advance

On the surface, smartphones screens made of sapphire sound superb -- they're naturally strong, extremely scratch resistant, can withstand flexing, and transmit light very well. That's the widely accepted story, at least.

Disputing this view is Corning, maker of the Gorilla Glass material that covers a majority of smartphone screens.

Corning, whose aeronautics branch has worked with lab-grown sapphire since the 1970s, says it tested the strength of sapphire claims -- a potential cover glass alternative -- in-house.

Corning's conclusion: that sapphire, the world's second-hardest material after diamond, just can't take the lumps that a … Read more

With a wave of your hand, bright lasers cascade across 12,000 translucent spheres that hang above a reflecting pool, creating a flickering, sinuous symphony of light. The ethereal experience isn't a dream, but rather Fluidic, a hybrid light show and sculpture that responds to viewers' movements.

Created by Berlin-based design studio Whitevoid Designs for Hyundai's Advanced Design Center, "Fluidic -- Sculpture in Motion" is just one of many interesting art exhibits on show during Italy's Milan Design Week, which runs through this weekend.… Read more

Still own vintage NES, SNES, Genesis, or Game Boy Advance game cartridges but lack the working consoles to play them all? The new Hyperkin RetroN 4 console may be what you've been waiting for. It features a cartridge slot and two controller sockets for each retro video gaming system.

The RetroN 4 has modern touches such as an HDMI output and Bluetooth connectivity. You'll be able to connect this console to any flat-panel TV with the HDMI port. Meanwhile, Bluetooth supports a bundled wireless controller sporting a directional pad and an array of buttons. … Read more

We'd bet you know exactly how many doors and windows there are in your home, and whether each is properly secured. How about your Windows PC? It has doors and (small-w) windows too: they're called ports, and they're how the world gains access to your computer, your data, and your privacy. So, do you know how many ports your computer has, and where they are, and their status? Famatech's Advanced Port Scanner is a free tool that can help you answer those critical questions. It can scan all your ports or just those in ranges you … Read more

Advanced Word to Pdf Converter Free promises to convert Word documents (DOC, DOCX, and DOCM) as well as text and rich-text documents into searchable PDFs, as the name suggests, for free. We assume it's intended for users who lack Word, since Word can save Word, text, and rich-text documents directly as PDFs. And "free" in this case means it's a restricted version of a premium tool. That wouldn't matter so much if it actually converted files in its default mode, without the paid version's settings and options. Unfortunately, it didn't.

Advanced Word to … Read more

As smartphones start to replace personal computers, hackers have taken notice and started programming scam apps to attack your phone and steal personal information. Advanced Mobile Care will take care of those and just about any other lingering problem on your mobile gadget. It optimizes your device's performance in a matter of seconds.

Though it's most useful as an antivirus program, this app comes with a memory optimizer and battery saver, too. With one touch of the scan button, you see a detailed list of any viruses, currently running tasks and even junk files you have. Deleting junk … Read more

Editors' note, February 22, 2013: Updated with price and availability date.

LAS VEGAS--The Sigma DP series of cameras, which are based on the Merrill generation of the Foveon sensor -- an effective 14.8-megapixel sensor array with stacked rather than staggered color filters -- are the closest competitors in spirit (and price) to Fujifilm's X100 and now X100S. Unlike Fujifilm, which combines photographic simplicity with high-tech power, Sigma concentrates on the simple and relies on the Foveon sensor to differentiate itself. The past few generations have seen some tweaks but essentially the DP series remains the same from generation … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Fujifilm's X20 advanced compact gets to play in the same sandbox as the company's higher-end cameras, thanks to the incorporation of the X-Trans sensor technology that originally debuted in Fujifilm's interchangeable-lens models, most recently in the X-E1. To fit in the camera body -- and price segment -- the replacement for the X10 incorporates a new 2/3-inch version of the sensor, albeit at the same 12-megapixel resolution.

The new camera also includes hybrid phase-detection/contrast autofocus, which should provide a nice speed boost, 1080/60p video support with manual focus and mic input, and an … Read more

If the rumors are true, real, honest-to-god 4G in the United States could be on the way sometime in the next 7 to 12 months. FierceWireless reports on word from AT&T's annual meeting with analysts that it will be "firing up" new "LTE Advanced" service across its network in the second half of 2013.

What is LTE Advanced? Well, it's a lot like 4G LTE, only more, um, advanced.

See, in the old days of mobile broadband -- like, all the way back in 2011 -- carriers started marketing services they called 4G, but in the real world, they really only offered speeds one-tenth or one-twentieth those of the actual 4G standard, which is meant to deliver download speeds in the range of 100Mbps. That means we were suddenly able to download full songs out of the air in mere seconds on these new 4G services. … Read more