Category: Technology

All about Kodi

If you’re looking to add a VPN to your Kodi box, you’ve come to the right place! For those not familiar with Kodi, it’s one of the most, if not the most popular media players around thanks to its excellent interface, not to mention the fact that it’s free and open source – and boasts some impressive capabilities when it comes to add-ons which support various streaming services.

Some of those add-ons are perfectly legal, and others – not so much. Naturally, here at TechRadar, we don’t endorse any form of piracy or illegally viewing copyrighted material.

The best Kodi VPN in 2018

1. IPVanish

Best all-round VPN for Kodi

Number of servers: 1000+ | Server locations: 60+ | IP addresses: 40000+ | Maximum devices supported: 5

Terrific download speeds
Huge server coverage
Windows client needs work
No free trial

[57% Off] IPVanish (Official Promotion) – Get up to 57% Off TechRadar’s #1 Rated VPN Service  with IPVanish’s top-tier network delivering some of the fastest speeds in our tests. Zero logs gives you total privacy. 

IPVanish provides superb performance levels complemented with a wide range of server locations. In testing, our download speeds improved by around 15% compared to our normal rates.

The service offers native clients for Windows and Mac, along with Android and iOS, plus it has setup instructions for other platforms. The native Windows client, in particular, is a sterling effort with an intuitive interface and a bundle of advanced features (although on the downside, we found it could potentially be susceptible to more network issues than rival VPN software).

IPVanish has a strict no logs policy and all the necessary security in place for a smooth and carefree VPN experience. If there’s one thing that somewhat spoils the fun, it’s the cost of the service as it’s a bit on the pricey side. There is no free trial available, but the three plans include a 7-day money-back guarantee. The 1-year subscription is the best and most affordable option. The packages available are:

2. VyprVPN

Best VPN for HD streaming

Number of servers: 700+ | Server locations: 70+ | IP addresses: 200,000+ | Maximum devices supported: 3-5

Blazing speeds
Free 3-day trial
Some logging (connection times, IPs)
No refunds

[Save 40%] Until July 31, 2018, get 40% off VyprVPN’s annual plans, just in time to boost up your coverage of the 2018 World Cup in Russia. VyprVPN is a fast, highly secure VPN without third-parties, all for as little as $36.00 for the first year. Get VyprVPN here. 

Streaming content requires a fast connection and it doesn’t get much better than VyprVPN in this respect. Our performance tests revealed that this provider offers superb download speeds – twice as fast as the rates we get with the VPN turned off, in fact. Add the firm’s widespread server coverage and you have a service tailored for HD and 4K content.

There are easy-to-use clients for all relevant platforms and devices, supported by strong security aspects. Along with the expected range of protocols and encryption, the provider’s own Chameleon technology aims to defeat VPN blocking and throttling for a faster connection. A kill switch, NAT Firewall, and VyprVPN’s own DNS solution complete the efforts on the security front. On top of that, there is no logging of traffic or online activities, but there is some logging occurring in the form of recording connection times and IP addresses.

Would-be users have a free 3-day trial at their disposal, which is particularly useful as VyprVPN doesn’t allow refunds. Commercial plans are based on monthly and annual billing, with the monthly plans carrying an expensive price tag. Your best bet is the Premium plan with annual billing as it includes all the bells and whistles (like the Chameleon protocol) for a reasonable price. The packages available are:

3. NordVPN

Most secure VPN

Number of servers: 4350 | Server locations: 62 | IP addresses: N/A | Maximum devices supported: 6

Lots of servers
Strong security
Monthly billing is expensive

NordVPN offers an impressive level of overall server coverage, being one of the largest VPN networks around. Its performance is far from shabby, too, providing consistently fast connections throughout much of that expansive network. 

This provider also has user-friendly applications for all major operating systems. These are packed with useful features, along with plenty of beef on the security front. There’s Double VPN (double encryption) for maximum privacy, Onion over VPN, a CyberSec feature for blocking intrusive adverts and malicious online threats, an automatic kill switch, and more besides. NordVPN has a clear ‘no logs’ policy, too.

