News Archive

Toshiba's Canvio 3.0 and Canvio Basics 3.0 portable hard drives now offer up to 1.5TB of storage and also feature Mac compatibility on select models. The drives feature USB 3.0 connectivity for fast data transfer speeds. With the 1.5TB model, you'll get a NTFS driver for Mac computers that makes it easy to swap data between Macs and PCs without...

HGST announced a new family of CinemaStar 2.5-inch hard disk drives for the traditional and small form factor audio/video and consumer electronics markets. The new CinemaStar family includes the CinemaStar Z7K500, CinemaStar C5K1000, and CinemaStar Z5K500 families. The CinemaStar Z7K500 family is designed for high performance A/V streaming....

Corsair is relatively new to the gaming peripherals market, and the company undoubtedly took its time refining these products before stepping up to compete. The mechanical keyboards are designed to enhance gamers’ performance, with the K60 tailored for First-Person Shooters and the K90 for RTS and MMO gaming, and they’re both built...

ADATA announced two new memory kits in its XPG Xtreme Series designed for high performance, long life, and overclocking capabilities. Available in capacities of 8GB (4GB x 2) and 16GB (8GB x 2), the dual-channel DDR3-2133X kits boast 34.1GB of predicted bandwidth per second and sport operating voltages of 1.65V with 10-11-11-30 latency settings....

Hey, are you excited about the launch of HTC's One X and want to purchase one? Tough cookies if you live the U.S.. Sales of the new phone are being held up because of a required customs review after HTC was on the losing end of a patent dispute with Apple last year. The same thing applies to HTC's EVO 4G LTE smartphone; it's also delayed....

Anyone who's been playing with PCs for awhile has probably heard of AVAST Software, makers of the self-titled and popular free antivirus software heralding from the Czech Republic. AVAST is generally considered one of the 'good guys' in the fight against malware, and given the company's track record, it's no surprise that it's avast! Free...

If it's been awhile since you last glanced Corsair's GS Series power supply line, you may want to give it a second look. Now new and improved, Corsair enhanced the GS Series family with a more energy efficient design, earning an 80 Plus Bronze certification in the process. In addition, Corsair claims the redesigned PSUs provide quieter, fanless...

Well well well, maybe the new guy in the CEO’s chair at Google knows what he’s doing. According to a report from the Wall Street Journal, Google is revamping how it handles its Android business, starting with Android 5.0 Jelly Bean. If the report is accurate, Google is about to make some interesting business moves. Despite the...

The Ultrabook category is still alive and well, and in fact, still growing. Sony has just announced a new VAIO S, available in 13.3" and 15.5" screen sizes. The S Series 13 and 15 will ship with rigid cases crafted from magnesium, aluminium and carbon fibre (depends on model), with the S Series 15 models tipping the scales at below 2kg. All...

LaCie's design instincts haven't changed much over the years, but that's certainly not a bad thing. This week, the company announced a new 2-bay network-attached storage solution aimed at small businesses and power users. The LaCie 2big NAS, design by Neil Poulton, is powered by a 2GHz processor and a bolstered file system. Just think about...

Intel's 3rd-generation Core i7 CPUs are certainly forces to be reckoned with, but they aren't the best option for most businesses. In order to give enterprise users an option, too, the company's introducing a 3rd wave of their Core vPro CPUs. These units are shipping now, aimed at notebooks (Ultrabooks included) across the IT landscape. With...

Nvidia's GPU Technology Conference (GTC) kicked off this afternoon with company CEO Jen-Hsun Huang delivering the signature keynote. Nvidia typically uses the keynote to announce new projects, technologies, and initiatives, or to demonstrate new architectures, but today's event was something of a let-down. The event started off positively...

ROCCAT announced the Savu, a hybrid mid-sized gaming mouse, which ROCCAT CEO René Korte calls “The planet’s premiere mid-size gaming mouse – period”. The rest of the press release is just as effusive, but the Savu does boast some serious features. For starters, the mouse has true 400, 800, 1600 and 4000 DPI,...

Although it’s not as sexy as hardware advancements in the PC market, any new technology in the enterprise space is a big deal, as even modest improvements in performance or efficiency, extrapolated over seas of machines in businesses and data centers, can have large-scale benefits for all. Crucial is the latest to deliver a more efficient...

We first saw the VX2460h-LED from ViewSonic a few weeks ago but at the time, we didn’t know when or if this ultra-thin monitor would come to the US. Now, the company has officially announced the VX2460h-LED for the US. As you'll recall, this ultra-slim 24-inch widescreen display features advanced imaging technologies to help reduce eye...

Lenovo revealed the upcoming ThinkPad X1 Carbon laptop which the company is calling the lightest 14-inch Ultrabook in the industry. This ultrabook weighs less than three pounds thanks in part to its premium carbon fiber rollcage. Other key features include 3G connectivity, Lenovo RapidCharge, and Intel vPro technology. The ThinkPad X1 Carbon...

