Tell us about your computer - and win!

According to environmental consultants Best Foot Forward, almost 5 per cent of the UK's carbon emissions can be directly traced to PC usage. We want to reduce that figure. As a first step, PC Pro is trying to discover the state of the nation's PC and notebook power consumption. ...more

SCO reports further losses

Unix company SCO posted its fifth consecutive loss late yesterday to the tune of $1.9mn or 11 cents a share for the second quarter. Despite increased efficiencies in running its Unix business, revenues for that segment were still down roughly $1mn on the corresponding quarter for 2004, at $9. ...more

Receive phone calls through your finger

Japanese telecom company NTT DoCoMo has developed a radical new telephone that enables users to receive incoming calls by sticking their fingers in their ears. The new Whisper device is strapped onto the user's wrist and it translates audio signals into vibrations that travel through the wrist bones to the tips of the fingers. To hear the call, you have to stick a finger in your ear and speak back into the device using a microphone in the wristband. ...more

Microsoft takes aim at Lindows 'free PC' deal

Microsoft and Lindows CEO Michael Robertson have got into a slanging match over a Lindows offer to Californians who claim compensation under an antitrust settlement. Lindows has set up a site to make it easy for people to claim and in return receive a free PC and Lindows software. The spat started when, as part of Redmond's class action antitrust settlement in the state of California, Microsoft agreed to pay $1 billion in compensation to people who bought MS software, between February 18, 1995 to December 15, 2001. ...more

Nex II for you

Here's a dinky little MP3 player that will turn heads and make you the envy of all your music-stealing chums. The Nex II from Frontier Labs is a tiny little device measuring 90 x 60 x 20mm and weighing 65g, but the thing that separates this from all the other players on the market is that it is infinitely expandable. The Nex II is compatible with CompactFlash memory cards, IBM's 1Gb microdrives and Iomega's PocketZip drives. ...more