• Stream Love Island All Stars finale free on ITVX
• Watch ITVX when outside the UK with NordVPN (exclusive free gift)
• Airs Monday, 23 February

The Love Island All Stars season 3 finale airs on Monday, 23rd February so expect more twists before we find out if frontrunners Sean Stone & Lucinda Strafford will be crowned champions. But did you know that some viewers can watch Love Island for free with this streaming hack…

Here’s the hack: In the UK, all episodes of Love Island All Stars season 3 are available on ITVX. And guess what, it’s a totally free service.

Nothing has been slow-dripping news about the upcoming Phone 4a for a few days now, with a promise to reveal the handset on March 5. However, the company jumped the gun a bit and just posted an . It looks pretty nifty, even if we don’t have any real-deal specs just yet.

The image shows the handset from behind, displaying the company’s trademark transparent design. The picture also features the redesigned Glyph Bar, . This is a light-based notification system that features individually controlled mini-LEDs that light up in various ways to notify the user of missed calls and stuff like that. You can spot it next to the camera bump.

That’s about all we know right now, though there are plenty of industry rumors. It’s been reported that the Nothing Phone 4a will feature a and that the reveal will be accompanied by a Pro model with a more powerful camera. The Nothing Phone 3a was also launched alongside the 3a Pro.

We loved the 3a and 3a Pro, “an easy recommendation.” Let’s hope this carries through for the 4a. Also, you didn’t miss a release of the actual Nothing Phone 4. The company likes to release the a-series handsets . Past as prologue, we’ll likely see that one in early summer.

I watch a fair few films, though recently I haven’t been going to the cinema as much. That’s more to do with the quality of films available (if there’s anything that will kill cinema, it will be the dearth of quality).

That doesn’t mean I watch more films at home per se, as if I’ve gone in the opposite direction and sided with home releases, but if I do miss out on a cinema release, I’m not as fussed about waiting for the home release.

I missed out on watching Predator: Badlands, which I wanted to see in the cinema, but after a couple of weeks it became increasingly hard to find it at a nearby cinema. I ended up waiting for that to hit Disney+.

But this week, while opening the MUBI app for the first time in a while, I saw that it had Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value on it. I’d added The Worst Person in the World on the service a while ago and hadn’t got round to watching it yet. So, I thought I’d watch that as a primer since I’d not seen a Trier film before, then watch Sentimental Value afterwards.

Sentimental Value is opening in UK cinemas this week, but I found it rare to be able to see a film on streaming before cinemas. A sign of the changing times? Possibly, but I don’t think it’s a good one.

I did not have a great experience watching Sentimental Value at home. And it’s all my own fault.

Too many distractions

My experience watching The Worst Person in the World should have been a clue.

The amount of times I stopped the film, either to have a look at something on another screen, or looking away from the screen to eat dinner – I was in distraction mode. I still enjoyed the film but I hadn’t noticed my own behaviour at the time – it was just the case of watching a film at home, like everyone else. The film fits into my schedule, not the other way around.

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Sentimental Value felt different, at least in my head. “It’s a new release, I should pay more attention to what’s happening”, I thought. I need to find a dedicated time – not be interrupted, focus on what’s happening etc.

The first time I watched it, I got through an hour before I stopped because it was late and I was tired. Silly me.

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I reconvened the next night. But it didn’t feel right starting in the middle of the film. What if I missed some important detail, a reference, a cinematic sleight of hand that’s repaid in the second, and obviously more emotional half of the film?

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I should start again.

I get through even less this time. “I forgot, there’s the Short Skate events going on at the Winter Olympics. That’s live, I can’t miss that. Real Madrid are playing Benfica, I should watch some of that as well. Can’t miss out on live events when I can always come back to this film”.

Off I close the MUBI app. I’ll come to this film later. The next day, in the afternoon at the office. I’m testing a TV, I think to myself, I’ll give Sentimental Value a look on this Philips OLED910. I restart the film, get drawn into the story – lunch is over, back to work.

I restart it again in the evening. Noticed aspects I hadn’t paid attention to the first time. Stop and start the film because I’m getting notifications from my phone through my smartwatch. I’m too connected. I get through the film – it’s really good by way – but the experience could have been much better. And that is on me.

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The reason why we need cinemas

Sure, I could turn this into a prayer for why we need cinemas, but this scattershot, stop-and-start experience I had watching Sentimental Value affected my, well, first multiple viewings.

Being able to sit in the dark, in a sort of silence, with no distractions or interruptions, would have made for a better experience. Perhaps I wouldn’t have understood everything about the film on the first watch, I wouldn’t have been able to restart or rewind, but I think it would have stuck in my mind more.

I would have wanted to revisit the film, maybe in cinemas, but it wouldn’t have been spotlit in the way it was. It would have had my undivided attention, and I would have been more invested in its story, characters and emotions.

Ultimately, I still was, but the clutter in my mind from all the devices I have by my side affected the viewing experience. Just because I can look at my phone or laptop and have a conversation with a friend about investments (it’s a thing I’m doing) doesn’t mean I should.

