-Apex

EU-UK trade talks floundering over fish as cutoff day nears Deep into a crucial weekend of negotiations, a breakthrough on fishing rights remained elusive for the European Union and Britain, leaving both without a trade agreement that would dull the edge of a chaotic, costly economic break on New Year's Day. With hundreds of thousands of jobs at stake throughout the economy, the tiny sector of fisheries continued to drive a wedge between the 27-nation bloc and the UK, highlighting the animosity that drove them to a Brexit divorce over the past four years. Britain left the bloc in January, but a 11-month economic transition period ends on Dec. 31. “We continue to work hard," EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier said in a statement as light faded over EU headquarters on Sunday. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's office said Sunday that the EU is “continuing to make demands that are incompatible with our independence. We cannot accept a deal that doesn’t leave us in control of our own laws or waters." Barnier didn't question that both sides “have the right to set their own laws & control their own waters." But, he countered, “we should both be able to act when our interests are at stake." It left little hope a full deal could be found before midnight, which the European parliament had set as a deadline if it was to have enough time to vet and approve the deal before New Year's. Officials on both sides said positions had hardly moved throughout the weekend of near-continuous talks. The almost mythical sense of Britain's rights to rule its waves was an essential part of what drove Brexiteers to victory in the 2016 referendum. Johnson is seeking to make sure that as much as possible of the shared British waters are now returned to U.K. vessels only. The EU has always maintained that those waters have been shared for decades, if not centuries, and insists if too many fishing rights are taken away, it will punish Britain by imposing hefty import fees to the mainland market, which is essential to the U.K. seafood industry. The stalemate has left the overall talks inconclusive with businesses on both sides clamoring for a deal that would save tens of billions in costs. Johnson, though, could not be budged. “We need to get any deal right and based on terms which respect what the British people voted for," his office said. One official from an EU coastal nation said the EU was refusing to yield more than a quarter of the fishing quotas the bloc stands to lose now that Britain is regaining full control of its waters due to Brexit. Britain is also steadfast that a 3-year transition period would be long enough for EU fishermen to adapt to the new rules, while the EU wants at least six years. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the talks were still ongoing. A failure to reach a post-Brexit deal would lead to more chaos on Britain’s borders with the EU at the start of 2021, when new tariffs would add to other impediments to trade enacted by both sides. The talks have bogged down on two main issues over the past days — the EU’s access to U.K. fishing waters and assurances of fair competition between businesses. A trade deal would ensure there are no tariffs and quotas on trade in goods between the two sides, but there would still be technical costs, partly associated with customs checks and non-tariff barriers on services. While both sides would suffer economically from a failure to secure a trade deal, most economists think the British economy would take a greater hit, at least in the near-term, as it is relatively more reliant on trade with the EU than vice versa.

“Q: What’s the difference between England and a tea bag? A: The tea bag stays in the cup longer.” The Brits love tea and football 😂

@Meh Rez vM ! ♫ Mazalha tnikni bda7k 🤣

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Smash Bros. Ultimate Is Getting FF7 And Geno Mii Fighter Costumes Nintendo showcased a handful of new Mii Fighter costumes that are coming soon to the Switch fighting game. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate director Masahiro Sakurai shared more details on the game's next DLC character, Final Fantasy VII's Sephiroth, during Thursday's video presentation, but that wasn't all he discussed. Sakurai kicked off the broadcast by revealing an assortment of new Mii Fighter costumes that are coming to the game very soon. Five more costumes are being added to Smash Bros. Ultimate this week, all of which are based on Square Enix characters. Fittingly to coincide with Sephiroth, three of the costumes are inspired by Final Fantasy VII characters: Barret (Gunner), Tifa (Brawler), and Aerith (Swordfighter). The remaining two include a Chocobo Hat and a Gunner costume based on Geno from Super Mario RPG. Each costume will cost 75 cents. As for Sephiroth, the new fighter joins the roster next week, on December 22, but you're able to unlock him a few days early if you can beat him during a limited-time event. He'll arrive alongside a new stage, music tracks, and Spirits. You can get the One-Winged Angel as part of the game's $30 Fighters Pass Vol. 2 or pick his character pack up individually for $6. Sephiroth is the third new fighter from Smash Bros. Ultimate's second wave of DLC, following Min Min from Arms and Steve/Alex from Minecraft. Three more DLC fighters are still on the way, although Nintendo hasn't yet shared any details about who those will be or when they'll release. In other Smash Bros. news, Nintendo is giving away another free item pack for the game. For a limited time, Switch Online subscribers can grab the Spirit Board Challenge Pack 7. This pack comes with an assortment of items aimed at making it easier to challenge tough Spirits in the game's Spirit Board mode. Like other Smash Ultimate freebies, however, you can only claim the item pack if you have a paid Switch Online subscription.

