21st June 2000 Archive

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Burger King flame grills kids Web portal

Update Kids see whoppers and large shakes when they shouldn't

Burger King has pulled a promotion handing out a million CDs containing software for kids ISP and portal kzuk.net over fears that it gives children access to pornography. The CDs were handed out with fast food grub as part of a joint initiative between the two companies. In a statement Burger King said: "Following a small …

Music and Media 21 Jun 2000, 05:56
MS judge opts for damage control with Supremes order

MS on Trial Stay of final judgement gazumps appeal court

The Gang of Seven judges in the Court of Appeals have been outflanked by Judge Jackson. Tucked away in his Order certifying the joint case to the Supremes is the news that his Final Judgement of 7 June be "stayed in its entirety" (meaning the conduct remedies as well as the breakup) until the appeal is heard and decided, unless …

Software 21 Jun 2000, 07:56
Corel Q2 loss widens, sales slump

In line with predictions

Corel's recent prediction of a widening Q2 loss and falling revenues proved pretty close to the mark yesterday when the Canadian software company announced its second quarter results. For the three months period, the company lost $23.6 million - right in the middle of the $22-24 million range it had warned its loss would fall …

Software 21 Jun 2000, 10:04
50p auction bid buys a lot of PR

Holiday firm sells cheapo trip to neighbour

Holiday company Airtours has made fantastic PR capital out of letting a 50p online auction bid buy a £500 holiday to Greece. Julie Humphreys, from Ramsbottom in Lancashire, made the meagre bid as a joke but was told she'd got the holiday as no one else had entered the auction. Her boyfriend also got to accompany her to Rhodes …

Music and Media 21 Jun 2000, 11:07
‘Lifelong’ email addresses last under three years

But that's a lifetime in e-biz world

How long is a lifetime on the Net? Shorter than you w'd think. Bigfoot, an email forwarding service that offers "email addresses for life", has had to tell its rock.com customers that their accounts will cease to function today. Nearly three years ago Bigfoot and its partner company, Thinking Pictures, made addresses available …

Music and Media 21 Jun 2000, 11:24
Duchess ‘earns’ $1m to sing World Online praises

Whatever happened to the Dutch Calvinist tradition?

World Online paid Sarah Ferguson, Dutchess of York, $1 million to promote the company for 15 days, the FT says. Apparently, she was paid up front and only put in three or four days' worth of appearances, before her services were terminated by the new management. Letsbuyit.com is back into the IPO fray, just three weeks after …

Business 21 Jun 2000, 11:28
Dell to hop on MP3 bandwagon

Licenses S3's Rio player technology

Dell will beat arch-rival Compaq to the MP3 music market when it launches the Dell Digital Audio Receiver (DAR) this week, based on the Rio player from S3, formerly known as Diamond Multimedia. Essentially, we're talking a standard portable player here, but the DAR appears to differ from the Rio in that it also supports …

Business 21 Jun 2000, 11:32
Windows ME the last Win9x OS? Maybe not…

Word leaks out about Tiger, which seems to be some kind of follow-up project

Just when you're getting used to the idea that Windows ME really is the last of the Win9x line of operating systems, you get a hint that maybe it's not, after all. Once upon a time Win98 was officially the last of the Win9x line, but since then Microsoft has put out two more upgrades, Win98 SE last year and now Windows ME - the …

Software 21 Jun 2000, 11:42
Fridges to be hit by Net viruses

ILoveYou will turn your milk sour

Fridges and household appliances may be the future victims of PC-related bugs. Russian anti-virus company Kaspersky Lab is warning that in a few years Internet-connected microwaves and freezers will be prime targets for virus creators. Viruses could be designed to make your fridge door swing open in the middle of the night - …

Music and Media 21 Jun 2000, 11:42
Handspring IPOs, raised $200m

Full public trading opens today

Palm licensee Handspring raised $200 million yesterday when it launched itself as a publicly owned company. The company sold ten million shares at $20 apiece, just over the $17-19 range it had previously predicted in filings with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. That range was itself earlier downgraded from $19-22. …

Business 21 Jun 2000, 11:46
BT could face legal action over hyperlink claim

Go on...make our day

BT could face legal action if it pursues its claim over the ownership of hyperlinks. Anger against BT's patent - predominantly in the US where the intellectual property specialists are currently talking to ISPs over issuing licences - has flared quicker than hooligans rioting after a game of basketball. Some experts quoted in …

