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14th November 2000 Archive

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  • Azlan interims, Datrontech death throes, distie mergers

    Channel Flannel

    Azlan, the networking equipment distie to IT training firm, more than doubled its profits to £3.74m (1999: £1.67m) for the six months to September 30. Sales climbed 35 per cent to £261.7m. Ian Boyle is poised to buy-out Datrontech, the stricken distie, he co-founded with Steve King, according to Microscope. It cites ' …

    Business 14 Nov 2000, 08:23

  • Bertelsmann eyeing up Liquid Audio?

    Digital music biz to become merger central in any case

    Is Bertelsmann out to acquire Liquid Audio? That was the key rumour doing the rounds at the Webnoize 2000 conference yesterday. The German media giant, whose Bertelsmann Music Group subsidiary is one of the world's 'big five' recording companies, is already known to be keen on buying fellow major label EMI - a Liquid Audio …

    Business 14 Nov 2000, 10:18

  • Crusoe a loser in wrong tree bark-a-thon

    Opinion Might be OK for DVD, MP3 players, though

    Transmeta's code morphing technology may be terribly elegant, and LongRun power management may be more sophisticated than either Intel's SpeedStep or AMD's PowerNow, but the sad fact is that elegance and sophistication do not a world-beating product make. Elegance, schmelegance A long, long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away …

    Channel 14 Nov 2000, 10:27

  • AMD demos 1.5GHz Athlon

    But Chimpzilla falling further behind in MegaHurtz ™ war

    AMD has an Athlon running at 1.5GHz at Comdex, but the company still says production Palomino chips will only hit this speed sometime in Q2 next year, by which time Intel's P4 will be running at over 2GHz. You can check out a picture of this week's World's Fastest Processor over at German hardware site TecChannel. And if 1. …

    Channel 14 Nov 2000, 10:51

  • BT messes with Swiss 3G auction

    Emap slashes Net investment

    BT has started its £10 billion disposal programme with the sale of a minority share in Swiss telecoms company Sunrise for £460 million. Unfortunately, this had the knock-on effect of pulling Sunrise out of the auction for Swiss 3G licences - just 10 minutes after it started. There are now four bidders left for four licences and …

    Business 14 Nov 2000, 11:13

  • World Online raided in insider trading probe

    Justice department moves in

    The HQ of World Online was raided today over allegations of insider trading at the Dutch ISP. The Prosecutor of the Justice Department in Amsterdam sent investigators into the Rotterdam-based offices this morning. The company is "fully co-operating" with the investigation, according to a statement on its Website. The …

    Music and Media 14 Nov 2000, 11:16

  • Seagate releases monster 180GB drive

    It's the Ba ba ra ra cu cu da da

    The launch of Seagate's Barracuda 180 has pushed back the finish line again in the race to have the largest hard drive on the planet. Anyone wanting to hold the title must now produce a drive with more than 180GB of space. As well as being the biggest, it is also the quietest for its size - with an acoustic rating of 3.7 …

    Business 14 Nov 2000, 11:34

  • Palm CTO rubbishes ‘3000 man years’ of Symbian OS work

    As its own wireless Internet storms into the mid-1990s

    Palm looks certain to go it alone in the smartphone derby after delivering a bitter attack on potential parter Symbian to The Register. We doorstepped Palm's Chief Techology Officer, Bill Maggs, who said Symbian's "3000 man years" of effort wasn't what Palm needed, and criticised the consortium's "one core solution". That's …

    Data Networking 14 Nov 2000, 11:59

  • Transmeta talks 256-bit Crusoe

    And a speed bump-up for today's morphers...

    Skirting around recent corporate setbacks - IBM and Compaq (?) - Transmeta says it will bump up both hardware and software for its Crusoe processors next year. A morphing upgrade to the current Crusoes will offer 20 per cent performance or efficiency improvements - OEMs can choose either, and it's a flashable software upgrade. …

    Channel 14 Nov 2000, 12:06

  • New compilers for P4, Itanic

    Build 64-bit code on 32-bit systems

    Intel has released version 5.0 of its C++ and Fortran compilers with extensions to utilise the new features available in the upcoming 32-bit Pentium 4, due for launch next Monday. There's also a pre-release version for the 64-bit Itanium which can be used on systems based on Intel 32-bit Pentium processors to create 64-bit …

