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​Say bye

They’ve been a fixture of the computing industry for 60 years, but in 2018, hard drives will be pushed aside by storage systems using memory chips in PCs, an analyst firm predicts. Hard drives revolutionized computing when IBM commercialized the first, RAMAC, in 1956. They read and write ones and zeros as tiny patches of …

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FTC’s data

A US appeals court on Monday dismissed the FTC’s suit against AT&T that charged the company deceived its unlimited-data customers when it slowed their connection speeds. The Federal Trade Commission had accused the company of failing to deliver on its promise of “unlimited data,” saying it violated the FTC Act. “The issue here is simple: ‘unlimited’ means unlimited,” FTC Chairwoman …

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Laptop pioneer John Ellenby dies

I’ve been reviewing laptops for more than a decade, but the very first device that we’d consider a true laptop dates back much further. There were a small handful of technically portable computers before it, often called “luggables,” but the first PC we’d recognize as having a readable display, a built-in keyboard and a clamshell-style hinge was the Grid Compass, …

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iPhone 7: No headphone jack, no problem

Over the last few months I’ve written about the persistent rumors that Apple will remove the headphone jack on the next iPhone. Every time I write about it, readers’ comments have been generally negative, with some folks threatening to boycott the iPhone when Apple drops the headphone jack. Well, from all indications, including published reports citing “people familiar with the …

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Ben Affleck teases a new DC cinematic universe villain: Deathstroke

Big-screen Batman Ben Affleck surprised comic fans this morning with 27 seconds of tweeted video that appear to show a new DC cinematic universe character: Deathstroke. The assassin for hire has been a cult favorite since he was introduced back in 1980 (and was originally called “The Terminator” before a certain James Cameron film became strongly identified with that name). …

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Apple sued by iPhone 6 and 6 Plus owners over touchscreen problems

Apple is being sued by owners of Apple’s iPhone 6 and 6 Plus phones, over unresponsive touchscreens, reported Reuters on Monday. The issue, first widely reported by tech site iFixit, is said to affect last-generation iPhones and manifests itself as “a gray, flickering bar at the top of the display and an unresponsive touchscreen.” The iFixit report says: “Of course, …

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ANZ brings Apple Pay and Android Pay to MasterCard customers

The two big names in contactless payments are slowly making their way into the Australian market, with ANZ today announcing that it will extend support for Apple Pay and Android Pay to customers with an ANZ-issued MasterCard. From today, the 500,000-plus ANZ customers with a MasterCard will be able to use Apple Pay on their iPhone or Android Pay on …

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