Apple Support Doc Highlights In-Car Wireless Chargers That Work With iPhone 8 and 8 Plus

Several car manufacturers offer built-in Qi wireless chargers that are compatible with the iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, and the iPhone X, and Apple this evening published a new support document highlighting vehicles that support the feature.

According to Apple, Audi, BMW, Chrysler, Ford, Honda, Mercedes-Benz, PSA, Toyota, Volkswagen, Volvo offer Qi-based wireless charging options that work with the iPhone 8 and “might work with the iPhone 8 Plus.”

Apple can’t say for sure that the iPhone 8 Plus is compatible with these vehicles because some wireless chargers have physical size constraints that might not fit every phone.

A Qi wireless charging cubby in the Volkswagen Tiguan
Apple also lists several specific 2018 vehicle models from Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, and GMC that offer wireless charging that’s compatible with both the iPhone 8 and the iPhone 8 Plus, though the same size caveat applies.

– 2018 GMC Terrain
– 2018 GMC Yukon
– 2018 GMC Sierra
– 2018 Chevrolet Bolt
– 2018 Chevrolet Tahoe
– 2018 Chevrolet Silverado
– 2018 Chevrolet Suburban
– 2018 Cadillac Escalade
– 2018 Buick Enclave

Wireless charging in 2017 and earlier models from Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, and GMC does not meet the requirements for Qi certification and thus will not work with the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus.

Apple’s support document does not yet mention the soon-to-be released iPhone X, but it features the same Qi-based wireless charging functionality that’s in the iPhone 8 and the iPhone 8 Plus. The iPhone X is larger than the iPhone 8 but smaller than the iPhone 8 Plus and thus may also not be compatible with all in-car wireless chargers due to size limitations.

Before purchasing a vehicle with a Qi-based wireless charging feature, Apple recommends customers make sure that their iPhones will fit in the charger first.

Related Roundup: iPhone 8Tag: QiBuyer’s Guide: iPhone (Buy Now)
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Apple Pay Launches in Denmark, Finland, Sweden, and UAE

As promised during Apple’s third quarter earnings call back in August, Apple Pay today expanded to Finland, Denmark, Sweden, and United Arab Emirates.

Debit and credit cards from participating banks can now be added to the Wallet app in each country and can be used to make purchases wherever NFC-based contactless payments are accepted. Apple Pay also works within apps and on the web in countries where Apple Pay is available.

In Denmark, Jyske Bank (Visa debit cards only) and Nordea are supporting Apple Pay. In Finland and Sweden, Apple Pay can be used with debit and credit cards from Nordea and ST1. Edenred and N26 support will be coming soon to Finland, while Ticket Rikskuponger will support Apple Pay in Sweden in the near future.

In United Arab Emirates, the following banks and cards work with Apple Pay:

– Emirates Islamic (Visa credit, debit, and prepaid cards)
– Emirates NBD
– HSBC (Visa and Mastercard credit and debit cards)
– mashreq
– RAKBANK (Mastercard credit, debit, and prepaid cards)
– Standard Chartered Bank

Dozens of locations in each country offer support for Apple Pay payments, with an official list available on Apple’s Apple Pay website: Denmark, Sweden, Finland, and UAE.

Following the launch of Apple Pay in Finland, Sweden, Denmark, and UAE, Apple Pay is available in 20 markets. Apple Pay may also soon launch in the Netherlands, Poland, Norway, and Germany, based on rumors or hints of the feature that have been spotted on Apple’s site, but Apple has not yet confirmed Apple Pay is coming to those countries, nor provided details on when.

Apple Pay in stores is available on the iPhone 6, iPhone 6s, iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone 6s Plus, iPhone 7, iPhone 7 Plus, iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, iPhone SE, and all Apple Watch models. Apple Pay on the web and in apps is available on all of the above listed devices along with the iPad Air 2, iPad mini 3, iPad mini 4, and all iPad Pro models.

Related Roundup: Apple Pay
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Apple and Samsung are entering another round in their patent battle

Why it matters to you

A patent win for Samsung could mean hundreds of millions of dollars less that it must pay Apple.

Remember when Apple and Samsung were at each other’s throats in U.S. court? It’s entering another round. On Sunday, October 22, a federal judge ruled that the tech titans’ case could be reheard, and set a late October date for the first hearing.

