UPDATED:Apple to make $6 billion bid for Universal Music?

Apple is planning a $6bn bid for the Universal Music Group, according to a report on the LA Times. The company is believed to be in talks with Universal's owner, Vivendi Universal, about a deal that would make Apple CEO Steve Jobs, 'the most powerful player in the record business'. According to the LA Times, Apple hired investment Bank Morgan Stanley to look into the possibility of buying Universal, which receives around $6bn annually from sales of artists including U2 and Shania Twain. ...more

Microsoft slams another spammer

Microsoft has been awarded $4 million in court in California against a man it had alleged had been spamming users of MSN and Hotmail. Daniel Khoshnood and his company Pointcom Inc had been sending unsolicited email to convince users to download a toolbar onto their desktops. Khoshnood had sent many emails purporting to come from Microsoft with such names as hottmail. ...more

States may request bare bones Windows

A source close to the antitrust case has told Reuters that attorney generals for the remaining states still unhappy with the proposed settlement may request that Windows be offered in an unbundled form. The nine States are putting together a draft remedy to submit to US District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly tomorrow. Not only would a stripped-down Windows open the door for third parties to put their email and browser applications and the like onto the OS, but other sanctions being considered include the disclosure of key source code, so that third-party software can be made compatible, the inclusion of Sun Microsystem's Java and the requirement that Microsoft's Office be cross-platform compatible. ...more

Toshiba puts HD DVD in the desktop

Toshiba has introduced the first internal HD DVD drive for desktop computers, the SD-H903A. The S-ATA drive has a blue-violet laser diode that can read and write to HD DVD-R discs and that offers support for high-density HD DVD-ROM discs, including high definition movie and video images. It also provides high-speed read and write to all the many types of DVD and CD discs. ...more

Fujifilm gears up for a digicam Christmas

It's certainly camera season at the moment: Fujifilm is releasing three new budget digital cameras this October. The top end offering, the FinePix 2600 Zoom, features a 2megapixel CCD and 3x optical zoom, enhanced by a digital zoom for a maximum 7.5x magnification. ...more