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Intel Apollo Lake chips to offer 30 percent performance boost over Braswell

Intel’s Apollo Lake processors are set to hit the streets in the second half of 2016. They’re low-power, low-cost chips aimed at laptops, 2-in-1 tablets, and some desktop computers, and they’re the follow-up to the Intel “Braswell” processors we’ve been seeing over the past year in devices like Chromebooks, cheap Windows laptops, and mini-desktops. So what’s […]

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Coming to Windows 10: Unlock your PC using a wearable

Windows Hello is a security feature built into Windows 10 that lets you prevent unauthorized people from logging into your device… but which lets you login without entering a PIN or password. Right now Windows Hello lets you do that via fingerprint, iris, or facial recognition, assuming your device has hardware to support those features. […]

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Latest ECS LIVA mini-PCs include Apollo Lake, Intel vPro models

Ahead of the Computex show in Taiwan this week, ECS announced it would be showing off a mini PC called the LIVA Pro, featuring a socketed mini STX motherboard that allows you to upgrade or replace the processor. But it turns out that’s not the only new LIVA mini PC on display at Computex this […]

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AMD shows off a working high-performance “Zen” CPU

AMD’s new Bristol Ridge and Stony Bridge laptop chips offer a balance of performance, price, and power consumption. But the company also has a new line of chips that puts the emphasis on performance. AMD showed off a bit of what its upcoming “Zen” chips can do at Computex this week, and says the first chips based […]

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Xiaomi phones to include Skype, Office thanks to Microsoft Deal

US software company Microsoft and Chinese device maker Xiaomi have announced a partnership that will lead to Microsoft apps including Skype and Office being pre-loaded on Xiaomi’s Android-powered phones and tablets. Microsoft has also sold about 1,500 patents to Xiaomi and the deal also includes a cross-license agreement. Microsoft says Xiaomi’s Android devices including the […]

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AMD Stony Ridge chips promise big boost for “value” laptops

You can divide AMD’s 7th-gen A-series processors into two families: there are the higher-performance AMD A10 and A12 chips for premium laptops, and the AMD E2, A6, and A9 chips aimed at “value” computers. While the company says both sets of chips offer big performance improvements over previous AMD processors, the biggest gains might be […]

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AMD introduces Bristol Ridge chips for high-performance laptops

After previewing its new 7th-gen A-series processors in April, chip maker AMD is officially launching its new notebook processor lineup at Computex this week. The lineup includes “Stony Ridge” chips designed for value laptops, which the company says should offer big performance gains over its previous-generation products, as well as new AMD A10 and A12 chips for […]

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Allwinner believes the future of VR is all-in-one headsets

Virtual Reality systems are still in their infancy, but right now some of the most popular models are basically Google Cardboard-style headsets that you slide a phone into and Oculus Rift/HTC Vive-style headsets that are designed to connect to a PC or game console. But recently we’ve started to see a handful of all-in-one VR […]

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Meet the Asus Transformer Mini (specs revealed)

Asus introduced 3 new Transformer tablets this week, but the company has largely focused on the higher-priced, higher-specced Transformer 3 and Transformer 3 Pro. The official press release had far fewer details about the smaller, cheaper Transformer Mini. But thanks to some of the folks on the ground in Taipei for the Computex show this week, […]

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Dell’s new Inspiron 11 convertible: Up to Core M3 CPU, up to 4GB RAM, up to 500GB storage

The Dell Inspiron 11 3000 Series line of notebooks are relatively small, inexpensive laptops. But the latest additions to the family feature some significant upgrades. In January Dell began selling a model with an Intel Braswell processor and a starting price of $199. But now you can opt for a convertible model with a touchscreen […]