Oculus plans to launch its flagship Rift headset early next year.Nick Statt/CNET
Oculus VR's long road to store shelves is going to be a little longer than some had hoped.
The virtual reality company, which Facebook bought for $2 billion last year, announced Wednesday that it plans to launch its headset device in the first quarter of next year.
Oculus has high hopes for virtual reality, saying in its announcement that the technology would "transform gaming, film, entertainment, communication and much more."
The Intel Compute Stick is a $150/AU$229 PC (about £100) that fits in the palm of your hand. It plugs into a display's HDMI port, and -- when connected to Wi-Fi and peripherals -- offers the full Windows 8 experience. (Like all current PCs, it's eligible for a free Windows 10 upgrade later this year, too.)
But having the full Windows experience doesn't necessarily mean you'll have the best experience. The Stick houses a lightweight Atom processor that's usually found in Intel-based tablets, so don't expect to do any heavy image editing or high-end gaming. The Compute Stick needs to be plugged in to power at all times -- there's no battery -- via its Micro-USB port, and Bluetooth performance is finicky at best.
If you have come to enjoy the satisfying chime your iPhone emits when you plug it in to charge it, then you might want, for the sake of consistency or convenience, to hear the same chime when you plug in your MacBook Air or MacBook Pro. (The new 12-inch MacBook features such a sound effect out of the box.)
Not surprisingly, the editing tools in Photos for Mac are similar to what you get with the Photos app for iOS. If you look just below the surface, however, they are greater in number, giving you greater control over your photos on a Mac than you get on an iPhone or iPad.
The Intel Compute Stick is a PC packed into a tiny package. It plugs into a display's HDMI port, giving you a full Windows 8 PC you can tote anywhere. It'll be available later in April for about $150 (about £100, or AU$194).
Don't expect to do heavy image editing or much gaming on the lightweight Atom processor, a part that's usually found in Intel-based tablets. And the Compute Stick needs to be plugged in to power at all times via its Micro-USB port, so you can't necessarily hook it up anywhere.
Before Apple even announced its slim, lightweight 12-inch MacBook, Samsung had already released a nearly identical product. First seen at CES 2015, the Samsung Ativ Book 9 matches the MacBook nearly spec for spec.
Both systems have 12-inch displays with better-than-HD resolutions, both use Intel's Core M processor, both have premium-feeling designs and are very slim and light, with each weighing just a hair over two pounds.
Apple first introduced the idea of Force Touch last September at its Apple Watch event. The new input method offers a way for you to press with slightly more pressure you use when tapping a touchscreen right now. The Watch, in this instance, would detect the extra force and bring up another menu or activate a feature.
Intel's Mark Bohr stands inside the heart of his company's Ronler Acres chip development and manufacturing campus.Ben Fox Rubin/CNET
HILLSBORO, Ore. -- Mark Bohr peers through the yellow-tinted windows outside D1D, one of Intel's secretive computer chip factories housed at its 300-acre campus here, about a 30-minute drive west from Portland.
Apple's new 12-inch MacBook is tough to repair.CNET
Apple's new MacBook is not the type of laptop you'd want to try to take apart and fix yourself.
In a new teardown treatment posted Wednesday by iFixit, Apple's latest MacBook earned a repairability grade of 1 out of 10 (1 being the lowest possible rating). Ooh, that's not good.
The $150 Hisense Chromebook is a Walmart exclusive that lives up that inexpensive, nigh-disposable ethos Google seemed to be targeting when Chrome OS was first pitched. Low prices come at a cost though, usually in terms of build quality, performance, battery life or all three. And this little tyke isn't about to flip that script: it includes a meager display, an off-brand CPU, and a dull plastic body.
Intel's PC business showed improvement in 2014, but is off to a bumpy start in 2015.James Martin/CNET
Intel has slashed its quarterly revenue outlook by nearly $1 billion, as business customers are proving reluctant to upgrade from Windows XP -- a popular but now 13-year-old operating system.
The company said Thursday it now expects to post $12.8 billion in first-quarter sales, down from its mid-January expectation of $13.7 billion, which was already slightly below Wall Street expectations.
