Microsoft meets expectations with healthy profits

Microsoft has met analyst's expectations with its latest financial results - fourth quarter figures for the three month period ending 30 June. With revenues reaching $8.07 billion, up 14 per cent from the same period a year ago, operating income for the fourth quarter was $3. ...more

64-bit power puts Apple back in the race

Behind the striking aluminium facade of Apple's new Power Macs are a set of technologies that should enable the company to reclaim its place as maker of seriously fast computers. Central to this is the new 64-bit PowerPC chip from IBM, able to handle much bigger amounts of data at any one time that its 32-bit predecessors and competitors, it also enables exponentially greater amounts of RAM, theoretically as much as four terabytes. Even at the current maximum of 8GB, the new Power Macs can have twice as much RAM as 32-bit systems, and are capable of holding and processing entire 3D worlds, large 2D images and sophisticated scientific projects entirely in RAM. ...more

Uphill water could be cool for chips

Water that travels uphill could in future be used to cool computer chips according to joint US and Australian research. Heiner Linke and colleagues from the universities of Oregon and New South Wales have succeeded in getting liquid droplets to move across horizontal surfaces and travel uphill. The phenomenon was achieved by heating an etched brass surface so that it is considerably hotter than the liquid's boiling point. ...more

S3 dumps chip business and turns blue

Graphics chip maker S3 is set to sell its processor business and change its name. Via Technologies, which has a 15 per cent share of the company, will get S3's graphics processor business in return for giving back its stake. S3, now to be named Sonicblue, will concentrate on its Rio MP3 player, the new Frontpath Internet Appliance and its line of modems and network kit. ...more

Portable music player sales to grow fivefold

Sales of portable music players will reach almost 124 million units by 2009, a 500 per cent rise on last year's 26.4 million, according to IDC. The research firm predicts that demand will be driven by falling flash memory costs, availability of paid media downloads services and increasing consumer awareness. ...more