mainstream

Apple co-founder and Chairman Steve Jobs' death has both shocked the world and become an important topic of discussion in the mainstream media.

Just minutes after Jobs' death was announced, newspapers made the Apple co-founder's death the top headline on their sites. As of this writing, the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and other prominent newspapers around the world are leading with Jobs' death.

The New York Times, for example, has called Jobs a "visionary," that led a "cultural transformation in the way music, movies, and mobile communications were experienced in the digital … Read more

Is the MacBook Air the new mainstream MacBook?

The White MacBook is dead. The cheaper, plastic $999 legacy to iBooks and PowerBooks of old has finally been removed from the spectrum of Apple laptops, and suddenly the decision spectrum has narrowed to two choices: the MacBook Pro, and the thinner MacBook Air, updated this morning with a faster processor and preinstalled with OSX Lion.

The MacBook Air has walked an interesting path since 2008, first as a high-end executive plaything, then a more attainable but still specialty interest ultraportable. Last year's MacBook Airs debuted in October, well after back-to-school shopping.

This year, however, the new Airs have emerged in late July, perfectly timed for students planning their computer purchases. The MacBook Pro, meanwhile, last saw an update back in February.

A $999 MacBook still remains; the 11-inch Air's base model costs the same as that older white MacBook. Its 1.6GHz Core i5 processor feels far zippier than last year's Air, but its limited storage (64GB of flash memory) presents a limit to hold-everything-on-your-hard-drive people. On first boot-up, 48GB of drive space was free to use, which limits what you'd permanently keep on your computer. That 64GB of storage can be expanded up to 256GB at the time of purchase, but that drives the price up, too, by several hundred dollars.

Or, does that matter anymore?… Read more

In our back-to-school 2010 roundup of retail-specific laptops, we've divided our 25-plus systems into four different price categories. We already took a look at Netbooks, and now it's time to take a peek at mainstream machines with a little more juice.

When we say "mainstream," for the purposes of this roundup we mean any laptop costing roughly between $600 and $900. That's a range that fits what most people are generally willing to spend for a full-featured computer. It turns out that some pretty great all-around laptops slot into this category, too, with very few compromises to be made.

Though we tend to find one or two most-deserving retail laptops in previous roundups, we found several winners in this back-to-school batch. To change things up a little, we listed our favorite features of each machine. Our favorite laptops were the Blu-ray/WiDi-enabled Sony Vaio EA24FM/W, the beautifully built and full-featured Samsung Q430-11, the slim and powerful HP Pavilion dm4-1065dx, and the Toshiba Satellite A665-S605.

Editors' note: See our roundup of retail laptops in all price ranges.

Check out details of each system below:

Top laptops:

Sony Vaio EA24FM/W (4 stars) The bottom line: Comfortable, feature-packed, and boasting an eye-catching design, the Sony Vaio EA24FM/W and its combination of Blu-ray and Intel Wireless Display make it an affordable multimedia winner. Read the full review.

Samsung Q430-11 (4 stars) The bottom line: An impressively designed surprise, the Samsung Q430-11 is a feature-packed, fast laptop that looks more expensive than it is. Read the full review.

Toshiba Satellite A665-S6050 (4 stars) The bottom line: The Toshiba Satellite A665-S6050 is a smart choice for home use thanks to its outstanding audio output, Intel Wireless Display, and roomy 16-inch display. Read the full review.

HP Pavilion dm4-1065dx (4 stars) The bottom line: HP's slick and powerful Pavilion dm4-1065dx offers great core performance, long battery life, and an eye-catching design at a very competitive price, making it a very attractive back-to-school laptop. Read the full review.

Other very good laptop bets:… Read more

The publisher of PureRa claims that it "removes files from your computer that other mainstream cleaning programs tend to oversee," by which we suppose they mean "overlook." Though it's neither the most attractive nor the most grammatically accurate program we've encountered, we found that it works well as a quick, no-nonsense way to rid your computer of unwanted files.

