Back at CES, Sony announced the new entry-level X800H and mid-range X950H TV sets that will replace last year’s X800G and X950G screens.
What the company didn’t announce, until today, is that even the cheapest of these new ranges is going to be pretty expensive.
In a press release today Sony laid out the entire pricing structure of both series, which starts at $699 (around £530, AU$1,040) for the 43-inch X800H, and confirmed some of the series’ key specs in an email to TechRadar.
To that end, Sony’s 2020 lineup starts off with the Sony X800H, available in six sizes from 43-inches up to 85-inches, that uses the company’s X1 Processor.
In terms of features, it’s 4K HDR capable and comes stocked with Android TV and Google Assistant. From the specs it sounds like a fairly basic entry-level TV – albeit one with Sony’s exceptional X1 Processor – but, again, it's $699 (around £530, AU$1,040) and that's just for the 43-inch version.
The 55-inch will come in at $999 (around £760, AU$1,500) while the 65-inch and 75-inch come in at $1,199 and $1,799, respectively, and the range-topping 85-inch X800H at $2,699 (around £2,070, AU$4,000).
The Sony X950H is upper middle class
There’s also Sony’s new X950H TV coming later this year for your wallet, too – it’s available in a number of sizes from 49-inches up to 85-inches with the bottom of the range costing $1,199 (around £920, AU$1,780) and the top model set at $4,999 (around £3,800, AU$7,400).
The good news is that, at least for the X950H, Sony is making a number of improvements that justify the price tag like the expansion of X-Wide Angle technology to the 55- and 65-inch models and improved Acoustic Multi-Audio, one of the biggest issues we had with last year’s X950G.
Both the X800H and X950H are available to pre-order on Amazon and should be released in stores across the US on February 10, 2020. Availability in other regions is as yet unconfirmed.
Both the Sony X800H (pictured at the top) and the Sony X950H (pictured here) are available to pre-order today
What’s a 4K TV supposed to cost?
Now, obviously, calling something like a Sony 4K TV ‘expensive’ is subjective: what’s expensive for you isn’t necessarily expensive for your neighbor and vice versa.
That said, we’ve entered the age of budget TVs where it’s entirely possible to pick up a 65-inch 4K TV for under $500/£500/AU$1,000 during Black Friday and Cyber Monday. While these aren’t always the highest-end models that come stocked with X1 Processors or Android TV, some of them look surprisingly good.
The point here is that, as TVs are getting cheaper elsewhere in the industry, Sony is trying to hold the middle ground and compete in the higher-end space with LG and Samsung. It's by no means a bad place to be – there's always an audience for people who want a decent TV without breaking the bank – but Sony needs to be careful that it doesn't tread too far above the middle of the pack.
What else can you expect from Sony this year? Check out our complete Sony TV 2020 guide for all the details
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Arguably Netflix's biggest play in the sci-fi arena (sorry Lost In Space), Altered Carbon is almost ready to return following an agonizing two-year wait since the show's deeply nerdy first season landed on the service.
Just weeks away from its arrival at the end of the month, Altered Carbon 2 has finally received its first proper teaser trailer and, not surprisingly, it focuses on the show's new star, Anthony Mackie (Avengers: Endgame).
For those who are unfamiliar with the show's premise, Altered Carbon takes place in a distant future where human consciousness can be backed up onto 'stacks', allowing people to basically live forever by swapping bodies (known as 'sleeves').
Mackie takes over from season one star Joel Kinnaman, playing lead character Takeshi Kovacs' latest sleeve in what his voiceover describes as a "ghost story". Sounds spooky!
Don't go chasing after your ghosts
"Technology has conquered death, but with endless future... comes endless past," says Kovacs, further stating that spectres "cling to us like shadows," suggesting our hero will be seriously haunted this season by the people he's left behind.
Although the teaser only runs for a brief 60 seconds, we get numerous tantalizing glimpses from the upcoming season, along with shots of Mackie looking pensive and wielding dual guns that just fly directly into his hands.
Altered Carbon 2 will arrive on Netflix on February 27. You can check out the teaser trailer below.
Star Wars fans might still be divided over The Rise of Skywalker, but no one can deny The Mandalorian's success on Disney Plus. It's helped power Disney's new streaming service to 28.6 million paying customers, and it's birthed a pop culture phenomenon in Baby Yoda. The first ever live-action Star Wars TV show is a smash hit.
We're thrilled about returning to the lawless, Palpatine-free worlds of this excellent show, and The Mandalorian season 2 is likely going to feature a story focused on Baby Yoda's origins. This was hinted at heavily by the show's finale.
