Microsoft's Viridian virtualisation slips

The release date for Microsoft's hypervisor-based virtualisation product - codenamed Viridian - has slipped, the company has confirmed. Speaking at the Microsoft Management Summit conference in San Diego, Bob Muglia, senior VP of Microsoft, stated that the forthcoming product, will now be delayed by up to six months past the launch of Longhorn Server. The delay pushes the Viridian launch into the second half of 2008, a significant delay for those waiting for Microsoft's virtualisation technology. ...more

HP backs Open Source with research technology

HP has thrown its weight behind the Open Source movement, making an important part of its R&D available to the world of collaborative development. Emerging from its Cooltown research project, Coolbase will support the building of e-services, whether for embedded or personal systems, as part of HP's vision for pervasive computing. "Cooltown" is a place where, in HP's words, "e-services meet the physical world, where humans are mobile, devices and services are federated and context-aware, and everything has a web presence". ...more

LCD to eat plasma market

Plasma TV suppliers such as Panasonic maker Matsushita Electric, already outnumbered by the rival LCD camp, are expected to lose further ground as LCD TVs encroach on the 40-inch-class market, a plasma stronghold. Growing demand for higher-resolution models is also giving a leg up to liquid crystal display (LCD) TVs, promoted by Sony Corp. and many others in Taiwan and South Korea, paving the way for consolidation among plasma companies, analysts say. ...more

Quake finger

Research by the University of Queensland has revealed that playing Quake at every waking moment is just not enough to steal the edge over the competition - you need to exercise your trigger digit between games, too! Scientists at the institute have spent a month measuring the effects of index exercise - from simple free-time wiggling to hardcore weight-lifting - against those players who like to rest up between frags. In a test, volunteers had to move their right index finger on hearing a tone, at times more than once a second, and the scientists noticed a marked improvement in speed and muscle activity. So, there you have it, get your digits dancing. ...more

12-05-2001 Essential news of the week

Brought neatly together and presented on a plate, here is a roundup of some of the week's main news stories from the world of IT. Samsung announces world's smallest audio player Rio slips Iomega in its pocket Dell foresees PC upturn Palomino will be Athlon 4, say sources Windows XP delivery date Delphi gets seriously corporate CD-R prices to skyrocket Homepage virus invades UK Crusoe scripted for a Libretto Another round of tech job cuts Don't forget, we welcome your comments. Just click on a story and go for the 'Comments' link on the right-hand side of the screen. ...more