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28th August 2001 Archive

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  • Ex-Apple brains to lead Palm software revival

    Nagel CEO, Sakoman CTO

    Palm has turned to two former Apple luminaries to revive its software fortunes. Board member Dave Nagel has been talked into heading up the new PalmOS business as its CEO, and Steve Sakoman fills the CTO seat vacant since Bill Maggs departure earlier this year. Both figure prominently in Apple's history, although their …

    Software 28 Aug 2001, 07:59

  • 2GHz P4 will turn us all into DJs

    Slow speed processors frustrated musical geniuses - Intel

    Intel has crossed the 2GHz barrier with the launch of the latest edition of its Pentium 4 processor. OEMs will begin shipping PCs based on the 2GHz P4 from today featuring the 850 chipset, which includes dual RDRAM memory banks. The lower-cost i845 chipset, which features cheaper SDRAM memory, will also support the 2GHz P4 and …

    Channel 28 Aug 2001, 08:27

  • Counter Struck!

    When Games Turn Deadly

    While many Americans and Europeans take computer games far too seriously, the Far East is a constant source of bizarre gaming news stories, from real-life gangsters demanding protection money in massively multiplayer role-playing games to professional Starcraft players earning six-digit salaries and making regular TV …

    Games Industry 28 Aug 2001, 08:59

  • £999 2GHz P4 box approaches

    If it's not already here

    Mesh chose the Bank Holiday weekend to jump the Intel gun slightly and announce its 2GHz P4 machine. It also seems up for a price fight. Mesh brought out a PC with 256MB SDRAM, 40GB hard drive, 19 inch monitor, DVD, CD-R for £1099 ex VAT - pretty close to the golden £999 number we predicted 2GHz P4 boxes would appear at in late …

    Personal 28 Aug 2001, 09:11

  • Handspring preps Prism II?

    Sounds a little too much like last week's fake Sony...

    Handspring's anticipated pair of new Visors weren't launched last monday, as some sources had suggested, but the company is up to something if pics and details leaked to Palm Infocenter are anything to go by. This time, the PDA is called the Prism II. As it's name suggests, it's a follow up to the original colour Visor, the …

    Personal 28 Aug 2001, 10:21

  • Sony unveils Palm OS 4.0 Clié PDA

    Not N750C, not N760C but N770C

    Sony's updated Clié PDA isn't the PEG-N750C or the PEG-N760C - it's the PEG-N770C. And, as expected, it looks like it's little more than a PEG-N710C bundled with Palm OS 4, allowing it to offer 16-bit colour. The 710C has the hardware for 16-bit colour, but shipped with Palm OS 3, which maxed out at 8-bit. Details of the N770C …

    Personal 28 Aug 2001, 10:37

  • PCG appeals against IR35 ruling

    Still contrary to European law, it says

    The Professional Contractors Group is to take the government to the Court of Appeal over the controversial IR35 tax legislation. In March this year, The PCG, which represents 14,000 independent mostly IT contractors, lost a High Court case which held the tax legislation was not illegal under European law. It would not say at …

    Business 28 Aug 2001, 10:40

  • Microsoft delays Xbox Japan debut

    It's official: launch put back to 22 February 2002

    Microsoft has confirmed that the Japanese debut of its Xbox games console has indeed been delayed, to 22 February 2002. The news won't come as a surprise to quite a few Xbox watchers, from within the games industry and out of it. As early as last March, Electronic Arts CFO Stan McKee said he would be surprised if the console …

    Personal 28 Aug 2001, 10:44

  • FBI let off cyber snooping hook

    Judge rules Feds don't have to reveal bugging method

    The FBI has been let of the hook in its court case against mobster Nicodemo Scarfo. US District Judge Nicholas Politan has now ruled that the Bureau will not have to reveal precisely how it managed to log evidence that Mr Scarfo was involved in illegal gambling and loan sharking. Mr Scarfo's lawyers claim that the FBI bugged …

    Security 28 Aug 2001, 11:28

  • Samsung confirms Toshiba is trying to sell DRAM biz

    Sale one way to pay for 17,000 job cuts

    Toshiba must undergo a "drastic restructuring" the company's president, Tadashi Okamura, warned on Monday as the company announced it would sack around 17,000 of its staff - 12 per cent of the workforce - around the world, although the bulk of the cuts will be made in Japan. Part of the programme involves the amputation of the …

    Channel 28 Aug 2001, 11:31

  • Cisco appoints new head Borg for UK and Ireland

    Handling restructure

    Cisco has got itself a new top boy for UK and Ireland. British born Duncan Mitchell is the new head Borg for the region, replacing American Dick Gillespie who retires this month after two years in the job. Mitchell has held senior management jobs with Cisco for the last five years. He has said Cisco's restructuring plans, …

    Business 28 Aug 2001, 11:45

  • AMD cuts up to 49% off CPU prices – again

    Updated Second time in seven days

    AMD has cut its prices. It updated its official processor price list on 20 August, and yesterday it did so again. The latest prices more closely match what AMD's chips are actually being sold for, so perhaps they shouldn't be regarded as a cut at all. After we ran our last item on AMD's official prices, numerous Register …

