Almost four months after launching alongside the Samsung Galaxy Watch Active, the Galaxy Fit and Galaxy Fit E fitness trackers are finally on sale in the UK.
We always knew it’d be a long wait for these devices as the company said they’d be available later in 2019, and both are now on sale at Argos with some quite different price tags.
For the foreseeable future, the Gear Fit E is an exclusive product to Argos. There’s no confirmation the Gear Fit is an exclusive to the retailer, but we haven’t seen it listed at any other stores. Both devices are also on sale in Samsung’s own stores too.
The Gear Fit has remarkably similar spec to the Fitbit Inspire HR with a waterproof design, automatic fitness tracking, some notifications and NFC onboard for mobile payments.
The Gear Fit E, however, is far less feature packed missing out on a lot of that functionality, but it does still come with a heart rate monitor and a swimproof design that can tackle a variety of exercises.
We’ve yet to test these devices out fully, but we hope to get some in for our full review process in the near future. Neither is set to tackle the top-end market that the Samsung Gear Fit 2 Pro still sits in, but we’ve got high hopes for what they can offer to compete with Xiaomi and Fitbit.
How hot is your PC’s graphics card temperature? During normal operations, your GPU temperature shouldn’t matter much—your graphics card should simply drive monitors and play games without overheating and shutting down. But if you have an older PC, or if you want to try your hand at graphics card overclocking, being able to monitor your GPU temperature is vital.
The good news? Checking your PC’s graphics card temperature is dead simple. The bad news? Windows doesn’t offer an easy way to do so by default, so you’ll need to download third-party software. Fortunately, all sorts of free GPU monitoring tools are available, and many of them can help you check your PC’s CPU temperature, too.
Let’s dig in.
How to check your graphics card temperature
Gordon Mah Ung/IDG
If you’re running an AMD Radeon graphics card with an up-to-date version of the Radeon Settings app, this is simple. In 2017, AMD added the Radeon Overlay, which provides handy-dandy tools to tweak your game’s visual settings when you summon it. It also includes a Performance Monitoring tool that displays your GPU temperature and other crucial information while you’re playing games.
To activate the tool, summon the Radeon Overlay by pressing Alt + R and select which performance aspects you’d like to keep tabs on in the Overlay’s Performance Monitoring section. Once it’s set up, you can bring up the Performance Monitoring tool alone by pressing Crtl + Shift + 0.
What if you’re not actively playing a game? You can still check your Radeon GPU’s temperature by wading into the Wattman overclocking tool in Radeon Settings. Right-click on the Windows desktop, select Radeon Settings, and then head to Gaming > Global Settings > Global Wattman. After promising not to blow up your graphics card if you apply a wild overclock with the tool, you’ll gain access to Wattman, which tracks GPU temperature and other key statistics in graph form. Done!
The Radeon Overlay’s performance monitoring tool tracks GPU temperature by default.
But what if you aren’t packing Radeon hardware? Nvidia’s GeForce graphics comprise a whopping 75 percent of all GPUs in gaming PCs, according to the Steam hardware survey, and Nvidia’s GeForce Experience software doesn’t offer GPU temperature monitoring. That’s where third-party tools come into play.
Many graphics card makers offer specialized software that enable GPU overclocking. These tools usually include persistent on-screen display (OSD) options that show your graphics card’s most critical measurements, similar to AMD’s Radeon Overlay. Tons are available, but we tend to recommend MSI’s Afterburner tool for its versatility. This long-popular utility works with both Nvidia GeForce and AMD Radeon graphics cards, and provides several additional features gamers will welcome.
EVGA’s Precision X1 lets you check your GPU temperature either in-app or via an on-screen display while gaming.
If you prefer a more polished-looking app, we adore EVGA’s Precision X1, which was overhauled from the ground up for the release of Nvidia’s new GeForce RTX 20-series graphics cards. It’s seriously slick, though EVGA’s software only works with Nvidia-brand graphics cards.
