Linux-Gaming für die Stube: Valve will ab sofort sein Betriebssystem SteamOS veröffentlichen. Gleichzeitig werden die ersten 300 Steam-Machine-Prototypen an Tester übergeben.
Die Facebook-Tochter Instragram baut aus: Neu ist das private Versenden von Bildern möglich. Damit greift der Dienst Snapchat an, der zuvor eine Übernahme durch Facebook abgelehnt hatte.
Megaupload-Gründer Kim Dotcom hat heute sein eigenes Musikalbum veröffentlicht. Er beschreibt seine Werke als «poppige Melodien, zu denen man in der Disco tanzen kann».
Eine Abmahnwelle gegen deutsche Nutzer des Porno-Streamingportals Redtube hat international für Schlagzeilen gesorgt. Jetzt haben die Betroffenen eine Gegenklage eingereicht.
Chinas Grossstädte haben mit Smog-Problemen zu kämpfen. Der Super-Rechner Tianhe-1A soll nun früh vor Verschmutzungen warnen. So soll schneller auf Notfälle reagiert werden können.
Auf Augenhöhe: Nachdem Sony in kurzer Zeit mehr als zwei Millionen PS4-Konsolen verkauft hat, zieht Microsoft mit der Xbox One nun nach und vermeldet auch einen Absatzrekord.
Mit einem kostenlosen Angebot für Smartphones und Tablets will der Musik-Streaming-Dienst Spotify neue Abonnenten gewinnen. Die Gratis-Nutzer müssen jedoch mit Einschränkungen leben.
Schon im nächsten Jahr soll das erste Smartphone mit dem offenen Betriebssystem Ubuntu auf den Markt kommen. Ein ähnliches Projekt ist diesen Sommer gescheitert.
Die WLAN-Kamera BSW 100 von Switel überwacht das Zuhause, schlafende Babys oder den Hauseingang. Dabei streamt sie die Bilder jederzeit aufs Smartphone.
Der kalifornische Smartphone-Hersteller Apple hat seine Technologien für Nachrichtendienste nicht vom Rivalen Samsung abgekupfert. Zu diesem Schluss kam ein Gericht in Seoul.
Der Nachrichtendienst Twitter hat ein neues prominentes Mitglied. George H. W. Bush zwitscherte anlässlich Nelson Mandelas Beerdigung zum ersten Mal.
Es mangle im Kampf gegen Terror an Alternativen, erklärte NSA-Chef Keith Alexander. Man sei allerdings offen für eine andere Lösung als die flächendeckende Überwachung.
Von wegen Tablets verdrängen die klassischen Computer: Gemäss einer Studie von Microsoft liegen die flachen Rechner in der Nutzung nach wie vor hinter Laptops und PCs.
Mit einer Hand lässt sich Nokias neuer Riese nicht ohne Fingerstarre bedienen. Trotzdem überzeugt das 1520 mit XXL-Display, Quadcore-Chip und neuen Apps im Alltag.
Robotnaut 2, the robot aboard the International Space station, is going to get new robotic apendages specially designed for zero gravity. R2 arrived in space in February 2011 and has been put to use since August of that year, but only with robotic arms. As you’ll see in this video report, the legs that R2 will have added seem to function more like arms, but nonetheless will offer the robot a greater ability to help astronauts with mundane or dangerous tasks. R2 will receive its legs early next year. While the legs can work both inside and outside the space station, R2’s upper body will need some upgrades before it can enter the harsh vacuum of space. The leg attachments have been a long time coming. Back when R2 powered up in August 2011, engineers hoped to have its legs attached by the end of the year. At this point they’re two years behind schedule.
The two groups will band together to form a super hybrid division that makes smartphone cameras, camera smartphones, and everything in between.
Now we know why Amazon isn't too worried about profiting from Kindle hardware sales. Turns out owners of those devices are spending big bucks with the online retailer.
Chip maker Qualcomm will promote current COO Steve Mollenkopf to the role of CEO next year. He will replace long-standing CEO Paul Jacobs, son of one of the company’s founders, Irwin Jacobs, the company said Friday. Steve Mollenkopf The move comes hours after that Microsoft’s board was considering Mollenkopf as a replacement for its CEO Steve Ballmer. Were Mollenkopf to end up at Microsoft, he would find himself both a customer of his former employer, and embroiled in a number of patent lawsuits with it. Mollenkopf is a 20-year veteran at Qualcomm, having previously run the company’s chipset business during its 2011 . He will take over on March 4, following the company’s shareholder meeting.
If you feel like you don't have enough Google in your life, Google wants to help out with that. The search giant has launched new website called “.” It's full of quick pointers for making better use of Google services such as Chrome, Google+, Google Maps, Google Drive, Gmail, YouTube, and—of course—Google Search. For instance, to your phone or tablet from a web browser. Each tip presents itself in a slideshow format, showing a different image for each step. Most tips take just a minute or two. (Click to enlarge.)
It’s not yet 2014, but Microsoft is already making a resolution for the new year: make equal to Google’s Knowledge Graph. Microsoft recently announced improvements to Satori (a Zen Buddhist term for enlightenment) that will bring more data front-and-center for searches of historical people and events, countries, and scientific data. Looking for a TED talk? Bing can help with that. The improvements center around Bing’s snapshot pane on the right-hand side of the search results page that shows a basic summary of information related to your search. Google offers a similar pane as part of its Knowledge Graph.
