Apple could run on Intel

The latest version of the Mac OS X operating system could easily run on Intel chips, but Apple Computer CEO Steve Jobs said yesterday that the company has little interest in changing processors.

ZDNet quotes Jobs as saying: "It`s perfectly technically feasible to port Panther to any processor."

But Jobs reportedly said the company is happy with IBM`s PowerPC family of chips and feels the performance is "quite competitive".

Public wireless LANs or hotspots have yet to coalesce into a marketplace, partly because market requirements are still in flux. But changes witnessed in 2003 suggest an end game, says Gary Weis, president and CEO of Cometa Networks, according to PC World.

Intel, AT&T and IBM created Cometa 11 months ago to build and run hotspots. In September, Cometa launched its first hotspot in Seattle, where it plans to roll-out a total of 250 by year-end at McDonald`s restaurants, Barnes & Noble bookshops, and other locations.

The company likens usage patterns to early cellphone adoption patterns.

Microsoft has issued the first major patch for the new version of its Office software, fixing a flaw that could result in lost work, reports CNet. The "critical update", released late on Tuesday, applies to three of the four major applications in Office 2003 - Word, PowerPoint and Excel.

The problem happens when a document created with one of those applications is opened with an earlier version of Office. If the document contains graphics elements created using the OfficeArt tool, the earlier version of Office will misinterpret that part of the document and add invalid data to the file when it is saved.

The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG), the trade association responsible for Bluetooth wireless technology, has announced the adoption of Bluetooth specification version 1.2, reports eWeek. The updated version of the core specification includes new features "resulting in a more reliable and robust user experience for consumers".

The current specification is included in over 1 000 products as diverse as computer mice and mobile phones, to cars and various computing products. Version 1.2 is also intended to set the stage for the development of a growing number of mainstream products such as more feature-rich mobile phones, headsets, PDAs, digital music players, cameras and laptops in a consumer`s personal area network.