You’ll need to dive into the settings options of each of those programs to activate and fine-tune their OSD performance monitoring tools, which prove very helpful indeed when you’re trying to dial in an aggressive overclock. As with AMD’s Radeon Wattman, you can also open Afterburner and Precision X1 outside of games to check your graphics card’s temperature outside of games.
What if you’re not a gamer or don’t care about checking your GPU temperature in-game? Then you’ll want to install hardware monitoring software that taps into your system’s temperature sensors. HWInfo is our go-to monitoring program, because it provides a snapshot of virtually every aspect of your PC (click the Sensors icon to see temps), but SpeedFan and Open Hardware Monitor are solid options, too.
Brad Chacos/IDG
HWInfo’s sensor info includes GPU temperatures and a lot more. A whole lot more.
If the sparse, information-dense look of those enthusiast-focused apps don’t work for you, NZXT’s superb CAM software performs the same task, even if you don’t have any NZXT hardware in your PC. It offers a clean, straightforward aesthetic and a handy mobile app for remote monitoring, but you’ll need to create an account to use CAM.
What’s a good GPU temperature?
So now you know what tools can help you monitor your graphics card temperature, but numbers on a screen mean nothing without context. How hot should your graphics card run?
There’s no easy answer; it varies from GPU to GPU. Google is your friend. Most modern chips can run at temperatures in the mid-90 degrees Celsius, though, and you’ll often see them hit those temperatures in gaming laptops. In desktops, however, a graphics card running at 90-plus degrees is screaming for help. In single-GPU systems with decent airflow, your graphics card temperatures shouldn’t wander above the 80-degree range. Custom graphics cards with multiple fans often hover in the 60s and 70s, even under full load, and water-cooled GPUs can run even cooler.
Gordon Mah Ung/IDG
Some graphics cards, like this iteration of the Radeon Vega 64, include integrated closed-loop liquid coolers for even cooler temperatures.
If your graphics card was released in the last five years and runs hotter than 90 degrees Celsius, or you’ve observed a steep incline in your GPU temperature over several weeks or months of monitoring it, consider taking steps to help cool it down.
How to lower your graphics card temperature
If your graphics card temperature runs hot, there’s not much you can do to improve it aside from paying for hardware upgrades. But before you invest more money into lowering your GPU temperature, make sure that you really need to. Again: Graphics chips are designed to handle hot temperatures. If your PC isn’t shutting down in the middle of intense gaming or video editing sessions, you probably don’t have much to worry about.
First, double-check your system’s wiring to make sure the GPU is getting good airflow from your fans. Assuming your PC isn’t a rat’s nest of cables, you’ll likely need to consider adding more fans to your case to improve airflow. Every PC should have at least intake and outtake fans for optimal performance, and that goes doubly so for gaming PCs. You can find basic case fans for under $10 on Newegg, or swankier models with features like RGB lighting and mag-lev suspension for much more if you want to get fancy.
Brad Chacos/IDG
Your hot graphics card could cool down in a more spacious case.
Small form factor systems can deliver a big punch these days, but the constrained space can send hardware temperatures skyrocketing. If you have a particularly small case, and your graphics card keeps overheating and shutting down, consider upgrading to a more spacious model. Even larger cases can strangle airflow if they’re poorly designed, however. Our guide to picking the perfect PC case can help.
Finally, sometimes the thermal paste between the GPU and the heatsink can become dry and lose its effectiveness, most commonly in graphics cards that are many years old. And sometimes, graphics cards ship with poor thermal paste application, though it’s very rare. You could try to replace it if all else fails, though the process is highly technical, varies card-by-card, and voids the hell out of your warranty. Our guide to making your old graphics card run like new is several years old, but the basic technique still applies to today’s GPUs.