The dispute stems from a nasty legal brawl that started in 2010. At issue are intellectual design and software patents that the Cupertino, California-based smartphone maker accuses Samsung of copying.

Apple, which considered Samsung a “trusted partner” at the time, didn’t sue the Seoul, South Korea-based company right away — Samsung supplied (and continues to supply) billions of dollars of screens and other components to Apple’s overseas iPhone plants. But when executives from the two companies failed to agree on licensing, Apple went on the offensive, accusing Samsung of “slavishly” imitating the iPhone’s design. It filed patent lawsuits in dozens of countries including Germany, Japan, and the U.S., and Samsung countersued, accusing the iPhone maker of infringing on its 3G cellular patents.

Over the next six years, the companies battled it out in courts around the world. In Australia, a judge forced Samsung to delay the launch of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet. In the U.K., Apple was forced to issue a public apology for “falsely accusing” Samsung of patent infringement.

It all came to a head in 2012, when a U.S. jury sided with Apple and awarded the company $1 billion in damages. Samsung appealed, and a judge found in its favor, ruling that the initial damages were calculated incorrectly.

After a retrial, an accrual of additional damages, and out-of-court settlement talks, Samsung eventually agreed to pay Apple $548 million for infringing three patents — on the condition that it would “[continue] to reserve all rights to obtain reimbursement from Apple.” In other words, Samsung would fork over a minimum of $149 million, but would appeal the rest of the damages to the Supreme Court.

The U.S. Supreme Court took up the case in 2016, in the end ruling that damages for design patent infringement could be calculated differently than they had been historically. Damages needn’t account for the entire product, the justices unanimously found; instead, they could be based only on the part of the device that infringed the patents.

Judge Lucy Koh of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, who presided over the original case and handed down Sunday’s judgment, cited that decision in Sunday’s ruling.

“The Court finds that the jury instructions given at trial did not accurately reflect the law and that the instructions prejudiced Samsung by precluding the jury from considering whether the relevant article of manufacture […] was something other than the entire phone,” Koh wrote.

Samsung told CNET that it welcomes the trial. “This is a historic opportunity to determine how the U.S. Supreme Court’s guidance on design patent damages will be implemented in our case and future cases,” the company said.

A case management meeting is scheduled for October 25 in Koh’s court.

Editor’s Recommendations

• Apple fails to end lawsuit that claimed it purposely broke FaceTime on iOS 6
• Apple vs. Qualcomm: Everything you need to know
• Google’s Waymo vs. Uber: Everything you need to know
• Ghost of CRT: Some Google Pixel 2 XL screens may have ‘burn-in’ issue
• Security expert who stopped WannaCry malware pleads not guilty to Kronos crime

Bank of America is adding two-factor fingerprint authentication

In the wake of recent security breaches, including but certainly not limited to Equifax, Bank of America has stated it will integrate fingerprint-based two-factor authentication into its online banking setup. The financial institution will start using Intel’s Online Connect system to ensure customer security at some point in 2018.

Online Connect harnesses security features built into Windows machines running Intel Core processors with fingerprint scanners. The setup relies on this system-based overarching authentication, which automatically inputs your finger-scanned credentials once you enable two-factor security on secure websites — in this case, Bank of America’s. Only customers who have the hardware for Intel’s Online Connect will be able to access this particular authentication, Bank of America confirmed to Engadget.

The financial institution also noted that the iPhone X’s facial recognition scanner can be used in lieu of other authentication, which is great news for anyone who’s already planning to buy the phone and scan their face for everything.

Source: Reuters

Blizzard gives Battle.net a social makeover

Blizzard is giving its Battle.net desktop app a makeover. The gaming portal now has a tab dedicated to chats and groups, while the service is also introducing personal profiles and avatars for players to customize to their liking. It seems Blizzard wants to bring Battle.net’s social and personalization more in line with Xbox Live, PSN and Discord, which is in line with the social-heavy mobile app they released last month.

Users can now send messages to their offline friends, making the service more of an enduring chat log. Blizzard Groups aim to be a robust nexus for convos between a set selection of people, supporting multiple text and voice channels (say, for different subgroups playing various games) and tools for Group administrators to manage and invite new members. In other words, like a mini social guild — or, as Glixel sees it, like Slack. And at long last, you can finally appear ‘offline’ to sneak some secret game time in.

