Katie tests Asus’s Eee Top, the company’s first entry into the all-in-one PC computer category. At $600, or half the cost of the least expensive iMac or HP TouchSmart, the Eee Top brings the fun and accessibility of a touch-screen computer to people who might not otherwise afford it.
Gone are the days when giving away your old stuff involved getting in the car and hauling bags to the local Salvation Army. Now, with a little Web know-how, you can find a number of ways to turn your trash into someone else’s treasure.
Dipping a toe into the real-estate market these days can be tricky. Thankfully, the Web’s ability to demystify intimidating topics has brought what was once considered insider real-estate knowledge to the masses.
My grandmother, a college graduate and former reference librarian, recently walked out of an electronics store in frustration. She compared the techie conversations that were going on around her with people speaking in a different language. And she isn’t alone.
Katie reviews Latitude, a new feature of Google Maps that uses location-based technology to track its users’ movements. Latitude displays the user’s location on a map for friends to see, so they can know where the person is at all times.
In two weeks, the latest version of the BlackBerry, the Curve 8900, arrives. This device doesn’t have a sleek touch screen or completely overhauled operating system, nor is it meant to compete with the likes of Apple’s iPhone. But it has a physical keyboard and still manages to look stylish — and that’s no small feat.
The time it takes to boot up a computer can be a source of frustration — especially if you’re in a rush and just want to log on, get information and move on with your day. If televisions took as long as PCs take to start working, we’d miss game-winning touchdowns.
There’s nothing more frustrating than a fruitless Web search — or one that returns results that distract you from your original goal. This week I tested two free tools that attempt to make your Web searches more relevant by learning from users’ reactions to search results.
This holiday season, instead of gathering around the piano for traditional sing-alongs, some families will gather around their television sets and game consoles to make music — by playing games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band.
Katie reviews Windows Live, Microsoft’s Web-based attempt to consolidate many of the regular activities you perform on the Internet: sharing photos on Flickr, emailing via Hotmail, posting status updates on Facebook, following tweets on Twitter, sending instant messages on Google Chat and keeping a calendar on Apple’s MobileMe.
With the holidays fast approaching, plenty of shoppers are heading toward their local Apple stores with plans to buy a new home computer. Amid all this excitement, it’s worth taking time to consider how to transfer content from the old Windows PC to a shiny new Mac.
If you’ve heard of Twitter but don’t exactly know what it is or how it works, you’re in good company. In the past two months a bunch of my friends, ranging in age from early 20s to late 30s, have asked me about Twitter–or Tweeter, as one person accidentally called it. To clear things up, I’ve put together a basic Twitter guide that explains how to use it, Twitter lingo, privacy options, mobile applications that can be used with the service and problems that it has.
This Thanksgiving, families across the country will gather around the television just as quickly as they gather around the turkey. And with good reason: Many people will be staring at beautiful high-definition TV sets.
Edited by Walt and written by Katie Boehret, this is a guide to gadgets, web services and other consumer technologies.
Ethics Statement
Here is a statement of my ethics and coverage policies. It is more than most of you want to know, but, in the age of suspicion of the media, I am laying it all out.