Microsoft has recently announced the release of Windows Phone Blue, as an update to WP8 (Windows Phone 8). Last month, they gave a few online tech bloggers the chance have a hands-on session with the upcoming OS. The main features of this are the small sized Live Tiles that are similar to the ones in WP8, new built-in applications and UI features. With this update, Microsoft looks to be taking up a strategy that involves smaller but more frequent updates to their Windows OS, instead of drastic changes.

The new OS comes with improvements in popular features such as Snap View, allowing side-by-side viewing of up to four apps, that each shares an equal screen area. You are allowed to view more elements, such as application information panels and network connections, on the Windows 8 standard interface, rather than on the desktop. New apps like sound recorder, calculator, movie making application, and Alarms have been preloaded in this new version of the OS. They have also increased the depth of SkyDrive integration that now allows you to place your backups directly on the cloud, and also for auto-uploading your videos and photos.

The changes that have been made in Windows Blue seem to make the promising suggestion that Microsoft is slowly moving a move, away from their traditional desktop interface to the new tiled interface. This can only be good as with Windows 8, it was very problematic to frequently jump from the new innovative interface to the standard desktop. This often seemed to spoil the experience, of what looked like a new and bold direction in interface design, which Microsoft had taken.

While Windows Blue will take time to reach the market and be available at your local computer rentals service, the number of Windows 8 systems is gradually and steadily increasing in the marketplace.

Acer has recently announced their new hybrid, Aspire R7, which is a combination of laptop, tablet and an all-in-one desktop. Windows 8 was bound to lead to a host of crazy hardware designs and the R7 is exactly that. The trackpad has been placed behind the physical keyboard, which is quite unusual. But you will warm up to the idea, when you realize that Acer does not expect you to make use of the trackpad much.

Instead, they want you to use the 15.6-inch touchscreen, which has been given an incredible level of flexibility with the help of a hardware upgrade that Acer calls the ‘Ezel’ hinge. This allows you to lay the 1080p display almost completely flat onto the device, making it look like an oversized tablet. The slightly slanted screen is good for use on your lap, but it cannot be considered an ideal tablet. You also can place it at angle so that the screen is next to the keyboard and covers up the touchpad, or you could flip it backwards, so that it faces away from the keyboard.

The R7 has incredible build quality and is made out of an aluminum-like material, which means that there is almost no flex, on any part of the device. But it is quite a heavy and large device at 5.3lbs and 1.1-inch thickness that reduces the portability of the device.

The key specifications of the device include an 1.8GHz Core i5 processor from Intel, with TurboBoost up to 2.7GHz, 6GB DDR3 RAM, internal storage of a SATA 500GB HDD and one 24GB SSD, Intel HD 4000 Graphics, HD webcam and dual mics, 2 USB 3.0 ports, and a USB 2.0 port.

Though this one is not bound to be available at your local computer rental agency soon, a lot of similar devices will be available, which will give you the power and portability that is on par with this device.

As the sale of Windows 8 powered computers continue to be disappointing, many manufacturers such as ASUS, ACER, and others are getting ready to release a host of Chromebooks in late 2013. The devices will be powered by Google's proprietary operating system Chrome, which promises to spice up the market for notebooks and computers.

This announcement comes close at the heels of the recently-released Chromebook Pixel, that is Google's own device and works on a 1.8 GHz Intel processor with 1TB of space in Google Drive, and a 4GB RAM.

Devices powered by Chrome OS have been released since the last year, but have mainly existed in the low-price category. Notable among these is the Celeron-powered Chromebook from Acer, which is available at a low price of $199 and packs in 320GB of hard disk space. Acer is also planning to launch an 11.6-inch model that will be targeted at students. Lenovo also launched a similar dedicated Chromebook for students in January this year, the ThinkPad X131e.

Other companies that are getting into the Chromebook bandwagon include established industry names such as HP, Samsung, and Lenovo, but these have not announced any specific date or details regarding their progress with Chromebooks. This news also comes at a time when there is a lot of news that many PC manufacturers are readying up a range of low-cost products that will run on the Android OS, Chocolate Factory.

You can find the existing Chromebooks at various computer rental agencies. Chromebook has the potential to become an industry leader if the future products give great performance with the low prices.

Hewlett Packard has just signed a deal with Leap Motion, a start-up based in San Francisco, to integrate the latter's motion control technology into its computers.

HP is the largest manufacturer of PCs in the world. The new move taken by HP can potentially change the way they interact with their PCs. This could be similar to how Apple brought touchscreen technology to the mainstream in 2007, by launching the iPhone.

Leap Motion is a three year old company and it is has fewer than 100 employees. The company specializes in motion sensor units that it claims can track finger movements with precision. The unit can be used with any computer. There are special software and apps available to enable its use.

Under the terms of the deal, HP will initially provide the motion sensors as a separate unit with its PCs, before finally integrating it with its computers. Major retailers have already started selling the sensor at $80 but they will not be shipped before 13th May. HP and Leap Motion have not commented on when PCs embedded with the sensors will be made available.

Ron Coughlin, Senior Vice President at HP, said that the incredible motion control technology provided by the sensors and HP’s technology will enhance user experiences like never before.

Many other industry giants such as Apple, Microsoft and Google have at different times expressed that they are interested in motion control technology. Microsoft has already taken the first step with its Kinect box that is designed to be used with the Xbox.

In a few years, this technology will be embedded into many other devices. Soon, you may also be able to try out this technology by using PCs offered by HP.