Stories by Loyd Case

AMD points to APU momentum at CES 2013

Kevin Lensing, director of AMD's Notebook Product Line, exuded a quiet confidence at a briefing at the 2013 CES show.

Nvidia GRID server promises speedy cloud-based gaming

We game on phones, we game on consoles, we game on networks, but cloud-based gaming has been hobbled by performance issues. Today at CES, Nvidia announced the GRID cloud gaming platform, a server system that aims to solve the power, speed, and scalab...

Lenovo's hybrid laptops get smaller with the Yoga 11S, Helix tablet

Lenovo continued its deluge of new Windows 8 product offerings at CES 2013, with key additions to its line of Windows 8 hybrid laptops announced Monday, including a smaller IdeaPad Yoga 11S. These new laptops follow up on the company's earlier announ...

How to buy the best laptop in the age of Windows 8

Laptops used to be simple. Almost all of them had a clamshell design, with a display that folded onto the keyboard. You picked the laptop you needed based on factors like price, weight, and performance. But it's different today: New form factors, dif...

How Windows 8 rewrites the rules of PC gaming

PC gaming is primed for a renaissance—or at least a reinvention—like we haven’t seen since the advent of 3D acceleration in the late 1990s. For this, we can thank the mobile revolution and all its attendant technologies. Game developers can now tap i...

Six awesome built-in Windows utilities no one knows about

Windows 8 may not be the easiest operating system to use, but no one can accuse it of being stingy. If you poke deep inside the new OS, you'll find a generous assortment of software tools, many of which make third-party utilities redundant.

How to choose just the right all-in-one computer for you

Windows-based all-in-one PCs once earned little respect. While most of today's AIOs still lack the graphics horsepower for hard-core gaming (we'll show you one exception), the best models are far removed from the 98-pound weaklings of yore.

In Pictures: The best new Ultrabooks

A wave of Ultrabooks -- light, thin laptops that have more capabilities and fewer compromises than ever -- is hitting the market. Here's a look at some of the current crop

In Pictures: E3 2012 -The sights, the sounds, the games gear brought to life

Master Chief in the restroom, Aliens on the floor, and dancing zombies are just some of the sights we saw at the E3 gaming expo in Los Angeles. Take a look.

Guide: How to sync your PC, smartphone, and tablet

A few years ago businesspeople carried a laptop on the road, used a desktop PC in the office, and worked on another PC at home. Maybe they had a BlackBerry, too--but only if they were real big shots.

Windows Home Server 2011: What it is and how to use it

Microsoft's original Windows Home Server was both crude and groundbreaking. When it debuted, it had limited hardware support, no 64-bit version, and weak built-in capabilities beyond file and app storage. On the other hand, it offered robust backup, ...

Samsung SF510: Sleek design, ho-hum features

The Samsung SF510 undeniably looks good. Its sleek white exterior makes this all-purpose laptop look thinner than it really is, and the light weight doesn't hurt either. Flipping open the lid reveals an LED-backlit, 15.6-inch display and a nearly ful...

11 uses for an old PC

You've finally gone and bought a new PC. It has a boatload of memory, lots of cores, and a fast, modern graphics card. But now your old computer sits in a corner, and although you know it's just a machine, it seems to be sulking like a puppy that mis...

Dell Latitude 13

The Dell Latitude 13 ultraportable laptop inspires technolust when you first pick it up. It's sleek, it has a great keyboard, and it weighs less than 3.5 pounds without the power brick. The LED-backlit display looks pretty good for most desktop chore...

Browser GPU acceleration: Navigating standards minefield

Once upon a time, in the distant past, there was VGA. VGA begat "Windows Accelerators" -- graphics chips that were slightly enhanced beyond dumb frame buffers in order to accelerate Windows-specific functions to paint small "w" windows on the screen ...