Music and Media 21 Jun 2000, 12:10
DTI denies Boo probe

Incompetence is no crime

The DTI has denied allegations that it is to rake failed e-tailer Boo.com over the coals. The Department of Trade and Industry has taken the rare step of denying a report on thisismoney.com, which stated that the failure of the sportswear e-tailer was to be probed by the government office. The article first appeared in the …

Music and Media 21 Jun 2000, 12:18
Dell dubs Linux ‘strategic’

Names Red Hat preferred distro

Dell yesterday reiterated its support for Linux, naming the open source operating system as one of its "strategic" OS products and Red Hat as its preferred Linux supplier. Of course, use of words like "strategic" (at least in this context) is pretty meaningless. Ultimately, Dell doesn't much care what OS its customers want so …

Business 21 Jun 2000, 14:40
S3 licenses Dolby AAC ‘MP3 killer’

Digital music format promises better sound quality, smaller files sizes

S3 is to support Dolby's Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) digital music format in future versions of its Rio MP3 player and the upcoming Rio 600. AAC offers higher music fidelity than MP3 and generates files that are around 30 per cent smaller than the industry standard format. In fact, AAC is part of the MPEG 2 digital media …

Business 21 Jun 2000, 15:19
Compaq clobbered in home PC market

Distribution and quality issues to blame

Compaq is losing out in the UK home PC market due to intense competition from direct sellers Tiny and Time. And rivals Packard Bell and Hewlett-Packard are out-selling the Big Q in PC World and Dixons in this market. According to figures from IDC, Compaq took ninth place in home PC sales for the first quarter of this year in …

Business 21 Jun 2000, 15:24
ADSL sweepstake could net more than a pony

Off to the knacker's yard for the lot of ya

ADSLuk, the e-zine that follows British broadband issues with the tenacity of a bush tracker, believes BT won't roll out domestic ADSL services before mid-to-late September 2000. What's more, it maintains that BT won't install domestic USB ADSL connections for its competitors - Demon, Freeserve and others - before its own …

Data Networking 21 Jun 2000, 15:30
Intel's Grove to receive IEEE's highest honour

We knew there had to be some point to the dancing bunnies...

The IEEE will this week award Chipzilla chairman Andy Grove its highest accolade in recognition of pioneering semiconductor research and, well, helping the chip business shrug off its 'beards in white lab coats' image. At a ceremony to be held on Saturday in Vancouver, Canada, Grove will be awarded the IEEE's Medal of Honor. …

Channel 21 Jun 2000, 15:38
Freaky plastic aids phone recycling

Cook it and it keeps its shape

The reputation of computer and mobile phone industries for being environmentally unfriendly is about to change. A group of engineers at Brunel University has developed a new "shape memory polymer" that will retain its shape even after heating and re-moulding. This means it will be possible to make phone casings that are easily …

Business 21 Jun 2000, 16:09
BBC short-changes online commitment

Can only afford eight quid for new Web site

BBC director general Greg Dyke is to inject an extra £58 million into public service broadcasting - but can only afford a paltry £8 (yes, eight pounds) for its revamped online sports service. This PR blooper was spotted by those offline vulture-eyed hacks at .net According to a statement issued today (be quick before the BBC …

Music and Media 21 Jun 2000, 16:12
Intel's Barrett: I will retire

Stockholm But not yet Pat, Paul and Sean

In an unusually frank admission that he has other plans than to work for Intel forever, Craig Barrett, CEO of the semiconductor firm, told The Register he is looking for a successor, almost certainly from inside the company. Barrett, asked whether he had any plans to retire, said he was unaware of the rumours that his departure …

Channel 21 Jun 2000, 19:03
Nike Web site owned by hacktivists

Hats off to a smooth DNS takeover

Hacktivists hijacked the Nike Web site, pointing surfers to another site announcing an event called S-11. The site is highly critical of globalism and its effects on the national economies, eco-systems and workers in third-world countries. The S-11 site announces a 'call to action' involving conferences and other protest …

Music and Media 21 Jun 2000, 22:08
Mexican opposition party hires crackers

Secret govt document could influence election

Mexico's leftist Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) has commissioned computer hackers to crack a password protecting a list of those benefiting from a $100 billion bank bailout which followed the currency crisis of 1994 and 1995, Reuters reports. Opposition leaders have called for publication of the list, which they say will …

Music and Media 21 Jun 2000, 23:28