If you really wanted to get adventurous in your quest for lower temperatures, you could swap out your graphics card’s cooling system for a liquid-cooling option while you’ve got it disassembled, though it’s overkill for most people. We’ve got a guide to water-cooling your GPU, and hot-running enthusiasts with nothing to lose might find the upgrade worthwhile. “I saw significant reduction in heat and noise by going with liquid, and none of the throttling I saw on air cooling,” hardware editor Gordon Mah Ung wrote after using a Corsair bracket to attach a CPU closed-loop liquid cooler to a reference Radeon R9 290. “For a 20-minute project with a $35 bracket, that’s not bad.”
Just be sure to Google a disassembly guide for your specific graphics card model before you start tearing your precious, pricey hardware apart willy-nilly.
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TVision by T-Mobile sprang from T-Mobile’s acquisition of streaming TV service provider Layer3 TV earlier this year—a move that left a lot of people scratching their heads over T-Mobile’s strategy. TVision, after all, depends not on wireless service but on wired broadband, and it’s currently available in just a few markets: Chicago, Dallas-Fort Worth, Los Angeles, New York City, Philadelphia, and Washington DC.
Being a resident of a Philadelphia suburb, TechHive asked me to give TVision a shot to see if it was a superior alternative to traditional cable and satellite TV. The short answer for cord-cutters is “nope.” TVision costs $100 per month ($90 per month if you’re already a T-Mobile customer), plus $10 per month for each additional set-top box you decide to install in your home. You’ll find plenty of less-expensive alternatives in our roundup of streaming TV services, none of which involve equipment rentals.
And despite T-Mobile CEO John Legere’s boast of “taking on Big Cable,” you’ll also need to subscribe to one of a limited number of ISPs to access TVision: Altice, Charter Spectrum, Comcast Xfinity, RCN/Wave, or Verizon Fios. To be fair, T-Mobile also says its long-term plan is for TVision customers to utilize the 5G wireless network that T-Mobile is building out—but that won’t happen before 2024. (T-Mobile says it will be able to deliver speeds higher than 100Mbps to 66 percent of U.S. residents by 2021.)
T-Mobile
The primary box you’ll need for streaming T-Mobile’s TVision service is included in the price of your subscription.
The longer answer for cord-cutters is more nuanced. Unlike any other TV provider, TVision doesn’t have service tiers, so you don’t need to decide which channels you want and which you can live without. It’s an all or nothing or proposition, but “all” includes more than 150 channels—including your local network affiliates—plus on-demand access to 18,000-plus programs. And TVision doesn’t tack on fees for high-definition or 4K resolution, DVR service, or regional sports networks. You can add premium channels such as HBO and Showtime a la carte.
TVision lacks a mobile app, and it’s entirely unavailable when you’re away from home. You can’t remotely access your DVR recordings, either. You can use each network’s app—providing they have one—to access their content, but that will require separate log-ins to each channel. T-Mobile uses artificial intelligence to surface the kinds of content you like to watch, so there’s at least one benefit to be had compared to both traditional pay TV (i.e., cable and satellite) and streaming TV services such as Hulu + Live TV, Sling TV, and PlayStation Vue. But saving money isn’t one of them.
Setting up TVision service
Unlike cable or satellite TV, setting up TVision is an entirely DIY affair—you don’t need to wait for a technician to come to your home to mount anything, pull cables through your walls, or install any boxes. (T-Mobile will send an installer to your home if you feel the need.) DIYers will nonetheless need to install a box, and it must be hardwired to your router. The device you connect to each TV will connect to this box wirelessly, over a hidden network (these boxes also have wired ethernet ports if you have the infrastructure to take advantage of them). The main and satellite boxes come pre-populated with your account information, pre-paired to each other, and completely ready to go. I was watching TV within 10 minutes of plugging in the hardware.
Ed Oswald / IDG
Each additional TVision box will cost another $10 per month on top of your subscription price.
Each member of a TVision household can create their own profile, and you will want to take advantage of this feature to get the full benefit of what the service has to offer. That’s because TVision will customize the TV-watching experience to each person’s viewing preferences, something you’ll notice after just a few uses. The home screen is divided into three sections: A box in the lower left-hand side displaying content from whichever channel you were last tuned to, a quadrant of live previews above that, and a stacked list of live and recorded shows to the right of that. Icons for various streaming apps are stacked to the right of that. These apps do not include Netflix or Amazon Prime Video, but T-Mobile says these apps and more are coming soon).
