Ambient or ubiquitous computing is a concept in which computing power is ever present, performing tasks to make people’s daily lives easier without the need for them to interact with it. For example smart LED lighting can turn itself off in empty rooms and switch itself on to an optimal lighting level when people are occupying a space.&nbsp;How ambient computing differs from IoTIf you know anything about the Internet of Things (IoT), you might recognize a similarity. Both ambient computing and IoT refer to a collection of computing devices that all link together seamlessly, however, IoT focuses on the devices themselves and how they connect with one another, while ambient computing focuses on how they work together once connected and how they interact with users.The current state of ambient computingWhile many smart devices and surfaces fall under the umbrella of "ambient computing," the most prevalent examples at the moment are voice assistants such as Microsoft’s Cortana. By making use of AI, these assistants can perform an array of tasks. In the beginning, they were capable of rather rudimentary tasks such as telling you what the weather forecast for the day was or playing a song on request. Nowadays, they can order your groceries, switch off your lights and even clean your house.The future of ambient computingWith tech giants like Google and Amazon leading the charge, the scope of ambient computing's influence is likely to increase. Forbes estimates that by 2050, 95% of electronic devices will be IoT-integrated; it’s safe to estimate similar figures for ambient computing, seeing as how closely the two are intertwined. While the concept of a smart home is already well on its way to full realization, the future could bring smart infrastructure to cities, including sewage, power and transport. With the ultimate goal of full integration, the potential applications are limitless.The risksAs with anything based on data, there are numerous risks. Security and privacy issues will undoubtedly take precedence going forward, especially regarding how and when the data is collected and stored. For full adoption by the public to be possible, the systems need to be completely trustworthy. People may not mind trusting Cortana et al. when it comes to picking them a song to work to, but as we entrust AI with more significant tasks like scheduling appointments or making sure our homes are secured, people will be more hesitant. Digitization increases the demand for cutting-edge cyber security. Companies are currently working on AI-powered cyber defense systems to identify threats much earlier and much like an earthquake system, notify the individuals responsible for taking action.

Ambient or ubiquitous computing is a concept in which computing power is ever present, performing tasks to make people’s daily lives easier without the need for them to interact with it. For example smart LED lighting can turn itself off in empty rooms and switch itself on to an optimal lighting level when people are occupying a space. 

What is Ambient Computing?

Are invisible computers the future?

When you hear Black Friday you may well think of grand sales and massive savings to be made, but how did this retail holiday come to be?&nbsp;OriginNowadays, the term Black Friday is used to refer to the first Friday after Thanksgiving, usually the fourth Friday of November. However, this was not always the case. For centuries “Black” has been used to refer to calamitous events and the days on which they occurred, it wasn’t until 1951 that the term began to refer to the Friday after Thanksgiving, but back then it was used to describe the day when factory workers would usually call in sick to have a long weekend. The phrase was used for a variety of other reasons up until the 1980s where it began to refer to the period of the year where merchants would make their year’s profit (black ink in the ledger), the rest of year they would be trading at a loss (red ink).Global AdoptionThe term and practice of huge sales continued to gain steam and eventually began to grow outside of the US as Global retailers needed to remain competitive.&nbsp;For example in France in 2014, discounts of up to 85% were given by retailing giants such as Apple and Amazon. Retailers favour the American term "Black Friday" to "Vendredi noir" in their advertisements.&nbsp;Sales on Black Friday last an entire week in Germany. The hours of operation for the stores remain the same during this sales period. Although products are available at lower prices, the price cuts are not much greater than weekly price reductions generally. The event was mostly used in the first years by online retailers to draw in new clients. However, physical establishments have already started to adjust to the shopping event.Black Friday served as the basis for a yearly weekend of sales and favourable credit terms in Mexico. Since 2011, the weekend preceding Mexican Revolution Day, which is marked on the third Monday of November, has been known as El Buen Fin, or "the good weekend."What is SOFTFLIX offering this Black Friday?If you're in the market for new software or looking to improve your home computing experience then you're in luck as this year we’re offering 30% off all Microsoft products ranging from MS Office to Windows 11.&nbsp;Come check out the full extent of our offer at <a href="http://www.softflix.com" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="background-color: transparent; color: rgb(17, 85, 204);">www.softflix.com</a>&nbsp;

Nowadays, the term Black Friday is used to refer to the first Friday after Thanksgiving, usually the fourth Friday of November. However, this was not always the case. For centuries “Black” has been used to refer to calamitous events and the days on which they occurred, it wasn’t until 1951 that the term began to refer to the Friday after Thanksgiving, but back then it was used to describe the day when factory workers would usually call in sick to have a long weekend.

Why do we have Black Friday?

What caused the biggest shopping day of the year?

Whether you are a tech supporter or a sceptic, it is undeniable that AI is progressing at an incredible rate. In this article we’ll take a look at how deeply AI affects our day-to-day lives both positively and negatively.AI AssistantsAn artificial intelligence (AI) assistant is a piece of software that can respond to voice and text commands by using tools like natural language processing (NLP). They can do a number of the tasks that human assistants can do, such as read text, take dictation, make phone calls, and a lot more. Some key examples of popular AI Assistants are Apple’s Siri, Microsoft’s Cortana and Amazon’s Alexa. Capable of learning different voices and altering their behavior based on an individual, these assistants usually save us small amounts of time on basic tasks such as dialing or searching for a song, which, in the long run add up to a great deal of time saved.&nbsp;AI RecommendationsAn AI-powered recommender system is one that makes recommendations for goods, services, and information based on user data. The recommendation system obtains information about the user's history, the actions of other users who are similar to them, and their preferences, interests, and purchasing history.&nbsp;If you’ve ever used a service like Netflix, then you’ve probably encountered this type of AI in action. The “Recommended for you” sections of various platforms are created by AI correlating your data and data of those similar to you in order to present you with options that it believes match you. This can be extremely useful to users who don’t want to spend time browsing a site for something to buy or something to watch, however, this also significantly limits the chances of discovering something you never knew you liked.ChatbotsAI chatbots are computer programs that mimic human interaction using natural language processing (NLP). AI chatbots are becoming more and more helpful to businesses as a way to automate operations like HR, customer care and sales. AI chatbots enable organizations to offer round-the-clock customer help, freeing up human workers to tackle challenging issues and cutting support expenses. Numerous bots leverage data to offer personalized responses to each consumer in turn, creating an automated yet intimate customer experience.&nbsp;Many large companies are already making use of these bots, including Meta, Uber and Zoom. While from a company's point of view, these bots are cost-effective and capable of solving 80% of standard customer issues, the customers themselves may find the bots frustrating as they would prefer to talk to a human being.Image Recognition&nbsp;AI image recognition enables a computer to detect and comprehend pictures of objects, locations, people, or other items observable in the natural environment. The main objective is to view the items as a human brain would. All of these things are what image recognition aims to find and assess before making judgments based on the results.GoogleLens, among others, uses this technology to perform a visual search, a search using an image as the input, not to be confused with an image search which uses text as the search input. Other benefits of this technology are the ability to monitor user generated content on social media and aiding the visually impaired by providing alternative output, such as sound, to help them know what is being displayed on a website.EmailFinally, AI is incorporated into email systems by classifying emails based on projected degrees of relevance and recognizing spam emails and organizing them accordingly. With its Smart Compose function, Gmail also employs AI to anticipate what you'll write next. With the help of this technology, you can have your sentences automatically completed as you type, accurately anticipating your next words as you speak.

Whether you are a tech supporter or a sceptic, it is undeniable that AI is progressing at an incredible rate. In this article we’ll take a look at how deeply AI affects our day-to-day lives both positively and negatively.

How AI affects our lives

Just how integral is AI in our day to day lives?

If you’re looking for the best scares this Halloween then SOFTFLIX has got you covered. We’ve compiled a list of the 10 best horror games to give you chills, thrills and psychological trauma. So get yourself some marshmallows, a good counsellor and some comfy clothes as we dive right in.&nbsp;Resident Evil 5Kicking things off with a classic series, Resident Evil 5 sends you once more into the breach, albeit, this time in Africa, as you take the role of Chris Redford as he faces the horrors of the Uroboros virus. The game has been critically acclaimed and fans of the series who have somehow missed this title should definitely give it a go.Tormented SoulsDo you miss old-school horror games like Resident Evil 1, Silent Hill and Alone in the Dark? Then Tormented Souls might be just what you’re looking for! Caroline Walker, our protagonist, suffers a dreadful fate while looking into the disappearance of twin girls in Winterlake and is forced to fight for her life as she explores the mansion's empty halls. The game blends old and new perfectly and while there is no doubt that it is a love letter to the horror games of old, it is most definitely a modern horror game.&nbsp;In Sound MindWith fast-paced puzzles, distinctive boss battles, and original music by The Living Tombstone, In Sound Mind is an inventive first-person psychological horror game. Discover the inner workings of the one space from which you are unable to flee, your mind. After awakening in an inexplicable building, you take the role of Desmond, a psychologist, as he struggles to make sense of his new surroundings. As you venture through the various corridors of the building you come across recordings from Desmond’s patients and are transported into their nightmares, will you have what it takes to survive?Martha is deadThe psychological undertones of a troubling time in history are explored in Martha Is Dead through the perspective of a young woman who is searching for the truth but also has secrets of her own to keep hidden. After the tragic loss of her twin sister Martha, Giulia, the young daughter of a German soldier, is left to struggle alone with the severe trauma. Her search for the truth is obscured by mysterious folklore and the utter terror of an impending war. If you like a psychological slow-burn and believe a good horror is more than just repeated jump scares then you should sink your teeth into this narrative this halloween.SCP: Secret FilesA new delve into the world of SCPs, a collection of sometimes horrifying abominations created by the minds of an ever growing community. The game revolves around Karl, a new worker at the SCP Foundation, who is tasked with organizing some of the Fountation's top-secret records. While he is looking through the archives, though, something strange occurs. Karl progressively develops a different perspective on the world, and his mental health suffers significantly as a result. Can you stay sane after experiencing these anomalies?The Mortuary AssistantThe gameplay in The Mortuary Assistant is a flawless fusion of simulation, research, and fear. You assume the role of Rebecca Owens, a young woman who has started an apprenticeship at River Fields Mortuary. Initially everything appears to be normal, that is, until you are asked to work the night shift, where the game truly begins. The scares come in different ways in each playthrough making this game extremely replayable. Without a doubt worth playing.ScornIn a nightmare environment of giger-esque biological forms, Scorn is an evocative first-person horror adventure game. The game's open-ended world has numerous interconnected regions where the action takes place. Every setting has a distinct theme (story), puzzles, and individuals that are essential to building a cohesive environment. You will explore new places, acquire various skill sets, weapons, and other objects as you play, and you'll also attempt to grasp the sights that are being shown to you. Immerse yourself in this living, breathing world, but keep your wits about you—the game won't show you mercy if you miss something crucial on your tense journey.The Death | Thần TrùngThe first-person psychological horror game, The Death | Thn Trùng is situated in the city of Hanoi and is rendered in a beautiful style. A strong debut effort from the independent Vietnamese studio with an evident passion for its culture, the game heavily incorporates Vietnamese folklore and funerary customs. The player takes control of an everyday man travelling through the city streets when odd things begin to occur. His past suddenly comes to life, and he must choose how to distinguish illusion from truth.&nbsp;MADiSONMADiSON offers a psychologically disturbing and immersive experience through its clever use of first-person and your trusty instax camera. Tormented by a brutal demon, you must solve riddles, explore your surroundings, take pictures and develop them on your own, and most importantly, survive. In MADiSON, every character has a troubling backstory that melds with the main plot. Keep an eye on your every move to avoid drawing unwanted attention. You won't be alone.The QuarryThe teenage counselors at Hackett's Quarry throw a party to commemorate summer camp's end. However, things quickly start to go wrong as the youngsters' plans for a party go awry and turn into a horrific night in which they are pursued by blood-soaked locals and something far worse. Friendly banter and flirting give way to life-and-death decisions as relationships either succeed or disintegrate under the strain of impossibly difficult choices. Play as one of the nine camp counselors in a gripping cinematic drama where each choice creates a different chapter in your individual storyline from a maze of options. Any character has the potential to steal the show—or pass away before the sun rises. What will happen in your story?

If you’re looking for the best scares this Halloween then SOFTFLIX has got you covered. We’ve compiled a list of the 10 best horror games to give you chills, thrills and psychological trauma. So get yourself some marshmallows, a good counsellor and some comfy clothes as we dive right in.

