Is it time to trade in your TiVo? After all, the digital video recording pioneer's already long odds for survival as an independent company appeared to get longer on Jan. 6.

DirecTV, the satellite TV provider that has been aggressively marketing TiVo digital video recorders as a differentiator from cable operators, announced at the Consumer Electronics Show that it would begin selling DVRs from a sister outfit, NDS, later this year. While TiVo's contract with DirecTV runs through early 2007, the competition is sure to slow TiVo's recent explosive subscriber growth.

The move would appear to be the final blow for the creator of digital recording, which allows viewers to record shows to a hard drive so they can watch programs at their leisure. Cable concerns such as Comcast and Cox Communications are rolling out their own digital recorders that mimic TiVo's basic functions and cost less per month to the consumer -- about $6 per month compared to TiVo's $12.

However, TiVo Chief Executive Michael Ramsay hopes to keep his company one step ahead of the competition with a series of deals and initiatives that could give TiVo the shot in the arm it needs. One such move created the biggest buzz on the first day of CES, a three-day electronics confab in Las Vegas. Microsoft Chairman William Gates announced that the software giant is partnering with TiVo to let non-DirecTV TiVo subscribers download shows to Windows Mobile devices, including Pocket PC personal digital assistants and Portable Media Centers -- small hard-drive music and video players like those recently offered by Samsung, Creative, and iRiver.

It is widely acknowledged that Apple Computer enjoys the kind of slavish devotion among its customers--and fawning adoration from the press--of which other companies don't even dare to dream. That is, it's acknowledged by everyone but Apple.

The company earlier this week filed a lawsuit--and not its first--against a Web site ... for publishing details of an Apple product that the Web site says will be announced by the company at next week's MacWorld conference in San Francisco.

Make no mistake, there's a good chance that the source of [the] story about plans for a $500 Mac and new business software did break whatever legal agreement not to divulge the information that they had agreed to with Apple. And, one must assume it is at least partly true, or Apple wouldn't bother suing.

But, this sort of stuff happens all the time in the tech industry. Sources leak details of forthcoming products to reporters whose motivation is to get credit for an exclusive story. Here's the difference with Apple: most of its secret product news is not published first by national, mainstream media, but by Apple advocates. These people are customers, fans and Apple-lovers.

This community gives Apple untold free--and mostly positive--publicity and buzz about upcoming products and strategies. They salivate over every upgrade.

Microsoft ActiveSync 3.8 is the latest synchronization software for Windows Mobile-based Pocket PCs and Smartphones. ActiveSync 3.8 contains fixes making synchronization more trouble free than ever before and includes all the significant improvements brought to you in ActiveSync 3.5, 3.6, and 3.7.1: it is easy to install and use while offering the best levels of reliability.

Microsoft Corp. has watched with envy as Apple Computer Inc. and its slick iPods have stolen the digital-music spotlight. Now the software titan is fighting back.

Microsoft is enlisting a raft of new allies for its growing ambitions in digital entertainment -- and even may pursue an alliance with another industry giant galled by Apple's runaway success: Sony Corp.

In an interview earlier this week, Mr. Gates suggested that both Microsoft and Sony could benefit from a broad partnership in digital entertainment. Specifically, Mr. Gates said that both companies "have a lot of incentive to work together" in digital-music "infrastructure," including online-music services and protection against improper music copying.

The alliances, including a potential Sony relationship, are part of Microsoft's effort to portray itself as a defender of "choice" in digital entertainment, particularly against Apple. Apple controls commanding shares of both the market for digital-music players, with its iPod, and for online music sales, with its iTunes music-downloading service. But iTunes sells its songs in a format that can be played only on iPods -- not on the many brands of portable music players that are based on Microsoft's software. That puts these players at a disadvantage, Microsoft contends.

"We've got to get to the point where people see the choice -- the choice of how they buy and the choice of the device they use -- as being a huge plus," Mr. Gates said in the interview.

There are signs that the strategy is beginning to pay off. Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., maker of the Panasonic brand, said yesterday that it would adapt its SD-chip technology, used in some music players as well as digital cameras, to handle digital content that is stored in Microsoft's Windows Media format. Masayuki Kozuka, a general manager at Matsushita's audio-visual unit, said Matsushita teamed up with Microsoft in part because the software maker doesn't compete directly with his company, whereas Apple does.

