Some Nato countries are reportedly considering responding to cyber attacks with offensive cyber strikes, but security industry commentators warn of dangers

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 SpaceX had been planning to launch its huge Falcon Heavy rocket for the first time this year, with a timeframe set most recently for sometime in November. Here on the last day of November, we know that’s not happening – but now we also know we won’t see a Falcon Heavy launch before early 2018 at least. We shouldn’t have to wait that long into next year, however;… Read More

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 As rumors build that the Trump administration plans to boot Rex Tillerson from his post atop the State Department in order to replace him with Mike Pompeo, it’s worth examining who would lead the CIA in Pompeo’s absence. Trump is reportedly considering Arkansas Republican Tom Cotton to replace Pompeo as the head of the CIA — a pick that isn’t uncontroversial given… Read More

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Hot on the heels of Apple announcing its lawsuit against Qualcomm in an ever-growing legal battle, the Snapdragon chip maker has filed its own legal complaint that could see iPhone X sales banned in the United States.

Qualcomm levied a complaint to the US International Trade Commission (ITC) noting that several of Apple’s smartphones – ranging from the iPhone 7 to iPhone X – violate five of its patent. 

That’s far fewer than the 16 patent violations Qualcomm raised against Apple in its November 29 lawsuit, but they still cover a gamut of technologies including radio-frequency transceivers, depth-based imagery, an energy saving memory array and even on-off power phases.

Depending on the ITC decision to act on Qualcomm’s complaint, imports, and thus sales, of the iPhone X and other Apple products could be banned in the US. If Qualcomm were to win, a victory might cause the company to take further action against Apple with other agencies around the world – which we have already seen a similar call for iPhone X bans in China.

That said, this isn’t the first time Qualcomm has raised an ITC complaint against Apple. Earlier this August, the Snapdragon creator raised issue with six patent violations that led to an investigation, but nothing else thus far.

With this in mind it could take weeks before an investigation begins and months for action on the complaint.

Via Engadget

• Meanwhile, Qualcomm is raising the fare on its ongoing partners

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 The wearable space seems to still be figuring itself out — though in spite of some reports about the death of the category, overall growth remains one of the few constants. According to the latest numbers from IDC, the global bump was pretty modest for Q3 of this year, at about 7.3-percent, year over year. More interestingly, the numbers point to a larger overall trend of consumers… Read More

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The race to create the best "connected home" system is in full swing now, especially with new, serious competition from the likes of Amazon. 

As such, it's hard to be surprised by a new report from the Wall Street Journal that Google's parent company Alphabet is considering merging Google and Nest again. Unfortunately, the sources who relayed the information don't give much more information than that.

TechRadar asked Google for a response, and Google merely replied that it declined to comment.

Google and Nest — a home automation company — were split in 2015 following the creation of Alphabet, only a year after Google bought Nest for $3.2 billion. Apparently this type of independence hasn't been working out as well as planned. The seeds of the rumored merger were already in place last year, when a number of Nest employees were brought over to Google to integrate voice commands with Nest's thermostats and camera feeds.

A closer relationship could mean we'll see more and better connected home systems in the future, and better communication between the two entities could push us toward the reality of a voice-controlled home sooner than expected.

Nest reportedly has around 1,000 employees, but there's no word as to how they might be affected by the merger.

• Black Friday top seller: it's our Amazon Echo Dot review

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You know things are getting sticky at a company when it’s felt necessary to have a wholesale clearout of executives. That’s the radical action that LG is taking, in response to a series of poor sales figures for its mobile division.

In some ways, LG is an interesting company. Often, poor results are predicated on a range of poor products but, in this case, LG has garnered a set of more than respectable reviews. This summer’s launch, the G6 was singled out for its stylish design, while the LVG 30 gathered plenty of plaudits too -  so it’s not the technology that’s proving to be flawed.

But the figures don’t lie. The Mobile Communications company recorded an operating loss of 2.81 trillion won (£1.83 billion) in the last quarter, an improvement of 13% on the third quarter last year, but a loss all the same. In the past two years, the only quarter that mobile phones have shown a profit was the first quarter of this year.

If it’s not the products, the only answer is that must be people, starting from top. That means that the president, Juno Cho, has been moved into a new role in the LG parent company. 

New president

The new president and CEO, Hwang Jeong-hwan, has had a long career in R&D, and was part of the team that developed one of LG’s first smartphones. The new CTO is Dr Park Il-pyung, formerly head of the company’s software center, while the current CTO, Dr Skott Ahn also being moved to a more corporate role.

Perhaps more interestingly, given that the company is not failing on its products, there’s a new head of worldwide marketing, Han Chang-hee, who has come from the appliance side of the business – while the mobile division has been struggling, it’s the appliance revenues that are keeping the company healthy.

The company is also looking to explore new markets, with the news that it’s setting up a new B2B division. There’s certainly a need to do something to maintain a foothold in such a competitive market.

• Best mobile phone deals of sales season 2017

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Finding the best graphics card is arguably the most important part of a PC build, often demanding an even more conscientious evaluation than picking the best processor. The GPU powering your system will ultimately determine whether it’s robust enough to handle PC games or fail to smoothly stream 4K videos. Unlike processors, which can go on for years without an upgrade, GPUs are far more fickle and often require replacement every couple of years.

At the same time, though, a hot new graphics card is one of the easiest upgrades to give your gaming PC a significant boost in power. Whether you’re looking for a smoother PC gaming experience or bump up to a higher-resolution display, a graphical update might just be the thing the doctor ordered for your computer.

