Windows Media Player 11 beta released

As predicted earlier this week, Microsoft has released a beta version of Windows Media Player 11 that is slated to appear with the new Windows Vista operating system, due at the beginning of next year. It's no surprise therefore to discover Media Player 11 looks a lot like what we expect of Vista with a sleek shiny interface and soft focus 3D icons. The major improvements are the ability to cope with larger music libraries and an improved user interface, which makes it a lot easier to get around. ...more

Happy(ish) ending to bad year for Intel

Intel has published encouraging results for Q4 at the end of a 'terrible' year. Sales for the fourth quarter ended up 7 per cent over the previous quarter with a $7bn revenue, exceeding most expectations. This was down 20 per cent over Q4 2000, however, and end-of-year revenues for 2001 were down 21 per cent from 2000. ...more

National Audit Office slams 10-year-delayed computing project

Another state-funded IT system has come in massively late and over budget. This time it involves a computer system for magistrates across England and Wales. Dubbed 'Project Libra', it has taken over ten years to reach its present state of incompletion. ...more

Panasonic introduces industry-first 12x zoom

Panasonic releases a beltful of mobile devices - including a digital camera with a 12x optical zoom The DMC-FZ1 boasts the industry's first 12x optical zoom, claims Panasonic - equivalent to a 35-420mm zoom lens on a 35mm film camera. Panasonic's Mega Optical Image Stabiliser keeps vibration to a minimum, including that caused by pressing the shutter button, the company claims. The camera also comes with technology developed to speed up power up time and reduce the time between pressing the button and capturing the image. ...more

EMI takes tentative steps to DRM-free downloading

EMI has dipped its toe in DRM-free water and begun selling a tiny number of songs in the unrestricted MP3 format. Norah Jones' new single 'Thinking About You' is among tracks available as 99 cent MP3s from Yahoo's US-only digital music service. Zach Hochkeppel , the general manager of Jones' label, the EMI-owned Blue Note, said the release was 'an experiment', adding that EMI's choice of an artist with a primarily adult fan base should mitigate against widespread p2p sharing of the song file. ...more