The costs of setting up and maintaining a website can add up quickly, so picking the best free website hosting provider for your needs can help cut costs, and this list of the top-rated service providers out there will hopefully help you make the right choice. Designing, developing and maintaining a website all need an outlay of one sort, so it's important to minimise expenditure where they can; which is one reason why website builders have grown in popularity over the past few years. Web hosting is one area where costs can easily grow, as hosting packages are generally sold with monthly billing. There are a (dwindling) number of providers that offer free web hosting, however, and whilst such packages will not be suitable for most businesses, others have a great opportunity to try new things before scaling website projects. Below is a selection of the best free web hosting available to everyone and since they are all free, nothing prevents you from trying all of them. In the world of free website hosting, Infinityfree stands out for good reasons. It has a well designed website that makes a positive impression and ticks the right boxes for us. Its homepage gets a C performance grade in our load time test but other than that, it looks pretty solid. It has been in the business for over six years, claims to have 200,000 users and offers unlimited disk space and bandwidth (albeit with a very generous 50,000 daily hits). You can host as many domains as you want but you will only get 10 e-email accounts and one FTP to upload your content. There is no hidden fees and despite its free status, you will get a 99.9% uptime guarantee (although you are more or less on your own if your site goes down) and the popular Softaculous Script installer. (with more than 400 applications. We were surprised to see that its features list include 400 MySQL databases (where others give only a handful, if at all), a free DNS service, free SSL and free Cloudflare CDN. As expected Infinityfree offers a cheap paid for hosting (Infinityfree Ultimate Premium) that offers unlimited everything for $5.90 per month, worth an upgrade as you will also get access to CloudFlare Railgun, which cuts load times significantly. Freehostia offers a number of different hosting tariffs with outlandish names like Lovebeat, Wildhoney and Supernatural. Its free plan, Chocolate, gives users 250MB disk space, 6GB bandwidth each month, PHP & MySQL compatibility and 3 POP3/IMAP email accounts. Server uptime is guaranteed at 99.9% and 24/7 user support is provided should any problems arise. It even offers a surprisingly good 1-hour ticket/email response promise. Joomla, WordPress, phpBB and other PHP scripts can be installed with one-click using Freehostia's Elefante Installer and upgrading to any of the paid premium packages can also be done in one-click, should users outgrow the free plan. As you would expect, 5GBfree provides 5GB of free hosting space to users along with 20GB of monthly bandwidth, 3 MySQL Databases and PHP scripting. There's no email included in the package, but the company is proud of the technology it offers, claiming, "At any other hosting company, you could be paying between $15 and $20 a month for the same cutting edge software (including the revolutionary CloudLinux operating system!), hardware, and security certifications." Support is provided in forums via the 5GBfree community and users who require expert phone support can upgrade to the Pro version, which costs $2.95 per month and offers both unlimited disc space and bandwidth. Of the free hosting providers convered in this article, Freehosting.com is the biggest hitter in terms of bandwidth since it's unlimited, and you just need to make sure you follow their Fair Use Policy. The service also includes 10GB of server space and one email account. For users without a domain name, free subdomains are also offered, such as freesubdomain.freehosting.com. Paid package is also available, offering unlimited disk space and monthly transfer as well as unlimited email accounts. Freehosting is also one of the few to actively encourage using the hosting service to backup your important files (e.g one 10GB ZIP file), great as it doesn't have a limit for file sizes. Byethost is part of Byet Internet, a US-based provider of hosting, domain name and reseller services. With more than one million websites hosted, It claims that its free hosting service is, "one of the most powerful networks dedicated solely to free hosting in the world." Users are given 1GB of server space (although, as of late, it looks like this has been changed to unlimited), 50GB of monthly bandwidth and MySQL / PHP compatibility. They also benefit from 24/7 tech support and access to Byethost's community and knowledge base. And if you are ever interested in becoming a free web hosting provider yourself, Byethost operates a separate entity, myownfreehost, that allows you to do just that. For businesses that want free hosting with green credentials, Awardspace provides a solution. It offers CO2-neutral hosting with all of its servers running on wind-generated electricity. Its free plan provides 1GB of storage (a 15MB upload file size limit), 5GB of bandwidth per month and up to five MySQL databases. One associated email account is also included. Users have access to online documentation and 24/7 support should any issues arise. Live chat is also available for pre-sales queries. Worth noting that the servers of Awardspace are located in Kiel, Germany, rather than in the US and house more than one million websites. There's a nifty test hosting speed service that allows you to check the transfer speed in a live environment. FreeHostingEU is a joint project set up and run by FreeDomain.co.nr and AttractSoft GmbH. Yes, Germans are at the forefront of free web hosting in Europe. Three hosting tariffs are offered - two paid and one free. The free package provides 200MB of space, 4GB of bandwidth per month and one associated email account. Five free domains at .eu5.net are also included but they are likely to be of little use for most UK businesses. Also, you get three free web site builders. For users of Wordpress and Joomla, one-click installation is provided and languages supported are PHP, MySQL, CGI, Perl, Flash. Worryingly though, the user forums have been closed until further notice. For