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It may not be logical that your heart is broken but it’s important to let the feelings out The question As soon as I started writing this letter I could feel the hot tears generating in their ducts. I’ve got great friends and family, but I need an outsider’s take.I was seeing a man, for a few months. This ended around eight weeks ago. He was unhappy living in this country and had plans to move even before we met, which he was always very open about, and I was aware the entire time that he was emotionally unavailable and planning to leave. So I feel I should have been prepared for the end of the relationship when it happened.For about a month I felt OK about it. I was thinking about him less and less each day and was considering dates with other men. But now, I feel things have started to go backwards and I can’t understand why. I now feel more heartbroken, lost and sad than ever before. I think about him almost constantly. I miss him more than I ever thought possible. My heartbreak is disproportionate to the amount of time we spent together.I always felt I would never be in danger of unrequited love. But, now that he is gone I feel completely crushed. I want desperately to be free from this feeling.Philippa’s answer You managed your feelings for a whole month by overriding them with your logic, but sometimes trying to suppress a feeling is like trying to contain water in a paper bag. It is not a long-term solution. What’s happened here is the Mrs Logic part of you is trying to tell you what you should be feeling, but the feeling part of you is having none of that. It might not make sense to you that your heart is broken, but that alone, unfortunately, will not make this flood of feelings subside. Humans are more complicated than equations – we have emotions that we cannot make sense of and I’m afraid you must accept that even though you rationally think it most unreasonable, you experienced his going as a great loss.Sticking with the water metaphor, the paper bag has burst and the water is overflowing. But now you are going to take control of the tap. You will need to open the tap and let the feelings out otherwise the pressure will build up – but you are going to control where and when. You do this by setting a timetable for it. Weep, rage and mourn at the same time every day for half an hour. In fact, you must mourn and grieve then, even if you don’t feel like it. But the rest of the time when you find yourself regretting, yearning, wanting, weeping, obsessing, you must instead concentrate on your breathing. Notice your out-breath, then the in-breath. Then slow down your out-breath, but breath in normally. Next take your focus to the top of the breath, the time when you are neither inhaling nor exhaling, then to the bottom of the breath. Your mind will wander, the tears may still sting, but each time, take your focus back to your breath. Other activities you can do when the unrequited love threatens to invade are complicated mathematical problems, crosswords and other logical “right-brain” activities. On first awakening, if you find yourself brooding, jump out of bed and exercise with a video, concentrating on the instructions and getting out of your mind and into your body. Another good distraction is doing a realistic, observed pencil drawing of your shoe. Don’t worry what the drawing looks like, but concentrate on the looking at the shoe, observing it, recording all the details. It will require your full concentration.In your daily grieving half-hour, it’s time to reminisce about your relationship. You could make a shrine; light a candle; weep; write him a love letter that you will never send – anything, but no more than half an hour a day and only at your allotted time. Be strict, set alarms. In this way while you are having your feelings and working through them you are also gaining control of them. Your emotions will no longer be ruling you, but you will be the boss of them. It will take determination and willpower, and like any skill you will improve with practice.You were so good at telling yourself it didn’t make sense to have any feelings about this that you managed to keep those feelings at bay for a month. That got me wondering – what other feelings have you managed to keep in that paper bag? Is there anything else you told yourself it was unreasonable to have feelings about? There might be other traumas piggybacking on your grief, which may partly explain why your feelings are so intense. You may need to do more mental unpacking.If you were in therapy with me I would ask you to tell me about all the losses and disappointments you have had in your life. Rather than running away from these demons, when we face them and learn how to regulate our emotions around them, they won’t have so much power to pop up and bite us on the bum.And maybe in some of your grieving half-hours you can get a friend or family member to hold you while you weep. You don’t have to do this on your own. Link: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2021/sep/26/i-was-seeing-a-man-for-a-few-months-why-am-i-so-heartbroken

Iceland looks set to make history by becoming the first European country to elect a female majority to parliament.According to projections based on the final election results, 33 of the 63 seats in the Althingi, or 52%, have been won by women.This would mark an increase of nine seats from the last election in 2017.No other European country has breached the 50% threshold, with Sweden coming closest at 47%, according to data from the Inter Parliamentary Union.Unlike some other countries, Iceland does not have legal quotas on female representation in parliament, though some parties do require a minimum number of candidates be women.The country has long been considered a leader in gender equality and was ranked the most gender-equal nation in the world for the 12th year running in a World Economic Forum report released in March.It offers the same parental leave to both men and women, and its first law on equal pay for men and women dates back to 1961. It was also the first country in the world to elect a female president in 1980.One of those elected was Lenya Rún Taha Karim of the opposition Pirate Party, who, at just 21, becomes the youngest MP in the country's history."I just woke up not so long ago - I'm not going to lie about it - and turned off the phone in airplane mode and it was all exploding," she told reporters. "Full, full, full of messages and I managed to look in one message and it said: Congratulations , so I assumed I had gotten in."Just five other countries currently have over 50% female representation in parliament. Rwanda leads the way, with women making up 61.3% of the members of its lower house.It is followed by Cuba on 53.4%, Nicaragua on 50.6% and Mexico and the United Arab Emirates at 50%. Women make up just 34.2% of the members of the United Kingdom's House of Commons and just 27.6% of the House of Representatives in the United States. Meanwhile, yesterday's election saw the incumbent left-right coalition government, led by Prime Minister Katrin Jakobsdottir, increase its majority.However, her party, the Left Green Movement, looks set to lose several seats, while her right-wing partners gained five MPs, casting doubt over her future as prime minister.Opinion polls had predicted that the coalition would fall short of a majority but a surge in support for the centre-right Progressive Party, which won five more seats than in 2017, pushed the coalition's total seats to 37, according to state broadcaster RUV.The current government, which consists of Ms Jakobsdottir's Left-Green Movement, the conservative Independence Party and the centrist Progressive Party, said before the election that they would negotiate continued cooperation if they held their majority. Link: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-58698490

