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15th March 2001 Archive

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  • Apple abandons Cube?

    Hub masterplan loses... Hub

    The fate of Apple's glorious experiment of aesthetics over commonsense, the G4 Cube, appears to be as good as sealed. MacUser UK reports that the 25-strong Cube team has been disbanded, leaving short term speed bumps as the only path for the ground-breaking computer. The Cube won rave reviews on its debut, with WSJ curmudgeon …

    Mac Channel 15 Mar 2001, 08:11

  • Dual Athlon mobo info leaks

    HWRoundup We whoosh round the Web

    At JC's there's some Taiwanese leakage of a dual Athlon socket A mobo from Tyan. --------------------cut here------------------- Ace's Hardware reports that AMD's mobile Palomino is set to ship next Monday and also points to an interview with an AMD suit. But see elsewhere... --------------------cut here------------------- …

    Hardware Roundup 15 Mar 2001, 10:36

  • For sale: ic24

    Second hand, two years old, 250,000 users, £25m ono

    Trinity Mirror is to sell its ISP, ic24, the newspaper group confirmed today. The media group said it "no longer regarded [it] as essential to the group's digital media activities". In the two years the ISP has been up-and-running, usage numbers rose to 800,000 by December 2000 of which 224,000 were active users. Of course, …

    e-Business 15 Mar 2001, 10:43

  • Sony buys PlayStation emulator

    Settles three-year legal battle with Connectix out of court

    Sony has bought software developer Connectix's Mac-based PlayStation emulator, Virtual Game Station, settling the companies' bitter, three-year dispute. Quite what Sony with do with VGS remains to be seen. The obvious option is to kill it stone dead, but Connectix's arguments that the emulator opens new markets for PlayStation …

    Software 15 Mar 2001, 11:03

  • Motorola pushing for summer 1GHz PowerPC release

    Mac Rumour Roundup Gigahertz Power Macs in same timeframe?

    Motorola sources suggest the top-end PowerPC 7450 processor will hit 1GHz sooner than previously thought. The deep throats, cited by MacOS Rumors, claim 800, 866 and 933MHz parts will be rolled out over the next four months or so, culminating in a 1GHz, expected to ship in August. The Web site reckons all this points to a …

    Mac Channel 15 Mar 2001, 11:42

  • One last build before beta 2 – MS goes on WinXP BSOD hunt

    Still not beta 2, but nearly, nearly...

    Microsoft released yet another pre-beta 2 build of WinXP last night, but from the sound of it this one - build 2458 - is largely a last minute reality check before the company makes the beta 2 release next week. The scheduled date for beta 2 has been pushed back from the beginning of this month to March 21st. According to the …

    Software 15 Mar 2001, 11:46

  • Downturn gives companies time to sort out Net problems

    That and some 'by 2005' predictions from Gartner

    The forthcoming economic downturn will give companies behind on Internet technology time to sort out their operations and catch up. That's what the latest survey by Gartner says. The research company is keen to point out though that business-to-business e-commerce is still expected to basically double in value each year up to …

    e-Business 15 Mar 2001, 12:31

  • Supanet mulls sale offer

    What does this mean for Time Computers?

    ISP Supanet is up for sale, according to the FT. The Burnley-based ISP denies the story but admits Supanet's sister company, the Internexus Group, has employed city advisors to investigate ways of funding its growth. Internexus offers corporate Web hosting. Its city advisors, Close Brothers, received an offer for Supanet from …

    Business 15 Mar 2001, 13:13

  • Mobile Palomino debut delayed by chipset lag

    Notebook vendors forced to wait

    AMD's Mobile Athlon, based on the Palomino core, may be sampling and volume shipments may be due to commence on Monday, but don't expect to buy a big-name notebook containing the power-conserving processor for some time yet. The reason? A shortage of chipsets capable of supporting the new CPU, according to industry sources …

    Channel 15 Mar 2001, 13:47

  • Long live the PSone – Sony exec

    Destined to get even more portable

    There's life in the old PlayStation - a lot of life, according to comments made by Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE) chief Ken Kutaragi yesterday. "The PSone market will show further development from now on," he said, according to EE Times. "Stereo systems metamorphosed into [portable] radio cassette recorders and penetrated …

    Business 15 Mar 2001, 13:52

  • Vendors slammed for high server memory pricing

    There's gold in them thar DIMMs

    Memory firm Kingston Technology has lambasted vendors for selling overpriced memory for servers and has introduced a scheme to undercut prices for large corporate purchasers. According to Jackie Barrera, server business manager for Kingston Europe, large corporations can pay several times the price they need when buying memory …

    Channel 15 Mar 2001, 15:05

  • Catnap fills Aimster's anti-Napster filter shoes

    You don't have to mess with your MP3 files any longer

    Aimster may have knocked its Napster filter bypass software, Pig Encoder, on the head, but the void it has left behind it is rapidly being filled. The latest is Catnap, an open source scrambler/descrambler that's almost completely transparent to the user. Pig Encoder and similar systems work by changing MP3 filenames in order …

    Software 15 Mar 2001, 15:10

  • Cisco boss apologises for slashing jobs

    It hurt him more than it hurt them

    Cisco boss John Chambers has publicly apologised for the slowdown in the networking giant's business and collapse of its share price which led to massive job cuts last week. In a highly unusual display of humility, Chambers described a decision which means between 3,000 and 5,000 full time staff and up to 3,000 temporary …

    Business 15 Mar 2001, 15:34

  • Canada next up with unworkable Net laws

    'Toughest in the world' - ain't that great?