businesses that are looking for hosting that is quick and simple to setup, U Host Full promises the ability to setup a site within five minutes.It also provides a host on one-click installers for platforms including Wordpress, Joomla, phpBB, Mambo, osCommerce and Zen Cart. Uptime is guaranteed at 99% with unlimited server space provided and unlimited bandwidth per month. Email is also included. Now we don't know what the catch is but it is definitely one of the better deals out there especially since it doesn't have any adverts. Note that there doesn't seem to be any limit to the size of the files uploaded which is a pleasant surprise. All of the free hosting options included in this article are ad-free, with revenue generated by other means. Free Hosting No Ads celebrates this more than others, but still offers a solid free hosting deal with 1GB of disk space. The deal also includes 5GB of monthly bandwidth and three POP email accounts. Three PHP versions are supported (5.2-5.4) and three MySQL databases are also included. As expected, the free service is subsidised by the paid-for service. Just note this though... "FreeHostingNoAds.net reserves a right to send 1 promotional email message every 6 months that can promote our affiliate products." You may however unsubscribe from the marketing marketing list. Free Virtual Servers is another free web hosting platform with an impressively straight-talking name. Signing up to the free web hosting service will get you a decent amount of server space - 100MB - which should be enough unless you have a very image-heavy site, and most of the usual features we've come to expect from free web hosting services. Bandwidth is a bit on the tight side, however, with just 200MB, which is enough for small, simple websites, but if your site starts getting popular, you may have to think about upgrading. Also worth looking atYou might also want to check out our other website hosting buying guides:
via TechRadar - All the latest technology news http://www.techradar.com/news/best-free-web-hosting-sites-of-2018
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Linux hosting is everywhere. Whether you're looking for a simple shared website hosting account or a powerful dedicated server, the chances are that you'll be offered a Linux-based option first. In many cases, you might not care. If your hosting needs are simple, you'll probably choose an account based on the allocated web space, bandwidth and similar features – the operating system is so far down most people's priority list that often it's not even mentioned in comparison tables. But if you're an experienced user, know more about Linux, or you perhaps need to build a technically complex website where you have full control over everything, it's a different story. You might want to choose your preferred distro or control panel. You could need more control over the server and its components. Hosts may throw in all kinds of goodies to get you started – a firewall, mail server, private DNS – and offer quality support to keep your site up and running. Every web host has its own idea of what makes a great Linux package, but we've listed five of our favorite providers to point you in the right direction. Keep reading to find out more.
InMotion Hosting is a professional Linux web host which delivers high levels of power and control right across its range. InMotion's shared hosting includes many beginner-friendly features, for example – free website migration, a bundled website builder, regular backups – but that's just the start. More experienced users will be happy to see support for MySQL and PostreSQL databases, PHP 7, Ruby, Perl and Python, SSH access and more. There are interesting touches wherever you look. You don't just get the option to have WordPress, PrestaShop or Joomla preinstalled, for instance – InMotion throws in WP-CLI to enable managing multiple WordPress installations from the command line. It's a far more capable product than you might expect, considering prices start at $5.99 (£4.30) a month for the two-year plan. It's a similar story as you upgrade. Optional self-managed VPS hosting – from $19.99 (£14.30) a month for the initial term – gives you a choice of OS and a firewall, but after that, you're able to install, optimize and configure the server however you like. Even InMotion's managed VPS hosting still gives you root access for considerable low-level control. For the operating system, you get to choose from CentOS, Ubuntu or Debian. If you encounter some setup issues, the Launch Assist feature gives you a minimum of two hours with an InMotion tech support person to help you solve any problems. Every Linux host claims to offer the best possible technical support, but separating the experts from the pretenders isn't always easy. One way to identify the most knowledgeable providers is to check their high-end products. You won't get the same level of support if you're buying a basic shared hosting package, but just knowing that level of expertise is available somewhere in the company can be useful. SiteGround is a great example. If the company's standard hosting products aren't enough, it can build enterprise-level solutions from scratch, and SiteGround's website lists some of the technologies it supports: custom private clouds, smart use of Linux containers, replication between databases, and in-depth expertise in WordPress, Drupal, Nginx, Apache, PHP, MySQL, MongoDB, ElasticSearch, Redis, Solr, Memcached and more. This is clearly a provider that knows what it's doing. Home users won't get the same level of support, of course, but even SiteGround's shared hosting plan delivers more than you might expect: free Let's Encrypt SSLs, cPanel and SSH access, Cloudflare integration, unlimited emails and databases, HTTP/2-enabled servers, free daily backups, and 24/7 technical support by phone, chat and a ticket system. Not bad at $3.65 (£2.95) a month plus tax for the initial term, $11.7 (£8.95) afterwards. Ramping up to a VPS-like Cloud Hosting plan gets you a very well-specified CentOS system. MySQL 5, PostgreSQL, 5 PHP versions, HHVM, Apache, Nginx, Exim mail server, a private DNS server setup and Iptables firewall are all preinstalled and managed by SiteGround. Prices start at $67.20 (£48) a month plus tax. Opt for a dedicated server and you'll get high-end extras like Git