News Archive

According to a new report, the NSA once paid the RSA Security $10M to implement a flawed security standard as the default protocol in its products. This new information builds on allegations from September that claimed the RSA had deployed a flawed, broken cryptographic standard. The new allegations, like much of what we've learned about the...

To usher in the holiday season, we here at HotHardware and our friends at EVGA and NVIDIA teamed up to put together one heck of an exciting give-away! This time around we gave you all a chance to win a couple of slick, new NVIDIA Tegra 4 powered EVGA Tegra Note tablets. To sweeten the deal, we also threw in a few Google...

This is one of those stories that seems a little too good to be true, but given the fact that T-Mobile has tried hard to disrupt the business of other US mobile carriers, there is some hope. Over the past year, T-Mobile has rolled-out some interesting features, such as free international data roaming and the ability to upgrade your smartphone...

Google doesn't like seeing pointless or bloated toolbars in its Chrome Web browser, and because it loves us so much, it doesn't want us to see them, either. Google's policies have long prohibited most types of truly offensive extensions, like ad-ridden toolbars, but beginning next summer, it's going to enforce some new policies that will drastically...

Yahoo Mail users have had a rough time lately. First, Yahoo revamped its mail service back in October and removed some popular features, including tabs. More recently, a "complex" outage lasting nearly a week affected several users. The good news is things are looking up. Yahoo Mail has been fully restored, and that tab feature? It's making...

Word around the web is that Samsung is getting ready to refresh its Galaxy line of mobile devices. It looks like the South Korean electronics maker will add three "Galaxy Pro" tablets to its portfolio sometime in the first quarter of Q1, along with a "Galaxy Lite" slate, the only one of the four that won't feature 4G LTE connectivity (it will,...

Today was supposed to be Winamp’s last on earth, but some last-minute nerd heroics may save the beloved music player. The rumor that Microsoft might snag both Winamp and ShoutCast from AOL appears to be legit, as TechCrunch reports that a deal is being finalized as you’re reading this. The site’s source didn’t specify...

Well, that was fast. Days after Google and HP officially recalled the HP Chromebook 11 charger over concerns about overheating and fire safety (and just over a month since the issue was first acknowledged), it appears that an updated charger is already shipping. Google sent a new charger to 9-to-5 Google, and it follows that we’ll likely...

Budding entrepreneurs take note, word of mouth advertising still plays a significant role in growth, provided you build solid product or offer a stellar service. Just have a look at WhatsApp, a cross-platform instant messaging service that allows users to send free texts, videos, photos, and audio messages to one another with ZERO ads to distract...

Like everyone that’s trying to make a living in the online world, Instagram is trying to crack the tough nut of monetizing its free service, but the social image-sharing site may just have figured out a solution. Many sites, such as Google, rely on ad clicks, as well as actions such as “likes”, and comments to calculate reach...

Here's the obvious: things aren't looking peachy for BlackBerry, and they haven't for a very long while. As the company bleeds market share at an alarming rate, most believe that we're well beyond the point of no return, and today's quarterly financials are going to leave the employees who are hanging on with a sullen holiday season. The company...

Soon it will be time for our deal hunters to rest, but not yet! They've dug up another round of killer deals, leading the way today with 40% off a sleek HP Bluetooth speaker. These little gadgets are the perfect accessory to add endless streaming media to any room in your house. We also found a today-only sale from Best Buy on the large and...

In four months' time, Microsoft is set to cease all support for Windows XP, an OS it released on October 25, 2001. At that time, Intel's Pentium III was the hottest processor series on the planet, and NVIDIA's GeForce 2 Ti had been released just weeks earlier. The biggest hard drive at the time? A premium-priced 80GB. To call Windows XP "old-school"...

Perhaps much to the chagrin of Google, it's quickly becoming clear that there's no stopping CyanogenMod. Coming less than a month after Google removed CyanogenMod from the Play Store on the silly basis that his installer application wants to void warranties, CyanogenMod today announced it raised $23 million in funding to continue and expand...

Target on Thursday confirmed reports that hackers gained access to credit and debit card data during the holiday shopping season. According to Target, around 40 million payment card accounts may have been impacted between November 27 and December 15, 2013. That time frame falls right in the midst of the some of the busiest shopping days of...

We’ve said our piece on Chrome OS--it’s nimble, snappy, easy to use, but not quite a full replacement for Windows or Mac OS X--and manufacturers are rolling out more hardware running Google’s homemade not-Android operating system. LG has the industry’s first all-in-one running Chrome OS ready to go, and the machine...

There are a couple of interesting things happening in the land of display technology these days. One is the push for Ultra High Definition (UHD) 4K TVs and content, which might be happening quicker than you think. The other is the uprising of curved displays, something which we've seen on smartphones and, in this case, ginormous TV sets by...

