Intel's new chips about 40% faster

Intel says a new line of computer processors, due out later this year, will be about 40% faster than current chips when running computer games, videos and other heavy workloads, reports Reuters.

The world's biggest microchip maker, which powers about 75% of computers, said the new Penryn processors will have the same basic design as current ones, but the circuitry will be 30% thinner - just 45 millionths of a millimetre wide.

"In high-performance computing and bandwidth-intensive applications... there will be up to a whopping 45% performance increase," says Patrick Gelsinger, GM for Intel's digital enterprise group.

The inability of students and others at Virginia Tech, in Blacksburg, Virginia, to make cellphone calls during the 16 April shooting tragedy added to the chaos surrounding the events of the day, reports eWeek.

Wireless carriers serving the Virginia Tech campus say wireless call volumes quadrupled during the crisis, which prevented students from accessing the wireless phone system to either call or send text messages.

Cingular/AT&T spokesman Mark Siegel says experience in past events has shown wireless networks are frequently unable to sustain the traffic demands placed on them during emergencies.

Sony has stated a higher-capacity PlayStation 3 (PS3) is definitely under consideration, reports PC World. The new console will be an 80GB version.

This comes after Sony decided to dump the 20GB version in North America, leaving only the 60GB console on sale.

According to a Sony spokesman, talking to Reuters: "For users who vigorously store [games and other entertainment content] in the PS3, 20GB is probably going to be too small, and even 60GB may not be big enough eventually."

The Windows Media team and Port 25, Microsoft's Open Source Software Lab, have released an add-on that will give users access to Windows Media Player inside Firefox, reports ARS Technica.

Firefox plays most videos that are found on the Web, but it runs into problems when a site requires Windows Media Player. Without the plug-in, Firefox tells users they need Internet Explorer to view the video.

The downloadable plug-in works with Windows XP SP2 (x86), Windows XP SP2 (x64), Windows Vista (x86), and Windows Vista (x64).