Technology

Roughly 16 months ago, news began to surface of a problem affecting iPhones that had recently been upgraded to the then-new iOS 9. Devices that had previously been repaired by third-party shops or centers suddenly began throwing “Error 53” messages and refusing to function normally. It was caused by repairs …

Back in 2015, Verizon was sued by the Communications Workers of America for its general failure to maintain copper infrastructure in Pennsylvania. We covered the issue in October of last year, when CWA officials testified that Verizon was willing to fire employees for maintaining copper infrastructure, while simultaneously failing to …

One of the advantages of Microsoft Windows is its generally excellent approach to backwards compatibility. Thanks to a mixture of virtual machine support and native OS capabilities, you can generally run x86 apps from any era in a modern system. There are exceptions to this, but backwards compatibility works very …

Apple announced a bevy of new products, software, and hardware refreshes at WWDC 2017; CEO Tim Cook wasn’t kidding when he called it the largest WWDC the company has ever produced. For years, Apple’s approach to traditional computing hardware could charitably be called erratic. For some users — specifically, those who …

IBM researchers announced a new manufacturing breakthrough yesterday that could clear the way to 5nm device scaling and the implementation of next-generation transistor design technologies. The company has used silicon nanosheets — sheets of 2D silicon stacked on top of one another — to assemble a test chip with 30 …

For most of Apple’s existence, gaming on the Mac has meant second-rate performance, particularly for the dollar. While there have been a handful of exceptions over the years — often only when major GPU refresh cycles happened to precisely coincide with Mac refresh cycles — the GPU performance available in …

Google launched its Google Home hardware last year as a way to bring the Google Assistant into your daily life. Unlike Assistant on a phone, Home is designed for everyone to use, and it launched with various smart home integrations like Philips Hue lights and Nest thermostats. Google has been …

When Apple gets into a market, it usually has something innovative to bring to the table. HomePod might be an exception, though. Apple announced this $350 smart speaker at WWDC to go up against Amazon Echo, Google Home, and Sonos Play 3. Despite the company’s insistence that HomePod will sound …

Microsoft used to ship Windows without a built-in antivirus client, which seems foolishly naive in this day and age. However, the addition of Windows Defender to the operating system has caused some tension with third-party antivirus makers. Windows Defender has occasionally interfered with other antivirus apps. Kaspersky recently accused Microsoft of unfair …

On stage at today’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) keynote, Apple SVP Craig Federighi gave us a glimpse at the next version of macOS: High Sierra. Drug jokes aside, this derivative name harkens back to the days of Snow Leopard and Mountain Lion — polish-focused releases that eschew loads of flashy …