Computers

MICHAEL Arrington of the popular technology blog TechCrunch issued a challenge Monday to his circuit-savvy readership: "I want a dead simple and dirt cheap touch screen Web tablet to surf the Web." In other words, a computer that consists of nothing but a thin, flat, touch-sensitive screen that can sit in your lap. No device like that exists yet, Arrington wrote. "So," he said, "let's design it." Apple's iPhone has proven how much a computer can do without a keyboard, mouse or the need to be anchored to a particular location.

The Transportation Security Administration suspended Verified Identity Pass Inc. from enrolling travelers in its pre-screening program after a laptop containing the records of 33,000 people went missing. The company, based in New York, lost possession of the laptop July 26 at San Francisco International Airport. The laptop contained unencrypted pre-enrollment records of individuals interested in joining the program, the Transportation Security Administration said Monday in a statement.

Apple Inc. Chief Executive Steve Jobs unveiled a line of laptops Tuesday but did not dramatically slash prices. Instead, Jobs focused on a new manufacturing process for Apple's MacBook line of laptops, which carves the machine's casing out of a single 2.5-pound aluminum block. "This is a tour de force of engineering," Jobs said. The new aluminum MacBooks, which come with a glass multitouch track pad, will begin selling today starting at $1,299 for a 13-inch model.

Two years ago, California public schools received an unexpected gift: a grant of $250 million for new computers, software and training. The windfall was part of a $1.1-billion settlement of a class-action lawsuit against Microsoft that alleged the company had plotted to monopolize a portion of the computer industry. At the time, state Supt. of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell said the funds provided "a wonderful opportunity to close the digital divide in many of our schools."

Call it the high-tech equivalent of a book signing. Los Angeles Philharmonic music director Esa-Pekka Salonen will show how he uses a Macintosh computer to compose at 7 p.m. on Feb. 15 at the Apple Store, 1248 Third Street Promenade, in Santa Monica. Salonen also will give a sneak preview of his new work, "Helix," to receive its first U.S. performances by the Philharmonic March 30 through April 1 at Walt Disney Concert Hall. It will also be released as part of the iTunes DG Concerts series.

After the third time he and his younger brother broke the family computer, Hazel Bernal got a stern command from his mother, tired of paying repair fees: Fix the computer yourself. "I learned," he said, and since then he's been charging about $50 to fix computers for his teachers, friends and a school security guard. On Saturday, the 17-year-old stared into a monitor as his fingers tapped a keyboard. It wasn't for his "side job," though.

Melissa Regan is not your typical "beta tester," the hardy breed of computer geek who seeks out the maddening bugs and glitches in software that other people try to avoid. But the 39-year-old mother of three agreed to test early versions of Microsoft Corp.'s new operating system, Vista, with a single goal: to banish generic, and generally unhelpful, computer terms such as "tools." "I told them, 'I want nothing labeled tools,' " said Regan, who lives in Germantown, Md.

Despite their expressed concerns about the deal, county supervisors voted 4 to 1 Tuesday to spend $108 million more on an aging computer system responsible for tracking and determining welfare benefits for more than 1 million residents. Supervisors acknowledged that the system needs to be replaced but said they had to pay for upgrades and keep the technology running at least four more years.

The FBI lost 160 laptops -- including at least 10 containing sensitive or classified data and one with names and addresses of agents -- sometime from February 2002 to September 2005, according to a report released Monday by the Justice Department. Inspector General Glenn A. Fine also reported that 160 weapons disappeared during the same period. Fine's report grew out of an audit examining FBI efforts to keep tabs on its equipment. Progress has been made, he said, but more must be done.

In Los Angeles, officials want to blanket the city with wireless Internet access that's affordable to the masses. But their counterparts here can't even give it away. In his October 2004 State of the City address, Mayor Gavin Newsom pledged that his administration would "not stop until every San Franciscan has access to free wireless Internet service." Newsom forged a plan with Google Inc. and EarthLink Inc.