Dell outperforms rivals with strong sales and profits

Dell, the world's second largest PC builder, has recorded its best ever figures for revenue and operating profit in its latest quarterly financial results. For the three months ending 31 January, Dell has recorded a 25 per cent increase in shipments resulting in a 21 per cent increase in revenue to $9.7bn. ...more

Chip sales give AMD muscle to take on Intel

It's been a long road back to profitability for AMD, the long standing chip rival to Intel. Its latest financial results, however, show the Athlon XP processor driving the company back into the black. Strong demand for the AMD Athlon XP desktop processor line saw sales increase 38 per cent (year-on-year) to $581mn for the Computation Products Group (CPG) . ...more

eMusic offers DRM-free music downloads

eMusic has begun offering a UK version of its DRM-free music downloads service. With its one million song catalogue drawn largely from independent labels, eMusic has been able to avoid the restrictions stipulated by the major record companies. It sells variable bit rate (VBR) MP3s free of copying and burning controls and therefore compatible with the vast majority of portable players, including iPods. ...more

SMEs lead data and comms convergence

Nearly half of small businesses in the UK have no idea what a converged network is, according to BT's Convergence Report, despite SMEs being at the vanguard of convergence. Some 48 per cent of small businesses with staff between 20 and 100 admitted they had 'limited or no understanding of what a converged network actually is,' compared with 32 per cent of all SMEs. However, 37 per cent of all SMEs have now moved to a converged network, meaning they can conduct all their data and communications across a single platform. ...more

VeriSign branded monopoly by rivals

ICANN has been accused of setting up VeriSign as a monopoly in the domain-name registration business. Earlier this month, ICANN (the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) ruled that VeriSign would have to give up control of the .org and . ...more