25th January 2000 Archive

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Wall Street runs hot on interest-rate fears

Jittery investors trade like there's no tomorrow

The leading market indices fell sharply this afternoon on heavy trading as technology issues struggled to hold ground beside sagging blue chips. Despite an upbeat rhythm in early trading this morning, the Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped as low as 10,917.27 at mid-day before closing down 243.54 at 11,008.17. The NASDAQ …

Business 25 Jan 2000, 03:45
World Online lands on Freeserve's doorstep

Free CDs on the High Street

World Online is taking a leaf out of Freeserve's book with a free CD distribution strategy through an as yet unnamed High Street retailer. The company, which purports to be Europe's biggest ISP, is targeting punters in the 15-34 age bracket in the retail promotion. An advertising campaign featuring Christopher Reeves (aka …

Business 25 Jan 2000, 06:09
lastminute.com embraces WAP

Cheap flights on expensive phones

Lastminute.com plans to offer its flights over WAP phones. The Mecca for every self-respecting cheap traveller will let users search its database of flights from London. The service, developed by new media consultancy pres.co, is due to be launched this week at Cellnet’s WAP portal. It promises real-time prices, so punters will …

Business 25 Jan 2000, 06:25
BT under spotlight to hack standing charges

An early day motion, eh?

British Telecom came under pressure from the Commons yesterday to ditch standing charges on residential lines. Forty MPs were reported to have signed an early day motion demanding the phone operator scrap line rental, according to the Evening Standard. If successful, this would chop £27.77 from a quarterly bill and follow in the …

Business 25 Jan 2000, 06:35
Fat Lady signs online

How much bandwidth do you need for that?

Things may not be over 'till the fat lady sings, but for one British Web company, the sound of a warbling aria could be could be just the beginning. High-brow online impresario, Online Classics, has secured a number of exclusive agreements to broadcast opera, musicals, ballet, classical concerts and "quality" theatre on the Net …

Business 25 Jan 2000, 06:38
Roller Coaster for sale today

Net bids expected to reach $50,000

A new theme park ride is auctioned off online tomorrow with the launch of e-commerce portal Leisurehub.com. Bidding starts at 1:00pm for the family "elephant" ride owned by the manufacturer I E Park and bids are expected to reach $50,000 (£31,250). The ride can be seen at the manufacturer's stand at the Amusement Trades …

Business 25 Jan 2000, 06:39
William Hill sets up overseas gambling joint

Antigua online

William Hill will set up a website this week in Antigua, so that British punters can avoid paying nine per cent tax on winnings UK bookmaker Gamblers can even bet on the National Lottery ,which is currently illegal in the UK. Alongside Willhill.co.uk will be a telephone service run from Athlone, Ireland offering a three per cent …

Business 25 Jan 2000, 07:02
WStore starts price war with UK channel

E-tailer pledges to pay double the price difference to punters who find kit cheaper elsewhere

Online reseller WStore is promising to pay customers double the price difference if they find goods cheaper at rival dealers. The Internet company has vowed to start a price war in the channel and match any lower offer on IT kit. "Our offer applies to all our UK competitors, whether they be online stores, High Street retailers, …

Business 25 Jan 2000, 10:05
Transmeta talks to Taiwan

Slim client suits island down to earth

Several major Taiwanese manufacturers are in close discussions to use Transmeta technology in future machines, according to sources close to their plans. Acer and a number of other major notebook players are understood to want to use the technology to achieve their goals of proliferating PCs into the home in Far East Asia. CEO …

Business 25 Jan 2000, 10:20
Microsoft fudges Win2K speed trials

Windows 2000 not faster than NT after all...

Microsoft has fudged the results of Windows 2000 Professional speed tests in an attempt to convince potential purchasers that the OS offers better performance than NT Workstation 4.0. In the press release announcing the shipment to manufacturing of Windows 2000 on 15 December, Microsoft said "new benchmark results illustrate the …

Business 25 Jan 2000, 11:03
Intel's FC-PGA plans far advanced

Forget Slot 1, look under the surface

Chip giant Intel is ready to replace practically all of its Slot 1 processors with the new, FC-PGA form factor, it has emerged. The plans are well advanced, but under the surface of an existing Intel Web page which lists the product order codes for SECC2 (Slot 1). The Intel page, which can be found here, lists the currently …

Business 25 Jan 2000, 11:15
Microsoft bullies IT news site into submission

Legal beagles pile into Active Windows

Microsoft has used all its corporate muscle to strong-arm an US-based IT news Web site to change its name because of alleged trademark abuse. Lawyers representing Microsoft wrote to ActiveWindows in November asking the publication to remove a Windows' logo on the site and to change its name. "While we appreciate your enthusiasm …

