Author: Danielle

UFC has returned to Australia with UFC 243 ready to rock you from Down Under. And with its all Antipodean main event, there’s plenty to get excited about when Robert Whittaker and Israel Adesanya step into the Octagon today. Luckily, getting a UFC 243 live stream is the easy bit – no matter where on Earth you are.

Whittaker, the 28-year-old Australian fighter, has been impressing in the Middleweight division for a few years now and finally claimed the undisputed title by beating Yoel Romero a couple of years ago. Today he defends the belt for the first time and the New Zealand-born MMA champ has another Auklander coming for the gold. Former kickboxer Israel Adesanya is already interim champ, but will be desperate to overcome Whittaker to fully claim the top spot in the division.

And it’s not just today’s main fight to get excited about. Watching a UFC 243 live stream will mean catching Al Iaquinta’s latest bout after he pushed Khabib all the way last year – Dan Hooker, another New Zealander, is his opponent in this lightweight fight. And Australian heavyweight Tai Tuivasa will be hoping for a convincing victory in front of his home crowd against Sergey Spivak.

No matter what weight class, which fighter or which style you’re there for, we’ll show you how to live stream UFC 243’s main card today from anywhere in the world.

Live stream UFC 243 from outside your country

Worry not if you’re a huge UFC fan but aren’t in the country to watch UFC 243 today. If you find the coverage is geo-blocked, you can try using a VPN to change your IP address to a country where the fights are airing and watch this week’s main card just as if you were back at home.

How to watch UFC 243 online in the US exclusively on ESPN

(Image credit: Future)

Watch a UFC 243 stream in Australia 

How to watch Whittaker vs Adesany: New Zealand stream

Live stream UFC 243 in the UK 

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All eyes will be on Dubai next week as the city gears up to demonstrate and showcase a wide range of use cases in 5G cellular technology, artificial intelligence and future mobility, never happened before on a global scale.

The 39th edition of Gitex Technology Week will open doors on Sunday at Dubai World Trade Centre (DWTC) as global and prominent names including China Mobile, du, Etisalat, Huawei, Ericsson, Nokia and STC in what will represent a dazzling glimpse into the wireless and interconnected future that will transform Middle East businesses.

UAE is the first Arab country and fourth globally to launch 5G services. 

According to Ookla Speedtest, UAE is ranked fourth globally in 5G speed after the US, Saudi Arabia and South Korea.

DWTC is holding a ‘5G Countdown’ conference to focus on transition to and life-changing potential, including names such as Osman Sultan, CEO of du; Fadi Pharaon, Senior Vice-President and Head of Market Area, Middle East and Africa, Ericsson, who will home in on meeting operator demands; and Dr Mohamed Madkour, vice-president for Global Wireless Networks Marketing and Solutions at Huawei, who will discuss how to create the future of manufacturing through 5G, IoT and AI.

(Image credit: Future)

(Image credit: DWTC)

Driving the digital future

Apart from showcasing the emerging technologies, the 1.4 million square foot venue will welcome over 4,800 exhibitors from over 140 countries, and host 290 hours of content over five days, while Gitex Future Stars will feature over 750 international startups and corporate accelerators and more than 1,500 investors and corporate buyers.

Dr Ahmed Bin Ali, Group Senior Vice-President for communications at Etisalat, said that the telecom operator is always keen to bring the latest technologies and solutions to the event. 

“We aim to drive the digital future and bring solutions for different sectors. We are bringing a lot of 5G solutions such as transportation, health care, aviation, real estate and retail for the first time to the event,” he said. 

According to Ericsson’s Middle East and Africa Mobility Report, 30 million 5G mobile subscriptions are expected in the region by 2024.

“Our focus at the event will be on 5G and AI. We will be demonstrating use cases and solutions that are possible with 5G. We have invested over $1.4b globally into 5G product development in 2017 and 2018. We will showcase what solutions and enablement are available for enterprises from an AI point of view,” Hani Sobih ELKukhun, Vice-President for Strategy at Huawei Middle East, said.

Wojciech Bajda, Vice-President for Middle East and Africa, and Head of Gulf Council Countries at Ericsson, said that 5G promises a lot of economic and social values. 

