Samsung’s Notebook 9’s S Pen challenges Google and Apple, sans batteries

Samsung already offers credible competition for Google’s Pixelbook in the Chromebook space, and now with its new Notebook 9 and included S Pen, it’s gunning for its Pen too. With 4,096 levels of pressure sensitivity and tilt support, Samsung’s offering is already fully featured, but ditching the need for a battery could help it stand out from the crowd.

Although Steve Jobs famously decried the humble stylus on modern touch devices, the use of a digital pen or pencil for artistic and calligraphic input has made quite a comeback in recent years. Apple’s own Pencil and Google’s Pen are two standouts, but just as Samsung has provided credible competition for such tech giants in a variety of sectors, its new Notebook 9 Pen with included S Pen could do much the same in that input market.

The Notebook 9 is a refresh of previous models, with three different versions likely to debut at next year’s CES show. One of them, however — the “Pen” version — will include the new S Pen stylus peripheral built right into the body, according to Hexus.

It has a 0.7mm fine tip, with 4,096 levels of pressure sensitivity. In comparison, the Google Pixelbook Pen has 2,000 levels of sensitivity, which might mean Samsung’s is a more versatile tool for artists. Apple’s Pencil has an unspecified number of pressure levels, while Microsoft’s Surface Pen also offers 4,096.

Tilt support is also offered with the Samsung S Pen, a feature that was much hyped among other technology companies with stylus devices earlier this year. We’re also told that when you pull the S Pen out of its dedicated holster that the notebook will automatically launch the Air Command app, which gives you quick and easy access to S Pen specific apps and functions.

The feature that could help Samsung’s S Pen really stand out is that it doesn’t require an external battery. Google’s Pixelbook pen requires an AAAA battery to operate, which are pretty cheap and can also be found in similar products like Microsoft’s Surface Pen, though they’re not a common type.

Not having to worry about batteries running out without a replacement is a nice feature for those who like to use their digital pen on the go.

Editors’ Recommendations

• Is Google’s Pixelbook a worthy competitor to the Surface Pro?
• Google’s high-end Pixelbook packs a punch, and it starts at just $1,000
• The Pixelbook nearly doubles Samsung’s Chromebook Pro in price. Is it justified?
• Wacom’s new Pro Pen 3D looks to draw in artists and creative professionals
• Is the Surface Book 2 a worthy sequel to the original? Here’s how it compares

New disease-finding electronic nose sniffs poop so scientists don’t have to

Your physician may soon have an impressive new technology for quickly and non-invasively diagnosing colon-related illnesses, such as Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis. The secret? Using an electronic nose to sniff your stool.

Researchers from the Gandia campus of the Polytechnic University of Valencia and the La Fe Health Investigation Institute in Spain have developed a prototype of this electronic nose, called Moosy 32 eNose, which is able to tell whether either of these two diseases is active with almost 90 percent accuracy. Unlike the invasive tests used to diagnose colon-related illnesses today, the eNose can offer answers within just three minutes.

The Moosy 32 eNose is comprised of a special sensor designed by the researchers, which is able to detect specific volatile organic compounds that act as diagnostic markers. In addition, they can be used to reveal the severity of a disease. An algorithm is then employed to turn the registering of specific whiffs into diagnoses.

“Volatile organic compounds are created by physiological processes of human metabolism and are expelled as waste through feces,” Dr. Pilar Nos, head of the Digestive System Medicine Department at La Fe hospital, said in a statement. “The concentration of these components can be a differentiating marker between certain bowel diseases, and their accurate detection by way of non-invasive devices such as the electronic nose would be a great step forward for the detection and monitoring of the evolution of these diseases.”

At present, the researchers have completed tests involving 445 different samples. However, there is still work to be done in improving the algorithm’s detection ability. The investigators behind the project also want to expand the number of “scents” the system is able to register to additionally include diagnosing prostate cancer — or even potentially detecting microbial contamination in water or the ripeness of fruit.

This isn’t the first time we’ve covered “electronic nose” devices which could be used to sniff out problems. Last year, Digital Trends wrote about a similar project in which Belgian scientists developed a method for detecting extremely low concentrations of chemicals like pesticides and nerve gas — even if it was the equivalent of a single drop of water in an Olympic-sized swimming pool.