    Software 14 Nov 2000, 12:24

  • Fixed wireless auction a complete shambles

    No one wants huge sections of the UK

    Bloody hell. The hyped auction for broadband fixed wireless access (acronymised to BFWA) has fallen flat on its face just days after it kicked off, with more than half of the UK yet to even receive a bid. Two of the original ten bidders have already dropped out - US group FirstMark Communications and Unica Communications - and …

    Data Networking 14 Nov 2000, 12:37

  • DoCoMo's i-mode enjoys 20-fold sales leap

    That's $1.1bn in six months

    Japan's NTT DoCoMo has said revenues form data transmissions over its i-mode service have leaped 20-fold in the last six months to ¥117.2 billion ($1.1 billion). The i-mode service connects mobile phone callers to the Net and its success has helped boost DoCoMo's six month sales by 26 per cent to ¥2.2 trillion ($20.38 billion …

    Business 14 Nov 2000, 12:37

  • Jerry Pournelle launches verbal tirade against disabled journalist

    'You've no class'

    Veteran science fiction author and Byte columnist Jerry Pournelle launched an astonishing verbal assault in a Las Vegas eaterie yesterday which left a disabled local journalist in tears. Returning with two companions to his four-place table at a local Convention Centre restaurant, Pournelle found wheel chair Joy Lynd …

    Bootnotes 14 Nov 2000, 12:49

  • Freeserve: the worst customer service in the world?

    Pay up or the boys are coming round

    UK ISP Freeserve has gone one step further in alienating its customers by sending out hundreds of thousands of emails demanding payment within seven days or risk being cut off Freeserve Time altogether. An estimated 250,000 people received an email beginning: "According to our records, the following amount is outstanding on …

    Music and Media 14 Nov 2000, 13:01

  • Be takes new slant on Net appliance biz

    New software targets service providers rather than box makers and users

    Be yesterday introduced a suite of server-side software tools that will allow BeIA-based Net appliance providers to manage their installed base of machines. Be's launch perhaps doesn't sound much - it certainly appears to have been largely ignored by the IT media - but it's actually a canny development in an unregarded but …

    Music and Media 14 Nov 2000, 14:11

  • Palm finally offers PalmOS 3.5 upgrade

    At a price

    Palm has launched its Mobile Internet Kit, which allows Palm III, V and m100 PDAs hook up to the Net via a cellphone connection. And the company has finally announced the release of the anticipated update to the PalmOS, version 3.5. The $39.95 kit essentially brings to those machines the same kind of Net access that the …

    Software 14 Nov 2000, 15:00

  • Americans stuff $11.6bn into Xmas e-tail stocking

    Ain't no sanity clause

    Around 6.3 million American shoppers are expected to spend the majority of their Christmas budget online this season. This figure is up around 300 per cent on 1999, when 1.6 million punters in the US spent more than half their festive dollars on the Net. An estimated 35 million e-Santas will buy online this season, spending $11 …

    Music and Media 14 Nov 2000, 15:06

  • Playboy.com pulled back from IPO

    Heff likes a sure thing

    Playboy Enterprises has pulled Playboy.com out of its IPO before it could make any kind of splash. Market conditions just aren't firm enough. Maybe the site could be stickier? Playboy promises to be back when there's more excitement in the market for dotcoms. We wouldn't want it to go titsup.com. For the nine months to 30 …

    Business 14 Nov 2000, 15:22

  • Totally random: mobile phone spam

    Loophole, what loophole?

    Vodafone and the data protection commissioner have joined forces in an attempt to shut down a mobile spam company, Webcom International. The two of them claim that the company is abusing the SMS service and breaking data protection rules. Not so, says Webcom - which sends out four million spam text messages a week - we dial …

    Data Networking 14 Nov 2000, 15:23

  • AMD firms up roadmap details

    Hands high end to Intel on a plate

    Chimpzilla now says it won't have a 2GHz processor on the market until the 64-bit ClawHammer arrives some time in the first half of 2002 - a full year after Intel's P4 hits the same speed. The four and eight-way server variant, SledgeHammer, will sample in Q1 2002 and go into production in Q2. The company showed an Athlon …

    Channel 14 Nov 2000, 15:39

  • IBM is a mean green recycling machine

    But it'll cost punters $30 to ditch their tin

    The greens have a new ally in keeping the planet clean, at least in the US, as IBM has announced that it has signed up to a new initiative to help people recycle unwanted computer hardware. The initiative is aiming specifically at individuals and small sized businesses, and in exchange for $29.99, IBM will accept obsolete …