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As the cryptocurrency market recovered from the crash it suffered in April–May — primarily because of tightening Chinese regulation on trading and mining of cryptocurrencies — another round of crackdown by China has left the market in the red. Chinese regulators intensified their hammering down of these digital assets, imposing a blanket ban on all cryptocurrency transactions and mining in the country this week. As a result, more than $400 million (roughly Rs. 2,952 crores) worth of crypto coins were liquidated within a day. This renewed effort to contain cryptocurrency trade resulted in top currencies such as Bitcoin and Ether losing significant value.According to data from Bybt, a cryptocurrency trading and information platform, more than $418 million (roughly Rs. 3,085 crores) were wiped off the market. At the time of writing, as per Bybt data, more than $326 million (roughly Rs. 2,406 crores) were liquidated by 80,563 traders in the past 24 hours, meaning the initial panic was giving way for stability. The largest single liquidation order happened on Okex-BTC with a value of $6.82 million (roughly Rs. 50 crores).On Friday, shortly after People's Bank of China made crypto trading illegal and said it planned to severely punish anyone doing it, Bitcoin lost more than $3,000 (roughly Rs. 2.21 lakhs) within an hour. At one point, it slid below $41,000 (roughly Rs. 30.26 lakhs) but has since recovered to $42,733 (roughy Rs. 31.54 lakhs), according to CoinMarketCap. Elon Musk Says 'Super Important for Doge Fees to Drop'China's crackdown began this year when authorities started warning banks to halt transactions related to virtual currencies and shut down much of Bitcoin mining activities operating in the country. This had resulted in the crash in April-May, when, for instance, Bitcoin depleted to below $30,000 (roughly Rs. 22 lakhs). It gradually recovered and had breached the $50,000 (roughly Rs. 37 lakhs) mark by August end. But this renewed focus on curtailing cryptocurrency-related activities has again led to fears among investors whether the market is headed for a bearish turn.Snoop Dogg Is an NFT Whale Using the Pseudonym ‘Cozomo de’ Medici’Interested in cryptocurrency? We discuss all things crypto with WazirX CEO Nischal Shetty and WeekendInvesting founder Alok Jain on Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts. Cryptocurrency is an unregulated digital currency, not a legal tender and subject to market risks. The information provided in the article is not intended to be and does not constitute financial advice, trading advice or any other advice or recommendation of any sort offered or endorsed by NDTV. NDTV shall not be responsible for any loss arising from any investment based on any perceived recommendation, forecast or any other information contained in the article.

After much speculation and rumors, Nintendo announced that N64 games are coming to the Switch Online service as an Expansion Pack from October.Since the Nintendo Switch Online service was released in 2018 with NES games, followed by SNES games in 2019, it was hoped that either Game Boy or N64 games would arrive in 2020, but nothing came of it.Some put it down to the power of the Switch itself, that it would struggle to run certain games such as Zelda: Majoras Mask and Star Wars: Rogue Squadron. But those fears were quickly dismissed with confirmation that nine games were coming in October, with more coming. However, with SEGA Genesis games also coming to the service, it may mean that other systems may be arriving soon. Nintendo confirmed that N64 and SEGA Genesis games would be coming at a higher tier of the Switch Online membership, of which would be detailed and priced at a later date.Having wanted to play Zelda: Majoras Mask on my Switch for years, to see it on its way was the highlight of the Nintendo Direct for me. It's the 3D Zelda game that I find the best, second only to Breath of the Wild. There was also mention of F-Zero X arriving to the service, and while this is also a game I was hoping to see appear, having its expansion pack for the 64DD, an add-on that was quickly discontinued for the N64, would be a welcome addition.However, seeing Banjo Kazooie as another game appearing at a later date was a shock. Reading between the lines, it looks to be another agreement between Nintendo and Microsoft, who own Rare, the maker of Banjo Kazooie.This now means that other games from Rare's library could appear, from Banjo-Tooie, to Blast Corps. But if you think there's a better chance for GoldenEye to appear, I'd stop.I'm a big lover of the SEGA Dreamcast, released back in 1999 where it introduced Sonic Adventure, Shenmue and Jet Set Radio to an audience that still fondly remembers the era.Shenmue is a series that still holds a flame to many, with the first two games redefining how an RPG could work in a 3D environment. But with no mention of games from this era appearing on the Switch, seeing it on the Online service could be the next best thing.While the space of one Dreamcast game is almost ten times the space of one Nintendo 64 game, which usually is around 30MB, having a library of these games could make the Online service even more alluring. The following could

