Joshua Gulick
Recent posts
An abandoned NASA satellite is under new management. After floating in space without a mission for 17 years, the International Solar-Environment Explorer (ISEE-3) has been brought out of retirement by a group of scientists and engineers who used their spare time to reestablish contact with the satellite. The ISEE-3...
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The chances that your data has been exposed by hackers in the last 12 months is nearing 50%, and it’s probably not your computer that gave up the goods. It was one or more of the dozens of companies you trust to keep your personal information safe. A new study by CNNMoney estimates that the past 12 months have...
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Google may not like the EU’s recent “right to be forgotten” ruling (Google CEO Larry Page certainly doesn’t), but the search company is already taking the first steps to comply. A page in the Legal section of Google’s support website now has a form users can fill out to request that...
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You had to expect that Google had more in mind than trendy home thermostats when it acquired Nest Labs in February. Word is trickling in that Google’s Nest unit is now planning to acquire Dropcam, maker of Internet-connected webcams. There’s no official word yet on a possible sale. Dropcam's Wi-Fi...
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Valve announced some bad news for gamers and PC makers alike: its highly anticipated Steam Machines won’t be available this year. If you’re one of the lucky few who has already tried a prototype Steam Controller, you know just what we’re all missing out on. Valve is now aiming for a 2015 release, and...
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When it rains, it pours. Toshiba took the wraps off half a dozen refreshed and new mobile devices today, including convertible and detachable laptops, Windows tablets, and a bargain-basement Android tablet. The laptops will start dropping in June, followed by the tablets in July, in plenty of time for students gearing...
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As one of the top-shelf systems in the company's mainstream line-up, the Inspiron 15 7537 is in an interesting position in Dell’s extensive family of laptops and ultrabooks. This laptop is too pricey to be considered affordable by most consumers, and yet it’s not quite in the same class as and doesn't have...
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Gigabyte is obviously feeling bullish about the future of desktop PCs if the energy and resources that the company is putting into its upcoming line of motherboards is any indication. Earlier this week, Gigabyte previewed its boards for a few journalists and discussed a new million-dollar-plus lab that it built for...
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“You can never have too little screen real estate” is a tagline for no one, but big players like Dell, Toshiba, and now Lenovo are rushing to squeeze Windows 8.1 onto 8-inch tablets all the same. Lenovo is targeting its ThinkPad 8 at business users, which makes sense. Everyone values portability and power, but it’s the business...
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Although the market for them is relatively small, we love to check out elaborate, no-holds-barred gaming PCs from time to time--you know, the kind of system that costs about the same amount as a serviceable used car. As fun as it is to check out an ultra high-end gaming rig, we also do it to gauge the user experience and to see just...
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Dell has something for everyone with its Venue 8 tablets, which come in both Android and Windows 8.1 flavors. The Venue 8 is the Android-based model, while the Venue 8 Pro runs the full version of Windows 8.1. Dell isn’t the first to put Windows 8.1 in an 8-inch form factor, but the field is still relatively new and small, so the Venue...
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Big TVs are a staple of the annual Consumer Electronics Show and this year was no exception, with Samsung and LG announcing 105-inch curved-glass 4K Ultra HDTVs. LG gave us a tour of its displays, including the 105-inch behemoth, as well as 98-inch, 79-inch, and 65-inch curved panels. LG's 105-inch curved UHDTV is...
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Razer certainly has its work cut out for the company this year. Having built one of the better-known brands for gaming peripherals, Razer is now trying to market itself to people who aren’t necessarily gamers. That said, the company is staying reasonably close to home: its two break-out devices are headphones for music lovers (building...
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What’s faster than Visiontek’s new Radeon R9 290? Not the 290X, according to the graphics card maker. VisionTek used CES to formally launch the CryoVenom, a liquid-cooled R9 290 that can be user-overclocked for a speed boost of (according to VisionTek), up to 24%. The card’s one-year warranty covers...
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The Nest thermostat may have entered the market several steps ahead of its more established competition, but those days are behind it and the likes of Honeywell have some classy, Wi-Fi-enabled thermostats with some tricks of their own. The latest is the Honeywell Wi-Fi Smart Thermostat, which the company is showing...
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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...
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If you’re responsible about managing passwords for your email and other online accounts, you’re probably juggling a bunch of memorized passwords or using software that stores them for you. The FIDO Alliance wants to make online passwords a thing of the past and have us providing our credentials via pluggable devices, thumbprints,...
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iBuypower is offering an AMD-based system in its Chimera 4SE line, which is designed to give users serious gaming performance without a wallet-busting price tag. The Chimera is part of iBuypower’s Signature Series, which includes iBuypower’s highest-priced and most powerful gaming systems, like the Revolt and Valkyrie....
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You know malware is a steadily growing problem, but if you aren’t tuned into the cyber security industry, you might not know just how fast the threat is exploding. Hackers are taking computers hostage, stealing credit card data at ever-increasing rates, and spammers are winning the email war. McAfee released a...
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Microsoft has long battled botnets and the cybercriminals who create them, but today marks a new level of intensity in the fight: Microsoft today opened the Cybercrime Center, a massive research and command center for Microsoft’s top security experts. One of the offices at the new Microsoft Cybercrime Center...
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Amazon is taking on an IT unicorn: virtual desktops for enterprises. As Amazon is quick to point out, virtual desktops are fairly rare in large companies at the moment, due to the logistics of managing the hardware and software necessary to pull off the feat. If the cheering stick figures at the end of Amazon’s...
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Despite the upheaval and ensuing rumors Barnes & Noble endured this summer, the bookseller is showing signs of being committed to its NOOK platform. For one thing, the company recently launched new NOOK hardware in the form of the GlowLight. For another, it updated the NOOK app to take advantage of some cool new features in Windows 8.1....
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