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HP Touchsmart 600

(Credit: HP.com)

HP just announced the third upgrade to of its line of TouchSmart PCs, and the first model we've laid hands on, the TouchSmart 600 (full review here), was good enough to earn an Editor's Choice award. The new TouchSmart 300 and TouchSmart 600 feature 20-inch and 23-inch screens, respectively, and both offer the same multitouch screen with either a 16:9 1080P HD or HD-ready display.

To coincide with this announcement, HP is also rolling out exclusive applications for the TouchSmart PCs that take advantage of its multitouch enabled screen and Windows 7, including, but not limited to:

• Hulu Desktop: browse and watch your favorite TV shows
• Netflix: Instantly watch movies or browse and add films to your online queue
• Pandora Internet Radio: Discover new music based on your personalized taste
• TouchSmart Live TV: Watch and record your favorite television shows
• TouchSmart Canvas: organize your photos on a virtual canvas and use your fingers to make edits
• TouchSmart RecipeBox: Enjoy a hands-free cooking experience with recipes that respond to voice commands

Of those apps, the Recipe Box is the most impressive. Smart software lets you scrap and catalog recipes from a variety of popular recipe Web sites (Epicurious, Food Network, and Martha Stewart among them), and via voice recognition and text-to-speech you can navigate the recipes hands-free. It's the best kitchen-oriented PC solution we've seen.

The new 300 and 600 models also include a new swivel stand, a built-in wall mount support, in addition to a new tiltable web cam for group conferences and video chats. Both models are available in a variety of retail configurations with customizable configurations available at HP.com.

More photos after the jump.

Coming in right after Gateway, Sony announced its own multitouch-capable all-in-one this evening, by way of the Vaio L Series. Starting at $1,300, the 24-inch Vaio L is a continuation of the Vaio LV series that impressed us earlier this year. Sony will offer plenty of options for this system, including Windows 7 Home Premium and Windows 7 Professional when the system goes on sale in November.

Like the old Vaio LV, the L Series has made multimedia entertainment its focus. A Blu-ray burner option lets you watch HD movies at full 1080p resolution thanks to the 24-inch display. Sony has also kept the VESA-compatabile wall-mounting hub, and the HDMI input with a dedicated button for easy signal swapping. You can also opt for a TV tuner, and a quad-core Intel CPU. Wireless networking and a Geforce GT210M graphics chip come standard.

(Credit: Sony)

If you're wondering about the touch input, Sony, like Gateway, has taken a restrained approach. The Vaio L does include a few touch-specific applications for making photo albums and editing video, but in talking with Sony about this system a few weeks ago, we were told that it has no illusions about a multitouch revolution, at least yet. Based on the core multimedia features and large screen, Sony seems to be sticking with what it's done in the past. Fortunately, it's done that well.

Lexmark's 4.3-inch touch-screen LCD.

(Credit: Lexmark)

Not to be outdone by HP's recent touch-screen printer, the folks at Lexmark just debuted their line of Web-connected touch-screen all-in-ones.

The big difference between the two is that although they both have touch technology, the HP Photosmart Premium with TouchSmart Web is meant to live in the home, while the three printers featuring Lexmark's MyTouch technology are designed to increase productivity for the business market. Nevertheless, this won't stop us from putting them side-by-side in the first ever Web-connected, touch-screen-printing kumite.

Only three out of the eight new products include a large 4.3-inch touch screen, coincidentally the exact same size of HP's LCD screen. I had a chance to preview the entire lineup, and I was impressed with the comprehensive set of new features built into each device. The "SmartSolutions" button layout lets SMBs streamline their work flow by customizing their home screen with easy-to-use applications that include template shortcuts, address book favorites, RSS feeds, ID and ID card copies--all built into the machine with updates available through the host computer.

Four of the new printers also feature 802.11n wireless connectivity and all eight include Lexmark's Vizix technology that uses individual ink tanks to produce higher quality output at a cheaper refill cost. Business users will also be happy to see Lexmark's new business card scanning technology that recognizes and automatically uploads contact information into popular desktop software suites. One drawback: the technology isn't available for Apple's vCard address book sync.

All of the new printers will be available in September, and we'll be getting units into the CNET Labs as soon as possible to begin testing, so check back soon to see who will win in a head-to-head match.

