Virtual Desktops Brings Work Close to Home

Windows 7, open-source competition hold Chrome OS back

(NEWSER) - Microsoft needn’t stress about Google’s planned operating system, writes Joseph Tartakoff for paidContent. Five reasons why:

• Windows 7 will put Microsoft on firmer ground, having won great reviews so far—and it will have been out 9 months by the time Chrome OS appears.
• Google’s not the only behemoth that knows users are running apps inside their browsers more often: Microsoft is developing a new "browser-based OS" with that in mind.

Despite layoffs, companies are better prepared

(NEWSER) - The tech industry is going through tough times, including widespread layoffs, but it's not going to be another dot-com bust, predicts the Economist, laying out the differences between 2001 and 2009. In 2000, technology companies grew nearly 16%, only to contract by 6% a year later. “The IT industry simply imploded,” says one vet. “It felt like the sector’s reason for being had disappeared.” But the industry is now global, and demand will continue to grow in the likes of China and India. More»

Our keyboards need that tweak and a few others

(NEWSER) - The computer keyboard may be an essential tool of daily life, but everybody is driven nuts by at least one aspect of it, writes Matthew J.X. Malady at Slate . He offers some suggested tweaks: More»

Next generation could feature 4-inch screen: 9to5Mac

(NEWSER) - A fresh new rumor declares an iPhone 5 launch this summer with a screen enlarged to at least 4 inches (compared to 3.5 inches on the iPhone 4S). Prototypes of the iPhone 5 are apparently "floating around," claims the Apple-centric blog 9to5Mac , which is getting its info from a "reliable source at Foxconn in China." More»

Economists try to put a value on PCs in America

(NEWSER) - You can scope out the price tag of a Mac or PC at any given electronics hawker, but how much are computers really worth to us? Economists at the Federal Reserve Bank in Atlanta actually tried tackling that question, and they came up with $500 billion—or, on average about $1,700 per person. That's equal to about 5% of total consumer spending in 2009, reports the Wall Street Journal . More»