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.

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.

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).