After a false call by Netflix Nordic last November, earlier this week the third season of the animated adaptation of Castlevania was officially dated. It’s arriving next month, on 5th March, and will reportedly be comprised of a total of 10 episodes.
If the release date alone wasn’t enough, Netflix has now shared its first trailer of season three. As you might recall, the previous season ended with Alucard killing his father. Unfortunately, though, the human race is still under threat from Dracula’s forces of evil.
The Sonic the Hedgehog movie finally hits theatres across the globe tomorrow, but it doesn’t sound like the best way to spend an hour and 40 minutes of your time on Valentine’s Day. The reviews are starting to flood in across the internet, and you might be better off watching paint dry alongside a date rather than spending your hard-earned cash on the video game adaptation. Some critics have taken a shine to it, but with a Metacritic rating of 45, it’s certainly not the best film in the world. Here’s a sampling of verdicts to whet your appetite.
While this family-friendly action-comedy suffers from a simplistic story and leans too heavily on tired visual cliches, Sonic the Hedgehog is nevertheless boosted by solid performances from Ben Schwartz as Sonic and Jim Carrey as Dr. Robotnik. Their ongoing cat-and-mouse game is entertaining, and passionate fans of the Sega franchise should appreciate all the nods to Sonic’s history. Make no mistake, this frantically-paced film is made first and foremost for Sonic fans. If you’ve been there for the little blue fella these past 29 years, from his humble beginnings on the Sega Genesis to his current iteration, then Sonic the Hedgehog is the love letter you’re probably looking for. If not… maybe save your gold rings.
Sony loves a good PlayStation pack-in lately. You may recall the PS Vita shipping with Welcome Park, a pretty simplistic minigame compilation which introduced you to all the features and functions of its brand-new handheld. It followed the same formula with The Playroom on the PlayStation 4, a versatile bit of bundled software which showcased the unique attributes of the DualShock 4 – and later became something of a streaming sensation for a month or two.
PlayStation VR was accompanied by a pseudo-sequel to The Playroom, which would later spawn a full game in the form of Astro Bot Rescue Mission. And that means that, surely, the PlayStation 5 will continue this successful strategy, by including a piece of software on its super-fast SSD hard drive. I think that game should be Dreams, and while it may sound like a crazy suggestion on the Media Molecule title’s PS4 launch day, just hear me out.
Editor’s Note: AMD has reached out and clarified that Windows 10 Pro is officially recommended for use with the Ryzen Threadripper 3990X. It said that “We understand that this suggestion has been made by some reviews, and our team is presently diagnosing, but that is the official recommendation”.
Original article continues below…
AMD’s Threadripper 3990X is undoubtedly a mighty high-end desktop processor bristling with 64-cores and 128-threads, but Windows 10 Pro can’t actually deal with the latter – it’s just too many threads to handle, apparently.
As you may be aware, Windows 10 Home can’t handle any more than 64-cores (or threads), but Windows 10 Pro can supposedly cope with 128-threads, at least according to the official specs of the OS.
However, as discussed in Anandtech’s review, what actually happens when you run a Threadripper 3990X in a Windows 10 Pro PC is that the operating system splits those 128-threads into two separate processor groups of 64-threads. And the OS even refers to these as two separate ‘sockets’, as if it was a dual-CPU machine.
Sadly this isn’t a simple labeling issue: splitting the 3990X into two CPU groups actually impacts on real-world performance.
It can be the case that an application might be launched inside one group, and even though it’s a multithreaded app, it may only be able to access those 64-threads in its group, rather than the full 128-threads – effectively detracting from its performance.
The end result is that Anandtech observed “a lot of slowdowns in some benchmarks”, although disabling SMT (simultaneous multithreading) cured the problem, but of course then you are only running with 64-cores, even if you still get “most of the performance” of the 3990X, the reviewer notes.
Thread dread
How big a problem is this? To be fair, Microsoft no doubt didn’t expect systems running Windows 10 Home or Pro to be pushing above 64-threads, which is understandable to an extent.
Furthermore, those who can afford the eye-watering asking price of the Threadripper 3990X – namely $3,990 (£3,699, AU$6,499) – likely won’t be too concerned at springing a hundred extra notes (or so) to also upgrade from Windows 10 Pro to Windows 10 Pro for Workstations.
