Stories about: Targus

What Palm really should have offered was the right kind of carrying case. When Ed Colligan, the firm's CEO, announced the Foleo handheld "companion" a few months ago, he went into great detail about the product's design and software features, but he never addressed the one thing users would have to deal with right off the bat: how you would manage both devices. Talk about putting the cart before the horse. You'd think they could have partnered with Targus or something, rather than scrap the Foleo entirely.

The name may not be glamorous, but the IBM Embedded Security Subsystem meets a need that's long been met poorly, if at all. For many, the risk that critical data on the hard drives of PCs and laptops can be stolen or tampered with is just something they had to live with. Laptops can disappear at airport security checkpoints. Trojan horses can sniff out passwords and steal security keys. Unauthorized users can snoop.

The RSA Conference 2002 shined a spotlight last week on the accomplishments of many different security software vendors, including IBM Corp., Sun Microsystems Inc. and VeriSign Inc.

News in brief

He landed on both feet: I could see his footprints on the bathroom floor. The sheriff said the burglar was a pro, looking only for jewelry and cash. And my depreciating-as-we-speak PC? Fortunately, it wasn't touched.

IT accessory manufacturer Targus has begun an aggressive push into the notebook accessories market in an effort to expand its business beyond the realm of the carry case.

If your firewalls, intrusion-detection software and encryption technologies make you feel safe, think again.

If your firewalls, intrusion-detection software and encryption technologies make you feel safe, think again.

You no longer have to order your Handspring Inc. Visor from the Web. Handspring Visors have shipped to CompUSA, Best Buy, and Staples.

Notebook computers are obvious and attractive targets for thieves because they're easily concealed, expensive and likely to contain valuable information. Statistics bear this out. Last year, 303,000 notebooks were stolen in the U.S., according to Safeware, The Insurance Agency Inc. in Columbus, Ohio. It's no surprise that a small industry exists to prevent the loss of notebook hardware and data and to help with their recovery. You can lock down notebooks with special hardware or install alarm systems that can tell when portables are being carried out the door without authorization. You can tighten data security by replacing typed passwords with smart cards and biometric authentication or use special software to track down lost computers. I tried three different approaches that are likely to appeal to senior-level road warriors: a portable alarm, a tracking-and-recovery software/service hybrid and voice-verification software.

As it becomes fashionable to give PCs away - only with a paid up-front Internet access agreement, of course - resellers might want to replace their dwindling desktop profits with notebook sales. At a much higher unit price, there are better margins to be made from notebooks; at the same time, though, notebooks are becoming cheaper, so that more organisations can consider them as desktop replacements. Brian Dooley and Tamara Plakalo report on developments in the notebook market