Record sales of Macintosh-branded computers have helped consumer technology giant Apple to its best third quarter on record.The group shipped almost 2.5m Macintosh computers in the quarter to June 28, a jump of 41pc on the same quarter last year.Apple also sold more than 11m of its iPod digital music players globally, up 12pc, though revenue from sales of the MP3 players climbed a more modest 7pc.

Sales of the iPhone, the MP3 player and mobile telephone hybrid, almost trebled to 717,000, although last year the device was only released at the end of the third quarter, capping sales significantly. While figures take into account sales of the group's heavily promoted MacBook Air laptop, they do not include sales of the 3G iPhone, which was launched this month.

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The mobile trash compactor is a symphony of squeaks, thunks and rattles, rolling forward on treads to bring its pivoting eyes to bear on us. Within moments we identify completely, launching "Wall-E," one of the rare films to feature robots as the lead characters.

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She might be designing a capsule collection for PPQ, but would you buy a used dress from Peaches Geldof? The self-appointed queen of the sticky Hoxton dancefloor is eBaying her unwanted frocks. "Very retro" she writes about a 60s orange flower power dress, bought on Brick Lane.

 "Definitely psychedelic!" Thankfully she doesn't go into historical details - "Partied in Ibiza wearing this. Copped off with Noel Fielding in this one. Fell out of a cab - this one saved my life!" With a few days bidding to go, no garment seems to have broken the £50 barrier. Are the fish failing to bite? Or is the bait a bit stale? Still, it raises the delectable question, which celeb cast-offs would you pay good money for? If you want to bid, Peaches' seller name is tahneepeacheslinda1. Did we mention it was for charity?

Rising fuel bills and living expenses have put the brakes on demand for new cars, a UK motor trade body has said. The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) said UK new car sales fell by 6.1% in June, compared with the same month in 2007.

Overall car sales in the year to the end of June were 1,247,479, down 1.6% on the previous 12 month period. Diesel car sales bucked the trend, with registrations up 4.5% to take diesel's share of the market to more than 40%. 'Rising pressures'

The SMMT blamed the decline in total sales on a tougher economic environment. "We are now seeing concerns about rising fuel bills and household costs dampening consumer confidence, leading to slower demand for new cars," said Paul Everitt, SMMT chief executive. "This slow-down is not unexpected, but signals an increasingly tough retail environment," he added.

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California has gazumped New Mexico to land the new plant that electric car company Tesla Motors will build to manufacture its upcoming zero emissions sedan, the Model S.

While the company's much-acclaimed first car, the two-seater Roadster, is being built in the UK by Lotus with the lithium batteries added in America, Tesla always intended to build entirely its follow-up five-seater vehicle in the US.

It looked like New Mexico would get the 400-employee plant when it came up with $7m (£3.51m) in incentives and Tesla last year announced with much fanfare it would relocate to that state.

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In what the company claims is an industry first, Chrysler has announced uconnect web, a system that brings wireless Internet connectivity to any Chrysler, Dodge, or Jeep vehicle.

It essentially turns the car into a WiFi hotspot that provides secure, real-time entertainment and information to all vehicle passengers.

According to Chrysler, the hotspot range will extend approximately 50 feet from the vehicle in all directions, and will combine both WiFi and 3G cellular connectivity. This means that passengers can stop the car at a family picnic or other event, and then proceed to make dinner reservations, check directions or weather, make online purchases, log into Facebook, MySpace, Disney or Webkinz, watch YouTube videos, or upload photos to a Flickr account, all using any laptop, Sony PSP, the iPhone, or other Wi-Fi-enabled device.

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Despite its new capabilities, the new 8 GB 3G iPhone will cost Apple $100 less than its predecessor a year ago, indicating the company is set to drastically increase its profit margin on the device thanks to its new arrangement with AT&T.