Players now have a personal profile and avatar to represent them throughout all of Blizzard gamingdom. Its ‘About’ page has fields for you to list things about you, favorite games, links to personal sites and/or song lyrics, like every good social site (thankfully, you can make your personal info private). Players have over a hundred heroes, villains and characters from Blizzard games to select as their account’s avatar.

Lastly, you can also now give in-game gifts through Battle.net to other players. If you want to send a buddy a Hearthstone card pack or Overwatch loot box, choose the ‘Gift’ option during checkout and select the appropriate player from a drop-down menu (or enter their BattleTag).

Source: Blizzard

Apple Pay in New Zealand Expands to BNZ

Starting today, BNZ, aka Bank of New Zealand, is offering support for Apple Pay. BNZ customers can now use Apple Pay with their BNZ Advantage Visa credit cards and BNZ Flexi Debit Visa cards.

BNZ first announced plans to implement support in early October, and according to BNZ director of products and technology David Bullock, the bank made the decision to add support following feedback from customers.

Apple Pay launched in New Zealand in October of 2016 in partnership with ANZ, and until today, Apple Pay was only available to ANZ customers.

From now until January 10, 2018, BNZ Advantage Visa cardholders will earn double Fly Buys or Cash Rewards on eligible purchases made using Apple Pay as part of an Apple Pay promotion.

(Thanks, Mike!)

Related Roundup: Apple Pay
Discuss this article in our forums

What’s on TV: ‘Stranger Things,’ ‘Wolfenstein’ and ‘Mario’

This week the World Series gets rolling, but we’re just killing time until Friday morning when the Stranger Things season two binge begins. For gamers, the big question will be what they want to play first, as Destiny 2 makes its PC debut before Super Mario Odyssey, Assassins Creed Origins and Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus arrive on the same day. Meanwhile, Amazon Prime is premiering is series Fearless, and The Emoji Movie is arriving on Blu-ray. Look after the break to check out each day’s highlights, including trailers and let us know what you think (or what we missed).

Blu-ray & Games & Streaming

• Atomic Blonde (VOD)
• Cars 3 (VOD)
• War for the Planet Apes (3D, 4K)
• Planet of the Apes Trilogy (4K)
• Annabelle: Creation
• The Emoji Movie (4K)
• Warrior (4K)
• Personal Shopper (Criterion)
• SingStar Celebration (PS4)
• This is the Police (Switch)
• Rugby 18 (PS4, Xbox One)
• Destiny 2 (PC)
• Redout (Switch)
• Hidden Agenda (PS4)
• Just Dance 2018 (Xbox One, PS4)
• Slayaway Camp: Butcher’s Cut (Xbox One, PS4)
• AER – Memories of Old (PS4, PC, Xbox One)
• Numantia (PS4, Xbox One)
• We Sing Pop (Xbox One, PS4)
• Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus (PS4, PC, Xbox One – 10/27)
• Assassin’s Creed Origins (PS4, PC, Xbox One – 10/27)
• Super Mario Odyssey (Switch – 10/27)
• Sword Art Online: Hollow Realization (PC – 10/27)
• Little Nightmares Complete Edition (PC, Xbox One, PS4 – 10/27)

Monday

• Washington/Eagles, ESPN, 8:15 PM
• Lucifer, Fox, 8 PM
• The Big Bang Theory, CBS, 8 PM
• The Voice, NBC, 8 PM
• 9jkl, CBS, 8:30 PM
• Dancing with the Stars, ABC, 8 PM
• WWE Raw, USA, 8 PM
• Supergirl, CW, 8 PM
• 3 Hikers, Starz, 9 PM
• Valor, CW, 9 PM
• The Gifted, Fox, 9 PM
• Kevin Can Wait, CBS, 9 PM
• Me, Myself & I, CBS, 9:30 PM
• Scorpion, CBS, 10 PM
• The Brave, NBC, 10 PM
• The Good Doctor, ABC, 10 PM
• Desus & Mero, Viceland, 11 PM

