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19th July 2001 Archive

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  • Will cDc privacy app Peekabooty put users at risk?

    Maybe, maybe not....

    In spite of having long anticipated the Cult of the Dead Cow's Peekabooty demo at Defcon09 as one of the conference's major highlights, we actually managed to miss it. However, we got a pretty good description of it from a trustworthy journo who, unlike yours truly, found it possible to struggle over to the Hard Rock Hotel (you …

    Software 19 Jul 2001, 00:35

  • OfficeXP may break PGP

    Or vice versa

    We've received anecdotal reports that the PGP icons and menus which are added to Outlook no longer work once a user upgrades to OfficeXP. This happens regardless of whether one upgrades with PGP already installed, or installs PGP after OfficeXP. The PGP tray icon on the desktop will still work, but the features and buttons will …

    Software 19 Jul 2001, 05:44

  • IIS worm made to packet Whitehouse.gov

    As eEye Security descends into ambulance chasing

    Just when you thought you were finally safe from cyberwar with China, some dumb bastard has to go and create the 'Code Red' worm, targeting the White House Web site with distributed packet floods, and defacing IIS servers along the way with the inane motto "Hacked by Chinese!" The worm attacks what's now called the .ida …

    Software 19 Jul 2001, 09:35

  • Handspring fires 40 as revenues plunge 50%

    Palm price war hammers quarter-on-quarter growth

    PDA maker Handspring will rid itself of 40 employees in a bid to cut costs following a "challenging" quarter, the fourth of its current financial year, details of which it posted yesterday. Revenue for the three months to 30 June totalled $61 million, lauded by Handspring as an 18 per cent increase on the same period last year …

    Business 19 Jul 2001, 09:51

  • AT&T rejects £31 billion Comcast bid

    We're worth more. Uh-huh

    AT&T has rejected the unsolicited $44.5 billion (£31.5 billion) by Comcast for its broadband division, claiming the bid "did not reflect the full value of AT&T Broadband". It also said it was concerned with the large amount of voting power Comcast would command. The surprise bid, on the same day that AT&T spun off its wireless …

    Telecoms 19 Jul 2001, 10:09

  • Appeal Court says Napster can go live again

    Reverses latest ban pending a ruling of its own

    Napster was yesterday allowed back online. The US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal reversed a ruling made last week by US District Court Judge Marilyn Hall Patel that the controversial song-sharing service must remain offline until it could guarantee that no song for which it lacked the right to allow to be shared across its …

    Music and Media 19 Jul 2001, 10:36

  • Infineon raises $1.3bn

    It's what you need when your sales drop 30%

    Infineon has raised 1.5 billion euros ($1.31 billion) by selling 60 million new shares. Infineon expects to report a pre-tax loss as high as E600 million ($512 million) for its Q3 ending 30 June. Chip price crashes, excess inventories, and slow mobile-phone sales have caused its sales to fall by 30 per cent in the quarter. ® …

    Business 19 Jul 2001, 10:38

  • Nokia reports 16% profit drop in Q2

    Another 1,500 jobs to go by year end

    Nokia has reported a 16 per cent profit drop for the second quarter. Net income at the Finnish mobile phone maker fell to $830 million euros ($728 million) from 984 million euros for Q2 the previous year. Sales rose five per cent to 7.3 billion euros. The company forecast sales would stay flat or grow by up to five per cent. …

    Business 19 Jul 2001, 10:39

  • Services, ZzzSeries boost IBM figures

    Sir Lou scorns piece-part players

    IBM pronounced itself chuffed with its latest quarterly figures, which record a profit of $2 billion on income of $21.6 billion. That's essentially flat, once the strong dollar is taken into account. The pattern is familiar: with services revenues up, hardware and software revenues slightly down (by 5 per cent to $8.7 billion, …

    Business 19 Jul 2001, 10:40

  • Panasonic SV-SD75 Audio Player

    Review MP3 player

    If Panasonic is to be believed, portable gadgets are no longer just about practicality - they're stylish fashion statements to be worn as clothing accessories. So the SV-SD75 Audio Player is part of Panasonic's E-wear range and it can be worn as a watch or a pendant. In either of these guises it's not that appealing, but as a …

    Personal 19 Jul 2001, 10:53

  • Sony, MS join UK games trade assocation

    TIGA, TIGA burning bright

    Britain's independent game developers association, TIGA, has been busy, with the group (co-founded by the likes of Elixir's Demis Hassabis and Rebellion's Jason Kingsley) notching up two new high profile affiliate members this week. European Xbox VP Sandy Duncan had already announced at TIGA's launch in March that Microsoft …