The best Halloween Horror Games of 2022

10 games that will have you shaking in your boots

The third generation of the internet is referred to as Web3. The tech and finance sectors are providing it with a lot of traction even if it is still more of an idea than a reality. Decentralized applications (dApps), which enable applications and services in a distributed manner without a central authority, are likely to receive a lot of attention in Web3. The technologies based on blockchain, AI, machine learning, cryptocurrencies, and open web3 enabled metaverses are also likely to be heavily utilized.Potential Features of Web 3.0The idea behind Web3 is to offer a public, open, and decentralized infrastructure. Web3 hopes to unleash the power of composability and enable "compounding software development" similar to that of open source software by utilizing the following technologies:Blockchain and Smart ContractsBlockchains and the smart contracts they may carry out are anticipated to be two of the main building blocks of Web 3. Blockchains are public, networked, community-owned databases and computer systems. Smart contracts are lines of code that may be run on a blockchain and serve as transaction protocols for automatically executing, controlling, or documenting legally significant events and activities in accordance with a contract or other agreement.IPv6Web3 will likely adopt IPv6, the latest version of Internet Protocol, which identifies devices across the internet so they can be located. The need for this addressing space is due to the ever growing need for more addresses.CryptocurrencyWeb3 will probably use cryptocurrencies and tokens, whether they are fungible (digital native money) or non-fungible (unique to a particular asset), enabling the digital representation of value. In the new webspace, these digital assets will need to be managed and transferable between different dApps. Web3 wallets, or ledger accounts on the blockchain, are useful in this situation. User interface layers will read the current ledger of your assets, but they won't store them exclusively on one platform, therefore the platform isn't keeping custody of them.AI and Machine LearningWeb 3.0 is projected to largely rely on AI and machine learning, which together with semantic web should give users a more individualized web experience. Semantic web will be able to read context from user-provided text more effectively, and enhanced AI will be capable of utilizing this information to provide the most accurate content.ReceptionIs it a pyramid scheme, a development of current blockchain-based trends, or the savior of human society? The future and potential of Web 3.0 are still up for debate in the tech sector, but some have suggested that it could be a potential answer to worries about the over-centralization of the web in a few "Big Tech" businesses. Some people believe Web3 has the potential to go beyond Web 2.0 platforms in terms of data security, scalability, and privacy. According to the New York Times, a number of investors are staking $27 billion on Web3 as "the internet's future."Supporters consider Web3 to be a representation of the cyber-libertarian ideals and past expectations that the internet might empower common people by dismantling established power structures. The difficulties of regulating a decentralized network, however, has raised fears that it would make it harder to stop criminality, online abuse, and hate speech.

The third generation of the internet is referred to as Web3. The tech and finance sectors are providing it with a lot of traction even if it is still more of an idea than a reality. Decentralized applications (dApps), which enable applications and services in a distributed manner without a central authority, are likely to receive a lot of attention in Web3. The technologies based on blockchain, AI, machine learning, cryptocurrencies, and open web3 enabled metaverses are also likely to be heavily utilized.

Everything you need to know about Web 3.0

Is it the future of the web?

It’s common knowledge that we all love to play games, whether it be video games on the latest consoles, board games with friends and family or even verbal games and sports. But why exactly is that? Why do people want to spend so much of their free time on play? In this article we’ll take a deep dive into the reasons for our gaming habits.Defining “Play”To begin we must first identify what exactly it means to “play”. Johan Huizinga defines it as the following in “Homo Ludens”:"Summing up the formal characteristic of play, we might call it a free activity standing quite consciously outside 'ordinary' life as being 'not serious' but at the same time absorbing the player intensely and utterly. It is an activity connected with no material interest, and no profit can be gained by it. It proceeds within its own proper boundaries of time and space according to fixed rules and in an orderly manner. It promotes the formation of social groupings that tend to surround themselves with secrecy and to stress the difference from the common world by disguise or other means."Huizinga also referred to something he called “The magic circle”, which is essentially a defined space either physical or imagined wherein prospective players agree to engage in the activity of play and agree to rules of the game, a physical example of this could be a sports field. Despite being just grass much like any other field, people who walk onto it enter the “magic circle” and are agreeing to perform specific actions according to the agreed terms.Types of PlayWith a definition of play in a broad sense established, it is time to dig a little deeper and identify the different types of play. The National Institute of Play recognizes 7 patterns of play in infants and young children, they are as follows:Attunement play - this is the act of creating a connection.Body play - experimenting with the body and its capabilitiesObject play - using and interacting with tools and objectsSocial play - building connections with groups, experimenting with social behavioursImaginative or pretend play - inventing scenarios/worlds and acting them outStorytelling play - verbalising and communicating, testing languageCreative play - aiming to transcend what is already known and understood, experimentation When we examine video games, we may apply these patterns to both adults and teenagers. For instance, acquiring new equipment allows us to engage in both object play—in which we are given fresh tools with which to approach and interact with a challenge—and creative play—in which we test out various combinations of classes and equipment in search of fresh or improved ways to play.Play as a form self expositionAs we play games, we are faced with decisions and opportunities that are beyond the scope of our daily activities and environment. For instance, when was the last time you actually faced a life-or-death situation? In a video game, we as players experience an amplified behavioural feedback loop. We make a decision, that decision has an almost immediate effect to our benefit or detriment and we receive that feedback as either a character death or a reward. It is through these tests and appraisals that we discover new information about our “real” selves. Humans crave feedback, afterall, it’s how we function. In order to construct meaning, our brains constantly adapt to our five sensory inputs. For instance, we know an object will fall if we throw it because we understand the concept of gravity. However, if there was less gravity, our brains would adjust to the change and we would toss the object to make up for this new knowledge. If no one ever touched a fire, we wouldn't know that it burns us, and if no one ever got burned, we wouldn't understand the negative effects of getting burned. Video games allow us to test our own assumptions ferociously, which produces an addictive sense of causality. When this information is shared and processed by a social group it becomes a meta, i.e. what is the best weapon for beating that specific boss?Why do we play games?There have been numerous studies into the reasons for playing games. Many were initially witch-hunts to prove that gaming was a waste of time or bad for you, however as time has passed, more objective research has been done.Nick Yee discovered three motivational factors as to why we enjoy playing video games, they are as follows:Achievement - This consists of the desire to advance in the game, the fascination with the game's rules and system, and the desire to compete with other players.Socialising -&nbsp;The social element is the want to interact with others, the desire to converse with and assist other players, and the desire to work as a team.Creativity -&nbsp;The third element of immersion is the creation and customization of a character to participate in the game's original plot and the desire to escape reality.This couples itself with Self-Determination Theory, which states that people are motivated to grow and change by three innate (and universal) psychological needs:Autonomy - Individuals must feel in charge of their own actions and objectives. People's feelings of self-determination are greatly aided by their sense of being able to take immediate action that will lead to genuine change.Competence - People must learn new skills and master various tasks. People are more inclined to take actions that will forward their goals when they believe they possess the necessary talents for success.Connection or relatedness - People need to feel a sense of connection to and relatedness to other people in order to feel a sense of belonging.The mental state of flow, which is employed to explain why people love playing games, satisfies the demand for competence. When a game pushes the player just enough to keep things fresh and compel them to keep playing, but not so much that it gets tedious or so little that it becomes uninteresting, flow is achieved. We have control over games, and we play them voluntarily, thus autonomy is satisfied. Our ability to connect and compete with others in a way and universe that is different from real life, in turn, fulfils our sense of relatedness.In conclusion, playing games inspires us as humans to develop and change in novel and fascinating ways that are frequently beyond our ken. As social animals, it allows us to interact as a part of something bigger than ourselves while also providing a safe space for us to fail and learn from our mistakes.

It’s common knowledge that we all love to play games, whether it be video games on the latest consoles, board games with friends and family or even verbal games and sports. But why exactly is that? Why do people want to spend so much of their free time on play? In this article we’ll take a deep dive into the reasons for our gaming habits.

Why do we love to play games?

Does gaming go deeper than a simple pastime?

We live in an age unlike any before. This digital age has allowed us to endure, propagate and learn far faster than predicted. As of now, the culmination of all human knowledge is said to double every 12 hours. Though this figure should be taken with a grain of salt perhaps, it is definitely beyond the linear growth that Buckminster Fuller predicted. In this article, we will take a look at software’s role in our lives and how it could shape our future.What is softwareSoftware is a catch-all term for computer programs. Fundamentally, software is a set of instructions or programs that tell a computer to perform specific tasks. It is most commonly broken down into the following 3 categories.1. System Software - The foundation for application software is system software. It typically comes preinstalled with the device and governs its fundamental operations. Operating Systems, device drivers, utilities, text editors and compilers that improve computer performance are all considered to be system software. Additionally, it is in charge of maintaining hardware elements and offering essential, non-task-specific operations.2. Programming Software - Programming software, also known as software development tools, is a program or collection of programs that provides developers with tools such as linkers, debuggers, and text editors to help them create, debug, and maintain other programs and applications.3. Application software - Consumers most frequently associate the term "software" with this specific type of software. Application software is designed to perform specific tasks. It can handle a wide range of common and specialized tasks, such as accounting, communication, data processing and word processing. Application software can be a single program or a collection of smaller programs. Examples include database systems, games, and office suites.How does software affect our lives?In this digital age, you would be hard pressed to get very far into your day without running into software. In fact, the majority of us rely on software to get us up and get the day started. When your alarm goes off in the morning, you've already started using the software. Next, you might be feeling drowsy and seek the liquid euphoria of a hot cup of coffee. Software heats the water to the ideal temperature and precisely fills the cup. Hungry? You’ll probably be going to the fridge that’s been diligently working while you slept to keep your food just cool enough to prevent it spoiling. Almost every household appliance and device you can think of is using software to make your life as stress-free as possible, affording you the time to be, well, you.Software has become so prevalent in-fact that it is hard to imagine what a world completely devoid of it would even look like. While this may be a daunting or negative concept for some, software is, for all intents and purposes, a tool like any other. As a species we have always used tools to lessen our load which has given us the ability to focus our attention on development.Future applicationsChange is a perpetual aspect of humanity. We better ourselves and, through that betterment, discover new tools and ways with which to better ourselves. In the digital age, software has become an integral part of that cycle and is likely to develop in a similar way. It is safe to assume continual growth in the fields of AI and Machine Learning. Gartner states that 37% of organisations have already implemented AI to some degree and Service Global Solutions estimates that, by 2025, 95% of customer interactions will be powered by AI.As the Metaverse dawns, Extended Reality, a culmination of Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality and Mixed Reality, will continue to gain traction as a major player. It is already a rapidly growing field with haptic suits already available for pre-order.RPA, or robotic process automation, is the process of using AI/Bots to interact with a GUI by replicating the actions of a user. This is currently being used as workload relief as each RPA has its own virtual task and workspace. With further development in the field of AI as a given, it is also safe to assume that the applications of RPA will also grow in parallel. More advanced AI will result in more complex tasks being given to RPA, freeing up developers to focus on the more creative and innovative tasks.Datafication, the process of turning everything in our lives into devices or software powered by data. It is currently being used in retail for better marketing campaigns and a deeper understanding of the target audience. In HR social media data can be used to make assessments of a prospective employee’s behaviour patterns thus making the personality test of the past redundant. In construction and production industries it is analyzed and used in order to make predictions of productivity, material usage and haulage times. As more parts of our lives become data, it is idealised that we will have a clearer, more accurate picture of humanity as a whole than we have ever had thus far.Naturally with more data than ever before floating around in the ether, the efforts of cybersecurity will need to be redoubled. Developers are already looking for new and innovative ways to ensure that this data is safe and protected from anyone who might want to misuse it.

We live in an age unlike any before. This digital age has allowed us to endure, propagate and learn far faster than predicted. As of now, the culmination of all human knowledge is said to double every 12 hours. Though this figure should be taken with a grain of salt perhaps, it is definitely beyond the linear growth that Buckminster Fuller predicted. In this article, we will take a look at software’s role in our lives and how it could shape our future.

How software makes our lives easier

You'll be amazed how much software does for you

These days, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to find someone that doesn't play video games to some degree. However, that was not always the case. In fact, at many points in the history of this behemoth of the entertainment industry, the future of video games was at risk. Today we’ll dive into this fascinating history and find out what it took to turn a research project in the 1950’s into the largest entertainment industry in the world.Supercomputers and Spacewar&nbsp;In the 1950's, computers as we know them did not exist. Instead, there were massive, room-sized units that were far too expensive for everyone except large companies and universities. It was using these mammoth "supercomputers" that the first games began to appear. These games were usually created as a result of research and were not designed with the intent of being commercially available. In 1952, OXO (or noughts and crosses) was designed by British computer scientist Sandy Douglas, which allowed the computer to play a perfect game of tic-tac-toe against the player. 6 years later, William Higinbotham’s "Tennis for Two" was designed for the Brookhaven National Laboratory’s annual exhibition. It received a great deal of interest, with people queuing to play the rudimentary tennis simulator, which was displayed on an oscilloscope.Jump forward another 4 years to 1962, student Steve Russell and his friends were granted access to the school’s new PDP-1 computer. The objective was threefold: firstly, the program needed to push the computer’s resources to its absolute limit; secondly, it needed to be interesting, even after multiple viewings; and finally, it needed to be interactive. Fuelled by their love of science fiction novels, they created a battling game between two spaceships and so "Spacewar" was born. It immediately took the campus by storm. This success soon spread to other universities with computer engineering programs. Despite this success, it was never designed with public consumption in mind and, thus, its scope was very limited.The Television Gaming FrontierDuring the 1960s the television became the centrepiece of many-a-household and it was then that engineer Ralph Baer decided that televisions could be used for more than just viewing programs, he believed they could be used to play games. In 1967, Baer and Sanders technician Bob Tremblay created the TVG#1. The device was capable of creating a dot on the television screen that could be manually controlled by the user. Impressed at his results, Baer’s senior management tasked him with making the tech commercially available. The result of many years of labor to this end was the Magnavox Odyssey. Released in 1972, it sold less than 200,000 copies over 3 years and thus was deemed a commercial failure by Magnavox, who had doubted the potential success of the device and instead used it as a gimmick to sell more TV sets.Nolan Bushnell and Ted Debney, whoever, didn’t share the same somewhat jaded view of Magnavox and in June, 1972, formed Atari, Inc. In the very same year, they released the arcade coin-op ping pong game "Pong", which was an immediate hit. Fuelled by success, Atari partnered with Sears, Roebuck &amp; Company to produce a version of Pong that could be played at home. Again, Atari hit the mark, selling 150,000 units in just 1 year, which sparked numerous other companies to release their own home versions of the hit game, the most successful of which was the Coleco Telstar. The toy company and birthplace of the hugely popular Cabbage Patch Dolls, was the first to place a large order for General Instruments’ AY-3-8500 chip on the advice of Ralph Baer. The chip was what most Pong clones were using in their devices and thanks to an oversight from General Instruments, Coleco became top of the priority list for the understocked chip and despite a hiccup with FCC approval, managed to sell over 1 million units in 1976.Second-Gen ConsolesFrom 1976 to 1983, various second-generation consoles were released, which, unlike their predecessors, allowed for interchangeable game cartridges that were sold separately, allowing gamers to create their very own collections of games. This change caused a huge influx of games to become available on the market. However, many of them were rushed and of low quality. The industry crashed and many companies, including Mattel and Magnavox, ceased production of their videogame lines. Atari struggled to stay afloat during the crisis as well, with huge competition from the now much more advanced home computer systems of the Commodore 64 and Apple II. Despite arcade games remaining popular, it seemed as though it was the end of home gaming. That is, until 1985 when a Japanese company by the name of Nintendo released their Nintendo Entertainment System(NES) and Super Mario Bros. The console outsold everything that had come before and has cemented console gaming in our hearts and minds ever since.

