Hardware

E3 shows tend to fall into two categories. Those that are about hardware, and those that are about software.

Last year, at E3 2011, hardware was king, with the first look at the new Wii U console, as well as Sony's PlayStation Vita. Along for the ride was Microsoft's Kinect camera and the Nintendo 3DS, which, while not brand-new last year, were both finally coming into their own as commercially viable products.

Other than that, it's been a while since hardware was king at E3 (and we're not counting the missing in action Wii Vitality Sensor). … Read more

Google is set to unveil its long-rumored tablet at its I/O conference next month, according to a new report.

Citing a "trusted source," technology site TechnoBuffalo said the search giant will show off the device at its conference, which kicks off June 27, and give a unit to every developer in attendance.

As for the unit itself, TechnoBuffalo's source said it'll come with Nvidia's quad-core Tegra 3 chip, and has been developed, as reported previously, with help from Asus. TechnoBuffalo couldn't confirm which operating system will be running on the device, but it … Read more

PALO ALTO, Calif.--Since 2006, Maker Faire has offered tens of thousands of people an annual celebration of the best and brightest in the do-it-yourself movement.

But while everyone from individual tinkerers who have built small rockets to two people doing amazing things with Diet Coke and Mentos to paper airplane masters and crafters making magic out of felt has had a venue for the last five years to showcase their innovative projects, there's never been a forum for the growing number of people and companies that are developing the new business platforms that are merging manufacturing and making. … Read more

MacFixIt Answers is a feature in which we answer questions e-mailed in by our readers.

This week people wrote in with questions on how to tackle an IP address conflict error, an issue with Apple's Hardware Test suite not loading, and whether or not Time Machine backups need to be started from scratch when attaching the local Time Machine disk to an Airport Extreme router. We welcome alternative approaches and views from readers, so if you have any suggestions or alternative approaches to these problems, post them in the comments!

Question: Tackling a duplicate IP address error MacFixIt reader … Read more

USB devices can be hot-swapped, but their convenience is hindered by their need to be removed safely by using the Windows Safe Removal option. There's a policy for each USB device, however, that allows you to set them for quick removal, at the expense of a very minor performance hit.

Here's how to check to make sure that your USB device's quick removal policy is turned on:

Step 1: After you've inserted your USB device, launch Device Manager by hitting the Windows logo key, then typing "device manager" and selecting it from the search … Read more

Whether you're in charge of managing hardware for a whole company or you have your own extensive collection, it makes sense to have a way to keep track of what you have on hand. Hardware Asset Tracker is a simple program that lets you record the details of your computers, monitors, printers, and more. It's not the most elegant program we've ever seen, but it's not bad for what it is.

Hardware Asset Tracker has a tabbed interface that categorizes hardware as Computers, Laptops, Modems, Monitors, NICs, Printers, and Workstations. If you don't like those … Read more

Last fall the Internet was abuzz about Apple's apparent iPhone redesign for what eventually became the iPhone 4S. Much to the dismay of the media and some louder consumers, the iPhone 4S retained the same design profile as the previous-generation iPhone 4.

At the time, the redesign was expected to feature a teardrop back casing, a bigger screen and, among other things, an ovular home button. If the shape of the home button is any indication of a complete redesign, the latest part leak from Chinese supplier TVC-Mall.com (via Apple Bitch) may not win over many of the … Read more

Google Chrome 18 brings two methods of improved graphics support to both newer and older computers. Released today, Google Chrome 18 stable for Windows (download), Mac (download), Linux (download), and Chrome Frame improves both WebGL and Canvas2D.

To help along WebGL in Chrome on older Windows and Mac computers, it now gets a boost from a software rasterizer called SwiftShader, licensed from TransGaming. SwiftShader only works when Chrome's baked-in graphics processor acceleration doesn't run, and in the blog post announcing the update, Google said that it sought out this third-party solution so that "more users will have … Read more

Opera ports its WebGL hardware acceleration from Opera Mobile to the Android version of Opera Mini 7, which first debuted last month at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain.

Opera Mini 7 for Android (download) improves the lightweight browser's compressed browsing feature called Turbo with hardware acceleration, and expands the Speed Dial landing page beyond nine Web sites.

It does not include the new home screen that is coming to Opera Mini 7 for feature phones, which will bring interactive social-networking to people who have those lower-powered phones.

Phillip Gronvold, Opera's product manager for mobile, told CNET before … Read more