Amazon rises on lesser losses

Amazon.com's shares rose as much as 11 per cent on the back of surprise Q3 results that showed lower than expected losses. Analysts' predictions of a 33 cent per share loss were beaten by the company's posting of a net loss of $89. ...more

Apple 'to reap 50 per cent profit on iPhone'

Apple will enjoy a 50 per cent profit margin on each iPhone sold, according to a breakdown of the handset's component costs by research phone iSuppli. The figure is drawn from analysis of the capacity and features of the phone-iPod hybrid, combined with information from Apple about the materials used plus company sources and third-party publications. iSuppli says that although the figures are preliminary until it gets hands on a physical unit, it has a 'high degree of confidence' in its findings. ...more

Microsoft promises public beta IE 7 early next year

Microsoft has promised a public beta of the upcoming Internet Explorer 7 in the first calendar quarter of next year. On the IE developers' blog, Dean Hachomovitch, general manager of the Internet Explorer team, said he was constantly being asked for a public beta and promised: 'an updated pre-release build of IE7 for Windows XP publicly - no MSDN membership required - during the first calendar quarter of 2006. 'We want to make sure that everyone has an opportunity to try a pre-release version of IE7 and tell us how it works with their websites, their applications, their add-ons, and how they use the web overall,' he wrote. ...more

Motorola buys push email specialist Good Technology

Motorola has bought push email specialist Good Technology in a cash deal that has been broadly welcomed by the industry. Analysts at Ovum said: 'This acquisition makes sense because the development route [for wireless email] is so fraught with dangers and because Motorola seems finally determined to crack the enterprise market'. Financial terms have not been disclosed, but Motorola has been cash-rich and in need of fast-tracking its enterprise messaging strategy for some time. ...more

FTC cracks down on alleged spyware merchant

The US Federal Trade Commission is trying to close down an alleged spyware pedlar, Walter Rines and his company Odysseus Marketing. The FTC says that the company lured unsuspecting computer users to download free software that turned out to contain 'dozens' of bits of spyware. Odysseus Marketing advertised software it claimed would allow consumers to engage in peer-to-peer file-sharing anonymously. ...more