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It’s an obvious thought – there’s nothing new here – but this is probably the first time I’ve watched a film at home before it’s been released in cinemas, and the flip-around is not something I enjoyed.

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I will likely go to the cinemas and catch Sentimental Value – to give the attention it deserves. While streaming offers convenience, with a good-quality TV and sound system, it’s a decent approximation of a cinema experience, but it can’t beat it in my mind, for no other reason than we’re all slaves to our devices and to what’s happening elsewhere.

Sometimes, it’s better just to be disconnected from the outside world, and that’s an experience cinema offers better than any other medium.

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Once again this winter, the snow is coming down with authority, and when this nor’easter winds down later today, there’ll be a new accumulation of 12 inches or more. By this time next week, we’re expecting at least another foot on top of that.

As a native New Englander, I’m prepared. We have shovels, sand and a guy who comes to plow our long driveway. But what really captures my attention is overhead. In winter, I’m obsessed with my roof — and with a simple tool that’s become an indispensable ally in maintaining my house properly during cold weather.

My roof rake.

Watch this: Keep Your House at This Temperature to Save Money

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It’s not much to look at. Sixteen feet of aluminum pole with a perpendicular 22-inch-wide blue plastic blade at one end. But it makes all the difference in keeping melting snow from turning into streams of water that leak into the house. That’ll damage walls, ceilings, light fixtures and anything else that’s under the drip, drip, drip. Over time, it could develop into a mold problem.

Inside your house, leak detectors are handy gadgets for all kinds of water mishaps, but prevention is always the better policy.

If you live in an area that’s in the path of snowy winter weather, pay attention to the buildup on your roof. In one sense, snow on the roof is a positive thing. It indicates that you have sufficient insulation in your ceiling and attic to prevent warm air from escaping, as well as proper ventilation to help keep the roof cool. 

But that snow will melt, producing runoff that heads downhill to your eaves and gutters. And that’s where the problem begins.

As that water reaches the edge of your roof, it becomes more exposed to cold temperatures and it’ll refreeze, creating ice dams. Those frozen blockages will build up and prevent the next waves of meltwater from falling harmlessly off your roof. Where does that water go? It backs up under your shingles and through the roof decking, following a new gravitational pathway into your living spaces.

I have witnessed this leaking. I have repaired the damage. I have vowed never to let it happen again. 

Which is why I’m outside right after every snowfall, raking away. 

There aren’t any really compelling technological fixes for this problem. There is no Roomba for your rooftop. Whole-roof heating systems do exist, but they cost thousands of dollars and are a significant construction project. Here in New England, it’s common to see homes with a heating cable snaked along the lower portion of the roof, just above the eaves. But for my house, even that more modest option would likely run somewhere between $1,000 and $2,000 to install.

With any heating system, there’ll also be ongoing electricity costs and a potentially messy cycle of melting and refreezing. 

A roof rake will set you back less than $200, and probably not even half that much. It’s low tech, and it works.

Watch this: I Drove an EV This Winter in Sweden to Prove It Could Be Done.

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The right way to use a roof rake

I’ve been using my roof rake after every snowstorm, even the minor ones, for many a snowy winter here in central Massachusetts. 

I had to learn the hard way. Before I bought my roof rake, I went after the ice dams themselves, after they’d already become way too thick, and water was dripping, sometimes fiercely, into the house. I was outside on a ladder, in the cold, whaling away with a hatchet. Not the way to go.

A roof rake is so much quicker and simpler — and again, it’s that all-important ounce of prevention. You stand on the ground, reach up with the rake and pull a big shovel’s worth of snow off the roof. Take a step or two and repeat the process. With light to moderate snowfall, I’ll get around my house in about 20 minutes. With heavy, icy accumulation, it takes me about twice that long.

Be aware that it can be a workout for your arms and shoulders. The rake doesn’t weigh much, but it is top-heavy, and you’re reaching up and away from your body. When the snow is thick, wet, crusty or all of the above, you’ll have to make an extra effort with each stroke.

But if you’re familiar with the often backbreaking work of shoveling snow, you’ll welcome the change of pace.

How much snow do you have to pull down? The guides I’ve read recommend clearing as much as 6 feet up from the eaves, and when I started raking my roof, I used to go just as far as I could reach. If I wasn’t hitting that 6-foot mark, I was getting close. 

Over time, though, I’ve found that just 1 to 2 feet is generally sufficient. That’s the critical area, right past the eaves, where freezing and ice dam buildup take place.

The guides also advise going easy when scraping down to the roof shingles, so you don’t wear them out prematurely. I have to confess I’m not that fastidious — I’m usually dragging right along the shingles themselves, rather than trying to leave a thin coating of snow — and it hasn’t seemed to be a problem.

And for heaven’s sake, be mindful of where the power lines come into your house. You’re waving a metal pole in the air, after all. 

How to shop for a roof rake

Like leaf rakes, roof rakes don’t have a lot of variety. A typical roof rake comes with four 4-foot lengths of aluminum pole that you attach end to end to get the full length, plus the short blade attachment. (Mine has three 5-foot lengths, along with the blade segment.) The width of the blade ranges between approximately 17 and 24 inches.

