Technology news

Kindle Fire HD 7 and 8.9 now available for pre-order in 'over 170 countries' (update: Appstore open in 'nearly 200') Thu, 23 May 2013 03:14:00 -0400

Amazon's Kindle Fire HD 7- and 8.9-inch slates have only seen limited shores since they were formally announced, but today the company said they're now available for pre-order in more than "170 countries and territories around the world." We could try and list all the new tablet markets, but it's... Read more

Google Capital to make investments in maturing tech firms Thu, 23 May 2013 02:19:00 -0400

Google Ventures has a reputation for backing tech winners early on -- it gave a boost to this little startup called Nest, for example. It wants to exert influence every step of the way, however, and it's launching Google Capital to make this happen. The new fund is investing in... Read more

Lenovo pulls in best-ever revenue of $7.8 billion for Q4 2012/13, record $34 billion for the year Thu, 23 May 2013 01:36:00 -0400

Lenovo's just announced its Q4 and full year 2012/13 financial results, and it's touched new highs on the two most important indices. It earned $127 million on $7.8 billion in revenue for the quarter and $34 billion for the full year, both records for the company, while netting $635 million... Read more

HTC Desire 200 and Desire 600 turn up in leaked certification page, benchmark results Thu, 23 May 2013 01:06:00 -0400

HTC's Desire line of mid-range Android smartphones have typically used the alphabet to denote different models, but the company is now switching to numerals. At least according to a Taiwanese certification page, we can expect a Desire 200. Some leaked benchmark results also indicate that a Desire 600 will head... Read more

AMD outlines Elite Performance laptop APUs with game-ready Wireless Display Thu, 23 May 2013 00:01:00 -0400

AMD isn't focusing all its attention on its entry-level mobile APUs today: it's also providing details for the faster Richland-based models. The new A6, A8, and A10 mobile variants fall under the Elite Performance badge, and theoretically beat Intel to the punch with up to 71 percent faster 3D graphics... Read more

2014 Chevy Spark EV will retail for $27,495 before incentives, hits West Coast freeways in mid-June Thu, 23 May 2013 00:01:00 -0400

Chevy just announced pricing for its 2014 Spark EV. The all-electric compact will retail for $27,495 before incentives, such as a $7,500 federal tax credit and up to $2,500 in state and local credits. All told, you could drive the car home for less than 18 grand, and California residents... Read more

HP refreshes its laptops for back-to-school season, prices start at $399 Thu, 23 May 2013 00:01:00 -0400

With back-to-school season upon us and Intel's Haswell launch just around the corner, now's a great time for PC makers to start unveiling their summer lineups. Two weeks ago we heard from Sony and today it's HP's turn: the company just refreshed everything from its mainstream notebooks to its high-performance... Read more

HP adds five new towers to its desktop lineup, Haswell offered across the board Thu, 23 May 2013 00:01:00 -0400

If you think HP's new battery-powered all-in-one is a gimmick, fear not: the company's still churning out all manner of traditional desktop towers. In fact, the outfit just refreshed its lineup with five new models, ranging from a space-saving mini to a high-end gaming rig. There's a lot to digest... Read more

HP intros the Envy Rove 20, a portable all-in-one, plus two other AiOs Thu, 23 May 2013 00:01:00 -0400

It's official: battery-powered all-in-ones you can schlep around the house are now a thing. First Sony released the Tap 20, then Lenovo followed with the Horizon and now HP makes three, with its newly announced Envy Rove 20. As the name suggests, it's a 20-inch PC you can move from... Read more

AMD details Elite Mobility and mainstream APUs, we run early tests (hands-on) Thu, 23 May 2013 00:01:00 -0400

AMD has been willing to tease its 2013 ultra-mobile APU (accelerated processing unit) strategy through PCs like the Acer Aspire V5, but today it's spilling the beans in earnest. The headliner for many is the company's just-shipping Elite Mobility line, or Temash: the A4 and A6 designs are built for... Read more

LG invites you to splash around with Optimus GJ, a water-resistant phone for Taiwan Wed, 22 May 2013 23:42:00 -0400

Come next month, NTT DoCoMo users won't be the only ones to benefit from a water-resistant version of the Optimus G. Similar to the L-01E for Japan, LG has introduced the Optimus GJ for Taiwan, which carries IPX7 certification that allows for worry-free immersion in up to a meter of... Read more

Twitter #Music adds genre charts to aid your musical discovery Wed, 22 May 2013 23:19:00 -0400

Unless you've been living under a proverbial rock, you've at least a passing familiarity with Twitter's #Music service, and today the platform given us another reason to check it out, thanks to the addition of genre charts. When #Music launched a month ago, it provided the means to discover and... Read more

Rdio for iOS update brings 'Find People' feature, design improvements to the UI Wed, 22 May 2013 22:54:00 -0400