These days, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to find someone that doesn't play video games to some degree. However, that was not always the case. In fact, at many points in the history of this behemoth of the entertainment industry, the future of video games was at risk. Today we’ll dive into this fascinating history and find out what it took to turn a research project in the 1950’s into the largest entertainment industry in the world.

The History of Video Games

The journey from research project to global titan

The international non-profit group Women in Tech® has made it its mission to eliminate the deficiency in female employment rates and help women embrace technology. Their goal is to empower 5 million women and girls to achieve tech-related positions by 2030.&nbsp;What they doWiT runs a mentoring program, aptly named Mentor in Tech. Mentees get the chance to speak one-on-one with seasoned mentors for personal counseling and support as well as various soft skills workshops. The program was created to help women in the STEM fields at all levels, from entry-level workers looking to get started in the field to executives eager to progress their careers and focuses on 7 major areas of employment: Career and Leadership, Technology (Data Science, QA, Software development, etc.); Startups; Digital Marketing; Project &amp; Product Management; Business Analytics; and UX/UI Design.The Talent Hub is a fantastic tool that gets employers and employees on the same page by providing a place for tech-focused jobs to be posted and applied for through the website.WiT also advocates change by providing much needed attention to issues in women’s education. Most recently, they have been focusing their efforts on raising the voices of female Afghan leaders such as Zarifa Ghafari in the hopes of protecting the last 2 decades of progress regarding women’s education in Afghanistan. This is further supplemented through their Digital Literacy and Career workshops.Why it needs to be done&nbsp;On average, women earn less than men, and while this deficit has decreased, it hasn’t yet been fully eradicated. Additionally, women, for whatever reason, hold very few positions within the tech industry, with a similar percentage graduating from STEM subjects. By raising the profile of women in the tech industry, it is hoped that young aspirant females will have role models to strive to match. Providing support for these young and talented women is paramount if we are to achieve a more balanced industry workforce.Other Notable OrganisationsWhile we regrettably can’t write about all of the great organizations that are lighting the way for females in the tech industry, we have compiled a list, complete with links, to browse at your leisure.<ul><li><a href="https://adadevelopersacademy.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204);">Ada Developers Academy</a></li><li><a href="https://www.adaslist.co/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204);">Ada’s List</a></li><li><a href="https://anitab.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204);">org / Anita Borg Institute</a></li><li><a href="https://wearebgc.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204);">Black Girls Code</a></li><li><a href="https://changecatalyst.co/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204);">Change Catalyst</a></li><li><a href="https://girldevelopit.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204);">Girl Develop It</a></li><li><a href="https://girlsintech.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204);">Girls in Tech</a></li><li><a href="https://girlswhocode.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204);">Girls Who Code</a></li><li><a href="http://lwc.tech/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204);">League of Women Coders</a></li><li><a href="http://www.mothercoders.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204);">MotherCoders</a></li><li><a href="https://ncwit.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204);">National Center for Women &amp; Information Technology (NCWIT)</a></li><li><a href="https://projectinclude.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204);">Project Include</a></li><li><a href="https://switchthefuture.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204);">Switch</a></li><li><a href="https://www.hiretechladies.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204);">TechLadies</a></li><li><a href="https://www.techwomen.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204);">TechWomen</a></li><li><a href="https://womeninamerica.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204);">Women in America</a></li><li><a href="https://womeninstem.org/our-vision" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204);">Women in STEM</a></li><li><a href="https://witi.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204);">Women in Technology International (WITI)</a></li><li><a href="https://www.womenwhocode.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204);">Women Who Code</a></li></ul>

The international non-profit group Women in Tech® has made it its mission to eliminate the deficiency in female employment rates and help women embrace technology. Their goal is to empower 5 million women and girls to achieve tech-related positions by 2030. 

Women in Tech

Find out what Women in Tech® is doing for ladies across the globe.

Although many of the most anticipated releases of this year have been postponed to 2023, fear not!! There is still a fantastic selection of upcoming games to get your hands on and we’ve made a list of some of our top picks to stoke your gaming fires over these autumn months.A Plague Tale: RequiemKicking things off is A Plague Tale: Requiem, the second installment in the Plague Tale franchise. If you haven’t had a chance to play the first game it is heavily recommended that you do so as Requiem is a direct sequel. Set in 14th century France, the gameplay centres around a brother and sister, with the older of the siblings Amicia helping her sick younger brother Hugo to escape from Inquisition soldiers during the Black Plague. You have a number of tools at your disposal in order to distract enemies, conceal yourself or kill your way through the game. The game looks gorgeous with rich and immersive environments, all beautifully lit and designed with multiple options for progression through a level. If you are a fan of narrative-driven stealth RPGs then A Plague Tale: Requiem should definitely be on your wishlist.Dragon Ball: The BreakersLighthearted multiplayer madness in the Dragon Ball universe, yes please. Dragon Ball: The Breakers is a multiplayer survival game along the lines of titles like Dead by Daylight wherein a group of fairly powerless survivors must try to escape a temporal rift while being hunted by one of the raiders (bad guys from the Dragon Ball universe). As a survivor your goal is to locate keys found in various areas of the map in order to start a time machine so that you and the remaining survivors can escape. The raider’s goal is to eliminate the survivors before doing so by making use of the many forms and powers at your disposal. While it won’t win any awards for innovation the game is a great way to relax and wind away a few hours with friends or randoms.Gotham KnightsBatman is dead and it’s up to his allies Batgirl, Red Hood, Robin and Nightwing to take up his mantle and clean the streets of Gotham. Gotham Knights is an immersive and dynamic open world RPG set in Gotham City. Traverse the streets with a variety of heroes and gadgets while you work to solve cases and topple the criminal underworld. Bored of heroing alone? Gotham Knights lets you co-op online with up to 3 other players. This game should definitely scratch the co-op action RPG itch that many fans of the genre currently have.God of War RagnarokKratos is back in one of the most anticipated games of 2022 in the Playstation exclusive God of War Ragnarok. If the title hasn’t already given it away the plot revolves around Kratos and his son Atreus as they travel the nine realms(yes all 9 this time) to confront Ragnarok, the norse equivalent of the apocalypse. The combat looks fantastic as we’ve come to expect from the series and the world looks rich and immersive. Whether you are an avid fan of GoW series or someone looking for an extremely solid action RPG then God of War Ragnarok is a must play.Pokemon Scarlet and VioletExplore the Paldea region in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet. The latest game in the Pokemon series brings a fresh and long awaited take on things as it allows you to freely explore the region alone or with friends. Gone are days of being forced down a certain route by the story, the new open-world game also allows you to have one Pokemon out on the field with you giving you access to the brand new “Let’s Go!” feature. Your Pokemon can be ordered to go and search for items or participate in auto battles on its own, leaving you free to take a look around for items and people to interact with yourself for a much more immersive experience. Pokemon in Paldea can Terastallize, a new system of Pokemon enhancement which gives the Pokemon a Tera type for even more combinations than ever before.Evil WestWhat happens when you cross a cowboy with a vampire hunter? Evil West. The game follows the vampire hunter Jesse Rentier as he works to rid the Old West of an undead scourge. If you’re looking to tear your way through hordes of vamps, giant bats and other nasties with a six-shooter and a wide brimmed hat then you really need to take a look at this game. The combat is exciting and visceral, the game is punishing but not unnecessarily difficult and you can build your character the way you like through skill progression.&nbsp;Pathfinder: Wrath of the RighteousPathfinder:Wrath of the Righteous builds on the hugely successful formula of the previous title Pathfinder: Kingmaker to deliver a throw-back turn based RPG experience which will doubtless have you absorbed from beginning to end. The story follows a group of adventurers in a crusade against a demonic invasion giving the game a darker feel in comparison to its more high-fantasy predecessor. The characters are extremely well developed with strong personalities which really adds an extra layer of depth to the RPG experience. Wrath of the Righteous finally solves the issues of the previous titles by enabling players to engage in true turn-based combat rather than the traditional real-time with pause that we’ve had to manage in the previous games. Fans of the series, old-school RPGs and D&amp;D absolutely need to play this game.Bayonetta 3Bayonetta finally returns after almost 8 years and the game doesn’t disappoint. The combat has had numerous improvements and feels much smoother, gone are the days of equipping a weapon on each appendage, you now have access to weapon sets that allow your switch on the go. The game offers those of a more sensitive disposition the new “Naive Angel” mode which blurs out or covers some of the more adult sections of the game. Combos now fill up a magic bar which allows you to summon a demon to bash your enemies for you. Fans of the series will no doubt already be chomping at the bit to get their hands on the titles but newcomers and fans of the action/hack-n-slash genre should make sure to check out what all the fuss is about.The Dark Pictures Anthology: The Devil in MeThe Devil in Me is the season one finale and fourth installment of The Dark Pictures Anthology. As is the case in the previous titles the game follows 5 protagonists in a narrative driven survival horror, where player choices drive the multilinear plot and all of the characters can permanently die. In this particular story players will control 5 members of a film crew trapped in a murder house. The Devil in Me offers a plethora of new features including the ability to run, jump and climb as well as inventories for each of the cast and tool-based puzzles. This is certainly a more hands-on game compared to its predecessors which will hopefully help to maintain a constant sense of urgency that some of the other titles lacked.Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2This IS NOT a remake of the 2009 game with the same title. OK, terrible naming decisions aside, CoD MW2 2022 is the latest game in the franchize, it offers much of the same for fans of the series but with some interesting new modes for those who are looking for a change, most notably Raid mode. In Raid mode players will work together to find codes and solve puzzles in an approximately 2 hour cooperative experience. Players will also be happy to hear that you can swim so no more instant death from touching water. Tons of new gadgets and gizmos as well as the new perk package system and improved weaponsmithing means you’ll be able to better customise your gameplay than ever before.

Although many of the most anticipated releases of this year have been postponed to 2023, fear not!! There is still a fantastic selection of upcoming games to get your hands on and we’ve made a list of some of our top picks to stoke your gaming fires over these autumn months.

Upcoming Games of Autumn 2022

Stay in the game this autumn with our top picks.

Upcoming Games of autumn 2022

If you frequently or occasionally do hybrid work from home, you may be struggling with productivity, self-motivation, or even your mental health. In this post, we'll look at a few strategies for taking control of your working day and help you maintain a productive and healthy work life.<h3>Act as though you're not at home.</h3>While it might seem tempting to spend your home office in bed in your PJ’s, it is essential that you act as though you are going to work. By getting dressed and preparing as you normally would to go to the office you help your brain get into a state of productivity. An early morning walk or jog can help get the blood pumping and get that breath of fresh air your brain needs to help you through your work day.<h3>Establish a dedicated workspace</h3>It is critical that you select a space that is entirely yours, whether you are working from a small studio apartment or a huge family home. Find a comfortable seat, set up your office supplies and clear a corner of the room or a kitchen worktop for yourself. Make sure there are no distractions from home in the area. The fact that you now have a set location to go to, much as you would in your office, will help you with the prior step.<h3>Allow yourself to destress</h3>It's vital that you take some time to unwind and decompress if you want to make sure that you stay motivated and focused throughout your working day. Take short breaks to stretch, eat, and stay hydrated. You may find that listening to music throughout the day gives you the extra energy you need to push through the finishing touches. It goes without saying that you should take regular breaks from your screen and have a well-organized workspace whether you are working in the office or from home. Try to set up your workspace in a location with good natural light if your home permits it.<h3>Keep yourself moving</h3>Sitting at a desk for eight hours is a recipe for disaster. Make sure to stay active throughout the day, whether it's via stretching or taking a quick stroll around your neighbourhood in between meetings. To keep your spine healthy and the blood flowing to your brain, try to alternate between periods of sitting and standing.<h3>Stay connected with your coworkers</h3>Many of those working from home experience loneliness, isolation and social dissociation. As social creatures, we thrive in an environment full of human interaction. At home, you may well be sitting alone for 8 hours. Because of this you must make an extra effort to remain in touch with your work colleagues. Scheduling face-time, asking about their day/weekend plans, etc. can be a great way to get your social fix and release that oxytocin and dopamine that communicating with others gives us.<h3>Sleep well&nbsp;</h3>While it might be tempting to stay up a bit later or have 1 extra drink with your friends when you know you don’t need to wake up for your office commute the next day, it should be stressed that studies have shown a decrease in the brain's productivity the day following medium to heavy alcohol consumption. Making sure you get a good night’s sleep is even more important when working from home because so much more depends on you. When space allows, try to separate your work environment from your sleeping environment as working from the same room you sleep in can have an adverse effect on your quality of sleep.

