15th January 2003 Archive

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Pipex in ADSL promo

Yawn

Pipex - which has more than 50,000 broadband punters - has announced a brace of offers designed to tempt Net users to sign up to its service. The first promo is aimed at new broadband users and will set them back £23.44 for line activation plus a free Alcatel SpeedTouch 330 USB modem and two microfilters. Pipex's broadband …

Telecoms 15 Jan 2003, 10:02
49k sign up to Freeserve broadband

'Pretty much on target'

Freeserve had 49,000 broadband punters in the UK at the end of December, according to figures just released by parent Wanadoo. In the three months to the end of December the ISP added 21,000 broadband customers to its growing subscriber base. It's a marked improvement compared to the end of June 2002 when the ISP had just 15, …

Telecoms 15 Jan 2003, 10:21
Intel grabs market share in Q4

Turning the screws

Intel's Q4 revenue was $7.2bn, 3 per cent up on Q4, 2001. Net income was $1bn, advancing 108 per cent on the same period in 2001. Not bad at all, but is it enough to call a bottom on the PC manufacturing recession? Probably not, in a statement accompanying the results, CEO Craig Barrett says: "It appears we have increased our …

Servers 15 Jan 2003, 10:48
mm02 accused of euro price fudging

Card is marked

In Brief: A group of German consumers has accused mm02 of sneaking price rises when converting from deutschemark to euro. Now it is taking the mobile phone network's German unit to the European Court of Justice, Sueddeutsche Zeitung reports, by way of Bloomberg. ®

Mobile 15 Jan 2003, 11:34
Hardware sales carry on falling at Morse

Service hatch

Morse's Q2 sales to 31 December, fell to £92m (2001: #115m), contributing to a slump in interims of £185m (2001: £226m). Morse is, among other things Europe's biggest Sun reseller, and derived much of its growth in the late 1990s from flogging this hardware to the finance and telecom sectors. Fewer people are buying Sun kit …

Channel 15 Jan 2003, 11:34
MS plays the security card in Gov shared source retread

It's a trap. Don't go there...

Microsoft yesterday announced the Government Security Program, an initiative intended to provide governments and agencies with "controlled access... subject to certain licensing restrictions" to Microsoft source code. The announcement was accompanied by great amazement and astonishment in the public prints. Remarkably, this " …

Software 15 Jan 2003, 11:44
Microsoft Ireland confirms job cuts

Delocalisation

Microsoft Ireland on Tuesday confirmed that about 55 staff would be made redundant, as 113 positions move to locations outside Ireland. The cuts, reported first by ElectricNews.Net on Monday, follow a review of the company's Windows International Team. The restructuring in that business unit will impact 113 Ireland-based …

Business 15 Jan 2003, 13:30
Ringtone royalties top $71m

Diddle-ee etc

Songwriters collected $71m (£44m) last year in royalties from the sale of mobile phone ringtones. Last year's performance was up almost 60 per cent on the year before, which saw global ringtone royalties warble in at $45m ($28m). Most of this growth came from the US and Europe. Total global sales of ringtones is estimated to be …

Mobile 15 Jan 2003, 13:42
CA switches on to SAN management

Joining the party

Computer Associates Inc yesterday became the last of the big three systems management vendors to enter the burgeoning SAN management software arena, shipping a product which it promoted as offering application-centric views of storage networks, as well as integration with its existing systems and storage management …

Storage 15 Jan 2003, 13:46
Capellas talks ‘outrageous urgency’ (after outrageous fortune)

Content distribution will be king

Rallying the troops in a broadcast to 60,000 employees and a global audience of interested parties, WorldCom Inc's new chairman and CEO Michael Capellas yesterday outlined how he plans to get the beleaguered firm back on track, Kevin Murphy writes. Repeating the mantra of "outrageous urgency", Capellas said the company …

Business 15 Jan 2003, 13:48
Counterpane receives $20m funding

Security bonds

Counterpane Internet Security Inc, which provides security-monitoring services, said yesterday it has secured $20m in series D funding from new and existing investors. The company will put the money towards growing its sales and marketing activities. The Cupertino, California-based firm said it saw over 30% revenue growth …

Security 15 Jan 2003, 13:57
Receivers called in at Rage

Rage against the dying light

Following the closure of its credit line yesterday and the suspension of its shares on the London Stock Exchange, embattled British publisher Rage has been in discussion with bank receivers today and a transfer of ownership could take place within the next 24 to 48 hours, according to sources within the company. However, the …

Business 15 Jan 2003, 14:04
My usability study is better than yours

Is there a referee in the house?

