Microsoft upbeat as Zune sales slip

Microsoft expects to have sold one million Zune media players by the end of the first half of 2007, an executive said yesterday. Although that is a fraction of the 14 million or more iPods analysts expect Apple to sell in the current quarter alone, Bryan Lee, corporate vice president for Microsoft's entertainment group, said that it is more than a good start, if only because Apple sells worldwide while Zune is currently coralled in the US. 'We think that's actually pretty awesome,' he said, adding that the company ultimately expects to close the gap on Apple and become the market leader. ...more

OS X to be released in March

Apple will release its new operating system, OS X (that's the number ten), on 24 March. Apple CEO Steve Jobs confirmed the date at the Macworld expo in San Francisco. The major re-introduction, and the one that will probably please most Mac users, is the Apple Menu (though it appears in a very different form). ...more

Digital art faces digital dark age

Although a growing number of artists use computers to create digital works of art, the ever changing nature of technology hardware means their digital visions could face obsolescence in just a few years. 'I often joke with my students that digital media will last forever - or for five years, whichever comes first,' said Richard Rinehart, digital media director at the Berkeley university's Art Museum & Pacific Film Archive. Digital art has broken into the mainstream with venerable institutions such as New York's Guggenheim Museum buying such works for permanent collections. ...more

Lennon collection available from Net music stores, bar iTunes

John Lennon's complete collection of solo recordings is to be sold via music downloads stores from the beginning of next month. However one place where it will not be found is the iTunes Music Store, because of 'the ongoing trademark dispute between iTunes' owner Apple Computer and Lennon and the Beatles' company, Apple Corps. EMI has announced that Working Class Hero, a collection of Lennon's greatest hits, will be available next week on stores including Napster, RealNetworks' Rhapsody, MSN Music and Yahoo! Music Unlimited. ...more

PC Pro ?999 Labs - JAL Geraldine correction

In our ?999 PCs Labs in the August issue, we said that the Labs-winning JAL Geraldine featured an Athlon 64 3200+ CPU. The actual processor was an Athlon XP 3200+. However, as a generous goodwill gesture, JAL will be supplying customers with the Athlon 64 3200+ at the same price quoted in the magazine, which will provide significantly better performance. ...more