UK games chart: Lost Planet and WarioWare battle for supremacy

The post-Christmas slumber is over as two new entries displace FIFA 07 from the top of this week's ELSPA UK Games Chart. Capcom's Lost Planet: Extreme Condition (Xb360) - where human pirates battle strange creatures in hostile ice-bound conditions - and Nintendo's 2 WarioWare: Smooth Moves (Wii) - micro-games for the new console using the controller as a 'Form Baton' - battle for supremacy. Both are new entries charting at number one and two respectively. ...more

Thunderbird 0.3, Mozilla 1.5 released

The Mozilla Organisation has released updated versions of its standalone email client and its flagship Internet software. Thunderbird 0.3 [pictured] fixes a number of bugs, listed in the release notes, has improved stability and increased IMAP speed 'several times'. ...more

HP goes B2B against Dell online

In a bid to challenge Dell as the undisputed champion in direct sales over the internet, HP has launched its "Business to Business" web site. The company claims that the new site offers an end-to-end purchase, delivery and billing system that will make it easier for companies to manage their IT budgets. The site, confusingly at customeradvantage. ...more

Sony stops selling lipstick and French food

Sony is to sell off some of its more unlikely assets in order to generate cash for its core consumer electronics businesses. Having already announced the closure of its QRIO and AIBO robot programme and Qualia, its high-end electronics experiment, Reuters reports that the Japanese firm will now dispose of Sony Plaza, an import-export business, B&C cosmetics, the French restaurant chain Maxim and a mail order business, all of which were bought by former CEO Akio Morita. Sony declined to comment, but according to Reuters' source it plans to sell more than 50 per cent of the four businesses. ...more

Music downloads drive sales, says report

Most music fans who download album tracks from the Internet go on to buy the full CD, according to new research by Music Research and Programming (MRP). The company claims its research shows that, 'far from damaging the music industry, downloading music from the Internet can be a useful and significant marketing tool for record companies.' MRP's survey found that of the 87 per cent of respondents to the survey buy albums on the back of downloading individual tracks. ...more