Save $1,200 on this high-end gaming laptop with a premium panel and a fast GPU. If you're on the hunt for a high-end gaming laptop, you just might be tempted to pull the trigger on Gigabyte's Aero 15 OLED. It's yours for $1,799 after rebate at Newegg and, as an added bonus, it comes with Battlefield 2042.Free game or not, this is a deep discount. The MSRP sits at $2,999, which is a bit high for the hardware, but it's on sale for $2,299. That's more in-line with other laptops sporting the same GeForce RTX 3080 GPU, though the kicker is the $500 rebate. Yes, mail-in-rebates are a pain but, for $500, it's definitely worth printing out the form and submitting it with the requisite UPC cutouts and sales receipt (I'd even go certified mail on this one). I often compare prices to what Best Buy has to offer, because the retailer makes it easy to sort by hardware, and frequently has sales of its own. In this case, the cheapest in-stock laptop with an RTX 3080 is $2,799.99 (Razer Blade 14). Even among the out-of-stock items, the least expensive is $2,199.90 (Asus ROG Zephyrus).The caveat is that this is the lower end variant of Nvidia's mobile RTX 3080. Specs can and do vary wildly among its laptop GPUs, and especially this one, which can come in 8GB or 16GB GDDR6 form. This one has 8GB of GDDR6 and a 1,245MHz boost clock. However, it also has a max power rating of 105W, which suggests it can boost higher in certain instances (the TGP range for the 3080 is 80W to 150W+) via Dynamic Boost.Regardless, it's a fast GPU, and it's paired with an Intel 11th gen Core i7 11800H Tiger Lake processor. That's an 8-core/16-thread CPU with 4.6GHz max Turbo frequency and 24MB of L3 cache.The core components are balanced out by 16GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD, which all combine for a well-rounded gaming laptop. It also comes with Windows 10 Pro.Then there's the display. It's a 15.6-inch OLED panel made by Samsung, with a 4K resolution and factory calibration to be accurate out of the box (X-Rite certified and Pantone validated).You're not always going to hit 60 fps at 4K on this hardware, it just depends on the game (Notebookcheck offers up a bunch of benchmarks for the mobile 3080). Gigabyte mainly went with the higher resolution because it's taking aim at creators and professionals who need more pixel real estate, and accurate color reproduction.It's good for gaming and other things, too, as our friends at T3 can attest in their review. Simply put, while not cheap, there is strong value for the money on this one, as long as you can be bothered to apply for the rebate.

We're rerunning Richard Cobbett's classic Crapshoot column, in which he rolled the dice and took a chance on obscure games—both good and bad. From 2010 to 2014 Richard Cobbett wrote Crapshoot, a column about rolling the dice to bring random obscure games back into the light. This week, there's only one language some people understand—the language of fear. Welcome to the ESL course Frank Miller would approve of.Mean City. Don't worry, they said, it's just a name. Maybe they're just proud of their mean po[CENSORED]tion density, or they make a mean curry. What did they mean? There was was only one way to find out, and while nobody had specifically said it would be an idea to bring a fedora, I figured a fedora would be appropriate. If only to cut a mean style Her name was The Jinx, or so the television said. Terrorist by trade, and that was a first in my line of work—professional troubleshooting for the edutainment industry. You may have heard of my work. The capture of Carmen Sandiego? That zombie invasion from a few years back? You're welcome, you and your delicious brain. Let's forget that whole BlobJob incident. That one was weird.An outright terrorist though? That was the big leagues. I knew this would take more than rudimentary English language skills, just as I knew without the slightest doubt that it would, in fact, not. But would this challenge be? What fresh hell awaited in this decaying dump of the damned Arriving, I saw my first friendly face—a taxi driver, holding up a sign to let all who saw it know that he was a driver, and had a taxi. My cover for this assignment involved pretending not to speak English, it would not have been... appropriate... simply to wander up and say, "Good morrow, sirrah, please could you see your way to providing swift conveyance throughout your fine metropolis?" "Do you want a taxi?" he asked. I did want a taxi. I didn't want to blow my cover, or at least, wanted to save such blowage for any femme fatales who happened to be around. To cover, I reached for my phrase book and in my most stilted pronunciation confirmed, "I want some chocolate.""I can't help you, I'm a taxi driver. Do you want a taxi?""I want... a hotel." "I can take you to a hotel in my taxi."Well, this was going swimmingly. I could tell from his eyes that he was completely fooled, and he happily took me to a hotel. He said it was cheap. Cheap in Mean City apparently meant $100 a night, without so much as a minibar or vibrating mattress. Honestly. Some slums have no standards."Is this your first time in Mean City?" asked the taxi driver, as we stopped briefly at a police cordon and headed into the dark city narrows proper."Yes," I confirmed, because it was my first time in Mean City, and that was therefore both the correct answer and my answer; the answer I gave."Well, good luck buddy," he shuddered. "You need to be clever to survive in Mean City.' Link: https://www.pcgamer.com/saturday-crapshoot-mean-city-learn-english-or-die/

