Enthrone

If you’re still on the hunt for some amazing Boxing Day deals, then Currys PC World could help you bag a serious bargain, as it’s cut the prices of a huge range of products across its website.These deals went live at 8pm on December 29 and run until January 2 2018 as part of its 100 hours 100 deals event.If you work it out correctly, you can make some really quite decent savings, so we’ve collected the best deals below.
TV deals
Xbox One X deals
Computing deals
Audio deals
Home and kitchen deals
Camera deals
These are just some of the best deals going live, so check out the Currys PC World website for even more savings.Remember, these deals expire on January 2, 2018, so don’t leave it too late if you’re looking to grab a bargain.
Don’t forget to check out our list of the best Boxing Day deals that are still live!

Microsoft has been forced to defend its Windows Hello software following the publication of a worrying security vulnerability that allows people to trick your webcam into unlocking your Windows 10 PC using little more than a printed photo.As we reported when the news broke last week, PCs running versions of Windows 10 older than the recently-released Fall Creators Update and that use Windows Hello to unlock the machine using a webcam, can be easily caught out by a simple laser-printed photon taken with a near IR (infrared) camera.Since then, Microsoft appears to have gone on the defensive, and has published a blog post that extols the virtues of using Windows Hello, rather than a password, to unlock your PC.
Hello, is it me you’re looking for?
Microsoft’s blog post quotes Bret Arsenault, Microsoft’s corporate vice president and chief information security officer as saying “[the password] model needs a makeover. Securing devices is important, but it’s not enough. We should also be focused on securing individuals. We can enhance your experience and security by letting you become the password.”The blog post also goes into detail about the technology used by Windows Hello, with Rob Lefferts, director of program management for Windows Enterprise and Security, explaining that “It’s actually building a 3D map of your face. It has depth and characteristics, and we use multi-spectrum analysis so we’re getting multiple images of your face from different perspectives.”If this isn’t enough to convince you that Windows Hello is secure, remember that the security issue from last week involved older versions of Windows 10 , so if your operating system is updated, and Windows Hello properly set up, your device should be more secure.It’s also worth reading the whole blog, as it goes into a lot of depth about the security technology behind Windows 10.However, on Microsoft’s behalf, it needs to do a lot more to ensure that embarrassing security lapses don’t happen again, especially as it claims that around 70% of Windows 10 users with biometric-enabled features (such as fingerprint readers or specialised webcams), use Windows Hello rather than normal passwords.With that number of people relying on Windows Hello to secure their devices, it is imperative that Microsoft makes the technology as secure as possible – and no amount of defensive blog posts will make up for that.
Looking for a new laptop? Here’s our list of the very best laptops

