European DVD prices investigated

A transcript of a speech given by Mario Monti, European Commissioner for Competition Policy, suggests the EC will be investigating the pricing of region-coded DVD discs. At issue is whether the coding is allowing "the film production companies to charge higher DVD prices in the EU because EU consumers are artificially prevented from purchasing DVDs from overseas." The investigation follows several consumer complaints on the matter. ...more

Microsoft puts EU record fine into safe storage

Microsoft has paid the €500mn fine that the EU recently imposed, pending its appeal. The money will be held in escrow, to be handed over to the EU only if the appeal fails. The company is unlikely to miss the money, which amounts to about 0. ...more

IDF Fall 2003: Intel introduces Compute Blade SBXL52

News on the enterprise front has been quieter this IDF (the Itanium 2 was launched at the last Spring IDF), with mobile processing hogging most of the limelight. There are a few things of note, however. For example, Intel has introduced its Enterprise Blade Server family, the first product of which is the Intel Server Compute Blade SBXL52. ...more

EU accuses Microsoft of playing media games

A senior EU official has accused Microsoft of using two-days of talks on antitrust compliance purely for publicity. 'The reason for this hearing is purely a media exercise for Microsoft,' said Cecilio Madero, senior Commission official leading the case at the two-day closed hearing. Microsoft wanted the hearing to be open to the public, instead it is being held today behind closed doors. ...more

Via makes ground as integrated graphics build share

Intels traditional hold over the integrated graphics market has weakened over the last three months of 2005 There is good news for Via and Nvidia on graphics market share according to latest figures covering the last three months of 2005, but it makes unhappy reading for Intel. Indications that Intel has weakened its traditional hold over the integrated graphics market - machines with built-in, chipset-based graphics support, as opposed to a separate 'discrete' graphics system - is very good news for Via. While Intel declined from a 61 per cent share down to 50 per cent, having faced chipset supply problems, Via jumped 50 per cent to take 24 per cent of the market, reports Digitimes. ...more