All-in-One PCs With a Touch of Style

We'll say it up front: The iMac is no longer the final word in all-in-one PCs. Though Apple's latest aluminum iMacs were the performance champs in our tests, it's the new wave of competing all-in-ones that are changing the game.

All-in-one makers now put greater emphasis on style and design, and touchscreens have practically become the norm. Some models--such as the and , and the --even have multitouch displays, which let you use two fingers at a time to pinch, push, rotate, and scroll items on screen. The TouchSmart PCs are also among several stylish big-screen all-in-ones that have built-in Blu-ray drives and double as Media Center HDTVs.

Contributing to the all-in-one renaissance as well are budget (roughly $500) models with netbook-like specs. Though they lack the power and the entertainment extras of the high-end models--and almost always run Windows XP instead of Vista--their single-touch displays and low price make them attractive.

To reflect these differences, we split our chart into two groups: Those , and those . For this story, we tested 11 all-in-one PCs from all the brands you expect (and some you might not): Apple, Asus, Averatec, Dell, HP, Lenovo, MSI, Shuttle, and Sony. We're continually testing new models, though, so see our all-in-ones chart for the latest reviews and rankings. See "" for a look at what's ahead later this year, too.

Our top pick among the larger models is the . A striking design, solid performance, and upgradability you won't find on other all-in-ones helped clinch the deal. While the A600 doesn't have the touchscreen capabilities of HP's TouchSmart PCs, it does have an HDTV tuner, as do each of our top four big-screen all-in-ones. The A600 also includes a unique Media Center remote that doubles as a VoIP handset, an air mouse, and a Wii-like motion game controller.

If you're willing to accept a display of 19 inches or smaller, you can pick up a good all-in-one for less than $1000. Our top pick in this group is Dell's Studio One 19, which starts at $699. You'll need to add $100 to any configuration for the dual-touch display included in our $944 test unit. Though that $944 price tag is almost double the cost of some budget all-in-ones, the Dell also delivers more than double their netbook-like performance. It outpaced some high-end models, as well.

All-in-Ones vs. Desktop PCs

Despite the improvements in all-in-one PCs over the last year, they still struggle to match the performance of a good value desktop computer. The very compact size that makes them so appealing also creates heat and power limitations that usually require the use of a laptop processor.

Even the fastest all-in-one PC we tested----can't match competitive recent desktops such as Dell's Studio XPS 435. That $999 system's 2.66GHz Core i7 920 processor, 6GB memory, and ATI Radeon HD4870 graphics helped it achieve a WorldBench 6 score of 125, a perceptible 12.6 percent increase over the iMac's result of 111. And while the iMac leads in all-in-one graphics performance, delivering truly playable gaming frame rates, in this respect too it pales compared with the Dell desktop.

Of course, all-in-one PCs offer lots of benefits. They don't require you to buy a new monitor, or to have an old one sitting around. Wall-mounting options are common, as well. And these days, almost all budget all-in-ones feature a single-touch display. Spend a little more, and you can have Dell's Studio One 19 or one of HP's TouchSmart PCs, which boast multitouch displays. This kind of interactivity is ideal for families (but you should probably stock up on wipes to clean up your loved ones' greasy finger marks).

All-in-one PCs also integrate many add-ons, such as speakers, Webcams (the Lenovo has a 2-megapixel camera with VeriFace recognition log-in software, for instance), and wireless networking (usually 802.11n, though the Dell and Averatec cheap out with 802.11g).

On the other hand, on an all-in-one you're pretty much stuck with the screen, and the parts. You can expand a regular desktop to increase its life span, but an all-in-one PC has serious upgrade limitations. Lenovo's IdeaCentre A600 gets big points because users can upgrade its hard disk, optical drive, memory, and fans; in contrast, the HP TouchSmart PCs and the let you upgrade only the memory and hard drive. (A small consolation in the VAIO's case is that an ExpressCard reader allows for laptop-style add-ons.) Apple's iMacs allow you to upgrade the RAM easily, but anything else involves a 21-screw ordeal. The compact also permits memory upgrades; that's noteworthy because every other all-in-one with a screen 19 inches or less--including the Dell--is a completely closed system.

Are Laptops the Smarter Buy?

If all you want is a machine that comes in one simple package, you might be better off with a laptop. The main argument here is simple: Laptops don't need to be plugged into the wall, and just try fitting an all-in-one PC--even the portable Shuttle X50--into your bag! And if it's a touchscreen that you crave, plenty of convertible laptops and Internet tablets are available for you to poke around with. Even some netbooks have touchscreens now: Witness the , the , and the upcoming .