integration and performance-boosting Nginx-based cache options for WordPress, Memcached and HHVM. You probably won't want all these features – maybe you only need a few – but they do provide a strong indicator of the company's technical expertise. If you're looking for a provider that can support your site and help it grow, SiteGround could be a wise choice. Linux hosting is available from just about everyone, but anything less than a dedicated server is often fully managed by the provider (they set up, manage and maintain the OS and all its components for you). That's great for beginners, but more experienced users might be frustrated by the lack of features and control. Hostwinds' unmanaged VPS packages allow you to take complete charge of your workspace. You can choose from a range of operating systems, including CentOS, Ubuntu, openSUSE, Debian and Fedora. You can tweak and set up the operating system however you like, configure your own backup scheme, and more. Unmanaged packages bring responsibilities, too. If there's a missing update or some mystery software issue, you'll be the one who has to fix it. But that shouldn't be too intimidating for Linux users, and many elements of Hostwinds' packages remain simple and easy-to-use (site management via cPanel, automated WordPress and other installs via Softaculous, and so on). Even better, as you're not paying for management, Hostwinds gives you a 50% discount on every package. Normal managed Linux VPS packages range from $10.99 (£8.5) for 1 CPU core, 1GB RAM, 30GB disk space, 1TB traffic, up to $526.99 (£404) for 16 cores, 96GB RAM, 750GB disk space, 9TB traffic – but the unmanaged range runs from $4.99 (£3.60) to $328.99 (£249.50) - currently there is a 53% discount on managed packages and 10% for unmanaged. There's no long-term contract required, so you can try the service for as little as a month to see if it works for you. Part of the appeal of Linux hosting should be the level of control you get over your working environment, but this doesn't happen with every provider. Often you're presented with a standard base environment – typically CentOS and cPanel – with no standard ability to choose anything else. Liquid Web has been providing quality VPS and dedicated hosting packages for years, and one reason for this success could be its flexibility. Whatever you're after, the company offers in-depth low-level control over your server specifications. You're not stuck with a single version of CentOS, for instance. Liquid Web offers CentOS 6 (optionally with CloudLinux) and 7, as well as Debian 8, Ubuntu 14.04 and 16.04. The CentOS 7 images can include cPanel or Plesk, and plans are available in a mix of self-managed, core-managed and fully-managed variations. There's even more power over some supplementary features. While other hosts might throw in a standard backup plan, Liquid Web enables choosing how many daily backups you'd like to retain, or it can squeeze as many backups as will fit into a defined amount of disk space. Both options are charged at a very reasonable $0.12 per GB per month, so you only pay for whatever you use. However your server is configured, Liquid Web's excellent support is on hand 24/7/365 to resolve problems as quickly as possible. And we do mean quickly: if, say, there's a hardware failure, the company promises it will be replaced within 30 minutes of the problem being identified. What's more, Liquid Web backs up these promises with an impressive service level agreement. If the company doesn't respond to an initial helpdesk ticket within 30 minutes, you'll be credited with 10 times the amount they missed it by, and there are similar clauses to cover you for power outages, network failure and more. Choosing the right Linux host can be difficult, especially if you're a hosting newbie and unsure of which features you might need. One option is to gain some experience by signing up with a flexible budget host like OVH. The company doesn't have the best support and we wouldn't recommend it for business-critical sites, but you do get a huge amount for your money and it's a very cheap way to learn more about your Linux options. Do you need a wider choice of operating systems, for instance? OVH VPS plans support Arch Linux, CentOS 6, CentOS 7, Debian 7, Debian 8, Debian 9, Fedora 26, Ubuntu 14.04 Server and Ubuntu 16.04 Server, along with Kubuntu 14.04 Desktop if you need a user interface. You're not restricted to cPanel as a website manager, either: OVH also supports CozyCloud, Plesk Onyx, Vesta CP and Virtualmin. OVH says you can have WordPress, Drupal, Joomla! and PrestaShop pre-installed, conveniently, although there's no mention of a general Softaculous-type one-click application installer. Still, with full root access you should be able to manually set up whatever you need. What's really impressive here is the price, which starts at just $2.2 (£1.69) per month, excluding the VAT. OVH isn't the best Linux host by any means, but it does provide a very cheap way to experiment with different distros and control panels to find out what works for you. It’s well worth a look for Linux newbies or anyone who feels they need more hosting experience before handing over the big money. You might also want to check out our other website hosting buying guides:
via TechRadar - All the latest technology news http://www.techradar.com/news/best-linux-web-hosting A content delivery network (CDN) works to accelerate almost any website by caching its files in servers around the world. Whether your visitors come from Europe, North America, Asia or anywhere else, content is automatically served from the nearest location for the fastest possible speeds. If you're new to the technology then it might seem intimidating, and there's no doubt that prices can be high, but don't let that put you off. A CDN is not just for massive corporations. You can set up the simplest services in less than five minutes, and if you choose your plan wisely, it might not cost you anything at all. Whatever your website, from a simple blog to a sprawling site for a big business, we've picked out some of the best services around to help point you in the right direction. If you find anything that looks interesting, give it a try – you can explore many of these CDNs for free, without handing over payment details or signing up for any contract.