Verdict Most people will choose the Audi Q4 Sportback e-tron for the way it looks. But the big news here is that if you want the sleek styling of a coupe SUV but aren’t prepared to compromise when it comes to space or practicality, then this Tesla Model Y-rival comes alarmingly close to being a zero compromise family car. Roomy, good to drive and built like an Audi should be, the Q4 Sportback will tick a lot of boxes for a lot of people.The idea of a coupe SUV is nothing new. BMW has been doing it for decades, and even mainstream manufacturers like Renault have had a decent crack at the whip in recent years.Audi, too, has launched its fair share of sleek SUVs in its time. But where others suffer with regards to headroom or boot space, the designers in Ingolstadt have repeatedly managed to navigate around the supposedly inevitable compromises when it comes to packaging and practicality. The e-tron Sportback is a perfect example of this – though its sheer size probably plays a part here. The smaller Q3 Sportback is another, however, boasting that characteristic coupe roofline without severe detriment for those sitting in the back. Now it’s the turn of the Q4 e-tron. On paper, the Sportback is actually more practical than the conventional SUV; measured to the parcel shelf, the coupe’s boot stands at 535 litres – 15 litres more than the normal Q4. Fold the seats down and the standard SUV has the advantage, though not by much; 1,490 litres plays 1,460 litres. There’s space under the floor to store the charge cables, too. You might expect rear-seat practicality to suffer, but Audi’s designers have once again managed to be creative here – carving space out of the roof to ensure there’s enough room even for those approaching six-foot. There isn’t surplus headroom for taller passengers, but knee and legroom is very generous indeed. From the B-pillar forward, you get the very same cabin you’ll find in the standard Q4 e-tron. It feels markedly more plush than the Volkswagen ID.4 on which it shares its platform with. The central screen is integrated into the dash rather than being perched on top of it, and it works well, with a row of separate buttons for the climate control underneath.Quality is very good, doing enough to elevate the Q4 above its Volkswagen Group siblings – justifying its premium in the process. Speaking of which, prices start from £41,535 for the Q4 e-tron Sportback 35 in Sport trim – £1,500 more than the equivalent Q4 e-tron SUV.Sport models get a long list of kit, and as such, it’s the trim level we’d recommend. Entry-level versions come with LED lights, 19-inch wheels, a 10.1-inch infotainment system with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, plus Audi’s terrific Virtual Cockpit dials. Aside from the sports suspension, tweaks for S line models are mainly visual, bringing bigger wheels and sportier bumpers, as well as privacy glass and brushed aluminium trim. Ignoring the limited-run Edition 1, Vorsprung variants top the range. These models get a panoramic roof, Matrix LED lights, electrically-adjustable seats and a head-up display, plus bigger digital dials, a premium stereo and various driver aids. Link: https://www.autoexpress.co.uk/audi/q4-e-tron/355338/new-audi-q4-e-tron-sportback-2021-review

In our new column, we air both sides of a domestic disagreement – and ask you to deliver a verdictHave a disagreement you’d like settled? Or want to be part of our jury? Click here The prosecution: CatIs it ever OK to put eggshells back in the box? I find it disgusting to have them sitting in the cupboardI remember the first time Ben put eggshells back in the box, and the box back in the cupboard. I went a bit mad: “Why are you doing that? Put them straight in the bin!”On one occasion there was an egg box with six empty shells in it. I thought that was disgusting because those shells were sitting in the cupboard for ages, growing bacteria. I told him it was a bad idea to mix raw food with fresh food, and that it was lazy not to dispose of them right away.Ben’s reasoning for doing it was something like: “It would make more mess to carry the dripping shells over to the bin in my hands – and would slow me down because I would have to get all the way to the bin across the room.” But that annoyed me as it just didn’t make sense – the bin is close by as we have a really small kitchen. It makes sense to him as he’s a man of convenience, but it’s not something I’d ever do because I am naturally a lot tidier than he is.I guess my reaction is probably a bit more extreme because of my relationship with eggs. I hate eggs. I’ve got a phobia of them. I can’t stand eating them, looking at them or smelling them. If I’m with someone who is eating eggs I will tactically cover my eyes or look away so I don’t have to watch the eggs going into their mouth. It’s a bit difficult as Ben loves eggs and often has them for breakfast and will add them to other meals, too. We met five years ago and have been living together for three – and we’ve mostly adapted to each other, but Ben does have some funny habits in the kitchen, and his messy cooking still grates. He doesn’t tidy up as he goes – I often find empty packets of things in the fridge, for example, and he doesn’t put a lot of stuff straight in the bin, whereas I do.Because of the way he cooks, there’s always more for me to do when it’s my turn to wash up. But as far as I’m concerned, there’s no excuse for the empty shell habit.The defence: BenRather than carry them, dripping, to the bin, I put the shells back in the box: she thinks it’s lazy but it comes from a good placeSo, the eggshell thing: I only put the shells back in the box and back in the cupboard if I’m in a rush, or I’m feeling lazy. To me it makes perfect sense. You put the shells back in the box and let them accumulate until you have time to get to the bin.When I crack the eggs into the pan, I then have to get the shells across the kitchen into our bin in my hands. I don’t want to carry them as they might drip, and that will get me into a bit of trouble: I’ll have to clean up the mess, and that wastes time when I’m cooking. So I stick the shells back in the box and the box in the cupboard to deal with later.I don’t think it’s that unhygienic as we don’t have other raw foods in the cupboard. I do most of the cooking – it’s part of my method. When Cat saw I’d been putting shells back in the cupboard the first time, she wasn’t too impressed and we had a disagreement about it. She told me it was unhygienic and lazy, but my defence was that, honestly, it came from a good place – saving time in the long run and avoiding mess in the short term. She’s told me not to do it again but it’s happened a few times since, and she’s kicked off.I love eggs. I like to eat them in some form on most days – scrambled, poached, whatever. I will add an egg to absolutely anything and they have been my go-to breakfast during lockdowns. Link: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2021/sep/25/you-be-the-judge-is-it-ever-ok-to-put-eggshells-back-in-the-box