These are the lingering questions that The Mandalorian season 2 needs to answer: how will the eponymous protagonist, Din Djaren, find Baby Yoda's home planet and species? What is the significance of the 'Darksaber' wielded by Moff Gideon in the show's finale? And with Skywalker Saga characters rumored to appear in season 2, which familiar faces will The Mandalorian encounter?
Here's everything we know about The Mandalorian season 2's confirmed October 2020 release date, story, Baby Yoda's homeworld and more. Before we get to all that, though, take a look at this excellent season 2 set photo of George Lucas meeting Baby Yoda:
The Mandalorian season 2 release date: coming October 2020
The Mandalorian season 2 has a release date of October 2020, confirmed in Disney's financial report.
Season 2 was announced the same week that the show first released on Disney Plus. The second season was already in the works, with showrunner Jon Favreau announcing that production had begun when just a single season 1 episode had aired.
Favreau revealed a little more on Friday December 27, via a tweet confirming that the new season is coming in Fall 2020. Season 1 debuted on November 12, 2019, so it's not surprising that the second season arrives just under a year later in October. An exact day is yet to be confirmed.
In an earnings call, Disney's Bob Iger hinted at more characters being introduced in The Mandalorian, with possible spin-offs being set up. He phrased it as, "including the possibility of infusing it with more characters and taking those characters in their own direction in terms of series," according to THR.
The Mandalorian season 2 story: the search for Baby Yoda's homeworld and species
George Lucas had a big rule when he was in charge of Star Wars: the identity of Jedi master Yoda's species and planet of origin were not to be revealed. Now that Disney is in charge of Lucasfilm and Star Wars, though, it's possible that this has changed, as all the signs suggest The Mandalorian season 2 will focus on the search for “the Child” – aka Baby Yoda’s – home.
During the season 1 finale, the Mandalorian Armorer on Nevarro tells the Mandalorian (real name Din Djaren) that because Baby Yoda is a foundling (and therefore probably not, as previously speculated, a clone), “By creed it it is in your care.” She then adds that, “You have no choice, you must reunite it with its own kind.”
Unfortunately for Mando, however, the Armorer didn’t have any information on where he might find them: “This you must determine,” she teases.
But as ever in Star Wars, there’s a degree of ambiguity here – and the identity of who the Mandalorian is actually looking for may come down to your own point of view.
Perhaps Mando is, as it seems at first glance, looking for the homeworld of Yoda’s species. Or maybe he’s simply looking for Jedi who survived the Emperor’s Order 66 purge in Revenge of the Sith, some three decades earlier.
Why the confusion? In the Outer Rim worlds that provide the setting for The Mandalorian, the Force exploits of the Jedi are just myth – indeed, the Mandalorian simply says of Baby Yoda’s Force abilities that “it can move objects with its mind”.
“I know of such things,” the Armorer reveals. “The songs of aeons past tell of battles between Mandalore the Great and an order of sorcerers called Jedi that fought with such powers.” Crucially, when Mando asks if Baby Yoda is an enemy, the Armorer states: “Its kind were enemies but this individual is not.”
So seeing as Mandalore’s battles were with the Jedi, rather than specifically with Yoda’s species, this implies that Mando’s new bounty may actually be the Jedi...
Or maybe the Mandalorian will settle for simply finding out Baby Yoda's name. Apparently he has one, and Disney CEO Bob Iger told The Star Wars Show that he knows what it is – not that he's giving anything away.
The mystery surrounding Baby Yoda's name deepened, when it was revealed that Chapter 8 director and IG-11 voice Taika Waititi also knows the creature's proper title. Waititi elaborated on Twitter in typically amusing fashion, 'revealing' Baby Yoda's real name: "I think it's Nigel."
And Baby Yoda fever has not and will not subside. In January, this $350 life-sized toy proved so popular it crashed the maker's website. Hey, if you've got the money...
The Mandalorian season 2: the Darksaber explained
Above: clips from The Clone Wars featuring the Darksaber.
When Moff Gideon (Giancarlo Esposito) cuts himself out of his stricken TIE Fighter at the end of The Mandalorian season 1 finale, he uses a blade that sounds much like a lightsaber, but looks rather different to the weapons we’re used to seeing in the hands of Jedi and Sith. More sword-like in shape, with a black blade surrounded by a bright glow, it should, however, be familiar to viewers of Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels. Because unless we’re very much mistaken, this looks like the legendary Darksaber.
This unique weapon is a key part of Star Wars – and particularly Mandalorian – lore. Originally created by Tarre Vizsla, the first Mandalorian warrior to join the Jedi order, it became a symbol of power on the planet of Mandalore. At the conclusion of Star Wars Rebels (set two years before the events of Star Wars: A New Hope) it ended up in the hands of Bo-Katan Kryze, who was deemed the rightful heir to the Mandalorian leadership.