Most Atom-powered netbooks, priced at roughly $500, perform on a par with the similarly priced "nettop" all-in-one PCs on our chart. So the question is: Do you want portability and a 10.1-inch display, or a kitchen PC with a much larger touchscreen? If you're leaning toward a portable, see our for our reviews.

For the multimedia-minded, another option could be a desktop-replacement laptop with a roomy screen measuring 17 inches or more. Take our current top-ranked model, the , for instance. It boasts a mammoth 18.4-inch (1920 by 1080) display, a Blu-ray drive, and a USB TV tuner, and it earned a score of 102 in WorldBench 6. That makes it faster than all of the models here but the 24-inch iMac; and at $1890, it's cheaper than HP's own TouchSmart IQ816 all-in-one. Of course, the HDX18 doesn't have a 25.5-inch multitouch display, and it's pricier than the 22-inch Lenovo and HP all-in-ones. But that's just more food for thought. In the end, your choice could come down to how important a supersize all-in-one touchscreen is to you. If that isn't a

Amazon Removes E-Books From Kindle Store, Revokes Ownership

Today, Amazon removed George Orwell's 1984 and Animal Farm from its Kindle e-book store. The company also went ahead and removed any digital trace of the books, too-striking them from both users' digital lockers and from Kindle devices. This disturbing, move underscores how, in spite of comments otherwise, a purchase in the digital realm can't be compared to physical ownership of content.

I've long considered digital more ephemeral than the physical. It is why I still, for artists I enjoy, purchase the physical CD of an album. It is why I prefer to purchase DVDs and Blu-ray Discs, as opposed to relying on the possibly here-today, gone-tomorrow offerings of electronic distribution. Why my advocacy of the physical? It certainly isn't because I enjoy storing it, that much I can tell you. It's because I have access to it when I want it, where I want it. I don't have to worry about content going out-of-print, nor do I need to keep track of where I have it backed up, in case my hard drive fails.

I've heard one set of theories that posit that the world of digital distribution could theoretically offer unlimited content, for unlimited periods, simply because of the lack of physical distribution costs (production, packaging, shipping, shelf-space, and so on). The other theory, however, is the one that's omnipresent, but more sharply in focus in a tough economy such as the one we're in now. That theory is governed by the basic tenets of business, which look at profit and bottom line. If content isn't generating revenue, then why should a digital distributor maintain the server space to keep up the data, even if all it takes up are more bits and bytes?

Back to the Amazon example. What Amazon did with the Orwell books is different from the above concerns, but it dovetails into the same question of the permanence of digital ownership. Yes, Amazon refunded the money for the books -- but that's not the point. When one purchases something, one acquires the item, and assumes ownership of that item. That item is there.

This unusual maneuver, which Amazon says occurred because Orwell's publisher changed its mind about offering the electronic version of these titles, is all the more unsettling simply because readers already purchased the books and had their ownership of the item revoked. In the Orwell book case, the item was simply no longer there -- it was as if those Kindle users never owned it.

The implications of the Orwell case are highly unsettling -- for any type of copy-protected content, but especially for printed content. What happens if a controversial book comes out, and a publisher decides to remove it from distribution? Or, a book is banned for whatever reason -- as happened in parts of the world with The Satanic Verses? Neither is a common scenario, but both are examples of the control we, as owners, can potentially lose over the content we've purchased in the digital realm. With physical content, no one, even a disgruntled copyright owner, can take away what you've paid for.

A final thought: If, in this digital realm, we're not truly purchasing content, but rather "borrowing" it at a set price, and according to someone else's changing rulebook, we as consumers we deserve to know this up front, in clear and obvious language (unlike Amazon's clear references to "" books, and all the assumptions of ownership that go with buying books). If the rules have changed on us, we deserve to know.

Barnes & Noble Makes a Big Splash Into E-books

Updated at 3:15 p.m. PST with additional information after Barnes & Noble's press conference and interview.

Barnes & Noble, which calls itself the world's largest bookseller, has given hints that e-books will play an important role in the company's future strategy. Today, we get the first insights to Barnes' digital strategy with the company's two-prong announcement of the and its e-book reader plans -- including the company's partnership with Plastic Logic to produce an e-book device.

The eBookstore, launched today, offers 700,000 titles according to Barnes & Nobles' press release, but in a conference call after the release went out, Barnes & Noble clarified that it includes Google's 500,000 free public domain books as part of that number. That means for now, store has the edge: It offers more than 300,000 titles. As on Amazon's Kindle store, the Barnes & Noble eBookstore will offer new releases and bestsellers at $9.99. Barnes says it expects its selection to increase to over one million titles over the course of the next year, including e-books from established publishers, independent direct-to-e-book publishers, and Google.

