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Latest by Justin Pot

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MacBook sales in 2016 are worse than the (terrible) overall laptop market

The MacBook Pro and Air lines are overdue for an update, and customers are noticing. New MacBook purchases are down over Q1 of last year.
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Microsoft learns to listen, enables G-Sync and FreeSync for Windows Store games

Gamers who bought Tomb Raider on Windows Store haven't been able to turn off v-sync, hampering performance. An update today should solve the problem.
rural-broadband

Four megabits isn’t broadband! US Senators want to redefine bandwidth cap on grants

Two USDA programs define what is and isn't broadband quite differently, meaning some areas can apply for loans but not grants to improve local networks.
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DisplayLink devices will soon work with Chromebooks, delivering its first USB-to-video option

USB to HDMI and USB to VGA adapters will soon with on Chromebooks, according to a statement from DisplayLink. The drivers will be baked into ChromeOS.
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Paint, largely unchanged since Windows 3.1, might see major changes soon

A Universal build of Microsoft Paint suggests big changes are coming to one of Microsoft's oldest applications. Here's what that might look like.
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Amazon patent scans hands to stop your kid from deleting your augmented reality work

Kids tend to burst into rooms and wave their hands around, which could mess up work in augmented reality. An Amazon patent aims to help fix this.
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Prove you're human by identifying gibberish words, because computers suck at that

Humans are pretty good at knowing when a word is gibberish; computers are not. Audio CAPTCHA research takes advantage of this, and could help the blind.
Apple company logo

What’s Apple planning to do with the 70,000-square-foot chip fab it recently bought?

Steady shipments of advanced equipment are arriving at a facility Apple bought back in December, leaving analysts wondering just what the company is up to.
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Samsung’s GearVR will let you read bedtime stories from across the country, if you can afford two headsets

On the road, but still want to read with your kid? Samsung's VR bedtime stories could be the answer, if you're willing to buy a couple headsets.
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Seagate finally enters market for helium-filled hard drives

Two years after Western Digital's HGST, Seagate is now shipping helium-filled hard drives to enterprise customers. Helium reduces friction and energy usage.
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ISIS hacking groups merge as United Cyber Caliphate, but don’t worry too much

Until now, ISIS' hacking efforts have been largely improvised, and split between five overlapping groups. That changed this month.
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Microsoft interrupted a live broadcast to recommend Windows 10

If you think you're sick of those Windows 10 upgrade notifications, imagine if they showed up while you were reporting the weather. How would you feel?
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Ubuntu's $70 computing stick could fit nicely behind your TV

Want a $70 Ubuntu stick computer for your TV? Chinese manufacturer Mele has you covered. It's underpowered, sure, but could prove useful to some users.
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Intel wants USB Type-C to replace your headphone jack

USB replaced all sorts of dedicated ports in the 90s. Could USB type-C eventually replace the audio port? Intel thinks so, and is working on a standard.
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Politics apparently tying up broadband access in Western Massachusetts

Western Massachusetts has a fiber-optic broadband network, but politics is keeping the critical last mile from being built. Will things clear up anytime soon?
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Firefox 46 is here, here's the complete list of new features

Mozilla's now offering Firefox 46, the latest version of their popular Web browser. There aren't many new features, but it's worth updating to.
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480TB of storage in a single chassis: check out the Backblaze Pod 6.0

Need some extra storage? You can build a 480TB server, if you really want to. Backblaze designed it, and open sourced the hardware.
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The ‘Year of the Linux desktop’ never came, and it never will

Spotify, Skype, and Flash are all Linux programs that are breaking to various degrees in 2016. Are software companies abandoning the platform?
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You can’t buy a HoloLens yet, but it’s already won a design award

The HoloLens isn't really available to consumers yet, but that didn't stop the Red Dot committee from recognizing its design. It won for Product Design.
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2016 MacBook just as impossible to repair as last year’s, iFixIt teardown shows

What's different inside the 2016 MacBook? Not much, iFixIt's latest teardown suggests. And it's also just as resistant to being repaired.
Facebook Tablet

Facebook’s Tor site is surprisingly popular, with 1 million users in a month

Facebook offers direct access over Tor, a service for browsing the Web anonymously. Last month, 1 million people accessed the social network that way.
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The end of Mega? Kim Dotcom tells users to back up files ‘ASAP’

The end of Mega is coming, founder Kim Dotcom implied this week. Pointing to financial problems, he told users to back up files as soon as possible.
Samsung Notebook 9 900X5L

Samsung Notebook 9 15-inch review

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Cherry offers a new, faster mechanical keyboard switch: MX Speed

Cherry's new MX Speed switch, aka MX Silver, offers an actuation point of 1.2mm and an activation force of 45 cN, the fastest mechanical switch out there.
Toshiba Portege Z30 C131

Toshiba Portege Z30-C1310 review

Dell XPS 13 (2015)

Latest Surface firmware update causes blue screens during installation

Users are reporting driver issues after installing the latest firmware for the Surface Book and Surface Pro 4, the latest in a series of issues.
Microsoft Edge Browser

Microsoft loves Google's codecs, adds WebM and VP9 in the Windows 10 Anniversary Update

Edge will support more codecs starting this summer. WebM, VP9, and Opus audio will all be built-in to Microsoft's browser, meaning millions of new users.
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Your next contractor may walk in wearing a Microsoft HoloLens

Imagine construction workers using an augmented reality headset to collaborate with engineers and architects, or just to check their measurements.
declassified NSA document

This 1970 memo outlined every cybersecurity threat we face today

Think cybersecurity is a new problem that couldn't have been predicted? A 1970 paper outlined almost all the weaknesses exploited by attackers today.
A pair of hands on a laptop keyboard with two displays.

Even Homeland Security thinks you should uninstall QuickTime for Windows

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is advising Windows users to uninstall QuickTime for Windows because of a zero-day exploit that won't be patched.
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Intel is now selling its 540s budget SSDs, here's what they'll cost

Offering read speeds of 560 megabytes per second and capacities up to 1TB, Intel's 540s line of budget solid state drives might be a touch expensive.
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Adobe's Creative Cloud lets you edit the virtual reality revolution

Premier Pro, Adobe's video editing software, is adding support for editing virtual reality footage. Uploading to YouTube and Facebook is supported.
Acer Chromebook R11

Acer Chromebook R 11 review

pre order aquaris m10

Want the world's first Ubuntu tablet? You'll need to wait another week

If you pre-ordered the BQ Aquirius M10 Ubuntu edition, don't wait by the mailbox. The tablet won't ship next week, as previously thought, but in late April.