i/o

Registration for Google's 2012 developer fest, Google I/O, doesn't open until March 27. But geeks, wonks, developers, and designers might want to head over to the reg site straightaway to goof around with the addictive online "Machine" builder that Google has put up on the site.

The fun little Web app lets you create a machine that flips, spins, elevates, and guides a virtual marble from the left side of the screen to the right. The site says that the best Machines will get featured at Google I/O. This is may be part of … Read more

LAS VEGAS--For those looking to get more ports out of their Thunderbolt-equipped notebooks, Belkin's got a box on the way to make that happen.

At CES here, the company gave its Thunderbolt Express Dock product a price and a release date.

For $299, those with a Mac or PC featuring a single Thunderbolt port can add a handful of other ports, all of which get piped through the speedy I/O. That includes three USB 2.0 ports, a FireWire 800 port, a 3.5mm audio plug, gigabit Ethernet, and HDMI.

The new hardware, which hits stores in September, made its debut at last year's Intel Developer Forum with the promise of being available this spring.

A number of Thunderbolt peripherals that have hit the market so far have included a spare Thunderbolt port for daisy-chaining. There have also been products that expand the types of ports like Apple's Thunderbolt Display, which like Belkin's upcoming offering, adds extra USB, Ethernet, and Firewire ports.

Head past the break to see the other side of the dock.… Read more

A familiar type of computer error is the kind in which all activity seems to freeze, there's no apparent response to keyboard input, and the mouse stops moving. When this happens on Macs you may see the spinning color wheel, or the system may show no indicator of a problem. While you might think the system has fully crashed and needs to be restarted, a few seconds later the system may continue to function normally again, only to pause again shortly thereafter.

This type of random pausing is generally due to an I/O (input/output) problem. Critical devices … Read more

Some of the frustrations that Mac users have had with Apple's hardware developments over the years have been when Apple has limited various connectivity options. For instance, when Apple removed FireWire ports from some of its portable systems, users were concerned about options for Target Disk mode (commonly used for troubleshooting), or even connecting numerous FireWire devices to the systems. More recently, Apple has juggled between including an ExpressCard slot and an SD card reader on newer laptop systems.

As systems get smaller and thinner, the ability for Apple to accommodate various ports will undoubtedly decrease. As it stands, … Read more

When managing your hard drive in OS X there are several potential problems that can crop up, including issues with the drive itself as well as those pertaining to the file setup on the drive. All of these can result in the inability to read or access files, and may, depending on the severity, result in anything from errors and brief pauses to system hangs or crashes. Apple lumps the management of some of these problems into its Disk Utility program, which is convenient but does have the effect of blending their meanings together, such as assuming a permissions fix … Read more

Go, Google's experimental programming language, is coming to the company's App Engine cloud-computing service--and a bit closer to reality in the process.

Google hopes to use Go to tackle modern programming challenges such as getting useful work out of chips with multiple processor cores. Getting new languages to catch on is difficult, though--it took Sun Microsystems years with Java, and its Fortress never really caught on widely.

But incorporating Go into App Engine could help make it more relevant, or at least easier to test out, by reducing the hassles involved in trying it. App Engine is a … Read more

Google grabbed the news spotlight this week as it hosted its annual I/O developer conference in San Francisco, but nothing shone as bright as its Chrome browser and the Chrome-based laptop the company introduced.

The Chromebook, touted as an always-on and always-connected computing experience, will be offered by Samsung and Acer starting June 15. The Samsung Chromebook will go for $429 in the U.S. for the Wi-Fi only version and $499 for the 3G version. Acer's Wi-Fi only Chromebook will cost $349.

The devices will be sold in the U.S. by Amazon.com and Best Buy. … Read more

SAN FRANCISCO--Google expects Chrome OS to be a success. But it's chosen its terms for success very carefully.

Google shares with many of its rivals a natural, reasonable ambition to measure success by market penetration. This week at the Google I/O conference here, the company was quick to tout that there have been 100 million activations of Android devices, that 310 different Android devices have gone on sale so far, and that Android users have downloaded 4.5 billion apps to date.

Though data-obsessed Google doubtless will count how many Chromebooks are sold, that isn't the measurement … Read more