Items tagged with computer
Students all around the country are home for the summer, and anyone looking for an excellent gift idea that will give the kids something fun to do (while being educational at the same time) should check out the Kano PC. The Kano PC is a DIY kit that builds a real Windows 10-powered PC out of individual components. The idea is to allow kids to have fun while creating a project they can use when the construction is over and teach them about computer hardware. The first time we heard about the Kano PC was in June when it went up for preorder, but now the Kano PC is available to purchase for $299.99. Anyone interested can purchase a Kano PC from Kano directly, the Microsoft Store, or Best Buy. No...
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Microsoft has been very successful with its own line of Surface 2-in-1 machines that include the Surface Pro 6 and Surface Go. In May, a patent surfaced that hinted a Surface Pro 7 with a USB-C port and new type cover was in the works. Earlier this month reports indicated that Microsoft was showing off a dual-screen Surface device to employees. Now, Microsoft has teamed up with a company called Kano for a DIY computer that looks like a chunky Surface Go-style 2-in-1 aimed at kids. The Kano PC is a computer that kids build themselves and the kit can be preordered for $299.99 with shipping at the end of October 2019. The goal of the Kano PC is to allow kids to build their own computer, learn how...
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Things have gone terribly wrong for Huawei in the U.S. market as President Trump has declared the Chinese tech company off limits. The moves by the Trump Administration have forced companies with tech designed in the U.S. to stop doing business with Huawei. So far this month, Huawei has seen Google, Intel, Qualcomm, and ARM cut ties. Not only does that prevent Huawei from getting their products, but it also prevents Huawei from working on its chips as it licenses patents from some of the companies for its hardware. Microsoft has now kicked all Huawei laptops off its online store. If you search for Huawei on the Microsoft store the only returns are for a few apps; there are no hardware devices...
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Apple is a computing and electronics behemoth today, but the company started off much more modestly. Some of its very early computers were handmade and are very rare and valuable today. Last summer, an Apple I computer went up for auction and was expected to bring at least $300,000. Another rare early Apple computer has turned up on eBay, and this one is a Lisa 1 computer that is in working condition. The machine is said to be in working order and one of about 30 devices known to exist today. It boots to LISA OS v1.0 from an external Profile disk drive. The machine does include a pair of Twiggy floppy disc drives, which the seller says haven't been tested and no Twiggy floppies are included with...
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Auction firm RR Auction made news in August as it was getting ready to auction off a very rare and valuable piece of computer history. That bit of history was one of the few remaining and fully functional Apple-1 computer systems built by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. This particular machine was purchased by the original owner from The Byte Shop where the Apple-1 was sold for $666.66 back in the '70s. The original owner used the rig to learn BASIC programming and wrote small programs on it. The owner held onto the Apple-1 all these years because he felt it could be a piece of computing history one day. That reasoning has turned out to be valid with fewer than 70 Apple-1 computers thought to be...
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ASUS has announced the launch of three all-new ZenBook notebooks: the ZenBook 13, ZenBook 14, and ZenBook 15. The machines share many of the same slick features with the most notable being a very thin profile, and screens with thin bezels. ASUS says that the machines all have a 95% screen-to-body ratio thanks to NanoEdge displays for near-borderless visuals. These machines all claim to have the world's smallest footprint in their respective classes. The 13-inch and 14-inch ZenBooks also have a cool NumberPad that crams a full-size LED-illuminated number keypad into the touchpad. The ZenBook 15 has a full-size standard number pad. The lack of a number pad is something that bothers folks about...
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Apple is widely recognized these days as the most valuable company in the entire world, with a market cap of around $1 trillion. Think of Apple products today and what comes to mind are slickly designed MacBooks, iPhones, and iPods. The earliest beginnings of the company were set in motion by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak working out of a garage to build computers that looked more like science projects, versus what we expect from Apple today. Those earliest of machines back then were known Apple-1 computers that were built in the '70s and they certainly look far different than any current day modern PC. Only 200 of the Apple-1 machines were produced, and working examples are exceedingly...
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Apple isn't exactly hurting for money with a market cap of a trillion dollars, making it the most valuable company in the world. It still wants more and to get its next trillion dollars in worth, Cupertino is looking to roll out some new products and among those are allegedly AR glasses in 2020 and an Apple Car in 2023. While we aren’t sure if those rumored products will actually launch, a pair of products that have been needing an update for years may finally be getting some new hardware. Rumors are flowing that Apple is set to finally update the long stale and underpowered Mac Mini desktop computer and the MacBook Air. Reports indicate that the new MacBook that is inbound will look similar...
