desktop - News, Features, and Slideshows

News

• Desktop 2025

  The desktop is undergoing change, but what will it look like in five years? Here’s what I see in my somewhat cracked crystal ball.

• The end of the desktop?

  Microsoft is introducing the Windows Virtual Desktop, and ushering in the end of the traditional PC desktop operating system.

• What's in HP's $4k virtual reality desktop?

  If you thought virtual reality headsets were expensive, the price of desktops to create VR content will blow you away.

• In Pictures: Rotten Apple - Apple's 11 biggest failures

  Apple sets the standard -- for both success and failure. Here's a look at 11 major screwups, some of which almost derailed the company

• Google releases Chrome desktop-sharing feature

  Google isn’t reinventing the wheel with a new feature it is testing that allows any two computers using its Chrome browser to connect with each other.

• HP or no HP: The PC lives

  Suggestions that the PC is dead are greatly exaggerated. Flexibility, innovation and users' storage needs will keep it around a good long while.

• Tiny Linux plug PC offers a Cloud computing alternative

  Linux-based plug computers such as the Sheevaplug have been drawing fresh attention for some time already, but on Monday MimoMonitors launched the new MimoPlug, a tiny, cube-shaped contender that's designed as a desktop PC alternative for cloud computing applications.

• OS X Lion features could make Google Chromebooks tough sell

  Apple's new version of its desktop operating system is expected to allow quick access to the Internet without having to log back in when your system is locked.

• Desktop virtualization coming of age for small business

  The acquisition of Kaviza, a maker of simple desktop virtualization software for small businesses, by Citrix Systems is all the buzz at this week's Citrix Synergy event at San Francisco's Moscone Center West.

• First Chrome OS desktop PC will ship in July

  As the U.S. arrival date approaches for the first Chromebooks from Samsung and Acer, hardware maker Xi3 on Friday announced its own entrant in the form of a desktop PC running Chrome OS.

• Tablets are category killers across the board

  Computer manufacturers, makers of video gear and game machines, be nervous. Research from Google's AdMob group shows there's a new Borg in town: Tablet computers.

• Give Windows 7 (or XP) a Vista-like sidebar

  One of the things I miss about Windows Vista -- okay, the only thing I miss about Vista -- is the Sidebar. Much as I applaud Microsoft's decision to liberate its desktop gadgets, to make it so you can position them anywhere you like, did it have to be at the expense of the Sidebar itself?

• Technology's Biggest Myths

  As it turns out, Windows Vista really wasn't all that slow; and no, your PC probably won't fry if you open it up without wearing a wrist strap. Thanks in large part to the Internet, the tech world is teeming with lies, half-truths, and misinformation. We've dug up some of the Web's most notorious nuggets of conventional wisdom to see which hold up to scrutiny and which are merely urban legends.

• Save Serious Money With a Business Energy Audit

  Sluggish sales and hard-to-get loans may blight the business landscape, but cutting energy waste can bring a big payoff to a small company. To shave liabilities off your profit-and-loss statement, aim to slash your power consumption instead of your workforce or the crucial projects that could help your company expand.

• 4 reasons Apple's Magic Trackpad won't kill the mouse

  Apple's multi-touch assault on the desktop continues with the US$69 (AUD$99) Magic Trackpad, a jumbo touch panel that allows desktop Mac users to do away with their mouses and act like they're using MacBook Pros. But just because people can say goodbye to the mouse doesn't mean they will. Here are four reasons not to count out the PC mouse just yet: