Phone and communications

It was a rough start to the 2020 NRL season in Australia, after Covid-19 saw fixtures postponed indefinitely back in March. Fast forward a grim couple of months for sports fans and the National Rugby League is back, with matches resuming on May 28. Best of all, it's easy to follow all 20 rounds of action of the regular season – and get excited about the the finals series and ultimately the NRL Grand Final. Read on as we explain how to watch the NRL live and stream every fixture online in 2020 – including for free – no matter where you are in the world.

As a quick primer, the NRL is the top-tier rugby league competition in Australia and features 15 teams for all over the continent – and one from New Zealand. For die-hard fans in Australia, knowing how to watch the NRL online is more important than every now, as stadiums will be closed to the public for the foreseeable future. But even if you can't attend in person, it's a relief to have rugby league full stop. 

This year's reigning champions – or 'premiers' – are the Sydney Roosters, and they'll definitely be putting up a fierce defence of their crown. In 2019, they made history by becoming the first team to win back-to-back NRL titles since the inception of the unified league, and it represented an 18th premiership rugby league trophy for the club overall. Can they pull of a three-peat this season? 

One of the teams likely to stand in their way are local rivals the South Sydney Rabbitohs. This Roosters vs the Rabbitohs is the fiercest rivalry in all of Aussie rugby league football, dating back to the foundation of both clubs in 1908 as part of the now defunct New South Wales Rugby Leage, or NSWRL. Over the years, the Bunnies have won a total of 21 premierships, putting them ahead of the Roosters. But in NRL, it's the Tri-Colors who lead the way with four titles compared to the Rabbitohs' single championship.

In 2019, the Rabbitohs had the upper hand over the Roosters in the regular season, but the Easts delivered when in counted in the qualifying final and beat their rivals by a dominant score of 30-6. 

At the end of the regular season, the eight highest placed sides advance to the playoff-style NRL finals series, which whittles the league's best teams down to just two. They then compete in the NRL Grand Final, which is one of the world's highest attended sporting events.

Read on to find out to watch the NRL and live stream every fixture of the Australian rugby league action from anywhere.

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How to watch the NRL: live stream in Australia for free

How to watch the NRL live from abroad

Watching the NRL in Australia is easy, but what about in other countries around the world where the excellent Kayo Sports service isn't available? 

There's no need to miss a second of the Aussie rugby league action, thanks to Watch NRL – a global subscription service that will give you access to every single NRL match this season. Available whether you're in Boston, Birmingham or Bangkok, the league's official streaming service can be had on weekly, monthly and annual deals – of which the latter represents the best value. 

Here's how Watch NRL is priced in various footy loving places around the world – or rather, various places where footy loving Aussies are likely to find themselves wanting to watch the NRL 2020 season.

• Weekly: US$17 / £13 / €17 - GET PLAN
• Monthly: US$33 / £25 / €33 – GET PLAN
• Annual: US$165 / £130 / €155 – GET PLAN

Note that it's not available in Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands – so let's look at some other NRL live stream options around the world. 

How to watch the NRL in New Zealand: live stream details for the 2020 season

How to watch the NRL in the UK: live stream Aussie rugby league footy

How to watch the NRL: live stream Aussie rugby league in the US

Live stream the NRL: How to watch in Canada 

How to watch the NRL live from outside your country 

Australians who subscribe to a service like Kayo but find themselves abroad for the next big NRL clash will probably find it's down to a geo-blocking restriction. When this is the case, the simplest and most reliable solution is to use a VPN service to change your IP address to a difference location. 

This will generally let you tune in to your local coverage, just as you would from home, and means you don't have to trawl the sketchier corners of the internet for an illegal stream.

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Germany's federal cybersecurity agency has issued a warning urging all iOS users to install Apple's latest security updates which patch two zero-click security vulnerabilities that impact the company's default email app.

