WhatsApp has turned in to a very popular messaging platform, so much so that people send more WhatsApp messages per day than they do traditional text messages. Around 50 per cent more messages are sent via the Facebook owned WhatsApp than texts these days. WhatsApp recently announced that it had …
Read More »Ericsson kicks off patent suit with Apple
Ericsson is now suing Apple, claiming that the iPhone uses one of the company's patented kits and accusing Apple of going out of its way to avoid paying any fees for use of the technology. Apple and Ericsson used to have a deal that allowed for this but that lapsed …
Read More »Microsoft gives YouTubers permission to monetize gameplay
Microsoft has updated its Game Content Usage Rules, giving YouTuber's and Twitch streamers permission to monetize gameplay footage on all of its titles, although Minecraft, which the company recently acquired for $2.5 billion, has a slightly different set of rules. The new policy states that users can create work based …
Read More »Valve adds Captcha security to Steam Trading
Valve has been tightening up the rules on Steam Trading over the last month or two. First the company imposed new rules on Steam Gifts to combat key resellers and now extra security measures are being added to the Steam trading feature, with Captcha verification. The Captcha verification process will protect …
Read More »Samsung might be in charge of building Apple’s S1 Watch processor
We already know that Samsung has started producing Apple's A9 processors for this year's round of iPhones and iPads but now it looks like Samsung will also be in charge of producing the S1 processors for the upcoming Apple Watch, which is rumored to launch in March. According to Digitimes, the …
Read More »3D printed stone, metal and wood are here
MakerBot, the desktop 3D printing company, has revealed four new materials that you can now use to print your creations with. A little more exciting than the plastic that's been used so far, they're actually composites that contain real metal, stone and wood making this all the more impressive. These materials are mixed …
Read More »Toshiba puts NFC in SD cards for previewing photos
Toshiba revealed that it is planning to release SD cards featuring Near Field Communication (NFC) technology that will enable you to see what photos are on the card by touching it to your phone. This could make it much easier to go through a large collection of unlabelled SD cards to find …
Read More »Netflix reveals that VPN crackdown claims are false
Netflix has come out to deny recent reports stating that the company is ‘cracking down' on customer VPN use. The company said that its existing policy on regional restrictions and VPN use shall remain in-tact and no changes are being made. Netflix's Chief Product Officer, Neil Hunt, said at CES …
Read More »TalkTalk buys out Tesco Blinkbox and broadband services
TalkTalk has gone ahead and acquired Tesco's Blinkbox video streaming service, alongside the company's broadband and voice services. This means 75,000 broadband customers along with an additional 20,000 voice customers are going to be transferred over to TalkTalk's service soon. TalkTalk also has plans for Blinkbox, which it will be …
Read More »Bitcoin exchange loses $5 million worth of coins after security breach
Bitcoin exchange service, Bitstamp, had to suspend its operations earlier this week after its security was compromised. The security breach saw 19,000 BTC, which is roughly $5 million worth, stolen from online wallets. The exchange clarified that most wallets are stored securely offline and won't be affected. According to ZDNet, …
Read More »Kick your feet up with this Kickstarter
Sitting at your desk is something that you probably do for a substantial portion of the day whether you work in an office, or play games at home. If this sounds like you, then you probably also have a nice chair that you find comfy to sit in for those long periods. What about …
Read More »Phanteks shows off 2015 lineup at CES
The Phanteks 2015 product line looks promising from what we have seen so far at their CES 2015 suite. Here in Vegas, they are showing off two new builds in the Enthoo Mini XL chassis. Out of the box the Enthoo Mini XL is clearly ready for advanced custom watercooling. As we …
Read More »Razer introduces Nabu X entry level smartband
Razer revealed the Nabu smartband at CES last year and after a lengthy development period, the device finally became available to buy in December last year. Now at this year's Consumer Electronics Show, the company has introduced its entry level smartband, the Nabu X- costing just $19.99. Well, the price …
Read More »Razer announces new open-source virtual reality platform and headset
Razer has announced a new open-source virtual reality platform, ‘OSVR', alongside an OSVR virtual reality development kit headset. Razer is attempting to standardize the virtual reality platform with this new open-source approach, which will be supported by many companies currently working with the technology. The OSVR headset will allow programmers …
Read More »Intel acquires 30% stake in Vuzix, a maker of smart eyewear
Intel Corp. has acquired a stake in Vuzix, a major maker of smart eyewear and virtual reality hardware. The move will allow Vuzix to boost spending on development of Internet-connected glasses akin to Google Glass. The investment will also ensure that the forthcoming devices from Vuzix use Intel system-on-chips, something …
Read More »Valve kicks off 2015 with new Steam user record
