Desktops

The 2.5-inch standard Vertex 4 solid-state drive (SSD) is a clear signal that OCZ wants to move to use its own Indilix Everest controllers rather than those from SandForce, which was used in the Vertex 3.

And that would be a good decision. The new Vertex 4 now uses the second generation (Everest 2) of the controller and offered great performance in my testing.

It's the first SSD I've seen that took just a second to be formatted and was immediately recognized by the system when used as a secondary drive.… Read more

Macs have long had a reputation as machines that rarely catch malicious bugs like trojans and spyware. Windows computers were always the sickly cousins, in need of having an antivirus doctor on hand at all times to ward against illness.

Mac's ironclad image may need to be revised. Russian antivirus company Dr. Web has come out with a report saying 600,000 Macs around the globe are infected with the Flashback Trojan. The report says more than half of those Macs are located in the United States.… Read more

Gaming desktops have become impressively diverse over the past few months. The best part is that even the lower-end systems are remarkably capable. It's now possible to spend less than $1,000 on a ready-made gaming desktop from a specialized vendor that will play pretty much any current title you can throw at it.

Whether that accessibility has come from better-designed hardware components, or game graphics stagnating because of the longer life cycle for consoles, it's a great time to be in the market for a new gaming desktop. Below you'll find four of the best systems in the category.… Read more

While Netgear and D-Link introduced their approaches to app-supporting and cloud-enabled networking products at CES 2012, Cisco, which didn't have anything to announce at CES, turns out to be the first to materialize the new concepts.

Cisco today unveiled a line of Linksys Smart Wi-Fi routers that promises to change the face, and the body, of home networking.

The Linksys EA4500, EA3500, and EA2700 -- the "A" designation being short for "app-enabled" -- look like models in the earlier E Series but have more-powerful hardware and support Cisco Connect Cloud, the next generation of Cisco … Read more

While Mac users can use the recently reviewed Windows-preformatted 2TB WD My Passport portable drive, they now have another drive to call their own.

Western Digital announced today the new My Passport Studio, which increased the storage space to up to 2TB. Similar to the existing My Passport Studio, the new drive offers USB 2.0 and FireWire 800 connectivity in the place of USB 3.0. This is because Macs generally don't support USB 3.0, leaving FireWire 800 the only second fastest peripheral connection to Thunderbolt. In fact the new 2TB model shares the same design as the current 1TB model with the all-metal casing. … Read more

Well, it's been fun, but along with the rest of the weekly CNET Live lineup, the CNET Labscast (formerly known as Digital City) is being sent to the great podcast studio in the sky. For this final episode, the whole gang shows up, as we debate the right time to buy a laptop, and list our picks for the most influential gadgets of the modern era. … Read more

Computer peripheral maker Razer posted a question on its official Facebook page late last month asking if fans wanted another mouse built for left-handed gamers. The company requested at least 10,000 "Likes" on the post within a month to give the idea serious consideration. It only took a week to reach that number.

Several years ago, Razer launched a basic five-button gaming mouse for left-handed folk, the DeathAdder, giving everyone an equal opportunity at the perfect headshot.

Now, after the recent affirmative votes from Facebook-ers, Razer plans to release a left-handed mouse based on the Naga, which is designed specifically for massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs).… Read more

The WD My Passport, the first-ever 2TB portable drive WD introduced last week, turned out to be pretty impressive.

Despite the fact that it offers the top capacity for 2.5-inch-based drives that use the current perpendicular recording technology, the drive is also compact and light. In fact, it's more compact than the My Passport Studio that offers just half of its storage space.

Originally, it was predicted that for 2.5-inch internal drives -- those housed inside portable drives like the new My Passport -- to reach 2TB, a new recording technology would be required. WD's My … Read more

Joining us this week is David Carnoy, who brings a collection of his favorite iPad 3 cases to show off. We also get hands-on with a too-big ultrabook, and debate the future of this once-promising new category.

… Read more