pc

My Newton story

Today the iPhone is the alpha gizmo, the one item of consumer electronics that dominates all the others.

But in 1993, the hot new gizmo was Apple's Newton, and it was a whole different thing.

Not very many people had Newtons. Apple sold fewer Newtons over the whole life of the product than it sold iPhones the evening of June 29.

Also unlike the iPhone, the first Newtons weren't even very useful. Although called "personal digital assistants" (PDAs), using a Newton was significantly more difficult than using a Day-Timer. The original MessagePad had very poor handwriting … Read more

Gain perspective with mobile maps and GPS

Getting lost isn't for everyone. While some people thrill from the challenge of navigating unknown geographies, the non-orienteering among us pout, or worse, panic. Vacations, with their endless opportunity to discover new territories, tend to spark the maddening frustration of getting, and staying, lost.

Take these mobile apps with you this extended Fourth of July weekend, or on any vacation, for seeking and finding your current location and future destination.

Loki for Firefox and Loki for Internet Explorer are browser toolbars that can act as a laptop GPS by locating your whereabouts. In addition, Loki can help you find businesses and landmarks nearby. Loki for Mobile performs the same trick for Windows Mobile devices.… Read more

New eMachines desktops hit the shelves

eMachines has become so regular with its quarterly refreshes, it might be more newsworthy if they didn't announce new systems every three months. But rest assured, if you head to your friendly-neighborhood desktop retailer next week (and possibly even today), you'll find three new eMachines budget PCs on the shelves: the $500 T5230, the $450 T5062, and the $400 T3616. All come with a $50 mail-in rebate as well.

We've been lukewarm on eMachines the past few releases, mostly due to questionable CPU selection. This time, though, we're particularly impressed with the T5230 and its Athlon … Read more

Novint Falcon brings "3D touch" to your PC

At last night's Digital Experience event here in New York, I got a chance to sit down with the Novint Falcon--a device that allows you to "feel" and control games in 3D, using force feedback.

The technology is quite impressive--it actually creates the illusion that you are interacting with objects on your screen in 3D. In one of the demos, you use the Falcon to control a virtual hand that interacts with a variety of giant spheres. Each sphere was composed of a different material. Using the knob on the Falcon, you control your virtual hand and &… Read more

Dell slips up with Linux PC warranty options

Last weekend, Dell inadvertently removed the option to purchase extended warranties for its new Ubuntu Linux PCs, but the company said the option will be back Tuesday.

"Due to an ordering system glitch during the weekend, we inadvertently removed extended warranty and CompleteCare options. We're working to get the issue resolved as quickly as possible and those options will be reinstated this afternoon," the company said in a statement Tuesday.

Any customers who ordered a Dell Ubuntu system when the extended warranties weren't available will have the option of upgrading at the original price, Dell said. … Read more

Hugo Chavez coming out with his own PC?

Hugo Chávez, the combative leader of Venezuela, wants to come out with his own PC that he would then distribute to citizens in the region, according to sources in the PC industry who have been contacted by Venezuelan officials.

The PCs would be part of Chávez's strategy of winning friends in the region through gifts paid for through Venezuela's oil industry. Cuba, Bolivia and other nations have all been recipients of gifts from Chávez. The PCs would likely cost little or could even be given away. Venezuela has been contacting companies in … Read more

Dell Linux PCs go on sale Thursday

Dell said on Wednesday night it will begin selling three models of PCs with Ubuntu Linux preinstalled on Thursday.

The company announced the models on its Direct2Dell Web site and said they'll go on sale at www.dell.com/open by 2 p.m. PST Thursday.

The three models are the E520n desktop and the E1505n notebook, both with a starting price of $599, and the XPS 410n, with a starting price of $899. The move will fulfill a schedule the company committed to earlier this month.

Dell announced the Linux PC plan after being inundated with requests from … Read more

No more rumors: Blizzard announces Starcraft 2

The wait is over. No more speculation and no more rumors. Just a few hours ago, Blizzard announced Starcraft 2 at the Blizzard Worldwide Invitational in Seoul. This will be the first sequel to one of the most popular PC strategy games ever. The Terrans, Protoss, and Zerg are all coming back, each with their own unique style of play. The game's trailer was already up on Youtube by midnight and got almost 27,000 views in just over four hours.

Starcraft 2's release date hasn't yet been announced, but it won't be alone when it … Read more

Dell confirms rumors, will build tablet PC

Dell confirmed Friday that it will sell a tablet PC before the end of year.

Jeff Clarke, senior vice president and general manager of Dell's business product group, made the announcement in a short video posted to the company's Direct2Dell blog.

"I'm here to end much speculation in the industry about our plans in the tablet marketplace," says a casually attired Clarke, while holding the tablet. The device will be a Latitude tablet PC designed specifically for the education, health care and corporate markets, he said.

On the video, Clarke gives a brief demo and … Read more

PhysX game shows promise

We finally got around to testing out CellFactor: Revolution for ourselves this week. To recap, CellFactor is a free downloadable game designed to show-off those fancy Ageia PhysX cards we're sure at least two or three of you may have purchased for your gaming PCs.

CellFactor is basically a straightforward fragfest, either with bots or with real players over a LAN. You can choose from three difference character types, but we spent all of our time with the Bishop character, whose psi-powers seemed best suited to trying out the advanced physics.

We definitely experienced some ooh and ahh moments … Read more