Tuesday

• The Mindy Project, Hulu, 3 AM
• Wanted (S1 & S2), Netflix, 3 AM
• Jack Whitehall: At Large, Netflix, 3 AM
• MLB World Series Game 1, Fox, 7:30 PM
• The Flash, CW, 8 PM
• Finding Your Roots, PBS, 8 PM
• The Voice, NBC, 8 PM
• NCIS, CBS, 8 PM
• WWE Smackdown, USA, 8 PM
• The Middle, ABC, 8 PM
• Fresh Off the Boat, ABC, 8:30 PM
• DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, CW, 9 PM
• Black-ish, ABC, 9 PM
• Bull, CBS, 9 PM
• This is Us, NBC, 9 PM
• Inside the NFL, Showtime, 9 PM
• Fantomworks, Velocity, 9 PM
• The Mayor, ABC, 9:30 PM
• Brooklyn Nine-nine, Fox, 9:30 PM
• Snoop Dogg presents the Jokers Wild (series premiere), TBS, 10 PM
• The Mane Event, BET, 10 PM
• Undercover High, A&E, 10 PM
• Cyberwar, Viceland, 10 PM
• Kevin (Probably) Saves the World, ABC, 10 PM
• Law & Order: True Crime, NBC, 10 PM
• NCIS: NO, CBS, 10 PM
• American Horror Story, FX, 10 PM
• The Challenge, MTV, 10 PM
• Tosh.0, Comedy Central, 10 PM
• Drop the Mic (series premiere), TBS, 10:30 PM
• Weediquette, Viceland, 10:30 PM
• 90s House, MTV, 11 PM
• Desus & Mero, Viceland, 11 PM

Wednesday

• Chance, Hulu, 3 AM
• MLB World Series Game 2, Fox, 7:30 PM
• The Blacklist, NBC, 8 PM
• Empire, Fox, 8 PM
• The Goldbergs, ABC, 8 PM
• Survivor, CBS, 8 PM
• Riverdale, CW, 8 PM
• Speechless, ABC, 8:30 PM
• Dynasty, CW, 9 PM
• Modern Family, ABC, 9 PM
• Law & Order: SVU, NBC, 9 PM
• Seal Team, CBS, 9 PM
• Star, Fox, 9 PM
• American Housewife, ABC, 9:30 PM
• Mr. Robot, USA, 10 PM
• Shannara Chronicles, Spike TV, 10 PM
• Criminal Minds, CBS, 10 PM
• Chicago PD, NBC, 10 PM
• Designated Survivor, ABC, 10 PM
• Liar, Sundance, 10 PM
• Are You the One, MTV, 10 PM
• Channel Zero (season finale), Syfy, 10 PM
• You’re the Worst, FXX, 10 PM
• Garage Squad, Velocity, 10 PM
• South Park, Comedy Central, 10 PM
• Broad City, Comedy Central, 10:30 PM
• Rosehaven (season premiere), Sundance, 11 PM
• Desus & Mero, Viceland, 11 PM

Thursday

• I Love You America, Hulu, 3 AM
• Grey’s Anatomy, ABC, 8 PM
• Superstore, NBC, 8 PM
• Gotham, Fox, 8 PM
• Supernatural, CW, 8 PM
• Chiefs/Raiders, CBS, 8:30 PM
• The Good Place, NBC, 8:30 PM
• The Eleven, A&E, 9 PM
• Arrow, CW, 9 PM
• Scandal, ABC, 9 PM
• Van Helsing, Syfy, 9 PM
• The Orville, Fox, 9 PM
• Will & Grace, NBC, 9 PM
• Great News, NBC, 9:30 PM
• Chicago Fire, NBC, 10 PM
• Better Things, FX, 10 PM
• The Mist, Spike TV, 10 PM
• Bong Appetit, Viceland, 10:30 PM
• The Rundown with Robin Thede, BET, 11 PM
• The Timeline, NFL Network, 11 PM
• Desus & Mero, Viceland, 11 PM

Friday

• Stranger Things (S2), Netflix, 3 AM
• Joan Didion: The Center Will Not Hold, Netflix, 3 AM
• Fearless (S1), Amazon Prime, 3 AM
• MLB World Series Game 3, Fox, 7:30 PM
• Blindspot (season premiere), NBC, 8 PM
• Michael Jackson’s Halloween, CBS, 8 PM
• Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, CW, 8 PM
• Macgyver, CBS, 8 PM
• Once Upon a Time, ABC, 8 PM
• Tackle My Ride, NFL Network, 8 PM
• Macgyver, CBS, 9 PM
• Jane the Virgin, CW, 9 PM
• Marvel’s Inhumans, ABC, 9 PM
• Z Nation, Syfy, 9 PM
• Superstition, Syfy, 10 PM
• Mike Judge Presents: Tales from the Tour Bus, Cinemax, 10 PM
• Tracey Ullman’s Show, HBO, 11 PM
• Comedy Central Stand-Up Presents (season finale), Comedy Central, 12 AM

