Panasonic enters smartphone arena with Symbian-based handset

The mobile road warrior will be able to edit and project PowerPoint presentations from their Panasonic phone before the year is out - the consumer electronics giant has entered the smartphone arena with its X700 device. Based on the Symbian OS, the clamshell-designed digital camera-touting phone supports video, the use of miniSD cards and can natively view and edit Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents. The tri-band phone supports GPRS and also has Bluetooth and MMS (multimedia messaging service) capabilities. ...more

Nvidia: DirectX 9 to drive sales

Nvidia believes that DirectX 9 will be a driving force behind near-term growth in the graphics chip industry, according to company vice president of sales and marketing David Roman. The new standard is stimulating demand for add-in board (AIB) graphics cards, Nvidia's core business. By the end of the second quarter, over 60 per cent of Nvidia's products supported DirectX 9, up from less than 10 per cent in the first quarter, stated Roman. ...more

Carte Orange keydrive offers 8GB of storage

LaCie has introduced the new Carte Orange keydrive offering an unprecedented 8GB of storage. The credit card-sized (55x85x6mm) drive, also available with 4GB, includes a Hi-Speed USB 2.0 interface for driver-free plug-and-play connectivity in OS X and Windows and is housed in a metal casing - orange as the product's name suggests. ...more

iPod manufacturer withdraws libel action against journalists

A Taiwan iPod manufacturer has withdrawn a libel action against two journalists who reported on conditions at its plant in China's Shenzhen province. Foxconn and the journalists' employer, the China Business News newspaper, issued a joint statement saying that they had resolved their dispute and apologised to each other for 'for the disturbances brought to both of them by the lawsuit'. Foxconn had earlier reduced its damages claim against the report's author, Wang You and editor Weng Bao from 30 million yuan to just one yuan. ...more

The rise of the rootkit threat

Security company McAfee has highlighted the pitched battle between the security community and virus writing networks in its charting of the rise of rootkit threats. Rootkits have boasted a high profile ever since Sony's ill-fated attempt at copy-protection stumbled when it was found to contain insecure rootkit technology that compromised the system upon which it was installed. While it may have been the first time most of the public had heard of the term - which refers to code working at a low level, interacting directly with the operating system and invisible to the user and other applications, including many security software - the infamy of the incident also took the fancy of virus writers the world over: rootkits are now big business on the virus underground. ...more