Litecoin vs. bitcoin

Although Bitcoin remains the flagship cryptocurrency to many, that hasn’t stopped hundreds of developers from releasing hundreds of alternative coins over the years. One of the first to hit the scene was Litecoin in 2011, making it one of the oldest “alt-coins” — and a powerful cryptocurrency in its own right, with a market worth billions.

But what if you pit Litecoin vs. Bitcoin? Is one cryptocurrency better than the other everywhere, or do they both have their strengths? In this breakdown, we’ll match the two head to head to see which one you’re best off buyng, whatever you want to use them for.

If you’re interested in more cryptocurrency comparisons, check out our guide to Ethereum, and how it measures up compared to bitcoin.

As a store of value

Although making money wasn’t the original idea for cryptocurrencies, that’s what many buyers and sellers use them for, not least because almost all have spiked in value in recent months. Many early owners have made huge amounts of money over the past year. That’s not to say any of it is a guarantee. Cryptocurrencies of all types are notoriously volatile, and have been especially so in recent times.

Bitcoin went from being worth around $1,000 at the start of 2017 to close to $20,000 in December, before settling to around $12,000 at the start of 2018. Litecoin had a similarly meteoric rise. It rose from just $4 in January 2017 to more than $370 at its peak less than 12 months later. At the time of writing, it’s corrected to $150.

This is a pattern that’s been repeated among most cryptocurrencies, however. With Litecoin at least, there is a lot of name recognition. As one of the oldest cryptocurrencies, it’s established and has a longer history than almost all others of retaining its value over time. It’s also supported by a wide array of exchanges, making it easier to buy and sell Litecoin. With a growing list of avenues where you can spend Litecoin, it is a more useful cryptocurrency than most.

All of the above benefits are also present with Bitcoin. It has the longest proven record of all cryptocurrencies by virtue of being the very first. It’s also accepted at the most outlets, and its support across the globe is strongest. When it comes to name recognition too, there is no denying that Bitcoin is the most visible. For more mainstream audiences, Bitcoin and cryptocurrency are synonymous, and with a topic as complicated as this, that seems unlikely to change.

Bitcoin is still the best store of value. It’s well recognized, supported by almost all cryptocurrency services, and has a longer history. Litecoin is one of the better alt-coins when it comes to storing value, however, so it’s a good pick if you’re looking to try out a different currency.

As a transaction medium

JackGuez/GettyImages

Even if Bitcoin is stronger as a way of storing value over time, Litecoin clearly has the edge in transferring wealth as payments and transactions. That shouldn’t be too much of a surprise, as that was the original purpose of the cryptocurrency. Litecoin’s key developer, Charlie Lee, realized that Bitcoin was going to find things difficult when it reached a certain concentration of users. Namely, he saw that transaction fees were going to go up in the future due to fundamental problems with Bitcoin’s design.

It’s all about speed. Bitcoin’s block confirmation time is 10 minutes. In comparison, Litecoin’s block time is a quarter of that, with an average of 2.5 minutes. That means Litecoin transactions are confirmed faster, and that in turn means there’s less of a backlog, and fees can be lower.

At the time of writing, Litecoin has maintained that average block time of around 2.5 minutes, with transaction costs for those completing transactions somewhere around $0.30. In comparison, Bitcoin’s current block time average is just over nine minutes, with the average transaction fee at $8.50. This is a marked improvement over recent times, where fees reached as high as $50 per transaction. Changes being implemented on the Bitcoin network make it unlukunl such fees will return, but it is possible.

That’s not to say that Litecoin’s implementation is perfect. There is some debate over whether a faster block time results in a less-secure transaction system, though that hasn’t manifested in any major problems on the blockchain as of yet. Bitcoin does also have a wider array of purchasable goods and services online, so if you’re looking to buy something with your cryptocurrency, bitcoin does have an edge, even if it’s more expensive.

For the time being, Litecoin will be a faster and cheaper way of transacting online, even if there aren’t quite as many outlets available for its usage.

So which is best?

With most cryptocurrencies, the question of ‘which is best'(?) isn’t easy to answer. No cryptocurrency is a sure thing and every single one of them has potential and features that the others don’t. The best way to answer that question is to base it on what you want to use it for. In the case of Litecoin vs. Bitcoin, there are two key points that should be looked at. If you are looking to purchase for the long term, Bitcoin is your best bet, and if you’re looking to transfer and spend cryptocurrency on a regular basis, Litecoin is the better option.

That should be considered alongside a major caveat, however: Both cryptocurrencies are relatively reliable. Litecoin is a decent store of value in its own right, and Bitcoin isn’t as bad as it once was for transacting online. Indeed if you don’t mind the fees, confirmations aren’t as slow coming as you might imagine, even if Litecoin’s block time is far faster.

