Techreport

Ahead of Mobile World Congress 2015, Samsung announced the latest updates to its Galaxy S line of high-end handsets: the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge. The new Galaxies feature a striking new design that incorporates metal and glass materials, a marked change from the more plastic-y bodies of previous Galaxy S phones. ...Read more...

At the Mobile World Congress today, Intel unwrapped a new line of Atom processors for entry-level phones and tablets. Known as the Atom x3 series, this lineup comprises chips formerly known under the SoFIA code name. These chips combine x86 Intel cores with integrated baseband modems and, oddly enough, graphics based on ARM's Mali IP.

With the Atom x3 series, Intel has made certain concessions to cost and time-to-market concerns. The company has made fewer compromises with the Atom x5 and x7 series, formerly known as Cherry Trail. These are the first Atoms built using Intel's 14-nm fab process, and they boast Intel Gen8 integrated graphics—the very same found in Broadwell.Where the Atom x3 lineup targets entry-level phones and tablets, Intel expects the Atom x5 and ...Read more...

Imagination Technologies is unveiling new products at the Mobile World Congress this week. Among them: the PowerVR Series5 family of video encoders, which are designed for 4K H.265 encoding and promise higher efficiency than the competition.Three different encoder IP products make up the PowerVR Series5 lineup. They target prosumer applications, ...Read more...

Eight is Enough

The number of computing devices around us keeps growing as technology marches forward. Where once a household had a sole PC, today we find ourselves with multiple laptops, desktops, smartphones, and tablets. There is one other computing device in our home that is easy to forget about: the small office/home office (SOHO) router.These devices have been growing more capable over time. Enthusiasts tend to buy their own routers, but most end users simply lease a unit from their ISP. A successful ISP can have ...Read more...

The deal gods are smiling upon us today. We've got some nice bargains on a Radeon R9 290 graphics card, a mechanical keyboard, and an IPS display—plus a couple of SSD deals to round things out:That's all, folks. If you, too, have been visited by the ...Read more...

Man, I dunno what all the debate is about.Read more...

USB 3.1 Type-C is coming, and Microsoft looks to be ready for it. As Neowin reports, the outline of a session from next month's WinHEC conference suggests Windows 10 will have out-of-the-box support for the reversible USB connector—and, more importantly, the new capabilities it enables, including expanded power delivery and providing transport for standards like DisplayPort.The session is titled "Enabling New USB Connectivity ...Read more...

The next volley of aluminum, glass, and white plastic is almost upon us. Apple has set a date and time for its next special event: Monday, March 9 at 10 AM, PDT. ...Read more...

Eight is Enough

Last night's live stream was a lot of fun once we got going. We talked about Nvidia being in hot water, the excellence of the Fractal Design Define R5 case, and how AMD built its Carrizo APU to run cool. We also handed out some keys for Homeworld Remastered Collection and tackled some questions from listener mail and the chat channel. I think Jordan ate some fries live on camera, too.Anyhow, thanks to everybody who joined us—and no thanks to everybody else, but ...Read more...

The Lenovo-Superfish fiasco might have some contemplating an OS switch, but the grass isn't greener on the other side—at least not according to GFI. The security firm has published a report ranking last year's most vulnerable OSes and applications, and guess what? OS X, iOS, and Linux made the top of the list. Take a look: ...Read more...

Steam machines are still missing in action, but Valve is pressing ahead with its hardware efforts. Late yesterday, the company announced Steam VR, a "previously-unannounced . . . hardware system." A full reveal is scheduled for the Game Developers Conference early next month.With the introduction of SteamVR hardware, Valve is actively seeking VR content creators. Are you a developer or publisher interested in experiencing the new ...Read more...

Lenovo isn't the only one facing a possible class-action suit. As PC World reports, Nvidia is also the subject of legal ire over the GeForce GTX 970 memory debacle.Filed with the U.S. District Court for Northern California, the suit names both Nvidia and Gigabyte as defendants. In PC World's words, the suit alleges that Nvidia "misled customers about the capabilities of the GTX 970." Although ...Read more...

If you're a TR subscriber who participated in the private Homeworld Remastered Collection beta, you should be receiving a Steam key for the full game in your inbox soon. Look for an email from Cyril later today.The full Homeworld Remastered Collection comes on out Wednesday, so the game won't unlock until ...Read more...

The Superfish saga continues. In its latest statement about the vulnerability, Lenovo has provided a link to an "automated removal tool" that can rid users of Superfish's ill-fated Virtual Discovery software. The statement also clarifies a few things, including the fact that ThinkPad laptops are, mercifully, unaffected by the Superfish snafu:As we've said previously, Lenovo is exploring every action we can to help our users address ...Read more...

It's always a busy month in the field of security. This month has seen its share of ugly stories, including the growing amount of state tax fraud, massive bank heists, and another depressing breach of our personal privacy by a major business. Those stories are all big, but the one that really captivated the attention of our community has been the one about Lenovo and Superfish.That story has all the requisite narrative pieces to be a big tale that riles the enthusiast: a large PC maker pushing crapware onto untold numbers of users, that crapware being adware afflicted with a major security flaw, ...Read more...

Eight is Enough

Last month, we reported that some Samsung 840 EVO SSDs are still experiencing slow read speeds with old data. The issue was supposedly fixed with a firmware update issued in October, but some patched drives continue to exhibit the problem, including one of our own. Late Friday afternoon, Samsung issued the following statement on the matter:The drive we tested last month exhibits particularly extreme symptoms, and it's been sent ...Read more...

