books

Demand for Windows 8 touch-screen PCs is strong, according to two analysts who spoke with CNET.

"Touch machines are actually selling above expectations," said Bob O'Donnell, a program vice president at IDC.

And that means supply shortages. "Some vendors are actually facing shortages because touch panels are in limited supply. Vendors are saying they can't get as many touch-based machines as they would like to meet the demand that they're seeing."

Rhoda Alexander, an analyst at IHS iSuppli, echoed O'Donnell's comments. "We've talked to a number of PC makers … Read more

Following its recent announcement of the availability of a new 4TB hard drive, Western Digital today announced that its RAID-capable NAS server, the My Book Live Duo, now offers up to 8TB of storage space.

The My Book Live Duo is the dual-bay version of the single-volume My Book Live and originally had a storage cap of 6TB.

The server houses two user-serviceable 3.5-inch hard drives and supports both RAID 1 and RAID 0 configurations. The top 8TB capacity is available only in the RAID 0 setup, which is fast but provides no redundancy. If you want data safety, … Read more

A quick note to my fellow Michiganders: The Cheapskate will be appearing tomorrow, Dec. 5, at the Ypsilanti Public Library, at 7 p.m. I'll be there to share the secrets of saving money on all things tech, naturally. Hope you can make it!

So, hey, remember Black Friday, when one of the big doorbuster deals at Target was a Nook Simple Touch e-reader for 50 bucks? Well, it's back, and you don't have to go anywhere near a door -- or a store, for that matter.

While supplies last, Walmart has the refurbished Barnes & Noble Nook Simple Touch e-reader for $49.99 shipped, … Read more

I love audiobooks. Nothing makes a car ride faster or more pleasant than a good spoken-word book piping through the speakers.

That's why I've routinely championed smartphone-powered services like Audible, Audiobooks.com, Simply Audiobooks, and Tales2Go.

Now there's another app worth adding to your audiobook arsenal: Audiobooks HQ, which gives you access to more than 5,000 public-domain titles -- all for a measly $1.99.

The app connects you with two catalogs: the Globe Radio Repertory and Librivox. The former contains just four works (including "Don Quixote" and "Madame Bovary"), while the … Read more

Intel is on a mission to cut the power consumption of its chips. But that's not only future silicon. The current Ivy Bridge chip will get throttled down too.

Intel will cut power consumption "significantly" for future versions of the chip, an industry source familiar with the chipmaker's plans told CNET.

Intel's most power efficient Ivy Bridge chips today -- used widely in Windows ultrabooks and Apple's MacBook Air -- are rated at 17 watts.

A future version of Ivy Bridge would be rated well below this, the source said. Processors able to throttle … Read more

Apple has re-issued its 10.8.2 update for specific Mac systems after having pulled it over a week ago.

OS X 10.8.2 has been available for Mac systems since mid-September, but in mid-November Apple pulled a specific version of the updater for the 2012 Mac Mini, iMac, and 13-inch MacBook Pro models, resulting in the inability for those with these systems to be updated to the latest version of OS X.

The reasons for the pulled update were not made public. When users attempted to install the Combo updater for OS X 10.8.2 on their … Read more

In an effort to make billions of dollars by suing Facebook, Paul Ceglia is actually putting a large dent in his own wallet.

Federal Magistrate Leslie Foschio ordered Ceglia to pay the social network almost $90,000 in attorney fees today, according to the Los Angeles Times.

The order comes because of Ceglia's last-minute cancellation of legal depositions that Facebook had already paid its lawyers to do. Foschio also ordered Ceglia to reimburse an additional $7,000 in travel and lodging expenses for the social network's experts that were to be deposed.

Ceglia is suing Facebook with the … Read more

Apple has released a new update for 2012 MacBook Pro systems that fixes problems with the handling of bus-powered Thunderbolt devices.

Thunderbolt is the next-generation I/O technology that Apple is implementing in its Mac systems, which allows very high-bandwidth communication between devices, and also allows for expansion of the PCIe (PCI Express) bus as well as carrying the DisplayPort signal for external monitors.

As Thunderbolt is relatively new, some bugs are bound to crop up in various implementations, and with the MacBook Pro systems produced in mid-2012 it's been found that some bus-powered Thunderbolt devices may not work … Read more

Adobe Systems is hosting a free online event on December 11 where it may reveal the new Retina edition of its flagship Photoshop program.

One of the topics of the Create Now Live event invites participants to "See what's next in Adobe Photoshop." And a YouTube video promoting the Photoshop presentation appears to show someone using the software on a Retina Display MacBook Pro.

That video clip has led Japanese blog site Macotakara and others to speculate that Adobe will show off a new update of Photoshop CS6 designed to support the high-resolution display on the 13-inch … Read more