US Justice Department backs Microsoft against Google

When Google filed a confidential complaint against Microsoft, a leading antitrust official at the US Justice Department intervened, urging state prosecutors to reject it, according to a newspaper report. The intervention took place last month, but has just been revealed by the New York Times. Google accused Microsoft of designing its Vista operating system to discourage use of Google's desktop search program, lawyers involved in the case told the Times. ...more

Gartner predicts PC market price war

Gartner is predicting a price war in the PC market, with the launch of Vista doing little to help vendors' bottom lines. Gartner's current figures already display the downwards pressure on pricing. As 2006 draws to a close, the analyst firm expects global shipments to finish up 10. ...more

2Gb limit for new CD format

TDK showed off its MultiLevel (ML) CD recording format at the Consumer Entertainment Show in Las Vegas. The new ML CD format can store up to 2Gb of data on standard CD-R and CD-RW discs, with the drives having a CD-R write speed of 36X. TDK is hoping that a new 3in format ML disc, which can hold 650Mb of data, will grow in popularity and be used in portable devices such as MP3 players and digital cameras, doing away with expensive memory cards. ...more

Disney backs Blu-ray in battle of high-capacity disc formats

In the battle between the competing standards for the next generation of DVD, the Blu-ray group has raised the stakes again with the announcement that the Walt Disney Corporation is backing the Sony Corp led group and has joined as the 15th member of the Blu-ray Disc Association. The move follows the announcement two weeks ago by the rival consortium led by Toshiba that Warner Brothers, New Line, Paramount and Universal Pictures would be backing the rival HD-DVD format. Disney, currently riding high with Pixar-made movie 'The Incredibles', says it will begin shipping its library of classic childrens' films on Blu Ray DVD as soon as the players begin shipping in the US and Japan. ...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