64bit Nvidia drivers power 64bit Windows multimedia

Nvidia has announced the beta availability of 64-bit software drivers for its nForce3 MCPs (media and communications processors). Optimised for the AMD Athlon 64 and Opteron processors, the drivers will support the beta version of Microsoft Windows XP 64-bit Edition for Extended Systems. 'AMD is leading the way to pervasive 64-bit computing and NVIDIA is helping make it possible for developers to take advantage of this technology with the release of these 64-bit drivers,' said Marty Seyer, general manager of AMD's Microprocessor Business Unit. ...more

Break up for BT?

Rumours that British Telecom may be split were fuelled at the weekend by the appointment as finance director of Philip Hampton, the man responsible for the break up of British Gas. But according to the Sunday Times, the impetus for the break up comes from deputy chairman Lord Marshall and other non-executive board members who are concerned about dissatisfied shareholders. The paper says that present financial director Robert Brace had become unpopular with investors, who were also concerned by plummeting share prices. ...more

?750m revamp of HP product range

Hewlett-Packard has overhauled Its market leading range of imaging and printing products with 50 new releases, many of which will be aimed at the consumer market. HP is lining up new additions to its printer, scanner, all-in-one (fax, print and scan) and digital camera products. It is also introducing a new photographic printing technology - PhotoREt IV - that it says will enable its printers to reproduce 1. ...more

Music industry says Apple should license iTunes DRM

Steve Jobs should worry less about DRM and concern himself with breaking the link between the iTunes Store and iPods, according to Mitch Bainwol, the chief executive of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Bainwol was responding to Jobs' call for the music industry to abandon its insistence that music downloads are sold with copy-protection attached. DRM-free music, Jobs said, would stimulate innovation in a 'truly interoperable music marketplace', and Apple 'will embrace this wholeheartedly'. ...more

Google defuses linkbombing

Google has announced that it has made changes to its search algorithms in an attempt to eliminate the practice of Googlebombing: engineering search results to ensure that a query points to a specific, desired result. The search engine has previously tolerated Googlebombs, since the first was spotted in 2000. Although it did not condone them, as recently as 2005 it expressed a reluctance to manually alter its search results. ...more