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The best Boxing Day deals for 2020 - Wired.co.uk

The last tech discounts of the season, here's the WIRED edit of the best Boxing Day deals

The Boxing Day sales are the last real tech deals of the season and if you've been paying attention, you'll know that we don't expect a big round of tech deals for a few months after this. Here's what WIRED's Gear team has picked out as worth your attention this week. The best Boxing Day deals live today Boxing Day deals: Just spotted A pair of Sony's top headphones have been on sale a couple of times this autumn/winter and here they are again. The excellent Sony WH-1000-XM3s (£205) over-ears are down £12 on recent prices and £14 cheaper than even their Black Friday price. And the wireless, noise cancelling Sony WF-1000-XM3 (£146) in-ears are down to a one or two quid less than Black Friday too, depending on the colour you go for. Xiaomi has £30 off the 128GB model of its Poco X3 NFC (£199) Android phone on Amazon - the same price as the 64GB model on its own Mi store right now. And you get a hell of a lot of phone for under £200 with a big 5,160 mAh battery, an ultra wide-angle camera, Snapdragon 732G and - ahem, Apple - a 33W fast charger in the box. Read next What is it? The Bowers & Wilkins PX7 headphones are premium headset for those looking for a quality noise-cancelling experience. The PX7 has taken its place on our WIRED Recommends list for the best headphones around, being crowned our favourite buy if youre looking for pure sound. Along with top-notch sound, you get supreme comfort, sleek design and pleasing noise-cancelling. What's the real saving? With a real saving of a stunning £100+ (down from recent prices of a lofty £320-£339), it wouldve been impossible not to recommend this opportunity to pick up a WIRED Recommends pair of headphones at such a significant discount. Click here to save £130 on the Bowers & Wilkins PX7 Read next What is it? The Realme 7 comes from a brand that many still may not have heard off but this smartphone manufacturer is worth your attention. The Realme 7 brings the looks of phones that are upwards of double the price down to under £200. While its day-to-day performance wont knock your socks off, it is competitive for the price and is surprisingly good at tackling popular mobile games like Fortnite and PUBG: Mobile. What's the real saving? The Realme 7 is a phone worthy of recommendation at its already low regular price but, with a real saving of £30, its definitely worth considering if you are on the hunt for a budget handset. Click here to save £30 on the Realme 7 Read next What is it? The Asus TUF Gaming VG32VQ1B is part of the companys popular gaming TUF brands that spans desktops, laptops and peripherals. This curved gaming monitor is all about a stellar viewing experience at a price that doesnt break the bank. For your cash, you get a big-but-not-too-big 32-inch size and a strong modern gaming combo of 1440p and 165Hz. The hardcore gamers will be pleased to here this also comes with FreeSync Premium and a delightful 1ms response time. What's the real saving? This Asus curved gaming monitor offering is already priced lower than much of the rest of its market, which often goes upwards of £600-£700. A £75 saving on the already decent price is a welcome discount. Click here to save £75 on the Asus TUF Gaming VG32VQ1B What is it? The Asus ROG Strix Fusion 700 is our WIRED Recommends top pick for the best gaming headset around. Asus flagship headset offers wireless battery life of up to 8 hours, the simplicity of being able to connect to your PC with just a USB and sound quality that nails both bass and vocals. Read next What's the real saving? While you arent getting a huge real saving on these stellar headphones, this is only due to it being a reduction on an already reduced price with the headset often costing around £220. This makes this additional small saving a decent cherry on top. Click here to get the Asus ROG Strix Fusion 700 for £180 What is it? The Logitech G910 Orion Spectrum is one of the companys many functional gaming peripherals sticking to a more simplicating gaming look than a sleek, and likely more costly offering. But, most importantly, it has the features to do the job. The G910 Orion Spectrum provides RGB backlit keys, Romer-G tactile key switches, 9 programmable G-Keys as well as Arx Dual Display tech for added flexibility. Read next What's the real saving? This Logitech gaming keyboard usually sets you back around £160 but, with recent sales bringing it down by £10, we see this as a real saving of £30. While its not the cheapest keyboard around, its a solid reduction for a keyboard from a trusted brand. Click here to save £30 on the Logitech G910 Orion Spectrum £12 off Samsung Galaxy Watch Active 2, now £198: Android smartwatches are a mixed bag but Samsung has a range that includes some of the best you can buy. The Watch Active 2 includes a range of sensors for health tracking, a traditional watch shape and a handy way to view your notifications. £18 off LIFX Mini smart light bulbs, now £27 each: LIFX is a brilliant Philips Hue alternative - control from its dedicated app or just hook up to a voice assistant like Alexa for an affordable smart lighting setup. They're WIRED's best smart light bulbs without a hub. Read next £150 off a Sage The Barista Express coffee machine, now £399: A repeat of its lowest-in-2020 Prime Day price, this Sage coffee machine is £150 off, not quite the £199 as advertised, but still a great deal. Sage is a WIRED-approved kitchen brand and this model features digital temperature controls and an integrated conical burr grinder that grinds the beans straight into the filter. £31 off a Panasonic SD-2511WXC breadmaker, now £129: Our absolute fave breadmaker - a £240 Pana model - is sticking at full price but this more affordable alternative is down to £129 on Amazon. £30 off Xiaomi Mi 10T Lite 5G, now £198: While 5G is still yet to fully take off, this budget phone from Xiaomi is a strong way to futureproof your smartphone without the hefty price. Despite the low price, the Mi 10T Lite 5G offers pleasing design and plenty of battery life. £17 off Samsung T7 Touch Portable SSD, now £83: Looking for a speedy way to store your files and photos? The 500GB Samsung T7 Touch Portable SSD is just that, in a trim and stylish form-factor that can be easily tucked away in your bag. You even get a fingerprint sensor for some added security. £41 off Jaybird X4, now £50: Jaybird is now established as a go-to brand for runners and wireless headphones fans alike, this in-ear offering (with just a wire between the buds) is down to their lowest price yet bringing you supreme value for money. £6.50 off PowerA Pokemon Wireless Controller, now £37.50: Bagged a Nintendo Switch for Christmas and in need of another controller? PowerA has a wide range of traditionally shaped wireless controllers in a range of joyful themed styles. £62 off Samsung Galaxy Tab S5e Wi-Fi, now £378: Samsung impressed us this year with its flagship Tab S7 but, wont be for those after a more reasonably priced tablet. The much cheaper Tab S5e is stylish, lightweight and provides a strong value-for-money way to use all your favourite apps and watch videos. £15 off Osmo Pizza Co. Game, now £35: If youre looking to get your child into interactive educational games, Osmo offers a wide-range of both mathematics and coding based buys. The Pizza Co. Game teaches maths, design and communication skills under the guise of a pizzeria.

The Best Sonos Speakers Are on Sale for Cyber Monday (2020) - WIRED

These smart speakers hardly ever go on sale. You can save on Sonos One, Beam, Move, and more for Cyber Monday—but most deals end today.

Sonos is one of those brands. Like Nintendo, Apple, and Tesla, Sonos makes gear that looks incredible, performs well, and basically never goes on sale. If you asked anyone on the WIRED Gear team how to save money on Sonos speakers, we'd say that your best bet is to check for refurbished or open-box stock, because discounts are just that rare. Except for today. It's Cyber Monday, and there are great deals to be had on hundreds of productsincluding Sonos speakers. You can save on Sonos One, Sonos Beam, Sonos Move, and more as part of the company's Cyber Monday sale. Find details for each discount below. These deals will likely end tonight, and some may sell out during the day, so if you're in the market for Sonos, it is a good time to get them. It's always a good idea to check back again if your coveted item sells out, since stores occasionally add more stock. Sonos was the original wireless smart speaker company, and its a favorite because its products sound amazing, connect to most every app and voice assistant, and easily network together. We highly recommend checking out our Sonos Buying Guide for tips on which speakers may work best for you. If you buy something using links in our stories, we may earn a commission. This helps support our journalism. Learn more. Sonos One Photograph: Sonos  Amazon, Sonos Store This is the Best Sonos Speaker, and it's also one of the Best Smart Speakers. It's compact, it works with voice assistants, and the sound is powerful enough to fill most rooms. You can read more about it in our review. If you're shopping for multiples, you can pick up a two-pack for $100 off. Sonos One SL Photograph: Sonos Sonos Store, Amazon

The best Black Friday deals 2020 - Updated - Wired.co.uk

Two days left until Black Friday begins - here's the only edit you need of early deals on laptops, headphones, smartphones and the rest

