Consumer preference shifts to mobile devices and constrained commercial spending lead to further contraction in the EMEA PC market, IDC reports-- Q1 2013 shipments drop by -20.2% Y-o-Y to 21.8 million units.

Portable PC shipments total 13.6m units (with a -20.6% Y-o-Y decline) and desktops drop by -19.6% to 8.3m.

Such results cement earlier IDC and Gartner reports on the currently dismal outlook for the global PC market-- which the analysts attribute at least partly to Windows 8 making PCs "a less attractive alternative to dedicated tablets and other competitive devices."

IDC says "while the PC market continues to suffer from a shift to other devices, the current market expansion to a larger product portfolio and higher number of devices per person continues to support an increase in overall spending on total client devices, which grew by 15% in 2012 and will remain at double-digit in Q1 2013."

Is Minority Report-style gesture-based control key to a brighter future for the PC market? HP certainly hopes so as it teams up with 3D motion control developer Leap Motion.

The partnership sees HP bundling the Leap controller (and Airspace, the Leap Motion app store) with a selection of upcoming PC models before embedding the technology in yet announced future consumer products.

“Leap Motion’s groundbreaking 3D motion control combined with HP technology and amazing developer apps will create incredible user experiences,” HP says.

HP is not the first company to sign a deal with Leap-- Asus has a similar partnership with the startup.

The PC market keeps looking worse-- according to IDC global Q1 2013 PC shipments drop by -13.9% Y-o-Y to 76.3 million units, the worst quarter since IDC started tracking shipments in 1994.

The shipment decline is (obviously!) much worse than the -7.7% Y-o-Y decline previously forecast by IDC. EMEA declines are also worse than than analyst anticipated, reaching the "strong" double-digits within both consumer and commercial markets.

"At this point it seems clear that the Windows 8 launch not only failed to provide a positive boost to the PC market, but appears to have slowed the market," IDC remarks. "The costs associated with touch have made PCs a less attractive alternative to dedicated tablets and other competitive devices. Microsoft will have to make some very tough decisions moving forward if it wants to help reinvigorate the PC market."

In other words, Windows 8 effectively turned the PC market into something akin to a Zeppelin crashing towards the earth in slow motion while consumers stick to tablets and smartphones...

Intel reveals the future of Thunderbolt technology at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) show-- boosting data rates from 10Gbps to 20Gbps in both directions.

Seen in prototype form, Thunderbolt 2.0 (codenamed "Falcon Ridge") allows simultaneous 4K file transfer and display, and improves speeds via implementation of PCIe 3.0 technology outside the PC.

Falcon Ridge makes use of copper cables, is backwards-compatible with 1st generation Thunderbolt cables and connectors, and should Continue reading...

Microsoft confirms its Windows plans following leaks of "Blue"-- an even more tablet-centric Windows 8 update described by pundits as yet another step towards the end of the Windows desktop.

According to the leak Blue overhauls the Windows 8 PC Settings app, putting more Control Panel functionality within a touch-friendly UI. It also includes a handful of new gesture controls, 2 more Live Tile sizes, half-screen app snapping, further SkyDrive integration, 4 new Start Screen apps (Alarms, Calculate, Sound Recorder and Movie Moments) and Android-style screenshot sharing.

The company admits the leak in an official blog entry by Corporate Communications VP Frank X. Shaw, who says "product leaders across Microsoft are working together on plans to advance our devices and services, a set of plans referred to internally as “Blue.”"

Researchers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) believe they have the secret to more robust, "self-healing" processors-- building chips able to keep on working even after laser blasts.

The failure of a single transistor often renders most chips out of service. Not with the Caltech chips. The prototypes (power amplifiers of the mobile phones kind) carry a number of robust sensors measuring temperature, current, voltage and power while feeding into an application-specific integrated-circuit (ASIC) unit.

The ASIC unit measures chip performance and adjusts system actuators (the changeable parts of the chip) by drawing conclusions based on aggregate response from the sensors.

Shuttle shows off additions to its All-in-One (AIO) PC range at CeBIT 2013-- including the Shuttle AIO Barebone X70S, a 18.5-inch version of its  15.6-inch machines.

The X70S is the first Shuttle AIO with an LGA1155 socket allowing it to carry conventional Intel desktop processors (Intel Core i3/i5/i7) with up to 65W TDP.

The 5.7 x 46.8 x 36.4cm chassis includes x2 SO-DIMM slots (for a total of 16GB of DDR3 RAM), space for a 2.5-inch HDD or SSD, mini-PCIe slot, x2 USB 3.0 and x6 USB 2.0 ports, Continue reading...

MSI claims its latest all-in-one (AIO) PC on show at CeBIT 2013 is ideal for the more gaming-oriented customer-- the AG2712, a desktop featuring a 27-inch multitouch display and fairly solid specifications.

While it looks similar to other AIO PCs, the AG2712 carries either Core i7 or 15 processor, Nvidia 670MX graphics and THX TruStudio Pro audio processing. Connectivity options include wifi, ethernet, USB 3.0 and HDMI.

The display handles 1920 x 1080 resolution and comes with a wide-angle matte Continue reading...