Leaked from today's 404 episode:
- Ad creep creeps are getting creepier -- a couple of the strangest ad-placements ever.
- You know Best Buy is doing poorly when a positive customer review is news.
- How manufactured smells are making people shop longer and kill better.
- Jack from our 404 Subreddit created an RSS feed of every 404 episode. Thanks dude!… Read more
Not to veer too far from what's it's known for, the new 14-inch laptop looks like a Lenovo ThinkPad: It's (graphite) black, and there's a red button nub in the middle of the keyboard for navigating; however, there are a few changes of note.
At 3.5 … Read more
While there are some Windows 8 tablets that feature ultrabook-level performance, the majority of them use lower-power Intel Atom processors to keep costs down and battery life up.
Even though memories of the Intel Atom Netbook era may make one gun shy about using a low-power CPU, these systems all still run the full gamut of Windows 8 applications -- and even do a surprisingly good job at handling apps optimized for the Windows 8 experience, including IE10 and Netflix.
These are the Windows 8 "low-power" tablets, as we call them, that we've reviewed so far, all … Read more
Unlike Chromebooks from Samsung, Acer, and HP, the Google-designed Pixel has both high-end hardware and a high-end price tag. On this week's episode of Cracking Open, I go inside the Pixel and show you why it's easy to service, but nearly impossible to upgrade.… Read more
Last summer I asked if it still made sense to buy a desktop PC.
After all, laptops are cheap, portable, and powerful enough for most computing tasks. The folks who need desktops are those diminishing few who play graphics-intensive games and work on photos, videos, CAD stuff, and the like.
In the eight months or so since I posed that question, tablets have taken over the world. Apple unveiled three iPad models in the span of about six months. Amazon and Barnes & Noble introduced bigger and more-powerful Kindles and Nooks. Google gave us the Nexus 10. And Microsoft jumped … Read more
It took using the Microsoft Surface Pro to make me remember an article I wrote a year ago, about productivity on an iPad.
I love using the iPad. I also love some of its keyboard accessories. As a product, it's superior to a Surface Pro. But that doesn't mean it's the perfect laptop replacement. And that's still, in my opinion, largely because of one little touch pad. Or, a lack of it.
The iPad never claimed it was a laptop replacement. It stands in its own, hard-to-define "post-PC" territory. Yet, accessories have sprung up … Read more
While the vast majority of U.S. residents own televisions and watch them regularly, more and more people are opting to toss their cable plans and use other devices for entertainment.
A new report by Nielsen finds that those people who have elected to go "Zero TV" have more than doubled since 2007. Currently, more than 5 million people don't have broadcast television in their home, while in 2007 just 2 million didn't.
Despite these numbers sounding big, cord-cutters are still just 5 percent of the U.S. population. And, as Nielsen wrote in a blog … Read more
Have you been eyeing one of those $249 Samsung Chromebooks, thinking it could meet your fairly basic computing needs?
Maybe it could, but for just a few dollars more, you can get a bigger, more powerful, and more versatile PC.
To wit: For a limited time, and while supplies last, Staples has the HP Pavilion G6-2235us 15.6-inch laptop for $274.99 shipped (plus sales tax where applicable). That's after applying coupon code 70847 at checkout and redeeming a $50 mail-in rebate.
The Pavilion sports a 2.7GHz AMD A6-4400M dual-core processor, 4GB of RAM, an impressive 750GB hard … Read more
U.S. customs officials must have a reasonable justification before snatching your laptop at the border and scanning through all your files for incriminating data, a federal appeals court ruled today.
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Homeland Security's border agents must have "reasonable suspicion" before they can legally conduct a forensics examination of laptops, mobile phones, camera memory cards, and so on.
Today's opinion (PDF) is a limited -- but hardly complete -- rejection of the Obama administration's claim that any American entering the country may have his or her electronic files … Read more
If your laptop shopping list includes a touch screen, SSD storage, or even NFC, finding a new system shouldn't be hard. But if you're still tied to your optical discs and need a DVD or Blu-ray drive, that's another story. This once-ubiquitous feature is hard to find in new Windows 8 laptops, largely restricted to older models that have had Win 8 slapped onto them and to a handful of larger desktop replacements.
As laptops continue to get thinner, a charge led by ultrabooks and the MacBook Air (and the MacBook Pro with Retina Display), I suspect we'll see fewer and fewer optical drives.
Slot-loading drives are easier to fit into a small chassis than tray-loading ones, but like Ethernet ports, optical drives may become an added cost that PC makers feel most shoppers can live without, thanks to online gaming, music, and movie services, and the growth of cloud computing.
Since the launch of Windows 8, we've reviewed only a handful of laptops that include optical drives. The list below gives our favorites, and a few that weren't quite as warmly received.… Read more
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Christina Milian and the gadgets she loves
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