Type of Article: MacMinute Web Site

Worldwide shipments of PCs fell nearly 12 percent in the third quarter, according to a new report from Gartner Dataquest, with sales in the US declining 18.7 percent. Dell extended its lead as the sales leader, capturing 13.8 percent of the worldwide marketshare and 25 percent of the US market. Apple yesterday revealed that sales during its fiscal fourth quarter, which is roughly equivalent to the calender third quarter, fell 21 percent.

While its likely not worth taking with anything more than a grain of salt—as with all rumors—an article at The Register offers some new details on Motorola PowerPC 8500/G5, including benchmarks that show a 1.6GHz PowerPC G5 outpacing a 2GHz Pentium 4 by nearly double. An update on the production status of the chip is also provided. The Register has previously speculated that Power Mac G5 systems could be introduced at Macworld Expo San Francisco this January.

Casady & Greene has released Chaos Master 1.2.2, an update to their file-management utility. Version 1.2.2 fixes an issue that arises when using Wizard Mode or when having Chaos Master recommend files to remove in “Duplicate Files” or “Duplicate Applications” in the Advanced tab.

Handspring today reported a first-quarter loss of US$32 million, as revenues slumped to $61.4 million. The company blamed fierce competition, and the associated price cuts, as well as lackluster demand and a weak economy for its disappointing results. The company did meet its own revenue and expense targets, however. Macromedia, meanwhile, reported a second-quarter loss of $70.7 million on revenues of $87.1 million.

Two hours after announcing its fourth quarter results, shares of Apple are up $0.21 in after-hours trading. Apple narrowly edged the street’s estimates, but cautiously warned they expect revenue and earnings to drop next quarter, due to the continued turbulent worldwide economic conditions.