There is a free 3-day trial to take this VPN for a test spin, but it’s rather hidden away on the website. With the monthly billing being rather pricey, the cheap 3-year subscription provides the best value for your money. The packages available are:

(Image: © Tunnelbear)

4. TunnelBear

Best free VPN for Kodi

Number of servers: 1000 | Server locations: 20+ | IP addresses: N/A | Maximum devices supported: 5

Extremely user-friendly
Transparent privacy policy
Long-distance connections can be slower
Few low-level settings

TunnelBear is first and foremost a user-friendly service. You get a wide array of desktop and mobile software that focuses on keeping things simple. As such, more advanced users may be somewhat dismayed at the lack of low-level options, but bear in mind that these clients aren’t barebones – there are a few settings that you can tweak.

Performance-wise, the Canadian-based provider – now owned by McAfee – was speedy with local connections during our testing, although long-distance connections were slower, as is usually the case. Still, TunnelBear’s free plan delivered solid enough performance levels, and indeed it’s faster than some paid products.

The only restriction with the free plan is a cap on data usage, and the good news is you get full server coverage at your disposal. As for data, TunnelBear allows for 500MB of traffic each month, but you can tweet about the service to get an extra 1GB (plus TechRadar’s special offer ups the limit to an impressive 5GB).

As for security, this provider employs the standard security protocols, as well as its very own GhostBear protocol which aims to defeat VPN blocking. The privacy policy is transparent and clear, stating that there is no logging of any of its users’ online activity.

Aside from the free offering, there’s not much variety when it comes to commercial plans: there’s one subscription on a monthly or annual basis. If you’re happy to pay, the yearly plan offers the best value as it gets you unlimited data for a very reasonable price. The packages available are:

5. Windscribe

Best for families with lots of devices

Number of servers: N/A | Server locations: 11 | IP addresses: N/A | Maximum devices supported: Unlimited

Unlimited devices
10GB/month data
Average speeds
Poor plan selection

Windscribe offers a generous free plan that allows you 10GB of traffic on a monthly basis (if you register your email address, 2GB if not). As is the case with some other providers, tweeting about the service will earn you an extra 5GB of data, and you’ll get an additional 1GB each time you invite a friend to join.

You’re restricted to 11 server locations, although a major benefit is that you aren’t limited on the device front – you can connect as many devices as you wish. Performance isn’t anything to write home about, with this VPN offering average but acceptable speeds. There are clients for all major platforms, and some great browser extensions, too.

On the security front, you get 256-bit encryption and the OpenVPN protocol by default. The privacy policy goes into detail to explain that there’s no logging of historical sessions or records of incoming or outgoing IP addresses, or individual user activity.

For a free service, Windscribe is certainly a good option, but if you want more, the paid subscriptions don’t offer much choice. Your only option is the Pro plan billed monthly, biannually or yearly – it comes with unlimited data usage, and you get more locations to choose from (50+). The packages available are:

6. Speedify

Best VPN for low-spec devices

Number of servers: 1000+ | Server locations: 40+ | IP addresses: N/A | Maximum devices supported: 5

Channel bonding to boost speeds
Easy-to-use clients
Not many settings to play with
Only two paid plans

Speedify’s channel bonding feature uses multiple connections – Ethernet, Wi-Fi, a tethered mobile, and so forth – to boost overall performance. Assuming you have more than one internet connection, you’ll likely see the benefit, and we certainly did in our testing when the aforementioned turbocharging tech help speed things up nicely.

The free plan allows full access to over a thousand servers in more than 20 countries, with the only restriction being the amount of data you can download: you get 1GB per month. You can get Speedify for all major platforms, and the native clients are pretty simple, with only a few available settings for tweaking the service.

In terms of security, this provider offers ChaCha-based 256-bit encryption, multiple VPN protocols, and an automatic kill switch. Speedify has a clear privacy policy stating that it doesn’t log any form of user activity.

