Sumner Lemon

Microsoft Corp.'s Pocket PC 2002 software does not address critical security issues and could make sensitive corporate data stored on PDAs (personal digital assistants) and desktop PCs vulnerable to theft and loss, market analyst firm Gartner Inc. warned in a recent research note.

When Microsoft Corp. officially launches its Windows XP Tablet PC Edition operating system on Nov. 7, users in Latin America and several European countries will find the software does not support their native languages.

China has apparently lifted efforts to block access to Google Inc.

Mitac International Corp. is holding talks with Dell Computer Corp. on manufacturing white-box PCs under contract in China, it said Wednesday.

In another sign of the rapid advances being made by China

The search engine operated by Google Inc. this week apparently became the latest Web site to be blocked by Chinese Internet censors but the ability of authorities to block such sites may not last for much longer, according to a Gartner Inc. analyst.

In a widely anticipated move, Intel Corp. today added four new chips to its line of Pentium 4 desktop processors, including the fastest model released by the company to date, the 2.8GHz Pentium 4. At the same time, the company slashed the price of its previously fastest chip, the 2.53GHz Pentium 4, by 62 per cent.

Taiwanese hardware maker Asustek Computer Corp. is gunning for a slice of the market for PDAs with the long-expected launch last month of its MyPal A600, based on Microsoft Corp.