The great news is that the best graphics cards for gaming have seen a recent renaissance, with Nvidia releasing its strongest lineup of Pascal-based GPUs, and Radeon RX Vega is a return to form for AMD. And, that’s not just the companies spinning new technology: our intensive testing, with synthetic benchmarks and the latest modern games, and expert knowledge prove these are the best GPUs to date.

Thanks to rekindled competition in the graphics card market, the best GPUs aren’t necessarily the most expensive anymore. Instead, the ones listed below all span a wide range of budgets at reasonable prices, depending on what you want to do. For example, some cater toward providing you with sublime value than real-time 4K graphics at 60 frames per second. Whether you’re repping Team Red (AMD) or Team Green (Nvidia), we’ve outlined the best graphics cards 2017 has to offer.

Per our previous explanation, the best graphics card is all about offering the most bang for your buck. As such, it’s our consensus that Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 1060 is unparalleled when it comes to sheer value. For a modest sum of cash, this graphics card affords players full HD 1080p and – perhaps with a bit of overclocking – 1440p and even 4K gaming. At the same time, however, the GTX 1060 doesn’t bear support for SLI, so you’re limited to just one card.

Read the full review: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060

While the Nvidia GTX 1060 might give you the most performance per dollar, the Nvidia GTX 1080 Ti the ultimate one punch upgrade to 4K gaming. While it might seem like only a slightly tuned up Nvidia GTX 1080, this graphics card almost dethrones the Titan Xp as the world’s most powerful GPU, thanks to high-speed video memory and a dramatically higher CUDA core count. It’s still no match for two GTX 1080s in SLI, but this single card is cheaper and supports a larger pool of games. If you’re looking for a single part to run your games at 4K, the Nvidia GTX 1080 Ti is the best graphics card to do it.

Read the full review: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti

Going down a few rungs in the graphics card hierarchy, the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 Ti is the best graphics card for QHD gaming. This card finds the happy medium between the GTX 1070 and GTX 1080. Whereas the 1080 is too expensive for 1440p gaming and the 1070 isn’t quite there, the GTX 1070 Ti perfectly drives a QHD experience. In our own testing, this piece of kit handles Forza Motosport 7 at upwards of 93 frames per second at 2,560 x 1,440. Likewise, it can manage Shadow of War at over 60 with the same ambitious resolution.

Read the full review: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 Ti 

The AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 is the best graphics card for Full HD gaming on the market right now. Our benchmarks prove it runs faster than the Nvidia GTX 1070 and, thanks to the Bitcoin mining craze, it’s also cheaper to boot. The Vega 56 is arguably a little bit overkill for Full HD gaming, but that’ll come in handy for 144-to-240hz monitors and future-proofing against increasingly demanding games. Users can also expect a great 1440p experience with this graphics card.

Moving on beyond traditional PC gaming, the AMD Radeon RX Vega 64 has all the brute computing power to handle physics-heavy VR gaming now and into the future. Sporting 4,096 stream processors, 256 texture units and 8GB of HBM2 memory, it's every bit as capable as the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080, and for a lower price no less. If nothing else, this is the AMD card to rule them all.

Read the full review: AMD Radeon RX Vega 64

When you’re building a microATX – or, especially a mini-ITX – computer, you want to aim for the smallest parts you can find without compromising much on performance. Though it’s a given that you might have to sacrifice a few frames-per-second in favor of a more compact form factor, with Zotac’s GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Mini – the smallest of its kind at 211 x 125 x 41mm (8.31 x 4.92 x 1.61 inches) – there’s very little in the way of prodigious 4K gaming.

The Nvidia GTX 1050 might not look like much on paper, what with only 2GB of video memory onboard, but this affordable GPU plays games better than you would think. If you’re willing to drop settings to medium, you can play Overwatch, CS:GO and other popular competitive shooters well above the silky smooth 60fps mark. Thanks to its compact size, it’s also perfect for small builds and entertainment center-bound streaming PCs.

eSports games often demand high frame rates over beautifully rendered graphical details, and this is where the Nvidia GTX 1050 Ti comes into its own. It’s an affordable but potent graphics card that can play most eSports games well above 60fps. It’s a tad more expensive than its lower-end Nvidia GTX 1050 brethren, but you’ll appreciate the extra legs on this card to play future eSports titles as well as the odd AAA game.

Read the full review: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 Ti

• These are the best gaming monitors to go with your shiny new GPU

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The latest version of the famed off-roader comes with upgraded performance, along with creature comforts.

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 Amazon Fire TV owners will now be able to control more video apps using Alexa and their voice, the company announced today. This feature lets you ask Alexa to “watch,” “play,” “pause,” “rewind,” “fast forward,” and more. It can also take you to an individual show, network, or specific genre of programming. Before, Alexa could… Read More

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 There are now two Dianes running the show at Google Cloud. The company announced that Diane Bryant has been hired as the COO of the division. She joins Diane Greene, who came on board as Senior VP of Google Cloud in November 2015. Greene appeared to be excited about the prospect of her joining the team. “I can’t think of a person with more relevant experience and talents. She is… Read More

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 The last time Mario had a breakfast cereal, he had to split the billing with Link. I bet that’s what it felt like being in the Beatles at the end. Flying high from a recent string of high profile titles — including Mario Run and Odyssey — the cartoon plumber is finally getting a cereal box to call his own, joining the elite ranks of Steve Urkel and Gizmo from Gremlins.… Read More

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