Editors’ Recommendations

• A language for legumes: Can the Internet of Food help us know what we eat?
• These are the top 40 games we’re looking forward to in 2018
• Don’t get deflated! Here’s how to check your tire pressure
• The ultimate Halloween cocktails list for getting your boo-ze on
• Kirio creates smart homes from scratch, and they learn as you live

What is bitcoin? Here’s what you need to know about it

Bitcoin. It’s a word that was once merely discussed as an academic idea among technology enthusiasts, then became a hushed mention among law enforcement tackling online drug trades — and most recently it’s the latest craze for those looking to make a quick buck. But what is bitcoin? Why are people so interested in it?

People buy bitcoin for all sorts of different reasons. It’s a store of value, a transactional medium, and an idea that some claim could change the future of economics entirely.

Most notably, it’s not a real, physical thing, but an entirely digital entity (no matter what the header image may suggest) with no middle-man controlling its use. To put it simply, bitcoin is a cryptocurrency.

A crypto-what?

Jaap Arriens/Getty Images

A cryptocurrency, of which bitcoin was the first and still the foremost, is an entirely digital form of currency. Think of it like the way you operate your online bank account or use credit-cards. You never have to physically have that money to own it or use it. The same is true with bitcoin — it’s just numbers in a wallet — but you can do a lot with them.

Bitcoin sits atop the public ledger that is blockchain technology, and is gradually created by a practice called “mining.” Although the specifics of mining go beyond the scope of this article, in effect, powerful computers run incredibly complicated mathematical formulas to provide the verification for bitcoin transactions, and at the same time create new bitcoins. The difficulty of this formula creates scarcity.

There’s also a hard limit on how much can ever be produced — 21 million bitcoins, to be specific. While we’re a long way to that happening, that limit makes bitcoin quite different from the dollars and pounds we are so used to. Many successors to bitcoin have decided not to use a hard-coded limit, so this trait is somewhat unique.

Independent, for better and for worse

Bitcoin differs from traditional currencies, like the U.S. dollar or British pound, in an important way — it isn’t backed by any central organization, or a physical item, like gold.

The value of a single bitcoin is based entirely on what people consider it to be worth. Much of that is related to what you can use it for and the quantity of product or service you receive in return. Of course, money’s value has long been based largely on a perception of worth. That’s why economic panics can cause a run on a bank, or inflation can go out of control. Yet there’s always been some underlying guarantor — usually a government — offering the promise of stability.

Bitcoin doesn’t have that. It was created independent of any government, and remains independent. Its value is dictated entirely by the market for it. It has soared to incredible heights, but has also experienced huge price shocks, and there’s been many accusations of insider trading, price manipulation, and other dubious tactics. Governments have strict measures to prevent these problems in their currency — though they don’t always work — but bitcoin, being independent, can’t implement such checks.

Bitcoin as a transactional medium

Anthony WallaceAFP/Getty Images

One of the core purposes of bitcoin, from its original creation, was as a transactional medium. That is, it’s used in place of traditional currency. When stored in a digital wallet like Coinbase, it can be sent to another wallet anywhere in the world to pay for goods or services, and over the years it’s been used for just that.

For those who don’t have the time or computational resources to mine bitcoin themselves — today you would need to spend thousands on hardware to hope for even a modicum return on your investment — they can buy it. There are a number of ways to do so, but typically it involves sending an amount of traditional currency to a person who owns bitcoin, who in turn sends the relevant amount of currency to your wallet.

One of the most highly publicized ways bitcoin has been used for transactions over the years has been for darknet drug sales. Thanks to the anonymous nature of the cryptocurrency, it’s been utilized to pay for illicit substances and other items over Tor-accessible websites like the infamous Silkroad. It’s also facilitated the rise in ransomware.

That’s not to say that bitcoin is used exclusively for illicit transactions, though. Indeed, it can also be used to give to charities, pay for gift cards, pizzas and airline travel, and it’s even found usage as a day-to-day way of paying for goods in countries with terribly collapsed or inflated currencies of their own.

Although there is much confidence among evangelists that these problems will be sorted, it may take some time and could mean that for the foreseeable future, bitcoin’s main purpose is instead as a store of value. That, of course, is where the comparison to gold comes from.

Bitcoin as a store of value

Vyacheslav Prokofyev/TASS/Getty Images

Back when bitcoin was first created, individual ‘coins’ had no intrinsic value. What they were worth was negotiated, with one person once offering 10,000 bitcoins for a couple of pizzas. Over time, though, as more uses for the currency have been created and it’s grown more popular, bitcoin’s value has risen in turn. While a single bitcoin was worth pennies in 2010, today it’s worth more than $13,000, having peaked at more than $19,000 at the end of 2017.