If you frequently or occasionally do hybrid work from home, you may be struggling with productivity, self-motivation, or even your mental health. In this post, we'll look at a few strategies for taking control of your working day and help you maintain a productive and healthy work life.

Home office- how to work efficiently from home and not get crazy

Tips to keep your head in game when doing home office

Are you the type of gamer who’s always on the lookout for new and interesting ways to up your gaming experience? Then you absolutely have to keep reading! From the latest in VR tech to gaming attachments, it’s time to take a look at the biggest and best gadgets for gamers this autumn!&nbsp;Nintendo Joy-Cam&nbsp;The "Joy-Cam" is a controller that attaches to the side of the Nintendo Switch, giving it front and back cameras so you can take pictures and movies, play in immersive MR and AR, and even stream your reactions as you play. The Joy-Cam provides the Switch with photographic features, transforming the console into a far more adaptable multimedia device. This is similar to how the original Game Boy had its own add-on Game Boy Camera that could take basic black-and-white low-res images.&nbsp;LG Module SPinner 1.3&nbsp;The LG Module SPinner 1.3 is a true speaker for gamers. When playing video games, the audio elements of a particular location are typically condensed into a single output that frequently feels chaotic and overstimulating. The LG Module SPinner1.3 uses spatial audio to distinguish between each sound by separating first-person from third-person audio and staggering its delivery.&nbsp;Razer BlackShark V2&nbsp;When it comes to gaming headphones, the Razer BlackShark V2 are one of your best options and can provide your gaming experience with dynamic audio. You can clearly hear the sounds and locations in your environment thanks to the THX spatial audio simulated surround sound provided by the headphones. Each component of the audio is bright and clear thanks to the speakers' use of specialised drivers for the highs, lows, and mids. The USB sound card that comes with the headset also helps you sound better by eliminating background noise and isolating your speech.&nbsp;OWO Haptic Gaming System&nbsp;The future of VR gaming is just around the corner with OWO’s Haptic Gaming System. OWO have developed and patented their sensations technology, allowing gamers to physically feel everything that happens in the metaverse or a video game. Whether it’s a gunshot, the wind or a hug from a loved one you’ll be able to feel it all. The suit is currently available for pre-order so go get yours today!Razer Basilisk V3 gaming mouse&nbsp;The Razer Basilisk V3 allows you to distribute all of your macros and auxiliary functions across 11 programmable buttons. This makes it simple for you to choose between customised button profiles for a fluid gaming experience. The Razer Basilisk V3 comes equipped with a tilt wheel that supports hyper scrolling at fast speeds, 16.8 million colours, and a variety of lighting effects to produce eye-catching images while you play!&nbsp;Gravitation Controller&nbsp;Have a smartphone but wish you had a handheld gaming console? Then the Gravitation Controller is exactly what you need. Utilising your phone's powerful GPU and high definition screen, the Gravitation's expandable ergonomic design turns your smartphone into a high-end gaming device.

Are you the type of gamer who’s always on the lookout for new and interesting ways to up your gaming experience? Then you absolutely have to keep reading! From the latest in VR tech to gaming attachments, it’s time to take a look at the biggest and best gadgets for gamers this autumn! 

Top gadgets for gamers 2022

The end of summer is upon us and it’s time to start collecting tools for another year of school. Whether you’re a student, teacher or a parent looking to equip their child with everything they’ll need, we’ve compiled a list you won’t want to miss.LaptopsTo kick things off we’ll take a look at the best classroom laptops and notepads on offer. The things we’ve taken into consideration are most importantly, affordability, because nobody wants to spend more than they need to, portability, because we no longer need to carry around and extra 5kg of tech in our school bags and performance, a slow or erroneous piece of equipment can mess up your lesson plan or prevent you from making those essential notes in time.Google Pixelbook ProA lightweight chromebook for those with a mid to high-end budget, it offers the fantastic battery life that you would expect of a chromebook as well as a 1080p webcam, perfect for capturing you in your full glory during video lessons or meetings. A silent keyboard helps to eliminate that irritating clicking sound that disrupts video calls especially. While its display is naturally not as good as a heavier device, it will more than suit the needs of many teachers and students alike.&nbsp;Acer Swift 3If you don’t care about aesthetics as much as you care about getting the job done without setting you back a pretty penny then the Acer Swift 3 is absolutely for you. The performance of the device is fantastic, it's slim and lightweight with a solid battery life. An accurate trackpad and comfortable keyboard will help keep you working from morning ‘til evening. Packing all the ports you could possibly need with USB 2.0, 3.0, Thunderbird 3 and HDMI this really is the very best option for people looking for the best of the cheapest.Macbook Air (M1, 2020)If you’re an Applephile or just need access to Apple device then the refreshed Macbook Air is a fantastic choice. The M1 chip offers an enormous boost to performance without affecting the cost so it still holds its spot as the cheapest Apple laptop. You needn't worry about that annoying whirring sound either as the Macbook Air’s fanless design completely eliminates computer noise.Tablets&nbsp;Next up are a selection of tablets for those looking to take quick notes or those constantly on the move. While tablets certainly lack many of the features of a laptop or chromebook, their ultra lightweight design as well as access to software as a service can be perfect for those with fewer requirements.&nbsp;Samsung Galaxy Tab S6 LiteIf you’re happy that an Android tablet will suit your needs then the Galaxy Tab S6 Lite is the best budget option for you. Samsung removed a few of the higher-end specs from the Galaxy Tab S6 in order to provide a cheaper option for students. It comes with an S Pen as a standard which is perfect if you’re looking for a device for note taking.iPad MiniOne of the more expensive tablets available, but it keeps you connected to the Apple Ecosystem with access to the Apple Appstore. It certainly packs a lot of processing power and has a great camera for recording lectures.&nbsp;A choice of 64GB and 254GB storage means you’ll be able to keep all your essential files in the palm of your hand.&nbsp;Amazon Fire 7Extremely affordable and quality product which is hard to pass up. While it doesn’t boast more than 1GB RAM you should be able to manage any task you need it for thanks to the quadcore processor. Being an Amazon product you naturally gain access to the Amazon Ecosystem which is a fantastic way to read up on a topic using Kindle eBooks or ask Alexa for help with a problem.&nbsp;Software and AppsSo you have your device, but you still have a hectic schedule and tons of tasks and projects to complete. Now that the hard tech is out of the way we’ll take a look at the best and brightest Apps and Software to help organise your time or complete your tasks with flying colours.Microsoft Office Home and StudentIt will come as no surprise that MS Office makes it onto the list of back to school essentials. For those of you whose schools/colleges don’t provide you access to an Office suite, we recommend the lighter weight Office Home and Student edition as it will provide access to everything you need via Word, Excel, Powerpoint and more.Grammarly&nbsp;While the free version is a welcome addition to your word processing many of the better features come with an investment. The plagiarism detection function is a great tool to help make sure your work is unique and legal. Tone adjustments allow you to modify your text to help clarify your intended tone to your audience. Grammarly can even make sure your formal emails and writing are appropriately written.ZoomSince Covid-19 created an influx of online classes, meetings and general video calls there has been an ongoing battle between various online conference providers. At the forefront of that battle is Zoom, while most every video conference application offers an approximation of the same features, Zoom and its freemium licensing offer the most secure and stable connections.&nbsp;

The end of summer is upon us and it’s time to start collecting tools for another year of school. Whether you’re a student, teacher or a parent looking to equip their child with everything they’ll need, we’ve compiled a list you won’t want to miss.

Back to School Essentials

Everything you need to get ready for the next semester

IntroAs the planet continues to get warmer, we as its denizens have an ever increasing responsibility to take action and help in any way we can. Our industries are a major contributor to humanity’s share of carbon emissions, naturally an industry as new and fast-growing as the gaming industry is responsible for a fair portion of this right?In this article we’ll be examining the impact that the video game industry has on the environment as well as what measures are being taken by the industry to help tackle climate change.Games impact on environmentA study in the US from 2019 showed that the aggregate energy consumption of gaming-based tech cost 5 billion dollars and produced 24 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions which is equivalent to 85 million refrigerators, which sounds bad until you consider the rest of the statistics, there have been over 500 million games consoles sold in the US and that isn't taking into account mobile gaming or PC gaming. So in actuality your refrigerator is producing at least 6 times more carbon emissions than your gaming habits. Other similarly biased reports indicate that gaming in the state of California uses as much energy as a whole country, again shocking until you consider that the countries they are comparing this data to have limited access to energy, Senegal for example, where 30% of the country has no access to energy. This data becomes even more clearly skewed when you consider the state of California has a population of nearly 40 million and Senegal has a population of a little over 16 million.Despite the gaming industry becoming something of a scapegoat for climate change, it is still working hard to use its influence and reach to effect a change for the better. As of 2022 3 billion people worldwide play video games, this gives it more influence than almost every other entertainment industry.&nbsp;Introduction of PftPIn 2019 during the Climate Summit in New York, the Playing for the Planet Alliance was launched. The alliance consists of some of the leading bodies in the industry as well as a plethora of smaller companies with the goal of helping to raise awareness of environmental change. Many of the alliance members have pledged to be carbon net zero or negative by 2030 and in-game donations have helped raise money for environmental protection.&nbsp;&nbsp;Measures being takenIn 2021 the alliance helped raise $800,000 through in-game charity donations. In terms of research and development, Sony, Microsoft and Unity have conducted research in regard to the decarbonization of the gaming industry and Unity, Ubisoft and Microsoft are conducting research into their player base’s behaviors and attitudes toward climate change. Ukie released the Green Game Guide to help give companies advice on how to reduce emissions and waste across the industry.&nbsp;The Green Game Jam engaged 130 million gamers and tripled in size last year, with 30 new studios joining and helping with reforestation efforts, accounting for 266,000 trees being planted.&nbsp;How gamers can helpMany games now offer green activations which allow you to donate in-game to environmental charities, other games offer eco incentives such as PokemonGO getting people to clean up their environment and post their efforts with a hashtag on social media in order to gain in-game rewards. But the biggest thing that you can do as a gamer is spread awareness to your friends and guildmates about the threat that climate change poses and check out Playing 4 the Planet yourself here: <a href="https://playing4theplanet.org" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204); background-color: transparent;">https://playing4theplanet.org</a>&nbsp;

As the planet continues to get warmer, we as its denizens have an ever increasing responsibility to take action and help in any way we can. Our industries are a major contributor to humanity’s share of carbon emissions, naturally an industry as new and fast-growing as the gaming industry is responsible for a fair portion of this right? In this article we’ll be examining the impact that the video game industry has on the environment as well as what measures are being taken by the industry to help tackle climate change.

Playing 4 the Planet

What the gaming industry is doing to help tackle climate change

To commemorate this year’s Gamescom event in Koln, Germany, Softflix is running a fantastic giveaway.

	All you need to do to participate is take an interesting photo at GAMESCOM 2022 and follow us on Instagram with a public profile. Once you’re following us make a post on Instagram using the
		hashtag #softflixgiveaway and tag us. It’s really that easy to be in with a chance to win one of :

The Great Gamescom Giveaway

Low-code No-code(LCNC) is a technological innovation that’s taking the business industry by storm. It’s a more visually oriented form of development that helps to streamline the developmental process of applications by automating many of the processes without the requirement of programming tools or technical knowledge. While very similar Low-Code and No-Code platforms are not the same, today we will take a look at the differences between the two as well as investigating its future potential in software development.Low-CodeA low-code development platform provides a development environment which can be used for the creation of application software through a GUI or graphical user interface. This gives users agency to build applications from premade elements with the ability to integrate their own code into them. Low-code platforms are not suitable for complete beginners but are useful for people working in the business sector who are technically minded. The platform takes a visual approach to application development, with tools such as drag-and-drop. This reduces the coding knowledge required to begin creating applications as most of the process is automated.&nbsp;No-CodeNo-code platforms are aimed at citizen developers with little-to-no knowledge of any programming languages. Similar to low-code, the applications are created purely visually, you take the part you want and put it where you want it, it really is that simple. No-code platforms essentially remove the need for software developers in smaller companies using simple applications as the entire application development life cycle is supported, from ideation through implementation to maintenance.&nbsp;The FutureIn a world where staying ahead of the competition and constantly providing customers with new experiences is paramount, LCNC development tools are essential. One of the biggest selling points of LCNC is the ease by which a citizen developer or technical newbie can create mobile software application tools. This fits perfectly with the ever-growing demand for businesses to develop applications that simplify and streamline end-user’s daily workflows as almost any employee can use LCNC platforms to rapidly implement and manage new applications.&nbsp;While it sounds magical; is low-code no-code the future of application development and are software developers jobs at risk? Gartner has predicted that “By 2024, low-code application development will be responsible for more than 65% of application development activity.” While this is certainly an impressive prediction, it doesn’t put the jobs of IT professionals at risk, low-code no-code increases the speed of delivery and implementation of applications but this will free up more time for the specialists to perform their other tasks.

