HP offers to buy old printers

Hewlett-Packard (HP) is offering up to ?1,100 for your old printer if you buy one of a selection of new HP colour printers. Once you have bought your new printer, you can apply, either online or by fax, for the trade-in, which is paid directly into your, or your company's, bank account. The amount payable depends upon the technology and brand of the old printer, which HP will collect from you. ...more

Critical vulnerability revealed in Real Players

A highly critical security vulnerability has been discovered in Real Players and other Real Networks' software. A boundary error in the processing of WAV and SMIL could allow the execution of malicious code. The vulnerability can be exploited by a specially written WAV or SMIL file to cause a buffer overflow and enable arbitrary code to be run. ...more

DirectX 8.0 is out tomorrow

The latest version of Microsoft's DirectX 8.0 is complete and will be available for download from tomorrow (11 November). The latest version will be freely available from the DirectX Web site here and the Software Development Kit will be available from here. ...more

Half-Life 2 to be bundled with Radeon 9900 Pro?

According to a recent, unconfirmed, report appearing in the German online press, ATi's upcoming graphics card, the Radeon 9900 Pro, will come bundled with Half-Life 2. Endeavouring to discover whether truth lies behind the unconfirmed report, we contacted ATi to seek clarification. ATi's rapid response unit got back to us sharpish, but. ...more

Comdex on the skids?

Exhibition organiser Key3Media was teetering on the brink of bankruptcy even as its showcase event Comdex Fall opened its doors in Las Vegas yesterday The event specialist, which organises IT trade shows around the world, reported third quarter losses of US$315.7 million and said it was in negotiations with creditors and considering restructuring or filing for bankruptcy. The company blamed weaker demand as the IT sector struggles to overcome its recession, with exhibitor and attendee attendance down at shows across the board. ...more