Refers to the casual user in contrast to the professional user. Consumer products vary in quality, ranging from flimsy, inexpensive devices to very well made; however, the term implies non-professional usage. See prosumer and consumer electronics.
 | Reproduced with permission from Computer Desktop Encyclopedia. Copyright (c) 1981-2008 The Computer Language Company Inc. All rights reserved. |
Additional Resources
- HP delivers strong third quarter fueled by blades, international, notebooks
- HP on Tuesday reported fiscal third quarter earnings of $2 billion, or 80 cents a share, on revenue of $28 billion, up 10 percent from a year ago. Excluding items, HP reported earnings of 86 cents a share, 3 cents ahead of Wall Street estimates. Revenue also...
- Blog posts 2008-08-19
- Android security team appeals to hackers
- Already burned by the discovery of serious security vulnerabilities in its SDK, the Android Security Team emerged from the shadows this week with an appeal to the security community for help fixing flaws in the Linux-based mobile platform. In a note posted to several public mailing lists,...
- Blog posts 2008-08-19
- PitchEngine revs up public beta, puts the social in PR
- Last week I wrote about how bloggers could better work with public relations folks. While I won't to get into the habit of writing about PR I think we'd all agree that, like it or not, there's a direct correlation between it and social media, especially when we're talking...
- Blog posts 2008-08-19
- 62.7% of US employees choose PPO plan for their medical insurance
- Consumer Driven Health Plans, or CDHPs, increased by 43% from 2007, and now comprise nearly 13% of all plans offered by employers. The%age of employees enrolled in these plans nearly doubled, from six% in 2007 to 11.2% 2008. While preferred provider organizations PPOs continue to dominate the market, representing 54%...
- Blog posts 2008-08-18
- Zoho's future in Google's hands?
- Earlier today, Zoho sent over an intriguing email with a whole bunch of numbers and spreadsheet demonstrating why Google in particular is not likely to be a threat to the company. It makes interesting reading. The argument goes something like this: Google's revenue and profit per...
- Blog posts 2008-08-18
- With FCC testing due soon, Google pushes white spaces
- Google launched Free the Airwaves, a public advocacy site dedicated to pushing for what product manager Minnie Ingersoll calls "Wi-Fi on Steroids," meaning TV white spaces. Google and numerous other high-tech companies are pushing for the FCC to allow unlicensed use of the white spaces, much as...
- Blog posts 2008-08-18
- Security vs. convenience: Apple chooses poorly
- Guest post by Oliver Day My PowerBook is in the third year of its life and has begun falling apart on a regular basis. I've had the laptop in for repair at least five times this year alone. Every time I bring my laptop...
- Blog posts 2008-08-18
- Exploits, vulnerabilities, and questions
- Exploits, vulnerabilities, and questionsIt is cooking with love.The person works for MS, and even a "stock" install without all the optional packages still contains hundreds and hundreds of applications. More to the point, however, I think a carefully crafted criteria was enforced that skewed things in a positive...
- Discussion threads 2008-08-16
- Wordcamp 2008
- In the quiet flats of University of California San Francisco Mission Bay campus, bloggers, thinkers, journalists, developers, and inventors melt together for a full day of lectures and learning. The goal of Wordcamp 2008 is to figure out the future of publishing on the web. ...
- Blog posts 2008-08-16
- Not so idle: HP earns green transport logo for business products
- It takes more than better attention to energy-efficiency or attention to materials to classify some gadget or another as green tech. That's why Hewlett-Packard has made a concerted effort to have its products vetted as part of the Environmental Protection Agency's SmartWay logo program, which focuses on the fuel consumption...
- Blog posts 2008-08-15
- Wireless, wireless everywhere
- Wireless, wireless everywhereMy problem with wirelessis, as you say, those $39.99 routers. I've yet to have one that has lasted more than a year. And the expensive ones are, well... expensive.I also find it amazing how many people use either no security or WEP. I'd say they constitute at least...
- Discussion threads 2008-08-15
- Average Brit spends 7 hours 9 minutes watching TV
- Every day in 2007, an average UK consumer spent 7 hours and 9 minutes watching TV, on the phone, using the internet or using other telecom services, Ofcom reports. But the average UK household spend on communications in 2007 was 93.63 pounds a month - a fall of 1.53 pounds...
- Blog posts 2008-08-15
- HP Pavilion dv7-1025nr
- Editors' note: This review is part of our Back-to-School 2008 roundup, covering specific configurations of popular laptops that can be found in retail stores.The $1,499 HP Pavilion dv7-1025nr is both familiar and brand new at the same time. On the one hand, the desktop-replacement laptop is like any other Pavilion:...
- Product reviews 2008-08-14
- 3D HD cellphone video: a killer app for next decade storage
- Terabyte notebooks are coming in a couple of years. But what will we fill them with? Glad you asked. How about 3D HDTV cell phone footage? Don't laugh. It's coming. Flashback When I bought my first external hard drive - 30 MB for $300 - I...
- Blog posts 2008-08-14
- Two flavors of software as a service: Intuit QuickBase and Etelos
- There are dozens of flavors of clever applications aimed at the office productivity market, often spawned as a result of the Web 2.0 explosion. Where the Web 2.0 application market is driven by eyeballs and their resulting advertising monetization, the enterprise 2.0...
- Blog posts 2008-08-14
- Facebook and Beacon partners slapped with class action suit
- Facebook - along with Beacon partners Blockbuster, Fandango, Overstock and others - has been slapped with a class action lawsuit over the missteps that were taken when the Beacon program was launched last year. Techmeme And now, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerburg's own public apology - an admirable fess-up for the...
- Blog posts 2008-08-14
- Intel's health challenge
- Intel got into a consumer market it did not yet understand because it found an opportunity it could not resist. by Dana Blankenhorn
- Blog posts 2008-08-14
- U.S. Internet down by law, not market
- U.S. Internet down by law, not marketPlease refrain from the BS, Dana[i]ISPs are free to set terms and conditions of service, but if those terms become onorous the consumer can simply change carriers[/i]And we cannot?If I do not like Comcast I can move to Verizon, Cavalier, AOL, ATX, the list...
- Discussion threads 2008-08-14
- Lessons from Twitter's SMS shut down
- The news that Twitter has shut down its outbound SMS service in the UK highlights two problems with our industry: A consumer culture whereby you can't charge for something that was once provided for free (the Web 2.0 syndrome), and that Silicon Valley doesn't understand Europe. by Steve O'Hear
- Blog posts 2008-08-14
- SimpleTech (Re)Drive
- The SimpleTech ReDrive will help protect your data and the planet. Housed in a casing of renewable bamboo and recycled aluminum, the external hard drive features a pleasing design--like something you might see inside the pages of Dwell. The drive's packaging also leaves little to waste: no plastic bag, no...
- Product reviews 2008-08-13
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The Green Enterprise
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- A look into the enterprise to explore eco-friendly practices and innovations. In this ZDNet video series learn about what's motivating green tech, and how green technologies are impacting IT. 0:42
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Harnessing the power of waves
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Planting solar gardens
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Fill your car for $1.10 a gallon?
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