In more Linux consumer electronics news, Computerworld has a short article outlining the latest inroads that the open source OS is making in the already crowded phone-OS space.  NEC Corp. said today that it's working on the development of Linux-based cell phones with MontaVista Software Inc., and an executive of the Sunnyvale, Calif., software company said it's in talks with other major cellular handset makers on similar projects.

Apple is starting to promote its public beta of X11 for OS X: "X11 for Mac OS X offers a complete X Window System implementation for running X11-based applications on Mac OS X. Based on the de facto-standard for X11, the open source XFree86 project, X11 for Mac OS X is compatible, fast and fully integrated with Mac OS X . . . Native Aqua and X11 applications run side by side on the Mac OS X desktop. You can cut and paste between X11 and Aqua windows."

"I've got 1GB of memory in my 867MHz PowerMac. But at 15,500 tracks, iTunes is starting to become difficult (not quite impossible) to use. It hums along fine if I don't touch it. But simply selecting a track can result in 20 seconds of spinning beachball. Editing an ID3 tag can take more than 30 seconds. Dragging tracks to a playlist, same. iPhoto is even worse. At around 800 images, it started to bog down on me." Read Scot Hacker's editorial at OReilly NetWork. The book writer (mostly known for his 'BeOS Bible' book, now a MacOSX convert) finds scalability problems on the famous iApps and suggests these to be fixed before adding new features.

"One of Linux's supposed barriers in high performance computing is the 'eight processor limit.' SGI says their new Altix 3000 line, running a patched 2.4.19 kernel, handily breaks this barrier -- it can run up to 64 Intel Itanium 2 microprocessers -- and that "superclusters" built with SGI's Linux-based products can outperform generic Linux clusters in some applications by a large enough margin to justify their additional cost." Read the full article at NewsForge.

Nintendo has announced that a new Gameboy version will be introduced in March. This version will include a front-lit screen, a rechargeable lithium-Ion battery and opens and closes like a mini-laptop. Since the Gameboy introduction in 1989, there have been over 120 million units sold. Of the most recent version, the Game Boy Advance, almost 12 million units have been sold since its June 2001 debut. Update: Gamespot.com has revealed that they have learned that a blue-colored and black-colored version will be available upon release in Japan on the 14th of February.

"Microsoft announced Tuesday its first-ever licensing fees for use of its media delivery software on non-Windows technology, a move designed to expand its reach in the market for digital media players." Read more at ZDnet.

Steve Jobs just announced in his Macworld Keynote that Apple is releasing its own browser, called Safari. Its claim to fame is extremely fast performance on the Mac. The Mac platform has struggled from sluggish browser performance with IE (the old default browser). Update: According to Jobs, Safari is open source and based on khtml. It only runs on Mac OS X and will be available for download today.

SGI has a new refrigerator-sized Linux server that uses up to 64 Itanium processors. Called the Altix 3000, it's a Linux adaptation of the Origin 3000. Its most interesting capability is the ability to cluster several Altix 3000s together, with the architecture supporting up to 2,048 processors. Read more about it at ZDNet.

"The first thing I noticed about the new Mandrake 9.0 Linux is that the goofy cross-eyed penguin is gone. Mandrake is pointing itself in a more sophisticated direction - it's not drab like Red Hat, but elegant and inviting. It looks expensive." Read the review at NewsForge.

Microsoft Corp. today announced the availability of its Windows Powered Smartphone and Pocket PC software for CDMA and broadband CDMA (1xRTT) networks. The new release delivers the same Pocket PC and Smartphone software available for GSM/GPRS networks.

For the last 20 years or so, Microsoft has been playing the same old game. Sure, they morph and adapt along with the times, and they expand into new markets. But basically they are in the software business and one of the main ingredients in their recipe has been always this: "Keep the data format proprietary and take advantage of it."

"As much as Linux is pitted against Windows in the popular imagination, Linux has enjoyed perhaps more success supplanting Unix in the enterprise. The SCO Group's SCO Linux 4 (brand-new, despite its enumeration) can provide companies with an effective path to such migrations, particularly at sites that are running SCO's UnixWare." Read the review at eWeek.

"Windows XP Embedded with Service Pack 1 is the newest version of the Windows XP Embedded tools and database. New tool features are available, as are new embedded enabling components. Every Service Pack 1 binary is reflected in an updated component, and some new components have been added to make the entire system more flexible." Read the article at MSDN.

GTK+OSX is a native Mac OS X port of the Linux-based GTK+ open source graphical user interface library. GTK+OSX version 0.1 is an alpha release intended for developers.