Microsoft Corp. announced at the Build 2014 conference on Wednesday that it would waive licensing fees for special versions of Windows operating systems for select devices. Microsoft wants to enable partners to offer lower-cost systems in the highly competitive smartphone, tablet and PC categories. Microsoft Windows will be available for …

Micron Technology, one of the world’s leading makers of dynamic random access memory, said Wednesday that it had started to produce next-generation DDR4 memory in volume. The company and its partners will begin to officially ship servers featuring Intel Corp.’s Xeon E5-2600 v3 and Micron’s DDR4 memory in the second …

What do smartwatches, intelligent coffee mugs, robots and smart goggles have in common? It looks like Intel Corp. and Microsoft Corp. have an answer: Intel chips and Windows software inside. At the Build 2014 conference, the two companies indicated they would team up for wearable devices, tiny intelligent electronics, robots …

Amazon on Wednesday introduced its first set-top-box, the Amazon Fire TV. The new STB combines powerful hardware with one of the world’s richest collections of digital content and video games. The STB supports an external gamepad controller to make it more appealing to gamers. The novelty will cost $99 in …

Although a number of PC makers are pretty vocal about the success of notebooks based on ChromeOS operating system, actual sales of such computers are pretty low, according to market analysts. Apparently, the global market share of Chromebooks in 2013 was about 0.6 per cent. ABI Research estimates that 2.1 …

Advanced Micro Devices on Wednesday announced plans to slightly boost its purchase commitment from GlobalFoundries by around $50 million this year compared to last year. As part of the agreement, the contract maker of chips will manufacture not only its traditional central processing units (CPUs) and accelerated processing units (APUs) …

Apple has quietly delayed mass availability of its premium desktop again. At present the company offers to pre-order the new Mac Pro and get it in five or six weeks from now, sometimes in May. It looks like more than four months after the official launch date, Apple still cannot …

Tim Sweeney, a legendary game developer, said in an interview that virtual reality technologies will have higher influence on video games than the smartphones had. At present the VR technology is mostly aimed at game developers, researchers, enthusiasts and early adopters, but eventually it will not only appeal to loads …

Satya Nadella, the newly appointed chief executive officer of Microsoft Corp., continues to re-appoint executives in an attempt to create an efficient executive team at the software giant. In addition to the new team, we are starting to see changes that Mr. Nadella wants to bring to Microsoft. For example, …

A Chinese web-site has published what it claims to be the first image of the Radeon R9 295X2 graphics card. The cooling system of the new dual-GPU flagship graphics adapter code-named Vesuvius looks similar to a teaser published by AMD on Monday, so the product may actually be the real …

Although the code-named “Blue” updates were supposed to modernize virtually all products and services offered by Microsoft Corp., the Windows Phone still has not received its updates nearly half a year after the launch of Windows 8.1 and Windows RT 8.1. However, the wait seems to be nearly over as, …

Although Qualcomm took part in the announcement of Microsoft Corp.’s DirectX 12 application programming interface, the company’s plans regarding support of the new API were not completely clear. Last week an executive of Qualcomm confirmed that the future Adreno graphics cores will fully support DirectX 12. The current Snapdragon 800 …

Samsung Electronics has introduced its new display that combines relatively low price with ultra-high-definition. The Samsung U28D590D offers 3840*2160 resolution as well as relatively low price of $699. Unfortunately, the novelty is based on a TN panel that many consider to be a moderate choice. Samsung U28D590D is a 28” …

Advanced Micro Devices has published an image that resembles a cooling system for graphics cards. It is believed to be the cooling system of AMD’s upcoming dual-chip Radeon R9 295 X2 graphics card featuring two code-named Hawaii graphics processing units. The publication is virtually a confirmation of the new product …

Toshiba Corp. has introduced its first application processor designed for wearable computing devices. The system-on-chip will be available later this year. The new ApP Lite TZ1001MBG chip will power such devices as activity monitors, smart watches, bracelet- and glasses. Toshiba ApP Lite TZ1001MBG integrates ARM Cortex-M4F processor (with 48MHz clock-rate) …