Saturday

• MLB World Series Game 4, Fox, 7:30 PM
• Flint, Lifetime, 8 PM
• Black Sabbath: The End of the End, Showtime, 9 PM
• Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency, BBC America, 9 PM
• Saturday Night Live: The David S Pumpkins Holiday Special, NBC, 11:30 PM

Sunday

• The Toy Box, ABC, 7 PM
• Lions/Steelers, NBC, 8:20 PM
• MLB World Series Game 5 (if necessary), Fox, 8 PM
• Outlander, Starz, 8 PM
• Shark Tank, ABC, 8 PM
• Star Trek: Discovery, CBS All Access, 8:30 PM
• Wisdom of the Crowd, CBS, 8 PM
• Outlander, Starz, 8 PM
• The Walking Dead, AMC, 9 PM
• Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown, CNN, 9 PM
• Poldark, PBS, 9 PM
• Ray Donovan (season finale), Showtime, 9 PM
• The Deuce (season finale), HBO, 9 PM
• Nude, Starz, 10 PM
• NCIS: LA, CBS, 9 PM
• Talking Dead, AMC, 10 PM
• Good Behavior, TNT, 10 PM
• Madam Secretary, CBS, 10 PM
• Curb Your Enthusiasm, HBO, 10 PM
• Ten Days in the Valley, ABC, 10 PM
• This is Life with Lisa Ling, CNN, 10 PM
• Unsung Hollywood, TV One, 10 PM
• Vice Principals, HBO, 10:30 PM
• Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, HBO, 11:15 PM

[All times listed are in ET]

The best cheap laptop you can buy

A cheap laptop isn’t the same as a poorly made laptop. It doesn’t mean a hand-me-down laptop either, nor does it mean a knockoff brand or a used computer from a thrift store. What budget laptops do mean are affordable, new computers that get the job done without digging too deep into your pockets.

While high-end models tend to get the glitz and marketing pictures, and gaming laptops may draw oohs and aahs from your friends, many brands also release another set of laptops with lesser specs that sell at affordable prices. Asus, in particular, is known for this — and the Asus Zenbook UX330UA may be the best budget-friendly laptop ever produced.

Our pick

Asus Zenbook UX330UA

Why you should buy this: it’s fast, portable, affordable — and it even has a 256GB solid state drive.

Our Score

The Best Overall Budget Laptop

Asus Zenbook UX330UA-AH54

The surprisingly affordable UX330UA is competitive with laptops that cost twice the price.

$699.00 from Amazon

Who’s it for: Everyone except gamers.

How much it will cost: $700

Why we picked the Asus Zenbook UX330UA

Asus has long been a top competitor in the budget space, but over the last five years the company has upped its quality, resulting in fantastic systems across a range of prices. The Zenbook line has become the flagship, and the Asus UX330UA — available for $750 (and often a bit less than that, on sale) — is the best value yet.

You might not expect quality from a laptop that barely costs more than a new iPhone 8 Plus, but this Zenbook is a pleasant surprise. Its metal, unibody chassis is barely more than six-tenths of an inch thick, and its overall weight is around three pounds.

Better still, the laptop is a real pleasure to use. Its has an excellent keyboard — one of the best on any 13-inch laptop, in fact. It also offers a spacious touchpad and a 1080p non-touch display with a matte coating that nearly eliminates glare. This isn’t a 2-in-1, so you won’t be swinging the Zenbook UX330UA’s display around for use as a tablet, but its focus on conventional use helps Asus offer this system’s excellent design at a budget price.

And the Zenbook UX330UA won’t leave you stranded when you’re on the move. It has a large, 54-watt-hour battery, which in our testing delivered more than five and a half hours of battery life when browsing. An extra few hours can be squeezed out with more conservative use.

