Brandon Hill
Opinions and content posted by HotHardware contributors are their own.
Recent posts
It’s been said that strapping human pilots into supersonic aircraft will soon become a thing of the past. Between the use of drones and advanced AI that can autonomously fly aircraft without having to deal with G-limits or fatigue, why would the military even bother risking putting human pilots at risk?
Well, the...
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Who knew from the outset that Amazon’s Echo smart speaker and its underlying Alexa voice assistant would become this popular and have such a huge backing from the developer community? But as Amazon’s Alexa Skill Kit, Alexa Voice Service and Alexa Fund turn a year old, we’re seeing even more greatness added to the...
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It’s unfathomable that it would take Microsoft nearly a year to figure out how to make a Windows 10 upgrade prompt (aka nag screen) that didn’t attempt to con the user or force the operating system onto your computer. But here we are, just a month away from the end of the free promotional offer, and Microsoft finally...
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If you’re among the likely millions of Windows customers running Windows 7 or Windows 8 that are sick of the Windows 10 nag screens along with unprompted and forced upgrades, you’ll be happy to hear that at least one “little guy” has won a battle against Microsoft in court. Teri Goldstein claims that her computer was...
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There’s been an increased emphasis at getting children interested in programming at an early age. We’ve seen initiatives like the BBC micro:bit computer which is being spread to school-age children and the proliferation of pint-sized and economical Raspberry Pi’s in the education sector.
Google is also looking to...
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Google is making its Chrome OS platform even more appealing thanks to the arrival of the Google Play Store and Android apps. Officially announced at Google I/O, Android apps leverage touch screen displays on Chromebooks an integrate seamlessly with the Chrome OS interface.
While ASUS was the first Chromebook to...
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If you've ever wanted to know what the offspring of Wall-E and Eve would look like, the answer has just been birthed thanks to the help of Anki. If you’re familiar with Anki’s Overdrive — which is a modern take on slot car racing — then you know that the company has a penchant for designing intelligent, robotic...
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Is the Nexus line of smartphones not Googley enough for you? Well, it looks as though Google is putting the finishing touches on a new Android smartphone that will bear its name instead of the familiar Nexus branding.
This latest report of a Google smartphone comes from The Telegraph, citing “sources familiar with...
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We talk about self-driving cars and advanced artificial intelligence (AI) on an regular basis here at HotHardware. At this stage in the game, self-driving cars are in fact a reality and currently roaming streets in and around Silicon Valley. These are, of course, prototype vehicles that still have a human driver...
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Oculus just made a change to its software which removes a controversial “feature” that it added last month. The company has disabled its DRM that checked to make sure that Rift hardware was actually connected to a PC before games purchased and downloaded from the Oculus Store could be played.
This DRM in effect...
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In what will likely be a devastating blow to Thunderbolt Display stalwarts, Apple has announced that it is discontinuing the $999 peripheral aimed at Macs and MacBooks. The display has largely been unchanged since its introduction back in 2011. Since that time, the Thunderbolt Display has been overshadowed by dozens...
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Boston Dynamics’ future may still be clouded in uncertainty, but that isn’t stopping the robotics company from spitting out new generations of its quadrupedal robots. The latest from the company is the SpotMini, which looks like the cross between a large dog and a miniature giraffe.
SpotMini stands two-feet tall...
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The finish line is in sight for Volkswagen, and more importantly, diesel owners that were innocently caught up in the German auto giant’s emissions cheating scandal. Although an official settlement offer is expected to be revealed on June 28th, sources close to Volkswagen are revealing that the company will pay $10.2...
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Samsung is expanding its presence in the Windows 10 2-in-1 convertible market with the new Notebook 7 Spin lineup. Available in both 13.3-inch and 15.6-inch screen sizes (both with 1080p screen resolutions), the Notebook 7 Spin features a 360-degree hinge that allows the convertible to operate in laptop, tablet, and...
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Nothing says “finger-licking good” like a bargain basement smartphone charger. Wait, what? Apparently the marketing geniuses over at KFC India have come up with what might be one the oddest promos that we’ve seen in quite some time.
KFC India has debuted a limited edition version of its 5-in-1 combo, which comes in...
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Microsoft is ready to enter the NFC wireless payments arena with its Windows 10 Mobile platform with the official arrival of Microsoft Wallet. We first learned of Microsoft’s intentions earlier this month via leaked internal builds of Windows 10 Mobile, but Microsoft Wallet is now being introduced in the latest...
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Amazon’s entry-level e-reader is getting a makeover; its first in two years. The first thing you’ll notice is that this marks the return of a white color option for the Kindle lineup in six years. Of course, if you prefer the staid black, you can still go that route as well.
Memory has been doubled, which should...
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ASUS and MSI came under fire last week when reviewers discovered that both were shipping graphics cards to hardware reviewers that featured higher than expected clock speeds. While most of us wouldn’t mind receiving a product that performs better than stock from the factory, the problem arises from the fact that this...
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Just when you thought that Tesla Motors (and SpaceX) CEO Elon Musk already had enough on his plate, it looks as though he’s found a way to shove on another spoonful of alternative energy goodness. SolarCity, a company that Musk actually co-founded and still sits on the board for, was downgraded yesterday to...
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When NVIDIA announced the new GeForce GTX 1080 and GeForce GTX 1070 graphics cards last month, the company introduced an update to its SLI interface. Dubbed SLI HB Bridge, it offers double the bandwidth compared to the previous generation Maxwell architecture. This enables 2560x1440 gaming at 120+ Hz along with...
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There’s a new system sitting at the top of the charts of the TOP500 list, which lays out the world’s highest performing supercomputers for all to see. The Sunway TaihuLight Chinese supercomputer has taken over the No. 1 position, achieving an amazing 93 petaflop/s using the LINPACK performance metric.
The...
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Facebook definitely recognized the growth opportunities in Instagram when it bought the company for $1 billion in stock and cash back in 2012. First launched as an iPhone app in 2010, the service had 50 million monthly active users by September 2011. By December 2014, that number had ballooned to 300 million. And today, Instagram has announced
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