At 12:01 AM this morning, Diablo III launched. Normally, at this point, I pontificate. I write a bit about the game, share some pithy comments, and offer some well-reasoned considerations of salient points. I'm a journalist. It's what I do. But my priorities have changed, and you're going to have to deal with that. Alternately, you can read...

Worried about little Timmy's jaunt across the Web when you're not around to actively monitor his behavior by peering over his shoulder? Microsoft hears you loud and clear is and is working hard to keep kids relatively safe online by baking 'Family Safety' features into Windows 8. A recent blog post on Microsoft's MSDN site covers these features...

You may not realize it, but up until now, there hasn't existed a 120-degree wide angle 1080p high definition webcam, or so Genius claims when introducing its new WideCam F100. According to Genius, the WideCam F100 is the world's first Full HD webcam to boast such an ultra wide angle lens, but that isn't all it brings to the boardroom table....

A company called Amped Wireless (which has no affiliation with PepsiCo's Amp Energy drink) has rolled out a new flagship, high-performance, long range router -- the R20000G High Power Wireless-N Gigabit Dual Band Router. Amped Wireless believes the R20000G is best suited for large homes and offices where up to 10,000 square feet (or a quarter...

What if your mobile carrier were a company you actually trusted and liked? Most folks in the U.S.A. would scoff at such a notion, but we can't fault newcomer Voyager Mobile for trying something radically different. The company has announced a new MVNO plan that'll run on Sprint's nationwide network, with unlimited wireless plans starting at...

For any average Joe who has used Twitter, it may be overwhelming. In fact, many folks that didn't grow up on the Internet have a tough time even understanding what it's all about. And for those in the Internet Generation, even they have a tough time explaining what it is. So, what's a peer group to do? Digest it in a more familiar way. Starting...

AMD's second-generation Bulldozer core processor microarchitecture, codenamed Piledriver, has made headlines at HotHardware many times in the past few months, including our CES sneak peek of the chip that AMD is launching today for the mobile market, codenamed Trinity.  What this launch is all about is AMD's answer to Intel's Ivy Bridge-based...

Last year, Dropbox offered users the chance to gain additional storage space by participating in a multi-step scavenger hunt called Dropquest. Now, the company is at it again, this time promising a Dropquest that's back, harder, and "epic-er." Dropbox promises that everyone who completes Dropquest will get at least 1GB of additional free storage...

Lenovo announced the Lenovo ThinkStation E31 entry-level workstation. The ThinkStation E31 is available as a mini-tower or a small form factor (SFF), with both offering Intel Xeon E3 or 3rd generation Intel Core i7 processor options. The workstations also feature 1600MHz DDR3 memory DIMMs, USB 3.0 ports, and Intel HD Graphics P4000 or NVIDIA...

Whether Mac OS X was ever truly secure or just didn’t receive the same attention from cybercriminals as Windows operating systems, Apple was once a bastion of malware invulnerability. Those days are long gone, as recently somewhere between half a million and 600,000 Macs were found to be infected with the Flashback Trojan and security...

NZXT’s Switch 810 chassis is a fine piece of hardware, but not everyone is in love with the white or black glossy finish. Apparently, fans of the case have been asking for more color and finish options, and NZXT has heeded the call by announcing two new choices. The Switch 810 Special Edition is now available in matte black and gunmetal....

Texting and driving doesn't mix very well and you shouldn't tryi to do the two simultaneously, even if your state hasn't made it illegal yet. But texting and walking? Turns out that combination can be dangerous too, and if you get caught sending or reading a text message while taking a stroll in New Jersey, you could be hit with a fine. According...

New and used games retailer GameStop is starting to move away from selling titles for Sony's PlayStaton Portable (PSP) game console, instead choosing to focus on newer platforms, like the PS Vita. According to reports, GameStop has removed PSP games from a quarter of its stores, yanking them out of the smallest brick-and-mortar locations....

One of the greatest advantages of choosing an Android device over an iOS equivalent is that Google's open source operating system plays nice with Adobe's Flash platform. Unfortunately, Flash doesn't always play nice with Android users, at least not when it's been mucked with. According to security firm Trend Micro, a fake Flash Player infested...

The wide open worlds of 3D and Blu-ray are combining, and it's Asus that's bringing the two closer than ever. The company's new SBW-06C2X-U is a 3D Blu-ray writer, fully supporting BDXL, 6x Blu-ray writes, Blu-ray 3D playback, 2D-to-3D conversions, DVD upscaling to 1080p HD, 5.1 channel Dolby EX and DTS-HD and the ability to even play nice...

Need speed from your router in the worst way? Buffalo has you covered. The company has just released the new AirStation WZR-D1800H wireless router and WLI-H4-D1300 wireless media bridge, both of which are available now. Based on Broadcom's 5G WiFi chips, both of 'em offer speeds up to three times faster than 802.11n and are fully backward...

Spring has sprung and we’ve teamed up with our friends at NVIDIA for an absolutely awesome giveaway. Starting today, April 26, 2012 and continuing on through May 17th, you can enter to win one of two sweet NVIDIA Tegra 3-powered 10-inch Android tablets! In case you didn’t know, NVIDIA offers Tegra-based device owners some unique...

