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Samsung announced that its 8K QLED TV, the Samsung Q900, will be available for pre-order in the UAE starting today.

Samsung first unveiled its 8K model at IFA 2018, but left us in the dark on its release date and price. Now we have that for two screen sizes- the 75-inch with the model QA75Q900RBKXZN is for AED 24,999 while the 82-inch with the model QA82Q900RBKXZN will be retailing for AED 31,999.

If you think that’s a lot of money, well, there is a 98-inch version for which we haven’t gotten the prices just yet but it would probably cost as much as a car. Thankfully, there is a 65-inch model as well which we’re hoping is a bit more affordable.

Features for Samsung 8K TVs

The Samsung Q950R offers an astonishing picture. The highlight is of course native 8K content, and during the demo showcase we saw the screen at, we were blown away by the quality of its color reproduction, brightness and motion processing. 

Using Samsung’s QLED technology, it’s pushing insane brightness levels of up to 4000nits, with a Direct Full Array backlight letting refined brightness and contrast management bring real depth to a scene. 

This year’s model also introduces a new “Ultra Wide Angle” feature that aims to prevent color and contrast drop off if you’re viewing the set at a tighter angle.  However, where the screen definitely shines is in its upscaling using Samsung’s Quantum Processor that helps the TV upscale content from any resolution.

There’s also Bixby and Samsung SmartThings integration along with Ambient Mode and remote connectivity to your computer. 

There’s no doubt the Samsung 900 series is expensive, but being on the bleeding edge of technology – especially display technology – isn’t cheap.

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Respawn Entertainment finally revealed the first official Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order trailer during this year’s annual Star Wars Celebration event. And while the official reveal gave us a lucrative taste of Jedi: Fallen Order’s storyline, Respawn was a bit sketchy on details surrounding the title’s actual gameplay mechanics and how combat would work.

During the Jedi: Fallen Order panel, Respawn teased that the game would require “thoughtful combat”, but what exactly does that mean? Well, thanks to a follow-up interview, we may have a better idea.

Speaking to Press Start, game director Stig Asmussen and director of franchise content and strategy for the Lucasfilm Story Group, Steve Blank revealed Jedi: Fallen Order’s combat will require a bit more strategy and patience than your typical single-player title. 

“It means you really have to understand not only the enemy that you’re going up against, but the group of enemies, and they each have their own strengths, and they each have their own weaknesses,” Asmussen told Press Start. “You have to figure out what tools that you have in your skill set to best take them down.”

While this may conjure thoughts that Jedi: Fallen Order will be in the same vein as the Soulborne series (without the difficulty) – and those games did have an influence to some degree – Respawn found true inspiration from games such as Zelda and Metroid.

“If you look at a game like Zelda Wind Waker, as you get different abilities, each enemy is crafted in a certain way, or even Metroid,” Asmussen continued. 

“The enemies are crafted in a certain way that once you upgrade, you can think about how you’re going to approach them differently, and maybe they aren’t as big a challenge as they were at one point.”

So, we can expect a progressive system rather than a simple hack n’ slash? That sounds like the Star Wars game we were looking for…

(Image credits: Respawn Entertainment)

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Formula One can be electrifying, but the sport has reached a period of marginal gains; designs and strategies are so refined, we’re unlikely to see any major changes to cars or races in the foreseeable future. So what can you do to increase the thrill? 

Australian engineering company Alauda Racing believes it has an answer: taking races above the track with low-altitude aircraft that can tear around the circuit at up to 200kmph.

Alauda Racing has designed a manned craft that’s part racing drone, part F1 car specifically for the new sport. The Airspeeder is fully electric, with a 500kW battery, a carbon-fiber chassis, and the ability to take off and land vertically.

Ready for takeoff

This isn’t just a concept, either; the Airspeeder will be debuted at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in July, and manned flights are beginning this year.

The Airspeeder World Championships are scheduled to launch in 2020, with five teams of two pilots competing for the grand prize.

“Transport is changing, and motoring is becoming more than two-dimensional,” says Matt Pearson, founder of Alauda Racing. “Just like traditional motoring, flying cars need a forum to push the technology further. What better way to achieve this than by creating a global flying car series, the sport of this century, the future of motorsport.”  

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This time of year means many things to many people. It’s about chocolate and jelly beans. It’s about colored eggs. It’s about bunnies and baby chicks. It’s about Passover and telling stories. It’s about re-birth and springtime.

