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Can PC makers produce ultrathin, touch-screen PCs that are appealing to consumers – and that are priced at just $200? Theoretically, yes, if microprocessor giant Intel Corp. is willing to cut the price of its semiconductor components to PC makers, according to an analysis from IHS. “A price point that low seems far-fetched considering the mobile PC prices of today, with ultrabooks and other ultrathins going as high as $1,000 or more. However, the small laptops known as netbooks saw their prices reach down into the $200 range at the height of their popularity a few years ago, and a...

If Bud Abbott and Lou Costello were alive today, their infamous sketch, "Who's on first?" might have turned out something like this: COSTELLO CALLS TO BUY A COMPUTER FROM ABBOTT ABBOTT: Super Duper computer store. Can I help you? COSTELLO: Thanks. I'm setting up an office in my den and I'm thinking about buying a computer. ABBOTT: Mac? COSTELLO: No, the name's Lou. ABBOTT: Your computer? COSTELLO: I don't own a computer. I want to buy one. ABBOTT: Mac? COSTELLO: I told you, my name's Lou. ABBOTT: What about Windows? COSTELLO: Why? Will it get stuffy in here? ABBOTT: Do...

LATEST NEWS 2:11 PM PDT Monday Intel ships billionth chipRemember the 8086? That was Intel Corp.'s first microprocessor for personal computers in 1978, back when a "hand-held" was a transistor radio, computers were immobile mainframes, and the Internet was a project by a handful of research scientists. A quarter-century later, Intel has shipped its 1 billionth computer chip, according to figures compiled by semiconductor industry analyst firm Mercury Research and verified by Intel. "From the 8086 to today's Intel Pentium 4 processor, Intel Xeon and Intel Centrino mobile technology, the Intel architecture has brought the benefits of digital intelligence...

Microsoft To Unveil 'Advanced' Communication PC'Athens' is one of several products expected to be introduced at next week's WinHEC confab. By InformationWeek May 1, 2003 (06:36)URL: http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=9400284 Bill Gates next week will unveil a new kind of computer at Microsoft's annual Windows Hardware Engineering Conference in New Orleans. The PC prototype, co-developed with Hewlett-Packard and referred to as Athens, is a platform for collaboration and communication that's outfitted for "advanced" voice, video, and text messaging, according to Microsoft. Microsoft's chairman and chief software architect also is expected to show other prototypes and to lay out the company's vision for...

One of the major technical headaches facing chipmaker Intel is the leaking of current from inactive processors, company chairman Andy Grove told an audience at International Electron Devices Meeting in San Francisco yesterday. "Current is becoming a major factor and a limiter on how complex we can build chips," said Grove. He said the company’ engineers "just can’t get rid of" power leakage. The problem of leakage threatens the future validity of Moores Law. As chips become more powerful and draw more power, leakage tends to increase. The industry is used to power leakage rates of up to fifteen per...

<p>NEW YORK -- We'll return to our regularly scheduled program right after this brief message. And before we get to that brief message -- well, here's a briefer one.</p> <p>Pop!</p> <p>As an "NYPD Blue" rerun unspools on Court TV, the screen shrinks and shifts. Up from the bottom rises a message: This episode of the famed cop show is brought to you by Planters' nuts, the salty Kraft Foods Inc. snack. As a movie plays on AOL Time Warner Inc. cable-counterpart TNT, a quiz runs across the bottom of the screen, asking viewers a question about the film. It's sponsored by United Parcel Service Inc. Earlier this year, TNT tested a tactic that had a message from an American Express Co. financial-services operation appear -- just as Steve Martin faced a particularly thorny money decision during "Father of the Bride II."</p>

Human rights activists in the U.S. alleged Friday that Yahoo has taken the side of Chinese government censors, and exceeded its legal obligations, by agreeing to limit access to online content banned in China after signing the Internet Society of China's Public Pledge on Self-Discipline for the Chinese Internet Industry. "The vague language of the pledge would appear to require Yahoo to identify and prevent the transmission of virtually any information that Chinese authorities or companies deem objectionable," writes Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, in a letter dated July 30 to Yahoo Chairman and Chief Executive Officer...

Frustration with Microsoft is prompting more companies to consider "un-Windows" alternatives, according to a study released Tuesday. "Corporate user resentment and dissatisfaction with Microsoft and some of its practices is at an all-time high," says Laura DiDio, senior analyst with the Yankee Group and the report's author. That frustration is pushing more companies to consider Linux-based operating systems as well as Apple's OS X, she says. Licensing Hostility The survey, conducted last April and May by the Yankee Group and Sunbelt Software, asked 1500 corporations about their satisfaction with Microsoft. Bottom line: Many customers aren't happy. At the heart of...

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - U.S. chip behemoth Intel Corp said on Wednesday China will overtake Japan as the world's second biggest PC market this year, earlier than expected and underscoring the weak demand in Asia's most mature market. Intel is the number one maker of microchip processors, the brains inside a personal computer or PC. But Christian Morales, Intel's vice-president of Asia Pacific, said the outlook for the semiconductor industry remained bleak despite bright spots in emerging markets. "The trend is the same worldwide, with matured markets flat or down and emerging markets still growing," Morales told a news conference...

The writing could be on the wall for computer buffs who copy music CDs for their friends. Sony Music has planted a "poisoned pellet" of software in Celine Dion's latest CD, A New Day Has Come, that is capable of crashing, and in cases permanently freezing, the optical drives of personal computers into which the discs are inserted. Michael Speck, of the Australian Record Industry Association, confirmed yesterday that the anti-piracy software trials were under way but said "spiked" CDs had not so far been distributed in Australia, but it was inevitable. The music companies were "simply protecting their property",...