Valve's new year is off to a good start as the Steam concurrent users record has been topped. A total of 8.46 million users were using Steam a few hours in to the new year, beating out the previous record, which was set all of the way back in June. …
Read More »Samsung’s Tizen OS will be making its way to Smart TVs this year
Samsung's Tizen operating system has been in development for some time, originally for smartphones. However, now it looks like the OS will also be making its way over to smart TVs in hopes that it will make it easier for TVs to connect to other devices. Samsung announced the move …
Read More »GlobalFoundries denies problems with 14nm: everything is as planned
GlobalFoundries, the world’s second largest contract manufacturer of chips, late on Tuesday denied existence of problems with the ramp up of production using 14nm fabrication process. According to the foundry, it specifically stockpiles manufacturing equipment at a warehouse so that to install it once the fab 8 facility becomes compatible …
Read More »GlobalFoudries stops installations of 14nm tools, could delay production
Although GlobalFoundries has licensed 14nm FinFET manufacturing technology from Samsung Electronics back in May, 2014, it looks like the company may have to delay mass production using the fabrication process. According to a media report, the company has stopped installation of equipment required to make chips using 14nm FinFET technology. …
Read More »iTunes now offers refunds in Europe
Apple has changed the iTunes refund policy making it so that Europeans can return almost any digital item bought from the store within two weeks of purchase. However, as you would expect, there are some caveats in place to avoid abuse of the system. If you open an app, or …
Read More »Microsoft may launch a new web browser for Windows 10
Microsoft is reportedly working on an all new web browser to launch alongside Windows 10 in 2015. The project is currently codenamed ‘Spartan' and will see the company move away from Internet Explorer, which has garnered up quite a bad reputation over the years. According to ZDNet, the new app …
Read More »Game of Thrones crowned as most pirated show of 2014
Game of Thrones has managed to become the most pirated show of 2014, continuing its annual winning streak. This year's season was downloaded more than eight million times via BitTorrent, steaming ahead of the rest of the competition. The Walking Dead came in at a distant second place with just …
Read More »Sale bargains – check those labels carefully
Walking around the Boxing Day bargains, some KitGuru readers were keen to share their experience of what appears to be some quite blatant product mis-labeling. Naturally, we investigated, here are the initial results. Over the years, there have been some classic mis-labeling incidents across the tech world. Some are legitimate, …
Read More »Samsung Smart TV’s to get PlayStation Now game streaming
In an announcement today Samsung and Sony declared a partnership that will see the PlayStation Now game streaming service being built into select Samsung Smart TV's next year. This will allow customers in the United States and Canada to stream games directly to their Samsung TV without any need for downloads. When this is launched …
Read More »It turns out that The Interview will be shown on Christmas day afterall
It turns out that Sony will be letting some theaters show The Interview on Christmas day after all. The film's Thursday release was originally cancelled following threats from a hacking group tied to North Korea. However, it looks like Sony has changed its mind following public criticism. The owner of …
Read More »Sony Pictures lawyer says The Interview will still be released
The general public may still get to see The Interview after all as a Sony Pictures lawyer has stated that the company is “fighting to get this picture distributed”, although nobody quite knows how just yet. The Interview was originally due to release in cinemas later this week but has …
Read More »Google looking to partner up with manufacturers for self driving cars
Google is reportedly looking for manufacturers to partner up with to help create its self-driving cars. So far, Google has produced its own cars but the company had no intention to produce large numbers of them single-handed, as you would probably expect. “We don’t particularly want to become a car …
Read More »The Internet as we know it does not exist in Cuba. Yet.
U.S. trade embargoes have meant that, as the internet as we know it began to take shape, Cuba was left behind. With no access to the Internet at all until 1996 and only very limited, slow and censored access at present, things are about to change in a big way for the …
Read More »GlobalFoundries: Customized and SOI process technologies gain importance
While non-standard fabrication processes are sometimes challenging and make it harder to re-use intellectual property across different product lineups, they are just what the doctor ordered when one needs to achieve certain goals. According to GlobalFoundries, the No. 2 contract maker of chips, many customized process technologies are gaining importance …
Read More »UK retailers admit they weren’t ready for Black Friday
UK retailers have admitted that Black Friday 2014 was their biggest challenge this year. 32 per cent of stores surveyed following the sales day noted that handling the crowds and demand proved difficult. Some retailers felt that they were unable to cope logistically with the sheer amount of customers coming …
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