Or it could be about watching movies about these and similar subjects. We’ve selected a dozen (like eggs!) great movies to stream for any kind of Easter, Passover, or Springtime mood. Enjoy!

Cool Hand Luke

★★★★☆

On Netflix

Warner Bros.

Stuart Rosenberg’s Cool Hand Luke (1967) isn’t an Easter movie on the surface, until you consider the famous scene in which Paul Newman’s unflappable title character bets he can eat 50 hard-boiled eggs in one hour. (Some critics have found Christ and rebirth themes in the sequence, which is good enough for our purposes.) In any case, this effortlessly entertaining American classic about men serving time in a rural prison and working on a road crew still holds up many decades later, thanks to a combination of strong talents.

Rapscallion Newman gives one of his most appealing performances, while George Kennedy won an Oscar, Strother Martin and Jo Van Fleet steal their scenes, and Harry Dean Stanton, Dennis Hopper and Joe Don Baker fill things out. Conrad L. Hall’s magnificent widescreen cinematography feels scorched and heavy with sweat, and Frank Pierson and Donn Pearce’s screenplay is filled with quotable nuggets.

Easter Parade

★★★★☆

Rent from Vudu, iTunes, Google Play… $1.99 and up

MGM

This isn’t the greatest musical ever made, but, aside from Hop, it’s one of the few Easter-themed movies, and its general sunny pleasantness is hard to resist on an Eastertime spring day. Charles Walters’s Easter Parade (1948) is essentially a love quadrangle, starting with Fred Astaire, as Don, a Broadway star who loses his partner Nadine (Ann Miller), when she seeks a solo career, as well as the romantic company of Johnny (Peter Lawford). A dejected Don hits the bar and makes a bet that he can turn the next girl he sees into a star. That would be the resplendent Hannah (Judy Garland).

The rest of the movie concerns these two lunkheads realizing that they’re in love. Walters wasn’t big on visual flair—see Judy Garland’s movie with director Vincente Minnelli, The Pirate, released the same year, for that—but the Technicolor is nice, and Irving Berlin’s songs are irresistibly smile-inducing.

The Gospel According to St. Matthew

★★★★☆

On Amazon Prime, Fandor, Hoopla, Tubi TV

Image Entertainment

Many critics consider Pier Paolo Pasolini’s The Gospel According to St. Matthew (1964) to be the greatest movie about Jesus Christ ever made. Pasolini was an avowed atheist who decided to tell the story with as little fanfare or pageantry as possible. Thus, the final film is almost documentary-like, with unremarkable black-and-white cinematography and minimalist, almost amateurish performances. But the dialog, taken directly from the gospel, is still inordinately powerful (it’s amazing how many phrases from Matthew are still used regularly today). Better still, Pasolini manages to capture Christ’s fascinating inconsistencies, his words ranging from compassionate to demanding.

The powerful score is by Luis Bacalov (Django, Il Postino). Amazon Prime, Hoopla, and TubiTV offer both a colorized, edited (91-minute), dubbed-into-English version of the film, as well as the full-length (135-minute), black-and-white, Italian-language version. Tubi TV’s full-length, black-and-white version is dubbed into English. Fandor offers the subtitled, uncut version, only.

Facebook has imposed a ban on a dozen far-right individuals and organisations that it says “spread hate”.

The ban includes the British National Party and Nick Griffin, the English Defence League and the National Front.

The list also includes Britain First, which was already banned, but this latest action will prohibit support for it on any of the US firm’s services.

It said it had taken the action because those involved had proclaimed a “violent or hateful mission”.

“Individuals and organisations who spread hate, or attack or call for the exclusion of others on the basis of who they are, have no place on Facebook,” the social network added in a statement.

The ban includes:

• The British National Party and Nick Griffin
• Britain First and Paul Golding and Jayda Fransen
• English Defence League and Paul Ray
• Knights Templar International and Jim Dowson
• National Front and Tony Martin
• Jack Renshaw, a neo-Nazi who plotted to murder a Labour MP

A spokesman for Facebook clarified what would now be done to the pages the groups and individuals had run on its site. All those named would be prevented from having a presence on any Facebook service.

In addition, praise and support for the groups or named individuals would no longer be allowed.

This action, he said, went further than the restrictions placed on Britain First last year when its official pages were removed for breaking the site’s community standards.

The latest move comes soon after Facebook said it would block “praise, support and representation of white nationalism and separatism” on the social site and Instagram.

Some far right figures, such as Tommy Robinson, are already subject to bans on the social network.