The vulnerabilities were first discovered by the US-based security firm ZecOps which found that they were being actively exploited in attacks targeting iOS users since at least January of 2018. Apple has acknowledged the security flaws though the company says it has found “no evidence they were used against customers”.

In its warning, BSI (Bundesamt für Sicherheit in der Informationstechnik) stressed the importance of installing the updates immediately, saying:

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“Apple has released security updates with iOS 12.4.7, iOS 13.5 and iPadOS 13.5 that fix the vulnerabilities for all affected iOS versions. Due to the criticality of the vulnerabilities, the BSI recommends that the respective security update be installed on all affected systems immediately.”

No-click vulnerabilities

Both of the security flaws affecting Apple's Mail app are no-click vulnerabilities which result from a memory consumption issue and they can be triggered after the app processes a maliciously crafted message. The first vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2020-9819, could lead to heap corruption while the second vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2020-9818, may lead to unexpected memory modification or application termination.

Fortunately Apple addressed the flaws with the release of iOS 13.5 and iPadOS 13.5 which offer improved memory handling and bounds checking. The vulnerabilities affect iPhone 6S and later, iPad Air 2 and later, iPad mini 4 and later and the iPod touch 7th generation, according to the iOS 13.5 security release notes.

In a blog post, ZecOps explained how a nation-state threat operator leveraged the vulnerabilities to attack high-profile targets, saying:

“We believe that these attacks are correlative with at least one nation-state threat operator or a nation-state that purchased the exploit from a third-party researcher in a Proof of Concept (POC) grade and used ‘as-is’ or with minor modifications (hence the 4141..41 strings). While ZecOps refrain from attributing these attacks to a specific threat actor, we are aware that at least one ‘hackers-for-hire’ organization is selling exploits using vulnerabilities that leverage email addresses as a main identifier.”

While high-profile targets are the most at risk, it is still highly recommended that all iOS users install Apple's latest security updates to avoid falling victim to any potential attacks that exploit the two vulnerabilities.

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Via BleepingComputer

iPhone 8 Plus deals are an older option from Apple, being replaced by a wide host of newer and more high-tech devices. But what that old age has brought about is an excellent price tags, saving you a boat-load of cash.

After a good few new releases including the extortionate iPhone 11 Pro Max and iPhone XS, iPhone 8 Plus deals have been slowly dropping into the realms of affordability.

Now, it is quite easy to get a contract around the £30 a month mark and if you're willing to do some digging and pay a bit more upfront, even the mid £20s. And the same goes for SIM-free where prices have reached an excellent low point.

But while both the age and cost would give you the idea that this isn't a great phone, it is the complete opposite of that. It might not have all the bells and whistles of Apple's latest and greatest but it shines where it needs to.

With a 2691mAh battery. a dual camera set-up, IP67 water protection and a surprisingly powerful processor for its age. And, at 5.5-inches, this is the kind of device you can easily use one-handed

Still feeling a bit overwhelmed by these prices? Don't forget that iPhone 8 deals are also available if you'd prefer the smaller smartphone, along with the smaller prices. 

iPhone 8 Plus price: how much does it cost?

A mighty £699. That's how much the 64GB iPhone 8 Plus will cost you in the UK according to the RRP. That might seem like a lot but that's one hundred pounds cheaper than when it first came out.

Need more memory? Then your only other option is spending an extra £150 and grabbing a £849 256GB iPhone 8 Plus. 

If you opt to buy the iPhone 8 Plus upfront without a contract you will save money in the long run, but of course £699 is a lot of money to pay. If you can afford it though it the way to go once you pair it with a cheap SIM only deal.

This is the iPhone you want if you can't quite afford the iPhone XR or iPhone 11. It's got the larger battery, same powerful innards and strong camera. If you don't mind the poorer screen, it's a good option – and the screen is still a beaut. And we prefer it quite a lot more to the regular iPhone 8.

