Best of TechRadar Pro: from Surface Pro 3 to Watch Dogs, GPU power and hybrid storage

Microsoft Surface Pro 3 review

Knock it for the Windows 8 launch. Lay into it for how it debuted the Xbox One. But, when it comes to its latest product, the Surface Pro 3, don't pull out the torches and pitchforks just yet – Microsoft is onto something here.

Over the past few years, the Redmond, Wash. Windows maker has proved to be one of the bolder technology companies, for better or worse. Microsoft clearly isn't afraid to fall on its face in the hope of landing on what in the world tech users want next in this turbulent market, and the Surface Pro 3 is – well, it just might be an exception. Continue reading...

Why wallets waned: a Q&A with John Haro, CTO of Vibes

Remember when the mobile wallet industry was supposed to take the tech world by storm? Back in 2011, Google Wallet, Square Wallet, and PayPal Wallet all launched, essentially copycatting Amazon's mobile version of Payments, which debuted in 2009. Apple followed suit in 2012 by launching Passbook.

With so many major players invested in mobile wallets, we were supposed to be on the cusp of life-changing technology that would signal the end of credit card plastic. Some projections estimated the mobile wallet industry would topple $5 trillion by 2020.Continue reading...

10 CRM systems small businesses should know

Customer relationship management isn't something that only large enterprises can afford to do. No matter how many workers you employ, leveraging data to ensure your customers are happy - and that your workers are productive – is essential. We've put together a list of CRM systems for small and mid-size businesses in order to help you be more informed during the implementation process. Continue reading...

Watching the Watch Dogs: the ethical hackers protecting our smart cities

Until Ubisoft's Watch Dogs came along, we hadn't been this excited about a game involving hacking since Deus Ex had us honing our security terminal-cracking skills back in 2000.

Playing as protagonist Aiden Pearce, your main weapon is a smartphone that can be used to hack into (and control) surveillance cameras, traffic lights and other electronic devices connected to Chicago's central network in a bid to thwart enemies and evade the police. Continue reading...

How to enhance the power of the GPU

Graphics processing units (GPU) have traditionally been used to draw pixels on screens. But recently, the GPU has been found to be ideal for computing intensive tasks such as CAD, CAM, 3D modelling, image manipulation, matrix manipulation, Furrier transform and Monte Carlo simulations.

GPU accelerators are an easy way to harness the considerable floating point performance present in modern GPUs. These accelerators connect to the system via the PCI-Express bus, allowing users to run multiple accelerators within a single system. Continue Reading...

Medion Erazer X7611 review

From smartphones to tablets and ultrabooks, ultra mobility is all the rage. But sometimes, there's still no substitute for simple screen size. That's especially true for gaming. Enter the Medion Erazer X7611 laptop. It's a full-on desktop replacement gaming portable with a monumental 17.3-inch, full 1080p display. It packs a full-on Intel quad-core processor and Nvidia graphics with 2GB of video memory. Continue reading...

What does the future hold for NoSQL?

We recently spoke to Matt Asay, VP of business strategy at MongoDB, to discuss the disruptive nature of NoSQL solutions, the advantages of an open-source approach, and what MongoDB's plans for the future are.

MongoDB is a NoSQL database with a focus on agility and scalability, helping organisations including The National Archives, The Guardian and Telefonica by providing a non-relational, open-source solution that allows for the management of data produced by modern applications. Continue reading...

What do smartphones and hybrid storage have in common?

Mobile telephones have been an invaluable tool for some time and when personal digital assistants (PDAs) started to appear on the market, they drove a whole new level of productivity.

However, when vendors such as Nokia and Apple started to provide convergence, something new appeared – the ubiquitous arrival of the smartphone. Both technologies worked fine alone. But by combining two seemingly separate entities, a new tool that simply solved a number of challenges emerged. Surprisingly, the same theory can be applied to data storage. ...Continue reading

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Roundup: Best of TechRadar: this week's best features and hottest reviews

Welcome to the iUniverse

Forget hardware. Apple's next big 'product' might be another ecosystem.

















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Acer just debuted five new phones, one tablet and a wearable

Acer had a lot to get off its chest before the weekend, announcing five new smartphones, a new tablet, and a wearable smartband to go with one of those phones, for a total of seven new devices launching in 2014.

Most interesting are the Liquid Leap smartband and its paired smartphone, the curved Liquid Jade. The two will be bundled together "in selected markets," Acer said in a press release.

