How to Upgrade to Windows 10 From Windows 7 or 8

Windows 10 is the best PC operating system yet, with a powerful new Start menu, a UI that switches between and touch and mouse-friendly modes, the Cortana digital assistant and a host of other improvements. If you're already running a legitimate copy of Windows 7 or 8, you're eligible to upgrade for free. Running an OS upgrade takes a little time but not much effort or expertise -- when you're done, you'll have the most powerful Windows yet, with all your programs, settings and data still in place. Here's how to upgrade to Windows 10.

Windows 10 should install without a hitch, but driver problems are a possibility and, during any system update, there's always a chance something will go wrong. Before you begin the process, make sure you have all of your data files backed up, preferably to a cloud service such as Microsoft's own One Drive, where you can download them again if your computer crashes. If you don't have a system restore disk already, it's a good idea to make a full system backup, using disk imaging software such as Macrium Reflect, which makes a bit-by-bit copy of your hard drive.

Finally, make sure you have 1 to 2 hours free to run the install. Though you can walk away for large portions of the process, you can expect all the downloading and file copying to take at least 60 minutes and, in our case, closer to two hours on a fast Internet connection. If you have slow or inconsistent Internet, you should go to some place that has a strong connection and follow the instructions for creating a USB install disk you can use at home.

How to Upgrade Via Direct Download

1. Navigate to https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

2. Click the "Download Tool now" button

3. Launch the Download Tool.

4. Click Select Upgrade this PC Now if you are just installing on this computer and want to do so right away. However, if you want to create your own USB or DVD media, see the section below on "How to Create Windows 8 Install Media." Though it requires a few extra steps and a blank Flash drive or disc, creating your own install media allows you to not only install on multiple computers, but also reinstall on your current computer if something goes wrong.

The tool will take a while to download the software so be patient, particularly if you have a slow Internet connection. After it downloads, the software also goes through a preparation process and downloads some more files, all of which takes time, perhaps as long as an hour even on a high-speed connection.

5. Click Accept on the license terms screen. Wait again as the software checks for updates. You may want to walk away, as this also takes several minutes.

6. Click the Install button. Wait 20 to 30 minutes for the computer to copy files. It will reboot several times.

7. Click Next at the login screen.

8. Click Use Express settings. You can always change some settings later.

9. Click Next on the "New apps for the new Windows" screen. The computer will say "finalizing your settings," and then take you to the Windows 10 lock screen.

10. Log in to your computer. Windows 10 will take another couple of minutes to do an initial setup and then it will take you to the Windows desktop.

How to Create a Windows 10 USB Install Disk

If you have a 4GB or larger USB flash drive or a blank DVD handy (and you still use an optical drive), you can create your own Windows 10 install disk. Having your own disk allows you to run the upgrade on multiple computers without waiting an hour for a fresh download. You also have the option of doing a clean install or running the upgrade a second time if you run into problems later. Here's how to create a Windows 10 install disk. 

Before you begin, make sure to insert your flash drive into one of your USB ports. Be aware that all data on the drive will be erased.

1. Follow steps 1 -3 above, installing the Download tool and launching it.

2. Select "Create installation media . . . "

3. Select the language, edition and architecture (32 or 64 bits) of Windows. Make sure your selections match those of the computer(s) you wish to upgrade. So, if you currently have Windows 8 Home (64-bit), choose Windows 10 Home 64-bit.

4. Select USB flash drive. If you plan to burn this to DVD instead, select ISO file and, after the process is over, you'll have to use a DVD burning program to write the ISO to disc.

5. Click Finish when the process is complete. If you don't plan to install Windows 10 right away, you can remove the drive and stop here.

6. Launch setup.exe on the flash drive to start the upgrade process.

7. Select "Download and install updates" and click Next. If you are in a big hurry, choose "Not right now." Wait several minutes for the updates to download.

If the software asks you for a product key, you are using the wrong version of Windows 10 to upgrade. For example, you might be attempting to install Windows 10 Home over your existing Windows 8.1 Pro or vice versa. The following steps are the same as if you install via direct download.

8. Click Accept. The software takes a couple of minutes to check your system. 

9. Click Install. You can now walk away for at least 30 minutes. After the OS is finished installing, you will be presented with a screen showing your username.

10. Click the Next button.

11. Select Use Express settings.

12. Click Next again.

13. Log in to your computer. 

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Get Some News And Review: Bose QC35 Headphones

I TAKE SICK joy in flying. Most people hate air travel. I get it—the atrocious lines, the cramped seating, the overpriced gum at Hudson News. I endure it because it provides many hours of blissful me time. I devour podcasts. Kindle books. Magazines. Entire Pink Floyd albums. I might even chat with my wife a little. (I never, ever, pay for Wi-Fi. It always sucks and it makes me think about work.) I absolutely love it.

Headphones are a big (really big) part of this narcissistic orgy of self. I’m not alone here—everyone wears them when traveling. I see Bose a lot, which makes sense, because the company is known for premier noise-cancelling cans. They do an exceptional job eradicating the ruckus of flying.

I’ve never worn Bose headphones though. They sound like shit. It’s the nature of the tech. Active noise-canceling collects the noise around you via an array of microphones on the headset, then adds canceling information to whatever you’re listening to in order to mask the cacophony. Bose holds several patents on this technology, but its execution has always been inelegant. Cymbals slip underwater, guitars turn into phone calls, and everything sounds like Napster-era 128k MP3s. Other companies (Sennheiser, Plantronics, Jabra, Beats) aren’t any better.

So I was skeptical when Bose sent its new flagship model, the QC35. They’re the first wireless noise-canceling headphones from Bose. They’re also the first to sound awesome. In developing the Bluetooth circuit for the QC35, Bose also improved the sound silencing software. These are the first Bose cans I’ve worn where I found the audio to be better than “Eh. It’ll do.” The sound isn’t perfect, but it’s smooth and virtually artifact-free. I wore them on two long flights and several bus rides around town. No crunchy audio detritus, just well-tuned music and little environmental bustle.

In the years that I’ve spent in audiophile circles (and, ugh, web forums) I’ve connected with hundreds of like-minded Bose haters. Perhaps you’re one yourself. If so, I’m speaking directly to you: These headphones sound good. Really good. Give them a shot. You’ll probably be as impressed as I was.

BOSE

But I know you’re probably not listening. I brought the QC35 to one of the country’s premiere headphone meet-ups. Imagine conference rooms filled with people wearing $1,000 headphones connected to expensive tube amplifiers listening to lossless digital files of Steely Dan and Dire Straits. These people take detailed notes (!) and compare cables (!!) and discuss headphones they own and headphones they want but can’t afford. I offered a dozen hardcore headphone nerds the chance to audition the QC35s. Most offered variations on, “Bose? No thanks.” One guy insulted me before shooing me away. Another actually hissed. I couldn’t convince them to even try these remarkable cans. Exactly one guy agreed with me. He’s the founder of a leading headphone forum.