The 3 fastest VPNs we've tested: NordVPN, ExpressVPN and Surfshark compared Three top VPNs battle it out to see which takes the privacy and speed crown. You're working from home. You're binging Netflix, you're listening to music, you're gaming -- and if you're reading this, chances are you're looking for a VPN that can handle the massive flood of data going through your coaxial cable. That's where this list comes in. We've tested out the top VPN performers to find you the fastest VPN that will meet your needs and won't slow you down. Keep in mind, however, that it's tricky to speed test a VPN in a way that translates to practicable consumer advice. First, the speed of a VPN can change from day to day, prompting some review sites to create automated monitoring processes. Second, the use of any VPN, no matter how fast, will somewhat reduce your browsing speeds. Then there's the impact of underlying internet speeds in the US, which vary widely according to state and provider. Finally, if you eliminate all potential variables -- from network interference to individual machine quirks -- to create a lab-like test setting, you're essentially testing a product in a digital environment that bears zero resemblance to the operating environment most of us live and work in. Surfshark 16.9% speed lost (faster than 27% loss in previous test) Fastest VPN connections: US Slowest connections: Australia As a relative newcomer in the VPN world, Surfshark ended 2019 with just 27% speed loss in my review, positioning it far ahead of all of its competitors -- except for the seemingly uncatchable speed leader ExpressVPN, which dominated my 2019 testing with less than 2% speed loss. But at the close of 2020, Surfshark was surging ahead of the pack with 17% speed loss, as ExpressVPN speeds fall to 52% speed loss in my most recent tests. The remarkable thing about Surfshark's speed is that its average speeds aren't fighting to overcome major speed losses in any particular test region. This thing showed up on race day and stole the gold, seemingly without breaking a sweat. During testing, my base non-VPN speeds averaged 194 megabits per second, while Surfshark's overall average was 161 Mbps. After taking the averages of five testing locations, not one of the averages from those locations fell below 100 Mbps. That's an across-the-board win against its competitors in every test column. While the competitors below seemed to struggle with US speeds, Surfshark clocked a 204 Mbps average on US connections. Because Surfshark allows you to choose which server to connect to (with a handy visual icon to signal each server's overall crowdedness), one way I could have juked the stats here is by hand-picking servers across the US with the least VPN traffic load. And I would have loved to report New York speeds, for example, specifically for you. But that wouldn't have been fair; NordVPN still frustratingly lacks that feature, so I used Surfshark's automatic server selection option (as I did with the other test subjects). NordVPN couldn't get close to Surfshark's American speeds during testing, though, averaging just 89 Mbps on US connections by comparison. Surfshark again outperformed its peers during UK and European tests, averaging 165 Mbps and 171 Mbps in each, respectively. While future tests might include other regions in Europe, I currently go for a mix of German and French connections. Usually, no matter the VPN, Frankfurt speeds weigh down the average, while connections in Orange and Paris bring on a major numbers boost. That was still the case with Surfshark's speeds, but even Surfshark's German numbers were higher than the average speeds of its competitors. Australia is normally where we see numbers take a dive -- the continent's distance from my test site in Kentucky provides for major latency. Latency was still high, but Surfshark seemed unfazed, clocking a 126 Mbps average download speed. For comparison, that's close to the 122 Mbps average I measured for ExpressVPN's European connections. Singapore is where speeds always get competitive. The speed testing site that I and most other reviewers use, Ookla, ranked Singapore's internet speeds the fastest in the world in 2018 with an average national speed of 181 Mbps. How did Surfshark do there? An easy, breezy 142 Mbps average. Was it a fluke? Was my VPN connection just having a great day? Was Surfshark's overall server traffic particularly light that day? All of those things are possible. That's why I aim to keep retesting this newly crowned speed queen, and why I always recommend you opt for VPNs that offer money-back guarantees and allow you to test their services in your own non-lab settings for 30 days. But these are speeds I haven't seen from any VPN I've tested so far. ExpressVPN 51.8% speed lost (slower than previous 2% loss in previous test) Fastest VPN connections: Western Europe Slowest connections: US It killed me to see ExpressVPN's pace fall from the jaw-dropping speeds I clocked for it last year. It's not only our Editors' Choice for VPNs but -- because it's one of the few VPNs proven to keep no usage logs during a geopolitical trial-by-fire -- it's my own personal favorite VPN. Its history and durable encryption, combined with its then-untouchable speeds, non-Five Eyes jurisdiction and streamlined user interface made this VPN worth the higher-than-average subscription cost. Last year, ExpressVPN gave me a less than 2% speed loss overall. This year, I clocked a 52% speed loss. Though that's a major dip, it's still a better-than-average score compared to other VPNs. To be clear, ExpressVPN is still a speed demon that consistently ranks in the top 10 for sites with massive automated VPN speed-test processes. Just because Surfshark beat it to the finish line this time doesn't mean ExpressVPN is at all sluggish. It still flies, and most people will have no problems gaming, streaming or even torrenting heavily. During testing, my non-VPN speeds averaged 193 Mbps, and ExpressVPN's overall global average speed was 93 Mbps. Peak speeds were reached on European connections, averaging about 122 Mbps between Frankfurt, Berlin and Paris. Australian speeds outperformed the UK with averages of 101 Mbps and 86 Mbps, respectively. Between the two, however, the UK caught the better individual high score, topping out at 157 Mbps in a single test compared to Australia's highest single-round score of 136 Mbps. Singapore's scores also edged out the UK's by just three points at 89 Mbps. US scores were where ExpressVPN's averages got dragged down: US speeds averaged just 66 Mbps, despite reaching up to 134 Mbps on a single test round. Because of ExpressVPN's history of smoking its opponents on speed tests, my first instinct was to check for a testing issue on my side. So I walked back through my testing process, double-checked my setup and retested to make sure I wasn't accidentally dipping ExpressVPN's numbers. When my results appeared consistent, I checked in with a couple of sites whose automated speed testing I trust and compared notes: Sure enough, as of late October, both Top10VPN and ProPrivacy speed tests show that ExpressVPN has struggled with consistency and slipped down the rankings in the past couple of months. I reached out to ExpressVPN to find out what's happening with the recent dips in its speeds. The company looked into it, and said several of its in-house tests were seeing speeds between 200 and 275 Mbps using OpenVPN protocol. Those results were far above my own. "We think one possible explanation is that there was network saturation between your ISP and our data center during the time period that you tested, which again should not be a typical result," an ExpressVPN spokesperson said. The company also pointed to its new protocol, currently in development. "We are transitioning our legacy OpenVPN infrastructure to Lightway, a VPN protocol that we developed in-house to deliver WireGuard-like speed but far superior security," the spokesperson said. "It's in beta right now as we're still applying tweaks so we can provide the Lightway benefits to our customers at scale, but once it goes into full release within the next couple of months, we are confident it will deliver speeds on par with or better than the fastest Wireguard setups from other providers." NordVPN 53% speed lost (slower than previous 32% loss in previous tests Fastest VPN connections: Singapore Slowest connections: US Right out of the gate, it should be said that NordVPN has been steadily improving its speeds since I tested it for the first time last year. While my latest tests show the VPN provider falling 2 percentage points behind ExpressVPN, other speed testing sites have seen it routinely surge ahead. Since its embarrassing third-party server breach last year (which appeared to cause minimal damage), NordVPN has gotten aggressive. Along with a suite of fleet-wide privacy improvements to its servers, it's revved up its engine. Granted, some of that may have to do with a new security protocol NordVPN rolled out, called NordLynx. It's built on the still-developing protocol WireGuard, which some argue is less secure than OpenVPN (an option available in all the VPNs listed here, and one I use in testing), but which ultimately creates a faster VPN tunnel. The improvements earned it recommendations from both Ookla and AV-Test. Even with the accolades of others, NordVPN's overall global average speed was 91 Mbps during my testing, in a dataset with average non-VPN speeds of 194 Mbps, for a speed loss of roughly 53%. While it's normal for a VPN to cut your internet speed by half or more, the notable context here is that across the averages of my five test zones, I never saw NordVPN fall below 85 Mbps. It's still one of the most consistent, stable VPNs I've worked with.

