Technology News: Personal Computers

Shuttle's openSuse LinuXPC: A Tiny, Well-Built PC

Tuesday - May 6, 2008

Personal computers with Linux preinstalled have been springing up all over the place in recent months. Now Shuttle, the company famous for perfectly formed PCs, have got in on the act with the LinuXPC SD3002Q, which comes with openSuse 10.3 Linux preinstalled. It has an Intel Core 2 Duoprocessor, 1 GB RAM, a 250 GB HD, integrated Intel graphics, memory card reader, DVD writer, 6 USB ports and wired networking. To give you an idea of how small the LinuXPC is, imagine one of those expensive toasters by Dualit and you're not far off. [More...]

A Clone of Their Own: Psystar's Pedraza Brothers

Tuesday - May 6, 2008

From their hole-in-the-wall office in Doral, Fla., brothers Rudy and Robert Pedraza are waging war on Silicon Valley. The 24- and 22-year-old computer whiz kids are undercutting Apple by building "clone" computers with Mac software and selling them for less money than the tech behemoth. The daring move has sent shock waves through the techie world. [More...]

Think Before You Ban: A Handheld Is a Powerful Learning Tool

Monday - May 5, 2008

It's official: In New York City public schools there is now a ban on cell phone use. We can all understand how that might happen. As with any communication device, abuse does occur. But simultaneously, there is a wave of interest in education in 1:1 learning initiatives, meaning that educators believe in the learning benefits of one laptop for each student. Does this leave the technology world scratching its head? [More...]

A Tale of Two Steves

Monday - May 5, 2008

I'm writing this from the Microsoft Management Summit at Interop with 5,000 of my closest friends in Las Vegas, and I'm still thinking about the book I brought up recently, titled Inside Steve's Brain. The result is, I think I've had an epiphany -- and no, I didn't call a doctor. [More...]

Mac Bloggers Snoop Psystar, Sniff at AT&T Subsidy, Scrutinize iMac Speed Surge

Friday - May 2, 2008

It's been a busy week for hot topics in the Apple world. Bloggers have been debating the likelihood of AT&T offering a $200 price break on the iPhone, bickering over whether the first shipping Psystar "Hackintosh" is a good deal, nodding at speed-bumped iMacs, and sharing the joy for Canadians who will finally -- sometime this year -- get official iPhones. [More...]

Solid-State Drives Inspire Technolust

Tuesday - April 29, 2008

One of the best ways to speed up any computer is to add more memory to it. As the old joke goes, you can't be too rich, too thin or have too much RAM. There are two places data live in a computer: in memory and in storage -- either a hard drive or an optical disk, such as a CD or DVD. Working with information in storage is always slower than working with it in memory. [More...]

AMD Fishes for SMB Buyers With Business Class Initiative

Monday - April 28, 2008

AMD on Monday launched a new line of PCs targeting small and medium-sized businesses. Through its business class initiative, the chipmaker aims to provide desktop solutions to customers stuck between consumer PCs and enterprise-class systems. [More...]

Apple Puts Pedal to the Metal With New iMacs

Monday - April 28, 2008

Apple has upgraded its all-in-one iMac line by adding faster Intel Core 2 Duo processors, the fastest of which will cruise along at up to 3.06 GHz. The processors come with 6 MB of L2 cache and a faster 1,066 MHz front-side bus, with 2 GB memory standard in most models. [More...]

Rough Going on the Way to a $100 Laptop

Thursday - April 24, 2008

The former president of the One Laptop Per Child project stepped down from his position earlier this week as the non-profit continues restructuring and faces competition from the private sector. Walter Bender directed the MIT Media Lab for six years before joining Nicholas Negroponte's OLPC project in 2006. [More...]

Dell's All-in-One Runs With the Big Dogs

Tuesday - April 22, 2008

In December I reviewed the Gateway One, a new all-in-one PC with a sleek, innovative design. I really liked it, but at the time I lamented that I also couldn't get my hands on another system with the word "One" in its name. That was Dell's XPS One, and I've finally gotten my hands on a review unit. [More...]

The Secret Global War to Beat Apple

Monday - April 21, 2008

Over the last couple of weeks, I've been meeting with vendors all over the country that range from those that build PCs to those that build tools and parts, to those that build back-end solutions. One common message has come through. They all are targeting Apple as the company whose performance they most want to beat. [More...]

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