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The 5.0 release of Android, dubbed Lollipop, is the biggest thing to happen to Android in years—possibly  ever . The design and features have been revamped, and attention to detail is evident throughout. However, even our beloved Google is not perfect, and that means there are some bugs and just plain odd decisions in Android 5.0. Let's check out five of the most annoying little quirks in Lollipop and see how they might be fixed. The Power Menu In Android 4.4 and earlier, the menu you got when holding the power menu had a few options including toggling airplane mode, ringer modes, and of course, turning the device off. Some manufacturers even added reboot commands and additional settings. In Android 5.0 Google has gone backward and this menu now only includes "Power Off." Seems a little bare. This isn't a bug—it's the way Google wanted the power menu to work. It's just terribly inconvenient, though. Some of these functions have been moved to the q...

Desktop diehards and the Reddit build-it crowd might scoff at the very concept of a portable PC gaming machine, but the gulf between gaming desktops and gaming laptops has narrowed considerably over the years. Today’s laptops can play modern games at 1080p and higher with few to no compromises in graphics settings. And that's not bad. Sure, traditional desktop PCs offer more expansion options and easier upgrade paths, and can be significantly cheaper for the performance you get. But there's no denying the appeal of a single, self-contained gaming machine that you can move from the living room to the dining room to even the back porch. You just need to pick your gaming laptop wisely. Your decisions will key into a series of component choices, so let's dig into them, one by one. GPU: Your 3D graphics engine NVIDIA A gaming laptop's number one component should always be the GPU, such as Nvidia's new GeForce GTX 980M. Modern games are all about 3D graphic...

Hardware has a shelf life like a gallon of milk. If it sits on the store shelf too long, it ends up getting poured down the drain. That’s ultimately the ugly story behind Alienware’s Alpha game console. The Alpha was always intended to run Valve’s much hyped Stream OS , but when the alternative OS didn't show up this summer, Alienware decided it had to ship its Steam Machine sans Steam OS before the hardware turned sour. GORDON MAH UNG The Alienware Alpha is surprisingly small as you can see with its included wireless Xbox 360 controller on top. That’s a long way of saying the Alpha is, for the most part, a Hail-Mary move that has (at first glance,)a lot going against it. It’s not as upgradeable as most gaming PCs, nor is it as powerful. It’s not even cheaper than its console competition, and without the Steam OS, who cares? That’s where you’d be wrong. After putting the Alpha through its paces last week, I have to say that despite the resistance it faces, this micro...

With AMD's processors still stuck on an aging 28nm manufacturin process , it needs some innovation to catch up to Intel—and the company thinks it has the elements to do so with "Carrizo," a high-end integrated chip that the company will debut in 2015. AMD said that Carrizo and a derivative, Carrizo-L, will debut sometime in 2015. AMD disclosed the new additions at an event in Singapore on Thursday, adding that it will reveal more details—presumably speeds and price—in the first half of 2014. Carrizo will be fully HSA 1.0 compliant, meaning that it will deliver on the Heterogenous Systems Architecture the AMD has talked about    for some time. With HSA, the GPU can also be tapped to perform compute functions, which the company claims will deliver far more performance than the speed increases from moving to finer CPU manufacturing technologies alone. Intel, of course, is moving to its second-generation 14nm processor technology with upcoming chips like the Core M...

Two ads tell you everything you need to know about how crazy notebook PC pricing is. The first, a Dell Black Friday ad from 2010, advertises a Dell Inspiron 15 for $450—the “doorbuster” the PC company used to lure shoppers to Dell.com. The second, another Dell Black Friday ad from 2014 , promotes   another   Inspiron 15—but for just $190. Meanwhile, Apple and Samsung are selling smartphones for about the same prices they always have—$200 and above, and far more if their carrier-subsidized pricing is removed from the equation. The shift in pricing means the biggest tech presents of the year will be wrapped in the smallest packages. Smartphones—even subsidized ones—are now the premium gifts, while cheaper PCs are arguably a stocking stuffer. Still not sure? Then get in line for the 11-inch Asus EeeBook X2015TA notebook, on sale at  Staples  for just $100. And oh yes, tablets. They’re in even worse shape, analysts say. PCs struggle, while phones th...