Stories by: Carla Thornton

Along with much of the rest of the economy, the PC industry will be singing the blues this year, with worldwide shipments declining to 275 million units -- or almost 12 percent -- from 2008, according to a new Gartner report.

Facebook introduced a new terms of service page Wednesday in its official blog, but a spokesman said there are no new rules for users to follow.

Netbook. Subnotebook. Mini-notebook. Mini-laptop. Mini. Why so many names for the same low-powered laptop with 10-inch screen and no optical drive?

Will Apple really slap a lawsuit on Palm the minute the Palm Pre starts shipping as a Sprint smartphone later this year? Apple's posturing has lots of people thinking so. The reason: Apple's newly awarded patent for multi-touch technology, which also drives the interface for the Palm Pre. Just when it began to look like Palm had finally produced an iPhone killer, Apple has conveniently found a way to shut down the whole show.

Netbooks are more than a fad, and fill an important niche in the market for consumer PCs, according to a Forrester Research report. However, the report warned that manufacturers were confusing consumers with "dangerous" branding strategies.

With lively performance, a fairly light weight, and several popular features, the Lenovo 3000 N200 would be a good business notebook, but its mediocre battery life won't please frequent travellers.

The Fujitsu LifeBook T4220 is designed to weather outside use better than your typical convertible tablet. It has a nice keyboard and performs well, too, all at a competitive price.

With its wavy-pinstripe imprint and glossy-black accents, the dv2500t carries forward the designer HP Pavilion look. Polished to an almost pearlescent sheen, the touchpad looks more like a minor work of art than a pointing device. Improvements include a move up to the Intel Santa Rosa processor family and some tweaks to the ports to introduce more high-definition capabilities. But the screen is still more reflective than most, and there's almost no point in choosing the standard six-cell battery, since its life is so short.

A classic ThinkPad, the R61 is full of nice features you don't usually find in a laptop, such as the ThinkLight, an LED that illuminates the keyboard. The R61's 14.1-inch screen and 5.8-pound weight make it an ideal travel companion, too. For a work-oriented notebook decked out with all the trimmings, this model is hard to beat.

The Asus U1F-1P016E is a true ultraportable that weighs 2.7 pounds and tapers in the front of the case to a thin five-eighths of an inch tall. A lustrous black lid and real leather palm rest add to its appeal. So what's not to like? The speed and keyboard layout are so-so, the optical drive isn't built in, and the US$2199 price (as of 6/6/07) is high.