That should tell you something.

Some ‘phone fans are warming to the the QC35s. But most self-described audiophiles will never give Bose any love. That’s fine. Next time you board a plane, take a look around. You’ll see a lot of people wearing Bose cans. They’ll be immersed in audio cocoons, listening to the sound of music, not the drone of a jet. Look for me, because I’ll be one of them.

>>> Check out to read some news about game of thrones and online games for kids 

This magical floating cloud speaker is what dreams are made of

Two years ago, Richard Clarkson made the Smart Cloud, a delightfully realistic-looking cloud-shaped lamp / speaker. The design was meant to evoke a thunderstorm, with the cloud flicking accurately and booming out thunder (along with also functioning as a regular lamp and Bluetooth speaker).

But the problem with the original Smart Cloud was that it had to be hung from a ceiling cord, which completely broke the illusion of having a magical, musical cloud floating in your living room. But Clarkson is back this year with a new project, Making Weather, that combines his original Smart Cloud with magnetic levitation technology from Crealev to solve this problem by making a true floating cloud.

While the Smart Cloud is an actual product that you can purchase (for a whopping $3,360), no release information has yet been announced for Making Weather, although it likely will fall in a similarly expensive range.

VIA: Colossal

SOURCE: Crealev

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UK Consumer Advocates: Microsoft Should Pay for Windows 10

Now that Microsoft's done offering Windows 10 to those sticking with Windows 7 and 8.1, a customer advocacy group wants compensation for the rocky, nag-based rollout. In a blog postyesterday (Sept. 22), the UK-based Which? Council notes it received over 1,000 complaints about Windows 10, including the fact that the update was "forcefully installed without consent."

via Tom's Hardware

During the last weeks of the Windows 10 upgrade period, many users had the OS upgrade installed despite thinking that they declined the offer. Other common update issues include loss of support for peripherals and internal add-ons, loss of data due to deletion and significant system performance dips that required repair.

Which? argues that Microsoft owes users compensation for experiencing these issues, because of the UK Consumer Rights Act of 2015. The bill says that "digital content must be as described, fit for purpose and of satisfactory quality," and notes "If you can show the fault has damaged your device and we haven't used reasonable care and skill, you may be entitled to a repair or compensation."

It's unclear as to how much money users could get if they pressed Microsoft on this, as the Act also notes "you can get some, or all of your money back," and Windows 10 (at least for those pressured to update early) was free. At the very least, the Consumer Rights Act does suggest users could get a compensatory repair from Microsoft as it states, "If your digital content is faulty, you're entitled to a repair or a replacement."

Which? admits that Microsoft offers free phone and online technical support to those affected negatively by installing Windows 10, but also states that some struggled to find how to contact the company or blamed their PC for the issues and not the operating system update. To that matter, Which? states that Microsoft needs to raise the profile of its technical support hotline and website, and help educate "older and more vulnerable users" who are preyed upon by Windows Technical Support Scams.

Admittedly, the thousand complaints registered pale in comparison when compared to the count of more than 350 million PCs that took the update, but it's not hard to argue that Microsoft could have done better.

>>> Check out to get list of new games coming out and upcoming video games 

Get some infomation about the tablet for kids: Fuhu Nabi Elev-8

The Pros

Excellent battery life; Robust parental controls; Solid overall performance; Grippy silicone

The Cons

Confusing user interface; Many apps are redundant; Proprietary charging cord

Verdict

The Nabi Elev-8 is a tablet that parents can trust to entertain their kids, with enough power to be taken seriously.

Just because children are young doesn't mean the tech we give them should be crummy and slow. With the Fuhu Nabi Elev-8 ($170), parents can hand their kids a tablet wrapped in a colorful and protective shell that has a Snapdragon 615 octa-core processor and excellent parental controls. This 8-inch tablet is meant for children from ages 6 to 9, runs a family-friendly version of Android and comes with screen after screen of fun and educational software. Picking one of these up could be the way to get your iPad out of Junior's hands and back into yours, provided you don't pull your hair out trying to get it set up first.

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Design

The Nabi Elev-8 comes with a red bumper made of a food-grade silicon. (Translation: You don't need to worry about Junior eating off it.) The case has a great grippable feel, and it's very easy to hold by its bulbous corners, perfect for little hands.

Taking off the case reveals its white plastic shell and gray silver sides with a slightly sunken screen. Unlike other plastic tablets, this slate doesn't feel cheap or disposable when its body is exposed from behind the bumper.

Holding the tablet in landscape orientation, you'll find audio speaker grilles on the left and right of the display. The Elev-8's front-facing 2-megapixel camera is in the middle of the top bezel, and the Nabi logo is on the bottom bezel.

Nabi's placed the microphone on the top edge, along with the power and volume buttons. On the back's upper right corner, you'll find a 5-MP shooter with an LED flash.

Measuring 9 x 5.9 x 0.9 inches with the bumper, the Elev-8 is thicker than the Fuhu Nabi DreamTab (9.3 x 6.39 x 0.83 inches) and the Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 7.0 Kids (7.4 x 4.3 x 0.34 inches), but slightly thinner than the Amazon Fire Kids Edition (8.6 x 5.4 x 1.0 inches). Weighing 1.14 pounds with bumper attached, the Elev-8 is lighter than the DreamTab (1.46 pounds with bumper), but heavier than the Fire Kids Edition (0.89 pounds with bumper) and the Galaxy Tab (0.91 pounds with bumper). That difference may not be great to our hands, but smaller arms with less developed muscles will feel it.

Display

While watching a trailer for Guardians of The Galaxy, the tablet's 8-inch HD (1280 x 800-pixel) screen wonderfully represented even the smallest details such as the stitching on Rocket Raccoon's uniform and Peter Quill's scruffy facial hair. Watching a clip from Adventure Time in the Cartoon Network app, the Elev-8's display rendered Finn, Jake and the other characters in relatively accurate colors.

We recorded only 300 nits of brightness on the Elev-8, making it dimmer than the DreamTab (395), the Galaxy Tab (392) and the average tablet (368). Parents set the brightness levels, so Junior can't adjust them later.

Audio

While laser blasts and explosions in the Guardians of the Galaxy trailer sounded strong, the tablet's dual front-facing speakers were poor at handling music. The highs on Run the Jewels' "Oh My Darling" were muffled, and its bassy lows were scratchy and irritating. The Elev-8 doesn't get that loud, either, though some parents might appreciate that as a feature.

