Disney set to use Windows Media DRM technology

Microsoft has gained a major foothold in the film industry with the announcement that Disney is to use its Windows Media digital rights management (DRM) technology to deliver digital media to homes and portable devices. The agreement will see Disney films and TV programmes available for PCs, set-top boxes and portable devices, whether mobile phones, PDAs or even a new-generation of media players. The two companies have emphasised the importance of both secure delivery and the 'seamless flow' of content between devices, which has also been one of the major problems with DRM systems. ...more

LindowsOS 4.0 'takes the pain out of Linux'

The much heralded version 4.0 of the LindowsOS version of Linux has been released by Lindows.com Inc. ...more

IBM claims to treble chip speed with 'strained' breakthrough

IBM says that it has developed a technique of using 'strained germanium' which, it claims, will triple the performance of commercial chips. The company says that the new process doesn't require radical new production methods and is compatible with existing CMOS manufacturing processes. Germanium is known to be a better conductor than silicon commonly used in the manufacture of transistors. ...more

2001 - The winners and losers of the year

Despite threats of recession, dot-com bombs and Internet meltdown some companies have made it through the year having produced outstanding products. Others have survived but produced not-so-outstanding products and behaved in dubious ways. Here are the high- (and low-) lights as seen by us. ...more

AOL loses $54bn in three months

Gaining 1.4 million new AOL subscribers could not prevent AOL Time Warner - the largest media company in the world - reporting a loss of $54.2bn for its first-quarter financial results. ...more