PC BRIEFS

Singapore—Shinei began shipping the first digital-voice recorder add-on for the Handspring Visor. Called the My-Vox HS1, it plugs into the Visor's Springboard slot to allow recording of up to eight minutes of continuous notes (or 99 individual memos). It uses the microphone built into the Visor and comes with a voice alarm or standard alarm that can be set daily, weekly, monthly and yearly. My-Vox is available from the Handspring store located on the PalmGear website at www.palmgear.com/hs for $69.95.

Mountain View, Calif.—Online sales of Windows Millennium have steadily declined since the end of an online promotion connected to the operating system's mid-September launch, according to data from onechannel.net. The promotion initially boosted sales to more than $1 million the week it was introduced, but the week of Oct. 7 online sales fell to just $63,000. The Windows 98 upgrade package was the most popular version of Millennium, purchased with about 80 percent of sales, and 7 percent of sales went to those looking to upgrade from Windows 95. Fifteen percent bought the full version of the operating system, which carried a $170 suggested retail price.

New York—MusicMatch this week has started shipping a Macintosh version of MusicMatch Jukebox. The software handles downloading, storing, playing and managing of music. The application is bundled with 73 MP3 files and a stereo cable for connecting a computer to a consumer's entertainment system. Suggested retail price is $29.99.

Houston—Compaq last week announced the recall of 55,000 notebook computer battery packs, saying they could short circuit and cause a fire. The defect is due to a manufacturing error that has a pin puncturing the computer's motherboard. The batteries are manufactured by Sony, according to a Compaq spokesman, and were supplied with Armada E500 and V300 computers. Customers are eligible to receive two free battery packs for each recalled battery. Compaq also uses batteries manufactured by Sanyo, but these are not included in the recall. A Compaq spokesman stressed that the recall has nothing to do with the notebook computers, just the battery packs. Customers can call (800) 889-7613 or go to Compaq's battery recall website, www.compaq.com/products/notebooks/batteryrecall.