As any software company well knows, there comes a time where you simply cannot support older versions. Try getting Microsoft to give you tech support on Windows 3.1, for example. But that line has always been a fine one, and Adobe has been pushing its luck of late. For instance, Lightroom 3 will never get a RAW plug-in update to support Nikon's...

The end looks nigh for LightSquared. The company that intended to hook up with Sprint for 15 years (or more) in order to redefine the 4G landscape in the United States is on the brink of disaster, and according to a Wall Street Journal report, the cards could fold as early as tomorrow. Reportedly, Philip Falcone's project could be getting...

Let this be a lesson to all you recent college grads: It doesn’t pay to lie about your degree. Just ask Yahoo! CEO Scott Thompson, who got caught with a bogus computer science degree on his resume. After an embarrassing week of halfway acknowledging the untruth, Kara Swisher of All Things D reports that Thompson is on his way out as...

If you're an Android fan, it's not a tablet party unless there's Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0), and that point isn't lost on Matsunichi, the company that plans to sell its full-sized 9.7-inch MarquisPad (MP977) for $249 in the U.S. That's an incredible price point for an ICS tablet this size, and going by the spec sheet alone, it doesn't...

Apple is having a changing of heart about attaching the 4G moniker to its third generation iPad tablet. In truth, 4G LTE service on the iPad only really works in the U.S. and Canada via a handful of carriers (five, to be exact), and it didn't sit well with some remote locales that Apple was labeling compatible devices as "Wi-Fi + 4G." Amid...

Baidu is China’s version of Google--a search company that built its own mobile operating system and is evolving into a services company with branded hardware--is taking another step. Baidu VP of engineering and head of mobile Wang Jin told Reuters that the company will be embarking on a smartphone partnership and new version of the Baidu...

Microsoft can't do anything to magically make hard drives stop failing when parts go bad, but the Redmond outfit is rolling out a new NTFS health model for Windows 8 with a redesigned CHKDSK tool for disk corruption detection and fixing. "We’ve all experienced the frustration that can be caused by an unexpected CHKDSK that pops up while...

Old Man Winter made an early exit this year in may parts of the country, and perhaps the unexpected sunshine led to gamers discovering things to do outside the house. Whatever the reason, by the time April rolled around, videogame sales were on a sharp decline, dropping a whopping 32 percent to $630.4 million in the U.S., according to NPD...

Kudos to California's state Assembly for passing a bill that would make it illegal for employers to pry Facebook usernames and passwords from employees and potential job candidates. Assembly Bill 1844, sponsored by Assemblywoman Nora Campos (D-San Jose), would put all private content on social networks out of reach of employers, though the...

If there's one company beyond Nokia that seems dead-set on supporting Windows Phone as a platform, it's Samsung. Just after launching the Focus 2 for AT&T, now Samsung is introducing the Omnia M, a sleek looking slate-style phone that'll ship first in Europe before bringing more of Microsoft's mobile OS to more places. As for specifications,...

Samsung's 17" Series 7 Chronos isn't the only product in the company's stable shipping this week. The Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 (what a mouthful!) and the Galaxy Player 4.2 will be available for purchase nationwide (that's the USA) this weekend. Starting on May 13th, the Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 will be available for $399.99 and the media player for $199.99;...

When multiple companies are selling essentially the same product under their respective brand names, they have to try every way possible to sway buyers. In the case of EVGA’s version of the GeForce GTX 690 graphics card, the latest ploy is something shiny--an LED controller utility that lets you adjust the brightness of the “GeForce...

The whole $25 Raspberry Pi Linux computer thing has been fun to follow, despite the delivery delays and occasional hardware whoopsie. One of the headaches some users have apparently been experiencing is that they’ve had to reinstall the firmware after working with the Raspberry Pi images. A dev named Hexxeh got so tired of having to...

Big news in gaming this week if you're a fan of the survival-horror-meets-FPS series Dead Space; the third game in the series is scheduled to launch within the next 12 months. The original game, Dead Space, centered around deep space repair engineer Isaac Clarke's mission to investigate a mysterious distress call from the USG Ishimura and...

If you're looking for a new game for less than the cost of a tank of gas, we'd strongly recommend you take a look at Orcs Must Die. Some games are triumphs of storytelling and character development. This isn't one of them. OMD tells its story through the use of static art and a bit of in-game dialog, but the title neatly summarizes the purpose...

Sony President and Chief Executive Officer, Kaz Hirai, revealed during a conference call this week that his company has shipped 1.8 million PS Vita consoles up through the end of March. Looking ahead, Hirai expects to sell an additional 10 million units by the end of March in 2013, a bold prediction given the console's past performance. "About...

Hey, you there, are you about to purchase a Nintendo DS XL or DSi handheld game console? Well, don't! It's not that we have anything against either of Nintendo's predecessors to the 3DS, it's just that word on the Web is that some pretty big price cuts are in the pipeline, so if you pay full price today, you'll kick yourself in a couple of...