Cortana is just one of the many new features that Windows 10 will bring to eager users. But among the overwhelming sea of new performance and experience improvements, cross-device support and advanced features it is easy to overlook the seemingly plain assistant ant its place in the new OS.

The truth is that Cortana is aiming to be a truly inspired and innovative take on assistant software which has gone far beyond the clever voice search tool it started out as on Windows Phone devices. The team behind the software has taken the time to walk interested users through the steps it took to create the assistant and explain how clever and personal it can actually be. This was done through a rather lengthy blog post on Microsoft’s website and a short video that can be seen below. Read more »

HTC has been promising a smart wearable since late 2013 and it finally seems ready to unveil it at this year’s MWC. It will allegedly be called Petra and will not be an Android Wear device. Instead it will run a simple custom OS that supports Android 4.4+ and iOS 7+.

The HTC Petra sounds like a sporty smart band with IP57 and MIL-STD-810G certifications and an included footpad for more accurate step counting. Read more »

Microsoft is celebrating the Valentine’s month by running a new sweepstakes, dubbed 28 Days of #LumiaLove, that will see three lucky winners walk away with a pair of Lumia 830 smartphones each.

To participate, all you have to do is to head to the official Lumia US Facebook page, fill in your details, and tell the company why do you want to have a Lumia device (in case you don’t have one), or what you love the most about your device (in case you’re already a Lumia owner). Read more »

Facebook and Reliance Communications have launched the Internet.org application in India. Through this app, Reliance users will be able to access 38 sites for free from their phones, i.e., without incurring data charges.

The list of sites includes Aaj Tak, AccuWeather, BBC News, Bing Search, Cleartrip, Daily Bhaskar, Dictionary.com, ESPN Cricinfo, Facebook,Hungama Music, IBNLive, India Today, Maharashtra Times, NDTV, OLX, Times of India, Wikipedia, wikiHow, and many more. Read more »

According to a report in Korean media, Samsung Galaxy S6 accessories will feature authentication chips. The solution is said to be similar to the setup used by Samsung’s biggest rival, Apple.

The Korean giant will reportedly attempt to build a new ecosystem mobile accessories around Samsung Galaxy S6. Read more »

An $850 million solar farm will power Apple’s futuristic new campus. The Cupertino giant’s CEO, Tim Cook, announced the huge investment in a speech during the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet conference.

The 1,300-acre facility will be located in Monterey, California. Read more »

The Flipboard app is pretty popular on iOS, Android, and Windows Phone, and now the magazine-like news reading experience has finally received a Web version too. Flipboard for the desktop is here now, already accessible at Flipboard.com.

So far Flipboard has prefered to remain a mobile-only offering, but the time was apparently right for it to move to the Web too. This has to do with the Web itself having evolved recently, a consequence of that being that now Flipboard is confident that it can offer its “print-like aesthetic” in this space too. Read more »

If you’d like more online storage, but don’t want to pay for it, this will surely suit you well. Microsoft is currently offering 100GB of OneDrive storage space for free for two years. All you need to do is sign up for Bing Rewards – which is also free. The one catch? This is US-only.

Here’s how it works. If you have Microsoft account, you log in and then head to the Bing Rewards Dashboard. If you haven’t signed up for Bing Rewards before, you’ll see a “Join Now” link. Click that, then choose “Try it now for free”. After you see the “Welcome to Bing Rewards” page, go to “Earn and explore”, then click on “Free storage”, and finally choose “Get my storage”. That’s it. Read more »

Mere hours ago Sony took the wraps off the new Xperia E4, and now the company is giving you the chance to win one. All you have to do is participate in Sony’s special competition, which is taking place on its Facebook page.

You have to answer a maximum of seven questions. The first one is up now, and for each answer you get one ticket for the draw. To win you’ll need to have answered at least one question correctly. Sharing the contest with friends also looks set to bring you some additional chances to win. Read more »

While not a flagship killer by vocation ZTE’s Blade S6 has a lot of potential for its $250 price tag.

It’s built around Qualcomm’s upper-midrange Snapdragon 615 chip that boasts a 64-bit architecture and octa-core prowess for on-demand power and battery preservation, 2GB of RAM, two nano-SIM card slots, a 13MP camera on the back and 5MP on the front along with a 5″ IPS display of 720p resolution. Read more »

Google has always put high emphasis on security. Seeing how most everybody nowadays has a Google account it is only natural for the tech giant to constantly take steps to secure its primary asset and source of income – its users.

But rooting for proper online behavior and aiding with security concerns all over the internet means little if Google can’t be sure that their own subscribers are safe. Naturally there are several tools available to users for improving Google account security and in order to promote their frequent usage and spread the word the company is now offering 2GB of free additional Drive cloud storage to anyone who takes the time to run their security checkup. Read more »

The somewhat uneventful CES in the beginning of January did witness the birth of a strong contender in the cameraphone realm. Asus unveiled the Zenfone Zoom, striking another blow at the already shaky positions of the dedicated digicam.

At less than 12mm thick around its camera and thinner elsewhere the Zenfone Zoom’s waistline is still perfectly acceptable for a phone, and the 13MP sensor behind a 3x optical zoom lens makes your point-and-shoot redundant, on paper at least. Read more »

Sony quietly unveiled the Xperia E4 and E4 Dual – entry-level smartphones with a 5″ qHD screen, quad-core processor and a surprisingly good 5MP/1080p camera. The phones will launch with at least Android 4.4.4 KitKat though Sony’s web site claims 5.0 Lollipop.

I’ll leave the two promo videos to introduce the Xperia E4 couple in more detail. Read more »

Given the rate at which mobile processing power is growing, handheld devices like tablets could soon overtake consoles to become an integral part of gaming, according to EA chief financial officer Blake Jorgensen.

Speaking at the 2015 Technology, Internet & Media Conference, Jorgensen said, “what that might mean is that a tablet, three or four years from now, has more power than what a typical console has. And that will open up a whole new set of people to console-style games that are much more immersive, much deeper, much more character-driven than simply a static mobile game that you might play for a small burst of time while you’re waiting for the bus.” Read more »

Nikon has launched a modified version of its D810 DSLR, the D810A. The D810A is the first full frame camera in the world optimized for astrophotography.

Most cameras have an IR cut filter that is designed to allow only those wavelengths of light that the human eye can see, so that the resulting image looks similar to what it looks to the human eye. However, the light emitted by far away stars and galaxies are often well beyond our visual range, and in order to capture them properly, you need a camera designed specifically for such application. Read more »