Author: Brad Linder

Microsoft’s HoloLens headset is basically a computer that you can wear on your head. It puts a semi-transparent display in front of your face, allowing you to interact with apps and games superimposed on your real-world environment. One of the key things that sets HoloLens apart from virtual reality headsets like the Oculus Rift is that you don’t need to plug the HoloLens into a computer, because it is a computer.

When Microsoft unveiled the HoloLens in January, the company said it has a CPU and graphics processor built in… as well as a custom chip called a Holographic Processing Unit that analyzes gesture, voice, and visual input, among other things.

Continue reading Microsoft reveals info about the custom chip powering HoloLens at Liliputing.

Now that the Rio Olympics have ended, we have four years to wait to find out whether Usain Bolt is really done competing in Olympic events, whether Simone Biles will be as impressive at age 23 as she has been at age 19, and if there’s any chance Michael Phelps will still be going for gold at age 35.

But whoever wins gold at the Tokyo Olympics in 2020, there’s a chance they’ll be taking home a medal made from discarded electronics.

Continue reading 2020 Tokyo Olympics medals may be made from old phones, other e-waste at Liliputing.

Google has taken the beta label off Android 7.0 Nougat, and the latest version of the company’s mobile operating system should begin rolling out to a number of devices soon.

But Google is dropping support for two popular, but aging devices. The company has no plans to offer Android 7.0 for the Nexus 5 smartphone or Nexus 7 (2013) tablet.

Of course, once Google releases the source code for Android 7.0, it’ll probably just be a matter of time before independent developers start porting the operating system to run on those devices.

Continue reading Google Nexus 5, Nexus 7 won’t get Android 7.0 (at least not officially) at Liliputing.

Android 7.0 Nougat is here. Google has released the first version of the operating system with native support for running apps in multiple windows that are visible at the same time.

Other major new features include support for a new virtual reality platform called Daydream (although not all phones will have the hardware to support it) and a series of updates that should improve performance and extend battery life.

Software updates should begin rolling out soon for the Google Nexus 6, Nexus 6P, and Nexus 5X smartphones, the Google Pixel C tablet, and the Nexus Player Android TV box.

Continue reading Google releases Android 7.0 Nougat with multi-window, VR, and more at Liliputing.

Google Android 7.0 Nougat is launching today, and there’s a little surprise on the Android website: confirmation that the new LG V20 smartphone will be the first smartphone to ship with Android 7.0 pre-installed (although Android 7.0 updates should begin rolling out for recent Nexus phones and other devices any minute now).

The LG V20 won’t officially launch until September 6th, but LG has started hinting at some of the upcoming phone’s features.

Continue reading LG V20 is the first phone to ship with Android 7.0 at Liliputing.

We’ll probably see a lot of interesting new Chromebooks later this year as device makers start to produce convertibles, 2-in-1s and other devices optimized to run Android apps as well as Google’s Chrome-based operating system.

But if you’re in the market for a cheap laptop and don’t care that much about having a touchscreen, there are some great deals on Chromebooks today, with prices as low as $159.

And if you do want a convertible touchscreen model, the entry-level Asus Chromebook Flip is on sale for $20 off its list price.

Continue reading Deals of the Day (8-22-2016) at Liliputing.

The HP Elite x3 is a smartphone that you can use like a desktop computer. It runs Windows 10 Mobile and supports Microsoft’s Continuum for phone software, allowing you to connect an external keyboard, mouse, and display to run some apps in a desktop mode.

There are a few other phones that can do that, including the Lumia 950 and Lumia 950 XL and Acer Liquid Jade Primo. But the HP Elite x3 is the most powerful Windows phone to date, and it’s also designed with enterprise users in mind: HP offers cloud-based software that allows you to login to applications running on a remote server, allowing you to (sort of) run desktop apps that wouldn’t otherwise be available for phones.

Continue reading HP Elite x3 up for pre-order for $799 (Windows 10 phone with PC-like features) at Liliputing.

Having trouble getting WiFi to blanket your whole house? You might need a better router: switching from a $30 802.11b/g/n router to a dual-band 802.11ac WiFi router a few years ago did wonders for the connectivity in our house.

But sometimes that’s not good enough… and over the past year or so a number of companies have started to embrace a different solution: instead of just putting a router in one part of your home, maybe you should put hardware in multiple locations to better distribute your wireless signal.

Continue reading Netgear joins the quest for better WiFi through multiple devices at Liliputing.

Samsung has a new 10 inch tablet on the way, and all signs point to it being a lot like one that launched earlier this year… but with one major difference. The Samsung Galaxy Tab A 10.1 does not work with Samsung’s S-Pen stylus. The upcoming SM-P580/P585 does.

Roland Quandt spotted a user manual for the new tablet on Samsung’s website, and while I can’t read most of the manual (since it’s in Korean), there are drawings that clearly show a pen, and a few specs and other items in English that make it pretty clear that the new tablet is a cousin to the Galaxy Tab A 10.1.

Continue reading Samsung SM-P580 is a 10 inch tablet with a stylus (leaks) at Liliputing.

The Nokia Lumia 525 is a smartphone with a 4 inch, 800 x 480 pixel IPS display, a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 processor, 1GB of RAM, and 8GB of storage. It was released in early 2014 and shipped with Windows Phone 8.

While Microsoft rolled out a software update that allowed the Lumia 525 to run Windows 8.1, it’s one of a number of phones that never received an update to Windows 10 Mobile.

Continue reading Lumia 525 hacked to run Android 6.0 instead of Windows Phone 8.1 at Liliputing.