Computer tech

SAN FRANCISCO--Google got a lot of applause at its Google I/O conference, but the loudest came with the news that the company and Samsung are giving Samsung Galaxy 10.1 Android tablets to each of the attendees.

"Thanks to Samsung, all 5,000 of you are getting one today," said Hugo Barra, director of Android product management at the conference here today.

Freebies at Google I/O have happened before, but previously they had always been phones. The move today signals that tablets are Google's front-and-center Android priority when it comes to currying favor with programmers. … Read more

SAN FRANCISCO--Google today is releasing Android 3.1, an upgrade to its Honeycomb tablet OS, and will bring its features to mobile phones with the Ice Cream Sandwich version of the OS set for the fourth quarter.

Honeycomb is geared for Android tablets, which thus far haven't yet attained the popularity of Apple's iPad. Upgrading from 3.0 to 3.1 should offers user interface refinements, a new movie rental service, and the ability to plug in USB devices such as keyboards and game controllers.

The Motorola Xoom tablet on Verizon's 3G service--the inaugural Honeycomb device with … Read more

Three years ago, I decided not to get an iMac. Now I'm rethinking that decision.

And it's not because CNET gave the iMac an Editor's Choice award, though that's helpful. What tipped the scales is an ability to use the machine as a lowly external monitor years from now. Let me explain.

For years now I've oscillated between a Mac and Windows existence. In the 1980s, it was Mac for me. After college, Windows moved in. Then at the newspaper where I used to work, we installed Macs. Then at CNET, it was Windows, until … Read more

Indulge me here for a minute while my mind boggles.

I spend a lot of time looking at the latest technology, so I live in a perpetual state of low-grade future shock. Yesterday, though, was one of those days when I was floored by how far things have progressed.

First, I asked for and received satellite photos taken that morning of Osama bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. Then, in about 10 seconds, I got directions on how to drive there from my house in Old Windsor, England, in 4 days and 16 hours.

These moments created a vivid, … Read more

Seagate has agreed to acquire Samsung's hard drive business for $1.375 billion in a deal that gives Samsung a 9.6 percent stake in the hard-drive specialist and that forges an alliance for the new era of flash memory storage.

The companies announced the deal today, a new step in the steady consolidation of a major part of the computing industry. Last month, Western Digital signed a deal to acquire Hitachi's hard-drive unit for $4.3 billion, thereby vaulting it over Seagate to become the largest hard drive maker. Seagate's deal today would reduce the market … Read more

In order to meet the extreme demands put on its servers, Facebook has designed its own servers and data-center setup. Now, with a project called the Open Compute Project, it's sharing those plans with partners and competitors alike in the hopes that it will help push the evolution of data-center design. Here are a few photos from today's event, held in Palo Alto, Calif. For more details on the project, see our article here.

Adobe Systems today released the Enterprise Edition of its Digital Publishing Suite, a tool for creating interactive publications on tablets--and for making Adobe more relevant in an age of new computing devices.

The software integrates with Adobe's existing Creative Suite applications such as InDesign to let designers produce digital publications for Apple's iPad, RIM's PlayBook, Motorola's Xoom, and Samsung's Galaxy Tab lines of Android-based tablets. It also dovetails with digital distribution systems, including Apple's App Store Subscriptions and Google One Pass. And it comes with analytics services from Adobe's Omniture acquisition so that … Read more

I've been hearing "post-PC era" so much now that I wince when I hear the term. Clearly it must be time for me to get something off my chest.

There is no post-PC era.

Not as I see the landscape, at least. To me, tablets are a big break with the past when it comes to user interface, but deep down, more stays the same than changes. And the better tablets get, the more they'll simply absorb what we do with PCs.

In short, tablets will become PCs. Different PCs from today's PCs, but PCs. … Read more

Mozy, the online backup service, is testing out a bit of technology offered by rival DropBox: file synchronization.

The company started telling customers today that it's begun closed beta testing of the sync feature, which will let files stored on one machine automatically be replicated on another. It's a big advancement over Mozy's bread-and-butter of file backup, transforming the service into something people actively use rather than run passively in the background. It also dovetails with the multicomputer subscription plans Mozy introduced in January at the same time it announced it's ditching unlimited-data backup.

Also taking … Read more