Stories about: Maximal

As mobile devices get more power-hungry, innovative gadgets are supplementing the needy hardware. The portable Xantrex Technology. PowerSource Mobile 100 battery recharges laptops, portable music players and handheld devices on the run. While not as mobile, SplashPower uses electromagnetic technology to wirelessly recharge mobile devices. Meanwhile, an example of a new portable device that uses a lot of juice is Archos's Archos 604 portable media player, which displays DVD-quality video on its small screen and doubles up as a digital video recorder. A time-saver is Primera Technology's Bravo SE Disc Publisher, which automatically burns and prints up to 20 CDs or DVDs in one device.

In its first preview at the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference last year, Windows XP successor Longhorn was shown running a 20-year-old copy of Visicalc. Ancient DOS software won't be the lone occupant of the Longhorn compatibility box. Win32, the Web, and even WinForms -- the .Net era's first GUI framework -- are all legacy APIs from Longhorn's perspective. Their replacements, Microsoft says, will jointly deliver "the best of Windows and the best of the Web."