The 16-foot length I have is enough for my house, a raised ranch, even on the side where the ground slopes away and I can get just the first foot or so of snow at the edge of the roof. If you have a taller house or you really want to clear way up high, you could always get additional sections. The blade section of my pole angles toward the roof, which is helpful.

Some rakes have little wheels on the bottom of the blade to avoid scraping directly on the shingles. Seems like a smart design. 

Other roof rakes aren’t actually rakes at all. Instead of having a blade, the business end is open, with prongs holding one end of a plastic slide that runs parallel to the pole. You push into the snow, and the slide provides a slick runway for the snow to fall to the ground. I’ve never tried one of these, but having spent enough time wielding a standard roof rake, I have my doubts. It seems best suited for powder.

Prices for roof rakes typically range from $50 to $60 and can get to about $200. Years back, I bought a very basic model, and it’s still going strong — an excellent investment.

Gone are the days when I actually went up onto my roof and tried shoveling in addition to raking. In fairness, that was a legendary winter. In 2015, New England experienced four major snowstorms in less than a month, dumping about 90 inches of snow during that short span. No one could keep up.

But short of another “Snowmaggedon,” I know my roof rake will continue to serve me well. Whenever a snowstorm wanes, the two of us will head outside to start the clearing.

Nintendo has resurrected a 1995 oddity and incorporated it into the Switch family, literally, as the original Virtual Boy sat on a table like a curiosity, a set of goggles perched on spindly legs offering 3D gaming without the need for glasses. Three decades later, almost to the day, a near-identical recreation of that table-top oddity is accompanying your Switch or Switch 2 console, launching the same old library via Nintendo Switch Online’s expansion pack.

When you place the Switch in its $100 plastic case, a pair of red-tinted glasses split the screen into separate images for each eye. The effect, or rather the ‘depth’, stands out in stark monochrome. Pixels still dominate the view, forming a lattice of black lines over a blazing red backdrop, just like the originals. It’s the vision of Gunpei Yokoi, Nintendo’s hardware genius and the creator of the Game Boy. He and his colleagues constructed the original with a single line of LEDs reflected off oscillating mirrors. In those days, the resolution was 384 by 224, with an amazing 50 hertz flicker rate. The Switch screens now use IPS LCDs, which produce a considerably sharper and more stable image, however the higher-resolution panels on the Switch 2 make those individual dots stand out a little more.

The original hardware was a fragile beast, with a 20 MHz CPU and minimal graphics RAM held together in a frame that did not inspire confidence. As a result, several of them ended up with dried glue or snapped ribbon wires. That stand would frequently collapse under the weight of use, resulting in unsightly lines on the screens. This latest revival has skipped all of that, as there are no more oscillating mirrors to strain the eyes, and software modifications have ensured that the focus and eye spacing operate as well as they did back then. Finally, save states and the rewind capability have improved the old password system significantly. Some of the games also display a rest warning every 20 minutes, similar to how the original’s built-in timer would alert you to take a break.

In terms of controls, the Joy-Cons have replaced the original’s strange dual-D-pad controller. It can be remapped, but remains an odd fit for games designed for two analog sticks. Wario Land is a true standout, with caves twisting and turning into 3D space. Red Alarm is a Star Fox-inspired shooter through haunting corridors, Teleroboxer punches with the same beat as Punch-Out, and 3D Tetris requires you to stack blocks in floating levels. The majority of the titles are brief and experimental, and the complete catalog, with only about 24 games, isn’t exactly bursting at the seams.

However, the way the accessory is set up has not changed; players are still bent over that low stand, their necks cramping after only a few minutes. Light still leaks in around the edges, and the flicker persists, but you no longer suffer from headaches. They only sold about 770,000 units before Nintendo discontinued the console. The new model retains the tabletop design, the old stands are still compatible, and the face wipes clean easily, with a little extra space above the nose, but…it’s still a bit of a strain on the neck, and that pressure builds up quickly. However, in a dark setting, it’s much gentler on the eyes.

Fake knobs that pretend to be volume and port controls are simply ornamental, as you can still plug in your wireless headphones and the Switch delivers audio across the air. The lenses pop out so you can clean them or change them out for a different color, which was something to look forward to at launch, but none of them ever arrived. You can buy a cardboard bundle for $25 that bypasses the stand and allows you to play in your hands with Labo VR goggles, but you’ll need to use the complete Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack subscription, which costs $50 per year.

Side by side, the originals and replicas are quite similar, nearly indistinguishable in silhouette, since the rubber bumpers line up neatly and the stands can be swapped over with a little fiddling, but when you get underneath the surface, everything comes apart. There are no electronics in these imitation replicas, just a cradle that centers the console with some very strong springs. The lenses are all one piece and glued in place, unlike the adjustable sliders from the 1990s, which have all gone digital now. On the plus side, Switch OLED panels glow a little brighter than the normal model, getting closer to matching the original in terms of brightness.