Desktops

Apple desktop fans were disappointed at today's World Wide Developer Conference, where, despite persistent rumors, Apple's iMac and Mac Pro lines went unmentioned during the keynote presentation.

When the Apple store came back online after the show, a "New" tag on the Mac Pro hinted at a stealth update. Glancing over the specs for the supposedly new system turned up only a clock speed bump to a few of the available Xeon processors.

Rather than the quad-core, 2.8GHz Intel Xeon W3530 chip, for example, now the $2,499 Mac Pro starts with a 3.2GHz … Read more

Mountain Lion, aka OS X version 10.8, will better tie together the worlds of OS X and iOS with a host of new features.

Revealed today at Apple's WWDC in San Francisco, first on the list will be iCloud, new to OS X. The cloud-based service already boasts 125 million registered users, according to Apple. Applications like mail, contacts, calendar, Messages, Reminders, and Notes will all sync up, along with a new feature dubbed "Documents in the Cloud," which can sync documents from Pages, Keynote, Preview, and TextEdit.

Users can simply drag and drop documents to their cloud-based storage, as if it were just another folder on the desktop.

Developers can also add iCloud to their own applications, courtesy of an API (applications programming interface) from Apple.… Read more

Apple is expected to bump up its Mac Pro and MacBook Pro lineups with beefier processors and more memory.

On the receiving end of "detailed information from reliable sources," 9to5Mac says that Apple will unveil three new editions of the Mac Pro at its Worldwide Developers Conference this week.

The first standard model will offer a 3.2GHz quad-core processor, 6GB of RAM, a 1TB hard drive, and an ATI Radeon 5770 graphics chip, while the second one will sport a 2.4GHz 12-core processor and 12GB of RAM with the same size hard drive and graphics chip. … Read more

During the upcoming WWDC conference in San Francisco, Apple is expected to announce updates to its Mac line of desktop and laptop computers. This may include the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro laptops, Mac Pro desktop, iMac all-in-one, and perhaps even the Mac Mini small form factor desktop.

Rumors, leaks, alleged lists of part numbers, and blurry photos of spec stickers have all surfaced in the past weeks. Some of these sources seem more reliable than others, and Apple prognosticators are wrong at least as often as they are right. The leaked part numbers and spec sheets found here and … Read more

TAIPEI, Taiwan--We stumbled upon YoungYear Electronics' new fanless PC case made of mesh here at Computex and did a double take. Instead of being fully enclosed, with fan ports for proper airflow, the Green Mesh Computer Case does away with all that in favor of an open-air approach. It looks nothing like your usual PC chassis.

That's right. There's nothing to stop the dust from accumulating inside the case, not even a filter. But according to the Taiwanese manufacturer of power supply units (PSUs), this open-air design is actually the reason dust will not magically accumulate inside the case. In fact, the company claims it will have three to four times less dust than a normal PC tower. … Read more

Generally, Mac users have been missing out on USB 3.0, instead, they have had Thunderbolt from the beginning of the new standard. Now that's about to change, thanks to Belkin.

The company announced yesterday a new docking device called Thunderbolt Express Dock, model F4U055, which allows for adding three USB 3.0 ports to a Mac via the computer's Thunderbolt port. In addition, it also offers one port of the following connection types: FireWire 800, Gigabit Eithernet, and eSATA, as well as one audio in and one audio out. Similar to most Thunderbolt devices, the dock comes … Read more

If CNET's sterling review of the Samsung 830 series solid-state drive isn't convincing enough, here's another incentive.

Samsung announced today that its 830 series SSDs will include a downloadable version of Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Future Soldier PC game with a purchase of the 128GB, 256GB, or 512GB model. … Read more

TAIPEI, Taiwan--While all-in-one touch screens have never lived up to the promise, the launch of Windows 8 later this year will mean a rash of new devices hitting the market. Will compelling touch-screen Windows apps for the desktop finally happen?

The bigger 7600U comes in at 27 inches and has a full HD resolution. Here, you can spot a slot-loading optical drive.

The touch screen allows up to 64 simultaneous inputs, which could have fascinating implications for multiuser programs. It can also be tilted flat like a table, and rotated for easy access.

Screen quality was excellent at first glance, and the Metro aesthetic translates really well to the large screen. We're looking forward to seeing if usability is up there as well. The product manager joked that vertically oriented, it's the world's biggest e-reader. From the sharp text we saw, he may not be far off the mark.… Read more

Sony has gone all-in on the concept of the home entertainment PC with its new Vaio L-Series all-in-one desktop. Yes, it has Intel's new third-generation (Ivy Bridge) Core CPUs, but that's almost besides the point. Alongside those new chips, you'll find Sony has pushed harder than ever to make this PC an all-encompassing digital media hub.… Read more