All of the recent revelations about things like infected hard drive firmware and the still-unfolding Lenovo Superfish debacle have made the tech news particularly depressing of late. I have to admit, I've never really been a security buff who follows every twist and turn in that particular area of technology. Keeping up with it has been a chore, not a joy. Lately, though, one gets the creeping feeling that some of the most strident and paranoid folks from that community have essentially been more right than anyone realized.The problem with governments spying on citizens is one thing, but I find the involvement of technology companies in this mix, ...Read more...

We have been working diligently in the background on a bundle of improvements to the website and to our user subscription service. Those improvements are now ready for beta testing. With your help, we're hoping to roll them out on the main site soon.If you'd like to see what we've been doing and how you can help, go check out this forum thread posted by Bruno, ...Read more...

For years, we've been testing storage performance on a pair of P67 motherboards equipped with Sandy Bridge processors. The machines have served us well, but we're in the process of phasing them out in favor of all-new hardware and updated tests. This is the beautiful beast that's been running benchmarks in the lab all week: ...Read more...

Another week, another lame introductory sentence for our bulleted list of sweet PC hardware deals.Those are the deals that caught my eye this morning. ...Read more...

Following the furore over the Superfish snafu, Lenovo is now in full damage-control mode.Speaking to the folks at PC World , Lenovo CTO Peter Hortensius used the words "significant mistake" to describe the firm's decision to ship malware ...Read more...

Hi, folks. We're just getting started with tonight's special guest, Paul from Paul's Hardware, and we'll be taking your questions.You can watch the TR Podcast live ...Read more...

We recorded the latest TR Podcast live on Twitch last night, and the video is now up on YouTube. You can watch us answer questions from the audience and also discuss smart TVs, Spiderman, Dell's Venue 8 7000 tablet, and Intel's new Broadwell-powered NUC, among other topics....Read more...

Last week's deals post was entirely devoid of SSDs—but this week's isn't.Those are the deals that stood out to me this morning. However, it's the morning after a 12-hour day that ended with our live ...Read more...

It's official: Skylake is coming this year. Intel CEO Brian Krzanich said at the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference that Core M processors based on the next-gen architecture will arrive in the second half of 2015.Computerworld has the scoop , but there isn't much to report. The new chips will apparently enable thinner tablets and longer battery life, though Krzanich didn't provide specifics on either front. As far ...Read more...

We could get a first look at this year's line of Steam machines within weeks. According to Polygon , Valve's Doug Lombardi ...Read more...

strong>Eight is Enough

Update: The stream has ended. Thanks for watching!We're live on Twitch with another TR Podcast recording session, this time with our host, ...Read more...

Intel is about to jettison its stake in Imagination Technologies. That's according to JP Morgan Securities, which has caught wind of the move and shared some specifics about it. Dow Jones Business News has the story:Based in the UK, Imagination Technologies is the company behind the PowerVR graphics IP. PowerVR ...Read more...

Eight is Enough

Today is looking to be interesting. We're likely to publish somewhere between one to three articles, depending on whether we can get them all edited. Then we'll be live streaming our TR Podcast recording session tonight and talking about them.The stream should start at the usual time, about 9:30 PM Eastern and 6:30 PM Pacific. You can tune in via our Twitch channel in order to ...Read more...

PC giant Dell has rolled out a collection of new notebooks and tablets designed with education in mind. The devices are "schoolyard tough," the company says, with rubberized trim to protect against physical shock and sealed components to resist spilled liquids. The notebooks have also been "subjected to MIL-STD 810G testing for pressure, temperature, shock and vibration," though the press release doesn't indicate whether they actually passed those tests.

Nvidia's latest financial results are in, and they're full of good news. The company set revenue records for not only the three months ending January 25, but also the past year as a whole.Time for some tables! Let's ...Read more...

Craving a mechanical keyboard with a split layout? The Ultimate Hacking Keyboard might be just the thing.

The Pick 6

Nvidia is cooking up something big for this year's Game Developers Conference.The company has sent out invitations for an event on March 3, the ...Read more...

I would not want to work in Samsung's PR department right now. Earlier this week, Parker Higgins posted a troubling comparison highlighting parallels between George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four and the privacy policy for Samsung's smart TVs:Left: Samsung SmartTV privacy policy, warning users not to discuss personal ...Read more...

So yeah, Valve is running Steam sales for pretty much every occasion now. This week, we're being treated to one in apparent celebration of this coming Friday, which falls on the 13th. Spooky. ...Read more...

VESA has released a new Embedded DisplayPort standard that supports higher resolutions and a new panel segmentation system. The eDP 1.4a spec builds upon version 1.4, which dates back to 2013, and it's expected to appear in systems by next year.As one might expect, the new standard comes with a higher data rate. The link speed has been boosted to 8.1Gbps, giving the four-lane interface 32.4Gbps of ...Read more...

Nvidia has gotten into the habit of timing GeForce driver releases with major game launches, and today's is no different. The GeForce 347.52 WHQL drivers feature performance optimizations and an SLI profile for Evolve, the co-op sci-fi shooter by Left 4 Dead creators Turtle Rock Studios. Better performance and SLI support are also in store for a selection of other games.In addition to Evolve , the 347.52 WHQL drivers increase performance in games like Assassin's Creed Unity , Battlefield 4 , Dragon Age: Inquisition , The Crew , and War Thunder ...Read more...