Electronics, Personal Computer | featured news

Raspberry Pi, the tiny, ultra-cheap, Linux-based PC, went on sale Monday in the U.S. through retailer Allied Electronics, but it's already out of stock. The A version of the computer, which only costs $25, has 256MB of RAM, a single USB 2.0 socket, an HDMI, SD card, and 3.5 audio sockets, but no Ethernet port. Available only through Allied, the A is now completely out of stock for U.S. customers. The $35 Raspberry Pi B is also out of stock at Allied, but it can be bought through Newark, another retailer, which only carries that particular model.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer can't afford to be wrong about Windows 8. On Thursday in New York, Microsoft unveiled a dramatic overhaul of its ubiquitous Windows operating system. It will go on sale Friday, fused into more than 1,000 PCs and other devices. If it flops, the failure will reinforce perceptions that Microsoft is falling behind competitors such as Apple, Google and Amazon as its stranglehold on personal computers becomes less relevant in an era of smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) hints at Windows RT tablet prices and their release dates. Another one of Redmond's mammoth blog posts is getting the reading-between-the-lines-analysis treatment today, as the company announces more details of Windows 8-on-ARM PCs.

In a dramatic reshuffling, Hewlett-Packard Co. said it will end its tablet computer and smartphone products and may sell or spin off its PC division, bowing out of the consumer businesses.

Gartner cut its global personal-computer shipments forecast for 2010 and 2011 as consumers rein in spending and interest grows in tablet devices such as Apple's iPad.