Madonna breaks Webcast records

At 9pm yesterday evening, Madonna's first gig in the UK for eight years was cast live over the Web, attracting more than nine million viewers. Madonna fans logged in to the MSN Webcast in record-breaking numbers to see the Brixton academy show, although the queen of pop played just six songs. Tickets for the 3,000 capacity venue were like gold dust, changing hands over a number of charity auction sites for as much as ?1,102 each. ...more

3dfx to dissolve and sell assets to nVidia

The board of 3dfx has announced it is to recommend to its shareholders that the company be dissolved and its assets sold to long-time rival nVidia. The shock announcement, made late last Friday, values 3dfx at around $107m. nVidia has also agreed to loan 3dfx $15m in working capital to see the company through until the deal is complete. ...more

VIA chips in the K8T890 for AMD Athlon 64 processors

VIA Technologies has officially announced its VIA K8T890 chipsets for the AMD Athlon 64 FX-55 processor and AMD Athlon 64 processor 4000+ for PCI Express enabled motherboards. The company says it expects to ship the chipsets to OEMs this month with product appearing on the shelves in November. The VIA K8T890 Series chipsets can support PCI Express x16 graphics cards, and up to four PCI Express x1 connections. ...more

External storage gets personal

So much data, so many files. Where to store all those MP3 songs, digital videos and backups, without opening up your PC for new or extra hard drives? Maxtor's latest solution is the 40 gig's worth of external storage that comes with the Maxtor Personal Storage 300LE. The new drive is compatible with both PCs and Macs - it operates with USB 2. ...more

AMD swings axe as chip prices tumble

It is price cuts all around as AMD extends the Athlon 64 X2 dual-core family with an 'entry-level' 3800+ processor. It will, AMD, hopes bring dual-core computing to a more mainstream audience. The part is priced at $354, based on 1,000 unit orders. ...more