HP Photosmart C8180 All-in-One Printer

(Credit: Sarah Tew/CNET)

Shopping for a budget printer doesn't have to be an exercise in anger-management and self-abasement. Contrary to the stigma, many printers can produce great quality photos and documents without breaking the bank or eating up expensive consumables. Now release your fingers from your hair, put down that club, and check out these tips for getting the best deal for your money.

Before you even start shopping, decide whether you want a laser printer or an inkjet printer. Laser printers use bulky toner cartridges and are typically reserved for home offices that print monochrome text documents and presentations. Businesses also steer toward lasers because of their quick output speeds and reliable text quality. Monochrome lasers like the Samsung ML-2851ND are a good choice for homes that print a large volume of documents, and can be purchased for less than $200.

Inkjet printers are the more versatile choice for color photo printing, Web prints, and creative projects like greeting cards and calendars. They come in a variety of form factors from small and simple personal devices all the way up to fully featured All-in-Ones with scanners, fax machines, and copiers built right into the machine. Of course, the more features you want, the more expensive the printer gets so be sure to make a thorough list beforehand and stick to it. Some of the pricier additions include:

• Auto-document feeder: commonly shortened to ADF, the horizontal input tray lets you scan/fax/copy a stack of papers at once.
• Auto-duplexer: a hardware addition that lets you print on two sides of a single-sheet of paper. Consider this option if you plan to print a lot of pages per month--it could potentially save you money on paper, and it's environmentally responsible!
• Wired/wireless networking: all modern printers use USB to connect to a computer, but many also offer wired and wireless networking at a higher cost.
• Full color/touch-screen LCD: a flashy 6-inch touch-panel LCD screen might look beautiful, but the functionality is extraneous and isn't worth the price jack. If you're on a tight budget, consider a single function inkjet like the HP Officejet 6000 that doesn't have a display and only costs $90.

If you do go for an inkjet, shop around and look for one with separate ink tanks for each color so that you don't need to replace everything when only one color runs dry. This technology used to be relegated to photo printers more than $300, but the prices have fallen and now it's common to see sub-$150 printers like the HP Photosmart C6380 All-in-One and the Canon Pixma CMX860 multifunction that feature multiple cartridges. Also, be sure to do a little research to find out if your brand offers high-capacity cartridges. These inks are more expensive but they last longer and will save you money if you're printing a lot of photos.

One final word of advice: don't just think about the sticker price, consider the total cost of ownership. That includes the page yields of the manufacturer's ink and toner, cost of paper including photo and plain, how many pages you'll print per month versus stated duty cycle, and of course, the optional features you might want to add later. Stick to the list you make and buy a machine suitable for your printing needs and you'll be just fine.

Lenovo's IdeaCentre A600 came to light at CES this year, boasting a large screen, a motion-sensitive remote control and a host of digital entertainment features. The $749 configuration we reviewed this week is not that system.

Lenovo's IdeaCenter A600 21.5-inch all-in-one.

(Credit: Sarah Tew/CNET)

Instead, the $749 A600 we ran through the CNET Lab has few of those advanced options. It features a relatively spare configuration, and trades on the attraction of a large screen for an uncommonly low price. The problem comes by way of Averatec, whose year-old 21.5-inch all-in-one received a significant price drop recently, going from $1,300 at launch to $749 now. It's also faster than the Lenovo system on every benchmark.

If you go to Lenovo's Web site, you can find other A600 configurations, including some with the motion remote, a Blu-ray drive, and other features that improve its outlook. But if you encounter the $749 model and find its 21.5-inch screen tempting, we encourage you to keeping shopping for an even better deal from Averatec.

Read our review of the Lenovo IdeaCentre A600.

It's the time of year when PC makers start announcing their new lineups for the summer and fall. One thing is very clear: Lenovo is stepping up its game.

The Chinese PC maker that has enjoyed much success from the iconic ThinkPad business notebook has faltered when it has come to consumer PCs in the U.S. But the new Netbook, notebooks, and all-in-one desktop that the company plans to announce Tuesday show it has had a reality check on pricing and the kind of features consumers are looking for.

Probably the product most indicative of Lenovo's shifted approach to consumer computing is a 13-inch notebook called the IdeaPad U350. As is the trend with notebooks now, it measures just an inch thick, weighs 3.5 pounds, and sports an attractive metallic finish. But the inside is more interesting: The U350 will come loaded with an Intel CULV (consumer ultra-low voltage) chip.

Lenovo's new IdeaPad U350

(Credit: Lenovo)

The CULV is Intel's newest chip, a low-voltage dual core chip for mobile PCs. It promises better battery life (the U350 says it will get four hours). But Lenovo is one of the first to use it. So far the only other company to announce using it is Acer, in its TimeLine notebook series.

