General Tech

It seems that a few people were unhappy with the way Sony and UK retailer, GAME, handled the UK 20th Anniversary Edition PlayStation 4 contest. The promotion took place late last year and was designed in an attempt to reward ‘loyal fans' by giving them the one off chance to buy …

It looks like Verizon is set to buy out AOL for $4.4 billion, putting the company in control of all AOL businesses, including several news outlets such as The Huffington Post, Engadget, Tech Crunch along with AOL.com. Joystiq would have been included in the list but AOL chose to shut …

Nvidia's cloud gaming service, GRID, is getting an upgrade today. Shield tablet owners taking part in the public beta for the streaming service will now be able to play the 50 title strong library of games at full 1080p and 60 frames per second. We tested the capabilities of GRID cloud gaming …

Google has gone ahead and announced that it will be shutting down Map Maker for a little while. Map Maker allowed users to make edits to Google Maps, unfortunately for Google, it didn't have the resources to thoroughly review all edits before they went live. As you would imagine, some …

MSI is looking to make its Twitch TV channel a bit more active with the launch of Pro Talk, a live stream talk show during which professional gamers, popular modders and prolific members of the overclocking community will be interviewed. The show is going to provide a platform for those …

Google has been updating the Play Store a fair amount recently. The latest update to the Android app store allows you to pre-register for certain apps. It works like a mailing list, those who register interest in an app will receive a notification on their device once it becomes available …

Last month, Samsung revealed that it would be releasing an improved version of the Gear VR headset for use with the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge smartphones. The Oculus-made virtual reality headset is now officially available, at the same price point as its predecessor. The original Gear VR was …

Ericsson has gone ahead and filed lawsuits in three countries, accusing Apple of holding out on license payments. Ericsson currently holds a number of patents for technologies that Apple continues to use, previously the company had offered to try to work things out with Apple outside of court but that …

Microsoft's latest tablet, the Surface 3, is now available to pick up in the UK. The laptop replacement starts off at £419 for the 64GB model and goes up to £499 for the 128GB model. The Surface 3 was initially announced at the end of March and is aimed at …

There's a lot of R&D going into driverless vehicles right now, with the likes of Google, Baidu and many more traditional auto-makers all pushing to become the first to offer a truly driverless experience on the roads. As much as they're pushing for cars though, others believe the first self-piloted …

When Elon Musk announced Tesla's new Powerwall battery technology last week, it wasn't quite the big news it could have been, since we'd been given a heads up a few days before about his intended unveiling. Still, that doesn't seem to have impacted people's interest in the high capacity UPS …

Have you ever confused Sky TV with Microsoft's Skype messenger service? Well a European court thinks that you probably will and has ruled that the name ‘Skype' is too similar to ‘Sky'. This prevents Microsoft from registering the Skype trademark in Europe. Here is how the European Union explained its …

The European Commission has announced plans to create a single digital market that will stretch across Europe, removing geo-blocks for shows across the continent. Copyright laws will also be updated to fit in better with the digital age. The EU Commission has detailed 16 policies that will help it achieve …

Oculus has finally announced an official release window for the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset. Regular consumers will be able to get their hands on one during the first quarter of next year, so any time between January and March. Unfortunately, we still don't know any final hardware specifications or …

One of the standout features of movies and TV shows from the future, is that food preparation is something that was long ago simplified. Whether you're talking the Star Trek replicator, or the McFly's home hydration unit, making a meal is supposed to be a lot easier than it is today and …

It looks like we are about to lose another game development studio as Spark Unlimited, the team behind Lost Planet 3, is ceasing its game development operations. All employees at the studio have also unfortunately lost their jobs, which is never good news. Spark Unlimited also developed Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden …

STMicroelectronics, one of a few semiconductor manufacturers from Europe, said that it would not develop 10nm process technology. Essentially, this means that the company will close its chip manufacturing facility in Crolles, France, at some point in the future. “We do not have any 10nm planned, and we do not …

We might be overestimating virtual reality, according to CCP Games CEO, Hilmar Veigar Pétursson. Those are big words coming from the head of the studio making one of the most promising virtual reality projects so far, Eve Valkyrie. According to Pétursson, right now “people tend to overestimate what we will …

Just like other contract makers of semiconductors, GlobalFoundries is already developing its next-generation 10nm process technology. However, despite of the fact that GlobalFoundries is about to acquire IBM’s semiconductor manufacturing business and the company’s close ties to Samsung Electronics, the 10nm fabrication tech is developed completely internally at the moment. …

E3 is about six weeks away, so far we know when Microsoft, Sony, Bethesda and Square Enix will be holding their own press conferences for game announcements and now, EA has announced its own plans for E3 as well. EA will be holding its own hour-long press conference on the …

Valve's Steam Market has a bit of a meltdown yesterday after it randomly started valuing items at the same rate in Indonesian rupiahs and US dollars. To put it simply, a $1 item would just cost one rupiah, when usually one US dollar is worth 13,000 rupiahs. This meant that …

Earlier this week we heard that Elon Musk's electric car company, Tesla, would soon be unveiling new battery technology designed with the home and businesses in mind, and now it's done so. The idea behind the new tech, is to reduce dependence on the grid, allow for the local storage of …

Qualcomm isn't too happy about the amount of negativity surrounding its latest flagship mobile chip, the Snapdragon 810. Speculation about problems was further fueled after the LG G4 was revealed to be using the Snapdragon 808 processor, despite earlier leaks and rumors suggesting that the Snapdragon 810 would be used. …

Microsoft announced the Hololens back in January and recently showed the device off a bit more at its annual Build conference last night. Now, Unity, the company behind the popular Unity Engine has announced that it will be fully supporting the augmented reality lenses. The announcement was made in an …

Even though Microsoft's Kinect camera never really found a valid use for its 3D tracking capabilities in a gaming sense, it has been used in many interesting applications outside of that world. In one such example, researchers at Brunel University found that by using its ability to detect movement – or …

For those of us with more than one device that sees regular usage, keeping in control of where important files are stored can rapidly become a complex chore. And that's without even bringing the differing backup and file transfer procedures of handheld devices into the picture. The Asus Transfer Express …

United Microelectronics Corp., the world’s second largest contract maker of semiconductors, said that it would not offer 20nm planar fabrication process, but will jump directly to 16nm FinFET manufacturing technology. Skipping the node will help the company to catch up with its competitors. Although it was widely expected that UMC …

Microsoft has really turned things around with the Surface brand and the most recent Surface Pro 3 has been the most popular addition to the lineup so far. However, it can be limited on the space side, with the highest spec model coming with 512GB of storage. In order to …

Microsoft has announced the official name for its new Windows 10 browser today at its annual build conference. The browser has been known as Spartan since its announcement in January but the final version will be called Microsoft Edge. Alongside the announcement, Microsoft released a video showing off the browser …

Amazon made the unpopular decision last year to put a minimum spend on free delivery. It seems that Amazon becoming less willing to foot the bill for postage as it has doubled the minimum spend requirement from £10 to £20 in the UK to qualify for free delivery. Amazon has …