Tech Bytes PC World picks usual 50 suspects

This week, PC World magazine announced its “Top 50 Most Important People on the Web.”

Actually, the list has 62 names on it, because some are lumped together. That includes the No. 1 slot, which is shared by three of the minds behind Google: CEO Eric Schmidt and co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin. “Having conquered the online advertising world, Google seems to be gearing up for an acquisition spree, its headline-grabbing purchase of YouTube marking a big step toward complete domination of the Web,” PC World says.

Others in the top five are, in order: Steve Jobs, the CEO of Apple; Bram Cohen, the co-founder of BitTorrent; Mike Morhaime, the president of Blizzard Entertainment (the company behind World of Warcraft, which has 8 million players worldwide); and Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia.

FHM (“For Him Monthly”), one of the leading “lad’s magazines,” is going all digital.

“Lad’s Magazines” are ones such as FHM and Maxim that focus on young male readers with scantily-clad — but not nude — female models, articles on the latest gadgets, videogame reviews, dating advice and so on. But the young-male demographic is spending an increasing amount of time on the Internet and circulation has been steadily declining.

As a result, publishing company Emap Consumer Media — which produces versions of FHM in 30 countries around the world — has decided to take the magazine off newsstands in the United States and focus on the online version, www.fhmonline.com, which draws more than 1.6 million visitors a month. The magazine will remain in print in England, where it started, and in other countries.

The March issue, on newsstands now, will be the last printed issue in the United States.

You don’t have to have a big space to have an impressive home theater system, according to a new report at ElectronicHouse.com, a Web site devoted to “The Technology Lifestyle.”

The report looks at ways to put a home theater into a room that seems either too narrow or too shallow. Among the tips are to have TV screens built into cabinets so they look flush-mounted or can pop out of cabinetry; consider in-wall or in-ceiling speakers if it is possible to wire them that way; and pick a TV screen that matches the distance you can place the sofa or seats instead of just going for the biggest screen possible.

To see the complete article, go to tinyurl.com/28zgdf.

Sony says that production of its PlayStation 3 game console will catch up with demand by the end of May.

The game system was nearly impossible to find at Christmas, when it was released. It is now generally available, though stores don’t have many copies.

According to a report from Reuters News Service, in January Sony sold 244,000 PS3s, compared with 294,000 Xbox consoles sold by Microsoft and 436,000 Wii consoles sold by Nintendo.

Sony’s goal is to have six million PS3s shipped worldwide by May.