Low-code No-code(LCNC) is a technological innovation that’s taking the business industry by storm. It’s a more visually oriented form of development that helps to streamline the developmental process of applications by automating many of the processes without the requirement of programming tools or technical knowledge. While very similar Low-Code and No-Code platforms are not the same, today we will take a look at the differences between the two as well as investigating its future potential in software development.

What is Low-Code No-Code?

Is LCNC the future of app development?

This year's Gamescom will be hosted in Cologne, Germany from 23rd-28th August and will be a hybrid affair with various online events alongside the live event. With over 500 companies registering for the event we can expect to see tons of merchandising stalls, game devs and more.&nbsp;With that being said both Sony and Nintendo have confirmed that they won’t be present at the event, instead opting to host their own events. While this has definitely caused its own ripples within the gaming industry, today we’re focusing on what WILL be available for everyone at this year's event.&nbsp;Schedule23rd AugustThe event will kick off with its opening night showcase hosted by Geoff Keighley. We can expect to see some new game reveals as well as trailers/gameplay reveals and a first look at Gamescom 2022’s events.24th AugustThe 24 August will be the day for various traders and journalists to do business with the Trade Event and Media Day (not available to public)25th AugustJoin the leading voices in the industry at the Gamescom Congress, Europe’s leading conference on the potential of computer and video games for society and the economy.26th - 28th AugustThe heart and soul of the whole event kicks off from 26th with the Entertainment Area and Event area opening to the public.&nbsp;We can expect appearances and news from companies such as 2k, Ubisoft, Razer and Microsoft. For those in the industry Devcom will make a return with roundtables, master classes and more.&nbsp;What news to expect?So now that we know the schedule, what news can we expect from the industry’s big players?Koch Media: It’s almost a certainty that there will be news and gameplay about the Saint’s Row reboot seeing as it’s scheduled for release on August 23rd.Team 17: It wouldn't be a surprise to see a release date for Batora: Lost Haven as development is reportedly very close to release. They might also raise public awareness of Thymesia following its release in early August.Ubisoft: It’s hard to call what Ubisoft has up its sleeve, but some potential reveals could be the future of the Assassin’s Creed franchise as well as more information about a rogue-lite mode for AC: Valhalla. There could also be some information on Skull and Bones as it was recently re-revealed.Bandai Namco: After its initial announcement in March this year we can assume Bandai Namco will reveal more information and probably a fix release date for One Piece: Odyssey as well as potential news for other anime related titles such as Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: All Star Battle R set for release on the 2nd September this year and the survival coop game Dragon Ball: The Breakers.Xbox: Most likely just a highlight/recap of the announcements from the Xbox and Bethesda showcase from June earlier this year. While it’s not impossible that they will reveal something new for us to get excited about, they’ve already announced some pretty big titles in Redfall, Starfield and Forza.Warner Bros: Potterheads everywhere can get excited as Hogwarts Legacy is almost a dead cert, slated for release later this year. We can also expect a bit more hype for their upcoming title Gotham Knights and a potential look at some future games for 2023.All in all we expect the event to be huge with something to satisfy everyone. We will be at the event ourselves so if you want to get to know more about what we’re planning come visit us in Cologne.

This year's Gamescom will be hosted in Cologne, Germany from 23rd-28th August and will be a hybrid affair with various online events alongside the live event. With over 500 companies registering for the event we can expect to see tons of merchandising stalls, game devs and more. 

Everything you need to know about Gamescom 2022

What to expect from this summer's biggest gaming event

The Norton 360 security suite is one of the world’s leading competitors when it comes to cyber security. With its near perfect malware detection rates and real-time detection it is a fantastic premium choice for anyone looking to improve their security. The feature-rich application is for paying users only as there is currently no free version.Pro’s<ul><li>Feature-rich application</li><li>Best Premium antivirus protection</li><li>Full protection against all known malware</li><li>Mobile App</li><li>Parental Control</li><li>Integrated secure VPN and password manager</li><li>Lightweight</li></ul>Con’s<ul><li>No free version</li><li>Fairly Expensive</li><li>Frequent prompt messages</li><li>Can be confusing for beginners</li><li>Incompatibility issues with Firefox and Identity Safe</li></ul>Security FeaturesSecure VPN - As with many other antivirus suites Norton offers its own VPN and while it may not have the fastest connection speeds it definitely boasts a broad selection of connections with servers in countries all around the world. It also offers nice additional features such as a kill switch, unlimited browsing data, Tor compatibility and 256-bit AES encryption.Password manager - Norton offers its own substantial password manager and while it isn’t as all-encompassing as specialised management apps like Dashline it does the job. It comes with unlimited password storage, 256-bit AES encryption, browser extensions for Chrome, Safari, Edge and Firefox and much more. Overall a simple but solid password manager, suitable for most users' needs.&nbsp;Smart Firewall - Norton Smart Firewall at its default settings is a vast improvement from the built-in firewalls provided by Windows and MacOS. It’s fully customizable and allows you to set rules for every program on your PC. More features for more advanced users include SSL man-in-the-middle attack detection, ARP and DNS spoofing protection and more.&nbsp;SafeCam protection - Blocks unauthorised access to your PCs webcam, ensuring that your camera is not being controlled by a third-party.Real-time threat detection - Norton’s threat detection is second to none and that doesn’t just apply to its full PC scan. You can rely on real-time threat detection to prevent the accidental download of everything from Malware to zero-day attacks. In the case of encrypted and zipped files it will prevent them from being unzipped and decrypted.PC cloud backup - Very similar to other cloud storage tools such as iCloud, Dropbox and OneDrive. Depending on what Norton plan you select you can store anywhere from 10-500gb of data. If you aren’t already using one of the aforementioned cloud storage tools then this does the job just fine.All in all, Norton 360 proves itself to be one of the best Antivirus suites available in 2022, it is a comprehensive feature-full suite and although a little clunky to navigate at first will help you keep your PC and information safe.

The Norton 360 security suite is one of the world’s leading competitors when it comes to cyber security. With its near perfect malware detection rates and real-time detection it is a fantastic premium choice for anyone looking to improve their security. The feature-rich application is for paying users only as there is currently no free version.

Everything you need to know about Norton 360 

Find out if Norton 360 is right for you

In this article we’ll explore Cloud Gaming, its potential benefits and limitations as well as its prospectives in the future of gaming.&nbsp;What is Cloud Gaming?&nbsp;Cloud Gaming or Gaming on Demand is a type of service-based gaming wherein video games are run on remote servers and streamed directly to a user’s end device, be it console, PC or mobile. Conversely, traditional gaming requires users to run the video game locally using the power of their own devices.How does it work?Similar to video-on-demand services or a remote desktop, cloud gaming operates by storing and executing games remotely using specific hardware, the provider then streams the game to the player’s device as video. Client software manages the player’s inputs before sending them back to the server to be performed in-game.Pro’s and Con’sThe main benefit of such a service is that it eliminates the user’s need to buy expensive hardware and have the space required to install the games locally on their system. Additionally, Cloud gaming increases the range of available devices from tablets and smartphones to computers.&nbsp;This lighter hardware requirement also comes with other benefits such as increased interactivity for gaming streams. There is the potential for viewers to connect to and participate in the game they are watching their favourite streamer play.&nbsp;Cloud Gaming is not without its flaws though, the main setback for the growth of this style of gaming has and will continue to be is its need for a strong, stable internet connection with a high bandwidth and low latency. Because the user’s inputs need to travel to the server before being input in the game, the potential for disruptive levels of latency is much higher, this makes it an unattractive option for games with high input data and low margins for error such as shooting games and fighting games.&nbsp;Another major factor is the costs of setting up and maintaining the infrastructure required to allow for the service. Data Centers and Server Farms are required to run the games and the connection required for video streaming is not available in all geographic locations. ISPs can also put data caps on their services which will interfere with the user’s ability to play.PresentAfter a fairly unprofitable infancy, the popularity and realisation of cloud gaming has steadily risen with companies such as Sony, Microsoft, Amazon, Google and NVidia launching their own cloud gaming services, PS Now, Xbox Cloud Gaming, Luna, Stadia and GeForce Now respectively. It’s fairly safe to assume that the money these companies can invest in development of such services will lead to optimization and scaling improvements in the near future.FuturePotential improvements in the future could be the implementation of Predictive Input. By using an algorithm to predict the users next inputs, the effects of latency would be minimal. Another possible breakthrough could come in the form of GPU resource sharing. By utilising better resource scheduling algorithms, GPU’s could be more effectively used and their processing power shared between multiple users.&nbsp;

In this article we’ll explore Cloud Gaming, its potential benefits and limitations as well as its prospectives in the future of gaming. 

Cloud Gaming Explained

Is it the future of gaming?

Microsoft Office comes in a variety of options which can; at times, be confusing for users. There are the numbered “Versions” e.g Microsoft Office 2021; and for each of these “versions” there are a set of “Editions” e.g Microsoft Office 2021 Home and Student for MAC. The Version represents the age of the product with numbers closer to the current year being generally newer builds, however, that does not mean that older versions are not updated.In this article we are going to focus on the various “Editions” of Microsoft Office and what you can expect to receive should you decide to purchase them as well as conveying our tips to choosing the best edition for your needs.Microsoft Office Home and StudentThe Home and Student edition of Microsoft Office includes the core Office applications: Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and Excel as well as OneNote. It is, as the name suggests, a lighter edition aimed at students and families who want access to the classic Microsoft Office apps for home use. It is worth mentioning that it is not legal to use this edition for work in businesses and institutions such as schools. It is for home PCs only.Microsoft Office Home and BusinessIf you are a small business owner or are looking for volume licensing for an institution such as a school then Microsoft Home and Business is the edition for you. Similar to Microsoft Home and Student, this edition contains the core applications: Word, Powerpoint and Excel but instead of OneNote, comes with Outlook for email management and organisation.Microsoft Office ProfessionalOffice Professional is a more inclusive edition aimed at small businesses looking to grow. It includes the core apps: Word, Excel and Powerpoint as well as Outlook and for PC it also includes Microsoft Publisher for creating professional layouts and the database management system Microsoft Access.Microsoft Office Professional PlusThis is much the same as Office Professional but includes Skype for Business and is only obtainable in volume licensing. It is for use in large corporations.If you are interested in reading more information about the latest versions and editions of Microsoft Office then check out the products on our website here: <a href="https://www.softflix.com/category/1000004" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204); background-color: transparent;">https://www.softflix.com/category/1000004</a>

Microsoft Office comes in a variety of options which can; at times, be confusing for users. There are the numbered “Versions” e.g Microsoft Office 2021; and for each of these “versions” there are a set of “Editions” e.g Microsoft Office 2021 Home and Student for MAC. 

Microsoft Office: Which edition to choose?

Let's find out which MS Office edition is best suited to your needs

Gaming is more popular than ever and concerns are being raised by stakeholders that the risks to gamers' health may require their attention in the form of gaming limitations. With everyone from casuals to professionals spending an ever-increasing amount of time in front of the screens and devices, we have compiled some considerations to keep you healthy while gaming.It is worth noting that this is NOT a medical article, and the information contained within is intended to raise awareness of your health when playing video games, it should NOT replace or undermine advice from a doctor or medical professional.Physical HealthWe’ll begin by looking at our physical health while gaming. Hours spent focused on a screen with a much larger quantity of visual stimuli than our eyes our designed for can lead to a range of symptoms including, eye strain, blurred or blinking vision and headaches. Similar to long periods of work at a computer screen this can easily be avoided through 5 minute hourly rest periods, good hydration and well adjusted display settings. Many screens also include an UB filter but if yours doesn't it might well be a worthwhile investment.Maintaining good posture is also a must, a craned neck and back creates additional stress on you body and can have permanent effects on your health. While gaming make sure your monitor is at eye level or far enough away that you don't need to look down at it. Invest in an ergonomic chair so that you can maintain an upright spinal position.Tennis elbow and carpal tunnel syndrome are a few of the injuries that can occur due to repetitive strain. There are a variety of products available to help alleviate these issues such as ergonomic keyboards and mice to wrist supports for gamers. You can help yourself without investing though by simply taking regular breaks to stand up, walk around and shake out your arms and legs, this helps your circulatory system and prevents blood pooling in your elbows and feet.It might sound silly but don’t forget to eat, we’ve all been there on the release day of our favorite games. We sit down, log in and get completely lost in a new world, before we know it it’s mid-afternoon and our stomachs are reminding us of our neglect. Again I will stress the importance of taking breaks from gaming at regular intervals. Go make yourself a meal, sit down away from your computer and have a bite to eat and something to drink.Mental HealthWhile it’s easy to spot when your eyes are tired or your back aches, it's much less difficult to explain a restless night’s sleep or a feeling of frustration. Video Games have a huge impact on our mental health, both positively and negatively. Most games both physical and digital rely on a system of risk/cost and reward. They are a permanent quest for self-gratification, we&nbsp;save a village (cost) , we get a cool legendary sword (reward) , we feel good, then we take our shiny new sword and look to repeat that feeling of gratification. In competitive video games when you win you feel fantastic but when you lose you can feel like it wasn’t fair, you wasted time or you are not good enough. These three things can cause anger, disappointment and fear. It is worth noting that many professional gamers, just like athletes, suffer from the third of these feelings often and have professional help in dealing with these feelings.So how can we limit the amount of energy we give these feelings?If you felt that something was unfair it will usually trigger a feeling of anger, often directed at what you perceive as the cause. These can be teammates in a game or the games’ system itself. If you feel this way STOP. Just stop playing the game, take a break, have a few deep breaths. It may also help to analyze your own gameplay, was it really unfair or were there things you could have improved on, did your opponent play well. We shouldn’t leap to discredit others accomplishments just because we lost and we should never go into a new game or continue playing while angry as it will compound itself and you will begin to identify more and more unfair things. Extreme anger can cause people to lash out at those around them, for example friends and loved ones.Disillusionment shortly followed by disappointment occurs when something doesn’t live up to our expectations. If you find yourself frequently feeling this way when playing a game it may well be worth asking yourself if your expectations are reasonable. Do you expect to win every game? Has the game become more than a form of entertainment to you? This unhealthy expectation can be very easily grounded with a little thought. Fundamentally games are entertaining, whether that entertainment is fun, thrilling, challenging etc. depends on the game. Games can be fantastic developmental tools improving a range of skills as well as providing us with many “feelgood” chemicals and are therefore not a waste of time. If after consideration the game still feels that way to you, then perhaps it isn’t the right game for you. You are not bound to playing a single game because you’ve invested too much time/money into it to quit. Cut your losses, stay healthy and find something new.If you are a more serious gamer, streaming for others’ entertainment, competing in esports competitions or even regularly raiding with your guildmates, you may have had the feeling that they don’t believe you are good enough to keep your position. This is known as imposter syndrome and affects people from many fields including professional artists, sportspeople, managers, actors and singers. If you start to feel this way one of the easiest ways to gain closure is to get feedback from your teammates, viewers and guildmates. Ask them if they think you are performing well enough, in most cases they will say you are and in the event that they say you aren’t you have some solid goals to aim for. Leaving this feeling to develop in your mind can be devastating if you are a professional and unhealthy regardless of your level.If at any point you feel like you cannot help yourself with these issues please contact a medical professional immediately, you are not alone in feeling that way and there are many points of contact to get you back to your best. Have a happy healthy summer of gaming.Please remember that this is NOT a medical article, and the information contained within is intended to raise awareness of your health when playing video games, it should NOT replace or undermine advice from a doctor or medical professional.