DisplayPort vs. HDMI: Which Is Better For Gaming? We look at bandwidth, resolution, refresh rate and more to see the differences between DisplayPort and HDMI connections. The best gaming monitors are packed with features, but one aspect that often gets overlooked is the inclusion of DisplayPort vs. HDMI. What are the differences between the two ports and is using one for connecting to your system definitively better? You might think it's a simple matter of hooking up whatever cable comes with your monitor to your PC and calling it a day, but there are differences that can often mean a loss of refresh rate, color quality, or both if you're not careful. Here's what you need to know about DisplayPort vs. HDMI connections. If you're looking to buy a new PC monitor or buy a new graphics card (you can find recommendations on our Best Graphics Cards page), you'll want to consider the capabilities of both sides of the connection — the video output of your graphics card and the video input on your display — before making any purchases. Our GPU Benchmarks hierarchy will tell you how the various graphics cards rank in terms of performance, but it doesn't dig into the connectivity options, which is something we'll cover here. The Major Display Connection Types The latest display connectivity standards are DisplayPort and HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface). DisplayPort first appeared in 2006, while HDMI came out in 2002. Both are digital standards, meaning all the data about the pixels on your screen is represented as 0s and 1s as it zips across your cable, and it's up to the display to convert that digital information into an image on your screen. Earlier monitors used DVI (Digital Visual Interface) connectors, and going back even further we had VGA (Video Graphics Array) — along with component RGB, S-Video, composite video, EGA and CGA. You don't want to use VGA or any of those others in 2020, though. They're old, meaning, any new GPU likely won't even support the connector, and even if they did, you'd be using an analog that's prone to interference. Yuck. DVI is the bare minimum you want to use today, and even that has limitations. It has a lot in common with early HDMI, just without audio support. It works fine for gaming at 1080p, or 1440p resolution if you have a dual-link connection. Dual-link DVI-D is basically double the bandwidth of single-link DVI-D via extra pins and wires, and most modern GPUs with a DVI port support dual-link. If you're wondering about Thunderbolt 2/3, it actually just routes DisplayPort over the Thunderbolt connection. Thunderbolt 2 supports DisplayPort 1.2, and Thunderbolt 3 supports DisplayPort 1.4 video. It's also possible to route HDMI 2.0 over Thunderbolt 3 with the right hardware. For newer displays it's best to go with DisplayPort or HDMI. But is there a clear winner between the two?

