Computers

This week at the 2013 International Consumer Electronics Show, we have reported on personal computer makers' attempts to reinvent the laptop . The wild popularity of tablets has stymied sales of laptops. As a result, PC makers are trying to create machines that combine the best of tablets and laptops.  But there's another piece of that trend that didn't make it into our earlier report. That same dynamic is now extending to ye olde desktop PC, which is now in line for its own radical changes.  Sales of desktop computers are also declining.

LAS VEGAS - Pity the poor laptop. The darling of the tech world just a couple of years ago, laptops have become one of the biggest casualties of the tablet phenomenon. For consumers enamored of touch-screen tablets, laptops suddenly seem like stale, clunky gadgets whose basic clamshell design hasn't changed all that much in two decades. It opens. It shuts. Yawn. But this week at the 2013 International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, the laptop is attempting a comeback.

Goodbye mouse and keyboard, hello air. Leap Motion, a 3-D motion sensor that allows users to interact with computers simply by gesturing in the air -- think Tom Cruise in "The Minority Report" -- has secured an additional $30 million in funding, the  company announced Thursday. Leap also announced that computer maker Asus will be one of the first manufacturers to bundle Leap's technology directly into some of its computers and notebooks.  The new products with Leap Motion devices pre-installed should be available later this year.

SAN LUIS OBISPO - Jake Devincenzi was thrilled to get his hands on Google's new Nexus 4 smartphone. He admired its sleek black case and large touch screen - and he couldn't wait to tear it apart. In a small room cluttered with discarded computer parts, Devincenzi picked up a blue plastic stylus and eased the tool into a seam on the side of the phone as three co-workers watched. Minutes later, a pop. The tear-down had begun. "We're in," he said, and grinned. Each time Devincenzi plucked a part from the Nexus 4, he took a high-resolution photo and posted it online.

When Keith Short began delivering packages for United Parcel Service Inc. 23 years ago, he used bulky pads of paper to track parcels and pens that froze in the cold. Today, he scans packages on and off his truck with a hand-held computer that tells him what to deliver where and when, and can even direct him turn by turn. "The whole route is in here," Short said about his DIAD, or Delivery Information Acquisition Device. The hand-held computers - now in the fifth generation - have made UPS drivers' jobs more efficient, especially during the peak holiday season, when the Atlanta shipping company picks up and drops off millions of packages each day. The ideas for improving the technology percolate in the offices of UPS' Information Services Group in Timonium, Md. A team of 80 mathematicians and engineers makes forecasts about the shipping world of the future.

Jacki Weaver is a big star in her own right in her native Australia. She works constantly, doing movies, TV series and major stage productions. But you'd never know it listening to the merry way she enthuses about her American costars in "Silver Linings Playbook. " "I think you people should have knighthoods," she says about Robert De Niro, who plays her character's husband in David O. Russell's off-kilter Philadelphia-set romantic comedy. "He should be Sir Robert De Niro, Lord of Greenwich Village.

IBM's 5 in 5 -- a list of five innovations that could change the world in five years -- focuses on how computers are developing the ability to taste, touch, hear, see and listen just like humans do, except way better. It is kind of exciting and kind of terrifying, but mostly just really cool. For example, Hendrik Hamann, a research manager of physical systems for IBM, describes a smartphone that could use a computerized nose to " smell " if we are sick. Forget the thermometer and the doctor's visit -- we will simply breathe into our cellphones to find out if we have the flu. Robyn Schwartz describes how smartphones of the future might use vibrations to allow us to virtually " touch " a piece of material and feel its texture.

Most afternoons, the 12 branches of the Long Beach Public Library are packed. Library officials say they've struggled - like other public libraries nationwide - to keep patrons' interest and stay relevant to residents in a digital world. But the library's literacy program has been especially popular since its implementation two years ago. The program dedicates computers, work space and assistance specifically to families looking to hunt for jobs, take English as a Second Language courses or work on homework.

SAN FRANCISCO - The Federal Bureau of Investigation has busted an international cyber crime ring that infected 11 million computers around the world and resulted in more than $850 million in losses. Facebook Inc.'s security team assisted law enforcement in the investigation by helping identify compromised accounts and the perpetrators around the globe who stole credit cards and bank and personal information - and in some cases spammed Facebook users - after infecting computers with malicious software.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said Tuesday that concerns raised by a top Fire Department commander about staffing changes at the agency's 911 call center need to be addressed before the proposal moves forward. The plan backed by the mayor and city leaders would shift dispatchers from a 24-hour schedule to an eight-hour workday, a move that would save about $3.2 million annually. But a report by the commander who runs the dispatch center warned that public safety would be compromised if the plan were adopted before the agency replaced an aging computer system that has crashed repeatedly.