Oculus VR, which is about to become a subsidiary of Facebook, has hired Michael Abrash, a renowned video game guru. At Oculus VR, Mr. Abrash will serve as the chief scientist, a logical position for a long-time evangelist of virtual reality technologies. What is noteworthy is that the legendary game …

Earlier this week Nvidia Corp. rather unexpectedly unveiled its GeForce GTX Titan Z dual-chip graphics card that carries two GK110 graphics processing units. At present, the novelty, which is yet to emerge on the market, is formally the world’s highest-performing graphics solution for consumers. Nonetheless, there is a rival coming …

Lenovo Group on Friday said it would recall as many as 150 thousand laptop batteries due to fire hazard. The batteries powered over ten different ThinkPad notebook models, which were on sale in the U.S., Canada and China. According to the U.S. consumer product safety commission, Lenovo has received two …

Micron Technology, one of the world’s leading makers of dynamic random access memory (DRAM), NAND flash memory and various storage solutions for enterprise datacenters, on Friday said it had joined the OpenPower foundation, an open development community based on the Power microprocessor architecture, as a platinum member. The OpenPower foundation, …

Dell and Microsoft this week announced a patent licensing agreement that covers a broad set of intellectual property and also causes a lot of questions. Under the terms of the deal, Dell will obtain licenses to use Microsoft IP that covers Google Android and Chrome platforms. Moreover, Dell may get …

Sony Corp. has posted the first video covering hands-on experience with its code-named project Morpheus virtual reality helmet. The device seems to work perfectly with the PlayStation 4 video game console. [yframe url='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlS3Yx_aJH8′] The current iteration of the project Morpheus features a 5” panel with 1920×RGB×1080 (960×RGB×1080 per eye) resolution …

Western Digital Corp. has announced its first portable storage solution featuring Thunderbolt interconnection. The My Passport Pro dual-drive storage device has user-selectable RAID functionality to deliver needed performance or reliability for the most demanding applications in the field, without the need for power adapters or extra cables. WD MyPassport Pro …

Microsoft Corp. on Thursday made several announcements regarding Office suite applications for Apple iOS and Google Android mobile platforms. The company introduced Office for the iPad and free Office Mobile apps for iPhone and Android smartphones. While the applications are free to get, Microsoft requires Office 365 subscription to actually …

This quarter shipments of Apple iPhone have crossed the psychologically important milestone: 500 million units in life-to-date sales. Despite of the fact that Apple’s share is declining on the market of smartphones, the iPhone remains the most popular handset on the planet in terms of unit shipments. Steve Jobs demonstrated …

Advanced Micro Devices on Wednesday introduced its first professional graphics card based on the code-named “Hawaii” graphics processing unit. The new solution for CAD, CAM, DCC and other professionals boasts unbeatable DP FP compute performance in addition to whopping 16GB of memory and six 4K display outputs. As expected, the …

Intel Corp. and Altera this week said they would extend their collaboration to the development of multi-die devices that leverage Intel's world-class package and assembly capabilities. The multi-die devices will feature Altera's Stratix 10 FPGAs and SoCs made using 14nm process technology as well as other components. This will allow …

The acquisition of Oculus VR company by Facebook caught everyone in the industry by surprise. It took just around two years between collecting money for the start-up on Kickstarter and selling it for whopping $2 billion of dollars. Still many gamers and enthusiasts are not happy with the deal. Palmer …

Metadot, the company behind the Das Keyboard, one of the world’s most known mechanical keyboards for professionals, this week introduced the Das Keyboard 4, the most significant update since the original Das Keyboard. The novelty not only features an audio knob, multimedia keys and a mute button, but it sports …

Intel Corp. this week announced that it had finalised acquisition of Basis Science, a maker of wearable computing devices. The acquisition accelerates Intel's wearable products focus. It also brings access to new technology, and further expands the leadership team with new people who have a proven track record of innovation …

From time to time large PC makers unveil hardware that chip companies like Advanced Micro Devices would rather not discuss with the general public. Recently it turned out that some of the desktops sold by Hewlett-Packard carry a strange microprocessor called AMD FX-670K, which does not seem to be exactly …