Bill Gates pokes fun at MIT's $100 laptop project
Washington: Microsoft Corp chairman and chief software architect Bill Gates has poked fun at a $100 laptop computer project that is developing computers for developing countries with the backing of Google Inc., at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The $100 laptop project seeks to provide inexpensive computers to people in developing countries. The inexpensive computers lack features such as a hard disk and software available in a typical personal computer.

"The last thing you want to do for a shared use computer is have it be something without a disk ... and with a tiny little screen," Gates said. He added that "hardware is a small part of the cost" of providing computing capabilities, and added that the big costs came from network connectivity, applications and support.
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Apple may have to open iTunes to other devices
Paris: If a draft law being introduced in parliament in France and expected to be voted on Thursday is pushed through, Apple Computer may soon have to open its iTunes online music store and enable consumers to download songs onto devices other than the computer maker's popular iPod player.

Consumers would then be able to legally use software that converts digital content into any format and it would no longer be illegal to crack digital rights management — the codes that protect music, films and other content — if it is to enable to the conversion from one format to another.
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China probes Heinz Baby rice cereal for genetically engineered strains
Beijing: The Chinese government is probing probe whether Heinz's Baby Rice Cereal is 'contaminated by strains of genetically engineered (GE) rice.

The action by the ministry of agriculture follows a report by Greenpeace, an international environment protection organisation, which claimed that non-approved genetically engineered (GE) rice has been detected in the multinational company, Heinz's baby rice cereal. It also asked the Chinese government to control the spread of GE rice in the food chain. In 2000, the Mexican scientists found that the Bt protein (Cry1Ac), which comes from GE rice, induces allergic responses in rice.

The ministry said if reports turn out to be true, it would deal with the issue according to the law, Xinhua news agency reported.
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Chinese company develops indigenous low-cost computers
Beijing: A Chinese company claims to have developed the country's first low-cost computer priced at $125, using an indigenous central processing unit. The new product will hit the market in June.

Last year, a leading US IT expert Nicholas Negroponte proposed a $100-laptop for the ''One Laptop per Child'' project. The prototype was unveiled by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and Negroponte in November, Xinhua news agency reported.

The performance of Longmeng, or Dragon Dream, is equivalent to a 1G Pentium III desktop and is a computer combined with a DVD player and a video game player.

The computer, equipped with standard PC accessories, is the size of a textbook and weighs 500 grams.
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