Shareholders approve Palm split and Handspring acquisition

Palm shareholders have approved the company's decision to split into separate hardware and operating system companies. The Palm OS operating system will now be the sole concern of PalmSource, though the nascent company has been effectively independent for some time now. The hardware division, which produces the Tungsten and Zire PDA ranges, will be renamed palmOne. ...more

HP launches movie writer

Hewlett-Packard has launched an external DVD writer for the (moneyed) masses. The DC3000 is what HP is calling its Movie Writer, rather than DVD burner. The company's own research showed that 40 per cent of DVD burner owners had yet to burn a disc. ...more

Palm OS 6 ready for end of year release, says PalmSource

Palm's software division, PalmSource, says that it new generation operating system OS 6 will be ready for release by the end of the year, with products expected to begin shipping in 2004. PalmSource would not discuss the finer details of the new platform, but has made it clear that it will focus on enhanced wireless capability, improved security for data transfers and multimedia. The company has briefed developers on the advanced features of the software during a three-day conference earlier this month, but the details have not been made publicly available. ...more

Barclays warns of new security risk

Barclays Bank is to warn its online bank account users about a new email security risk circulating on the Internet. The threat is in the form of a professionally produced email and a link to the adversting.com (sic) web site. ...more

Acer recalls 27,000 Sony laptop batteries

More bad news for Sony regarding its laptop batteries - the fallout from its overheating battery packs continues to grow. The Taiwanese manufacture Acer has now announced a global battery replacement programme, involving certain TravelMate and Aspire machines. The company describes it as a free-of-charge 'voluntary recall programme' and 27,000 machines are believed to be affected. ...more