New Microsoft multimedia soon

Microsoft is expected to introduce several new consumer products at an event in Los Angeles on 12 October, including an update to Windows XP Media Center Edition 2004 and the first devices using Media Center Extender technology, reports PC World.

The report says Windows XP Media Center Edition is aimed at making the PC the media and entertainment hub for the home. The PCs come with a remote control and a TV tuner card. Users can watch DVDs; manage digital audio, video and picture files; and play, pause and record live television, in addition to using the PC for traditional tasks.

A key new feature is support for wireless technology and in particular Media Center Extender, a new technology that lets users wirelessly connect TVs to the Media Center PC.

IBM plans to start shipping its PCs with a new chip designed to stop hackers by safeguarding passwords and other identity information, reports CNET.

The report says IBM is the first computer maker to use National Semiconductor`s SafeKeeper Trusted I/O Device, which stores a computer`s identity in silicon, making it more difficult for outsiders to access. The manufacturers say the chip encrypts information using a code key only accessible to a specialised processor, protecting the information from outside hackers and user error.

German computer memory manufacturer Infineon has agreed to pay a $160 million fine to the US government for fixing the price of computer memory from 1999 to 2002, reports The Register.

The report says the penalty is one of the biggest ever imposed by the anti-monopoly division of the US Department of Justice. Infineon plans to pay off the penalty in equal instalments for the next five years.

Infineon says the wrongdoing was limited to certain OEM customers, and the company has already been in contact with these customers and has achieved or is in the process of achieving settlements with all of them.

Infineon and other major memory makers like Samsung, Hynix and Micron have been under investigation for artificially pumping up the price of DRAM. The companies were suspected of holding secret meetings to discuss pricing plans.

Three state public utility commissions in the US have promised a supportive approach to broadband over power-line (BPL) services, reports PC World.

A representative of the commissions says instead of heavy-handed regulation, state regulators want to encourage the roll-out of BPL as an alternative to other broadband services. As BPL grows, regulators say they will keep an eye on several issues, including complaints from amateur radio operators that BPL causes radio signal interference.

In June, President George Bush pushed BPL as a way to help achieve his goal of universal broadband availability across the US by 2007. The report says at least four US power companies are offering commercial-level BPL service to customers, and others are offering BPL trials to customers.

Researchers at the University of Kansas Medical Centre are testing a hi-tech dummy that could help premature babies learn to eat, reports USA Today.

The computerised dummy analyses how a child sucks and prompts the baby to do so correctly. Inventors hope the dummy will help speed up premature babies` release from the hospital. They say sucking is an important stimulus for brain development, but babies born too soon need to have that stimulation augmented somehow.

Ongoing research will attempt to determine if improvement in a skill such as swallowing could reduce the chance of speech, language and other developmental disabilities.