screens

Infected Screen Saver is a cool old-school variation on the Matrix look

Matrix-style screensavers have been around almost as long as the "Matrix" movies, and in many variations of the original falling-code theme. It's an iconic look that says "computers" the way Greek columns say "buildings," and is just as easily renewed. Vastimil Burian's Infected Screen Saver is a good example. It's based on the original Matrix code look, but it "infects" your screen with code when it's activated. The effect is cool, of course, like the many "original" variations, but Infected Screen Saver is different. For starters, … Read more

What does a great Windows 8 gaming laptop need?

A recent question from a reader brought up an issue we've been discussing around the office recently -- the lack of Windows 8 laptops that include both a touch screen and a high-end GPU. Our reader's question, excerpted below:

May I ask for your advice on purchasing a gaming PC? I'm considering the Alienware M14x, but the only thing holding me back is the absence of a touch screen and I can't seem to find powerful laptops with a touch screen. Do you think touch-screen laptops will soon become the standard?

It's true that the … Read more

A great way to read e-mail on your iPad

Incredimail is an elegant way to manage your e-mail on the iPad. You start by signing in to your e-mail accounts and Incredimail gives you a brief tutorial to show you the major features of the app. The app has full IMAP support so you can add your Gmail, Yahoo, AOL, or any other IMAP accounts. A menu button in the upper left lets you quickly switch accounts, and you can also filter by categories within an inbox to look at starred messages, drafts, sent messages, and other mail you have assigned filters.

The beauty of Incredimail is all about … Read more

Access unique wallpapers with Pimp Your Screen for Mac

For people who often change their desktop backgrounds, locating unique images can be a problem. Pimp Your Screen for Mac addresses this with its selection of unique, high-quality wallpapers, which may be worth the price for some people.

Available only as a paid app from the Mac App Store for $2.99, Pimp Your Screen for Mac has no free trial, which would have been a welcome feature. Since it is an App Store program, download and installation completed easily without any user activity. Pimp Your Screen for Mac also started up cleanly and the interface was very well designed. … Read more

Best Windows 8 laptops with optical drives

If your laptop shopping list includes a touch screen, SSD storage, or even NFC, finding a new system shouldn't be hard. But if you're still tied to your optical discs and need a DVD or Blu-ray drive, that's another story. This once-ubiquitous feature is hard to find in new Windows 8 laptops, largely restricted to older models that have had Win 8 slapped onto them and to a handful of larger desktop replacements.

As laptops continue to get thinner, a charge led by ultrabooks and the MacBook Air (and the MacBook Pro with Retina Display), I suspect we'll see fewer and fewer optical drives.

Slot-loading drives are easier to fit into a small chassis than tray-loading ones, but like Ethernet ports, optical drives may become an added cost that PC makers feel most shoppers can live without, thanks to online gaming, music, and movie services, and the growth of cloud computing.

Since the launch of Windows 8, we've reviewed only a handful of laptops that include optical drives. The list below gives our favorites, and a few that weren't quite as warmly received.… Read more

Windows 8 touch-screen laptop price cuts coming

Expect to see significant price cuts on Windows 8 touch-screen laptops if Microsoft's expected Windows 8 discount on licensing fees for PC makers is implemented.

Those price cuts could range between 10 percent and 20 percent, according to a report in Digitimes, which cites sources at Taiwan's retailers.

Those same sources indicated that touch-screen laptops now account for about 10 percent of sales, but this could jump to 20 percent in some cases with discounts from Microsoft.

Reports Tuesday in Digitimes and the Wall Street Journal indicated that Microsoft will lower the price of Windows 8 for PC … Read more

Asus' lovable Windows 8/Android mashup

The Sony Vaio Tap 20 introduced us to the idea of the all-in-one/tablet hybrid device. Asus has taken that concept, slathered it with Asus' particular brand of experimental enthusiasm, and brought it to life in the form of the $1,299 Transformer AIO.

The Transformer AIO, like the Sony Tap 20, shows an effort to offer consumers an intriguing new blend of all-in-one desktop and semiportable tablet. Rather than following Sony's approach of relying on Windows 8's new touch-friendly interface to achieve that mix with a single, seamless piece of hardware, the Transformer AIO essentially gives you … Read more

Microsoft's little-screen, big-screen interactive future

Giant interactive surfaces will complement the more mobile variety of today. That's how Microsoft sees the future.

Walk up to a massive interactive screen with a Surface tablet, tap it, and, voila, now you're working on the big screen. Or project your Windows phone screen onto a larger surface.

The point of "Microsoft's Future Vision: Live, Work, Play" (see below), a concept video that describes how we'll live in five to ten years, is that there is fluid interaction between touch surfaces and devices of all sizes.

The video debuted as the company opened … Read more

Pandora limits free mobile streaming

CNET Update teaches you how to say Ubuntu:

Thursday's tech news roundup has bad news for Pandora addicts. Free music streaming on Pandora apps is limited to 40 hours a month -- but there's no limit for desktop users. Pandora is bringing back limits just as Spotify evolves: it's making changes to be more social, just updated its iOS app, and is going to be available on Ford's Sync AppLink. Another streaming cousin, TuneIn, also updated its site and iPad app to offer live listening recommendations.

And as Mobile World Congress coverage wraps up, we're … Read more

Take a Leap in May with motion control

This is the CNET Update you're looking for:

Get ready to control your computer like a Jedi: Leap Motion's controllers are arriving mid-May for $80. Watch the video above to see how users can navigate programs with the wave of a hand or the wiggle of a finger. Developers like Corel and Disney Interactive are releasing apps that work with Leap.

But that's not the only company taking the "touch" out of touch screen. At Mobile World Congress, STMicroelectronics shows how to control a tablet without making contact.

Also in Wednesday's tech news roundup: … Read more