Sega and Sony link up

After the demise of the Dreamcast, Sega jumped into bed with every console hardware manufacturer that came along in an attempt to make friends and to shift its core business back to games rather than hardware. The first of such strategic relationships was with Sony and now the two former rivals have announced that they are to join forces again. This time the collaboration comes via the companies' two consoles - the Dreamcast and the PlayStation 2. ...more

Price Check: DVD burners

We were quite impressed when we last looked at DVD burner prices back in September that they had broken through the ?100 barrier. Six months later.. ...more

UK games chart: Need for Speed heading for Xmas number one

Things are very much as they were at the top of this week's ELSPA UK games chart. Activision's WWII console game Call of Duty: Finest Hour climbs to number three ahead of the THQ-published The Incredibles and EA's FIFA 2005. Otherwise, EA's Need For Speed: Underground 2 stays at number one, ahead of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. ...more

Nokia backs mobile wallet plan

Nokia, the world's biggest handset maker, and mobile telecoms carriers have agreed on a global initiative to turn cell phones into wallets, a wireless telecoms interest group said on Wednesday. Consumers will be able to use a phone as a wallet or as an access card simply by waving it over a wireless reader - and in some cases punching a PIN number into the phone - similar to how travellers in Tokyo and London access public transport. 'The phone becomes a wallet, after that you can pay with it just like you pay with your bank cards,' Kai Oistamo, head of Nokia's main cell phones unit, told Reuters. ...more

Scottish minnow trumps Seattle leviathan

Front Page, a Scottish graphic design agency, is celebrating victory in its five-year legal struggle with Microsoft for the right to continue to use its name, which is shared with the Web design application. A hearing at the Trade Mark Registry in London ruled that Microsoft's objections to the agency's name were unfounded and ordered the US company to pay the Scots' five figure legal bill. Microsoft had objected to the Scottish company's use of the Front Page name in conjunction with its Web site design activities, but the hearing determined that the company had established the right to use the name before Microsoft introduced its Front Page software in the UK. ...more