Gates tees off CES

Gates' pre-show keynote previewed new versions of MSN and Microsoft's pervasive plans for an assault on the CE world. The first indication of the new shape Microsoft intends to take came in the introduction from show organiser Gary Shapiro who described Microsoft as 'a company that is a chief player in the consumer electronic space'. This is patently untrue, but for how long? Gates stepped up to reveal plans for Microsoft's developments for TVs, speech recognition capabilities, software in cars, watches, set-top boxes and demonstrated the Portable Media Center from Creative as well as new versions of MSN. ...more

Never get lost using your PDA

Navman has launched a clip-on GPS system that turns both PalmOS and Pocket PC-based machines into navigation aids. It's a European debut for the GPS receivers that come with Smartpath, GPS-enabled software covering 90,000 towns and cities in 12 different countries. You can simply set locations as destination points and then track your progress. ...more

Intel Nocona foretells 64-bit desktop CPUs?

Intel's planned launch of its next-generation Xeon processor, codenamed Nocona, next week has stirred a wave of market reports that the chipset giant may soon come out with a 64-bit desktop chip, according to sources at Taiwanese PC makers. The Nocona chips will be available at clock speeds of 2.8, 3. ...more

Yahoo! partners for Enterprise push

Yahoo! has leapt on the rolling Enterprise IM bandwagon with its announcements of partnerships with with WebEx Communications and BEA Systems, Inc. The aim is to equip Yahoo! Instant Messenger with the ability to work with enterprise applications and distribute them for use with video or telephone conferencing. The move follows similar announcements of 'enterprise' versions from IBM and Microsoft. ...more

Double-density flash to power future mobile OS's

Toshiba has announced the Mobile DiskOnChip G3 memory product, which doubles the data capacity of standard flash memory. The Mobile DiskOnChip G3 boasts 64MB of capacity within a single silicon die - a world record in terms of capacity and size. It also offers high burst speeds of 80MB/sec, which will significantly improve boot times and data transfer, claims Toshiba. ...more