Qualcomm has just teased the next generation of wireless technology with its new LTE Direct technology, something the company has been working on for close to a decade. LTE Direct is built upon the foundations of the LTE protocol, which allows LTE Direct-powered devices to communicate with one another without requiring a cell tower.

LTE Direct will also work at distances greater than 500 yards, which means we have signal ranges that far exceed that of Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. Better yet, LTE Direct uses very little energy, meaning a device can be on the look out for another LTE Direct signal without draining the battery. Then there's the other side of the LTE Direct coin: it's not just limited to handsets, as beacons can be set up to communicate directly with anything nearby.

Mahesh Makhijani from Qualcomm has said that this is somewhat of a sixth sense, which is constantly aware of the environment around you. With the world filled with information, LTE Direct can help people use their phones to better their lives. But, with retailers jumping on board, and you being blasted directly in places where you'd normally not get cell signal, it could get annoying, fast.

Within the next four months, Apple would've launched its new iPhone into 115 countries and regions, but in order to meet the insane demand of its new flagship smartphone, Foxconn is having to hire even more workers at its Chinese plants to keep up with demand.

The news is coming from DigiTimes, with Foxconn not commenting on the report, but supply chain sources have told DigiTimes that Foxconn is "aggressively recruiting workers" to work on the new iPhones. Considering Apple have sold over 10 million iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus smartphones in the first three days alone, we should expect there to be tens of millions sold before the holidays.

In just three weeks time, on October 17, Apple will open up sales of the new iPhone in China, which is the world's largest market. This will be a big test not only for Apple, but for Foxconn and China itself. Foxconn has reportedly been having issues employing more staff after all of the negative press the company receives from its various issues, which has forced the company to host hiring events to keep up with the demand of its manufacturing.

In something that feels like it's right out of Hollywood, we now have self-destructing SSDs. SecureDrives has the technology, with four different SSDs on offer that provide 256-bit AES CBC hardware encryption, two-factor authentication, GSM command over encryption key flipping and physical fracturing of the NAND flash itself.

This kind of technology might not seem like something you or I might use, but for those with super-sensitive information on their notebooks that might get left behind, or stolen, this is perfect. The SecureDrive SSDs have a self-destruct mechanism which happens if someone attempts to physically open the drive, which will initiate the physical fracturing of the NAND flash.

Better yet, you can configure the SSD to self-destruct if it's removed from your SATA II connector. Other options include self-destruction if the internal battery runs completely empty, and the convenient ability to destroy the drive if an an SMS is sent from any phone.

Apple has been having a tough time with the bending iPhone 6 Plus, but it looks like German magazine ComputerBild.de is having an even tougher time, with Apple reportedly banning the magazine from official events after its coverage of #BendGate.

ComputerBild.de is claiming that Apple has stopped sending them test devices, as well as revoking invites to any future Apple launch events after they posted a video showing how the iPhone 6 Plus could be bent with your bare hands. As you can see in the video above, the iPhone 6 Plus is easily damaged through bending just below the volume button.

The site has talked with Apple's PR department in Germany, which refused to answer any questions about the bending iPhone 6 Plus, telling the site that it "will not get any testing devices and no invites to official events any more". ComputerBild.de then wrote an open letter to Tim Cook, Apple's CEO, asking him if this was the reaction that his company wants to have to publications that are covering the issue, like we have been - I still ask: seriously, what's Apple going to do with #BendGate.

It was probably only a matter of time, but U.S. health agency the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has now confirmed the first case of diagnosed Ebola has hit the continental United States, according to news agency Reuters.

The unidentified man left Liberia on September 19 and arrived in the United States the next day, not showing symptoms of the disease until four of five days later. The Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital where the man is in isolation won't confirm details such as the man's identity, his contact with the public, or what he was doing in Liberia, which is now an Ebola hotspot. There are currently no other suspected cases of the deadly disease in Texas, or the wider United States.

More than 3,000 people in West Africa have died after being infected with Ebola, the strain of which broke out earlier this year.

Auction house eBay has decided to spin off its PayPal business amid activist pressure from board members and shareholders, with two independent companies to begin in the second half of 2015. Devin Weng, head of the eBay "Marketplaces" business, will lead the independent eBay as CEO - and Dan Schulman, a former American Express executive, will be CEO head of the new PayPal unit.

