Is the $4 Freedom 251 Android phone a scam?

   A little-known technology firm in India made news a few weeks ago when it announced an Android smartphone that would sell for less than $4 (Rs. 251). While there was plenty of reason to be skeptical of this claim, the device seemed to exist in a few video demos. After taking reservations for the device over several days, Ringing...

Read More

Microsoft HoloLens up for pre-order today, if you can afford it

     Over the last few weeks, both the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive have gone up for pre-order. Now, according to a pulled Fortune article, Microsoft’s HoloLens is doing the same. Microsoft...

Read More

Raspberry Pi 3 launches with faster 64-bit processor and Wi-Fi for the same $35

   Over the past four years, the Raspberry Pi has become known as the world’s most successful and accessible computer platform that anyone can program. It’s the kind of thing that reminds us fondly of the early 8-bit Apple II, Atari, and Commodore days, and with obviously much more capability now. It’s being used in schools...

Read More

Here’s why we don’t have light-based computing just yet

   In principle, communicating with light is much, much easier than communicating with electricity. We’ve been doing it for much longer, in technologies ranging from signal fires to fiber-optic networks,...

Read More

Far Cry Primal looks great on consoles, but it’s just another Ubisoft sequel

     The folks over at Ubisoft are well known for finding a formula that works, and then iterating on that idea over and over again until the public is sick to death of their once-loved franchise. Unfortunately,...

Read More

It’s all about precedent: Justice Department wants Apple to unlock 12 additional devices

    One of the arguments the Justice Department has deployed in its bid to force Apple to bypass security protections on the iPhone is that there’s no precedent being set in the case. In a blog post to the website Lawfare,...

Read More

Samsung Galaxy S7 vs. S6 vs. S5: How does the new model stack up?

   Earlier this week, Samsung unveiled the Galaxy S7, with a host of refinements and improvements, including improved water protection, a larger battery, and the return of a microSD slot. While we recommend waiting for...

Read More

AMD clobbers Nvidia in updated Ashes of the Singularity DirectX 12 benchmark

    Roughly six months ago, we covered the debut of Ashes of the Singularity, the first DirectX 12 title to launch in any form. With just a month to go before the game launches, the developer, Oxide, has released a major...

Read More

No, mobile GPUs (still) aren’t going to catch dedicated consoles by the end of 2017

    Every now and then, one of the mobile vendors releases a report claiming that mobile graphics either have hit console-level quality or are about to do so. This time, ARM is the company arguing the point. At the Casual...

Read More

Diesel passenger car sales go on life support — just 222 sold in January

     Cheap fuel prices and the Volkswagen-Audi-maybe-others emissions flap have sales of diesel passenger cars down to almost nothing. About 200 diesel passenger cars were sold in January...

Read More

Avast set up rogue hotspots at Mobile World Congress, and the results won’t surprise you

     What’s one of the first things you do when you get to an airport, or roll into a new city for a conference or meeting? For many of us, the answer is: Find a free Wi-Fi hotspot....

Read More

NASA simulates ‘extreme failure scenario’ to test Orion spacecraft controls

     NASA’s Orion crew capsule is currently on-target for its next unmanned test flight in 2018 as part of the next-generation Space Launch System (SLS). When astronauts are finally...

Read More

The Windows 10 Store still isn’t working out for Microsoft

     When Microsoft launched Windows 10, the company emphasized the new operating system was the foundation for a brand-new Windows ecosystem. Going forward, Windows users could look forward to unprecedented compatibility...

Read More

25 best Android tips to make your phone more useful

     Android is the most popular computing platform in the world thanks in part to how fast it has evolved over the years. Google is always adding new features and making changes to...

Read More