OpenOffice.org releases version 1.1 of its productivity suite

OpenOffice.org has announced the official 1.1 stable build of its freeware Office suite. ...more

Linux powers PowerPC briQ

Motorola Power PC G3 and G4 chips - best known for powering Apple's computers - are being used in a new range of Linux-based machines designed for high-performance computing networks and clusters. The briQ is a yellow, small computer that can be used alone or in conjunction with other briQs to form a cluster (to share out the burden of highly processor intensive tasks). The machines are built around 400 or 500MHz G3 or G4 chips and fit into four and eight node cluster towers which can in turn be networked to form even bigger clusters. ...more

Mozilla updates the Thunderbird email client

The Mozilla Organisation has released an update for its fully-features email client, Thunderbird. In addition to a lengthy list of bug fixes, the update provides several new features, including: the ability to have several email addresses going into the same account; Secure Password Authentication using a new cross-platform NTLM authentication mechanism for POP3 and SMTP; a new Palm Sync address book conduit; and an improved Spell Checker. All the changes are listed in the release notes. ...more

Music industry canvasses mobile makers for iTunes rival

Record label bosses are pinning their hopes on mobile phones to weaken Apple's dominance of the music downloads market. Executives are concerned that they have yielded too much power to Apple, which has about 70 per cent of the worldwide market. Apple CEO Steve Jobs has used his position of strength to resist the labels' desire to maximise revenues, by charging more for some downloads and less for archive material. ...more

EC may lose veto on Microsoft and Time Warner DRM purchase

Microsoft and Time Warner's proposed purchase of Digital Rights Management (DRM) developer ContentGuard looks like it might avoid a European Commission veto. Last week's announcement that French technology company Thomson had joined the consortium seeking to buy ContentGuard throws into doubt the Commission's ability to intervene. Under EU rules, if two companies buy a third company it must notify the Commission as either one of the buyers would be in a position to block any decisions. ...more