Apple turns towards Sony for Intel laptop design

Apple is recruiting former Sony engineers to help it build its new, Intel-based laptops, according to Engadget. The website claims that a reliable source told them that Apple is 'having trouble playing catch up with the learning curve for designing using the Intel platform' and as a result has been 'scrambling' to hire engineers with experience of developing light notebooks, of which the Sony Vaios are a prime example. A Japanese headhunting firm is said to have been contracted to find potential recruits. ...more

ATI unveils Radeon for portables

Graphics hardware specialist ATI has unveiled its new Mobility Radeon chip for portable, notebook computers. The new chips, which will be available in different power configurations, support data rates of up to 200MHz and employ Hyper-Z compression to squeeze a claimed 20 per cent extra memory bandwidth on top of this. The chips have a 32-bit rendering engine and digital-to analog conversion for multiple monitor support. ...more

Microsoft renames Longhorn to Vista

Microsoft has announced the name of the next version of Windows due to replace the aging Windows XP. The company says that the next version, which until now has been known only by its code name 'Longhorn' will be called Windows Vista. Microsoft has also announced that the first publicly available Beta 1 of Vista will become available by 3 August 2005. ...more

Telef?nica stumps up ?18bn in 02 takeover bid

Spanish mobile giant Telef?nica has ended weeks of speculation with a bid of nearly ?18bn for UK mobile telco O2. Rumours of a takeover surfaced recently, with Dutch operator KPN Mobile and Germany's Deutsche Telekom as well as the Spanish company circling the company. The ?17. ...more

Universal unveils digital archeology scheme

Universal Music Group has announced that it has begun digitising 100,000 European recordings that are no longer available in a physical format. The record company said that the recordings will be taken from an archive that includes Marianne Faithfull, Fairport Convention, Nirvana and Jacques Brel. The programme will include the digitisation of rare analogue recordings, many of which will prove expensive to recover. ...more