Washing machines that read the labels

Ariston is acting on manufacturers beginning to tag products with RF chips, by adding in the technology to read them on its domestic appliances. Recently Gillette began manufacturing RF-tagged razor blades to boost efficiency in its inventory and logistics processes, as razor blades are one the products most-often stolen from supermarkets. The technology allows both Gillette and supermarkets to track production rates and stock levels. ...more

Itanium is winning chip in Vegas

Intel's 64bit Itanium processor has finally arrived. Intel engineers and partners, including Dell and Microsoft met in Las Vegas this week for some fine tuning of the new products based on the chip, previously codenamed Merced. An Intel spokeswoman claimed the so-called plug fest offered a solid test bed for developers to try out the platform. ...more

Sony boss Kutaragi blasts timid management for iPod dominance

The head of Sony's Computer Entertainment Division has hit out at the management of the company for becoming too timid to launch new products. Ken Kutaragi implied that the fear of piracy expressed by the Sony music and movie divisions held back the launch of Sony MP3 players which ended up handing the market to the likes of Apple. It was only last September that Sony abandoned its policy of building music players which only used its proprietory Atrac format and instead offering MP3-compatible devices. ...more

StarOffice 6 will be smaller, faster and out in October

Available for Windows, Linux and Solaris. Sun has announced that it will make beta code of StarOffice 6 available in early October. The latest release, the first since 5. ...more

UPDATED: Bluetooth flaw found in laptops

Toshiba has released a fix for the Bluetooth flaw discovered by the Trifinite group. The fixed version of the Bluetooth stack is now available from the company's website. Bluetooth security research group Trifinite has released details of a flaw in the Toshiba stack used in the Bluetooth kit installed in laptops from Toshiba, Dell, Sony, Asus and others. ...more