Business 25 Jan 2000, 11:19
Orange WAP phones in short supply

And Cellnet is giving them away

A shortage of supplies of the Orange flavour of the Nokia 7110 is hitting sales of the trendy WAP based product, it has emerged. One reader told The Register that he had rung Orange and been told that there were "none available" while at the end of last week another person at Orange told him that the company "took delivery of …

Business 25 Jan 2000, 12:17
Norwegian coppers nick DeCSS DVD geezers

Move in on Johansen gaff and feel their collars

Norwegian police raided the home of Jon Johansen last night and charged him and his father with breaking copyright laws. Johansen is understood to be the man who first posted on the Internet the source code for DeCSS -- code that allows the viewing of legally purchased DVD movies on operating systems that have yet to be …

Business 25 Jan 2000, 12:27
Apple defeats ColorSync patent violation suit

Imatec doesn't even have ownership of 'infringed' patents, judge rules

A US District Court Judge has thrown out a patent infringement case begun in February 1998 by Imatec against Apple. The case centred on Apple's ColorSync software, technology that matches the colour spaces of monitors, printers and scanners to ensure consistency of colour output throughout the document production process. Imatec …

Business 25 Jan 2000, 12:35
Intel-branded Web PC will run Linux

Updated FlexATX and that pesky little logo...

Our Norwegian may be bad, but let us assure you that it is fluent compared to our command of the Thai language. Hardware site Vision 4D has just posted some pictures of what appears, on the face of it, to be an Intel branded PC. The machine, which uses a FlexATX board, has the Intel logo prominently displayed on the bezel of the …

Business 25 Jan 2000, 12:58
SGI misses break-even by $1 million

Sales down 5.3 per cent, too, but company optimistic

The accuracy of SGI's claim that it would be "just short of break-even" were put to the test yesterday when the troubled company posted its latest results, for the quarter ended 31 December 1999. In the event, the company lost $1 million for Q2 2000, rather better than the $25 million it lost for the same period last year and …

Business 25 Jan 2000, 13:07
Pfeiffer opens online auction for business

Big Eck boogies on down with dance remix

Suited and booted London journalists today clamoured to get the first look at Eckhard Pfeiffer’s latest business launch. The former head of Compaq has put his name to a German-based online auction house that will sell everything from brand new PCs to second-hand cars in the UK. Goricardo.co.uk was unveiled this morning along to …

Business 25 Jan 2000, 13:40
Buy now, die later with UK's first cyber undertaker

Goes live today

The nation’s first cyber undertaker opened its doors today. By logging on to www.funeralshop.co.uk, customers can arrange an entire funeral online, including the headstone, coffin and flowers. The service is being offered by United Norwest Co-op, a supermarket giant in the Midlands and North West. As well as selling "buy now die …

Business 25 Jan 2000, 15:32
Siemens chip business best bit

Fujitsu Siemens poses other questions

Siemens has turned in some results for its fiscal Q1 (to 31 December) which look very good from a headline viewpoint ("nearly doubles earnings in first quarter") but they don't tell us anything about the financial health of Fujitsu Siemens, in which Siemens holds 50 per cent. The deconsolidation of cable units, Siemens Nixdorf …

Business 25 Jan 2000, 15:32
Big Blue blocks Sun in Java lather

Sun has to wake up to little SuSE

Yesterday IBM beat Sun to market with Java for Linux, announcing separately-negotiated distribution deals with Caldera Systems, Red Hat and TurboLinux. A similar deal with SuSE is expected. The IBM JVM and developer kit should hit the stores in mid-February, although Caldera will be expecting to release its e-business server …

Business 25 Jan 2000, 15:37
Dell overtakes Compaq (in US)

World PC sales up 23 per cent in 1999

For the first time, Dell outsold Compaq in the US during 1999, according to the latest data from market researchers Dataquest and IDC. Dataquest's numbers put Dell in first place, with a market share of 16 per cent, up from the 12.7 per cent it took in 1998. Compaq was just below, with 15.7 per cent, down from 16.1 per cent. …

Business 25 Jan 2000, 15:47
Web airing for Nixon Watergate tape

Happiness is a smoking gun

A Canadian Web company is to publish tomorrow on the Internet secret Watergate tape recordings that helped end the political career of President Richard Nixon. Publishers IMARK Corp claims this is the first time the conversations that toppled a president have been made public. Part of the content includes the "Smoking Gun" …

Business 25 Jan 2000, 16:03
Pentium III 800 makes debut in erratumnotbug chart

First showing of the top of the range chip

The Pentium III 800MHz .18 micron processor has made its first appearance on Intel's official erratum list. The latest January update to the Pentium III 60 page document, which can be found here, shows that the processor, which is still as difficult to find as a needle in a haystack, suffers not dissimilar problems to other …

Business 25 Jan 2000, 16:26