Hardware

Next Thing Co., a young  Oakland based startup, has turned to Kickstarter to raise funds for its $9 computer. CHIP, similar in concept to the Raspberry PI, is a linux run mini computer with an impressing 1GHz R8 ARM processor, 512MB of RAM, 4GB of flash storage, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and a USB port. For a little extra money you can get an HDMI or VGA adapter, or pledge $49 and get the CHIP pocket, a device with a 4.3 inch touchscreen, keyboard, battery and of course the CHIP computer board.

Nearly a year after its debut, Intel's Internet of Things (IoT) platform is being prepped for an upgrade as the chip maker weaves in more of its hardware and software products to accelerate development.

"IoT is just a phrase," said Intel CEO Brian Krzanich during a media presentation on Tuesday morning, explaining what he thinks it really means is that these devices that are going to become part of our lives and make them better.

T-Mobile competes very well against the larger carriers—namely AT&T and Verizon—on price, features, and CEOs in leather jackets. Where it’s somewhat less competitive is reliable service. To help bolster its performance cred, the company now offers a “4G LTE CellSpot” to help shore up reception at home or at work.

Spotted by Pike's Universum during an XHCI debugging session, a plist file hidden away in OS X references a Mac identified as "AAPLJ95,1" with a whopping 10 USB 3.0 ports. Current Mac Pro models come with four USB 3.0 ports, the same allotment given to iMac and Mac mini.

Microsoft is banking on a thin and powerful Surface Book laptop and fresh Lumia phones to make Windows 10 sexy.

Windows 10 has generated positive buzz ever since Microsoft released its latest operating system software ten weeks ago. Reviews have been favorable. And Microsoft says that 110 million devices are already running Windows 10, with over 1.25 billion visits to the Windows Store.

Pebble Time Round, the first round smartwatch from Pebble, starts at $249 and will be available in early November in a wide range of sizes, finishes and band options.

Pebble is now offering its first round fashion smartwatch after releasing a string of four popular rectangular smartwatch models.

The new Pebble Time Round, which is now available for preorder and will ship in early November, was announced by the company on Sept. 23 in a post on the Pebble Blog. The watch starts at $249.

Starting in late 2013 with the original Moto G, Motorola has been carving out a niche for itself as a company that offers good value for the money. It’s competing against companies like ZTE and Huawei and Xiaomi overseas, but especially here in the US it sells some of the best Android phones you can get for under $200. Motorola sells them with relatively clean, sensible loads of Android that are updated predictably, if not always promptly.

In between announcing a Hermès-branded Apple Watch and another incremental improvement to the iPhone during its big event in San Francisco this week, Apple snuck in an Adobe demo. It came during presentation of the iPad Pro, and showed some of the ways digital creators will be able to do even more with their tablet. Hint: it involves using software like  Adobe’s new CC brainstorming tool.

That’s definitely a great way to use a 12.9-inch iPad, except for one thing: 64 percent of designers don’t brainstorm with software. They do it with pen and paper.

Lenovo today unveiled its new Phab Plus smartphone, a supersized device with a 6.8-inch display that’s a blatant iPhone 6 knockoff. The device is coming to the U.S. later this month, assuming Apple’s lawyers can’t get it banned before then.

The Phab Plus may be big, but it hopes to be just like the iPhone 6 in every other way. It sports a familiar aluminum unibody design when rounded edges and integrated antennas, and even comes in the same silver, grey, and gold color options.

Canon has announced a "250-megapixel" image sensor that would fit into a consumer-grade DSLR camera. The Japanese camera maker says the new APS-H CMOS sensor enables "distinguishing of lettering on the side of an airplane flying at a distance of approximately 18 km [11 miles] from the shooting location." As well as being the densest sensor of its size, it's also extremely fast. It has a readout speed of 1.25 billion pixels per second, meaning it can shoot its super-high-res images at up to five frames per second.