The latter is the version of Windows designed for really powerful high-end PCs, and it is capable of recognizing all the threads that the 3990X has to offer (Windows 10 Enterprise is also fine in this respect, as you’d expect). Linux users won’t be hit by any thread-related gremlins, either.
As a final note: according to some of the comments we’ve seen on Ars Technica (which highlighted Anandtech’s review), Windows 10 Pro has just received an update which allows it to see the 3990X correctly with all its glorious 128-threads.
So this issue could be in the process of disappearing, anyway, but obviously take that with an appropriate dollop of caution.
This year is going to be huge for gaming, with both the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X due to release in late 2020. As such, both Sony and Microsoft are already making big promises about how their new hardware will make console gaming more powerful, flexible and convenient.
Expect reduced loading times via high-speed SSD hard drives, 4k (possibly even 8K) visuals, and backward compatibility options that allow you to play your old games on new consoles.
Some big questions remain as Sony and Microsoft jostle for your affections – not least, specifics around the launch software line up, price and release date.
As gaming’s new era edges nearer, we’d love to hear your views on PS5, Xbox Series X, and the way you play games. If you can spare five minutes to complete TechRadar’s next-generation gaming survey, you’ll be in with a chance to win a £250 / $300 Amazon voucher.
Have your say today
Have you chosen your next gen gaming console? Is 8K gaming a pipe dream? Which exclusive games might tempt you to switch consoles? Let us know what you think by following the link below.
The survey is only available until 4th March 2020 (T&Cs apply*, UK and US readers only), so don’t wait too long to take part. If you want to be in with a chance of winning a £250 / $300 Amazon voucher, make sure you take part today before the survey closes on 4th March. Good luck!
Plenty of online tools will help you create a website in just a few minutes with just a few clicks, but they’re not all geared towards helping photographers – those people who want to show off big, beautiful galleries of images online.
If you’re looking for the best website builder that’s going to help you showcase your work as stylishly as possible, we’ve picked out four of the best for you to consider. They all score highly for their pricing, features, ease of use, and the choice of templates they offer for getting a photo portfolio up on the web.
Once you’ve picked your favorite, you’ll soon be getting your photos up in front of a potential audience of millions. Some sites even give you options for selling copies of your images via the web.
If you’re after simplicity first and foremost in your website builder, then check out Format – it doesn’t have as many advanced features or options as some of its competitors, but that means less hassle for you and a shorter time between signing up for the site and getting your photos online.
You’ve got over 60 different themes to pick from (plus additional premium ones if you go down that route), all of which can be customized in terms of pages, layouts and colors. Every theme adapts automatically to desktop or mobile, and you can preview all this in your browser.
As you would hope, getting images up on your site is simple, and once they’re on the page they can be dragged and dropped into position as required. If you’re happy with original design of the template you’ve picked – and the templates are all professional-looking and clean – then you really can be online within minutes.
We also like Format because of the extras it throws in. The platform lets you bring in your own domain name, set up an online store, and add a blog, with video tutorials generously spread around to help if you get stuck. If you do know a little bit of website coding, you can edit the CSS of your site too. There is a 14-day free trial available to test out the service.
On the scale of basic to advanced, Carbonmade is somewhere towards the former, but its service is specifically for creatives – and that means getting your work up in a cool-looking theme is very straightforward, and actually a lot of fun too.
You only get a handful of templates to pick from, so if you’d rather spend time agonizing over a choice of hundreds, then Carbonmade perhaps isn’t for you. Once you’re in, the site builder has one of the best workflows we’ve seen, letting you easily create projects and pages, and get your pictures uploaded to the site.
It’s one of those interfaces that you really don’t need an instruction manual to get around. Everything from the published/unpublished status of your pages, to the use of thumbnails for navigation, is simple to configure. The customization tweaks you’ve got, like the option to drop in a logo or a favicon, are all well chosen too. There are some neat extras like the Carbonmade Messages (which lets you interact with all the people interested in your work) or the ability to connect your custom domain. Additionally, If you have a Dropbox account, you can upload files directly from there.