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Overwatch's Winter Wonderland Event Is Now Live The event includes a new 4x4 game mode as well as new skins and rewards. Tis the season for Christmas and winter-themed in-game events, and the latest to drop is Overwatch's Winter Wonderland. Players can now load up the new 4v4 Freezethaw Elimination game mode or get started on weekly challenges to unlock Christmas-themed epic skins and other rewards. The biggest mix-up Winter Wonderland brings is the new game mode, Freezethaw Elimination, which joins Mei’s Snowball Offensive, Yeti Hunt, and Snowball Deathmatch. In the new mode, four players must work together to freeze all four players on the other team. Players will become frozen instead of dying, and can be thawed with the help of a teammate. Weekly challenges will reward players who win at least nine games per week. The weekly rewards are all epic skins: Elf Junkrat in the first week, Gingerbread Ana for week 2, while the week 3 reward is Frosty Roadhog. As always with a new event, Winter Wonderland is bringing plenty of new cosmetics to be unlocked. The legendary skins for this event include Conductor Reinhardt, Penguin Mei, Ice Empress Moira, Toybot Zenyatta, and Lumberjack Torbjorn. Blizzard is currently working on a sequel to Overwatch, with new details about the upcoming Overwatch 2 expected to be announced during a virtual Blizzcon event in February.