Levi Strauss & Co. may have secured naming rights the San Francisco 49ers’ new stadium (aka “The Field Of Jeans”) by forking over something on the order of $220 million smackers, but Intel will be inside, as it were. The company announced today that it will be the stadium’s “preferred technology partner”,...

Intel's 4th generation Core processors, based on the company's Haswell microarchitecture, have done good things for ultrabooks this year. Thanks to Haswell, Ultrabooks have moved much closer to Intel’s original vision of thin, light, low-power (but still powerful) systems that eschew outdated components and usher in new features like...

After reading the title, you might be thinking, "OMG why does HotHardware hate tablets?!?!" Don't get us wrong, we think tablets are great for what they're designed to do, but when it comes to servicing and/or upgrading parts on your own, they don't hold a candle next to a traditional PC. Teardown after teardown reveals liberal use of adhesive...

Around these parts, Futuremark's benchmarking suite is used on a near-daily basis. It has grown to become one of the most well-known and trusted brands in all of benchmarking, and today, it's getting a new partner. Quanta Computer is a company that kickstarts many of the models that you see today on store shelves with different branding, and...

Have you ever done a secret gift exchange and had a fantasy that your secret Santa would be a billionaire and shower you with gifts? One Reddit user who participated in a massive Reddit Secret Santa 2013 gift exchange knows how that feels. Well, sort of. Reddit user Rachel (NY1227)’s secret Santa was none other than Bill Gates. Being...

Our deal hunters report that today was a good day for discounts and savings. Two of our top deals are their lowest prices ever and the third is awful close. Discounts on Alienware are kind of like discounts on Apple: small and infrequent. Today's deal on the powerful Alienware 14 Haswell gaming laptop yields the lowest-ever price and an outright...

When Google Glass was first announced, I'm not sure too many people foresaw the onslaught of wearable computing devices that was to come. Google didn't create the product-type, of course, but it did create a product that intrigued not only regular consumers, but competitors as well. In a couple of years, whether you're looking...

When Lenovo introduced the original Yoga 13 convertible ultrabook last year, consumers snatched it up in droves, making it one of the top selling Windows 8 convertibles on the market. Fast-forward a year, and Lenovo is at it again, this time with the new Yoga 2 Pro. Like its predecessor, the Yoga 2 Pro features the same well-liked multimode...

Have you ever wondered what your dog is trying to say when he gives you a funny look? A unique Indiegogo campaign for "No More Woof" seeks to solve that problem by translating your dog's thought patterns into English so you know exactly what Fido is thinking. The way it goes about this is by using Electroencephalogram (EEG) to analyze animal...

The web is a jungle filled with potential danger at every turn, and if you plan to surf through it with Safari, well, that's certainly your prerogative. However, be aware that it's not the safest vehicle for navigating cyberspace, and we're not talking about just the dated version that's available for Windows, either -- a recent version of...

3D Systems and Xerox have been working together for some time, notably on the former’s ProJet series 3D printers, but the two companies have further cemented their relationship. 3D Systems is purchasing Xerox’s product design, engineering, and chemistry group (based in Wilsonville, OR). "We are pleased to expand our relationship...

We won't make fun of you if you decide to don a tinfoil hat, not anymore. A few years ago you might have looked pretty silly wearing one and been the butt of jokes, but these days privacy is no laughing matter, even if companies and our own government treat it like a joke. There's the whole NSA/PRISM thing, but did you know that Facebook can...

In this latest episode of HotHardware’s Two and a Half Geeks, Dave, Iyaz, and Marco discuss the Apple iPad Mini with Retina Display, NVIDIA’s G-SYNC display technology, the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 Edition, and the innovative WD Black 2 SSD+HDD Dual Drive. Dave also talks a bit about the Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro and our current EVGA...

Google’s XE12 update to Google Glass is out, and there are some nifty new features to make Glass Explorers happy. One of the most notable is a new feature that lets users wink to snap a photo. It would appear that Google liked what it saw from Winky and either swiped the idea from developer Mike Giovanni or implemented his technology....

The search for a new Chief Operating Officer (CEO) to replace outgoing chief Steve Ballmer at Microsoft continues in earnest, though there won't be a new person in charge in time for New Year's day. Board member John W. Thompson revealed in a blog post that Microsoft is hoping to pin down a final candidate by the early part of next year. According...

In the world of technology, it's fairly tough to get the myriad companies that make our gadgets tick work together. They've all got plenty going on within their own camp, and they all feel that their take on a given technology or approach is the ideal one. Every so often, you'll find that companies are willing to work together, as has been...