Gaming is more popular than ever and concerns are being raised by stakeholders that the risks to gamers' health may require their attention in the form of gaming limitations. With everyone from casuals to professionals spending an ever-increasing amount of time in front of the screens and devices, we have compiled some considerations to keep you healthy while gaming.

Healthy Gaming Guide

A healthy gamer is a happy gamer

With more and more work being performed remotely, the demand for cyber security solutions has dramatically increased. It’s no surprise then that companies are adopting zero trust, SASE and XDR at accelerated rates to meet these demands. In this article we’ll explain what each of these are and how they can help protect you from cyber attacks.What is Zero Trust?As the name suggests Zero Trust is a security concept formed around the belief that an organisation should not trust anything either within or without its perimeters and should instead verify everything which tries to access its systems before it grants permission.For example if Jim from IT is trying to access the system, it will need Jim to prove that he is himself, it will also need to check if Jim is trying to connect from a secure endpoint and what permissions does Jim have as a user. In order to do all this Zero Trust requires existing technologies for example, analytics, encryption, IAM and multifactor authentication.How do I start a Zero Trust Environment?Many IT shops are already offering pieces of Zero Trust which usually include multi-factor authentication, permissioning and IAM. However experts say it requires more than just getting the correct technologies, it’s a matter of mindset. The company needs to fully embrace the idea and this is not a quick process, especially for those using legacy systems. A move to Zero Trust should be a multiphase project which will span over the course of multiple years.What is XDR (extended detection and response)?Through XDR’s combination of network traffic analysis(NTA), endpoint detection and response(EDR), security orchestration, automation and response(SOAR) and security information and event management(SIEM), security data is centralized. This grants you transnetwork visibility as well as improved detection and response via the correlation of threat intelligence across security products.&nbsp;Why your Enterprise needs XDRAs your digital assets grow, so too do the threats to their security. As adversaries use increasingly complex TTP’s to bypass and exploit traditional security controls and more work is done from home, security teams are being stretched thin with limited resources. XDR provides SOCs with a platform which unites all relevant security data as well as revealing advanced adversaries.What is Secure Access Service Edge (SASE)?A combination of WAN and security functions such as cloud access security broker (CASB), secure web gateway (SWG) and zero-trust network access (ZTNA), SASE supports the ever changing secure access needs of a business. SASE is capable of continuously monitoring sessions for trust and risk levels, decrypting data at line speed and identifying malware and sensitive data.

With more and more work being performed remotely, the demand for cyber security solutions has dramatically increased. It’s no surprise then that companies are adopting zero trust, SASE and XDR at accelerated rates to meet these demands. In this article we’ll explain what each of these are and how they can help protect you from cyber attacks.

The need for Cyber Security in 2022

Find out why security is so important in 2022

With E3 officially cancelled for 2022 we’ve compiled a schedule for this summer’s gaming events so you can stay up to date on what’s new in the gaming world in 2022.Summer Games Fest (June 9th)This year’s Summer Games Fest, hosted by Geoff Keighley, will kick things off from June 9th at 2pm EST. You can tune in to watch on YouTube, Twitch, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. We can expect to see a variety of reveals and announcements from the cross-industry showcase as well as interviews at the Day of the Devs indie showcase.&nbsp;Xbox + Bethesda Games Showcase (June 12th)Xbox + Bethesda have revealed the date of their annual games reveal on June 12th at 19:00 CEST.While nothing has been officially announced yet, we can expect to see more of the highly anticipated Starfield and Redfall as well as hopefully getting some insight into Fable(next gen) and Indianna Jones. Other potential titles could be Forza, Avowed, The Outer Worlds 2 and more information about Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2.Quakecon 2022 (August 18th-20th)While Bethesda hasn’t revealed much about Quakecon this year, we know that it will once again be an online-only event with an announcement of their intention to return to Dallas for Quakecon 2023. What we know for certain is that there will be new games, hardware and of course the BYOC contests.Gamescom 2022 (August 24th-28th)Gamescom 2022 will be one of the biggest gaming events this year taking place in person in Cologne, Germany and digitally via streaming services. Guaranteed to be packed full of various community activities such as cosplay competitions, esports and hands-on gameplay there should be something for everyone. Geoff Keighley will grace us with his presence for the second time, hosting Opening Night Live, we can expect tons of gaming news, trailers and announcements as well as interviews with some of the industry’s leading devs.Pax WEST (September 2nd-5th)Pax WEST will be returning this year with an in-person event hosted at the Seattle Convention Center. The biggest gaming convention on the West Coast will be chocked full of vendor and hands-on booths, esports events and more. For those of you who are interested in a less digital gaming experience there’s everything from tabletop games to MTG, the event is truly a celebration of all things gaming.

With E3 officially cancelled for 2022 we’ve compiled a schedule for this summer’s gaming events so you can stay up to date on what’s new in the gaming world in 2022.

E3 alternatives this summer

Unsure of how to get your latest gaming news this summer?

What is an NFT?NFT stands for non-fungible token, what that means is that it is one-of-a-kind. Unlike a bitcoin which can be traded for another bitcoin, leaving you with the exact same thing. If something is non-fungible it means that even if you exchanged or traded it you would have something completely different as a result. Think of it as a sort of one-off trading card.How do NFT’s work?Most NFT’s are part of the Ethereum blockchain, which is a type of cryptocurrency akin to bitcoin, the difference is that NFT’s in the Ethereum blockchain store additional information which makes them work differently to other coins.&nbsp;What is a blockchain?A block chain is an ever increasing list of records named “blocks”, using cryptography they are linked together. The reason it’s a chain is because each block holds information about the previous block’s cryptographic hash as well as its own timestamp and transaction data. This makes retroactively modifying the data in any given block extremely difficult without altering every subsequent block, therefore the longer the blockchain, the more secure the data becomes.What are NFT’s for?The main hype surrounding NFT’s is its application in the world of digital art sales. An NFT can be anything digital, from pictures, meme’s and songs, to tweets. Think of it like a kind of unique digital collectible.Is it worth investing in?Here’s the catch, although a person can buy an NFT and in some cases pay a lot of money for it, the digital file which the NFT gives ownership for can still be copied by others as many times as they want. The NFT itself is unique and only the buyer can prove ownership of a file but they don’t gain the copyright. It’s much the same as buying an original Van Gogh, other people can still get a print, or reproduction of it. The difference is with an original painting you have the physical copy and can touch, smell and generally appreciate it, with digital content a copy is for all intents and purposes the same as the original.So really the main reason to invest in an NFT is to financially support the creator.&nbsp;Will NFT’s rise in value?This is the question that all interested parties are speculating: will the value of an NFT purchased today be worth more in the future? Is it going to be the digital equivalent of collecting Art, Antiques? It’s honestly anyone’s guess at this point in time.

NFT stands for non-fungible token. If something is non-fungible it means that even if you exchanged or traded it you would have something completely different as a result. 

Guide to NFTs

Can’t get your head around NFTs? We’re here to help

A Short Guide on NFTs

Video Games have often been a media scapegoat for increases in crime, especially violent crime. Many Parents and Teachers view them as a time wasting device and detrimental to a child’s development, however many studies have shown that playing video games is in fact a fantastic developmental tool.Here are a few areas that playing Video Games can help to develop.Hand-Eye coordinationMany games, especially those in first-person, require the player to move their character through a space with one stick and control the character's line of sight with the other. In order to perform this action, especially at the speeds required in a first-person shooter, the player must keep track of the relative position of the character, the speed and direction the character is moving in and where they want their character to end up. At the same time they also need to be aware of enemies and their direction of movement, any obstacles on the horizon and whether they are hitting the enemy they are aiming at. As you might imagine, keeping track of all of this and inputting the necessary hand movements requires an enormous amount of hand-eye coordination as well as improved spatial awareness. Research suggests that Video Games can contribute to improvements in Spatial, Iconic and Visual attention skills.Planning, Resource Management and LogisticsIn almost every game the player is working with some type of resource, currency or commodity that they are required to manage and spend as efficiently as possible. Having access to such digital assets as well as receiving the necessary sense of value through character investment is a fantastic tool for teaching players the real-world skills. It is worth noting that many planning and architecture industry professionals were inspired to follow their career path by playing games like SimCity.PerseveranceIn this day and age the ability to persevere is essential, jobs are less stable and we are facing more daily challenges than ever before. Through Video Games a player can enhance their ability to persevere by repeatedly challenging difficult content and finding a strategy and the will to overcome it. In a world that is driven by unrealistic expectations and their frequent revelations we need these fundamental skills of patience and perseverance.Inductive Reasoning and Testing HypothesesA professor of education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, James Paul Gee, compared playing a video game to working through a science problem. Players are constantly coming up with and testing various hypotheses during the course of a game. Which weapon will be most effective? What is the safest path? How can I earn more gold? After coming up with a hypothesis the player must then endeavor to test it against the game and analyze the results. As goal-driven experiences, Video Games are an invaluable learning tool.Accurate Recognition of Visual InformationDoctors who spent at least three hours a week playing video games made about 37 % fewer mistakes in surgery and performed the task 27% faster than non-gaming surgeons, according to a study from Beth Israel Medical Center, NY. It is believed that people playing Video Games regularly, register visual information more successfully and are faster visual learners as a result. These players are also more resistant to the negative effects of perceptual interference, and are therefore able to learn for a longer period of time in distracting environments.

Video Games have often been a media scapegoat for increases in crime, especially violent crime. Many Parents and Teachers view them as a time wasting device and detrimental to a child’s development, however many studies have shown that playing video games is in fact a fantastic developmental tool.

5 Skills that can be improved by playing Video Games

Are Video Games really as bad as people say?

The sun is out, the birds are singing and it’s about that time of the year where people become more aware of how dirty their windows are. So after you’ve polished every surface and decluttered your wardrobe, what next? Give your PC a spring clean this year using our handy guide.Ensure your OS and Software is up-to-dateTo help make sure your PC is working efficiently and safely make sure you have the latest versions of your operating system and software. In Windows 10 this can be done at a few clicks of a button.First, open Windows Update by clicking the Start button, type Update in the Start Menu search bar and select Check for Updates. In the window that opens click the “Check for Updates” button then wait while Windows looks for the latest updates for your computer. If any updates are found, click “Install Updates”.Clean up your Web BrowserHackers use many methods to attempt to gain access to your PC or network. By using a backdoor or loophole created by outdated browser extensions and plugins they can put your system at risk. To avoid this make sure to remove all of your old browser extensions.If you are using Microsoft Edge open your browser and right-click the Extensions Icon(puzzle piece) next to the address bar. Select “Manage Extensions” then select “remove” under the extension you want to remove.Delete Superfluous SoftwareIf you find that your PC is running slowly or you have many programs that you no longer use or have need of, then it’s high time to remove them.&nbsp;In order to do so:Open the start menu and go to the “Control Panel”. From here go to “Programs” then to “Programs and Features”. Locate the program you wish to remove and right-click it. Select “Uninstall” from the drop down menu.Remove Unnecessary FilesBy using your PC regularly you will amass a large amount of "junk" data that can slow down your computer’s performance. In order to remove this excess, head to “Settings” in the Start menu. From there go to “Storage” and click on “Temporary Files”. Within this window make sure that only the boxes you want to remove are checked and then click on “Remove files”.