A diplomatic row between China and the West appears to be ending, after the release of two Canadians held in China and a Chinese tech executive in Canada.Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou, arrested on a US warrant in 2018, left Canada on Friday in a deal with US prosecutors.Hours later it was announced that Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig, accused of espionage by China in the same year, were flying home to Canada.Beijing denies detaining the Canadians in retaliation for Ms Meng's arrest.But critics have accused China of using them as political bargaining chips.The two men had maintained their innocence throughout. At a news conference, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said they had been through "an unbelievably difficult ordeal". "It is good news for all of us that they are on their way home to their families," he added. "For the past 1,000 days, they have shown strength, perseverance, resilience and grace."The PowerPoint that sparked an international rowMeng Wanzhou: Trapped in a gilded cageThe life of Huawei's high-flying heiressThe prime minister said both men will arrive in Canada early on Saturday. They are being accompanied by Dominic Barton, Canada's ambassador to China.Before her release, Ms Meng - the daughter of Ren Zhengfei, the billionaire founder of Chinese telecoms giant Huawei - admitted misleading US investigators about Huawei's business dealings in Iran. She spent three years under house arrest in Canada while fighting extradition to the United States. Meng Wenzhou is on her way back here full of praise and thanks for what she called "the motherland" and China's ruling Communist Party. a party that her employer Huawei has gone to extraordinary lengths to try to distance itself from.She admitted misleading US investigators about her involvement in payments over business in Iran.As soon as her freedom was assured, China released the two Canadians it's held since days after her arrest.Whether it's a deal or a domino effect is not clear, but only weeks ago the Chinese government insisted yet again the two cases were not linked. "Different in nature," it said.The decision to release and send home Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig almost instantly after Meng Wenzhou was free to go appears to show that pretence has been abandoned.2px presentational grey lineMr Kovrig is a former diplomat employed by International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based think tank.Mr Spavor is a founding member of an organisation that facilitates international business and cultural ties with North Korea.n August this year a Chinese court sentenced Mr Spavor to 11 years in prison for espionage. There had been no decision in Mr Kovrig's case.In a statement, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said his country was "pleased" by the Chinese move, but added that the men had suffered "more than two-and-a-half years of arbitrary detention".Earlier on Friday, a Canadian judge ordered the release of Ms Meng, Huawei's chief financial officer, after she reached a deal with US prosecutors over fraud charges against her."Over the past three years my life has been turned upside down," she told reporters outside the Vancouver courthouse."Every cloud has a silver lining," she continued. "I will never forget all the good wishes I received from people around the world."Later in a post on social media she thanked the Communist Party, the Chinese government and the "motherland".Meanwhile Huawei released a statement, in which it said it looked forward to seeing Ms Meng reunited with her family and saying it would continue to defend itself in court. Link: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-58687071

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Realme Dizo Buds Z true wireless stereo (TWS) earphones were launched in India on Thursday. The TWS earphones from the Realme partner brand Dizo feature 10mm dynamic drivers with Bass Boost+ algorithm. They also have environmental noise cancellation (ENC) technology that is activated during calls. They come with 88mm super low latency Game Mode that helps in gaming and streaming content. The Realme Dizo Buds Z get total playback time of up to 16 hours. They are also IPX4 rated for water resistance. Realme Dizo Buds Z price in India, availabilityThe Realme Dizo Buds Z price in India has been set at Rs. 1,999. However, the TWS earphones will be available for a special price of Rs. 1,299 during Flipkart's Big Billion Days Sale 2021. The Realme Dizo earphones will be available to purchase during the sale that begins on October 7. They will also be available to buy via select retail stores. The Realme Dizo Buds Z earphones are offered in three colour options — Leaf, Onyx, and Pearl.Realme Dizo Buds Z specificationsThe newly launched Realme Dizo Buds Z TWS earphones feature ENC that is activated during voice calls. As mentioned, they come with 10mm dynamic drivers with Bass Boost+ algorithm. The diaphragm — made with TRU+PEEK polymer composite — is said to "ensure a clear and natural listening experience along with deeper bass."Realme Dizo Watch 2, Dizo Watch Pro With SpO2 Monitoring LaunchedThe TWS earphones feature 88ms super low latency Game Mode. The Realme Dizo Buds Z pack a 43mAh battery in each earbud and the charging case gets a 380mAh battery that gives a total playback time of up to 16 hours. The earbuds can last for up to 4.5 hours on a single charge. Through the USB-Type C port, 10 minutes of charging gives up to 1.5 hours of playback time.The company claims the TWS headphones feature a 'Natural Light' design, which "bounces among the multiple reflective layers giving it a shine of dazzling colours and an attractive look" when light falls on it. The paint scheme gives the Realme Dizo Buds Z a shining lustre and is said to be thrice as expensive as a standard paint job as it requires six intricate processes and four reflective layers.The Realme Dizo Buds Z come with Bluetooth v5 connectivity. They feature touch controls on each earbud for calls, media playback, and entering Game Mode. The controls can be further customised via the Realme Link app that is available for Android smartphones. The Dizo Buds Z are also IPX4 rated for water resistance.Realme Dizo GoPods, Dizo GoPods Neo Launched With 10mm Drivers, ANC, MoreThe TWS earphones from Realme's Dizo sub-brand measure 29.2x20.4x24.6mm and weigh 3.7 grams each. The Dizo Buds Z's charging case measures 64.6x51.6x26mm and weighs 36 grams. Can Nothing Ear 1 — the first product from OnePlus co-founder Carl Pei's new outfit — be an AirPods killer? We discussed this and more on Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.

