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Notebook computers outsell desktops for first time

In a sure sign that the era of mobile computing has arrived, notebooks have for the first time outsold desktops in the United States in a calendar month, the research firm Current Analysis says.

After tracking sales from a sampling of electronics retailers, Current Analysis says notebook sales accounted for 53 percent of the personal computer market in May, up from 46 percent during the same period last year.

Spurring demand for notebooks is their price drop as quality has improved, says Sam Bhavnani, senior analyst at Current Analysis. "Just a few years ago, the performance of notebooks was nowhere near where it is today," he said.

Notebook prices fell 17 percent during the past year while desktop prices dipped only 4 percent. Some of the features common in most notebooks are longer-lasting batteries, CD burners and wireless capability.

Last year, 80 percent of notebooks offered wireless; this year, it's 95 percent, Current Analysis says.

The Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater region jumped 28 spots to No. 34 in Intel Corp.'s third annual "most unwired cities" survey.

Among other factors, the survey looks at the number of hot spot access points where people can connect wirelessly to the Internet with notebook computers or personal digital assistants. Restaurants, coffee shops, airports and hotels are popular hot spot locations.

The most unwired city in the United States is Seattle, which narrowly unseated last year's winner, San Francisco, and 2003's titleholder, Portland, Ore.

The list of unwired cities can be found at www.intel.com/go/unwiredcities/

America Online will launch its overhauled AOL.com Web site this month, rolling out an ad-based portal with free services in a shift away from its shrinking Internet subscription business.

The site is expected to go live in the last two weeks of the month, AOL spokeswoman Tricia Wallace said. She said it will be available to AOL subscribers and to Internet users through a link on the AOL Web site, which will continue to coexist with the new version for about a month.

The new site brings together AOL's Web services with features previously available only to subscribers. Several new offerings include a heavy focus on video intended for people with high-speed Internet connections.

The "video hub," one of three main areas on the site, will include a new video player and a large selection of music videos, movie clips and previews, independent short films and news and sports content. A new video search tool will let people peruse AOL's video archive and materials from other video sites.

Another section is "My AOL," a page of text links that people can customize to deliver continuous updates about the news, entertainment, sports and other topics. The main portal has more traditional links to news, music, shopping and mapping tools. The page also links to AOL offerings such as AOL Instant Messenger and the new free AIM e-mail service.

For years, disposable cameras have been a magnet for last-minute photographic whimsy, encouraging all manner of embarrassing pictures from weddings and other social events.

Watch out: There's now a disposable video camera.

The $29.99 pocket-sized digital video cameras are able to capture up to 20 minutes of video and sound.

CVS Corp. stores, which has exclusive rights to sell them, will process the camera for $12.99 and return a DVD; users also can e-mail video and video greeting cards.

Pure Digital Technologies Inc. developed and designed the camera with just three buttons. One starts and stops recording, another is used to play back video and the third deletes recorded segments.

Grant Pill, director of photography and imaging at CVS, said the camera is ideal for people who don't want to spend hundreds of dollars or fuss with too many controls.

Available now in the Northeast and elsewhere by the end of the month, the video camera looks similar to a point-and-shoot disposable camera, except it's held vertically to film.

The camcorder weighs 5.5 ounces, Pill said, and is about the size of an MP3 player.

Users watch what they're filming through a rectangular, 1.4-inch-wide color display. There are no zoom features. After filming a segment, the user can review what has been recorded and choose to delete the segment at any time during playback.

Pill called the film good VHS quality, but acknowledged it isn't on par with that produced by some personal camcorders.

"George Lucas isn't going to use this to shoot Star Wars IV," he said, "but a budding George Lucas may use this to shoot something in his back yard."

Apple Computer's iTunes Music Store was used by almost 30 percent of households that downloaded music in March, according to researchers at NPD Group.

While the free peer-to-peer file sharing network WinMX was the most popular distribution source, by 2.1-million households, iTunes and LimeWire tied with 1.7-million households each. Paid a la carte music offerings like Napster and RealNetworks also placed in the top 10.

One of the music industry's questions has been whether paid download stores could compete with free file-sharing networks. "That question has now been answered," said Russ Crupnick, president of NPD's Music and Movies division.

"iTunes is more popular than nearly any P2P service. Digital download stores appear to have created a compelling and economically viable alternative to illegal file sharing," he added.

We're looking for blogs written by Tampa Bay area residents or written about the area. If you write a blog or even read a local blog, send us the blog's name and Web address. The Times Web site plans to post a directory of local-interest blogs in the coming weeks. E-mail us at smspears@sptimes.com or go to www.sptimes.com/talkback/blog.shtml

Readers with questions and comments about tech news of the day also can submit them to Times personal technology editor Dave Gussow there at the Times' Talkback site (www.sptimes.com/talkback)

[Last modified June 10, 2005, 09:54:03]