Slick new ideas from Apple, eBay

News items for everyone to fill the space this week; if there's nothing for you in here then you're not a geek.

• Microsoft has released a new beta of Internet Explorer 7, and after about a billion dollars and a decade these folks are starting to get the hang of the browser thing. Swiping the best of the other browsers, like Firefox and Opera, the new IE is better and more secure. The biggest change users will notice is "tabbed browsing," which is old hat to users of other browsers but new to IE. Basically this lets you keep browser windows open like tabs on a spreadsheet (except these are on top).

The biggest benefit to me is that someone, finally, figured out that printing Web pages is a major pain. IE 7 offers lots of printing options, including shrinking the page so it fits on one normal-size sheet.

If you want to give it a try (PCs only) then head to www.microsoft.com/ie/ and download it for free. Before you install it, I would recommend you back up your system or at least your data files. I try to play with beta software on systems I don't really rely on; the term "beta" means the software is not yet complete and ready for release.

• Experts at a conference in Berlin said an estimated 60 billion e-mails are sent out every 24 hours globally. That's an amazing number . . . even more staggering considering 50 billion are for herbal Viagra and 5 billion claim you won the lottery.

• EBay, which along with Google is aiming for world online domination, has launched "eBay Express," a new idea along the lines of its "Buy It Now" concept. The new store features items from merchants who already sell products at fixed prices on eBay. But unlike the regular eBay, purchased items from multiple sellers on eBay Express can all be placed into a single shopping cart and bought at once. That way you don't have to pay each individual seller.

Give it a look at www.express.ebay.com.

• Apple has rolled out a slick new 17-inch version of its MacBook Pro, the Intel-powered replacement for the Powerbook. It's cool, lovely and fast (up to four times faster than the old one) and can run Windows thanks to Boot Camp software. The downside? Price. Expect to fork over $2,800 for one with a gig of RAM. I love Apple hardware, but that price makes me think more than twice when you can get a couple of decent Dells and change back for the same coin.

At $1,999 the thing is worth a look; at $1,599 it's a category killer. It just needs to get a thousand bucks cheaper somehow. Does Moore's Law apply to Apples?

• Activision finally released the 1.2 patch for "Call of Duty 2," including the long-awaited "Punkbuster" anti-cheating technology. The free upgrade will appear for download when you insert Disk 1 to play the multiplayer option (also get the patch for hyperthreading CPUs if you have one).

WEEKLY WEB WONDER: Send a bit of cheer to the troops overseas at www.americasupportsyou.mil.

---

James Derk is co-owner of CyberDads, a computer repair company, and a computer columnist for Scripps Howard News Service. His e-mail address is jim@cyberdads.com.