John G. Spooner

NEW YORK—Sleek hardware, such as Apple Computer Inc.s new iMac G5 and video iPod, Hewlett-Packard Co.s Digital Entertainment Centers and slim Pavilion 7210n, and even Microsoft Corp.s Xbox 360—a hit among young and old who crowded the Microsoft booth on the first afternoon of the DigitalLife show, a three-day consumer technology and entertainment exposition here—all […]

Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. has agreed to plead guilty to computer-memory price fixing and to pay a $300 million fine in a settlement with the United States Department of Justice. The U.S. Department of Justice has charged that Samsung, the worlds largest DRAM (dynamic RAM) maker, Hynix Semiconductor Inc., Infineon Technologies AG and Micron Technology […]

Thin is in at Apple Computer Inc. The company has unveiled a slimmer iMac G5, designed to be used in the home as an entertainment hub, to go with its thinner line of iPod music players, introduced this fall. Apple, which rolled out the new all-in-one desktop along with a video-playing iPod on Wednesday, has […]

Microsoft Corp. is about to give Media Center PCs a new point of view. The Redmond, Wash., software giant is expected to unveil on Friday an update for its Windows XP Media Center Edition operating system that will boost the computers abilities to tap online entertainment such as movies, access e-mail and even let users […]

Intel Corp. says two brains are better than one when it comes to crunching numbers and serving up Web pages. At an event Monday in San Francisco, the chip maker unveiled its first dual-core Xeon server chip, code-named Paxville DP, months ahead of its original schedule, and officials said a dual-core version of its Xeon […]

Thats all, folks. Hewlett-Packard Co. is discounting its HP-brand iPods in an effort to sell off its remaining inventory of the portable music players. The computer giant, which in late July said it would discontinue selling its HP-branded version of the Apple Computer Inc. music player, has lowered the prices on several of its remaining […]

Hewlett-Packard wants to be known as the PC maker with the lowest prices. Although it faces fierce competition from Dell Inc. and Gateway Inc., which are also known for selling inexpensive PCs, Hewlett-Packard Co. says it can do better. The Palo Alto, Calif., computer giant, which has battled with Dell for the rank of worlds […]

Hurricanes have driven up energy prices in the United States, but they have yet to brush up against the PC industry. Now that the fourth quarter is under way, PC manufacturers have much to look forward to. This quarter is typically the busiest of the year, thanks to holiday sales to consumers and corporate spend-it-or-lose-it […]

Hewlett-Packard on Monday announced plans to acquire blade server pioneer RLX Technologies for an undisclosed sum. After the purchase, Hewlett-Packard Co. said, it plans to merge RLX Technologies Inc.s blade server management software with its own hardware resource management offering. This will make the HP management software easier to use and, by extension, make its […]

Samsung Electronics, already a chip giant, appears to be gearing up to take an even bigger piece of the semiconductor market. Best known for being the top maker of dynamic RAM for personal computers and for supplying flash memory for Apple Computer Inc.s iPod music players, Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. plans to spend $33 billion […]

Dell Inc. is taking a page from auto maker Toyota Motor Co.s playbook and recasting its XPS Media Center PC line with a series of new models and services. Dell and Toyota have studied each other in the past. Now Dell is borrowing from car makers luxury branding approach to elevate its Dell XPS line […]

Intel is quietly offering a handful of low-end Pentium 4 processors to large PC makers. Normally trumpeted as Intel Corp.s flagship chip brand, chips such the new Pentium 4 516, which do not appear on the chip makers public price list, are actually closer to its Celeron D value brand chips. Like the Celeron line, […]