New entrants

Companies making their debuts this year include China Mobile, Ericsson, Honeywell, Nokia, Schneider Electric and Siemens, who will unpack developments around the world’s most transformative and emerging technologies.

Franco Atassi, Head of Smart Infrastructure at Siemens Middle East, said that the company will demonstrate how cities and industries can benefit from digital transformation. 

“We will be showcasing MindSphere, its platform for open and cloud-based IoT operating system for the Fourth Industrial Revolution,” he said.

For Expo 2020, MindSphere will be guarding the whole expo and connect all the devices into one platform. The entire commercial platform will be done by Siemens.

“We can abstract big data and turn that into small and smart data. So, people can visualise it, analyse it and make smarter decisions,” he said. 

Government entities field strong presence

Apart from enterprises, government entities are also fielding a strong presence at the event.  

The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) of the UAE is participating as part of the UAE mGovernment, which hosts 18 federal government entities, displaying their major achievements in the field of modern technologies and harnessing them in facilitating the provision of government services, achieving customer happiness, and promoting the one government principle and excellent technology services.

Hamad Obaid Al Mansoori, TRA Director-General, said that TRA is keen to activate all channels of communication with its strategic partners and the public, to exchange ideas and views and develop services provided by TRA in line with the aspirations of the UAE society in all its segments. 

 “Our participation will be a vision of the future, through which we foresee the technologies that will impact our lives and lives of generations to come. This is in line with TRA’s role in monitoring the digital transformation at the federal government level, as well as its vision to achieve the UAE global leading position in the ICT sector,” he said.

The Government of Abu Dhabi is fielding 32 key government and academic entities to accelerate Abu Dhabi’s digital transformation while the Sharjah Department of e-Government is fielding 33 departments to support digital transformation and develop processes and systems across entities in the emirate.

More than 100 Saudi organisations, including government entities, private companies and startups, are also participating.

Startups battle for top spot

Gitex Future Stars will give startups the chance to pitch their ideas against one another across a packed agenda of competitions. The Gitex Future Stars Supernova Challenge will be spread across 11 categories, including the NXG category, awarding the latest innovation from a Gen Z startup.

The Supernova Champion will take home $100,000, with each sub-category featuring a $10,000 prize. There will also be innovation competitions from the Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing in partnership with Accenture and Department of Health Abu Dhabi. 

After a pre-selection process in Paris, London, Milan and Moscow to find the most innovative tech ventures, Chalhoub Group’s The Greenhouse retail tech startup challenge will see startups compete to win the title of the best creative economy startup.

The Government of Abu Dhabi is making its mark at the event with the Emirate’s hottest innovation prospects, including Hub71, Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM), Start AD, Krypto Labs, Department of Health Abu Dhabi, all aiming to put Abu Dhabi on the map as the innovation hub of the future.