"We are happy that eBay's board and management have acted responsibly concerning the separation - perhaps a little later than they should have, but earlier than we expected," said investor Carl C. Icahn. "As I have said in the past and have continued to maintain, it is almost a 'no brainer' that these companies should be separated to increase the value of these great assets and thus to meaningfully enhance value for all shareholders."

Corporate spinoffs are becoming more commonplace among major corporations, as shareholders and potential investors want to see better control over corporate operations. Depending on the economic climate - and the parties involved - it can lead to a strong boost in stock prices to win over board members.

Microsoft today unveiled its Windows 10 operating system, a push into the future to try and help desktop and PC users forget about the Windows 8/8.1 debacle. During an invite-only event in San Francisco, the company showed off Windows 10, which mixes live tiles with the familiar UI of Windows 7, including a Start menu and taskbar. The "Metro" start screen and the regular Start Menu of older versions of Windows have been blended together, to provide a more cohesive user experience.

Starting tomorrow, Microsoft will open up a Windows 10 technical preview for PCs and laptops, with additional device support expected in the near future. The company hopes to make a transition from Windows 7 to Windows 10 much more comfortable than the headaches that followed many users as they tried to embrace the touch-centric Windows 8/8.1. Additional details about the OS will be unveiled in early 2015.

Microsoft chose to skip the Windows 9 name and help usher in the idea that its OS needs to be robust and compatible with a wider variety of different products:

After the mess that was the launch of Battlefield 4, EA is taking a much different, and more appropriate path for the launch of the Visceral Games-developed Battlefield: Hardline. The company delayed it into 2015, but it looks like it could be for a good reason.

At the Tokyo Game Show, Game Revolution talked with Ian Milham, the Creative Director of Visceral Games. Game Revolution asked Milham whether the game will be 100% ready at launch, as most games these days don't seem ready for their big launches, with pretty much every big game launched lately enjoying its fair share of problems. Milham replied with: "What you're basically asking is, 'Is you're game going to work?' and the answer is yes, it's gonna work. We actually started on this more than a year before Battlefield 4 came out".

He continued: "We've been working with the DICE guys for a long time; some of our engineering work is actually in Battlefield 4 and things they've been doing since then. It's in pretty great shape now and all that work is gonna come into what we're doing". Milham also added: "We already had one very successful beta, we're going to have another beta on every platform we ship on. We take shipping a working game pretty seriously. So, yes, the game will work".

Android L is expected to be unveiled with the forthcoming Nexus 6 smartphone, which should sport a 5.9-inch QHD display, but this new mobile OS will be modified for Google's modular Project Ara smartphone.

Google's Paul Eremenko has teased that we are to expect hot-swappable components, so that users can switch out the camera module for example, without having to power off the entire phone. Virtually every single component will be hot-swappable, apart from the display and the CPU. On its Phonebloks blog, Google said: "Project Ara will use a modified version of Android L, developed in collaboration with Linaro. Thanks to this version, the modules, except the CPU and the display, will be hot swappable".

These hot-swappable modules will be made available through the Google Play store, which will open up "a new online store" to sell the modules too. We should expect the modular smartphone to be made available to consumers early next year.

Ryse is going to hit the PC soon, after being an Xbox One exclusive and launch title for Microsoft. The Crytek developed game is now being compared between the Xbox One and PC in a new video, which you can watch below.

I watched that video, and to me, I didn't see much of a graphical change between the two. I did notice massively increased frame rates on the PC, and reduced motion blur, but only slight upgrades in terms of texture quality and animation. Digital Foundry are behind the video, noting that they were playing with the preview build of Ryse for PC, which isn't the complete version gamers will receive soon.

Richard Leadbetter of Digital Foundry explained that he found the PC version can improve in two very obvious areas: resolution and frame rate. Leadbetter said: "The PC version we tested-a two-level press demo-offers the opportunity to resolve these issues conclusively. Slotting a Radeon R9 290 into our Core i7 3770K PC overclocked to 4.3GHz, Ryse's spectacular opening renders beautifully at a native 1080p, with a flawless 60fps update. A 30fps cap is included in the options, but crucially, Crytek allows PC users to run fully unlocked - and given the right hardware, the impact is spectacular".