You don’t get anything in the way of advanced features, like online sales or pages with password protection, but not everyone needs those anyway – if you’d rather get your site up, get it looking good, and then get on with your photography, Carbonmade is definitely worth a look.
Squarespace is one of the biggest names in website building, and it offers dozens of top-notch templates for getting your portfolio of pictures up on the web. Whether you want your images to show up at full-screen size or you prefer the grid look, Squarespace should have something to suit.
All the image cropping and resizing is taken care of for you, so your site is going to look great on any kind of device, and there’s actually quite a lot of flexibility when it comes to how your images are presented. You can use your own branding, fonts, and colors, or take the defaults that Squarespace gives you.
To protect your images, the platform lets you password-protect certain gallery pages, and if you need to have text flowing alongside your pictures then that’s simple to do as well. Embedding a contact form only takes a few minutes if you want to give clients a way to get in touch.
Everything can be managed through an attractive web browser interface and you can also add and remove pictures from an iOS app if you need to. It’s easy to see why Squarespace is one of the more popular website builders, and it’s well suited to photographers.
Dunked doesn’t have the same range of templates or the same depth of features as some of its rivals, but getting everything up and running is really simple and really fast. Take a look at the templates on the home page – if you like any of them, give Dunked a whirl.
As with most similar services, you’ve got a basic drag-and-drop interface for getting your pictures in the right place. If needed, images can be split up into pages and categories, so whether you want to stick your whole career online or just a few select snaps, Dunked makes it possible.
Even though the choice of templates isn’t the widest, they’re all designed to adapt to screens of any size, and if you know a bit of CSS then you can tweak various aspects of the site design – just don’t expect a massive amount of help beyond the basics of colors and fonts. Changes can be applied at any time and only take seconds.
We like the balance Dunked hits in getting you started very quickly and then giving you a few customization options later on. It’s going to be too basic for some, but if you don’t want to spend hours pondering over layouts, it may well suit you perfectly. You can try out the service free for 10 days.
Three has always been good at whipping up market-leading SIM only deals but where they really strive is the unlimited data mark. In fact, the network has got so good at it, that it currently has the two cheapest unlimited data SIM plans available.
But, both of these offers operate in very different ways. Both are 12 month contracts, carrying a completely unlimited cap on your calls, texts and data. However, one will cost you just £18 a month, far below the competition.
The other plan comes in at £22 a month. Obviously you should go for the £18 option then…right? Well this more expensive plan has a catch, for the first six months you will pay half the price, meaning six months of £11 bills.
While the half price option works out slightly cheaper, this is more down to what your preference for paying your bills is. Other retailers like Smarty Mobile and EE up some pretty strong competition right now if Three isn’t your favourite network to be on.
Compare these offers to the rest with our SIM only deals guide
If you haven’t already been won over by these amazing offers from Three then you’ll be excited to hear that the network doesn’t shy away from offering up some extra incentives as well.
For its eight-year birthday NordVPN has gotten into the spirit of celebration and decided to give away a freebie out of a pretty awesome selection!
Basically, if you subscribe to NordVPN’s three year plan, you will either get one month, one year, two years, or three years for FREE!
And although you can only get one of them, and ultimately it is down to your luck – how ace would it be to have all your VPN needs sorted for 36 months at no extra cost?
The only thing to remember with this deal is that you would be paying the full amount for the three years upfront.
And although $125.64/ £96.74 may seem like a hefty amount to pay upfront, remember this means all your VPN cybersecurity and by passing geo-restricted content is sorted for the next 36 months. Plus that works out to only $3.49/£2.68 a month!
Need more information or got a couple of questions? Keep scrolling as we’ve got this awesome VPN deal outlined for you.
Not sure if Nord is the VPN for you? Check out our best VPN guide.
Read more about this stellar VPN deal:
Is NordVPN a good VPN provider?
In one word – yes! We rank it in our top 10, which given all the thorough tests and analysing we do on VPN services, is pretty ace position to sit in.
If you’re concerned about privacy, NordVPN has a very strict zero-logging policy, meaning your privacy is secure and not only does it unblock Netflix but BBC iPlayer too. It also boasts a very speedy customer support so all you queries can be instantly resolved, an effective kill switch (ideal for anyone concerned with security).
