The weekly news roundup - Friday 23 March

 

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By Alun Williams

Posted on 23 Mar 2007 at 14:57

Keep abreast of the news with our weekly roundup of the week's main tech stories.

In what has been a relatively quiet week, as CeBit 2007 winds down, the stand out news is the UK arrival of Sony's next generation console, the PS3. The highly-specced machine, which comes at a high price, features an IBM 3.2GHz Cell processor and Nvidia's 'Reality Synthesizer' graphics chip, as well as surround sound and Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and Ethernet connectivity.

Of wider significance, however, is the console's Blu-ray drive, which is central to Sony's strategy of establishing Blu-ray dominance over HD DVD for next-gen blue laser technology.

And as well as the EC turning up the heat on Microsoft, in the server arena, the topics of DRM and piracy raise their head again - new DRM technology and anti-piracy legislation - and the context for this was a huge slump in sales for the music industry, as digital revenues fail to compensate for analogue losses.

Friday 23 March

Low-key UK launch for PlayStation 3
Sony's £425 console finally goes on sale in Europe, complete with 3.2Ghz Cell processor, 'Reality Synthesizer' graphics chip and Blu-ray drive.

EU accuses Microsoft of 'abusive behaviour' in server market
EU's Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes threatens new fines as Microsoft's market share grows.

CD sales slump 20 per cent in US
The rise of digital downloads fails to make up the compact disc shortfall, even including ringtones and subscription services in the mix.

Thursday 23 March

US gets first taste of Apple TV
Apple makes its first major assault on the living room with the device that lets people take the music, photos and video stored on a computer and play it on a television screen.

Thomson tracks content copying with DRM watermarks
Thomson, the French-owned electronics company, announces two new implementations of its NexGuard DRM technology that will encode digital content with the specific identity of the device to which it is downloaded.

No copyright on computer game ideas, Court of Appeal rules
Computer game developers are entitled to copy 'ideas' from other games without infringing copyright, the UK Court of Appeal rules.

Wednesday 23 March

Europe takes step closer to criminalising piracy
An EU directive is approved that will impose criminal sanctions for copyright infringement piracy.

Judge dismisses Google pagerank suit
A judge throws out a lawsuit challenging the fairness of how search giant Google calculates the popularity of websites for determining search results.

Upgrading to Windows Vista could save £50 per PC per year
A PC Pro Labs report discovers that improved power management in Vista could cut both energy bills and CO2 emissions.