Latest news

Thanks to a new report, we have some more proof that Google's Chrome browser is killing your battery life, and in some cases, to a huge degree.

Testing different browsers with different Windows 10 notebooks/2-in-1s, Chrome actually killed overall battery life by as much as 28 percent compared to Microsoft Internet Explorer, a scary figure.

In the report, the tester used an Asus Zenbook UX305F, a Surface Pro 3 and a Toshiba Portege Z20t-B, while testing IE11, Chrome 46, Firefox 41 and Microsoft Edge 20. All browsers were on default configurations. They ran the Peacekeeper battery test twice and averaged the battery time.

Microsoft's browsers were unquestionably the top dogs, saving 30-59 minutes in battery life depending on the device.

Here were the full results:

A few of the top developers for the Popcortime.io fork have reportedly left the project this weekend, following a number of internal disputes.

Popcorntime.io is the most popular of the Popcorn Time forks, and the software currently has millions of users and the blessing of the original creators.

Reportedly, there have been disagreements over how the project should move forward and those disputes have led to a few of the top developers leaving, practically breaking up the group. Allegedly, the disagreements started over the rumor of a Hollywood lawsuit due to the service's integration of VPN.ht. The software was created by two of the developers of Popcorn Time and has added a revenue stream, which in the past has led to lawsuits against otherwise free services.

Some of the team demanded getting away from VPN.ht, with plans to release a new Popcorn Time fork without the commercial VPN. The devs who created the VPN took that as a sort of "hostile takeover" and froze access to the software's code. At that point, a handful of devs decided it was time to move on. It is unclear what the next steps for the platform are.

Apple has acknowledged the very valid concerns of Retina MacBook Pro users who are being affected by 'Staingate' and will replace the screens free of charge.

Staingate had been affecting thousands of Mac users, and within a few months the anti-reflecting layer had begun to wear off, leaving a hideous stain across the screen that could not be replaced without voiding the warranty.

Notably, if you already paid for a replacement, you may be eligible for a refund through AppleCare.

The new program will cover MacBooks and MacBook Pros from within three years of their original purchase date or for one year from October 16th, 2015.

Yahoo has announced a new search deal with Google today in which the search giant will provide Yahoo with 'search ads, algorithmic search, and image search services' for mobile and desktop browsing.

The deal is in effect now and will last until 2018.

"In October, the Company reached an agreement with Google that provides Yahoo with additional flexibility to choose among suppliers of search results and ads," Yahoo wrote in its earnings release today. "Google's offerings complement the search services provided by Microsoft, which remains a strong partner, as well as Yahoo's own search technologies and ad products."

The deal makes perfect sense for Yahoo as it tries to profit from its search engine. Google has 64 percent of desktop queries in the U.S. compared to Yahoo at 12.7 percent.

Yahoo is in the middle of a 10-year deal with rival Microsoft in which Microsoft's search technology powers Yahoo's search engine in exchange for an 8 percent cut of search ad revenue.

In a new interview today, Apple CEO Tim Cook announced a milestone for the fledgling Apple Music service: 6.5 million paying subscribers.

Altogether, the service has 15 million total subscribers, a solid number for a service that has only been around since June. Keep in mind, Apple offers three free months to anybody who wants to try it, so the numbers are potentially inflated.

Cook said customers have been praising the human curation features of the platform and that he himself had been stuck listening to the same tracks over and over until he started using Apple Music.

The service launched with some issues, including a high-profile attack by the music industry over royalties but has since seemed to have settled into a groove.

According to Korean sources, Samsung plans to move the release of its flagship model, Samsung Galaxy S7 to happen couple of weeks before the MWC event where it has traditionally released its flagship models.

The move indicates that Samsung doesn't want to compete for the media attention during the MWC expo where several vendors release their products.

More interestingly, according to SamMobile, Samsung might be changing its flagship model tactic to have "super premium", "premium" and "sub-premium" flagship models in order to be able to compete against the iPhone (super premium) and against newcomers, like OnePlus and Xiaomi (premium & sub-premium).

HTC announced, without much fanfare, its mid-range model, HTC One A9, today that mimicks very effectively the current iPhone design, promises to deliver Android updates almost Nexus-like and will cost $399 unlocked.

Despite the promises of a quick rollout of future Android releases to One A9's users, HTC hasn't dropped its Sense user interface. Phone sports metallic back, with antenna stripes, very much like iPhone has. Internally the phone has Snapdragon 617 chip, 2GB RAM in 16GB storage version and 4GB RAM in 32GB version. Both models have a microSD memory card slot.

Full HD display is 5" and uses Gorilla Glass 4. Main camera is a 13Mpix camera with optical image stabilization and f/2.0 optics. Other than those details, the phone has fingerprint scanner, UltraPixel front camera and Dolby Audio.

Phone is expected to start shipping in beginning of November. Availability varies geographically.

HTC's reputation hasn't been exactly stellar when it comes to Android updates, but now the company has apparently taken different road.

HTC announced its One A9 mid-range smartphone today and the big news was that the company pledged to roll out all the Android updates to One A9 within fourteen days after Google releases the Android update.

The unlocked MSRP for One A9 will be $399, but Europeans will have to pay significantly more for the device once it arrives to old continent.