When asked about how quickly Barnes & Noble planned to grow its portion of the eBookstore (excluding Google offerings), William J. Lynch, President of BN.com, reiterated "We're committed to offering Barnes & Noble consumers every title available in digital format."

Barnes & Noble's eBookstore will support only , the free and open e-book standard from the International Digital Publishing Forum. Books will have DRM, and will be downloadable to your device as well as digitally stored in Your Library. According to Lynch, you can download books to multiple devices; Barnes & Noble offers its latest eReader software across a number of device platforms, including mobile phones (iPhone, Blackberry) and PC and Mac computers, and as part of today's announcement, noted that the eBookstore will be available across all device platforms via the eReader software (acquired earlier this year from Fictionwise).

If you lose your cell phone or your hard drive fails, no worries: Barnes & Noble makes it easy to access your books digitally. "We have on record proof that you purchased the file, so you can download as many times as you need to," explains Lynch.

In addition to the eBookstore, Barnes & Noble discussed its partnership with Plastic Logic. Plastic Logic's eReader digital book reader is due out in early 2010. The Barnes & Noble eBookstore will be the exclusive storefront for the eReader; the company declined to discuss any other level of cooperation between the two companies, though it would not be surprising for Barnes & Noble to sell the eReader in its stores. "We have over 77 million readers who go through our stores," noted Lynch.

Even without knowing the device's price, the integrated Barnes & Noble eBookstore means that Barnes & Noble and Plastic have reached a powerful combination so far only seen from Amazon in the nascent e-book reader market. The device will be 8.5 by 11 inches, with a wireless connection -- making it a direct threat to Amazon's (also about the size of a sheet of paper, with wireless, and integrated Amazon Kindle bookstore). The on-device bookstore integration is a critical component of the puzzle: With it, an e-book reader offers the ease and immediacy of a digital shopping and acquisition experience, in addition to the convenience of an electronic book. Without an integrated storefront, an e-book reader is a static, lifeless device

Redmond Releases Code to Linux Kernel Community

, which has been at odds with the community over the years because of intellectual property issues, said on Monday it has released 20,000 lines of Linux code to the Linux kernel community.

Available for inclusion in the Linux tree, the code includes three Linux device drivers; it will be available to both the Linux community and customers. It will enhance the performance of the Linux operating system when virtualized on Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 virtualization software, according to Microsoft. Code will be offered under the GNU General Public License 2.

[ About two and a half years ago, . ]

"We are seeing Microsoft communities and open source communities grow together, which is ultimately of benefit to our customers," said Microsoft's Sam Ramji, senior director of platform strategy in the company's Server and Tools organization, in a statement released by the company. "The Linux community, for example, has built a platform used by many customers. So our strategy is to enhance interoperability between the Windows platform and many open source technologies, which includes Linux, to provide the choices our customers are asking for."

"Today's release would have been unheard of from Microsoft a few years ago but it's a prime example that customer demand is a powerful catalyst for change," said Ramji.

Indeed, with open source advocates, with Microsoft claiming open source projects like Linux .

Ramji also cited the current economic climate as a driving force. "Many companies are turning to Microsoft more frequently to help them succeed in a heterogeneous technology world because we understand that reducing complexity is a key factor to reducing cost. We are seeing interoperability as a lever for business growth," Ramji said.

In a statement, the executive director of the Linux Foundation saw Microsoft's effort as validation of open source.

"We see the move by Microsoft to submit its device driver code to the Linux kernel as a validation of the open source development model and the GPLv2 license," said Executive Director Jim Zemlin. "Even if a bit overdue, we applaud Microsoft for recognizing the value of collaboration in order to compete in today's IT market."

An industry analyst concurred that the move was precedent-setting.

"This is a logical but precedent-setting decision for Microsoft. Credit Microsoft for recognizing the reality that a sizable portion of its customer base was going to be running Linux and Microsoft side by side in virtualized environments, so it would be important to be competitive on an interoperability front," said Stephen O'Grady, analyst at Redmonk.

"For all of its logic, however, this is a move that would have been inconceivable a few years ago, meaning that the glasnost of Microsoft vis a vis open source continues," O'Grady said.

Continuing a recent mantra of accommodations for open source, Tony Hey, corporate vice president of the external research division at Microsoft Research, will address the O'Reilly OSCON (Open Source Convention) audience in San Jose, Calif. this Thursday about the company's commitment to open access, open tools and interoperability in the "heterogeneous world of research," according to a statement from the company. Hey will discuss tools for scientists to process and analyze massive amounts of data to accelerate scientific discovery.

