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Intel rethinks Netbooks: 'Fine for an hour' but...

The Netbook, take two: When Advanced Micro Devices said it wasn't going to focus on Netbooks, as Intel and its partners defined them, maybe it was on to something.

Intel is re-evaluating the Netbook market as possibly not The Next Big Thing. This from the company that makes the Atom processor and accompanying silicon that go into most of the Netbooks sold today.

At a recent Raymond James IT Supply Chain Conference (streamed via this Intel page), Stu Pann, vice president in the sales and marketing group at Intel, said his company sees the Netbook differently now.

"We … Read more

Logitech keyboard for Mac asks a lot, delivers a little

The Logitech diNovo Mac Edition Keyboard is meant to be a viable alternative for shoppers looking to replace the keyboard that comes with their Apple computers. As you'd expect, the layout is all Mac-centric, with shortcut keys for volume, eject, and screen brightness, as well as specific buttons that open OS apps like Dashboard, Spaces, Expose, and iTunes. The keyboard is easy to type on thanks to Logitech's PerfectStroke key design, and the overall design is nothing short of sexy, but we can't help but point out a few shortcomings.

Most importantly, the limited features just doesn'… Read more

Apple issues QuickTime update for new MacBooks

Apple rolled out a QuickTime update Tuesday night that should alleviate some of the concern over the addition of some copy-protection technology to the new MacBooks.

Apple customers who bought one of the company's new MacBooks or MacBook Pros introduced in October were annoyed to discover that the Mini DisplayPort on those systems uses a copy-protection technology called HDCP. That technology is supposed to prevent those owners from playing HD movies purchased from the iTunes store on external projectors that don't also support HDCP technology. But several owners reported that standard-definition movies were also declared off-limits by their … Read more

Apple's Black Friday deals

Update: New information has leaked about Apple's 2009 Black Friday deals. Read about it here.

Apple will be holding a one-day shopping event on Black Friday, according to a teaser up on Apple's Web site. Every sale on the Apple Store is an event, as it happens very rarely, and discounts on Apple products are meager throughout the year. That is, if this is an event full of discounts and sales. The interesting part is in the wording:

"Come back to the Apple Online Store this Friday for a special one-day-only Christmas shopping event. You'll find … Read more

Micron readies 256GB solid-state drive

Micron Technology will bring out a 256GB solid-state drive early next year while it moves, along with Intel, to a new manufacturing process.

A Micron representative said Monday that the company will start volume production of a 256GB solid-state drive for consumer use in March 2009.

This follows Samsung's announcement last week that it had begun mass-producing 256GB solid-state drives.

The Micron RealSSD C200 will read data at 250MBps (megabytes per second) and write at 100MBps. It is sampling to customers now. Samsung, by comparison, is claiming sequential read rates of 220MBps, with sequential write rates of 200MBps.

The … Read more

Featured Freeware: AppTrap

Sometimes the best interface is no interface at all. Compared with other Mac uninstall programs, AppTrap is simplicity itself--and it really does seem to provide the uninstall functionality that Apple "forgot" in OS X.

AppTrap is not actually an app but rather a System Preference pane, which you install and then it runs in the background (and you can set AppTrap to automatically start at log-in). Whenever you drag an application to the Trash, AppTrap will prompt you to delete all the application's related files, including any files installed in that application's cache, library, or application … Read more

Intel graphics discontent justified?

Discontent with Intel graphics goes back a few years. But the unsealing of 3-year-old e-mail exchanges between Intel and Microsoft reveals something about the present, too.

First some background. Intel makes integrated graphics silicon--that is, graphics functionality that is built into its chipsets. Performance is not the name of the game for Intel. Delivering power-efficient, adequate graphics that can handle everyday tasks and do basic gaming is the goal. Anything beyond this is left to the high-octane discrete chips from ATI and Nvidia.

"We've always been consistent that high-end gamers should use discrete graphics," said Intel spokesman … Read more

iTunes customers angry over copy protection moves at Apple

Want to watch a high-definition show from iTunes on an older external display? Good luck!

Some Mac users are teed off that they are getting error messages saying the iTunes movie they rented or bought can't be played on their display because it is not HDCP (High Digital Content Protection) authorized.

And some people are complaining they are only able to play certain standard definition iTunes content on their laptop or via an HDMI connection.

As a result, some Apple forum participants have threatened to boycott iTunes.

"And here we are now with Apple users who have spent … Read more

CNET News Daily Podcast: Microsoft shakes up security

Microsoft is causing a stir in the security world by dropping the fee for its antivirus software. That might be great news for security in general. But if people come to expect the service for free, where does that leave the companies that focus solely on security? Reporters Ina Fried and Elinor Mills join me in the podcast studio to talk about it.

Also in this podcast: Psystar's countersuit against Apple is all but dead; start-up has designs on ditching the lithium in consumer gadget batteries; there's a new Internet in outer space; and Microsoft says--again--that it's … Read more