Aibo receives 40,000 orders

The virtual dog that's making all the headlines proves he's not a flash in the pan. Sony has revealed that it has received 40,000 orders for the new version of its robot dog Aibo in the four weeks since its launch on November. A spokesperson revealed that orders for the new ERS-210 topped 40,000 on December 11, while the company has already sold over 45,000 units of its original Aibo unit worldwide. ...more

Rio slips Iomega in its pocket

Rio, makers of, until now solid-state MP3 players, has reached an agreement with Iomega to incorporate its 100Mb PocketZip disc drives into future players. Iomega also has a 100Mb version of its HipZip player on the cards. Jim Cady, president of Rio, said: "Iomega has done its homework on the new PocketZip drive. ...more

Apple profits slump

Apple has announced earnings of $32m for the last quarter, down almost half from $61m in the same quarter last year. The $29m drop in pofits largely resulted from a $46 million decline in revenue, offset by lower operating costs. Apple sold 19,000 fewer products than it did during last year's quarter, though sales in Europe, the Middle East and Africa bucked the trend, rising by five per cent. ...more

National Audit Office slams 10-year-delayed computing project

Another state-funded IT system has come in massively late and over budget. This time it involves a computer system for magistrates across England and Wales. Dubbed 'Project Libra', it has taken over ten years to reach its present state of incompletion. ...more

IBM aims to reduce lifetime cost of PC

Computing giant IBM has a new name and a new strategy for capturing market share in the PC business. Currently, the PC inventor's market share languishes in third place behind Dell and Hewlett Packard with less than half their worldwide sales. IBM admits that companies like Dell have been better at selling computers at a lower cost and making it easier to buy and has vowed to catch up in these areas. ...more