Technology - Google News

iPhone 11 Pre-Order Deals: Save On Apple's Latest Smartphones Through AT&T, Verizon, and More - Mac Rumors
Here’s The Best ‘Borderlands 3’ Character For Solo Players - Forbes
Microsoft's latest fix for Windows 10 breaks something else - TechSpot

iPhone 11 Pre-Order Deals: Save On Apple's Latest Smartphones Through AT&T, Verizon, and More - Mac Rumors

Posted: 13 Sep 2019 06:47 AM PDT

Apple should really increase their trade in values. I get they're in the business of making money, but if they're using 100% recycled aluminum and other recycled parts for some products, they should pass the savings on to the consumer.

Only if you're switching from another carrier. I haven't seen any special iPhone 11 deals for current customers.

Sales person from corporate just told me he can give me the deal without adding a new line through accounting trickery lol

Anyone interested in a 64GB iPhone 11?

Yeah 4 years ago lol

Verizon seems the best

Only if you're switching from another carrier. I haven't seen any special iPhone 11 deals for current customers.

Verizon seems the best

Last year, I used a Costco promotion (through a 3rd party vendor) to upgrade from an iPhone 7 to an XS Max on Tmobile. The catch is that these "bill credits" are over 36 months, which essentially make this a 3 year contract. Essentially the carriers are subsidizing your phone but locking you in for a longer period than they did in the past (2 years previously).

Very deceptive and the FCC should look into these recent practices by the carrier.

Let's block ads! (Why?)

Here’s The Best ‘Borderlands 3’ Character For Solo Players - Forbes

Posted: 13 Sep 2019 05:46 AM PDT

I am going to be writing a whole bunch about Borderlands 3 now that we've actually arrived at launch day here, putting my two early weeks with the game to good use. One question I've gotten already more than most is from people wondering which is the best class or character to solo the game with. Obviously Borderlands is one of the last major co-op shooters out there that also employs split-screen, and it's fun to play with friends or even matchmade teams at times. And yet a ton of people are probably going to be doing at least their first run mostly solo because well, not everyone has the ability to perfectly sync a 25+ hour story campaign among friends.

I will say up front that I definitely think it's possible to solo the campaign with any character. I haven't made my way to ultra-endgame level 50+ stuff yet, so the solo equation may change down the line, but my point is, if you really, really want to use a character, don't let this guide stop you. I've played solo with all four and it's doable, it's just that some characters seem better than others when it comes to their solo potential.

So, here's the list, starting with the best.

1. FL4K

I won't keep you in suspense here. Probably the overall best solo character in Borderlands 3 is the one that about half of players say they're going to main. As you might expect, a pet-based class is useful for players without another buddy or two to play with. The pet is not an active skill for FL4K, it's always around unless it's killed in combat, but you can either revive it yourself or wait for a short cooldown for them to respawn.

The pet is good for a number of reasons, first and foremost to tank damage for you. There are many skills that let FL4K actually pass damage to their pet, further increasing your survivability, and higher levels of pet skills can also mean they're doing some solid DPS in battle. There's even a skill that will have your pet try to come revive you if you fall in combat.

But even outside of the pet, FL4K has a different skills that are helpful for solo players like a good amount of health regen and at least one tree that lets them turn invisible to take the focus off of them in combat. All of these combine to make FL4K an incredibly solid solo pick and my number one choice here.

2. Zane

I, however, did not main FL4K in my first playthrough. Rather, I mained Zane, who I think is a very close second here. Zane is the only character who can use two different action skills at once, out of his three total. There's a holographic clone of him, a follow drone and a shield. At least two of the three essentially operate as pets, albeit since they are action skills, they go on cooldown. Like FL4K's pets, you can share damage with the clone and it will serve as a focal point of fire for enemies when it's up. There's a final stage tree upgrade that lets the clone have a copy of your gun, meaning eventually it can do some serious damage as well.

The follow drone lasts longer but has a longer cooldown, though it can do things like regenerate your shield by zapping enemies in addition to doing damage. I also just found a skill mod that has the chance to totally reset its duration or cooldown on kill, meaning I can have it up incredibly often if I'm lucky.

