Items tagged with feature
It is Election Day here in the U.S. And we want to take a minute to direct some attention to a new, and very fitting, feature we’ve just rolled out here on HotHardware—a reader voting system. As regular readers may have noticed these past few years, we’ve been making a concerted effort to better engage with our audience and learn not only what it is you want from HotHardware, but what your opinions are on products, industry trends, and technology in general. The new reader voter system gives you all, and us too, another means to share our opinions and express our like or distaste for product, story, or even a comment from another reader. If you poke around the site, you’ll...
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Searching for useful information on a mobile phone isn't always easy or convenient. To help, Google's Mobile team released the Google Mobile App for the iPhone, complete with Voice Search and My Location features. With the app's voice search capabilities, you can perform a Google Web search using--you guessed it--your voice. To use this feature, you simply hold the phone to your ear, wait for a beep to tell you the app is listening, and then say what you are looking for. The application senses when you want to start speaking based on the phone's motion.In combination with the application's My Location feature, you can also search for information relative to your...
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Microsoft has disclosed some details regarding the next iteration of its gaming and graphics API, DirectX 11. Shacknews has the full scoop on what Microsoft has disclosed up to this point, which isn't much, but there is still plenty to ponder. For example, the initial DirectX features and specifications disclosed at this point include... Full support (including all DX11 hardware features) on Windows Vista as well as future versions of Windows Compatibility with DirectX 10 and 10.1 hardware, as well as support for new DirectX 11 hardware New compute shader technology that lays the groundwork for the GPU to be used for more than just 3D graphics, so that developers can take advantage of the...
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In case you don't know, an upskirt photo is one taken surreptitiously by pointing a camera upwards and ... well, we're hoping you can figure it out on your own, as well as the analogous downblouse photo.For some reason, with the advent of high-resolution camera phones, the practice of upskirt and downblouse photos have become very popular in Japan. According to freelancer Nobuyuki Hayashi, the iPhone omitted this "feature," - a silent shutter sound - possibly explaining its wild popularity in that country. All right, all right, it's popular everywhere. Sue us.At any rate, the iPhone 3G has restored such functionality. This gives tne Japanese version an exclusive feature, though...
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UPDATE: We heard back from Steve Swasey, Vice President, Corporate Communications for Netflix. Swasey explained that a "very, very, very small minority" of Netflix users actually use the Profiles feature. When we commented that he used the word "very" three times, he joked that a few more "very's" might actually be applicable. He would not comment, however, on what the actual percentage is of Netflix users who use Profiles. Swasey also pointed us to today's post on the Netflix Community Blog, where a Netflix product manager added the following salient comments: "Please know that the motivation is solely driven by keeping our service as simple and as easy to use as possible. Too many members found...
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While some people are extremely impressed with smaller ultra-portables like the Eee PC, others want something with a little more performance and/or features. Looking to meet this growing group of consumers is Lenovo with their new 11.1” IdeaPad U110 that we showed you a preview of here in our CES 2008 report. “The IdeaPad U110 features a smallish 11.1" LED-backlit WXGA display coupled with Intel's X3100 integrated graphics adapter. A 1.6GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor provides motivation for the notebook and storage duties are handled by a 120GB HDD. Standard memory is a generous 2GB. When it comes to ports and peripherals, the IdeaPad U110 is pretty much par for the course. It features...
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Nintendo announced that the Wii Shop Channel's Gifting Feature, which allows you to give a game to someone you've traded Friend Codes with, will go live later today.Later in the day on Monday, Nintendo will make your holiday shopping just a little bit easier. If some people on your gift list have visions of classic video games dancing in their heads, you're in luck. Starting this week, Wii Shop Channel patrons can use a new Gifting feature to send games to other Wii owners with whom they've traded Friend Codes. It's an easy and inexpensive way to give your fellow Nintendo buffs the gift of a classic game?no wrapping paper required. And don't worry about duplication. If your friend already has...
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Apple computers have finally reached the market share necessary to make them attractive targets for malware. Apple is now the third largest seller of desktop and laptop computers in the US, accounting for an 8.1 percent share of the market. This week a Trojan-horse designed to infect Apple's operating system was discovered in the wild. Some security researchers believe that this signals that Apple's total customer base is now big enough to be targeted by thieves, and warn users should expect many more attempts to infect their machines. "With 2 million iPhones and iPod Touches, it makes sense they will think of them as an evolving market to exploit, and there are a lot of new Mac...
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Data recovery firm Retrodata is reporting that Seagate hard-drives used in MacBook laptops and MacMini desktops are prone to catastrophic loss of data. It's unclear whether the irreversible damage to the disk surface is caused by poor quality control in the factory, or whether Mac's Safe Sleep feature, which automatically backs up your computer whenever the computer is powered down, is causing the disk to be gouged when the computers are moved before the process is finished.To be fair to Apple, it does warn users not to move the machine until this process is complete - at which point the light on the lid catch begins to pulsate - but it's easy for users to grab their laptops and go as soon as...
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The X38 chipset that Intel is feverishly preparing for a launch this fall, is due to ship with 2 new “extreme” technologies: “The two new technologies are named Extreme Memory and Extreme Tuning Utility. Both new marketing lead architectures will be introduced along with the X38 chipset in October this year, according to motherboard makers.” Extreme Memory is most likely a technology similar to that of NVIDIA's SLI Memory. In theory it should allow users to plug a pair of supported memory modules into an X38-powered motherboard and have the motherboard either automatically select the best performance option or allow users to select from a list of pre-defined memory speeds/timings/voltages...
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Legendary game designer Peter Molyneux has mentioned that upcoming X-Box 360 title Fable 2 will have some very interesting features: Guns Marriage Highly interactive canine companion Sex Larger levels Condoms More levels Having virtual children Will divorce be a feature in an expansion or PC port? "It will occur 500 years later than the first game, at the dawn of the age of the gun. You'll be able to do things like purchase anything in the game or even purchase castles. You can court women or men, get married, have protected or unprotected sex (I know that you Americans can't stand that) and then have kids. You can play either a female character or a male, though you're still unable to create...
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In an attempt to get their message across, the U.S. government is embracing the YouTube community in an effort to curb drug use. Though there's some controversy on how effective the ads are, the White House has started injecting their anti-drug videos into the service, which receives millions of viewers a day, many of them teenagers. "The government's short public service announcements -- all of which were produced previously for television -- are highly polished. They will compete for viewership against hundreds of existing, drug-related videos that include shaky footage of college-age kids smoking marijuana and girls dancing wildly after...
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In a somewhat controversial move, Microsoft will be including a new feature in its messaging services which will allow users to contact police with just a few clicks of the mouse. If you're a resident of the United Kingdom, the new "Report Abuse" icon will appear on your Windows Live Messenger or MSN Messenger, which when clicked will take you directly to a site that will help you get in contact with Police. The new feature has been created with the help of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection(CEOP) Centre, in an effort to help curb inappropriate online sexual conduct. "Behind the Report Abuse button will sit...
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VIA's VTF2006 to Feature Prominent Keynote Speakers and Technology Leadership in Fast-Growing Markets Seventh VIA Technology Forum boasts support from renowned industry players, with keynote addresses by executives from VIA, AMD and Microsoft Taipei, Taiwan, 16 May 2006 - VIA Technologies, Inc, a leading innovator and developer of silicon chip technologies and PC platform solutions, today announced an outstanding array of top executives from leading industry players to address the seventh VIA Technology Forum (VTF2006), taking place in Taipei from Wednesday, 7th June to Friday, 9th June. VTF2006 will be opened by Wenchi Chen, President and CEO of VIA, who will expand upon VIA's leadership...
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