Interface

The Elev-8, which runs a heavily skinned version Android 5.1, switches between Parent Mode and the kid-friendly Nabi Mode. You start by signing into the Elev-8 with your Google account. You will then be prompted to set up your Nabi account including your name, your child's name and their date of birth. You will then see the first Nabi Mode screen, which has your child's avatar photo. You can tap that photo to switch between up to 10 kid profiles on the device, but it's not that obvious.

Repeatedly swiping left in Nabi Mode brings the child through a series of screens with much larger app icons and folders (eight to a screen) than on regular Android. The first three screens feature apps by Nabi and Fooz Kids, and subsequent screens have additional third party, pre-installed games and apps. Clicking on the Grid icon in the upper left corner allows you to view more of the apps in one screen. However, this is not a show-all-apps button, as some Android users might expect.

Throughout both modes, the Elev-8's interface was too often difficult to understand or downright cryptic. In Parent Mode, Chore List app has both Edit and Manage buttons; the former is used to change settings, and the latter is used to confirm settings. The Calendar app requires dragging and dropping sticker icons into columns to add appointments, which it does not explain to the user. Parents should check out Nabi's Help Topics page for the Elev-8, which provides instructions for its proprietary apps.

To switch to Parent mode, you click the Menu icon on the bottom of the screen, and select Nabi Mommy Mode (which can also read Daddy Mode). You'll have to type in a password at the "Ask Mom!" prompt.

Parent Mode looks more like Android, with the Google Search bar near the top of the screen, and a grid of app icons below it. You can swipe up to enable Google Now, whereas swiping down reveals notifications and system settings.

Aside from the Parental Control apps, Parent Mode has the Google Play Store as well as such app standards as Google Play Movies, Music, Photos, and Maps, along with Gmail and YouTube. The list of all of the apps in this mode will also display any games found in Nabi Mode. The bottom row of icons on the Parent Mode home screen cannot be modified, so you can easily find Nabi's tech support and update apps.

Parental Controls

Little can be done on the tablet without parental approval, but Nabi does not make it easy to find all of the essential settings. Parental controls are spread across multiple apps, with some settings that you edit in a Web browser and others that can only be accessed on the Elev-8.

The Elev-8's Time Controls app (found in Parents Mode) lets parents set a time limit on tablet usage. Parents can also track how much time each child has used the tablet over the last day, week or month, with such granular data as how much time each child spent using specific apps. When a child hits his or her time limit, the tablet goes to sleep after a short animated video of the Nabi mascot reminding the child to do exercise or homework.

Clicking on the Fooz Kids button opens the Parental Dashboard website, which controls what content can be found in the FK Websites, FK Crafts and FK Videos apps. This allows parents to customize the content -- character by character, from Arthur to WordGirl -- kids will find in the apps on the Elev-8.

Add Apps allows parents to select which apps are available to their kids in Nabi Mode. Before kids can chat, email and photo share with other Nabi users, parents have to approve their new online friend with either the Nabi Konnect app in Parent mode or the free Nabigator app (available on iOS and Android).

Chore List allows parents to set educational goals, and reward kids with Nabi Coins. Parents first have to purchase this in-app currency, and then kids can use it to buy digital content in the Treasure Box app. That selection includes movies such as Kung Fu Panda 2 (525 Nabi Coins). The conversion rate for coins starts at 150 for $5, but you can spend up to $100 on 3,300 coins. In the Wishlist app, kids make a shopping list of toys for sale, including such items as a talking Minion plush for 1,225 coins.

The Nabi Security Administration app gives parents big-brother-level access to the each child's social activities on the Elev-8. Named to share its acronym with the National Security Agency, the app shows the messages Junior has received and sent, as well as all photos taken on the device.

Parents can also customize which websites their child can view in the Maxthon Kid-safe Web browser. Some sites, such as National Geographic Kids, are pre-approved, and parents will have to add in others.

Parents may appreciate that -- just like the Nabi DreamTab -- the Elev-8 was built with COPPA rules in mind. Obeying the FTC's Children's Online Privacy Protection Act means that the Elev-8 does not collect data from children under age 13, and that none of their child's data is shared with third parties.

While the Galaxy Tab ($199) has settings to control how much time kids spend on the tablet and which apps they can use, Fuhu's tablets have a much deeper set of options for parents to customize what their kid can do online. The Amazon Fire Kids Edition tablets ($100) also offer similarly extensive parental controls, including timed limits, educational goals and granular content blocking. The parental controls offered by Amazon's tablets are much easier to access and understand than those of the Nabi Elev-8.

Apps

Between Parent Mode and Nabi Mode, the Elev-8 comes with a whopping 113 apps pre-installed. While that total includes standard Android apps such as Hangouts and Email, there are 22 Nabi-branded apps, some of which have counterparts from Fooz Kids (FK), a developer of family-friendly software.

The Nabi Pass app is a gateway to content in the form of apps, videos and books from such brands as National Geographic Kids and Disney, which features familiar characters like Shrek, Kung-Fu Panda and Winnie the Pooh. The Elev-8 comes with a free 6-month trial subscription to Nabi Pass, which costs $5 a month thereafter. It also includes access to Wings Challenge, an award-winning Teacher's Choice Award learning program that is tied to the Common Core State Standards. Some early levels are available for free, but you'll need to pay to play them all.

Nabi also packed in its own educational apps, for learning about English, math, science and social studies. These programs bear no third-party seals of approval.

FK Videos contains programming from a variety of major entertainment properties such as Pokémon and Power Rangers, as well as Barbie and Hello Kitty. The Nabi Play app has free video, though it only offers a small selection of short clips from less-well-known franchises like Cody the Dinosaur and Ruffus the Dog, as well as brief bios of some of their favorite characters.

The Nabi Radio app (powered by FanLaLa Radio) is a tween-friendly program similar to Pandora. Here you'll find stations like K-Pop, Female Voices and Juniors, where you can hear music from The Lion King, Dan Zane and Frozen. The Elev-8 comes with a free 1-week subscription to Nabi Radio and costs $2.49 per month, or $20 for one year. This app, just like Nabi Pass, cannot be removed.

Nabi pre-installed a wealth of games on the Elev-8. The 28 titles include the frenetic and playful Fruit Ninja, the 3D title School of Dragons, and addictive puzzler Threes. The Nabi Konnect suite of communication apps gives kids a means to connect with other Nabi device users. Kids create accounts within the apps, where they choose a screen name and an avatar account. 

