HP rumoured to split off handhelds

Hewlett-Packard is planning to set up a separate portable device business, according to company executives cited by the Wall Street Journal. The business will be separated from its notebook computer operations to better capture growth in the handheld market. According to the report carried by Reuters, HP has appointed one David Rothschild, formerly of Sun Microsystems, to lead the new business. ...more

Iomega's top speed CD-R/W

Iomega has launched a 16x10x40x internal CD-R/W drive in the US. Its 16-speed write performance is true across the disc, meaning burn speeds of less than five minutes for a 60-minute audio CD. Some other drives only achieve their stated performance rate at the outside edge of the disc where it is moving at its fastest. ...more

Apple joins new HTML specification project

Apple has joined W3C's recently announced HTML Working Group, that will oversee the development of a new version of the website coding language. The company will have three representatives in the working group, including Dave Hyatt, the lead developer for Safari and WebKit. It is also increasing its participation in other W3C Working Groups and standards bodies related to Web technology. ...more

Vista chaos: upgrades go AWOL

Microsoft is under attack from users and PC makers alike, after the company's Express Upgrade scheme for Windows Vista reportedly collapsed under the weight of demand. Customers who bought Windows XP machines shortly before the launch of Vista were offered upgrade vouchers for the new operating system. However, several disgruntled readers have contacted PC Pro, claiming that their upgrades have failed to arrive, more than a week after the Vista launch. ...more

Linux community offers free drivers to hardware makers

The Linux community has stepped up to address one of the bigger barriers to mainstream Linux adoption: device drivers. Greg Kroah-Hartman posted in his blog earlier this week that the community will take on all comers to develop Linux drivers for products free of charge. 'You will receive a complete and working Linux driver that is added to the main Linux kernel source tree. ...more