Give your PC a spring clean this year using our handy guide.

PC Spring Cleaning Guide

Do some digital dusting this spring

With a few months of pretty big releases behind us May is a fairly quiet month on the gaming front. However if you are still looking for something to scratch that gaming itch we’ve compiled a schedule for some of the titles you might have overlooked.May 3 – Dungeon Defenders: Awakened – PS4Jump into some cooperative online tower defence madness as DD: Awakened finally comes to PS4. If you’re a fan of looting, shooting, hacking, slashing and most importantly strategizing then this might be right up your street.May 5 – Warhammer 40,000: Chaos Gate - Daemonhunters – PCFans of the Warhammer series have yet another title to sink their teeth into with Chaos Gate - Daemonhunters. Lead the Grey Knights on a mission to purge a galactic plague in this fast-paced, turn-based, tactical RPG.May 5 – Trek to Yomi – PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series XExplore Edo period Japan in this adventure RPG. The game’s black and white palette accentuates the nostalgic feel of this game as you switch between a free roaming exploration mode and side-scrolling combat. The combat is intuitive and rewarding as you plan which methods of fighting are best suited to your opponent’s intentions.&nbsp;May 10 – Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising – PC, Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series XSet in the same world as Eiyuden Chronicle, Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising weaves together the pre-war tales of various characters in the series. The game will introduce a portion of Eiyuden Chronicle’s cast of characters in an original story with thrilling action and engaging town-upgrading elements.&nbsp;May 10 – Salt and Sacrifice – PC, PS4, PS5The latest title from the makers of Salt and Sanctuary. This side scrolling action RPG pits you against Mages - otherworldly embodiments of elemental energy. With drop in drop out online coop you can team up and loot up with you friends as a wide variety of classes.&nbsp;May 10 – We Were Here Forever – PC, PS4, PS5 Xbox One, Xbox Series XImprisoned inside Castle Rock you and your ally must work out how you got there and how you can get out. This coop puzzle adventure by Total Mayhem Games will surely keep your brain ticking over this month.May 11 – Brigandine: The Legend of Runersia – PCThe Legend of Runersia is the sequel to Brigandine: The Legend of Forsena which was published back in 1998. The game features nostalgic graphics and retains its core system. The concept is a simple one: the land is divided between 6 warring factions, your goal is to lead a Kingdom to the unification of the land. Conscript beasts, monsters and units to battle your way to victory. Fans of games such as Suikoden or the Dynasty Warriors Empires series should definitely check this out.May 12 – The Centennial Case: A Shijima Story – PC, Switch, PS4, PS5One of the most unique games on the list is The Centennial Case: A Shijima Story. The Shijima family have suffered a chain of inexplicable deaths over the past century. When Haruka Kagami, a mystery novelist, visits the Shiijmas, she finds herself taking on four different murder cases - occurring at different points in time. Use your deductive skills in this baffling live-action mystery adventure.&nbsp;May 13 – Evil Dead: The Game – PC, Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series XProbably one of the most anticipated titles this May is Evil Dead: The Game. Much like Dead by Daylight et al. Evil Dead lets you drop into the shoes of the series’ iconic figure Ash as well as his friends in a multiplayer survival setting. Fight to survive or hunt down your opponents, level up your class skill trees and gear up; it’s going to be one hell of a night.May 19 – Deadcraft – PC, Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series XAn intriguing twist on the zombie survival genre, in Deadcraft you play as a half-zombie. Your goal is to build up your army of undead and lay siege to humanity's last beacon of hope. Kill zombies, collect their guts and use them to craft your own flesh eating horde.May 24 – Hardspace Shipbreaker– PCHardspace Shipbreaker is a first person simulation game in which you play as an indebted Lynx Corporation employee tasked with the job of salvaging procedurally generated abandoned spaceships in order to pay off your debt. Every ship you salvage has potential life threatening hazards which must be avoided, fortunately enough, your character has a plethora of gadgets to help you in your task which can be unlocked and upgraded as you salvage more parts from ships.May 27 – Kao the Kangaroo – PC, Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series XWhile it won’t be winning any awards for most original concept this May, if you want to relax with some retro anthropomorphic, crate breaking, puzzle solving action or you simply want something to play with your kids then Kao the Kangaroo might be just what the doctor ordered.

If you're looking for something to scratch that gaming itch this May, we’ve compiled a schedule for some of the titles you might have overlooked.

Best Games of May 2022

Don’t know what to play this May?

The changes to the way we work thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic have been positively received by both employers and employees alike. As such it is very likely that said changes will stick around long after the pandemic ends. In this article, we will explore a few of the positive environmental impacts of working from home.Reduced emissions and time savedYou wake up, eat your breakfast and get ready for work. As your go to grab your car keys you let out a sigh, as images of sitting in deadlocked traffic jams flash through your mind. This was a typical morning for many of us, an unavoidable daily torment. However, by working from home, we have found a much-needed alternative. Not only does working from home save us up to 15% of our daily time allowance. It also reduces the number of cars on the road, resulting in reduced carbon emissions not only from our own vehicles but also from the vehicles that need to be on the road as they no longer have to contend with as much traffic.Digitization of documentsBy digitizing our documents we can cut down on unnecessary paper usage. Not only does this have a positive impact on the environment but it also streamlines many previously time-consuming processes. We no longer need to print and sign paper documentation before sending it to receive another signature and waiting for the fully signed document to return to us a week later. And although this by no means accounts for the majority of our yearly paper consumption it’s certainly a step in the right direction.Reduced need for Office spaceWith fewer people going to the office on a daily basis, it follows that we don’t need as much office space to house employees. It is very possible to reduce the area that offices are currently consuming, making way for greener alternatives for example public parks and green spaces. The benefits of having green areas within a city are numerous, from reduced air pollution to improved water management, not to mention the positive effects they have on people’s state of mind and sense of wellbeing.More free time to make greener choicesAs we mentioned earlier the average telecommuter will be saving up to 15% of their free time. What we choose to do with that free time dictates its environmental value. If we spend those precious hours watching another episode on Netflix with all the lights switched on it may even have a negative impact on the environment. However, if we instead invest the time we save on commuting to prepare ourselves healthier meals or to organize our waste disposal at home then the positive impact will be multiplied.

The changes to the way we work thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic have been positively received by both employers and employees alike. As such it is very likely that said changes will stick around long after the pandemic ends. In this article, we will explore a few of the positive environmental impacts of working from home.

Work from Home. Save the planet?

How does working from Home affect our environment?

The Environmental Impact of Home Office

With the recent release of Windows 11 and a plethora of new video game titles just around the corner, gamers may be wondering whether to update or stick with windows 10. In this article, we’ll take a look at the pros and cons of each and what it means for gamers worldwide.Windows 10Most of us are now running Windows 10, and after a bumpy and somewhat controversial start, we’ve finally got our hands on a decent system for our gaming needs, with everything from DirectX 12 Raytracing as well as advanced APIs for maximizing your performance.Windows 10 also offered us a technological leap with connectivity between PC and Xbox Series X, with the Xbox game bar giving us tools and widgets like “looking for group”.With that being said, many gamers found their experiences to be subpar and needed to find manual fixed to improve their performance and fps with fixes such as turning on windows game mode, lowering their resolution and overclocking their graphics cards.Windows 11So what’s on the horizon with the “free” Windows 11 update? I use the word free loosely as currently there are a few requirements that Microsoft is enforcing in order to install and use Windows 11, the first of these is the necessity of a TPM 2.0 chip, which stands for Trusted Platform Module, and help improve data encryption to protect against external attacks on your system, however, most PC’s outside of recently built custom gaming PCs don’t have one of these, therefore in order to upgrade for free people will need to buy either a new chip or new motherboard in the event that theirs doesn’t have space for a TPM Chip.Another strange requirement is that users will need to make sure that their system has secure boot enabled by accessing their BIOS, which honestly a lot of users won’t know how to do/ feel comfortable doing.But with those things out of the way let’s take a look at the shiny new features Microsoft is offering us in its newest release.Auto HDR in Window 11 allows players to add HDR to SDR games more naturally, without it looking as though it had a bad filter applied to it. We can expect to enjoy richer visuals in our favourite titles with no effort.Direct Storage has made its way from the XBOX Series X for those with PCs that have an NVMe SSD allowing data to be loaded directly onto the system’s GPU.Android App integration will finally be made available on Windows 11, which means it will no longer be necessary to use an android emulator to play your favourite mobile games on PC,&nbsp;one thing to note however is that Microsoft has partnered with Amazon for this particular feature so it won’t be via GooglePlay.Which to choose?If you have all of the requirements for Windows 11 already, then the free update is a no-brainer. If however, like many of us you are using older tech then it may be worth sticking with Windows 10 until either, the requirements are lowered/standardized or you have the money for the new hardware.

With the recent release of Windows 11 and a plethora of new video game titles just around the corner, gamers may be wondering whether to update or stick with windows 10. In this article, we’ll take a look at the pros and cons of each and what it means for gamers worldwide.

Windows 10 or 11 for gaming?

Let's explore which Windows is best for you

Windows 10 vs Windows 11. Which system is better for gamers?

Windows Server 2022 is Microsoft latest installment of Windows Server, it comes in three editions:Datacenter&nbsp;- for highly virtualized data centers and cloud environmentsStandard&nbsp;- for physical or minimally virtualized environmentsEssentials&nbsp;- for Small businesses with up to 25 users and 50 devicesBoth “Datacenter” and “Standard” editions require server CALs and are Core-based licenses.What do you get with Windows Server 2022?&nbsp;Secured-core ServerApply advanced multi-layer protection against threats easily with a secured-core server. Following the Secured-core PC, Microsoft has introduced Secured-core Server which they say is built on three key pillars: simplified security, advanced protection, and preventative defense.Greater Transport SecurityThe latest Windows Server allows for secure connectivity to business-critical assets. Thanks to TLS 1.3 encryption being enabled by default, Windows Server 2022 offers an additional layer of security during transport.&nbsp;Azure ArcAzure Arc grants users with a simpler, faster and more consistent way to manage data and develop apps. Thanks to Azure Arc you can easily organize, govern, and secure Windows, Linux, SQL Server, and Kubernetes clusters across data centers, the edge, and multi-cloud environments on-premises.Windows Admin Center&nbsp;By utilizing the latest version of Windows Admin Center, the locally deployed, browser-based app for managing Windows servers, clusters, and hyper-converged infrastructure, users acquire better virtual-machine management as well as the ability to update .NET applications with the new containerization tool.Storage Migration ServiceStorage Migration Service makes it easier to migrate the storage to Windows Server or to Azure. It provides a graphical tool for users to inventory data on Windows, Linux, and NetApp CIFS servers. It subsequently transfers the data to newer servers or to Azure virtual machines. Thanks to the new supported scenario in Windows Server 2022, users can migrate file servers from on-premises to Azure.

Microsoft Windows Server 2022 - What is it? - SOFTFLIX

What will Server 2022 give you?

