Sun learns to plug and play, the Microsoft way

Sun Microsystems is to join the Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) Forum. This is a group of companies working on Microsoft-backed device software, which actually competes with Sun's Jini technology. But this doesn't represent a conversion on Sun's behalf; it's simply going to look and learn. ...more

For new Zen, less is still Xtra

There's a new version of Creative's Jukebox Zen Xtra portable music player. The existing 60GB model now has a younger brother with a capacity of 30GB. According to Creative, however, the mid-market model does have the full feature set of its older sibling, in terms of the MediaSource interface software. ...more

Windows Defender ships

After an extended beta period lasting around two years, Windows Defender, Microsoft's anti-spyware tool is now available as a finished product. Available as a free download, the Windows Defender UI has been redesigned to give it a livelier appearance more in line with Vista. It has also been tuned for better usability with a warning system that adapts alert levels according to the severity of a threat but still ensures the user does not miss the most critical alerts. ...more

CES 2007: Blu-ray Association declares premature victory

The Blu-ray Disc Association announced at its CES press conference that it is already victorious in the high-definition format war. Lining up Hollywood film executives from Sony, Warner and Fox Pictures, chair of the US Promotions committee, Andy Parsons, cited the format's alleged "content advantage". With 25 companies now having released Blu-ray products and around 170 film and audio titles announced, Blu-ray media sales outstripped rival HD DVD discs for the first time in December. ...more

Samsung strengthens notebook security with its Trusted Platform Module

Security is going to be the by-word for next year's laptops. Barely two weeks ago IBM announced its ThinkPad T42 with a fingerprint reader and data encryption. Now Samsung says its laptop range will incorporate what it is calling a Trusted Platform Module, using public/private key encryption infrastructures and fingerprint authentication. ...more