The Elev-8 also includes Dream Pro Studio apps like Draw, which allows students to create pictures using paint brushes, colored pencils, crayons and the like. The Animator app lets kids create mini movies, and Publisher allows for digital scrapbooking. FK Crafts gives kids a series of instructional documents on how to make fun objects like maracas, national flags and wreaths.

With the Nabi Sync and Nabi Cloud apps, you can store and access your photos and movies on Nabi's servers, and access them on other computers.

Web Browsing

While Chrome comes pre-loaded in Parent Mode, Nabi Mode features three browsers: Nabi Web, FK Websites and Maxthon Kid-Safe Browser. Parents can add Chrome or any other browser to Nabi Mode using Add App.

The Maxthon Kid-Safe Browser looks more or less like a family-friendly version of Google Chrome, and restricts surfing to a pre-approved list of sites. Facebook, for example, is blocked by default, as are Ashley Madison, High Times and Maxim. Some sites like PBS Kids are accessible, but parents will have to add other child-friendly sites like Nickelodeon and Disney. Disappointingly, kids can edit the approved set of websites, as I only needed to click the + sign in the bookmark window and answer the math problem "12 x 100 / 2=" to add approved pages.

In Nabi Web mode, kids can browse content and watch video from specific entertainment properties, such as Madagascar, The Lego Movie and Kung Fu Panda. FK Websites is a very similar app, where kids swipe through screens of bookmarks to websites for other entertainment properties, including Pixar's Cars, Cartoon Network's Clarence and ABC Family's Dog with a Blog.

Performance

With an octa-core Snapdragon 615 64-bit processor, 32GB of storage and 1GB of RAM, the Elev-8 has enough power underneath its rubber bumper for most kids' tablet-related activities. As I switched between apps in the kid-friendly Nabi Mode, I encountered some lag, but nothing tremendous. In Parents Mode the Elev-8 was responsive, even with a dozen tabs open in Chrome. On top of that, I opened the Spotify app to stream a playlist and played a game of Threes. While the game ran fluidly, Chrome was slow to load when I switched back to it. Each tab needed to reload again.

Running the Geekbench 3 synthetic benchmark test for overall performance, the Elev-8 earned a 2,220. That's better than the Amazon Fire (1,158) and the 1.2-GHz dual-core Marvell processor-powered Galaxy Tab (693), but is just shy of the average tablet (2,556).

Using Vidtrim, the Elev-8 transcoded a 1080p video to 480p in 13 minutes and 34 seconds. That's slightly longer than the Galaxy Tab (13:25). But the 1.6-GHz quad-core Nvidia Tegra 4-powered DreamTab, which has 2GB of RAM, edited video at a much faster time of 3:48.

Graphics

While navigating caves in the School of Dragons game, I encountered slightly choppy graphics. Oddly, this pre-installed game gives you a warning that the 1GB of RAM on this tablet may not be enough to run the app. My experience bore this out to be the truth.

In the 3DMark Ice Storm synthetic graphics test, the Elev-8 only scored 7,146. That's better than the Galaxy Tab (1,970) and the Amazon Fire (4,494) but far below the DreamTab (15,815) and the average tablet (16,446).

Cameras

From distinct strands of brown hair to pores on my face, the Elev-8's 2-MP front-facing camera got plenty of detail in the selfies I took on our office's rooftop.

The 5-MP rear-facing shooter captured the strong blue of the sky. Unfortunately, the sunlight washed out the architectural details from the lighter buildings in our area.

Battery Life

The Elev-8 offers excellent battery life, lasting 9 hours and 7 minutes on the Laptop Mag Battery Test (continuous Web surfing over Wi-Fi at 150 nits). That's longer than the Amazon Fire (6:30), the DreamTab (5:47), the Galaxy Tab (8:13) and the average tablet (8:47).

Bottom Line

Lengthy battery life and solid overall performance make the Nabi Elev-8 ($170) an affordable tablet that should be good for most kids. But while it has a voluminous number of apps and fairly robust parental controls, its user interface is much more confusing than the $100 Amazon Fire Kids tablet. The octa-core processor-powered Nabi is likely faster than the quad-core Amazon tablet, but the latter will save parents both time and money. Still, the Nabi's greater endurance could make all the difference during a long car ride.

>>> Check out to read some news about game of thrones and online games for kids 

Reviews About the Laptop: Asus ROG Strix (GL50VS-DB71)

The Pros

Great graphics and overall performance; Swift transfer speeds; Pretty G-sync display

The Cons

Below-average battery life; Muted audio; Gets hot during gaming/nongaming activity

Verdict

The Asus ROG Strix offers a good mix of power and portability, but suffers from poor battery life.

trix

Asus' ROG Strix was already a gaming beast, nabbing a vaunted 4 stars in a previous review. But with its latest refresh, the Strix GL50VS-DB71, the $1,699 notebook is gunning for the top of the gaming-laptop mountain. Armed with its new Nvidia GTX 1070 GPU, the 15-inch Strix is now lean, mean and oh, so VR-ready. However, a short battery life and a few other issues keep the Strix from ascending to gaming-laptop glory.

Design

I'm still not sold on the whole nuclear-orange and black motif the Strix has going. But if I put my hue-based prejudices aside, I can admit that it is a handsome machine. The matte-black, brushed-aluminum is stately despite the nearly glowing neon-orange emblem and accompanying darts. Toward the back of the lid is an understated Republic of Gamers logo. The top of the lid is made of black, brushed plastic.

Lifting the lid reveals a black plastic palm rest with striations mimicking the metal lid. More of that eye-searing orange adorns the deck in small accents along the touchpad and another ROG emblem. The keyboard isn't immune to the glow, sporting orange lettering on the black keys. However, the WASD keys have inverse coloring that's sure to burn into the backs of your retinas.

Along the right of the system, you'll find a pair of USB 3.0 ports, a 2-in-1 card reader, a headset jack and a Kensington lock slot. On the left is a USB 3.1 Type-C port, another USB 3.0 port, HDMI 2.0, a mini DisplayPort and a power jack.

Weighing 5.8 pounds, the 15.4 x 10.5 x 0.9-inch Strix is a middleweight compared to the 5.4-pound Gigabyte P55W v6-PC3D (14.9 x 10.6 x 1.1~1.3 inches) and the 6.8-pound MSI GS63VS Dominator Pro (15.4 x 10.5 x 1.6 inches).

Display

If you're looking for bold, vibrant color, the Strix's 15.6-inch, 1920 x 1080 display has you covered. Despite, the screen' matte, anti-glare coating, actress Octavia Spencer's cocoa skin looked radiant during the Hidden Figures trailer. Her olive dress popped against the otherwise-drab background. Details were fine enough that I could make out the divots in a golden pin the actress wore.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt was even prettier, with its deep green forests, which give way to expansive farms with golden straws of grain. I was particularly taken with the sun as it rose over a nearby windmill turning lazily in the wind.