Might Hotel Chocolat's Velvetiser hot chocolate machine be the best Black Friday deal this week? At least one member of WIRED's Gear team thinks so. With Black Friday coming up this week on Friday, November 27, retailers such as Amazon, Currys and John Lewis promised us decent discounts before the day itself. Those have - sort of - materialised, certainly in some tech categories more than others. So check out our guide for the actual savings and genuine deals on products we've tested (or otherwise strongly recommend) with the real, genuine saving on recent prices listed. We'll be updating our list of WIRED editors' picks through until Cyber Monday, which is November 30. The best early Black Friday deals Read next These are the most worthwhile deals we've found so far. If none hit the spot, take a look through our recommendations by category (TVs, smartphones etc). What is it?Fitbit's Inspire HR ticks a lot of boxes as an affordable everyday tracker. It's light, waterproof for swims, with heart-rate monitoring as well as steps and sleep tracking. It might sound minor but there's also button to help with navigation for anyone who hates tiny, fiddly touchscreens. Battery life is a very handy five days too. Read next What's the real saving? Since May or thereabouts, the Inspire HR has been down as low as £75 and hovering around the £80 mark on Amazon, so it's really a £17 saving, rather than the £27 that Amazon suggests. This is already a great value fitness tracker though - plus it would make a nice gift. The Inspire HR sells for £90 elsewhere online. Don't need heart rate monitoring? Try the basic Fitbit Inspire, down to £39. Click here to get a Fitbit Inspire HR for £60 What is it? Perhaps the best Garmin for many people, the Forerunner 245 is a long-lasting runners watch with some more advanced features like the ability to connect to other fitness hardware. Its also a lot lighter and smaller than the high-end Garmins. What's the real saving? The Garmin Forerunner 245 has never been this low at Amazon, bar a very short stint a few days ago. It is usually sold for between £230 and £240. Its not an old model either, released in late 2019. Read next Click here to get a Garmin Forerunner 245 for £179 What is it? Apple's AirPods Pro fixed practically everything that was wrong with the AirPods 2 to make the Pros one of the best in this headphones category. A better design than Sony, perfectly good ANC and an adaptive EQ that auto tunes the low- and mid-frequencies to the shape of your ear makes these a no-brainer. No need for noise cancelling? The AirPods 2 are down to £125, or £157 with the wireless charging case. What's the real saving? This deal is technically a saving of £49 as Apple sells the Pros for £249. Amazon has sold them for £218 in recent weeks - £208 on Prime Day. Amazon's stock has been up and down - AO and Laptops Direct also have the £199 price. Click here to get the Apple AirPods Pro for £199 Read next What is it? This Asus ROG Strix G512LV is a high-end gaming laptop at a reasonable price. It has all the specs we tend to look for in a performance machine. That means Nvidias excellent RTX 2060 GPU plus a 240Hz screen, a nice pairing. You get hardware level ray tracing support and enough power to see frame rates of well over 60fps in all but the most challenging games, at 1080p. A 1TB SSD offers plenty of room for games and 16GB RAM is a blessing for other non-gaming jobs. What's the real saving? This laptop is £1,600 at Overclockers. And at Amazon it has cost £1,600 ever since it landed on the site in June (aside from bopping down to £1,400 briefly on Prime Day). An Alienware m15 with a similar spec would cost you around £2,100. Click here to get £200 off the Asus ROG Strix G512LV Read next What is it? The Samsung Galaxy S20 FE 5G was released half a year after the original S20 range. It gets you much of the same substance, including an arguably superior Snapdragon 865 processor, at a lower price. Highlights include a 3x zoom, 120Hz OLED display and IP68 water resistance. Wheres the catch? It has a plastic back rather than glass, but that wont matter if you use a case. What's the real saving? This phone is so new it hasnt had a chance to sell for much below its original asking price. It has sold for £699 at Amazon since it arrived in September. Its a true £100 saving. The 4G version is also available at £100 less if youre not fussed about 5G. Click here to get the Samsung Galaxy S20 FE 5G for £599 Read next What is it? The Blink Outdoor is part of WIRED's favourite budget smart security camera system. With a compact design and Alexa integration, Blink cams are a cinch to set up and give you the basics of 1080p recordings with a 110 degree field of view. Plus the batteries can last up to four years: handy. What's the real saving? As Blink is an Amazon company it's no surprise that this is actually a £70 saving - even though this model just now went on sale. You're essentially getting two security cams for the price of one here. Click here to save £70 on the Blink Outdoor (two pack) What is it? The Anker SoundCore 2 is a solid speaker with a ginormous 24 hours of battery life. The sound quality is pretty impressive for a speaker which was already fairly cheap. It's solidly built, boasting IPX5 water-resistance from its sturdy rubberised exterior; its Bluetooth range is impressive and it even has a built-in microphone for handsfree calls and smart assistance. It's our best budget Bluetooth speaker. What's the real saving? The SoundCore 2 usually costs £41 on Amazon. That £13 saving makes this speaker even more affordable than it already was - it's identical to the Prime Day price too. Read next Click here to get the Anker Soundcore 2 for £28 What is it? The Huawei Matebook 14 is a power laptop that's thin and light enough to be used as an ultraportable. It has the AMD Ryzen 5 4600H, which easily sails past the Core i5-10210U processor you might see in some laptops in this class. All that power means Huawei had to use better cooling, resulting in slightly above average 1.49kg weight. But if you want to edit video or use other demanding apps, the performance matters much more. Its also attractive, with a sleek aluminium casing. What's the real saving? Huawei currently sells this laptop direct for £749. This is already a good buy, and the £60 saving makes the deal even better. We profit off the PR problem Huawei currently has, which affects its phones but not really its laptops. Click here to get the Huawei Matebook 14 for £689 Read next What is it? The Ring Video Doorbell is the Sellotape/Hoover/Fitbit of smart doorbells. You might think that by now everyone has come down on either the side of fandom of Ring's connected butler skills or concern about the dangers of an Amazon-controlled surveillance network. Not so as Ring continue to shift video doorbells; this latest model does the basics of Full HD video with upgrades to its motion detection and night vision. What's the real saving? As advertised. Like Blink, Kindle and the rest, this is Amazon. In testing we were also impressed by the higher end Ring Video Doorbell 3 Plus which is down £70 to £129 this week and offers nifty four second monochrome previews of what happened before its motion sensors were triggered. Click here to save £30 on the Ring Video Doorbell Read next What is it? Quite simply the best TV you can buy right now. Full stop. The LG 65GX is stylish and sophisticated with exceptional picture quality and surprisingly good sound, given the slim chassis, with Dolby Atmos. Plus its smart TV system webOS is still best-in-class. What's the real saving? It's down at least £200 from recent Amazon and Currys prices in the past few months though the price has been steadily falling since the summer with Amazon selling it for £2,499 in October. The good news is that you can take your pick with this £2,299 Black Friday price from Currys, John Lewis and Amazon. Click here to get the LG OLED65GX for £2,299 Laptop and tablet deals A decent showing already in laptops with discounts at a range of specs and price points. Read next All the early computing deals on Amazon What is it? The HP Envy 13 is HPs mid-price premium portable laptop. But it has the same charms as some of the most expensive models, like a full aluminium case. This Black Friday deal is also for a turbo-charged version of the Envy 13, with a Core i7 CPU, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD and Nvidias MX350 graphics card. Its ready for real work, and some light gaming afterwards. What's the real saving? The saving is exactly as Amazon promises. We checked the prices at HPs store and, sure enough, the legit price for this spec is £1,150. Youre essentially getting a high-end spec upgrade for free. Which is nice. Click here to get the HP Envy 13 for £1,150 What is it? Save £60 off Amazons finest ereader, the Kindle Oasis. Its waterproof for bath time and has a better grip and bigger screen than the Paperwhite. More than that, the Oasis is simply a beautifully made device. The higher-end 32GB version (£200) is available too, but you dont need that extra storage if youll just read books. Perfect posted gift material, too. What's the real saving? What it says on the tin, though Kindles are on the Amazon sale cycle with Echo devices. Note: Amazon has sold quite a few of these already so stock is showing as available from 4 December. Click here to get the Kindle Oasis for £170 What is it? Samsung had been absent from the UK/EU laptop scene for years until the end of 2019, when it announced the Galaxy Book S, Galaxy Book Ion and Galaxy Book Flex. All three are on sale. All three are tasty. Lets focus on the Galaxy Book S because, at £799, its the most affordable. It is also the most laptop-like of the three, with no touchscreen or stylus. But the Book S anything but ordinary. It weighs less than a kilo and has battery life of up to 25 hours thanks to its Snapdragon-series CPU. Buy the Ion or Flex if you want to run Photoshop, but this is a dream for ultra-portable use with the basics. Whats the real saving? The Samsung Galaxy Book S has sold at Amazon for £999 since its launch, aside from a couple of days when it dropped down to £849. For sheer bang for your buck, the Huawei Matebook 14 (above) is arguably a better buy. However, it is significantly heavier than the Book S. Click here to get the Samsung Galaxy Book S for £849 What is it? The Galaxy Tab S7 is Samsungs top iPad alternative. And unlike an Apple tablet, you get a smart stylus in the box. Samsung switched to an LCD screen for this generation, but its an 120Hz display, which also allows for incredible 9ms response times for the S-Pen. Those desperate for OLED colour pop can buy the last-gen Galaxy Tab S6 (£499) instead. The Tab S7 is also as powerful as any Android phone. It uses Qualcomms blazing Snapdragon 865+ processor, ready for anything Android can throw its way. What's the real saving? The deepest Black Friday discounts are often those on older products, from less popular brands than Samsung. You save £90 off the original price, but that standard retail price is exactly what youll pay elsewhere 95 per cent of the time making this discount worth your time. The Tab S7 and Tab S7+ only went on sale at the tail end of August: they are still pretty new. The larger 12.4in Galaxy Tab S7+ is also on sale if the bigger display appeals. Click here to get the Samsung Galaxy Tab S7 for £549 £120 off Microsoft Surface Pro 7, now £659: Get an Intel Core i5 Surface Pro 7 for less than the usual price of the less powerful Core i3 version. This is a terrific Windows 10 laptop-tablet hybrid. Pick up the excellent Surface Type