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3rd September 2001 Archive

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  • All Gameplayed out

    Wireplay MBO

    Gameplay is reduced to a shell after selling its last remaining business, games ISP Wireplay to an MBO team. To be precise, the management team, grouped under a new company called Arena Technik Ltd, is buying the assets of Wireplay for £132,500. News of the impending acquisition was leaked to The Register two weeks ago (Story …

    Games Industry 3 Sep 2001, 09:03

  • BT Wireless changes its name to ‘O2’

    Wet, wet, wet

    BT Wireless has renamed its mobile business ahead of the operation's planned demerger for later this year. The holding company is to be called mmO2 plc with the consumer brand contracted to just O2. The makeover is expected to be fully adopted for both products and services by next spring, the company said. It seems the new …

    Data Networking 3 Sep 2001, 09:04

  • Stephen Hawking predicts cyborg ascendancy

    Let's re-engineer our genes to compete

    Poor Stephen Hawking. One has to expect that decades of wheeling about in a motorized basket and speaking through a machine like Davros, whilst being venerated by naive post-docs as a paragon of wisdom simply because he's good at maths, would inevitably soften his brains. It's just a shock to see him become a gibbering …

    Music and Media 3 Sep 2001, 09:12

  • Palm preps successor to m505

    Never have guessed that, would you?

    Palm is upgrading its m505 PDA and will announce its succesor next March at CeBit, if the latest whisperings about the company's product plans are to be believed. A source cited by Palm Infocenter claims the new model, the m525, will contain 16MB of memory. It will also sport a crisper LCD and a battery better capable of …

    Personal 3 Sep 2001, 10:06

  • Nvidia GeForce 3 Titanium enters CompUSA database

    Maybe there's something in it after all

    We may have been a mite hasty in questioning the veracity of claims that Nvidia is about to announce a series of GeForce 2 and 3 cards under the brand name Titanium. A friendly mole within giant US electronics retail chain CompUSA tells us at least two of the rumoured parts: the GeForce 3 Ti 500 and the GeForce 2 Ti. According …

    Channel 3 Sep 2001, 10:20

  • BT rebranding dictated by Internet

    Blimey, telco finally comes to senses

    BT has finally demonstrated some grasp of Internet pre-planning with today's rebranding of its mobile group to mmO2 just before it floats it. The name will be reduced to just O2 for consumers. Unlike last time it rebranded - just a few months ago - it has realised that it's best to register related domain names before telling …

    e-Business 3 Sep 2001, 10:24

  • BT tops up mobile phones

    A dull story but interesting nonetheless

    BT is set to make it easier for consumers to top-up their pre-paid mobile phones. The telco's consumers will be able to credit their pre-paid mobile phones by simply adding a monthly allowance to their fixed line BT bill. The new initiative means that pre-paid mobile phone users would have another method of topping-up their …

    Data Networking 3 Sep 2001, 10:37

  • VIA preps DDR333 Pentium 4 chipset

    Volume production in Q4

    Apparently unconcerned by Intel's vague threats of legal action over its use of Pentium 4 bus technology, VIA is ploughing on with its P4 chipset plans. Having successfully launched the P4X266 last month - though not so successfully shipped it; the company has admitted to production shortages that aren't expected to be sorted …

    Channel 3 Sep 2001, 10:40

  • All change in the mobile market

    Updated New tariffs, name changes

    It's all go at the moment in the mobile phone market. Just this morning, BT announced its wireless arm - which includes BT Cellnet - is to be rebranded O2. Now, One2One is to name itself after its German parent company T-Mobile - owned by Deutsche Telekom. On top of that, pre-empting an Oftel report into how much mobile …

    Data Networking 3 Sep 2001, 10:58

  • Oops! Nokia apologises for bullying user site

    Miffed about manuals

    Nokia has said it regrets its heavy handed treatment of the leading site devoted to its communicator phones. The Polish-based My Communicator website posts news, downloads and help for the communicator series, the newest of which, the 9210, got a splashy high-profile launch in Europe over the summer. It's often the first port …