 1. Trash massive appsNever use iMovie? That’s over 2GB of space you can get back. Open Applications in List view and sort by size to see what you can remove.2. Delve into DownloadsIf you download lots of things in Safari, the files initially get saved in Downloads. If you don’t clean that folder out it’ll be full of junk like app installers. Delete any you don’t need.3. Prune device backupsWe recommend backing up your iOS devices to iCloud and also manually to iTunes, but the latter takes up space on your Mac. You can use the Devices tab in iTunes’ preferences to remove backups.4. Remove legacy photosWhen Apple replaced iPhoto with Photos, all your pictures and videos were migrated to the latter, meaning you no longer need your original iPhoto library. Back it up to an external drive, then delete it.5. Delete macOS installersApple’s installers are well behaved: after you’ve installed a macOS update, they vanish. That is unless you’ve made a manual copy. You can offload these to an external storage drive and then delete them.6. Don’t forget the trashThe Trash isn’t things you’ve wiped from your Mac, but items that are awaiting deletion. Until you empty the Trash (Ctrl-click it and choose Empty Trash), anything inside it still takes up space on your Mac.
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Coffee Lake is both a significant upgrade to Intel’s mainstream CPU line, and one of the longest delays between meaningful improvements.If you’re an enthusiast who’s already upgraded to a six-core, 12-thread (6C12T) processor, Coffee Lake might not seem like a big deal. We’ve had such chips since Gulftown on socket LGA1366 in 2010, although pricing was higher than many were willing to pay.The Core i7-5820K dropped the entry price for six-core, 12-thread chips to $389 in 2014 – basically the same as today’s Core i7-8700K. The problem is that Intel’s mainstream platform, LGA115x, has stuck at four-core, eight-thread since 2009’s first-gen Core i7s. That’s eight years of stagnation, largely because AMD never had a superior product.Ryzen changed that, and while it doesn’t win every benchmark, the availability of competitive 8C16T chips at prices that undercut Intel’s 4C8T CPUs looks bad, and the 6C12T Ryzen 5 parts cost less than most of Intel’s 4C4T Core i5 parts.If you’re running workloads that can benefit from more cores/threads, Ryzen has been an easy recommendation since launch. After coasting on the mainstream platform for eight years, Intel has been able to rapidly release more cores and higher performance.
No let-up in sight
Coffee Lake has better per-core performance than Ryzen, and clock speeds that are up to 30% higher. What’s more, unlike the mesh topology used in Skylake-X, Coffee Lake sticks with Intel’s ring bus.The result is some killer performance, with the Core i7-8700K claiming top marks among 6C12T products.Not to be outdone, the Core i5-8400 is a 6C6T part that includes reasonable (3.8-4.0GHz) clocks, and in a large suite of games it matches the performance of a stock Core i7-7700K, at about half the price and two-thirds the power use.The problem is that Coffee Lake uses the same LGA1151 socket as Skylake and Kaby Lake, except the pin-out has changed, and a new chipset and mobo is required. That’s a low blow, even from Intel, considering Z270 boards aren’t even a year old.As exciting as 2017 has been, there are indications that 2018 won’t slow down. Rumblings from AMD hint at architectural tweaks enabling better per-core performance and higher clock speeds, and Ryzen 2 (or whatever it’s called) will run in existing AM4 motherboards.Not to be outdone, Intel could release an 8C16T Coffee Lake chip – alhough that would require a new die. And Intel’s 10nm Cannon Lake chips should finally arrive by the end of 2018, possibly sooner.Here’s to competition, and more reasons to think about building another PC.
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The John Lewis Boxing Day sales are almost here. It’s your chance to pick up a good deal on all that Christmas stock that didn’t sell. And online is the way to go as John Lewis high street stores are closed on Boxing Day itself to give its staff a an extra day off, which is nice. Actually John Lewis leaked a few early clearance deals on Christmas Eve.John Lewis is a popular retailer for big electronics items like TVs as well as white goods and laptops, due to the customer service and five-year guarantees. John Lewis is a huge retailer though and doesn’t just focus on tech products, so you’ll also be able to find deals on furniture, home and garden items, clothes, beauty products and lot more.
John Lewis Quick links:John Lewis Boxing Day salesJohn Lewis clearance dealsTelevision dealsLaptop and tablet dealsHeadphone and speakers dealsGaming dealsSmartphone and telephone dealsDyson dealsSee all John Lewis dealsJohn Lewis is also, of course, famous for price matching its highstreet and online rivals like Currys and PC World. So if you spot anything from highstreet brands online, you should be able to get John Lewis to price match if you’d prefer to buy there.Boxing Day sales at John Lewis might even be better than the deals we saw on Black Friday. The retail chain didn’t actually do much on Black Friday, instead choosing to promote a small number of deals while price matching popular TVs and a range of smart devices and gaming hardware.It was probably a good strategy as it limited the number of products it was selling for below the usual amount. But the Boxing Day sales are a different animal – they’re all about shifting stock that has built up over the Christmas period so it’s possible that John Lewis will be the place to be on Monday.We’ll be rounding up all of the best Boxing Day sales deals right here on TechRadar so keep coming back for the latest updates.
Boxing Day Sales: Quick links
Just straight to the deals at the UK’s biggest retailers. Links will open in new tab:
Amazon saleJohn Lewis saleCurrys saleArgos saleTesco Direct saleGAME saleZavvi saleAO.com – saleMobiles.co.uk – saleCarphone Warehouse – saleNext – saleThe best John Lewis deals

We know Qualcomm’s powerhouse next-generation chip, the Snapdragon 845, is going to be fitted inside many an Android flagship of 2018, as well as a host of always connected laptops, but it sounds like the silicon could be making its way into Chromebooks too.That’s according to the folks over at XDA Developers, who have spotted some hints inside the Chrome OS code that suggest it’s being prepped to run on the mobile chip. Some Chromebooks already run on chips designed for phones, including the Samsung Chromebook Plus, but this would be another step up in performance.Of course the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 is a very good fit for Chromebooks, offering decent performance alongside excellent battery life, plus some extra AI smarts. Your 2018 Chrome OS-powered laptop would run longer than ever between charges.
Problem solving
Attempts have been made to get Chromebooks running on Qualcomm processors in the past, but there have been problems getting the necessary drivers working properly with Linux. It would appear those problems are about to be resolved.This year we saw Google up the Chromebook stakes with the Pixelbook, a premium Chromebook running on i5 and i7 chips from Intel, but these lightweight laptops have had most success down at the less expensive end of the market.Exactly where the new Snapdragon 845-powered Chromebooks would fit into the various ranges, and who is going to make them, remains to be seen – but if this development does turn out to be real, you’ve got another bunch of reasons to make a Chromebook your next laptop.
The next Microsoft Surface might be powered by the Snapdragon 845