What to expect

• Etisalat will showcase Renault EZ-Ultimo robo-vehicle, four-wheel Lazareth Flying Motorcycle, WheeM-i (Wheelchairs Mobility Interface) designed for wheelchair users, Lift Aircraft Hexa Passenger Drone, fully automated bread-making machine BreadBot, staff-less retail outlet Moby Mart, a self-checkout IoT solution for retail Vicki, social robot Furhat, ANYmal  quadrupedal robot, TeleRetail outdoor delivery robot, humanoid robots Selma and Owen.
• Huawei will be showcasing its Atlas 9100, the world’s fastest AI training cluster based on Ascend 910 chipset, and its AI-driven autonomous driving network for enterprises and AI-enabled distributed storage architecture.
• Ericsson will be showcasing 30 new 5G use cases, including interactive sports experiences using high-quality in-car video, virtual reality, augmented reality. connected cities, remotely operated vehicles, more efficient and automated manufacturing, immersive sports and connected healthcare as well as transformational TV and gaming experiences.
• Visitors can experience the Virgin Hyperloop One pod.
• Siemens will be showcasing its MindSphere, a platform for open and cloud-based IoT operating system for the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
• Oracle will demonstrate its autonomous cloud operating system, AI and machine learning embedded applications, enterprise-grade digital assistant bot, and autonomous database machine.
• Microsoft will display a variety of industry-first demonstrations around AI, IoT, cybersecurity and explore modern workplace through interactive experience zones. It will also host a zone of over 32 regional and international partners and ISVs at its Gitex Stand.
• Veritas will showcase the competencies acquired through APTARE, which offers analytics solutions driven by artificial intelligence, for both on-premises and hybrid cloud environments.
• Global AI expert Dr Ben Goertzel, Chairman and Chief Scientist of Singularity Studio, and CEO and Founder of SingularityNET Foundation, will reveal how AI will merge with blockchain to create deep value for businesses and society, increase human life expectancy and support medical research.
• Insta 360, 360-degree camera specialist, will be launching its GO portable camera, which features auto-intelligent editing and digital video stabilization features.
• Software AG to showcase IoT and AI-led Smart City Solutions. Visitors can ask “Alexa” and it will demonstrate how it works.
• Jacky’s will join SoftBank Robotics to showcase the wider applications of Pepper in customer and visitor management. Jacky’s will also showcase its new Robot Content Management Systems (RCMS) to update Pepper.
• The TRA of the UAE is set to launch 10 innovative projects to enhance the smart lifestyle in the UAE, support the transition to the future of AI and Smart City, and develop a mechanism for dealing with modern technologies to serve humanity, through providing advanced solutions for the daily needs.
• Cisco will showcase industry-leading solutions using AI, Machine Learning, IoT sensory information and video analytics to bridge connections between businesses and communities.
• Kingston Technology will be presenting its Supermicro server along with all the memory modules of the portfolio, such as 2933MHz modules, DC SSD product line and NVMe SSDs in servers, accompanied by live demos of their encrypted USBs.
• Korean startup Little will showcase its “Smart Bottle” for the infant that warms and cleans the milk/equation and gives tilt and air admonitions through a smartphone app.
• South Korean start-up EXoPERT will showcase a technology that isolates high-purity exosomes without damage from the blood and uses Raman scattering to analyze the isolated exosomes. Raman scattering can tell the structure of the molecule by changing the scattered light due to the vibration and rotation of the molecule to analyze cancer information that exists in exosomes. 
• Chinese manufacturer Chuwi will bring its 8-inch MiniBook and thin and portable 2-in-1 tablet 12.3-inch UBook Pro.
• Epson will showcase EB-L1755U laser installation projectors with ELPLX02 ultra-short throw lenses that are used to display the VR content, apart from SCARAT3-401S robot, Moverio BT-35E smart glasses, EH-LS500w home cinema projector.
• Belkin, Linksys and Phyn will jointly showcase connected things, connected home, and smart utilities for the first time.

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Nvidia’s Ampere graphics cards, which represent the next-generation offerings from the firm which step up (or should that be down?) to a 7nm process could be launched in the first half of 2020, according to the latest gossip on the graphics grapevine.

So this fresh rumor contends that a launch could potentially happen early next year – although equally, it could be the summer – but it needs to be taken with a heftier than usual dose of salt.

This particular piece of speculation comes from a post over at Igor’s Lab (spotted by Wccftech), although it has a definite ring of guesswork about it (the author writes that Nvidia’s next-gen GPUs “should finally come” in the first half of next year).

However, this isn’t the first we’ve heard about Ampere arriving next year, with DigiTimes previously holding that this is the case, and citing sources claiming that Nvidia will be using Samsung’s 7nm EUV process when it comes to manufacturing these graphics cards.

The successor to the current Turing RTX cards coming out around mid-2020 also makes sense looking at the previous form of Nvidia’s release schedule, with that being roughly in line with the expected pace between generations.

And of course it would mean that the company could head off AMD’s infamous Navi-based ‘Nvidia killer’ which is also rumored to launch around the middle of next year. If that does indeed pan out, then of course AMD’s GPU hitman will have the wrong target in its sights…

As ever, we shouldn’t get too carried away with speculation, though, and how this might be ideal for Nvidia in some ways – even if the company is planning for things to turn out like this, those plans may not come to fruition.

Cheaper cards?

The chatter about Nvidia switching to Samsung for its 7nm production with its next-gen graphics cards must also be treated with a great deal of caution, because Nvidia clarified earlier this year that its next-gen GPU will continue to be produced at TSMC. Although the firm did note it already uses Samsung for manufacturing graphics products, and will use both these foundries for next-gen GPUs.

