AMD ships desktop dual core Athlon 64

Although it seems dual core Athlons have been around for ages, AMD has announced it has finally begun to ship the Athlon 64 X2 dual-core processor. The new processor range designed for desktops and desktop-replacement notebooks. AMD expects to see the Athlon 64 X2 supported by most of the leading PC manufacturers including Acer, HP and Lenovo (nee IBM's PC division) and around 40 other OEMs worldwide. ...more

Google eyes newspapers ads

Google is starting a Print Ads service to extend its business into offline media. It is set to buy advertisements in 50 US newspapers as part of a new a test, the search giant revealed on Sunday. Google said it has invited more than 100 advertisers already buying ads through its Web marketing system to join a three-month test of a Print Ads service that places ads in daily papers including the New York Times and Washington Post. ...more

EMI withdraws from DRM-free downloading talks

EMI has withdrawn from talks about the possibility of selling DRM-free music downloads, after online store operators baulked at the advance payments that the record company was demanding, according to Bloomberg. The business news service says that EMI was asking for the payment to compensate it for the 'risk' of releasing unrestricted MP3s. It claims that operators including Apple, Microsoft and Real Networks had countered with a lower offer, but this was rejected. ...more

Tiscali tunes up for Reading Festival webcast

Tiscali is to repeat its webcasting of the Reading Festival. The ISP will be carrying music from the festival later this month, 25-27 August. The headliners this year include Arctic Monkeys, Kaiser Chiefs, Franz Ferdinand, Pearl Jam and Muse, and Tiscali will be webcasting acts from the mainstage and a VIP Sessions Tent backstage. ...more

Users rate Nildram top broadband ISP

Nildram has been rated the UK's top broadband ISP, according to the first 'league table' of ADSL users' own ratings. ADSL Guide has collected over 200,000 ratings by its readers and found that the smaller ISPs' services have proved much more satisfactory than those from the big names. So while Virgin, Demon, BT, AOL, NTL, Freeserve and Tiscali occupy the bottom half the top 15, the list is headed by Nildram, Zen, Eclipse and Plus Net. ...more