Read more in TechRadar's full iPhone 8 Plus review

Is the iPhone SE going to be a better choice?

iPhone SE deals are a newer, more powerful handset entering the world in 2020. It's named after a budget handset Apple gave the world a few years ago but looks like the iPhone 8…and has the specs of an iPhone 11.

In other words, its Apple's amalgamation of all of its top devices and comes at a price lower than the iPhone 8 Plus. However, it is much smaller in size so if you're favourite feature of the iPhone 8 Plus is the size, don't be swayed by this new release.

Is the Plus worth going for over the iPhone 8?

There are really just two decisions to make here – cost and size. If you don't mind paying a little bit more then the iPhone 8 Plus will be the option you should gravitate to.

More worried about saving some cash with your new device? Drop down to the iPhone 8 with its smaller size and cheaper price tag.

Will iPhone 8 Plus deals drop further in price?

It is highly unlikely that we'll see this handset get any cheaper. For newer handsets like the iPhone 11, iPhone SE and more, prices will fall over the Black Friday and Amazon Prime Day periods but the iPhone 8 Plus is unlikely to get that same treatment.

In fact, we imagine soon the iPhone 8 Plus will start to rise in price for contracts and drop slightly in SIM-free price as more retailers stop stocking it due to its older age.

Amid the spread of COVID-19 and the mandate for extreme social distancing that has come as a result of the global pandemic, more of the world’s workforce is working remotely than ever before. In the last four years alone, the growth of remote work has increased by roughly 44 percent, meaning that while a large portion of the population is no stranger to collaborating from afar, more than half of working men and women are navigating these completely uncharted waters for the very first time.

And while technology has aided in the ability to work outside of the traditional office for years, the massive scale at which the virus is causing companies to entirely disband their workforces is putting unprecedented strain on leadership and teams alike. That being said, there are some things – including new technologies – that executives should keep top of mind in order to assist their teams and make collaboration from afar not only possible, but lucrative as well.

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A new kind of office interaction

One of the most challenging boundaries to working remotely is the lack of true collaboration that’s possible within an office setting. Voice calls can only do so much, though of course options like FaceTime and Zoom are stepping up to provide much more personal connections from afar. But there’s still so much lacking when colleagues don’t have the opportunity to be in the same room as one another. There’s no open dialog to work through shared problems, no in-the-moment hashing out of ideas, no water cooler banter. And it’s not only in these situations that teams often come up with their best ideas – these little interpersonal moments are also critical to company morale, performance, and success of both individuals and the company overall.

While it’s of course possible to work in silos like this – and ultimately remain successful in doing so – teams that are able to bridge the gap, somewhere between traditional office settings and working completely separate from the whole, will be the ones who flourish throughout the changing times.

Virtual landscapes taking the place of the water cooler

Fortunately, there are technologies out there that can help teams to seamlessly bring the two styles of work together so everyone wins and continues to grow. Companies should seek solutions that enable their organization to grow and scale in the cloud, hiring and working with the best talent, no matter where they may be located. Virtual workplaces allow members to scale their businesses and ideas faster, more efficiently, and – most importantly – without silos.

Whether you're a Fortune 500 company with thousands of employees spread across the world, or a small business who has only recently been disbanded due to social distancing practices – learning how to lead, delegate, collaborate, and achieve from afar (for perhaps the first time) – virtual workplaces are providing tailored solutions. Virtual campuses are the perfect place to build a cloud-based business, home to a community of untethered innovators, while private suites provide more personalized meeting places for smaller teams.

Regardless of your organization’s size or goals, taking your office into the virtual world might be worth considering – especially if you’re navigating through the separation of teams for the very first time.

Engaging events are still possible (and no, webinars don't count)

Corporate and industry events have always been an above and beyond way for people to make genuine and lasting connections with like-minded people outside of their organizations. But with every major event, from SxSW to Coachella, being shut down or postponed indefinitely due to the pandemic, organizations are not only having to lay off hundreds of employees, they’re also swiftly losing thousands in event budget and are scrambling to make sure their investments aren’t simply being flushed down the tubes.

