IBM showcases its smallest ever desktop

A new S50 ThinkCentre will be the smallest full-featured desktop available, according to IBM, which has been previewing the machine ahead of its release later in the summer. 'It's the smallest desktop we've ever made', IBM's ThinkVantage Technologies Specialist, Adrian Horne, told us. He defined a full featured desktop as one with an internal power supply and a desktop hard disk drive. ...more

Halo 2 Xbox game leaks over the Net

According to reports, copies of the eagerly awaited Halo 2 Xbox game made an impromptu debut last night on Usenet groups and pirate sites. The leaked game, purportedly the French version, precedes its official release in the second week of November, although Bungie, the studio developing the game, had earlier this week said work on the title was finished. Microsoft, which owns Bungie, said in a statement that it would take a dim view of anyone downloading a copy of the leaked game from the Internet. ...more

Apple on course for quarterly iPod sales surge

Apple will sell between 11 and 12 million iPods this quarter, according to NPD's analysis of sales figures for January. Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster said that the figure is 'based on various assumptions', explaining that it had been calculated by comparing January's data with its proportion of sales in previous years. 'When the second month of data is released, our analysis will likely lead to a slightly different iPod unit figure,' he wrote in a note to investors Munster noted that the estimate is higher than both Wall Street's 10. ...more

MGM vs Grokster case moves to the Supreme Court

The two sides in the bitter dispute over whether peer to peer networking is responsible for illegal file sharing final met at the Supreme Court today. The long running battle between MGM, which represents the movie business, and Grokster and StreamCast Networks, for the p2p companies, seeks to settle once and for all whether peer to peer technology encourages illegal activity. So far the battle has been a 2-0 victory for the file sharers. ...more

More PS2s arrive in UK

If you were one of those impatient gamers who paid extortionate amounts of money on eBay or QXL to secure a PlayStation in time for Christmas, prepare to start crying over your console. As reported yesterday, Toys R Us are supplying the console off the shelf and they now have been joined by Dixons, who yesterday ran a national newpaper campaign trumpeting its new consignment of consoles. But now you can also buy a new PS2 straight off the shelves from the Virgin Megastore in Oxford Street - but get there quick! There is a steady trickle of the consoles coming into the UK and Ray Maguire, the Managing Director of Sony Europe, yesterday confirmed that 400,000 PlayStation 2 units would arrive in the UK before 31 March. ...more