For this reason, over the past few years and most notably in 2017, people have begun to see bitcoin as a store of value. Although extremely volatile compared to more typical systems like stocks, shares, or gold, bitcoin has become a popular way for people to invest their money and for some, it’s paid dividends. Those who purchased bitcoin at the start of the year saw a near 20-fold return on their investment throughout it, leading some to suggest that bitcoin could be worth seven figures by 2020.

It is important to note that this extreme optimism has given rise to a lot of uninformed investment in what is still a relatively unproven digital medium. It is far closer to gambling in terms of its potential for financial gain and loss, and there have been many sad stories of people losing huge sums during big downturns in the currency’s value.

The lasting legacy

There are many people who have a lot to say about bitcoin, both bad and good. Some see it as a way to make a quick buck as it jumps up and down in value, while others see it as an entirely new economic model. It’s also possible that bitcoin itself, as impactful as it has been, will be most successful as the progenitor of underlying technologies like the blockchain and newer alt-coins like Ethereum.

The future of bitcoin is far from guaranteed, but its impact on the world of finances, online transactions, and on many people’s bank balances, cannot be denied. It’s been a force for good, for bad, and everything in between — and it will be well remembered, even if it doesn’t reach the heady heights that so many predict.

Editors’ Recommendations

• Ethereum vs. bitcoin: What’s the difference?
• Bitcoin is still soaring. What’s the limit?
• What is a blockchain? Here’s everything you need to know
• A language for legumes: Can the Internet of Food help us know what we eat?
• What does refurbished mean? What to buy refurbished, how to buy, and where

Take control of your playlist with the six best podcast apps for Android and iOS

Radio is a dying format — well, at least in the traditional manner. These days, most of us prefer listen to podcasts or other streaming media. There are thousands of amazing podcasts available on-demand. All you need is a smartphone, a pair of headphones, and good podcast app.

There are plenty of solid podcast app offerings on the market. Here are our picks for the best podcast apps available for iOS and Android.

Overcast (Free — iOS)

Overcast is one of our top picks because it offers a beautifully minimal user experience along with very powerful features. While the app is only available in the App Store, there are great versions for your iPhone, iPad, and even Apple Watch. Overcast offers all of the features you’d expect, like new episode notifications and offline listening, but the advanced features is where the app really shines. Voice Boost, a feature that corrects low and high voices, is a godsend for podcasts that are poorly produced. Overcast also offers a Smart Speed feature that removes dead air from your podcasts, a nice touch when you’re trying to fit in an entire podcast on your morning commute.

Download now from:

App Store

Spotify (Free — iOS and Android)

As the most popular streaming music service, it’s surprising it took Spotify so long to jump on the podcast bandwagon. Spotify has a beautiful user interface that is incredibly simple to use. With apps for Windows and Mac, it’s also easy to continue listening to your podcast at work. If you like obscure podcasts, however, Spotify may not be the best option. Spotify carefully curates the podcasts on its platform, meaning you may not be able to find less-popular ones.

Download now from:

Google Play Store App Store

Pocket Casts ($4 — iOS and Android)

Another popular app is Pocket Casts, which sets itself apart with a modern interface that looks as great as it functions. The app supports both light and dark themes, too, and offers settings that let you control your download preferences — a welcome feature if you don’t have unlimited data. You can also build a playback podcast, trim the silences between podcasts, and carry out a host of other actions.

Another neat feature in Pocket Casts is that you can sign in using any Android device, which helps you access your podcasts quickly if you use multiple devices. The developers behind the app also routinely release bug fixes and updates, so you can expect more great features as time goes on. At $4, the price is steep, but worth it if you love podcasts.

Download now from:

App Store Google Play

Podcasts (Free — iOS)

Apple’s podcast app, the aptly titled Podcasts, is surprisingly good. The app has a minimal design that’s easy to navigate. Automatic updates and update notifications are available, as well as an option for offline listening. Finding new podcasts is also very easy in the app; you can explore different podcasts from several different criteria and even find featured selections curated by the Apple team. While the app has come a long way since it was originally introduced in 2012, some users are not happy with the latest updates in iOS 11.

Download now from:

App Store

Podcast Addict (Free — Android only)

Podcast Addict has a pretty nice feature set, especially for a free app. It offers support for Sonos speakers, so if you like to listen to podcasts around the house, this may be the perfect app for you. Video podcasts are also supported on Podcast Addict.

The trade-off for these features is that the interface is a little cluttered and outdated. You’ll still be able to tweak download preferences and other settings like with other apps, however, and the app offers support for internet radio stations, allowing you to listen to awesome stations like KEXP and Radio Free Brooklyn, no matter where you live.

