This month's ChangeWave survey of consumer purchases over the past and next 90 days paints a bleak picture for makers of consumer PCs and electronics. Despite strong demand for low-end netbooks that continue to gain importance -- the result of the depressed economy, the survey clearly shows yet another decline in computer spending and weaknesses in consumer electronics spending. In short, only Apple laptop sales will increase in the next 90 days, according to the report, whereas HP and Dell portables will drop as consumers opt for cheaper netbooks. When it comes to desktops, most prefer Dell but sales of desktops continue free-falling across the board as consumers turn to much cheaper netbooks, now representing better than one in six of all notebooks sold.

Citing increased demand in AMD products now that 45nm Phenom II CPUs are available, industry sources quoted by DigiTimes are saying AMD's motherboard channel market share should return above 30% by the end of June, 2009.

Analyst Opinion - There were three big announcements this week. One of the most anticipated announcements was the Kindle 2, a product that has, as of now, failed to achieve the iPod-like potential it has. In addition, we saw AMD launch its marketing-rich Dragon platform followed by Intel, which announced it would have 32 nm processors for both desktop and mobile products in production by year end. I could have titled this column “How to drive Steve Jobs insane”, but I have to think he is sitting back and is thinking that the folks, particularly those at Amazon, just don't get it.

Broadband subscriber growth entered a downturn in 2008, according to market estimates released by iSuppli today. Global subscriber growth was 9.1%, following five years of strong double-digit growth. Additions in the U.S. slowed to a crawl and were down 56%.

We are used to the sometimes dozens, often apparently unconnected, announcements coming out of Google every week. But once in a while, there is this one announcement that just reminds us just how big Google has become and how important its drive for innovation may be for our everyday life. Google’s PowerMeter is such a project and if it will grow into what Google envisions it to be, it will allow you to dissect your power bill, identify which appliance consumes how much power and how you can make your home much more power efficient.

 Researchers at Rice University developed a new microchip that promises to run seven times faster and consume 30 times less electricity than today’s “best technology”. The project, which is supported by Intel and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency could result in new processors for cellphones that would enable users to recharge their phones not every few days, but every few weeks, the scientists said.

Yesterday, American Airlines announced that its frequent-flier customers who call in for flight information would be able to get faster service due to a new speech-recognition system. In addition, by using caller ID, the automated attendant will greet them by name during the transaction.

Silicon Valley executive, Michael J. Homer who had a significant impact on the development of three technology venues - the PC, the handheld device, and the Internet - passed away on Sunday in Atherton California at the age of 50.

Analyst Opinion - Like a lot of folks I was looking forward to seeing the Super Bowl ads once again. The game was actually great, but historically, the ads have been more fun to watch than the game itself. The ads I was most looking forward to were the 3D ads heavily sponsored by Intel and DreamWorks. It was a good catch for Intel, because HP, DreamWorks, and AMD used to be the team of record and Intel replaced AMD in what is clearly one of the more high profile partnerships in IT. DreamWorks recently indicated it was going to go 100% 3D. The heavily promoted ads promised to give a first taste.

 What happens in the supercomputer world is a seemingly distant topic for most of us, yet it impacts all of us in many ways through new opportunities for scientists and hopefully accelerated research results.  Recent advances in supercomputing are simply breathtaking, and the computing power they'll soon possess is awe-inspiring.

 The research and advisory company Gartner reported yesterday on what it believes is a necessary seven year cycle between now and mainstream cloud computing acceptance - and even eventual commoditization.

 Making its way around the blog circuit recently are a series of Google Street View photos taken from Five Points Road located in Rush, New York. The photos show that the Google Street View driver and photographer hit a baby deer, and then recorded the entire event for everyone who uses Google Maps to see.

 On Wednesday, the United States House of Representatives should complete congressional action on a bill which would delay the switch from analog to digital television from February 17 to June 12. It would seem that this matter is constantly discussed as of late, and the more it is talked about the more confusing it becomes.

 The changing appearance of Earth's green surface strata on a regional scale recently got a serious examination courtesy of NASA and some high resolution aerial photos from the private sector. These tools of choice allow time-lapse sequences from compiled satellite images and close-up photos, which reveal trends seen in the disappearing green.

 On Sunday, the Mars rover Spirit didn't carry out the instructions it received. Spirit has been on the surface of Mars for 1800 days. On Sunday, the rover reported it had received its instructions okay, but the pictures it sent back showed that it hadn't moved as it should.

Boeing today said that it has resumed the production of its 787 Dreamliner planes yesterday. The fifth plane designated for test flights is the first to carry General Electric GEnx engines.

 At the World Economic Forum in Davos on Wednesday, Vladimir Putin, the prime minister of Russia, took questions from attendees. The first question from Michael Dell, founder and CEO of Dell, met with an unexpected "boot to the head". He asked the prime minister in what ways technology companies could aid Russia in making the best use of its technology interests and talent. To put it mildly, Putin was not impressed with the question.

 YouTube is close to closing a deal with talent provider William Morris Agency, which would mean that company's clients would star in productions designed specifically for YouTube's format on the web. Production companies could bypass "straight to video," going instead "straight to YouTube."

 Iowa State professor Alexander Stoytchev believes personal robots will become part of our lives in the near future. He and his team are working with robotic controls to produce life-like movements in arm-wielding robots.