Microsoft settles up

Microsoft has settled two further class-action law suits brought by consumers in Columbia and Kansas for violating state anti-trust laws. Both settlements have been given preliminary approval and take the form of vouchers for hardware and software vouchers. Microsoft will keep half the value of any unclaimed vouchers and donate the remaining half to needy schools in the respective states. ...more

Firefox bags 20 per cent Euro market share

Firefox accounts for more than 20 per cent of all Web browser usage in Europe, according to Web metrics firm XiTi. The French company's survey of 32.5 million websites put Finland, Slovenia and Germany at the top end of Firefox usage with 38, 36 and 30 per cent respectively. ...more

Low-key UK launch for PlayStation 3

Around 100 people who slept overnight in London's Virgin Megastore to buy the first units of Sony's PlayStation 3 games console were rewarded with a free 46in HD TV set for their troubles. While early demand for the long-awaited successor is expected to be high, the launch, some four months after the games console went on sale in the USA and Japan, did not generate the scrums that surrounded the sale of the first Nintendo Wii units in December. Whether this is due to the PS3's price - in the region of ?425, ?260 more than the Wii - or to the fact that units are readily available around the country, while the Wii was in short supply, remains to be seen. ...more

BT kicks off sub-Skype rates for Net calls

BT is stepping up to the Skype challenge when it comes to VoIP-based International calls. The UK telco-giant has now begun a special offer for calls via its Communicator application, which will run until 31 December. International calls to a selected group of countries are now charged at the rate of 0. ...more

Samsung's new memory chip 'twice the speed of DDR2'

Samsung, the world's biggest memory manufacturer is claiming another breakthrough in DRAM design. The company claims a new ultrafast prototype chip can deliver data at 1066Mbits per second. If true, the 512Mbit part, inevitably dubbed DDR3, is twice as fast as the current generation of DDR2 designs and five times that of the original DDR devices. ...more