Download now from:

Google Play

SoundCloud (Free — iOS and Android)

SoundCloud has become quite the podcast app over the past few years, and many content creators now choose to upload their podcasts directly to SoundCloud on top of other platforms. The main downside is that it will take some time for you to find all the podcasts you want to listen to, but once you do, everything will work nicely and smoothly. The app features a handsome interface, too, and allows you to “favorite” tracks you’d like to listen to at a later time.

SoundCloud is largely about streaming rather than downloading, however, so if you’re looking for something that you can use offline, there might be a better option on the app market.

Download now from:

App Store Google Play Store

Update: Removed BeyondPod and DoggCatcher and added Podcasts and Overcast.

Editors’ Recommendations

• The 100 best Android apps turn your phone into a jack-of-all-trades
• Music junkie? Here are the 25 best music apps for consuming and creating tunes
• Run your way to better health with the 10 best running apps
• The 20 best news apps that are fast and fluid on your iPhone or Android
• Pick the best fantasy football app and win your league this season

Amid cryptocurrency frenzy, South Korea bans anonymous accounts

The South Korean government enacted regulations which will require all cryptocurrency accounts to be associated with real identities. The move comes amid the investment frenzy we’ve seen in the past few months, and the South Korean government hopes the new regulations will stem speculative trading which has recently taken off in South Korea. Naturally, the value of bitcoin dropped 12 percent once this news hit, and ethereum followed suit, falling 6 percent, according to Engadget.

“Cryptocurrency speculation has been irrationally overheated in Korea. The government can’t let this abnormal situation of speculation go on any longer,” the South Korean government said in a statement, as reported by The New York Times.

TechCrunch has a slightly different take, suggesting that the move to ban anonymous cryptocurrency accounts will have the fortunate side-effect of making it harder for North Korea to infiltrate the South’s crypto markets. TechCrunch previously reported that the Kim Jong Un regime may be using cryptocurrency trading as a side business for the Kim family. The new regulations banning anonymous accounts should make it harder for the North to turn a profit on cryptocurrency trading.

The new regulations are tricky for a number of reasons, not least of which because they will do away with one of the alluring features cryptocurrencies offer: Anonymity. The South Korean government is also worried that putting regulations on cryptocurrencies could have the effect of legitimizing them in the eyes of everyday people, who have recently been swept up in the cryptocurrency craze.

“It’s really tricky for the government,” said S.G. Lee, chairman of the Korean Fintech Industry Association. “They are worried about giving a wrong perception to the people.”

According to The New York Times, the new regulations are a warning shot for the overheated crypto market and investors who are making a killing off of the rampant speculation. The South Korean government hopes to cool things down by making it clear to investors that they will, if necessary, crack down hard on cryptocurrencies.

All of this comes in the wake of several high-profile instances of cryptocurrency exchanges going under after losing millions of dollars worth of cryptocurrencies to malicious hackers. TechCrunch reports South Korean crypto exchange YouBit folded just last week after losing $35 million.

Editors’ Recommendations

• Bitcoin suffers another setback as South Korea bans ICOs
• North Korea suspected of stealing millions in bitcoin from South Korean exchange
• Go ahead, pass laws. Governments can’t kill bitcoin, even if they try
• The best bitcoin wallets
• How to sell bitcoin

Why your gaming laptop’s GPU doesn’t matter as much as you think

Quick question: What’s the most important component in a good gaming laptop? Let’s set aside subjective elements like design — and those all important LED lighting features — and focus on what makes for a great gaming experience.

The first thing that comes to mind is your GPU, right? It does all the heavy lifting, and it can compensate for  just about any other shortcoming your system has. Processor, RAM, hard drive speed — these can all bottleneck your GPU and hit your FPS a fair bit, but a powerful graphics card can compensate for any of them. With an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 purring away under the hood, you could even be gaming on an Intel Core i3 and still see decent performance.

But there’s one commonly overlooked element that can absolutely spoil that experience, no matter how quick your GPU is: Your display.

As we’re fond of pointing out, gaming laptops — especially budget gaming laptops — tend to skimp on display quality. Even big manufacturers like Dell are guilty of slapping cheap TN displays on otherwise great gaming laptops.

The display is the most important bottleneck for your games. A gaming laptop’s display is literally your window into the game world and as such, it’s one component that can literally color your experience.

