laptop

The new, 16-inch Dell Latitude Z is the first laptop to bring wireless inductive charging to the masses -- well, the I'm-willing-to-spend-an-extra-$400-on-an-already-two-grand-machine masses, at least.

Have you ever found yourself wishing that your Eee PC had a better trackpad, or maybe even a joystick? Well, the Atmel AVR USB key might be your answer.

This little gimmick has been in graphics design studios for years: a clever way to bring a wayward menu bar back from a dual monitor setup without plugging in a second monitor. Essentially, by shorting pins 1 (red video signal out) and 6 (red ground), and 3 (blue video signal out) and 8 (blue ground) on a 15-pin VGA adapter, you can mislead the PC into -- erroneously -- detecting the presence of a second monitor. Then it's just a matter of dragging the menu bar back onto the correct display.

Including a built-in SD card reader in the ASUS Eee PC was just one of many smart decisions that went into the lovable little portable (are you listening Apple?). Without a large hard disk, memory cards are crucial for any Eee user wanting to store large media collections, keep tons of applications, or boot multiple operating systems, allowing for a virtually unlimited data storage system without any external add-ons.

As we showed you in our May 2008 issue, Asus's Eee PC has quickly become a favorite of hardware hackers around the web. Here, we offer the first installment of our Eee PC School series. Check back in the coming weeks for more tiny ultraportable tweaking.—Eds.

What good is that portable PC if you can’t type anywhere and anytime? With its ultra-compact keyboard, even touch typing pros will be hard-pressed to avoid frequent mistakes on when the lights go out. To say it’s a frustrating exercise in futility to locate the miniature F3 key in the dark is an understatement. Oops, you just lost WiFi contact by accidentally hitting F2.

No doubt about it; Everexs gBook computer is a hackers dream PC. While we weren't too fond of the company's entry into the ultra-portable market, the gBook sings a different tune: On top of being a fairly well-equipped, full-size VIA-based budget laptop, the gBook also sports some impressive hidden features when the hood is lifted and the tires kicked. And while they may not be immediately apparent, in the hands of a seasoned tinkerer the gBook's extras can allow for some inspired modding.

If you want a super-light laptop, you have to pay for it, and you have to use Windows. Thats been the (frustrating) conventional wisdom—at least until late last year, when the Taiwanese company Asus rolled out the Eee PC (pronounced as though it were a single long e), a two-pound, seven-inch laptop starting at a mere $300. The tradeoff: It comes with just two to eight gigabytes of flash memory instead of a conventional, larger hard drive, and a simplified Linux operating system that essentially is usable only for e-mail, Web browsing and typing.

So your buddy with the new plasma TV won´t shut up about how great the game looks in high-def. He´s right-it is like watching a whole new sport. But you don´t have to splurge on a 50-inch flat screen to quell your HD envy. Stations across the country broadcast HD signals over the air, absolutely free. And since most laptop screens already have enough resolution to display high-def, all you need is an HD tuner that plugs into a USB port on your Mac or PC, and you can enjoy the ultracrisp picture at home or away. Let´s see Mr. Plasma do that.

Here, we present a compilation of PopSci coverage of the season´s hottest tech- 60 pages of lust-worthy items, from a luxury amplifier that will please the most discerning audiophile to cutting-edge smartphones to household gizmos that will make everyday tasks easier. Get ready to drool.

Launch the photo gallery.

Before you put that ancient hunk of plastic and silicon to work, you need to clean it up and lock it down. Cleaning old software off the system will help it run smoothly, and securing it will help avoid headaches caused by worms, viruses and other online nasties. Fortunately, you can do it all without spending a dime. Just follow this plan (for Windows XP and Windows 2000).

My mom loves seeing my digital photos, whether they´re of far-off places or my latest culinary creations, so I´ve long thought about building her a digital-photo frame that would show a new shot every time she walked by. But instead of loading 1,000 images onto a hard drive, I wanted to be able to update the library remotely, adding new pics as I shot them, so she could always see what I´d whipped up that night or where I´d traveled that weekend. I also wanted the whole project to be cheap, because, well, I´m cheap.

PC RevivalCost: $0-$260 Easy | | | | | Hard

Start by checking the health of your hardware with a free diagnostic program such as #1-Tufftest (tufftest.com).
If the motherboard or screen is shot, forget it. Replacing either one is more expensive and more hassle than buying a new system.
Lost your user manual? Try the manufacturer´s Web site.
Check eBay or craigslist.org for used replacement parts.

Make a Laptop DVR

Cost: $110
Time: 30 minutes
Easy | | | | | Hard

How It Works:

1. Use the CD to install on your laptop the software and drivers for the Instant TV card. Restart, and plug in the card.
2. Connect to a video source (cable box or jack, TiVo) using either the S-video plugs or composite (red, white and yellow) plugs.
3. Open the Ulead InstaMedia software (the CD will also install a program called Instant TV, but it's clunky). Select "Settings." Choose your connection type, then choose the recording quality you want (a medium setting is fine for laptop playback).
4. Sit back and watch TV. Hit "Timer Record" or use titantv.com to schedule a recording.

Sony's petite T350P finally frees you from the invisible umbilical of Wi-Fi. Although the laptop includes both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, it's the first to also incorporate built-in access to Cingular's EDGE wireless data network, giving you near-broadband speed (up to 135 Kbps) in about 85 percent of the country. 1.2GHz Pentium M; 10.6-inch screen; 60GB hard drive; From $2,100

Worker, presenter, painter: Acer's Tablet PC changes to suit your needs.


It's a regular laptop whose display swivels for presentations and folds back on itself to form a tablet. It'll be available by the end of this year at about the same price as a comparably equipped laptop. It'll also weigh less than 3 pounds and get 3 hours of battery life.