Cover (£94) if you want to use it for work - the keyboard isn't bundled as standard. £41 off a Samsung Galaxy Tab S6 Lite, now £299: Nearly all Samsungs tablets are on sale this Black Friday week, including the excellent Galaxy Tab S6 Lite. This one does not have an ultra-high resolution screen (just 1200p), but the (included) S Pen stylus is great. Its the only budget tablet where real creative flair comes bundled. Up to £50 off the Apple MacBook Air, from £919: For the cheapest Core i3 of the old-but-still-2020 Air, head to John Lewis or Currys where it's £919 - £20 off recent prices, £70 off the RRP. £92 off a Samsung LS34J550WQUXEN monitor, now £259: This ultra-wide 34-inch monitor is perfect for gaming and multi-window spreadsheet joy. It supports AMD FreeSync, but bear in mind refresh rate is a standard 60Hz. Still, at this price we dont mind so much. £60 off an Amazon Fire HD 10, now £100: You can get a whopping £60 off the Fire HD 10, a fantastic deal given this slate has a perfectly good Full HD 10.1-inch screen i.e. all you need for Netflix. Plus its pretty damn good for gamers. £15 off an Amazon Fire HD 7, now £45: A big-brand tablet for less than £50? This Amazon Fire HD 7 deal looks like a mis-price but its a neat family buy for a throwaround tab. Note: The version without lock screen ads has a two to three month wait time. We're still waiting for our absolute faves to show up in premium headphones and speakers but there's plenty of neat Prime Day repeats here. All the early headphone deals on Amazon What is it? It is hard to believe that these Technics earbuds are the brand's first foray into the true wireless earbuds arena. You get a solid, punchy and spacious sound, along with noise cancelling and excellent bass, all in a design that marries comfort with Technic's sharp aesthetic. What's the real saving? This is an excellent £70 discount considering these earbuds only came out in June and have sold for around £240 RRP not too long ago. It's also identical to the Prime Day price so you know they won't see steeper discounts from Amazon this year. Click here to save £71 on the Technics EAH-AZ70W earbuds What is it? It is not for nothing that some have branded these Jabra Elite 75t earbuds as the best AirPods alternative you can get. A better, smaller design means they're more comfortable, but still offer great sound quality with loud bass. An improved carrying case now means you get a boosted 28 hours of total audio playback. What's the real saving? This is a small but welcome saving of £41 as John Lewis and Currys are selling these at £170 when we last checked. And now matching the lowest-in-2020 Prime Day price. Click here to save £41 on the Jabra Elite 75ts £20 off the Jabra Elite 45h, now £69: £20 off a pair of Jabra on-ears isn't much but when it's the Elite 45hs, which were already our best pair of wireless headphones under £100, we pay attention. Enormous 50-hour battery life, a punchy, controlled sound and all manner of controls - touch, voice and app - are all present and correct. The £69 price at Amazon is matched at John Lewis and Currys this week. £20 off Sony's XM3 earbuds, now £149: Get £20 off the Sony WF-1000XM3s, which are still the best-sounding true wireless earbuds in their class. They have active noise cancellation, and battery life of six hours per charge. Just super reliable for day-to-day use too. £36 off Anker's Soundcore Liberty 2 Pro, now £84: Anker has firmly branched out from its charging pack popularity, creating some value for money headphones. And at £84, Ankers flagship earbuds, with a 32-hour battery life, are down to their lowest price since August. £30 off Lypertek Tevi earbuds, now £69: Little-known Lypertek makes some of the best value true wireless earbuds around. At £69 the Tevi are a steal. They offer good sound quality, excellent battery life and a reliable connection. The Beats Solo Pro are down to £159: We were pleasantly surprised by the Beats Solo Pro when we tested them, finding the inoffensive-looking on-ears to be well made, with good audio quality and excellent noise cancelling. Down from an RRP of £270 in 2019 but recently selling for £189. Only the black model is really on sale - the remaining colourways are still up at £185. AKG's Y500 wireless headphones down from £13 to £69: Great sound quality, a build to match, nice design and good features. And at this price these already superlative cans are amazing. £50 off JBL's Xtreme 2, now £149: The JBL Xtreme 2 is one of the best portable Bluetooth speakers around. It looks a little bullish but sound quality is genuinely refined. And it can go very loud if you want it to. The shoulder strap is particularly handy for picnics in the park, for when the weather improves. £60 off Bowers & Wilkins PX7s, now £220: B&Ws excellent noise-cancellers have impressive sound and three levels of noise cancelling to go with the quality design. Recently going for £315, they've sold for as low as £280 in the last few months. Smartphone deals Lots of smartphone potential here. Given the year the industry has had, it's no wonder everyone is slashing prices. All the early smartphone deals on Amazon What is it? The Xiaomi Redmi Note 9 hasnt been given the attention it deserves. It should lure some of you budget buyers away from the Moto G series. It has a, for the price, fantastic screen. Full HD resolution and a 6.53-inch diagonal, the display doesnt seem far off that of a £1,000 phone. Battery life is also superb thanks to a 5,020mAh cell. The Note 9 was a bargain at £180, and is only a better deal at £140. What's the real saving? While Amazon claims the Note 9 sells for £180, it has actually priced the phone at £155 before. Still, this is an every penny matters purchase, so even a £15 drop is worth celebrating. Xiaomi has dropped the price to £149 on its own store the day. You can buy direct if youd prefer. Click here to get the Xiaomi Redmi Note 9 for £139 What is it? The Poco X3 NFC by Xiaomi is one of the best budget phones of the year. It has a large, bold screen, good general performance and battery life that outlasts almost all £1,000-plus phones. This phone is a dream to live with. And any missing parts are to be expected at the price. Its back is plastic and pricier phones take better low-light shots. What's the real saving? You may only get £20 off here, but the Poco X3 NFC was already one of the most aggressively priced phones of 2020. Even a slight discount is only going to increase the appeal. Xiaomi has sold the phone at a similar price at its own store a couple of times, but now you can get it direct from Amazon. Click here to get the Poco X3 NFC for £179 What is it? The Pixel 4a is Googles affordable phone for 2020. But the cuts are less severe than you might guess. The phone still has a superb best-in-class 12MP camera, a full HD OLED screen and day-to-day performance similar to a top-end phone. Its back is plastic rather than aluminium and it has 4G mobile internet, but the Pixel 4a feels surprisingly similar to the Pixel 5 in use. What's the real saving? This is the cheapest the Pixel 4a has been to date from a mainstream retailer. Thats no surprise when the phone is only a few months old. However, judging by the price history of the Pixel 3a, we dont expect to see it drop much lower for a while either. Click here to get the Google Pixel 4a for £319 What is it? The Motorola Moto G8 is part of our most-often-recommended series of affordable phones. While there are now more cheap choices than ever, like the Xiaomi Redmi Note 9 Pro (£215), this one is still a big hit at £139. It offers good battery life, a reliable Snapdragon 665 CPU and clean-looking software. What's the real saving? Another Prime Day repeat and a good deal. Its standard price is £160 these days, not the £180 Amazon suggests. But a £20 saving is still a significant one at this level. Click here to save £20 on a Motorola Moto G8 £62 off a Realme 6, now £187: Four cameras, gaming-friendly components, fast charging and a big 90Hz display for less than £200. A budget Android phone with a lot going for it. £50 off Samsung Galaxy A51 5G, now £379: The 5G model of Samsung's hugely popular A51 mid-ranger is down below £380 for the early Black Friday sales. £140 off Oppo Reno 4 Pro 5G, now £559: Oppo launched its upper mid-range phone amongst tough competition but this price reduction makes its strong combination of premium design, range of camera features and superfast 65W charging an appealing one. £130 off Sony RX100 III, now £349: This camera has been around almost since the beginning of time. It launched in 2014. But it still really does hold up in 2020 and has some advantages over a top-end phone camera. You get a traditional 3x optical zoom and a relatively large 1-inch sensor. Its better for stills fans, as video tops out at 1080p. TV and home cinema deals More options than you might think in TVs, and the home cinema haul is improving as the days go on. All the early TV deals on Amazon What is it? According to our own WIRED Recommends guide, this is the best small OLED TV you can buy, with amazing sound via Bowers & Wilkins. As for the pictures, expect exceptional OLED picture quality, and pleasingly good design and even Ambilight thrown in for good measure. Next-gen gamers should note there's no HDMI 2.1, but the £300 off here sorts the only other gripe, the punchy standard price. What's the real saving? The RRP of this set is £1,799 and you really are getting £300 off here - we only reviewed the thing last month. Click here to save £299 on the Philips 48OLED+935 4K TV £325 off Viewsonic X10-4k, now £974:An award-winning late 2019 model, the Viewsonic X10-4k is a good option if you want a true 4K projector but dont have a dedicated cinema room. Its small, its bright enough to deal with some ambient light and you can easily move it around your home. You get a big, bright image with minimal fuss. And the LED light source means no worries about replacing bulbs. The Sonos Playbase is down from £699 to £499: Dropped by Sonos like an unloved child, we always liked the Playbase. Great build quality meets matching sound performance. And being Sonos, set up is a breeze. Note: the lack of HDMI may put off some. £400 off LG CineBeam HU70LS, now £1,249: Put this slick-looking 4K projector in a room with a reasonable level of light control and you can expect stunning cinematic images at up to 140 inches. It supports HDR, and the LED light source means its rated to last for 30,000 hours, rather than the 3,000 you might get from a lamp-based projector. Its a reasonably new model so the £450 saving is a good one - it's selling for £1,650+ elsewhere. £300 off the Sony A8 OLED TV, now £1,299: Black Friday is the best time to buy an OLED TV. Sonys A8 has the best image processing of the lot, for cineaste colour and OLEDs usual cinema-beating contrast. This deal's over at John Lewis. PC and gaming deals A few real PC and gaming laptop deals but not much; take a look at these fun peripherals and add-ons by way of distraction. All the early toys and games deals on Amazon What is it? The Acer Nitro N50-610 is a pre-built gaming PC for those who dont fancy getting down and dirty with CPU pins to make their own. It has the excellent RTX 2060 graphics card, a high-end Core i7 CPU, 16GB RAM and a 512GB SSD. Theres a 1TB hard drive for files that wont benefit from SSD speed too. You even get a keyboard and mouse. What's the real saving? Hardcore PC gamers may turn their noses up at pre-built desktops, but this is a good deal. Retailers like Very and Ebuyer sold this spec for £1,350 before Black Friday. Youd normally be looking at a step-down GTX 1660 graphics card at this price. Click here to get the Acer Nitro N50-610 for £1,150 What is it? The Logitech G29 is a force feedback racing wheel for PS4, PS5 and PC. Check out the G290, on sale at the same price, if you are an Xbox gamer. This is a must-have accessory if you like more realistic racing games such as Gran Turismo Sport and Assetto Corsa. Force feedback makes these titles far more engaging. The package includes the wheel and an excellent set of pedals. Just make sure you have something sturdy to clamp the wheel base to. What's the real saving? Logitechs G29 has been on sale many times. Its best ever price at Amazon was back in 2019, at £125. So why is this still a great deal? Racing wheel sales went through the roof when the first lockdown kicked in, and this is the first time weve seen the G29, or any good racing wheel, at a reasonable price since. View the Logitech G29 racing wheel for £160 What is it? The SanDisk Extreme Pro is a portable SSD with a massive 1TB of storage. Theres an ultra-fast NVMe drive inside, letting it reach speeds of 1050MB/s when plugged into a fast enough USB port. Its tiny too, and tough. SSD storage means there are no moving parts, the shell is rubberised and theres a carabiner-ready grip on one side for the more outdoorsy among you. What's the real saving? This drive sells for £180 at SanDisk, and thats about as hot a deal as youll usually find for the SanDisk Extreme Pro 1TB. Its original price was £219. Dont confuse this with the original Extreme version of the drive as the Pro is around twice as fast. View the SanDisk Extreme Pro SSD for £160 What is it? Razer's Huntsman Tournament Edition is not your average mechanical-style keyboard. It uses optical switches made by Razer, which should suffer from wear even less than traditional mechanical keys. The keyboard also has on-board memory, letting it save presets on-device rather than on your computer. Razer doesnt depart entirely from tradition, though, with classic full RGB backlighting. It's our current top pick for gaming keyboards. What's the real saving? You dont have to pay the £150 original price for this gaming keyboard anymore, but it usually sells or around £130 at Amazon. This is a healthy saving, lower than plenty of used models on eBay. Note: it did go down to £77 last week. Click here to get the Razer Huntsman Tournament Edition for £105 £60 off a Secretlab Titan gaming chair, now £339: We just named Secretlab's Titan the best gaming chair you can buy in our WIRED Recommends for its robust construction, supreme comfort and versatile adjustment options. This £60 off comes from Secretlab direct and the Omega, which we also like, is down from £349 to £279. £22 off ADATA SD700 512GB External SSD, now £58: ADATAs SSD provides military-grade shockproof protection for those who need a speed file-transfer device in a durable case. The SSD has an IP68 for batting back dust and water damage. £300 off ASUS ZenBook S13, now £1,000: Asus' Zenbook S13 is one of its really rather stylish ultrabooks. More than that, though, the Intel i7 processor, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD and Nvidia MX150 graphics will pack a strong productivity and light gaming punch. The S13 is down to its lowest price since it was first listed on Amazon in early October. £500 off an Acer Predator X35 gaming monitor, now £1,700: You may look at this Acer Predator X35 and think the price is crazy, but this is a gaming monitor with a pro-grade focus on quality. Brightness, colour, contrast and lag are all excellent. And it really does sell for £2,200 elsewhere. £200 off Acer's Predator Titan 300, now £1,299: An Nvidia RTX 2070 laptop for the price of an RTX 2060 one, this Currys deal bumps you up a league in performance for free. It also has a Core i7 CPU, 144Hz screen and a capacious 1TB SSD. No slow HDD here. £68 off Seagate's 9TB External HDD, now £112: Need a big backup drive? This one works out at around 1.35 pence a gigabyte. And thats pretty good. The Seagate Desktop 8TB is an innocuous desktop drive that will play nice with PCs and Macs. And this is an Amazon exclusive model. Smart home deals Plenty. Just plenty to look at in smart home and grooming and not just the obligatory bed-in-a-box mattress deal. (Though that is here too). All the smart home deals on Amazon What is it? You might think WIRED would favour a Dyson Supersonic but no, in testing it's the GHD Helios for us. It doesn't shirk on the specs either with a 120kmh airflow and a powerful brushless motor. It's light to hold with an ergonomic body, 3m power cable and, most importantly, it gets great results on both fine and thick hair. What's the real saving? The Helios hasn't dipped below £159 on mainstream retailers like John Lewis, though you can currently pick it up for around £135 on industry sites. Click here to get a GHD Helios for £130 £10 off Google's Nest Learning Thermostat, 3rd Gen, now £159: The Nest Thermostat offers a strong entry point for adding your home heating into your smart home ecosystem. You can adjust the temperature using your phone as well as allowing the thermostat to smartly manage your heating throughout the day, saving you money. While its not a huge saving, the price is at its lowest on Amazon since Black Friday last year. £60 off Cubo's Ai Plus smart baby monitor, now £279: Likewise, a lot of our tried-and-tested fave baby monitors - like the Arlo Baby (£140) look like they're discounted when in fact they're around their regular, mostly good value, price points. One that is? The bird-like Cubo Ai Plus, which offers in-depth sleep stats and geofencing, is down to £279 from £339 on Amazon and direct. £20 off an Echo Dot (4th gen) + Philips Hue Colour Starter Kit, now £99: Amazon has brought together its entry-level smart speaker with the terrific Philips Hue smart bulbs for this handy starter kit. You can also pick up a couple of Philips Hue Spotlights for £11 each (£5 off)right now too. [In stock on November 30]. £22 off a Philips Series 6000 Wet & Dry, now £108: The Philips Series 6000 Wet & Dry electric shaver has three tilting heads for a comfortable shave, and offers 60 minutes run time off an hours charge. This particular model sold for £185 before the Black Friday discount kicked in, though prices were hovering around £130-£135 for the couple of months prior. £45 off a Lumie Zest wake-up light, now £105: Tis the season of S.A.D., and we all have enough to worry about so why not knock dark mornings on the head with a Lumie Zest. Its a high-quality 2000 lux wake up light, at £45 off. If thats too pricey, check out the Lumie Bodyclock Rise 100 (now £55) and Philips Wake-Up Light Alarm Clock (now £60). Both are on sale today. £26 off a Roku Streaming Stick+, now £34: An excellent all-round video streamer, with stable 4K picture, fast buffering and an easy-to-use interface. Or pick up the even cheaper Roku Express for £18, down from £30. £220 off a De'Longhi Eletta Bean to Cup machine, down to £549: This is advertised as a whopping £510 off the RRP of £1,000. In fact this rather swanky automatic coffee machine for cappuccinos, espressos etc is down around £220 on Amazon's recent prices of around £769. Wearables and fitness deals Fitbit, Apple, Garmin and GoPro are all here. All the sports and outdoor deals on Amazon What is it? The Charge 4 is Fitbits top dedicated fitness tracker. It has all the essential runners watch features, including an optical heart rate sensor and its own GPS. Its a good deal at £100, and last up to a week off a charge. What's the real saving? Fitbits are not discounted all that often, because it has acquired the status of a sort-of Apple of fitness trackers. The Charge 4 has spent the whole of 2020 hovering around £130 at Amazon. Click here to get a Fitbit Charge 4 for £99 What is it? The Garmin Fenix 6 Pro is an incredible running and fitness watch, one so packed with features you could study a degree in this thing. Highlights include 36 hours of GPS tracking per charge, a screen that loves sunny days and an exceptional ability to hook up to third-party fitness gear. If you want to get serious about fitness, this is the watch you want. What's the real saving? £599 is the RRP for this Gorilla Glass version of the Fenix 6 Pro. Some other sites sell it for around £509, but at the time of writing John Lewis has the best deal in town. You save around £150 off the RRP or £60 off competitor prices. Click here to get the Garmin Fenix 6 Pro for £450 What is it? The Apple Watch Series 5 is no longer the most bang-up-to-date Cupertino smartwatch; it doesn't have the new energy efficient S6 chip or the blood oxygen sensor of the Series 6. But if you decide you can get on without the updates, there is still plenty of advanced health monitoring, including ECG sensing, as well as more mainstream smartwatch features. What's the real saving? Now, let's be clear this deal isn't about getting the absolute cheapest Apple Watch with the spec you're looking for. You can get a Series 5 for £329 these days and the Series 6 itself starts at £379. No, these are discounts on specific materials and finishes for those who care more about the styling and feel of their wristwear than every last spec, starting with say a 40mm aluminium case. Have a browse around sizes and styles. Click here to get £49 off an Apple Watch Series 5 Get a renewed Apple Watch Series 3 for £152: Scroll up for discounts on the fully-featured Series 5 but if you just want an Apple Watch, and you don't mind 'renewed' (refurbished, like new), a 38mm Space Grey Series 3 is now down from £199 to £152 - and in stock. Up to £51 off Salomon Alphacross GTX Trail, now £50: The Salomon Alphacross GTX Trail are excellent all-rounder trail running and walking shoes; they have a Gore-Tex water resistant layer and a Contragrip sole. Both mens and womens versions are on sale. £10 off a Garmin Forerunner 45, now £139: The Forerunner 45 is our WIRED Recommends best budget running watch at its regular price. There's no apps or contactless payments, but as a running watch that suits beginners, there's no beating it. Easy to use, with 13 hours of GPS battery life, music playback controls and Garmin Coach support. Just £10 off for now - it went down to £110 on Prime Day. £28 off Salomon Quest 4D 3 GTX, now £90: You need to sign up for Go Outdoorss Discount card to get this 50% saving but at just £5 its worth it just for this deal on WIRED's top walking boots. The Quest 4D 3 GTX are supremely comfortable boots in any conditions with a Gore-Tex water resistant membrane. Ankle support is solid and, as hiking boots go, they dont look too bad either. £20 off the Fitbit Ace 2 kids tracker, now £50: Fitbits kids tracker is built with children aged six and older in mind: waterproof to 50m for swims, fun goal celebrations and a protective band/bumper. Also down to £50 at Argos and Currys. $45 off a Nomad Base Station, now $105: WIRED-approved accessory makers Nomad have 30% off a whole bunch of its cases and chargers, including this Base Station for 10W wireless charging of your iPhone, Apple Watch and AirPods. £70 off the Samsung Galaxy Watch Active, now £129: This is the first version of the Galaxy Watch Active, not the second, but its still an excellent smartwatch and fitness tracker. You get full GPS, a gorgeous OLED screen and the ability to download additional apps. Its so much cheaper than the Active 2 and Watch 3, this 2019 watch is a solid deal. £50 off a GoPro Hero7, now £100: The perfect budget family action cam at £50 off via Argos. It doesnt have 4K video, but the audio quality and stabilisation will beat anything else youll find at the price. Record those memories without the judder.

David Attenborough's A Life On Our Planet is an obituary for the Earth - Wired.co.uk

This is a very different kind of nature show. It's absolutely essential viewing

You know the drill. Gather the family, turn on the television, and settle in for a slice of natural wonder. For decades, David Attenborough has taken us from the jungles of Borneo to the savannahs of Africa from vibrant rainforests to the bleak beauty of the polar regions. But A Life On Our Planet, available to stream now on Netflix, is a very different kind of nature show. Instead of jaw-dropping chase sequences or the jovial dancing of colourful birds, it is a warning. Attenborough calls it his witness statement in truth, its more like a post-mortem on the natural world, a world that humans have systematically conquered, exploited and destroyed. The documentary opens in Chernobyl, perhaps the premier example of the scarring touch of our species a place weve ruined so comprehensively that it will be uninhabitable for centuries. From there, it cuts between Attenboroughs narration grave, emotional, and straight to camera and archive footage, as he talks through how human activities have changed the world in his 94 years on the planet. When Attenborough was born, in 1926, average temperatures were one degree cooler than they are today its not so much the heat, but the speed of the change which has thrown nature out of balance. The first half of A Life On Our Planet charts how the growth of the human population has impacted the natural world during Attenboroughs lifetime, using a blend of archive footage from his earliest work grainy footage of a young Attenborough frolicking with gorillas or meeting members of a remote tribe and more modern shots from his recent documentaries. Read next An on-screen ticker marks the passing of the years between Attenboroughs seminal works each jump forward in time bringing an increase in the human population, a rise in atmospheric carbon dioxide, and a fall in the amount of truly wild nature left. Weve lost 40 per cent of our sea ice in the last 40 years. In the 50 years since fishing boats began venturing into deep waters, theyve stripped the oceans of 90 per cent of their large fish. Jungles that were once home to orangutans and rare birds are gone, replaced by rows of monotonous agriculture half of the fertile land on Earth is now used for farming. Frozen islands, once inaccessible, are open to the seas. And vast plains which once housed millions of grazing animals lie empty. Our blind assault on the planet has finally come to alter the very fundamentals of the living world, Attenborough says, and when the evidence is presented this starkly, its impossible to disagree. Attenborough shows have been criticised in the past for failing to show the full negative effects of climate change. There is no such equivocation here. There are parallels between the documentary and the 2019 book The Uninhabitable Earth, by David Wallace-Wells, which spells out exactly what each additional degree of warming will mean for our descendants. As the timeline ticks on, Attenborough gives us a glimpse of the world that someone born today will live in. Wildfires rage. The polar ice caps melt completely in the summer. The Amazon, stripped of trees by deforestation, transforms into a desert. Coral reefs bleach and crumble. Humans starve, as over-farmed land struggles to keep up with the demand. It is a bleak picture an obituary for a planet that had achieved a delicate, beautiful balance known as the Holocene, and maintained it for thousands of years until one species became too powerful, too dominant, too rapacious in its appetites. The future that a clearly emotional Attenborough describes is a series of one way doors points of no return that will make the world less diverse, less vibrant, and a harder place to live. Read next Attenborough does end on a hopeful note, however. He kind of has to. The last section of the documentary outlines the steps that we can collectively take to reduce the amount of carbon in the atmosphere, and help the natural world recover. Some of them will be familiar eat less meat, widen the use of renewable energy, put pressure on banks and investors still funding fossil fuels. Others are less discussed Attenborough talks passionately about widening opportunities for people in developing countries in the hope that it will lead to a similar fall in birth rate to that experienced in richer parts of the world like Europe and Japan (although balancing increasing living standards with sustainable use of resources will be a tricky challenge). The widening of marine reserves, which have had great success in the Pacific island nation of Palau, to include all international waters would be a major step towards refilling the oceans with life (and food). There is a glimpse here of a sustainable future herds of cattle roam around wind turbines, electric drones rise above the rainforest canopy with freshly picked fruit in tow. But that, Attenborough reminds us, will take urgent, drastic action. The producers of the documentary clearly hope it will be a call to arms a truth thats now impossible to ignore. They end back in Chernobyl, where in the absence of humans rare animals are rebounding, and trees and plants have overrun the city. Read next Its a vital reminder that the fight against the climate crisis isnt just about protecting animals and plants, its about saving our own species. Amit Katwala is WIRED's culture editor. He tweets from @amitkatwala More great stories from WIRED TikTok was conquering the world. But Trumps battle heralds the ugly birth of a new splinternet We now know everything about the next-gen consoles. So which should is better the PS5 or Xbox Series X? Why Netflix keeps cancelling your favourite shows after two seasons Listen to The WIRED Podcast, the week in science, technology and culture, delivered every Friday Follow WIRED on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn Get WIRED Daily, your no-nonsense briefing on all the biggest stories in technology, business and science. In your inbox every weekday at 12pm UK time. by entering your email address, you agree to our privacy policy Thank You. You have successfully subscribed to our newsletter. You will hear from us shortly. Sorry, you have entered an invalid email. Please refresh and try again.

Tesla's Model S Plaid wasn't the biggest Battery Day announcement - Wired.co.uk

No million-mile battery, but Tesla did announce a new form of in-house battery tech, Tesla Silicon, a $25,000 EV and the 520+ mile, 200mph Model S Plaid