After just a few days of viewing, TVision’s AI had already developed a good idea of my favorite channels and programs and was already suggesting relevant content in this space. After the first full week, TVision even knew which channels I tend to watch at a given time of day. I was impressed with the speed at which this feature learned, and it quickly became one of my favorite aspects of TVision.
Very high-quality video—most of the time
I experienced a few instances of choppiness and degraded video quality, but the quality of TVision’s video (and audio) was better than most streaming services I’ve used—it was very close to that of cable, even with two boxes streaming at the same time. TVision is using the same HEVC codec that Layer3 TV used, which is capable of streaming 4K video using as little as 10- to 15Mbps of bandwidth. But it’s worth noting that T-Mobile recommends having broadband service of at least 50Mbps down to get the best experience (my broadband downlink speed measures about 450Mbps).
Ed Oswald / IDG
TVision uses artificial intelligence to surface content that’s tailored to each user’s profile.
Some channels performed better than others, and the box installed in my upstairs location exhibited more dropouts than the box that was physically closer to the main box connected to my router. Changing channels was a bit slow, and changing channels too quickly exacerbated the problem—to the point where the box seemed to hang, and I had to reboot it. If you decide to try TVision and you have the flexibility to hardwire the boxes to your network, do it.
Local DVR at no additional cost
Nearly everyone time-shifts their TV viewing these days—except for live events such as sports—so a DVR is a necessity for many of us. Some streaming TV services—including Sling TV—charge extra for DVR service in the cloud. A TVision subscription includes a whole-home DVR that can record up to eight programs simultaneously—provided you have the bandwidth to handle that much data. If your ISP imposes a data cap, that could be problematic. The 1TB DVR has enough capacity to store about 400 hours of high-definition TV.
I ran into some problems programming the DVR while in front of my TV. The program guide loads slowly, and the user interface would sometimes report that the recording request had failed when it hadn’t. Programming the DVR from the TVision web portal wouldn’t show up on the DVR itself for up to an hour. The web portal isn’t useful for much else beyond maintaining your TVision account; adding, deleting, or changing your subscription lineup; and contacting tech support.
Ed Oswald / IDG
TVision has a good collection of on-demand content in addition to its hardware DVR.
Still rough around the edges
There’s a lot to like about TVision, especially if you want to save a little money without agonizing over which non-premium channels to take and which to give up. But it feels like you’re paying $90 per month to be a beta tester (and that’s including a temporary discount for T-Mobile customers that’s available to all for a limited time). While video quality was very good most of the time, the quality on some channels was less than stellar in my experience. And the inability to access TV programming while you’re away from home is a major shortcoming compared to most cable and satellite TV offerings (not to mention many of the competing streaming services).
TVision as it exists today is far from the la carte TV programming that cord-cutters crave, but if you don’t want to make any TV-entertainment sacrifices and you live in one of the few areas where the service is available, it’s not a bad deal. Just be prepared to live with a few bugs while T-Mobile works out the kinks. We’ll keep our eye on TVision, especially as T-Mobile builds out its 5G network, and will update this review accordingly. But for now, it gets only our very highly qualified recommendation.
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The Nvidia Shield TV has long been one of the best Android TV boxes on the market, and indeed one of the best set-top boxes full stop, but it’s fair to say that it’s due a refresh – and according to code spotted in Google’s developer tools, that refresh could be imminent.
The Google Play Console dashboard now makes reference to a new Nvidia Shield TV configuration codenamed ‘mdarcy’, which would appear to be a slight variation on the current ‘darcy’ model.
On the surface at least, there don’t seem to be too many differences between the two models – perhaps the most significant one being that the new model comes with Android 9 Pie on board.