Obviously it isn’t clear exactly how that will pan out, then, or if the rumor regarding Samsung is pointing to Nvidia perhaps favoring the latter for 7nm – particularly given the recent stories of TSMC’s difficulty in meeting 7nm demand, with extra pressures being piled on given Apple has now ramped up iPhone 11 production.

Who knows, ultimately, but folks are getting excited about the prospect of Nvidia using Samsung’s 7nm EUV process because this could mean that Ampere graphics cards not only benefit from better performance than their predecessors, which is expected, but EUV means chips are cheaper to produce.

Which could in turn mean that the successor to the RTX 2080 doesn’t blow such a big hole in your bank balance, which obviously is something folks are keenly hoping for. Turing pricing has not been kind to consumers, that much is for sure.

Finally, of course we have to bear in mind that the first Ampere products arriving could be heavyweight high-performance computing offerings (the follow-on to Volta), but as we’ve already mentioned, the timing for new consumer graphics cards is seemingly about right.

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Also on: Xbox 360, PS3, Xbox One, PS4

Being on PC can’t do anything for GTA’s misanthropic, misogynist characters, but it sure makes them look better as they roam its unique, huge world. The GTA series started on PC, back in the days of DMA Design, but when Rockstar took over, the firm brought GTA III out on PlayStation 2 (though it followed on PC around half a year later).

Essentially, the reason the PC version is superior is that it always comes out with all the expansions, bug fixes, and then has a keen modding community who ensure that it takes advantage of the latest hardware (similar to the awful Dark Souls PC port, which had a day one fix from modders to make it run at vaguely reasonable resolutions.)

GTA V is coming to PC soon, a bare two years after the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions. Rockstar normally takes its sweet time to ‘convert’ each game – even though every game was built in Windows first! (We suspect the real reason for the delay has always been to maximise console sales, and minimise the inevitable PC piracy).

Even better than being hugely more beautiful on PC, all the bugs will be fixed (which they weren’t with GTA IV), and it won’t look as terrible as GTA IV did before the PC community’s seemingly-endless supply of highly talented mod-engineers set about it with the pretty hammer.

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There was a human glitterball, an eight-armed barman, and a Grime-loving grandma – but the most exciting thing to come out of London’s Desperados Epic House Party was a haptic shirt that allows deaf and hard of hearing people to, in a sense, ‘feel the music’. 

The plan was to create a party experience that would be inclusive for all, creating a space that everyone could enjoy. 

Diederik Vos, global brand director of Desperados explained the concept: “The Desperados Epic House Party embraced ideas from partygoers all over the world to create the ultimate welcoming experience.”

“One of the epic party ideas came from Deaf Twins, Hermon and Heroda, who dreamt of being able to experience music in a way they have not been able to before,” he told us.

So, how could the brand help the lifestyle and culture bloggers behind Being Her to experience music in a new way? The answer lies in haptic technology: in other words, tech that creates the sensation of touch by applying effects like vibration, motion, or force onto the user. 

In this case, Desperados teamed up with wearable tech brand CuteCircuit, who developed a haptic shirt, called the SoundShirt, which allowed the twins to literally feel the music, through sensations moving across the material.

(Image credit: CuteCircuit)

How does it work?

According to CuteCircuit founder Francesca Rosella, the innovative shirts worked in tandem with the music played by the DJ at the Epic House Party, allowing Hermon and Heroda to “physically feel the music and enjoy dancing with their friends”.

Explaining the process, she said: “We received the audio feed straight from the Desperados DJ desk and used the CuteCircuit Q software to analyze the music and transform it into touch sensations. These touch sensations were then broadcast in real-time wirelessly to the SoundShirts worn by the twins during the party.”

They work by using built-in micro-actuators that can create forces of different amplitudes and patterns in response to the music played by the DJ. This music is split into different frequencies, including bass, mid-low, mid-high, and trebles, with each frequency corresponding to a different touch sensation. 

Rosella says that this means “every nuance of the music could be felt on a different part of the body,” making it easier for Hermon and Heroda to dance in time to the beat. 

