Computers and hardware

Acer: We'll have the first Chrome OS Netbook

The world's second-largest PC maker has designs on being the first to offer a Chrome OS Netbook.

Acer Chairman J.T. Wang said in an interview with Digitimes that he's "confident" his company will be first out of the gate with Google's open-source operating system pre-installed.

The earliest it would be available is mid-2010, according to Digitimes' unnamed sources.

Acer was just one of several hardware makers previously announced to be working with Google on implementing Chrome OS, along with Asus, Hewlett-Packard, Lenovo, and Toshiba. Dell, which hasn't committed to it fully yet, has … Read more

Four ways to reduce your PC's carbon footprint

Roughly speaking, powering a desktop PC with a 17-inch LCD 8 hours a day, 20 days a month costs about $35 a year. That's according to the energy-use calculator on Michael Bluejay's Saving Electricity site.

The same site indicates that computers and electronics represent less than 10 percent of the average energy bill in the U.S. That's about the same amount we spend to power our refrigerators and a third of what the typical home pays for heating.

But if you're looking to reduce your carbon footprint along with your electric bill, minimizing your computer'… Read more

Psystar ceases sales of Mac clones

As part of Psystar's partial settlement with Apple, all models of the company's Open Computer featuring preinstalled Mac OS have been removed from its Web site.

A quick visit to Psystar.com Wednesday morning reveals all five products the Mac clone maker had been selling since 2008 are suddenly "out of stock." It follows Tuesday's partial settlement, in which the Florida-based Psystar agreed to pay $2.65 million to Apple for copyright infringement, in exchange for Apple dropping the other claims of trademark infringement and unfair competition.

Though Psystar has agreed to a settlement payment … Read more

Dell earnings down 54 percent

Dell reported its third-quarter earnings results Thursday, showing a small improvement over the last quarter, but revenue was down 15 percent over the last year, and profits fell 54 percent.

The company reported revenue of $12.9 billion, within analysts' expectations between $12.8 billion and $13.5 billion. Earnings were 17 cents per share, when excluding 6 cents of pretax expenses and amortization. That's 54 percent off the 37 cents Dell recorded a year ago.

Besides its acquisition of Perot Systems last month, there weren't too many positive signs in the recently completed quarter. Shipments were also … Read more

Jaguar supercomputer races past Roadrunner in Top500

The Cray XT5 supercomputer known as "Jaguar" has finally clawed its way to the title of fastest computer in the world.

Sitting back at No. 2 on the Top500 list of supercomputers for more than a year, Jaguar overtook IBM's "Roadrunner" according to the twice-yearly list that will be unveiled Tuesday at the SC09 Conference in Portland, Ore.

Jaguar beat out the competition by showing it can process 1.75 petaflop/s, or quadrillions of floating point operations per second, according to the Top500 Linpack benchmark. IBM's Roadrunner was pushed back to No. 2 … Read more

AMD-Intel deal: No big change for consumers

The settlement between Intel and Advanced Micro Devices isn't just a matter of business between companies.

Sure, it's a big financial deal when the biggest chipmaker in the world forks over $1.25 billion to its closest competitor. And the settlement, announced Thursday, officially puts an end to a five-year battle over licensing disputes and AMD's complaints of unfair competition.

Beyond that, there will also be an effect on the two chipmakers do business with PC makers, and how they price their chips. Still, the settlement won't likely foment major changes for consumers shopping for a … Read more

Rename a virtual machine in VMware Fusion

When I upgraded my VMware Fusion virtual machine image of Windows Vista to Windows 7, all went smoothly, except updating its name. Trouble was, it was still called Windows Vista in the Library. Here's how I changed that annoying little issue.

First, make sure your virtual machine is powered off, not suspended.

Then, find your virtual machine's folder, most likely in Documents. Right- or control-click on the virtual machine file you want to rename and select "Show Package Contents."

Find the VMX file, right- or control-click it and open it with Text Edit or your favorite … Read more

HP previews strong fourth-quarter earnings

On the heels of announcing its acquisition of 3Com, Hewlett-Packard also gave a sneak peek at its fourth-quarter earnings.

Though not scheduled to officially announce earnings until November 23, HP said Wednesday it expects to report revenue of $30.8 billion for the quarter on earnings of 99 cents per share. (Excluding one-time charges, it would have earned $1.14 per share.) While revenue was down 8 percent compared to the same quarter a year ago, earnings were up from 84 cents per share in the fourth quarter of 2008.

Analysts were expecting earnings of $1.12 per share and … Read more

HP aims for networking cloud with 3Com buy

Hewlett-Packard said Wednesday it plans to acquire 3Com, maker of network switching and routing products.

The deal is valued at $2.7 billion, or $7.90 per share. HP says the purchase is intended to boost its networking business, particularly in China, where most of 3Com's business is focused.

"By combining HP ProCurve offerings with 3Com's extensive set of solutions, we will enable customers to build a next-generation network infrastructure that supports customer needs from the edge of the network to the heart of the data center," Dave Donatelli, executive vice president and general manager of … Read more