The Strix's panel reproduces 115 percent of the sRGB color gamut (we consider 100 percent to be excellent). It was better than the 92 percent mainstream average as well as the Dominator Pro (108 percent) and the PW55 (110 percent).

When we tested for color accuracy, the Strix wasn't too far off the mark, at 1.8 on the Delta-E test (0 is ideal), which is noticeably better than the 2.3 average. The PW55 was somewhat better, at 1.8, but the Dominator Pro was the overall winner, at 0.68. 

Averaging 300 nits on our brightness test, the Strix easily outshone the 270-nit category average. The Dominator Pro was just a bit brighter, at 301 nits, but the PW55 proved to be the brightest, at 321 nits.

G-Sync Goodness

If having a bright, vivid and accurate display isn't enough to tickle your fancy, the Strix's panel also has Nvidia's G-Sync technology. Using proprietary software, it syncs up the laptop's display rate with the graphics card. In other words, the tech is placing a frame cap that matches the panel's refresh limit, allowing for instant rendering in both full-screen and windowed modes. This eliminates any tears, making for smooth images. 

Audio

One area the Strix can improve on is its audio. The bass is still somewhat absent, as I discovered listening to Gallant's "Bourbon." The artist's ethereal falsetto was fine, but the synthesized percussion was harsh at higher volumes, as were the keyboards. And speaking of higher volumes, the small pair of orange speakers masquerading as decoration could barely fill our lab with sound.

The audio was not any better when playing games. Almost as soon as I started wandering around Witcher 3, I was in a fight. As I dodged, cast spells and attacked with my sword, the normally energetic fight music with its yelps and handclaps sounded distant. When I unleashed my fire spell, it didn't have the usual big woosh sound with accompanying crackle. I had to plug in a headset to get a semblance of normal audio.

In both cases, I attempted to augment the sound with Asus' preinstalled AudioWizard software. However, I couldn't find a preset (War Room, Battlefield, Multimedia, Action or Soundscape) to fix the more glaring issues.

Keyboard and Touchpad

Though it has a crazy color palette, the Strix also offers a Chiclet-style keyboard with large, flat keys and a full Num pad. With 1.4 millimeters of key travel and 52 grams of actuation, the keys are a little mushy, but I managed to tap out 60 words per minute on the 10FastFingers typing test. It's below my 65-wpm average, but still pretty good for me. The orange backlighting is good enough for me to see the keyboard in a dim room.

The 4.1 x 2.8-inch touchpad was spacious and gave fast, accurate response when I scrolled through web pages or summoned Cortana with a three-finger press.

Gaming, Graphics and VR

The Strix is outfitted with an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 GPU with 8GB VRAM. The middle child of Nvidia's new Pascal chips, this GPU offers approximately 35 percent better performance than its predecessor. And just like its 10-series siblings, it has the extra bonus of being VR-capable. When we ran the SteamVR performance benchmark to check the VR-readiness, it hit 10.6, edging out the mainstream average and the Dominator Pro (GTX 1070 GPU), which hit 10.1. The P55W, with its GTX 1060 GPU, notched only 6.6.

During my Witcher 3 play-through, I happened across a crew of bandits. My horse neighed nervously, preparing to rear up and buck me off as I leaned down and lopped off one of my attacker's arms. The bloodied appendage flew through the air at 58 fps on Ultra at 1080p before it landed on the ground with a thud.

The laptop also held its own on our standard benchmarks, nailing down a 77 fps on the Rise of the Tomb Raider test (1080p on Very High), sailing past the 53-fps average along with the P55W (50 fps) and Dominator Pro (51 fps). On the DirectX 12 Hitman test, the Strix achieved 69 fps, matching the average and beating the P55W's score of 57 fps. However, the Dominator Pro struck back with a big 94 fps. The Strix and Dominator Pro were in reach of each other on the Grand Theft Auto test, scoring 61 and 67 fps, respectively, which beat the 52-fps average and the P55W's 33 fps.

Performance

We're all just biding our time until Intel's new Kaby Lake processors come to market. Until then, the Strix's 2.6-GHz Intel Core i7-6700HQ processor with 16GB will do. The laptop streamed an episode of Gotham at full screen while running a full-system scan with 12 additional open tabs in Google Chrome, and it showed no latency.

However, the Strix fell short on the Geekbench 3 test, scoring 12,371, which was enough to top the 7,780 category average. Thanks to their own Core i7-6700HQ CPUs, the Dominator Pro and P55W hit 13,556 and 13,530.

It took 12 seconds for the Strix's 256GB NVMe PCIe SSD to duplicate 4.97GB of mixed-media files during our File Transfer Test, which translates to 424.1 megabytes per second. That was more than enough to decimate the 135.9MBps mainstream average and the P55W's (128GB m.2 PCIe SSD) 128.1MBps, but not the Dominator Pro (256GB m.2 PCIe SSD), which delivered a blistering 628.6MBps.

Battery Life

All that power comes with a price, and in the case of the Strix, it's paid in battery life. The laptop lasted only 2 hours and 39 minutes on our battery test, which is well below the 6:42 average. The Dominator Pro fared somewhat better, tapping out at 3:18. 

Webcam

The integrated 720p webcam is surprisingly color-accurate. My red dress and purple hair were nearly spot-on in the test shots, as were our lab assistant's blonde highlights. However, her white shirt blended in with the wall in the background, eliminating her left shoulder. Details were clear enough for me to know that I need to go get my eyebrows redone.

Software and Warranty

Asus preinstalled a number of apps focused on game optimization and system health. Splendid Utility, for example allows you to change the display's color temperature, so your games, images and videos can look their best. The GameFirst IV software is a network-prioritization app that allows you to monitor and set network bandwidth.

The ROG Gaming Center consists of four customizable profiles that let gamers set specific display and audio settings as well as shut down other applications when launching a specified game or application. You can even check your CPU and GPU temperature and frequency.

If that weren't enough, Asus also added Nvidia's GeForce Experience, which has its own suite of gamer-centric software, including Battery Boost, Game Optimization, ShadowPlay and GameStream.

Third-party apps include Netflix, Candy Crush Soda Saga, Twitter, Music Maker Jam and Trip Advisor.

The Asus ROG Strix ships with a one-year warranty. See how Asus fared in our Tech Support Showdown and where it falls on our Best and Worst Brands list.

Heat

The Strix is a bit of a hot potato. After I spent 15 minutes fighting bandits and wargs in Witcher 3, the laptop's undercarriage hit 123 degrees Fahrenheit, which is well above our 95-degree comfort threshold. The touchpad and the center of the notebook were markedly cooler, at 82 and 93 degrees.