And while getting one of these out ahead of Hewlett-Packard or Dell is aggressive, so is the price: the U350 starts at $649. For a full-featured notebook PC, that's a huge departure for Lenovo, noted Bob O'Donnell, PC analyst at IDC.

"$649 is good. Acer is at $599 (with its 13-inch TimeLine notebook), but Lenovo is in the ballpark and that is critical for them," he said.

While Lenovo certainly knows how to make a thin and light notebook--see the ThinkPad--it hasn't quite translated its expertise to pricing of consumer-oriented notebooks. But now Lenovo is clearly getting real: Without stating it directly, Lenovo has basically said that the U350 is going to take the place place of the IdeaPad U110 in terms of its importance to Lenovo's overall lineup. ... Read more

Correction: The previous price listed was incorrect. This post has been updated to reflect the correct price of $599.

The company famous for its stylish, small Linux desktops is trying its hand at touch screens.

Shuttle X50

(Credit: Shuttle)

The Shuttle X50, an all-in-one desktop with the low-power Intel Atom processor, is now available in the U.S. and Europe, the company announced Thursday. The X50 was first announced at CES in January.

It sports a dual-core Atom processor, 1GB of memory, a 160GB hard drive, Windows XP Home Edition, 5.1-channel audio, a Web cam and built-in microphone, 4-in-1 card reader, 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi, and a 15.6-inch touch-screen display. It's priced at $599.

The touchscreen all-in-one Atom-powered desktop is a growing category of Nettops, which are generally defined as low-cost, low-power desktops. Before Shuttle's product was announced, Asus had already released the EeeTop, which has very similar specs. MSI's version is called the WindTop. Though these have only just begun to trickle out to consumers, PC industry observers see this as a viable subcategory of the tired desktop market. Because of the influx of these inexpensive touch-screen Nettops, the overall category of all-in-one desktops--which includes the much pricier Apple iMac and HP Touchsmart--is expected to grow more than 80 percent during 2009.

(Credit: Corinne Schulze/CNET)

Headphones with an MP3 player built in aren't a new concept by any means, but they haven't gained much ground in the market. It's a bit of a shame, really, as this form factor allows users to do away with the wires that are necessary to connect a standard pair of headphones to an MP3 player. However, many models have failed to offer superior sound quality or comfort, so perhaps it shouldn't come as a surprise that the concept hasn't caught on that well. Still, the appeal of an all-in-one design may be enough to help you overlook any possible shortcomings.

Check out the MP3 player/headphone combos.

Note: This article has been corrected to reflect that the Dell Studio One 19 cannot be configured with an Atom processor.

Just a year ago, this category didn't exist. But after several Atom-powered all-in-one PCs debuted at CES in January, it's officially the hottest grouping of desktops on the market.

A category long dominated by Apple's $1,200 iMac is suddenly rife with nice-looking imitators that pack less power than traditional Windows desktops, but are also gentler on the wallet. They're a subcategory of desktop PCs called Nettops, and, like Netbooks, they're generally defined as a computing platform powered by the Atom processor that runs either Windows XP or a version of Linux. Combined with the all-in-one form factor and a smaller screen than most desktops (between 15 inches and 19 inches), they're essentially the Netbooks of the desktop category.

Photos: All-in-one Nettops

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"A year ago I would have said Netbooks are not going to cannibalize the notebook market. Then the economy went kablooey," said John Jacobs, director of notebook market research for DisplaySearch. Since then, many people who needed a notebook have chosen to spend $400 on a Netbook instead of the typical $800 on a full-size notebook.

"I think we'll see something like that for Nettops," he said. "Either for retirees or younger folks who don't need the portability of a notebook, and just need something to get on the Internet and do basic computing. Nettops, and all-in-ones will be very attractive devices, and we expect to see a lot of retailers who have stayed out of it will jump into it."

The all-in-one category as a whole is expected to grow to more than 6 million units in 2009, and to over 7 million in 2010, according to DisplaySearch. That's almost an 80 percent spike in shipments, which was unexpected at the end of 2008.

Reinvigorating a tired category
In fact, the rise of all-in-one Nettops looks to be the most interesting thing to happen to desktop PCs in years. And, just as the economy helped bolster Netbooks' appeal, so too will it make Nettops more attractive to buyers, industry watchers believe.