portable

Walkmac revisited: The inside story of the 'first' portable Mac

Recently my brother-in-law, Ken Landau, was doing a major spring cleaning when he came across a bit of computing history in his basement: a Colby Walkmac, the first battery-operated Macintosh computer and first portable Mac with a LCD display.

I'd never heard of the Walkmac, which wasn't built by Apple but by electronics pioneer Chuck Colby, who founded Colby Systems in 1982. The Apple-sanctioned model you see here was "modded" around a stock Mac SE motherboard and hit the market in 1987, two years before Apple put out its Macintosh Portable in 1989 for $7,300. … Read more

Review: Design your interiors with Sweet Home 3D Portable

Sweet Home 3D Portable is a free interior design tool from eTeks that lets you make as many changes as you want to your home before so much as moving a chair--and not just furniture placement but the stuff you really, truly don't want to do over, like painting the kitchen. Sweet Home 3D Portable is just like the regular version of Sweet Home 3D, only it's fully portable so it runs without having to be installed in Windows. Recent updates include custom furniture materials, new wall textures, and improved photo angles.

The program's main display is … Read more

Make your portable hard drive faster by upgrading to USB 3.0

The most common portable hard drives have USB 2.0 connections, which are great for compatibility, but terrible for performance. If you have an old USB 2.0 portable hard drive, you can increase its transfer rates by upgrading it to USB 3.0. For as little as $15, you can double your drive's real-world performance. Here's how:

Disclaimer: Opening your portable hard drive's enclosure will likely void your warranty. It's also possible that you'll damage the original enclosure and or the internal hard drive. We recommend you back up any data that may be … Read more

Efficient Sticky Notes Portable 3.50 Build 333 Review

Efficient Sticky Notes has been a go-to recommendation for a free sticky notes app, but shareware upgrades are available: Efficient Sticky Notes Pro and Efficient Sticky Notes Pro Portable. They're basically identical, including their modest price, except the portable version can run from a USB drive, and all its "stuff" is inside its program folder instead of roaming throughout Windows. Both versions of Efficient Sticky Notes Pro do everything the free version does and more, including the ability to add attachments to notes. We tried Efficient Sticky Notes Pro Portable Edition in Windows 7.

Instead of skipping … Read more

Keep track of your to-do lists, notes, and other information with RightNote Portable

If you haven't found a way to wrangle all those little notes stuck to your monitor, RightNote Portable offers a solution that lets you add, organize, and search notes with nearly any type of information and keep them on your computer. While it certainly does more than the typical sticky note, it's also much more complicated than jotting down a note and placing it on your PC or workstation.

Initially, RightNote opens with a very busy interface packed with information about the program. It not only tells you what the product can do, but it also demonstrates the &… Read more

Crave giveaway: Bem Wireless Bluetooth boom box

Congrats to John B. of Doral, Fla., for winning a bag of CNET swag in last week's giveaway. This week, we've got a little prize with big sound.

The Bem Wireless Boom Box measures about 12 inches by 9.5 inches by 5 inches and brings 2.1 stereo sound with you wherever you go. It connects to smartphones, tablets, and other Bluetooth devices, with up to 40 feet of working wireless range and about 10 hours of battery life per charge.

Now that spring is here and summer's on its way, this little audio accessory would … Read more

Get a 1TB portable USB 3.0 hard drive for $39.99

How much do you hate rebates?

They're as bad as root canals and tax returns. A lot, but if it's an especially good deal, I'll deal with it. Don't mind them at all. They're a great way to save!

If you answered with No. 1, thanks for stopping by, I'll see you tomorrow. Everyone else, listen up.

For a limited time, and while supplies last, TigerDirect has one of the best hard-drive deals I've ever seen: The Western Digital Elements 1TB USB 3.0 portable hard drive for $39.99, plus around $4 … Read more

SlimBrowser Portable takes fast browsing on the road

It's no secret that we're fans of "other" browsers, but the browsers often seem like well-kept secrets themselves, especially when you get into the ranks of those Web browsers that stand way behind the "Big 3" (or 5, depending on how you feel about Opera and Safari) in market share. That's a shame, because many of these alternative browsers are worth gossiping about.

To compete with the big players, let alone other would-be contenders, many of these up-and-comers offer unique and interesting features and capabilities you won't find in the famous browsers … Read more

KitchenAid handheld blender cuts the cord

The kitchen is a pretty interesting place. From the one room in the house, meals can be made that can transport one to another time and place. While metaphysical travel may only be as far away as a lingering trip down the spice aisle in the grocery store, actual physical travel takes a little more effort. Or at least, the ability to become unplugged.

The KitchenAid Pro Line Series Cordless Hand Blender is a versatile kitchen tool designed to let you take it places. With a housing that contains a 12-volt rechargeable lithium ion battery, the flexible prep gadget is … Read more