Earlier in the year, Samsung said that the next generation of its smart Bixby assistant would probably be appearing at the same time as the Galaxy Note 9, and now it’s confirmed that match-up in an interview in the Korea Herald (via Engadget).
Head of AI research at the company, Gray G. Lee, said that Bixby 2.0 would appear on the scene with “enhanced natural language processes, improved noise resistance capability and quicker response times”. If you’ve been thinking about giving Bixby a second chance, this might be a good opportunity.
Lee didn’t mention the Galaxy Note 9 by name, but did say the upgraded digital assistant is arriving with Samsung’s next flagship in the second half of 2018. With the Samsung Galaxy S10 not due until January at least, he must be talking about the Note series.
Bixby 2.0 vs the rest
Samsung is investing more researchers into its artificial intelligence efforts, as per the interview, and is getting all of its products connected to Bixby by 2020. The company added Bixby to its TVs this year, but there are still plenty of gaps in the ecosystem.
Bixby 2.0 is certainly up against some stiff competition. Siri comes built into macOS and iOS, Cortana comes with every Windows PC and is available on mobile too, Amazon’s Alexa continues to get smarter all the time, and Google Assistant’s newest trick is ringing up restaurants to make bookings for you.
Despite the challenges ahead, Samsung seems determined to keep investing in Bixby, so we’ll see what’s changed when the Galaxy Note 9 appears – possibly in late July. Presumably older Samsung devices will get some Bixby 2.0 love as well.
It’s been one big year for Nintendo, and between the soaring profits, mightily impressive Switch sales, and promises of much more to come, we think the brand will be strutting into this year’s E3.
As in previous years, Nintendo won’t be hosting a live on-stage presentation at the E3 show itself. Instead, it’ll be broadcasting its pre-recorded video of announcements and trailers on Tuesday June 12 at 9am PT / 5pm BST.
This year we’re expecting to see Nintendo try to prove to any doubters (if there are any left) that it will be able to maintain the Switch’s momentum into its second year. That will mean providing some updates on big first-party announcements, as well as revealing an enticing lineup of third-party ports new and old.
Overall, expectations are high for Nintendo this year, and while we’re looking forward to any surprises that the company pulls out of Mario’s magic hat, we’re really hoping to see the following six things make an appearance of some kind.
Pokemon and Metroid Prime 4
During E3 2017, Nintendo announced that two of its biggest franchises would be making highly-anticipated debuts on the Switch – but we didn’t really get much more information than that. While Metroid Prime 4 received a logo, there was no footage or release window attached to it. And although the Pokemon RPG had a release window of 2018 or later (if you can call that a window – we’d call it more of a release cliff edge) it still doesn’t have a logo or even a full title.
With E3 rolling around once again it’s nearly a full year since these games were announced, and we’ve had pretty much no additional news in the interim. This year, then, we’re hoping to hear a little more about what Metroid Prime 4 and Pokemon Switch will involve. A hint of plot for either game, perhaps a short teaser trailer with screenshots, or even a more solid expectation of when we can expect these titles to be released would be welcome.
Bayonetta 3
After Metroid and Pokemon were announced at E3 2017 we thought that would be it for big Nintendo franchises coming to Switch for another year or so. We were wrong. Nintendo wrapped up 2017 by announcing during the Game Awards that Bayonetta 3 is currently in the works for the Switch.
While Bayonetta 3 did have a more substantial trailer on show than either Metroid Prime 4 or Pokemon, it’s only been a few months since that announcement, as opposed to a year. However, we’d still love to see the game get a prime-time showing during Nintendo’s E3 conference.
Super Smash Bros
We already know that Super Smash Bros is going to be a big part of Nintendo’s E3 show this year: not only will it appear in the presentation and Treehouse livestream, it’ll be the main attraction on the show floor. And Nintendo is also hosting a Smash Bros Invitational, which will pit eight players from around the world against one another in a Super Smash Bros competition.
So, knowing that Super Smash Bros will be such a significant presence at the show, we’ve decided we would like all of the news. From a solid release date to a full roster of fighters, we want to know everything Nintendo can tell us about the game that’s likely to be a key driving force in bringing players into the full Nintendo Switch online service when it launches in September.
Animal Crossing
At the moment, Nintendo has given no indication that it’s planning to release Animal Crossing on Nintendo Switch. But it also hasn’t said that it resolutely won’t release Animal Crossing on Nintendo Switch. And so we live in hope.
Now that Super Smash Bros, Pokemon and Metroid have all been confirmed for Nintendo’s new console, and Legend of Zelda, Super Mario and Mario Kart have all had their debut, we feel like Animal Crossing is the natural choice for the next big first-party announcement.
That’s not only because Animal Crossing is already popular and successful, but because the game is a perfect match for Nintendo’s hybrid console – its sandbox nature makes it ideally suited to long play sessions on your TV, as well as shorter on-the-go bursts on the Switch’s handheld mode.
As a result, we’re hoping it’s announced at this year’s E3, even if it is just a logo or an acknowledgement, as we saw for Pokemon and Metroid in 2017.
More Labo sets or peripherals
There wasn’t a particularly long wait between Nintendo Labo’s announcement in February and its launch in April. But now that the Switch’s intriguing cardboard creations have arrived, we want to see more.
In the official Nintendo Labo trailer there were a total of eight official-looking Toy-Cons that haven’t been released in either the Variety Kit or Robot Kits that are currently available. This leads us to believe that there are more Nintendo Labo kits coming soon, and we’d like to see some of them announced at E3.