Apple’s intriguing cylindrical Mac Pro will be available for purchase starting tomorrow. The black trash can-looking computer is a stark departure from the norm in terms of form factor, and despite its many high-end components, the premier feature is the Mac Pro’s unified thermal core that uses a single fan to push all the hot...

So you've decided to stick with your Xbox 360 console rather than make the jump to Microsoft's recently released Xbox One or Sony's PlayStation 4, is that it? There's no shame in that, and some would say it's even fiscally responsible. Of course, that begs the question of what else you could spend your saved money on, and one option is to...

Technology development company MagnaCom thinks it has a new wireless approach that could revolutionize wireless communication. That's the bottom-line takeaway from the company's presentation (in-person demonstrations will be given at CES in January). With a sheaf of freshly minted patents and an impressive pitch, MagnaCom is claiming that...

Dell Home is offering the recently released 24-inch UP2414Q UltraSharp 3840x2160 4K Monitor for $1,169.99 with free shipping. To get the lowered price, use this 10% off coupon code: T2LLG$98G7$F19 The Dell UP2414Q features four times the resolution of Full HD and provides superb color accuracy with 99% AdobeRGB and 100% sRGB coverage. Connectivity...

Earlier this month, we talked about the frustrating key-logger botnet call Pony, and it now appears that we couldn't make it through the rest of the month without having to discuss another. While the Pony botnet affected the PC, this latest one, dubbed Android.Spyware.MisoSMS by security firm FireEye, targets Android (as the name spoils)....

It's a wireless world we live in these days, and unless you reside in an isolated area far removed from civilization and devoid of electronic gadgets, you can't walk from the bedroom to the bathroom without bonking into a barrage of wireless signals. Should we be concerned? So far so good -- we haven't mutated as a species to carry around...

In November, Google and HP halted sales of the HP Chromebook 11 due to a potential problem with the device’s charger. After presumably further investigation, Google and HP are now officially recalling the chargers, as there are nine reported cases of “chargers overheating and melting during use”, according to the U.S. Consumer...

Facebook is wading into treacherous waters. The social media giant started testing out an autoplay video feature earlier this year that would silently play videos as you scroll past them in your NewsFeed. That’s one thing is it’s videos from your friends or family, but it’s quite another when those videos are from advertisers....

When December starts winding down, Google offers up a roundup of the year’s top search terms in its Year-End Zeitgeist report. It’s an annual look at the people, events, and humorous miscellany that captured the world’s attention. Topping the list this year was Nelson Mandela, the former President of South Africa and global...

One thing we've seen from Google's hardware partners is a precipitous drop in the average price of an Android tablet, but one thing we didn't expect to see is a $38 slate. Yet that's exactly what Datawind plans to deliver to the U.S. market. Datawind probably isn't a name you're familiar with -- based in London, the company serves the U.K....

Bah, humbug. Just as the holidays approach, Amazon.com has an issue on its hands over in Germany. The company, which prides itself on tremendously quick turnarounds and lightning-fast shipping, is now dealing with hundreds of employees who began striking on Monday. The strike was no doubt timed to coincide with the annual holiday rush of orders,...

Freeloading iOS users found a virtual sweet treat in 2013 as millions rushed to play Candy Crush Saga, the most downloaded free title on both the iPhone and iPad this past year, according to Apple. Whether or not you've played the game, you've probably heard of it before, especially if you have a Facebook account and/or relatives or friends....

AMD is closing out the year with yet another new GPU announcement, though this one isn’t quite like the last few we’ve brought you. If you’ve been hanging around here for any length of time recently, you’ve probably read about the semi-new Radeon R9 and R7 series cards that AMD launched back in early October. If that...

Intel may be looking to rid itself of certain technologies related to its ill-fated OnCue television efforts, but that's not stopping it from writing checks in the other direction. The company has just inked an agreement to "acquire certain assets of the wireless infrastructure division of Mindspeed Technologies." It'll be acquiring the companies...

Christmas is next week, which means some of you are getting awful antsy over doing that last minute shopping. Fret not, we have a selection of hot deals from across the web with a little something for everyone and no stress-inducing trips to the mall. We found the lowest-ever price on this cool "mobile desktop" from HP, basically a giant tablet...

One of the problems with writing about a technology like Nvidia's G-Sync is that it's nearly impossible to actually show the technology in action. Websites like YouTube or DailyMotion either don't accept 60 FPS video at all, or automatically convert it to 30 FPS when it's encoded. While that makes perfect sense from a business perspective,...

To usher in the holiday season, HotHardware and our friends at EVGA and NVIDIA have teamed up to put together one heck of an exciting give-away! This time around we're giving you all a chance to win a couple of slick, new NVIDIA Tegra 4 powered EVGA Tegra Note tablets. To sweeten the deal, we’ll also be throwing in a few Google...