The Palm stamp of authority

To truly separate yourself from the herd of Palm developers you will soon need to be officially certified. As a developer that is, rather than insane. Palm is introducing a number of world-wide developer programs, including a new, two-level Palm OS Developer Programme and a certification exam to officially recognise "the most elite" Palm OS Developers. ...more

VIA introduces new dual LAN mobos

VIA Technologies has launched a new series of mini-ITX mobos to be called the EPIA CL-Series. Aimed at the low-end networking or home markets, the boards feature onboard dual LAN, in a small 17 by 17 cm size. VIA says they also have applications in small network operations such as firewalls. ...more

Creative to acquire 3Dlabs

Creative Technology has announced it is to acquire 3Dlabs Inc as a subsidiary company pending government and shareholder approval. The cash and stocks deal would see 3Dlabs' high-end graphics technology at Creative's disposal along with a heap of IP rights and patents. The talk is of putting the graphics power traditionally found in a ?50,000 CAD workstation into the consumer market space, and challenge the throne of nVIDIA. ...more

Sun takes a pop at Microsoft's .Net

It's not quite handbags at ten paces, but Sun has posted, on its Java home page, a critique of Microsoft's .Net platform. The choicest quote is about "handcuffs" and Microsoft's spin. ...more

Playboy interview could scupper Google IPO

The long awaited IPO by Google could be scuppered by Playboy. Today subscribers to the venerable men's magazine in the US will have opened their copy to discover a seven page interview with Larry Page and Sergey Brin detailing their garage-to-plutocrat story and how their search engine has made the world a better place. Whilst Playboy readers may well lap up this heartwarming tale, the regulators over at the US Securities and Exchange Commission may take a more jaundiced view. ...more