While we run a lot of our own giveaways here at KitGuru, sometimes we'll spot good ones occurring elsewhere. This week Netgear is running its own competition, offering up ten Orbi Pro WiFi systems. The Orbi Pro operates wire-free and provides a dedicated connection between router and satellite. Setting one …
Read More »Widespread outage of Amazon’s Alexa sparks debate of smart home viability
Amazon has placed a lot of emphasis on its Alexa virtual assistant recently, launching a plethora of Echo devices during a surprise event. Sadly, it seems as though Alexa is suffering issues throughout Europe resulting in devices not responding to ordinary commands. Unveiling a range of new Alexa-powered Echo devices, …
Read More »Facebook’s E-Commerce Plans Could Shift Digital Markets
Instagram may not come to mind when chasing down online sales, but Facebook's photo-oriented property very well may become an online storefront through a partnered app. News of Facebook's intentions to step into the realm of storefronts run by artificial intelligence broke as early as July revolving around a plan …
Read More »Dell reportedly considers IPO in bid to go public once again
Five years after going private and three years after conducting one of the biggest takeovers the tech industry has ever seen, Dell is looking to make itself public once again. This change will now kick off with an initial public offering (IPO), an idea that was initially mulled over earlier …
Read More »Facebook risks EU punishment if it doesn’t comply with consumer laws
At the start of the year, the European Union (EU) introduced new laws intended to protect consumer rights, forcing companies to change their terms of service (ToS) in order to comply. While Facebook made effort in March to reluctantly adapt to the new regulations, it seems that the firm has …
Read More »Steam and uPlay fined in France for breaching consumer protection law
Valve has been no stranger to governments taking issue with the Steam refund policy. The situation in Australia may have wrapped up but now authorities in France want to take a crack at Valve's legal team. Over in France, both Valve and Ubisoft have been fined for breaching consumer laws. …
Read More »Mozilla launches Firefox Reality- a dedicated VR and AR web browser
Earlier this year, Mozilla announced that it had been working on a brand new web browser called ‘Firefox Reality'. This is a dedicated version of Firefox meant for Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality headsets. This was all done in an effort to get the jump on the future of content …
Read More »Amazon is probing employees accused of accepting bribes for sales data and services
Amazon has launched an investigation into its own staff following accusations that employees had been taking bribes that breach the vendor’s terms of service. In exchange for the payoffs, workers have supposedly been offering up confidential sales data and services to, wrongfully, preserve the integrity of independent companies and their …
Read More »OnePlus announces plans to break into the television market next year
Chinese manufacturer OnePlus has enjoyed a lot of success in recent years, making a name for itself in the premium smartphone market for its value. In a surprising turn of events, the firm has now turned its attention to consumer based televisions in order to further challenge its rival, Samsung. …
Read More »Google temporarily brings ‘www’ back to Chrome after backlash
Earlier this month, Google set in motion its plans to restructure the URL by hiding ‘www' and ‘m' in Chrome’s address bar. Backlash surrounding the move has prompted Google to temporarily revert things back, initiating a “public standardisation discussion” in the meantime. With the release of Chrome 69, Google began …
Read More »The EU will have an antitrust ruling on Microsoft’s GitHub acquisition next month
Back in June, Microsoft announced plans to acquire GitHub for $7.5 billion. Since then, the code repository has found a new CEO and discussed plans for the future under the Microsoft banner, although the deal isn't 100 percent in the bag just yet. First, Microsoft needs to get through the …
Read More »UK networks say there are ‘no plans’ to bring back data roaming charges after Brexit
Way back in June 2015, the European Union officially voted to remove data roaming charges for travelling citizens. This finally meant that networks could no longer gouge customers for using their data plans abroad in Europe. Unfortunately for those of us in the UK, Brexit may have thrown a spanner …
Read More »Spotify raises offline download limit to 10,000 tracks, users can download on up to 5 devices
Spotify has gone through a number of changes this year since opening its doors for public investment. The company cracked down on modded versions of its app, made some significant changes to the ‘free tier' and now, premium members are getting a boost. Previously, there was a 3,333 track limit …
Read More »Former Uber vice president joins Riot Games to clean up its discriminatory internal culture
Alongside an apology for recent revelations of discrimination, League of Legends developer Riot Games capped off August with a list of steps in order to reform its internal culture. The latest move in this effort is the hiring of leadership and strategy expert Frances Frei, who will now act as …
Read More »Nvidia Shield TV 7.1 update adds 120Hz support and other improvements
The Nvidia Shield TV is about to get even better as a new update is introducing 120Hz display support in addition to integrated Twitch streaming. Previously, the Shield TV was limited to 60Hz output but with Nvidia's BFGD 120Hz displays on the horizon, it was time to upgrade. Nvidia has …