Weaknesses? Well, the configuration options are very limited. An alternative version with a more powerful processor and even higher resolution is technically available, but it tends to be hard to find given Asus doesn’t offer made-to-order laptops. The standard configuration is the only configuration. Other than that, there’s nothing to complain about. The Asus Zenbook UX330UA is good or great in all important metrics, which is why we gave it our Editors’ Choice award. It’s not just one of the best budget laptops. It’s among the best laptops at any price.

Our full Asus Zenbook UX330UA review

The best Chromebook

Acer Chromebook 15

Why you should buy this: It’s extremely affordable, yet still quick.

Our Score

The Best Chromebook

Acer Chromebook 15

Big and bold, the Chromebook 15 is the cheapest laptop that can fulfill your everyday PC needs.

$250.00 from Amazon

$249.00 from Newegg

Who’s it for: Those who want a very basic, but still enjoyable, PC.

How much it will cost: $200 to $350

Why we picked the Acer Chromebook 15

Chromebooks — laptops that run Google’s Chrome OS — have become a popular budget laptop over the last few years, and we quite like them at Digital Trends. The Acer Chromebook 15 is a great example of their strengths. It has a 1080p display, fast Intel processor, and plenty of memory, all starting at $200. No Windows notebook comes close to touching its value.

If you’re looking for a budget laptop, Chromebooks are a good choice. But these systems rarely sell for north of $500, with the obvious exception of Google’s Chromebook Pixel, which is too niche for us to recommend. The price brings limitations, of course. You won’t find a Chromebook with a quad-core processor, a fast solid state drive, or an optional discrete GPU.

Still, the Chromebook 15 is well equipped for the category. The base model has 1,366 × 768-pixel resolution, 2GB of RAM, and a 16GB solid state drive. That’s good for $200, but we recommend going at least for the $280 upgrade. It has a 1080p display, 4GB of RAM, and 16GB of storage. Upgrading to the $350 model affords you a 32GB solid state drive.

Aside from its price, the Acer Chromebook 15’s success is due to its Intel Celeron 3205U dual-core processor. Unlike many other Celeron chips, this one is based on the same Broadwell architecture used in Intel’s 6th-generation Core brand. Though its clock speed is less than even a Core i3, it’s still quick — and much quicker than the average notebook sold for $300 or less.

The downside? Well, it’s not the most portable system, as the 15-inch display might suggest. You’ll also have to get used to ChromeOS. It’s not as functional as Windows, and works best when you have an active internet connection.

Our full Acer Chromebook 15 review

The best for gaming

Dell Inspiron 15 Gaming

Why you should buy this: It offers solid gaming performance for less than $1,000.

The Best Budget Gaming Laptop

Dell Inspiron 15 7000 Gaming Laptop (Late 2017)

The affordable Dell Inspiron 15 Gaming proves you don’t have to spend a fortune on a gaming rig.

$899.99 from Dell

Who’s it for: Gamers, and only gamers.

How much it will cost: Starts at $950

Why we picked the Dell Inspiron 15 Gaming

In late 2015, we reviewed the Dell Inspiron 15 7000, expecting it to be a typical mid-range laptop. Instead, it turned out to be a gaming powerhouse despite its $800 price tag. Since then, Dell has appropriately changed the name to the Inspiron 15 Gaming.

Hardware is paramount in a gaming laptop, and that’s where the Inspiron 15 Gaming stands out. Though it’s affordable, the system crams in an Intel Core i5 quad-core processor alongside 8GB of memory and a GTX 1050Ti graphics card. This combination is more than enough to power modern games at the laptop’s native 1080p resolution and high-detail settings. Less demanding titles, such as Battlefield 1 and Heroes of the Storm, can easily be enjoyed with most of the eye candy turned on.

Dell hasn’t compromised the design in pursuit of performance, however. Though it looks basic, the Inspiron 15 Gaming is about as solid as any other mid-range, 15-inch notebook. It has a large, enjoyable keyboard, a spacious touchpad, and plenty of connectivity. A 4K display is optional, but we recommend against it — the GTX 1050Ti performs better when paired with a 1080p screen. And, of course, going 4K adds hundreds to the price.

You can find a few other laptops with an Nvidia GTX 1050Ti for around $800, but you’ll find none that offer better performance without compromising the overall user experience.

Our full Dell Inspiron 15 Gaming review

The best for work

Dell XPS 13

Why you should buy this: It’s slick, stylish, and robust.