Microsoft also is highlighting on Monday its ongoing investment in optimizing PHP on Windows Server and the Microsoft SQL Server database. The company has had work ongoing on a SQL Server driver available for PHP to support more native features in SQL Server 2008. Microsoft also has partnered with PHP tools vendor Zend Technologies to boost PHP.

New Apps Will Give iPhone Blu-Ray Power

You'll soon be able to control content right from your . Universal has announced plans to launch a new series of iPhone apps that'll interact with its Blu-ray movie releases. The apps will allow you to tap into interactive features and access other extra info stored on the Blu-ray discs.

The iPhone Blu-ray Apps

Universal's first Blu-ray app for the iPhone will be released next Tuesday, July 28, to coincide with the . The app, which will be offered as a free download, will unlock a bonus section of the disc entitled "Virtual Car Garage." In it, you'll be able to use your iPhone or iPod Touch to browse through galleries of the cars used in the movie, controlling the models with your touchscreen and loading technical details about the vehicles as you go.

The Blu-ray app will use the platform to transit data wirelessly to Internet-enabled players. Universal says the Fast and Furious release is just the tip of the iceberg, too: Future title-specific apps will offer the ability to download bonus content directly from the discs onto your iPhone or iPod for later viewing; to use the devices as fully functioning Blu-ray remotes; and to pull up facts about the cast midmovie. You'll eventually be able to connect to social networks from inside the application as well, allowing you to update your Twitter or Facebook profile while using the program.

Thus far, Universal has announced no plans for similar Blu-ray apps on any other mobile platforms.

The iPhone Blu-ray app, by the way, isn't Universal's first attempt at tying its film marketing into Apple's mobile device: The studio released a in April to help promote this summer's Will Ferrell flick.

Bug in Firefox 3.5.1 Isn't Exploitable, Mozilla Says

A bug discovered in the latest version of Firefox is not exploitable, Mozilla said on Sunday, responding to reports of another vulnerability in the browser.

Mozilla released , the latest version of the browser, last Thursday. The release fixed several recently discovered security holes in version 3.5, which came out in June. Among the that were closed was a critical vulnerability that allowed an attacker to install and run code on a PC without any interaction from the victim.

On Friday, began to emerge of a stack-based buffer overflow in Firefox 3.5.1 that could be used to gain access to a computer or launch a distributed denial of service attack. But after examining the reported vulnerability, Mozilla said that's not the case.

"The reports by press and various security agencies have incorrectly indicated that this is an exploitable bug. Our analysis indicates that it is not, and we have seen no example of exploitability," wrote Mike Shaver, Mozilla's vice president of engineering, in a on Sunday.

The bug causes Firefox 3.5 and Firefox 3.5.1 to crash on a Windows PC, but does not give an attacker access to the PC, Shaver said, calling the crash "safe and immediate."

The bug can also cause Firefox 3.0 and 3.5 to crash on Apple computers.

"A crash occurs inside the ATSUI system library (part of OS X), due to what appears to be a failure to check allocation results," Shaver said, adding the same issue could affect other applications using text-handling libraries in MacOS X. "We have reported this issue to Apple, but in the event that they do not provide a fix we will look to implement mitigations in Mozilla code."

Gateway LT2000: A New Netbook Appears

Not to be outdone in the current netbook craze, Gateway has announced a 10.1-inch addition to its compact notebook line: the LT2000 series. With 1GB of memory, a 160GB hard drive, three USB 2.0 ports, a built-in webcam, and the ability to connect to the internet, the LT2000 sounds just...like...every...other...netbook.

Seriously - we're at the point now where we need more differentiation between these mini-machines, not more bargain-box confusion. But, all we have to go on are the specs and a handful of images, so let's get to it.

Going by the shots, it looks similar to other budget netbooks. No , not , does not look like it would transform into an awesome robot. I have yet to lay a hand upon a review model, so let's not to be too hasty - but this is definitely not the Optimus Prime of netbooks (or the for that matter). It does seem on par spec for spec with other budget netbooks, though -- a 1.6-GHz N270 Atom CPU, 1GB RAM and a 160GB hard drive. Less impressive: A 3-cell battery that, if you're lucky, will last you three hours according to spokespeople. While we are talking about a $300 machine here, other netbooks that don't cost too much more can last over 3 times as long (like Toshiba's NB205-310).

On the software side, the LT2000 netbooks come equipped with Windows XP and pre-installed software. There's some free such as Microsoft Works. Then there's the trial bloatware (Office Home and Student 2007).

One semi-unique feature is the multi-gesture touchpad, which allows users to swirl and flick their way through web pages, music, and media. And even this is not completely unique, as it has been featured on many other models from various vendors, such as Acer's .

The LT2000 series netbooks are available now, in both Cherry Red and NightSky Black. Stay tuned for a full review once test units show up in the office.