Odessa draws up new charting tool

The Ukrainian company Odessa is launching its ConceptDraw diagramming package in the UK. For drawing flow charts, technical drawings, office plans, or sketching out designs such as for Websites, it can also be programmatically extended by its own version of Basic. Compatible with Macs (it is a Carbon application for OS X) as well as Windows, ConceptDraw V diagrams are exportable to a range of formats, including, HTML, XML, JPGs, PDF, PowerPoint and Flash. ...more

'DRM is important' - Microsoft exec

A senior Microsoft executive has joined the debate about the future of DRM by reiterating the company's commitment to developing and licensing DRM technologies. In an interview with Forbes, Robbie Bach, president of Microsoft's Entertainment and Devices division, said that it is the company's job to provide 'important' DRM while it is up to content providers to decide whether to employ it. 'Certainly the content providers are the people who determine what the rights are,' he said. ...more

US launch for HD-DVD postponed

Toshiba may put back the launch of HD-DVD in the US until next year in order to 'optimise' the release schedule. The company, which is the main driver of the high-capacity optical disc technology, said that it still plans to introduce it in Japan this year. 'We are now in talks with Hollywood studios and large-scale retailers to seek the most effective timing of the launch and best way to launch,' a Toshiba spokeswoman said. ...more

Jobs admits mistakes

In an interview reported on Fortune.com, Apple CEO Steve Jobs has admitted that he and the company made major mistakes during the last couple of years. Jobs confessed that they got it wrong with the Cube and that the change in education sales policy "was a train wreck". ...more

Intel to sponsor Yahoo Games

Continuing its bid to push its Hyperthreading technology to gamers, Intel is to sponsor Yahoo Games on Demand. In return, Yahoo will make a range of games available on its site which take advantage of the latest generation of Pentium 4 chips. Yahoo Games on Demand is a service aimed at broadband users that enables then to rent a game for several days as well as multiplayer games and demos. ...more