I actually like the shield quite a bit, not necessarily due to its protective abilities (though those help), but because it gives massive bonuses when near it to reload speed, damage, regen, everything, and in this tree there's one of my favorite skills in the game which lets Zane (and his support buddies) freeze enemies with repeated crit shots which so far is proving to be one of the best abilities I've encountered in the game. He's a very, very solid pick for solo players, and I loved my time with him.

3. Amara

Amara is a bruiser with a solid focus on melee in many trees, so you can see why she may be a bit…problematic when it comes to solo play. Getting up close and personal with enemies is pretty damn dangerous in a game when you can be blown up with a couple shotgun blasts or Badass melees, so she's pretty high risk, high reward, and I would argue, has a higher skill cap than most as a result. At least in solo play.

She does, however, have a lot of skills that make solo-ing with her a lot of fun, and I've enjoyed using her as my second most played character, even though I'm by myself. She can spec into an absolutely wild amount of health regen and damage reduction, making her beyond tanky for all the melee-ing she needs to do. And past that, she even has one ability that just…straight up gives her a second life every two minutes. As in, you will automatically burst out of Second Wind with full health and shields and a damage nova. It's a great skill, but it also shows that Gearbox understood that her playstyle means you may end up dying more than most. A stand-in-the-back sniper, she is not.

4. Moze

Some may disagree with me putting Moze last here, but I think it's where she needs to be. I don't think she's the "worst" character at all, I like her a lot actually, but I do think she is the least primed for solo play. The only pet-like ability she has is that one perk lets her mech stay in auto mode for a little while after she uses it, but that ain't much.

Her only defensive tree revolves around buffs to her shield, which are nice, but I do think it makes her the least defensive-based class in the game, which for solo play, is not ideal. I would say she could be the best offensive class in the game with her crazy mech damage and some of my favorite gun-based skills like the ability to shoot while sprinting. She is a lot of fun, don't get me wrong, but she definitely seems like she's supposed to be part of a team unit rather than going it alone. But at least for a Normal difficulty playthrough, even if you pick her, I think you'll be fine.

I really do not think there are any weak links in the class chain here in Borderlands 3. I have simply have fun with all of them, and I cannot really say the same for past games (I was never a big turret soldier bro guy). Some may prove to be less useful in the endgame when everything is Very Serious Business, but you can have fun with all of them for a long, long time before you start have to worrying about that. And remember, you will see drops for all classes during your playthrough, so I would definitely make more than one character. But for pure soloing? These are my suggestions.

Follow me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Read my new sci-fi thriller novel Herokiller, available now in print and online. I also wrote The Earthborn Trilogy.

Let's block ads! (Why?)

Microsoft's latest fix for Windows 10 breaks something else - TechSpot

Posted: 13 Sep 2019 06:50 AM PDT

Facepalm: It appears that Microsoft has found itself in a position where it will have to issue a fix for a fix. A patch the company pushed out on September 10 is reportedly breaking the Search option in the Start menu and Taskbar.

The KB4515384 patch was released to address an issue related to Cortana and the search box. It seems that following an update, the SearchUI.exe process was causing spikes in CPU usage.

While the patch does seem to have fixed the CPU spiking, it's brought new issues for certain users. Some Redditors write that performing searches via the Start menu brings up a blank window, while others say a Critical Error warning is informing them that 'Your Start menu isn't working. We'll try to fix it the next time you sign in.'

Microsoft is reportedly aware of the problem and is now working on yet another fix. Until then, users who haven't installed the patch might have to decide which is the least annoying issue: CPU spikes from using Cortana and search or having no working search option at all.

As noted by TechRepublic, other unfixed problems in version 1903 of Windows 10, in addition to the CPU spiking, include some PCs failing to install updates, and the discrete Nvidia GPU disappearing from Device Manager in the Surface Book 2.

Back in July, Microsoft started to force-update Windows 10 machines from version 1803 to 1903.

Let's block ads! (Why?)