Napster sleeps with the enemy

The inevitable has happened: Napster has signed a distribution deal with its former recording-industry enemies. The file-sharing software company, in trouble with nearly everyone in the music industry because it allows the free distribution of tracks, has signed the deal with MusicNet, a service owned by EMI, Warner, RealNetworks and Bertelsmann. The move will mean that MusicNet will be able to legally sell a huge chunk of mainstream music via Napster's innovative peer-to-peer software. ...more

Adobe denies legal action against Microsoft

Adobe has issued a statement denying that it has decided on legal action against Microsoft. Earlier this month a Microsoft employee claimed that Adobe was threatening to sue Microsoft if the company went ahead and included a 'Save as PDF' function in the new Office 2007 productivity suite. Clearly irritated by Microsoft's revelations of what are supposed to be private negotiations, Adobe has reaffirmed that it is 'committed to open standards' and the published specification and is seeking to protect the PDF from fragmentation. ...more

IBM peps up its PHP support

IBM is putting its weight behind the popular PHP scripting language with a new educational suite and development environment. Its developerWorks online resource will now include technical articles, forums and tutorials for PHP, which IBM estimates to make up around 40 per cent of the programming language market. 'Our partnership with IBM further cements PHP as the language of choice for business-critical Web applications,' said Doron Gerstel, CEO and President for Zend. ...more

HP rejigs product lines ahead of new releases

A raft of new releases is lined up by HP, ready for an official launch in October. Hewlett-Packard has unveiled the HP e-pc 40, HP Vectra vl420 PC, HP Vectra xe310 PC, a 15-inch LCD monitor and a flat-screen 21-inch CRT monitor. These will fit in and around "simplified" desktop PC product lines. ...more

Intel revenue outlook rosy for Christmas

The outlook is rosy for Intel in the run-up to Christmas. A year that has seen a number of setbacks for the Californian chip giant is set end on a more positive note - it has updated its business expectations for its fourth financial quarter, citing strengthening worldwide demand. Intel had expected revenues for the fourth quarter (ending 25 December) to be between $8. ...more