The Toy-Cons in question include a bird, a shotgun, a steering wheel, a camera, a periscope, a joystick, an extendable arm and a drum pedal. That’s enough for a Variet Kit 2.0, we’d say.
More third-party reveals
The Nintendo Switch has stood out from other recent Nintendo console releases thanks to its third-party library. Although the games that are coming to the console haven’t always been the newest releases, they have offered new ways to play games we love, and we’d like to see that continue.
Skyrim and LA Noire were examples of ports done right, making last-generation games feel fresh thanks to some interesting Switch control integration and the sheer novelty of playing them on the go. We’d like to see some more beloved titles make their way to Switch this year – a Grand Theft Auto title seems to be a popular request that we can get on board with, and maybe even something to celebrate Fallout 3’s tenth anniversary.
That said, we’d also like to see some newer, more contemporary third-party releases announced for the Switch at this year’s E3, because the novelty factor of portability won’t be effective with older games forever.
We think it’s likely that EA will release another Switch version of FIFA, but there are some exciting third-party rumors which point to titles such as Call of Duty Black Ops 4, and that’s the kind of thing we’d like to see.
Choosing the correct hosting package is crucial for your website to perform properly. When reviewing web hosting packages, everything can seem a bit overwhelming. There are different packages with many features and a plethora of pricing options. How do you know which is best for you and your website? Today, let’s look at the differences between shared hosting and dedicated hosting.
Overview
Shared hosting is one of the most common hosting packages. In shared hosting, thousands of websites are stored and hosted on a single server.
Shared hosting is similar to renting and living in an apartment. The apartment complex amenities are shared with everyone. When signing an apartment contract, you agree to share the courtyard, playground, parking lot, and swimming pool. This is the same for shared hosting. All users share the available resources with each ‘neighbor.’ Each ‘neighbor’ has an allotted amount of resources that they can use. In shared hosting, these amenities would be CPU usage, memory, and disk space.
Dedicated hosting is different to shared hosting in that none of the resources are shared. All resources and server disk space belong to you. Dedicated hosting is similar to owning a house. You don’t have to worry about sharing your driveway, backyard or private swimming pool.
Similarly, with dedicated hosting, nothing is shared and all resources are dedicated to your website. This grants you the power and flexibility to configure your server, install custom software, and manage the overall resources for your website.
Dedicated hosting requires that you complete all maintenance and updates for your server.
What are the advantages of shared hosting?
Being the most common type of hosting, shared hosting is also the most affordable. Unlimited disk space is another advantage. This means that when your website starts to grow, you won’t have to worry about your account becoming too full.
If you get minimal traffic on your website, or your website does not require a large amount of resources, shared hosting is a perfect option. As resources are shared, smaller websites which don’t use as many resources can run efficiently.
Shared hosting generally comes with an easy to use dashboard where you can configure your account settings, and also install content management systems and configure domain settings.
You don’t need to worry about updating hardware or running maintenance updates. All maintenance and updates are completed by your hosting provider, giving you more time to focus on content.
Lastly, you can get up and running swiftly with shared hosting, allowing visitors to view your website within hours of getting started.
What are the advantages of dedicated hosting?
Dedicated hosting has its own advantages, including the fact that it provides superfast load times even while facing heavy traffic. As its resources are not shared, this gives your website 100% of the processing power. This allows for optimal performance, helping with Google rankings and SEO.
Dedicated hosting gives you the key to the front door for the full server. This is called root access. With root access, you have full control of your server. With this control and flexibility, you can ensure that your website and server are fully secure and all processes are running. You can also manage your server using root access via the command line.
With room for growth and scalability, dedicated hosting has increased reliability. This brings peace-of-mind knowing that your website resides on the best hosting package possible.
Lastly, most dedicated servers are DDoS protected ensuring that not only does the server stay secure, but most importantly, your website stays live.
What are the disadvantages of shared hosting?
The limitations of sharing resources is an obvious disadvantage of shared hosting. With the ability to host thousands of websites on one server, shared hosting servers restrict the amount of resources that you can use. This will slow down the overall speed of your website. If you suddenly receive a spike in traffic, your website may experience slowness or downtime due to resource restrictions.
Another disadvantage of shared hosting is security. Due to thousands of websites being hosted on a single server, it’s generally speaking not possible for the hosting company to run security updates on each website. That said, some hosting companies do ensure server security by having requirements which force certain updates to be run.
Unfortunately, you cannot apply server customization on shared hosting. Server customization can affect other websites on the server in different ways. Due to this, when on shared hosting you are required to use the standard server configuration.
What are the disadvantages of dedicated hosting?
Since dedicated hosting has advanced features, the price is higher compared to shared hosting. It is one of the most expensive hosting methods in the market. All additional features do come at a cost, but it is certainly worth it for those who need complete control and customization over their hosting.
The technical side of dedicated hosting does require server administration knowledge. With having this control comes responsibility, as server security is extremely important. If you are not familiar with shell access and the command line, this can certainly be a disadvantage of a dedicated server.
Unlike shared hosting where updates and maintenance are managed by your hosting company, a dedicated server is not managed by the hosting company. The hosting firm does provide the physical hardware upgrades, but you will be responsible for managing software updates and maintenance.
Conclusion
Choosing a hosting package for your website is an important decision. The correct package will allow your website to perform with the optimal speed and performance.
Shared hosting is the least expensive option and is known as being the easiest to get started with. It is generally the perfect hosting package for smaller websites.
Dedicated hosting brings a lot of power and flexibility to the table, but also comes with responsibility. It is not the right hosting package for every website, but it is worth it for those who need complete control.
Your website’s requirements, your technical understanding and your budget are the important factors in deciding between shared hosting and dedicated hosting.
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