July 16 - 5:10pm EDT   Research firm IDC reports that worldwide PC shipments grew at 15 percent in the second quarter of 2008. The quarter also saw Apple roughly tie Acer in the US market, assuming fourth place and missing third place by only a few thousand units. Demand in the United States suffered from the ongoing economic pressure, with rowth in the low single-digits. Dell continued its recovery with another quarter of double-digit growth, while HP saw year on year growth rise from the first quarter. Portable adoption continues to be a key driver, even though consumer share is generally at its lowest during the second quarter. [full story]

July 16 - 9:45am EDT   Acer today announced its Aspire one ultraportable notebook has shipped to the US market. Meant to compete with ASUS' Eee PC, the Aspire one uses Intel's 1.6GHz Atom CPU in all of its variations, along with an 8.9-inch, 1024x600 (WSVGA) display with integrated webcam and Intel's Media Accelerator 950 graphics. While information and specs on the basic system were already known, Acer has revealed two other variations of its first mini laptop. [full story]

July 15 - 2:40pm EDT   Acer today unveiled information on nine new notebooks that take advantage of the recently introduced Intel Centrino 2 platform that uses faster processors and a 1,066MHz system bus, among other changes. The four new Aspire-line notebooks will also sport WiMAX functionality and be tailored for the multimedia user, while the five TravelMates notebooks are geared towards business users. While Acer has been thin on details, the company did reveal some information on the new notebooks. [full story]

July 15 - 8:15am EDT   The upcoming Dell E mini notebook may finaly make its appearance next month and may be one of the least expensive, claim alleged insiders. The 8.9-inch portable will have the same 1.6GHz Atom processor, Linux, and flag storage storage of many similar devices but will purportedly sell in August for just $299, or $80 less than the Acer Aspire One that has held the price crown in the class for just a matter of weeks. [full story]

July 8 - 4:35pm EDT   MSI this afternoon confirmed that it has finally begun shipping the Wind, its first mini notebook. Stores such as Amazon, Buy.com, Fry's, and Newegg are all receiving the 10-inch portables first and will initially receive basic versions with a three-cell battery and Windows XP Home. Versions with the longer-lived six-cell battery as well as those preloaded with Linux are due in September, the company says. The larger battery itself will be available separately at the same time. [full story]

July 8 - 9:20am EDT   Acer today gave the US a rare miniature addition to its Aspire desktop lineup. The X1200 is just over a foot long at its largest measurement but fits in desktop components and expansion that would normally be impractical in its size. Up to a 2.6GHz Athlon 64 X2 is complemented by a GeForce 8200 for integrated graphics as well as a PCI Express 2.0 slot that allows dedicated video or other peripherals. Every system also fits 4GB of memory. [full story]

July 3 - 1:05pm EDT   Intel gained momentum in the first quarter of 2008, but rival AMD continued to increase marketshare year-over-year, figures from iSuppli show. Intel gained 1.2 percent to reach 79.7 percent of global microprocessor revenue in the first quarter, but was down 0.7 percent from the first quarter of 2007. AMD lost share in between Q4 2007 and Q1 2008, moving from 14.1 percent to 13 percent, but this was still a 2.2 percent increase from the Q1 2007 period. [full story]

June 30 - 9:30am EDT   ASUS is developing a new Eee PC that would offer the comfort of its larger 10-inch models at the cost of the 8.9-inch models, according to reports from supply channels. The Eee PC 904 and 905 would have the same 8.9-inch display as the 901 notebook but with the enclosure of the 1001, giving it a larger keyboard without necessarily changing the price. Battery life and storage may also go up with the larger case but are reportedly uncertain. [full story]

June 27 - 4:10pm EDT   Despite tough overall economic conditions, the market for personal computers remained strong in the first quarter of 2008 according to iSuppli. Global PC unit shipments rose to 69.9 million units in the first quarter, up 12.1 percent from 62.4 million in the first quarter of 2007. Hewlett-Packard Co., Dell Inc. and Acer Inc. retained the top-three rankings with no change from the previous quarter. HP boosted first-quarter global PC shipments by 23 percent over the same quarter in 2007, to reach 13.2 million units. Dell in the first quarter of 2008 expanded its market share position by half a percentage point compared to the fourth quarter of 2007, at 15.4 percent, with ... [full story]

June 13 - 11:00am EDT   Acer late yesterday unveiled a DLP projector in its Professional series explicitly tailored to wireless use with PCs: the P5260i takes the earlier P5260E and adds 802.11g Wi-Fi that allows it to stream media directly from a computer without needing either a cable or an adapter. The projector can natively play AVI, DivX, MPEG-1/2/4, WMV, and XviD videos along with the raw VOB files normally found on DVDs; although the projector itself outputs at 1024x768 resolution, the P5260i can accept both wireless and wired feeds up to 1080i or 720p. [full story]

June 10 - 12:35pm EDT   HP continues to dominate in the realm of notebook sales, writes the NPD Group. In its latest quarterly report, the research firm notes that HP shipped nearly 6.5 million notebooks around the world, giving it a marketshare of 20.8 percent. Dell by contrast managed to recapture second place from Acer, but with a share of just 15.1 percent, and shipments just under 4.7 million. Acer slipped to third place with control of 14.6 percent and over 4.5 million notebooks. [full story]

June 9 - 11:50am EDT   Computer manufacturer Acer has announced a new LCD monitor, the P244W. The display is being aimed at high-end buyers, and as such measures 24 inches, with support for 16:9 widescreen resolutions up to 1080p (1900x1080). Appropriately the monitor is equipped with an HDMI input, which lets users connect the likes of game consoles and Blu-ray movie players. Regular computer inputs should also be included. [full story]

June 9 - 9:30am EDT   Acer and HP today said they have officially settled lawsuits filed against each other over perceived patent infringements, putting an end to a relatively short multi-month conflict between the two. The terms of the deal are unavailable but put an end both to all three lawsuits in US federal court as well as International Trade Commission complaints, all of which would potentially have prevented either company from shipping some PC models in the country. [full story]

June 4 - 10:30am EDT   Samsung will be the latest company to start making new, 16:9 aspect ratio LCDs for notebooks, reports from alleged display industry insiders claim. The company has previously kept to producing the 15.4-inch, 16:10 screens found in most notebooks today but is now said to be starting production on wider 15.6-inch screens that are often cited as better for movie viewing and side-by-side documents. Production would reportedly start in November, which would likely push the release of notebooks based on the LCDs to early 2009. [full story]

June 3 - 10:05am EDT   NVIDIA on Tuesday officially unveiled the next major upgrade to its notebook graphics lineup. The GeForce 9M series is built on a new, multi-core graphics engine that the electronics designer claims is as much as 40 percent faster than earlier 8M chipsets. Video encoding is up to five times faster, the company claims. The new design is also home to the first mobile chipsets with Hybrid SLI; notebooks can switch off the dedicated video and revert to integrated graphics to save power while on battery or when running less demanding tasks. [full story]