    Channel 28 Aug 2001, 11:47

  • Credit card scam puts dotcom close to death

    Flooz floored

    An online gift certificate site, Flooz.com, has filed for bankruptcy. This may be because it was the victim of a major credit card scam costing it $300,000. The FBI are investigating a ring of Russian and eastern European bandits who are believed to have used stolen credit cards to buy Flooz's gift currency, known as the Flooz …

    e-Business 28 Aug 2001, 11:58

  • BBC ditches online ads plan

    Issue of non-UK surfers remains in limbo

    The BBC has ditched plans to slap adverting on its Web site for non UK-based surfers. Ashley Highfield, the BBC's New Media director, admitted at the weekend that it would be virtually impossible to run a scheme aimed at making money out of ads for non-licence payers abroad. "The government would like us to try and monetise …

    e-Business 28 Aug 2001, 13:11

  • ATI shows off Mobility Radeon 7500

    Keep your filthy hands off our notebook marketshare

    ATI launched the latest chip in its renewed assault against its arch-rival, Nvidia, yesterday: the notebook-oriented Mobility Radeon 7500. From a graphics perspective, there's little that's new here. The mobile 7500 offers the same core technology as the desktop 7500, and both are essentially little more than faster Radeons. …

    Channel 28 Aug 2001, 13:42

  • Unique ID is built into WinXP final build

    Leaking beta testers nabbed?

    Microsoft has quietly slipped a Universally Unique ID (UUID) into the ISO of build 2600 of Windows XP, thus giving itself the capability of tracking code leaks back to whoever it was that leaked them. News of the UUID's presence originally broke in the Microsoft beta newsgroups, but the matter has been followed up by Steve …

    Software 28 Aug 2001, 14:44

  • Minolta Dimage 7

    Review Digital camera

    The Minolta Dimage 7 is a high-end camera with a price and specification to match. At just over £850 it won't appeal to all, but if you need a good quality single lens reflex device then this Recommended Buy is worth investigating. You'd be hard pushed to find a 4Mp (megapixel) camera below £1000. However, Minolta has given the …

    Personal 28 Aug 2001, 14:57

  • DTI wants to shut down five resellers

    All based in Essex

    The Department of Trade and Industry has applied to the High Court to shut down five computer dealerships - "in the public interest". The five companies are: NU-TECH SUPPLIES LIMITED ORACAL SYSTEMS LIMITED PASTEL HOLDINGS LIMITED NORAD MARKETING LIMITED TRITECK ELECTRICAL LIMITED The court has appointed the …

    Channel 28 Aug 2001, 15:14

  • ICANN rottweiler savages Net consultant

    Karl Auerbach barks and bites

    If you ever doubted that the legion of Internet consultants rushing around telling Net-ignorant business folk what the World Wide Web means to them have been talking out their respective arses, worry not longer. Following the posting of an article by one such consultant on an influential newsgroup concerned with domain name …

    Media 28 Aug 2001, 15:36

  • Deutsche Telekom soothes market with debt reduction plan

    Results as expected, shares up nearly five per cent

    Deutsche Telekom has followed a rough week by announcing half-year results almost exactly in line with expectations. For the first half of the year, it has seen a 16.9 per cent rise in revenues (to £14.1 billion) and a 12 per cent rise in profit before interest, tax etc (to £4.5 billion). However, overall it made a net loss of £ …

    Business 28 Aug 2001, 15:48

  • Cypherpunk Bell gets ten years

    Judge cracks nut with sledgehammer

    Cypherpunk Jim Bell was convicted of stalking IRS agent Jeff Gordon (who had previously investigated him) back in April, and finally sentenced last week to an incredible ten years in stir and fined $10,000. Bell is the author of a 1996 essay called Assassination Politics, which appears to advocate using digital cash to reward …

    Media 28 Aug 2001, 15:50

  • WIPO shafts AOL over porn site

    Nudescape.com ruling

    WIPO has slapped AOL in the face over the domain Nudescape.com. The ISP went to WIPO to try and grab the domains Nudescape.com and AOLfind.com from Canadian company Media Dial, which was using the Nudescape URL for a porn site. AOL, part of media giant AOL Time Warner, claimed the domain names were "confusingly similar" to the …

    Media 28 Aug 2001, 15:56

  • Black Box buys UK cable firm

    Cumberland Fair

    Black Box, the acquisition-crazy networking reseller, has bought a cabling company in Cumbria. Based in Dalton-in-Furness, Optech turns over $2m a year approx. Terms are undisclosed.

    Channel 28 Aug 2001, 16:03

  • Microsoft ports XP to Mac?

    Or do the marketing people use...?

    An eagle eyed reader spotted this gem hidden deep in the promotional bumf for Windows XP. It shows an Apple Mac user staring perplexed at his machine. With good reason, for his Mac has just booted Microsoft Windows XP. "Windows XP is designed to prevent problems..." runs the assuring blurb. "But if you do encounter an obstacle …

    Bootnotes 28 Aug 2001, 16:38

  • Project Jackson breaks cover – Xeon in 2002, Itanic later

    Intel Developer Forum Threads'R'Us

    Intel took the wraps off Project Jackson today, the multi-threaded chip technology we told you about back in February. It's the art of making one processor behave like two or more logical processors, which adds a little extra hardware overhead to the chip but offers the possibility of much better parallelism. And it's probably …

    Channel 28 Aug 2001, 20:03

  • Smack My Bits Up – Intel exec

    Intel Developer Forum Otellini in the 'hood

    People attending an early morning keynote at the Intel Developers Forum were given a rude awakening today when a senior Intel exec let slip risqué language, which was anything but PC. Paul Otellini, Intel's executive vice president, was in the middle of a presentation outlining Intel future technology when he said the firm …

    Bootnotes 28 Aug 2001, 22:42