SLIDE SHOWS

Manufacturers brought the industry radical new ways to build PCs in 2008. Here are some of the coolest components we came across in 2008.

From gaming to business, retail to commercial, Wi-Fi to WiMAX, 2008 was the most cutting-edge year ever in the history of mobile computing.

From iPhones to BlackBerrys, 2008 saw the emergence of touch-screen titans, the first LG smartphone to hit the U.S. and the first device based on Google Android. Here are the 10 coolest smartphones that hit the market in 2008.

FIND REVIEWS

LATEST REVIEWS

The Test Center got a pre-release unit of AMD's X4 940 processor and ran it through our standard tests to see how it stands up.

A look at Lenovo's K210 consumer desktop -- a PC with spunk.

System builders looking to take the heat off their top performing offerings will be pleased with CoolIT's advanced liquid cooling system.

Palm strives to remain relevant with its latest smartphone, the Treo Pro.

GammaTech continues to aim for some of Toughbook's market share with its latest Durabook model.

The Test Center takes a look at Lenovo's debut in the server space.

HP's xw6600 Workstation can boast two Xeon processors, 8GB of memory and 64-bit Windows Vista. The Test Center looks at how it performs.

Logitech's Illuminated Keyboard is designed to make the most-often-used part of the PC easier. The Test Center takes a look to see if it does.

Network-attached storage devices started out as relatively simple ways for an enterprise to add additional shared storage space to its network. Over the past few years, though, these appliances have been shrinking in both size and price, allowing the SMB and SOHO markets to take advantage of their features. There are even a few models that target the rising home network and media center users.

Security: It's foremost in the thoughts of solution providers, VARs and just about anyone who uses a computer. This year alone, the CRN Test Center has taken a look at some of the latest and greatest in security products. These products range from software solutions that protect the desktop to complex Unified Threat Machines.

Mobility in computing brings with it risks that multiply by the day. As corporate data continues to expand—regardless of the state of the economy—the risk of data being lost by a mobile workforce continues to hang like a dark cloud over businesses large and small.

The paperless office is one of those great white whales of IT. You could spend a whole career seeking it out, only to waste time, lose sleep and face disappointment. But that doesn't mean technology providers have stopped trying to move the ball closer to the goal line, and with Acrobat 9 Pro, Adobe Systems Inc. is getting well within scoring position.

When Sprint's XOHM unit unveiled its first-in-the-U.S., commercially supported WiMAX network—providing 4G speeds for wireless connectivity—the company didn't seem to spare any expense at its kick-off event for the media.

Storage leader Western Digital expands its product line into the high-definition media market.

StarOffice 9's final release is the strongest alternative to Microsoft Office Professional yet.

For a variety of reasons, multifunction printers (MFPs) are continuing to see nice strength in the market as system and IT consolidation continue unabated. All-in-ones, as they are also known, offer small and midsize offices the features of multiple devices, but with a relatively smaller footprint and price. They can let SMBs attain the same consolidation benefits, in many cases, as larger enterprises if on a smaller scale.

Software updates, or "patches," have become such a crucial component of network security, that a day of the week has been dedicated to them: "Patch Tuesday" is when Microsoft Corp. releases regular updates for its software.

Intuit Inc.'s QuickBase, a Web-based Customer Relationship Management (CRM) suite, is in a market competing with better-known CRM providers like Microsoft Corp., Redmond, Wash., and Salesforce.com Inc., San Francisco. But the Scotts Valley, Calif.-based software vendor may not have been as aggressive in pitching its offering—inasmuch as Intuit's more traditional personal and business finance applications continue to be its much better-known flagships.

Gigabit Ethernet is the current norm. So, there is no shortage of all things Gigabit: switches, hubs, adapters, etc. It can be arduous to wade through all the varying Gigabit hardware offerings. Product purchase choices are contingent on a number of factors. Yet, as of late, another consideration has been influencing IT purchase decisions—energy efficiency. This makes product decisions even more daunting, because many vendors have been quick to tout their products as "energy efficient."

As is usually the case with technology, things start out big and then keep getting smaller as time advances. The same holds true for the computer industry, where laptops are rapidly approaching the point of being able to replace the standard desktop workhorse. Overall improvements in hard drive development can be credited, in part, for this progress.

The Test Center finds AMD's new server processors offer a bigger bang for the buck.

The Test Center looks at a NAS device that combines user-friendly management and advanced features.

The Test Center reviews the Samsung X460 notebook, among the first in its latest re-entry into the U.S. notebook space.

Samsung's new X460 notebook, among its first in its return to the U.S. PC space, is not the work of a novice. The Test Center gives it a look.

Dell's the latest PC maker to deliver a netbook to market, and the Test Center takes a look to see what's in the little box.

Compliancy and legal e-discovery requirements can make e-mail retention a headache for VARs and administrators. Tangent has a solution to address the issues.

Intel's next-generation Nehalem processor lineup is so powerful that it simply destroys previous CPU benchmarks.

The Test Center used a variety of standard performance and security benchmarking tools to look at Windows 7 pre-beta.

Canonical released Ubuntu 8.10 Thursday, and a look at the Linux OS shows it might be starting to prove a smarter choice than Vista in a growing number of scenarios.

New product offers secure connection to USB devices over the network.

The CRN Test Center worked with Kent, Wash.-based Puget Custom Computers to build a customized workstation. We asked them to build us a test unit to our specifications under a tight deadline. What they sent us was a mini powerhouse.

As any Linux aficionado can tell you, Microsoft Windows-designed wireless routers are sometimes finicky about working properly with Linux systems and networks. Some routers do just fine, some need a little hand-holding, and a very select few allow open-source firmware to be installed. Then there are the advanced users who develop commercial-grade applications for wireless routers to add and extend features.

The Test Center has been in the lucky position this year of seeing a number of great, new desktops with innovative features, nice performance and good business cases for VARs.

With this latest release, Nvidia is upping the bar for integrated graphics and is defying Intel to meet the challenge.

Firefox 3.1 trashes IE 7 in performance, and even outshines Firefox 3.0.

Kingston Technology is one of the first manufacturers to release a 4GB notebook DIMM.

Dell's latest upgrade to its Vostro lineup adds some features and functions that should draw attention.

The Test Center revisits SolarWinds' Orion network monitoring product and—surprise!—this version's a winner.

As Opera releases version 9.60 to compete with Google's Chrome, we compare the browsers.

Sprint Nextel's XOHM unit unveiled the first-ever WiMAX unit last week in Baltimore, but the Test Center finds a few areas that could use improvement.

Navayo Technologies' strives for extra security with SecBox, featuring TPM encryption and biometrics, all in one device. But does it work?

Reviewers dropped the Getac notebook from desk height while both open and closed, jumped up and down a few times on top of the closed unit, and spilled water and juice over the keyboard. No prob.

Most of the new Lenovo PCs the Test Center has reviewed this year have been based on Intel CPUs, but now it takes a look at a Lenovo desktop built with an AMD quad-core chip.

Test Center sets up a wireless network based on, not DSL or cable-modem, but 3G cellular networks.

From a practical, office-productivity standpoint, the Acer Veriton S461 was a shining star in what appears to be a reinvigorated desktop lineup.

Test Center tries setting up a blog using popular platform Movable Type as a virtual appliance.

As miniaturized notebooks gain in popularity, the Test Center looks at MSI's netbook offering.

The Elitegroup G31T-M is a well-designed board that offers top-notch performance at a budget price.

Test Center puts the Acer Aspire One netbook through its paces and finds it on par with competitors for light Internet and word processing usage.

O2 Micro expands their electronic component business into the security business. How does their latest unified threat management rate?

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Next