Then there is the added bonus of the price – NordVPN is one of the cheapest VPN providers out there, especially now with this Winter VPN deal. Plus you can have up to six simultaneous connections on one account – which is perfect for anyone trying to save.
But it is worth noting that in October NordVPN revealed that it suffered a hack which breached its cybersecurity credentials. However, it has taken significant steps to correct this, which is why we still rank it so highly and are confident in recommending its service. If you want more information about this just keep scrolling down.
Still want to know more? Our in-depth NordVPN review goes into every nook and cranny.
What is the NordVPN breach?
In October 2019, NordVPN announced that the provider had suffered a hack which breached it’s security. This hack dates back to 2018, and rather shook the sector when it came to the surface. When it was unveiled, NordVPN announced it was taking clear steps to tighten things up, including working with cybersecurity consulting firm VerSprite and completing a full-scale third-party independent security audit next year.
If you want further information on this hack, make sure you check out our NordVPN data breach news story. And if cybersecurity is your main reason for getting a VPN, why not read our most secure VPN provider guide.
Need a VPN for streaming? Make sure to check out our best Netflix VPN guide
On a desert planet called Vashti, Picard visits some of the Romulan refugees he’s been helping to resettle. This was 14 years ago, when he was still an admiral with Starfleet. He meets with Zani, the leader of a group known as the Qowat Milat – Romulan warrior nuns and, as we learn later, enemies of the Tal Shiar. They’re looking after a boy, Elnor, whom Picard seems to have a fondness for. He reads to him from The Three Musketeers and they enjoy a spot of play-fencing. Then Picard receives a call from Raffi: synths have attacked Mars.
Back in the present day, Picard explores a holodeck recreation of his vineyard on the La Sirena. Raffi is furious to discover that Picard has asked Rios to take a detour to Vashti. The planet is very different now, she says, ruled by warlords and protected by an impenetrable web of killer drones. Raffi softens when she realises that losing Dahj has made Picard think about his relationship with Elnor.
On the Borg cube, Soji watches a holo-recording of Ramdha talking about Ganmadan, the Day of Annihilation. She and other Romulans believe that “shackled demons” will one day break their chains and “answer the call of the Destroyer”, which Soji has been referred to as several times—including once to her face by Ramdha.
Troubled by this discovery, Soji meets with Narek and asks him what happened to Ramdha’s ship, the Shaenor. He says that information is classified, stored on the Borg cube’s computers, but that he might know someone who can access it. Soji also reveals to Narek that she knows he’s spying on her. In turn, he says there are details about her past that don’t add up. But before they can delve any deeper into their respective secrets, they goof around in an air vent together, sliding up and down it in their bare feet. Narek seems to be falling for Soji.
Picard beams down to Vashti and instead of the hero’s welcome he got in the flashback, he’s met with sneers and suspicious looks. A sign on a cafe reading ROMULANS ONLY is another clue that things have taken a turn for the worse here. He receives a warmer welcome from Zani, who is pleased to see him. She asks Picard to take Elnor, now a Qalankhkan, a mercenary, on his mission with him. She says he’s grown into a formidable fighter. Elnor initially refuses, saying Picard abandoned him. But when Picard is almost killed by some angry Romulans, Elnor steps in and saves him, and agrees to “bind his blade” with him.
Back on the cube, Zhat Vash agent Rizzo is once again hassling Narek about his lack of progress in his mission. The goal, she says, is to kill “them all”, and to find out where “the others” are. This is our first clue that there may be other Maddox-brand organic synths out there, not just Dahj and Soji. Narek is told he has one more week left.
Above Vashti, the La Sirena flees from a pursuing Romulan Bird of Prey, flown by a local warlord called Kar Kantar. Things are looking hopeless, but an unknown ship flies in and gives them a window to escape. Just before this mystery craft is destroyed by the Romulans, the pilot is beamed aboard the La Sirena and is revealed to be none other than Star Trek: Voyager’s former Borg, Seven of Nine.
