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Back to school shopping doesn't always mean things you can hold in your hand. Downloads of all kinds are out there to make the student's life smarter, better, and cushier. And they run on a wider variety of devices than ever before. Brian Cooley runs down the hottest in the Top 5 device categories of back to school downloads.

For everything back to school related in tech this year, head over to CNET's Back to School 2011 guide.

Blu-ray, Intel Wireless Display, HDMI--there are a lot of ways laptops can make themselves killer TV-friendly media machines. In fact, for a reasonable price, there are a lot of options out there. Between Blu-ray playback and wireless streaming of online video, it's easier than ever to get your laptop to effortlessly play nicely with a big-screen HDTV. The trick is knowing which machines have these features. While Blu-ray laptops are often heavily plastered with stickers, Intel's Wireless Display technology is often invisible, and sometimes not even mentioned as a feature at all.

For your convenience, we've rounded up notable media laptops from our back-to-school 2010 retail laptop guide, focusing on the features in each. We've also noted whether these laptops have discrete graphics for gaming (it's not always a given). Whether or not they're gaming friendly, they're all well suited for video. Our roundup came up with several laptops from Sony and Toshiba, including a Sony Vaio EA24FM/W that offers an affordable Blu-ray/Wi-Di one-two punch for $799.

Note: we've seen some other compelling Blu-ray and Wi-Di laptops recently, including the Gateway NV5933u, but our list below focuses on retail configurations from our recent guide.

Editors' note: See our roundup of retail laptops in all price ranges.

Check out details of each system below:… Read more

In our current roundup of retail laptops for the back-to-school season, we noticed that the most common price was $799. Halfway between the bargain basement single-core systems and the high-end desktop replacements, there was a surprising amount of variety, with Intel Core i3 and i5 CPUs, and screen sizes from 13.3 inches to 15.6 inches.

At that $799 sweet spot, you can get a very capable mid-range system that should be fine for any kind of schoolwork, plus reasonably heavy multitasking and HD video playback. Harder to find are features such as Blu-ray or discrete graphics, although we did find a couple of models with these high-end extras.

Two of the standouts were the HP Pavilion dm4-1065dx, which was one of the top performers in the category thanks to its Intel Core i5 CPU; and the Toshiba Portege R705, a slim 13-inch model that includes Intel's Wireless Display technology.

The picture is muddied somewhat because several of these laptops were originally listed at $799, but within the past few days, they've been bumped up to $829. But because they were (and may be again) widely available for $799, we're including them here.

Besides the Toshiba R705, two other notable laptops that hover between $799 and $829 are the Sony Vaio EA24, which adds a Blu-ray drive, and the Samsung Q430-11, which offers discrete graphics for gaming.

Note: Also see our roundup of retail laptops in all price ranges.

Check out details of each system below:… Read more

Sometimes when people do crazy things, you just look at them and think: "You're crazy. You should be locked up, the key thrown away, and the meals to consist of only tofu."

However, there are times when people do crazy things and have such beautiful, persuasive explanations that you can't help but be disarmed to the point of wanting to be that crazy yourself.

Such is the case with Paul Stender, an Indianapolis man who, together with his friends at Indy Boys, Inc., decided to equip a nice yellow school bus with an engine from a … Read more

In our back-to-school 2010 roundup of retail-specific laptops, we've divided our 25-plus systems into four different price categories. We already took a look at Netbooks, and now it's time to take a peek at mainstream machines with a little more juice.

When we say "mainstream," for the purposes of this roundup we mean any laptop costing roughly between $600 and $900. That's a range that fits what most people are generally willing to spend for a full-featured computer. It turns out that some pretty great all-around laptops slot into this category, too, with very few compromises to be made.

Though we tend to find one or two most-deserving retail laptops in previous roundups, we found several winners in this back-to-school batch. To change things up a little, we listed our favorite features of each machine. Our favorite laptops were the Blu-ray/WiDi-enabled Sony Vaio EA24FM/W, the beautifully built and full-featured Samsung Q430-11, the slim and powerful HP Pavilion dm4-1065dx, and the Toshiba Satellite A665-S605.

Editors' note: See our roundup of retail laptops in all price ranges.