Cloudflare is a hugely popular American content delivery service which combines novice-friendly ease of use with expert-level features and functionality. Setup is simple, with no need to edit your code. Just update your DNS nameservers to use Cloudflare and the service kicks in automatically, caching content and serving it to visitors from their nearest location. But there's much, much more. Web filtering can block bots, limit content spam, keep you safe from hackers or detect and mitigate DDoS attacks. Smart image optimizations can reduce image file sizes by up to 35%, further improving speeds. There's wide support for standards like IPv6, HTTP/2 and SPDY, clever page rules to help you manipulate traffic, and a REST API allows developers to take full control of what the service is doing. Cloudflare's free plan allows you to see what the service can do, without making any commitments. It's very usable, with unlimited bandwidth and no annoying restrictions to try and force you to upgrade. Upgrading to the Pro plan costs a reasonable $20 (£16) a month, and adds the image optimization rules, extra configurability and improved support. Whatever you choose, Cloudflare delivers great performance. As we write, the benchmarking site CDNPerf ranks Cloudflare at sixth place for worldwide HTTP request response times out of a field of 20 top CDNs. Fastly provides CDN tricks for some really big organizations, including the likes of Spotify and Reddit, and the firm lives up to its name, delivering impressively fast performance levels. Going by the rough guideline of CDNPerf’s rankings, it’s the second fastest CDN for the UK, and worldwide speeds are mostly good, too. Perhaps Fastly’s strongest point, however, is just how configurable the service is. For example, there’s diverse support for different types of video caching, and tons of low-level controls for those who want to get stuck into the likes of manipulating HTTP headers to customize how content is served. Of course, some know-how is required to set up everything, and novices to the CDN world will doubtless be confused by all the options on offer. But for those who need this level of flexibility and configurability, it’s priceless to have. Speaking of the price, Fastly operates a pay-as-you-go model with a minimum charge of $50 (£37) per month. KeyCDN is an easy-to-use budget CDN that might be a good pick for first-time users. Getting started couldn't be much simpler. Sign up with your email address and you get an immediate 25GB to play with, no payment details required. A well-designed web dashboard enables creating your first zone with the minimum of clicks, and there are guides to help you integrate the service with WordPress and other apps. Worth mentioning is that as of late November 2018, KeyCDN fully supports IPv6. More experienced users will appreciate options like Origin Shield – this allows you to specify a KeyCDN server to be the source for updates rather than the origin, reducing your server load. You're able to manipulate headers, cache or strip cookies, or set up a custom robots.txt. Once the service is running, a capable set of reporting tools enable watching CDN performance in near real-time. KeyCDN's standout feature has to be its low prices. Bandwidth charges start at $0.04 (£0.032) per GB, less than half the price you'll pay with some of the high-end competition. The minimum charge is a tiny $49 (£39) a year. (Yes, really – a year.) The company doesn't even try to cash in on the extras, for example offering shared SSL and custom Let's encrypt SSL certificates for free. Perhaps unsurprisingly, these low prices don't get you leading-edge performance, but there's still plenty of power here and you do get a lot for your money. MetaCDN is an Australian company which combines the CDNs of Amazon Cloudfront, Fastly and Verizon's EdgeCast into a single speedy service. Why? It's all about performance. When a visitor accesses your site, MetaCDN has three networks and more than 120 locations to choose from – way more than anyone else. In other words, there’s a much greater chance any visitor will have a server near them. This matters because every CDN delivers its best performance in different areas. EdgeCast scores highly in North America, for instance, but Fastly is quicker in the UK. MetaCDN automatically chooses the best network for every visitor's location, giving you the best of all worlds. This approach does have a catch. When you sign up with a single CDN, you can get access to all its individual settings and options, but combining three means you only get settings which apply to all of them (for obvious reasons). Which essentially means MetaCDN has barely any configuration options at all. (Check the Support site to get a rough feel for how the system works.) Still, MetaCDN is nicely user-friendly and it could be a good pick if speed is your top priority. Pricing is complicated (although not bad for access to enterprise-level CDNs) and there are three plans, Basic, Lite and Pro. The most popular one, Lite, is $50 on a monthly basis (you can also choose a yearly rate, for a $39 a month). This CDN provider focuses mainly on the West, with 13 points of presence (PoPs) in North America, and nine in Europe. There are only five PoPs in Asia, and two in Australia and South America (Brazil). StackPath is user-friendly, complete with a straightforward web console to manage your settings, and if you do get stuck, there’s extremely efficient technical support available via either live chat or phone. Performance seems good in the US and UK, and indeed Europe, but further afield you may see things tail off a bit, which is hardly a surprise given StackPath’s aforementioned focus on Western nations. Another strength here comes on the security front, with this CDN giving users free shared SSL (or the option to use your own SSL certificate, if you prefer). There’s also anti-DDoS technology and a capable Web Application Firewall. All in all, this is a tempting offering with a baseline plan that charges $10 (£7.6) for up to 1TB of bandwidth per month. The first month is also free. Update: The service has been now integrated with