Apple debuts black, white MacBooks

Apple has introduced the long-awaited Intel-based MacBook laptop - in black and white casings. It has also dropped the 1.83GHz 15.4-inch MacBook Pro and made the high-end 2.16GHz 15.4-inch machine a standard configuration, reports The Register.

The new MacBooks are available with either 1.83GHz or 2GHz dual-core Core Duo processors. They ship with 667MHz DDR 2 SDRAM and either 60GB or 80GB of Serai ATA hard drive storage.

They also sport a 13.3-inch, 1 280 x 800 resolution display and a built-in Webcam.

Bill Gates and MTV have joined forces to declare war on the iPod, reports The Telegraph. Microsoft, in conjunction with MTV, which is owned by Viacom, are today introducing the first serious rival to the iPod.

The service, called Urge, will use Microsoft`s Media Player technology and MTV`s marketing power to target owners of non-iPod digital music players.

While Apple`s iTunes can only be played on iPods, Urge`s music will be adaptable to more than 100 different music players.

A Web site that aims to record the history of video game innovation is calling on games fanatics for help, reports the BBC. A team at a US university developed the Game Innovation Database, as the Web site is known.

The online encyclopaedia is similar to Wikipedia and allows users to browse and edit the site`s content. The developers hope games fanatics can start to build a complete picture of the last 35 years of games history.

Discovery Communications yesterday began selling programmes such as MythBusters and specials such as Shark Week on Apple`s iTunes Music Store in its latest effort to expand into new digital platforms, the Washington Post reports.

Discovery`s debut on iTunes comes as major broadcast and cable networks have begun to embrace new media with the hope that they can sell advertising across multiple platforms.

Under the iTunes deal, viewers can download an assortment of Discovery shows from the online store for the standard iTunes rate of $1.99.