    Business 14 Nov 2000, 16:54

  • Cheaper, faster Rambus on the way

    All thanks to those clever folks at Samsung

    Samsung has begun mass production of 0.17 micron Rambus DRAMs. The company says the new technology is being used to produce RDRAMs with densities of 128, 144, and 288Mb. The new process not only shrinks the die size thereby reducing manufacturing costs but will also improve speeds by more than 30 per cent, says the company. …

    Channel 14 Nov 2000, 17:04

  • RIP just got scarier

    Changes to Freedom of Information Act may withhold any RIP checking system

    A suggested amendment to the Freedom of Information Act, put forward by Lord Falconer, aims to automatically exempt all cases of Tribunals concerning the RIP Act from disclosure. The amendment (number 34, clause 22) reads "By the Lord Falconer Thoroton, Page 14, line 1, at end insert - ('( ) the Tribunal established under …

    Music and Media 14 Nov 2000, 17:06

  • NSI dodges naughty domain name lawsuit

    Refuses to register "f***me.com"

    Network Solutions has dodged a lawsuit over its refusal to register domain names containing naughty words. The saga started when Company Island Online wanted to register several obscene URLs, includiing: "f***me.com;" f***you.com" and "c***s***.com". But clean-living execs at NSI took the moral high-ground and refused. …

    Music and Media 14 Nov 2000, 17:17

  • Chipzilla, HP target Apple's Cube

    Deep Forest gateaux

    Hewlett-Packard and Intel are taking Apple's Power Mac G4 Cube head on with their own highly compact PC design, codenamed Deep Forest. Well, sort of. Deep Forest turns out to be part of Chipzilla's Concept PC... er.. concept. In other words, it's a 'this is what we could do... if we wanted to... but we don't' model. The …

    Mac Channel 14 Nov 2000, 17:22

  • ICANN: the Internet's answer to Stalin

    What's wrong with a bit of history rewriting?

    There is apparently no end to ICANN's God-like arrogance. Not content with turning the Internet into more and more of a gentlemen's club, it is now attempting to do the old dictator's trick of rewriting history to eliminate its enemies. ICANN is planning to overwrite its own bylaws to give itself more power over who is elected …

    Music and Media 14 Nov 2000, 17:32

  • UK Net population jumps 40% to 11 million

    More women, more kids, more over 35s

    The number of people using the Net has jumped by 40 per cent in the past year, from 7.8 million to 11 million in the UK. There are more women online than before, more children and more over 35s. This is all according to market researcher MMXI and it's first year-long look at online demographics. As proof that the consumer is …

    Music and Media 14 Nov 2000, 17:49

  • HWRoundup Peek at the P4

    Plus a 800MHz Duron v 766MHz Celeron showdown

    Dan of Dansdata has got some benchmarks for the P4. Dan said, [rather smugly we think but we are also forgiving, so that's OK] that he decided it would be easier to sit and wait for Intel to send him one than it would be to traipse over to Comdex. Handily ignoring any warnings not to open various boxes, he managed to get a few …

    Hardware Roundup 14 Nov 2000, 17:56

  • eBay, QXL hit in piracy swoop

    BSA auction lawsuit frenzy

    The Business Software Alliance (BSA) attacked online auction sites as the devil's spawn today. The anti-piracy group tracked bootleg software advertised on sites such as eBay, QXL and Yahoo as part of an operation to unearth online scams. The allegedly dodgy software was traced to vendors in the UK, Germany in the US, and …

    Business 14 Nov 2000, 23:55

  • Semiconductor sales to slump in 2002

    Gartner polishes its crystal ball

    Semiconductor sales will hit a slump in 2002, Gartner warned today. Global sales are forecast to grow 27 per cent next year, 10 per cent down on 2000. DRAM chips will see worldwide growth of 66 per cent from 2000-2001, compared to 56 per cent the previous year. But the long-predicted dip will come in Q2 of 2002 - when …

    Channel 14 Nov 2000, 23:57

  • MP3.com squares Universal with $53.4m payout

    Anything for a quiet life

    MP3.com is to cough up $53.4 million to settle its copyright infringement case with Universal Music Group. Record label giant Universal was upset because it claimed MP3.com had infringed 6,700 of its copyrighted CDs. Today's settlement, though fierce, is still better than feared - the San-Diego-based company faced up to $167.5 …

    Music and Media 14 Nov 2000, 23:59