The Targus Touch Pen transforms your laptop into a touchscreen device.

Windows 8 begs to be touched, and though that's problematic on non-touch notebooks, you don't necessarily need a new laptop to take full advantage of Microsoft's newest operating system as it was re-imagined. Yes, you can get by just fine with a keyboard and mouse, but an intriguing compromise is a new Touch Pen device from Targus. Designed for Windows 8, the Touch Pen turns virtually any laptop into a touchscreen PC.

Where have all the netbooks gone?

Remember when netbooks were the hottest item in PC land? You could hardly go a week without being buried under an avalanche of new netbook announcements. My, how things have changed. Strictly speaking, the netbook category is no more. Asus is reportedly ending its Eee PC line, and Acer hasn't announced plans to launch any new netbook models. The same goes for MSI and all the other netbook players. So, what happened?

NEC's LaVie X Ultrabook measures just a half-inch thick.

If NEC's LaVie X is any indication, the next generation of Ultrabooks are going to push the envelope in terms of thin profile designs. The LaVie X measures a mere 0.5 inches (12.8mm) at its thinnest point, yet it touts a Full HD 1080p 15.6-inch display, still a rarity in the Ultrabook space. NEC claims it's the thinnest 15.6-inch Ultrabook around, and to the best of our knowledge, it is.

Have you ever thought of your friends and family as sharing traits with an Ultrabook? Neither have we, but Acer hopes you'll be willing to entertain the idea for a chance to win a thin and light Aspire S7 Ultrabook with Windows 8. It's part of a Facebook contest (one that we're in no way affiliated with, but figured we'd give you a heads up) in which you can enter to win a new laptop daily through December 31, 2012.