Joint venture pushes forward digital cinema age

While "Star Wars: episode II" is filmed solely using digital technology, Mr Lucas must be wondering how the masses will see the film as it is meant to be seen, in a digital theatre. A joint venture between Qualcomm and Technicolor is set to allay these fears as it will underwrite part of the $150,000 estimated cost of converting celluloid cinemas to digital dens. Mobile communications company Qualcomm and film processor Technicolor, a division of Thomson, have formed a joint venture called Technicolor Digital Cinema is offering to pay for installing and maintaining the digital projection systems in return for a 12. ...more

Palm sticks with Palm platform for Treo 680 launch

The handheld giant has released its latest smartphone running Palm OS but users must wait and see if a Windows Mobile version will follow Palm has launched its second smartphone in as many months by making its Treo 680 device available to users from today. But unlike its predecessor, the Treo 750v, which was launched last month, Palm's latest offering will only run the Palm OS initially. A spokesperson for the mobile device giant was unable to comment on whether a Microsoft Windows Mobile version will be launched in the future. ...more

Ricoh goes for premium colour

With budget colour lasers typically now pitching in at around the ?500 mark, Ricoh is attacking the top end with its CL30000DN. Although a desktop unit, the colour laser houses heavyweight guts, including a 10GB hard disk drive. It's networkable through a standard USB 2. ...more

Oracle mulls own Linux version

Database giant Oracle is considering launching its own version of Linux according to a report in the Financial Times. Oracle CEO Larry Ellison told the FT that the company had considered buying Novell which now owns SUSE Linux but is now debating whether to launch its own version of the open source operating system. 'I'd like to have a complete stack,' Ellison said. ...more

EMC denies demise of Retrospect

EMC has strongly denied a report that it is preparing to kill-off Retrospect, the popular back up and archiving application. Yesterday The Register website said that according to its sources EMC has scrapped plans to develop version 8 of the software as part of a cost cutting exercise, with all development halted in December. But in post on its support forums, EMC spokesman Robin Mayoff insisted that rather than dropping Retrospect, the company is now focussing all the efforts of its Insignia division on the software. ...more