Adobe wants to finally make PDFs useful for developers New Adobe PDF Tools connector for Power Automate is here Adobe is launching new integrations with Microsoft’s Power Automate that should make its PDF ecosystem more enticing for developers. More than 20 new PDF-centric actions from Adobe’s PDF Tools API are coming to Power Automate. “Businesses can now easily build digital document workflows without writing any code with the new Adobe PDF Tools connector for Microsoft Power Automate,” Vibhor Kapoor, Adobe’s Senior Director of Marketing for Document Services, explained. “The connector includes over twenty PDF actions that can automate common document tasks like creating a PDF from documents in a OneDrive folder, then sending it out in an email. The PDF Tools API connector joins other Adobe connectors for Power Automate including Adobe Sign for automating common e-signature workflows.” In addition, multi-step processes like converting images to PDF and sending documents out for signature should also be easier to create. Other Microsoft tools, including SharePoint, Microsoft 365, and Dynamics 365, have also gained integration with the PDF Tools API connector. Further developments Kapoor added that Adobe has witnessed significant growth in the use of digital documents as a result of the coronavirus pandemic but that this has been accompanied by a downturn in productivity levels. Adobe Document Services’ new solutions and partner initiatives are intended to meet this productivity challenge, particularly for developers. Adobe is launching new integrations with Microsoft’s Power Automate that should make its PDF ecosystem more enticing for developers. More than 20 new PDF-centric actions from Adobe’s PDF Tools API are coming to Power Automate. In addition to its new Adobe PDF Tools connector for Microsoft Power Automate, Adobe has also been strengthening its ties with developer communities around the world. Earlier this year, the company worked with crowdsourcing company Topcoder to bring more than 1.5 million developers and designers together to explore ways that Adobe Document Services could be used to solve challenges in education and other public service sectors. Since they were launched, more than 6,000 developers have used Adobe’s APIs, creating new ways to improve the PDF experience. Adobe is also continuing to explore new developments and is currently working on ways to incorporate its AI platform, Adobe Sensei, into its PDF solutions.

Intel Z590, B560 & H510 Motherboards Reportedly Launching on 11th January In a report by Chinese outlet, Weixin, it is stated that Intel's partners are all set to unveil their 500-series motherboards which would include Z590, B560, & H510 families on the 11th of January. The 500-series chipset motherboards will be designed to fully support Intel's 11th Gen Rocket Lake CPU family. Intel's Partners To Unveil 500-Series Motherboards Including Z590 Lineup on 11th January While Rocket Lake Desktop CPUs Launch Later, Alleges Rumor According to the report (via @HXL), it is specifically stated that Intel's partners will be releasing their 500-series motherboards featuring the Z590, B560, and H510 chipsets. We aren't sure if Intel's OEM and board partners will be officially launching their next-generation products to market or would it just be a standard announcement followed by a proper retail launch at a later date. The source is confident that 11th January will be a hard launch for the 500-series motherboards but also goes on to state that the accompanying Rocket Lake Desktop CPUs won't be hitting shelves till the end of February or even early March. There have been conflicting rumors regarding the Rocket Lake Desktop CPU launch with some suggesting that the launch is pinned for January while others are pointing out a retail launch around March, similar to this rumor. What could be possible is that Intel would take the opportunity to unveil its Rocket Lake-S lineup in January alongside the new line of motherboards but the actual on-shelve date would be a few weeks later. This would be very similar to how Intel handled its Comet Lake-S Desktop CPU launch which was announced a whole month prior to their official launch. This would at least allow Intel to build up some stock because while these processors are based on a refined 14nm node, they are utilizing a brand new chip architecture and hence, binning the high-end chips won't be as simple of a job as Intel has had with the Skylake derivatives over the years. Early adopters of those who plan to move to a 500-series platform would have to rely on a Comet Lake-S Desktop CPU if this is the case. The 10th Gen lineup would also be compatible with the 500 series motherboards since they share the same socket with the 400 series platform. There will be a host of new I/O technologies added to the 500 series platform, more specifically full support for the PCIe Gen 4 protocol, something that was amiss on various 400-series motherboards even though the platform offers compatibility with Rocket Lake-S Desktop CPUs (at least on the table). This is just a rumor for now but we will keep you posted once we hear more about Intel's Rocket Lake-S Desktop CPU launch plans.

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