Comcast has created a system for controlling a TV with nothing more than a glance. The system, called Xfinity X1 eye control, is designed for people living with physical disabilities that prevent them using a conventional remote.
Xfinity X1 is a web-based remote that works with existing gaze-tracking hardware and software, sip-and-puff switches (which are controlled by gently blowing into or sipping from a tube or pipe) and other assistive tech.
To use it, Xfinity subscribers can visit the X1 webpage and use their account credentials to pair the web-based remote with their set-top box.
Once set up, the system makes it easy to change channels, launch the TV guide, set recordings and toggle features like closed captioning. It’s even possible to type out commands using eye movements.
“Changing the channel on a TV is something most of us take for granted but until now, it was a near-impossible task for millions of viewers,” says Tom Wlodkowski, vice president of accessibility at Comcast.
“When you make a product more inclusive you create a better experience for everyone and we’re hoping our new X1 feature makes a real difference in the lives of our customers.”
Image credit: Comcast
Independent spirit
Eye tracking technology like this can give people living with conditions like amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) a new level of independence. ALS attacks cells in the brain and spinal cord, leading to loss of muscle control. Fifteen people are diagnosed with the condition every day in the US alone.
“Our mission is to help provide the resources so that families diagnosed with ALS can continue living independent, productive, and triumphant lives,” says Steve Gleason, former NFL player, founder of Team Gleason and living with ALS.
“Not long ago, simple tasks like using a remote control were completely unavailable for families with ALS. The development of the X1 eye control is a testament to Comcast’s commitment to all their customers. We believe companies that invest in empowering their customers, become catalysts for more innovation.”
Dust off your climbing boots and paraglider, gamers: Nintendo has finally confirmed that a The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild sequel is in development, with a breathtaking trailer pointing to a darker turn for the next mainline Zelda game.
But what will Breath of the Wild 2 do differently from the 2017 game, and when will we finally get our hands on it?
Nintendo dropped the bombshell at the end of its E3 2019 presentation – via an online-only keynote, given Nintendo doesn’t host its own presentation in person anymore – confirming our suspicions after the Japanese publisher appeared to be hiring for a 3D level designer last year.
2017’s Breath of the Wild was a masterclass in open-world game design, breathing a huge gust of fresh air into the Zelda franchise while somehow retaining everything that made the series special. Widely considered one of the best games of that year – if not all time – it’s no surprise Nintendo is working on a direct sequel.
It’s still early days, but here’s everything we know – and want to know – about Breath of the Wild 2 for Nintendo Switch.
Cut to the chase
What is it? The upcoming sequel to 2017’s open-world Zelda game
What can I play it on? Nintendo Switch
When can I play it? 2020 at the earliest, but likely later than that
Breath of the Wild 2 release date
Nintendo hasn’t shared much information other than the trailer and a few sparse comments – run through below – but the trailer did close off with a line stating the Breath of the Wild sequel was “in development”. We certainly won’t see the game being released in the coming months, but it’s hard to tell beyond that.
Take your time, Zelda (Image Credit: Nintendo)
There was six years between 2011’s Skyward Sword (Wii U) and 2017’s Breath of the Wild (Wii U / Switch), though the latter’s development was delayed by issues with the game’s physics engine.
Given the team appear to be re-using the same engine and open-world Hyrule setting, Nintendo probably won’t need the same lead time to get this game to release – as with Majora’s Mask on the Nintendo 64, which launched just two years after 1998’s iconic Ocarina of Time, and re-used many of the same in-game assets.
With Link’s Awakening landing in late 2019, we can’t imagine BOTW 2 launching too soon after, either. December 2020 seems the earliest it could possibly release, with a 2021 window seeming more probable.
Breath of the Wild 2 trailers
We got our first glimpse of BOTW 2 at E3, with this spooky trailer that shows Zelda and Link exploring an underground chamber – with some mysterious runes, glowing hands, and a brand-new haircut that has set the internet on fire. Suffice to say: we’re excited.
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2 trailer is just 82 seconds long and there’s no dialogue whatsoever – but there are some clues to be gathered from it.
It features a torch-carrying Link and Zelda traversing a dark dungeon beneath Hyrule (no big surprise there). Spirit-like tendrils creep around the musty tomb they’re exploring, with the pair riding a large elephant-like beast. Something shocks the pair, and then we cut to what appears to be the resurrection of some long-dead (and creepy looking) warrior. Could this be the return of Ganondorf?
The video then cuts to a long shot of Hyrule Field, with Hyrule Castle in the distance. There’s a tremor, the castle is smothered with dust… and that’s the end.
The clip finishes with a message that reads: “The sequel to Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is in development.”