StackPath - "Everything you love about MaxCDN is being integrated into the new StackPath CDN service." MaxCDN is actually owned by StackPath now (the previously mentioned CDN), but provides a standalone service of its own which is well-suited for novices. You get 24/7 tech support with speedy responses promised (and indeed these claims stood up to our testing), and it’s easy enough to set up, and indeed use going forward. You don’t get as many settings to play with as some of the more advanced services, but that’s hardly surprising when trying to keep things more user-friendly. Another definite benefit is a range of useful reports, and a solid core network. MaxCDN offers eight edge locations in the US, five in Europe – and you can add additional locations in Asia (and Australia), but you have to pay extra for those. Overall, though, pricing is a strong point, starting from $9 (£6.75) a month for a 100GB account, with a clean pricing structure which isn’t confusing in the slightest (often not the case with CDN offerings). Performance is, generally speaking, solid enough, and this CDN does pretty well for speeds in the UK and US. Amazon CloudFront is the CDN facet of AWS (Amazon Web Services), so it’s certainly part of a heavyweight operation. And indeed CloudFront offers a raft of advanced features as you might expect, and you can customize all manner of things such as enabling automatic GZip compression for better speeds. Another strength here is the in-depth analytics on tap, showing you details of your visitors’ device type, OS and so forth. There’s also the handy ability to set up alerts, meaning you can be warned when data transfer usage goes above a certain level. The downside to all the options on offer is that relative novices to the CDN world may find CloudFront’s control panel a little intimidating, at least initially. The other slight sticking points are that calculating pricing can be a rather tricky matter, and if you aren’t an experienced user familiar with CDN basics, tech support isn’t free – if you need help, you’ll have to fork out for it. Prices vary depending on region, but the good news is there’s a free tier (which gives you 50GB of data per month for one year). Performance levels are fairly average, too, but there’s no denying the power and configurability that Amazon offers to the slightly more tech-savvy user. As you’re doubtless aware, Microsoft Azure is a big old stack of integrated cloud tools for building and managing applications and services, with a wide range of coverage including a CDN offering, which is what we’re focusing on here, naturally. Note that this doesn’t use Microsoft’s own edge servers, but rather three plans that use other CDN networks: Standard Akamai, Standard Verizon, and Premium Verizon. We fully discuss these various plans in our review of Microsoft’s CDN service, linked below, but suffice it to say that in terms of pricing – which can be somewhat confusing to work out – this isn’t the cheapest offering around. Still, those who want integration with other Microsoft technologies and services may well find the price worth paying. You get a web dashboard which is absolutely crammed with features, although as ever, this means it’s not particularly easy to use for beginners (and the setup process is pretty involved, too). Performance levels are impressive, and at the time of writing, according to CDNPerf, Azure CDN is the fifth fastest content delivery network worldwide, and fourth in the US. This has to be a tempting prospect if you’re using other Azure services, or if you’re a developer who will appreciate the likes of .NET or PowerShell management features. CDN77 is a big-name player in the content delivery game, with some heavyweight clients signed up including the European Space Agency. It has an expansive CDN network with 32 data centers across the globe, with many of those in Europe and the US, but there are also locations in South America, Asia and one in Australia. The web console interface is very streamlined and keeps any jargon to a minimum, making it suitably user-friendly for novices to the CDN world. The flipside of this is that there aren’t a huge amount of options, although you can do some tweaking of various settings. In terms of performance, CDN77 is solid enough, and it ranks as a lower-to-mid pack player that’s unlikely to disappoint, but certainly isn’t the fastest CDN network we found when reviewing these various services. You get a free Let's Encrypt SSL certificate, and CDN77 is pretty good value for money overall in terms of its per-GB pricing, although it’s not the cheapest outfit we’ve highlighted here. Pricing starts at $0.049 per GB of data for US and European locations, with Asia and Latin America being more expensive. If you want to test the waters, there’s a 14-day risk-free trial, and you don’t need to supply any payment details for this. If you need a powerful CDN, look no further than Leaseweb, an enterprise-level operation which is still suitable for regular business users – just about, although we should say upfront that it isn’t cheap, as you might imagine. Pricing starts at $113 (£88, €99) per month for an entry-level plan with a 2TB data allowance, the good news being that even with this ‘basic’ subscription, you get all the same security and CDN features as the heavyweight enterprise plans. That includes a smartly designed console for overseeing your CDN needs, complete with an extensive raft of potential settings and tweaks, featuring many options you don’t get with your average service (like the ability to set the cache-control header, or determine how long to cache 404 responses). There’s also an in-depth statistics section which displays graphs and charts showing many interesting stats, such as visitor and traffic breakdowns, cache performance and the top file types which are seeing action. The one somewhat bleak spot is Leaseweb’s performance, which seems somewhat off the pace going by CDNPerf’s findings, although it’s difficult to gauge exactly what results you’ll get in practice. Users who want a powerful range of features in their CDN could give the 30-day trial a go to find out.
