New p2p system tags data similarities to increase download speed

US researchers have developed a new method for transferring data across the Internet at high-speeds, based on a discovery that many ostensibly different files actually share common or similar chunks of data. The researchers - Dvid Andersen of Carnegie Mellon University, Michael Kaminsky of Intel Research and Himabindu Pucha of Purdue University - found that files that appeared to be different are in fact very similar. MP3 music files for instance, may contain differing header information but the song data that they wrap is almost always the same. ...more

Mozilla moves towards Firefox 2.0

Mozilla has released the first iteration of what will eventually be christened Firefox 2.0. Alpha 1 of the Bon Echo project is described as the first development milestone for the next version of the popular open-source browser. ...more

Xbox speed may rise to 1GHz

Microsoft has changed its plans for the Xbox console, and intends to boost its speed. The company had originally specified that the machine would contain a 600MHz Pentium III processor, but has now changed tack and is going for a 733MHz version. The Xbox is not supposed to be a PC (despite containing a Pentium III, hard disk, nVidia graphics accelerator, Ethernet port, DVD drive etc. ...more

Konica Minolta exits digital camera market

Konica Minolta has announced that it is withdrawing from the digital camera market and transferring its assets to Sony. The two companies have been jointly developing digital SLR cameras since July 2005 with the lenses and bodies being supplied by Konica Minolta. The transfer of assets will enable camera owners to continue to use Maxxum/Dynax lenses, which Sony has committed to supporting with compatible mounts in future camera models. ...more

Vista's OS X similarities could encourage switching - analysts

Microsoft Vista's 'uncanny' resemblance to OS X could backfire on Microsoft by making the switch from PC to Mac comparable to upgrading from Windows XP, according to analysts at JMP Securities. 'We believe that the fact that Vista is designed to be much like Apple's OS X will, in the consumer's mind, make the transition from using XP to Vista very comparable to making the transition from XP to Tiger,' the investment banker said. And the effect could be exaggerated once Apple replaces Tiger, the current version of OS X, with Leopard in the spring of 2007. ...more