We wouldn’t usually expect so much animation to be done so early in development, but it probably helps that Nintendo already has the in-game engine from Breath of the Wild.
Breath of the Wild 2 news and rumors
Could Zelda have a bigger role this time around? (Image Credit: Nintendo)
A darker turn for the series
All we really know at this point is how little we know. But boy are there rumors. The unexpected trailer has already sparked a huge amount of speculation, hopes and hot takes on what the next mainline Zelda title might include.
We’ve heard from Zelda series producer Eiji Aonuma that the game is going to have a darker tone than Breath of the Wild, and will even be “a little bit darker” than Majora’s Mask (via IGN).
The trailer certainly supports this, with what looks like Ganondorf’s corpse being resurrected by a disembodied hand, and seemingly imagery from 2006’s Twilight Princess, which saw Hyrule turned into a bleak shadow realm – largely in response to the far cheerier and cartoonish The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker.
A Gerudo corpse, possibly Ganon, is grabbed by a mysterious force (Image Credit: Nintendo)
The Twilight realm
The glowing blue hand in the trailer is the biggest clue that we’ll be seeing more of the Twili – shadow people descended from Hylians who tried to take the power of the Triforce for themselves. The hand is wrapped in twisting shapes reminiscent of Twilight architecture, while the swirling magic could remind some of the portals that let Twili invade Hyrule in the 2006 game.
We know that BOTW’s dev team originally toyed with the idea of an alien invasion, and seeing shadow creatures teleport out of the sky could well have been what they have planned this time around.
A clue in the audio
Showing just how far some Zelda fans will go, reddit user u/ReroFunk (via Inverse) has pieced together a pretty convincing theory regarding Twilight Princess villain Zant, a Twili who served Ganondorf in the game. If you listen to the trailer’s audio in reverse, there are certain notes that seem to echo the music played during your final encounter with Zant – who, while defeated, is adamant he’ll return through the power of his “god”.
u/ReroFunk also suggests we could see the demon king Demise return for the next Zelda game. Demise was the final boss in Skyward Sword, and revealed to be the original form of Ganondorf. The below still from the Zelda trailer also looks alot like Demise when you think about it.
Ganon, Demise, or something else entirely? (Image Credit: Nintendo)
Zelda’s turn in the spotlight?
One of the favorite fan theories doing the rounds regards the Hyrule princess herself. She’s shown with a practical short haircut, and is dressed in a manner pretty similar to Link’s own adventurer’s gear – leading some to think she may be a playable character.
Zelda’s devs have seemed pretty dismissive of the idea of a female Link in the past – sadly – but we may in this game see sections playing as Zelda, or at least with her playing a more active role in the story.
Breath of the Wild 2: what we want to see
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is widely considered one of the best games in the series, and there’ll be a lot of pressure to deliver a game not only as good – but also good in its own way. Here’s what we’re hoping Nintendo will be able to bring to the sequel when it lands.
Some new environments
Don’t get us wrong: Breath of the Wild 2’s setting was beautiful, with huge scale vistas and a brilliant dynamic weather system, but we’re still hoping we don’t have to retread too much of the same ground. Some divergences in the scenery would help to keep things fresh: maybe a great earthquake splitting the landscape, or an eternal twilight turning Hyrule’s green fields into something else altogether?
Soaring over Hyrule gave us some of BOTW’s best moments (Image Credit: Nintendo)
Save data carrying over
For those of us who have invested a large portion of time in BOTW, it seems a waste to have to start from zero when powering up the next game – especially if it takes place right after we left off.
Allowing for certain DLC items to carry over, and making reference to your individual decisions in the previous game – such as certain quests you did or didn’t complete, or how many Divine Beasts you recruited before facing Ganon – would really help to make the sequel feel like a meaningful extension of the previous game.
Some larger-scale dungeons
Sure, you could technically say that BOTW’s above-ground landscape was a dungeon in its own right: packed with enough enemies, treasure and surprises without having to hunker underground. However, the snack-sized shrine puzzles and Divine Beasts never quite recreated the scale and wonder of the Zelda Series’ most iconic temples, and it’d be great to see one or two dungeons that really pull out the stops.
No more Korok seeds
For the completionists out there, BOTW’s hide-and-seek Koroks were a sweet addition to the game’s action. But the reward of a golden turd for collecting all 900 Korok seeds was a bit of an anti-climax – and we really don’t want to have to collect all of them all over again. Maybe go with something else next time, Nintendo?
Everything BOTW did so well
Regardless of the above, we’re hoping Nintendo sticks close enough to BOTW’s formula – open world exploration, destructible weapons, and environmental puzzles – as not to ditch what made the entry so successful.