There's no shortage of apps that make the process for unlocking your Mac easier. There's Knock, which requires you to physically knock on your iOS device to unlock your Mac. Then there's KeyTouch, an app that uses Touch ID on your iOS device to unlock your Mac.
I won't be adopting the new MacBook anytime soon.James Martin/CNET
"Oh, it's so pretty," I thought. I reached out and touched my iPad screen as Apple CEO Tim Cook revealed the new gold MacBook at the "Spring Forward" event on Monday. I watched the live stream on my tablet and saw the unveiling of the 2-pound, razor-thin beauty with a 12-inch screen. It was love at first glance.
I spend an increasing amount of time browsing the Web from my iPhone or iPad and less time doing so on my MacBook. I occasionally come across a ZIP, PDF or another file that I'd like to download but can't on my current device. In such instances, I either make a mental note to double back to the page with a file the next time I'm on my Mac or I'll email myself the link. With the Transloader app, I can streamline the process and initiate downloads on my Mac immediately from my iPhone or iPad.
The Transloader Mac app costs $5.99 but is currently discounted to $1.99 | £1.49 | AU$2.49 as part of $2 Tuesday. The companion Transloader iOS app is free. Your Mac and iOS device do not need to be connected to the same network -- they need only to share the same iCloud account.
You can use the Transloader iOS app to copy and paste or enter a URL that contains a file you'd like to download on your Mac. A better way, however, is to use the Action Extension in Safari so you don't have to leave the Web page you are currently visiting.
Screenshot by Matt Elliott/CNET
To add the Action Extension, tap the share button in Safari and scroll to the right on the bottom row of icons and tap More. Next, turn the slider on for Inspect with Transloader, which adds a button to the share menu. Now when you come across a link to a file you'd like to download, you can tap that button to have Transloader inspect the page. You can then tap on the link to begin downloading it to your Mac. It's that easy.
On the Mac side, you can choose to have Transloader run in the Dock or as a small icon in the menu bar. Also in preferences, you can choose a destination for your downloads. On you Mac, the Transloader window shows you the progress of your download and any completed downloads. Next to each download is magnifying glass button that opens the file in Finder.
Screenshot by Matt Elliott/CNET
You can have Transloader notify you on your iPhone or iPad when a download is complete, and there is a widget for the iOS Notification Center if you'd like to keep a close eye on your downloads that way.
Also from the same developer is Yoink, an app I wrote about last year that lets you drag and drop files on your Mac with ease.
If Transloader doesn't grab you and you are more in the habit of mailing links to yourself, check out Mail To Self, an app I wrote about last year and use with regularity.
Microsoft's original Surface tablets? Meh. I thought they were chunky and overpriced. Same with the Surface 2 series.
But with the Surface Pro 3, Microsoft crafted a pretty sweet portable PC. Too bad you still had to pay extra (a lot extra) for a keyboard, which is why I got angry every time an ad proclaimed it, "The tablet that can replace your laptop."
The MacBook Air was a major innovation in laptop design. But, on Monday, it lost its position as Apple's lightest, thinnest laptop.CNET
When Steve Jobs pulled the MacBook Air out of a manila envelope in early 2008 -- revealing the impossibly thin laptop to the world -- the device was at the forefront of laptop technology, and priced that way.
Now, seven years later, it's become Apple's "budget" laptop, and it's likely to stay there.
Apple's press event on Monday only reinforced that point, with the laptop being overlooked -- again -- for an upgrade to a higher-resolution Retina Display, a technology first introduced in 2010. The Air also lost its position as Apple's thinnest laptop, with the new MacBook, introduced Monday, taking that crown. The new MacBook boasts new bells and whistles like a force-sensitive track pad.
Whether you're excited about today's news from the Apple event, or you are looking toward the future of USB technology, there's a handful of exciting new features packed in this tiny cable. The MacBook is the first notebook to use the connection, but it's likely we'll see many other devices following suit this year. In the meantime, here are a few things you should know about USB Type-C