New Edge-based Teams app provides improved performance on desktop With the release of Windows 11 next month, Microsoft Teams is getting a visual makeover as well as a whole new app based on Microsoft Edge.As reported by Windows Latest, the software giant's new video conferencing client is currently being referred to as Microsoft Teams 2.0 and will be more heavily integrated into the next major Windows release.A new update is currently rolling out for Teams 2.0 that finally enables support for Mica in Windows 11. For those unfamiliar, Mica is an opaque and dynamic material that applies both a user's theme and desktop wallpaper to the background of active windows. According to Microsoft, Mica was designed with improved performance and it is generally faster than the company's Fluent Design acrylic effect.We've built a list of the best video conferencing software available These are the best online collaboration tools on the market Also check out our roundup of the best business webcams While users running a mobile workstation or high-end PC won't have to worry, those with lower-end hardware or using battery saver mode on their laptop won't be able to use the Mica effect in Microsoft Teams or other Windows software. Electron-based vs Edge-based Teams appMicrosoft Teams 2.0, which is based on Teams for the web and powered by Microsoft's browser, is intended for consumers while the company plans to focus on the existing Electron client for Teams for business and education use.Although the new Teams app is currently in preview, it already performs really well and is available for Windows 11. Interested users already running the next version of Windows can download it by launching Microsoft's Chat app from the taskbar.Despite the fact that the company's new preview app appears nearly identical to Teams for the web, it does feel a lot faster than the Electron-powered desktop client according to Windows Latest. The app also now allows users resize windows and includes the ability to quote replies directly from the conversation tab.Just like Microsoft's desktop client, Teams 2.0 supports calling, messaging, audio controls, meeting management and native Windows notifications. However, it's also directly integrated into Windows 11's new Chat app.

The update means Apex Legends, Dead By Daylight, and Halo multiplayer should all work on the Steam Deck at launch. Valve's made it clear that it wants every game on Steam to be playable on the Steam Deck at launch, and one of the few major obstacles to that goal has been anti-cheat technologies that only work on Windows. That problem has now been at least partially solved—Epic, which bought Easy Anti-Cheat back in 2018, announced on Thursday that it's added support for both Linux and Mac OS.And it gets better: Easy Anti-Cheat doesn't just offer native Linux support now, but also support for Wine and Proton, the compatibility layers used to run Windows applications on Linux. Proton is what Valve is using to make the entire Steam library playable on the Steam Deck, even though relatively few games have native Linux ports."Starting with the latest SDK release, developers can activate anti-cheat support for Linux via Wine or Proton with just a few clicks in the Epic Online Services Developer Portal," the update reads. Epic made Easy Anti-Cheat a free service this year, meaning we're likely to see more of it in future online games. But it's already a pretty big name—here are some of the Steam games that should now be playable on the Steam Deck at launch, assuming anti-cheat was the only thing holding them back. Apex Legends Black Desert Online Dauntless Dead By Daylight Fall Guys Halo: The Master Chief Collection Hunt: Showdown Knockout City Paladins Warhammer: Vermintide 2

It's been a couple of years since we took a look at the Early Access release of Gloomhaven, the digital version of the 2017 tabletop tactical RPG. It was promising but incomplete, with no multiplayer support and a limited number of enemies, classes, and tiles compared to the boardgame. "But the pieces are in place to eventually create a worthy adaptation," we wrote.A multitude of updates have followed since then, and we'll find out how close developer Flaming Fowl Studios has come to putting those pieces together on October 10, when Gloomhaven leaves Early Access and goes into full release.The videogame version of Gloomhaven is not an exact duplicate of the tabletop version, but the differences are "very minor" and overall it is "a very faithful adaptation of the original gameplay and design," according to the developers. Differences in the digital version were implemented in close consultation with original tabletop author Isaac Childres, Flaming Fowl said, "to ensure we stayed true to Gloomhaven's core design." Importantly, the scope of the game has grown considerably since our preview. The version we saw in 2019 had only a roguelike Adventure mode, but the 1.0 release will include the full campaign from the tabletop game and a co-op "Guildmaster" mode for up to four players, with more than 250 missions shared between them. Guildmaster mode saves from the Early Access release will be compatible with the full game, but saves from the Campaign mode beta test may not be—it's possible, depending on how things shake out, but the developers recommend starting a fresh run anyway. The end of Early Access will not signal the end of development, as patches will be released and DLC is "a possibility." For now, though, Flaming Fowl is focused on "supporting the base game and making sure it matches the players' expectations." The 1.0 launch will bring about a price increase, however."Since the launch of Gloomhaven's Early Access, we have clearly communicated about the price increase planned for the full release," Flaming Fowl wrote. "With all the content added throughout the Early Access, including the digital exclusive Guildmaster mode, online co-op mode and eventually the acclaimed original board game campaign, Gloomhaven digital's value has substantially increased. This is why we will be increasing the price of the base game from $25/€25 to $35/€35 upon release." It also clarified that if you own the Early Access release of Gloomhaven at launch, you'll be automatically upgraded to the full version at no extra cost when it goes live.Gloomhaven is available in Early Access on Steam and will also be coming to GOG, although it's not listed there yet. You can find out more at asmodee-digital.com. Link: https://www.pcgamer.com/gloomhaven-the-digital-version-of-the-acclaimed-board-game-leaves-early-access-on-october-20/

