Google’s choice to eliminate voice search and a notifications center from its latest Chrome browser probably means one of two things for PC users: either Microsoft’s own Windows 10 features have won, or Microsoft never should have added them in the first place. Google’s Chrome 46
Finally, a chance to write about something this week that isn’t Valve’s putting on another free weekend and this time it’s for the pretty-damn-good RTS
Doing the reading before class may not have been the highest priority while you were in school. But here’s some text you may actually want to dive into: a primer on all the cool, new features of Google just published its
Here's a handful of hot new Android apps and games worth checking out this week.
With Windows 10, Canonical had been
For those worried about ads creeping onto their game consoles, Valve is promising that Steam will be a safe haven. “We don’t see a case for that ever getting user value,” Johnson added that Valve is trying to create long-term relationships, and that ads could have a negative influence while costing money to implement. “It would be a bad business decision, let alone just dumb,” he said.
Pebble Time users should soon get a lot more use out of the smartwatch’s microphone as voice control comes to a slew of new apps. When paired to an Android phone, the Pebble Time already lets users respond to messages by voice. But now, Pebble is extending voice dictation features to third-party apps, both for Android and iPhone users. So far, there aren’t a lot of apps taking advantage of dictation, but searching for “voice” in the Pebble app store reveals a few new additions.
Google's book scanning project constitutes fair use under U.S. copyright law, an appeals court confirmed Friday, ending a ten-year legal fight by the Authors Guild and other writers' groups to have it stopped. Google began working with libraries in 2004 to digitize their book collections, including works still protected under copyright, and makes snippets of the digital copies accessible through its Google Books search engine. Authors filed suit against Google in 2005, complaining that this breached their copyright, and also their right to license their works for search in digital form. Google defended its actions, saying that they constituted "fair use," one of the allowed exceptions to U.S. copyright law.
Red Hat will acquire IT automation software provider Ansible in a bid to bolster the tools it can offer enterprises for managing hybrid cloud environments through DevOps and other initiatives. The deal is expected to close this month. Terms were not disclosed, but at least one Red Hat declined to provide further details. Ansible offers modular enterprise-grade software for automating apps, systems and cloud resources. The North Carolina company's open-source software is one of the most popular open-source automation projects on GitHub, with nearly 1,200 contributors. It won an
The only thing the Microsoft Store loves more than a trade-in deal is a trade-in deal for Apple devices. On Thursday, the company launched its latest appeal to Apple owners by offering up to $300 for MacBook trade-ins. You can also trade-in other riffraff running that Windows thing for up to $200 back. Surface trade-ins are not allowed, nor are laptops not intended for sale in the U.S. and Canada (gray market/imported devices). As usual, it’s not as simple as sliding your old laptop across the counter for a rebate while you purchase a new one, and you'll have to front the entire cost of your new PC before receiving the value of your trade-in. First, the new Windows 8.1 or 10 PC you're buying must have a purchase price of $599 or more, it cannot be running Windows Pro, and you have to buy it at a Microsoft Store in the U.S. or Canada between now and October 20, 2015. Microsoft has a complete list of
Microsoft’s newfound success as a maker of high-end PCs is starting to create some awkward situations with other vendors. That much became clear this week, when Lenovo President and COO Gianfranco Lanci said he refused an arrangement to resell Surface devices to enterprise customers, While it may defy belief that PC makers are selling Microsoft’s hardware instead of their own, some vendors such as HP and Dell have broader enterprise service businesses to protect. They’ve begrudgingly accepted Microsoft’s offer to resell Surfaces when customers ask for them, despite making no money from the sales. “These are customers we have been working with for many, many years and we don’t simply want to cede those relationships to a competitor, so we said ‘OK, we’ll participate in that’,” HP CEO Dion Weisler said, according to The Register.
The Hololens coming out party isn’t the only big product tour Microsoft's conducting in October. Beginning Monday, Microsoft fans in major cities from Atlanta to Vancouver will be able to get a first-hand look at the new
Yes, you can log into Windows even if you forgot your password—even if there is no other administrative account on the PC. From a security point of view, this is actually scary news. But there are legitimate reasons to use the tricks below, and none of them will let a criminal log in without your knowledge (the password is changed, not revealed) or access encrypted data. Yet another reason to I’ve provided instructions here for Windows 7 and 10. Windows 8 users should have no trouble following the Windows 10 instructions.
From one perspective, it could be argued that the online advertising industry is getting what it deserves. After years of having Web pages stuffed with ads, surfers are increasingly blocking them with free tools. The other perspective is that ads, like them or not, pay people to create content, which other people like on the Web. Since finding paying subscribers is hard, ads are a key source of online revenue for publishers. In a frank post on Thursday, a senior executive of the largest online advertising trade group admitted that the surge in online ads over the years—and the accompanying performance issues—have alienated many. “We messed up,”
A subcommittee of the U.S. House of Representatives has proposed requiring vehicle manufacturers to state their privacy policies, besides providing for civil penalties of up to US$100,000 for the hacking of vehicles. The lawmakers have also proposed that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration set up an Automotive Cybersecurity Advisory Council to develop cybersecurity best-practices for manufacturers of cars sold in the U.S. The move comes in the wake of the increasing automation of cars, which has raised privacy concerns, and the high-profile hack of a Jeep Cherokee. The House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade has released the
School kids and hardware enthusiasts who want to start tinkering with Intel’s tiny Curie chip will be able to get their hands on it early next year in the form of an Arduino development board.
Yes, it’s a fact: both your iPhone and iPad know exactly where you are at all times. Creepy, perhaps, but also incredibly handy, and we’re not just talking about pinpointing your location on Google Maps. For example, you can set your iOS device to remind you about an errand when you arrive at a certain street address, or you can quickly let a friend know where you are at any given moment. Want your family to know every time you’ve left work for home? Done. You can even get an alert at the precise moment you need to leave for a geotagged Calendar appointment. Read on for 5 clever ways to make the most of iOS’s location features, starting with...
Don’t be fooled: Building your own PC isn’t some arcane art or esoteric skill that only the most hardcore of hardware geeks can pull off. In fact, assembling a DIY PC is pretty straightforward once you’ve settled on your parts list Rolling your own computer offers a number of advantages that boxed desktops just can’t match. You get granular control over every single aspect of the hardware. You get to choose not only the nuts-and-bolts-level details like processing and graphical capabilities, but also deeply personal touches like the PC’s case design and cooling capabilities. Want to build a huge, hulking full tower PC with unrivaled top-of-the-line hardware?
Stands and brackets shown at CEDIA 2015 allow you to hang Sonos speakers on the wall, raise them on stands; skins let you change the colors of the speakers.
These speakers deliver the boom without taking up space in your room.