PC World New Zealand Magazine: Technology advice you can trust.

News

Google augmented reality glasses expected by year's end

Thursday, 23 February, 2012 Google is working on pair of augmented reality glasses running on Android, set for release later this year, according to the New York Times, which quoted unnamed company employees.

Flickr Rolling Out New Look for Viewing Photos

Thursday, 23 February, 2012 The Yahoo-owned photo sharing site Flickr is about to get a makeover, with new interfaces for viewing and uploading photos.

Nokia to Unveil 'Pure View' at Mobile World Congress

Thursday, 23 February, 2012 Nokia has released its first teaser video leading up to the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, hinting at a new camera-centric announcement. "Get ready to capture a pure view," the teaser reads before flashing February 27, the first day of the trade show, on the screen.

Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom bailed

Wednesday, 22 February, 2012 Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom has been granted bail at North Shore District Court this morning.

Are netbooks dead? The prognosis is grim

Wednesday, 22 February, 2012 | 1 comment Remember netbooks? Those inexpensive, highly portable, long-battery-life laptops made primarily for lightweight tasks like web browsing? Netbook sales have declined. In the United States, sales have dropped precipitously since 2010, and the trend in the rest of the world is starting to follow.

Microsoft to tightly integrate Windows 8 and SkyDrive

Wednesday, 22 February, 2012 Microsoft will extend SkyDrive from being an online file storage service into what the company calls "a device cloud" that is closely integrated with Windows 8, the next version of the company's OS.

MWC: Low-end Android phones gain dual cores and high-resolution displays

Wednesday, 22 February, 2012 Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics have announced new mid- and low-end Android-based smartphones. Samsung hopes to attract users with a dual-core processor, while LG is putting Android 4.0 on some of its new phones from day one.

Nintendo says it has sold 5 million 3DS consoles in Japan, overcoming slow start

Tuesday, 21 February, 2012 Nintendo said Monday that it has sold 5 million 3DS handheld game consoles in Japan, which it says makes the device the fastest-selling game platform ever in the country.

Anonymous threatens to DDOS root internet servers

Tuesday, 21 February, 2012 An upcoming campaign announced by the hacking group Anonymous directed against the internet's core address lookup system is unlikely to cause much damage, according to one security expert.

Mobile World Congress: Smartphone vendors have a lot to prove in Barcelona

Monday, 20 February, 2012 The pressure is on HTC and LG Electronics to show they can compete with Apple and Samsung Electronics in the smartphone market by showing off impressive products at Mobile World Congress, which starts in Barcelona later this month.

New Windows 8 Logo is latest in beta buildup

Monday, 20 February, 2012 | 8 comments As we get closer to the launch of the Windows 8 Consumer Preview, Microsoft has been releasing a steady drip of information about its next operating system. The latest tidbit? A new logo - sporting the same "Metro" aesthetic as Windows 8 itself.

Symantec launches membership model

Monday, 20 February, 2012 Security company Symantec has launched a new product called Norton One that allows customers to have memberships, rather than subscriptions.

Early copies of Mass Effect 3 will go into space

Monday, 20 February, 2012 Last week, BioWare released the Mass Effect 3 demo with both singleplayer and cooperative multiplayer modes. Next week the publisher, Electronic Arts, will release early copies into space using weather balloons.

NZ's first BarCraft event to go ahead in Auckland

Friday, 17 February, 2012 Like StarCraft? For the first time in New Zealand, you can experience all the joys of Major League Gaming StarCraft, and drink beer with other geeky types at the same time.

Google working on password generator for Chrome

Friday, 17 February, 2012 Google is working on a new password manager for its Chrome browser that would also automatically create strong passwords for users.

Apple-Samsung US lawsuit 'going to be huge' - expert

Friday, 17 February, 2012 Apple's latest lawsuit against Samsung focuses on 17 products and is going to be "huge", a patent law expert has said.

Sony completes buy of Sony Ericsson, will rename as Sony Mobile Communications

Friday, 17 February, 2012 Sony said Thursday it had completed its purchase of the Sony Ericsson mobile phone joint venture and turned the company into a subsidiary, which it will soon rename Sony Mobile Communications.

iPad 3 rumour rollup for the week of Feb. 14

Thursday, 16 February, 2012 March Madness is already infecting the iOSsphere in February, as rumours ignite about launching the Next iPad in just three weeks.

Motorola Android phones not getting Ice Cream Sandwich until second half of year

Thursday, 16 February, 2012 Apparently being owned by Google doesn't mean Motorola will get its devices upgraded to Android 4.0 ("Ice Cream Sandwich") any more quickly.

Tablet sales to hit 500m in 2015 - report

Thursday, 16 February, 2012 Sales of tablets will overtake sales of traditional desktop and notebook PCs by 2015, according to a report.

