Tag archive: PCS

The battle over which data cable standard will dominate in the years ahead is beginning to heat up. With USB 3.0 beginning to take off, the fate of Intel's high-speed Thunderbolt port has been under scrutiny as of late. Everything runs on USB and though Apple has been a huge proponent of the new Thunderbolt port, including it as one of the only ports on its entire line of MacBook computers, support from the world's most popular tech… Read More

Tobii has been working to push eye control into the consumer space for several years now, but the fruits of its efforts may be coming sooner than we think. Today, the company has announced that it will release an eye control “Gaze” interface for Windows 8, allowing users with the proper equipment to use their eyes to select items and perform actions on their tablet or computer screen.  “Pointing at something by looking at it is… Read More

We haven't yet seen a beta version of Windows 8, but analysts are already claiming it is doomed. Analysts from IDC, Gartner, and Forrester are predicting that the new OS will face an uphill battle in the PC and tablet markets for a number of reasons, but none of those reasons seem particularly relevant to the OS itself or the experience of using it. Microsoft has released an extremely limited Developer Preview of Windows 8, but the OS is… Read More

Microsoft's decision to mix and mash the classic Windows 7 desktop with the brand new Windows Phone-like Metro-style UI of Windows 8 has been controversial since we first saw it. In our tests, we found that while the OS worked well enough, the styles and design of the new and old desktops clashed. We assume Microsoft is working to smooth this over for Intel machines, but if Windows expert Paul Thurrott is correct, Windows 8 will not have… Read More

Earlier this year, HP said it was done with consumer electronics. We didn't think we'd ever see a new HP laptop or PC. Then the company fired its CEO and hired former eBay CEO Meg Whitman to take the helm. After a full month of deliberating, Whitman decided that HP would like to remain the #1 PC manufacturer in the world. Was it a hard decision? How many spreadsheets does it take to figure out that you don't want to abandon a… Read More

Microsoft has confirmed what we've suspected for a few months now: Xbox Live is coming to Windows 8. In a post, the Xbox Live Major Nelson blog confirmed that Windows 8 will run Xbox Live, meaning you can consume Xbox content of all sorts–games, music, movies, and TV shows–on all Windows PCs and tablets. This likely means that Windows 8 computers will come with built-in ESPN, Netflix, and Hulu support as well. We don't… Read More

PC sales are off to a sluggish start in 2011, brought on, in part, by the overwhelming popularity of Apple's iPad 2. The consumer PC market is “being usurped” by Apple's tablet computer, according to analyst Chris Whitmore of Deutsche Bank as reported by AppleInsider. Whitmore does expect PC sales to rise this year, but not by as much as originally predicted. Whitmore amended his projection for PC sales from nine percent… Read More

Microsoft is perhaps the most dominant company in the history of computing. It has ruled the PC world for two decades, cementing its Windows operating system as the only game in town outside of the minute marketshare of Apple and indie rumblings of Linux. However, the computing world is at an apex; things are beginning to change in big ways. Windows governs the PC world, but we're fast entering a post-PC era.

Today, HP has shown that it plans to stand behind Palm's WebOS in a monumental way. After announcing three new WebOS products–the HP Veer, Palm Pre 3, and HP TouchPad tablet–and reaffirming its dedication to WebOS, HP dropped a bomb; the world's largest computer manufacturer will be putting WebOS on its printers, laptops, and desktop PCs next year. “I'm excited to announce our plans to bring the WebOS to the… Read More

According to research firm International Data Corporation (IDC), smartphones outsold PCs in the fourth quarter of 2010. This marks the first time that smartphones have ever outsold computers. Both devices saw increased sales in this year’s quarter over 2009, but smartphones’ experienced a massive increase and PCs, a very slight jump. IDC reports that smartphone vendors shipped 100.9 million devices this last fourth quarters, which is an 87.2… Read More

Worldwide shipments of personal computers came back strongly in the fourth quarter of 2009, researchers said Wednesday, led by U.S. consumers lured by low prices during the holiday shopping season. Analysts at IDC said worldwide PC shipments climbed 15.2 percent from the prior year. In the U.S., PC shipments rose a whopping 24 percent. That's much better than expected. IDC, a technology market research group, had predicted global shipments… Read More

Apple has long opted for a system of closed computer hardware, disallowing third party OS X computers. Nonetheless, small companies retailing cheaper OS X boxes have continually popped up, the latest of which is Psystar. Legal pressure from Apple has typically succeeded in eventually killing such companies, but it typically isn't long before a new one pops up. Individual users also are forbidden from building their own OS X machines,… Read More

A pair of white gold cufflinks, a fine Swiss watch, and a set of stainless cutlery will last a century. An HDTV, a laptop, and an iPod will not – which makes knowing when to break out the high-limit American Express and invest in something nice, and when to make a trip to Wal-mart and buy the cheapest box on the shelf, a tricky game. On one hand, everyone would like to own a Dell Adamo, a Sonos music system, and a 50-inch Pioneer Kuro.… Read More

Today Sprint announced an aggressive move to build momentum for Sprint PCS Ready Link with an expanded line-up of feature-rich devices and new, more affordable pricing for the nationwidewalkie-talkie service. After introducing Sprint PCS Ready Link in November 2003, early sales results show that a growing number of consumers as well as business customers are using Sprint PCS ReadyLink to communicate one-on-one or in small groups with… Read More