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Although it was once common for companies to rely on intuition when making important decisions, many have since shifted to a more data-centric approach. A report by McKinsey & Company found that data-driven organizations are 23 times more likely to acquire customers, six times as likely to retain customers, and 19 times as likely to be profitable as a result. It’s no wonder companies are turning to data to make faster, more informed decisions.

It’s important for all teams to be data-driven, including those that work remotely. Although it may take some time for remote teams to adjust to a data mindset, the payoff is massive. Here’s how companies can enable remote teams to take a more data-centric approach.

Develop measurable goals

An extensive collection of data is meaningless unless companies know what they’re using it to measure or how it’s affecting company decisions overall. Before diving deep into data, it’s crucial to determine company-wide goals first as well as those specific to each department.

Companies should create a list of clearly defined goals, such as a revenue target, a growth metric, etc. Communicate these goals with the remote team to help ensure the entire company is on the same page. Consider how these goals align with the data being collected and how they may help shift priorities among the team.

Increase accountability

Shifting to a data-centric approach requires changes to the structure and organization of a remote team. The main idea behind a data-driven team is that all team members are accountable for the analytics related to their specific department. They must develop insight and actionable plans based on their data. For example, a digital marketer should be gathering data and analyzing metrics from their campaign performance to determine whether or not it’s working.

Update the responsibilities of each team member. Communication is key for remote teams to work effectively, so it’s imperative to spell out the responsibilities for each team member clearly. Schedule a call to discuss analytics tools and how this will impact each member of the team. This way, everyone knows what’s expected of them.

Moving to a data-centric approach does not mean making the remote team work certain hours. In fact, the opposite it true. Each team member is instead responsible for pushing the team towards a numeric goal. Remote team members usually have flexible work hours, which is fine, as long as they are accountable for their role in meeting goals.

Recognize contributions

Taking on a data-centric approach will lead to increased insights. Whether someone discovers a way to get more leads or finds a defect in the analytics system, find ways to recognize or reward team members.

For a remote team, company leaders can acknowledge contributions by sending out a special email or providing a spot bonus. Managers will have an easier time figuring out key players on the team, because the numbers will show it. Team leaders can then explain to the entire remote team how and why an employee stood out to encourage this type of work. While it may be easier to recognize a team member in-office, it’s vital to do so in a remote setting as well.

Encourage collaboration

Collaboration is a core value in data-driven companies. It’s critical to build a remote work culture that supports the ongoing sharing of information. Therefore, companies should make all appropriate data accessible to everyone on the team. Sharing data freely allows teams to rely on that data to make important decisions and increases performance at the individual and team level.

For example, many business decisions take place on Slack’s communication tool. Using Statsbot, an analytical bot that integrates with Slack, remote teams can work together and access data whenever they need it. Between these two tools, remote teams can find the information they need easily, and all team members can participate in the decision-making process. Remember to share data among the team safely. pCloud, for example, offers encrypted cloud storage for all files. Team members can also send secure messages using off-the-Record Messaging (OTR), a cryptographic protocol for instant messages.

It might be helpful to hold virtual meetings consistently where remote team members can share and discuss analytical findings, hypotheses they’ve tested, and insights. Sharing data and experiences can help other members on the team leverage valuable information in their own work. 

No matter how accessible the data is, it won’t be beneficial if team members don’t use it to make decisions or don’t understand it. Start by investing in the appropriate data tools. Companies should choose tools based on their goals and how easy it is for remote teams to use them to access, share, and analyze data. Consider data systems that integrate with existing business tools, such as Excel or Oracle.

Once the right data tools are in place, it’s important to invest in training. Make sure team members understand the basics of data analysis, transformation, and visualization. They must understand the capabilities of each tool. Provide training for remote teams, such as online courses or video-based tutorials, so they have a full understanding of how to use them.

Act on data

Companies that turn data into actionable insights, known as insights-driven businesses, are achieving 30% growth every year. Although it sounds intuitive to act on data, many teams often collect and analyze data without ever using it to make important decisions. To truly create a data-driven remote team, companies must develop a culture where team members act on data collected. If a particular strategy isn’t working, team members should discontinue based on their data and focus their efforts on areas that are getting better results. Not using data to make informed decisions can be detrimental.

Shifting a remote team to a data-centric approach will not happen overnight. Remember to start small and be flexible as the team is likely to experience a learning curve with this change. Companies with remote teams that focus on collecting, analyzing, and using data to make important decisions will have many competitive advantages.

David Lloyd, CEO of The Intern Group

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