Intel will “in the first quarter” (we think March) of 2003 release a chip codenamed “Banias” that will run cooler. It might also be slower, but will have many wireless functions built-in, making it more useful.* Apple machines incorporating newer, faster IBM chips. When Steve Jobs returned in 1996 to the company he co-founded, he could boast that the Motorola processors it used ran much faster than Pentiums, in terms of horsepower if not megahertz. Since then Motorola, distracted by its telecoms woes, has fallen a long way behind in the semiconductor race This has irked Apple and its high-end users.

But later this year Apple will start using the IBM “Gigaprocessor Ultralite” processor, which should truly cut the top-end mustard. (I don’t expect the announcement at Apple’s Expo show this week.) Apple’s market share will inch upwards, helped by its Unix-based operating system, which developers love.* You’ll want better spam protection. Spam is a growing problem on the net, which threatens to make e-mail pointless. Personally I’m quietly furious that ISPs don’t take the simple solution open to them, which is to include clauses in their contracts saying that if you intentionally start spam through their network, they will sue you for multiple thousands of pounds.

That would create a “virtuous circle” of ISPs subscribing to the same ethos They could begin to squeeze out those who allow abuse. Otherwise I think someone, somewhere is going to do something nasty to a spammer – and it won’t be pretty.In the short term, you could do a lot worse than get yourself the spam-catcher Post Armor from . It’s free for a single account, and runs on anything (requires the Java language, which Windows XP omits). Sadly, it can’t deal with webmail.* You’ll also want a firewall. If you get broadband, then most ISPs will mention the positives (you can be on the phone and the net at the same time) but not the downer (your PC is asking to be hacked, unless you have a firewall).

Windows XP and Mac OS X each have their own built in, though disabled; Windows users can get Zone Alarm ( /) for free. Mac users on pre-X systems need not bother.* Exciting new web services that pull together the functionality of existing sites and knit them into newer things One simple example is Googlism ( www. googlism ) which gives results according to what is said about someone or something at Google. But developers are working on similar products using Amazon and any other website brave enough to give the outside world a handle to turn.* Reading “blogs” (weblogs) in the way you used to read newspapers online.