How To Turn Your Boring Old Laptop Into A Cool Touch Screen Machine

Sure, Windows 8 - Microsoft's new touchscreen operating system - will run just fine on PCs designed for Windows 7. But you won't be able to take advantage of the new touch capabilities the OS enables unless you scrap your existing PC and upgrade to a new computer.

Or maybe not.

At the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, a company out of China demonstrated a peripheral that combines a stylus and either a USB or wireless receiver to touch-enable a non-touchscreen LCD monitor or laptop screen.

The technology has made its way to the United States via Shenzhen Yifang Digital Technology Co. Ltd., mercifully shortened to Yifang Digital, whose E Fun brand markets the APEN Touch8 system in the United States. Got that?

Hands On With Microsoft s Impressive Surface Pro Tablet

For several months now, Microsoft's Surface RT has stood as an example of Microsoft's commitment to the concept of a Windows tablet.

But in the next few weeks, Microsoft will begin shipping the full-fledged Windows 8 version of the device (officially known as Surface with Windows 8 Pro, and priced at $899) offering improved performance as well as full-fledged Windows 8 compatibility and functionality. ReadWrite received a behind-the-scenes look at the new tablet at the 2013 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas.

Report, There are now 1.6 billion 3G,4G connections in the world

Mobile broadband networks account for nearly one quarter of the world’s mobile cellular connections, according to numbers released this week by Wireless Intelligence, the research arm of the GSM Association. That winds up being 1.6 billion 3G and 4G subscriptions.

Wireless Intelligence defines mobile broadband as any CDMA EV-DO, HSPA, WiMAX or LTE technology, as well as the TD-SCDMA systems used in China – basically anything that can stream a video to a smartphone with a decent connection. In total 580 operators in 186 countries are running those networks.

US government tells computer users to disable Java

The US Department of Homeland Security is advising people to temporarily disable the Java software on their computers to avoid potential hacking attacks.

The recommendation came in an advisory issued late Thursday, following up on concerns raised by computer security experts. Experts believe hackers have found a flaw in Java's coding that creates an opening for criminal activity and other high-tech mischief.

Facebook testing dollar 100 charge to message strangers

Facebook is at it again, folks. The social network giant is testing out yet another new feature, and this time it’s almost too ridiculous to believe. Facebook is testing a new service that charges you $100 to send a message to a stranger. So, instead of having the message land in their “Other” inbox, it will go straight to their main inbox.

Some Facebook users have been reporting an interesting popup when they attempt to send messages to people outside of their friend network. The popup notes that the message will be filtered to the “Other” inbox of the recipient, but offers to deliver it to the top of the recipient’s inbox for a staggering $100.