Julie Bart
Opinions and content posted by HotHardware contributors are their own.
Recent posts
AT&T sold more than 5.5 million smartphones in Q1 2011, the most it ever sold in any first quarter. During the same period, it added 2 million more wireless subscribers to its roster (now counting 97.5 million). Today it pledged to spend $1 million combating the menace known as texting while driving. AT&T will spend the $1...
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A group of high-powered tech companies has been slapped with a class action suit for conspiring to artificially keep employee wages low. The companies being sued are Adobe, Apple, Google, Intel, Intuit, Lucasfilm, and Pixar. Sound familiar? It should. These companies, with the exception of Lucasfilm, were investigated...
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While much attention is focused on Facebook scams and trojans involving Osama bin Laden's death, Facebook users should be aware of another new way scammers are spreading links to rogue sites. They have begun to circulate convincing links claiming to be stories from Wired News about the iPhone 5. This scam takes advantage of Facebook’s...
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Of the six smart phones on the market that run Microsoft's latest phone OS, Windows Phone 7, HTC designed and manufactures three of them. It's latest, and most expensive, is Sprint's first-and currently only-WP7 option, the HTC Arrive and it arrived at Sprint just last month. Meanwhile, prices on WP7 phones from AT&T and T-Mobile have...
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There's a new growing menace in the world, something becoming known as ebook fraud. It comes in two forms, says security guru Bruce Schneier: books quickly created from automatically gathered content crawled from the Web, and books generated from stealing legit printed books, scanned and sold by someone that doesn't own the copyright. The...
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If you are in the market for an ultralight notebook with a gorgeous LED backlit LCD and don't want to spend more than $1,000, the Lenovo IdeaPad U260 should be on your short list. The U260's claim to fame is its 12.5-inch form-factor, making it larger than your average netbook--but at a mere 18mm thick and 3 lbs, it's almost as light...
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Lest you be distracted by the new EVO View 4G tablet HTC launched with Sprint last week, HTC wants you to remember that the 7" Flyer is still coming. HTC introduced the flyer at World Mobile Congress in February and has promised a spring 2011 ship date. While there's still no word on the actual ship date -- or the official price (an unlocked...
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Nintendo has quasi-acknowledged that its 3DS can cause headaches and should not be used by children under 7. The glasses-free 3D handheld gaming device launched this week. Meanwhile, new research commissioned by the Blu-ray Disc Association is trying to improve the health image of 3D. It's research shows that the brain is more attentive...
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If you've invested thousands into an HDMI theater system for a home or business, you will soon have multiple options to preserve that investment and still go 3D. That's the promise from companies like Video Innovation Products (VIP), Just Add Power (JAP) and Optoma Technology. Earlier this year, startup VIP announced a line of affordable 3D...
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The year is 2001. Alas, videoconferencing hasn't replaced the home phone (and neither Dave nor Hal have embarked on a manned mission to Jupiter). Instead 2G wireless networks, running at 0.006 MB/second, are the best Earth has to offer. Fast forward one decade and 4G LTE networks are the rage, promising speeds of up to 100 Mbps (and reliably...
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Researchers and startups have begun to focus on the final frontier for our silicon-based buddies -- teaching computers to read and respond to human emotions. They haven't quite designed a real life Andrew from the Bicentennial Man, but they have lead computers to grasp the basics. At Cambridge University in England, they are trying to teach...
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Swedish mobile app developer Crunchfish has prototyped a mobile app that lets users control their devices using finger gestures in the air. The app requires a front-facing camera and can replace the touchscreen gesture control with what the company calls "3D control." Crunchfish says that this 3D control means more than simply clicking, dragging...
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Verizon began selling Motorola's Android Xoom tablet on Thursday amidst rampant rumors over 4G activation fees for the pricey off-contract device. Verizon had planned to charge a one-time 4G activation fee and require one-month's service fee, but the company has confirmed that it won't charge those draconian fees...
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MeeGo isn't dead yet, but it's barely breathing. Into this life-supported world, Fujitsu birthed its first MeeGo netbook ... and the world yawned. The world also hardly took notice of the MeeGo tablet that Intel is demonstrating at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Not that the new Fujitsu netbook deserved much...
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It's the American Dream. Come up with a great idea, get investors, and you're on you way to wealth and unauthorized biographies about your life. The White House is throwing its weight behind a new way to better support hopeful tech entrepreneurs based on the mentorship model. About two weeks ago, TechStars Network...
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Huawei on Tuesday announced what it claims is the thinnest Android smartphone on the market, the IDEOS X3. It also showed off an updated tablet, the IDEOS S7, with a 7-inch touchscreen. The IDEOS X3 runs Android 2.3 (Gingerbread), the company's first phone to run the latest Android OS, released in December. It sports a 3.2-inch HVGA capacitive...
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OK, so a Roomba robotic vacuum is, by it's very nature, hands free. But what if you wanted to direct it now and then, but still, heaven-forbid, touch it? You can give it a Kinect hack interface. So it is with this demo video by "Ogutti." Is this a practical hack? Maybe not. Entertaining and cool? Yes and definitely....
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eBay on Thursday announced a giant new strategy for PayPal that it hopes will squash the up-and-coming threat of Apple and Google with near-field communications payments. In one of those karmic twists, earlier this week news broke on the very thing that would let people feel safe enough to outfit their mobile devices with NFC payment systems:...
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Not only is 1Gbps heading for your Wi-Fi network by next year, it will be instantly über popular. The new 802.11ac 1G Wi-Fi standard hasn't even been ratified by the IEEE yet and In-Stat predicts that by 2015, consumers will have bought nearly 1 billion devices that use it. 1G Wi-Fi, which will use radio spectrum in a range below...
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Take a look at your power outlet. If you saw a DreamPlug PC there, you could mistake it for nothing more than your mobile phone charger. Yet Globalscale Technologies' newest Linux PC offers enough zing to make the "plug computing" concept a serious one. The DreamPlug is built with a Marvell Sheeva 1.2GHz CPU coupled with 512MB of DDR2 RAM....
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Hulu has struck a content deal with Viacom that returns "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" and "The Colbert Report" to Hulu.com and brings shows from other networks to the subscription service, Hulu Plus. At the same time, Hulu's CEO hinted that the days of fully free access to the service might be numbered. The agreement covers shows on Comedy...
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CareerBliss has dubbed San Jose, CA, the Happiest City to Work. Folks there are happier than workers in Portland, New York and Tucson. They are way happier than workers in Saint Paul, MN, which was found to be the most miserable city to work. With San Jose's average February temperature a brisk 54°F degrees, while Saint Paul's mean hovers...
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