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

Intel cuts prices across Pentium 4 range

Intel has rejigged its Pentium 4 processor pricing - hyper-threading desktop models, mobile models and the new Pentium 4 chips with 64-bit extensions have all been cut. Prices of the high-end desktop Pentium 4 processor - Intel's flagship - have been cut by as much as a third. The hyper-threading, socket 775 processors such as the 560 (3. ...more

Mandelson commits EU to copyright defence

The European music business has welcomed Peter Mandelson's announcement that the EU is committed to an uncompromising approach to copyright violation. Following a meeting with US Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez, where they agreed a joint approach to enforcement, the EU Trade Commissioner said: 'We are sending a message of zero tolerance to the rest of the world.' Gutierrez said that the defence of intellectual property rights would get the full resources of the US government. ...more

Be joins Microsoft court queue

Be, the operating system developer that sold most of its assets to Palm last year, has become the latest organisation to sue Microsoft for alleged anti-competitive practices. In its filing to federal and Californian courts, Be complains that, 'Microsoft has long held and wilfully maintained monopoly power in the worldwide market for Intel-compatible personal computer operating systems.' Be's attempt to compete in this market with its own BeOS operating system - which it describes as 'technically superior' - was undermined, the company alleges, 'by 'a series of illegal exclusionary and anticompetitive acts designed to maintain [Micrososoft's] monopoly in the Intel-compatible PC operating system market and created exclusive dealing arrangements with PC OEMs prohibiting the sale of PCs with multiple preinstalled operating systems. ...more

NTP hits Palm with patent suit

Patent firm NTP says it filed a patent infringement suit against Palm, maker of Treo smartphones. The company claims Palm's mobile devices and services infringe seven NTP patents and seeks uspecified monetary damages arising from that infringement. The infringement claims are around the mechanisms used within email services where they use wireless communications to supply services to mobile processors. ...more