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We've got a preview of the entire list of models that will be included in our retail review roundup, and we'll update this page with the final ratings and live links as the systems get reviewed over the next several weeks.
> See our favorite picks in the Netbooks category here.
> See our favorite picks in the budget laptop category here.
> See our favorite picks in the mainstream laptop category here.
See more news, reviews, and recommendations in our Laptops and Desktops sections.
Indianapolis Colts quarterback Andrew Luck is suffering from a foot injury, but Colts head coach Frank Reich played down the significance of the problem on Monday.
Luck missed practice Monday as a result of the injury, per the Indianapolis Star's Zak Keefer. Reich, however, said the three-time Pro Bowler would be available to play if the Colts had a regular-season game on the docket Sunday, per Fox59's Mike Chappell.
The Colts' final preseason game is Thursday against the Cincinnati Bengals. Reich told reporters last week the team's 23-17 win over the San Francisco 49ers would be the last time the starters stepped on the field before the regular season kicks off.
Luck appeared in each of the Colts' first three preseason contests, going 20-of-32 for 204 yards, one touchdown and an interception.
Luck missed all of the 2017 season while recovering from shoulder surgery. He indicated the shoulder isn't bothering him at all as he and the Colts prepare for the regular season.
"I feel great, my shoulder feels awesome, the best it's felt," he said, per ESPN.com's Mike Wells. "I actually feel very good, strong, my shoulder felt alive. I was a little happier with where the ball went when I threw it. I keep feeling and seeing improvement. Keep working at it."
Given his lengthy recovery, Colts fans will always feel a momentary sense of panic whenever they see "Andrew Luck" and "injury" in the same sentence. But it wouldn't appear the seventh-year passer is in jeopardy of missing Indianapolis' Week 1 matchup with the Bengals.
Thousands of locals and tourists climbed Mount Bromo early Sunday for a lavish religious ceremony that involves throwing ritual offerings into the smouldering crater of an active volcano in Indonesia's tribal hinterlands.
Each year people from the Tengger tribe gather from the surrounding highlands to cast fruit, vegetables, flowers, and even livestock such as goats and chickens into Mount Bromo's smoking crater as part of the Yadnya Kasada festival.
Other villagers -- not members of the Tengger tribe -- try to catch the offerings before they disappear into the billowing smoke using nets and sarong. This is not technically part of the ritual but reflects local frugal urges not to waste the offerings.
The month-long Yadnya Kasada festival harkens back to the 15th century legends of Majapahit kingdom princess Roro Anteng and husband Joko Seger.
Unable to bear children after years of marriage, the couple begged the gods for help.
Their prayers were answered and they were promised 25 children, as long as they agreed to sacrifice their youngest child by throwing him into Mount Bromo.
Legend has it this son willingly jumped into the volcano to guarantee the prosperity of the Tengger people.
The sacrifice tradition continues to this day -- though the Tengger sacrifice their harvest and farm animals instead of humans.
Dancers in elaborate traditional costumes and tourists were up before dawn to take part in this year's ceremony.
Crowds have swelled at Mount Bromo in recent years as the local government promotes the festival as a tourist event.
Foreign tourists joined travellers from elsewhere in Indonesia at the mountain's peak, throwing coins into the crater for good luck.
NEW YORK — Twitter’s stock dropped sharply as the company’s revenue and outlook fell short of expectations at a time investors are looking for stronger advertising growth to make up for less-than-stellar user numbers.
Twitter’s adjusted earnings for the first quarter topped Wall Street estimates but revenue fell short of expectations and of Twitter’s own guidance. Twitter attributed the shortfall to lower-than-expected contributions from some of its newer “direct-response” advertising products. These tools help advertisers communicate directly with customers in real time.
The company posted a loss of $162 million, or 25 cents per share, in the January-March period. That compares with a loss of $132 million, or 23 cents per share, a year earlier. Adjusted earnings were 7 cents per share. Analysts polled by FactSet were expecting 4 cents.