Mr. Gates said more partners will follow.

The once-famous Commodore computer brand could be resurrected after being bought by a US-based digital music distributor.

New owner Yeahronimo Media Ventures has not ruled out the possibility of a new breed of Commodore computers.

It also plans to develop a "worldwide entertainment concept" with the brand, although details are not yet known.

The groundbreaking Commodore 64 computer elicits fond memories for those who owned one back in the 1980s.

Tulip Computers sold several products under the Commodore name, including portable USB storage devices and digital music players.

It had planned to relaunch the brand, following an upsurge of nostalgia for 1980s-era games.

Commodore 64 enthusiasts have written emulators for Windows PC, Apple Mac and even PDAs so that the original Commodore games can be still run.

The iPod and the music downloads at Apple's iTunes Music Store represent just 20% of [Apple's] sales -- and about two weeks' worth of shipments from Apple's rival, Dell. Consumer electronics are a lot of fun, but they aren't usually very lucrative.

Often, the weight [that business travelers are] most worried about carrying around is inside their computer bags, where even an ultralight laptop, with all the accessories that pack on the pounds, can tip the scales.

Electronics manufacturers, it seems, are simultaneously correcting and compounding the problem, designing products that are smaller and lighter, yet offering more and more gadgets that travelers feel compelled to take with them.

"I feel like a third or more of what I have to carry on a typical trip is electronics hardware," said Katie Hall, a civil engineering consultant who keeps a box ready to pack with just travel hardware, including power cords, a phone cable, a portable scanner and a mouse.

But one product that cuts down on some of the weight in her computer bag is a $60 DC-to-AC power converter made by the American Power Conversion Corporation .... Another computer accessory he said he could not live without is a thumb drive - a portable hard drive also known as a flash drive that plugs into a computer's USB port, making it possible to swap large files between computers without the need to communicate over a network. (The devices are available from many manufacturers for $40 to $70.) ... another item he makes a point of bringing along is a gadget that indicates whether there is a Wi-Fi signal nearby. Available from multiple manufacturers, including Kensington and PCTEL, for about $30, these Wi-Fi locators fit onto a keychain and, at the push of a button, light up to indicate whether there is a hotspot nearby and how strong the signal is - saving harried travelers the frustration of powering up a laptop in a hotel or airport, only to find out there is no wireless network around.

For travelers addicted to the wireless lifestyle, another gadget that does not exactly slim down a computer bag - but may be worth its weight in freedom from cords - is a travel router. Like the wireless routers computer users have come to rely on at home, these smaller, lightweight counterparts can be plugged in to a hotel's broadband outlet, making it possible to download e-mail anywhere in the room ... NetGear, DLink, 3Com and SMC all sell travel routers for $100 or less that are about the size of a deck of cards, and are also useful when two people share a hotel room and both want to log on.

No longer just a company for devotees of its Mac line of computers, Apple was the hot tech stock last year thanks to its wildly successful iPod digital music player. Many users of PCs running on Microsoft's Windows could be spotted wearing the iPod's trademark white headphones.

Despite all the iPod hype, the Mac is still Apple's bread and butter. So no matter how popular the iPod gets, Apple will need to post solid sales and profit gains from its computer business. But some analysts think the iPod could be the best advertisement for the Mac.

Some Mac watchers also say mounting security problems that have hit computers running on Windows hard will leave consumers eager to purchase Macs, which have been relatively immune to worms and viruses.

TiVo Inc. pioneered digital video recording as a new way of watching television — when you want it. Now it could be TV where you want it, too.

The long-awaited service feature called TiVoToGo, set to launch Monday, will give users their first taste of TiVo untethered.

Subscribers will be able to transfer their recorded shows to PCs or laptops and take them on the road — as long as the shows are not specially tagged with copy restrictions. That’s also the case for pay-per-view or on-demand movies, and some premium paid programming.

A media access code and password is assigned to each user’s account, essentially restricting the transferring and playback of shows to household members with the same access code.

Users also will be able to copy shows onto a DVD — soon after but not immediately at the service launch.

For now, the feature sets TiVo apart from its growing list of competitors, such as cable operators that are introducing digital video recording features into their set-top-boxes.