San Mateo, CA — (press release excerpt) — SnapGear, Inc. has announced the development of a Linux-based secure embedded appliance for sports and race wagering and fixed odds sports betting over the Internet and telephone, in Australia. The device will be distributed by TAB Queensland — one of Australia's premier racing and sports wagering organizations — and must comply with Australian government… (more…)

Lund, Sweden — (media advisory excerpt) — For a number of years, there has been a big buzz about the convergence of Internet and TV. Words like Interactive TV, IP-TV, and Video-on-Demand have been on everyone's lips. So far, there has been little sign of any real products outside of powerpoint presentations. (more…)

Our friends at Microsoft kindly sent along this note regarding the launch of Windows XP Embedded . . . (more…)

By Matthew Broersma, of ZDNet (UK) . . .

In a note to a Linux developer, Torvalds said a major release like kernel 2.5 or 2.4 is always difficult, because once a large number of people get their hands on the software, they are statistically more likely to discover errors. (more…)

Foreword: This article is the third in LinuxDevices.com's series of reviews, by software developer Jerry Epplin, of Embedded Linux toolkits. In order to gain insight into the use of each toolkit from the developer's perspective, Epplin builds Embedded Linux OS images for three different x86-based EBX… (more…)

Oslo, Norway — (press release excerpt) — Opera Software ASA today released Opera 6.0 for Linux Technology Preview 1 (TP) with new and exciting features, including the ability to display non-Roman characters, a completely new and customizable user interface, as well as a range of different improvements that increases the speed and enjoyment of Linux users' browsing sessions. (more…)

KernelTrap's Jeremy Andrews spoke with OpenBSD creator and maintainer, Theo de Raadt. OpenBSD is widely hailed as being the most secure OS available. The latest version, OpenBSD 3.0, is slated for an official release on December 1'st. KernelTrap writes . . . (more…)

Santa Clara, CA — (press release excerpt) — Netergy Microelectronics, Inc., a manufacturer of Voice-over-Packet (VoP) processors, today announced availability of its MEGACO (ITU H.248) call signaling protocol stack for embedded Voice-over-Internet-Protocol (VoIP) applications. The MEGACO call signaling protocol stack expands the existing H.323v2, MGCP, and SIP product offerings. (more…)

Development of the next major step of the Linux kernel, version 2.5, has now officially been launched. According to a note at kernel.org, “Linux-2.5.0 is exactly the same as 2.4.15, except for a version number change. Subsequent releases diverge, with Marcelo Tosatti maintaining the stable 2.4.x kernels, while the 2.5.x kernels are for development work.” (more…)

[updated Nov. 23] David Becker of CNET News.com reports that Sega of America announced Wednesday that it is dropping the price of its discontinued Dreamcast video game console to $49.95 — around the price of a single game for consoles from Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo. (more…)

Bill Kendrick writes . . .

Thanksgiving day was a good day for Linux-based PDAs. Not one, but two different id Software classics have been ported to not one, but two different Linux-based PDAs. For those owning an Agenda VR3 PDA, an initial port of the classic first person shooter “Castle Wolfenstein 3D” has been released . (more…)

Douglas F. Gray of IDG News Service writes about the growing attention being paid to Linux as a prospective operating system for PDAs. Gray writes . . . (more…)

BusyBox maintainer Erik Andersen sent us this brief announcement of the release of BusyBox version 0.60.2 . . . (more…)

CNET News.com's Stephen Shankland conjectures that the ideological purity of the open-source software business is being diluted by a new era of pragmatism, as start-ups adjust to the economic slump. Shankland writes . . . (more…)

In this commentary, ZDNet's Guy Kewney shares his enthusiasm about wanting to own one of Sharp's new Linux-based Zaurus PDAs, and also offers Sharp “one urgent bit of advice.” Kewney writes . . . (more…)