Twitter’s revenue rose 74 percent to $436 million from $250 million a year earlier. Analysts had expected $456 million.
Twitter’s user growth has been lagging behind other popular social media companies, but for the most part the company has been able to make up for that by making a lot of money from the users it has. That’s why the revenue miss, and the lowered outlook, disappointed investors.
The company now expects revenue of $470 million to $485 million for the second quarter. Analysts were looking for $538 million. For the full year, Twitter is predicting $2.17 billion to $2.27 billion, below analysts’ average forecast of $2.37 billion.
Twitter accounted for less than 1 percent of the $145 billion digital advertising market last year, according to research firm eMarketer. In comparison, Facebook’s share was nearly 8 percent and Google’s was more than 31 percent.
Twitter had 302 million average monthly users in the first quarter, up 18 percent from the previous year. About 80 percent of these users accessed the site on mobile devices at least once a month. By contrast, Facebook reported 1.44 billion monthly users last week. Cantor Fitzgerald analyst Youssef Squali said that “user growth remains key” for Twitter over the long term. Twitter’s user growth met his expectations, and he called the sequential 14 million new users a “significant uptick” compared to the fourth-quarter’s disappointing 4 million additions.
Trading in Twitter’s stock was halted Tuesday afternoon after word spread that earnings were released prematurely, before the market closed. When trading resumed, the stock fell more than 25 percent. By the time the stock market closed, Twitter’s shares were down $9.39, or 18.2 percent, at $42.27. That’s still up nearly 17 percent year-to-date.
Some reports said the earnings leaked out when research firm Selerity tweeted the results. Selerity said the report was “sourced” from Twitter’s website and was not the result of a “leak” or “hack.” Twitter later posted the results on its website and emailed it to reporters. Twitter said it was investigating the disclosure.
After the stock market closed, San Francisco-based Twitter’s shares climbed $1.15, or 2.7 percent, to $43.48.
The Ultra Heavy-Lift Amphibious Connector (UHAC) begins to rotate on the beach, 9 Jul 2014, at Marine Corps Training Area Bellows on Oahu, Hawaii during a Marine Corps Advanced Warfighting Experiment (AWE). The AWE is the culmination of a decade of progressive experimentation conducted by the Marine Corps Warfighting Lab (MCWL) where they are testing potential future technologies, solutions and concepts to future Marine Air Ground Task Force challenges. The AWE is taking part during the Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) Exercise 2014. Lt. Col. Don Gordon, the current Technology Officer at MCWL, said the UHAC is one of those experimental technologies that displays a possible capability of being able to insert Marines in areas where current technology wouldn't be able to insert them based on current systems that are fielded. The UHAC prototype is a ship-to-shore connector and is half the size of the intended machine. Currently, the UHAC travels at 4 knots (7 km/h) using a track system with floatation-like pads that propels itself through different terrain. Video filmed by Master SGT Kyle Olson and Gunnery SGT Jeremy Vought.
Now is not the time to slash U.S. foreign aid, more than 120 retired generals and admirals said Monday in a letter to lawmakers, while citing past comments from Defense Secretary Jim Mattis to buttress their case.
The letter was released by the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition, which includes business executives, foreign-policy experts and retired senior military officials, as the Trump administration signaled that it will slash international spending while boosting funding for the U.S. military. The signatories include several past service chiefs and combatant commanders.
The letter added that while the military will “lead the fight against terrorism on the battlefield,” it needs strong partners to combat issues that drive extremism, including insecurity, injustice, hopelessness and lack of opportunity.
The letter was addressed to Speaker of the House Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.), Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.). It was released as administration officials said that Trump will announce Tuesday a 10 percent boost in military spending, with a corresponding cut to other federal agencies. Foreign aid, in particular, is expected to face significant budget cuts, as Trump follows through on his agenda.