Should you like the free service enough to want to upgrade, there are only two commercial plans available: you can subscribe and get unlimited data on a monthly or annual basis, with the latter offering the best value, as ever. The packages available are:

7. ProtonVPN Free

Best VPN with unlimited data

Number of servers: 114 | Server locations: 14 | IP addresses: N/A | Maximum devices supported: 1-10

No monthly data limits
Can be fast
But speeds can be inconsistent
Only three locations

Coming from the people behind ProtonMail, the popular Switzerland-based encrypted email service, ProtonVPN Free’s main draw is unlimited bandwidth – you can use this freebie as much as you like. However, there are a few catches. You get just three locations to choose from (US, Japan, Netherlands), there’s support for only one device, and free users are bottom of the performance priority list, so speeds could be variable.

And our performance tests bore that out, as we saw some relatively speedy results at times (better than some commercial providers, in fact), but we also experienced low speeds in other instances. It’s a mixed bag, in other words, so prepare yourself for some inconsistency.

Native software is provided for Windows, Mac, Linux, Android and iOS. Security shouldn’t be a problem, either, given that this VPN is delivered by a respected team with a lengthy track record in maintaining tight security. The company states its logging policy very clearly on the website: there is no tracking or recording of your internet activity.

With its unlimited data allowance, this is one free VPN that’s certainly worth considering. Although if you feel the need to upgrade, there are three paid plans, including a very pricey top-end product (Visionary) which boasts ProtonMail encrypted email with all features as part of the package.

Overall, this isn’t a cheap provider, although the Plus plan isn’t too expensive on an annual subscription, and will give you full access to the service. The packages available are:

8. Ivacy

Best VPN for desktops

Number of servers: 450+ | Server locations: 100+ | IP addresses: N/A | Maximum devices supported: 5

Consistently fast performance
Low-cost 2-year plan
Poor mobile support
Limited refund policy

This Singapore-based VPN proved to be consistent in our testing. The service delivered fast and reliable connections even over long distances with almost no difference compared to our regular download speeds. Ivacy’s desktop clients are novice-friendly, but also offer more than enough settings to tweak for more advanced users. Unfortunately, the mobile apps are a different story, being overly basic and rarely updated.

There are no logs kept here, and the service handles privacy and security quite well. Still, you may want to pay attention to the 7-day refund policy as there are some conditions attached to it. Namely, it doesn’t apply if you’ve used Bitcoin or Paymentwall to pay for the service, or if you have used more than 7GB of bandwidth, or connected more than 30 times.

Ivacy offers three subscriptions that could use a bit more variety, although they all have a 30-day money-back guarantee (except the monthly plan, which has a 7-day guarantee). The monthly plan aside, the subscriptions are quite affordable, especially the 2-year plan which is really cheap. The packages available are:

9. Hide.me

Best VPN for novices

Number of servers: N/A | Server locations: 40+ | IP addresses: N/A | Maximum devices supported: 5

Impressive download speeds
2GB a month free plan
Expensive Premium plan
Poor overall plan selection

Hide.me has the smallest server selection of any VPN on this list, but makes up for it with great performance – in our tests, it actually increased download speeds by just a touch compared to our normal rates.

The service provides clients for Windows, Mac, iOS, Android and Windows Phone, and there are setup instructions for other platforms. The Windows client is compact and quite simple to use, and with just one click you can connect to the fastest server currently available. There is a strict no logging policy in place, too.

The service offers a 2GB per month free plan which is more than enough to properly test things out. If you want unlimited data, then you’ll need the Premium plan, but it’s rather expensive. Otherwise, the only other option is the Plus package which has certain restrictions (75GB data allowance, no port forwarding, a miserly one simultaneous connection, and other limitations). The packages available are:

How to choose the best Kodi VPN

As ever when it comes to streaming content – particularly if it’s HD – you want one of the best VPNs which gives you fast download speeds to avoid those dreaded pauses while the ‘buffering’ icon hogs the screen. A large web of server locations also helps as you’ll have more options to find the fastest connection possible.