Verdict: This is the most Picard has felt like classic Star Trek, which may be a result of it being directed by series veteran Jonathan Frakes. We’re no closer to Bruce Maddox, but this detour is worth it for the addition of both Seven of Nine and Elnor to the crew. Elnor is the star of the show here, being essentially a sci-fi Legolas from Lord of the Rings, and I can’t wait to see more of him in future episodes.
Extra data
You can learn more about Picard’s new allies, the Qowat Milat, in spin-off novel The Last Best Hope, written by Una McCormack. This group of warrior nuns believes in absolute truth, which makes them natural enemies of the shady, secretive Tal Shiar.
This is the first episode of Picard directed by Jonathan Frakes, who played William Riker in The Next Generation. Frakes has a long history of directing Star Trek, including episodes of TNG, Voyager, Deep Space Nine, and Discovery. He also directed the movies First Contact and Insurrection, and PC game Star Trek: Klingon.
Elnor briefly mentions Spot, Data’s cat. According to the TNG short story anthology The Sky’s the Limit, Worf took ownership of her following Data’s death. After helping Worf sniff out an alien infestation on the Enterprise, he came to respect her as a warrior.
Star Trek: Picard is available to watch on CBS All Access every Thursday in the US, and every Friday on Amazon Prime Video internationally.
With free photo collage maker, transforming your photos into a work of art is fun and easy. There are some fantastic tools that make the job as simple as dragging and dropping, and make the process of creating an original design a real joy.
Modern phone cameras can take stunning print-quality photos, and you probably have some real gems stored on your handset right now – so why leave them there?
These are the tools – both web apps and desktop software – that will help you make gorgeous collages in moments, ready to print to canvas. Just get your photos ready with a free photo editor and you’re ready to begin.
And if you’re specifically looking to print your art work, why not check out our best photo book guide.
Online photo collage maker Fotojet looks very much like Fotor and Canva (below), but is more flexible and fun to use than either, making it our number one choice.
To get started, click ‘Collage’ and choose either a grid or an illustrated design (in our opinion a simple grid-based layout shows off your photos better). Those marked with a crown are available to premium account holders only, but you can resize the image frames in any grid, so this isn’t much of a drawback. You can also adjust the spacing and roundness of the boxes, and pick an aspect ratio for your canvas.
Click ‘Add photos’, then drag and drop them into the template. Once you’ve inserted an image you’ll be presented with a list of customizable Instagram-style filters to give your collage a bespoke look, plus advanced options for tweaking exposure, brightness, contrast, saturation, and hue. There’s a good selection of backgrounds to choose from too (either plain colors, or tasteful geometric patterns), plus clip art and text.
Once you’ve finished, you can save your creation as a JPG or PNG file (there’s no PDF option) at a compression setting and size to suit you. You can also share it via Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, or Tumblr, or even print it directly from the browser. It’s great fun to use, and easy to master.
Like all the other browser-based collage makers here, most of Canva’s photo collage templates are free to use, but there are also premium designs available for a fee. These are clearly marked, so there’s no need to worry about creating a design, then being unable to export it without parting with a handful of cash.
To begin, set a new username and password, or sign in with your Facebook or Google account. Select “Personal use” and you’ll be presented with a menu of project types, including social media graphics, banners, book covers, and presentations. Select ‘Photo collage’ then ‘See all collage templates’ to see the full set of free options available. Alternatively, click ‘Elements’ and choose a grid, then start adding the images, borders, icons, and other items that will make up your collage.
To add your own pictures, click ‘Uploads’ and drag them from your desktop. You can then drag them straight onto your collage canvas. You can also add images from Facebook, or from Canva’s own library of free pictures. If you’ve chosen a grid layout, they will be resized and cropped to fit automatically.
Once you’re done, you can save your collage as a printable PDF, PNG, or JPG file, or make it public for others to use. You can even add crop marks and bleed space – an option that’s very useful for professional printing, and absent from most free collage makers.
The only drawback of Canva is that you can’t set the resolution of the output file (although you do have a choice of standard or print-quality PDFs). Beyond that, it’s a truly superb free collage maker.
There are currently two versions of Fotor’s collage maker – one that uses Flash, and another built with HTML5. The former will soon be phased out in favour of the latter, but they work the same way.
