Joel Hruska
Opinions and content posted by HotHardware contributors are their own.
Recent posts
Ever since Tom Wheeler unveiled a plan last month that would allow Internet Service Providers to charge for paid content prioritization, accusations have flown thick and fast that the proposed rules would effectively kill net neutrality. On the side of "Scrap Wheeler's net neutrality plan" you have more than 100...
Read more...
MSI's Dominator Pro GT60 packs two significant firsts. It's the first high-end gaming laptop we've reviewed with a HiDPI display (the GT60's 2880x1660 panel is the equal of the vaunted MacBook Pro's Retina display), and it's the first system we've looked at to sport NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 880M. MSI has also packed this system with...
Read more...
Over the past few weeks, I've spent a significant amount of time with Watch Dogs. The game is infamous for not running very well on PCs -- and after some legwork, I've figured out a hefty chunk of the reason why: Ubisoft royally screwed up its suggested VRAM (graphics card frame buffer) settings. Watch Dogs...
Read more...
Ever since 9/11 and the passage of the Patriot Act, the federal government has pursued an aggressive set of data collection policies and surveillance practices. Edward Snowden's leaks last year may have raised public awareness of many of these events, but simply being aware of practices doesn't do a thing to stop them. Recent court decisions,...
Read more...
One of the ongoing questions around AMD's Mantle API is how much support it would garner in actual shipping titles. True, EA had committed to adding support to the Frostbite engine, but that's the kind of announcement that can be quietly swept under the rug or might be integrated into the engine but with a minimal...
Read more...
We've known for several days that EA would unveil a new chapter in the Battlefield universe at E3 2014, but the company has done more than that -- it also launched a surprise beta test for the upcoming Battlefield Hardline. The new game will be an urban cops-and-robbers shootout that drops players into the boots of...
Read more...
The song "Let It Go," from Disney's smash hit Frozen describes Queen Elsa's decision to embrace her own magical powers and abilities rather than continuing to hide from her people -- and herself. It's a turning point for the character and hugely popular; Let it Go is the first Disney single to break the Billboard Hot...
Read more...
Earlier this week, AMD's Chief Financial Officer, Devinder Kumar, gave a presentation at Bank of America Merrill Lynch's Global Technology Conference. He covered several aspects of AMD's several year turnaround, its focus on new product strategies, and the company's long-term goal to earn 50% of its revenue from the...
Read more...
Last week, the ACLU was scheduled to meet with local police in Sarasota Florida to discuss the use of cell phone interception towers, dubbed stingrays, that are an increasingly common feature of federal and local investigations. A stingray is a fake cell phone tower that law enforcement can configure to temporarily...
Read more...
Today, Microsoft confirmed a development rumor that's been swirling around its next-generation console ever since it announced Kinect would become an optional add-on rather than a mandatory boat anchor. Lifting that requirement will give game developers 10% additional graphics power to play with and help close...
Read more...
Last year, at IDF, Intel announced that it would soon make a concerted push into both the Windows and the Android tablet markets, with an aggressive contra-revenue strategy (meaning, they'd ship devices at a loss) and a huge set of marketing campaigns. On the Windows side we've seen the fruits of that push; many...
Read more...
Last year, Intel launched two new processor cores -- the Core i7-4770K, based on the Haswell core, and the Ivy Bridge-based Core i7-4960X. Both chips were incremental updates over their predecessors; Haswell may have delivered impressive gains in mobile, but it failed to impress on the desktop where it was only...
Read more...
Earlier this week we covered a deal between Intel and Rockchip that will combine Intel's Atom with Rockchip's graphics IP and considerable share of the Chinese market. I'm returning to the topic because there are some interesting big-picture facets to this move that we didn't cover with the initial announcement. Over...
Read more...
Intel has announced a new partnership with mobile SoC developer Rockchip, with plans to bring new Android products to China beginning in the first half of 2015. The partnership will use Intel's SoFIA platform with an integrated 3G radio and Atom processor initially, though Intel does plan to deliver a follow-up...
Read more...
When NVIDIA first announced that it would create a workstation-class remote virtualization system that enabled full GPU acceleration with latency-free streaming I was more than a little skeptical. Not only did it seem like a solution in search of a problem, the bandwidth requirements and technical heavy-lifting to support professional PC users...
Read more...
For months, it's been rumored that Microsoft would unveil a new version of Windows 8.1 with specific Bing branding and a lower price tag. Now the company has formally unveiled the SKU, which will carry a "reduced cost" to manufacturers of PCs that cost less than $250. Microsoft also makes Windows free to devices with...
Read more...
One of the most troubling facts that came out of Edward Snowden's disclosures last year was the degree to which the government has relied on National Security Letters to compel companies to reveal information about their clients without producing a warrant. Many NSLs were accompanied by non-disclosure orders that...
Read more...
Ever since it launched last year, Battlefield 4 has been practically synonymous with how not to launch a major entry to a beloved online franchise. Finally, some of the major flaws are being repaired -- or at least, they've been fixed on the beta Community Test Environment (CTE) server. This is the new server system Dice has set up for PC...
Read more...
Over the past nine months, we've seen the beginnings of a revolution in how video games are displayed. First, Nvidia demoed G-Sync, its proprietary technology for ensuring smooth frame delivery. Then AMD demoed its own free standard, dubbed FreeSync, that showed a similar technology. Now, VESA (Video Electronics...
Read more...
Earlier this week, Apple released an updated set of legal guidelines spelling out exactly what it can and cannot access on your iDevice, what material it will turn over to the police, and under which circumstances it will surrender it. What's particularly interesting is the split response we've seen from different...
Read more...
The upcoming PS4 game Driveclub (currently scheduled for release in October 2014) is making waves for reasons that have nothing to do with its gameplay or development status. In a new video, the company has spelled out its free trial and upgrade policies, and the requirements are a doozy. First, the good news --...
Read more...
One of the downsides (or upsides, depending on your point of view) of Internet memes is that they're ephemeral. Once-popular touchstones like "All your base," or "Hamster dance" have slunk off to the Island of Forgotten Internet Cliches. But there's one meme -- more of a rule, really -- that continues to wreak havoc...
Read more...
