When Apple announced the details of the iPad, it was clear that a new type of computer was being produced — something like a netbook and yet something like an oversized iPhone without the telephone capabilities or an iPod Touch on steroids. My word for the device is “netpad,” but only time will tell what [more...]
Netbook computers have become a bright spot in the computer marketplace since they were first introduced in 2007. Essentially, a netbook is a small notebook or laptop computer designed to be lightweight and easy to carry or pack. As their name suggests, netbooks are frequently used to access the Internet and come with a built-in [more...]
To the computer superliterate among us, Presto PC is a commercial Linux distribution designed for dual-booting with Windows. If that sentence makes little sense to you, you’re may be the one that Presto PC is designed for. In simpler terms, Presto PC, also known as Xandros Presto, is made primarily for those who own a computer, [more...]
Most of us are typing on keyboards that use a layout invented before 1870, before touch-typing was invented. We call it the Qwerty layout, because those are the first few keys on the top row of letters. Contrary to popular rumor, the Qwerty layout was not designed to slow down typists. It was designed to place [more...]
Just as the English word “free” can mean “costing no money” or “liberated,” so can the phrase “free software” refer to two separate categories of software. In popular usage, “free software” refers to any software that you can download without charge. Some of it is commercial software, made by companies that hope to recoup the cost [more...]
Not all that many years ago, home computer networks were for techies only. But these days, it is possible to set up a basic home wireless network without doing much more than opening up a box, connecting a power cord and using one cable to connect a wireless router to a high-speed modem. And it [more...]
Do you have to be a geek to use Linux? Not at all, but the more comfortable you are with geeky things the better able you’ll be able to deal with any problems that come up. But the same thing is true of Windows, too, isn’t it? If you’re not a geek, you might not be [more...]