A-plus for Apple's iTunes

Effective immediately, Apple's iTunes Plus will sell songs without digital rights management controls, reports Bangkok Post. Music can now be played on any music machine, not just the iPod.

This freedom comes at a price. A song in AAC format, at a data rate of 256Kbps, costs 1.29 euros ($1.75). People who are happy to stay with the old system will be able to get their songs for 99c, at 128Kbps.

Apple says the first songs available in the new system will come from the EMI Music catalogue, which includes songs from Coldplay, Norah Jones and Paul McCartney.

Global consulting firm Capgemini believes Google Apps appeals to more than college students and small businesses, reports CNET News. The two are expected to announce a partnership that aims to crack into large corporations with the search giant's online Google Apps.

The partnership will allow Capgemini to offer desktop support and installation services to large corporations that use Google Apps Premier Edition.

Google Apps, which includes Web-based Gmail, a calendar and document editor, can fill a role in large corporations even though the product suite is used mainly by individuals and small businesses, according to Capgemini executives.

Advanced Micro Devices' (AMD's) quad-core Opteron processor is finally ready, states CNET News, but it is unclear if this is the product that will help right AMD's ship.

AMD CEO Hector Ruiz will formally unveil the quad-core Opteron chip, previously code-named Barcelona, during an event in San Francisco, this evening. Over a year in the making, and six months later than expected, Barcelona will be AMD's first chip with four processing cores.

The four major server vendors all plan to use Barcelona in their servers, and AMD thinks it can court new customers. But it appears that Barcelona is far from the smash hit that the company once hoped it had with its "native" quad-core design.