The global handheld market continued to slide in 2004, with shipments slipping to below 10 million for the first time since 1999, according to a new IDC report. Update: The German division of T-Mobile today unveiled the latest addition to its venerable line of Windows Mobile based communicators, the MDA IV, with a swiveling VGA display and a 520 MHz Intel XScale. It offers not only GSM, GPRS, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, but also adds support for WCDMA-based 3G. It will also include two integrated cameras, as well as a unique swiveling screen concept. The device can either be used laptop-style with both its screen and integrated thumbboard accessible, or tablet-style with only its screen accessible.

Symbian launched the latest version of its smart-phone operating system on Wednesday, promising stronger security, more customization and enhancements for enterprise customers.

Linux creator Linus Torvalds defended the open source movement against critics who say that the so-called "community of communities" should band together or risk ending up like Unix.

Apple Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows XP were easier to use than any of the Linux distributions tested - but not by much, says the report.

Floating point provides a convenient, approximate representation of real numbers that can greatly simplify scientific and engineering algorithms. This article gives an overview of two floating point formats used in the z990 architecture and discusses key FPU issues that system architects should consider in new designs.

Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster said that Apple retail stores are having a very hard time keeping up with demand for the new Mac mini and iPod shuffle. Elsewhere, C|NET News.com has a two-page report on the much-anticipated PowerBook G5 and the fact that it will take a while to materialize in the market.

In an effort to further commoditize computing, Sun is now selling computing and storage utilities, modeled after other "grids" like electrical, water, and oil distribution. Instead of paying by the kilowatt-hour or gallon/litre, customers pay by the CPU-hour or the gigabyte-month.In a way, this is a natural extention of other hosting services, such as web hosting, except that general computational workloads are supported on many processors.

"Apple's DVD players are subject to restrictive rules laid out by greedy Hollywood studios that don't really care if they piss off Apple's customers, since that's Apple's lookout. However, I've just discovered, to my amazement, that Apple imposes its very own restrictions on its DVD players over and above those imposed by the studios: that's right, Apple voluntarily treats its customers worse than the studios say it has to" says BoingBoing in their editorial. VLC does not seem to be a stable idea either (v0.8.x doesn't play my VCDs where v0.7.x could, and many times DVD audio and picture are out of sync).

Technology Insider has a skeptical review of the new Mac Mini. It gives a good overview of a Windows user's impression of the Mini and Macs in general. Note: read the whole review before rushing to judgement. If you read it carefully, you might be able to discern the author's hidden adgenda. Also check out the same site's article on setting grandma up with a Linux box.

Apple has unseated Google for the number one spot of major global brands, compiled by Interbrand, a marketing industry analyst. Ikea and Starbucks were numbers three and four, and number five was a surprising newcomer: al-Jazerra. I guess being on the front lines of a major world conflict really gets your name out there.

1.0 versions of Voice over IP application Skype have been released for Linux and OS X. They've been in Beta for several months. These versions seem to have feature parity with the Windows versions, and cross-platform communication is possible.

I've got some great books that I'll be giving away to OSNews members next week. Here's how it will work: Two books will go to OSNews members picked at random, including people who sign up for new memberships this week. One book will go to a new member who signs up between now and next friday. And two books will go to regular OSNews readers, members or not, picked at random from people who post an insightful, non-troll, non-flame, comment on an OSNews story between now and next friday. Read more to see the books and learn more about signing up.

Solaris 10 for SPARC/x86 is now available for download. Get it while it's hot.

I just finished a quick round of mobile rendering optimizations for our sister site, GnomeFiles.org (automatic detection of mobile browsers included, just as for OSNews). The mobile mobile support of the site is not as good as OSNews' is, but it should serve well all smartphone & PDA users, as irritating horizontal scrollbars are now a thing of the past (tip for Netfront/iMode users: use the 'smart fit' mode with GnomeFiles, tip for Openwave's browser: use a phone with v6.2.0 and above). Also, browsers that hit the site and we know that they can only do WAP, will be automatically redirected on GnomeFiles' WAP site. In other site news, our other sister site, OS Galaxy is expanding quickly. Join OS Galaxy if you are in the OS-related business and you happen to blog about it. Update: More optimizations, Gnomefiles should render respectably now even on 128x128 phone screens.