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Posts Tagged ‘way’

Now that barefoot running is a full-on craze — bolstered by a growing body of research suggesting the best way to run is the way our forebears did, sans shoes — retail shelves are stacked with minimalist running gear. Any company entering the market at this point will have to do something pretty darn different to stand out.

Portland, Oregon-based footwear company Skora is giving things a shot with its Form running shoe, which will be released mid-February. All the features required to qualify as a minimalist, barefoot-inspired shoe … [Read More...]

Car nuts race their rides to see whose machine is the fastest. Fitness fanatics run marathons to test their physical limitations and endurance against that of their fellows. Geeks and gearheads? Our battles are fought and won on the basis of how capable our hardware is. While our desktops and laptops might be a thing of wonder to behold, carrying them around with us for the sake of collecting the accolades we deserve isn’t always convenient. Carrying around a smartphone or tablet, however, is. Benchmarking also provides the added benefit of telling you how well your phone manages the current … [Read More...]

It really is the Sony Way. Take a product that’s been around for a while, soup it up, throw in every possible feature imaginable, and make it smaller and lighter than everyone else’s machine.

Then double the price.

Such is the state of Sony’s entry into the suddenly white-hot ultrabook space, a market experiencing a full-scale pile-on as a half dozen competitors all attempt to outdo the nearly three-year-old Apple MacBook Air.

If anyone’s going to best Apple at its own game, it’s probably going to be Sony, and for one reason: If you’re looking at sheer specs, Sony has … [Read More...]

Google announced last May that it intended to begin adding business interiors to Google Maps Street View. Now the first test images are rolling out. Users browsing maps will be invited into shops and offices that make use of the same 360-degree panning view that we’re used to with street view. Considering the very different nature of the content, Google has changed the way they acquire these images.

If a business owner is interested in having their interior added to Google Maps, they have to fill out an application online. Google will then contact the applicant to set up a … [Read More...]

AVA finds a way to mix performance and silence

In our world, performance and silence go together about as well as Aliens and Predators. Each one has its appeal, but put them together, and you generally get a turd.

That’s a fact AVADirect has set out to disprove with a PC apparently named by U.S. Army logistics command: Custom Gaming PC, Silent PC, Low-Noise Custom Computer System. Despite its funktastic name, the AVADirect PC doesn’t disappoint and seems capable of creating its own alternate reality where performance commingles harmoniously with peace and quiet.

Sure, Puget System’s virtually silent Serenity Mini … [Read More...]

So AOE, World of Warcraft, and Farmville walk into a bar…

Playing Age of Empires Online is like greeting an old friends for the first time in years, but instead of returning your friendly fist-bump, your pal socks you in the gut. Don’t get us wrong: AOEO isn’t a bad game, and somewhere benearth its mountain of MMO-influenced bling, the AOE of yore forms the online version’s steel-sharp strategic center. Problem is, this isn’t so much an instance of old meeting new as it is old and new getting thrown haphazardly into a blender. As a result, some of the … [Read More...]

Over the course of millions of years of evolution, the human race has come quite a long way. We’ve created mountains of sophisticated literature, skyscraping architecture, and the collected works of King Crimson. Sometimes, though, we can’t help but slip into Old Ways. Which is all to say, “Ooooo, pretty picture!” That’s pretty much how we felt looking at screenshots of id Software’s megatexture masterwork RAGE. Sadly, the game in motion tells an entirely different story – at least, on PC.

Early buyers have reported – and posted video evidence of – texture pop-in issues that render RAGE nearly unplayable. … [Read More...]

It’s way too early or late to be Spring, but change is definitely in the air. Hewlett Packard yesterday made the decision to fire Leo Apotheker as CEO and hand the reigns over to former eBay chief Meg Whitman, and now we’ve learned that AMD’s Products Group General Manager, Rich Bergman, is leaving the chip maker to “pursue a new opportunity.”

AMD President and CEO Rory Read will take over Bergman’s role on an interim basis. Meanwhile, AMD also announced the hiring of Paull Struhsaker, 49, to head the company’s newly-formed Commercial Business Division as the corporate vice president and … [Read More...]

Photo remixed from an original by Shutterstock.

You may not be ready to ditch Facebook for good, but now that you’ve had a chance to kick the tires on Google+, you might be ready to make it your go-to social network. The problem: You’ve built up a lot of friends, photos, videos, and other data on Facebook over the years, and you don’t want to simply lose all that data. Here’s how to migrate it all from Facebook to Google+.

When Google+ came out, it’s success was very much up in the air (remember Google Buzz?). However, it seems a … [Read More...]

We’re fine with companies offering thinner, lighter designs, all we ask is that they figure out a way to nip and tuck without removing vital organs and replacing them with less powerful parts. After all, this is Maximum PC, not Compromise PC. Well, Sony claims that its new S Series Vaio laptop “combines for the first time portability, performance, and power” in said thinner and lighter design. Did they really do it?

Judging by the spec sheets, it doesn’t look like Sony’s blowing smoke. Pricing starts at $1,000 and gets you:

• 13.3-inch LED backlit display (1366 x 768)
• Intel Core

… [Read More...]

A CNET report on Tuesday revealed that a spiritual successor to the now discontinued Dell Adamo ultra-thin laptop is in the works and fast approaching its retail debut. The first pictures of that rumored Adamo successor, supposedly called XPS 15z,  seem to have already found their way to the Internet.

The pictures of the 15.6-inch Dell XPS 15z  first appeared on Mobile Review on Thursday. The images reveal an island-style keyboard flanked by speakers, two USB ports, a FireWire port and an HDMI output. As for the innards, all we know is that the 15-incher will be powered by second-generation … [Read More...]

Last week our colleagues in the UK launched The Collection, a hand-picked group of best-in-class Windows 7 PCs. The Collection is a way for customers in the UK to find the perfect PC, regardless of what they love to do or how much they’re looking to spend. There’s a great online tool to help you choose at The Collection’s homepage (we have a similar tool here in the US, called Windows PC Scout, that’s an interactive and fun way to find your next PC), and if you’re in the UK, you’ll be able to find Collection PCs at PC World, … [Read More...]

In this guest article, Yoav Ezer shows you how to change the default axis interval in a chart in Microsoft Excel. Find out more about Yoav at the end of this article.

Microsoft Excel is pretty clever and usually the default choices it provides you are good, but sometimes it can be frustrating when it tries to help you and you can not find a way to alter the choices it makes.

Chart axis options are a common example of these frustrations. People often ask us how to override the default Axis Interval. Here is the solution for how to … [Read More...]

WinToFlash

I know, there are many solutions … [Read More...]

Excel isn’t the sexiest application in the world–it has an unfortunate association with the type of Milton-esque office drones we all wish we weren’t. All the same, it’s a program that most people will end up having to use at some point in their life, and it’s one with a lot of arcane secrets. Read on for 10 quick Microsoft Excel tips and tricks that will get you accounting like a pro in no time flat.

Time to Pivot

Pivot Tables are one of Excel’s most useful—and misunderstood—features. Here’s a quick lesson: Click within a chunk of data, click Insert, and … [Read More...]