Internet

Firefox has 17.3% of the Web browser market, which is up 2.3 points since last October.  Internet Explorer has 74.9% of the market, and has gone down for each of the last 8 months.

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9066238

Outlook users can now synchronize their calendar with Google Calendar by downloading Google Calendar Synch.

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Enterprise-Apps/Now-Synching-Google-Calendar-and-Microsoft-Outlook/

 Microsoft started public beta testing of the Office Live Workspace online collaboration service, and is offering a $100,000 grand prize and 30,000 other prizes to entice users to beta test.

http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=206901651

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9066478

http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=206901651

http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=206902297

 Sony is going to start selling a microphone for the PlayStation Portable in Japan to add Skype Internet phone capability.

http://news.zdnet.com/2110-9595_22-6233018.html

 The servers for an Oprah Winfrey webcast were overwhelmed by more than 500,000 viewers, and crashed soon after the webcast started.

http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=206901847

Software

Internet Explorer 8 will be standards compliant as the default mode, instead of the current default that is more IE-specific.  A beta test version of IE 8 is available for developers to test.  The beta test version blocks use of Windows Update, but can be set to emulate IE7 to make that work.

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9066583

http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=206901527

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Application-Development/Microsoft-Ships-IE-8-Beta/

http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=206901898

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9066778

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9067198

Windows Vista Service Pack 1 is a 436MB download, and contains all the security fixes and patches, includes improvements to BitLocker whole disk encryption, and performance improvements.

http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=205917537

Windows Vista Ultimate Service Pack 1 will be available in English, German, Japanese, and Spanish when it is generally available in a couple weeks.  Users of Vista Ultimate Edition with 31 other language packs will have to wait until mid-April before SP1 will be ready for those languages. 

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9066658

In June, Apple will provide support for connecting an iPhone to Exchange Server and the software development kit for the iPhone will be available.

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Mobile-and-Wireless/iPhone-Meets-Microsoft-Exchange/

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2274041,00.asp

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9067138

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9067018

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9067040

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Mobile-and-Wireless/Apple-Opens-iPhone-SDK-Expands-Exchange-Support/

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Mobile-and-Wireless/The-iPhone-Leaps-into-the-Enterprise-but-How-Will-You-Manage-It/

http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=206902319

Hardware

Dell introduced a ruggedized Latitude notebook, the XFR D630.

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Desktops-and-Notebooks/Dells-Latitude-Line-Gets-Rugged/

http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=206901662

The new version of the Eee PC from Asustek has an 8.9” display, 12GB solid state disk drive, 1GB of RAM, and wireless Internet.  The PC should be available mid-2008 for about $600.

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9066559

Samsung is coming out with the first 500GB hard drive for laptops.  The drive spins at 5,400rpm, and will sell for $299.  They also introduced a 250GB laptop hard drive that spins at 7,200rpm.

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9066700

Business

Acer passed Dell to be the number 2 laptop seller, worldwide.  Dell is still the number 1 laptop seller in the U.S.

http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=206901753

HP is still the #1 PC vendor, with worldwide shipments in 2007 up 25.5% over 2006.  Dell’s shipments grew 17.4% in 2007, keeping it #2.  Acer’s shipments grew 25%.  Apple’s shipments grew 39.3%, staying #6.

http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=206901998

The City of Birmingham, Alabama is planning to spend $3.5 million to buy 15,000 XO laptops from the One Laptop Per Child project.

http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=206902081

Circuit City will allow customers who bought an HD DVD device in the last 90 days to exchange it for a store credit.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2274069,00.asp

Reviews

A review of 7 secure USB drives.

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9062527

Six scenarios were used to compare LinkedIn and Facebook for business use.  LinkedIn is focused on business networking, while Facebook is available to anyone but has more applications available.  Neither service came out as the best for all the scenarios.

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9065398

A comparison of Office Live Workspace and Google Docs.  Both allow users to share documents online.  OLW is limited to 500MB of storage, with a maximum of 25MB in a single file.  With OLW, almost any kind of file can be uploaded to the workspace.  Documents are not edited online, they are opened in Office.  Google Docs has a limit of 5,000 documents and 5,000 images, with file size maximums that are dependent on the type of file.  With Google Docs, files are edited with online applications, so the files that can be stored are limited to the file types that can be edited online.  Both services provide versioning, so you can go back to a previous version of a document.

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/office_live_workspace_vs_google_docs_feature_by_feature.php