Market Watch: Reviews

With the introduction of Windows 8, touchscreens are coming to the desktop -- but they're not cheap. We look at three of the latest monitors from Acer, Dell and ViewSonic.

We look at a range of Bluetooth speakers that can improve your smartphone's audio at home, at work or on the go.

While SQL Server 2008 was little more than a service-pack level upgrade, the 2012 version of Microsoft's database has a boatload of new features and delivers solid performance improvements.

Virtually all our testing took place across 512Kbps frame relay, T-1 and T-3 WAN links. The test bed network consisted of six Fast Ethernet subnet domains linked by Cisco routers. Our lab's 50 clients consisted of computing platforms that included Windows 2000/2003/XP/Vista/Win7, Macintosh 10.x and Red Hat Linux (both server and workstation editions).

We initially attempted to implement System Center 2012 modularly, which is almost impossible, so we used the Unified Installer after reading the salient documents for each module, then installed each module into its own VM, combining SQLServer resources where necessary. We recommend that up to four SQL Server instances may be necessary for protecting all of the modules.

HP's new Envy Sleekbook 6-1010us offers an alternative to higher-priced ultrabooks: It's not as fast, but it's got a fine display and great audio.

Thanks to real attention to usability and meaningful features, Samsung's flagship takes its place as the Android front-runner

HTC's Droid Incredible 4G LTE is not the sexiest smartphone on the market, but it offers great sound and Android 4.0 for a reasonable price.

Gamers have always demanded the fastest and most powerful systems. We tested three screamers to find the best laptop for the job.