Many of the officers who signed the letter retired within the past few years, and some led U.S. forces in combat. They include Marine Gen. John R. Allen, the former top U.S. commander in Afghanistan; Army Gen. Pete Chiarelli, vice chief of staff of the Army from 2008 to 2012; Marine Gen. James T. Conway, commandant of the Marine Corps from 2006 to 2010; Adm. Jonathan Greenert, chief of naval operations from 2011 to 2015, and Adm. Eric T. Olson, the chief of U.S. Special Operations Command from 2007 to 2011.
At least two officers who signed the letter have previously met with Trump and offered advice on other issues. They are Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, who led troops in Iraq and Afghanistan before serving as director of the Central Intelligence Agency from 2011 to 2012, and Adm. James G. Stavridis, who retired as chief of U.S. European Command and supreme allied commander of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in 2013.
David Rutenberg, the 8-year-old Merion, Pa., boy who was severely burned in the plane crash that claimed two of his classmates and U.S. Senator John Heinz last April, has returned to class at Merion Elementary School.
The two-engine plane carrying Mr. Heinz and others collided with a helicopter in midair, showering the school playground and building with flaming debris. ('See Education Week, April 10, 1991 .) David suffered burns over nearly 70 percent of his body.
Wearing a nylon bodysuit and mask because of scarring, David returned as a 3rd grader.
Personnel from the Crozer-Chester Medical Center and the Alfred I. duPont Institute, where David was treated, conducted assemblies to prepare students for David's return and educate them on the special needs of badly burned children.
Willie Davis, a custodian at Midvale Elementary School in DeKalb County, Ga., never learned to read, but was known for his devotion to the students he served.
So great was the bachelor's devotion that he remembered the school in his will.
Mr. Davis, who died of cancer in April, left one-third of his insurance benefits to a class for 1st graders with behavior disorders.
The teachers used part of the $12,716 to buy audiovisual and computer equipment and banked the rest.
Oct. 1 was declared Willie Davis Day by the DeKalb County Board of Education. .
If there has been any actor with a more incongruous 2013 than James Franco, then that person is probably James Franco is disguise, as part of some underground documentary. He hosted a Hollywood apocalypse party as himself in This is the End, he was the great and powerful Oz in Oz the Great and Powerful, he thugged out for Spring Breakers and he’ll be Hugh Hefner in the upcoming biopic Lovelace. And that’s not counting all of the smaller films he’s done that are either getting released soon or are currently in the post-production process. His next directorial effort, the Cannes-premiering William Faulkner adaptation As I Lay Dying will hopefully hit theaters later this year, and it appears Franco isn’t done translating Faulkner’s words for the screen.
The L.A. Times is the rather random source revealing Franco’s next directing gig will in fact be Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury, often thought to be one of the greatest novels in the English Language, and is a novel that many still deem unfilmable, despite it already being a 1959 feature from director Martin Ritt. In other words, it’s a project almost bubbling over with pretention, but considering Franco has already played Allen Ginsberg and directed the upcoming biopic Bukowski, there’s no reason he shouldn’t latch onto Faulkner.
Franco says he’ll also star in the film, which he co-wrote with Matt Rager, who was also involved in the screenwriting for As I Lay Dying. If all things go correctly, he wants Mad Men’s Jon Hamm to play the film’s patriarch Mr. Compson, and while it’s looking like it could happen, they’ll have to sort through scheduling issues to get it done. Franco also wants his brother Dave (Now You See Me) to play the neurotic and suicidal Quentin Compson, and says that Danny McBride, who was also in As I Lay Dying, should also be starring in The Sound and the Fury.
The film already has most of its financing in place, though you can still fund Franco’s Palo Alto film trio here. He’ll be working with those films, along with filming Wim Winders’ drama Everything Will Be Fine with Sarah Polley, while he works on ironing out all of The Sound and the Fury’s details.
