Computer Technology Briefs

Buena Park, Calif. — Yamaha has ceased selling computer-based CD-RW burners, citing market difficulties and rapid price erosion. The move was announced last week and immediately put into affect. The company will continue to offer CD burners for music and audio applications. The decision does not impact the company's other multimedia products including PC speakers, receivers, headphones and blank CD-R/RW media. Consumers who own Yamaha CD Recorders will continue to receive full support and warranty service.

Lake Success, N.Y. — Canon USA this month started shipping two new inkjet printers, including the i70 portable. The i70 is powered by lithium ion batteries and will have a $299 suggested retail price. Basic features are 4800 by 1200dpi and printer speeds of 13 pages per minute for text and dpi rating as the i70, but is a six-color model with inkjets capable of creating 2 picoliter droplets. Its suggested retail price is $249.

San Jose, Calif. — Addonics has started selling its Firewire-based Mini DigiDrive flash memory card reader. The drive can handle CompactFlash I and II type cards, SmartMedia, Memory Stick, MicroDrive, Multimedia and SD cards. The device is about 5-inches by 3-inches and weighs 5 ounces. It has a $89 suggested retail price.

Port Washington, N.Y.— With the deadline for filing taxes quickly approaching, tax preparation software is dominating sales, according to NPD. Intuit placed six titles on NPD's top 10 software list for the week of Jan. 26-Feb. 1, while Block Financial filled out three of the other slots. Symantec's Norton Antivirus 2003 filled out the list. The Intuit titles were TurboTax 2002 Deluxe, Multi State 45, TurboTax 2002, TurboTax California State and the company's Quicken 2003 Deluxe financial management software. The Block titles were Taxcut 2002 Deluxe, Taxcut 2002 State and Taxcut 2002.

Compton, Calif. — Belkin this week will ship two new devices for the "road warrior" consumer. They are the MiniWireless Optical Mouse and the TraveLite Retractable USB Lamp. The mouse is an RF device with a 3-foot range and an estimated street price of $49.99.

The TraveLite, with a $19.99 estimated street price, is an external notebook computer light source that is powered through its USB connection. It comes with a 19-inch retractable cable and swivel-mounted light.