Broadband enjoys global growth

The number of broadband lines worldwide rose 50 per cent in 2004 to 150 million. New figures show that the USA, with 33.9 million lines, has the most connections, but China is closing fast, connecting over 6. ...more

Analysis: Looks lead the way for next-gen MP3 players

It seems portable music player manufacturers have all but given up on trying to compete with the iPod on the basis of price alone and are seeking to capture some of its elusive 'cool'. A number of Asia-based companies are poised to introduce new players with the emphasis on looks and features and they expect consumers to pay for them. On the back of a worse-than-expected performance in the last quarter, Creative has just unveiled the music and video-playing Zen Vision (pictured) and will follow it with a new Zen Micro. ...more

IBM opens door to Cell processor details

IBM is backing the open-source community to kick start demand for its Cell processor. Big Blue announced in Barcelona last week that it was to provide key hardware and software specifications of the new chip to the open-source community to drive rapid development of platforms and applications. While Apple's Steve Jobs was reportedly thin on enthusiasm for the new processor, games console makers are already working on how to integrate Cell's mammoth multimedia capabilities into their next-gen consoles. ...more

AMD raises the bar for 64-bit notebook computing

AMD has released a 64-bit processor to run high-performance, desktop-replacement notebooks. The Mobile AMD Athlon 64 processor 4000+ clocks 2.6 GHz and has 1MB of level 2 cache. ...more

iPhone released - by Cisco

The iPhone has been released - but not by Apple. Cisco, which it seems has long held the rights to the name, has stuck it on a range of VoIP hardware. Released today in the US, the range comprises a range of cordless handsets offering a choice of standard phone calls, Skype calls and Wi-Fi Internet access. ...more