    Games Industry 19 Jul 2001, 11:04

  • Nintendo spin chief Main to retire

    He's off as soon as GameCube's launched

    Peter Main, Nintendo's executive veep of sales and marketing, has announced his decision to step down as of 1 February next year. His retirement is being scheduled so that he won't miss the crucial launch of the next-generation GameCube console. Main joined Nintendo in 1987, and has dealt with the rise and fall of many Nintendo …

    Games Industry 19 Jul 2001, 11:11

  • Phoenix answers all our phone-home BIOS questions

    And by the way, PhoenixNet is dead

    As promised, Phoenix has answered all the questions we sent them about the controversial PhoenixNet BIOS. Now we know why it took so long to get our answers: the scheme was dying quietly as we corresponded. 1. Does the PhoenixNet installation software alert the user to the Net feature and give them a chance to decline to …

    Software 19 Jul 2001, 11:37

  • BT AGM very Bland: chairman prevents war

    Fat cat bonuses put to poll however

    BT's AGM in an ice rink in Nottingham turned out to be a rather bland affair. No crazed hecklers, no livid investors, just a lot of disgruntlement. And it's all due to the lumbering giant's new chairman Sir Christopher Bland. We like him more every day. Shareholders, who have seen their shares fall by 40 per cent, came …

    Business 19 Jul 2001, 11:50

  • SAP Q2 profits leap 78 per cent

    Reporting software must be working somewhere

    SAP has said its Q2 profits rose 78 per cent, and that it expects that sales for all 2001 top grow by more than 20 per cent. The business management software vendor reported net income rose to 206 million euros ($180 million), up from 116 million euros ($101.49 million) a year earlier. Sales climbed 24 per cent to 1.85 billion …

    Software 19 Jul 2001, 11:54

  • IT worker sacked for piracy on the job

    The last temptation of CD-RWs

    A County Durham IT employee has lost his job for copying software while at work. The 39-year-old was found to have copied computer software following an investigation by the European Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA). Counterfeit CDs containing music and PlayStation games software were found in his work area. His …

    Channel 19 Jul 2001, 12:00

  • MS asks appeals court to find it a little bit not guiltier

    Blatant delay attempt? Surely not...

    Microsoft has responded to the DoJ's claim that neither party wanted the appeals court to rehear the antitrust case by, er, asking the appeals court to rehear the antitrust case. Or at least, to take another look at the browser integration issue. By a massive coincidence, last week's government request was intended to get the …

    Software 19 Jul 2001, 12:02

  • Microsoft signs up with Egg for MSN online investment funds

    Will go live start of next year

    Microsoft and Egg have announced a European deal today that will see MSN's MoneyChannel offer a fund supermarket from Q1 next year. What the hell is a fund supermarket? Basically, it's a searchable list of all the various investment funds available from a range of fund managers like ABN Amro, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, JP Morgan etc …

    e-Business 19 Jul 2001, 12:46

  • Intel's gigahertz Celerons coming this quarter

    Sources claim

    Intel will indeed ship a 1GHz Celeron sooner rather than later - and phase out the desktop Pentium III more quickly than the company suggested earlier this week - if sources cited by The Inquirer are to be believed. The 1GHz Celeron will be accompanied by a 1.1GHz part. Both will ship before the end of September. By then, the …

    Channel 19 Jul 2001, 13:02

  • MS starting to retreat on WinXP product activation

    Panic setting in?

    Microsoft says it will loosen up the way Windows Product Activation (WPA) works in WinXP, and that it's going to publish details of how it works. This, funnily enough, comes just days after Tecchannel left WPA more or less a smoking ruin, and not that much longer after Fully Licensed published details of, er, how WPA works. …

    Software 19 Jul 2001, 13:10

  • Fujitsu cuts back production at Oregon plant

    Chip slowdown hits flash factory

    Fujitsu is to cut back production in its Oregon plant in response to falling semiconductor demand. Associated Press reports that the Japanese electronic giant is cutting back production at a factory in Gresham from 60 per cent to between 10-20 per cent of capacity by the end of September. The plant, which was set up in 1986, …

