desktops

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

This post has been updated from the original. Added: Hands-on video with Amnesty Generator.

For those early adopters out there with Windows Vista, you might be struggling to get some widgets from the Web onto your flashy, new sidebar. To help you out is Amnesty Generator, a small and free app that converts nearly every type of online widget into the 'gadget format' that's compatible with Vista's new desktop toolbar. Using the program requires no coding experience; it's as simple as pasting in the embedding code, and the program does the rest.

Amnesty generator works with Google homepage widgets, … Read more

Contrary to popular belief, we at Crave don't buy a new computer every month. In fact, our desktop is so old that it doesn't even work with Bluetooth. (It may have been made before we'd even heard of Bluetooth, come to think of it.)

So we read with great delight on Crunchgear about a simple USB device that can magically bring our ancient PC into the modern wireless world, finally allowing us to get a Bluetooth mouse or other peripherals of the 21st century. The best part of all about Trendnet's compact adapter is the price: $… Read more

Good news for everyone but SLI owners. Nvidia just released a Windows Vista-certified 100.65 graphics card driver for its GeForce 8800 cards. You can find the driver on Nvidia's site. That's great for those of you running Vista and a single GeForce 8800 card. For anyone who has an Nvidia SLI mode of any flavor, you're still stuck in beta mode for now. We haven't played with the new driver yet, so we can't say just how beta the SLI support is. Nvidia's driver notes indicate that full SLI support will come in … Read more