Once the device cooled down, we tried running a full-screen YouTube video for 15 minutes. When it was done, the touchpad and space between the G and H keys hit an acceptable 88 and 94 degrees. The bottom of the notebook measured 102 degrees.

Bottom Line

At $1,699, the Asus ROG Strix GL502VS-DB71 is good for gamers who prize power and portability, but plan to stay plugged in. The 0.9-inch thick chassis means the laptop can be easily slipped into a waiting backpack. And when it's time to play, the svelte assassin has a powerful Intel Core i7 processor and a VR-capable Nvidia GTX 1070 GPU to unleash gaming hell.

But if power is your thing and you don't mind forking out an additional $300, I'd recommend the $1,999 MSI GS63VS Dominator Pro, which has a lovely display in its own right, powerful graphics and overall performance, and some seriously fast transfer speeds. Overall, though, the Strix is a solid choice for gamers on the go.

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Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness - a drop in the ocean

With its fussy camera and poor signposting, Star Ocean 5 does little to tempt in new players to the franchise

Specifications

Available formats: PS4

JRPGs have played host to many a villain over the last thirty years, but none have caused so much anguish as that dastardly presence trailing your every move as you hack and blast your way to victory. Yes, I'm talking about the dreaded third-person camera – and what a devious plot it's hatched in the latest Star Ocean game. 

Now in its fifth instalment, the rather pompously named Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness has really outdone itself when it comes to framing Fidel and co's journey across the plains of Faykreed.

Instead of simply resting behind its colourful cast of warriors like every other JRPG going, this restless beast bucks up and down with every single change in gradient beneath your feet, twitching this way and that as you hike from one corner of the map to the other. It's never quite enough to make you feel nauseous, but you know it's bad when you start craving the flat, marbled stonework of its towns and villages more than the next save point.

It wouldn't be so bad if the scenery gave you something to look at, as you can mask the camera's juddery effects by keeping it moving with the right analogue stick. Sadly, Star Ocean's locales are rather lacking in imagination, and its bland topography rarely inspires the same kind of awe and wonder as the vast, jaw-dropping vistas I've seen in games likeXenoblade Chronicles X, The Witcher, and Dark Souls III.

It doesn't help that the story tends to drag from you from one dead-end of the map to another, either, often forcing you to retrace your steps almost as soon as you've arrived somewhere new and received the next bit of story exposition. Shortcuts are few and far between on this linear planet, and even some of its hub sections are plagued by insurmountable walls that prevent you from going all the way across, inflicting a cruel kind of punishment if you happen to take the wrong exit out of town.

All this could be avoided if its navigation system gave you a hint about which direction your next goal lies, but the only way to find your next objective marker is to enter that particular section of the world, such as a city or far-off cave. As a result, you'll almost certainly spend a good portion of your time backtracking as you try and figure out which way you should be heading, particularly when town exits often lead to completely different sections of the map. 

It's a shame that Integrity and Faithlessness is quite so fussy, as its real time battles bring a welcome change of pace to the world map drudgery. Basic attacks are assigned to X and Circle, and you can hold each one down to initiate a special attack, with long and short-range options giving you four abilities in total. There's also a basic attack rock-paper-scissors triangle in place where successful attempts to thwart enemy assaults help build your special Reserve Rush meter for screen-hogging special moves, and its scaling line-up of lovingly rendered enemies ensures you're always kept on your toes.

You don't necessarily have to play as sword-wielding hero Fidel, either, as you can switch between your large party of six with a touch of the d-pad. This not only lets you experiment with different play styles and character classes, but it also brings a light strategic element to the fray as well, allowing you to reposition your warriors if things start going awry.

Admittedly, it could benefit from a slightly more rigorous and exacting combo chain system, particularly when you switch to long-range characters. With their slow build-up and relatively passive movement patterns, playing as a mage or gunner means you're often confined to tedious button mashing, making it hard to engage with the rest of the game's battle mechanics and building up your Reserve Rush meter. As a result, the amount of choice you have is actually rather limited, as it's only by picking the more active, short-range characters like Fidel that you really get to experience the full breadth of the action.

That said, when you've got six characters all piling in at once, there are times when you've barely bashed out three attacks before everything's been crushed under a tidal wave of magic and sword swipes. Larger battles can also become rather chaotic, as you simply can't see those tell-tale signs to attack, counter or defend beneath the sheer amount of magic being thrown around.

In the end, Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness just doesn't make a big enough wave to tip it over into that hallowed group of A-grade JRPGs. It's hamstrung by several issues that feel like hangovers from previous console generations, and its messy battle system can't hold a candle to the dynamic, progressive and forward-looking fights we've seen from early demos of Final Fantasy XV. If you're really desperate for something to fill the void with until Square Enix's mega hit arrives, then get some Witcher 3 into your veins and leave Star Ocean high and dry.

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Private Tunnel review

PROS

• Decent speeds
• Clear no-logging policy
• Pay for data in chunks

CONS

• Limited endpoint countries
• Configuration and privacy is too basic
• Didn't work for Netflix in our tests

KEY FEATURES

• $49.95 (£34.68) per year
• 100GB data package: $19.99 (£13.88)
• 12-month unlimited data subscription: $29.99 (£20.82)
• OS support: Windows, Mac OS X, Android, iOS
• Supports OpenVPN
• Manufacturer: Private Tunnel
• Review Price: £6.49

WHAT IS PRIVATE TUNNEL?

Private Tunnel, based in the USA, is the commercial wing of the makers of OpenVPN. OpenVPN is the open-source VPN client and protocol that we generally recommend as providing the best standard of security for general VPN use. Private Tunnel uses only the OpenVPN protocol and we were pleased to find that its desktop client is lightweight, cleanly designed and easy to use.

Unlike most VPN services, Private Tunnel doesn't charge a subscription fee but instead allows you to buy blocks of data. Once bought, your data never expires, making these tiers of Private Tunnel's service ideal for users who use VPNs occasionally but intensively.

Also, unlike rival service providers, you can use your account on as many different devices as you need.

PRIVATE TUNNEL – FEATURES

New subscribers currently receive 2GB for free, with more available via referrals. $9.99 (£6.94) gets you 20GB of data, while $19.99 (£13.88) gets you 100GB. If you want a regular subscription, with the company's Unlimited package you receive 12 months of unlimited data for a very reasonable $29.99 (£20.82), but this is restricted to 10 devices.

