Laptops

There were some impressive laptop deals to be had for Black Friday last week, and some of those same models are on sale again for Cyber Monday (or Cyber Week, as some call it).

Toshiba U845 ultrabook ($528-$549 at Walmart and Amazon) This decent Toshiba ultrabook only has a Core i3 processor, but includes a sleeve and 2GB USB key. A better Core i5 version is $40 more. Amazon has the Core i5 version, sans accessories, for $549 but only for a short time today.

Acer Aspire V5 ($519 at Best Buy) This touch-screen Windows 8 laptop is now … Read more

One of the most exciting things about Windows 8 is the emergence of convertible laptops. They can be tablets! They can be laptops! I've wanted this type of device for ages, and I've been exploring the possibilities.

Ever since I got a MacBook Air about two years ago, it's left me disappointed in one key area. I wish there were times I could just use it like a tablet. Soon after getting it, I abandoned taking an iPad around on trips. There was no need. The MacBook Air gave me the same instant-on access to the Web … Read more

Every year the Black Friday online circulars hit the Web and lots of sites round up every tech deal under the sun. That's great, but it's always hard to tell the real deals from all the crap that's being advertised to lure you into the stores. The truth is that a lot of the so-called superbargains are already available online from stores like Amazon and others.

However, a few items do stand out. Alas, many of these are "doorbusters" that are available in very limited quantities and only the people who arrive long before the … Read more

Last month, we stumbled upon videos of Steve Jobs' yacht, the Venus, which was reportedly unveiled a year after Jobs' death. The sleek, clean design has a certain Apple Store look to it, complete with a row of 27-inch iMacs on board, but there's no evidence the crew will don those blue Genius bar shirts.

Then recently SuperYacht Times interviewed French designer Philippe Starck, who Jobs collaborated with to design Venus. (You might remember erroneous reports earlier this year that alleged Starck was involved in designing a new Apple product -- turns out the project in question was actually … Read more

As Black Friday expands into a week-long marathon of deals (followed by the now-requisite Cyber Monday), a new laptop, desktop, or tablet may be high up on your shopping list. And with Windows 8 launching dozens of new computer models, that's just one more reason to upgrade. Perusing the major retailers for PC deals, I found a few noteworthy ones, as well as a few you should be warned away from.

There are decent discounts on some mainstream full-power laptops, as well as on newer touch-screen Windows 8 systems. Tablet deals were less common, largely restricted to no-name brands. … Read more

When it comes to consumer technology, I expect failure. At some point, your tech will break and let you down. But it was my own human error that led me to use one of the new Samsung Chromebooks for the week following Sandy, and it held its own in a couple of specific but widely used situations.

I was in New York for the Windows 8 launch on October 26, and had decided to spend an extra week there for work, but also to see friends. I made a tactical error in leaving my workhorse Windows 7 laptop in the CNET office over the weekend, figuring I wouldn't need it until Monday. I didn't think Sandy's storm surge would wreak havoc on lower Manhattan. … Read more

Unlike most of my colleagues, my recent Windows 8 experiences have been distinctly nontouch. As it turns out, the only two laptops I've reviewed with Microsoft's new operating system preinstalled both lacked touch screens: the Sony Vaio E17 and the Toshiba Satellite U845W. Both are what you'd consider "classic" laptops -- although the U845W has a unique, extra-wide screen.

Based on these early experiences with two "Windows 8-optimized" laptops, I'm not a fan of the nontouch Windows 8 world.… Read more

Windows 8 is neither a completely foreign experience, as some have said, nor is it a smooth continuation of the Windows you've known for the past 11 years, since the start of the modern XP era.

From a hardware point of view, using Windows 8 and its not-Metro interface is eventually navigable after some trial and error, and memorizing a few new commands and gestures -- at least if you have one of the many new touch-screen laptops or all-in-one desktops.

Having tried it on a couple of new Windows 8 laptops that do not have touch screens (and … Read more

Our nation faces a decision that could tear us apart.

Yes, the choice between running Windows 8 in Metro view or the traditional desktop view is what we must wrestle with.

Fortunately, there is a compromise to bridge this heated divide. By using a dual-screen setup, you can run Metro and desktop views simultaneously on the same machine.

In the How To video above, I'll walk you through the process of connecting a second monitor to your Windows 8 machine and adjusting just a few settings to achieve the ultimate dual-interface Windows 8 experience.

To cut to the chase, … Read more