News Bits: Notebooks top Desktops in Retail, New MoGo Mouse, IE7 Available, Centrino Wireless Card Updates

Notebooks Pass Desktops for Retail Store Sales in December

According to Current Analysis, the sales of notebooks inretail storessurpassed that of desktops in December 2005 for the first time. Notebooks took up 50.9% of the sales during this holiday month while desktop PCswere the other 49.1%. These numbers do not include the all important direct sales of PCs, meaning every sale Dell makes, so what the true overall break out of desktop versus notebook sales is not known at the moment. Dell has indicated more and more of their sales are going to notebooks so if notebooks have not overtaken desktops on the whole for U.S. sales then it's certainly moving in that direction.

More: News.com

New MoGo Bluetooth Mouse Fits and Chargesin Your PCMCIA Slot

Don't like using a touchpad but don't feel like carrying around a seperate mouse? How about storing a Bluetooth wireless mouse inside your laptops PCMCIA slot as a solution? With the Mogo Mouse you simply put this flattened mouse device in your PCMCIA slot where it will charge, and then take it out for use. It's wireless Bluetooth enabled so as long as you have that built-in to your laptop you literally have nothing extra to carry by buying this mouse, it's all self-contained.

The MoGo mouse should start to become available by March, look for it in stores then.

More: http://www.newtonperipherals.com/Mogo_Products.htm

Internet Explorer 7 Beta Now Available to the Public for Free Download

Interested in trying out IE 7 Beta 2 release? Anyone can now download the IE 7 preview from Microsoft.com: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/ie7/ie7betaredirect.mspx

Some new features to IE include tabbed browsing in which tabs can be organized into groups just like favorites are organized into categories. A preview option will show thumbnails of all open windows.

Screenshot of IE 7 Quick Tour as seen on Microsoft.com

Remember, this is a beta though, and as such expect bugs. For one, you can't do a simple "view source" on page to see the HTML so for developers this might not be the most helpful browser at the moment.

Attention Centrino Laptop Owners: Intel Pro Wireless Cards Software Update

If you have a "Centrino" laptop pay attention. Intelrecently made available updated software and drivers for three ProWireless card models: 2200BG, 2915ABG and 3945ABG. These updated drivers and management softwarewere released on January 19, 2006. Many new notebooks come configured with old drivers and management software that dates back to October 2004. This new version of updatesis Version 10.1.0.3, this download is highly recommended if you have wireless issues and just for generally better performance.You can get your copy of the software direct from Intel here.

Fujitsu P1500 Ultraportable Tablet PC First Look

Barry over at TabletPCReviewSpot.com, sister site to NotebookReview.com, has his hands on the ultraportable Fujitsu P1500 Tablet PC OS based device. It's a 2.2lb device with an 8.9" screen and sports an Intel ULV 1.2GHz processor.

Fujitsu P1500 (view larger image)

More: Fujitsu P1500 First Look from TPCRS

Microsoft Vista Delays?

TechWorld.com this week interpreted some comments by Microsoft's Jim Allchin ashints that Vista was going to be delayed

"Where we sit today, things are going according to plan, and we're feeling very good, but I always like to preface that as I did with Windows 2000, Windows XP: quality is the thing that will dictate if we're ready to go. So if we have any problems in quality, I'll slip this product. It's the thing that is at the top of my mind."

Microsoft denied that Vista release dates will slip, but they did confirm that the timetable for Vista Beta 2's release has been altered, to account for the fact that multiple types of installations - for instance, desktops, workstations, enterprise servers - would have to be managed separately. Beta 2 had been scheduled for a January release. There is now a new release schedule that involves new Customer Preview Programs (CPP) and updated Community Technology Previews (CTP) for the second quarter of this year.

Highly respected website Microsoft-Watch.com author and Microsoft insider, Jo Foley, posted comments in regards to delay rumors for Vista (scheduled for a holiday 2006 release) saying:

"Reality check time: How long has Microsoft repeated the "We won't ship if it's not ready" mantra? It's not news that Microsoft is saying this about Vista. And we'd bet our bottom dollar that Microsoft will, indeed, ship this product by holiday 2006 -- even if it has to cut features to do so. Delay schmelay!"

More: http://www.tgdaily.com/2006/02/02/microsoft_no_delays_to_vista/

Manage Your Digital Camera Images with Magix Photostory 4

People often buy a laptop to store and manage a lot of the digital pictures they take and as such we get a lot of questions on this site regarding which image management software is best. Well, If you've ever wondered if there's a product out there that lets you create a slideshow for a grandparent and burn it to a CD or DVD, you should take a look at Magix Photostory on CD & DVD 4. It brings some great 3D effects and lots of new features to give you the ability to make fun videos or slideshows. This software lets you manage a media library of images, movies, and audio and assemble them together into slideshows where you have a tremendous amount of control over transitions, effects, music and text. For around $39, you don't need to be a professional to pick up a copy. See the full review of the Magix Photostory 4 from DigitalCameraReview.com.

 

Is it just me, or are the updated Intel drivers only a partial update? As in the driver for the wireless card itself is still at 9.0.3.9 even though the PROSet is updated.

 

That's a big update at 81.6MB. So, there is your heads up.

Woah - that PCMCIA mouse is awesome, I'm going to buy that right away! I am in need of a travel mouse at the moment. That or the Logitech V400 . .

 

I have same problem here. I was confused after having followed steps according to the web's guideline.

 

Ditto that !

 

I downloaded IE7 Beta 2 and it messed up my text resolution.

Instead of being crisp, it looks like it's bleeding on the page.

I like the tab browsing though...

 

If you want the shortcut to downloading the Intel drivers, here it is:
http://downloadfinder.intel.com/scr...All&OSFullName=All Operating Systems&lang=eng

Mouse is looks like a great idea. Now I just need an additional PCMCIA slot

 

I installed the new Intel Drivers on my T43, now it appears The ThinkVantage Access Connections system is not working properly. Do I have to wait for IBM to release an upgrade to deal with the new Intel drivers? also, there are icons for Intel PROset/wireless and Intel PRO/Wireless in the system tray now, shouldn't the older one have disappeared?

 

the intel sites says that if you have 2200bg the drivers are infact the 9.0.3.9. after updating myself i noticed the same thing.

 

I gotta say, that MoGo Mouse looks pretty attractive right now.
Makes me want to get a job so I can buy one.

 

for whatever reason i was getting 100% cpu usage with the new intel stuff installed why? the hell?

wtf mate? whatever, kiss my ass intel i will get the original one i had from Fujitsu's site. boo Intel Yay Fujitsu.