In the past few weeks a new market has emerged for ultra-cheap laptops priced under US$300 that boast some of the features found in more expensive, mainstream laptops.
Laptop prices don’t generally dip that low, but some sub-$300 laptops from Wal-Mart and Best Buy this week have included large screens, reasonable graphics and DVD drives. Considering [...]

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Apple is racing to launch a tablet-sized device in time for the Christmas shopping season, according to a report from the Financial Times (FT). Featuring a 10-inch touch screen display, Apple’s tablet is also said to launch alongside “Cocktail,” a project designed to increase sales of CD-length music.
The Apple tablet, rumored for more than a [...]

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This week on the PC World Podcast, editors Tim Moynihan, Robert Strohmeyer, Nick Mediati, and Ed Albro discuss the just-finalized Windows 7 operating system. It promises to be more netbook-friendly and less annoying than Vista, as well as touchscreen-optimized. Learn when it may be installed on a computer near you, and find out what’s different [...]

Read the rest of PC World Podcast 37: Windows 7, Apple’s “Premium Computer” Dominance, and Digital Pens

If Apple doesn’t introduce a tablet computer soon, we’ll all be sorely disappointed. With all the ongoing speculation about the alleged iPod-on-steroids, I feel like the device is already here.
Today’s scuttlebutt from Apple Insider has the Big Tablet arriving early next year, a prediction that matches one two months ago by Piper Jaffray analyst Gene [...]

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Laptops are closing the price gap on less-powerful netbooks, with retailers delivering fully equipped systems for under US$300 as part of promotional offers.
Wal-Mart will start offering limited quantities of a fully loaded Compaq laptop for $298 starting July 26, according to an entry on Wal-Mart’s Checkoutblog site.
The laptop being offered is a Compaq Presario CQ60-419WM [...]

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Apple beat analyst expectations and appears nearly untouched by the economic downturn, reporting its best non-holiday quarterly revenue and earnings in the company’s history on Tuesday.
For its third quarter ending June 27, Apple posted net profit of US$1.23 billion and $1.35 per share, up from $1.07 billion and $1.19 per share in the same quarter [...]

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Apple’s chief operating officer Tim Cook stood by his previous assertion that Apple’s not in the market to make a netbook when pressed repeatedly by analysts during Tuesday’s conference call to discuss Apple’s third-quarter results. At the same time, he noted that Apple’s recent laptop price cuts have helped move inventory.
With everyone from HP to [...]

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Were you to look at the news in the past couple days, you might be excused for thinking that we’d revved the DeLorean up to 88 miles per hour and jumped back to the good old days, when Microsoft and Apple were constantly at each others’ throats. Only this time, the positions are seemingly reversed: [...]

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What gives?! The Macalope goes on vacation for a couple of weeks and Google gets into the operating system business? Well, fear not, loyal readers. He’s back now, just in time to save you from the Wal-Mart OS or some other atrocity.
So, who wants a big slice of Dvorak Schadenfreude pie? Ha-ha! That’s silly. We [...]

Read the rest of The Macalope Weekly: I Love My Mac-usin’ Son!

Were you to look at the news in the past couple days, you might be excused for thinking that we’d revved the DeLorean up to 88 miles per hour and jumped back to the good old days, when Microsoft and Apple were constantly at each others’ throats. Only this time, the positions are seemingly reversed: [...]

Read the rest of Microsoft: Running Scared