PCs

Newly unveiled by Apple, the 2013 13-inch MacBook Air has received the teardown treatment from the folks at iFixit, who gave out low ratings on the ability to repair and upgrade the laptop.

At its WWDC keynote on Monday, Apple revealed several enhancements to its 11-inch and 13-inch MacBook Air ultrabooks, including a faster solid-state drive, an upgrade to Intel's fourth-generation core processor, increased battery life, and support for 802.11ac Wi-Fi.

On the outside, the new MacBook Air is virtually the same as its predecessor. But a peek at the innards of the 13-inch version uncovered the new tech. … Read more

Dell has beefed up its Alienware series with three new laptops equipped with some seriously high-end specs.

Unveiled on Tuesday at the E3 show in Los Angeles, the Alienware 14, Alienware 17, and Alienware 18 are designed for hard-core gamers who need laptops packed with lots o' power.

Starting at $1,199, the Alienware 14 offers a 14-inch screen (1,366x768 or 1,920x1,080 resolution), as much as 16GB of RAM, and up to a 512GB solid-state hard drive. Starting at $1,499, the Alienware 17 is equipped with a 17.3-inch screen with a resolution as high as … Read more

Apple on Monday updated some models of its PC line with faster processors and improved battery life.

During a keynote address at the company's developers conference, Phil Schiller, Apple's head of marketing, unveiled a couple of new versions of the MacBook Air laptop and also gave developers a sneak peek of an updated Mac Pro desktop PC.

The new MacBook Air models are available Monday and start at $999. They include Intel's fourth-generation Core processor, dubbed Haswell, as well as a faster Wi-Fi known was 802.11ac.

Battery life is an area with significant improvement. The 11-inch … Read more

Citi Research is revising its forecast for negative PC growth as it paints a dark picture of the incredible shrinking PC market.

Citi is cutting 2013 PC year-to-year growth to negative 10 percent from negative 4 percent growth, according to a note to investors late Friday.

"The Citi global technology team is revising down its 2013 PC growth estimate to -10% y/y (from -4%) based on further sub-seasonal demand" in the first quarter and slowing notebook production.

In a section titled "Y/Y Growth in 2H? Don't Think So," Citi says that despite investor … Read more

IT spending is likely to be even lower this year than initially expected but should start to revive in 2014, according to JPMorgan Chase.

An new estimate in a report released Thursday by JPMorgan Chase analyst Mark Moskowitz calls for growth in IT spending of just 0.6 percent this year. That's down from the previous forecast of 1.2 percent.

Moskowitz expects businesses to spend less on IT hardware, which accounts for a huge part of the lower estimate. Companies have been shifting more of their cash away from traditional computers toward mobile devices.

Moskowitz now expects spending … Read more

Fujitsu will soon launch a new 14-inch ultrabook that boasts a screen resolution of 3,200x1,800 pixels.

The upcoming Lifebook UH90/L uses Sharp's IGZO technology to attain its high resolution. Equipped with a density of 262 pixels per inch, the display offers 2.7 times the detail of a full HD screen. Text appears sharper and is easier to read, and photos are more vivid, according to Fujitsu.

Outfitted with Windows 8, the touch-enabled notebook is powered by a fourth-generation Intel "Haswell" Core i5 chip. It also offers a 500GB hybrid hard disk that combines … Read more

TAIPEI -- The CPUs in most computers are usually cooled using a combination of fans and heatsinks. PC enthusiasts have gone one step further by using liquid cooling as shown in the rig above. This allows them to push the processor to run beyond its normal operating speeds so as to achieve better performance without overheating the chip.

Professional overclockers, however, use subzero cooling to achieve extreme processing speeds. In most setups, liquid nitrogen is used to chill the processor and has to be topped up regularly, while Vaseline is applied to the surrounding microchips. This prevents them from short-circuiting … Read more

TAIPEI -- During Intel's keynote at Computex 2013, the Creative Senz3D Interactive Gesture camera was announced. This camera utilizes 3D sensing technology, and when paired with Intel's Perceptual Computing SDK, allows developers to create applications with gesture control.

The camera has previously been provided to developers working on the SDK, but will be available to the public later this year. No price has been given so far.

Included with the camera is a software bundle that has games and utilities that let you take advantage of the Senz3D. One interesting example is a Skype plugin that allows you … Read more

Intel has officially dubbed the next version of its high-speed port "Thunderbolt 2."

The technology was actually revealed at the National Association of Broadcasters conference in April under the code name Falcon Ridge.

Technically, Thunderbolt 2 is a controller chip that doubles the speed of the first-generation port, supporting up to 20Gbps bidirectionally.

That means the cables can now support both transferring a 4K video and putting it on screen at the same time.

Current versions of Thunderbolt are limited to an individual 10Gbs channel each for both data and display, less than the required bandwidth for 4K … Read more