Shane McGlaun
Shane has been into tech since his dad brought home a Pong game when he was a toddler. A passion for gaming led to a passion for PC tech and hardware. That passion was eventually turned into a career writing about cool gadgets, computers, and automotive technology for some of the biggest publications online and in print. Shane also has a passion for the outdoors and when not writing about tech can be found hiking the trails of Colorado whilst keeping an eye open for nefarious rattlesnakes and bears.
Opinions and content posted by HotHardware contributors are their own.
Recent posts
Huawei has found it difficult to make inroads in the U.S. smartphone market. Some of the company's troubles have to do with the U.S. government fearing that Huawei, a company with close ties to the Chinese government, might use those devices to spy on Americans. That fear has led to government pressure that has...
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Phone theft and the theft of phone numbers is a real thing that everyday Americans deal with all the time. T-Mobile warned its customers recently of a SIM jacking scam that threatens the entire industry. Verizon has now announced that it is taking another step to help protect its customers. Verizon has announced that...
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Apple is reportedly investigating an alleged fire and explosion from a set of its popular wireless AirPods earbuds. The incident happened to a Florida man who was wearing the earphones at a local gym during his workout.
According to James Colon, he was exercising when "white smoke started billowing out" of the...
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The password is one of those things that we all use for our work and personal lives. The idea behind a password is simple: to prevent people from gaining access to our personal and confidential information unless they are authorized. In execution, people pick stupid passwords that are easy to hack, so Microsoft wants...
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Gamers, for the most part, aren’t big fans of microtransactions in games. However, modern games are festooned with microtransaction for things you can buy in the game to upgrade characters and weapons all to make the game easier to defeat and to make progression faster. Whatever your feelings about microtransactions...
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Last year, a hacker group was able to penetrate credit reporting agency Equifax and make off with information, including the social security numbers, of 143 million Americans. Only a few days after the hack, a ransom demand for the return of the information was made to the tune of $2.6 million in bitcoin via the dark...
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If you use an Android smartphone, you are probably familiar with the Android Messages application (since it is the default messaging application used on many devices). There are other Android messaging applications out there in use on some devices. One of the things that Google is doing with Android Messages is to...
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The Nintendo Switch has been incredibly popular and is the fastest selling game console in U.S. history. Late last year, word surfaced of a band of hackers working on a homebrew hack that could allow users to put their own content on the Switch, but that hasn’t come to fruition just yet. Another group of hackers has...
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If you're well-seasoned internet user, surely you have seen scams over the years that revolved around a Nigerian prince who needs your help to move money out of the country. We all know that it is a scam, yet for a long time, people have fallen for it. That Nigerian Prince scam is now back and has a new twist while...
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Broadcom really wants to buy Qualcomm and merge the two chip giants into one company that would be a major force in the communications market. Broadcom had put forward an offer that valued Qualcomm at $120 billion yesterday and many thought that the company's board would find the offer hard to refuse. However, the...
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Facebook users have been asking for a way to downvote things they don't like on the social network for years now and it finally looks like the social network is taking steps to allow that to happen. The new feature is a downvote button that lives right underneath comments made on posts on the network that falls in...
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A new class action lawsuit was filed this week against Google by owners of the original Pixel and Pixel XL smartphones. In the lawsuit, plaintiffs claim that the microphone in the original Pixel devices was defective from the start. The suit alleges that Google knew about the defect and continued to sell the devices...
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With so many emojis available at our fingertips on phones, you can have an entire conversation without ever having to type a letter. Unicode.org has announced that the Emoji 11.0 characters for 2018 have been finalized. There are 157 new emojis that may find their way to your smartphone or other devices.
The Emoji...
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Apple is not happy at all today with some of its critical source code having been posted online for the world to see. Source code for iBoot, one of the key components in iOS that runs iPhones and iPads, was posted on GitHub. The leak of such proprietary and confidential software could make it easier for hackers to...
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Consumer Reports has found that millions of smart TVs are vulnerable to hacking, and according to the publication, the exploits are often easy to find and execute. TVs vulnerable to these hacks include Samsung and TCL smart TVs along with other brands that use the Roku platform.
Streaming devices are also vulnerable...
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HP has announced updated EliteBook 800 notebooks and ZBook 14u/15u mobile workstations that have some slick features that mobile pros will love. The new workstations have some common features according to HP including support for the new Thunderbolt Dock G2, new displays, and robust security features. The machines are...
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Apple is still trying to dig itself out of trouble over performance throttling of iPhones that have degrading batteries. Apple maintains that it throttles performance to prevent iPhones from shutting down unexpectedly. iPhone users were angry because Apple performed these actions without offering any indication that...
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Sony has announced that PlayStation 4 gamers on the beta channel have a new software update to try out. The update brings the PS4 to software version 5.50 and is codenamed KEIJI. Gamers who are registered for the beta program will receive an email that tells them how to download the new software and get started with...
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Huawei is having a hard time breaking into the U.S. smartphone market -- at least when it comes to partnering with wireless carriers. It had a deal set up with AT&T to directly offer smartphones made by the Chinese company. That deal fell apart after AT&T was pressured by the U.S. government to not sell the devices...
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If you are a T-Mobile customer and you received a weird text recently that seemed a bit sketchy, it turns out that text from T-Mobile was legitimate. The text warned customers that the third-place wireless carrier had identified an industry-wide phone number port-out scam. In the message, T-Mobile called on customers...
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We've known since the Google Pixel 2 smartphone launched that it had a dedicated imaging chip lurking inside that allows the camera to take HDR+ quality pictures when using the main photo app. Since the smartphone launched, that image processor has been just out of reach for third-party apps, but Google has finally...
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The Apple iPhone X has been criticized since its launch for things ranging from its high price of entry to the notch atop the screen to the various issues owners have faced with such a high-end device. iPhone X owners are now complaining of another issue that makes it difficult to answer incoming phone calls. Reports...
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