convertibles

Review: Accelerate your video conversions with Free CUDA Movie Converter

Free CUDA Movie Converter takes advantage of Nvidia's CUDA parallel processing technology to speed up video conversions in computers with CUDA-capable Nvidia graphics cards. Of course, Free CUDA Movie Converter works in any PC running Windows 2000 to 8, but running it on CUDA-capable machines lets you harness your GPU's extra processing power. We tried it on an ASUS Netbook running Windows 7 HP and equipped with Nvidia's CUDA-capable second-generation Ion graphics processor. This proved a great test platform since the Netbook's extremely limited resources make the GPU's help that much more welcome. Free CUDA … Read more

Dell to challenge Lenovo's Yoga with 11-inch convertible laptop

Dell plans to offer consumers its own flavor of an 11.6-inch convertible laptop with Windows 8 by year's end.

Due out in time for the 2013 holiday season, the Dell XPS 11 ultrabook will sport a hinged keyboard that allows it to transform into a Windows 8 tablet, The Wall Street Journal reported today.

Demoed at the Computex computer show in Taipei on Monday, the XPS 11 will offer a high-resolution screen with a 2,560x1,440 IPS (in-plane switching) display, say the folks at Engadget who checked out one of the prototypes. The IPS screen ensures that … Read more

Intel's future Pentium chip does Windows and Android

Intel's Atom is getting a makeover.

In more ways than one. First, when Intel speaks to customers internally about micro-architectures, Atom is out, Silvermont is in, Intel told CNET on Friday.

Second, some upcoming Silvermont silicon will be branded Pentium and Celeron -- which is the value end of Intel's Core-based mainstream chips.

The chipmaker's reasoning is that some variants of Silvermont now offer performance comparable to current mainstream Celeron and Pentium. That's quite different from the Atom of old, which had a reputation -- particularly in Netbooks -- for being slow.

Higher performance varieties of … Read more

Review: XnConvert easily converts batches of photo files

While the interface could use some more detail, XnConvert for Mac makes it easy to change the attributes on one image or multiple images. In addition, the program allows for files to be matched in terms of orientation, size, and other attributes.

Upon startup, the program's initial menu is where users can click and drag files for modification. This immediately lists several criteria for the individual files, including creation date, size, and properties. Files and entire folders can also be manually loaded, which is a good feature for those wanting to modify batches of images. The second menu allows … Read more

Review: Convert PDFs into various formats with PDFMate PDF Converter

With so many free PDF converters to choose from, AnvSoft's PDFMate PDF Converter stands out in a crowded field by offering a super-easy, wizard-based conversion process in an easy-to-use layout. PDFMate bundles six conversion tools in one interface: PDF to EPUB, Text, Image, HTML, SWF, and Word Converters, plus a tool for shrinking multipage PDF documents down to a single page. The latest release of PDFMate PDF Converter, Version 1.6.2, is suitable for Windows XP to 8.

PDFMate's immense, colorful, and clearly-labeled icons and buttons and step-by-step process make it a tool that nearly anyone can … Read more

Review: Switch Audio Converter changes the audio format of music files

Switch Audio Converter for Mac lets you change any format of audio into MP3 format and vice versa in a matter of seconds. The application supports batch converting and has many other more advanced features.

Switch Audio Converter for Mac comes with a 14-day free trial, after which some extra features will expire. At around 1.4MB the application downloaded very quickly and was easy to install. The interface might seem slightly overwhelming at first as there are a lot of options, but ultimately it proved easy to use. It's very quick to select single files or a whole … Read more

Get a Lenovo convertible laptop for $463.50 shipped

For those of you who might be new to the Cheapskate blog, allow me to refer you to the Cheapskate FAQ, which answers a lot of common questions -- like "why I sent you an e-mail for a deal that was already sold out." (Spoiler: It wasn't sold out when I sent it.)

I mention that example because today's deal may also sell out quickly. (At this writing, Lenovo shows 498 units still in stock.) For a limited time, and while supplies last, Lenovo has the ThinkPad Twist S230u convertible laptop for $463.50 shipped. (Sales … Read more

Cause of PC malaise? Designs not 'compelling,' says Intel

PC designs have been lackluster, offering no good reason to upgrade, according to an Intel executive speaking at the company's Spring Analyst Summit in London.

Navin Shenoy, vice president and general manager of the Mobile Client Platform division, was responding to a question from an analyst when he said the following on Thursday:

We think the usage patterns aren't the driver for elongation [of the PC upgrade cycle]. It's more that we haven't had products in the marketplace that were compelling in any way to the existing product, either from a form factor point of view, … Read more

Review: Apply effects to sound clips with Moo0 Audio Effect

Moo0 Audio Effect is easy-to-use freeware that applies basic special effects to audio clips. Audio Effect can alter the volume, pitch, bass, treble, and other tonal aspects of MP3 and WAV files. It's a very basic tool, which means you can finish a job in less time than it takes to learn which buttons to press on that "full-featured" audio editor. Moo0 Audio Effect is suitable for Windows XP to 8.

We could resize Moo0 Audio Effect's compact user interface by dragging the corner, or we could toggle between Minimum and Advanced Options views. A Language … Read more