The Liquid Leap is a 1-inch touch screen housed in a rubber wristband with fitness and sleep tracking, phone notifications, music controls, and seven days of battery. It comes in white, black, blue, pink, and orange.

The Liquid Jade, meanwhile, is a curved 5-inch HD smartphone with Android 4.4: KitKat and a 13-megapixel camera. Both smartphone and wearable launch in the third quarter of 2014, Acer said.

That's not all

But the Leap-Jade combo is only a small part of Acer's announcements. The Taiwanese company has also debuted four other smartphones.

The impressive Liquid X1 sports a 1.7 GHz octa-core processor, a 13-megapixel camera, a 5.7-inch display, 2GB of memory, and microSD expansion.

Where the X1 is professional- and business-focused, the budget-priced Acer Liquid Z200 smartphone is focused on "color" and "fun." It comes in five colors and has a 4-inch display and Android KitKat.

Next up are the Liquid E700 and Liquid E600, two similar devices with varying specs. The travel-ready E700 has an impressive 3500mAh battery, triple SIM capability, a 5-inch screen, 4GB of storage with microSD room, Android KitKat, and a quad-core processor.

The E600 has similar specs, including a 5-inch display and quad-core processor, but lacks the triple SIM capability of the E700.

Don't forget the tablet

Finally Acer also announced the Iconia Tab 8, a Wi-Fi-only tablet with an 8-inch 1920x1200 anti-fingerprint display, Intel Atom quad-core chip, Android KitKat, and microSD expansion.

All of these devices have various "intuitive and convenient" control and interface features, like the X1's AcerRAPID rear button, as well as its Acer Zoom Fit and AcerFLOAT UI tweaks. The former limits the display's active area when you're using it with one hand, while the latter is a multi-tasking tool.

In addition they'll all launch in Q3 this year, so watch out for more info as summer gets on.

• The Samsung Galaxy S5 is still going strong

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The white iPhone 6 appears and another look at the back panel

Apple might be throwing yet another wrench into the iPhone 6's final design.

New images of a stark white iPhone 6 have popped up on Korean news site named Joseilbo. Not only do the images show us the next iteration of the iPhone 6 in white for the first time, but also it seems Apple's next handset will have a smoother back than originally thought.

Unlike iPhone 6 dummies we've seen previously, this iPhone 6 sports a completely smooth back with an almost plastic sheen. The new handset also does not seem to have any clearly segmented breaks at the top and bottom for the antennas as the dummy model did.

Additionally the flash is differently shaped as a vertical bar, similar to the dual True-Tone LED found on the iPhone 5S, rather than the circle we've seen on previous leaks.

It's possible this supposed iPhone 6 might just be wearing a case, but we're extremely skeptical that it could just be a complete fake.

Will the real iPhone 6 please stand up?

In another possible iPhone 6 leak, the Australian MacFixIt blog has posted images of what it claims is the back panel of the upcoming iPhone 6 covered in a green protective plastic casing.

Sporting a much closer design to the dummies down to the round flash and two distinct antenna breaks, this back plate may be part of the final production model of Apple's next handset.

We can see a new cut out for the Apple logo, which has since been missing on any leaked devices. Meanwhile, around the camera and flash area we can see a bit of the back panel's underlying silver paint.

Although everything lines up with the suspected design of the iPhone 6, it's hard to tell if the frame will fit the phone's all-but-confirmed wider 4.7-inch screen. These rendering could have easily been shopped together from iPhone Touch parts, so we're going hold off on calling it the real McCoy until we see it ourselves.

Which do you think is the real iPhone 6? Fight it out our comments below.

• The Samsung Galaxy S5 is another phone that comes in white too

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iOS 8 banners deck the halls of WWDC 2014

"Houston, iOS 8 has (almost) landed."

With WWDC kicking off Monday, the signs - literally - are there that we're in for the new version of iOS' reveal.

Peer into San Francisco's Moscone Center today and a banner emblazoned with "8" will wink back at you. Just as "7" graced the Center's halls before WWDC 2013's iOS 7 reveal, Apple seems to be not so subtly hinting at what we're in for come next week.

The wave background is also reminiscent of banners that teased iOS 6 and OS X 10.9 in years past.

Join us Monday at 10 a.m. PT/6 p.m. PT/1 a.m. Tuesday AEST for WWDC 2014's opening keynote where we expect a formal introduction to iOS 8 and a number of other announcements.

• Your move, Google IO

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Updated: Valve Steam Machine release date, news and features