Check out details of each system below:

Top laptops:

Sony Vaio EA24FM/W (4 stars) The bottom line: Comfortable, feature-packed, and boasting an eye-catching design, the Sony Vaio EA24FM/W and its combination of Blu-ray and Intel Wireless Display make it an affordable multimedia winner. Read the full review.

Samsung Q430-11 (4 stars) The bottom line: An impressively designed surprise, the Samsung Q430-11 is a feature-packed, fast laptop that looks more expensive than it is. Read the full review.

Toshiba Satellite A665-S6050 (4 stars) The bottom line: The Toshiba Satellite A665-S6050 is a smart choice for home use thanks to its outstanding audio output, Intel Wireless Display, and roomy 16-inch display. Read the full review.

HP Pavilion dm4-1065dx (4 stars) The bottom line: HP's slick and powerful Pavilion dm4-1065dx offers great core performance, long battery life, and an eye-catching design at a very competitive price, making it a very attractive back-to-school laptop. Read the full review.

Other very good laptop bets:… Read more

Anyone who orders a new Corvette Z06 or a Corvette ZR1 has the option to help a master technician build the engine from the block up. The one-day experience will cost an additional $5,800 to hand-assemble at GM's Performance Build Center in Wixom, Mich. All engines built will be covered by Chevrolet's five-year/100,000-mile power-train warranty. However, customers cannot add additional parts to up the horsepower and have it covered under the warranty.

For an additional $490, customers can take delivery of their Corvettes at the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, Ky. Museum schedulers notify … Read more

We know that the quest for the perfect laptop is ultimately fruitless. Different users have different needs, budgets, and expectations, and tomorrow's technology threatens to make any just-purchased laptop semi-obsolete before it even comes out of its cardboard box. That said, the new Toshiba Portege R705 comes about as close as anything we've seen this year, offering a great mix of price, design, features, and performance.

The Portege R705 is a 13-inch laptop (similar to Apple's MacBook), which is the biggest screen size we'd consider carrying around on a regular basis, but also the smallest we'd be able to comfortably use for full-time computing. It's thinner than the current white plastic MacBook (but not as svelte as the MacBook Air or Dell Adamo XPS), and has a sturdy magnesium alloy chassis.

Toshiba lists the Portege R705 for $889, but as of this writing, it can be found online for $799. A handful of business-oriented configs are also available (called the R700, instead of the R705), adding a docking port and a few other corporate-friendly features for $999 and up.

For $100-$200 less than an entry-level MacBook, you get a newer Intel Core i3 processor (the basic MacBook has an older Core 2 Duo CPU), a large 500GB hard drive, and Intel's Wireless Display technology, which allows the laptop's display to be beamed to a remote TV or monitor (this requires a sold-separately $100 Netgear adapter that connects to your TV). Not to draw too many MacBook comparisons, but it also has an SD card slot (as does virtually every Windows-based laptop no matter the price), something the $999 MacBook lacks.

There are a few issues. The integrated Intel graphics are a drag, and the keyboard isn't backlit, which would have been a nice touch on this slick-looking system. Also, out of the box, the hard drive accelerometer was far too sensitive, parking our HDD head every time we so much as breathed on the R705.

Those problems aside, the Portege R705 looks and feels like a much more expensive laptop, and is our new go-to choice for those who want a 13-inch experience but can't (or won't) join the MacBook masses.… Read more

Right in time for back-to-school shopping considerations, Dell has updated its popular Inspiron series of laptops with a new design, and new configurations to boot. Covering a wide variety of CPU levels (Pentium up to Core i5) and prices (mid-$400 up to nearly $1000), the Inspiron R can be either a budget or higher-end laptop depending on what's put into it. To split the difference, we reviewed two of the more midrange offerings, one 14-inch, the other 15-inch.

Both Inspiron Rs we reviewed feature Intel Core i3 CPUs, but with slightly different price configurations. At $779, our Dell … Read more

Apple has announced its annual Back to School promotion, which includes an online rebate for $199 toward the purchase of an iPod Touch. But, though your new Mac is great out of the box, here are a few free applications you might want to add right away.

… Read more