pc

Windows 8 users now getting 'how-to' e-mails from Microsoft

Microsoft is trying to help new Windows 8 users by sending them e-mails that explain the new environment.

Users who set up a new Windows 8 PC or tablet and associate it with a Microsoft account will receive two separate e-mails.

The first e-mail, dubbed "Getting Started with Windows," sheds some light on the Start screen with a brief description of Live Tiles. Another section displays and explains the different charms in the Charms bar. And two other sections clue you in on how to switch between or view multiple Windows 8 apps.

Each section offers a "… Read more

Get Battlefield 1942 (PC) for free

Avid gamers will recall that EA's Battlefield 1942 was one of the most popular titles...of 2002. It was the game that kicked off the entire Battlefield series, which, in the past decade, has produced some monster hits.

To celebrate its 10th anniversary, EA's Origin store is offering Battlefield 1942 (PC) free of charge. Don't worry that it appears on Origin's Demos page; it's definitely the full game.

To get it, you'll need an Origin account and the Origin download client, both free, both akin to Steam (but solely for EA games, natch). With … Read more

Shut down your PC on schedule with PC Auto Shutdown

It's not especially difficult to use the Windows Task Scheduler to shut down your PC at a specific time, but it's not particularly convenient, either. And if you need more options or commands, your choice is limited. GoldSolution's PC Auto Shutdown answers many needs with flexible options for scheduling automatic shutdown, power-off, restart, hibernate, and other commands. Its wizard-based interface makes setting custom schemes a breeze. PC Auto Shutdown is shareware that is free to try for 15 days. The latest version fully supports Windows 8. We tried it in both 32-bit and 64-bit Windows 7.

When … Read more

Get four spooky PC games for $4.99 each

Given what's happening along the Eastern Seaboard today, it's hard for me to get too enthused about tech deals. Something tells me we should be saving our money for disaster relief. My heart goes out to everyone affected by this horrendous storm.

That said, maybe you could use a little distraction from all the awful news. If you can scrounge up five bucks, you can get a top-rated PC game that'll give you a whole different kind of scare.

It's the Steam Halloween Sale 2012. The download service has slashed prices on more than three dozen … Read more

Gadget store heist: Mom made me do it

Moms can dominate their sons sometimes.

They see in their little boys something they possibly didn't see in their own husbands -- obedience, perhaps.

I foray into psychological waters only because of a fascinating legal case involving a heist at the PC World store in Kingston, U.K.

It seems that gunmen allegedly marauded in, pointed fake Uzis at the staff, and stole 38,000 British pounds (around $61,000). However, in the midst of their bravado, they started arguing about whether to steal some laptops, too, and ran away separately.

Police managed to track down one of the … Read more

Trailer: BioShock Infinite goes to the next level

With BioShock Infinite still months away, developer Irrational Games released a teaser trailer highlighting gameplay from the highly anticipated third installment of the series.

Previous BioShock games revolved around an underwater city called Rapture, but Infinite's story line -- set in the year 1912 -- takes place in a floating city names Columbia. We won't delve too much into the details, but the general synopsis is that the player "assumes the role of former Pinkerton agent Booker DeWitt, who is sent to Columbia to rescue Elizabeth, a young woman imprisoned there since childhood," says the official Web site. … Read more

Amuse co-workers and friends

The Talking Moose is a desktop utility that features a funny animated cartoon-like moose that will pop up when least expected and deliver a funny line, a witty quote, or insult the user. There are versions of The Talking Moose for the Mac and mobile devices as well as Windows, and the moose even has his own Facebook page and Twitter accounts.

The Talking Moose has been around in electronic form since 1986 and was one of the first animated figures on computers. Once installed the user will see the interface with links to the official Talking Moose Website and … Read more

Intel's cautious outlook suggests the PC market still stinks

Looks like the suckage in the PC market is likely to continue, Windows 8 notwithstanding. Chip giant Intel today offered a fairly grim outlook for the current quarter, saying PC buyers remain cautious about new purchases thanks to the lousy economy and -- although Intel didn't say this in so many words -- the ongoing flight of consumers from PCs to tablets and smartphones.

Chief Financial Officer Stacy Smith put it this way:

[The] slight increase in revenue in the fourth quarter reflects the caution we are seeing in the order patterns of our customers as a result of … Read more

League of Legends the world's 'most played video game'

New statistics from the creator of League of Legends (and a variety of industry sources) indicate that the free multiplayer PC real-time strategy game had an average of 3 million concurrent online users in July, besting the entire combined total peak player count for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 on Xbox 360 (1.4 million) and people playing the top 100 games on Steam (650,000).

Riot Games, developer of League, also noted in an infographic that the game usually sees an average of 12 million players a day, with about 32 million active players logging in every month. Just for reference, when World of Warcraft sat at the top, it had about 12 million subscribers total.… Read more