The updated model still has the same Tegra X1 T210 chip as the old one, as per the uncovered listing, but that could just be a placeholder.
New accessories too?
It’s not the first we’ve heard about a revised and updated Nvidia Shield TV this year. Back in March, code buried in the software on the box itself referenced some new hardware, though in that case it was apparently upgraded input devices that were on the table.
With the most recent refresh of the Nvidia Shield TV two years ago, the timing seems right for an updated model, whether that’s the main box itself, the remote and controller that go with it, or everything at once.
Android TV fans don’t have a lot of choice when it comes to finding devices with Google’s TV OS built in – you can find it on televisions made by the likes of Sony and TCL, but Google itself seems more interested in the Chromecast.
A new Nvidia Shield TV could give Android TV the boost it needs in an increasingly competitive market – and who knows, it might just come with integrated Google Stadia support as well.
It’s been a year since Twitter killed off its app for Mac, but it’s now fallen back in love with the desktop and is releasing a new version for macOS Catalina.
The new app will feature keyboard shortcuts, desktop notifications, support for multiple notifications and a dark mode to help tempt users away from using Twitter.com in their browser.
As The Verge explains, the official Twitter app was pulled from the App Store in 2018, having received only occasional updates and a general lack of love, separating it from its mobile counterparts.
Back to roost
Windows and macOS users were once spoilt for choice when it came to Twitter clients, with dozens of apps available for managing multiple accounts, tracking tags and timelines, and scheduling tweets.
That’s no longer the case. The site has spent several years tweaking its APIs and cracking down on third-party apps – particularly ones with the potential to “produce spam, manipulate conversations, or invade the privacy of people using Twitter” by churning out lots of tweets in a short space of time.
It seems safe to say that the new macOS app, however convenient, will keep tight reins on the number of tweets that can be posted at once, and avoid any tools that could be manipulated by miscreants.
Song lyrics and trivia website Genius has accused Google of stealing its work for its own search results, according to the Wall Street Journal.
When you search for a song title using Google, the search engine will often display its lyrics in an information box at the top of your search results, along with videos, release date, song writers, and information on where to listen to it.
According to Engadget (who also reported on the story), the website claims Google is “not only hurting its traffic with its lyrics cards, but sometimes grabbing Genius’ lyrics verbatim,” which it says it can prove by looking at the apostrophes in the lyrics.
This is because Genius alternated between straight and curved apostrophes “as a form of watermarking” – the website claims that there were “over 100 instances” were Google’s search result-generated lyrics contained the exact same apostrophes.
Amusingly, these apostrophes have a secret meaning, reportedly spelling out ‘red-handed’ when converted to Morse code’s dots and dashes.
Searching ‘We Are The Champions’ in Google brings up the song lyrics along with a video from YouTube. (Image credit: Queen Official / EMI)
Google responds
Google has responded to the claims with a statement, saying: “the lyrics displayed in the information boxes and in Knowledge Panels on Google Search are licensed from a variety of sources and are not scraped from sites on the web.”
“We take data quality and creator rights very seriously, and hold our licensing partners accountable to the terms of our agreement. We’re investigating this issue with our data partners and if we find that partners are not upholding good practices we will end our agreements.”
Genius says that Google is “both violating antitrust law and its terms of service”, and claims that it alerted the search engine to the problem in 2017.
It’s unlikely this case will ever make its way to court, as it’s unlikely to go in Genius’ favor – after all, Genius doesn’t own the copyright to the song lyrics themselves, only having the right to display them.
For its part, Google doesn’t admit to being caught ‘red-handed’. However, the fact that it’s investigating the issue with its partners, and is willing to end agreements with those who don’t “uphold good practices” could bode well for Genius, whose traffic has suffered dramatically since Google started displaying song lyrics in its search results.
Still, it’s not all bad for Genius. Spotify subscribers get Genius-sourced lyrics shown in the Spotify app during songs, and the company has also integrated with Apple Music.
