PDAs cling on in the USA - Gartner

Oh, our American cousins and their quaint ways. According to research group Gartner, our friends in the mobile-device backwater that is the US still use PDAs and are only just catching on to the idea of the smartphone. North America remains the only place in the world where PDAs still outsell smartphones, and Gartner expects the device category to continue to edge along the brink of extinction, with a lack of consumer demand shown in there being no new models from Palm this year. ...more

Time runs out for SP2 refuseniks

Those companies who have been wary of installing Windows XP Service Pack 2, but have continued to update their systems via Microsoft's Automatic Update service have a dilemma from today. From now on, SP2 will be loaded automatically on machines running Windows XP and Windows XP Service Pack 1 that have the Automatic Updates feature turned on. When Service Pack 2 was released on 16 August of last year, many IT managers wanted to evaluate the product before they deployed it across their networks. ...more

KFTC gives Intel Seoul food for thought

When is a 'dawn raid' an 'unscheduled visit'? When it is AMD rather than Intel describing the visit of Korean Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) authorities to Intel offices in South Korea. AMD has stated that the evidence-gathering is part of an investigation into possible violations by Intel of Korea's Monopoly Regulation and Fair Trade Act. 'The dawn raids in Korea make it abundantly clear that competition authorities worldwide are intensifying their investigative efforts into Intel's anticompetitive business practices because they have good reason to believe evidence of illegal monopoly abuse is there to be found,' said AMD's legal affairs and chief administrative officer, Thomas M. ...more

Broadband crisis: it's not just us!

US telecoms companies may keep their networks for themselves. You may think that it's only the UK's broadband future that is being hampered by an outdated telecommunications infrastructure, but it seems the US has similar problems. In one week's time Congress will vote on the Internet Freedom Bill, which would allow the telecommunication carriers, known as the Bell companies, to bypass laws that require them to open up their networks to competitors. ...more

AMD rolls out its flagship chips for the Christmas market

With an eye on the Christmas market for ultimate home machines, AMD has introduced two top-of-the range 64-bit processors: the AMD Athlon 64 FX-55, which supercedes the FX-53, and the AMD Athlon 64 processor 4000+. Described by AMD as 'the world's ultimate PC processor for enthusiasts and hard-core gamers', the FX-55 is a faster version of the FX-53 now running at 2.6GHz instead of the earlier 2. ...more