Ahead of Teslas much-hyped Battery Day event on Tuesday, expectations were high. Not only had CEO Elon Musk promised that exciting things would be unveiled at the very insane event in Palo Alto, but murmurs of a major battery breakthrough had Tesla investors on high-alert. Tesla remains a risky investment. The company might be the most valuable car company in the world, dominating the US electric vehicles market with 80 per cent of sales in the first half of 2020, but it still commands less than one per cent of the global automotive market. Although Tesla is on the verge of a record quarter, according to an email Musk sent to employees, the company has long been plagued by issues in battery production, which Musk described on an investor call last year as very fundamental and extremely difficult. This, analysts claim, has been fuelled in equal measures by Teslas dependence on materials such as lithium and cobalt, and the company's lack of manufacturing capacity. If Teslas Battery Day announcements are anything to go by, the company may be about to overcome both of these bottlenecks. Read next Cheaper, Tesla-branded batteries Musk has stated on several occasions that Teslas goal is to develop a battery that costs $100 per kilowatt-hour, a price target that experts claim is necessary to make the cost of electric vehicles competitive. Current battery packs cost around $150 to $200 per kilowatt-hour, with Teslas at the lower end of that scale, which means a battery pack typically costs around $14,000. At this years Battery Day, two years after Musk originally pledged to reach this milestone, the company announced that it finally has a plan to cut battery costs per kilowatt-hour in half, a plan that involves using continuous cylindrical cells as opposed to those with tabs. These new tabless batteries will be produced in-house, which Musk says will help to dramatically reduce costs and, ultimately, allow the company to sell its vehicles for the same price as everyday gas guzzlers. The companys current 2170 cells, which are used in Model 3 and Model Y vehicles, are produced by Panasonic at Teslas Gigafactory in Nevada. We need to make more affordable cars, Musk said. One of the things that troubles me the most is that we dont have a truly affordable car, and that is something we will do in the future. To do that, we need cheaper batteries. These new tabless batteries which Tesla is calling 4860 cells use a shingled spiral design that not only makes for simpler manufacturing, but also delivers 5x the energy, a 16 per cent range increase, and 6x the power of Tesla's existing 2170 batteries. Read next The cells will start production in a pilot gigawatt factory in Fremont. Musk warned that it will take around a year for the company to reach full production capacity, but said the factory systems its building will be the most efficient in the world. "Tesla is aiming to be the best at manufacturing of any company on Earth," Musk says, adding that he sees this as one of the key things that will keep Tesla ahead of its rivals. Tesla wont stop purchasing batteries anytime soon, though. In the run-up to Battery Day, Musk tweeted that the company would continue to use batteries supplied by Panasonic, Chinas CATL, LG Chem, and others. However, the company said its aiming to rapidly ramp up production over the next years to 3 terawatt-hours a year, or 3,000 gigawatt-hours roughly 85 times greater than the capacity of the Nevada plant. Tesla Silicon First we had Apple Silicon, and now we have Tesla Silicon. Described by Musk as awesome and inexpensive, the material can increase range by roughly 20 per cent and costs less than $1.20 per anode per kilowatt-hour. Musk says Tesla will eliminate the current hurdles of silicon already used in contemporary batteries the cookie gets gooey and crumbles by using "raw metallurgical silicon". By using raw silicon that is not treated or formed, Tesla claims costs can be reduced substantially. For the cathode, Tesla is moving away from cobalt to nickel, claiming that a high nickel, zero-cobalt cathode will reduce costs by 15 per cent. Musk also announced that the company is also making cathode production facilities in the US that'll eliminate the intermediate stages usually required in turning nickel and lithium into batteries. Not only will this result in cost savings, but it will also make batteries easier to recycle; its even started its own in-house pilot program in Nevada to recycle Tesla products. Read next On the manufacturing front, Tesla said it has also acquired a 10,000-acre mining site to produce even more of battery components in-house: "There really is enough lithium in Nevada alone too electrify the entire US fleet." A $25,000 Tesla Because Tesla is manufacturing its own batteries, it can pack them side by side, removing empty space between them and allowing them to be constructed more densely, which is good for both safety and handling. This means it can integrate the battery components with the car itself, much like a plane's fuel tanks are integrated into the wing instead of separate parts, and to do so Tesla announced that it has built the largest casting machine ever made in Froment. Tesla claims that by making the battery part of the vehicles structure rather than cargo, this will result in a 10 per cent mass reduction, 14 per cent range increase, and 370 fewer parts in the cars. With all these innovations, Tesla could increase range by 54 per cent, achieve a dollar per kilowatt reduction of 56 per cent, and see investment costs per GWh cut by up to 69 per cent. Ultimately, Musk boasted, the company will deliver a "compelling" $25,000 passenger electric vehicle within the next three years. "About three years from now, we're confident we can make a very compelling $25,000 electric vehicle that's also fully autonomous," Musk said. Read next The $140,000 Tesla Model S Plaid In order to see this embed, you must give consent to Social Media cookies. Open my cookie preferences. While many had expected that Tesla would close Tuesdays Battery Day event with an update on its million-mile battery, an innovation that the company claims will be able to power its electric cars for more than one million miles over the course of their lifespan, this was a disappointing no-show. Instead, Musk capped off the event with a video of the long-hyped Tesla Model S Plaid. Tesla first showed a video of a Plaid prototype lapping Laguna Seca in 1:36 last year, and according to Musk, it has since slashed this time to 1:30.3. Musk said he expects that time to drop by another three seconds and break the record for the fastest production vehicle of any type. The vehicle, which boasts 1,100 horsepower, a sub-two-second 0-60MPH time, a 200MPH top speed, and the ability to travel 520 miles or more between charges, will start shipping in 2021. These performance stats, would best the recently announced Lucid Air electric car, but that will offer a similar range to the Plaid. More great stories from WIRED They never officially had Covid-19. But coronavirus long-haulers are living in hell The pandemic may finally kill Netflixs 20-year-old DVD business Going out again? These are the best backpacks for work, travel and cycling Listen to The WIRED Podcast, the week in science, technology and culture, delivered every Friday Follow WIRED on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn Get WIRED Daily, your no-nonsense briefing on all the biggest stories in technology, business and science. In your inbox every weekday at 12pm UK time. by entering your email address, you agree to our privacy policy Thank You. You have successfully subscribed to our newsletter. You will hear from us shortly. Sorry, you have entered an invalid email. Please refresh and try again.

This is what life on Venus might look like – and how we'll find it - Wired.co.uk

The discovery of phosphine on Venus hints at life in its clouds, but finding out won’t be easy

An image captured by Nasas Magellan spacecraft shows impact craters and volcanic activity on the surface of Venus. Any life that may exist on the planet will almost certainly be found high up in its atmosphere It sounds ridiculous, bizarre, even stupid. Life on Venus, the hottest planet in the Solar System? This is a world often regarded as Earth gone wrong, where extreme climate change has turned it into one of the closest approximations of hell weve ever seen. And now were told it might be home to alien life. Its a discovery that if proved true would have profound consequences for how we view our place in the universe. The only problem? Proving it. The idea of life on Venus is not new, and dates back to at least the 1960s when the late American astronomer Carl Sagan discussed the possibility. If small amounts of minerals are stirred up to the clouds from the surface, it is by no means difficult to imagine an indigenous biology in the clouds of Venus, he wrote in a paper in Nature in 1967. Now, more than five decades later, scientists have discovered phosphine on Venus. Phosphine a compound of phosphorous and hydrogen is thought to be a potential biomarker. In other words, we know it can be produced by life, and its detection hints at biological production. [We tried] to iterate down the list of options to explain the phosphine being present, says Sukrit Ranjan from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a co-author on the discovery paper in Nature Astronomy. All of that has come up short. So were left with things we have not yet fully ruled out. That includes chemistry and biology that we dont know about yet. Read next Phosphine can be produced by a number of non-biological processes. These include geological sources like volcanic activity, or even extreme pressure environments where hydrogen is squeezed together such as on Jupiter and Saturn. On Earth, phosphine is also produced by certain anaerobic microbial life, which requires little oxygen. Similar extreme life forms could, maybe, have made their home in the Venusian clouds. This discovery is incredibly exciting, says Sarah Rugheimer from the University of Oxford, whose research involves looking for life on exoplanets, worlds beyond the Solar System. Its either a chemistry thats really different and unusual, or its life. The discovery was led by Jane Greaves from Cardiff University, using two telescopes on Earth the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope in Hawaii and the Atacama Large Millimetre/submillimetre Array (ALMA) in Chile to observe a signature of phosphine in radio observations of Venus. Its presence, in the atmosphere of Venus, 50 kilometres above the surface, is believed to be in a region that could be hospitable to life, outside of the hellish conditions on the surface of the planet where high temperatures and pressures render life as we know it unthinkable. Before we even begin to consider the possibility of its production by life on Venus, however, there are a number of hoops to jump through. First, other astronomers will need to try and reproduce the results, using the same or other telescopes, to check if the phosphine is really there. Astronomers will then want to conduct further experiments to investigate ways that phosphine can be produced, and see if they can rule out non-biological processes. [We need] lots more laboratory studies [and] calculations to nail down some of the fundamental parameters, says Ranjan. Read next After that, we could consider sending missions to investigate the phosphine in more detail, perhaps even one day looking for life itself on Venus. But it will likely be a very cautious progress until we get to that point. There are already a number of missions to Venus on the drawing board. Nasa is considering two proposals to the planet, DAVINCI+ and VERITAS, the former of which would include an atmospheric probe that could possibly look for gases like phosphine. Several other missions are also in the works. India plans to launch a mission this decade, while Russia has long talked about sending a spacecraft there, having led much of the previous Venus exploration in the 1970s and 80s. Europe, too, is considering a mission called EnVision in 2032. Many of these missions, however, are designed with other goals in mind such as mapping the surface of Venus, or looking for volcanic activity. In order to look for life, if it were really there, we would need a new type of mission. Ultimately we will want to sample the atmosphere, and get that sample back to test it, says Richard Ghail from the Royal Holloway University of London, the lead on the EnVision proposal. That means some sort of balloon with a sample return [capability], or a large enough balloon with some of the kit on it. Such a mission would likely be years or even decades away, but in the more near-term, there are things that could be done. The US private company Rocket Lab hopes to launch a small mission to Venus as soon as 2023, which would include an atmospheric probe, and the company is looking into what small instruments it could include that could look for life. Scientists will also want to continue studying the atmosphere of Venus from Earth, not only to independently confirm the presence of phosphine, but to investigate the different processes that can produce it back here in laboratories. If, after all of these studies, the signs continue to point to life, then we can begin to wonder what sort of life that might be. At the moment, its thought this would be some sort of airborne microbe in the Venusian sky, living in droplets originating from the planets thick clouds. Read next Our best guess is some sort of microbial life living in the cloud droplets, says William Bains from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who was also a co-author on the paper. The chances of there being life on the surface are spectacularly small. This is much more likely to be in the clouds. We do know there are airborne microbes on Earth, so if the conditions are just right on Venus, theres an alluring possibility they are present there too. Conditions on Venus are not ideal. These droplets would get extremely hot as they fell from the sky, killing any microbial life present. Instead, it might be that the droplets are in a continuous cycle of evaporation and falling, with microbes clinging along for the ride. You have a cycle operating in the clouds, says Bains, who also says that perhaps even some of the droplets would fall to the surface, although its unlikely any life would survive that journey. It would be baked into charcoal-like stuff, he explains. Its a tantalising possibility but for now it remains just that. If the phosphine discovery holds up, and we cant explain it via non-biological processes which most scientists would agree is still the most likely outcome then things could get very intriguing. Venus has long been overshadowed by other more alluring targets in the search for life, such as Mars or Jupiters moon Europa. Now, with this phosphine discovery, our Solar Systems own version of hell could find itself at the top of the list. It will probably take more than a decade to hammer down whats happening, says Rugheimer. Phosphine is very interesting as a bio-signature. Its just coming from one of the places we would least expect life. More great stories from WIRED They never officially had Covid-19. But coronavirus long-haulers are living in hell The pandemic may finally kill Netflixs 20-year-old DVD business Going out again? These are the best backpacks for work, travel and cycling Listen to The WIRED Podcast, the week in science, technology and culture, delivered every Friday Follow WIRED on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn Get WIRED Daily, your no-nonsense briefing on all the biggest stories in technology, business and science. In your inbox every weekday at 12pm UK time. by entering your email address, you agree to our privacy policy Thank You. You have successfully subscribed to our newsletter. You will hear from us shortly. Sorry, you have entered an invalid email. Please refresh and try again.

