The company is now building on that success by releasing the TouchSmart TX2, its first multi-touch tablet for Windows.

Just like the other products in the TouchSmart line, the TX2 is built around multimedia. The touch functionality is in full use, although it is quite limited when it comes to other applications.

The TX2, though billed as a multi-touch PC, also stretches that claim a bit as the gestures that you can use are still limited to two fingers.

The TX2 has the following specs: a 12-inch widescreen, a stylus, dual-layer DVD burner, three USB ports, multi-card reader, 250GB 5400-rpm hard drive, a 2.2-GHz AMD Turion X2 ZM-82 processor, and 4GB of memory.

The price is pegged at $1,149.

The new version, although basically identical to the first generation model, will now have WiMax capability as one of its upgrades. Users can also put a 3G card to the unit. Other additions include a bigger storage space at 160GB. All other features are similar like the 10-inch display, 1.6Ghz Atom processor, a 4-in-1 card reader as well as connectivity for a mouse.

MSI will show the new Wind at the Consumer Electronics Show in January.

But it looks like this practice is not a good one if you’re a MacBook or MacBook Pro owner. Benchmarking tests revealed that a huge performance hit happens when you use these Apple laptops without the battery. This is apparently indicated in the Apple website, which states that this happens as a way of preventing the laptops from shutting down if for some reason the units try to get more power that the A/C adapters alone can provide.

So the lesson is clear, leave the battery intact when you have a MacBook or MacBook Pro. Jury’s still out though on what happens if you already have a dead Apple battery.

Novafora, Inc., agreed to buy Transmeta for $255.6 million. The deal will likely officially close by the end of the first quarter of 2009.

Transmeta has also undergone an agreement with AMD to transfer 700,000 of Transmeta stock to the company.

At this point there are no news yet on what will happen to Transmeta as a processor manufacturer. The company was the pioneer in producing low-powered processors but could not compete with big boys like Intel and AMD.

On Tuesday, Nov. 18, Check Point Software will offer the ZoneAlarm Pro package for free for one whole day to mark the company’s 15th anniversary.

The download location will officially go live at 6 AM PDT on Tuesday. Just follow this link.

The software usually coasts $39.95 so this is a great opportunity to get some free software.

The graphics card market grew by 10.8 percent, which is up 10.8 percent from the second quarter. The main contributor here are the dropping prices that drove volume sales.

It’s a good thing that AMD is finally seeing some positive news financially. I was getting worried that with the recent case of bad luck the company was having they may be forced to close. That’s a very bad thing for an AMD supporter like myself.

All users need to do is to download and install a plug-in in order to have access to webcam for video chatting. The good thing here is that users can now seamlessly switch from email to chat whenever they need to. This will be a great boost in productivity.

Accessing the video or voice chat is simple. All one has to do is to click on the “video & more” link in the chat window, click “start video chat” or “start voice chat.”

This feature is availablce on Windows XP or higher as well as on Mac OS X v10.4.

Both the Qosmio X305-Q708 and X305-Q706 feature three GPUs for extra gaming goodness.

The said laptops have a GeForce 9400M GPU but also has a pair of GeForce 9800GTS in SLI mode. The 708 model also has a 2.53Ghz Core Extreme QX9300 microprocessor. Both laptops are said to be priced at $4199. Pretty steep for a gaming laptop.

Firefoxrent a car bulgaria, when it was released four years ago, came out when IE had 90 percent of the market. IE now has just a 71 percent share. Firefox’s reach increased by four percent when version 3.0 was released last July.

The company is urging its workers to take up to five days of unpaid vacations as a way of cutting costs. This is on top of the 8,900 job cuts and global hiring freeze that it has already instituted.

Michael Dell himself announced it through email this week.

This economic downturn is really affecting a lot of people. I myself am a victim, having been laid off from a really lucrative consulting job. I just hope this won’t last too long and that things will improve very soon.