Private Tunnel provides clients for Windows, Mac OS X, Android and iOS, and a downloadable profile that you can plug into any OpenVPN client – for example, on Linux or a NAS device. You can also log in to its VPN service directly from a web browser, which gives you a browser-within-a-browser from which you can access the websites of your choice.

It doesn't have a very wide range of VPN endpoints. The available countries are the USA, UK, Switzerland, Canada, Netherlands and Sweden. You can pay for your Private Tunnel data allowance or subscription using bitcoin (via Stripe). Apple gift cards are also accepted, but only via the iOS application, which limits the anonymity of your transaction.

Private Tunnel is headquartered in the USA, which doesn't currently have any mandatory data-retention laws, but the company doesn't have the kind of explicit no-logging policy of some of its US rivals, such as Private Internet Access. Instead, Private Tunnel says that "log files stored on our servers are only used for monitoring server performance, identifying software bugs, identifying any potential security breaches, and for the purpose of identifying abusive users."

Although none of Private Tunnel's servers gave us access to Netflix in the USA, we were impressed by its video-streaming performance on both iPlayer in the UK and region-locked YouTube content in the USA. In our FTP download test it was one of the best-performing services, and one of the few that saw consistent speeds of over 5Mbits/sec from a US server.

VERDICT

In general, we were pleased with the speeds and performance seen from Private Tunnel's servers, but the small number of available endpoint locations will disappoint users who need to virtually "be" in a wide range of locations. Also, its ambiguous logging policy is likely to put off those in serious need of anonymity and security.

However, Private Tunnel's non-expiring data packages are great for users who only occasionally need a VPN – for example, those who want to be able to access UK websites as though they were at home while travelling. Its 12-month subscription-based incarnation is also very reasonably priced, making it a decent pick.

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APPLE TV: THE FUTURE OF TV

"The future of TV is here."

It is not the world’s most understated tagline for a new product, especially one from Apple. If you want to set sky-high expectations around a new TV product after years of rumors and sly winks and shelved plans, well, that’s exactly how to do it. You say that you’ve invented the future of TV, and that it is here.

You say it while knowing full well that Steve Jobs set the stage for a radical new TV from Apple in 2011 by directly telling his biographer that he’d "finally cracked it," and that he wanted to create "an integrated television set that is completely easy to use," with "the simplest user interface you could imagine."

You say that the future of TV is here even though every attempt to place a computer at the center of the living room experience has bombed catastrophically for nearly two decades, and that rivals like Microsoft and Google have each been floored by the challenges of television.

You take the weight of those expectations, you bring the power of the Apple brand to bear, and you lift the entire entertainment industry out of the chaotic technological mess it’s built for itself and right into the shiny new future of voice control and touchpad remotes, just like we were always promised.

The future of TV is here.

Or is it?

Here’s the basic blueprint for a modern media streaming device: a smallish black box that runs a zillion apps from various TV networks and service providers like Netflix, all indexed into some sort of universal search and controlled by voice.

CONVERGENCE

If you squint, the revolutionary new Apple TV actually looks like one of the oldest ideas in tech: convergence in the living room. People have been trying to stick computers under TVs for 20 years now — there’s a straight line from the 1996 webTV to Windows Media Center to Google TV to Android TV to the Xbox One. They’re all just little PCs; the Google products have Intel processors and the Xbox One is getting a Windows 10 upgrade in a few weeks. The tech industry (well, mostly Microsoft) has been trying and failing to bring the PC and TV together for so long that it’s no wonder Apple called the Apple TV a hobby until last year: you can’t fail at a hobby.

But the new Apple TV is an interesting new riff on the idea of convergence: instead of a little PC under the TV, it’s a little iPhone. And just like the iPhone and apps ushered in a mobile revolution, it’s entirely possible that the Apple TV and apps can finally usher in the convergence revolution.

That’s the $129 Roku 4, the $99 Amazon Fire TV 2, and the $99 Google Nexus Player, each to varying degrees of success. And it’s also the new Apple TV, which is more expensive than all of those with a base price of $149, although of course Apple’s added some of its typical flourish to the mix.

Take setup, which usually requires some painful entering of Wi-Fi passwords and iCloud credentials and so on — with the new Apple TV, you just get your iPhone with iOS 9.1 and Bluetooth on near the unit, and it grabs everything it needs to get online and get started. That’s pretty cool.

Or take the remote, which is a sleek black rectangle with a glass touchpad at the top; home, menu, play, and volume buttons; an accelerometer and gyroscope; and dual microphones for voice commands that are triggered by holding down the Siri button. It’s basically all the hardware interface elements of an iPhone reworked for a 10-foot television experience; it even charges over Lightning.

Or take the visual flair of the interface, popping with subtle 3D effects and interesting ideas about how the multilayered glass aesthetic of iOS should translate to a TV. It’s not radically different than the previous Apple TV interface or any of its competitors, but it’s far sleeker. The combination of the remote and interface feels tight and polished and futuristic in a way that makes Roku and Fire TV feel plastic and utilitarian. I will say that the touchpad can be more flashy than useful — there isn’t a single part of the main interface that actually requires it, and you can get around just fine using a universal remote with a D-Pad.

But it’s really what’s underneath that’s the news here: tvOS, a new Apple OS that is basically iOS reworked for television. Previous Apple TVs ran their own weirdo riffs on iOS, but tvOS is a proper part of the Apple platform family alongside OS X, iOS, and watchOS. Most importantly, tvOS brings support for Siri and the App Store to the Apple TV, which means any app developer can create apps for the system. The potential here is massive: this thing is basically a computer under your TV.

But while iOS on the iPhone and iPad is a mature, capable operating system with tons of flexibility and a huge variety of apps, tvOS is very much a first-generation product. In day-to-day use, it’s basically the same as the previous Apple TV with the addition of a drastically stripped-down Siri and ported iPhone games.

THE EXECUTION HERE IS AMONG THE BEST IN THE GAME

Seriously: you won’t notice many changes from the previous Apple TV, save those fun 3D effects and the switch from a black background to a whitish-gray version, until you hold down the Siri button. Then you can ask any number of interesting questions about shows and movies in pretty granular detail — I asked for "‘80s movies with Tom Cruise on Netflix" and Siri found me Top Gun and Risky Business, for example. Delightful. Once you select a movie or show, Siri will open a universal landing page that deep links you right into the various services that offer the content. So if you search for Game of Thrones, you’ll see that you can buy it on iTunes and stream it on HBO Go or HBO Now, and you’re off to the races. In terms of iterative improvements to the Apple TV, this is the most important thing Apple could have done, and the execution here is among the best in the game.