How to take better photos with your Samsung Galaxy camera - Wired.co.uk

Get awesome pet shots and cinematic horizons with our guide to the best Samsung phone photography tips and tricks

Samsung has been overtaken by Huawei and Google's Pixel cameras in recent years but its Galaxy phones still offer a huge amount to anyone into smartphone photography. The cameras on Samsungs phones offer a lot more flexibility than say the iPhone, making them much more appealing to those who know a thing or two about photography. Youve got a variety of modes and the ability to take control of key settings, for starters. The tips in this piece apply to the latest 2020 models, such as the just-launched Samsung Galaxy Note 20 series, as well as the existing Samsung Galaxy S20 series. Some of them will also apply to older models, too. Its also worth saying that you wont need to install any special apps to take advantage of any of this advice. All of the tricks can be used with the native Samsung camera app, so you can get started right out of the box. Read next Engage Pro Mode All recent Samsung phones do a fantastic job of taking great pictures in the standard automatic mode. But for those that have outgrown auto, heading to Pro mode gives you scope to show your photographic nous. With it, you can control ISO, shutter speed, white balance and more. You can even get creative by altering saturation, contrast and so on think of it a bit like creating your own filters. Some Samsung models, such as the Samsung Galaxy S10 also have the ability to choose between two different apertures, depending on how much light is in the scene. This option has been removed from newer models like the Galaxy S20 and the Note 20. While in Pro mode, you can also switch on raw format recording. Those who are used to shooting with proper cameras will be familiar with the format it gives you scope to adjust certain things in editing programs such as Photoshop and can come in handy if you cant quite get your exposures spot on at the scene. Pro tip: To find Pro mode, you might have to head to the 'More' tab from the main screen of the camera app. Read next Capture the best frame As with many smartphones, you can elect to record a short video with each photo you take. With Samsung models thats called 'Motion Photo' and needs to be activated by tapping an icon on the main camera screen. It looks like a square with a play (triangle) icon inside it. This feature is great for capturing a little bit of motion with your shot to bring your images to life, but it can also be used to freeze the best moment. If youve got a bounding dog or toddler who wont sit still, you can extract the best frame from a motion picture without worrying too much about capturing the perfect moment at the time you take the shot. Let them play, let them wriggle, and worry about getting the right frame later. Its also helpful for portraits and group shots where youve almost always got a blinker threatening to spoil an otherwise great photograph. Experiment with resolutions and aspect ratios Your Samsung will have a default resolution and aspect it will record at usually 12 megapixels and 4:3. But, especially the newer models such as the Galaxy S20 Ultra, have huge resolutions just begging to be played with. If you tap on the aspect ratio icon within the main camera app (it looks like a square with 3:4 written inside it), youll be given a range of different options to choose from. If youre using the S20 Ultra or the Note 20 Ultra, the one that will leap out at you is the 3:4 108MP resolution option. You probably dont want to use this for every day shots of your dinner or your neighbours dog, but if you want to capture something super detailed then its worth giving it a go. Read next Beyond that, its also worth experimenting with different aspect ratios to give your photos a creative edge. Were all familiar with the 1:1 ratio thanks to Instagram, but the more cinematic 16:9 option is great for landscapes and wide-angle scenes, allowing you to experiment with unusual compositions. You can also select 'Full' to fill the screen of your phone its worth trying this out, especially if you mainly look at your photos on your phone, itll really make the most of the larger screen sizes of models like the Galaxy S20 Ultra. Activate Single Take This is a feature which is easy to miss, or ignore. Swipe to the left (on the S20 series, S10 series, Note 20 series, Note 10 series) from the main camera screen and youll be taken to 'Single Take' mode. With this, the camera will take a number of different shots and videos all at once, later recommending the best shot for you. Its a neat option when you want to concentrate on the moment in front of you rather than worry too much about composition and so on. Try moving the phone around the scene while capturing a 'Single Take' to give you plenty of variety to choose from, too. Read next Use the S Pen for a remote release The S Pen on the Note series models can be used for all sorts of wild gestures but one of the truly useful functions is remote release. That gives you scope to capture fantastic portraits and group shots without having to awkwardly stretch out your arm to fit everyone in or use a dreaded selfie stick. It works via Bluetooth and can be used up to 10 metres away from your phone youll also need a small tripod or something stable to rest your phone on. Once youve got yourself and your friends into position, give the button on the S pen a tap and itll take a picture. You can double tap the button to switch between using the rear camera and the selfie camera. Wed recommend using the higher-quality rear camera for the best shots. Experiment with Live Focus Read next If you want to create shallow depth of field portraits, then the best thing to do is head to the Live Focus mode. You might have to head to the 'More' section in the standard camera app to find the option, depending on how you have the app set up. Once there, you can use it in its default setup, but its also worth spending some time getting to know its various options a little better. For example, switching to the wide-angle option (represented by an icon that looks like two trees) allows you to capture better environmental type shots, showing more of your subjects background. Its great for people, but also other subjects, such as pets. Beyond that, you might also want to experiment with the different bokeh options. Bokeh is the name given to the out of focus area, and can be a standard or generic 'blur', but you can also choose different options, including 'big circle', 'spin', and 'zoom'. Some are a little on the gimmicky side, but theyre also pretty fun. Try out Samsung's Intelligent features At their best, smartphones include lots of features that take the guesswork out of photography. When it comes to Samsung phones, youll find them equipped with 'Intelligent Features' that can come in really handy. Read next Tap the cog icon in the top left hand corner of the native camera app, and you should see the Intelligent Features options right at the top of the screen. Make sure 'Scene optimiser' is switched on to make sure the best settings are automatically applied to your shots, while 'Shot suggestions' is particularly helpful when trying to line up landscape shots nothing says amateur like a wonky horizon. With this feature turned on, a level will be shown on screen to help get things as straight as possible. More great stories from WIRED The French town that created its own Amazon Google got rich from your data. DuckDuckGo is fighting back Which face mask should you buy? The WIRED guide Listen to The WIRED Podcast, the week in science, technology and culture, delivered every Friday Follow WIRED on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn Get The Email from WIRED, your no-nonsense briefing on all the biggest stories in technology, business and science. In your inbox every weekday at 12pm sharp. by entering your email address, you agree to our privacy policy Thank You. You have successfully subscribed to our newsletter. You will hear from us shortly. Sorry, you have entered an invalid email. Please refresh and try again.

Britain's big cat hunters won't quit searching for mystery animals - Wired.co.uk

For more than 50 years, people have reported sightings of big cats in the British countryside. Now, armed with drones and podcasts, a new generation of big cat hunters is taking up the search

