Apple iPod rings the cash registers

Despite being more expensive than the majority of its competitors, the Apple iPod portable music player was the most popular MP3 player sold in the US in terms of dollar sales for the fourth quarter of 2002. Apple's dollar market share reached 27 per cent compared with 10 per cent for second-ranked SONICBlue and its Rio players during the period, according to market research firm NPDTechworld. By units sold, Apple placed third with an 11. ...more

Yahoo! signs deal with HP

Internet portal Yahoo! has shaken hands on a deal with Hewlett Packard to offer it as the default search engine in the forthcoming Microsoft Internet Explorer 7. There will also be a co-branded Yahoo/HP Internet toolbar on HP computers. Yahoo! says that its home page will be featured on Compaq branded notebook and desktop PCs in Europe, while in the United States and Canada, HP consumer PCs will come with an Internet browser toolbar that features links to Yahoo! services such as search, e-mail, news and finance links. ...more

President Bush appoints an anti-piracy tsar

President Bush has appointed an anti-piracy 'tsar' to co-ordinate efforts against global intellectual property theft. Chris Israel, a former Time Warner executive, will be Coordinator for International Intellectual Property Enforcement with responsibility for the entire gamut of piracy, from movie swapping on the Internet to counterfeit car parts, according to US Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez. Top of Israel's list of priorities will be China, where an estimated 90 per cent of movies and music in circulation are illegal copies, although Gutierrez acknowledged that achieving the administration's long-term aim of reducing China's piracy level to zero will not be easy. ...more

SCO website defaced in Thanksgiving attack

Controversial Unix company SCO suffered a series of outages and an embarrassing defacement of its website over the weekend. Over the extended Thanksgiving weekend, the company's www.sco. ...more

HP to back HD-DVD

Hewlett Packard has announced that it will be supporting Toshiba's HD-DVD format as well as that of Sony's Blu-Ray. The company will also be joining the HD-DVD Promotions Group. While the move will be a serious blow to the Sony format, it is by no means unexpected. ...more