Gabe Newell, the founder and CEO of game maker and retailer Valve, just can’t stop making jokes about Half-Life 3. You know, the long, long – i.e. more than a decade now – anticipated sequel to Half-Life 2: Episode Two? The sketch sees Newell performing voice recordings for an upcoming expansion pack for Dota 2. The producers, having been at this for hours, are clearly distressed at this point after having tried the line several times.

I’ll let you in on a secret – like most 20-something indie kids of the mid ‘Noughties, I was in a band. The IK Multimedia iRig Stomp I/O, being an iOS and USB-compatible multi-effects stompbox-come-audio interface proved just the excuse I needed, and more than surpassed my expectations. The IK Multimedia iRig Stomp I/O would have been a dream come true to a teenage me. But with the benefits of leaving the touchscreen being accessible part of the appeal, I’m not sure how IK Multimedia could effec

According to a trademark filing discovered by The Verge, Google has a brand new podcast app in the works. That’s quite vague, but a Google spokesperson has confirmed that Shortwave is being created for “spoken word” content and has no connection to any of the company’s existing apps. That includes Google Podcasts – the smart podcast recommendation app that arrived on Android devices just two months ago. Tune in for moreShortwave is being created within Google’s Area 120 incubator – a testbed for

5G phones could be a major step closer after Qualcomm confirmed it has started sending out 5G-ready modems to its partners. At a media briefing attended by TechRadar Pro, Ben Timmons, senior director of marketing and business development for Qualcomm in Europe, said that although 5G devices will launch before the end of this year, the company doesn’t expect 5G smartphones until early 2019. “Much of our work now is dominated by preparation for 5G,” he said, “there’s a tremendous amount of momentu

Blizzard has dropped a brand new Overwatch animated short – Shooting Star – this time focusing on pro gamer, and star of the MEKA squad, D.Va (aka Hana Song). Despite the rest of the MEKA squad doubting D.Va’s concerns, it seems she was right to be worried. Check out Overwatch’s latest animated short below:New control mapIn addition to this insight into D.Va’s exhausting work ethic, Blizzard announced a brand new control map – Busan. Busan is broken up into three prominent locations within one m

Newegg has slashed the price of the Lenovo Explorer Windows Mixed Reality headset from $349.99 to just $99.99. It’s extremely rare for a virtual reality headset to drop below $100, and this deal makes the Explorer the cheapest way to experience games like Skyrim VR. Lenovo Explorer headset for $99 at Newegg The deal is for the Lenovo Explorer headset only. View DealComfort and qualityUnlike some headsets (like the HTC Vive with its Lighthouses) the Lenovo Explorer doesn’t require any extra hardw

Shopping around for a 4K monitor for your PC gaming needs, but don’t need the bells and whistles of more expensive models? Samsung may have just the display series for you. Samsung’s CJG5 screens, available in 32 and 27 inch sizes, eschew the more dramatic accoutrements of some gaming monitors in favour of focussing on the essentials to improve your gaming experience. It’s only flourish is the fact that the screens use a curved display, which Samsung believes makes them easy for your eyes to foc

Valve has announced Steam Play, a service that allows users to play games that were once only available on Windows on machines running Linux. WINE (Wine Is Not an Emulator) is a tool for running Windows applications in Linux, and it looks like Proton is a specialized version that’s aimed at allowing Windows games to run in Linux without too much overhead. Open windowThe new Steam Play is good news not just for Linux gamers, but potentially all PC gamers. However, if Steam Play and Proton really

Nokia says it expects to make €3 in royalties for every 5G smartphone sold. Nokia 5GBy capping its licence income at €3, Nokia will hope to avoid such arguments and instead benefit from the rollout of 5G. “This announcement is an important step in helping companies plan for the introduction of 5G/NR capable mobile phones, with the first commercial launches expected in 2019.” 5G networks are expected to connect all manner of devices, such as PCs, routers and industrial equipment, and Nokia will d

Huawei has yet to confirm any details of its next series of phones, but we’ve just had the Huawei Mate 20 Lite name confirmed in an email from UK mobile network Vodafone. Leaks and rumors suggest we’ll see a Huawei Mate 20 as well as a top tier Huawei Mate 20 Pro and Mate 20 Lite. We expect the Mate 20 Lite will be a parred down version of the other two phones with slightly lesser specs and what we would expect to be a lower price. Exactly why Vodafone is confirming this phone before the officia