Our Score

The Best for Work

Lenovo ThinkPad 13 (2016)

The Dell XPS 13 is still one of the best all-around performers on the market.

$494.10 from Lenovo

$589.99 from Newegg

Who’s it for: Business travelers, anyone who needs a reliable performer for less than $1,000.

How much it will cost: Starts at $800

Why we picked the Dell XPS 13

Business laptops and budget laptops are often mutually exclusive categories. People who buy work systems tend to expect a fast processor, good battery life, and amazing build quality — which quickly inflates the price. The Dell XPS 13 is an exception to the rule.

Though available for as little as $800, the XPS 13 is an excellent all-around performer. It’s lightweight, quick, and features excellent battery life. It’ll keep up with you no matter where you are — in the office or on the road. It’s one of our favorite laptops for a reason, it’s well-built, durable, and gets the job done.

The XPS 13 also has a number of configuration options available, offering the latest 8th-generation Intel Core i7 processors on the top-end options, and quick, reliable Core i3 and i5 options on the entry-level models. If you just need a laptop for Microsoft Office and emails, the Core i3 option is the least expensive and still provides everything you’ll need to get some work done on the go. No matter the configuration the XPS 13 is a reliable workhorse.

Our full Dell XPS 13 review

Should you buy now, or wait?

Intel’s 8th-generation Core processors have recently started to show up in new laptops, but they likely won’t appear in most affordable models until early 2018, or even later.

The 8th-generation chips are definitely quicker than their 7th-generation siblings, but those gains were achieved by cramming more cores into the processors, which means we’ll see quad-core Core i7 chips in much smaller laptops than we have in the past. That’s great news for anyone in the market for a mid-range laptop, but on the budget end, it’s unlikely we’ll see those 8th-generation chips trickle down without seeing prices rise to compensate. Now’s as good a time as any to buy a budget laptop.

How do we test laptops?

We judge laptops on a wide variety of factors including processor, hard drive, and graphics performance, battery life, and display quality. We test these components with objective tools, rather than trying to rely on our subjective impressions. For more information on our test procedures, check out our full guide to how we test laptops.

Updated 10/20/2017 to reflect current pricing and availability. 

Editor’s Recommendations

• The best laptops you can buy
• The best gaming laptop you can buy
• The best Chromebooks you can buy right now
• Acer Aspire 5 review
• Google Pixelbook vs Dell XPS 13: Can this Chromebook take on the laptop champ?

From CERN to the ISS, here are 9 big tech projects that changed the world

Why it matters to you

These nine tech projects helped transform life as we know it.

It’s no secret that technology and the people who build it have made some pretty impressive advances over the years, but while there are plenty of smaller, incremental advances that change our lives in some minor way, there are a handful of giant mega projects which have helped transform the world around us.

Whether it’s rocketing us into space, bringing us all together, building astounding edifices, or answering fundamental questions about who we are and where we come from, here are our picks for nine of the most ambitious tech projects in history.

European X-ray Free Electron Laser

TOBIAS SCHWARZ/AFP/Getty Images

The most recent completed project on this list, the European XFEL — a.k.a. the world’s most powerful image-producing X-ray laser — officially opened for business in Germany in September. A giant laser located 125 feet below ground, in a 3.4-kilometer tunnel beneath the northern city of Hamburg, the XFEL is capable of recording images of biochemical reactions as they happen.

“This way we hope to get a new understanding of the fundamental steps of emerging chemical reactivity,” Professor Christian Bressler, one of the scientists involved in the project, told Digital Trends. Plus, who wouldn’t love a massive underground laser?

Three Gorges Dam

The world’s largest hydroelectric dam, China’s Three Gorges Dam cost a whopping $37 billion to build, and generates 11 times the power of America’s Hoover Dam. Stretching 410 miles on the Yangtze River in China’s Hubei Province, the dam opened in 2003 after a decade-long construction process. Last year, it generated a massive 93.500 TWh, slightly less than its 2012 record of 98.100 TWh.

However, while certainly an astonishing example of large scale engineering, the Three Gorges Dam has also been controversial — not least because building it displaced well over 1 million local residents.

