Sony bids to win over disc makers to Blu-ray format

Sony has shrunk mastering units for its Blu-Ray optical discs in a bid to win over disc makers to format. The company claims that the PTR-3000 system needs fewer processes - five rather than 11 - and only 20 per cent of the space of traditional mastering units. It can also master conventional DVD format discs as well. ...more

Vista to create 50,000 EU jobs

Microsoft's new Vista operating system will add 50,000 new jobs to six countries in the EU next year. The study, commissioned by Microsoft, studied the effect of the Vista launch in the UK, France, Germany Denmark, Poland and Spain who represent more than two thirds of the EU's IT spend. The survey claims that Vista will generate some €32bn in sales across the Union with Microsoft and its partners investing more than €4. ...more

AMD's M690 mobile chipset offers full Vista graphics

AMD's 690 chipset was the first fruit borne of the company's $5 billion purchase of graphics company ATI last year, and now AMD has released a mobile equivalent, the M690. While the 690 was designed to work with AMD's Athlon and Sempron processors, the M690 works with Turion 64 X2 dual-core mobile systems. Incorporating the ATI Radeon X1200 series GPU, AMD positions it as capable of delivering the full Vista graphical experience, such as the Flip 3D window selector and Aero's window animations. ...more

Sony boss Kutaragi blasts timid management for iPod dominance

The head of Sony's Computer Entertainment Division has hit out at the management of the company for becoming too timid to launch new products. Ken Kutaragi implied that the fear of piracy expressed by the Sony music and movie divisions held back the launch of Sony MP3 players which ended up handing the market to the likes of Apple. It was only last September that Sony abandoned its policy of building music players which only used its proprietory Atrac format and instead offering MP3-compatible devices. ...more

The men from EC say 'Yes' - to HP-Compaq

European Commission approval granted for the HP and Compaq merger. Having formally filed to the EC for regulatory approval on December 20, HP now has the European go-ahead to acquire Compaq. In its official statement, the Commission states that 'a careful analysis of the merger, the largest ever in the Information Technology sector, and of the competitive forces in the markets concerned has shown that HP would not be in a position to increase prices and that consumers would continue to benefit from sufficient choice and innovation. ...more