Amazon Prime Day 2019 is around the corner and while the official dates haven’t been announced by Amazon India yet, we expect the e-commerce platform to host its third Prime Day sale sometime in mid-July.
Amazon Prime was launched three years back in July 2016 and since then the e-tailer has hosted two Prime Day shopping sales in 2017 and 2018. It can be argued that the Prime Day sale by Amazon is fairly new here in India but platforms like Flipkart and Amazon keep the Indian consumer on their toes with regular shopping festivals around the month. Having said that, this year’s Amazon Prime Day is expected to be a full blown out effort by the Indian arm.
Last year’s Prime Day witnessed over 100 million shipments by more than 89 million visitors taking part in the 36-hour shopping fiesta. So its fairly natural for the company to go all in this time with an aim to make it bigger than ever.
Here’s everything we expect from this year’s Prime Day sale event in India.
When is Amazon Prime Day 2019?
The official dates for Amazon Prime Day 2019 have not been announced yet. However, based on last year’s event it would be safe to say that the Prime Day 2019 will be held starting mid-July. Last year, the sale went live on July 16 at 12 noon (IST) and offered Prime subscribers discounts, sales and deals for the next 36 hours.
Interestingly, the date of the sale isn’t even a point of discussion among people who are waiting for Prime Day 2019 to kick off. It’s the duration of the sale event most people are interested to know about. Amazon has increased the duration of its Prime Day sale every year, from 24 hours in 2016 to 30 hours in 2017 and 36 hours, the longest ever in 2018. This year, the e-commerce giant is expected to make Prime Day, a 48-hour event.
Thanks to some snooping from the Real Homes team, we might unofficially already know the date. A PR email about a Prime Day vacuum cleaner seemed to suggest that Prime Day will begin on Monday, July 15.
Amazon Prime Day deals
Even though Prime Day 2019 is still a over a month away, that doesn’t mean you can’t find stellar deals now. We’ve scoured Amazon India to find the best discounts that you can take advantage of today. We’ll be updating this page regularly, so check back to shop the best deals up until the big shopping day.
Amazon India is also hosting a Wardrobe Refresh Sale from June 19 to 23 with upto 80% off on Fashion, Home Décor and Beauty products. The sale will start early for Prime subscribers from June 18, at 12 noon (IST).
The best Prime Day deals from 2018
Prime members around the world purchased more than 100 million products during the last Prime Day event. The top-selling items from last year’s Prime Day included a mixture of home goods, electronics, and Amazon devices.
As ever, some of the best deals on Prime Day were on Amazon’s own devices. The Echo Dot saw a 45% discount along with deals on Alexa enabled products, upto 25% off on Kindle devices and 30% off on Fire TV Stick among others.
Headphones and earphones attracted upto 50% off while large appliances like air conditioners received 40% discount. Amazon brands like Solimo, AmazonBasics, Vedaka offered their products at upto 60% off during last year’s Prime Day.
How can I sign up for Amazon Prime?
To participate in the big shopping event, you must be an Amazon Prime Member. Your membership will not only let you partake in Prime Day, but you’ll also have access to Amazon Prime movies, books, music, photos, and more. You can sign up here for a 30-day trial and cancel at any time. The Amazon Prime subscription will cost you Rs 129 per month or Rs 999 for a year.
Once you sign up, you’ll have access to all the Prime benefits, receive free one-day, two-day shipping and partake in the biggest shopping event of the year.
How much money did Amazon make on Prime Day?
Amazon was predicted to gross $3.4 billion on Prime Day last year, although we don’t know if that prediction is accurate as Amazon doesn’t release such information. However, it did announce that third party sellers shifted a billion dollars of product in just one day. As for its own sales, Amazon was content to say that “sales this Prime Day surpassed Cyber Monday, Black Friday and the previous Prime Day, when comparing 36-hour periods, making this once again the biggest shopping event in Amazon history.” That’s a little sneaky, mind you: as the 2017 sale only ran for 24 hours, not 36.
Brad Chacos/IDG
