desktops

If you're the kind of person who doesn't mind looking like a huge dork, then maybe you'd be down for this little levitating globe for your office desk. It's perfect for the Dr. Evil wannabe, or maybe the Kenneth Lay wannabe. Keep in mind that unless you have a massive desk (maybe even one shaped like a Mini Cooper), a sexy secretary (of either gender) and a fabulous cityscape outside your 40th-floor window, this desk decoration will just make you look stupid. In other words, Dunder-Mifflin employees need not apply.

Anyhoo, this little desktop gizmo works … Read more

Now this is interesting. From a CeBIT press conference comes word that AMD has cooked up some streamlined HD audio technology with its next-generation ATI graphics cards. Details are slim, but what the graphic over at Beyond3D.com suggests is that if you have a motherboard with an HD audio chip on it, AMD's forthcoming ATI RV6XX graphics cards will be able to grab that signal and spit it out through its own HDMI port, with no cable or other internal fiddling like you need to do with current HDMI-equipped cards, including Nvidia's 8800 series. That means fewer … Read more

We don't normally delve into the seedy world of PC-cooling hardware, but when CoolIT's Geoff Lyon came in to talk with us last week about his company's new Eliminator CPU Cooler, we thought it was worth a mention. If you've ever tried to liquid-cool your PC, you'll know setup can be a hassle. We've tried it. Not fun.

Enter the Eliminator. A self-contained liquid-cooling system that fits entirely inside most large PC cases, the Eliminator and its bigger brother, the Freezone (for hotter running quad-core chips) let you get rid of that noisy CPU … Read more

While I was in the Vloggies booth at SXSW, I peered over Robert Scoble's shoulder as he was shooting a video with the guys from Thirteen23. The people at this design-and-coding company have made Nostalgia, a very cool application that acts as a front end to Flickr. I can't wait for Scoble's video to post, so here's my take. And yes, I'm a bad person for stealing Scoble's scoop--even though he said it was OK.

If you're a Mac user, stop reading now.

The Nostalgia player is a slick desktop client for the … Read more

Ugh...looking back. And here we thought this industry was only supposed to move forward. Still, it's only fair that since we made such a stink about Dell's XPS 700 last year, we ought to give it credit for addressing one of that system's key problems, even if it is 10 months later.

If you'll recall, the Dell XPS 700 and XPS 710 shipped with Dell's own version of Nvidia's 590 SLI chipset. The Dell hardware lacked that chipset's support for BIOS-based overclocking of Intel's Core 2 Duo Extreme chips, as well … Read more

We admit we're pretty excited about the idea of SideShow, Windows Vista's secondary display capability. Not really so much with laptops (although we're sure someone will find a way to put that to good use) but more for what it could mean for driving Vista Media Center from your couch. Microsoft tabbed Ricavision to make the hardware that will eventually become the official Microsoft-branded SideShow remote. Ricavision says that a major computer vendor as well as one top-tier retailer have contracted to rebadge as well. Interlink, Phillips, and other vendors have also promised their own SideShow designs.… Read more

Yesterday Google quietly updated its desktop search and widget product, Google Desktop. Users who download the updated product (available at Google or here at Download.com) will notice two things. First, the widget sidebar is now flashier. Instead of using Google's traditional style (flat and boring), the sidebar now looks like it belongs on a Vista desktop (just like Microsoft's own sidebar). It looks good on XP, too. Google updated the graphics on many of its widgets to match.

Functionally, the big improvement is that desktop searches now get previews in the browser window. All results have little … Read more

Perhaps the best part about yesterday's report that we'd once again have Commmodore-branded computers on the market are the blogs that reported it, which dug up some pretty great images of the original, classic Commodore 64. Sure, we're eager to see what details come out on March 15 at CeBIT (Europe's massive annual tech show, held in Hannover, Germany), when the new Commodore Gaming PCs make their official debut. But really, what's more fun than browsing through all of the cheesy old-school console shots? We think we found a good one, but be sure to … Read more

If you're thinking of building or buying a home theater PC, you might consider looking for a motherboard that has AMD's new 690G chipset, announced today. The reason is because the new chipset will come with both a DVI video output, as well as an independent HDMI output for connecting your computer directly to an HD television. It also comes with HDCP support built directly into the new, onboard ATI Radeon X1250 graphics chip, which should ensure digital encryption compatibility for playing HD-DVD or Blu-ray movies.

The other model in the new series, the budget-oriented 690V, is more … Read more