Windows Server 2022

Many of you will already be familiar with MS Excel, but for those of you who aren’t, it’s part of the Microsoft Office package and allows users to create spreadsheets, create graphs and organize data.However most Excel users are only making use of approximately 20% of the program’s functions.Beginner TipsWe will start with the beginners, these tips should help accelerate your learning process and increase your workflow.TIP 1: Selecting an entire row or column with keyboard shortcutsAre you still wasting your time manually selecting rows and columns? Save yourself some time by using&nbsp;CTRL+SPACE to select a column&nbsp;or&nbsp;SHIFT+SPACE to select a row.TIP 2:&nbsp;Finding and Replacing DataIf you’re someone who is working with large quantities of data, finding what you need can be a struggle. Fortunately&nbsp;CTRL+F&nbsp;will open up a search window allowing you to simply type the word or phrase you are looking for.&nbsp;Once you locate what you’re looking for via&nbsp;Select&nbsp;or&nbsp;Select All&nbsp;you can go to the&nbsp;Replace&nbsp;tab to make any amendments you desire.TIP 3: Hiding Data from the worksheetWhen dealing with your database you might need to hide some of the data, either because of visual clutter or maybe you need to print it. In order to do this&nbsp;Select&nbsp;the cells you want to hide and then&nbsp;Right Click. From the menu that opens go to&nbsp;Format Cells, this will open a window in the&nbsp;Number&nbsp;tab go to&nbsp;Custom&nbsp;then type “;;;”, click&nbsp;OK&nbsp;and you’re done.Intermediate TipsThese next tips are aimed at intermediate Excel users with a working knowledge of the basic functions and shortcuts available to them.TIP 4: Inserting or Deleting entire rows and columns using shortcutsThis tip is another great time saver, adding and deleting rows and columns is one of the most commonly performed tasks when using Excel, saving yourself even a few seconds per action adds up over the course of a day, week and month.&nbsp;In order to&nbsp;add&nbsp;a new Row(beneath) or Column(right) select a row/column and press&nbsp;CTRL+SHIFT+PLUS(+).In order to&nbsp;delete&nbsp;a selected row/column press&nbsp;CTRL+SHIFT+MINUS(-).TIP 5: Autosum ShortcutThere are various methods of calculating the sum of a data range, however if you want to save yourself valuable time and quickly calculate the sum of a range of data simply select the desired range and press&nbsp;ALT + EQUAL(=), that’s all there is to it.TIP 6: Removing Duplicate Data Points and SetsOften, when working with big volumes of data, you will find that you come across duplicates. Attempting to manually locate and remove every duplicate entry is extremely strenuous and time consuming. Fortunately there’s a much simpler way to clean up your lists.In order to remove duplicates you first need to&nbsp;highlight the column or row&nbsp;you would like to remove the duplicates from. The next step is to go to the&nbsp;DATA&nbsp;tab at the top of the page and select&nbsp;“Remove Duplicates”&nbsp;found in the&nbsp;data tools&nbsp;section. This will open a pop-up asking you to confirm the data you are working on, all that’s left is to click&nbsp;OK&nbsp;and you’re done.&nbsp;&nbsp;TIP 7: Transposing Rows into ColumnsThere will be times when you will need to transform the data in a row into a new column, copying and pasting each value individually can be very time consuming. In order to save yourself valuable time you can use the transpose feature.The first thing you need to do is&nbsp;Select&nbsp;the data you wish to transpose.Next press&nbsp;CTRL+C&nbsp;to copy the data.&nbsp;After that,&nbsp;right-click&nbsp;on the cell where you would like the transposed data to begin and select the&nbsp;special paste&nbsp;option&nbsp;“Transpose”.Advanced TipsThe next tips we’ll cover are for people who are very familiar with excel and use it professionally, these are tips on how to better use Excel’s advanced features.TIP 8: Using Conditional FormattingConditional formatting is the best way to highlight specific data across your spreadsheet, whether they’re outlying values, commonalities or anything else that you may be looking for.In order to do this you first need to&nbsp;select&nbsp;the cell group you wish to format.The next step is to select&nbsp;“Conditional Formatting”&nbsp;under the&nbsp;HOME&nbsp;tab.From the&nbsp;drop down menu&nbsp;you will find various options including the ability to create your own rules.Once you have selected or created a rule that you want click&nbsp;OK&nbsp;to begin formatting the cells.In order to remove formatting, follow the previous steps but select&nbsp;“Remove Formatting”&nbsp;from the dropdown menu instead.TIP 9: Maintaining a formula’s values with $In Excel the purpose of the dollar sign in any given formula is to ensure that the exact values of the formula remain the same irrelevant of its position within the spreadsheet.By default cell references in Excel formulae are relative. For example if my reference points are A1 and B3 the formula will look like this =SUM(A1,B3). If I now move this formula to a cell 2 columns to the right the formula will be =SUM(C1,D3).To make this formula absolute we need to&nbsp;insert $&nbsp;into the formula&nbsp;preceding the values&nbsp;we would like to fix. In this example the formula would look like this =SUM($A$1,$B$3). Now no matter where the formula is moved it will always be calculating the sum of the same cells.TIP 10: Using the COUNTIF formula to ease your workloadBy using Excel’s Countif function, users can easily find how many times a word or number appears within a data set.To do this we need to use the following formula&nbsp;=COUNTIF(range,criteria).For example if we want to find out how many times the word CAT appears in a range of data from A1 to C5 the formula would be the following, =COUNTIF(A1:C5,”CAT”).

Today our expert team will give you 10 useful tips to have you using Excel like a pro.

Excel Pro Tips

Use MS Excel like a pro with these tips.

10 Pro Tips for Microsoft Excel

The world we live in today is struggling to keep up with the ever-increasing demands that humanity is placing on it. Global Warming, deforestation, islands of plastic in the ocean, these are just a few of the significant impacts that our actions are having on the planet. In order to attempt to prevent irreversible damage to our environment, people are starting to take definitive action. But why leave all the hard work to a handful of people?At SOFTFLIX we recognize the impact that our actions have on the environment. As such we remain vigilant in our efforts to reduce our waste production. The products we provide are digital meaning less vehicles on the road producing emissions while they&nbsp;transport our goods,&nbsp;less plastic packaging used to advertise and protect the products,&nbsp;and&nbsp;less paper and ink used printing labels,&nbsp;paperwork,&nbsp;and&nbsp;invoices.&nbsp;The International Transport Forum(ITF) estimates that commercial freight transport accounts for 7% of global carbon emissions and 30% of all CO² transport emissions. The purchase of digital products will aid in reducing the number of commercial freight vehicles on the road and the effects will be twofold, by reducing the number of vehicles on the road we can also ease traffic congestion thus further reducing the amount of time each vehicle spends in transit.With paper accounting for 26% of the total waste in landfill sites producing toxic methane as it rots, it’s a problem we can't afford to ignore. While we can’t completely remove the need to use paper, we can significantly reduce the amount we use and waste, especially in the digital age we live in. One of the main contributors of our paper wastage is in packaging, that’s why purchasing digital products when possible is a great way for you to help the environment.Every year we are consuming more and more fossil fuels in order to satiate our ever-growing consumption of plastics. We produce more than 360 million tons of plastic every year with that figure set to rise unless we do something about it. Not only does it pollute the air with toxic fumes, it also distributes toxic materials into our soil and water as it decomposes. Our oceans have entire islands of waste plastic floating on the surface, plastic that could have been repurposed, reducing our need to produce more.&nbsp;Not only can you help save the future of our planet by going digital, you can also save yourself money as all of the costs relating to the production of packaging, transport, and shipping are removed. We pride ourselves on giving our customers great value for money as well as minimizing our environmental footprint.&nbsp;

The world we live in today is struggling to keep up with the ever-increasing demands that humanity is placing on it. Global Warming, deforestation, islands of plastic in the ocean, these are just a few of the significant impacts that our actions are having on the planet.

Protect the Environment

Let's help each other to help our planet

Protect the Environment with SOFTFLIX

<a href="https://www.softflix.com/category/1000004" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Microsoft Office</a> has a plethora of useful programs to help you with everything from data analysis to promoting your products. Creating a Powerpoint presentation can be an incredible way to support your ideas, but a bad presentation can also detract from what you’re saying or outright cripple your credibility. To help you avoid that, we’ve prepared a list of useful tools you can use to up your presentation game in Powerpoint 365.DesignerA designer brings creativity to your fingertips. Whenever you insert an image into a slide, the Design Ideas panel will open on the right-hand side, providing you with ideas for slide layouts. The feature was created with the help of professional graphic designers and will offer different layouts based on the image's content.Smart LookupSmart Lookup is a fantastic feature for those of us who want to do online research for our presentations on the fly. This handy time-saving feature can be used by right-clicking a word or group of words and selecting Smart Lookup from the drop-down menu. Powerpoint will then search bing for relevant results and Wikipedia entries as well as give you the option to define the selected word.QuickStarterThe QuickStarter feature is designed for those of us who hate to start with a blank canvas. In order to use it select QuickStarter when you <a href="https://www.softflix.com/products/powerPoint-2019" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">create a new presentation</a>, type in the topic of your presentation, then select a subtopic from the list provided. QuickStarter will then suggest slides that might be suited to your presentation topic, here you can select any you like and discard any that don’t suit you.New chartsMicrosoft Powerpoint 365 comes with 8 new types of charts to insert into your presentations, they are Treemap, Sunburst, Waterfall, Histogram, Pareto, Box &amp; Whisker, Funnel, and Map. In order to add any type of chart to your presentation, first click, Insert &gt; Chart. Next, select the type of chart you’d like to insert from the left and then which variation you’d like from the top. After you click ok, the new chart will be inserted into your slide and a chart editor window will open, allowing you to change the values as you see fit.Morphing&nbsp;This feature lets you show motion in transitions and within slides without the need for the Animations tab. To use it, first, duplicate an existing slide: Select the slide, then, on the Home tab, click the down arrow next to New Slide &gt; Duplicate Selected Slides.After making editions to the elements within the duplicate slide, select Morph from the Transitions tab, and PowerPoint automatically creates an animated transition between the slides. During your presentation, it will look like a single slide is morphing.Real-time collabOne of the most essential features of Powerpoint 365 for many of us is the ability to work in real-time on a project with our co-workers. Microsoft has called this Co-Authoring and in order to make use of this feature the presentation must be saved in OneDrive and you need to be logged in to your Microsoft 365 account.&nbsp;Make sure that AutoSave is enabled, then simply click the Share button at the top right and enter the email addresses of the people you’d like to get involved with.Version HistoryVersion History is a great tool for tracking changes to a document. To access it you must click the file name that appears at the top of the screen. A drop-down menu will appear with the file location and version history. Click on Version History and a new pane will appear on the right-hand side of the screen with a list of all previous versions of the file and when they were saved. Click any of these versions to open them in a new window allowing you to copy information to your current slide or even completely overwrite it.Zoom for non-sequential presentationsA new feature is the ability to create a slide allowing you to zoom to other slides in your presentation, this is a fantastic tool for backtracking and summarizing your presentation points.&nbsp;In order to do this simply go to&nbsp;Insert &gt; Zoom, you will then see 3 possible options:<ul><li>Summary Zoom&nbsp;- as the name suggests, will create a slide featuring the slides you select and allow you to zoom to each with a&nbsp;simple click during your presentation.</li><li>Slide Zoom&nbsp;- This allows you to add a sequential chain of slides that you can zoom to your current presentation slide. This is handy for quickly recapping information in a small slideshow.</li><li>Section Zoom&nbsp;- If you have already created sections in your presentation, this will allow you to jump to the selected section from your current slide.</li></ul>

Creating a Powerpoint presentation can be an incredible way to support your ideas, but a bad presentation can also detract from what you’re saying or outright cripple your credibility. To help you avoid that, we’ve prepared a list of useful tools you can use to up your presentation game in Powerpoint 365.

Useful Features of Microsoft Powerpoint 365

Understanding Powerpoint 365

How to choose the best software for your company?In order to help foster growth within your business, investments into new software solutions are a necessary step, however trying to decide what software aligns with the way your company operates, is capable of improving your company’s workflow and fits best within your price range can be a difficult task.If you feel like tasks are frequently exceeding your timeline estimates or problems regularly appear, it might be time to take a look at what you’re already working with and assess which areas of your current setup can be improved upon. Try to keep an open mind, as just because you’re used to something, it doesn’t mean it can’t be improved upon.Businesses rise and fall on a daily basis due to changes in the market, so the importance of looking forward in terms of your software choices is key to future-proofing your company. Ask yourself how quickly your company is developing and whether your current software will be able to keep up with this growth.Throughout the course of this article we’ll provide you with some tips to help you make these important decisions.Who are the affected parties?&nbsp;The first thing to consider before making any further decisions is your team. It is essential to involve the people who will be affected by the new software in the decision-making process.Consult your Employees - These people are using your current software on a daily basis, you can ask them for their feedback on what works and what things they would change.Facilitate your Managers - It is unlikely that your managers will be using the software in the same way as your other employees, they will need to be provided with adequate reporting and analysis tools in order to oversee their teams.Consider your Customers - While it’s unlikely that you will directly ask your customers about changes to your company’s software, it is, as with any business decision, imperative that your customers are at the forefront when making a decision.What do you already have?Before you can decide what you need it is important to review what you already have. Take time to look at your current processes and ask if they are suitably streamlined.It is also a good opportunity to work through the pro’s and con’s of your current software in order to identify problem areas as well as things you would prefer to keep unchanged if possible. You can assign these things priorities as you list them for example “must have”, “preferred” and “additional”. This will help you and your team to clearly define your expectations of your future software.Ask othersNow that you have a defined idea of what you need from your software it’s time to perform your own research. It’s easy to access public opinions and reviews online. Take a moment to read these reviews as well as checking what software choices your competitors are making.You can also ask most software providers for their professional advice, as they are best equipped to help you solve any doubts and queries you may have regarding your software choices. You can also consult with either your in-house tech team or your external IT support partner in order to make sure that security standards will be upheld.Demo’s and trainingOnce you’ve decided on your software, see if it’s available as a demo version in order to verify that it fits your company’s needs before you make a monetary investment.&nbsp;The final step is to provide your staff with adequate training in the new software to make sure the transition runs as smoothly as possible. Be sure to hold the training in advance so that you don’t have to sacrifice productivity during the first few weeks.

Description of the best software for companies. 

How to choose the best Software for your Company

Understanding the best options of software for your comapny.

How to choose the best software for your company?

Windows 11 is the new operating system from Microsoft. Packed with tons of new features, the goal of Windows 11 is to create a personalized space for users from all walks of life. Thus, Microsoft Windows 11 is compatible with a wide range of devices, spanning Surface devices, PCs, laptops and more. The new Windows 11 operating system offers optimum computer support to all users. Setup multiple fully customized desktops to easily change your computer to fit your current needs, whether you’re in the office, designing or gaming. Windows 11’s system requirements have hardly changed from Windows 10. However it is worth noting that a TPM 2.0 is required as Microsoft has greatly improved Windows 11’s security.

Everything you need to work effectively. \nOffice Home and Business 2021 MAC is designed for families and small businesses looking to use classic Office applications and access to email. 

Windows 11 is the new operating system from Microsoft. Packed with tons of new features, the goal of Windows 11 is to create a personalized space for users from all walks of life. 

Everything you need to work effectively. \nOffice Home and Business 2021 is designed for families and small businesses looking to use classic Office applications and access to email. 

Everything you need to work effectively. Microsoft Office 2021 Professional Plus is designed for families and small businesses looking to use classic Office applications and access to email.

Everything you need to work effectively. Office Home & Student 2021 is for students and families who want to use classic Office applications such as Word, Excel, and PowerPoint for Windows 11 and Windows 10. One-time purchase installed on 1 PC or Mac for home use or at school.

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