If you want an EV but you're also a keen driver, the Audi e-tron GT and Porsche Taycan 4S are tempting propositions - but which is best Ask the average petrolhead their thoughts of an electric car, and you’ll probably get some response about how battery power will never match the drama, excitement or thrill of a big, burly petrol engine. Whether you see EVs as a vital part of the steps needed to strive for cleaner air and reduced emissions, or as a means to spoil your fun, the sooner we can all find EVs which turn those grumbles into grins, the better. Until recently, the complaints were often justified. There were plenty of EVs around that do the everyday stuff well, but were never designed to appeal to a driving enthusiast On the other hand, there were a couple of high-end EVs that, once you’re over the novelty of neck-snapping acceleration, felt numb and uninvolving to drive. Then along came Porsche. The Taycan is its first electric effort, and our several encounters have proven that, while it lacks a flat-six engine screaming to 9,000rpm, there’s still plenty for the keen driver to admire. All of that knowledge and incredible development was carried out together with Audi, and the fruits of its labour, the e-tron GT, is what the Taycan lines up against here. These are truly two of the most dramatic-looking EVs and also two of the best to drive, but which manufacturer has sprinkled the most magic onto the formula Audi's rapidly growing EV range has the e-tron GT as its flagship. Our quattro model had some non-UK specific extras, including 21-inch alloys. Prices start at £81,200, while this Vorsprung trim’s significant extras raise the price to £107,300.The second Audi EV to be launched couldn’t be more different from the first. The big, bulky e-tron SUV places comfort and practicality above all else, and to many people won’t look any different to a combustion-powered Audi, from which its adapted platform is borrowed. While the e-tron GT has almost the same name, those extra two letters brings a world of difference. For a start, the car’s J1 platform has been developed for pure-electric powertrains from the outset, and as a result, Audi was able to package the motors and battery as efficiently as possible and into a much more dramatically styled package. The position of the power pack in particular has contributed to the rakish sub-1.4 metre height; the space beneath the rear passenger footwell is free from cells in order to give just a little more room to those in the back. Both the front and rear motors (the e-tron GT is currently four-wheel drive only) are positioned directly between each axle, but the layout is a little unconventional compared with many EVs. While one motor drives the front wheels as usual, the larger rear motor sends its drive through a two-speed transmission, with a lower gear to help boost acceleration off the line. There’s a combined output of 523bhp and 650Nm, which is enough for a 0-62mph time of 4.1 seconds. Around 80 per cent of buyers are expected to go for this model, but there’s also a performance-focused RS e-tron GT with 637bhp and the 0-62mph time drops to 3.3 seconds. Link: https://www.autoexpress.co.uk/audi/e-tron-gt/356077/audi-e-tron-gt-vs-porsche-taycan-4s

Growing up in Essex, my summers in Iran felt like magical interludes from reality – but it was a spell that always had to be broken by Arianne Shahvisi hen I was 12, a bespectacled boy with a shock of thick hair and his forearm in plaster gave me the first Harry Potter book. We were at that age when gifts need little occasion, and this marked the last day of our first year of secondary school. It was 1999, and the book was unknown to me. I was mildly embarrassed by its childish watercolour cover, but I dutifully packed it in my satchel when, two days later, my family flew to Iran for our six-week summer holiday. On the large, faded floor cushions of my grandparents’ apartment in Tehran’s central district, I read the book aloud, flanked by my twin younger sisters, while the adults took their siesta and scorched air and car horns filtered through the mosquito blinds. We fell for it instantly, rooting for Harry as he was transported from life as a misfit in a gloomy suburban cupboard to the secret world of wizardry in which he found fellowship, adventure and belonging.In the years that followed, I would read each successive book to my sisters. Even from the start, they were too old to be read to, but it was more gratifying and companionable to follow Harry’s story together, and besides, we could only ever get our hands on one copy. Every now and then one of us would sigh and say, “Don’t you feel sad when it hits you that Harry Potter isn’t real?” We lived in Southend-on-Sea and attended the local school, an underperforming comprehensive housed in a squat brutalist building on the edge of a large council estate. Most of the pupils were poor, and many underfed, which gave rise to an unshakeable fog of hopelessness, shame and anxiety. While there were few children of colour, racism prospered alongside the many other casual cruelties. With our packed lunches and summer holidays, we were the lucky ones (as our parents often reminded us), but we nonetheless lived in hope that the prosaic, heartless world around us was just the opening scene of a story with a stronger narrative, a better set of characters, and the clean justice of magic. Returning from Iran, we would start the new school year back in Essex brimming with secrets, adapting our unorthodox capers into more mundane retellings. The International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy requires that wizards protect themselves and others by dressing and behaving as Muggles (those without magical ability) and giving no reason for suspicion. So it was that when Harry returned to his aunt and uncle, Petunia and Vernon Dursley, each summer, he had to bear their mistreatment and his cousin’s bullying without recourse to his spells, and without the satisfaction of telling them that he was special in the other world. As any migrant or mixed person knows, I am valued there has no value here. Bodies migrate; worth, like home-boiled jam, doesn’t travel well.We kept our double lives studiously; so much was at stake. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps defend the Islamic regime, ensuring, among other things, that the Islamic dress code is observed in public spaces. (I was once chastised by guards for wearing a Manchester United cap instead of my scarf.) Yet to us, the Revolutionary Guards’ defence of the law had nothing on the merciless policing of Essex schoolchildren, to whom difference was always deficiency. One September, a classmate suggested I was fibbing about visiting Iran, because wasn’t it a desert or something, and I never returned with a tan. I was stunned into silence. Checkmate. (Derived from the Persian shah mat: the king is flummoxed.) How could I tell that group of freckled white children of St-George’s-flag-flying parentage that I walked the streets of Tehran in hijab and manteau, and that when it’s 40C outside, you drive into the mountains with a pan of dolma – vine leaves stuffed with seasoned lamb, rice and lentils – and picnic after dark, singing “ay dolma dolma dolma/ kazanakay le kolma” (“hey dolma dolma dolma, the pan is on my shoulder”)? I demurred, said we didn’t lie in the sun much. A girl in the year above asked why I went on holiday to a war zone. I could have told her the last war in Iran ended when we were infants, but we both knew she meant something else: you are weird, your weirdness is tinged with danger. I held my tongue. Our English relatives would telephone to reproach my mother for allowing us to holiday in a place “where they chop off people’s hands”. She would roll her eyes, her pen nib tearing the notepaper beside the phone as she scribbled in quiet frustration.More recently, one of the twins called me to say she’d met an Iranian boy in her halls of residence. On learning she was half-Iranian, he had called her a mudblood, pointing out that our British mother makes us half-Muggle. My sister and I laughed: we’d spent so long being too foreign and now we weren’t foreign enough. Not long after, I learned that my other sister had a name for white British people with a petty, conformist outlook. Not “Muggle”, which would be too friendly, too anodyne. No, they are “Dursleys”, and we’d grown up in the thick of their judgment. Link: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2021/sep/23/a-mudblood-in-tehran-my-childhood-between-iran-and-england