In a nutshell, Faulkner’s novel is a multi-narrative Southern Gothic tale about the Compson family told from four different perspectives, one of which is the mentally deficient Benny. The story and its subsequent appendix cover many years in the family’s life, detailing their financial and social ruin. A lot more than that happens, but not really, as this is a story that lives in the way it is told more so than a laundry list of conflicts and climaxes.
Franco aims to shoot the film as early as this fall, but that’s subject to change of course. Check out the trailer for As I Lay Dying below to get a feel for how Franco’s point-of-view adheres to Faulkner’s southern storytelling.
Former Ten Most Wanted Fugitive #427: Washington is wanted in connection with the attempted murder of a New Jersey State Trooper. Washington was removed from the “Top Ten” list because he no longer fit the stated criteria. He remains a fugitive.
Southwick supperclub celebrates Vietnamese street food.
A husband and wife team have bought a taste of Vietnam to Southwick.
Andy Poole and Nancy Meara, better known as CaPhe Republic, held their first supperclub on Saturday.
The duo usually serve street food at local markets and events but explained bringing it home enabled them to branch out.
“The supperclub gives us the freedom to cook and serve dishes that we can’t necessarily do on a stall,” said Andy.
Keen to showcase a range of Vietnamese dishes the menu boasted five courses, starting with a lychee mojito and ending with Vietnamese iced coffee.
Their love for the cuisine was sparked on a five month tour of the country, which they embarked on after selling the highly acclaimed Hampstead restaurant they had run for a decade.
The couple then moved to Southwick in 2014 in search of ‘a better quality of life’.
This extended to creating a business which would allow them to ‘get back to basics’.
“Not only cooking great food, but also serving it and getting to know our customers,” said Andy.
In addition to the stall, a supperclub had been on their minds and even influenced where they chose to live.
Despite having worked in London restaurants and project managed catering for five Olympic venues, Andy admitted he felt nervous ahead of the launch night.
The worries were unfounded however, with Andy saying afterwards that ‘it couldn’t have gone better’.
The plan now is to make it a regular event, ‘probably monthly’, sharing the virtues and flavours of Vietnamese food with the potential of introducing ‘other styles’ in time.
Statscan - Membership in registered pension plans (RPPs) increased 1.7% in 2008 to just over 6.0 million, the first time the number of active participants has surpassed that level.
The number of registered pension plans as of January 1, 2009 remained virtually unchanged at 19,200.
Women accounted for 83% of the growth in RPP membership. In 2008, they represented 49.1% of total membership, a slight increase over 2007.
In addition, all the growth came from the public sector, where RPP membership increased 4.3% compared with a 0.7% decline in the private sector. Again, women accounted for 86% of the growth in RPP membership in the public sector.
Membership in private sector plans still represents more than one-half of total RPP membership, but its share has continued to decline. In 2008, private sector plans accounted for 51% of total membership, down from 52% in 2007.
About 4.5 million people, or 75% of those with a RPP, were in a defined benefit pension plan. The rate of participation in these plans has declined constantly from more than 85% a decade earlier.
Membership in the other most frequent type of plan, defined contribution, remained virtually unchanged at 939,200, about 16% of the total.
Membership in other types of pension plans, including hybrids and combinations, accounted for almost 10% of total membership. This type of membership showed high gains, increasing by 29.9% to 565,400 in 2008. This growth came mainly from sponsors in the private sector who added a defined contribution component to their defined benefit plans for new entrants.
About 38% of employees had a registered pension plan in 2008, roughly the same as the previous three years. However, the rate of participation in pension plans continued to increase for women, while men registered a small decline.
In the public sector, the coverage rate was 84%; in the private sector, it was just over 25%, down slightly from 2007.
Total employee and employer contributions to RPPs in 2008 exceeded $40 billion for a third consecutive year. Employers contributed 67% of the total in 2008 compared with 68% in 2007. More than 20%, or $6 billion, of the employer contributions were for unfunded liabilities.
