Personal Computers

IT started out innocently enough. "Download this software and protect yourself from harmful viruses ... block those annoying pop-ups ... shield your computer from menacing hackers with this powerful firewall!" Wow, talk about your virtual superhero! I downloaded. As the software streamed in, I daydreamed about dating a superhero. Then everything froze: the screen, the mouse and the printer. A single box appeared bearing the message: "Compatibility issue detected." What?!

It may surprise many air travelers, but your laptop and its contents are far from secret at the nation's international airports. Increasingly, this is prompting new privacy concerns for business travelers. Customs and Border Protection agents have the authority to search and seize laptop computers belonging to travelers entering the United States, those of U.S. citizens and foreigners alike. And they use it.

When Apple Computer Inc. announced in April that it would provide software that lets Macintosh computers switch between the Mac operating system and Microsoft Windows, the Mac faithful were split. Some applauded the move as a way to access Windows applications they occasionally needed. Others saw it as a heretical concession to the evil empire. The bigger meaning may be creeping irrelevance for all PC operating systems, whose functions are rapidly being subsumed by the Internet.

Market researcher IDC cut its forecast for U.S. personal computer sales this year because of less spending by government agencies and Microsoft Corp.'s delayed operating system. IDC predicts 2006 growth of 6.7% to 68.2 million PCs shipped. That's down from a November forecast of 8.7% growth to 69.5 million PCs, the Framingham, Mass.-based company said.

Let's face it: When it comes to computer security, we're all slobs. At work, we scribble our secret passwords on our desk blotters. At home, we leave our Internet connections open to be peeked through by anyone -- whether the neighbor next door or a geek in pajamas halfway around the world. We forget our laptops in taxicabs, and transmit our credit card numbers to strangers over the Web. Generally, the consequences are trivial.

As athletes from 84 countries vie for Olympic medals in Turin, Italy, one Chinese competitor is aiming for a different kind of gold. Executives at China's biggest computer maker, Lenovo Group, hope that the exposure of being the Winter Games' official computer supplier will boost recognition of a largely unfamiliar brand. Lenovo last year took over one of the world's best-known brands, when it acquired the personal computer business of IBM Corp.

Worldwide personal computer shipments rose 17% in the third quarter, led by Dell Inc., Hewlett-Packard Co. and Acer Inc., market researcher Gartner Inc. said. Shipments climbed to 55 million from 47 million a year earlier, Stamford, Conn.-based Gartner said. Among the five largest PC makers, Acer reported the biggest shipment growth, at 55%, followed by a 19% gain at HP and 18% at Dell.

Hoping to speed acceptance of personal computers that manage digital entertainment, chip maker Intel Corp. announced Wednesday new technologies that aim to make it easier for PCs to record and play video and music. The world's largest chip maker wants the "VIIV" brand to popularize using PCs for digital entertainment the way its Centrino chips did for wireless computing. VIIV, which rhymes with "dive," represents Intel's bet on the future of PCs as the center of a wired living room.

The debut last month of Sony Corp.'s new ultra-light laptop computer -- weighing in at 3.8 pounds -- brought back memories of my first, beloved portable: the Kaypro 2. Purchased in 1984, it was, like the laptops of today, completely self-contained, including screen and keyboard. And it weighed 22 pounds. I'd be buff if I still had that machine -- it was portable only in the sense that it had a handle.