Articles about Hardware

If you are looking to upgrade your existing solid state drive or hard disk drive, Micron has a new product that may interest you. The "1300," as it is called, uses the "slower" SATA interface, meaning it isn't as fast as the fancy new NVMe options on the market. If your computer doesn't have an NVMe M.2 slot anyway, that is sort of a moot point.

With the SATA interface, speeds are still respectable -- 530 MB/s read and 520 MB/s write. Those speeds are regardless of capacity. If you go with the 2.5-inch form factor, you can choose among 256GB, 512GB, 1TB, and 2TB. The M.2 variant has the same capacities as the other, minus 2TB.

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The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) has revealed some new features of Bluetooth 5.1, and there's a lot to get excited about. While Bluetooth is perhaps most readily associated with connecting peripherals, there is so much more to it than that thanks to the addition of a direction-finding feature.

Used in conjunction with real-time locating systems (RTLS) and indoor positioning systems (IPS), Bluetooth 5.1 promises, among other things, improved tracking of devices, and better indoor navigation tools.

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As consumers use less and less local storage because of the cloud and streaming media, you would expect manufacturers to stop focusing on massive hard disk drives. After all, solid state drives are faster, albeit much more expensive from a capacity standpoint. And yeah, long gone are the days where PC manufacturers touted massive local disk capacity as a selling point. But still, there is a need for cost effective hard drives for data centers, servers, and more. Hell, there are professionals -- such as media creators -- that can benefit from a roomy hard drive as well.

Thankfully, companies are still pushing the boundaries of what is possible with a 3.5-inch form factor. Toshiba, for instance -- with the help of helium -- has reached yet another milestone for its traditional hard drive portfolio. Its new MG08 drive is a 3.5-inch conventional magnetic recording hard disk drive with an impressive 7,200 RPM speed and a massive 16TB of storage capacity -- making 12TB, 14TB, and 15TB models look like "old hat."

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For many people wearing a watch is as much about how it looks as how it works. In these days of smart devices that often requires a trade off between style and function.

Do you leave your good-looking watch at home while you wear your smart watch, or do you look a bit needy by putting a wearable fitness tracker or similar on your other wrist? With the Oaxis Timepiece you no longer have to make the choice.

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If you want a custom PC, there's a lot of fun to be had building your own rig -- or even just upgrading your off-the-shelf PC. But while you can save money as you create your perfect computer, there is the headache of ensuring that all of the components you buy are compatible with your system.

While hardware compatibility is not quite the problem it was in years gone by, it can still be an issue. Help is at hand, however, albeit from an unlikely source. Amazon has launched a compatibility checking tool that will help you to buy the right components. It is an extension of its Part Finder tools which launched earlier in the year.

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Speed, accuracy and weight are all important factors when it comes to gaming mice, and this is something Logitech has taken into account over the two years it spent designing and building the Logitech G PRO Wireless Gaming Mouse.

Using LIGHTSPEED wireless technology, Logitech says that it is able to offer a lag-free gaming experience -- something which is generally not possible with a wireless mouse. Logitech is keen to point out that more than 50 professional gamers were involved in the design of this ambidextrous mouse and claims it is "the only wireless solution that provides pro grade performance and is actively used in tournament play by top professionals".

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Logitech has announced its first ever vertical mouse. Appropriately named the MX Vertical, the device is described as the company's "most advanced ergonomic mouse".

Available in any color you want, so long as that color is black, the MX Vertical has been designed to eliminate wrist pain by enabling you to use it with what Logitech says is "a natural handshake position". Oh... and it looks a bit weird.

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Just a few days ago Apple launched the latest additions to its MacBook Pro range, and the company talked about the fact that the keyboard is quieter. A teardown of the latest devices reveals not only why the keyboards are quieter, but also that the method used seems to serve a secondary purpose -- or maybe that the quietening is itself a secondary purpose.

The keyboards of previous MacBook Pros have suffered issues that led to a free repair program being set up. The latest laptop teardown by iFixit shows that Apple has added a silicone membrane beneath each key, apparently serving the dual task of quietening typing and offering protection and dust and other unwanted contaminants.

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As well as refreshing its MacBook Pro line-up, Apple today started to sell the $699 Blackmagic eGPU. This 8GB external GPU features a Radeon Pro 580 to bring more graphic horsepower to laptop users.

The aim is to bring desktop-level power to laptop users when they are working on graphic-intensive projects. At a shade under $700, it's not a cheap piece of hardware, but it also doubles up as something of a docking station.

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It seems that the Spectre and Meltdown vulnerabilities saga is never-ending, and now there are two new related CPU flaws to add to the mix. Dubbed Spectre 1.1 and Spectre 1.2, the vulnerabilities (CVE-2018-3693) exploit speculative execution and can modify data and bypass sandboxes.

Two security researchers have disclosed details of the new vulnerabilities, both of which have the potential to leak sensitive data. By tinkering with the speculative execution processes of Intel and ARM CPUs, it would be possible to use malicious code to extract information such as passwords and crypto keys.

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Seagate is no stranger to the world of SSDs, but it has shied away from the consumer market in this area, choosing instead to focus on the enterprise market. Now that changes.

The company has launched a new consumer-grade SSD -- the BarraCuda SSD -- aimed squarely at the home consumer looking to give their PC or laptop a boost by making the switch to a solid-state drive. Starting at $75, pricing is highly enticing... but there is a slight catch.

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The rise in popularity of smart devices in the home -- coupled with our continuing love of laptops, tablets and phones -- means that we're more reliant on wireless networks than ever before. But the security we rely on to keep things safe is at least 14 years old, if not older (the widely used WPA2 started life back in 2004).

Clearly, it's time for a security upgrade, and to this end, the Wi-Fi Alliance has just started certifying devices that support WPA3 -- the predictably-named successor to WPA2. This latest security protocol includes a number of important enhancements, and is available in two varieties: WPA3-Personal for the average home user, and WPA3-Enterprise for environments that work with sensitive data and require even greater security.

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For some time, a number of MacBook or MacBook Pro users have complained about problems with their keyboards -- specifically that keys either stop working completely, fall off, or become "sticky", resulting in repeated characters.

Now, after two years of complaints and a lawsuit about the butterfly mechanism in its keyboards, Apple has finally acknowledged that there is a problem. The company has also launched a keyboard service program so those affected by the problem can get it addressed, free of charge.

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At Computex, ASUS has revealed its new ZenBook Pro 15 laptop. This is a high-performance machine, but this is a laptop that's about more than just raw power.

In addition to the 8th Generation Intel Core i9 hexa-core processor and 16GB of 2400Hz DDR4 RAM, the new ZenBook Pro has an innovative trackpad. As well as controlling the mouse cursor, the traditional trackpad has been replaced with a ScreenPad -- a touch-sensitive screen that can display apps, shortcuts and other information.

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Power banks are a dime a dozen nowadays, offering a way to ensure that your phone stays charged while you're on the move and away from a power socket. But while there are plenty of power banks with USB connections, what about those devices that require AC power?

There are some laptops that can charge using a USB-C connection, but most need AC -- and this is where the RAVPower AC Outlet 27000mAh Power Bank can help. As you might guess from the name, this is a portable battery pack that offers 27000mAh of power and could just save you from running out of juice when you travel.

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