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22nd April 2002 Archive

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  • Carphone Warehouse suspends Nokia 8210 sales

    Faulty screen returns

    Carphone Warehouse has suspended sales of Nokia's 8210 mobile phone because of an abnormal number of returns. A spokesman for the mobile phone retailer told Bloomberg that the problems related to the screen of the device, which Nokia stopped manufacturing last month, having reached the end of its life cycle. Carphone Warehouse …

    Mobile 22 Apr 2002, 08:22

  • Yahoo! sued! by! yodelling! cowboy!

    Hot diggidy dog

    The man behind Yahoo!'s distinctive yodel used in its ads is to sue the Internet business. According to reports, Wylie Gustafson wants $5 million from Yahoo! alleging that the Internet giant didn't have the right to continue using his yodel. He claims he was paid one-off fee of $590 for his performance but believed it would be …

    Music and Media 22 Apr 2002, 08:24

  • Microsoft Will Call Gates To Testify This Week

    Ecosystem, innovation etc. etc.

    Bill Gates, chairman and chief software architect of Microsoft Corp, will testify in person for the first time in the Washington DC court where his company's years-long antitrust case is being heard. Gates will "talk about the evolution of the PC ecosystem and Microsoft's role in fostering innovation in the PC industry" …

    Software 22 Apr 2002, 09:01

  • Symantec preps Linux firewall for IBM iSeries

    Hardened, seasoned, thickened

    Symantec will announce this week that it is working with IBM to deliver a hardened firewall which will run within an iSeries Linux partition and provide protection for the iSeries or other connected servers on corporate networks, Timothy Prickett Morgan writes. The firewall is a tweaked version of Symantec's Enterprise …

    Hardware 22 Apr 2002, 09:01

  • Feud brews over Web Services interoperability

    All aboard - except Sun

    A stand-off over interoperability of web services specifications is developing after Sun Microsystems Inc was denied membership of the IBM and Microsoft-backed Web Services Interoperability (WS-I) organization, while 50 other companies were admitted, Gavin Clarke writes, The WS-I told Computerwire last week Sun's …

    e-Business 22 Apr 2002, 09:02

  • Siebel revenue plunges

    Purses firmly shut

    Financial analysts were split over whether Siebel Systems Inc would buck the trend and report first-quarter financial results that met or exceeded guidance. In the event it broadly met guidance, but earnings were still 16% down on the year-ago period. Net income was $64.6m or 12 cents per share, down from $76.9m a year ago …

    Business 22 Apr 2002, 09:02

  • Nintendo slashes GameCube prices in Europe

    Not even launched yet

    Nintendo today slashed the recommended retail price in Europe for the upcoming Gamecube. It was going to be €249: now it will be €199, or £129 if you're in the UK, when the next-gen games console launches on the continent. GameCube launches in Europe on May 3. Last week, Microsoft marked down the Xbox in Europe, in response to …

    Personal 22 Apr 2002, 09:55

  • Hynix and Micron agree to agree

    Headline price -$3.4bn

    Hynix is worth $3.4bn upfront in shares to Micron, according to today's news that the two have reached a preliminary agreement. This will see the debt stricken Korean DRAM maker get Micron as its new sugar daddy. The deal is preliminary - the two firms have signed a 'non-binding memorandum of understanding', and the package …

    Channel 22 Apr 2002, 09:58

  • Ericsson axes 20,000 jobs

    Return to profit next year

    Ericsson is to axe 20,000 jobs over the next two years as the downturn in the mobile phone industry continues to bite. Pre-tax losses widened to SEK5.4 billion (£360 million) in Q1 2002 from SEK4.9 billion (£330 million) during the corresponding period last year amid falling revenues. Despite the gloom the Swedish mobile phone …

    Business 22 Apr 2002, 09:58

  • Shop online and be alone

    Peace and quiet

    Almost half of people who shop online do so because they don't want to go out and talk to anyone. This anti-social, if wholly understandable, finding comes courtesy of Barclays Bank which revealed that four out of ten people believe the best thing about online shopping is not having to speak to anyone if they don't want to. …

    Music and Media 22 Apr 2002, 10:21

  • Intel slashes Mobile PIII prices

    Mobility scheme

    The axe fell today on Intel's mobile Pentium III prices, establishing clear blue water between the top of the line parts, and the new P4-Ms. The 1.2GHz part falls 21 per cent down the price ladder from $508 to $401. The 1.13GHz PII-M tumbles 27 per cent from $401 to $294; the 1.06GHz model falls 18 per cent from $294 to $241; …