Humans reached the Americas at least 7,000 years earlier than previously thought, according to new findings.The topic of when the continent was first settled from Asia has been controversial for decades.Many researchers are sceptical of evidence for humans in the North American interior much earlier than 16,000 years ago.Now, a team working in New Mexico has found scores of human footprints dated to between 23,000 and 21,000 years old. The discovery could transform views about when the continent was settled. It suggests there could have been great migrations that we know nothing about. And it raises the possibility that these earlier po[CENSORED]tions could have gone extinct.The footprints were formed in soft mud on the margins of a shallow lake which now forms part of Alkali Flat in White Sands. A team from the US Geological Survey carried out radiocarbon dating on seeds found in sediment layers above and below where the footprints were found. This gave the researchers remarkably precise dates for the impressions themselves.Based on their sizes, scientists think the tracks were made mainly by teenagers and younger children travelling back and forth - along with the occasional adult. They offer a fascinating window into what life was like for these early occupants of what is now the South West US.The scientists don't know for sure what the teenagers were doing, but it is possible they were helping the adults with a type of hunting custom seen in later Native American cultures. This was known as the buffalo jump and involved driving animals over a shallow cliff edge.The animals "all had to be processed in a short period of time," explained Dr Sally Reynolds, co-author from Bournemouth University. "You'd have to start fires, you'd have to start rendering the fat." The teenagers could have been helping out by collecting firewood, water or other essentials.The age of the discovery is key, because there have been countless claims of early human settlement in the Americas. But virtually all are disputed in some way.It often comes down to a debate over whether stone tools found at an ancient site are in fact what they appear to be, or are simply rocks broken through some natural process - such as falling from a cliff.The proposed artefacts at early locales are sometimes less clear-cut than the exquisitely crafted spear-points found in North America from 13,000 years ago onwards. This leaves the door open for doubt about their identity."One of the reasons there is so much debate is that there is a real lack of very firm, unequivocal data points. That's what we think we probably have," Prof Matthew Bennett, first author on the paper from Bournemouth University, told BBC News. "Footprints aren't like stone tools. A footprint is a footprint, and it can't move up and down [in the soil layers]."While the nature of the physical evidence here is harder to dismiss, the researchers had to ensure the dating evidence was - quite literally - watertight. A potential complication flagged up by the journal during the early stages of review was the "reservoir effect". This refers to the way that old carbon can sometimes get recycled in aqueous environments, interfering with radiocarbon results by making a site seem older than it is.However, the team members say they have accounted for this effect and believe it is not significant here.Prof Tom Higham, a radiocarbon dating expert at the University of Vienna, said: "They've undertaken some checks on the dates of material from near to the footprint location and found that fully terrestrial samples (charcoal) produced ages similar to those of the aquatic species they dated from nearer to the footprints."They've also argued, I think justifiably, that the lake must have been shallow at the time people walked there, mitigating the effect of reservoir effects introduced by old carbon sources." The consistency of the results and the support from a different dating technique applied to the site both supported the validity of the results, he added."I think taken together this is a 21,000-23,000-year-old sequence," Prof Higham told BBC News.The controversies in early American archaeology have much to do with the historical development of the field.During the second half of the 20th Century, a consensus emerged among North American archaeologists that people belonging to the Clovis culture had been the first to reach the Americas. These big game hunters were thought to have crossed a land bridge across the Bering Straits that connected Siberia with Alaska during the last ice age, when sea levels were much lower.As the "Clovis First" idea took hold, reports of more ancient settlement were dismissed as unreliable and some archaeologists actually stopped looking for signs of earlier occupation.But in the 1970s, this orthodoxy was challenged.In the 1980s, solid evidence turned up for a 14,500-year-old human presence at Monte Verde in Chile.And since the 2000s, other pre-Clovis sites have become widely accepted - such as the 15,500-year-old Buttermilk Creek Complex in central Texas and the 16,000-year-old Cooper's Ferry site in Idaho.Now, the footprint evidence from New Mexico suggests humans had made it to the North American interior by the height of the last Ice Age.Gary Haynes, an emeritus professor at the University of Nevada, Reno, said: "I cannot find fault with the work that was done or with the interpretations - the paper is important and provocative."The trackways are so far south of the Bering land connection that we now have to wonder (1) if the people or their ancestors (or other people) had made the crossing from Asia to the Americas much earlier, (2) if people moved quickly through the continents after each crossing, and (3) if they left any descendants."Dr Andrea Manica, a geneticist from the University of Cambridge, said the finding had important implications for the po[CENSORED]tion history of the Americas."I can't comment on how reliable the dating is (it is outside my expertise), but firm evidence of humans in North America 23,000 years ago is at odds with the genetics, which clearly shows a split of Native Americans from Asians approximately 15-16,000 years ago," he told BBC News."This would suggest that the initial colonists of the Americas were replaced when the ice corridor formed and another wave of colonists came in. We have no idea how that happened." Link: https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-58638854

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