Fortunately, this is once again where virtual workplaces have the ability to save the day. By combining experiential event technology with virtual work landscapes, organizations have the power to host events outside of their own corporate walls –– without any walls at all. Of course, you could host an ‘event’ via Weibar or Zoom (in fact, if you’re anything like me, you may already be feeling a little worn out when it comes to Zoom meetings and happy hours). And even though the face-time with friends and family is appreciated, when it comes to a large scale event, where perhaps hundreds or thousands of people could be involved, not only does a Zoom call become impossible to manage – it becomes hugely impersonal.

This is when it becomes critical within this new landscape to first and foremost address the difference between events and experiences. New technologies are providing so much more than webinar formats – allowing speakers to engage with attendees through real-time Q&As (versus one-dimensional chat boxes), secure spaces for private meetings, and networking opportunities that simulate real life events, summits, and conferences.

Picture this – your attendee’s avatars are greeted at a registration table where they will begin their virtual event journey. From there, much like attendees at in-person conferences, they are welcome to attend keynotes and breakout sessions, meet others within the virtual event environment for ‘coffee’ or one-on-one conversations, and even engage in activities, like networking and team building games and comedy acts – all from the privacy and safety of their own homes.

These types of virtual events are providing users with three key elements of an experience that a webinar just can’t provide.

Audio: With 3D audio options, users can simulate real-life conversations and scenarios, just like they might in a convention center. They can call out hello’s to people in passing, walk up to someone and introduce themselves, and chat with the person next to them while waiting for a presentation to begin.

Presence: Admit it, we’ve all been there – you’ve signed up for a webinar, the date approaches, you dial in for the meeting, and then you work around the presentation, perhaps catching bits and pieces of important information while it drones on in the background and you get up to make your third coffee of the day. The amazing part of these virtual event campuses is that users are required to continually participate – whether it’s by walking your avatar to the virtual auditorium, kicking a soccer ball as part of an online networking event, or sitting your avatar down for a one-on-one meeting with a business associate. By gamifying virtual events, users not only have to participate, it becomes fun to do so.

Autonomy: Referring again back to the example of a webinar: there are very few opportunities to make a decision in this scenario. You either attend the webinar or you don’t. Virtual event campuses present users with a new type of autonomy, never before seen outside of these digital worlds. In the middle of a session that doesn’t quite suit you? Get up and go to another one. Planning to attend a session when you meet an interesting person you’d rather continue speaking with? Grab a digital coffee with them instead! Every user experience is completely different and totally dependent on what that specific user hopes to get out of it, making it a brilliantly interactive alternative to other online events and meetings. 

These types of solutions are not only allowing organizations to save money potentially lost through event cancellations, it’s also giving companies a chance to provide value to key stakeholders and customers who are also being impacted by today’s pandemic. These virtual campuses are providing unparalleled levels of engagement, learning opportunities, and benefits to workforces who would otherwise be missing out.

Ryan Costello is Founder and CSO at Event Farm

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Microsoft has revealed details on how Xbox Series X backwards compatibility will work, calling the new Xbox "the most compatible next-generation console".

In an Xbox Wire post, Jason Ronald, director of program management for Xbox Series X, revealed that the Xbox Series X will launch with thousands of games, across four generations of Xbox. Not only that, but these games will "play better than ever before" thanks to Microsoft's new HDR reconstruction technique and the Xbox Series X's Quick Resume feature. In addition, the Xbox Series X's powerful specs will enable select backwards-compatible titles to run at higher resolutions or double the frame rate.

 "As gamers, we also know how important it is to preserve and respect our gaming legacies," Ronald wrote in the post. "Your favorite games and franchises, your progression and achievements, and the friendships and communities you create through gaming should all move with you across generations. Not only that, your favorite gaming accessories and peripherals should also move forward with you as well."

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Custom processor is key

According to Ronald, the same team that brought backwards-compatibility to the Xbox One are doing the same for Xbox Series X. 