Sure you might get 120FPS on Ultra settings with a powerful enough graphics card, but what do those extra details matter if they’re washed out and lifeless? That’s a question we faced during our most recent Inspiron 15 Gaming review.

This $900 laptop is a scrappy little thing. On paper, it runs games just as well as the latest Razer Blade, a laptop more than double the starting price of the Inspiron 15. That’s impressive, until you actually take a look at the Inspiron 15’s display.

Colors are drab, crushed to death by a substandard display panel likely chosen for its cost effectiveness over its visual fidelity. It completely ruins an otherwise great gaming laptop, and subverts the work the GPU puts in.

In the 21st century, it’s unacceptable to roll out a product like the Inspiron 15 with a 1080p display that’s incapable of rendering more than 61 percent of the sRGB color space. That kind of color accuracy means the Inspiron 15’s capable GTX 1060 renders colors you won’t even be able to see on the Inspiron’s stock display. What good is being able to games at high graphics settings when you’re going to have trouble even seeing them?

To be fair, the Inspiron 15 isn’t the worst offender, it’s simply the latest in a long line of budget and even high end gaming laptops which show an utter disregard for display quality. There’s just no reason for it, a great display can make up for mediocre graphical performance but even the most powerful GPU in the world can be hamstrung by a poor quality display.

Editors’ Recommendations

• Dell Inspiron 15 7577 Gaming Review
• The best budget laptop you can buy
• The best laptops under $1,000
• The best laptop brands
• The best laptops you can buy

SoftBank investment is a long-awaited piece of good news for Uber

It’s been a rough year for Uber. From a string of scandals to the departure of CEO Travis Kalanick, to an ongoing legal battle with Waymo over self-driving car tech, the company has taken a beating. But with just a few days to go in 2017, Uber just received some really good news.

A much-discussed investment from Japan’s SoftBank Group is moving ahead, The Wall Street Journal reports. The ridesharing company’s investors and employees tendered shares equal to about 20 percent of the company on Thursday, December 28, the paper said, citing anonymous sources familiar with the matter.

SoftBank will initially limit the stake it acquires to 15 percent in a tender offer that values Uber at $48 billion, according to the report. That’s a roughly 30 percent discount from Uber’s most recent valuation, which put the value of the company at $70 billion. Nonetheless, the Uber employees who cash out are about to get very rich. They will be able to sell their stock at about $33 a share, Recode noted. As part of the deal, SoftBank will invest at least $1 billion into Uber, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Uber’s board will add six members, including two from SoftBank. The terms of the deal also reportedly call for corporate reforms and greater voting rights for all investors. These changes are expected to end the infighting that has gone on since Kalanick resigned as CEO in June. Kalanick still sits on Uber’s board and Uber investor Benchmark has engaged in a protracted battle to get Kalanick to give up his remaining influence.

While Uber has grown massively over the past few years and ridesharing is viewed by many as the most important transportation trend of the near future, the company has been accused of everything from covering up a major data breach to using software to circumvent government regulators. Much of this has been tied to a toxic corporate culture created by Kalanick. Uber appointed former Expedia CEO Dara Khosrowshahi to replace him in September, but SoftBank’s investment may be the first true sign of the company’s turnaround.

SoftBank is betting big that Uber can clean up its act. The Japanese firm already owns stakes in other ridesharing companies, giving Uber not only cash but also connections that could help it in overseas markets, where the company has been challenged by various rivals. After a year of taking punches, Uber might finally be ready to throw some.

Editors’ Recommendations

• Uber’s $10 billion investment offer from SoftBank gets the green light
• It’s deja vu as Uber forms a joint venture in Russia, much like it did in China
• SoftBank eyes discounted stock buy as new Uber CEO preps for 2019 IPO
• Uber has shut down Xchange Leasing after learning it’s seriously in the red
• Uber vs. Lyft: This is the ultimate ridesharing app showdown

Unlike Apple, Motorola and HTC don’t slow CPU speed as batteries age

Motorola and HTC are in the clear, but how others respond remains to be seen.

A few days before Christmas, word came out that Apple was deliberately slowing down the CPU performance of older iPhones as their batteries aged. We won’t get into all the nitty-gritty details, but as you’d expect, people weren’t all that happy to hear that their phones were being slowed down on purpose by the company that made them.

Following this news, questions started to be raised about whether or not Android OEMs also follow suit with this practice. So far, Motorola and HTC have been the first companies to respond.

According to spokespeople that got in contact with The Verge, neither Motorola or HTC intentionally slow down processor speeds of their phones as batteries get older.