And as always, you’ll want good levels of security and a ‘zero logs’ privacy policy. An intuitive dedicated client is highly desirable as there might be some initial tweaking and fiddling required. Those who prefer viewing on the go should look out for mobile device support, and preferably native clients for iOS/Android.

http://www.techradar.com/news/best-vpn-for-kodi-our-5-top-choices

Amazon Prime Day 2018 is getting ever closer dear reader and we can’t wait to share the best deals with you. We’ve just enjoyed a solid bank holiday sales and Memorial Day sales period in late May, but with no more bank holidays until August, there’s a bit of a gap before Prime Day lands in July and unleashes the hottest summer deals.

If you weren’t aware, Prime Day is Amazon’s summertime version of Black Friday. It’s when thousands of products are sold at a discount, and in 2017 it was the biggest day in Amazon’s history: busier than Black Friday, busier than Cyber Monday, and busier than Prime Day 2016. 

It’s no wonder that Amazon Boss Jeff Bezos is currently the richest man in the world  – he’s got all our money.

When is Amazon Prime Day?

Prime day has taken place on the second Tuesday in July for the last two years, so that’s why we’ve got our money on Amazon Prime Day 2018 taking place on July 10th. Amazon Prime Day last year fell on July 12th and on the day 2.6 million people visited TechRadar as we ran deals pages and buying guides pointing readers to the best deals and the best products! 

What deals can we expect on Prime Day 2018?

Amazon will most certainly be leading with its own devices, especially Echo smart speakers. We’re hoping for all-time low prices on the likes of the Echo Dot (£25 maybe?) and hopefully the Echo Spot (we’d love to see it drop to £70), which will be enjoying it’s first Prime Day. The cheaper Kindles, Fire TV Sticks and Fire Tablets are bound to be in the mix too. A knock-on effect of the Echo devices getting a discount should see Google attempt to match the prices with its Google Home smart speaker range. 

Console deals were in fine form last year, with the new Nintendo Switch getting some cracking deals, despite being almost impossible to get hold of elsewhere. So we’re expecting some more great deals- hopefully £250 with two or three top of the line games. Interest in the older PS4/Xbox One consoles is dying down a bit now as attention shifts towards the PS4 Pro and Xbox One X. Microsoft would be wise to use Prime Day as a chance to unleash some better bundles for the X, which is still significantly more expensive than the PS4 Pro, especially in the US where you’ll rarely see a discounted Xbox One X bundle anywhere.

Philips Hue bulbs have been a traditional favourite during the sales in recent years, although Black Friday was a bit of a letdown in all honesty. We’re keeping our fingers crossed Amazon Prime Day will turns things around so we can put even more coloured lighting in our homes.

Cheap 4K TVs will be something to keep an eye out for on Prime Day as we saw some great deals last year. And with prices leading up to the World Cup at the moment already being pretty damn good over on our cheap TV page, the discounts will have to be extra special to stand out.

That’s just a small taste of what’s to come though. Thousands of different items will be getting huge discounts and we’ll be keenly digging through them all to bring you the best picks.

The Echo Dot was the most-bought item on Prime Day in the UK last year

The Echo Dot was the most-bought item on Prime Day in the UK last year

What is Amazon Prime Day?

Amazon Prime Day is the retailer’s big members-only summer sale and it’s been a massive success in the few short years it’s been going. If you want to get involved with the best discounts though, you’ll need to be a member of Amazon Prime. With free next-day delivery on thousands of items and the excellent Amazon Instant Video streaming service being just two of the membership’s key highlights, millions of you are already signed up.

Brilliantly though, you can always sign up for a free 30-day trial to take advantage of the sale and other membership benefits. And if you don’t want to continue the service after Prime Day, just cancel the trial before the 30 days are up. Amazon know too well that many shoppers will find it hard to say goodbye to those super perks though.

More people signed up for Prime on Prime Day 2017 than on any other day in Amazon’s history. As of April this year, Amazon confirmed it had passed 100 million subscribers for Amazon Prime, that’s up from around 80 million before Prime Day last year and 58 million in 2016. That’s some pretty incredible year-on-year growth for the last few years.

