Mobile Advisor

Two industry watchers this week revised their estimates of worldwide semiconductor revenue this year, with one even predicting a year-over-year decline.

With last week's early release of its first 45-nanometer chip, Advanced Micro Devices has taken a big step toward putting its troubles behind it and giving Intel something to worry about.

The XO laptop will be available on Monday to 30 countries through Amazon.com, marking the first time the laptop will be available to the general public outside the U.S. and Canada.

AMD's new Shanghai processors are designed to improve performance of applications running in virtual machines with various features that reduce the amount of work required from a hypervisor.

Advanced Micro Devices is jumping into the mini-notebook space, delivering processors starting in 2009 for small laptops that can run basic applications like Web surfing and e-mail, the company said Thursday.

Even a year after the introduction of the Asus Eee PC netbooks are still something of a novelty. Just a couple of weeks ago, while I was sitting one evening in a hotel lounge with a group of professionals, mine was passed around with enthusiastic curiosity -- they had heard of its easy portability and were eager for some hands-on time before possibly buying one for themselves.

ASUS unleashes new laptops amid Calvin Klein's latest runway creations.

Alienware has launched its M17 notebook, and it’s a strange-looking creature…

It was five years coming, but the battery of my ThinkPad R50 finally met its maker. On a recent trip, it conked out after powering the notebook for only half an hour -- three hours short of what I'm used to getting out it. Now it refuses to be recharged at all. Clearly, it's time for a new battery.

The writing is on the wall. Despite a major push to sell the much-maligned Windows Vista, customers aren't buying. Nearly two years after Vista's release, Windows XP remains the standard desktop OS in business, and Microsoft has extended its availability three times (currently to August 2009) due to customer demand. Microsoft itself forecasts just 2 percent growth in Vista sales in early 2009, after lackluster sales in 2008. And that's after forcing customers to buy Vista to get XP "downgrades."

Subnotebooks like the Asus Eee PC, the Dell Mini 9 and the HP 2133 Mini-note will soon cost as little as US$99. The catch? You'll need to commit to a two-year mobile broadband contract. The low cost will come courtesy of a subsidy identical to the one you already get with your mobile phone.

In the past two years, mobile phone and laptop companies have unveiled breathtaking innovations -- from 24-hour battery laptops to dual-screen laptops to "augmented reality" mobile phone applications.

Abbott and Costello, Burns and Allen, Siegfried and Roy, Gates and Seinfeld. Years from now, they will be remembered as the some of the great comic duos of all time.

The IT world has a certain level of craziness that is remarkable, and nowhere does it show up more than in how various companies market their products. I have all sorts of examples to illustrate this, but given that I have limited space I'm going to concentrate on what I consider to be the 800-pound gorilla of marketing crazy: Microsoft.

Ten years ago, everyone expected massive improvements in battery technology for laptops, mobile phones and other mobile gadgets.

Ever more computers are carrying ever more confidential data -- trade secrets, personal information of clients and constituents, and national security information. Encrypted hard disks requiring hardware keys or passwords are supposedly the way to keep that information safe.

Mary Lou Jepsen stirred up a controversy when she left the struggling One Laptop Per Child nonprofit effort in December to start her own for-profit company, Pixel Qi, with the goal to create a US$75 laptop using technologies she invented at OLPC.

For much of his 34 years at Intel, Justin R. Rattner has been a pioneer in parallel and distributed processing. His early ideas didn't catch on in the market, but the time has come for them now, he recently told Computerworld's Gary Anthes.

Shortly after the iPhone launched earlier this year, the head of microprocessor maker ARM said the new handset will stimulate growth in the smartphone market because the hype around the product would pique people's interest. Since then, the iPhone, and the smartphone market overall, have taken off.

Like chocolate and episodes of Mad Men, there's no such thing as too much battery life.

One thing you should know about me: I'm no fan of Windows Vista. Some things about it just annoy me to death, like the unnecessary overhaul of certain interface elements. That said, Vista has a few features I positively love, starting with connection sharing. In other words, you can turn your Internet-connected notebook into a Wi-Fi hotspot for others to share.

Without an administrator-level account you can log onto, you can't install new software, edit the registry, or really maintain the PC in decent condition. Windows won't just tell you someone else's password, or let you change it to something you know, but there are ways.

Want better performance from your laptop? The conventional wisdom has long held that you should simply buy a new one. You can put such conventional wisdom aside: Upgrading a laptop may not be for the timid or the impatient, but if you're handy with a screwdriver, and the sight of a circuit board doesn't scare you, an upgrade can be a far more affordable solution.

Browse the mobile Web in safety

Sick and tired of getting lost? Well it's time to put your worries and maps away and let us guide you through the world of GPS.

Don't know what memory card best suits your needs? Well we do! Read on to find out.

No more getting tangled up just trying to check your e-mail. The wireless age is here, and it offers lightning fast broadband with nothing to tie you down.

Are you one of the many thousands of people who are predicted to buy a notebook (laptop) this year? If yes, then this PC World buying guide is for you.

To get the most out of your high end notebooks you'll need a variety of accessories.