In a preliminary teardown by hardware analysis firm iSuppli of the 8 GB iPhone 3G Apple's less expensive model, at $199 retail through AT&T when it launches July 11 iSuppli estimated Apple's bill of materials (BOM) per unit totaled $173.00.

By comparison, iSuppli estimated in January 2007 that Apple was reaping a profit margin of over 53% for its original 8GB iPhone at that time, its most expensive model with a total BOM of $280.82. In 17 months' time, the new 8 GB iPhone 3G costs 62% less for Apple to build, even with GPS thrown in (a component that costs all of $3.60 wholesale).

Contributing greatly to the reduced manufacturing costs is the continuingly plummeting price of NAND flash memory. Last December, iSuppli estimated that 8 GB of NAND flash contributed $40 to the bill of materials for the new iPod Touch.

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The number of personal computers in use around the world has exceeded 1 billion and will double by 2014, with most growth coming from developing markets, according to Gartner research released Monday.

A 12 percent annual increase would amount to more than 2 billion PCs in use by 2014, according to a report that counted installed machines rather than laptops and desktops sold.

Emerging markets will account for 70 percent of the next billion PCs to come online, Gartner analysts suggested. They named dropping prices and improved Internet access as factors driving that trend.

Fifty-eight percent of today's PCs are owned by U.S., European, and Japanese users, Gartner found.

This year, some 180 million computers, or 16 percent of those currently in use globally, will be retired.

"We estimate a fifth of these, or some 35 million PCs, will be dumped into landfill with little or no regard for their toxic content," Meike Escherich, principal research analyst at Gartner, said in a statement. The challenge of disposing safely of electronics waste will also expand in developing markets in the coming years,

Mobile phones
I'm growing as loyal to the LG brand these days as I was to Sony's for much of the past 20 years. All of LG's fridges, air conditioners, and other appliances bear the company's cool signature curves and finishes, and smart features.

My wife, Lisa, was tickled to discover a light inside our new LG gas dryer that flicked on when she opened the door. It's a simple, low-tech Easter egg, but one that might help solve the lost-sock mysteries around our house.

This is what I call the LG touch: Each of the Korean powerhouse's products has at least one great feature, which demonstrates that a designer was thinking about you when he crafted the device.

The LG Decoy (available through Verizon Wireless) is no exception. The music phone comes with its own delightful add-on: a slot on the phone that holds its own detachable Bluetooth headset. Now your phone and headset can be in the same place - saving you from scrambling for two gadgets in your pocketbook. This also reduces the need for you to walk around like a tool, with that headset permanently planted in your ear.

The Decoy is a meaty, four-ounce slider with a mirrored, metallic finish and 2.2-inch display. The face has a joystick surrounded by backlit arrows and four backlit control buttons. The phone has a black keypad with backlit keys.

You can manage much of your Verizon Wireless V Cast media without sliding the Decoy open: The joystick (which is a might too touchy) will get you to your libraries, and the V Cast streams quickly enough. The Decoy also has a 2-megapixel camera and a memory card slot.

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Toshiba on Tuesday introduced a 2.4-pound notebook that the vendor claims is the lightest laptop with a 128-GB solid-state drive and DVD drive.
The Portege R500 series also is among the thinnest at 0.77 inches, Toshiba said. The device has a 12.1-inch, backlit light-emitting diode display for indoor and outdoor viewing and meets the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's highest standards for energy efficiency.

The machine's storage component, which is made by Toshiba, is the highest capacity SSD available for notebooks, according to the company. Because SSDs have no moving parts, they tend to be faster and more durable than traditional hard-disk drives and use less energy. SSDs, however, are considerably more expensive.
Toshiba this year started shipping its 128 GB SSD that first appeared in the company's notebooks in Japan. The drive achieves the unusually high capacity through the use of multi-level cell NAND flash technology. Most SSDs today are single-level cell drives, which store 1 bit of data in each memory cell. MLC drives, on the other hand, store 3 or more bits in each cell. While MLC drives have slower transfer speeds and higher power consumption, they are also far less expensive to make.

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