Sportingbet.com beats odds on dot com failure

The success of UK-based site sportingbet.com has shown that gambling is second only to porn in being able to extract money from the Net. The site has announced a turnover of ?103. ...more

Taiwan chipset vendors wax as Intel wanes

Taiwan chipset makers - Silicon Integrated Systems (SiS), VIA Technologies and ULi Electronics - reported slight sequential growth in their July revenues and the vendors expect revenues to continue increasing through the end of the year, as Intel reduces its presence in the entry-level chipset market, according to market sources. SiS, a chief supplier of entry-level chipsets for the Intel platform, may enjoy revenue growth of more than 30 per cent in the third quarter, whereas VIA and ULi may see growth of more than 20 per cent, the sources expect. In the first half of this year, SiS posted pre-tax profits of NT$434 million and NT$0. ...more

UK digital downloads spur singles revival

The UK record industry has reported booming sales for the latest quarter led by the growth of digital music. Single track downloads have revitalised the 'singles' market, regularly making up 60 per cent of singles sales, compared to less than four per cent at the beginning of 2004. Almost 17 million tracks have been sold so far this year, and the figures do not include downloads from music subscription services. ...more

CES: Bill Gates promises more Microsoft muscle for entertainment media

Bill Gates hit the CES floor last night for a keynote outlining how Microsoft is putting its muscle behind media and entertainment. Speaking at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas yesterday, Redmond's Chief Software Architect highlighted how its Media Center will continue to form the hub for many of the entertainment devices that have its backing. Gates said Media Center PCs had doubled sales this year to 1. ...more

iPod software updated

Apple has released an iPod software update that adds USB 2 syncing on Windows machines as well as a number of performance enhancements for both OS X and Windows. Mac improvements include better support for Asian languages, enhanced On-The-Go playlist functionality, fixed artist sorting, fixed left/right channel swapping and improvements to playback performance, handling of MP3 VBR songs, the backlight and the alarm clock The Windows update, in addition to adding USB 2 synchronisation, adds support for Audible.com content and the ability to have multiple iPods synced to one computer and improves overall performance. ...more