Editors’ Recommendations

• What is Litecoin? Here’s everything you need to know
• How to trade bitcoin for other cryptocurrencies
• The best bitcoin alternatives
• Litecoin vs. Ethereum
• Ethereum vs. bitcoin: What’s the difference?

Warriors coach tweeted message he meant to send privately, and blames iPhone X

When Apple unveiled the iPhone X, many people expected there to be a bit of a learning curve as people figured out how to navigate the home button-less interface. One of the people facing these problems is Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr.

CNET reports that Kerr was watching footage of the Houston Rockets when he accidentally sent out a tweet criticizing the NBA.

“It’s an embarrassment,” the tweet reads. “I think the league is so happy with all the scoring that it doesn’t want to enforce stuff like that.”

Kerr’s tweet was apparently referring to the multiple uncalled traveling violations shown within that segment. The tweet was deleted within a few seconds, but it was too late.

#JamesHarden is putting on a show!#Rockets

Tune in: @NBAonTNT pic.twitter.com/155wTPcoI3

— NBA (@NBA) February 2, 2018

Rather than blame the tweet on a hack or simply deny having posted it, Kerr came clean and admitted that he meant to send it as a private message to his friend. He blamed the accidental tweet on the difficulty of adjusting to his new iPhone X.

“I thought it was a direct message,” Kerr said. “My new iPhone is killing me. I got the X.”

He then proceeded to give an example of the troubles he was having with his new iPhone by recounting his misunderstanding of the phone’s speech-to-text feature while having dinner with his wife and daughter. Apparently, they were discussing wines and appetizers and the phone transcribed the conversation as a text message to his friend.

“I looked down at my phone and I have this entire text that’s ready to send to a random friend that is the exact conversation we just had,” Kerr explained. “I had no idea what I did. Obviously, I pushed a button that recorded our conversation and then printed it to become text and if I had hit ‘send’ I would have sent my friend the most random, bizarre … that was my first day with the phone.”

If you need help adjusting to your new iPhone X, then feel free to check out our guide to the iPhone X as well as our full review.

Editors’ Recommendations

• Hawaii just fired the person who sent that false missile alert
• ‘Die With Me’ app will help relieve your low-battery anxiety
• Navdy head-up display review
• Happy birthday, SMS! The text message turns 25
• Student cracks DNA code to take home $10,000 worth of bitcoin

What is PlayStation Plus and why do I need it?

Have you been considering a PlayStation Plus subscription? Perhaps you are wondering if it’s even worth the cost of admission. Maybe you just want to know what PlayStation Plus is. We have all your answers here.

What is it?

Today just about every console has some sort of online service. You can pretty much count on basic free online access. However, if you get on the other side of the subscription paywall you are privy to various benefits that are not available otherwise. PlayStation Plus is Sony’s subscription service for all things PlayStation. Let’s take a look at what you get with your subscription.

See at Amazon

Cloud game saving

One of the handy little perks of a PlayStation Plus subscription is the ability to save your games to the cloud. One way this can be of benefit is to save you some hard drive space. If you find storage to be at a premium on your system then the ability to move some of your saves to the cloud can free up some space for other things. In addition, you can also access your saves from anywhere. That way if you’re going to be playing on a different console your precious saved games are always ready for you without the need to carry around a USB drive.

Instant Game Collection

If you are looking to expand your game library, a PlayStation Plus subscription is a great way to do it. As a Plus subscriber, you will have access to a few free games every month. In addition to the two PS4 games every month you will also have the option of receiving games for PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita. Once you have a game in your library it will remain there as long as you have an active PS Plus subscription.

Share play

Share play is a generous offering from Sony. It is essentially the modern day digital equivalent of having a friend come over and sit on your couch to play a game with you. With Share Play, you can do a few things. First, you can broadcast your gameplay to a friend or share screenshots. That in and of itself isn’t entirely revolutionary. The coolest part is that you can invite a friend to take control of your game or join you in multiplayer even if they don’t own a copy of that particular game.

Online Multiplayer

If you’re looking to play online multiplayer games then a PlayStation Plus subscription is pretty much your only option. There are some games that are free to play online even if you don’t have PS Plus. However, if you are looking to play the most popular top-tier titles then you are going to have to have a Plus subscription.

Deals Deals Deals

In addition to all other benefits mentioned thus far, with a PlayStation Plus subscription you will have exclusive access to some pretty deep discounts on PlayStation titles. I have seen some top games on sale for sometimes as much 80% off. That kind of savings has the potential to offset the cost of a PS Plus subscription in pretty short order.