Technical aspects have made this job for the Xbox Series X somewhat more challenging, but the next-gen console's custom processor has been specially designed to combat this issue and allow us to enjoy titles from all Xbox generations seamlessly.

"Maintaining compatibility presents a massive technical challenge as fundamental system and chip architectures advance across generations," Ronald explains. "Developers highly optimize their games to the unique capabilities and performance of a console to provide the best experience for their players. To make the Xbox Series X our most compatible console ever required both significant innovation in the design of the custom processor as well as the unique design of the Xbox operating system and hypervisor at the heart of our next-generation platform." 

Ronald also revealed that the Xbox team has logged more than 100,000 hours of Xbox Series X play testing, with members of the team now using the Xbox Series X as their primary console. 

"By the time we launch this holiday, the team will have spent well over 200,000 hours ensuring your game library is ready for you to jump in immediately," Ronald states.

Backwards-compatibility boost

Not only will we be able to enjoy thousands of backwards-compatible games on the Xbox Series X from launch, but these games will apparently play better than ever before. 

The Xbox Series X will be able to run backwards-compatible games natively, with each game fully harnessing the power of the new Xbox's CPU, GPU and SSD. 

"This means that all titles run at the peak performance that they were originally designed for, many times even higher performance than the games saw on their original launch platform, resulting in higher and more steady framerates and rendering at their maximum resolution and visual quality," Ronald explains. "Backwards-compatible titles also see significant reductions in in-game load times from the massive leap in performance from our custom NVME SSD which powers the Xbox Velocity Architecture."

Not only will backwards-compatible games perform better, but they'll look better too. The Xbox Series X will deliver a HDR reconstruction technique which will automatically add HDR support to games – without impacting performance. 

In addition, the Xbox Series X's Quick Resume feature will also be compatible with backwards-compatible games, allowing players to essentially jump into games instantly, picking up where they left off, or to jump between games seamlessly.

According to Ronald, these advances don't require any additional work from developers and instead will happen at platform level. The team is also working on new techniques that will allow select backwards-compatible titles to run at higher resolutions and even double the frame rate.

A history of Xbox at your fingertips

It does currently look like the Xbox Series X could be the most compatible next-gen console. Not only will the new Xbox be backwards-compatible with generations of Xbox games, but we also know this extends to Xbox One accessories.

However, we're largely in the dark about Sony's plans for backwards compatibility with the PS5. We know the PS5 will be able to play "almost all" of the best PS4 games at launch, but the company hasn't revealed if backwards-compatibility will extend beyond that. 

Sony hasn't had a great history of backwards compatible to date. While early versions of the PlayStation 3 were able to play PS2 titles, the console was eventually able to play original PlayStation One titles purchased on the store. With the PlayStation 4 generation, Sony placed a big bet on PS Now to pick up some of the slack in terms of backwards-compatibility.

PlayStation Now allows for players to stream selected games from PS2, PS3 and PS4. Originally a streaming-only feature, PlayStation Now does offer some PS4 games as downloads, but those with poor internet speeds need not apply and even those with great connections will find that input lag can cause issues in more reaction-based games.

Meanwhile, the Xbox One currently supports 575 Xbox 360 titles and 41 original Xbox titles. It doesn't cover the thousands of games in the Xbox back catalog but it looks like Microsoft is looking to fix that with the Xbox Series X.

We're expecting to hear more about Xbox Series X backwards compatibility in the coming months, with the new Xbox's release date drawing ever closer. Hopefully we'll get a taste of which older Xbox games we'll be able to dive into during one of Microsoft's monthly Xbox 20/20 streams.

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A Point of Sale (or POS) system is essential for a business to run its operations smoothly.  As its name suggests, a POS system allows companies to take payments from customers in bricks-and-mortar stores (or online) at the point of sale. They might not be hugely exciting, as far as business tech goes, but when used effectively they are capable of driving down cost and improving margins without sacrificing service levels. There’s tons to choose from, and in our roundup of the best Point of Sale systems, Shopify, Square and Vend topped our list of recommendations.