via TechRadar - All the latest technology news http://www.techradar.com/news/the-best-cdns-of-2018 If you're hoping the LG G8 will be the phone that packs in every single bit of top-end technology, chances are you'll be disappointed this year. Where some brands are said to be joining the 5G train early, LG looks set to miss that feature for its upcoming flagship. However, in a perhaps smarter move, it's going to launch a phone with the high-speed connectivity later in the year. The news comes from Korean site ET News (translated), which quotes an unnamed senior official as saying that LG will launch two smartphones this year to separately service the current 4G needs and the next-gen 5G speeds. An official statement provided to the outlet by an LG spokesperson didn't confirm the news, but did say that the brand was committed to 'pre-empting' the 5G rollout. Bringing a phone that doesn't come with 5G but still offers top-end features could be the more intelligent strategy for 2019, as adding in the next-gen speeds will add quite a cost to smartphones (as confirmed by OnePlus' CEO to TechRadar) so if LG wants to be competitive with the G8, missing 5G could be a good move. The same report also says that the new LG G8 will pack a teardrop small notch at the top to allow for the front-facing camera (no punch-hole option here) and the camera will have 3D capabilities. We saw that Sony is betting big on 3D capabilities in 2019's flagship smartphones, and it looks like LG is jumping on that boat in order to improve the augmented reality capabilities of its smartphones as well as improve the quality and scene recognition of its cameras. A flexible futureET News is also reporting that LG will be launching the LG Q9 at CES 2019 or MWC 2019, which will use the Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 chipset, 4GB RAM, 32GB internal storage and a 3,000mAh battery. On top of that a flexible phone will appear in the second half of the year – and a (World Intellectual Property Office) WIPO patent spotted by LetsGoDigital might have uncovered the form factor. The patent outlines a phone that has multiple cameras on the rear, but a form factor that scrolls out sideways to turn a small phone into a tablet. We've no idea if this phone is going to be the final form factor, but this is the kind of space-age thing that we're hoping starts to appear soon to take us away from the million of faceless black rectangles we're seeing these days – so we're keeping our fingers crossed.
via TechRadar - All the latest technology news http://www.techradar.com/news/lg-g8-release-date-set-for-march-with-3d-cameras-but-no-5g Just in time for New Year - and your annual promise to yourself that you're really, really going to get fit and healthy over the course of the next 12 months - Google has rolled out a new monthly exercise challenge inside its Google Fit suite of apps. The idea is to challenge yourself to set new goals every 30 days, picking up more Move Minutes and Heart Points along the way. The first goal for January is to boost Heart Points to the levels recommended by the experts – the more you exercise and the more intense those exercises, the more points you get. You'll get reminders and motivational advice along the course of the month, and Google has signed up some Instagram and YouTube celebrities to come along for the ride as well via the #GetFitwithGoogle hashtag. Google Fit improvementsThe first 30-day challenge doesn't start until January 1, but you can sign up to get involved now from inside the Google Fit app – the app is available on the web and Android, though not iOS (you can use a Wear OS watch with iOS, however). "Hit 150 Heart Points per week to meet the American Heart Association (AHA) and the World Health Organization (WHO)’s physical activity recommendations shown to reduce the risk of heart disease, improve sleep and increase overall mental well-being," says Google in its blog post announcing the new feature. Google Fit has seen numerous updates over the last few months, with a redesigned interface and new homescreen widgets among the upgrades. All you need to do is supply the willpower and the running shoes or yoga mat and you'll be seeing a whole new you in 2019. via TechRadar - All the latest technology news http://www.techradar.com/news/google-fit-monthly-challenges-arrive-to-help-you-keep-those-new-year-resolutions The festivities of the Christmas period may have only just come to an end but we're already launching straight on into the January sales, and Mobiles.co.uk is celebrating with a Samsung Galaxy S9 deal worth getting excited about. This offer gets you the Samsung S9 for the low monthly price of £23 a month with 3GB of data. Sounds good? Well, it gets better, if you use our exclusive TechRadar discount code TECH25OFF the upfront cost drops down to £50, making it one of the cheapest S9 deals on the market right now. The Samsung Galaxy S9 was a decent phone for 2018, packing a top camera with a smaller form factor over the plus model, and the current price drops are making it a much more attractive proposition - don't forget, we're still a few months out from the forthcoming Galaxy S10, so the S9 still represents one of the very best phones we've seen around at the moment. If this sounds like the deal for you then you can find all of the details down below - but you do need to hurry as this deal ends on December 31. If this wasn't quite the deal you were hoping for then don't worry we have gathered all of the best deals for the flagship device on