The cost of a PlayStation Plus subscription can vary based on the method by which you buy it. For the most part, the best deal is to buy it a year at a time. At the time of this writing, a year of PS Plus is going to set you back $59.99. That may seem like a lot at first blush but if you take into consideration all the free games and savings you will have access to it pretty much pays for itself.

If you would like to give PlayStation Plus a test drive you can always try a 14-day free trial to see if it’s right for you. However, I can say from experience that if you have the money then it is worth every penny.

See at Amazon

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

Tesla will create ‘virtual power plant’ with 50,000 Australian homes

Tesla isn’t done bolstering Australia’s power grid just because its giant battery farm is up and running. South Australia premier Jay Weatherill has unveiled a partnership that will provide 5kW solar panels and Tesla Powerwall 2 batteries to “at least” 50,000 homes in a bid to create the largest-ever “virtual power plant,” where homes contribute their surplus energy to the grid. The move will theoretically stabilize the Australian state’s electricity infrastructure, reducing the blackouts and surging prices that have plagued the region in recent times.

The initiative will start with a trial in 1,100 public housing homes. The panels and batteries won’t carry any up-front charge for the participating households, South Australia said — instead, it’ll be funded both through selling electricity as well as through government funds. Officials will provide both a $2 million Australian ($1.6 million US) grant as well as a $30 million Australian ($23.8 million US) loan from the state’s Renewable Technology Funds.

Provided the effort goes forward as planned, it could provide more reliable power in an area where nearly half of electricity comes from wind farms. The government has also provided estimates showing that it could lower power bills by 30 percent for those who sign up. However, the timing is more than a little convenient. South Australia is holding its next election on March 17th, and Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has been attacking Weatherill’s strategy as a “reckless” experiment that led to out-of-control energy costs. The Tesla partnership is clearly meant to counter that kind of criticism — Weatherill can point to the hoped-for improvements and claim that South Australia is on the right path.

Via: Reuters

Source: Our Energy Plan

The best robot vacuums

By Liam McCabe

This post was done in partnership with Wirecutter, where you can find reviews for the real world. When readers choose to buy Wirecutter’s independently chosen editorial picks, it may earn affiliate commissions that support its work. Read the full article here.

After running more than 90 cleaning cycles with 14 of the most promising robot vacuums in 2017, we think the EcoVacs Deebot N79 is the best choice for most people who want a basic, affordable bot that can actually keep their floors tidy.

How we picked and tested

Our 2017 finalists (starting at the top, left to right): iLife A4s, Monoprice Strata Smartvac 2.0, Samsung Powerbot R7070, LG Hom-Bot Turbo+, iRobot Roomba 690, iRobot Roomba 960, EcoVacs Deebot N79, Eufy RoboVac 11. Photo: Liam McCabe

Since 2013, we’ve tracked 121 robot vacuum models, though many are now discontinued. We prioritize bots with these baseline specs:

• A brush roll. Robot vacuums don’t have much suction, so they need a brush roll to boost their cleaning performance.
• An edge-cleaning brush to collect debris around the bot.
• Reliable customer support.
• An average customer rating of four out of five stars or better.

The most important trait we looked for was continuous navigation—no getting stuck on cords, carpet fringe, or other obstacles. Over years of testing, we’ve found that as long as a robot keeps moving, it will do a good job keeping your floors tidy. We also looked for bots that offered the most powerful cleaning abilities or covered lots of ground on a single charge.

Beyond that, we favored quieter bots, simpler control schemes, Wi-Fi connectivity and smartphone-app control, availability of replacement parts, expected reliability based on the brand’s reputation and customer reviews, and the quality of customer service.

To test the bots, we closely monitored each vacuum for at least three whole-house cleaning sessions in a 1,000-square-foot condo with numerous area rugs, cords, and other obstructions. For the best bots, we repeated this test up to a dozen times, using different cleaning modes, obstacles, and dock positions.

We also enclosed each bot in a small area cluttered with obstacles and debris to give us an idea of how well it handled specific types of challenges. To learn about our testing process in detail, please see our full guide to robot vacuums.

Our pick: EcoVacs Deebot N79

Photo: Liam McCabe

The EcoVacs Deebot N79 is the most basic, affordable robot vacuum that actually works well. In our testing and research, the Deebot N79 was the most likely to complete a cleaning cycle on its own without getting stuck and waiting for a human to rescue it. It’s also one of the quietest robots we’ve tested, and we liked that you can control it via a smartphone app.

It’s not a particularly strong cleaner, especially when tasked with plush carpeting or long pet hairs. Also, its semi-random navigation system might miss patches of floor in larger homes. However, the two-hour battery life (among the longest we’ve seen) helps to offset those limitations through sheer persistence— if run a few times per week, we think the Deebot N79 is good enough to keep the floors tidy in most homes.

