Technology News for Thursday 25th November 2021

1. Here's why the Apple Store Black Friday gift card offer isn't a great deal

AirPods, for example, can "get up to a $75 Apple gift card" if you're buying a set of AirPods (second- or third-generation), AirPods Pro or AirPods Max. The key phrase is "up to.".

2. Battle.net has recovered from DDoS attack, Blizzard says

Blizzard says that the Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks that were overwhelming its servers with coordinated traffic are over, and that you should be able to log into Battle.net again. During the almost hour-long Wednesday evening attack, ...

3. Black Friday iPhone deal: Get a $200 gift card and free AirPods Pro when you move to Visible

Visible is offering big deals for Black Friday when you switch from your current carrier to its wireless service plan. Sign up for its unlimited data plan by purchasing a qualifying device (or bringing your own) and get up to a $200 gift card and a ...

4. Snapdragon 8 Gen1 phone may have just scored 1 million points in AnTuTu

Every time I see an Apple iPhone benchmark, I suspect some cheating because this never translates into real world performance when loading games and in apps. Nevertheless, I can remember when the iPhone X came out (or XS, can't remember clearly), ...

5. Spotify becomes latest to experiment with a TikTok-style video feed

Spotify is testing a new TikTok-style video feed in its beta iOS app that shows fullscreen video clips as songs are played, TechCrunch reports. The feature was first spotted by Chris Messina, who posted a video of the feed in action.

6. AMD's FidelityFX Super Resolution comes to open source engine Godot

Right on the heels of learning that AMD's upscaling technology arrived on Unreal Engine 4, we've just discovered FSR has now made its way to the fairly new free open source engine, Godot. Upscaling tech like AMD's FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR) or ...

7. Best Black Friday deals available now: Savings on AirPods, Bose, Apple Watch and more

Black Friday has only just started, with every major retailer from Amazon to Walmart is already offering big discounts. Many Black Friday 2021 offers can be had right now and they won't get cheaper once Thanksgiving is over.

8. As devices morph into services, what is ownership?

So it was always odd that the firm went to great lengths to stop customers fixing its products. Repair manuals were kept secret; genuine replacement parts were hard to come by; and, most recently, replacing the screen of the latest iPhone disabled the ...

9. iPhone 13 models compared: What's the difference between iPhone 13, Mini, Pro and Pro Max?

The prices for the new iPhone increase as you go up in storage, especially since the iPhone features a 1TB storage option for the first time. The extra storage is only available on the Pro models and ups the price of an iPhone 13 Pro Max to $1,599.

10. Apple Watch settings you won't regret changing right now

We'll walk you through changing nine settings that will make your Apple Watch experience a smooth and enjoyable one. Adjust your all of your Activity goals. With the release of last year's WatchOS 7 ...

11. Halo Infinite: All multiplayer medals and how to get them

You are awarded medals for multi-kills or particularly flashy kills, including those with vehicles or certain weapons. We'll be breaking them all down below so you can earn them for those achievements, and complete those precious battle pass challenges.

12. Apple TV debuts new content a day early for Thanksgiving, including 'Twas The Fight Before Christmas' documentary

Apple typically sets Friday as its release date for Apple TV+ content. Following the tradition it has set in previous years, the service has released all new episodes and premieres for the week a day early, so people can stream them on Thanksgiving in ...

13. Blizzard services experiencing DDoS attack, causing Battle.net connection issues

Users attempting to play games linked to Activision Blizzard's Battle.net launcher this evening may have encountered server issues. This is due to a DDoS attack on the service. In a string of social media posts, the company shared it was aware of ...

14. Build your dream gaming set-up for £1501 less with these Black Friday deals

If you're an avid gamer, this year's Black Friday deals could help you supercharge your set-up. Big brands such as Razer, Secretlab and Nintendo are already offering significant discounts on their own stock, while retailers like Currys, Amazon and Very are ...

15. Genshin Impact Version 2.4 release date and time, maintenance details, and rewards

We'll, of course, find out more during the 2.4 livestream, but for now, let's dive into everything we know about Version 2.4 including its Character Banners, release date, maintenance schedule, and how to pre-load it.

16. Get 20% off this ludicrous Samsung 8TB SSD drive and never have to uninstall Warzone again

Eight terabytes: Phwoar! You'll never need to worry about having Warzone installed ever again. Samsung's SSDs are among the best on the market, with high build quality alongside excellent write speeds (as you can read about in our guide to the best ...

17. Sifu producer confirms no difficulty options at launch

Sifu producer Pierre Tarno has confirmed the game won't include difficulty options at launch, following details of its unique aging mechanic. A twist on roguelike gameplay, the player character will age each time they die which will affect abilities.

18. Valheim update brings new armour and something that “stirs in the swamps”

Elsewhere in the patch are various handy bug fixes, across gameplay, audio, and some other areas of the game. Monsters will now wake up if hit with ranged attacks, for example (as you'd expect of a slumbering beastie pelted with an arrow), and there are ...

19. Samsung may have killed the Galaxy Note lineup permanently

Demongornot, 3 hours agoI just love it when people hating on certain things, like bezels, pop-up, 3.5mm Jack, etc, and... moreThis. Those fools who made fun of their fellow Note users that like removable batteries and other "dying features" , welcome ...

20. Get 1TB of fast NVMe storage for under $100 with this dirt-cheap Black Friday SSD deal

This cheap NVMe SSD ($84.99) isn't the fastest, but it's still plenty speedier than a SATA drive.

21. The Nintendo Switch Has Crazy Sales On Right Now

Black Friday is awful, and we should all refuse to take part. But in other news, goodness gracious, there are a lot of amazing prices on Nintendo Switch just now. Publishers like Capcom, Ubisoft and EA have joined Nintendo's own first-party titles in ...

22. 15 hidden features in iOS 15

You can also have it translated locally on your device. For this you have to activate the option in Settings > Translate > and enable On device Mode. All that's left then is to download the desired languages and you're ready to go.

23. This is one of the cheapest ways of getting an RTX 3080 around Black Friday

The big selling point, of course, is the RTX 3080 10GB graphics card, but the Rocket Lake CPU—the i7 11700KF—isn't too shabby either. The whole setup is rounded out by the 16GB of DDR4 RAM, a 500GB NVMe SSD for speedy start times, and an additional 1TB ...

24. Apple will alert users exposed to state-sponsored spyware attacks

Ostensibly developed to aid in law enforcement campaigns, Pegasus relies on vulnerabilities, like the now-patched FORCEDENTRY exploit, to install a surveillance package capable of granting access to iOS and Android device microphones and cameras, as well ...

25. Nintendo Switch Black Friday deals 2021: Best offers on games, consoles and bundles

The red and blue neon version of the Nintendo Switch is our favourite colour variant, and now this bundle with Mario Kart 8 is on sale at its lowest ever price. As usual, you get the neon colourway with its contrasting joy-cons, as well as the black Switch ...