    Personal 3 Sep 2001, 11:16

  • Intel quietly ships 1.1, 1.0GHz Celerons

    Tucked away at the end of IDF

    Intel finally launched its 1.1GHz and 1.0GHz Celerons on Friday, just a few days later than we'd expected. The parts, which are priced at $103 and $93, respectively, were accompanied by a 950MHz ($74). They allow the chip giant to beat arch-rival AMD on budget processor clock speeds. AMD's topmost Duron, announced a week or so …

    Channel 3 Sep 2001, 11:38

  • BT halves cost of broadband installation

    Be thankful for small mercies

    ISPs have responded swiftly to news that BT Wholesale is to halve the cost of installing its single user ADSL service for three months from October. The reduction from £150 to £75 for BT's IPStream 500 service is designed to boost demand for BT's wholesale broadband service. Said Bruce Stanford, director Broadband in BT …

    Telecoms 3 Sep 2001, 11:55

  • Notebook sales rise 9%

    6.3 million snapped up in Q2

    Notebook sales grew nine per cent in the second quarter to around 6.3 million. For the first time notebooks accounted for more than a fifth of all computer sales - and as prices drop, notebooks are expected to keep gaining market share, according to a report from Display Search. It predicts laptops will make up 20 per cent of …

    Personal 3 Sep 2001, 11:59

  • Computerland UK upbeat (but cautious)

    For a change

    Computerland UK today reported that Q1 profits were up on the same period last year. In a trading statement read out at the corporate reseller's AGM, it announced "good year on year growth". But product sales are lower than last year "due to the general weakness in the market for IT hardware". Computerland is confident that …

    Channel 3 Sep 2001, 12:15

  • Insight buys Action second time around

    A lot cheaper this time

    Insight Enterprises, the US direct marketing IT giant, will leapfrog to top spot in the UK, following the agreed takeover of Action Computer Supplies for £27m in cash. Insight says the acquisition will be accretive to earnings in 2002. Insight already operates in the UK and in Germany, and is building up a European headquarters …

    Channel 3 Sep 2001, 12:44

  • Hackergate probe clears Oz MP

    Questions remain

    An Australian state MP has been cleared of wrongdoing following a police investigation into hacking in the New South Wales parliament. As previously reported, a PC from Labor MP's Tony Kelly's office was seized amid allegations that it was used to gain unauthorised access to sensitive policy files belonging to Liberal MLC …

    Security 3 Sep 2001, 12:52

  • Oprah Winfrey gives BT the 'big O'. Twice

    But she wanted paying for it

    Oprah Winfrey have given the suits BT something to smile about. In exchange for a fee - although BT is too bashful to say exactly how much - she gave it the "big O". In fact she gave it two cause she's a classy lady. And just as well or BT wouldn't have been able to work otherwise. Wtf are we talking about? Domain www.O2.com. …

    Music and Media 3 Sep 2001, 12:55

  • Oops! Dell gives away Win2k product key. Not quite

    Close, but no cigar...

    Microsoft's favourite OEM seems to blotting its copybook big-time. First, there's an escaped Dell OEM copy of the RTM version of WinXP on the loose, and now, if you happen to have a copy of Windows 2000 but for some unaccountable reason you don't have a product key, well... Dell is there to help, but on closer examination …

    Bootnotes 3 Sep 2001, 12:56

  • 3G is born! (But only in Japan)

    It's alive

    True to its word, Japanese telco NTT DoCoMo will launch the world's first 3G network on 1 October. Called FOMA - Freedom of Mobile Multimedia Access - the service will give subscribers based in Tokyo 64Kbps real-time video, a maximum 384Kbps downlink, and maximum 64Kbps uplink and of course the ability to make phone calls. …

