P2P prevalent in big business

A survey by Canadian company AssetMetrix of more than 560 companies has found that 77 per cent had PCs running peer-to-peer applications. The company surveyed more than 175,000 computers and found that some companies have P2P applications on as many as 58 per cent, with firms that have more than 500 PCs guaranteed to have at least one running Internet file sharing software. The problems posed by P2P software on corporate networks are threefold, claims AssetMetrix. ...more

Sony cuts PS2 price

Sony has announced that it is to cut the price of the PS2 console with immediate effect. The PlayStation 2 console will drop in price from the current price point of ?104.99 (€159. ...more

Microsoft scraps 32-bit operating systems

Microsoft has announced that Windows Server 2008 will be the last 32-bit system it releases, for servers or clients, as it makes its way fully into the world of 64-bit computing. Speaking at the WinHEC 2007 conference in Los Angeles, Microsoft chairman Bill Gates outlined the benefits of 64-bit computing, such as the amount of information that can be crunched in one go as a data set and advanced memory technology. However, Gates admitted there are still challenges to overcome on the road to full 64-bit support. ...more

Credit card companies have designs on your wallet

Japanese credit card companies have formed an association to create a standard for making transactions via a mobile phone. The companies, which includes the Japanese arm of Vodafone, intend to create a new system dubbed QUICPay. Users of most popular credit cards - including MasterCard Japan - would be able to use their phones to pay for goods at any retail outlet that is fitted with a QUICPay scanner. ...more

The Gates to the future

Bill Gates set CES (Consumer Electronics Show) 2002 out of the traps yesterday with a keynote speech and demos of Microsoft's vision of the future. Microsoft's chief software architect was quick to point out that 2001 has been a good year for the company, having shifted 17 million copies of Windows XP in the two months since its launch and achieved record results on the launch of the Xbox, with an average 3.2 games sold with every one of the 1. ...more