The SoundShirt isn’t the first wearable haptic garment that CuteCircuit has created. It began as a new version of CuteCircuit’s HugShirt – listed in Time Magazine’s best inventions of 2006 – which allows you to send the feeling of a hug to a loved one no matter how far away they are. 

Rosella says that, “over the years, many deaf people have asked us if they could use the HugShirt to feel sound, and in 2016 we created a SoundShirt for the Junge Symphoniker Orchestra in Hamburg”.

“There, deaf members of the audience [have] tested it for the past three years, giving us amazing feedback on how to perfect the product,” she explains.

Using the feedback of the audience members, CuteCircuit finally created the SoundShirt 2.0, along with new software that can analyze pop music as well as classic music – and it was used for the first time at the Desperados Epic House Party.

(Image credit: Desperados)

How did it feel to dance among 3,000 other party goers? “Amazing,” say Hermon and Heroda, who told us that wearing the SoundShirts was as moving as it was fun. 

“We actually felt a little emotional… It was great to physically feel the music playing at the Desperados party and be able to dance with everyone else in the crowd. Music can lift you when you feel sad or a sad song can make you reflect, so to ‘feel the music’ was an emotional experience for us.”

Wearing the haptic shirts also made the twins feel more included in the festivities, particularly as they were able to “dance to the music in real time and join everyone on the dance floor.”

“It made us feel so welcome and included,” they explained, describing how embedded LEDs on the shirts also lit up to the tempo of the music, helping them to feel like an integral part of the party. 

(Image credit: Desperados)

Tech for everyone

Being able to dance with friends is something that people without hearing loss usually take for granted, but to Hermon and Heroda, this was “very special” indeed – and for them, it’s about time that technology companies started to take accessibility for those with hearing loss seriously. 

“There are so many ways technology can include deaf people and make our lives more inclusive and make us feel a part of society,” they told us. 

“So many people with disabilities become isolated from society because of the barriers involved with doing simple tasks [like] simply going to the shops to buy something because they can’t communicate.”

Despite more shops and services having an online presence, deaf people are often left out of the loop, unable to communicate over the phone. The twins say that video calling technology “should be included in all types of apps so deaf people can communicate with companies like your bank, utility company or the council,” and that haptic devices like the SoundShirt “should be more widespread”.

Technology and fashion coming together

So, will the SoundShirt come to market and grant Hermon and Heroda’s wish for more accessibility-driven tech? Rosella says that the current version of the shirt “is being used by orchestras and entertainment venues, while the consumer version will be available early next year with a mobile version of the Q Sound app.”

It isn’t just those with hearing loss that could benefit from these innovative shirts. Rosella explains that the haptic shirts could find an important use within “augmented and virtual reality experiences such as remote concerts and video games.”

“The real beauty of a product like this is that it enhances experiences for all people and for all types of media right across the board,” she says. “The sense of touch is what gives the real feeling of immersion into an experience and this is the key point of CuteCircuit’s haptic wearable technology.”

Not only that, but these shorts are designed to look as good as they feel: “Using smart fabrics instead of wires, so it feels comfortable like a garment should feel, and looks beautiful as well — it’s technology and fashion coming together.”

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While so many games are looking to knock Fortnite from its battle royale perch, it feels few have come closer than Apex Legends. Respawn’s reputation for excellent gunplay and player movement, a neat class-based twist, and the free-to-play nature saw the game reach a million unique players within eight hours of launch.

There’s a saying that goes “you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone”, and Fortnite has lost it where it matters – at least from Epic’s point of view. Year on year revenue for the second quarter of 2018 vs 2019 shows a steep decline of 52 percent, while the game’s 2018 peak enjoyed almost 75 percent more revenue than the most recent quarter. Has the king been slapped from its pedestal by this young upstart? 

It’s hard to consider a game backed by EA as the David battling Goliath, but given Fortnite’s meteoric rise and complete permeation of mainstream culture it feels like the publishing juggernaut is taking aim with its slingshot nonetheless.

It could be about to get worse before it gets better, though, as Apex Legends makes the one move that Fortnite seems to have tiptoed around for an eternity – introducing a new map.

(Image credit: Respawn Entertainment)

Battle Royale is a strange genre. It’s one built on matches with high player-counts, built solely for competitive multiplayer. That means, in theory, you’re simply playing the same matches again and again – though every now and again with new rulesets or slightly amended weapon load outs. 

