36% of white-collar workers spend 30 minutes or more each week on the phone with their companies’ technical support services, which costs businesses plenty, according to a new study. The nationwide survey by Siemens Business Services, found that another 20% of white-collar workers spend an hour or more on the phone with tech support each week. 5% report being on the phone with the help desk for five hours or more each week.

Anti-spam firm MailFrontier Inc. showed 1,000 consumers examples of phishing e-mail as well as legitimate e-mail from companies such as eBay and PayPal. About 28% of the time, the consumers incorrectly identified the phishing messages as legitimate.

A survey released by Evans Data reveals that 92% of respondents have never had their Linux systems infected with a virus. The survey, titled Summer 2004 Linux Development Survey, also reports that 78% of Linux developers have never had their systems hacked.

Prices for large-sized LCD panels for notebooks and LCD monitors have begun declining this month, bringing an end to a five-quarter period of consecutive increases. Panel makers are cutting prices, as they attempt to burn off their inventories, which are rising due to increased production levels and a slowdown in present and expected system demand, which partly reflects a disappointing outlook for back-to-school PC sales. Panel prices began to increase in April 2003, and rose about 21-28% from that time until last month. The price of 15-inch notebook and LCD monitor panels in the XGA format increased to the US$230 to US$235 range in June, up from US$180 to US$190 last April.

Network executives with senior-level titles fared particularly well when it came to pay raises, finds the 2004 Network World Salary Survey of 3,575 respondents, conducted by researchers King, Brown & Partners. Network executives reported an average base pay of $111,020 - a 5.6% increase over 2003 and well above the 2003 inflation rate of 2.3% that InflationData.com reported. Bonuses, too, look good, with network executives indicating they anticipate a 1.6% increase this year. While that might not sound like much, as senior managers, network executives already are at the top of the IT bonus scale. They estimate their average 2004 bonus will be a hefty $19,460.

Online advertising spending is expected to nearly double by 2009 to $16.1 bln, JupiterResearch said. Internet advertising will grow 27% this year to $8.4 bln, with double-digit growth for both paid search listings and display ads such as banners. The medium is expected to increase its share of marketers’ budgets from 3.5% last year to 6.5% in 2009. Top advertising industry forecasters have predicted total U.S. ad spending growth between 6% and 9% this year on the strength of an improved economy, political campaigns and the summer Olympic Games.

AMR Research, in a report predicting open-source databases will be widely adopted by 2006, found that 43% of companies using open-source databases say they can handle mission-critical jobs today, while 37% expect them to be ready for such tasks within 24 months.

Jon Peddie Research estimates that approximately 57.5 million PC graphics devices shipped from eight suppliers in Q1 2004, a 7.4% decline from Q4 2003 and a 12.9% increase YTY. The mobile graphics segment saw a 12.7% quarterly decline in shipments but achieved 29.1% growth YTY, outpacing a 9.9% annual growth rate in the desktop segment. Approximately 10.5 million mobile graphics processors shipped from six suppliers in Q1 2004, an industry record in a first calendar quarter. As in Q4 2003, shipments of integrated graphics chipsets for notebook platforms surpassed those of discrete (stand-alone) mobile graphics processors to claim a greater than 50% share of the mobile graphics market.

Venture capitalists invested about $5.1 billion into start-ups nationwide in Q2 2004, down 3.3% from Q1 2004, according to Ernst & Young and Venture One. Silicon Valley companies raised $1.874 billion in Q2, little changed from the $1.869 billion raised the previous quarter.

Sales of digital tunes in 2004 in the United States will reach $270 mln, more than double the takings from 2003, according to JupiterResearch. That revenue will rise to $1.7 bln, or 12% of total consumer spending on music, by 2009, the research firm projected.

According to a 2003 survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation, 31% of children age 3 and under are already using computers. 16% use them several times a week, 21% can point and click with a mouse by themselves and 11% can turn on the computer without assistance.

Young men don’t object to Web pop-up ads as long as there’s a payoff. About 61% said they’d prefer a free Web site with pop-ups, vs. 33% who prefer a pay site with no ads. Some 69% said TV ads are their first choice for getting information on a new gadget, and 56% consider network TV ads a major source of “staying informed,” followed by cable and radio ads at 43%, newspaper ads at 38% and magazine ads at 34%. The study found a split between men ages 18 to 24 and those 25 to 34 in media use. For example, 68% of the younger group play video games, and 54% use instant messaging, vs. 51% and 31% in the older group.

The server market expanded 7.3% in Q1 2004 to $11.5 bln as business buying pushed the market to its fourth consecutive quarter of growth, according to IDC. Shipments climbed a strong 22.4% from a year ago, and machines running the freeware software Linux sprinted ahead by 56.9% in dollar sales. IBM remained the largest vendor during the period with 29.7% of the market, followed by HP, which saw its share decline modestly to 26.9% from 27.9%.

Sun and Dell ended nearly tied for third place. Sun had sales of $1.17 bln and Dell’s sales came to $1.13 bln. The data also show the increasing popularity of low-cost servers running chips with the Intel-compatible, or x86, design from Intel and AMD. Factory sales were up 14.1%. IDC says Linux servers benefited from this trend. Factory sales topped $900 mln, and shipments were up 46.4%. Servers running Windows software from Microsoft advanced 16.4% to $3.8 bln in the quarter, with shipments rising 26.5%. Windows servers made up 33.7% of the market. Even so, more expensive IBM mainframes also did well, with revenue increasing $33.7%, IDC says. Sales of servers running Unix declined 3% in Q1.

Even though a study by the game industry’s Entertainment Software Association says that about 52% of video and computer game players are watching less TV and spending more time on games, giving up things is not so easy for teenagers. 80% of men ages 18 to 34 say they would rather give up their game console for a month than their TV set, according to the study by media company Carat and men’s magazine Maxim.

ON World estimated that wireless sensor networks generated less than $150 million in sales last year but will top $7 billion by 2010.

IDC predicted digital camera sales would reach 25 million in 2004. Including the 27 million camera phones that are expected to sell this year, at least a third of American households will be able to take digital photos by year’s end. IDC said 28% of digital-camera owners share their pictures over the Internet.

European demand for PDAs and smartphones continued unabated through Q2 2004, figures from IDC show. Mobile device shipments grew 20% to just under 1.78 mln units. That’s 20% up YTY, but just 7.8% QTQ.

Sponsored by Hewlett Packard, Intuit, Microsoft, and Symantec, the 2004 e-government survey by The Center for Digital Government examined over 60 measurements in four broad areas - service delivery, architecture and infrastructure, collaboration, and leadership. The US states with the top e-government programs are Michigan, Washington, Virginia, Indiana and Arizona.