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Dell has pulled the wraps off a new series of computers at Gamescom that run the gamut from desktop to laptop systems. The Aurora packs in next-generation NVIDIA GeForce RTX graphics options and can be crammed with up to five storage drives inside. Intel Optane memory is supported with the new Aurora and Killer Gigabit Ethernet hardware is integrated. For those who like to upgrade their rigs over time, Alienware says that this machine is its most tool-less mid-tower chassis ever. Aurora PCs get the first chassis from Alienware that supports tool-less graphics card upgrades and no tools are required for accessing hard drives or memory. Optimized airflow inside the chassis helps to keep all...
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Microsoft is doing something that sounds very strange at first glance; it has taken a fully functional data center and sunk it into the dark ocean depths. The data center is crammed inside a giant white cylinder that is waterproof and the tube can sit on the ocean floor for up to five years. An undersea cable serves the power the data center needs and transfers data from the data center to the internet on shore. Microsoft chose to place the data center in Europe off the shore of Orkney, a major center for renewable energy research, to try and determine if placing a data center under water could boost energy efficiency. It often costs huge amounts of money and consumes lots of power to keep a...
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Normally when you want a high-end liquid cooled PC, you end up having to roll your own. For people that lack experience that can be a daunting task because one leak could spell doom for your PC hardware. EK Water Blocks traditionally made the water blocks that gamers would purchase for building up their own gaming computers. It has now announced that it will be building pre-assembled gaming PCs ready to roll right out of the box. The machines are being built under the EK Fluid Gaming Systems brand. The company notes that it is allocating all of its GPUs to gaming rigs rather than crypto miners (buying a pre-built PC is sometimes the only way to get hands on a decent video card on the current...
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Fans of gaming and computer hardware who didn’t get to go to PAX East this year take heart; we have booth video tours from the floor of the show that give you an excellent glimpse at what you missed. Our first video is the tour of the MSI booth at the show and all of the latest gaming notebooks the company offers are on full display. The full RGB keyboard backlighting is nice and some of the keyboards can be programmed to light specific keys for each game. Our second booth tour is of the Gigabyte booth, and the company has lots of its computer hardware on display. One of the coolest products was the full Aorus setup that shows all the RGB lighting and high-end gaming hardware that Gigabyte...
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Lots of people have a new computer on their Christmas list and if you want to save some loot on buying those computers, Microsoft has some sweet deals running right now. Microsoft kicked off the 12 Days of Deals back on December 6 and each day through December 17. A new deal will go live each day at 12:00 AM ET. Today's deal is on some nice hardware from HP with rigs for everything from workday productivity to gaming and in between. The HP Pavilion x360 convertible 15-br095ms packs a 15.6-inch screen, Intel Core i5 processor, 8GB of RAM, and a 128GB SSD is on sale for $599. The HP Envy x360 convertible 15-aq293ms 2 in 1 PC with a 15.6-inch full HD touchscreen and 8th gen Core i7 processor with...
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Microsoft Surface Book 2 owners might have noticed an issue that rears its head if you try to game on the computer. With an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 GPU inside, the machine is certainly capable of moderate gaming. You might expect the battery to drain quicker when on the go if you play video games, but you wouldn't expect the battery to drain even when plugged in. That is exactly what has been happening; the base battery inside the Surface Book 2 is draining during gaming session when the machine is plugged in. The drain occurs with some games when power settings are configured to maximum performance. Microsoft issued the following statement regarding the battery drain: Surface Book 2 was designed...
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Hewlett-Packard isn't reverting back to Hewlett and Packard, but the heralded technology company is indeed splitting up this week. HP will become two companies, both of which will be publicly traded Fortune 50 businesses. One will be made up of HP's enterprise technology, while the other will be comprised of its PC and printing businesses (that's the one that'll keep the current HP logo and name). Immediately following the transaction, which is expected to be completed by the end of fiscal 2015, HP shareholders will own shares of both Hewlett-Packard Enterprise and HP Inc. Today’s announcement comes as HP approaches the fourth year of its five-year turnaround plan, and the move makes a...