The economic downturn that started in the fall of 2008 had an impact on market assets in RPPs. At the end of 2008, the market value was $1,016 billion, down 12% from the previous year. This also had a significant impact on the funding situation of RPPs.
In terms of solvency, the latest results, for the three-year period ending in 2008, show that about 75% of RPPs had a solvency deficiency. This means their liabilities were greater than their assets.
Note: Registered pension plans (RPPs) are established by employers or unions for employees. These data come from the Pension Plans in Canada Survey at January 1, 2009.
A defined benefit plan defines the benefits to be paid according to a formula stipulated in the plan text. The employer's contributions are not predetermined, but are a function of the cost of providing the promised pension. A defined contribution plan specifies the contributions made by the employee, if the plan is contributory, as well as by the employer.
Pension benefits paid are a function of accumulated contributions and investment returns. Membership is defined as active members of the pension plan currently making contributions to the pension plan or for whom contributions are being made.
A plan has a solvency deficiency when its assets divided by its liabilities (values determined as if the plan had terminated) is less than 1.
British cinema audiences will finally be able to see for themselves what all the fuss was about when The Interview, a comedy about two hapless US journalists’ attempts to assassinate the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, is released on over 200 screens across the country on Friday.
Unlike in the US, where Sony initially pulled the film from distribution for fear of further retribution from the suspected North Korean hackers who called themselves the Guardians of Peace, the film will get a full cinema release in the UK.
Despite Sony back-tracking on its decision to pull the film after the decision drew criticism from President Obama for caving into terrorist demands, the film was only given a very limited theatrical release in the US, shown in only around 500 cinemas instead of the planned 3,000.
It was made available to purchase via on-demand services and has already been rented or downloaded 4.3m times and has taken $40m from digital sales and over $6m from cinema takings. Sony have now claimed it is the “No 1 online film of all time”, and with the The Interview costing $44m to make, all production costs have already been recouped.
In fact, the whole saga has revealed to have come at barely any financial cost to Sony at all. Announcing their third quarter results on Thursday, Sony said the hack would cost just $15m in “investigation and remediation costs” and that it doesn’t expect to suffer any long-term consequences, though several employees are believed to have filed lawsuits against the company for failing to protect their personal data.
However, as the furore around the film and the often embarrassing revelations that emerged from the hack of the private emails of Sony staff and the personal records of around 47,000 employees has now died down, there are doubts about how commercially successful it will be in the UK once it finally lands in cinemas.
Sony has taken a soft approach to the release of the film in Britain. The studio has not put on any pre-screenings, or sent out any copies to UK critics. Similarly, no interview opportunities with the cast have been offered to the media, with both James Franco and Seth Rogen notably absent from the talk show circuit.
Speaking recently at Sundance festival in New York, Franco said the whole saga had affected his health. “There was this pressure,” he said. “There was so much attention on it – attention on a level you never expected. It was a shock to my system, and I got sick”.
Charles Gant, a box office expert, said: “First of all, because the film was mainly going out simultaneously on video on demand in the US, the theatrical release was a very modest portion of the pie, whereas in the UK they’ve taken a totally different strategy and I don’t know the reasoning behind that.
“In terms of box office amount, it should be bigger than the US just by virtue of a wider release. But in terms of how well it will do? On the one hand it has a big curiosity factor because it generated an awful lot of coverage in the run up to Christmas, but on the other hand, that has really died down now.
Picturehouse cinemas said they were showing The Interview in two of their cinemas, The Ritzy in Brixton and the Hackney Picturehouse. Both are scheduled for a week, with two screenings a day. It had been a standard programming decision, said a Picturehouse spokesman, judged on whether there was demand for the film from the local audience. “In this case, of course there has been increased interest in The Interview because of all the news about it,” the spokesman added.
Marvel Studios says actor Vin Diesel has been cast as Groot, a sort of giant tree, in the upcoming film "Guardians of the Galaxy."

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