Stories by Melissa Riofrio

HP's consumer PC sales continue to languish, but the game's not over yet--certainly not on the company's new Envy Rove, a 20-inch all-in-one that can lay flat for multiplayer games. The company also announced a raft of other all-in-ones and desktops today.

At Maker Faire, not far from the 3D printers and robotic bartenders, I found Toyota's RAV4 EV. It might have a bit more spit and polish than the typical DIY project at Maker Faire, but it's definitely the result of some art and craft.

Clamshell laptops will always have their place, but that form factor just can't deliver the versatility of a hybrid tablet with a detachable keyboard. Unfortunately, the designs we've seen so far have been hobbled by weak CPUs.

As Sony announces its new VAIO Fit line of consumer laptops, it's leading a charge--a necessary one--into the world of touch. Touchscreens will be available across the entire product line, and standard on some models. In a briefing last week, Sony said that it expected touchscreens to overtake non-touch displays rapidly as the laptop norm.

We've had about six months to play with Windows 8 (like it or not) and with the first generation of hardware designed for the new OS. So now, with PCs based on Intel's Haswell CPU poised on the horizon, it's time to take stock of the best Windows 8 hardware available today. You may be able to snap one up for a bargain-basement price as the industry clears out inventory in anticipation of second-gen machines.

Your online life may not seem worth tracking as you browse websites, store content in the cloud, and post updates to social networking sites. But the data you generate is a rich trove of information that says more about you than you realize - and it's a tempting treasure for marketers and law enforcement officials alike.

Shareholder meetings are almost boring affairs, but today, at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California, HP's Board quietly prevailed in several intense battles, including the preservation of its very own membership. The overall message: Let's look forward to the future, and leave our checkered past behind.

Printing anything from anywhere is no longer fantasy. In fact, it's often a necessity if using a smartphone, tablet, or laptop is an essential part of your daily workflow.

If you own a Kodak inkjet printer, you probably bought it for the supercheap ink. So if there's any consolation to Kodak's announcement that it would stop selling inkjet printers, it's that Kodak promises to keep selling you ink.

No matter how clearly our world of online photo albums, Google Docs, and e-cards may seem--yet again--to ring the death knell for anything on paper, sometimes you still want to print.

The Brother MFC-9970CDW color laser multifunction printer tackles the full laundry list of small-office and workgroup print/copy/scan/fax needs, outdoing every competitor in its price range (US$700 as of July 18, 2011) and offering cheap toner to boot. The only thing wrong with this picture is, well, the picture: Its photo quality is middling, and its color scans can be overly dark.

Shopping online for cheap ink or toner--how hard could it be?

The printer ate your TPS reports, but no excuse matters when you're rushing off to meet clients empty-handed. No wonder everybody loves to hate printers. When you need them most, they'll display a stupefying error message and create a hot mess of jammed paper and spilled ink.

Ready to buy a printer? These are the specs you need to understand to make an informed choice.

Is your printer stealing from you? Yes--if it's making you replace ink or toner constantly, or if you need to buy pricey special paper to get the best output. Maybe it's stealing your time or sanity by being a lot slower than it said it'd be, or having cheapo components that break or are just plain hard to use. PC World reveals some sinners-and saints-based on our recent printer reviews.