A positive sign?Gartner Inc. analysts are predicting this holiday season will be sweeter than last year’s for the PC industry.
Computer makers bank on holiday shopping for a large portion of their annual sales. The fourth quarter of 2008 was the industry’s worst in about six years. But the technology research group predicts some growth in PC shipments in the final three months of this year, though it did not say how much.
Fare hikes
Take a hikeAmerican Airlines, and United Airlines, raised most domestic fares by as much as $20 for a round trip, the second increase in as many weeks, as they try to take advantage of peak U.S. summer travel season demand.
American boosted prices by $10 to $20 on most U.S. routes Wednesday. United matched the move, ticket-research firm FareCompare.com said in an e-mail.
Mortgage rates up
Fixed U.S. mortgage rates resumed their climb after a one-week pause, as the Federal Reserve left unchanged the size of its program to lower rates by buying home- loan securities. The average 30-year rate rose to 5.42 percent from 5.38 percent a week earlier, mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said.
The 15-year rate fell to 4.87 percent.
Windows 3.5?
Microsoft Corp. will charge half price for its Windows 7 operating system when customers preorder a copy online at retailers like Best Buy Co. and Amazon.com Inc. The two-week promotion, which starts Friday, applies to the Home Premium Upgrade and Professional Upgrade versions of Windows 7, which will be released Oct. 22.
Toy importer fined
Toy importer OKK Trading has agreed to pay a $665,000 civil penalty after it imported and sold toys with high levels of lead and violated other child safety standards.
Facebook privacy test
Facebook is testing new privacy controls that will allow the online hangout’s roughly 200 million users to decide who should see each of their personal updates. Facebook said the option will enable users to customize their postings for specific groups of friends.
Questionable ad pulled
Comcast Corp.pulled an advertisement critical of General Motors Corp.’s bankruptcy plan to examine whether the ad’s claims are accurate. The spot, which started airing in Washington last week, alleges the plan will prevent the carmaker from having to compensate people injured or killed by defective cars made before the June 1 bankruptcy filing.
Chris Ellis, a Comcast spokesman, declined to say whether GM asked for the removal of the ad, which was paid for by the Ad Hoc Committee of Consumer Victims of GM & Chrysler.
“We did voice our concern to Comcast that the ad running in the D.C. area contained false statements about GM,” said Greg Martin, a spokesman for the Detroit-based automaker. “We asked them to review it.”
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