Toshiba is reportedly developing a tablet with two 7-inch displays, which folds like a book. That would make it the latest in a long line of companies-both big names and start-ups-who have toyed with these dual-display devices.

The concept makes some sense. A design with two displays maximizes the screen real estate while keeping the size down. You can mix-and-match different display technologies and operating systems to serve different applications in a single device. And the success of touchscreen smartphones, and more recently the Apple iPad, demonstrates that many users are willing to forgo a physical keyboard. But so far the dual-display has been DOA.

Asus, HTC, MSI and Sony among others have all experimented with these devices, either as full-blown tablets or e-book readers, but there’s no sign any of them are coming to your Best Buy anytime soon. The Microsoft Courier project generated a lot of excitement, but never made it out of the incubator. One Laptop Per Child scrapped its XO-2 dual-screen tablet, and instead plans to release updates to its standard XO netbook. OLPC will eventually offer a standard low-cost tablet, the XO-3.

Then there are the dual-display e-readers. Start-up Kno demonstrated its device at the D8 conference, but its unwieldy tablet, which consists of two 14-inch displays, has puzzled reviewers. The Entourage Edge is a hybrid device-the company calls it a “dualbook”–with a 9.7-inch E-Ink display on one side and a 10.1-inch LCD tablet running Android on the other. It’s a novel concept, but the device is much thicker than an e-book reader or tablet, and doesn’t really excel at either.

Aside from Apple, no company has yet figured out how to deliver a great experience on a standard tablet, let alone one with two displays-sometime using different technologies and input mechanisms. Google is still working on versions of Android and Chrome OS tailored for tablets. And Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer recently admitted that the company has a lot of work to do on Windows 7 tablets to catch up with the iPad.

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The environment is rapidly deteriorating and there’s no denying it. Technology innovators and developers are trying (even if it isn’t their best) to make their products somewhat green and eco-friendly. Nokia is at the top of the list with their sound green agenda.

Indian company Wipro Infotech is not far behind and has recently unveiled a new eco-friendly desktop range, manufactured with materials free from toxic chemicals like polyvinyl chloride and brominated flame retardants. The desktops are part of Wipro’s Greenware range based on Intel Core 2 Duo and the company will soon be launching laptops in the same range.

Wipro has 17 e-waste collection centres in India and 12 of the Wipro campuses in the country have been certified as green buildings.

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Those notorious “I’m a Mac” TV commercials from Apple always paint the picture that Macs are nearly impervious to malware – but that’s not the truth. For the most part, it all comes down to the user base that malicious hackers choose to target.

Regardless, the subject of which platform is more secure – the PC with Windows or the Mac with OS X – is constantly debated by rabid fanboys from both sides.

CNet’s Elinor Mills decided to get the experts’ opinions on the subject by polling no less than 32 security gurus on his or her take on PC vs. Mac security. Here are a handful of what the experts had to say:

Paul Kocher, president and chief scientist at Cryptography Research: “The fair answer is that with the latest versions of each operating system there isn’t a compelling security reason to pick one or the other. It used to be that Apple was doing a better job, but with Windows 7 Microsoft has caught up. There are some differences; Windows has a better security ecosystem. On the other hand, Apple tends to have more expensive hardware and has a smaller market share, so it attracts fewer malware writers. Both have security bugs. Both need patches. Both can be broken if someone finds a zero-day exploit.”

Dino Dai Zovi, independent researcher: “Neither. Consumers should see if Apple’s iPad or the forthcoming devices based on Google’s Chrome OS suit their needs because both are significantly more secure than any general-purpose desktop system, Linux, Mac, or PC.”

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In another sign of recovery in Indian industry, the sales of personal computers in the country were up 24 percent in the quarter that ended Sep 30 and touched 2.19 million units, according to leading market research firm IDC.

“The July-September quarter experienced strong boost from new found consumer confidence that reflected in increased demand during the festive season,” said Kapil Dev Singh, country manager of IDC India.

“Overall consumer personal computer sales recorded a 28-percent growth, quarter-on-quarter. This performance underlines the recovery in the India personal computer market,” Singh said, releasing the survey.

The IDC survey shows that desktops accounted for nearly two-third of the total sales of personal computers and grew 15.2 percent to 1.46 million, while notebook sales expanded faster at 46.4 percent to cross the 700,000-unit mark.

In desktops, HP retained its top position with a market share of 12.2 percent, followed by HCL and Acer, while in the notebook segment, too, HP retained the top spot with a market share 27 percent, followed by Dell and Acer.

“Commercial personal computer sales can be expected to steadily improve as the economy recovers,” said Sumanta Mukherjee, analyst with IDC India.

“Even though the consumer personal computer segment recorded a faster 28 percent growth, industry will need to watch how the recovery in consumer PC shipments unfolds in the quarters ahead.”

The analyst said the emerging mini-notebook personal computer segment, however, needed to evolve in terms of processing power, graphics capabilities, innovation and functionality to compete with mainstream notebooks.

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