Chinese manufacturer GPD has carved out a niche for itself making some impressive portable PCs, and the firm – which produced the GPD Pocket that we recently reviewed and liked – is coming out with a sequel to its popular handheld Windows gaming PC.The GPD Win 2 is being fired up as a campaign on Indiegogo, and the new model features some considerable upgrades over the original. However, the price has also been jacked up to $699 (around £520, AU$915), or $599 (around £450, AU$785) for those who commit to buying the device in advance on Indiegogo, when it goes live on the crowdfunding site sometime in the middle of January.So, what upgrades are we talking about? The Win 2 goes with a half-inch larger 6-inch display – although it keeps the 1,280 x 720 resolution – and bumps up the processor to an Intel Core m3-7Y30 capable of Intel Turbo Boost up to 2.6GHz (with integrated Intel HD Graphics 615). That’s a solid jump from the previous Atom CPU.The machine doubles up system RAM to 8GB, too, and also doubles storage to 128GB, making use of an M.2 SSD this time around instead of slower eMMC flash. That will definitely mean much nippier general performance all-around.
Pricing and performance
While this spin on a handheld gaming PC is certainly a smart concept that will doubtless appeal to some, there are flies in the ointment here – pricing being the biggest.The original GPD Win can be picked up for as cheap as $300 (or £230, AU$405) these days, at least if you import from a Chinese online retailer. It wasn’t all that much more expensive when it came out, and the Win 2 looks to be a considerable jump in price, which could be a definite stumbling block.The other bone of contention is managing expectations around such a portable gaming device, and the sort of performance oomph it’s capable of mustering.You obviously can’t expect the world, but the Win 2 looks interesting from some early benchmarks and clips, which include video of the device running the likes of Grand Theft Auto V. Detail levels need to be dialed right back, of course, to get anything like a smooth-ish frame rate.That said, even that running these games is possible is pretty neat, even if they have to be cut back considerably in terms of the visuals. And, there are already lists of some quite nifty games which run well enough on the original GPD Win over on the Steam forums.And, speaking of Steam, at least while you’re at home with the device near your gaming PC, you’ll be able to stream titles across to it, which is another definite boon.Via and Image Credit: Liliputing
Alternatively, you could just grab one of the best gaming laptops

We’ve already seen Microsoft’s meticulously-detailed patent illustrations for a handheld, dual-screen tablet or phone, but now they’ve been made into something far more beautiful. Designer David Breyer has used those patent images to create an incredible concept for what might – or should – end up being a Surface Phone or other phablet-like computing device.The 3D concept art is nothing but a designer’s dream of what such a device should be, but nevertheless fuel the years-long hype for a Surface Phone device. As seen in the patent images and now in 3D, the device will have two displays sandwiched between covers – made whole when opened up flat like a book.
The concept images depict the device being used in many form factors, like the patents, but omit the rendering of a keyboard on one of the screens a la the Yoga Book. Also, the images reference rumors that this device will use a Surface Pen stylus as well.These concept renders also imagine a third display set on the hinge that holds the whole thing together, with side-orientated text notifications for alerts, like emails or text messages.If Microsoft released a Surface Phone or more PDA-like product like this, we’d be all over it. Here’s to hoping Microsoft makes good on these, again, purely conjectured concept renders with a slam-bang 2018 phone release that blows our right minds. After all, CEO Satya Nadella promises Microsoft’s next phones won’t be anything like the phones we’re used to.
Via The Verge
Have you seen the brand new Surface Book 2?

The Mac Pro isn’t dead. Although its last true appearance was back in late 2013, the iMac has gotten so powerful that it would have nearly deemed Apple’s most cylindrical computer irrelevant had the two not been fused to make the iMac Pro.Revealed to the public at the San Jose Convention Center during the Cupertino company’s Worldwide Developers Conference in June 2017, the iMac Pro will modernize the performance of the Mac Pro and introduce it to the illustrious all-in-one iMac design. Suffice to say, it’s a tall order, but we’ll find out for certain pretty soon whether Apple can deliver.What we will say is this: powered by your choice of either 8GB or 16GB of HMB2 AMD Vega graphics combined with up to an 18-core Intel Xeon processor, not to mention a new T2 coprocessor chip, the stakes are high for the iMac Pro.
Cut to the chase
What is it? Apple’s most powerful all-in-one desktop PCWhen is it out? December 14, 2017What will it cost? AED 19,999
iMac Pro release date
When Apple first confirmed that new iMacs would arrive in 2017, naturally executives offered nothing as to when these new computers would release. However, at WWDC, Apple fully laid out its release plans for its new iMac family.The freshly updated iMac equipped with Kaby Lake processors has been available since June; meanwhile, the iMac Pro was released on December 14, 2017.