Though some businesses could get by without using a POS system, they would run the risk of missing out on critical data that helps save time and money. There are compliance-related benefits too; a savvy POS system ensures that businesses are compliant with payment regulations to avoid fines and other administrative costs (such as chargeback fraud), all while offering advanced security features that protect from data theft and cyber breaches.

Benefits to a POS 

There are many other benefits to having a POS system, ranging from increasing productivity and reducing costs to streamlining operations; reducing human error; providing detailed sales reporting; and improving the overall customer experience. In choosing a POS system, you will need to consider upfront what specific features and customization options your business needs.

For example, retailers that sell electronic goods will need their products to contain serial numbers to identify models, makes, and specific items in stores. Clothes retailers, on the other hand, will need their products to have separate brand-specific SKUs. Due to the high associated costs of items, jewelry stores will have POS systems that specifically issue alerts for incorrect billing attempts. And for groceries, point-of-sale systems require goods to contain both sell-by dates and a unit of measurement in order to allow companies to sell items at a discount once.

Whatever you are processing, one of the big advantages to a POS system is the amount of time that you and your employees will get back. By opting for a system that has time management options, can promote autonomy in the workplace, allowing employees to thrive. This can be taken a step further by creating work schedules for individuals and teams.

Elements of a POS system 

Modern POS systems have evolved from simple cash registers and can do much more than simple transactions. Effectively, they’re your business’s brain, capable of everything from tracking inventory to checking bills; managing loyalty programs; organizing customers and staff; calculating tax and printing and storing receipts. They are ubiquitous in many sectors – particularly hospitality, retail, and leisure – and come in different shapes and sizes depending on the needs of the business. 

Some POS systems combine hardware (such as a server computer) and software in a single unit, whereas others separate the two by connecting a ‘dumb’ terminal to a server located either on-premise or in another building. For cloud-based POS systems, terminals connect directly to the internet to run software that updates automatically. Many are modular, allowing additional hardware units to be connected for displaying metrics such as order total and product weight. Others can scan barcodes, print receipts and handle security needs – for example, credit card processing systems designed for taking credit or debit card payments.

POS systems are also customizable on the software side, allowing businesses to manage membership programs and loyalty schemes to grant customers discounts on future purchases. Here, UX and design become critical to their effectiveness. Terminals in restaurants, for example, will prioritize usability and speed by featuring enlarged buttons on big and bright monitors to make it quick and easy for staff to book tables for customers in dark environments. Conversely, a handheld EPOS (Electronic Point of Sale) terminal on a market stand will be barely bigger than a credit card while featuring the ability to house a 4G SIM card for connecting directly to the internet to process payments online.

Beyond transactions 

As mentioned, a POS system isn’t something that only allows you to conduct sales-related activity. It is a solution that can reduce reliance on manual processes, making it a vital tool in helping businesses to digitize their processes and reduce reliance on spreadsheets. Powerful POS solutions excel in providing real-time, actionable data that enables tasks to be undertaken efficiently and quickly.

This includes the ability to store information and build customer profiles to understand more about customers. This in turn leads to better marketing capabilities such as the ability to create customer groups – for example VIP shoppers – that can be targeted through direct marketing campaigns. At same time, POS systems allow you to find out about your own employees’ performance by letting customers tip your workers using pre-set percentages, which is especially useful for companies in the service industry. 

And when it comes to reporting, POS systems can tell you when certain items are becoming more popular while helping you to ensure that you have a sufficient amount of them in your inventory. It can be achieved through digitised product catalogues in systems that track inventory and automatically updating quantities as buyers purchase them.

Whatever your reason for wanting a POS system, you should consider what your business requirements are before deciding what kind of solution fits your needs. To better make a decision, check out How to choose a POS and the 5 main features of a POS that you need to look out for.

