dell

Students who buy a new PC can score a free Xbox

Students trudging back to school can soften the blow with a free Xbox console and a $14.99 upgrade to Windows 8, as long as they buy a new PC.

Several PC vendors have cooked up the deal to attract students who need to buy a new computer. Here's how it works:

Buy a new PC for $699 or more from Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Best Buy, Newegg, or the Microsoft Store. You'll have to show some proof that you're a student currently enrolled, either through a school e-mail address or ID number. You then get your free Xbox … Read more

Microsoft Office a big draw for Windows tablets?

One of the cornerstones of upcoming Windows 8 tablets will be Microsoft Office, but will that be a deal-maker for buyers?

Any Intel-based Windows 8 Pro tablet -- like the one coming from Hewlett-Packard -- will be able to run the regular version of Office, just as it runs today on any Intel-based PC.

And, in April, Microsoft preannounced that tablets running the RT version of Windows 8 will come with Office.

While there is speculation that Microsoft will initially ship a "preview" version of Office 2013 RT (upgradeable soon thereafter) and that the RT version will lack … Read more

This week in awesome: Twelve 4-star gadgets and apps

I'd call this week the calm before the brewing Motorola/iPhone/rumored smaller iPad/Kindle update/Surface storm, but in truth, fall gadget winds are already whipping up. This week's Microsoft Release to Manufacturing of Windows 8 signals the company's final few weeks before a hurricane of Windows 8 machines blow into the market.

Storm metaphor too heavy-handed? I'll just cut to the chase: Seth Rosenblatt took a very close look at this final version of Windows (it's the code that ships to partners installing the OS on new computers) and made a call: It'… Read more

Microsoft bares Windows RT 'PC'

Aside from calling it a "PC," there isn't much about Windows RT devices that resemble the laptop you're using today, as Microsoft spelled out today in its Building Windows 8 blog.

At the top the blog, Microsoft confirmed that Dell, Lenovo, and Samsung will be introducing Windows RT PCs running on top of ARM chips.

This follows the announcement by Asus of the Windows RT Tablet 600.

Here are some of the highlights of today's blog:

Windows RT is not just tablets: The point being that many devices will come with physical keyboards. "Some … Read more

The disappeared tweets of Michael Dell's daughter

It's not easy being a wealthy parent, especially if your kids want to do the same things as the kids of other wealthy parents do.

You know, like, um, constantly feeding your Twitter account.

Wayne Gretzky seems to have been one modern patrician who became frustrated with his daughter's Twitter postings, reportedly shutting down his daughter's Twitter feed twice. She does like a racy shot or two, does Paulina Gretzky.

Now I hear there might have been another marginal breach in Twitterdom in the bosom of Michael Dell.

As Bloomberg Businessweek reports it, Dell's 18-year-old daughter … Read more

Beware the allure of Apple's Retina Displays

Apple's Retina Displays are drop-dead gorgeous. But be careful what you wish for.

Like many, I got the third-generation iPad because of the 2,048-by-1,536-pixel-density Retina Display. And, like many, I didn't see a huge difference at first.

That was then. Now it's painful to pick up my Dell laptop with its 1,366x768-pixel 13.3-inch display and Windows 7 fonts (note: font-smoothing utilities go just so far).

And while my 11.6-inch MacBook Air fares better than the Dell (it packs the same number of pixels but into a smaller area giving it a higher PPI … Read more

To fight Apple-flight, Microsoft must hang tough on Surface

I just pray that Microsoft doesn't cave to pressure from partners to punt on Surface.

The first public plea came this week from Acer, which, in effect, begged Microsoft to drop Surface.

If that happens, Microsoft will lose the consumer to Apple for good. Probably sooner rather than later.

And if Acer is that worried about Surface, then it should out-design Microsoft or look elsewhere. Right now I don't see anything from Acer that would make me chuck my MacBook and iPad.

But Surface could. And it gets even more interesting when I see that Redmond is already working on Surface 2. … Read more

Windows 7 all-in-ones go out big

One highlight of this year's Consumer Electronics Show was the debut of the 27-inch Windows all-in-one. Finally, two-and-a-half years after Apple debuted the 27-inch iMac, Windows vendors found a way to compete.

Asus, HP, Lenovo, Samsung, and Vizio all had big-screen all-in-ones to show off, giving CES an uncommonly intriguing batch of desktop PC announcements.

I had some hands-on time with Vizio's 27-incher a few weeks ago, but the company still has not submitted a system for review. That Samsung Series 9 all-in-one has come out in Asia, but it hasn't hit U.S. shores yet.… Read more

iPad, MacBook torpedoing ultrabook sales, says analyst

Analysts are not kind to ultrabooks. Add Tim Bajarin to that long list.

Though the Creative Strategies president offers plenty of reasons for ultrabooks' woes, one of the more intriguing is that Apple products are boxing ultrabooks into a pricing dead zone.

The mid-range, between $799 and $899 -- where an increasing number of ultrabooks are priced -- "may be going away," Bajarin wrote in a recent post.

That's the upper end of the pricing range of Apple's very popular iPad. And above that, it's a MacBook market -- which Bajarin says consumers will pay … Read more