But how did such an important weapon end up in Moff Gideon’s hands? We do know that at some point between the end of Rebels and Return of the Jedi, the Empire carried out the so-called “Great Purge”, all but wiping out the Mandalorians. We also know that Gideon was an officer in the Imperial Security Bureau (ISB) during the Purge, so could have obtained the Darksaber from Bo-Katan at that time. (If that does turn out to be the case, it’ll be intriguing to find out if Bo-Katan survived – she was played by Battlestar Galactica’s Katee Sackhoff in both The Clone Wars and Rebels, so this could be a chance to get a fan-favorite actor into the show.)
Alternatively, the Darksaber could have been in the possession of the Mandalorian “Tribe” living underground on Nevarro throughout The Mandalorian season 1 –Gideon may simply have obtained it when his Imperial remnant wiped out most of the Mandalorians in hiding. This seems less likely, however – surely the surviving Armorer would have protected such an important weapon with her life.
The Mandalorian season 2: Jon Favreau will direct an episode
Despite being the creator and main writer of The Mandalorian season one, Iron Man director Jon Favreau didn't direct a single episode – it didn't hurt the show at all, but season 2 will benefit from his input. "I didn’t get a chance the last time around because I was doing Lion King," Favreau mentioned to EW. "So I'll step in for one of them."
The Mandalorian season 2: Original Trilogy characters rumored to appear
According to Deadline, “Insiders have hinted that several established characters from the Skywalker saga’s feature films mythology will make appearances during the show’s sophomore season.” Jon Favreau’s release date tweet above showed a picture of a Gamorrean, one of the so-called Pig Guards from Jabba’s Palace in Return of the Jedi, but we suspect that – if this insider's rumors are accurate – they’re referring to someone who’s a significantly bigger deal in the saga than that.
While Jabba the Hutt, Darth Vader and the Emperor are dead (or so the galaxy believes…) and Luke Skywalker is unlikely to crop up away from the saga that bears his name, there are plenty of big names in the Star Wars universe who’ll be operating around the time of The Mandalorian. It's set five years after the destruction of the second Death Star in Return of the Jedi, after all. Original trilogy survivors Han Solo, Princess Leia, Chewbacca, Lando Calrissian, C-3PO, R2-D2, and even Rebel legends Wedge Antilles, Admiral Ackbar and Nien Nunb could all cross paths with the Mandalorian and Baby Yoda.
But we’d be much more interested to see General Hux’s dad, Brendol – a former Imperial officer who was instrumental in the formation of the First Order – or even (SPOILER ALERT) Rey’s parents. Now that we know they lived in hiding – pretending to be “nobody” before giving Rey away – any new glimpses at their backstory could enhance what we learned in The Rise of Skywalker.
Perhaps most likely, however, is the reappearance of various bounty hunters hired by Darth Vader to capture the Millennium Falcon in The Empire Strikes Back. IG-88, Zuckuss, Dengar, Bossk and 4-LOM are still theoretically looking for work in the time of The Mandalorian season 2, and definitely operate in the same hives of scum and villainy as our friendly neighborhood Mando.
Maybe we’ll even see a return for the legendary Boba Fett… Yes, he was last seen being swallowed by the Sarlacc in Return of the Jedi, but the bounty hunter did manage to escape 1000 years of digestion in the old Expanded Universe “Legends” stories, a plot that could be ported over into official canon. And there’s also been plenty of speculation online that the mysterious figure on Tatooine who finds the body of the deceased Fennec Shand in Chapter 5, “The Gunslinger”, may be Fett himself – the jangling spurs might just be a clue...
And even if the owner of the spurs isn't Fett, one particularly interesting theory suggested on Inverse suggests it could be a member of the family – Ailyn Vel, his daughter in the Legends stories. Could this be the identity of this mysterious Funko Pop! Vinyl figure?
The Mandalorian is some of the best Star Wars in years
We can't wait for a second season of The Mandalorian. A couple of less thrilling episodes in the middle of season one aside, the simple storytelling and stylish imagery of this show made it a satisfying glimpse at a different side of the Star Wars universe. Creator Jon Favreau has plenty on the table to pay off in season 2.
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Ricoh has just announced the launch of its newest underwater digital compact camera in the WG-70. Like its predecessor, the WG-60, the latest rugged shooter has dedicated shooting modes for underwater photography.
The WG-70 is almost identical in design to the older cameras in this line, and even shares the same 16MP 1/2.3-inch backside-illuminated CMOS sensor as the WG-60. The sensor has a maximum sensitivity of ISO 6400 and offers a 9-point autofocus (AF) system, with spot AF and auto tracking available on board.
And, as before, its tough credentials are nothing to scoff at – it's waterproof down to 14m (46ft) and shockproof from drops of up to 1.6m (or 5ft). Take it to ghastly cold environs and the WG-70 will survive temperatures down to -10°C/14°F.