    Channel 22 Apr 2002, 10:56

  • Arab Muslim exec accuses AMD of racism

    'Treated poorly' after Sept 11

    A former senior AMD employee has filed suit accusing the company of 'wrecking his career' because he was an Arab and a Muslim after the September 11 attacks. Walid Maghribi, ex-president of AMD's memory group, was one of the company's top five employees by salary and bonuses, earning $1.5m-plus last year. He alleges that his …

    Channel 22 Apr 2002, 11:06

  • NEC captures supercomputing crown

    Earth Simulator

    A Japanese supercomputer, based on technology from NEC, has taken the title of the world's fastest system. The Earth Simulator, which is being used by Japanese boffins to predict climate patterns, tops a list of the world's 500 fastest supercomputers, which was released over the weekend. Capable of operating at more than 35 …

    Hardware 22 Apr 2002, 11:47

  • Beware of ‘bogus’ Web site renewal invoices

    That old one...

    Internet users are being warned to be on their guard for "bogus" invoices after Nominet UK received more than 100 complaints concerning an alleged scam. The demand for £225 is for inclusion in a Web directory run by London-based Central Web Pages Register Ltd. However, the wording on the invoice is confusing with many people …

    Music and Media 22 Apr 2002, 12:02

  • FBI smashes massive piracy ring

    The Taiwanese connection

    The FBI and other US law officials smashed a massive software piracy ring in California last week. They made 27 arrests, mostly Taiwanese nationals, and mostly picked up in San Francisco. The ring is thought to have cost Microsoft $75m in lost sales. The FBI sting follows a two year investigation in which undercover cops made …

    Channel 22 Apr 2002, 12:42

  • Asustek muscles into low-cost mobos – report

    Profits down

    Asustek is to target the low-end mobo business through a new subsidiary, Digitimes, the Taiwanese newswire, reports today. The new sub - as yet unnannounced - will be called Hua Ching (or something like that - Digitimes says the name is transliterated from Chinese). Asustek is noted for the quality - and prices - of its …

    Personal 22 Apr 2002, 13:20

  • SMS spam canned

    Mobile spam? Nein danke, says EU

    European Union companies may have to get permission from mobile users before sending commercial messages via SMS, following the progress of legislative plans in Brussels last week. At the moment, there are no restrictions on the use of SMS as a promotional tool, but that may change if plans by European legislators come to …

    Mobile 22 Apr 2002, 13:27

  • Virgin.net cuts cost of unmetered Net access

    Trend buckers

    Virgin.net has bucked the trend of recent price rises by announcing that it is to cut the cost of its unmetered Net access service. From today users can sign up to Virgin.net's 24seven unmetered service for £13.49 a month - down from £15 a month. In a statement Peter Tuomey, Virgin.net's S & M director, said: "I'm surprised by …

    Music and Media 22 Apr 2002, 14:52

  • Apple promotes ‘Godless Darwinism and Communism’

    Is that really such a shock?

    Dr. Richard Paley is a teacher of Divinity and something called Theobiology at Fellowship University, which we guess is somewhere in America. He's a doughty fighter against anti-Christian hate crimes, and a fierce opponent of Evolutionism. In his capacity as a member of the OBJECTIVE: Landover Baptist Shutdown ( Landover …

    Bootnotes 22 Apr 2002, 16:07

  • Gates: GPL will eat your economy, but BSD's cool

    Linux only for people who work nights...

    Bill Gates took another shot at the Open Source question last week, and came up with some interesting new spin. Essentially, if your country standardises on Linux, then you're not going to have any IT jobs in your country, says Bill. Gates was taking some pre-vetted (we presume) questions at last week's Government Leaders …

    Software 22 Apr 2002, 16:20

  • Egg customers pay by email

    Cheque out

    Egg customers can now digitally transfer money by email to any of the UK's 110 million bank accounts. Egg Pay, which will go live later this week, is designed to be a more convenient way to pay small bills of up to £200 than cheques, which the online bank reckons are on their way out. Cheque usage is down 34 per cent since …

    e-Business 22 Apr 2002, 16:38

  • Treasury leaks Word of Budget revisions

    Sir Humphrey flummoxed by Office feature

    The Inland Revenue has leaked the contents of revisions to last week's budget by publishing briefing documents on its Web site using Word. Until earlier this afternoon, anybody fancying an insight into the Treasury mandarins tidy up of earlier - politically embarrassing - drafts of supporting documents could have visited the …

    Music and Media 22 Apr 2002, 17:24

  • ATI ships All-in-Wonder Radeon 8500 to retailers

    Trade-in

    ATI today started shipping the All-in-Wonder Radeon 8500 all-singing, all-dancing graphics card to retailers in North America. ATI claims the board is the "fastest multimedia graphics cards for gamers". But the feature set suggest that more generalised home entertainment - watching and recording TV on the PC, digital video …

    Personal 22 Apr 2002, 21:51