2009 Student Buying Guide: How to Buy the Right Desktop PC for School
CPUs and RAM got you stymied? Part by part, learn how to pick the best PC for your budget with our no-nonsense guide.
Summer vacation, alas, is always way too short. For certain, you (or your school-bound son or daughter) may someday look back at these times as the endless summers of youth. But let's be practical today: It’s never too early to start thinking about computing needs for the upcoming school year. It takes time to shop for that perfect PC, get it delivered, and poke and prod it enough before you or your child is comfortable relying on it...

Techliciousness Blog: When a Deal is Not Really a Deal
Yesterday, my home phone rang and it was a number I didn't recognize (the Caller ID said "Jacksonville, FL"). I often don't answer the home phone if a non-descript Caller ID appears or if I don't know the number. I work at home and have a separate work line (I always answer the work line--that call could be my next freelance gig!). For some odd reason, I chose to answer the phone this time. On the other end was a friendly voice, a man who identified himself as Carl, who wanted to offer me a great deal on upgrading my Comcast-provided services...

Review: Pogoplug NAS Device Review
For many, just the thought of setting up and using a network attached storage (NAS) device makes their eyes cross and their pulses increase. While even the technophobic recognize the benefits of having a network-based repository of files for sharing and backup, the concept can still seem daunting to some. The reality is that NAS devices have become surprisingly easy to set up and use, but most still require at least a modicum of networking knowhow. In a bid to allay the fears of even the greenest of computer users, however, CloudEngine's Pogoplug makes setting up and using a NAS device as easy as it can possibly be...

Review: Dell Inspiron 537s
As the saying goes, beauty is in the eye of the beholder: Certainly, many buyers will find the sleek, shiny, and colorful options of the Dell Inspiron 537s slimline mini-desktop line to be quite fetching. But according to another well-worn saying, beauty is only skin deep—and beneath the surface of the 537s is a somewhat anemically powered system with lackluster performance overall. It's more than capable of handling basic productivity duties, moderate entertainment tasks, and light, dialed-back gaming...

Video: Digital Experience: NVIDIA ION, Tegra, and Much More
The more well-known industry trade shows, like CES, Computex, and E3, are not necessarily the only venues where technology journalists can get a gander at the latest-and-greatest offerings from a bevy of tech companies. Pepcom is a Florida-based company that holds mini tech trade-shows for the media throughout the year, and its most-recent event was the Digital Experience Rock 'N' Bowl held in New York City on June 24. (Each of Pepcom's events has a theme, which helps create a somewhat of a party atmosphere. Also, one sure way to get journalists to come to an event is to offer free food and drinks...

Video review of the Lenovo IdeaCentre A600 All-in-One Desktop PC
The Lenovo IdeaCentre A600 is an all-in-one desktop with plenty of features and bells-and-whistles to keep all but the most jaded of users happy. Perhaps taking a page out of Apple's book, Lenovo put a lot of effort into the look and feel of the A600, with its black-colored chassis, borderless 21.5-inch 1920x1080 TFT display, curved back, and svelte form factor--measuring only 1-inch thick at its thinnest point. The A600 Series comes in a variety of configurations, which range in price from $679 to $1,399...

Video: CES 2010 Sneak Peek: Lightglove, slotRadio, More
Not that CES (the Consumer Electronics Show) really needs any additional hype, but the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) wants to make sure that even with CES half a year away that the media and analysts not forget that the technology extravaganza is on the horizon. The CEA did this by sponsoring a mini tradeshow in New York City this last week, called the CEA LineShows. We decided that this would be a good opportunity to not only potentially learn about new products and technologies, but it would also be great real-world test for the Flip UltraHD pocket camcorder we recently reviewed. So we grabbed the camcorder and headed over to the show...