Fotor’s design isn’t quite as intuitive as Canva’s, but it’s still much quicker and easier than creating a collage from first principles. All of Fotor’s essential features are free, with extras available for a subscription fee. Premium membership also removes ads from the collage creator.
To get started, click ‘Sign in’ and either create a new account using your email address, or log in with Facebook (you’ll need an account in order to save your work as you move between tools). Once that’s done, click ‘Collage’, pick a template (those marked with a diamond icon are only available to premium account holders) and upload your pictures using the ‘Import’ button on the right. Click ‘Fill in’ on the left, and the spaces in your chosen template will be populated with the uploaded pictures – cropped and resized to fit automatically.
It’s incredibly simple, and the quickest way to create a collage if you don’t mind letting the web app make creative decisions for you. Stickers and text let you give your design a personal touch before it’s exported. Unlike Canva, Fotor lets you choose the aspect ratio and resolution of your finished collage before saving it in JPG, PNG or PDF format.
Fotor is an excellent free collage maker, though its design is a little less intuitive than Canva, pushing it into a respectable third place.
PhotoPad is a desktop collage maker, making it faster and more flexible than its browser-based counterparts. You don’t have to relinquish your email address or Facebook username to use it, either. Unfortunately, it looks a little dated, and lacks some of the features that make online collage makers so much fun, including stickers and filters.
Click ‘Collage’ to begin, and set up your canvas by choosing a size for the finished print. Next, pick the background that will show behind your images. Most of the patterns provided here are quite cheesy, but you can also use your own picture or a solid color.
Once that’s done, it’s time to choose a layout. There’s a great choice of grids (none are locked away behind a paywall), and you can customize the spacing between photos and roundness of the corners using a pair of sliders.
Click a space in your grid to add a photo from your PC. They will be resized to fit, and you can adjust the area to be cropped by clicking and dragging. Unfortunately there’s no way to add text or shapes within the collage editor, and neither are there any filters to give your pictures a fresh look before finalizing your design. If you really want to add extra elements, you’ll have to re-open the saved collage using PhotoPad’s main photo editor and make the alterations manually.
Unlike other browser-based free photo collage makers, piZap doesn’t ask you to part with your email address before you start creating your first design; just get stuck straight in. This is a handy time-saver, but has the disadvantage that you can’t save your progress and edit your creation at a later date.
First, pick a free design; there are options based around rectangles (our preferred choice), hearts, circles, and other shapes like stars. The latter options are better suited to greeting cards than wall art, and risk detracting from the impact of your photos. We’d also avoid the themed options, which are all rather cheesy.
Once you’ve picked a template, simply click each frame in turn to insert a photo. Not only can you upload images from your PC, you can also grab pictures from Facebook, Instagram, Dropbox, and Flickr. The now-defunct Google Picasa is also listed.
Once your photos are in place, you can set a background color, adjust spacing, and add a drop shadow. There’s a good range of filters available, though they can only be applied to the entire canvas, not individual photos, and the clip art options lack subtlety. The remaining tools (paintbrushes and meme text) are fun for creating something silly to share online, but not for stylish wall art.
Once you’ve finished, the free collage maker only gives you one export option – a standard resolution JPG that’s fine for a small print, but not for a large canvas. Overall, piZap is best for making fun compositions to share on social media. If you want something to hang on your wall, the other tools here are much better choices.
When you’re picking a collage maker, there are a few important factors to keep in mind. Perhaps the most important is what you’re going to be using the finished collage for. Do you want something that you can print to canvas, or would you like to share it on Instagram and Facebook?
Some collage makers only allow you to export your creations at fairly low resolutions that are fine for viewing online, but would look blurry and unappealing in print. If you’re planning to commit your creation to paper and ink, ideally you want a service that will let you export it as a print-quality PDF or JPG.
Templates are another consideration. Some collage makers essentially give you a grid and leave you to it, which could be perfect if you already have a clear idea of what you’d like to create, but if you’re not too confident creating a design yourself then you might be better served by a tool that includes a set of smart pre-made templates.
Finally, bear in mind that many collage makers are free to use, but also have a premium subscription service that gives you access to more templates, images and designs. The premium elements should be clearly marked, but some collage makers offer more free content than others.