Amazon have also reported that sales via the Amazon app more than doubled year-on-year and “tens of millions of people” used the app to buy items on Prime Day last year.

So is Amazon Prime Day just another Black Friday? Actually, no. As Amazon puts it, Black Friday is largely about gifts for other people (it’s ok, we had a laugh at that too) – it takes place just at the start of the Christmas shopping season – but Prime Day is all about Amazon. Sorry, you! It’s all about you! Ahem.

The overwhelming majority of decent deals on Prime Day were on things you might buy for yourself or for your home. As you’ll see from the best sellers there were lots of smart home devices sold to Prime customers as well as quite a lot of kitchen gear. There were good deals on laptops and consoles too, of course, but they were alongside deals on hammocks, juicers, robot vacuum cleaners and pressure cookers.

Amazon Prime Day 2018: how long will it last?

We know what you’re thinking: Amazon turned Black Friday into Black Friday Deals Week, so there’s no way it would limit Prime Day to just 24 hours. And you’re right. Prime Day 2017 was 30 hours long starting at 9pm the night before and lasting until 3am the day after. We wouldn’t be surprised to see Prime Day 2018 last even longer. Prime Day 2022 may well start before Prime Day 2021 finishes.

Prime Day: do Amazon’s rivals respond?

They did. It was Free Slurpee Day at 7-Eleven and Cow Appreciation Day at Chick-fil-A, which offered free food to anybody in an animal costume. Meanwhile eBay threw some shade, with a front page claiming that “Their Prime Deal Is Our Everyday Deal”.

According to research firm Bazaarvoice, 76% of US Prime Day shoppers visited rival retailers to check whether they were getting the best deals. And as PwC Consumer Markets analyst Steve Barr told CNBC, “We are seeing other big box retailers use Prime Day as an opportunity to capture shoppers’ appetite for deals and as way to compete against Amazon for share of wallet and mindset.” 

So we won’t just be calling out the best Prime Day deals at Amazon, we’ll keep an eye on all your favourite retailers to see what bargains they have. At the very least we expect some sneaky price matching from many stores like Walmart, Newegg and Jet in the US and UK favourites like Currys, Argos, John Lewis and AO.

So are Prime Day deals really real?

As with any sale, some products are end of line stock or things that just aren’t selling (like all those shoddy TVs idiots fight over in supermarkets on Black Friday), but many deals are genuine. Let’s take a look at the US bestseller, the Instant Pot DUO80 pressure cooker. On Prime Day it was $90, and if you check its price history on CamelCamelCamel.com you’ll see that it’s been tracking at $129 for most of 2017. The camel site is pretty reliable and a great way to check how good a deal really is and it works in both the UK and US.

Most popular Amazon Devices on Prime Day

There’s one big blip in the graph, though: on the 2nd of July it went up to $209.10, dropping back to $129 the following day. If you’re comparing the Prime Day price to the 2nd of July price then the saving is clearly illusory – but compare it to the normal selling price and it’s clearly still a good deal.

Checking other devices can be illuminating, though. Amazon’s Echo Dot is usually $49.99, but it dropped to $39.99 last June, May, December and on Black Friday. The Kindle Paperwhite price goes up and down more often than a kangaroo on a bouncy castle, moving from $119.99 to $99.99 every fortnight or so.

The lesson here, other than “don’t buy Amazon devices at full price”, is that you really need to know the value of what you’re looking at. Some deals, such as the pressure cooker, are genuine (and no doubt arranged with the supplier way in advance to trade margin for volume). Others aren’t necessarily deals you need to race to get, because the devices will be discounted again soon. And as with any sale, forget the RRP/MSRP when you’re looking at the sale price – especially on big ticket items such as televisions. The RRP on those only exists to give retailers a laugh.

Where there any Prime Day problems last year?

