pc

Amazon launches in-app buying for computer and online games

Those of you who play games from Amazon on your computer or over the Web will now be able to buy virtual items directly in the game.

Unveiled today, the new in-app purchasing service allows developers to set up their games so players can pay for virtual goods and currencies using their Amazon accounts. Previously, only Android and Kindle games in the Android Appstore were able to offer the in-app buying option. Now the feature extends to Amazon games for Windows PCs, Macs, and the Web.

Gamers wil find titles for the PC and Mac at Amazon's Digital Games store. … Read more

Sign up for SimCity beta -- if you can

Did you miss the last SimCity beta sign-up event? You're in luck, because EA and Maxis want to give you another chance to get in on the beta for the highly anticipated building game. There's a catch, though: beta builders only get to play a snapshot of game for up to 1 hour at any point between January 25 and January 28.

Amusingly, the actual process of signing up for the beta might be more difficult than playing the game itself, as the sign-up page seems to have some serious problems going on right now -- most likely because of a high influx of interested participants. … Read more

Intel CEO: The PC is shape-shifting into a tablet

In the wake of reporting weak profits today, Intel CEO Paul Otellini couldn't repeat enough that "radical" new PC designs will subsume the tablet experience.

Here are some of Otellini's comments that suggest that Intel and its PC partners are aggressively going after the tablet market with newfangled Windows 8 devices. Most of these comments came in response to analysts' questions.

Radical transformation:

We are in the midst of a radical transformation of the computing experience with the blurring of form factors and adoption of new user interfaces. It's no longer necessary to choose between … Read more

Get nine indie PC games for $5.91

Calling all gamers! Can you scrape together at least six bucks? For about the price of a venti cafe mocha, which takes maybe 10 minutes to drink, you can get enough games to last you maybe 10 months.

Yep, it's another Indie Gala game bundle, this time with nine PC titles that can be yours if you pay at least $5.91.

The games include the fantasy-action side-scroller Trine, city-management sim Cities in Motion, humor-tinged Diablo clone Magicka (along with mission pack Magicka: Vietnam), and blood-and-guts FPS Painkiller: Black Edition.

Most of these date back a few years and … Read more

Windows 8 fails to lift PC market as tablets soar, Gartner says

Research firm Gartner says that an estimated drop of 4.9 percent in worldwide PC sales over the fourth quarter has signaled a shift in the market.

In the fourth quarter, PC shipments worldwide fell by an estimated 4.9 percent, according to the research firm. A total of 90.3 million units were sold, but a shift in both consumer habits and the fragile state of the economy played a part in making sure PC manufacturers had little to celebrate as their products were shunned in favor of tablets.

Mikako Kitagawa, principal analyst at Gartner said:

"Tablets have … Read more

CES postscript: The touch laptop, like it or not

The laptop was reinvented at CES.

Or maybe I should say there was a vigorous attempt to reinvent the laptop. Because we won't know how successful touch has been until next year this time.

Intel's CES booth -- still a large presence in the CES Central Hall -- had one basic unmistakable message: touch has arrived.

Windows 8 convertibles, detachables, touch-screen laptops, and just plain tablets from Hewlett-Packard, Dell, Samsung, Acer, Asus, Lenovo, Toshiba, Sony, and others blanketed Intel's booth.

And just to make sure the touch message was crystal clear, Intel issued an edict to PC … Read more

Moneual smart table lets you order and pay for your food

LAS VEGAS--Imagine going into a restaurant and browsing the menu, placing your order, and paying for the meal with a credit card, all from the comfort of your table without having to call the waiter. That seems to be the vision of the folks behind Moneual's MTT300 Touch Table PC.

In fact, a company representative at its CES booth mentioned that depending on customer requirements, the Touch Table PC can be configured to do almost anything a PC can, and is not restricted to use in restaurants only. For example, audio jacks and speakers can be added to enable music playback. Other applications can range from reading magazines/newspapers and watching video to surfing/shopping on the Web and even going on social media. … Read more

Best of CES PCs and Tablets: Lenovo Horizon Table PC

Do we really think the Lenovo Horizon Table PC will launch a nation-sweeping trend of computer-based family game nights? No.

What the Horizon does do, though, is demonstrate that the PC industry still has plenty of interesting ideas.

You can read our full hands-on with the Horizon here. The gist of it though is that it's a 27-inch Windows 8 all-in-one touch-screen computer that you can lay down flat. It also has a battery. You would not use this giant computer as a walk-around-the-house device, but its portability does mean that you can set it up in a den, … Read more

Lenovo chief: We're in the PC-plus, not post-PC era

Although some say that the rapid adoption of tablets has ushered in a so-called "post-PC era," Lenovo chief executive Yuanqing Yang begs to differ.

"We don't live in a post-PC world," Yang told Reuters in an interview published yesterday. "We are entering the PC-plus era."

Yang went on to tell Reuters that PCs today can't simply be boxes that come with the same basic design and only allow for computing. Instead, he believes that computers must add extra features. He pointed to Lenovo's Yoga convertible PC line, which allows users to … Read more