Palm eyes Linux future?

As rumours go it is among the more speculative: PDA- and smartphone-maker Palm is developing its own Linux-based operating system as an alternative to Palmsource's Palm OS and Microsoft's Windows Mobile. According to Software Everywhere, Palm has been investigating the possibility of developing a version of Linux to run on its devices since 2004. More recently it has been hiring Linux software engineers who will be responsible for the 'design and development of components of a new software platform'. ...more

Adobe updates support for camera RAW formats

Adobe has released a new version of its DNG Converter software, which, as its name suggests, converts RAW formats - which differ from camera to camera - into Adobe's DNG digital negative format, which the company is trying to get adopted as a standard. Additional cameras supported by this update comprise the EOS 20D, PowerShot S70, PowerShot G6 and EOS-1Ds Mark II from Canon and the Maxxum 7D/Dynax 7D and DiMage A200 from Konica Minolta. Camera RAW and DNG Converter 2. ...more

IE 6 improves privacy support

Internet Explorer 6 is not yet out, but Microsoft has outlined the privacy tools that will be incorporated in the next major release of its browser. Available as part of the Windows XP release later this year, the developments are intended to help users select their own level of privacy protection when surfing Web sites, particularly in relation to a site's use of cookies. The five possible settings will be available via a "Privacy" tab on the Internet Options dialog box (pictured). ...more

Sun simplifies Web services for consumer devices

Sun announces a Web Services Pack for developers targeting mobile and small client devices. Targeting devices such as cellular phones, PDAs, set-top boxes and residential gateways, the new pack represents a bundling of the Forte for Java wireless toolkit together with Java blueprints and APIs from a new specification dealing with Web services for small devices. Sun has highlighted the progress of this specification - a certain 'JSR # 172'. ...more

Gartner: Toshiba top of the notebook chart

For the third consecutive quarter, Toshiba has kept ahead of laptop competitors. With 75,474 sales Toshiba took 18 per cent of the market share, ahead of Dell that claimed sixteen per cent of the market with 66,621 units shifted. Rounding out the top five, Hewlett-Packard took third place with twelve per of the market, followed by Acer and IBM with nine and seven per cent, respectively. ...more