New and Noteworthy: Personal computer market steadily growing; MP3 coming to a car near you

Personal computer market steadily growing Vendors shipped a total of 44.2 million PCs in the third quarter, which represented a growth rate of 11.9 percent compared to the same period of 2003, according to IDC. Gartner estimates that a total of 46.9 million PCs were shipped during the quarter, representing a growth rate of 9.7 percent. More.

MP3 coming to a car near you ZDNN reports on the Consumer Electronics Association's Industry Forum, where panelists agreed that makers of car stereos and other automotive gadgets are running out of time to get on board with the switch to digital media. "Once you get your new gadget to work in the car, the next challenge is figuring out how to operate it while keeping at least one eye on the road. Electronics makers increasingly have to rethink display and control options, said Michael Gardner, director of Motorola's Intelligent Systems division, highlighting future advances such as displays that would project a see-through image on the car's windshield and increasingly sophisticated voice-control options." More.

Previously on MacFixIt

• Apple refreshes iBook G4 line: Low-end model starts at US$999, 1.33 GHz at top-end
• 1.8 GHz Power Mac G5 priced at US$1,499 debuts
• Xserve RAID updated: 5.6 TB storage now possible
• Office 2004 Service Pack 1 (#6): Entourage 2004: Issues with incoming mail
• Office v.X 10.1.6 (#5): Problems opening PowerPoint files, messy workaround
• 30" Apple Cinema displays, NVidia 6800 DDL shipping, problems with Mac OS X Server?

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