Microsoft announces new Xbox deal

With the release date being moved back and the lack of Japanese developers getting behind the new Microsoft mega-console, the company has announced a new series of deals with software developers. Yesterday, Microsoft announced that it has signed deals with six developers who are putting games together for the Xbox. Microsoft will publish games developed by Blitz Games, Curly Monsters, Double Fine Productions, Radical Entertainment, Vision Scape Interactive and Yeti Software. ...more

Rendezvous opened

Apple has made its Rendezvous networking technology and an updated OS X core free to developers. The decision to make Rendezvous open source was no secret having been pre-announced last month. The official confirmation merely adds a few details, including the release of software to support Linux, Unix, and Windows-based systems and devices. ...more

Bid for new online music rules rejected

The European Parliament has called for binding rules to regulate the bloc's online music market and protect less powerful artists, but the proposal was rejected by the bloc's executive. It was the latest spat in the European Union's tortuous efforts to get agreement in the hotly contested field of intellectual property rights. In October 2005, the EU's Executive Commission published nonbinding guidelines allowing artists to choose which collective rights management society (CRMs) they want handle their online music copyright across Europe. ...more

W3C updates Amaya browser and test tool

The W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) has released version 8.0 of its Amaya browser and testing tool. In the words of the W3C, Amaya is intended to be 'a comprehensive client environment for testing and evaluating new proposals for Web standards and formats' - basically a reference platform for those wishing to officially conform to Web ways. ...more

Adobe revenues up, Warnock retires

Adobe has announced that its revenues for the first fiscal quarter of 2001 were $329 million, up 17 per cent year over year. However, the company is adjusting its targets for the remainder of 2001, anticipating 15 per cent year over year growth for the second quarter and not providing revenue targets for the second half of the year, due, says the press release, to, "the challenging an uncertain economic environment". Adobe has also announced that its co-founder John Warnock is to retire. ...more