Apollo space program

Every item on this list is an example of the power of technology in action. However, nothing screams “we’re living in the future” quite like the results of the 1960s’ Apollo space program, whose crowning achievement was placing man on the Moon on July 20, 1969. In all, six Apollo missions landed on the Moon between 1969 and 1972. (Apollo 13 was supposed to, but failed on account of a spacecraft malfunction.)

A towering achievement for humanity, the Apollo missions are the precursor for the continuing space exploration in the years since, and remain a source of inspiration to millions.

International Space Station

Picking just two space-related mega projects for this list wasn’t easy. But there was no possible other choice for a second entry than the International Space Station (ISS). Launched in 1998, and built by 14 different countries working together, the ISS represented a new age in collaborative space research following the end of the Cold War.

Costing an eye watering $150 billion, it is the largest human-built creation ever launched into space, and is even visible from Earth with the naked eye. A staggering achievement.

DARPA’s CALO project

Sponsored by the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), CALO was a five-year, 500-person project which ran between 2003 and 2008. The project name was short for Cognitive Assistant that Learns and Organizes. Its goal was to bring together various different aspects of artificial intelligence including machine learning, knowledge representation and natural language processing to build AI tools for the military.

One notable technology which resulted from the project? The arrival of smart A.I. assistant Siri, which Apple debuted back in 2011. If you’ve ever wondered where we got A.I. technology that allows you to speak to a computer and get an informative answer back, it’s DARPA you need to thank.

Human Genome Project

Running from 1990 until 2003, the Human Genome Project (HGP) was an international scientific research project which set out to sequence and map human DNA; allowing us to read nature’s blueprint for forming a human being. Thanks in part to the Human Genome Project, today anyone can have their genetic makeup sequenced for just a few thousand dollars — opening up a plethora of possibilities for things like proactive medicine that’s tailored to the individual.

Large Hadron Collider

CERN

Located 300 feet underground on the border of Switzerland and France, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is the world’s largest and most powerful particle accelerator. Costing $9 billion to build, and first switched on back in 2009, the LHC is a 27-kilometer ring of superconducting magnets designed to help unwrap the secrets behind… well, pretty much everything to do with high energy physics.

To achieve this, it smashes almost inconceivably tiny particles into one another at incredibly high speeds in an attempt to simulate conditions found in our universe at the time of the Big Bang. So a bit like monster trucks for physicists, then.

Manhattan Project

No other project on this list — including the Moon landings and the creation of the internet — has shaped the world to quite the extent of the Manhattan Project. A giant R&D project led by the United States between 1942 and 1946, the Manhattan Project drew on pioneering work involving nuclear physics and chemistry to build the world’s first atomic bombs.

The resulting weapon helped end World War II, cost hundreds of thousands of lives, and forever changed the course of international politics and warfare.

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GameStash wants to give you a Samsung Galaxy S8!

GameStash is here, and you can win a free Galaxy S8 just for trying it out!

So what exactly is GameStash, anyway? Think Netflix for Android games, but with a few smart twists. For just $4.99 per month, you get access to hundreds of awesome Android games — both free and paid — that you can download and play for as long as you’re a GameStash subscriber. Big-name games like Rayman Jungle Run, King of Thieves, Talking Tom Gold Run, and Worms — fantastic titles that you’d either need to pay for, would typically have ads, or have in-app purchases from the Play Store — are available for free with a GameStash subscription. You can check out the announcement post for all the details!

We’re clearly big fans of GameStash (who wouldn’t be?), so we’re teaming up with them to give one of you a new Samsung Galaxy S8 and give away a stack of plushies! Read on for all the details!

THE PRIZE: One GameStash user will win the new Samsung Galaxy S8! Two runners-up will receive Om Nom plushies from our friends at Zeptolab (they made the awesome Cut the Rope series and King of Thieves)!

THE GIVEAWAY: Head down to the widget at the bottom of this page. There are multiple ways to enter, each with varying point values. Complete all of the tasks for maximum entries and your best shot at winning! Keep in mind that all winning entries are verified and if the task was not completed or cannot be verified, a new winner will be chosen. Service is not included with the phone and is the responsibility of the winner. We also can’t guarantee the phone works with your carrier, so make sure you check that before you enter. International winners will be responsible for any customs fees incurred during shipping.

The giveaway is open until November 21, 2017, and the winner will be announced right here after the closing date. Good luck!

Gamestash wants to give you a Samsung Galaxy S8!