The program has an extremely simple and intuitive user interface. It lists a variety of file types and locations that you can check off for removal, including temporary files, Recycle Bin files, software distribution logs, … Read more

To ring the closing bell on our spring 2010 roundup of retail laptops, we're taking a look some high-end laptops you'll find on store shelves. These are a relative rarity, as brick-and-mortar outlets such as Best Buy tend to focus on Netbooks and budget systems, leaving little room for more expensive products.

But if you're ready to drop $1,000 or more on a laptop, and want that hands-on instant gratification you get from buying retail, there are a few options to consider. Not surprisingly, we were generally pleased with all the laptops in this price category. They offered appropriate high-end components and features for their high-end prices, with Blu-ray drives and gamer-friendly graphics cards (but not in every system).

Our overall favorite was the The Sony Vaio VPCF115FM/B, which packs in Blu-ray, decent graphics, a 1080p screen, and a superpowerful Intel Core i7 processor, all for $1,349.

The Dell Adamo XPSis a notable outlier, as its one of only a handful of $2,000 laptops we can even think of anymore. It deserves serious credit for taking some major design risks, and it is certainly a cool conversation piece, but poor battery life keeps it from being a great on-the-go laptop.

Note: For our roundup of retail laptops in all price ranges, check here.

Check out details of each system below:… Read more

To bring you our spring 2010 roundup of retail laptops, we've been testing and reviewing boxed versions of popular PCs--from entry-level systems starting at $329 to massive $2,000 gaming monsters. These are very much like the laptops you'd configure and buy online from Dell or HP, but these models are fixed configurations, have slightly different names, and are often a better deal compared to building the same system online.

In the "Mainstream" category, covering laptops from $600-$999, we found a lot of variety. While there were a couple of clunkers in this group, mostly because they charged mainstream prices for budget components, we were please to find a couple of real winners as well.

In the end, we couldn't pick a single favorite, so instead we have dual recommendations. The Toshiba Satellite E205-S1904is a sequel to one of our favorite laptops from last year, the Toshiba E105. As part of Best Buy's Blue Label program, it's a custom model that is one of the first notebook computers to include Intel's Wireless Display technology.

We also quite liked the Samsung R580, which packed in a high-end CPU, discrete graphics, and a Blu-ray drive, all for under $900.

Note: For our roundup of retail laptops in all price ranges, check here.

Check out details of each system below:… Read more

In our current roundup of retail-specific laptops, we've divided our 30-plus systems into four different price categories, from sub-$500 entry level models to high-end ones that cost more than $1,000.

In the "mainstream" category, covering laptops between $700 and $999, we found a wide variety of systems, from the 12-inch touch screen HP tx2 to the 15-inch Core Solo Asus UX50V. Our overall favorite, was the Toshiba E105, which married solid components and performance with worthy features, such as a backlit keyboard, 500GB hard drive, and longer-than-average warranty.

One important notes -- on this particular page we're *only* talking about a handful of retail-specific models that cost between $700 and $999. For a roundup of retail laptops in all price ranges, check here.

Check out details of each system below:… Read more

Yesterday's New York Times story about Starbucks losing credibility among music fans has attracted a lot of commentary. The gist of the story: Starbucks went too mainstream by stocking artists like Alicia Keys and James Blunt, so its customers figure they might as well shop at Wal-Mart, which stocks the same CDs at lower prices. The record industry, which once looked to Starbucks as a potential savior, is having second thoughts.

Why is anybody surprised? Look at their history in the coffee business. Espresso used to be a niche product that was hard to produce properly and varied widely … Read more

Hear ye! Hear ye! Before us we have two gallant fighters preparing to do bloody battle for our affections. In the orange corner we have Baron Vista, representing Windows' finest, and in the black corner is Count OS X, representing Apple.

That's right, we're doing Mac vs. PC, Crave UK-style: in tights. Gasp in fear as Vista approaches OS X, questions his parentage and slaps a heavy gauntlet across the Count's supple, moisturised face. Feel your heart race as OS X swings his sword with reckless abandon, and scream in desperation as Vista counters with a barrage … Read more