Microsoft’s Project HoloLens came out of nowhere – no one expected the company to join the VR/AR headset race, but Microsoft deemed it important enough to close its Windows 10 even with it. The headset promises both artificial reality (AR), overlaying virtual objects on the real world, and virtual reality (VR), which replaces the real world completely.

This futuristic piece of tech packs a lot of advanced functionality, but this infographic will give you a digestible look at how it works. Read more »

Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 810 has come under fire with reports that it will be delayed because overheats, though both Qualcomm and LG (which launched the first S810-powered phone) refute those claims. What can we expect from this chip?

After all, it’s based on ARM’s CPU cores not a Qualcomm custom design. Well, the GPU is a custom design and GFX Bench gives us a taste of what it is capable of. Read more »

With Windows 10 Skype will be making the transition from an important app to a part of the OS itself, both on phones and on the desktop. The new app will sync its contact book with that of your phone and your email, which will let you stay in touch even if your friends are using an Android or an Apple product.

Microsoft doesn’t quite make it clear how that will work, but on phones the app will handle SMS messages as well as its own Skype messages. Read more »

Microsoft’s event was packed with new announcements and there just wasn’t enough time for details. Project Spartan is the new default browser for Windows 10 and it’s a universal app – it will run on PCs, tablets, phones and the Xbox.

In a post on its developers network, Microsoft has detailed some of the highlights of Spartan. Read more »

Google has quietly expanded the availability of the Nexus 9 tablet and the Chromecast to two new countries. The lucky winners are New Zealand and Taiwan. Residents of both can head to the Play Store if they want to grab a unit.

The new Nexus 9 is one of the few tablets around with Nvidia’s Tegra K1 chipset with the custom Denver CPU core. Even Nvidia’s own Shield tablet uses the more common Cortex-A15 core. Read more »

Remember the Microsoft Surface? No, not the tablet, the large, touch-sensitive table. It never took off, but it’s successor is here and it leverages all the new tech in Windows 10.

The Microsoft Surface Hub was demoed on a massive 84″ 4K touch-sensitive display and it can even detect you when you walk into the room. Read more »

Windows 10 is taking a step back and forward – the Start menu is back, but unlike the classic menu this one has Live tiles in it. For those who enjoyed the full-screen mode, it’s still on board and is the default for tablet mode.

That’s right, Windows 10 will power both phones as well as tablets and convertibles. Read more »

You can now buy a SIM card dedicated exclusively to chatting on WhatsApp in one of 150 countries. It’s called WhatSim and will automatically switch between a total of 400 carriers.

For a €10 a year fee text messages are free, while photo, video and voice messages are priced on a credit system. Read more »

Companies’ earnings reports are rarely exciting, but cord-cutters are probably keeping a close eye on Netflix. They’ll be glad to hear that the company is continuing to defy the cable TV model by beating the expectations of Wall Street both in earnings and user base growth.

Home country growth in the US is starting to slow down – “a natural progression in our large US market as we grow” – says Netflix, so expanding internationally is becoming more important. Read more »

Ads sell you a phone and that’s it, right? But if ads can go on after you bought the phone, someone stands to make a lot of money – India-based phone maker Micromax found a way to do just that. Multiple users complained that they were seeing ads in their notification areas.

Worse still, they found new apps on their device that they didn’t install themselves. Read more »

Fujifilm unveiled a small update to its X-A1 compact system camera. The Fujifilm X-A2 builds on the tilting screen of its predecessor by letting it flip 175° for easier selfies. The screen itself is a 3″ 920k-dot LCD.

Alongside the new camera, Fuji unveiled two new lenses for the system – the XC16-50mm II and the XC50-230mm II. Read more »

Xiaomi unveiled two flagships as expected – both of them phablets. The Xiaomi Mi Note and Mi Note Pro are just a few hours old and their promo campaigns have already begun.

Here are a couple of videos that subtly show off the best qualities of the duo, plus one that features less song and dance and more of a durability test. Read more »

Hearthstone has been available on Android and Nvidia’s Shield Tablet since mid-December last year, but only a lucky few have received a special treat in their mail – a limited-edition Hearthstone-branded Shield tablet.

Hearthstone is Blizzard’s collectible card game that launched on the PC, but always felt like it was destined for tablets. Read more »

Xiaomi is barely a few years old, but is already the top smartphone manufacturer in China and among the top makers worldwide. It’s eyeing global dominance though its presence outside its home country is still fairly small. Facebook is by far the biggest social network around the world – except in China where it’s blocked by government censors.

The two companies sound like a good match for each other – Xiaomi wants out, Facebook wants into China. Read more »

Since it was announced, the Asus Zenfone 2 has been king of the hill in our popularity ranking. Besides popularity, the new phone is the first to come with 4GB of RAM – provided you get the higher-specced of the two versions. That one comes with an Intel Atom Z3580 with a quad-core CPU clocked at 2.3GHz.

The $200 version of the phone will be based on the Z3560 (1.8GHz) and will have “only” 2GB of RAM. Here’s an early comparison of performance in AnTuTu 5.5. Read more »