ShadowRAM: April 12, 2004

Said customers could have picked up the big-screen TVs and run to their cars in the parking lot. Meanwhile, pricing on in-store products remains between 25 percent and 50 percent higher than Gateway's online pricing. Are these guys even trying?

Speaking of LCD-TVs, we hear neither Dell nor Gateway is selling as many as once projected. (After all, $2,000 for a TV is still a little steep for most homes.)

Sources also tell us that the industry's supply of LCDs may finally loosen up.

Every time Barry Bonds walks up to home plate at San Francisco's SBC Park this season, anyone with a handheld and Wi-Fi card can look up his stats,or the current black-market price of banned steroid THG,with the click of a mouse.

The ballpark will provide wireless access points throughout the stadium. Meanwhile, the Kansas City Royals have signed a multi-year agreement with Sprint to provide wireless access for players, grounds crew and other employees.

Still, baseball isn't exactly a wireless trailblazer. For two years now, fans have had wireless access on a limited basis during Seattle Seahawks football games. The Seahawks owner? Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen.

Intel is saying nothing about reports that it plans to merge its notebook processor and desktop processor lines into one set of chips by 2007. It's also refusing to comment on industry rumors that its next-gen processor is code-named Merom or that it plans to abandon its Netburst architecture in favor of technology that generates less heat. The chip giant has played its product road map much closer to the vest for the past few years,after all those delays with Merced (now dubbed Itanium).

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer traveled to Washington last week to talk to association executives with the Center For Association Leadership, and he received huge applause from an audience who wants to see him and Bill Gates speak at future events. "That's the warmest welcome I've ever had," Ballmer said. "Certainly, the warmest in Washington."

Ballmer also referenced Microsoft's new Sun partnership. "Most people thought [the announcement] was an amazing exchange of interoperability, given the amount of bashing Sun has done over the past 10 years. I'm Ballmer of Ballmer and Butthead," he said. "I hope I didn't offend anyone, I'm just borrowing that from my new partner Scott McNealy."