Holiday Hours

Arundel Computers will be closed on Saturday, 5/26/2012. We will reopen Tuesday 5/29/2012.

Faster Wireless Coming Real Soon

Buffalo Technologies has announced the first wireless router which supports 802.11ac, a wireless standard which touts theoretical speeds of up to 1.3Gbps. 802.11ac has yet to be ratified as a standard, and we don't expect to see many products hit the market supporting it until it does. To take advantage of the speed increase both your router/access point and client device would need to have hardware which supports the new proposed standard, but it is nice to see advances in wireless technology should be hitting the market relatively soon.

Source: Ars Technica

Windows 8 Upgrades for new Windows 7 PCs

Details are still yet to be announced, however current information indicates that Microsoft will create a program where in customers who purchase a Windows 7 PC in the months leading up to the Windows 8 release date will be able to upgrade to Windows 8 Pro for $15. Even if you purchase the home version of Windows 7, you should be able to upgrade to the Pro version for this price. We will post new details of this program once they are made official.

Source: Engadget

Intel-based Windows 8 Tablets by November

Just in time for the holidays, it is being reported by CNET that Windows 8 tablets powered by Intel CPU should be available at retail by November. Tablets are of course the form factor on which Windows 8 really shines, and we're happy to see that we will not have to wait long after Windows 8 is launched to see them come to market.

Source: CNET

Windows 8 and Media Center

For those who have used and enjoyed Media Center in past veersions of Windows, you will be interested to know there will be some changes in Windows 8. First, Media Center will not be included in any version of Windows 8. Customers who are running the Pro version of Windows 8 will be able to purchase and download Media Center as a seperate add on package. Users running the consumer version of Windows 8 will not be able to purchase this upgrade.

Additionally, Windows 8 will also not be including support for DVD playback, as was the case in the days of Windows XP. This means users will have to turn to programs such as PowerDVD or VLC if they wish to watch DVD movies on their system.

Source: Making Windows Blog