The lens has a 28-140mm (35mm equivalent) focal length range with apertures of f/3.5 to f/5.5. Alongside this 5x optical zoom, an additional 7.5x is available when using the Intelligent Zoom mode, although this limits image resolution to 7MP. While the camera has been designed for stills, it can take 1080p (Full HD) video as well, with a "triple anti-shake protection" feature to prevent blurry images for stills and video.
However, the headline feature would be the new built-in 'digital microscope' mode. This feature works in tandem with the six LED macro lights dotted around the front of the lens (like in the WG-60), allowing users to get a magnified view of tiny underwater critters – a great addition if you're keen on underwater macro photography, particularly since the lens can focus on things as close as 1cm away.
All composing and reviewing will be done on the 2.7-inch LCD display that Ricoh promises is "outdoor friendly" thanks to an anti-reflective coating.
A dedicated underwater shooting mode compensates for light and color shifts that occur due to the refraction of light through water, while a JIS (Japanese Industrial Standard) Class 8 waterproof classification means you can keep it "continuously immersed" in water. It's also got dustproofing that's Class 6, which is the highest ranking there is and means the camera is completely "dust tight".
The WG-70 will begin shipping mid-March with a price tag of $280 in the US. That translates to about £215 in the UK. The camera, sadly, will only be available in limited markets – outside of Japan, it will be available in the US and in some major European countries. It will not be officially available in Australia and Asia.
If you’re after a smart home device to make your life easier, the Google Home Mini is a great option and is currently on sale through JB Hi-Fi.
Google has a wide range of smart home devices and the Home Mini is the most compact and economical of its range. Don’t let the size and the price of this device fool you – it’s capable of performing all the basic tasks that you would expect from a smart speaker.
Powered by Google Assistant, Google Home Mini lets you access hands-free help in any room and quickly find information about the weather, news, sports and more. Simply state “Hey Google” and you can ask it whatever you like, such as “what is the weather going to be like today?”
You can even integrate the device with Google Cast, allowing you to play, pause and rewind music, schedule your commute and set your alarm – all hands-free.
If you have other smart home devices, such as HUE lights or a smart Wi-Fi plug, you can connect them to this nifty device for voice controlled activation.
Grab yours today for only AU$39 through JB-Hi-Fi – that’s a massive discount of 29%. Only available in the colour charcoal.
Google Chrome will soon start receiving security updates more quickly as security engineers at Google have successfully cut down the browser's “patch gap” from 33 days to just 15 days.
The term patch gap refers to the amount of time it takes from when a vulnerability is fixed in an open source library to when it is patched in software which uses that same library. Patch gaps are considered a major security risk as many software applications rely on the same open source components.
Once a security bug is fixed in an open source library, details about the bug become public as most open source projects are public and pride themselves on transparency. However, by revealing these details, hackers can then use them to craft exploits and launch attacks against software that has not yet been patched.
Many software makers, such as Google and even Microsoft, use a fixed release schedule to update their products. During the time between patches, hackers can leverage the patch gap to provide themselves with an attack window that most software projects will have a hard time defending against.
Chrome patch gap
Google's Chrome web browser is one of many software projects that is affected by a patch gap because it relies on a high number of open source components including PDFium and the V8 JavaScript engine. Last year, security researchers from Exodus Intelligence pointed out two occasions where the large patch gap in Chrome could be exploited by attackers.
The Chrome Security team took note and in Chrome's recently published quarterly security summary for Q4 2019, engineers at Google revealed that they had discovered a way to reduce the browser's patch gap, saying:
“We continue to work on the “patch gap”, where security bug fixes are posted in our open-source code repository but then take some time before they are released as a Chrome stable update. We now make regular refresh releases every two weeks, containing the latest severe security fixes. This has brought down the median “patch gap” from 33 days in Chrome 76 to 15 days in Chrome 78, and we continue to work on improving it.”
Basically Google has decided to release security updates more frequently in an effort to reduce Chrome's patch gap. Since Chrome's silent update mechanism is turned on by default, users will receive security updates more often without having to apply patches to the browser themselves.
Foxconn could see a "big" production impact and shipments to customers including Apple face disruption if a Chinese factory halt due to the coronavirus outbreak extends into a second week, a person with direct knowledge of the matter said.
Based on a new leak, the Mi 10 and Mi 10 Pro launch event announcement will be done on February 7. The Mi 10 vanilla variant will go on sale the very next day on February 14, while the Mi 10 Pro will go on sale on February 18.
Twitter said on Monday that it had discovered attempts by possible state actors to access the phone numbers associated with user accounts, after a security researcher unearthed a flaw in the company's "contacts upload" feature.
