General Tech

Valve's new year is off to a good start as the Steam concurrent users record has been topped. A total of 8.46 million users were using Steam a few hours in to the new year, beating out the previous record, which was set all of the way back in June. …

Samsung's Tizen operating system has been in development for some time, originally for smartphones. However, now it looks like the OS will also be making its way over to smart TVs in hopes that it will make it easier for TVs to connect to other devices. Samsung announced the move …

GlobalFoundries, the world’s second largest contract manufacturer of chips, late on Tuesday denied existence of problems with the ramp up of production using 14nm fabrication process. According to the foundry, it specifically stockpiles manufacturing equipment at a warehouse so that to install it once the fab 8 facility becomes compatible …

Although GlobalFoundries has licensed 14nm FinFET manufacturing technology from Samsung Electronics back in May, 2014, it looks like the company may have to delay mass production using the fabrication process. According to a media report, the company has stopped installation of equipment required to make chips using 14nm FinFET technology. …

Apple has changed the iTunes refund policy making it so that Europeans can return almost any digital item bought from the store within two weeks of purchase. However, as you would expect, there are some caveats in place to avoid abuse of the system. If you open an app, or …

Microsoft is reportedly working on an all new web browser to launch alongside Windows 10 in 2015. The project is currently codenamed ‘Spartan' and will see the company move away from Internet Explorer, which has garnered up quite a bad reputation over the years. According to ZDNet, the new app …

Game of Thrones has managed to become the most pirated show of 2014, continuing its annual winning streak. This year's season was downloaded more than eight million times via BitTorrent, steaming ahead of the rest of the competition. The Walking Dead came in at a distant second place with just …

Walking around the Boxing Day bargains, some KitGuru readers were keen to share their experience of what appears to be some quite blatant product mis-labeling. Naturally, we investigated, here are the initial results. Over the years, there have been some classic mis-labeling incidents across the tech world. Some are legitimate, …

In an announcement today Samsung and Sony declared a partnership that will see the PlayStation Now game streaming service being built into select Samsung Smart TV's next year. This will allow customers in the United States and Canada to stream games directly to their Samsung TV without any need for downloads. When this is launched …

It turns out that Sony will be letting some theaters show The Interview on Christmas day after all. The film's Thursday release was originally cancelled following threats from a hacking group tied to North Korea. However, it looks like Sony has changed its mind following public criticism. The owner of …

The general public may still get to see The Interview after all as a Sony Pictures lawyer has stated that the company is “fighting to get this picture distributed”, although nobody quite knows how just yet. The Interview was originally due to release in cinemas later this week but has …

Google is reportedly looking for manufacturers to partner up with to help create its self-driving cars. So far, Google has produced its own cars but the company had no intention to produce large numbers of them single-handed, as you would probably expect. “We don’t particularly want to become a car …

U.S. trade embargoes have meant that, as the internet as we know it began to take shape, Cuba was left behind. With no access to the Internet at all until 1996 and only very limited, slow and censored access at present, things are about to change in a big way for the …

While non-standard fabrication processes are sometimes challenging and make it harder to re-use intellectual property across different product lineups, they are just what the doctor ordered when one needs to achieve certain goals. According to GlobalFoundries, the No. 2 contract maker of chips, many customized process technologies are gaining importance …

UK retailers have admitted that Black Friday 2014 was their biggest challenge this year. 32 per cent of stores surveyed following the sales day noted that handling the crowds and demand proved difficult. Some retailers felt that they were unable to cope logistically with the sheer amount of customers coming …

Following the NSA leaks, many people out there on the internet have suddenly become very conscious of their privacy and security. The sheer extent of unwarranted government surveillance going on behind the scenes was somewhat shocking. However, Google thinks that things may change for the better next year with surveillance …

A judge has rejected Sony's bid to get a class action lawsuit against the company dismissed. The lawsuit aims to refund those that bought PS4 launch title, Killzone Shadow Fall, after it was revealed that the game's multiplayer component did not run at 1080p resolution, despite all advertising claiming otherwise. …

The UK's four largest networks, EE, O2, Vodafone and Three have all agreed to work together to improve the country's patchy coverage areas by 2017. These particular coverage spots can often receive a signal from one or two networks, while those tied to other companies will find themselves without signal. …

Apparently, Nintendo is looking to buy ‘free form' LCD screens from display manufacturer, Sharp. These new free form screens rearrange the circuitry throughout the display, allowing for more unusual shapes, breaking away from the traditional rectangle screens we see these days. According to The Japan Times, Nintendo could be planning …

It looks like offline viewing is not on Netflix's radar and won't ever be a feature that comes to the service. Other online streaming sites, like Sky GO, BBC iPlayer and 4OD have offered downloads for offline viewing in the past and successfully put restrictions on files to prevent piracy but …

Apparently, Microsoft is working on a new game streaming technology codenamed Arcadia. New reports claim that the Arcadia team is currently working on building a streaming application and game service, with the new technology replacing Rio, which the company demonstrated during September last year. Arcadia is built on Microsoft's Azure …

Google is apparently looking to take on retailers with the launch of a ‘buy' button, which will allow searchers to purchase products directly from the Google search results page. The idea is very similar in concept to Amazon's own ‘one-click ordering' button, which you can add as an extension to …

BT has announced that it is looking to buy network operator, EE, for £12.5 billion, despite rumours suggesting that the company was going to acquire o2. The telecommunications company confirmed today that it has entered exclusivity agreement talks with Deutsche Telekom and Orange in an effort to pick up EE. …

ISOHunt, one of the bigger torrent sites still floating around today, has gone ahead and launched a fully functioning clone of The Pirate Bay, in an effort to “save the freedom of information on the Internet”. The site won't be running forever though, if The Pirate Bay should ever return following …

Google is set to shut down its Russian office, presumably due to growing restrictions on the internet freedom in the country, including a new law which is due to go in to effect next year targeting foreign web companies. Authorities say that the law will improve data protection but it …

Apparently Sony Pictures is developing an animated Super Mario Bros movie, leaked emails have revealed. The emails came from the recent Sony hack, which saw sensitive documents leaked on to the web. The negotiations for the movie apparently finished with Nintendo back in October. “I am the proud father of …

Reports are coming in suggesting that Apple has once again partnered up with Samsung for its next iPhone chip, the A9, which will power next year's iPhones and iPads. Additionally, the A9 processors are already in production at Samsung's plant. Korea's Electronic Times reported today that the new A9 SoCs …

Oculus VR, the Facebook owned company behind the well known Oculus Rift virtual reality headset, has just acquired two small companies that will allow it to augment what you see and make it possible to see your own hands too. While we still have not seen Oculus release a product of it's own …

Earlier this week, Sweden's police force managed to take down The Pirate Bay and it has been offline ever since. As it turns out, TPB co-founder, Peter Sunde, thinks that the site should stay offline because he's “not a fan of what TPB has become”. Following the raid that took …

Microsoft now allows customers to add funds to their accounts using Bitcoin, the new payment option was quietly added this week and quickly spotted on Reddit. Microsoft account funds can be used to purchase games, apps, music, movies and TV shows on both the Xbox consoles and Windows devices. Bitcoin …