PCs

Updated at 2:20 p.m. PST.

Hewlett-Packard is in talks to buy Electronic Data Systems, HP confirmed Monday.

The Wall Street Journal initially reported the two have been in talks for HP to buy EDS for $12 billion to $13 billion, citing unnamed sources. An agreement between the world's largest computer maker and the IT services provider could come as early as Tuesday, according to the Journal.

Shares of HP were down 6 percent after the story posted, and HP confirmed that trading of its stock has been halted. EDS shares were up 27 percent on the news. … Read more

We finally finished our review of Shuttle's KPC K-4500, the Foresight Linux-based small form factor desktop that Shuttle announced a few weeks back. This review covers the lowest end complete system. Shuttle also offers a bare-bones K45 model (with no operating system) as well as a few others with higher-end hardware and Vista Basic.

As for this model, tread lightly if that $229 price tag makes you think it'll be good for the kids or the non-tech inclined. Not that the Foresight Linux operating system is hard to use, it just might require your help to maintain (try … Read more

Update at 1:50 p.m. PDT: Comment from Microsoft on minor damage from earthquake.

A massive earthquake struck Western China on Monday, killing more than 8,500 people and trapping more than 900 students in a high school, according to press reports.

The quake, which had a 7.9 magnitude, was centered in a mountainous region of the country in the Sichuan Province, according to The New York Times.

The epicenter was about 55 miles northwest of Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan--one of the country's most populated provinces. According to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the earthquake … Read more

It looks like EA has made a turn-around in response to fan outrage at its plans for a complicated DRM scheme in two high-profile PC games due out later this year.

Word came out yesterday that Spore (from Sims-meister Will Wright) and the PC version of Xbox 360 hit Mass Effect would implement a new version of the Securom DRM middleware, which not only requires you to keep a game's DVD in the drive to play it, but would need to perform an authenticity check every 10 days, which would have required your computer to be online during that … Read more

When Robert Pedersen's Dell Inspiron E1705 laptop went on the fritz, he naturally assumed the 5-year Next Day service warranty he purchased would get him instant help from the company's customer service staff.

That was April 18. By May 4, he still had yet to have his guaranteed next-day in-home repair appointment scheduled. And it wasn't for lack of trying. He sums up his frustration on his blog: "Close to a month, 37 different communications, a Certified letter to the CEO of Dell Computers, Inc, and 29 actual hours working directly with Dell Computers, Inc in … Read more

Following its massive overhaul earlier this year, HP Labs will begin a more formal and focused program doing collaborative research with universities.

Beginning Wednesday, the research and development arm of Hewlett-Packard will begin accepting proposals from university researchers anywhere in the world.

Proposals will be accepted until mid-June, then judged and awarded in the fall. The winners will receive a grant ranging from $50,000 to $75,000, which is enough for each professor who wins to hire at least one graduate student, according to HP's Office of Open Innovation.

"In the past, we did a lot of … Read more

UPDATED at 1:25 p.m. PDT to clarify RAM in the computer is measured in megabytes.

Perhaps the days of looking at Cuba as the island that technology forgot are beginning to wane.

Late last month, President Raul Castro's government lifted the ban on ordinary citizens from owning a cell phone and getting cell service, a right previously limited to executives working for foreign companies or high communist party officials. DVD players, motorbikes, and plug-in pressure cookers also went on sale for the first time.

Now, citizens of the communist-controlled country can for the first time be the … Read more

No doubt, Adobe System's Flash is popular: it's installed on 99 percent of all PCs, according to the company.

But when it comes to mobile devices and other non-PC platforms, Flash is an also-ran. One reason for that situation, according to Adobe, is the lack of good development tools and the company's own restrictive licensing.

A new program, announced by Adobe on Thursday, is intended to remedy that problem. The program, called the Open Screen Project, is an industry alliance, of sorts, initiated by Adobe that includes prominent device manufacturers, content developers, and telecommunications carriers.

Open Screen … Read more

It's the tale of the lost circuit.

Thirty-seven years ago, Leon Chua, a professor at the University of California at Berkeley, mathematically theorized that scientific symmetry demands that there should be a fourth fundamental circuit element. Engineers were already familiar with resistors (which resist the flow of electricity), capacitors (which store electricity), and inductors (which resist changes to the flow of electrical current), which can be combined to build more complex devices. The fourth circuit, which Chua called a "memristor" for memory resistor, would register how much current had passed.

"He looked at fundamental circuit equations … Read more