Technology, Gadgets | featured news

Dismayed that family members are spread out over the house, each with a separate PC or tablet? Lenovo has something it believes will get them back together: a PC the size of a coffee table that works like a gigantic tablet and lets four people use it at once. Lenovo Group Ltd., one of the world's largest PC makers, is calling the IdeaCentre Horizon Table PC the first "interpersonal computer" — as opposed to a "personal computer."

These days, the Las Vegas gathering favors deal-making over groundbreaking, but firms plan to unveil thousands of products.The International Consumer Electronics Show next week may be facing questions about its relevance in an Internet world that makes new things seem old in minutes, but it is still the foremost gathering for all things gadgety and geeky.

Revenue at Barnes & Noble stores fell 10.9% during the holidays, as sales of Nook devices slipped, a sign that the retailer is falling behind in the tablet battle with Amazon, Apple and Google.

Although smartphone ownership percentages continue to climb, western markets are clearly approaching saturation. At the same time, there are markets within those markets which do not so much resist the incursion of smartness as simply have little interest or opportunity to enjoy it.

The Linux-based Ubuntu operating system is to work on smartphones, allowing users to run full-scale programs on handsets designed for Android.

Developers told the Next Web that they’re seeing some activity on their user logs that indicate Apple may be testing its next-generation smartphone and mobile operating system. According to a Monday report, some app developers have logged activity from a device called the “iPhone 6,1” that also appears to be running a new mobile operating system.

Masked and armed robbers used the New Year's Eve revelry as cover to rob the flagship Apple store in Paris.

... Yes, the words are the same, whether perceived on paper or on a small, illuminated screen. But the experience is not. One can read “One Hundred Years of Solitude” on a Kindle or an iPad, but one cannot see, hear, feel and smell the story in the same way. I’m unlikely to race to the sofa, there to nuzzle an electronic gizmo, with the same anticipation as with a book. Or to the hammock with the same relish I would with a new magazine. Somehow, napping with a gadget blinking notice of its dwindling power doesn’t hold the same appeal as falling asleep in the hammock with your paperback opened to where you dozed off.

Apple Inc CEO Tim Cook's 2012 compensation package of just over $4 million is a huge cut on paper for the top executive of the most valuable U.S. corporation, after a 2011 package fattened by more than $376 million in long-term stock awards.

A lot of good things happened in tech this year, including the debuts of the iPhone 5 and the Samsung Galaxy S III. But where there’s good, there’s bad. There were plenty of major tech fails this year.