July 3 - 8:15am EDT   Only Windows PCs may be required to carry China's controversial Green Dam Youth Escort content filtering app, computer makers said on Friday. Although the government officially requires every computer sold in the country to have the software included, any system that can't install Green Dam, including any of Apple's computers or Linux PCs, doesn't have to bundle it. The exemption also applies to any computer that doesn't meet the "technical requirements" for an install, according to one anonymous PC vendor. [full story]

July 2 - 9:05am EDT   Many of the Windows PC makers building ultraportable notebooks based on Intel's low-cost CULV platform are learning first-hand that their cheaper case designs aren't enough to sustain the systems, a research note from AmTech analyst Doug Freedman says. Many of the companies design the systems with plastic shells to keep their prices down but are discovering that the cases are cracking, often forcing major replacements. Which companies are affected aren't mentioned, but Lenovo and MSI are some of the first making systems in the category with the IdeaPad U350 and X-Slim line respectively. [full story]

July 1 - 3:20pm EDT   Wireless provider Cellular South on Wednesday announced it will soon sell its own subsidized 3G-capable netbook, the 10.1-inch Dell Inspiron Mini 10. Its version, like that for AT&T, holds an internal 3G modem that supplies long-range data access wherever the carrier has coverage. As a CDMA carrier, though, Cellular South will use EVDO instead of HSPA. [full story]

July 1 - 2:30pm EDT   The sequel to NVIDIA's Ion platform could be much faster than its predecessor when it ships, leaks today would show. While the current graphics and chipset combo is based on the GeForce 9400M and has just 16 visual effects cores, Fudzilla now hears that it will have 32 cores, potentially doubling the amount of simultaneous effects it can handle at once. The difference will have the most dramatic effect on 3D but could also impact general-purpose computing tasks that need CUDA or OpenCL. [full story]

July 1 - 12:40pm EDT   Large PC builders are dragging their feet when it comes to environmental promises, claims Greenpeace. The activist group has once again updated its Guide to Greener Electronics, which assigns relative rankings to major high-tech corporations. A new development is the assignment of "penalty points" to major PC builders, including HP, Dell and Lenovo. The companies have delayed plans to strip PVC and brominated flame retardants (BFRs) from computers, Greenpeace says, and in the case of HP, none of its current systems have reduced toxicity. [full story]

July 1 - 9:30am EDT   Dell on Tuesday announced it will add mapping features to its Inspiron Mini 10 netbooks starting next week. The Wireless 700 add-on combines both an internal GPS card from Broadcom and Wi-Fi triangulation technology from Skyhook Wireless to find its own location, which allows it to operate both indoors and outdoors. Indoors, Wi-Fi access points are used to determine the location via their respective and mapped hardware addresses. Outdoors, or when the line of sight to a satellite is available, it reverts to the assisted GPS chipset for a more accurate, network-independent view. [full story]

June 30 - 1:10pm EDT   PC builder Dell has launched the Inspiron 546, a new desktop model. The system represents a lower-end option, with the base configuration including a 2.3GHz AMD Sempron processor, 2GB of DDR2 RAM, and integrated ATI graphics for $269. The option includes no monitor by default, but lets buyers pick one of eight different colors for the case's front panel, at extra cost. [full story]

June 30 - 9:05am EDT   Dell today formalized the launch of the Vostro 1220, its smallest full-fledged notebook to bear the name. The 12-inch system isn't Dell's thinnest at up to 1.5 inches thick but is light, at under 3.4 pounds, and has room for high-end components. A fully-loaded 1220 can take up to a 3.06GHz Core 2 Duo, 8GB of RAM and a Blu-ray combo drive; in a rarity for Dell, it also has the option of Clearwire- and Sprint-friendly internal WiMAX. [full story]

June 29 - 4:45pm EDT   Dell's rumored smartphone may only be an Internet-capable handheld, a leak today says. A contact for the Wall Street Journal supports the belief that an Android-based touchscreen device is in the works but that it won't have phone features. It should be slightly larger than the iPod touch and would instead focus on Internet access. [full story]

June 29 - 11:05am EDT   Taiwanese PC builder Acer is poised to outpace Dell and get second place in PC industry market share, new insights show. The New York Times notes that Acer gained 3 percent world market share last year compared to a near-flat 0.1 percent for Dell and that the gap closed this past quarter to just 2 percent. The difference is attributed to a clearer focus on PCs than Dell as well as an emphasis on lower-cost systems and a much leaner inventory system that sees Acer worry less about stock. [full story]

June 25 - 6:45pm EDT   Apple has taken top honors in a consumer-satisfaction survey conducted by Vocal Laboratories. The research firm spoke with 1147 consumers immediately following a support call, with 58 percent of respondents "very satisfied" after calls placed to Apple. Of individuals speaking with Dell representatives, only 46 percent gave the same response. Approximately 43 percent of HP callers were very satisfied. [full story]

June 25 - 10:55am EDT   Sonic Solutions, the company behind Roxio, on Thursday announced its streaming movie service CinemaNow will be made available for the Nintendo Wii. Sonic will partner with Fujisoft to bring the former's content to the game console via the latter's video-on-demand Everyone's Theater Wii service. While the announcement only covers Japan, its successful integration potentially leads to the service arriving in other countries as well. CinemaNow offers more than 1,500 streaming movies, short films, and concerts to buy or rent. [full story]

June 25 - 9:55am EDT   Microsoft this morning outlined its final pricing for Windows 7. Extending an olive branch to Windows XP owners refusing to upgrade to Vista, the company says it's allowing both these and Vista owners to pay $120 to upgrade to Windows 7 Home Premium, $200 to move to Windows 7 Professional, and $220 for Windows 7 Ultimate. Full, non-OEM copies will cost $200, $300 and $320 respectively. [full story]

June 22 - 11:00am EDT   Apple has been both vindicated and condemned in an advertising dispute with Dell, reports say. The latter company earlier filed a complaint with the National Advertising Division of the Council of Better Business Bureaus, accusing Apple of potentially misleading the public by claiming its unibody MacBooks are the "greenest" notebooks on the market. Dell has asserted that its notebooks also meet high environmental standards, for instance by scaling down mercury, PVC and brominated flame retardant content. [full story]

June 19 - 4:30pm EDT   Dell may soon begin offering a new-generation graphics card for its multimedia-oriented Studio XPS 16 notebook lineup. If true, it would begin offering the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4670 instead of the current, aging ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3670 with its 512MB of dedicated memory. The HD 4670 will most notably double dedicated graphics memory and is based on smaller 55nm manufacturing process. [full story]