NVIDIA's miserly approach to graphics

Laptops get 3D boost and battery life is increased NVIDIA has developed a "radical new mobile technology", designed to provide 2D and 3D graphics to power-starved laptop PCs, without running the batteries down. The power management system is called PowerMizer, and Nvidia claims that it can reduce power consumption by more than four watts. PowerMizer is a combination of a software interface and hardware functions that are already built into the GeForce2 Go mobile chips. ...more

Kaspersky speeds Anti-Virus 5.0

Kaspersky has announced version five of its antivirus software, claiming greater efficiencies and performance boosts as well as a more user-friendly environment. The Russian company has integrated new file processing technologies it calls iChecker, iStream and iCache. These optimise the way in which the software talks to Windows so that it can determine the integrity of files and avoid wasting resources scanning files that are known to be clean. ...more

Dell profit warning shakes markets

Dell Computer, the world's largest manufacturer of PCs, sent technology shares into disarray at the end of last week when it announced a profit warning. The company's share price fell to a six year low when it revealed that earnings would be 30 per cent lower than expected. The former stellar performer blamed 'aggressive pricing in a slowing commercial market worldwide' as new management at HP and Chinese manufacturer Lenovo, which took over IBM's old PC business, step up the competition. ...more

Microsoft PITs itself against the pirates

Microsoft is to compensate users who have mistakenly bought pirated programs. In an effort to generate more leads in the pursuit of software counterfeiters, the company's Product Identification Team (PIT) will accept one suspect product per person. It will investigate whether or not it is the genuine article and return it if it is. ...more

Wal-Mart fears Apple movie service

US retail giant Wal-Mart wants Hollywood to cut DVD wholesale prices so that it can better compete with Apple, once the computer company begins selling movies through its iTunes Music Store. BusinessWeek reports that the man responsible for DVD ordering at Wal-Mart, David Porter, has been visiting studio executives asking for a reduction of the $17 that each disc costs. Wal-Mart accounts for around 40 per cent of the DVDs sold in the US, giving it considerable clout, although any cut in the wholesale price would hit Hollywood revenues at a time when DVD sales are already in decline. ...more