computer

HP tops Lenovo in lackluster PC market

HP is still the top dog in computer sales around the world, at least according to IDC. But those sales continue to plummet.

Released today, IDC's Worldwide Quarterly PC Tracker pegged fourth-quarter global PC shipments at 89.8 million units, down 6.4 percent from the same quarter in 2011.

The drop was actually worse than IDC's forecast of 4.4 percent and marked the first time the industry saw a year-on-year decline during the holiday season. For 2012 as a whole, PC shipments were down by 3.2 percent.

Windows 8 officially launched at the end of … Read more

Voice recognition will make touch obsolete, Intel exec says

LAS VEGAS -- Watch out, touch screens. You may be hot now, but one Intel executive predicts voice recognition will eventually make you obsolete.

Mooly Eden, the Intel senior vice president who oversees the company's "perceptual computing" operations, told CNET today that voice recognition will do to touch what touch has done to physical keyboards -- making many things unnecessary.

"Voice is the best means of communication between humans," Eden said. "We finally have enough compute power to do what we want from science fiction."

Intel is working with partners on complete systems … Read more

New 27-inch iMacs won't ship until next month

Those of you ready to order a new 27-inch iMac will have to wait till next month for it to arrive.

Apple's latest estimate calls for a ship time of three to four weeks, zeroing in around early to mid-February. In early December, Apple offered a vague time frame of January. So people who ordered at that time hopefully will receive their computers by the end of the month.

The new 21.5-inch and 27-inch iMacs popped up for sale at Apple's Web site on November 30. The 27-incher offered an initial ship time of two to three … Read more

Text from your computer with Mighty Text

Fumbling with the small keyboard on your phone or searching for your phone when you need to text became a thing of the past with this app. Mighty Text allows you to send messages right from your computer without downloading any desktop clients. You don't have to memorize any of your friends' phone numbers, either. It's almost like having a SIM card in your PC or laptop.

The app works using your existing Google account and requires you to authorize the app on the Web. Once you do, all of your contact information, texts and calls are forwarded … Read more

Apple rumor watch: iOS timepiece on drawing board?

After creating the iPod, iPhone, and iPad, is Apple now working on an iWatch?

A report cited by Business Insider claims that Apple has partnered with Intel to develop an iOS watch. Supply chain sources reportedly told Chinese blog site Tech163.com that the watch would be Bluetooth-enabled and sport a 1.5-inch OLED screen.

The so-called smart watch would debut sometime in the first half of next year.

Other sources have chimed in on the general concept, with Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster, for one, saying he thinks wearable computing is a line that Apple might eventually get into. … Read more

Google Apps reseller Cloud Sherpas raises $40M

Cloud Sherpas, a startup that helps customers move to Google Apps and Salesforce.com, raised $40 million in second-round funding and acquired a rival, CloudTrigger.

The 350-employee company plans to use the money to fuel further acquisitions and to expand its existing business, a move that it expects will increase 2013 revenue to $100 million.

First-round investors Columbia Capital and Delta-V Capital invested in the second round as well, and new investors Greenspring Associates and Queensland Investment Corporation joined. Cloud Sherpas didn't disclose the company valuation. It's raised $80 million in total so far.

Acquisition is par for the course at Cloud Sherpas. … Read more

Brain implants let paralyzed woman move robot arm

Jan Scheuermann can't use her limbs to feed herself, but she's pretty good at grabbing a chocolate bar with her robot arm.

She's become the first to demonstrate that people with a long history of quadriplegia can successfully manipulate a mind-controlled robot arm with seven axes of movement. Earlier experiments had shown that robot arms work with brain implants.

Scheuerman was struck by spinocerebellar degeneration in 1996. A study on the brain-computer interface (BCI) linking Scheuermann to her prosthetic was published online in this month's issue of medical journal The Lancet.

Training on the BCI allowed her to move an arm and manipulate objects for the first time in nine years, surprising researchers.

It took her less than a year to be able to seize a chocolate bar with the arm, after which she declared, "One small nibble for a woman, one giant bite for BCI." Check it out in the video below. … Read more

Tardis PC will be your computer companion

You have a sonic screwdriver toothbrush. You have a Dalek Christmas tree. You even have a Tardis felt purse. Don't worry, you still have plenty of opportunities to express your "Doctor Who" fandom in strange and unusual ways, like with a Tardis-shaped computer system.

Scan Computers in the U.K. got the BBC's blessing to put out a PC that looks just like the Tardis. It has been matched to the exact color of blue of the original Tardis. The door doesn't open, but the DVD drive access is through the police box sign on the front.… Read more

Cloud computing goes mainstream

This year, the shift away from desktop software toward cloud-based apps and services really took hold. More people are managing and sharing documents with Google Docs and Microsoft's Office 365, they're storing photos and music in iCloud and Amazon Cloud Drive, and they're turning to online music services such as Spotify and Pandora. E-mail is quickly becoming a cloud-only affair: Microsoft launched cloud-based Outlook.com even as venerable desktop e-mail apps like Mozilla's Thunderbird and Sparrow disappeared forever in 2012. And why buy boxed tax-prep software when the same capabilities are available in-browser from the same … Read more