Big players win as gamers buy, buy, buy

With three games consoles on the market and the general public spending with gay abandon, revenues soar for the major players. Sony, EA, Infogrames and Midway have all reported significant boosts in revenues this year. With three consoles on the market and the fight for companies to produce hot software more fierce than it's ever been, the phrase 'The only winner will be the consumer' was proved wrong yesterday as the industry heavyweights piled on the pounds. ...more

Spam rules mean opt-out is out

The DTI has unveiled new controls that update legislation on spam sent via email, phone or from the Internet. Communications Minister Stephen Timms said: 'These regulations will help combat the global nuisance of unsolicited e-mails and texts by enshrining in law rights that give consumers more say over who can use their personal details.. ...more

Phishing sites reach all time high

The numbers of phishing sites have seen a sharp rise with the number doubling in two months from November to January this year. According to the latest Anti-Phishing Working Group report, there were 17,877 unique phishing reports submitted in January - the biggest number ever recorded. The figure itself is 50 per cent higher than the previous year and the number of phishing reports rose steadily throughout 2005. ...more

Leopard is the next OS X big cat

The next version of OS X will be codenamed Leopard and released either late 2006 or early 2007 to coincide with the debut of Microsoft's Longhorn. OS X 10.5 will be the first upgrade after the first Intel-based Macs start to become available, although a tweaked version of 10. ...more

HP launches DVD-burning PC for Christmas

Hewlett-Packard has just given us details of its home PC with DVD-authoring capabilities. The HP Pavilion 7975 will feature a DVD+R/W drive, although it wasn't confirmed at the time of writing whether this would be HP's own. The system will be available from next week (19 November) and will set you back a princely ?1,599 including VAT. ...more