As you’d expect from an event this big, not everything went according to plan on Amazon Prime Day last year. Twitter featured many irate users who found that deals didn’t appear at the specified times, while others suggested that Amazon had a “bot problem” with some deals being oversubscribed instantly. Still others had problems with the app, where deals weren’t sold out but the App’s Add To Cart button didn’t work. There were concerns over some of the deals too. Some deals were more expensive on Prime Day than they were normally, while other deals simply reproduced deals that had been available the day before. And still others were laughable: would an incredible four cents off the $1,799.99 price of a soundbar tempt you to buy? Problems didn’t end at the ordering stage either. While Amazon boasts about the fastest-ever UK Prime Day delivery of just 14 minutes between ordering and delivery, many of us saw our next-day or two-day deliveries become even longer.

Pro hint from us here at TechRadar: if any of your Amazon Prime delivery dates are longer than they should be, complain to Amazon and you might get something back. A free month of Prime added to your sub for example.

The Fire TV Stick was down to $34.99 / £34.99

The Fire TV Stick was down to $34.99 / £34.99

Could Amazon do better?

We think so. One of the biggest problem with Prime Day was actually finding the deals, which involved wading through lots of irrelevant products: Amazon ordered its deals by categories, so for example you could choose Computers & Accessories but you couldn’t narrow the selection further to specific kinds of computers or accessories.

Finding interesting deals meant looking at an awful lot of Lightning cables. We’re here to make things easier for you though as we’ll provide a guide to the very best Amazon Prime Day deals, as it can be a right pain browsing the site if you’re not used to navigating it every single day like we are. 

We were a bit disappointed to see deals we did want, such as Philips Hue bulbs, limited to single orders per customer. Presumably it’s to stop them ending up on eBay at a higher price, but Hue’s a system for smart homes, not a single smart lampshade.

The biggest problems were with availability and delivery, though. Amazon or its logistics partners appeared to underestimate demand, and while part of us thinks “fair enough”, the whole point of Prime is its fast delivery. And seeing Lightning Deals disappear before you had time to read them was particularly frustrating. Not everybody is accessing Amazon on a super-speedy broadband network, and logging into the mobile app at the right time to see the deal had already sold out was a particular torture for phone users.

What can we learn about Black Friday and Cyber Monday?

The short answer: not much. Prime Day may be a big deal, but it’s still small potatoes compared to the annual holiday extravaganza – and you can be sure that while many people still won’t have heard of Prime Day, they’re very familiar with Black Friday and maybe Cyber Monday too. Amazon isn’t going to let the Black Friday / Cyber Monday opportunity pass it by: Black Friday 2016 was the first billion-dollar shopping day for mobile payments, with a total of $3.34 billion sold in the US alone. Expect Amazon to be just as enthusiastic about Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2018 as it was for the last few years. Although truth be told, we reckon the Amazon device deals on Prime Day will be slightly better than Black Friday.

Tens of millions of Prime members made a purchase on Prime Day 2017, more than 50 percent higher than the prior year

Tens of millions of Prime members made a purchase on Prime Day 2017, more than 50 percent higher than the prior year

What were the best Prime Day deals last year?

As ever, you can count on us to find the very best Amazon Prime Day deals. In 2017 the best Prime Day deals included the PS4, high quality headphones and Oral-B  toothbrushes. Other top deals included:

  • Amazon Devices: Echo speakers, Kindles, Fire TV Stick 
  • Pressure cooker: the Instant Pot Duo80 cooker was $40 off 
  • Philips Hue: smart bulbs were 50% off in US and UK 
  • LG OLED TV: $700 savings on 65-inch LG OLED TVs in the US 
  • Microsoft Surface Pro 4: Prices down to £479.99 in the UK 
  • Philips Fidelio L1: £180 off these headphones 
  • PlayStation Plus: 15 months for £29.99 in the UK 

Amazon’s warehouse workers had a huge task ahead of them last year with an incredible number of items needing to be shipped for next day delivery via Amazon Prime.

  • Amazon Prime Day sales last year:
  • 3.5 million toys
  • 50,000 TP-Link smart plugs
  • 200,000 dresses
  • 300,000 lightbulbs
  • 100,000 Amazon Launchpad items
  • 45,000 pairs of headphones
  • 32,000 electric toothbrushes
  • 52,000 kitchen items
  • 37,000 power tools

weird amazon prime day deals

What were the weirdest deals last year?