Twitter on Thursday faced a wave of backlash after it changed its blocking policies. The company quickly backtracked.
Microsoft has joined the , a group attempting to craft industry standards that reduce reliance on passwords, long regarded as a weak point in Web security. Launched in July 2012, FIDO, which stands for Fast IDentity Online, is hoping its specifications for security devices and browser plugins will be widely adopted across the technology industry. Such efforts depend on voluntary adoption by many companies and organizations. So far, those participating in FIDO include heavyweights Google, MasterCard, Lenovo, Infineon, LG Electronics and a variety of smaller companies. Authentication hardware and software widely varies, with many proprietary clients and protocols. FIDO hopes that standardizing authentication technologies will lead to better interoperability and innovations in biometrics, PINs (personal identification numbers) and secondary authentication technologies, according to its website.
You might think of Instagram’s new private messaging feature as a way to share certain photos with just your best friends. But Instagram—and the Kardashians—have other ideas about how the tool could be used to serve up promotional content. On Thursday, the photo-sharing app announced “”—a way for people to send photos and videos only to selected recipients, even if they aren’t connected to each other on the service. Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom described it as a way to better share photos around common interests, or with a more intimate group of friends. In addition, Instagram gave a lot of thought to how brands might want to use the tool, Systrom said during a meeting with the press in New York City. A good amount of that thinking stemmed from the company’s larger, ongoing monetization efforts, he said. Kourtney Kardashian, in an Instagram photo posted for the Kardashian Kollection fashion line.
Foxconn Technology Group has come up short in trying to limit the overtime hours of its workers in China, but still made progress in improving the working conditions at three of its factories that make products for Apple, a labor group said Thursday. The iPhone manufacturer has completed nearly all the goals in its plan to improve conditions at the three factories, according to a from the Fair Labor Association. But the manufacturing giant is struggling to cap workers’ overtime to the Chinese legal limit of 49 hours per week. Workers at the three factories located in Shenzhen and Chengdu are instead generally working less than 60 hours per week, meeting the FLA’s own code on labor standards. Only for a seven-week period at one facility did working hours exceed 60 hours. The plan to meet the 49 hours per week limit was an published a report describing poor working conditions at the factories.
You’ve got to hand it to 2013. This year was chock-full of phones that brought new ideas to the mobile game, including some that fell short of the mark and some that rocketed way past it. We saw phones that could ). Aside from the noble experiments and freakish extremes that debuted over the past 12 months, a number of standouts managed to shine brightly among the . Here are five of our faves of the year.
Gamers need good gear. The wear and tear of countless intensive FPS sessions take their toll on even the toughest equipment. So treat yourself or a gamer you love to something shiny and new. Unless you want to blame your last death on your crappy keyboard, in which case, never mind. The Roccat Isku FX is the only nonmechanical keyboard worth considering for gaming. Roccat’s Isku FX keyboard isn’t mechanical, but wipe that sneer off your face: The . It does everything a keyboard needs to do, and it does it well—translating your key presses into taunting forum posts and expertly timed reloads. The keys are spacious and comfortable, and they come backlit with LEDs that can approximate every color of the rainbow when configured with the lightweight, easy-to-use driver software. You can also program many of the keys, and create macros to give yourself a competitive edge. All for a mere $90—a fair price for a solid package.
If you get a spam message advertising an application called “Bitcoin Alarm,” the name may tell you all you need to know. The desktop Windows application sends price alerts by SMS to a mobile phone. But closer examination of its code turned up several suspicious traits that indicate it may try to steal the virtual currency, , a research analyst with security company Arbor Networks. Bitcoin’s skyrocketing value this year has drawn wide interest from investors as well as from cybercriminals. Bitcoins are secured by public key cryptography, and if the private key for a bitcoin is obtained, the virtual currency can be stolen in a flash. MacDermid received three spam messages in one day promoting Bitcoin Alarm.
With Microsoft feeling the squeeze between low-end Android devices and Apple’s high-end dominance, the company may be pondering desperate measures. , Microsoft is considering whether to nix licensing fees for Windows Phone and Windows RT, allowing phone, tablet, and PC makers to use the operating systems for free. The report is unconfirmed but, if true, would be a big shift in approach for Microsoft, which makes much of its money from OS licensing. Nokia accounts for 90 percent of Windows Phones currently being sold. Making the platform free could attract more developers. The company would sacrifice some of those profits to encourage more products at lower prices, and therefore more potential market share around which to build an ecosystem of apps and services.
The Federal Communications Commission voted Thursday to move forward with a plan to allow airlines to permit passengers to use mobile phones during flights, but another agency may protect travelers from hearing the loud phone conversations of their seatmates. While the FCC approved a notice of proposed rulemaking, or NPRM, seeking comment to allow airline passengers to use devices for texting, emailing and surfing the Web, the U.S. Department of Transportation announced it will initiate a proceeding to ban in-flight voice calls. ”Over the past few weeks, we have heard of concerns raised by airlines, travelers, flight attendants, members of Congress and others who are all troubled over the idea of passengers talking on cell phones in flight—and I am concerned about this possibility as well,” Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said in statement. The DOT will look at whether in-flight voice calls are “fair to consumers,” Foxx said.