IDC: PC processor market performs above expectations

The x86 PC processor market performed above admittedly subdued expectations in the fourth quarter of 2002, according to International Data Corporation's (IDC) latest quarterly processor market share report. The report indicated that both unit shipments and revenues improved on quarter and above sequential norms. However, average selling prices (ASPs) were essentially flat. ...more

Intel to demo Napa notebook platform next month

Intel intends to show off its latest low power Centrino system for notebooks at next month's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The platform, codenamed 'Napa' (successor to 'Dothan' and before that 'Carmel', which was the original Centrino trinity of processor, chipset and wireless networking) is said to provide higher performance with lower power consumption. The Napa set includes both the upcoming 'Yonah' processor and a new wireless communications chip. ...more

US Department of Justice narrows focus for Google demands

The US Department of Justice has agreed to a much narrower focus for the US administration to force Google to hand over user information as evidence to back up child porn legislation. US District Court Judge James Ware told a hearing yesterday that he would likely approve the reduced request and intends 'to grant some relief to the government'. Since Google stood its ground and refused to hand over user data on a random sample of millions of searches and web addresses, the DoJ has now culled its request to around 5,000 search terms and 50,000 web addresses. ...more

e-security breaches cost $15bn worldwide per year says report

What price security? Can you put a price on lost reputation caused by damage to customer trust? Market analysts at Datamonitor have produced a report - "eSecurity: removing the roadblock to eBusiness" - which claims that security breaches cause over $15bn of damage worldwide, annually. The report finds that online companies are still not taking security issues seriously - over 50% of businesses, worldwide, spend five per cent or less of their IT budgets on securing their networks. "Many e-businesses are still ignorant about the risk they are exposing themselves to", said Datamonitor e-security analyst, Ian Williams. ...more

New report calls on industry to trust its workers

Britain's office workers are being increasingly monitored, controlled and micromanaged according to a new survey from Microsoft. The result is that instead of improving productivity, the culture of top level command and control is actually damaging Britain's competitiveness. According to the report, The Future Role of Trust in Work, control freakery by British management means that increasingly technology is being misused to scrutinise worker performance. ...more