Brian Fagioli

If you own an Xbox One, you know there are a lot of games available for the console. Hell, there are almost too many from which to choose -- a good problem, I suppose. Let's not forget all the DLC too! I personally feel overwhelmed by the number of games being announced these days, but I digress.

While the Xbox One consoles come with a good amount of drive space (500GB or 1TB), it can fill up very quickly. Thankfully, you can easily expand the storage using an external USB drive. For the best performance, a USB solid state drive is preferable to a mechanical hard drive. Today, Seagate announces the terribly named "Game Drive for Xbox SSD" which is, as you can guess, an external SSD for Xbox One. Of course, it will work with a PC too.

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The world is crazy right now. We have a reality TV star in the White House, and day after day, there are unbelievable things being reported in the news. Sometimes I wonder if I am dreaming, but sadly, this is real life. Try as I might, I can't wake up.

You know what else is crazy? The Linux Foundation is officially endorsing Microsoft's acquisition of GitHub! OK, maybe that isn't so crazy nowadays, but if you could get in a time machine and go back, say, 10 years, and you told people that not only was Microsoft an official Linux Foundation Member, but the foundation was endorsing the Windows-maker's purchase of a massive repository that hosts millions of open source projects, you'd probably be put in an asylum.

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Beats headphones are really good. Yes they are overpriced, but no, they are not form over function. They are simultaneously fashion statements and high-quality headphones. In other words, even if a consumer buys them only because they are trendy and look cool, the person will still end up with a great product.

Apple is known for fun and bright designs -- its Watch bands, for instance, are full of color. Let's not forget the original iMac line which changed the computer industry forever. Now, Apple is making its Solo3 Wireless ($299.95) and Powerbeats3 Wireless ($199.95) super funky with the all-new "Pop Collection."

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During the month of June, we will be running several giveaways to celebrate the 20th birthday of BetaNews. Wow, 20 years... can you believe it? We owe our success to our loyal readers, who have stuck by us for two decades. We are happy to reward some of you with some seriously awesome prizes.

Today is our fourth hardware giveaway, and this time, it is gaming related. It is the super-premium HyperX Cloud Alpha gaming headset. It is not just for PC either -- it also works with Xbox, PS4, Switch, and mobile. Of course, you can use it for non-gaming things too, such as listening to music, watching movies, or chatting on Skype.

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There was once a time where most smartphones had hardware keyboards. There were BlackBerry and Palm Treo devices that were an absolute joy to type on. Apple's iPhone wasn't the first smartphone to forgo a physical keyboard entirely, but it is responsible for popularizing it. As a result, Palm and BlackBerry lost almost all of their marketshare, ultimately becoming a footnote in smartphone history. And now, most smartphones are touchscreen-only for typing.

While BlackBerry no longer makes smartphones, it does license its name to a company called TCL which makes Android devices that carry the branding -- and sometimes, a physical keyboard. It isn't just slapping the BlackBerry name on a random low-quality Android phone, however. Actually, these TCL devices have been fairly well received thanks to an adherence to traditional BlackBerry designs. Today, TCL unveils its latest such smartphone, called "KEY2," and it looks quite nice. In fact, the company says it is "the most secure Android smartphone." A bold claim!

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For many in the USA, having access to the internet is a given -- we don't give it a second thought. When you are home, you have broadband and Wi-Fi, and when out and about, your smartphone has LTE.

In other countries, however, access to the internet isn't as ubiquitous. India, for instance, has many locations where getting online is a hardship. Google has been looking to change this with its "Next Billion Users" initiative, and one of its projects -- "Google Station" -- has seen tremendous growth. You see, the search giant has been gradually adding free Wi-Fi hotspots to Indian train stations, and today, it announces a huge milestone -- there are now 400 stations with Wi-Fi.

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Gmail is a great tool for personal email, but for business, not so much. Don't get me wrong, some organizations use it with great success, but overall, it is a bit weak. If you are a professional that uses Gmail, please know there is a really cool tool to enhance the service -- Mixmax.

If you aren't familiar, Mixmax leverages a special Chrome plugin to breathe new life into Google's email service -- we reported on it back in 2015. It lets you do things like track email engagement, more easily schedule meetings, and embed presentations, to name a few. It can even integrate with popular services like GitHub, Dropbox, and Salesforce. Mixmax is used by some very reputable companies too, such as Google, LinkedIn, and Uber.

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Logitech makes great hardware for home consumers, including mice, keyboards, and more. The company even sells respected gaming peripherals under its "Logitech G" branding.

