$8) for Amazon Luna?  We went hands-on with the service to give it a spin. Here’s what we found out. Amazon Luna subscription: what do you get?  Regardless of whether or not you have an Amazon Prime account, Amazon Luna’s introductory price is $5.99 per month (around £4, AU$8). That price just gets you access to the basic lineu...

Sonos is a huge player in the world of home audio, with its range of super-connected wireless speakers and soundbars making it a trusted brand for audiophiles and casual music listeners alike.  Now it looks like the audio company is about to enter a new market, after patents and confirmation of a mystery product launch on March 9 have stoked rumors of the first Sonos headphones .  With Sonos’ reputation for putting out excellent speakers and murmurs of integration with its existing multi-room system, expectations for the rumored wireless headphones are high, echoing the hype we saw last year for the arrival of Apple’s first over-ear headphones . In many ways, the Apple AirPods Max lived up to the hype, delivering an excellent sound and unrivaled connectivity with iOS devices – though in other ways they disappointed, lacking basic features despite their incredibly high price.  While the Sony WH-1000XM4 are still the headphones to beat, we’re excited to see how So...

This year’s run of upcoming indie titles on PC due for release is on a different level. The Steam Game Festival 2021 took place from February 3 through February 9 and gave us a taste of what’s to come, with demos, developer interviews and showcases throughout. The festival showed off games from many genres, with varied art styles, rich storylines, and abstract concepts. Indie developers continue to push the boat of creativity and innovation despite working from small teams and having limited budgets. Here’s a list of our pick of some of the best indie games due for release this year. (Image credit: Chashu Entertainment) Sands of Aura Sands of Aura is a visually stunning dark fantasy action RPG developed and published by indie studio Chashu Entertainment . SoA is an open world buried under sand and divided in to islands. Each one has a unique style, lore and varying difficulty levels. The Combat is “souls-like” with seven distinct styles. There are different magical rune...