Here’s what we know: This summer, with the release of a major Windows 10 update, Microsoft will add QR codes to the Blue Screen of Death. Here’s what we don’t know: Why anyone at Microsoft thought this was a good idea. (Never mind why the BSOD still exists at all; that’s a head-scratcher for another …

Mark Zuckerberg was once the boy king of Silicon Valley. Now he wants to be the bot king of Silicon Valley. Zuckerberg, who famously started Facebook in his dorm as a cherub-faced sophomore at Harvard, has said repeatedly that it’s his mission to connect every person on the planet. Now we know that doesn’t just mean connecting people to other …

A hairline crack, a cheap orange case, slow data speeds. While tooling around Hong Kong, nothing could be dearer to me than a particular phone that in most other circumstances would earn my disdain. It’s called the Handy phone, and docked in 25,000 hotel rooms across Hong Kong (and 12,000 in Singapore), it greets weary travelers with the promise of …

Here come the bots. Facebook said Tuesday that it’s going to start allowing companies to build chatty programs designed to, well, chat with its users. Think of it as an early version of Rosie the robot maid from “The Jetsons,” minus the physical robot. They’re called “bots” in techie speak. You use them by opening Facebook’s Messenger app on your …

Google knows you have goals, and it wants to help you find time to achieve them, whether it’s exercising, spending time with family or developing a skill. The Web giant on Tuesday introduced a new assistive feature to Google Calendar that help you find time in your busy schedule for your desired activity. After asking a few simple questions about …

If your laptop takes its sweet time booting up, then here are some things you can do to put a little pep back in its startup step. Get an SSD You can breathe new life and faster boot times into old laptops by replacing spinning hard drives (HDD) with a new solid-state drive (SSD). Without needing to physically spin a …

HTC unveiled a new phone Tuesday, but reviewers so far seem unimpressed. The HTC 10 packs in plenty of top-end tech and a slick, aluminum design. We discuss whether that’s going to be enough to get HTC noticed in a crowded smartphone market where innovations are few and far between. We also hit on Ford’s work on an autonomous car …

One of the differences between the iPad Pro models is that the smaller tablet is equipped with a feature Apple calls True Tone. In fact, there’s currently no other Apple device that features this new technology that dynamically adjusts the overall temperature of the iPad’s display to match ambient lighting. For example, if you’re using the 9.7-inch iPad Pro in …

You can walk into a Lamborghini dealership and easily plunk down $200,000 for one of the Italian super cars. Or you can click over to eBay and pick up a Lambo lookalike for a lot less. What’s the catch, you say? Well, it needs a little work. But on the plus side, it’s amphibious and you’ll feel like James Bond …

CNET’s Cheapskate scours the Web for great deals on PCs, phones, gadgets and much more. Questions about the Cheapskate blog? Find the answers on our FAQ page. And find more great buys on the CNET Deals page. Calling all writers, would-be and otherwise! If you’ve ever tried using a word processor to compose a lengthy document — novel, screenplay, dissertation …