Eight years ago, while he was driving down a winding country road in east Dorset, Mike Coggan experienced something he cannot explain. On his way home, just after midnight, he saw a black labrador run out into the road in front of him. Then he looked again. I got a really good view of it in my headlights, for several seconds; though it felt much longer. I was petrified. I couldnt scream. There wasnt isnt a doubt in my mind. It was running just in front of my car. I could see this long, muscular black body, and this huge tail that curled up. There was no mistaking it for anything else. When I got back, I googled black leopard and the hair on my arms stood up. For eight years, hes been expecting the story to break. I thought, someones got to get something soon. Coggan runs Grizzly, a video and animation studio based in Dorset. We had some downtime, and all this kit lying around. We sat round, thinking what can we invest some time into? The result is a documentary. I really wanted there to be a conclusion weve either got to find one of these animals, or look hard enough as to suggest theyre not there. Coggan and his team decided to take on a decades-old legend with tech lots of tech and in doing so stumbled right into the heart of why the British big cat mystery is still so compelling. In 60 years of scientific and technological innovation, there has never been so much as a shred of evidence no smartphone footage, no bodies, no physical or biological trace that convincingly suggests that the UK is home to a wild population of big cats. Yet despite this, the numbers of sightings have never slowed. According to the British Big Cats Society a group that catalogues big cat sightings in the UK there has been a big spike in new sightings during lockdown. And now a new generation of big cat hunters has taken up the mantle. Read next The Grizzly team started with ten camera traps. They captured footage of some deer, and then some of the traps stopped working, so Grizzly invested in a thermal drone. But they still werent coming up with any sightings. Its still just a lottery draw as to whether youre going to be within a 50-mile radius of one, Coggan says. Scoring images of a big cat started to seem like an impossible goal. If ones going to be found, then its going to run in front of a taxi driver with a dash cam, he says. We do come to a conclusion in the documentary, but its not a particularly satisfying one. Satisfying conclusions are hard to come by in this gig, as Rick Minter the de facto authority on British big cats can attest. Like Coggan, Minter came to the subject after an encounter of his own. Taking a break from a meeting at a countryside hotel, he looked out over the surrounding fields and saw what he now thinks was a small female black leopard. It was a good sighting, he says for about 50 seconds or so, long enough to exclude everything else. I really challenged myself to confirm what it was. Minter had seen the press reports, but until that moment hadnt given the subject any thought. I had what youd call an agnostic disinterest. At the time, he was an analyst at what is now Natural England, a government body advising on the responsible management of the countryside. Straight away, I saw the bigger picture. With my blue-skies management hat on, I thought if there are more of these things around, weve got an apex predator on our hands, and most people dont even realise it. Since leaving the agency, Minter has dedicated much of the last decade to British big cats, investigating the phenomenon, logging evidence, producing a fortnightly podcast and writing a book on the subject. He says he has twice briefed official countryside organisations on the animals and how to manage them, though these meetings were never logged. Full briefings, but they were off the record of course. These things do go on under the radar, he says. Unlike Coggan, Minter isnt interested in proving the cats exist. Im not thumping the table wanting these cats to become widely accepted; Id be worried about the culture shock. To me the topic is about naturalising animals, requiring a citizen science process to help reveal more evidence and learn how these alpha predators are adapting to their niche. The sightings are nothing new. The first rumours of a wild big cat on the loose are more than half a century old, as police in the Surrey village of Godalming logged 342 sightings of The Surrey Puma between 1964 and 1966. The latest reported big cat sighting came just last month. In the intervening years, there have been thousands of sightings these are just the ones we know about and dozens of monikers: the Beast of Exmoor, the Highland Panther, the Fen Tiger. In 1995, the government mounted an official investigation into The Beast of Bodmin, our most famous felid. It came up empty-handed. Read next But these expert denials don't seem to have deterred big cat spotters. Its not like people are reporting hyenas and flamingos consistently, says Minter, but they are reporting leopard, lynx and puma. The cats are seen by ordinary people, going about their daily business: groups of dogwalkers, cars full of policemen, beaters on a country estate. Some are higher profile in 2014, Clare Balding was just three minutes into her BBC Radio 4 programme Ramblings, when she saw an enormous dog-size black cat sauntering up the road. Most of the sightings are of panthers, or melanistic leopards, with muscular hindquarters, black coats and long, looping tails. The rest of them are made up by puma and lynx. Many witnesses claim never to have had heard of the phenomenon before their encounter, having no choice but to believe their own eyes. The cats mean different things to different people. To some, they are paranormal. To others, theyre part of a government conspiracy. Cryptozoologists and folklorists both claim them as their own. The most credible theory suggests that the cats are descended from wild-scale releases in 1976, in the months leading up to the Dangerous Wild Animals Act: a piece of legislation intended to halt the growing trend of large exotic pets by implementing a costly license fee. There is one piece of titillating scientific evidence that points to the cats existence. In 2013, Andrew Hemmings, a senior lecturer at the Royal Agricultural University, examined the skeletal remains of animals that had been eaten by an unidentified large predator and found that in some cases, the tooth marks suggested that a big cat, rather than a badger, fox or a dog was responsible. But not everyones so sure. Robin Allaby, an evolutionary geneticist at the University of Warwick, works mainly with ancient DNA, but just over ten years ago he started a side-line in ecological forensics. In 2012, the National Trust requested that he test the wounds on deer carcasses, after a spate of suspiciously cat-like kills. Foxes, Allaby says. We found foxes all over them. Since then, his genotyping service has tested carcasses sent by farmers, landowners and Rick Minter every few months. Occasionally weve found domestic cat hits, though nothing like a panther. In animals, Allaby says, size is easily changed and quick to evolve. As an evolutionary geneticist I am interested in whether domestic cats are going feral and stepping into a bigger niche. I am perfectly prepared to believe that there are very, very big moggies out there. The most compelling piece of evidence for the existence of the animals, by some way, is the eyewitness accounts, thousands of them, that pile up year after year. But eyewitness testimony is not all that it seems, as anomalistic psychologist Christopher French explains. For most people, the strongest evidence they can conceive of is their own personal experience, but perception and memory can be faulty, in lots of different ways. Read next Our intuitive understanding of perception, French says, is inaccurate. It is in fact a constructive process; the brain fills in gaps, such as colour and dimension, that the eyes cannot see. Memory suffers the same pitfalls. Unlike a video camera, our recollection of events is incomplete: when you remember something, youre basing the event on memory traces that were formed at the time, but youre also filling in gaps. Perception is constructive; memory is reconstructive. Add to that the influence of top-down processing, where were influenced by our beliefs, plus memory conformity, where one persons account influences another persons memory and theres a lot of room for error. In this field, just two things are certain. That the cats are seen; and that so long as they are seen, people will try to find them. Aside from the sense of community and the media coverage, its the lure of something so utterly mysterious, French tells me. And then theres the hope that maybe, just maybe youll be the one to demonstrate that theyre out there and prove the scientists wrong once and for all. Every so often a large species thought to be extinct does turn up. Its what behavioural psychologists would call partial reinforcement. Thats the strongest kind of reinforcement there is. The desire to stray past the boundaries of our knowledge is in our nature. Weve always sought out mythical beasts, French says. Think of bestiaries and medieval maps, here be dragons. Weve always stood at the edge of the known, looking out, yearning for whats beyond. More great stories from WIRED The French town that created its own Amazon Google got rich from your data. DuckDuckGo is fighting back Which face mask should you buy? The WIRED guide Listen to The WIRED Podcast, the week in science, technology and culture, delivered every Friday Follow WIRED on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn Get The Email from WIRED, your no-nonsense briefing on all the biggest stories in technology, business and science. In your inbox every weekday at 12pm sharp. by entering your email address, you agree to our privacy policy Thank You. You have successfully subscribed to our newsletter. You will hear from us shortly. Sorry, you have entered an invalid email. Please refresh and try again.

The new PlayStation 5 looks like a giant broadband router - Wired.co.uk

Last night’s major PlayStation 5 event edited down to only the vital info

A new console launch is always cause for excitement, even in the midst of a pandemic. Enter Sony with its big PS5 unveiling, imaginatively titled 'PS5: The Future of Gaming Show', which teased more than it satisfied, but gave us a good opportunity to see what the next generation of games will look like. Assuming you haven't already skipped to the good stuff, let's get to it. What did I miss? Sony mainly used the event as an extended sizzle reel for the eclectic collection of exclusives coming to the console, though it wasn't clear which would launch with the console later this year. The most immediately interesting were Spider-Man: Miles Morales, a follow-up to last year's hugely popular game featuring the lead from the critically acclaimed animated movie Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, and Horizon: Forbidden West, a sequel to the equally popular Horizon: Zero Dawn. The latter, in particular, looked stunning. Sony also revealed the console itself and a bunch of peripherals, but declined to say how much the PS5 would cost at launch. Nor did it clear up many of our burning questions, such as the exact nature of the system's backward compatibility with previous consoles. Also, well, you've seen the photos. Read next Yes, how big is that thing and will it lie flat? Sony hasn't released the dimensions, but you can use the size of the disc drive as a guide. By that measure, it's likely the console is noticeably taller than the PS4 Pro and even larger than the famously chunky original Xbox One. That is a very rough guesstimate, however, and should be treated as such, but it already has us glancing at our home entertainment rack with concern. To your other question, yes, it will lie flat. Sony released images of the console in the horizontal position with it sitting on some kind of stand. It's not, we hasten to add, the console's most flattering angle. Like the chunky Xbox Series X, the PS5 is clearly designed to be stood tall. It's also worth noting there are two versions of the console. One with a 4K Blu-ray drive and one is the PlayStation 5 Digital Edition and has no optical drive ideal for people who won't mind paying over the odds for their games. So how powerful is the PlayStation 5, exactly? We can't say, but Sony has released some details in previous events. We know, like the Xbox Series X, the PlayStation 5 is powered by an eight-core AMD processor and a custom GPU based on AMD's RDNA 2 architecture. Everything we've seen and heard so far suggests the Xbox will have a slight raw performance advantage over the PS5, but Sony has a trick up its sleeve which might give it an edge. Read next While both consoles are adopting fast solid state drive (SSD) akin the flash memory in your phone, Sony's is reportedly much faster. So fast, in fact, that textures and game assets can be streamed directly from the SSD rather than being held in the system's memory (RAM) as is traditional. In a demo of its Unreal Engine 5 earlier this year, Epic Games boss Tim Sweeney said "the storage architecture on the PS5 is far ahead of anything you can buy on anything on PC for any amount of money right now. Its going to help drive future PCs." You can watch that demo below. In order to see this embed, you must give consent to Social Media cookies. Open my cookie preferences. This new SSD will have a dramatic impact on loading times. In a previous demonstration of Marvel's Spider-Man, fast travelling on the PS4 Pro took 15 seconds; the same function reportedly takes just 0.8 seconds on the PS5. What about the controller? The new controller, now dubbed DualSense, has several interesting features. Read next One is something Sony is calling adaptive triggers. One example given of how these will affect gameplay was shooting a bow and arrow, pressing down on the trigger to draw an arrow back would have a different tactile sensation to firing a shotgun, or driving an off-road vehicle through rocky terrain. The other key feature is the controllers haptic feedback, which replaces the standard rumble. Sony says that the difference between this and old rumble is night and day. Crashing into a wall with a car, for example, will feel very different to making a tackle in a future version of Madden, for example. You should also be able to tell whether you're running through long grass or mud just from the controller feedback. The controller, which will use a USB Type-C connector for charging, will apparently be heavier than the DualShock 4 and lighter than the current Xbox controller. They kept on talking about "ray tracing". What is that? It's an advanced rendering technique relied on for years by Hollywood visual effects teams. It tries to simulate the way light bounces off objects, producing impressively life-like graphics and amazing reflections. Ray tracing is already available on current-gen gaming PCs running Nvidias RTX graphics cards. Anything else? For now, no. You can watch the whole reveal below if you like and check back soon for our selection of the most interesting games from the PS5 reveal. Read next In order to see this embed, you must give consent to Social Media cookies. Open my cookie preferences. More great stories from WIRED Google got rich from your data. DuckDuckGo is fighting back The Animal Crossing fans running in-game businesses Inside the 'bullshit' get-rich-quick world of dropshipping The secret behind the success of Apple's AirPods The UK's lockdown rules, explained Follow WIRED on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn Get The Email from WIRED, your no-nonsense briefing on all the biggest stories in technology, business and science. In your inbox every weekday at 12pm sharp. by entering your email address, you agree to our privacy policy Thank You. You have successfully subscribed to our newsletter. You will hear from us shortly. Sorry, you have entered an invalid email. Please refresh and try again.