But limitations are everywhere. Only a small handful of apps work with Siri search right now — iTunes, Netflix, Hulu, HBO, and Showtime — so finding something in, say, the ESPN or CBS apps isn’t possible. Siri can’t find you a funny YouTube video, which seems like a shame. Tim Cook says a Siri search API is coming, but I get the feeling Apple wants Siri search to be a differentiator for the more premium services, so we’ll see how wide open that API is when it gets here. And once Siri drops you into a streaming app from that universal search, it’s a free-for-all — they all have different interfaces and recommendation engines, and none of them talk to each other. Shouldn’t Siri pay attention to what you’re watching and suggest content across services? Or at least give you a Most Recently Watched list across all your services, like the Fire TV and Roku? One of the best things about traditional TV is the serendipity of flipping it on and seeing something you like, or finding something new. There’s a big discovery piece that really ties all these services together that’s missing here. TV isn’t all about demanding things from a robot.

Siri can also launch apps and get you sports scores, stocks, and weather, but that’s about it. There’s no voice feedback. There’s none of Siri’s trademark attitude — asking it to divide 0 by 0 gets nothing — and it can’t set timers, convert units, or look up random facts on Wolfram Alpha or the web. When you ask Siri to play "my favorite movie," it brings up a 2015 indie movie called… My Favorite Movie. This would be hilarious if this version of Siri had a sense of humor.

4K

So the new Apple TV doesn’t support 4K, which is particularly funny when you consider the fact that the beautiful new aerial-loop screensavers are exactly the sort of demo reels used to show off 4K displays. I would bet a lot of money that they were originally shot in 4K, in fact.

But even though most mid- to high-end TVs are now 4K, there still isn’t isn’t a ton of 4K content out there. So unless you’re intent on watchingBreaking Bad and YouTube in 4K (and some of you surely are) you’re not missing out on much because the Apple TV is 1080p.

That said, Apple is one of the few companies that runs a TV and movie service at scale, and if it wanted to push a 4K upgrade cycle by adding tons of 4K content to iTunes and making it a feature of this new Apple TV, it could do that. But it didn’t. I would assume that’s coming in the next version, but we’ll see.

Siri is also totally disconnected from Siri on the iPhone — you can’t tell Siri on your phone to play a song or video on your TV, which seems like another huge missed opportunity. And bafflingly, Siri can’t control Apple Music, so asking to play a Taylor Swift song results in nothing. "Sorry, I can’t help you with music," says the screen. Siri says sorry about a lot of things.

And in the biggest oversight, Siri can’t search for apps in the App Store, or even take dictation into the text field of the App Store search screen. If you thought App Store discovery was kind of messy and bad on iOS, tvOS won't do anything to change your mind: there will be a few featured categories, a top list, and search. Unless they get featured, app developers will have to convince people to search for new apps by swiping back and forth along the terrible on-screen keyboard, which means their apps are going to have to basically cure disease and print free money to get noticed.

And… that is not what the currently available apps in the App Store do. Most of them are just gigantic iPhone apps. The Periscope app seems like it would be brilliant, but lacks the ability to log into your Periscope account, so you can’t see your friends’ streams or leave comments. The Zillow app appears to be an aggressive attempt to highlight the crime-scene aesthetic of most interior real estate photography. Descriptions for featured games like Shadowmatic andMr. Crab talk about plugging in headphones and tapping on your screen. Laziness abounds.

Now, these games and apps can be fun, and some of them make the jump from the small to big screen so incredibly well that it seems like they’ve always belonged there. Watching people around the world pour their hearts into the Sing karaoke app is amazing on the Apple TV. Does not Commute turns into a totally different game on a much grander scale. The Zova fitness app and Yummly cooking apps are both terrific examples of how large web video libraries can be turned into focused and useful television.

MOST APPS ARE JUST GIGANTIC IPHONE APPS

But I am going to be 100 percent crazy honest with you: the single most interesting app in the Apple TV App Store right now is the QVC app.

The QVC app is the only app that really and truly blends television with interactivity: it shows you a live feed of QVC, and it overlays the familiar information box on the left side of the screen with a buy button. So you’re watching the regular QVC TV channel, and you can just click to buy, or swipe down to see more photos of the item and related items while the video keeps playing.

That kind of interactivity is the real future of television, and nothing about the Apple TV outside of the QVC app really leans into it. Now that tvOS is an actual platform, I’m really hoping TV networks lean into the crazy science fiction possibilities of interactive TV within their apps — think live voting on The Voice, or instant reaction polls during debates. Or hell, just let fans decide what an NFL catch is, since no one else seems to know. There’s so much promise here, but it’s all just potential. At this moment, there’s not a single app on the Apple TV that enhances the experience of watching TV nearly as much as simply opening Twitter on your phone during an awards show.

If it sounds like I’m holding the Apple TV to a higher standard than every other product, it’s because I am. Once you really start thinking about the Apple TV and what it is today, it becomes very clear that while Apple was able to significantly improve the parts of the streaming media experience that it can directly control, it wasn’t able to use its leverage to really fix the little annoyances and disconnects littered throughout the TV landscape that it can’t control.

Take setup again: yes, the tap-to-get-settings-from-an-iPhone feature is cool, but you can’t restore anything from a previous Apple TV, so when you first get started you have to head into the App Store and search for and download every streaming app you use. Then, once you’ve got them all, you have to authenticate all of them individually — even apps like HBO Go and Watch ESPN that require the same cable provider TV Everywhere username and password. And the iPhone Remote app doesn’t work with the new Apple TV yet, so you’re stuck either swiping around the onscreen keyboard or digging up a laptop to enter an activation code. It’s frustrating — I found myself reluctant to download new apps because I didn’t really want to log in yet again. If the future of TV is really apps, adding new apps has to be virtually frictionless.

THE VERY BEST VERSION OF TELEVISION'S PRESENT

Not having a single sign-on for apps that require a cable subscription is exactly the sort of piddly nonsense that needs to get solved before the future of TV actually gets here. And solving exactly this sort of piddly nonsense for people again and again is what turned Apple into the richest company in the world. I will go so far as to say that the television market is so complex and so insane that only a company with Apple’s power and influence can force meaningful change. So the pressure is on.

The streaming boxes on the market right now all compete to do very few simple things: get everything you want to watch in a single place, make it all easy to search and discover, and get out of the way. And the Apple TV does that as well or better than anything else on the market. It has virtually every streaming app save Amazon Prime video, Siri works reasonably well and can answer a wider range of questions across services than the Fire TV 2 or Roku, and playback is super fast. If you just want a new streaming box, you can happily buy a new Apple TV. (I would buy the $149 base model.) You’ll like it.

But all of that is very much the best version of television’s present. Apple has a lot more work to do before the future actually arrives.

>>> Check out to read some news about game of thrones and online games for kids