pcs

Last week Nicole Lee took you on a guided tour of the Samsung MyShot SCH-R430 for MetroPCS. Though the handset is nothing fancy, she liked the MyShot's excellent call quality and bright displays. That all sounds great if you use MetroPCS, but starting today Alltel customers can get in on the fun as well. Alltel's MyShot is almost identical to the MetroPCS model, except that it comes in both red and basic black. Features are the same, however. Inside you'll find a 1.3-megapixel camera, Bluetooth, a speakerphone, voice dialing and a wireless Web browser. You can … Read more

Microsoft's fourth annual Next-Gen PC Design Competition put entrants to the task of dreaming up concepts that not only offer eye-catching aesthetics, but also cater to people's passions.

Check out News.com's gallery on the competition, featuring designs that tap into niches like travel, sports, fitness, cooking, and children. Winning concepts were inspired by everything from napkins to building blocks to the everyday book.

Acer's been on a roll lately, and Friday it rewarded its top two executives.

The world's No. 3 PC maker appointed Acer Chairman J.T. Wang to CEO of Acer Group, which includes Acer affiliates, and Acer Presdient Gianfranco Lanci to CEO of Acer. Wang will also remain company chairman.

In the release regarding the promotions, Acer noted that since the two took over as chairman and president, respectively, in 2005, Acer's revenue has increased from $9.7 billion to $14.1 billion in 2007.

Taiwan-based Acer was the fastest growing PC company in the world in … Read more

Worldwide PC shipments are on pace to grow 15.2 percent in 2008, according to IDC. That's above the analyst firm's March prediction of 12.8 percent growth. But laptop shipments, which have become an increasing force in the PC market, will peak.

Shipments of portable PCs should grow 34.5 percent this year, according to a PC shipment tracker that IDC released this week. That's up from 33.9 percent in 2007 and way above the projected 13.4 percent for next year. By 2012, according to the firm, portables will increase by only 9 percent. … Read more

If you're not sold on these environmentally friendly computers based on their unique designs, their names alone are worth giving them some consideration: Sarah and Nora.

Both are models made by an Irish company called Iameco, which prides itself on producing tailor-made computers in stunning wooden cases that are free of toxins. The unusual curved supports make an architectural statement, according to BornRich, "representing strength and load-bearing capacity." Their innards are nothing to sneeze at either, with typical models including an Intel Core Duo chip, 400GB SATA 2 hard drive, and more than 2GB of memory.

Following … Read more

LOS ANGELES--Never mind the nail-biting lead changes down the stretch, or the dazzling display put on by league MVP Kobe Bryant here at Game 3 of the NBA Finals.

Try also to forget Jack Nicholson holding court from his usual spot at Staples Center. Shrug off the fact that Sylvester Stallone, Eddie Murphy, David Beckham, and Hugh Hefner are all sitting a few feet away. One of the biggest stars in Los Angeles Tuesday night stayed quietly out of sight.

Logging the mind-boggling amount of statistics produced in a single National Basketball Association game is an intense undertaking. And the … Read more

It may be sitting pretty atop the PC market, but Hewlett-Packard isn't going to sit still.

The world's largest PC manufacturer plans to roll out 50 new products Tuesday at a conference in Berlin, the largest such product refresh in the Personal Systems Group's history. Of those products, HP added new touches to just about everything, freshening up its TouchSmart all-in-one desktop, commercial and consumer notebook lines, as well as two machines within its high-end gaming brand, Voodoo PC.

While it's that time of year for product refreshes, this is more than the usual speed bump … Read more

This blog has been updated with Dell executive and analyst comments.

It's not a blow-out quarter, but Dell investors will likely be pleasantly surprised.

The Round Rock, Texas, PC maker reported its first-quarter earnings Thursday, with revenue of $16 billion, a 9 percent improvement from a year ago, and earnings of 38 cents per share, a 12 percent increase.

Analysts were expecting earnings of 34 cents per share and revenue of $15.4 billion to $16.2 billion. In after-hours trading Thursday, shares of Dell were up 7.5 percent.

Following a turbulent 2007, Thursday's results were a … Read more

Talk about low-hanging fruit.

Verdiem on Wednesday is expected to release an update of its software that monitors desktop Windows PCs and puts them in low-power mode when they're idle. A PC usually wastes about two-thirds of the energy it uses.

The application also gathers data on energy usage of PCs on a network so that companies can measure their energy savings and reductions of carbon emissions.

Renewable energy sources are flashy but tend to be more expensive than conventional power.

By contrast, energy-efficiency technologies typically have a quicker payback while eliminating waste.

Verdiem's Surveyor application can pay … Read more