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Netvertibles, Chromebooks, and Xbox consoles turned into laptops. We've seen all of that, but a 3D-printed laptop huddled around a Raspberry Pi? It sounds like nerd heaven, and it's now a reality. The Pi-Top is very likely the world's first 3D-pri ted, Raspberry Pi-powered laptop, and rather than just being a one-off project, it's one that you can enjoy yourself. The Pi-Top's creator is offering DIY kits up for sale, with a price point that's actually fairly accessible for the average (okay, maybe skewing hardcore) hobbyist If you have access to a 3D printer, you can print the shell on your own and embed the Raspberry Pi afterwards. If you're still lacking a 3D printer, you can buy the cast directly...
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Hot on the heels of Microsoft issuing a second wave of layoffs, Toshiba announced that it too will be handing out pink slips. The reason? Apparently the consumer PC market is just too damn volatile, so Toshiba plans to accelerate its restructuring effort that will ultimately see a reduced presence in that market and an increased focus on the "profitable B2B field," or business-to-business segment. Toshiba said it plans to expand its range of business PCs, including its workstations and tablet PCs. It will also be more active in promoting the Internet of Things (IoT), a market Toshiba is confident it can compete in due to its strengths and experience in various PC technologies, such as BIOS, security,...
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You've surely heard of 2-in-1 tablets/netvertibles before, but what about a 3-in-1? That's the nomenclature used by MSI to describe its latest contraption, the S100. It's a Windows 8.1-based tablet that ships with a keyboard and protective cover. Underneath the hood, there's an Intel Bay Trail quad-core processor, a 10.1-inch 1280 x 800 IPS display, and a dual 2-megapixel camera system. You'll also find 2GB of memory, 64GB of storage, a microSD slot, and of course, a touch-friendly panel. Bluetooth 4.0, 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi, a 3.5mm headphone jack, HDMI 1.4a and a built-in 1-watt speaker are also included, along with a 7500mAh battery. Pricing remains a mystery,...
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Today's children are the key to a better tomorrow, and unless you're a curmudgeon, there's a distinct joy in watching little ones grow and blossom into the next generation of decision makers. It can be your own kids, your nieces and nephews, or ones you've met for the first time -- their innocent view of the world is heartwarming and takes us back to when we were their age. By that same token, their brutally honest nature sometimes hits like a gut punch, whether it's pointing out your bad breath (yes, you little demon, we skipped brushing this morning because we were running late, let's not announce it to the world, mmkay?) or making you feel incredibly old by reacting to the technology you grew...
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Who says the PC market is dying a brisk death? While the numbers in some segments may be cause for concern, Lenovo's bucking the trend by announcing better-than-expected figures for its fourth quarter earnings. The company recorded 55 million PC shipments, 50 million smartphone shipments, and 9.2 million tablet shipments in its last full year, with annual revenue coming in at a record $38.7 billion (a 14% increase year-over-year). It pulled in $817 million in full-year earnings (a boost of 29% compared to the prior year), and it also added 2.1 points of market share to its overall #1 position in PCs. What's amazing is that Lenovo has somehow notched 5% year-over-year growth, compared to the industry...
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When you hear DE3815TYKHE, you probably aren't familiar with what it represents. But when you hear Intel NUC, things are likely a little clearer. The first NUC powered by an Intel E3815 Atom processor is now available, boasting a tiny, fanless design, on-board eMMC memory and the space savings of a 4”x 4” motherboard. There's also the ability to directly power an LCD monitor with an onboard eDP connector, and perhaps most impressively, retail pricing for the NUC kit starts at $129, while the NUC board alone is just $99. The vertical design should be solid for not taking up a great deal of space, and there's onboard support for both Linux and Windows Embedded. It's essentially a fancy...
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For every great, long-lasting startup that goes on to revolutionize the world, there are hundreds -- if not thousands -- that never make it beyond the drawing board. In today's world, however, simply "making it" once isn't good enough. Particularly in the rough-and-tumble technology sector, companies have to continue proving themselves time and time again, or else they risk losing all of the ground they've gained to incoming rivals. If you need proof, just look at the market share numbers for Nokia and BlackBerry from 8 years ago, and compare them to now. Similarly, Dell has found itself at the bottom of the pile in recent years. While the name and brand is still one that is recognized, it's...
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