If you’re looking for a new graphics card, you’ll want to check out this Newegg deal today: The Zotac Gaming GeForce RTX 2080 is on sale for $670Remove non-product link with the checkout code EMCTBUC26. That’s the lowest price we’ve found, and to sweeten the pot you get a free copy of Wolfenstein: Youngblood, which releases on July 26. To use this checkout code you must be on the retailer’s mailing list, but Newegg may still allow you to apply it after signing up.
The RTX 2080 doesn’t perform all that differently from its predecessor the GTX 1080 Ti as far as 4K gaming chops go. In our breakdown between the RTX 2080 and GTX 1080 Ti they both stayed well above 60 frames per second with video settings on high and all anti-aliasing options disabled.
For that reason, straight performance isn’t the reason to get the RTX 2080, though it does shine on HDR monitors compared to the 1080 Ti. The major reasons to go with the RTX 2080 are its real-time ray tracing and machine learning features. Ray tracing allows for more realistic rendering of light, shadow, reflections, and colors, while the machine learning creates smoother graphics with less of a performance hit than temporal anti-aliasing (TAA).
Three has gone big with its latest offers, so big that we’re quite happy to not only call this the best Samsung Galaxy S10e deal we’ve ever seen but also one of the best mobile phone deals around right now.
Now that’s a pretty big statement and one that is easy to doubt but let us explain why it deserves that accolade. Firstly, this is the cheapest Galaxy S10e offer out there, coming in at a price of £25 a month and £29 upfront, most of the other Galaxy S10e contracts would cost you an additional £100.
But the thing that has really won over our hearts with this offer is the 100GB of data on offer. That realistically should satisfy even the biggest data users out there and suffice any Netflix binge-watchers.
While the maths really shouldn’t add up here (how can 100GB of data be the cheapest price on this device?) we can promise you this is real but so good it probably won’t hang around for long.
The best Samsung Galaxy S10e deal
Samsung Galaxy S10e | Three | £29 upfront | 100GB data | Unlimited minutes and texts | £25pm We really don’t know how Three has pulled this one off. Offering both one of the cheapest S10e deals on the market as well as one of the highest data caps, this deal hits the best of every single part of a phone contract. It’s so good we can’t really see any downsides here. Total cost over 24 months is £629 View Deal
Business communications provider Onecom has secured its biggest ever partner deal with Vodafone, claiming it could generate £600 million in revenues over the next five years.
Onecom, which has more than 100,000 customers and secured £30 million in funding from HSBC earlier this year, says the new deal means it is will positioned to take advantage of Vodafone’s growth ambitions for the SMB market.
“This unprecedented partnership deal is further evidence of Onecom’s robust performance and ambition for growth,” said Ben Down, Onecom CEO.
“This success is built on partnerships with some of the world’s leading brands; and the commitment to providing communications solutions that have a huge impact on how our customers do business at a local, regional and national level.
“In renewing this partnership, Vodafone has recognised Onecom’s significant contribution to growing mobile revenues and driving further growth in fixed line and IoT as well as our award-winning customer service. We are now well placed to deliver on our mission of offering UK SMEs best-in-class converged mobile, data and IT solutions that are tailored to their needs.”
The expanded partnership includes provisions for mobile, fixed line, broadband and IT service, with Vodafone set to launch its 5G network on July 3. Onecom believes there is significant demand for 5G with its research finding that two thirds of SMBs are interested in upgrading within six months.
The expanded partnership also includes a commitment to treble growth in fixed line services and to become the SMB market leader in unified communications.
Onecom was recently named as Best Unified Communications Dealer at the 2019 Mobile Industry Awards (MIA).
On the cusp of its Indian launch, Xiaomi has revealed that the Redmi K20 Pro has received the highest score on AnTuTu benchmarks. The Redmi K20 Pro dethrones OnePlus 7 Pro with a score of 388,803 and takes the numero uno position in the AnTuTu listing.
All rise for #RedmiK20Pro – the World’s Fastest smartphone! Breaking barriers is a habit. And it all starts today. pic.twitter.com/pycF1DGbTYJune 17, 2019
Xiaomi has been teasing the launch of the Redmi K20 Pro in India from a while now, and as a result, has been generating a lot of hype. The AnTuTu score is just more fuel for Xiaomi as its highlight that the Redmi K20 Pro is the world’s fastest phone. While the term fast is relative, it’s been used rather obscurely when it comes to smartphones.
