eBid offers free Gold Membership

eBid, the UK rival to eBay, is launching a special offer in the run up to Christmas. The online auction site is giving away Lifetime Gold Memberships (valued at ?45) every Friday throughout December. It describes the benefits of such membership as 'zero listing fees, zero final value fees, zero reserve price fees, and zero BuyNow fees'. ...more

Amazon leaks look of digital movies store

Amazon appears to have given a possibly unintended sneak preview of a forthcoming digital movies store. A test page has appeared on the Internet retail giant's website, headed 'Lumiere Digital Video Store' although it currently comprises just a handful of cover images from films including The Last Boy Scout and North Country. Despite being contacted about the page, Amazon has yet to remove it, with spokesman denying knowledge of its existence. ...more

IDF, Spring 2005: Intel boss invokes spirit of Moore's Law to sell platform strategy

Intel's CEO invoked the spirit of company founder Gordon Moore when he unveiled the company's 'platform' strategy at its Spring 2005 Developer's Forum. 'Intel's commitment to Moore's Law now allows us to create integrated platforms that deliver a broad range of capabilities for individuals and organizations that use technology. To realise the full potential of these capabilities, continued innovation and industry cooperation will be more important than ever. ...more

Jump to the Gigabeat

Toshiba has announced a new portable music player, the first to rival Apple's iPod in storage capacity, transfer speed and style. The Gigabeat can store up to 5Gb of music on removeable PC-card hard drives, which suggests that there is no limit to the amount of music you can easily carry around with you. Toshiba will ship the player with one card, and will make additional 2Gb and 5Gb cards available. ...more

Microsoft explains its decision to back HD DVD

Microsoft has explained its decision to back the HD DVD format for high-definition optical discs rather than the rival Blu-ray specification. Jordi Ribas, Microsoft's director of technology strategy for Windows Digital Media told Tom's Hardware Guide that the company's previous neutrality had been abandoned because Blu-ray failed to meet six key criteria. 'A year and a half ago, both format organisations had very similar goals, and to some extent, the story of Blu-ray was actually very powerful,' he said. ...more