    Data Networking 3 Sep 2001, 12:57

  • Compaq boosts Red Hat ecommerce suite

    Pioneer Core

    Red Hat's new e-commerce suite has received an unexpected boost from its wannabe-best-buddy Compaq and an electronics firm called Pioneer-Standard. The suite is to be bundled with a host of configurations and servers and pushed out to customers through a joint initiative. The package consist of three offerings. Bundle No.1 will …

    e-Business 3 Sep 2001, 13:09

  • Iomega Peerless

    Review Data storage

    Backing up data should be second nature to any computer user. Given the stability of PCs and the software we run on them, it's a wonder that anyone fails to protect their files by keeping copies. One reason why people fail to back up their data is the lack of media that can cope with the large amount of data they need to store. …

    Personal 3 Sep 2001, 13:59

  • VIA launches Apollo KT266A

    It's 20% faster than rival Athlon, Duron chipsets, claims VIA

    VIA has launched its latest AMD-oriented chipset, the Apollo KT266A. The product supports all 200MHz and 266MHz frontside-bus Athlons and Durons, connecting them to DDR200 or DDR266 SDRAM. That, reckons VIA, gives the new part a speed advantage of up to 20 per cent over rival chipsets. Two south-bridge chips are supported, the …

    Channel 3 Sep 2001, 14:27

  • MS loosens XP WPA some more, to offer upgrade to Pro

    Spot the price gouge...

    Microsoft has wobbled some more on Windows Product Activation (WPA) in WinXP, but from where we're sitting it by no means looks like the final wobble. The company seems to have just about decided on the extent to which it will loosen up on WPA, and at the moment the bottom line appears to be that it will be practically no …

    Software 3 Sep 2001, 14:30

  • McAfee patents virus update over the Internet

    Patently ridiculous

    Network Associates' McAfee division has obtained a patent for updating anti-virus software over the Internet in one of the most questionable patent rulings by the US patent office to date. The anti-virus updating technology described in US Patent 6,296,456, Method and System for Providing Automated Updating and Upgrading of …

    Malware 3 Sep 2001, 15:13

  • Software pirate nailed after ill-timed courier delivery

    Can someone sign for this?

    A British reseller faces two years in jail after counterfeit goods were delivered to his front door in front of Trading Standards officers. At the time Christopher Bottley was entertaining staff from Kent Trading Standards - they were raiding his house in Tonbridge for counterfeit goods. While they TS officers unearthed …

    Software 3 Sep 2001, 15:24

  • The Big Ring licked by Finns

    Oh well, guess that means another flame

    Virgin Mobile's record breaking attempt to have the most number of mobile phone ringing in one place appears to have hit a snag. It's already been done. Last year, in fact. At Helsinki Tähtitorninmäki Park. On May 1. You see, Finnish pop band, Nylon Beat released a single as a mobile phone ring tone. And a group of 846 people …

    Data Networking 3 Sep 2001, 15:32

  • FBI warns as Unix server flaw gets automated

    The agony of x.c

    A worm called x.c, which takes advantage of a buffer overflow vulnerability in the telnet daemon program commonly used on Unix boxes, has being discovered, and security experts fear it is a harbinger of worse to come. Many of these organisations, such as the FBI's National Infrastructure Protection Centre, overplayed the …

    Security 3 Sep 2001, 17:14

  • Ex-ORBS owner loses defamation suit

    Alan Brown forced to pay £12,600

    The ex-owner of the spam blacklisting company ORBS, Alan Brown, has lost the defamation suit brought against him by the former head of Domainz - New Zealand's domain registry maintainer - Patrick O'Brien. Mr Brown, who had to close ORBS and his ISP Manawatu Internet Service after the suit and two court cases against him put him …

    Music and Media 3 Sep 2001, 17:25

  • UK e-government felled by ‘overheating’

    Government Gateway goes down

    Britain's chief e-government initiative came to a standstill today after a spot of overheating. At first a representative of the Government Gateway, designed to help citizens get to grips with issues such as paying taxes online, seemed to think the site was down for maintenance. But on closer inspection it appeared that the …

    e-Business 3 Sep 2001, 17:34