Now, the Redmi K20 Pro sure does have the highest score on AnTuTu listing, it doesn’t necessarily translate into a faster phone. Xiaomi has been able to reap out more from the Snapdragon 855 chipset inside because the same chipset power’s their flagship phone, the Mi 9 which was on the second spot (now third) on the AnTuTu listing.
Having said that, it would be interesting to see the impact of the score in real-life usage. The OnePlus 7 Pro is arguably the fastest smartphone in the world and there are a lot of things in play that makes up for a fluid experience. Sadly though, Xiaomi’s phones haven’t excelled in that domain courtesy of MIUI. But if the company has finally made its interface slicker than before or added some tweaks to make the whole experience smooth, it would definitely be a welcome change. But we’ll reserve our judgment till then.
For now, maybe not the fastest smartphone in the world yet, but definitely the most powerful.
Sinterex, the first company to be licensed for industrial 3D printing in the UAE, is not going to rest on its laurels and aims to become a specialist in 3D-printed healthcare products in the Middle East.
Julian Callanan, Founder and Managing Director of Sinterex, speaking to TechRadar Middle Eastsaid that he was inspired to move from consulting into the world of 3D printing by a desire to produce tangible products with inherent value. Julian started his career as an analyst in a consulting and advisory company Infield Systems and later joined research firm IHS Markit before moving to Dubai.
Being based in the UAE is particularly beneficial for Sinterex for several reasons, Callanan said.
“First, the country is very open to new business concepts and ideas and developing a license is very simple with the support of the Dubai Economic Department. Second, the country is in close proximity to large markets such as Saudi Arabia and Pakistan which provide export opportunities.
Third, logistics are very good from Dubai- “It is possible to be in Bahrain for next day delivery. Sinterex has a customer in South Africa who was waiting for two weeks to receive shipments from the US but now receives in just three to four days from us,” he said.
Dubai’s 3D strategy
His Highness Sheikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, wants Dubai to become a leading hub of 3D printing technology by the year 2030 and wants about 25 per cent of Dubai’s buildings to be 3D printed by 2030.
Dubai government launched its 3D Printing Strategy in April 2016 with an aim to help cut costs in many sectors, especially construction, medical products and consumer products. Within the medical products sector, the focus will be on developing 3D printed teeth, bones, artificial organs and medical and surgical devices as well as hearing aids. The value of 3D printed medical products in Dubai is expected to reach AED 1.7 billion by 2025.
Wide array of opportunities
What made Callanan start Sinterex was purely personal after quitting his job. “I did an MBA to have an academic background and was looking for opportunities to start a business. At that time, 3D printing was gaining prominence. So, I saw an opportunity in industrial 3D printing, specifically, in the medical sector, which was working really well in Europe and the US,” he said.
Sinterex started production in February 2017 and the initial product was a metal 3D printed framework which then had ceramic built-up on top of it to make realistic looking teeth. Since then, Sinterex has broadened its offering to the dental industry.
The company offers 3D printed Surgical Guide which helps dentists place implants to an accuracy of 0.5mm. In addition, Sinterex supports Orthodontists to correct patients’ teeth and titanium-printed patient-specific implants.
Callanan said that 3D printing does not sit in one industry but across various verticals and added that health care made sense in the UAE as other verticals such as aerospace, automobiles and R&D are not locally present here.
“We work with dental clinics, maxillofacial surgeons and now with cardiologists and other medical specialists who are interested in capturing information about human organs in a 3D format,” he said.
“We haven’t done any kind of 3D-printed orthopaedics or hip yet but it is of potential interest. We are looking at working with hospitals in the second half and get some projects and larger accounts. We are working on a proof of concept project with cardiologists in Dubai,” he said.
Even though Callanan does not have a medical background, Sinterex has doctors, mechanical engineers, biomedical engineers, specialists in digital designs.
Future is not defined
“We need doctors to communicate with others in the medical language. I have very good concepts and ideas but I was struggling with my ability to convey and communicate with medical professionals properly,” he said.
Sinterex deploys different types of 3D printing technologies – metal, light and laser to convert photosensitive resin into a solid material, and using heat to melt plastics. One of the biggest challenges Callanan faces is to get the raw materials such as metal powder, chrome cobalt powder and photosensitive resins.
However, he said that the major thing about 3D printing is that the future is not defined or written yet and “we will be part of the story that defines how it works. “We focus on healthcare and there is a lot of innovation happening but it is not fixed on how it works. So, we can influence that if we get the strategy and materials right”.
Sinterex works with customers in seven different countries and exporting on a weekly basis to Saudi Arabia and South Africa. In terms of volume, Callanan said that Sinterx has 6,000 patients and its revenues are doubling every year.
Sinterex is looking for a “Series A” funding in 2020 to expand its business and to have newer machines.
