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Intel is set this week to announce the next performance bump for both its Pentium III and Celeron processors, reaching speeds of 600MHz and 500MHz respectively. Major vendors such as Compaq, Dell and IBM will simultaneously announce models that incorporate the new chips.

One Y2K problem often overlooked is IT staff wanting to take leave.

Compuware announced last week it has signed a licensing agreement with CSC worth $14 million over the next five years. The company reports the deal is designed to streamline the licensing arrangements between the two companies and their predominantly large enterprise customers.

Yahoo is rumoured to be in talks to buy Internet stock darling Excite@Home in what is believed to be an over $US17 billion deal.

With the entry-level price of desktops approaching zero, the notebook market has hitherto maintained a high entry-level price on the back of strong demand from corporations. But as David Binning writes, that may be set to change as both small businesses and home users seek cheaper mobile solutions.

Compaq, Hewlett-Packard and Micron Electronic each joined the PC rebate throngs last week in the US, announcing that you can get $US400 back on a PC when you sign up for three years of Internet access.

Although IT analyst GartnerGroup has warned prospective investors in Asia of several inhibitors to the uptake of e-commerce in the region it argues against gross generalisations of the market.

As an increasing share of IT budgets appear to be swinging from hardware to services, system makers are offering their enterprise customers more of what they want in the form of management tools and so-called life cycle solutions.

The long-awaited acquisition of privately owned systems integrator and VAR Integrand Solutions (IS) has been completed and -- surprise surprise -- the buyer is US giant Avnet Corporation

The PC operating systems wars of the '90s will be viewed as a "quaint oddity" in 2005, while PCs themselves will be relegated to "antique furniture" status, an industry leader claims.

The rollout of Compaq-branded retail stores is to be completed by the end of this year, Compaq finally confirmed yesterday.

After successfully completing the first 100 days of "creative chaos", the electronic commerce alliance between Sun Microsystems and America Online/Netscape (the Sun-Netscape Alliance) has accelerated its activity in the race to increase its presence in the global provision of Internet-based business solutions.

Philips Speech Processing (PSP), a global division and business unit of the electronics giant Philips Electronics Australia, has launched the latest iteration of its retail voice recognition offering.

Whoever said the PC was dead was dreaming -- IDC reports record shipments for the second quarter in the Australian market.

The Australian Information Industry Association (AIIA) is gearing up for this year's Australian Software Showcase with over 35 developers already signing up to exhibit their wares in the Asia-Pacific spotlight.

Tony Gattari, high-profile Harvey Norman general manager for computers and communications, will join emerging Internet company EISA.

The latest Morgan & Banks job index has hit the streets, with an emphasis this quarter on the increase in demand for Internet skills.

As companies continue to flood the ASX for listing, the pioneers are starting to reap the capital rewards. Meanwhile warnings are still being sounded about un-profitable Internet ventures.

Compuware has signed a licensing agreement with CSC in a deal said to be worth $14 million over the next five years.

Oracle will launch a Web site later this year called Oracle Exchange, an online business-to-business marketplace where companies can buy and sell goods, Oracle executives said on Wednesday.