Analysis World+Dog is relaying news originally posted on Bloomberg that Microsoft's rumoured 'iPod killer' could be out in time for Christmas. But the question the reports don't address is how, if even the likes of Sony are unable to hinder the iPod's market domiance, Microsoft is going to do so with what could very well be a me-too machine?

White Chocolate, anyone? That's what LG today said it will offer around the world later this year. It will also offer a pink version of the popular slimline slider phone, and it has plans to ship a range of "unique" colour schemes too.

Graphics card maker GeCube this week announced it as started shipping ATI Radeon X1300- and X16090-based boards with full HDCP support to ensure HDMI-connected HD TVs will display content at the maximum resolution.

What with North Korea's recent rocketry shenanigans, Reg Hardware readers' revelation of what could be the silliest USB add-on yet couldn't have come at a less tasteful time. But what the heck, here it is, the USB-powered missile launcher.

AMD's Socket AM3 processor interconnect will be forwards compatible with Socket AM2, allowing today's AM2-based boards to host AM3-equipped CPUs, the chip maker has revealed. That said, AM3 mobos will not, apparently, accept AM2 processors.

Chip maker Nat Semi has asked 35 employees it has made redundant to return the 30GB iPod each was given last month. Many of the workers thought the music players were a gift, but no, according to their former employer, the devices were not presents but communications tools.

Samsung has begun shipping GDDR 4 memory chips in volume, the company said today, more than eight months after it began sampling the parts.

German media-player maker Maxfield has begun shipping its handheld video player, the Max Movie, in the UK, the company said today.

Apple has begun shipping an education-oriented version of its 17in Intel-based iMac - replacing its last remaining CRT-fitted all-in-one machine, the eMac.

Universal Music Group is to bring no-frills CDs to the UK in a bid to match the iTunes Music Store's price point. The scheme targets old, back-catalogue releases rather than new or recent titles.

How easy will it be to buy a PlayStation 3 on 17 November, the day it launches in the UK and the rest of Europe? Tricky, reckons the Official PlayStation Magazine, which expects an initial stock allocation of "in the region of 150,000 units".

Nvidia's upcoming MCP61 single-chip integrated chipset has been certified as being compatible with the PCI Express standard. The part's certification suggests it's finished and nearing shipment - indeed, the part has been rumoured to be scheduled for an August debut.

Sony UK today unveiled its smallest Micro Vault Flash drive yet - a 2.4mm-thick SD Card-like unit that clips into any free USB port. The 1.5g, 3 x 1.5cm Micro Vault Tiny ships in capacities of 256MB to 2GB, but ships with what Sony calls Virtual Expander software to compress the card's contents boosting storage capacity almost threefold.

Samsung is to ship its BlackBerry-like SGH-i320 Windows Mobile 5.0-based phone in Europe later this month, the South Korean giant promised today. The device sports a 2.2in, 240 x 320, 65,536-colour display above a QWERTY keyboard.

Apple's pro-oriented desktop Mac will not only sport a new name and a new Intel processor when it launches at the company's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) next month but also a new case design.

Samsung today launched a stylish trio of flagship digital cameras the company hopes will win it a host of new fans when they ship in September. The luxurious-looking gadgets incorporate hi-res video shooting and multimedia playback.

Medion, the company that revolutionised the European PDA market a few years back just by bundling GPS receivers and route-planning software with its PocketPCs, today unveiled its latest line-up of dedicated sat nav gadgets.

Japanese mobile phone company Willcom has unveiled a Windows Mobile 5.0-based handset to compete with Nokia's Communicator series - aka 'the brick'. Manufactured by Sharp and equipped with a 416MHz Intel XScale processor, the W-Zero3 WS700SH sports a 2.8in, 640 x 480 display and a slide-down QWERTY keyboard.

Review Ask Nokia and it will tell you its N series handsets are the acme of mobile phones. So much so that we're not even supposed to think of them as telephony devices but as "multimedia computers" that are "the next leap forward in personal computing"...

Preview Last week, Intel gathered the European press in Munich for a sneak peek at its the Core 2 Duo chip - aka 'Conroe'. Reg Hardware was there. We were limited to running a set of pre-installed benchmarks on the systems provided so this isn't a conclusive performance review of what Core 2 Duo is capable of...