FreedomPop is offering $5-a-month Wi-Fi access via hotspots in the US. Screenshot by Lance Whitney/CNET FreedomPop is launching a service for people always hunting for Wi-Fi on the go. Available as of Wednesday, FreedomPop’s new unlimited Wi-Fi plan gives smartphone and tablet users unlimited talk, text and data for $5 per month, the company announced. …

Screenshot by CNET “This is your world with holograms.” That’s how Microsoft’s Alex Kipman pitched the Microsoft HoloLens Wednesday during the company’s Windows 10 event: an event that ended up being about a lot more than PC operating systems. The HoloLens is a pair of goggles, but they create immersive, three-dimensional virtual worlds that blend with your own world. The …

iOS 8 adoption has slown down this month. Apple The uptake of iOS 8 appears to have stalled. Updating its App Store Distribution page on Tuesday, Apple pegged iOS 8’s share at 69 percent, just one point higher than the 68 percent recorded around two weeks ago on January 6. The number doesn’t reveal the full scope of iOS 8 …

Microsoft’s Surface tablet that runs Windows RT hasn’t sold well. Josh Miller/CNET Looks like Microsoft’s long-suffering Windows RT software isn’t dead quite yet. Windows RT, which hit the market in late 2012 alongside the heavily redesigned Windows 8, was the version of Microsoft’s operating system that ran on the ARM chips typically used in cell phones. The software struggled immediately …

Shazam Entertainment-discovery app Shazam is worth a serious sum of cash, the company revealed on Tuesday. Shazam raised $30 million on a $1 billion valuation in its latest funding round, the company announced in a blog post Tuesday. While Shazam has not revealed who provided the funding, the company’s chairman, Andrew Fisher, told Bloomberg Television in an interview on Tuesday …

Attorney-General George Brandis has been a key proponent of data retention legislation.CeBIT Australia, CC BY 2.0 The Attorney-General’s Department has rejected calls from legal experts and privacy advocates for greater oversight on proposed data retention legislation, saying that obtaining a warrant for every metadata request would be an onerous burden on law enforcement and security agencies that could see criminals …

Now playing: Watch this: Now you can play Xbox games on Windows 10 PCs or tablets 1:10 The Xbox One has always been a big black box full of promise. Would it be more than a game console? With Microsoft’s Windows 10, it looks like the Xbox One’s big convergence moment is finally here. Microsoft wants your Xbox to be …

I’m a virtual reality skeptic. But from the moment I saw it, I knew that Microsoft’s HoloLens is unlike any existing VR headset, Oculus Rift included. HoloLens is smaller, for one, and the augmented, ­­or what Microsoft calls “mixed-reality,” experience it delivers excited me. Here’s how I got there. Different on the outside Though more streamlined than other VR devices, …

The world’s first glimpse of Windows 10 on a Windows phone. Nate Ralph/CNET Microsoft’s 2-hour Windows 10 launch event produced a flurry of details about what we can expect from the new operating system for phones. Overall, the OS update seems minimal. The biggest changes come with redesigned apps that will run across all platforms. Ready? Let’s go. ‘Windows Phone’ …

The battle over technology for your face goes on as more companies dream up face-worn wearables aimed at enhancing your ocular experience. One of the more interesting examples is connected ski goggles, and a new Israel-based startup called RideOn has announced what it calls the world’s first true augmented-reality goggles for the slopes. Related Links Skiing showdown: GPS-informed goggles miss …