iMac Pro price
The entry-level iMac Pro configuration starts at a kingly sum of AED 19,999, but at that lofty price point you get a hardy all-in-one that includes a 27-inch Retina 5K display, 8-core Intel Xeon processor, AMD Radeon Vega graphics, 32GB ECC memory and a 1TB SSD.Of course, for those who don’t need that much power the consumer-grade iMac isn’t going anywhere. For AED 4,399 you can get the 21.5-inch iMac while the 27-inch model starts at AED 7,199. 

iMac Pro design
The latest generation of Apple’s all-in-ones doesn’t look much different from the current iMac design. The iMac Pro is the only exception, but that’s really only thanks its Space Gray coat of paint.While the new iMac Pro features same all-aluminum, curved shell we’ve all known and loved since its introduction with the iMac 2017, Apple claims to have revolutionized the iMac Pro’s internal cooling system to be 80% more efficient.That said, it’s suggested that Apple plans to introduce a major industrial design overhaul for its all-in-one iMac brand in 2018.This refresh could include a black finish and “more glass” in addition to the revival of the light-up Apple logo in the form of a micro-LED panel. It may even bring dynamic audio technology that adjusts the Mac’s speaker volume based on where you’re sitting relative to the display.

iMac Pro Specs
Apple was expected to put an Intel Xeon chip inside its all-in-one, but we didn’t think the iMac Pro would come with anywhere between an 8- and an 18-core Intel Xeon processor. But perhaps what we expected even less was the inclusion of Apple’s own A10 Fusion chip dedicated to triggering the “Hey Siri” command, even when the machine itself is powered off.As we mentioned before, AMD Radeon Pro Vega graphics are also on the docket. Offering up to 11 teraflops of single precision and 22 teraflops of half precision compute power, you can anticipate the choice of a Vega 56 or a Vega 64 graphics processor featuring up to 16GB of HBM2 graphics memory.Given that the iMac Pro doubles as a screen, all of this hardy graphics power is bolstering a 27-inch, 5,120 x 2,880 display with a 60Hz refresh rate that’s 43% brighter than previous iMac displays at 500 nits. 10-bit dithering, on the other hand, makes it possible to render a billion colors on the screen at once.All of this is backed up by up to 128GB ECC memory, up to 4TB 3Gbps SSDs, four Thunderbolt 3 (USB Type-C) ports and a 10GB ethernet port. In case those aren’t enough, there are two pairs of USB 3.0 Type-A ports as well, for anyone not prepared to convert to the #donglelife.The regular iMacs have also seen their own fair share of upgrades including updated 7th-generation Intel Kaby Lake processors. Graphics-wise, the 21.5-inch iMac features Intel Iris graphics and AMD Radeon Pro 555 or 560 graphics with up to 4GB of VRAM on the 27-inch iMac. The 27-inch 5K iMac tops out with Radeon Pro 570, 575 and 580 graphics with 8GB of VRAM.The 2017 iMacs have also gotten twice the standard memory capacity for both the 21.5- and 27-inch model with 32GB and 64GB of RAM, respectively. Apple also promised it has equipped its latest Fusion Drives 50% faster SSDs and the maximum capacity has been elevated to two terabytes.
These are the best Macs to date

Back in October we reported that Microsoft might be ready to revive its “Courier” digital journal that was cancelled in 2010, and this week a new patent surfaced that may show us what the device looks like.The patent, which was filed by members of the Microsoft Surface team (and spotted by MSPoweruser), refers to a “hinged computing device” with two different screens. But the device doesn’t look too big, and in fact, one of the illustrations depicts it as being barely larger than a person’s hands, which means this could be the fabled “Surface Phone.” Or maybe it’s just a really small notebook.
Image credit: WIPO
Much as in the Courier concept before it, the new device folds over like a book, with the two screens sandwiched between the covers. According to the accompanying images, one of the screens can transform into a virtual trackpad and keyboard if needed, or you could expand the main display to take up both of the available screens. Elsewhere, the patent shows how you could completely fold back the hinges to make the device serve as an alarm clock display. In fact, the “self-regulating” hinge is the actual focus of the patent, and 11 out of the 16 available image focus on it.
New spin, old idea
Overall, the device offers a similar design to what we’ve already seen with the Lenovo Yoga Book, with the main difference being that Lenovo’s device second “screen” doubles as a Wacom drawing pad. And yes, the hinge appears to be more efficient on Microsoft’s possible device.At any rate, the patent is notable for making no references to a stylus, but then again, the focus of the patent is on the hinge. It may simply not have been considered relevant.
Expect plenty of far-out devices at CES 2018!