corporate

Report: Microsoft offers cash incentives for HD-DVD

Microsoft is offering cash incentives called coupons to computer makers that sell personal computers with HD-DVD drives, a next-generation DVD format the software behemoth is supporting over rival Blu-ray disk, Electronic Engineering Times reported Monday.

Microsoft declined to comment in the EE Times report, which cited as evidence of Microsoft's success Hewlett-Packard's decision to back HD-DVD as well where it previously exclusively supported Blu-ray. An HP executive also said Microsoft's forthcoming Vista version of Windows will include HD-DVD support for free, whereas PC makers must pay about $30 per drive in Blu-ray royalties.

In September, Microsoft and Intel raised the profile of the battle between HD-DVD and Blu-ray … Read more

Intel to battle rootkits

The chipmaker is working on hardware-based security protection that will tell people when a rootkit is being downloaded to their PC, according to a report in ITObserver. The plan is to put a small chip on the motherboard to do this, Intel said at a press and analyst event in Folsom, Calif., on Thursday.

The move comes as Sony works to pull itself out of an embroglio over rootkit-like tool included in the antipiracy software on some of its CDs.

Wise-cracking McNealy needles rivals

Sun Microsystems Chief Executive Scott McNealy took potshots at many of his peers in the computing industry during a keynote address Tuesday--even at Larry Ellison, leader of the company hosting the Oracle OpenWorld conference at which McNealy spoke before an audience of 12,000.

Shortly after introducing servers based on Sun's new UltraSparc IV+ processor, McNealy showed a slide picturing him in jeans and Ellison in characteristically sharp attire. "That suit! You can buy 14 of our new servers for that suit," McNealy quipped.

He also listed the supposed song playlist on Ellison's iPod: "… Read more

HP ponders mysteries of dual-core

Dual-core processors are arriving in the mainstream, bringing new uncertainties about how to price software sold on the basis of how many processors it's running on. Now a Hewlett-Packard executive has chimed in with an opinion that agrees with that from Sun Microsystems, Microsoft, Intel and Advanced Micro Devices--a processor should be defined as that which fits into processor socket--but that suggests eventually sidestepping the issue altogether.

Oracle is on the other side of the dual-core debate, preferring instead to charge on the basis of processor cores. That's likely to make other company's software more competitive on … Read more

Why Oracle worked so hard to grab Retek

Oracle late Monday put an end to the bidding war with SAP for retail software maker Retek. The database software giant offered $11.25 for each outstanding Retek share and said that SAP had dropped out of the bidding. SAP last Thursday had upped its bid to $11, from its initial offer of $8.50 per share.

Why the fuss over Retek? Both Oracle and SAP see the retail market as one of the few fertile areas left in the enterprise software market, worth perhaps $10 billion. Analysts say many retailers, which have lagged their counterparts in other industries in … Read more

My blind date with PSP

OK, so we've had an actual PlayStation Portable in our hot little hands for two days now, enough to form some initial impressions:

I now have a vague sense of what it feels like to be a gorgeous woman. I used the PSP twice while commuting on public transit, and both times every male within visual range fixed me a gaze that conveyed a worrisome mixture of lust and "I am a potential mugger."

Contrary to what certain curmudgeons have said, it's a very capable movie player, especially compared to my 15-year-old TV. But … Read more