desktop

Moody Desktop Review

Deciding on a wallpaper to decorate your computer can be a tall order. Moody Desktop takes the work out of choosing by assigning you a new wallpaper, automatically. You can adjust the timer, how the wallpaper is laid out, and more. The lack of wallpaper options to choose from is definitely noticeable, though.

This download cycles through about 30 preset wallpapers that are all quite pleasing to the eye. While that's only a fraction of what other programs offer, it's nice that these landscapes are all G-rated. It means that no scantily-clad women or gruesome war scenes will … Read more

Seagate ships 4TB Desktop HDD

Seagate announced today the shipment of its 4TB Desktop HDD 3.5-inch internal hard drive for general consumers. While this is not the first 4TB hard drive on the market, the company says it's the first that uses the 1TB-per-platter design. Basically, on the inside, the Desktop HDD comes with four platters (disks), each offering 1TB of storage space.

The Desktop HDD is also the first desktop internal drive from Seagate that uses the new streamlined naming convention. Seagate's consumer-grade hard drives were formerly called Barracuda. Earlier this year, the company also shipped the first hybrid drive of … Read more

Take OneLoupe around your desktop for a squint-free view

Maybe you have a junk drawer, possibly in the kitchen, full of various tools, implements, and odds and ends. One of the things we would expect to see in such a drawer is a magnifying glass, especially if there are other things we hope to see but can't without first magnifying the view. The same goes for Windows: not the glass kind but the software kind. With super-huge LCD screens displaying super-high-resolution images, sooner or later even eagle-eyed PC users have to squint; and if your vision isn't what it once was, the problem is worse. It's … Read more

Dazzle your ears with KEF's X300A powered speakers

KEF's new X300A is a nifty desktop speaker, but it can also be used as a hi-fi or stereo home theater speakers. Granted, it's a bit pricey, but it sounds a lot better than say, a $699 Sonos Playbar. The X300A is a bona-fide high-end speaker system, so it sounds clearer and all around better than all the high-priced sound bars I've heard to date. After all, performance goals for most sound bars are pretty low, they just have to sound better than the iffy speakers built into TVs, and that's easy. Compared with a decent … Read more

Vizio welcomes spring with new Windows 8 touch-enabled PCs

Welcome to the third generation of Vizio PCs. You won't find many things different technology-wise in this round compared with previous models. The biggest news is that the laptops -- two 14-inch, and two 15.6-inch models -- all ship with touch screens now. Vizio's all-in-ones already had touch screens, but this generation gets a CPU bump, and higher prices to match. Vizio has also added wireless networking adapters that support the new 802.11ac standard across the lineup.

For the laptops, the 14-inch Touch Thin+Light CT14T-B0 comes it at the lowest price, going for $1,089.… Read more

Tips for using the Dashboard in OS X

Apple's Dashboard feature in OS X is a convenient way to access widgets for looking up information on your system. The default behavior for Dashboard is to activate when a hot key is pressed (the default being the F4 key), where the system will present the dashboard as an overlay to your current desktop. This is the setup most users are accustomed to. However, if you would like, you can make some modifications to this and have widgets appear in their own space -- or even have them be embedded on your desktop.

The first option is to have … Read more

With Windows Blue comes fear of desktop's demise

Windows Blue has triggered a spate of doomsaying about the end of the Windows desktop.

Today there has been no shortage of articles claiming that Blue portends the end of Windows 8 desktop mode. You know, the mode that most Windows 8 users spend their time in.

Rumored changes for Metro -- the Windows 8 touch-centric tablet mode -- include a different way to handle multitasking in side-by-side snap view. Possibly providing less reason to drop to the desktop for multitasking.

But what seems to have most observers worried is the changes to Control Panel.

Here's what Information Week … Read more

A $299 high-end USB digital converter from England

Regular readers of this blog know we're living in the golden age of desktop audio. The speakers just keep getting better and better, and digital converters from the likes of Schiit Audio, AudioQuest, Hifiman, FiiO, and HRT have all made computers sound better than ever.

Now along comes the Meridian Explorer, a sleek, extruded aluminum converter with line- and headphone-level 3.5mm output jacks and a USB input. The line-level output internally bypasses the headphone amp and volume control. Meridian is best known for its ultra-high-end digital converters that sell for thousands of dollars -- the Explorer is their … Read more

8 Google Reader alternatives for your PC

It's no surprise to Google obsessives that the company announced yesterday that it will draw the curtains on its popular RSS-managing Reader service. So what are you supposed to do with your 60 bazillion feeds?

First off, you can export them using Google Takeout. That's an important step to take so you don't lose track of any of the sites you're following. It lets you download your feeds output, called OPML, as a ZIP. Then you extract it all to a folder, and upload them to your prefered Reader replacement service. But which one do you … Read more