Read More »Intel narrows down list of potential CEOs, may hire from outside for the first time
Intel has been without a long-term CEO since June, when Brian Krzanich stepped down after violating policy. Over the last 50 years, Intel has exclusively hired its CEOs from in-house but that could change this year as the company is reportedly taking meetings with a few outside of the company. …
Read More »Facebook files countersuit against BlackBerry for patent infringement
Back in 2016, Blackberry transformed itself from a smartphone maker into a software and licensing company. Since then, the former giant has launched lawsuits at the likes of Facebook and Snap. Things on that front have been quiet since, but this week Facebook launched its counter-attack, claiming that Blackberry infringed …
Read More »Streaming startup Caffeine gets $100 million investment from 21st Century Fox
Although 21st Century Fox plans to shed itself of its film and television studios in a proposed acquisition by Disney, the company isn’t leaving the entertainment industry completely. Its latest move is set to rival streaming behemoth Twitch, as Fox has sunk a whopping $100 million into a collaborative social …
Read More »Yahoo Mail still scans emails to flog user data to advertisers
While Yahoo has faced criticism over the past few years for its numerous hacks, its latest controversy comes from within. Last week, the company was caught indulging the outdated practice of scanning Yahoo Mail users’ emails for commercial data to sell to advertisers. Last year, Yahoo found itself swallowed by …
Read More »Amazon has peaked at $1 trillion market value
Just over one month ago, we learned that Apple had become the first US company to reach a market value of $1 trillion. At the time, Amazon was hot on Apple's heels in the race to $1 trillion and now, the company has officially joined the club. Last night, Amazon …
Read More »IFA 2018: Huawei unveils its Alexa-powered AI Cube
Aside from unveiling the Mate 20 Lite, detailing its anticipated Kirin 980 and bolstering the colour choice of its P20 Pro range, Huawei took to IFA 2018 to launch its all-in-one AI Cube. While not technically a cube, the Google Home-inspired, Alexa-powered device acts as a Wi-Fi router, 4G modem …
Read More »Samsung considers working with Google to improve its lacklustre Bixby assistant
The development Bixby hasn’t been all sunshine and rainbows, entering the market late, struggling to grasp the English language and only able to access resources that were distinctly lacking in comparison to rivals. It seems that Samsung is reassessing its strategy towards its voice assistant, going as far as to …
Read More »Another former TSMC employee has been accused of stealing trade secrets
Back in May 2017, a former TSMC engineer was accused of stealing trade secrets relating to the company's 28nm process technology. Now, a similar situation has come to light this year, with another former TSMC employee charged with stealing trade secrets and attempting to take them to a new job …
Read More »Microsoft is in the process of redesigning Skype… again.
Microsoft has been pretty heavy handed with its efforts to bring its aging Skype application up to modern standards, forcing users to ditch the older interface in favour of a comprehensive redesign. Realising that Snapchat-like functionality is not what its user base wanted, Microsoft has announced that it will once …
Read More »IFA 2018: OlloClip aims to transform smartphone photography
Generation of smartphone brings ever more advanced photographic systems to millions of people across the globe. Whilst most people will be happy with the functionality that comes built into the smart phone there will always be professional and semiprofessional users who want more from the phone they already have. That’s …
Read More »IFA 2018: LG shows off 8K OLED, Nano Cell technology, ThinQ AI and more
We had the chance to swing by the LG booth at IFA this morning to catch a glimpse of what the future has in store for us. There was plenty of talk about 8K TVs, with LG showing off the world's first 88-inch 8K OLED, but the company has a …
Read More »IFA 2018: Panasonic talks HDR10+ compatible displays and its focus on connectivity
Panasonic has kicked of its 100th anniversary celebration by unveiling its plans to bolster IoT efforts in Europe, announcing a partnership with British network provider Vodafone. Additionally, the firm has revealed its line-up of HDR10+ compatible displays in partnership with Samsung and 20th Century Fox. One of Panasonics core focuses …
Read More »HDR10+ certification begins rolling out to Samsung and Panasonic TVs
Back in June, the HDR10+ standard finally began rolling out, giving TV makers royalty-free access to the higher quality HDR certification. With HDR10+, we'll start to see more TVs rival the quality provided by Dolby Vision and the first models will be with us very soon, with Samsung and Panasonic …
Read More »The curious case of mystery crypto boxes
Between carefully-crafted listings of photographs of items sold as if they were the actual product and mystery boxes filled to the brim with garbage sourced from resellers and local dollar stores, the early days of eBay were a mess. A highly amusing mess for outsiders, but still a mess. We …
Read More »GameSeek creator returns to online sales with ToySeek
Following a plethora of controversial social media campaigns, online retailer GameSeek quietly entered administration back in May, reportedly a surprise to everyone behind the scenes. Founder Stephen Staley isn’t deterred from the market, however, shifting his focus towards ToySeek in an attempt to plug the gap left by Toys “R” …
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