our Samsung Galaxy S9 deals page. This exclusive Galaxy S9 deal in full:via TechRadar - All the latest technology news http://www.techradar.com/news/this-techradar-exclusive-samsung-galaxy-s9-deal-is-one-of-the-best-around-right-now The new Kia Ceed shakes off any negative preconceptions you may have about the brand almost instantly. Kia is no longer a 'cheap import' brand producing solid but uninspiring models – it can now mix it with the established names, with its cars offering a competent, complete experience on the road. We got behind the wheel of the top-of-the-range Ceed First Edition, priced at £25,750, which comes with all the tech bells and whistles you'd expect from a major brand. In fact, Kia claims the new Ceed is the most high-tech vehicle in its class – and there's certainly a lot to play with. All-new looksThis is the third-generation Ceed (previously cee'd) since the range's debut in Europe back in 2006, and Kia has redesigned the model the from the ground up. It now has a more modern look, with the new Ceed arriving with a sportier stance that's more attractive to look at. It's not exactly a head-turner, but it slips nicely into place alongside its five-door hatchback rivals. Inside you're treated to a modern cabin which wouldn't look out of place coming from some of the more premium brands. There's still an abundance of plastic used, but it's broken up by glass, screens, dials and metallic accents. The seats are comfortable, with additional comforts including heated and air-cooled front seats and heated rear seats (not including the middle seat), along with climate control, to ensure a pleasant journey for all. The Ceed can easily accommodate four adults, although those over six foot may find their hair slightly grazing the ceiling. Even with five adults, the Ceed didn't fee overly cramped during short journeys. There's a sizable 395-litre boot too, which provides enough room for a buggy and shopping, so great for families. You get considerable peace of mind for your money too, in the shape of Kia's standard seven-year / 100,000-mile warranty. Kia Ceed design gallery Tech a-plentyAn 8-inch touchscreen display sits at the top of the new Ceed's centre console, offering a responsive and fluid experience under finger. Skipping between modes and scrolling through lists is easy to do, with navigation, Bluetooth connectivity and DAB radio all on board, and all working well. The infotainment system supports both Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, allowing you to connect your smartphone to the car's display for access to core apps such as mapping and music streaming – at least, it's supposed to. Unfortunately, the Ceed we drove refused to play ball with both our Google Pixel 3 and OnePlus 6, with neither phone recognized when we plugged them into the USB port at the base of the centre console. The reason could be that the Pixel is too new, and thus support for it hasn't been added, while the OnePlus may be a little too niche, but it seems unlikely – we've successfully used the OnePlus with Android Auto in other vehicles. It was a shame, as the quality and responsiveness of the screen would have made using Android Auto an enjoyable experience, in conjunction with the handy steering wheel controls. If Kia can sort out the support we're sure it'll be a solid feature. Kia's own navigation system worked well, and the traffic updates (via TomTom's system) were accurate. The one small niggle we had was that some more complex junctions in the centre of London weren't displayed as clearly as on rival systems, but overall it's one of the better manufacturer navs. One feature we really enjoyed using was the wireless charging pad, which allowed us to top up our Pixel 3 without having to plug it in (two USB ports are provided below the pad if your phone doesn’t support wireless charging). Getting the wireless charger to work wasn't straightforward though. It has to be enabled, but the setting for this can't be found on the main display – we had to dig out the physical manual from the glove box to learn that the option was hidden in a sub-menu of the 4.2-inch colour display in the instrument cluster. Once we knew where to look, enabling the pad was easy, but Kia would be wise to make this option easier to find on future models. Kia Ceed infotainment gallery Cruising with easeThe infotainment setup is extensive, and very respectable for a car with a relatively modest price tag, but even more impressive are the driving aids that also come with the new Ceed. Cruise control is easy to set, while parking sensors and a rear reversing camera make manoeuvring in tight spots simpler and safer. There's also lane guidance, which not only alerts you if you're straying out of your lane, but will also gently tug at the wheel to get you back in the centre. This level of assistance is common in premium vehicles, but less so in more affordable options, so it's great to see it in play here, and working well. The 4.2-inch cluster display also provides a wide variety of information, from navigation directs to fuel economy, trip details and speed limits – and it's all easily accessed via the on-wheel buttons. The Kia Ceed First Edition is a car that's perfect for tech fans, providing plenty of controls and functionality to make your journey not only comfortable and enjoyable, but also safer and less taxing. You don't get quite the same array of tech on the cheaper Ceed models, but they still offer a decent level of features, and at prices that won't break the bank.