Where do we start? There was 40% off cream made from sheep placentas, 27% off Yeti Garden Statues, 40% off a Viking-style drinking horn and 20% off a hot dog toaster. We didn’t even know hot dog toasters existed. You could get 14 dollars off a 12-pack of Perky Jerky Turkey, 20% off a Beard Bib and 56% off glasses that apparently make your eyes think you’re on magic mushrooms. There’s always a deal on a massive box of cat food pouches too. Always.

Prime Day 2018: any other days we should be paying attention to?

Have you heard of Singles’ Day? If you aren’t Chinese, you might not have: Singles’ Day, aka Guanggun Jie and recently rebranded 11/11, is the world’s largest online sale. Singles’ Day 2016, which fell on 11 November, saw sales of $17.8 billion for Tmall, operated by ecommerce giant Alibaba. That’s more than the entire annual ecommerce revenues of Brazil. Not bad for an event that only debuted in 2009.

There are lots of interesting things about Singles’ Day, not least the fact that in 2016 some 82.2% of sales were via mobile devices. Even more significantly, 75% of customers were under 35 – and that means we should be looking at how they’re deciding to buy, because it might just be the future of retail.

If you thought Amazon made a fuss about Prime Day, Alibaba’s efforts will amaze you. It live-streamed an eight hour fashion show featuring the world’s biggest brands and encouraging viewers to pre-order what they saw on the catwalk; Alibaba executive vice-chairman Joe Tsai says that “live streaming is the biggest internet trend in China today”, and most brands do some form of live streaming involving celebrities or stories.

There was an augmented reality game where players could earn prizes and discounts; and most significantly of all, there was a Superbowl-scale countdown featuring Katy Perry, Kobe Bryant and One Republic, live streamed to China as well as Taiwan and Hong Kong, two important new markets. The next step is to take 11/11 truly global. So in some regards, Amazon need to up its game. 

Prime Day on Twitter:

As you can probably imagine, the reaction to Amazon Prime Day on Twitter featured snark and moaning in roughly equal measures. Jeff Grub encouraged everyone to consider the true meaning of Prime Day, Marky Bummers mourned what we’ve lost, and Mila expressed herself through the medium of Muppets. Reverend Scott marvelled at Amazon’s marketing, Christine Hennessey spotted the significance of it all and Jacqueline Herrera stressed the importance of reading the reviews.

Come back to TechRadar on Amazon Prime Day 2018 where we’ll once again be listing the best deals so you don’t have to suffer the pain of navigating the Amazon website! 

http://www.techradar.com/news/amazon-prime-day-2018

Apple’s annual developer conference, WWDC 2018, kicks off today with a keynote presentation from Tim Cook and co, and we’ll be reporting live from the event at the McEnery Convention Center in San Jose, California.

The WWDC 2018 keynote will start at 10am PDT, 1pm EDT, 6pm BST, or Tuesday 5 at 3am AEST if you’re in Australia.

You can follow all the announcements, as they happen, right here with our Apple WWDC 2018 live blog, updated constantly as we sit, watch, listen and absorb the all the latest news from the Cupertino-based firm.

Apple WWDC 2018 live blog

All times in PDT (Pacific Daylight Time)

02:00 – Apple has reduced the amount of new hardware it announces at WWDC, but last year we still got our first glimpse at the HomePod as well as the iPad Pro 12.9 and iPad Pro 10.5 – so we’re keeping our fingers crossed for new hardware this time around as well.

What would we really love to see? Well, the long-rumored iPhone SE 2 would be a good start.

01:00 – Tim Cook will be tucked up in bed, dreaming – we hope – about all the wonderful iOS 12 and macOS 10.14-related treats he’ll be announcing later today. 

While we let Mr Cook enjoy his slumber, why not check out what you can expect from today’s keynote, and the whole of the WWDC 2018 week.

http://www.techradar.com/news/apple-wwdc-2018-live-blog