Laptops

An ultrabook ultraportable PC priced at $549 must be considered, especially if it's a convertible -- a system with both a keyboard and a touch screen, the latter able to swing a full 360 degrees into tablet mode.

And I'd say no convertible has received more press than the Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga, which was rightly celebrated for its slick design -- if not its operating system.

Update: I tweaked the headline to reflect that the Yoga isn't technically an ultrabook, which is Intel's designation for a system with a particular set of specs.

For a limited … Read more

In this week's episode of Hooked Up, Kevin Frazier hangs out with Grammy Award winner and multi-Platinum recording artist Nelly. He talks about all the tech he can't live without, and how he co-founded Vatterott College in St. Louis and the Extreme Institute to teach students skills for making music.

Nelly also talks about his MacBook Pro, Canon EOS 7D that he uses for shooting videos, and the Monster Diamond Tears headphones that surprised him with their sound.

I'll break down the best dSLR cameras for shooting video with Kevin that broadcast professionals are using today. And … Read more

If the current crop of Windows 8 tablets, at least the majority that run Intel's low-power Atom tablet, were put edge to edge in a police lineup, you'd have a hard time telling them apart. Nearly all are virtually identical slabs of glass over black metal and plastic bodies.

Upon closer inspection, some have more ports and connections built into their outer edges, but this stylistic similarity indicates a larger issue: they all run essentially the same components inside, namely an Intel Atom Z-series processor, 2GB of RAM, a 10- or 11-inch 1,366x768-pixel touch screen, and either … Read more

In this week's episode of Hooked Up, Kevin Frazier hangs out on the set of "NCIS" with actress Pauley Perrette, who plays Abby Sciuto, the show's fan-favorite quirky forensic scientist. She talks about her role as the social media ambassador for CBS during "Tweet Week" and how she used Twitter to help keep the Hope Gardens shelter for families open.

Pauley bring hers own tech on set, including the dirtiest Macbook you've probably ever seen, and she shows us some of the fun set pieces in Abby's lab. She also talks about … Read more

It's been half a year now since Windows 8 officially hit. For those first three months, I coveted it from afar. I was in Ecuador checking out plans to build a Latin American Silicon Valley, and I felt squeamish about upgrading without access to all the backups, support, and even the reliable postal service we take for granted in North America, should something go wrong.

That turned out to be a smart decision.

Upon my return, I kept one of my New Year's resolutions and dove headfirst into what I hoped would be a quantum leap forward in productivity and general operating system awesomeness. I upgraded my Windows 7 Dell laptop and shortly thereafter ordered a Surface Pro. … Read more

Remember that Lenovo IdeaPad U310 I wrote about a couple weeks ago? Let's talk.

I bought one. It's really, really nice, though battery life proved disappointing. And I found zero value in having a touch screen. In fact, I suspect that battery life would have been better with a non-touch-screen version (as indicated by both CNET and PC World in their reviews of that model).

If you concur, Newegg has the Lenovo IdeaPad U310 13.3-inch ultrabook for $549.99 shipped -- $50 less than I paid for the touch-screen version. And it gets better: You also get … Read more

Anyone needing proof that the post-PC era is real need only consult the recent sales figures: traditional PC sales are down 14 percent year over year, even as sales of tablets and smartphones -- mostly using Apple's iOS and Google's Android -- become more ubiquitous.

But even as Android adoption continues to flourish, Google has another horse in the race: Chrome OS. Chrome's mission statement is simple: With everything moving to "the cloud," why have a heavy, expensive Windows or Mac operating system acting as a middleman? Why not just have the browser be the OS? And that's precisely the reason it shares a name with Google's increasingly popular Web browser.

It's a clever enough idea, and one that plays to Google's strength: search, Gmail, Google Docs, Maps, Picasa, and nearly all of the company's other products don't require traditional software -- just a browser and a live Web connection. Still, when we last looked at it in the fall of 2012, we found Chrome OS to be promising, but ultimately not up to the level of a full-time OS. In other words, it was generally fine for a "second computer," but not quite ready to run your one and only go-to PC for every task.… Read more

In advance of a planned May 3 press conference, PC maker Acer is teasing a new laptop as part of a tie-in with the upcoming film "Star Trek Into Darkness."

In the (somewhat cheesy) video, clips from the film are intercut with rendered images of what looks like a massive new laptop. Separately, Acer says this is going to be a "unique" laptop that "approaches touch and type in a new way."

As seen in the video above and these screenshots, this unnamed laptop has an unusual hinge that pivots the entire lid out, … Read more

Apple can never keep its nose out of anything for too long.

A patent application filed recently describes a laptop hybrid that could be charged wirelessly. Could this be the game changer that nobody's been waiting for?

Windows' next iteration might make things easier for users with the touch of a button. And according to a recent report, Microsoft can't let everyone else have all the smartwatch fun. Unfortunately.

What do you think about an Apple laptop hybrid? Is it something you'd buy? Does wireless charging up the ante? Leave a comment and let us know your … Read more