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What Is Intel Turbo Boost?
Lots of exciting new computers today! And no matter what, we still get jazzed about processor speeds. But what's this Turbo Boost business Apple mentioned? Why do CPUs have two different speeds? It's...
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What Is an App Launcher?
You wouldn't initially think it, but your phone's home screen is itself an app. It's an app that launches other apps—an app launcher, if you will. But if the app launcher native to your mobile isn't up...
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What Is Medium?
There is no shortage of platforms to post your ideas, photos, videos—whatever—online, but today we got another high-profile one. Medium announced itself with a lofty manifesto about publishing and...
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What Is MIMO?
At today's Kindle Fire HD unveiling, Jeff Bezos claimed the Fire HD will download content up to 40 percent faster than either the iPad or the Nexus 7. Neat trick. But how will it pull it off? With a...
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What Is a Frontlit Display?
The new Kindle Paperwhite has a frontlit screen. We knew it probably would. But the term "frontlit" is actually a little misleading, and the simplicity of what it does belies the considerable...
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What Is Miracast?
Everyone really likes AirPlay, Apple's Wi-Fi streaming standard that lets you send movies and music from, say, your iPhone to your speakers or Apple TV. Now there's a new standard out to do pretty...
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What Is Intel Clover Trail?
Intel Clover Trail. Sounds like a JJ Abrams movie about camping, right? But Clover Trail is actually the next generation Intel Atom chip that'll power both Windows 8 tablets and laptops. Which means...
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Can You Work Out What This Thing Was Used For?
This thing looks like a cross between a gun, some weird cooking utensil, and an elaborate medical instrument. It is of course none of those things: but can your work out what it was used for?...
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What Is Pheed?
Pheed is the latest social network start up to roll off the factory line, promising to change our internet lives (or something). It combines aspects of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Tumblr (among...
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What Is Apple Fusion Drive?
While introducing the new ridiculously thin iMac, Apple also revealed its new Fusion Drive. What is it? It's a new storage system that supposedly combines the best of SSD and HDD. Basically, the speed...
View ArticleWhat Is Friction-Stir Welding?
To create the new iMac, Apple's thinnest desktop yet, the designers used friction-stir welding to join the aluminum body. Unlike arc welding, the more standard way to fuse metal plates, a friction...
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What Is Anodizing?
The lustrous patina that protects the backside of Apple's new iPad Mini isn't just some cheap shellac or sealant coat—it's actually "grown" on the metal itself in an electrochemical process known as...
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What Is Israel's Iron Dome?
Israel got itself into a little mini-war in Gaza, and Hamas is firing off an extra dose of rockets into the Holy Land. What's (maybe) stopping them? Something called the "Iron Dome"—and what exactly is...
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What Is an Atmospheric River?
A gigantic storm is set to hit the West Coast later today, bringing with it over a foot of rain. It's what meteorologists call an Atmospheric River—but what is that, exactly? An atmospheric river is a...
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What Is Big Data?
The human race produces 2.5 quintillion bytes of data every day—far too much to crunch using conventional desktop applications. Mining this mountain of data for nuggets usable information is one of the...
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What Is Electricity?
Tired of smiling and nodding along while your electrical engineering buddies debate the finer points of electromagnetic theory? If you're taking a critical eye to the definitive guide to batteries,...
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What Is a Hangover?
Yippee! Let's poison ourselves with beverages that will make us violently ill! It was your battle cry last night, and today you're paying the price. But what is that hangover you're experiencing,...
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What Is an UltraPixel?
Did you hear about the HTC One's fancy new "UltraPixel Camera"? HTC touts the camera as an end to the "megapixel wars." UltraPixels! Revolution! And, yes, the technology sounds very promising, but, uh,...
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What Is the Copyright Alert System?
The Copyright Alert System was conceived all the way back in 2011 as a new way to deal with seemingly unstoppable online piracy. It finally goes into effect today, and it will impact a huge portion of...
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What Are Facebook Chat Heads?
One of the centerpieces of Facebook's new interface are "chat heads," Facebook's vision for the way that we should do messaging. Sounds fun! But what are they, exactly? And will they really change how...
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How Prescriptive Analytics Could Harness Big Data to See the Future
Big Data—information sets too large to be effectively computed on desktop systems—isn't just the buzzword du jour. It provides an unprecedented ability for business and industry to precisely model the...
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What Comes After Click: A Crash Course in Tangible User Interfaces
For three decades, most of us have interacted with computers in exactly the same way: We point with a mouse (or a finger!), click, and watch the screen. In one way, it's the most outdated element of...
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What Is Tizen?
This year, Samsung will sell (at least) two phones and a watch that don't run Android. Instead, they'll run something called Tizen. That's a major departure for such an important player in the...
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What Is the LRAD Sound Cannon?
Protests in Ferguson, Missouri have reached a terrifying fever pitch , and the ludicrously armed Ferguson Police Department is bringing all its crowd-control weapons to bear, tear gas , stun grenades,...
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What Is Wi-Fi Calling?
Amongst Apple's deluge of announcements last week, the company declared that the two iPhone 6 models and other iOS 8 iPhones would support Wi-Fi Calling, a nifty sounding tech that can use your home...
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