Posted 10/14/09 at 10:30:00 AM by The Maximum PC Staff

We like you. We spend all year being nice to you—giving you the scoop on hardware, software, games, and news from the industry. We may not always be nice to companies or products, but we're always nice to our readers.

Well, nearly always. You see, every year the editors at Maximum PC get together in a big room with no windows or doors or air and hash out a series of questions for our annual Geek Quiz. Some are easy. Some are not. Some might have you pulling out your hair in frustration (those are our favorites).

But we're not doing this just to be cruel. See, if you do well, you get the satisfaction of showing us up, plus a standardized score that you can show people to prove how awesome you are. And if you don't do so well, hey, you get to learn stuff! Looking up answers on your favorite search engine, by the way, is strictly verboten.

So, whip out those #2 pencils and that slide rule, step away from the Google, and get ready to prove your mettle.

Take the Geek Quiz after the jump.

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Posted 09/01/09 at 04:45:11 PM by Will Smith

We computer nerds all have our favorite applications and utilities—you know, the software we absolutely cannot live without. You’re certainly already familiar with many of my personal faves (I always install Firefox, Digsby, and Dropbox), but developers are constantly releasing new software, so my list is always evolving. And so, without further delay, I give you my favorite apps and utilities, as selected during the first half of 2009.

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Posted 07/21/09 at 08:25:42 PM by Pulkit Chandna

Global all-in-one PC shipments for 2009 may breeze past previous forecasts. According to a report in China’s Commercial Times, global all-in-one PC shipments for 2009 are now expected to touch 6.5 million units, which is considerably higher than the previous estimate of 5 million units.

The new estimate will certainly please Apple, for it alone is expected to ship 3 million units. The very report further says that the penetration rate of all-in-one PCs – computers with the monitor and CPU bundled together in one console – will rise to 5% this year, 9% in 2009, and 12% in 2012.

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Posted 05/09/09 at 04:25:14 PM by Justin Kerr

The 2009 Webby awards have come and gone, and sadly, Maximum PC was mysteriously overlooked. We didn’t notice a category for “world’s most amazing technology website / magazine”, but that’s no excuse! For those of you who haven’t heard of them before today, the Webby’s are an international award honoring excellence on the Internet.  They focus on everything from YouTube skits to innovative advertising, but one look at the list and you’ll wonder if they just snagged the first million URL’s from Google and ran with it.

The 2009 results are listed below:

• Best Websites
• Interactive Advertising
• Online Film & Video
• Mobile

Special Achievement Awards

• Webby Artist of the Year: Trent Reznor
• Webby Person of the Year: Jimmy Fallon
• Webby Breakout of the Year: Twitter
• Best Actress: Sarah Silverman
• Outstanding Comedic Performance: Lisa Kudrow
• Film & Video Person of the Year: Seth MacFarlane
• Agency of the Year: R/GA

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Posted 03/26/09 at 06:01:03 AM by Pulkit Chandna

Asustek is trying to further cash in on the huge success of its Eee PC netbook range. It has some very ambitious plans and innovative products up its sleeve. One of those innovations happens to be voice-controlled Eee PCs.

The voice-controlled Eee PCs cropped up for the first time during CeBit 2009 in Germany. Asus Chairman Johnny Shih had expressed his keen desire to witness the end of the keyboard during his CeBit keynote address. Asus CEO Jerry Shen has now revealed that Eee PCs with voice-recognition functionality will be ready by the end of 2009.

"The first Eee PC or Eee Top products implementing voice-recognition and features will be ready by Q3/Q4 2009 – with our dedicated development team working with third parties in both Japan and the US and reporting directly to me. So this is something we will see very soon, later this year." Shen told Tech Radar.

Asus will have to come up with a truly remarkable voice-recognition technology to even pose a threat to our beloved keyboard.

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Posted 01/08/09 at 08:01:25 PM by Pulkit Chandna

Microsoft is not too keen on rolling out an underdone Windows 7 and will only proceed with its launch when it is sure that the OS is ready. This is the reason it is not committing to a 2009 launch date. Microsoft’s Bill Veghte told Cnet that the OS will be shipped when the quality is up to scratch.

However, Microsoft hasn’t ruled out the possibility of a 2009 launch. Veghte also said that investors expect the company to spend judiciously on advertising and there is a need to make the most of the hundreds of millions of dollars being spent on the marketing of Windows 7.

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Posted 01/06/09 at 01:28:19 PM by Mark Edward Soper

Don't want to trade power and and versatility for light, thin, portability? Lenovo says, 'Why should you?' with its new Y-series IdeaPad laptops. The new IdeaPad Y series features three different models, all of which include:

• 16x9 HD screens
• Up to 500GB hard disks
• Lenovo OneKey Theater display and sound effects settings to optimize gameplay or movie watching
• Intel processors
• Up to 4GB of DDR3 memory
• VeriFace facial recognition technology
• OneKey Rescue system recovery
• Multi-touch touchpad

Optional features include NVIDIA GFX graphics and Bluetooth wireless connectivity.

To find out more, join us after the jump.

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Posted 01/02/09 at 02:00:00 PM by David Murphy

As we get ready to celebrate the end of 2008 and start of 2009, it's important to put down the champagne glasses for a moment and consider all of the big open-source stories that have come across over the past year.  There have been a lot.  In fact, we've even gone and chronicled some of the bigger stories for you already.  If you haven't checked it out yet, do so.  Like watching The Empire Strikes Back before A New Hope, you'll be lost if you read on much further.  That's because we're now taking a look at what's in store for the open-source world in 2009.

We'll get to the specific predictions in a big, but here's the big picture: the open-source software world is on the up, up, up.  We called this out in a news article awhile ago once the economy started taking a dive.  Guess what?  The economy's still taking a dive, and companies long and far are taking an increased interest in the open-source community.  That's because open-source solutions can help them generate cost savings over expensive, proprietary software without a loss of business quality or functionality. And that translates into increased opportunities for open-source developers -everybody wins!  Unless you're Microsoft and think the entire affair is rubbish.  But enough of that...  onto the predictions!

Click the link to jump into the open-source world of 2009!

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