We’ve reached out to Samsung, LG, and Huawei inquiring about this, but we’ve yet to get any final answers from any of them. However, once that does happen, we’ll be sure to let you know.

While we’re talking about this, if an Android OEM does admit to slowing down CPU performance on aging hardware, will that stop you from buying phones from them in the future?

How I proposed to my girlfriend using Android

Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9+ pass through the FCC

The FCC’s given the S9 and S9+ its blessing, but there aren’t any new details to drool over.

We’re expecting to see some really excellent phones in 2018, and one of the first that we’ll get our hands on is Samsung’s Galaxy S9 and S9+. The S9 won’t be a drastic upgrade compared to the S8, but even slimmer bezels, faster processor, and better fingerprint sensor placement should all come together for one heck of a device.

Samsung Galaxy S8

Leading up to the S9’s launch, the FCC officially certified the device on December 27. There are certifications for both the S9 and S9+, and we can see that each one has a model number of SM-G960F and SM-965F, respectively.

Unfortunately, aside from those model numbers, there’s not much else to see or talk about.

We’re still not expecting the S9 to make an appearance until sometime after CES this coming January despite what earlier rumors indicated, and there’s still no word on price. However, as we exit 2017 and get in 2018, more info should start popping up. Stay tuned.

This is our first look at the Samsung Galaxy S9

Best demos available on Playstation 4 right now

It’s an awesome day! You just got a PlayStation 4! You now have it all set up and you’re ready to dig into some serious gaming. However, the problem is that the only game you have is the used copy of Rugby 15 that your aunt got you. Sure, you could go ahead and pretend to enjoy one of the most poorly reviewed games available on the PS4, but there is another way. Fortunately for you, there are plenty of demos available for some really great games and we’re going to take a look at some of the coolest games with demos on offer in the PlayStation Store.

Destiny 2

Forget about Rugby 15. You deserve to sink your teeth into something a little more delicious. Great news, one of the most popular online multiplayer games is available for a test run right now. Go get a feel for the second installment of Bungie’s first-person shooter epic right now, for free!

See at PlayStation Store

Doom

Speaking of first-person shooters, Bethesda just recently rebooted the Granddaddy of first-person shooters. If the last time you plated Doom was on a bootlegged floppy then maybe it’s time to revisit the series. Doom has garnered mostly positive reviews so a chance to dip your toe in that water and see for yourself seems like a good deal to me.

See at PlayStation Store

Resident Evil 7: Biohazard

Perhaps you are in the market for some spooky scares. Resident Evil 7 has got you covered. The latest entry into the Resident Evil series just happens to be a blast and is also chock full of creepy moodiness. Get the demo and see if you can handle it!

See at PlayStation Store

NieR: Automata

Well on its way to becoming the sleeper hit of 2017, you couldn’t do much better as far as RPG demos go. If you want to get a peek at the game that’s blowing people away with its impeccable game design then now is your chance.

See at PlayStation Store

Final Fantasy XIV

Maybe you’re a big fan of massively multiplayer online experiences. Maybe you’re also a big fan of the Final Fantasy franchise. If both of these assumptions are true then I have great news for you. The multiplayer Final Fantasy XIV has a demo that is just waiting for your download. You can play the game for free all the way up through level 35. How’s that for a bargain?

See at PlayStation Store

Injustice 2

Oh, you’re looking for a fighting game? Netherrealm has you covered. The DC comics empire may stumble in the world of cinema but thanks to Injustice 2, they are doing great in the gaming department. Download the demo now and take control of all your favorite DC heroes in some no holds barred fighting fun.

See at PlayStation Store

The Evil Within 2

Oh no! You didn’t get spooked out enough from the Resident Evil 7 demo? That’s ok, there are more scares to be had. Get yourself some more survival horror action with The Evil Within 2. With its largely favorable reception, I think you can spend a little time and no money playing the demo in order to see if you’d like to take the full ride that The Evil Within 2 has to offer.

See at PlayStation Store

Hopefully, this list affords you the opportunity to try out a few of those blockbuster games that everyone is talking about without having to open your wallet. The games listed are here are just a few of the demos that are available on the PS4. If you want to see what else is available all you have to do is go to the games section of the PlayStation Store and select the Demos section. There is a veritable smorgasbord of games there and they are adding more all the time.

Why are we reviewing PlayStation 4 games on Android Central? Let us explain.

PlayStation 4

• PS4 vs. PS4 Slim vs. PS4 Pro: Which should you buy?
• PlayStation VR Review
• Playing PS4 games through your phone is awesome

Amazon