Review: Flip UltraHD Pocket Camcorder
The popularity of video-sharing sites, such as YouTube and Viddler, coupled with the integration of video-capturing technologies into common consumer electronics devices, such as cell phones and digital cameras, has turned virtually everyone into budding videographers and documentary filmmakers. But perhaps the biggest push toward putting video into everyone's hands, started with the introduction of the inexpensive pocket camcorder in 2006. This new camcorder design did not resemble the size and shape of what we traditionally expect a camcorder to look like; instead it resembled a thick candy bar with a lens on one side and an LCD on the other...

Review: HP MediaSmart Server LX195 Review
Windows Home Server is quite possibly one of Microsoft's most unheralded operating systems. Many speak longingly of Windows XP, jokingly of Windows ME, disappointedly of Windows Vista, and hopefully of Windows 7. But seldom discussed is the little-known and little-used operating system designed to be installed on a home server and act as a central depository for serving media and other files, as well as a place to backup your home systems' files. For those who have used it, many praise Windows Home Server's functionality and performance--especially since Microsoft has made some significant updates to the OS recently. (Windows Home Server is actually based on Microsoft's Windows Server 2003...

Review: WD My Book World Edition NAS Device
The old adage, "looks can be deceiving," applies very well to the Western Digital My Book World Edition network-attached storage (NAS) device. With its small and simplistic physical design, housed in white plastic, and featuring only a set of white LED status lights on its front, this NAS device belies the power, features, and depth of configuration options just hiding beneath its shiny veneer. Which is not to say that the WD My Book World Edition NAS device isn't simple to use--it is actually one of the easier NAS devices we've worked with. Network storage neophytes should have little trouble getting up and running in no time. But contrary to the seemingly simple nature of the product, those looking for advanced administration options will be very impressed with what the WD My Book World Edition can do beyond being just being a networked receptacle for file sharing, media streaming, and automated backups...

Review: Antec Performance One P183
There’s a lot to like about the P183 midtower case—Antec's latest addition to its Performance One line of desktop chassis. Antec kept many of the features that have made the Performance One line a popular choice for those who prefer to build their own systems, as well as adding a few new and innovative design concepts focused on keeping systems built with the P183 running cool and quiet...

New Search Engine Scoopler Searches in Real Time
As instantaneous as the Web can be, most search engines--Google included--suffer from a bit of a time lag. The search engines can only link to pages and sites that the search engines have scraped with their Web crawlers or spiders and other indexing tools. This means that the latest entries on the quick-changing-content sites like Twitter or Digg won't be searchable via Google or other similar search engines until well after the content has already been replaced with even newer entries. Where Google leaves off, the new search engine, Scoopler looks to pick up. Scoopler is a search engine that indexes the content of a number of popular social-networking sites, and delivers real time search results...

Verizon Offers Multi-User Mobile Hotspot Router
Road warriors who frequently need to set up temporary virtual offices will be happy to learn that Verizon is set to release a 3G-based mobile hotspot device, called the Verizon MiFi 2200, on May 17. The MiFi is a small, rechargeable-battery-powered CDMA (EV-DO Rev. A)-based device that permits up to five 802.11b/g wireless devices to simultaneously get online...

App Turns Bluetooth Phones Into Proximity Locks
Phoenix Technologies has just released a free application for Windows XP and Vista systems that uses the proximity of your Bluetooth-enabled mobile phone to tell your computer when you are away from it and therefore when to lock access to your system. This new app is called Phoenix Freeze, and Phoenix is billing it as security, power-saving, and productivity tool, all rolled into one...

HP Offers Atom-Based Budget Media Sever: LX195
In what was very likely an "oops" moment, online retailer eCOST.com listed a brand-new version of Hewlett-Packard's MediaSmart Server line, the budget-minded LX195, before HP ever publicly acknowledged the product's existence. Rumors and unsubstantiated photos of the LX195 have been appearing online these last few weeks, but yesterday’s premature product announcement from eCOST.com was the first real-world indication of the product's imminent appearance...