Bill Howard

Whats old is new again. Acura gave the century-old technology of turbocharging a new twist in the RDX, an appealing small SUV with a wealth of technology goodies, all aimed at toppling the BMW X3 from its perch. Turbocharging for Power, Economy This is the first foray into passenger-vehicle turbocharging for Acura and its parent […]

“Why dont we review more affordable cars?” asked my editor-in-chief. “Because they dont have as much technology as, say, the $100,000 Mercedes S-Class,” I rejoined. It was a Mexican standoff, and I blinked. Besides, Jim had a good point. Click here to read the full review of the Honda Fit. 2 “Why dont we review […]

The average american spends weeks each year in a car. Its no wonder were demanding smarter, safer, and more entertaining automobiles. Yet for all the billions spent on development, the fusion-powered flying cars of science-fiction movies have stubbornly failed to appear. Cars still run on rubber tires powered by the same gas-powered, environment-unfriendly engines. But […]

As more and more of your lifes records and memories are stored in digital form, it makes sense to explore the best ways to keep them secure. All methods have drawbacks, some of them glaring. Floppy disks are all but dead as a format. ZIP disks are expensive for their capacity. CD/DVD backups are great—if […]

With the arrival of the best-in-class IBM ThinkPad X40, other ultraportables have a lot of catching up to do. Even with a system weight of just 2.7 pounds, the X40 still has the features serious road warriors demand—notably that wonderful-feeling, full-size IBM keyboard. Best of all, IBM has priced the X40 very competitively: Prices start […]

The dazzling Toshiba Portégé R100 notebook is an impressive 2.4-pound ultra-ultraportable (most ultraportables weigh 3 to 4 pounds) with a full-size keyboard, 40GB hard drive, and 12.1-inch XGA display. The only flaw in this otherwise impeccable system is low battery life—an unavoidable trade-off given the systems diminutive size. The R100 is Toshibas follow-up to last […]

Portable computers are again closing in on and surpassing the 10-pound mark. At a time when almost every feature that road warriors desire can be slid, snapped, or screwed into a notebook of 5 pounds or less, a compelling case can be made for heavier notebooks. And the heavier the better. When a notebook weighs […]

With computers, one size most certainly does not fit all, which is why a few companies, such as NEC, keep cranking out handheld PCs. The NEC MobilePro 900 ($900 street) is the latest and arguably one of the best of the clamshell “tweener” products—bigger and more versatile than a PDA, but smaller and more portable […]

The floppy disk is so dead that most people have stopped declaring that its dead. One of the culprits is the USB memory drive, which lets you carry far more data in a device small enough to stick in a pocket or use as a keychain. But while these storage accessories have become commodities, companies […]

Anytime Philips introduces a new product, its likely to be stylish and well-designed, and thats just the case with the DesXscape 150DM ($1,500 street), a wireless smart display tablet that accesses your desktop PC apps and the Internet. The trouble is that the smart displays in this first generation are pricy for their limited uses, […]