Apple stock price hits $500 for first time

Wednesday, 15 February, 2012 Shares in Apple hit the $500 mark for the first time ever at the close of trading on Monday.

Angry Birds flocks to Facebook

Wednesday, 15 February, 2012 Rovio's Angry Birds is smashing into Facebook Timelines everywhere with Angry Birds Beta on Facebook. The popular mobile device game has arrived on the social networking site with new levels exclusive to Facebook, virtual prizes and the ability to send free gifts to your friends and compete for high scores.

Hackers probably stole Steam transaction data, Valve says

Tuesday, 14 February, 2012 Valve has informed users of its Steam online game distribution platform that hackers have probably downloaded encrypted credit card transaction data from a backup database during an intrusion last year.

Galaxy Tab 2's big leap is Android 4.0

Tuesday, 14 February, 2012 Samsung's first tablet running Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, the Galaxy Tab 2, was announced today. It succeeds the original 7-inch Galaxy Tab with little change besides the latest software.

Blizzard Releasing Diablo 3 By End Of June

Tuesday, 14 February, 2012 During their quarterly earnings call on Friday Blizzard representatives finally let slip a release date for the long awaited third game in their Diablo franchise. Blizzard Entertainment's Mike Morhaime said the company is planning to release Diablo 3 by the end of the second fiscal quarter this year, which means the game should hit store shelves by the end of June if everything goes according to plan.

Steve Jobs awarded posthumous Grammy

Tuesday, 14 February, 2012 Steve Jobs was awarded a Grammy Trustees Award over the weekend for his role in creating products that transformed the entertainment industry.

iPad 3 will have "truly amazing" screen

Monday, 13 February, 2012 The third-generation iPad has a "truly amazing" display, an Apple employee is reported as saying.

Anti-piracy concerns spread to Europe

Monday, 13 February, 2012 Anti-piracy legislation has more than just Americans up in arms. Europeans are showing their distaste for such government intrusion, too.

Google Wallet flaw allows digital pickpocket

Monday, 13 February, 2012 | 1 comment A new and troubling vulnerability in Google Wallet has been exposed. Unlike a low-risk security issue identified yesterday, today's security flaw is described as painfully easy.

Microsoft details Windows 8 for ARM devices

Friday, 10 February, 2012 Microsoft has released technical design details about the new version of Windows for devices that use ARM chips, outlining in a lengthy blog post different ways in which this OS, called WOA and still in the works, will be alike and different from existing versions of Windows.

Double Fine crowdsources new game

Friday, 10 February, 2012 Update: Double Fine has now hit (and surpassed) its funding target, and broken Kickstarter records.

FBI reveals 1991 probe of Steve Jobs

Friday, 10 February, 2012 | 1 comment The FBI today made public a background probe of Steve Jobs conducted in 1991, when he was being considered by the George H. W. Bush administration for a spot on the President's Export Council.

Incoming Sony CEO: Hot gadgets aren't enough anymore

Friday, 10 February, 2012 Sony's new CEO says the company needs to move on from its hardware roots.

Hackers attacked Foxconn for the laughs

Friday, 10 February, 2012 Hacker mischiefs calling themselves SwaggSec penetrated the computers at Foxconn, which assembles about 40% of the consumer electronics products in the world, and stole data that it posted to the internet - apparently just for laughs.

Kiwis spend more than $179 million on video games in 2011

Thursday, 9 February, 2012 New Zealanders spent more than $179.6 million on gaming hardware, software and peripherals last year, according to a report released by the Interactive Games and Entertainment Association and NPD research.

Skyrim creation kit released alongside high-res texture pack

Thursday, 9 February, 2012 PC gamers looking forward to the release of Skyrim's long-awaited Creation Kit yesterday got a special surprise in the form of a downloadable high-resolution pack for Bethesda’s open world fantasy game, along with a special cameo from one of last year’s most popular PC games.

DDoS attacks motivated by politics not criminality, Arbor Networks finds

Thursday, 9 February, 2012 | 1 comment Large internet organisations believe ideological and political motivations have become the single most common motivation behind the DDoS attacks hitting their networks, a survey of major Internet firms by has found.

New Facebook photo viewer mimics Google+ counterpart

Thursday, 9 February, 2012 Facebook tweaked its photo viewer interface, making it look a lot like its counterpart on Google+. The new widescreen photo viewer is now live for most Facebook users, who don’t have scroll down anymore to see the comments for a certain photo.

Deleted Facebook photos still accessible online, years later

Wednesday, 8 February, 2012 Photos deleted from Facebook have remained on the social network’s servers for nearly three years, according to an investigation by Ars Technica.

Sony merges PlayStation Network into broader online services

Wednesday, 8 February, 2012 Sony will merge its PlayStation online gaming service into its broader online platform from Tuesday.

MORE NEWS