grande

Even though the title of the "slimmest" phone changes hands almost every other week, ZTE has claimed the superlative (for now) with its ZTE Grand Era U985. Unveiled recently at a tech expo in China, the phone is a quad-core device with a 0.31-inch profile.

The Nvidia Tegra 3-equipped handset also has a 4.5-inch HD display with 1,280x720-pixel resolution and an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera.

The phone operates on Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and will be made available to Chinese customers in the next few days.

In addition to the Era U985, ZTE will … Read more

A fan had a dream. He dreamed he would some day roll around Vice City in a souped-up DeLorean, dressed as Marty Mcfly, packing heat, and terrorizing the town. Then he made it happen.

The creator of the Back to the Future Grand Theft Auto mod (SeedyROM34 on YouTube), spent months working on the elaborate creation with many hours of file editing thrown into the bargain. This is quite a bit more than just a skin. There's time travel, an excellent-looking Marty McFly character, and a detailed DeLorean complete with flux capacitor.… Read more

ZTE today used the IFA consumer electronics show to announce its first smartphone to employ Intel's Atom Z2460 "Medfield" mobile processor.

Called the Grand X IN, the handset runs Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and features a single-core 1.6GHz processor, a 4.3-inch qHD display, and 8-megapixel camera. Like most higher-end Android phones, the ZTE comes with 1GB RAM, 16GB internal storage, a front-facing camera, NFC, and microSD expansion. At first blush, the Grand X IN closely resembles its recent Grand X, save for its processor.

Although pricing and carrier details are still unclear, the … Read more

Though it doesn't boast any flagship specs, the ZTE Grand X is one of the more ambitious phones coming out of the Chinese phone manufacturer yet. CNET UK recently reviewed the handset, and was pleased to see that it ran a skinless version of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. In addition, it sports a dual-core 1GHz Nvidia Tegra 2 processor and comes preloaded with Nvidia's Tegra Zone gaming portal.

There are some pitfalls, however. The Grand X's 4.3-inch screen is unresponsive, and its 5-megapixel camera has noticeable shutter lag. And despite ZTE touting that the … Read more

The British man that allegedly hacked into the Fox reality TV show "The X-Factor" and the "PBS News Hour," along with music companies and government security agencies, was indicted by a U.S. federal grand jury on conspiracy and hacking charges today, according to the Associated Press.

Ryan Cleary, 20, reportedly had ties to the well-known branch of Anonymous called LulzSec before he was arrested in London last June (although the hacktivist group denies his involvement with it). U.S. federal prosecutors said today that he worked to take down, deface, and steal personal information from … Read more

Ever fantasized about being Godzilla so you could go out and knock over some buildings? Maybe you wish you could blow up an army of tanks and alien invaders. Well, the Freeware Crew is here to make all these dreams come true.

This week's top free titles let you unleash havoc and destruction (in a legal and physically harmless fashion, of course) upon urban environments as a giant boxing 'Zilla, a super fighting robot, and as a gangster in a game that should rekindle memories of your early gaming days.… Read more

In the summer of 2005, one of the biggest scandals in the history of video games broke: Hot Coffee. If you don't recall the brouhaha over some very sexual content that was found to be hidden on the disc for Rockstar Games' Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, then you probably weren't reading much news that summer.

The scandal embroiled one of the most popular game franchises in the industry's history, and it wasn't because the game allowed players to shoot cops or run over hookers. Grand Theft Auto, which emerged from Scotland, took the world by … Read more

Rockstar Games is known for not pulling any punches with its incredibly popular video games offered on consoles, desktops, and mobile gaming devices. Frequently controversial and in the headlines for all the wrong reasons, Rockstar's games are violent and give players the freedom to do whatever they want -- both good and bad.

This week, Rockstar added another of its classic games to the App Store with the same dark, compelling story lines and action-oriented gameplay that made the developer famous. So leave your morality at the door and make sure the kids are in bed, because when you're dealing with the gangster underworld in this collection of games, you often have to make deadly decisions.… Read more

If DARPA gets its way, robots will be able to drive, unlock doors, and fix leaking pipes.

The agency today released details of its Robotics Challenge, an initiative to award up to $34 million in grants to improve robots for disaster response operations. Teams will compete for as much as $2 million for a single entry.

The robots themselves don't need to take a human form, but many of the tasks DARPA's challenge addresses favor robots in humanoid form. The challenge lays out a number of jobs the robot needs to address that would be helpful in the … Read more