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Nvidia GeForce Now subscribers, do you want the good news first, or the bad news?

Bad news it is then – the technically-accomplished game streaming service is about to lose a significant number of games, including popular titles like Yakuza 0 and Kiwami, Two Point Hospital as well as Shenmue I and II. You can see the full list of titles leaving the service here.

It's the latest blow to the service, following a number of high profile catalog losses following GeForce Now's move out of beta and into a full, paid-for product.

But this time at least, it comes with a silver lining. The good news? Nvidia may finally have a solution to stabilize its library, and build stronger, consistent relationships with the developers of the games it wants to feature.

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Opt-in gaming

Going forward, developers and publishers will have to opt-in for their games to be a part of Nvidia GeForce Now. Previously, it seems Nvidia had moved to add support for titles without the explicit prior approval of the publishers behind them, on the basis that it wasn't selling licenses to games directly itself. Instead, GeForce Now was seen as just a portal to access titles gamers already owned on existing PC streaming platforms, and GeForce Now was just the conduit to access them.

But with publishers and developers still figuring out their own cloud gaming strategies, this introduced conflict. So instead, Nvidia will now require all parties to opt-in before a game is featured.

“Response has been strong with over 200 publishers committing to streaming on the service,” said Phil Eisler, Nvidia’s GeForce Now vice president. 

“Going forward, only the games that are opted in will be available on the service, providing confidence in the GeForce Now game library. Yet some publishers are still figuring out their cloud strategies. Those that haven’t opted in as of May 31 will be removed.”

While in the short term this will mean more game losses, looking forward it means that you're far less likely to see games suddenly disappear from GeForce Now. Plus, it gives a framework for those that have left the service to re-negotiate and come back onboard. It finally feels like progress for a service that showed so much early potential.

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Can you explain in simple terms how the Ragnar Locker gang used the virtual machine to deploy the ransomware executable?

​This is the first time we have seen virtual machines used for ransomware. The Ragnar Locker gang embedded the ransomware executable on the virtual disk image (VDI) of the virtual machine (VM). The ransomware executable is not sent into the network and is not run on the physical endpoint, but runs solely in the virtual machine.

What are the tell-tale signs or tools that can be used to detect this type of attack?

On the physical machine, the actions by the ransomware in the virtual machine are tunnelled and performed by a well-known and normally trusted process. A tell-tale sign is high CPU usage by a single process and the mass writing into existing documents and other files. The best tool to defend against this type of attack is with a security tool (anti-ransomware) that is specifically designed to detect the unusual mass file writes via behavioural monitoring with a zero-trust attitude.

As well as being a new technique, what is so threatening about this method of attack?

The attack hides the ransomware executable in a relatively large file, of a file type that security tools typically don't process: a virtual disk image (VDI). In addition, the ransomware executable runs in a virtual machine and because of the underlying hypervisor technology, is not visible by security tools on the physical machine.

While this attempt was unsuccessful, do you think that with the increasing use of VMs this tactic will become more savvy and therefore successful?

Although this is a bold attack, it is also noisy due to its foot-print and high CPU usage. In networks that haven't invested in ransomware protection, this attack can be successful, but I don't think we will see this approach become common.

What type of organisations do you think are most at risk from this technique?

Since more ransomware attacks are human-operated, every organisation is a target. They all should be prepared and have a recovery plan (printed on paper). One successful spam or phishing email, an exposed RDP port, a vulnerable exploitable gateway device or stolen remote access credentials are enough for these active adversaries to gain a foothold. However, with more criminal gangs asking for millions of dollars in ransom demands, it is clear that larger organisations with more money and a bigger attack surface are at greater risk.

What else should we know?

In the last few months, we’ve seen ransomware evolve in several ways. But the Ragnar Locker adversaries are taking ransomware to a new level and thinking outside of the box.

