Briefly: free desktops; conference

In brief: Edified.org has released a free collection of 11 desktops at 1680 x 1050 resolution for the 20-inch iMac, including two new desktops entitled "A Longing Fulfilled" and "Sunset at Rim Trail...." Apoio in September it will arrange a two-day conference for Mac system administrators from Denmark, Norway, and Sweden.... PortalPlayer has said it will downsize its work force by 14 percent, or 45 employees, after losing a bid to supply chips for certain iPod music players.... Verbatim and its parent company, Mitsubishi Kagaku Media (MKM) have announced that retailers in Japan will receive shipments of the industry's first 15GB HD DVD-R media in early July.... One Mac user is offering a bounty of $50 to anyone who can find a way to tether a BlackBerry 8700 to a Mac running Mac OS X for use as a modem.

Filed under: industry