via TechRadar - All the latest technology news http://www.techradar.com/news/kia-ceed-first-edition-the-car-for-tech-fans-on-a-budget Apple is reportedly planning to start assembling its premium iPhone X-series in India. It is said that Taiwanese manufacturer Foxconn will be manufacturing the latest iPhones in India starting 2019. To recall, Apple assembles some of the older iPhone models like the iPhone SE and iPhone 6S in the country at its first unit in Bengaluru. According to Reuters, sources familiar with the development revealed that Apple will soon start assembling iPhone X-series in the country with the help of Foxconn. The report further suggests that Foxconn may invest around $356 million to expand its plant in Sriperumbudur, Tamil Nadu. At the same plant, Foxconn manufactures smartphones for Chinese OEM Xiaomi. The plant, named as Project Fruit has been under works for over a year, as per a person closely involved in the project. Moreover, the sources in the state suggest that the announcement might take place on January 24, during the second Global Investor Meet slated to be held in January. Foxconn and Apple have neither confirmed nor denied the report as of now. If the reports are true, we might see a reduced cost of iPhone X variants in India and it may also help Apple to strengthen their position in the world’s fastest-growing smartphone market. via TechRadar - All the latest technology news http://www.techradar.com/news/foxconn-may-begin-manufacturing-iphone-x-models-in-india-starting-2019 Recent outages from some of the world’s biggest companies, including O2 and Facebook, have raised questions over how prepared infrastructure is to deal with the latest technology. From the O2 outage alone, payments systems went down, car parking tech didn’t work and transport systems failed. While there are significant developments happening every year in technology, we are still some way off seeing some of the much-anticipated tech that was predicted to have an impact in 2018. With the year coming to an end, it’s time to look ahead at what we can actually expect from 2019. AI will continue to growAI is going beyond attention-grabbing gimmicks and is impacting everything from HR processes to measuring stock in retail. This is where the most significant developments will be made in 2019. According to the 2019 State of Future Workplace Tech report, nearly 30% of enterprises with 1,000+ employees are currently using AI-powered security solutions and this figure is expected to grow more than 60% by 2020. One in four IT pros also believe that among emerging technologies, AI will have the biggest impact on business. This could mean anything from streamlining processes to changing the way companies hire. As a result, we can expect 2019 to be the year that employees and consumers start to notice the impact of AI during everyday activity. This will likely mean a more seamless experience for both consumers and employees when interacting with an organisation. IoT devices will enter the workplaceThe rise of AI has also seen an increase in adoption of IoT devices such as voice assistants and even Alexa-powered microwaves. While use of these devices in the home has been growing, in 2019 we are more likely to see this spread further to the workplace. What this means, however, is that this makes the businesses in question an attractive target for cybercrime. Botnets such as Mirai pose a worldwide threat to IoT devices and unless organisations protect themselves, there can be serious consequences. With 47% of employers stating cybersecurity as the most important skill they will be looking for in 2019, it shows just how front of mind security will be this coming year. The job market looks promisingWith so much new technology to implement in the workplace, it’s no surprise that IT is shaping up to offer lots of exciting job opportunities in 2019. Spiceworks’ 2019 State of IT Careers report found that approximately 30% of employers plan to grow their IT departments in 2019. This is likely to be because of the growing need to improve IT infrastructure, especially as result of a GDPR. Simultaneously, 1 in 4 IT pros are planning on looking for a new job next year, with 62% of those who are looking stating that a higher salary is the main driver behind their search for new employment. 2019 therefore looks to be a year of opportunity within the IT industry both for employers and employees. With the fact that 36% of IT pros expect to get a raise and 16% expect a promotion, it could mean that the hunt for a higher salary pays off. Email will reign supremeDespite some claims that chat apps will take over email, they are still seen as supplementary to email rather than a replacement. Only 16% of IT professionals believe collaborative chat apps will replace email. However, they are growing in popularity. Microsoft Teams for example has grown from only 3% of companies using it in 2016 to 21% of organisations using the platform in 2018, this is a significant uplift considering that Microsoft Teams is only two years old. Tech under the spotlightOverall, 2019 will be the year that technology is watched closer than ever. It’s no longer just about cool innovations, it’s about regulation and how organisations can protect themselves in a cyber world. Threats are coming thick and fast and a Marriot-style mishap can be detrimental to many businesses. There has never been a stronger need to take new technology such as AI and work out ways to implement it beyond just offering a cool customer experience. The next 12 months will see relevant, reliable and practical technology come to the forefront as it revolutionises the things that really matter to people. Gimmicks using technologies such as Lexus’ recent ad made by AI can be great at driving publicity but where new technology really gets interesting is when it changes behaviours, improves processes and makes a genuine difference to people’s lives. Peter Tsai, Senior Technology Analyst at Spiceworks
via TechRadar - All the latest technology news http://www.techradar.com/news/what-technology-will-drive-the-biggest-changes-in-2019 Ever wanted to quickly get some files up on your computer desktop in between episodes of Netflix? You're in luck, because Samsung says it's introducing remote access for computers in its 2019 line-up of smart television sets. Phones and tablets will be invited to the party too, apparently, so you can get your Galaxy phone display up on the big screen as well. Samsung also mentions keyboard and mouse control for your TV set, which might make entering all those usernames and passwords a little easier with these new models. Details are a little thin on the ground right now – expect Samsung to reveal more at CES in January – but we're liking what we're hearing so far. The system is being built in partnership with software giant VMware. Building on existing featuresSamsung's Hyogun Lee confirmed that with Remote Access, consumers will be able to access programs and cloud services on their connected devices directly to the TV. That press release also mentions streaming games, something you can already do with Samsung's 2016 and 2017 sets if you have a fast enough internet connection and Steam. At the moment we're in the dark as to which Android, iOS, Windows and macOS devices might be compatible with this system, but more details should trickle out soon. At the very least you should be able to get a web browser or a photo slideshow up on the big screen courtesy of a connected computer. Samsung says the feature will work whether your computer is in the same house or somewhere on the other side of the world, making it easy to share photos with family members, for instance. via TechRadar - All the latest technology news http://www.techradar.com/news/samsungs-2019-tvs-will-let-you-access-your-computer-remotely |
Jonmichael MoyJonmichael Moy is a hi-tech executive based in Toronto, Canada. He has more than 15 years of experience in the IT and technology business. ArchivesNo Archives Categories |