They are deploying a well-known and trusted hypervisor to hundreds of endpoints simultaneously, together with a pre-installed and pre-configured virtual disk image (VDI) guaranteed to run their ransomware.

“Like a ghost able to interact with the material world, their virtual machine is tailored per endpoint, so it can encrypt the local disks and mapped network drives on the physical machine from within the virtual plane and out of the detection realm of most endpoint protection products. The overhead involved to covertly run their 50 kilobyte ransomware seems like a bold, noisy move, but could pay-off in some networks that are not properly protected against ransomware.

Mark Loman is director of engineering, Threat Mitigation at Sophos.

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Vivo’s upcoming truly wireless earbuds have been listed on its official e-commerce website in China. The New Vivo TWS Neo is said to come with slight improvements over the last offering from the company. 

The listing on Vivo’s Official store in China shows the design of the earbuds along with some specifications. The design resembles a lot like Apple’s 2nd gen Airpods and comes with improved canal design than its predecessor. There are two microphones on both the sides of the earpiece for better audio capture.

The charging case has an LED light indicator in the front, and the shape is somewhat similar to the previous earbuds that launched late last year. The listing also includes key specifications of the device with some equalizer settings written as Clear Vocals, Super Bass, Bright Treble indicating the audio features.

Specifications in the listing say the Vivo TWS Neo will have a 14.2mm Audio driver unit. It also has support for Qualcomm’s AptX Audio  Codec and DeepX Stereo effects for high-quality audio streaming.

This codec is said to output 1.5 times better audio than other traditional TWS with SBC and AAC codecs. The website also claims some great audio quality through these features. The listing mentions two colourways – Blue and White. 

Apart from this, there is a placeholder price on the website and the real pricing could be different. Vivo is yet to give a word on this. If we were to guess, it should be priced competitively to rival the likes of the recently launched Huawei Freebuds 3.

Vivo is holding a launch event on June 1 where it is said to announce the new Vivo X50 and we are expecting the TWS alongside the new 5G smartphone.

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One of the best-loved Marvel shows of all-time is entering its final run this summer, having first hit TV screens all the way back in 2013. It's a pretty momentous television event for fans of comic book shows and the Marvel Cinematic Universe in particular, as it's the first-ever MCU spin-off series – so here's how to watch Agents of SHIELD season 7 online and stream the Marvel show from anywhere in the world.

Spoiler alert: if you're not fully up-to-date with Agents of SHIELD – so having finished season 6 – you may find some unwanted surprises below. Please bear this in mind and scroll down for specific guides to watching Agents of Shield online.

Season 7 picks up where season 6 left off, after a dramatic finale saw Quake, Mack, May and Yo-Yo narrowly thwart Izel – although May (Ming-Na Wen) suffered serious injuries in the showdown that could still be life-threatening. 

And in something of a preview for season 7, Fitz, Simmons and Enoch teamed up against the Chronicoms – who will feature as the main villains of the final series and want to colonize Earth after their home planet was destroyed.

The show once again stars Clark Gregg as Agent Phil Coulson, albeit a LMD (life model decoy) version of the dead human character – and there are even rumors that Captain America could feature. That's because the final run of the show time travels back to the 1930s, which perfectly fits with the  timeline of one Steve Rogers

So let's cut to the chase – here's how to watch Agent of SHIELD season 7 online and stream every episode no matter where you are right now.

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How to watch Agents of SHIELD from outside your country

Those who already have a streaming service they use to watch Marvel's Agents of SHIELD season 7 online may find themselves unable to access it when abroad, due to pesky geo-blocking restrictions. Yes, we're aware that most of us aren't going anywhere in the near future, but global travel will one day resume and, god forbid, you may even be stuck abroad during these difficult times.

Fortunately, there's an easy solution to geo-blocking. Downloading a VPN will allow you to watch all your favorite shows no matter where you are. This simple bit of software changes your IP address so that you can access episodes live or on demand just like you would at home.

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How to watch Agents of SHIELD online in the US

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