Match Group, the parent company of Tinder, Match and other dating sites, is set to go public using the symbol MTCH.

Besides Tinder and Match, the company also runs PlentyOfFish, HowAboutWe and OkCupid, giving it the largest portfolio of dating apps and sites.

Last year, the Match Group had $888.3 million in revenue, up 11 percent year-over-year and most of the sales comes through user membership fees. Net profit was $147.8 million, up 18 percent year-over-year. Altogether, the portfolio has 59 million monthly active users and 4.7 million paid members.

While the IPO will help the company raise money, it will still have over 50 percent of its shares owned by IAC, the media conglomerate.

For anyone excited for the upcoming "Star Wars: The Force Awakens," this has been quite the weekend.

Disney has revealed the final poster for the upcoming film, and it matches the tone of the previous movies in showing off key characters, a space background and the red to blue (evil to good) transition.

Interestingly, in the back there is also a huge canon-looking planet, which could be the rumored 'Starkiller Base' that is rumored to destroy entire star systems.

Even better for fans, Disney has announced that the next official trailer will be released tomorrow during Monday Night Football.

Amazon has sued 1114 John Doe defendants who are offering to write fake reviews via Fiverr, the site that allows you to purchase services for as low as $5.

The Fiverr sellers offered to write fake, positive product reviews for sellers and manufacturers, clearly tainting what is usually a pretty honest system.

"While small in number, these reviews can significantly undermine the trust that consumers and the vast majority of sellers and manufacturers place in Amazon, which in turn tarnishes Amazon's brand," said Amazon's complaint. The lawsuit only names the defendants by their Fiverr names, with the hope of being able to sue them by their legal names soon.

Amazon's own investigators emailed with the Fiverr users and found that some were willing to use multiple accounts, multiple addresses and different IP addresses to try to avoid detection by Amazon. Others were willing to receive an empty envelope from the seller so they could show up as "Verified Buyer" and also have a shipping record.

"Defendants are misleading Amazon's customers and tarnishing Amazon's brand for their own profit and the profit of a handful of dishonest sellers and manufacturers," added Amazon. "Amazon is bringing this action to protect its customers from this misconduct, by stopping defendants and uprooting the ecosystem in which they participate."

Apple has lost the patent infringement case brought by the University of Wisconsin's Alumni Research Foundation (WARF), and must pay $234 million in damages.

The processor patent tech was ruled to have been used in Apple's A7, A8, and A8X processors, and WARF had initially asked for $862 million before reducing the damages request to $400 million.

U.S. District Judge William Conley had ruled earlier this week that Apple did not willfully infringe on WARF's patents so the damages are significantly lower than what was being asked for but still obviously very hefty.

"Table based data speculation circuit for parallel processing computer" (improving processor efficiency) was the patent in question and was granted in 1998. WARF sued Intel in 2008 over the patent and won $110 million. WARF uses its income to pay out grants to researchers, including $58 million last year.

Last month, the foundation sued Apple again, this time for their latest round of products, iPhone 6S and 6S Plus, and iPad Pro. Apple, the most profitable company on the planet, made $10.67 billion in net profit last quarter, alone.

The best-known torrent site in the world, The Pirate Bay, appears to be offline, globally, right now.

According to online forums, such as Reddit, the site seems to be having some kind of technical problems, as it shortly reappeared after its first period of offline earlier today.

The Proxy Bay, a site that lists mirrors and proxies for The Pirate Bay, confirms this to be the case, stating on their homepage:

The Pirate Bay is currently experiencing issues

A Finnish startup by the name of Solu Machines has introduced a new type of computer in San Francisco, CA. Solu, as they call it, is a mobile computer that relies solely in the power of cloud computing.

Everything about the small square box, veiled in wood in a very Scandinavian fashion, is stored in the cloud. This doesn't only mean the pictures and videos but also the settings in the operating system and apps that you use.

Even though Solu can be used as a separate device, connecting it to the peripherals typically connected to a PC (e.g. mouse, keyboard, display, etc) will reveal it's full potential. The device itself encompasses a 1440 x 1440 resolution 450 ppi touchscreen, 4 gigs of RAM, 32 gigs of storage and Nvidia's SOC with a quad-core processor.

Device demoed at the presentation was a prototype and Solu Machines is now looking to fund production on Kickstarter. A single Solu costs a 349 euros (just under $400) but for more adventurous crowd funders there are obviously other types of packages as well. The company is looking to ship the first final versions to customers in Q2 next year.

Mojang and Telltale Games have launched the first chapter of their new 'Minecraft: Story Mode' for mobile gamers.

The mobile launch follows release for PlayStation, Xbox and Steam on Monday.

"Minecraft: Story Mode" lets you follow the story of Jesse, who sets off on adventures across Overworld.

The first chapter of Story Mode is called "The Order of the Stone," and "focuses on Jesse's encounter with a mysterious figure who unleashes a monster Jesse and friends need to save the world from." You get to choose-your-own-adventure, with a selection of dialogues or action that will impact how you progress in the game. Fans of 'The Walking Dead' and 'Game of Thrones' from the same publisher should feel at home, just with less violence.

Available now on Android, Amazon and iOS, the game costs $4.99 per episode.