Home aside, Logitech also makes excellent business hardware, such as presentation remotes and video conference cameras. Speaking of the latter, today the company unveils its latest such product. Called "Rally," it is a high-end 4K USB cam designed for meeting rooms. It is compatible with many popular services, such as Google Hangouts Meet, Microsoft Skype for Business, and Zoom.

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Every once in a while, a tech device comes a long that changes everything. The iPod forever altered the music industry, while the iPhone and other smartphones made the traditional PC unnecessary for many. Another such product? Amazon's Echo, which ushered in Alexa and the voice assistant hardware explosion. Somehow, an online bookseller managed to beat Apple, Google, and Microsoft to the punch, and ultimately, grab huge marketshare. It's remarkable, really.

We Americans tend to take such innovative things for granted. Alexa, for instance, is something we have had for years, but believe it or not, the assistant is not available in every country. In fact, France is one country that does not have Echo or Alexa access. Next week this changes, as Amazon brings its voice assistant and associated hardware to the land of the Eiffel Tower.

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For the entire month of June, BetaNews will be having many giveaways. Why? To celebrate our 20th birthday! Our first such contest went live last week, and if you haven't yet entered, you should. That prize is the Linksys Velop Dual-Band Whole Home Mesh Wi-Fi System, and it rocks!

Today, our second such giveaway begins, and yet again, the prize is really nice. What is it? The Wyze Cam Pan. This is the newest home Wi-Fi security camera from Wyze Labs, and it adds a feature normally reserved for more expensive models -- pan and tilt. Using your smartphone, you can move the lens, but also, you can rotate the camera 360 degrees. How cool is that?

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Ah, Linux Mint. This operating system has its detractors, but for the most part, it is beloved by both Linux beginners and experts alike. True, most of the praise is due to its excellent Ubuntu base, but the Mint team understands what many other distribution maintainers don't -- the overall experience matters. When you install Mint, you are in for a polished treat -- it is clear that the developers truly care about the end users.

Today, Linux Mint 19 "Tara" Beta finally sees release. Three desktop environments are available -- Cinnamon (3.8), MATE (1.20), and Xfce (4.12). All of these DEs are excellent, but the shining star is Cinnamon. Tara is significant as it is based on the newest Ubuntu 18.04 and will receive updates until the year 2023. The included Linux kernel is version 4.15 and not 4.17 -- understandable, as it was only just released.

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Just yesterday, we shared that The GNOME Project moved to GitLab. This was a major score for GitLab, but also, an important move for GNOME as well -- it should greatly improve collaboration between its contributors. GNOME is not alone in its move to that Git-repository manager, however, as GIMP (plus the babl and GEGL libraries) also made the transition. Actually, believe it or not, GNOME is hosting GIMP there.

If you aren't familiar with GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program), please know that it is an open source image/graphics editor/manipulator. It is very similar to Adobe Photoshop, although GIMP is totally free. In fact, the open source Photoshop alternative is a cross-platform affair, available not just on Linux, but macOS, and Windows too. It is an extremely important program for the open source community -- right up there with LibreOffice.

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GNOME is one of the most important open source projects on the planet. Even if you use an alternative desktop environment, such as KDE or Xfce, you cannot deny that GNOME's contributions have largely shaped the path of Linux on the desktop for the better. Don't forget, GNOME is much more than just a DE -- many of its apps are essential. That's probably why someone (or something) recently pledged to donate $1 million to it -- GNOME's existence and success is a must for the Linux community.

Today, The GNOME Foundation makes a very big announcement -- the project has fully transitioned to GitLab. In other words, yes, the GNOME Project is growing up a bit and becoming better organized. This move to the GitLab Git-repository manager is a breath of fresh air, quite frankly, and should really improve collaboration between GNOME Project contributors.

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Today is officially the day -- BetaNews is celebrating its 20th birthday! While people typically get presents on their birthday, we are flipping the script a bit. To celebrate the occasion, we will be doing giveaways all month long. This is our way to thank our dear readers for two decades of loyalty. Whether you have been a reader since the beginning or you are new to the site, we wish you luck in our many June giveaways.

The first giveaway is a really exciting new product from Linksys -- the all new Velop Dual-Band Whole Home Mesh WiFi System. If you aren't familiar with mesh networking, please know its like having a router with super-long range. How does it work? Several access points -- in this case three -- work together to blanket your home in glorious Wi-Fi. We have one system to award as a prize, with the value being $299.

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Believe it or not, Groove Music was a very good streaming music service. Unfortunately for Microsoft, consumers largely did not give it a chance, causing it to shut down. Despite the service dying, the Groove Music apps have lived on.

Sadly, Microsoft today announces that it is killing the mobile apps for both iOS and Android later this year on December 1, 2018. What does the company recommend these mobile users do? Switch to Windows Phone, of course! No, seriously...

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