    Channel 19 Jul 2001, 13:32

  • NTL reports £115m profit for Q2

    Figure released 2 weeks early

    NTL has reported a profit of £115 million for the second quarter - two weeks ahead of schedule. The British cable TV company announced the figure in a statement last night and is due to report its full financial results for the quarter on July 26. It also said that its full year results for 2001 were expected to be £100 …

    Business 19 Jul 2001, 13:35

  • Dell is taking $700m hit

    The price of slashing workforce

    Dell is going to take a hit of $700 million in Q2 for slashing jobs and the other measures its taken to stay sharp during the PC market slowdown. It expects to post sales of $7.6 billion for the quarter ending 3 August, which is in line with what its already said will happen. Earnings per share will be 16 cents before the $700 …

    Business 19 Jul 2001, 14:01

  • Apple users savage lackluster keynote

    Introducing iCounselling

    There's no pleasing some folk. Steve Jobs demoed a zippy version of OS X that removes many of the speed concerns dogging the OS, announced hardware upgrades across both ranges of desktops, and played host to demos of big-name software applications from vendors who'd up until have now been pretty quiet. But that didn't prevent a …

    Mac Channel 19 Jul 2001, 14:27

  • Cross my Palm with Linux

    Open source OS released for Palm III family

    Linux may have already made it into the PDA market in the shape of Agenda Computing's VR3 - and don't forget that Sharp's Linux-based Zaurus is due to ship next October - but the open source OS has now come to PDA pioneer Palm's III series. Embedded Linux specialist Empower Technologies has just released a demo version of its …

    Software 19 Jul 2001, 14:54

  • Intel gets ready to cut Pentium 4 prices by up to 55%

    Cuts scheduled for 26 August, 28 October

    Intel said this week it is going to make some aggressive price cuts to help drive sales of its desktop Pentium 4 processor. No kidding. Pricing data leaked to Web site Xbit Labs suggests Intel wants to push P4 prices right down to below current Pentium III levels to a smidgeon above Celeron prices with cuts of up to 55 per cent …

    Channel 19 Jul 2001, 15:31

  • Scottish mother gets militant over mobile masts

    Stages protest in four-inch hole

    A Scottish mother has got militant with One2One by staging an impromptu protest in a Glaswegian four-inch hole, destined to be the home of a new mobile phone mast. Sarah Williamson was incensed when her daughter woke her up to say men were digging outside. Workmen were digging up part of a garage forecourt, just 100 yards from …

    Data Networking 19 Jul 2001, 15:40

  • Boycott Adobe campaign launches

    Follows arrest of security expert

    Protestors, angry about the arrest of a Russian programmer who made a speech the shortcomings of encryption methods used by Adobe, have set up a site calling for a boycott of the software firm. The Boycott Adobe site highlights the case of Dmitry Sklyarov, who was arrested by the FBI and charged with distributing software that …

    Software 19 Jul 2001, 15:50

  • New-look Hotmail: the verdict

    You like it, we like it. Bit slow though

    Well, we have been poring over the new-style Hotmail, as have you, and it would seem we nearly agree that it's an improvement. Microsoft has confirmed it had technical problems when it first went live, so it pulled it and put it back up this morning. It's been stable all day except it is a bit slow and some areas are tough to …

    Music and Media 19 Jul 2001, 15:56

  • Intel's Desktop Roadmap

    Updated Another day, another roadmap - literally

    Another day, another Intel roadmap. Now we've had time to digest not only Intel's plan to promote the Pentium 4 even more vigorously, both on price and through the early retirement of the Pentium III - converted into top-end Celerons rather than killed off entirely, we can update Intel's release schedule for the next 9-12 …

    Channel 19 Jul 2001, 15:58

  • Privacy threatening worm on the loose

    Sircam virus is far from chivalrous

    A worm which appends a random document from a victim's hard drive to its body when it spreads has appeared on the Internet. The Sircam worm, which spreads as an attachment to email messages, may in certain cases delete files from a victim's hard disk. A number of incidents of the virus have been reported but its outbreak is …

    Malware 19 Jul 2001, 17:29

  • DesktopX – killer eye candy or the great Windows desktop liberator?

    You decide

    After a year's public development Stardock's extravagantly ambitious DesktopX has finally reached version 1.0, and hit the download servers. It gives Windows similar functionality to the IBM Workplace Shell that OS/2 veterans know and love, and that Microsoft promised in its Cairo version of Windows NT. In fact Stardock CEO and …

    Software 19 Jul 2001, 17:42