A row has broken out over claims that the Web sites of many of the UK's top companies are 'wallowing in mediocrity'. The report by the Interactive Bureau published last week found that while the overall standard of the FTSE-100's Web sites had risen since last year, more than half the sites still have problems that need …

Music and Media 15 Jan 2003, 15:03
Piracy: Music, Software v. Hollywood

Common ground

The music and computer industries have come out against any moves by the US government to embed anti-piracy technology in software and consumer electronic devices. This puts them in a different camp from Hollywood's mouthpiece, the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), which supports government-mandated technology. In a …

Music and Media 15 Jan 2003, 15:10
Transmeta builds crypto into Crusoe

DRM Inside

Transmeta yesterday said it has begun sampling versions of its Crusoe TM5800 processor embedded with proprietary security technologies. The chip designer claims its approach offers increased security for wireless computing, protects sensitive data, "deters intellectual property theft" (read Digital Rights Management (DRM) …

Channel 15 Jan 2003, 15:47
Goldman Sachs issues gloomy IT spending outlook

No belt loosening in 2003

Pre-Christmas gloom amongst IT managers means technology spending is likely to decline this year, instead of growing, according to research released by investment bank Goldman Sachs yesterday. The bank said that average outlook was for a 1% decline in IT spending this year, compared to the 2% to 3% growth predicted as recently …

Business 15 Jan 2003, 16:58
Welsh virus writer to be sentenced next Tuesday

Gokar-ted to Court

A 21-old Welsh Web designer who pleaded guilty to creating and distributing three mass mailer viruses is due to be sentenced at Southwark Crown Court next Tuesday. Simon Vallor, of Llandudno, North Wales, last month admitted offences under section three of the Computer Misuse Act 1990 in creating the Gokar, Redesi and Admirer …

Anti-Virus 15 Jan 2003, 17:06
Freeserve abandons plan to change name to Wanadoo

Wadafuss about nothing

Freeserve has shelved plans to change it name to Wanadoo. The move to bring Freeserve's brand in line with its French parent was floated six months ago and was backed by Wanadoo chief exec Nicolas Dufourcq. Had the makeover - estimated to cost as much as £30m - been given the green light it was scheduled to go-ahead early this …

Music and Media 15 Jan 2003, 17:29
Disk storage sales carry on slumping

IDC survey

With "just say no" the dictum for storage buying, IDC has estimated that total worldwide spending on external disk storage systems slumped to $13.3bn last year, down 24% on 2001. That marks the second year in which disk sales have fallen heavily. In 2001, IDC now estimates that they fell by 21% - up on an earlier estimate of an …

Storage 15 Jan 2003, 17:31
US IT sales to hit $500bn in 2003

Aberdeen forecast

Hardware sales will increase by just over 2% annually between 2002 and 2006, the latest Aberdeen Group market forecast has proposed, with the expectation that in the same time frame IT services take up will show a 5% growth clip eclipsed only by software sales, which will see an 8.3% annual rate of compound growth. The …

Business 15 Jan 2003, 17:34
US e-gov spending to soar

'Strong leadership'

President George Bush signed the US E-Government Act of 2002 into law on Tuesday, potentially helping unlock Federal spending that could amount to $5bn a year by 2007. In a statement, Bush said the act is designed to set "strong leadership" of the government's information technology activities, including a comprehensive …

Music and Media 15 Jan 2003, 17:34
Friendly fire – Product Activation zaps new XP Plus! pack

I got those ole product activation wizard blues...

Microsoft latest add-on for Windows XP, Plus! Digital Media Edition, has fallen foul of Windows Product Activation. Numerous purchasers are finding it impossible to install, and are being confronted by the comforting message "Plus! Digital Media Edition uses Microsoft Product Activation to help prevent software piracy. Please …

Software 15 Jan 2003, 17:56