Music streamers on Rdio for iOS are used to getting novel features quite often -- but hey, as they say, the more the merrier, right? Keeping up with that tradition, Rdio announced earlier today it's introducing a few new tidbits to the application with version 2.2. Most notably, the... Read more

Samsung announces Galaxy S 4 sales of 10 million, new colors coming this summer Wed, 22 May 2013 22:31:00 -0400

Just as CEO JK Shin predicted, Samsung has announced its new Galaxy S 4 topped 10 million units sold in record time. That beats the 50 days it took the Galaxy S III to sell that many, a mark it took 5 months for the Galaxy S II to pass... Read more

ASUS K005 tablet hits the FCC, Snapdragon S4 Pro hints at top-tier performance Wed, 22 May 2013 22:24:00 -0400

Although ASUS recently delivered the $150 7-inch MeMo Pad and PadFone Infinity combo device, it's been a while since a premium Android tablet graced the lineup. A recent FCC filing from the company, however, reveals an unannounced K005 model equipped with the venerable Snapdragon S4 Pro (APQ8064) SoC clocked at... Read more

Northrop Grumman's MQ-4C Triton long-range drone completes first flight (video) Wed, 22 May 2013 22:08:00 -0400

Northrop Grumman's MQ-4C Triton unmanned aircraft is one step closer to serving the Navy in reconnaissance and surveillance missions, having just completed its first flight. The drone spent 80 minutes in the air, reaching an altitude of 20,000 feet. That's child's play compared to the aircraft's full potential: according to... Read more

Twitter for Mac 2.2.1 brings Notification Center support, various bug fixes Wed, 22 May 2013 21:46:00 -0400

It's certainly been a long time coming, but the latest version (2.2.1) of Twitter for Mac finally brings support for Notification Center in OS X Mountain Lion. Aside from the side-pane pings for your @replies and DMs, a number of fixes have been implemented that should stabilize your experience some... Read more

PlayStation 4's DualShock 4 controller passes through the FCC solo Wed, 22 May 2013 21:29:00 -0400

We still haven't actually touched the redesigned DualShock 4 destined to ship with Sony's PlayStation 4, but we're getting another look at it in this FCC filing. Appearing in wireframe form to show off where its FCC label will be placed, what's available reveals very little. As we were told,... Read more

Google X acquires Makani Power, an airborne wind turbine manufacturer Wed, 22 May 2013 21:12:00 -0400

Larry Page just picked up another bird for his flying craft collection, and this plane doesn't even carry passengers. In fact, it's not used for transportation at all -- the aircraft is tethered to the ground. Google X, the tech giant's experimental arm, recently acquired the device's designer, Makani Power.... Read more

eTrak GPS+ melds WiFi, cellular and GPS tracking, launches at CTIA (hands-on) Wed, 22 May 2013 20:58:00 -0400

We've come across a number of GPS-based tracking devices over the years but most are rather bulky and difficult to setup. eTrak's attempting to remedy this here at CTIA 2013 with GPS+, a fob-like product that combines WiFi, cellular and GPS tracking in a small, light and easy-to-use package. The... Read more

GM and AT&T demo LTE-enabled OnStar connected vehicle (hands-on) Wed, 22 May 2013 20:43:00 -0400

GM and OnStar were on hand at CTIA to demonstrate a few ideas of what its new service could look like once bolstered with AT&T's LTE network. The system, which we originally heard about in February at Mobile World Congress, is still in its infancy, but with all the ideas... Read more

Microsoft's Don Mattrick talks Xbox One, calls backwards compatibility backwards Wed, 22 May 2013 20:19:00 -0400

One of the more controversial bits of news to come out of yesterday's Xbox One reveal was the discovery that the newly christened console would not be able to play Xbox 360 games. Backwards compatibility has been a sore subject for some gamers but Microsoft's Don Mattrick says the company... Read more

Google now offers Top Charts and visualization tool for trending topics Wed, 22 May 2013 19:53:00 -0400

Instead of waiting until the end of the year for Google's annual Zeitgeist, you can now find out what's trending in any given month with a new Top Charts feature from Google Trends. Updated monthly and going back to 2004, Top Charts is built on the Knowledge Graph, so it's... Read more

BBC's experimental Perceptive Radio intelligently adjusts what's playing Wed, 22 May 2013 19:34:00 -0400

At today's Thinking Digital conference, the BBC exhibited the first gadget designed through its Perceptive Media Project: the Perceptive Radio, created by Ian Forrester of the corporation's Future Media division. When the BBC announced the project last summer, the response included some head scratching, mostly due to a lack of... Read more

Innodisk outs embedded SATA nanoSSD, nets 480MB per second from one chip Wed, 22 May 2013 19:16:00 -0400

While single-chip SSDs are clearly known quantities, they usually run at a much more leisurely pace than their larger counterparts. Innodisk doesn't think size and speed have to be contradictory -- it just unveiled an embedded version of its nanoSSD that performs almost as well as its much bigger counterparts.... Read more