    The Canadian Government appears to have joined the list of countries that have misunderstood the Internet and hurled out ill-fitting legislation to deal with the worst manifestations of the Net revolution. It is planning to bring in new laws to "combat" child pornography. Joyfully billed as the "world's toughest legislation" in …

    Music and Media 15 Mar 2001, 15:39

  • Spammers face felony charges

    Now that's what we call progress

    Californians Michael Persaud, 24, of San Diego and Frank Kriticos, 25, of Santee will answer felony criminal charges of spamming and so earn the distinction of being the first people so charged in that state, according to a story in the local Union Tribune newspaper. The men appeared in San Diego Superior Court earlier this …

    Music and Media 15 Mar 2001, 15:44

  • UK to test mobile digital signatures

    Govt project a proving ground for m-commerce

    The Government is to conduct the UK's first secure mobile electronic signature trial in a scheme that will go some way to proving whether mobile mcommerce is a viable business proposition, or just the latest fad. From next month, staff at the Radiocommunications Agency will use digital certificate technology to submit expense …

    e-Business 15 Mar 2001, 15:44

  • This is a free monkey phone call from me

    Updated again eBay gets weirder every day

    You'll be used to breast enlargements/reductions, people, empty PlayStation2 boxes and the like being available to bid for on eBay, but things have taken a strange turn of late. Call it imaginative, deranged or indicative of some wider social problem but people have gone into offering specialised and frankly bizarre services. …

    Bootnotes 15 Mar 2001, 15:51

  • MPs slap Govt's broadband strategy

    We didn't see that one coming...

    The British Government and industry received a rap on the knuckles today for underestimating consumer demand for broadband. The ticking off was part of broader dig at the Government's handling of broadband in Britain published by the Culture, Media and Sport Commitee on the Communications White Paper. Although the findings of …

    Telecoms 15 Mar 2001, 15:55

  • PCs and sofa beds

    Channel Flannel

    Micron, America's third biggest direct-selling PC maker, is to flog computers in a furniture store. One furniture store. In Nebraska. Granted, Nebraska Furniture Mart is the world's biggest furniture store, with 450,000sq ft of retail space, and it is a destination shopping place for hundreds of miles around. And isn't it owned …

    Business 15 Mar 2001, 16:11

  • Virus plague causes charity to consider Linux

    A way to cut desktop costs

    Development charity ActionAid is making plans to switch all its desktop computers to Linux, as a way of avoiding the viruses that continuously assault its Windows PCs. The poverty relief organisation, which operates in 30 countries, is on the brink of the move after becoming increasing fed up with the effort needed to deal with …

    Security 15 Mar 2001, 16:58

  • Sun claws its way to top of US server market

    IBM still number one worldwide

    Sun managed to claw its way to the top of the US server market last year, while IBM was still number one worldwide, according to a survey by IDC. Total worldwide server sales in 2000 grew six per cent to $60.2 billion. IBM kept 23 per cent of revenue, while Sun grabbed 17 per cent - compared to 13 per cent in 1999. Sun reckoned …

    Business 15 Mar 2001, 16:59

  • Tiny axes US staff, but denies it is shutting up shop

    Planning to sell DSL

    Tiny Computers has axed staff in the US, but this week denied it was pulling out of the American market. The British computer maker says it does not plan to close or sell any of its 48 stores in the US - located in California, Washington and Oregon. Jeff Chapman, Tiny VP of sales and marketing in the US, said the company had " …

    Business 15 Mar 2001, 17:21

  • icShowbiz and icSport axed

    70 jobs lost

    icShowbiz and icSport - the high profile and expensive Web sites from the Trinity Mirror newspaper group - have gone titsup.co.uk. Trinity Mirror pulled the plug on the operations - including the yet-to-be-launched shopping site, icChoice - earlier today as part of a major cost-cutting exercise. Staff were told of the sites' …

    e-Business 15 Mar 2001, 17:57

  • Time follows Tiny with home entertainment box

    But PC/TVs didn't sell last time around

    Time Computers has followed Tiny Computers into the digital home entertainment field. Tiny launched its Takami box - a PC, TV, DVD player, video, and MP3 player - at the Ideal Home Exhibition yesterday. Time has followed by announcing its 'Player' and describes it as a 'powerful PC, hi-fi music centre with CD-player, Games …

    Business 15 Mar 2001, 18:55

  • DRAMarama (Act IV)

    Contract 128Mb chip prices crash

    The DRAMarama continues, with prices crashing below $6 in all three major world markets last month. North America saw the biggest price drop - the rolling average for contract prices on 128Mb DRAM memory chips fell five per cent to $5.76 in North America for the 30-day period ended February 23, according to figures by research …

    Channel 15 Mar 2001, 20:14

  • Cisco misrepresents test results

    Spin at Borg-central goes into overdrive

    A publishing firm has slammed Cisco for misrepresenting the results of its tests on high-end optical networking kit. Cisco claimed in a press release issued Tuesday evening that it, rather than Juniper Networks came out on top in publisher Light Reading's tests of Internet core routers. After Light Reading issued a press …

    Data Networking 15 Mar 2001, 20:16

  • Samsung dons TFT-LCD crown

    Rivals not doing so well

    Korea's Samsung Electronics sold the most large TFT-LCD panels in Q4 last year, against a backdrop of disappointing industry sales worldwide. Large area (10.4 inch and above)TFT-LCD panel shipments were 1.035 million less than expected - falling one per cent on the previous quarter to 8.4 million, according to a survey by Texan …

    Business 15 Mar 2001, 21:12