An often irreverent look at some of the past week's other news.

How did a vibrant palace of bargains and trust turn into a standoff between buyers and sellers? Part one of our major feature.

Are "free laptop" deals like Vodafone's Dell Inspiron mini 9 offer a great way to save money on a new PC, or a cleverly disguised con? We reveal the truth

Are you ready for the next generation of televisions? Talk the talk with PC Authority's jargon guide.

The price war among Netbooks and mini-notebooks is hot at the moment, especially leading up to Christmas. We source the best prices from around the net this week.

We’ve examined the data from more than 8000 readers to reveal exactly what sort of reliability, customer service and satisfaction you can expect in 2007.

From budget laptops to ultra-tiny netbooks, ultraportables and high performance, we explain the tricks to finding out the ultimate laptop at the right price.

Since the release of the Eee PC 701, the 'Notebook' has dominated. Easy to use, cheap and able to be left on the coffee table next to the remote, Notebooks are true appliance computing. The choice of which one to buy comes down to personal preference, but it's hard not to prefer those with the best usability. Our rundown of your options covers their performance, battery life, and design.

Stack your system full of software without paying a penny, with our guide to essential downloads

Still not sure whether it's worth upgrading to Vista? We put XP and Vista through the ultimate face-off.

Our unparalleled test of mobile broadband returns, comparing the three fastest services on offer in Australia. Read PC Authority's full comparative results drawn from exhaustive testing with real-world data.

Apple’s ads may be funny, but they’re woefully inaccurate. Here we reveal dozens of reasons why the PC outclasses the Mac.

Your photos, music and data are just a virus or hard disk failure away from oblivion. Build a triple-layer defence using PC Authority's practical guide.

Toshiba has now introduced a laptop with a HD-DVD drive. And gave us details on HD-DVD.

The appearance of affordable DVD burners has given cause to celebration among the world's digital video makers – from hobbyists to professionals. The potential of DVD Video for corporate and wedding video makers is clear, but even the ability to present holiday videos in bite-sized, episodic and easily accessible chunks can't be sniffed at.

The Blackberry Storm lands amidst a flurry of other smartphone launches recently, and in the near future.

Leigh Dyer lets rip on digital TV, video conversion tools, aspect ratios and video formats.

After the disappointment - perceived or otherwise - of Windows Vista, many are pinning their hopes on a revival with Windows 7. And from our first impressions of the pre-beta code, that's exactly what they can expect.

The best plans, the hidden costs, and is it really the best broadband deal on the market?

We test the big three OSes on level ground - Boot Camp.