Microsoft has announced that it will cease to support apps for Windows 8 at the end of October. In a blog post, the company clarified that come October 31, the Microsoft Store will stop accepting apps from developers targeted at Windows 8/8.1 (or indeed Windows Phone 8.x). Clearly, this is another move by Microsoft to focus more on Windows 10, and herd those who haven’t yet upgraded towards its newest desktop operating system. Universal acclaimSoftware developers are being encouraged to port the

Gaming phenomenon Fortnite is now playable on almost every gadget, from smartphones to games consoles, but we now know one platform it almost certainly won’t be coming to: Apple TV. Fortnite developer Epic Games insisted it had no plans to bring the game to Apple TV after Twitter leaker Storm posted an image of the game’s code that included a reference to the tvOS platform. A statement from Epic Games to CNET said: “References to TVOS in the Fortnite files are the result of general Unreal Engine

Made available to developers and beta channels in July, Google’s redesign of the world’s most popular browser is being made available to everyone starting early next month. Rolling out from September 4, “Chrome Browser will have a new design across all operating systems,” according to Google’s newest Chrome Enterprise release notes. The Material Design refresh will bring rounded corners on tabs, a bright color palette, and additional white shading for active tabs and windows. The new version of

An article from the Washington Post has revealed that Facebook assigns its users a reputation score between 0 and 1. When a user flags a post as containing false news, their score is adjusted based on the veracity of this tip. So, for users who consistently flag posts that genuinely contain fake news, their score will rise and Facebook will lend their future tips more weight, whereas the opposite is true of those that continuously report legitimate news. The score has been introduced to combat t

While you’re getting ready to go Back to School , you might find yourself shopping for a Back to chool laptop . Buying a laptop for school comes with its own particular questions you’ll need to think about before you buy. Whatever type of laptop you’re thinking of getting about for school, you’ll want to check out these tips to make sure you don’t pick something too quickly. Cooling vents for lap-useIf you do get a powerful laptop, make sure you’re aware of the way it cools itself. Rather than g

But how does Nvidia’s best graphics card ever stack up to its eternal rival, AMD, with its Radeon RX Vega 64? The RX Vega 64 has no such option, but of course includes all of the latest connectivity standards otherwise. The RTX 2080 is ready for this next phase in simplifying VR, and the RX Vega 64 is not. Before we tackle the RTX 2080, let’s lay out what the RX Vega 64 is capable of first. The AMD Radeon RX Vega 64 next to last generation’s Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080.

Whether you’re looking to switch from another provider or sign up for television (TV) service for the very first time, DirecTV offers amazing value. To see all the packages and order directly, go to DirecTV and click ‘Shop DirecTV’ to see all the packages available in your area. Although DirecTV’s top tier package of 330+ channels costs $110 per month, you can get DirecTV service for much less. And for the first three months, you’ll get to try out premium channels, like HBO, Showtime and Starz.

In case you haven’t heard of ray tracing before, it’s a light rendering process that quite literally traces rays. That said, this example takes things a little far and, after seeing the Star Wars ray tracing demo a dozen times, it seems as if ray tracing equates to shiny, reflective surfaces – but there’s much more to it than that. However, while these have all been sort of spot fixes attempting to polish up certain aspects of computer graphics, ray tracing could reinvent the wheel. The long roa

Enter our Tech Innovation for the Future competition and you could win up to £10,000! The sadness of social mediaNewspapers may have exaggerated the issue for scary headlines, but multiple studies suggest that spending too much time on social media isn’t good for our mental health. “It’s certainly true that a number of studies have found a connection between social media use and declines in wellbeing,” he says. For example, tech might mean that you work remotely and don’t see anybody all day. If

There’s no shortage of bad news out there – with wars, famine and the mediocrity of Matt Groening’s new show, Disenchantment, topping the list – but Google wants to fix that, not by censoring bad news but by making it easier to find good news. The feature is called ‘Tell Me Something Good’ and, according to Google, its purpose is to help inspire and encourage by bubbling up Solutions Journalism stories – stories that focus on the improvements we’re making to society rather than its flaws. The fe