All this is to say that dropping onto the same map dozens of times every day (and watching your favourite streamer do the same) can lead to understandable tedium. There’s only so many times you can find enthusiasm for Tilted Towers, whether it’s the Neo version or not.

Fortnite has been reinventing its map on a near-constant basis with the start of each new season, but many changes feel small scale. With everything being somewhat destructible (or at least harvestable) with a pickaxe, it feels like these small tweaks lack any permanence or strategical boosts – feeling almost like a box tick.

There have been more impressive changes, too. Fortnite’s addition of Creative Mode was a stroke of genius – a set of tools for a fervent community to bend to their will, remaking games and creating new game modes entirely. Seeing fan-made products appear on the Battle Royale map as The Block is fun, but it’s a small piece of a very large map that lacks meaningful innovation.

Standing at the edge of the world

Apex Legends, on the other hand, may lack the visual identity of Fortnite’s almost toy-like villages and structures – Kings Canyon’s sandy, arid, and downright brown colour palette certainly doesn’t feel particularly inspired – but its buildings can’t be converted into materials with which to build new ones. Instead, each combat diorama feels deliberate, the entire map feeling like a patchwork quilt of deathmatch maps stitched together by sight-lines and kill-boxes.

Of course, Apex Legends focus on verticality can’t be understated either. The game feels built with player locomotion in mind, with sliding downhill not only an option but actively encouraged – right from the game’s tutorial. There are ziplines, no fall damage, and even stations where teams can redeploy across the map with relative ease. With Kings Canyon leaving rotation at the start of the latest season 3, it would be reasonable to expect that all of these skills and fun ways of getting around will feature heavily in traversing the new World’s Edge map, particularly given the location’s position within a cliffside. 

(Image credit: Respawn Entertainment)

This adds extra depth, factoring in environmental hazards like molten lava as well as rejuvenating the aforementioned dull aesthetic. There’s even a lore reason for the change, with the Syndicate that manages the Apex Legends tournament changing locales after displeasure with Kings Canyon’s construction schedule. It’s minor, and doesn’t affect gameplay in the slightest, but it’s a neat piece of trivia that feels thought out.

Of course, rumours abound that Epic are preparing a map swap of their own. It even looks as though the Battle Bus, the erstwhile method of jumping into a match, is being retired at the end of the current tenth season. Fortnite has never been afraid to mix things up in other areas, notoriously adding aeroplanes and mechs in Seasons 7 and 10 respectively, but both were lambasted by the game’s competitive players.

What is clear is that the next move Fortnite makes could be huge. One wrong tweak or a lack of meaningful variation in its battlefield, and it could potentially lose more than just revenue – and a Battle Royale haemorrhaging players is never a good thing.

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Apple has flicked the switch to enable Apple Arcade on the macOS Catalina beta, suggesting a full, public launch of Catalina is just around the corner. If you’re running the beta on your Mac, you can get gaming now.

The service costs $4.99 / AU$7.99 / AED 19.99 / £4.99 a month, which covers up to six family members, and you can try it for a month free of charge to see if you like it first.

Apple Arcade has already gone live on iPhones, iPads and Apple TVs, with the roll out of the latest software updates, so if you’re invested in the Apple ecosystem you may already be playing some of the exclusive games on offer.

Not all the Apple Arcade games are available on all devices though – MacRumors reports that around two dozen titles are available on macOS, including Sayonara Wild Hearts, Operator 41, Big Time Sports and Card of Darkness.

Catalina coming very soon

Apple Arcade can be found inside the Mac App Store – if you’re still on macOS Mojave, then you’ll just see a message saying “Welcome to Apple Arcade on Mac!” together with a button to check for updates.

Apple has promised that macOS 10.15 Catalina will be pushed out to users at some point during October, and that point would now appear to be imminent, with Apple Arcade and plenty of other pieces in place.

A couple of days ago Apple released the Gold Master (GM) version of the software to developers – basically the version of the operating system that puts a period at the end of the beta testing stage.

The macOS Catalina roll out could happen any day now, and when it does, you’ll be able to dive straight into Apple Arcade on your Mac.

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