Mihăiță Bamburic

When OnePlus introduced its latest flagship killer, the OnePlus 5, it only made the top configuration available on the Midnight Black version. Similarly, the Slate Gray color option was paired exclusively with the base specifications.

That was a rather strange choice, as it forced buyers to accept a specific color in order to get either configuration. However, at least for the Slate Gray model, things have just changed.

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HP today unveils the first laptop in the OMEN X gaming series. The new device, which joins the OMEN X Desktop in the range, is designed with professional gamers in mind, featuring official support for overclocking and hardware upgrades.

The OMEN X Laptop, as it is officially called, comes with thermals optimized for CPU and RAM overclocking, and can be paired with GPUs overclocked from the factory.

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The Xbox One X will not hit store shelves until November 7, but, as you may know, it is slated to be available for pre-order well ahead of its big release.

And, like expected, pre-orders for the Xbox One X just kicked off. On offer is a special edition of Microsoft's latest and greatest gaming console, which is dubbed Project Scorpio Edition. The price?

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Most consumers are either unfamiliar with VR headsets or not interested in owning one. Part of the problem, at least with devices like HTC Vive VR, is the high price, which is hard to justify when we're talking about a technology in its infancy.

However, as the barrier of entry is lowered, VR headsets will become more appealing to a larger number of consumers. HTC is aware of this, which is why it's given the Vive VR a major price cut.

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Intel today unveils a new generation of Core processors, promising a massive performance improvement over the Kaby Lake range announced nearly a year ago.

Just how big of a gain can you expect? Intel says that the 8th-gen Core line is up to 40 percent faster over the previous generation. Compared to a "five-year-old machine," however, the difference is even more substantial, delivering a boost in performance of up to 200 percent.

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If you look at the iPhone 7 and the Galaxy S8 and compare them to their predecessors, there is no denying that Samsung's flagship has made a bigger leap forward. It is arguably the more interesting smartphone of the two as a result. But, as always, that does not automatically translate into better sales.

The iPhone, for all the minor upgrades it has received over the years, has rarely been dethroned by its rivals, and that was again the case in the second quarter of 2017, when it basically wiped the floor with the Galaxy S8 in terms of sales.

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The price of Bitcoin has increased dramatically this year. The most popular cryptocurrency went from a low of $958 on January 1 to $2,000 on May 19, $3,000 on June 11, and, finally, $4,500 today. The effect? Its market cap rose from $15.5 billion to $73 billion, making it more valuable than well-known major tech companies like Twitter, HP, Nokia, NXP, Baidu, Salesforce and PayPal.

But Bitcoin's rise didn't have an effect just on its market cap, as it also boosted the cryptocurrency market as a whole. Today, its value is estimated to be around $144 billion, up from only $11.3 billion a year ago. It is pretty incredible, if you think about it.

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Newton is my favorite email app, not least because I can use it on all my devices -- no matter if they run Android, iOS, macOS or Windows, the last of which arrived in private beta in early-May. Now, after four months of testing, it is ready for prime time.

The Windows version of Newton arrives today in Windows Store, and it's designed with Windows 10 users in mind. CloudMagic, the company behind the app, has included pretty much every feature that Newton has on other platforms, meaning the experience should be pretty similar to Android, iOS and macOS.

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Microsoft officially supports Windows 10 S on Surface Laptop, the device on which the lighter version of Windows 10 launched on earlier this year, but it is now adding another device to the fold.

The Surface Pro, the newest device in the Surface range, has received a firmware update, its third since being released in mid-June, which officially introduces support for Windows 10 S.

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Making a streaming service available on as many platforms as possible is key to attracting more and more customers in the cord-cutting era, and, to that end, Sling TV is now opening its doors to Google Chrome users.

Sling TV says that its new player, which is available in beta at this stage, can be used by Chrome users on Windows devices and Macs and comes with support for both live and on-demand content.

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The .NET Framework transformed with the release of .NET Core last year. From a Windows-only affair, the framework has gone cross-platform. What's more, Microsoft also made it open-source, adding support for macOS, Linux, Android and iOS.

And now it's taking things a step further by rolling out .NET Core 2.0, which comes with some major improvements to make it "easier to use and much more capable as a platform." Let's take a look at what is new.

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For a dash cam to stand out from the crowd it needs to go beyond the basics of recording video. It has to be easy to use. The quality needs to be very good. It has to be reliable in a wide range of conditions. It must not lose footage in the event of a crash. And, last but not least, it needs a couple of differentiating -- but useful -- features to give it an edge in this highly competitive market.

The F770, one of the most attractive dash cams in Thinkware's high-end lineup, promises all those things and more. Question is, just how well does it perform in real life? I've tested it to find out.

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HP is not one of the most pragmatic players in the smartphone industry, so its decision to release the Elite X3 flagship with Windows 10 Mobile when the platform was clearly dead hardly raised any eyebrows. Hiking the price nearly a year after its launch, however, is harder to understand -- to put it kindly.

The Elite X3 is a failure even by Windows smartphone standards, based on usage data from AdDuplex, so you can imagine just how well it is doing in the grand scheme of things. To put things into perspective, Windows smartphone sales dipped below the one million units mark this year. The high price of the Elite X3 has been a massive contributor to its terrible performance.

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It is hard not to fall asleep watching promo videos for smartphones. That's why we rarely write about them. Today we make an exception for the new OnePlus 5 camera ad, which, depending on how you look at it, is either really stupid or brilliant -- but memorable nonetheless.

Called Lake Blood, it's the story of a chainsaw massacre. The promo features a teenage girl, a bloodied man and the chainsaw killer that's following him. It's not your typical combination of characters, is it?

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Smartphone cameras have evolved a great deal over the years, reaching the point where many of us can rely on them to snap important moments in our lives. But if there is one area where major improvements can still be made it's in low light.

One way to improve image quality in low light is to use a wider lens aperture, which is what LG has done with its upcoming V30. In fact, the South Korean maker says that it's the widest lens aperture of any smartphone to date. Why does this matter?

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