Runner-up: Eufy RoboVac 11

Photo: Liam McCabe

If the EcoVacs Deebot N79 goes out of stock or the price jumps, check out the Eufy RoboVac 11 instead. They are almost exactly the same robots, but the Eufy doesn’t have Wi-Fi or smartphone-app control, and it usually costs extra.

Apart from the connectivity, the same pros and cons to our main pick also apply to this Eufy. We’re more familiar with Eufy as a brand than with EcoVacs. Eufy is an offshoot of Anker, one of the more reliable and value-minded mobile-accessories brands of the past few years. In our experience, Anker offers great customer service.

Pricier but more durable: iRobot Roomba 690

Photo: Liam McCabe

The iRobot Roomba 690 costs a lot more than our main pick and performs about the same, but its extreme durability might save you some money in the long run. It’s a new bot with slick features like Wi-Fi connectivity and integration with Alexa voice commands, but it’s based on a tried-and-true design that we know will hold up over many years of use. It also comes from a brand with a reputation for supporting their products indefinitely.

In most homes, the Roomba 690 should work about as well as our main pick and runner-up. It uses a similar bump-and-run navigation system, though we’ve found that it’s slightly more prone to getting stuck on cords and area rugs. It also has a shorter battery life—just 90 minutes. But because it packs more cleaning power, it sucks up more debris with each pass, leaving you with a very clean floor.

Upgrade pick: iRobot Roomba 960

Photo: Liam McCabe

If you want the best of what robot vacuums have to offer, check out the iRobot Roomba 960. Given enough time, it can methodically clean an entire level of a house, no matter how large or small, without missing any patches of flooring. Thanks to its tangle-resistant brush rolls and agile trap-escaping tricks, it’s less likely to get stuck mid-cycle, and it’s a strong cleaner. The control scheme is simple, and it works with a smartphone app and Alexa voice commands.

The feature that sets the Roomba 960 apart from almost all of its competitors (at any price) is the navigation system. It’s built on the same base as the lower-priced Roomba models, but also uses a camera and an optical sensor to create a digital blueprint of your floorplan. This map allows the Roomba 960 to clean your floor in a logical, orderly fashion. And when the battery gets low, the bot can find its way to its dock, recharge itself, and then pick up exactly where it left off.

This guide may have been updated by Wirecutter. To see the current recommendation, please go here.

Note from Wirecutter: When readers choose to buy our independently chosen editorial picks, we may earn affiliate commissions that support our work.

Apple Says It’s ‘Looking Into’ Limited Reports of Incoming Call Delays on iPhone X

Apple is “looking into” a limited number of reports from users experiencing delays with incoming phone calls on the iPhone X, the company said in a statement, after the issues were highlighted by the Financial Times today.

The report, which links to a few discussions on the Apple Support Communities, notes that hundreds of customers have complained that the iPhone X’s display experiences delays in turning on for up to 10 seconds during incoming phone calls, preventing these users from tapping the Accept or Decline buttons.

Indian blog PiunikaWeb rounded up similar complaints on the Apple Support Communities in January, but it appears affected iPhone X owners have been experiencing this issue since shortly after the device launched in November.

Based on what we’ve read, it appears that affected iPhone X units begin ringing when they receive a phone call, but the display does not turn on to show the caller ID or answer button for several seconds—sometimes even longer than 10 seconds—which typically results in the call being missed.

The issue doesn’t appear to be fixed in the latest iOS 11.2.5 software update, and based on the complaints, it would appear that all versions back to at least iOS 11.2 are affected. Earlier versions of iOS 11 could be affected too.

MacRumors hasn’t been able to reproduce this issue, and we’ve seen only a handful of comments on our discussion forums related to the matter, but we did find a dozen more complaints from users across Twitter and Reddit. We’ve reached out to Apple to ask for an update when it has more information to share.

Apple is likely collecting data from affected customers so that its engineers can investigate the matter, as it routinely does with any potential hardware or software issues, so contact Apple Support if you are affected. The issue likely can and will be addressed in a future software update.

Apple has dealt with a number of iPhone X hardware and software issues in recent months, some more widespread than others, including a defect causing green lines to appear on some displays, temporary unresponsiveness in cold temperatures, and the rear-facing camera failing to autofocus.

Last week, reports broke that Apple has decided to delay some new features planned for iOS 12 until next year so that it can double down on the performance and quality of the iPhone and iPad operating system in the near term.

Related Roundup: iPhone XTag: Apple Support CommunitiesBuyer’s Guide: iPhone X (Buy Now)
Discuss this article in our forums