Tesco is latest iTunes challenger

Tesco will today launch a digital download store aimed at rivalling Apple`s dominant iTunes offering.

According to Xinhuanet, Tesco.com will offer over 500 000 songs - encoded at a 192kbps higher quality audio rate than the average online store and higher than Apple`s iTunes - at 79p (R10) for a single track.

The supermarket giant says its offering will be interoperable with more than 70 different music devices.

MSN announced last week that it plans to expand its music service to eight new European countries, as competitors vie for market share in the ₤25 million-a-year (R325 million) music download industry.

Around 3 000 students from 75 countries have entered the 2004 IBM Linux Scholar Challenge, aimed at developing future skills for the Linux community.

The largest turnout in the competition`s history, each student was required to write a 1 200-word essay describing a solution to one of 29 Linux-related challenges posed by IBM.

The IBM-provided challenges include asking entrants to identify deficiencies in Linux and propose solutions, describe how to build a high-availability application that would provide fail-over capability across multiple IBM servers, and improve boot time on a Linux-based IBM ThinkPad, TechWeb reports.

IBM launched the programme in 2001 to drum up enthusiasm for Linux and open source software among students worldwide.

First-person shooter Doom 3 came out on top at the Golden Joystick awards.

The sci-fi game, developed over four years at a cost of around $15 million (R91 million), won awards for both the ultimate game of the year and best PC game.

Other winners included Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas which took the most wanted for Christmas prize, closely followed by Halo 2 and Half-Life 2, expected to be big hits when they are released later this month, BBC reports.

Most wanted game of 2005 went to the Nintendo title, The Legend of Zelda.