Microsoft buys antivirus company

Microsoft has bought Romanian antivirus company GeCAD with a view to offering an 'antivirus solution'. No financial details or further information about product plans, pricing or availability were made available, but the company does say it will be using the technology to provide 'antivirus solutions for Microsoft products and services'. Microsoft says it will also use the technology to improve support for third-party antivirus software and 'increase today's limited percentage of customers that are protected with updated antivirus signatures'. ...more

AMD overtakes Intel in US retail sales for first time

AMD has nosed ahead of Intel in sales of processors in the US retail market for the first time according to market researcher Current Analysis. The research findings carried out via a panel of leading US retailers found that during October, 49.8 per cent of the total market for desktops and notebooks sold in the US retail market were fitted with AMD processors. ...more

LaCie introduces 19in flat panel

LaCie has added a 19in display to its range of flat-panel, LCD monitors. The photon19vision has 1280x1024 pixels, with a 75Hz refresh rate, brightness of 250cd/m? and contrast ratio of 400:1. The monitor has VGA, DVI and ADC connectivity, a built-in four-port USB hub and is compatible with both Mac OS and Windows. ...more

iPods are used to listen to music - report

iPods are mainly used to listen to music, is the less-than-startling revelation from Nielsen Media Research. The research firm spent the best part of October monitoring 400 iPod users to discover that video comprised just one per cent of the content played on suitably-enabled iPods. Nielsen said that a main reason for this is that most of those who purchased video iPods were only after the large storage capacity to hold their music collections. ...more

First UK conviction for chipping games consoles

For the first time in the UK, a man has been convicted for illegally modding games consoles. The 22-year-old was found guilty at Caerphilly Magistrates Court for his sideline in extended Xboxes. He sold the Microsoft consoles via his website for ?380, having fitted them with a 200GB hard drive and 80 pre-installed games. ...more