The New Featherweight Contender

Sometimes even a notebook computer is too bulky to carry around. But so far, tinier mini-PCs haven't taken off. Vulcan Inc., started by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, may change that with its new FlipStart PC. Weighing in at less than 1 lb. and powered by a 1-GHz Transmeta processor, the FlipStart measures just 6 in. wide, 4 in. deep and 1 in. thick yet packs in a 30-GB hard drive and 256 MB of memory. Available in late 2004, it also has special touches to make navigating its bright 6-in., HDTV-quality display easier. A thumbwheel on the right helps you scroll up and down the page. A unique Middleman button pulls up a short list of commonly used functions for each application so you don't have to wade through menus. And there's a small touchpad for quickly moving your cursor around the screen.