7th July 2003 Archive

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Pakistan to distribute free Net Porn filters

Belt and braces

Pakistan is to issue free software to Net users to help them filter out porn. Pakistan Telecom, the country's national phone company, already blocks access to 1,800 or so "corrupt and evil" porn web sites at the ISP level. According to the telecoms firm, approximately 60 per cent of Pakistan's one million Internet users visit …

Music and Media 7 Jul 2003, 07:40
Intel, VIA prep ‘mainstream’ 800MHz FSB chipsets

Springdale too high-end

Intel is preparing single memory channel versions of its 865PE 'Springdale' chipset - which supports the Pentium 4 800MHz effective bit rate frontside bus - to target the mainstream PC market. The chip giant will offer two chipsets: the 865PL, targeted at end users, and the 865GV, which will be offered to OEMs. Both are based …

Channel 7 Jul 2003, 09:04
Baffling jargon jinxing PC sales, claims AMD

Too much FSB, too little TLC for consumers

Forget SARS and Iraq - the real reason punters around the globe are putting off purchasing PCs is more simple: they don't understand the jargon. So says a report published today by AMD's Global Consumer Advisory Board (GCAB), a quasi-independent organisation founded to... er... find ways of marketing technology and technology …

Personal 7 Jul 2003, 10:04
Software counterfeiter jailed for 15 months

Sold through UK auction sites

A man who made an estimated £54,000 a year selling counterfeit software through auction sites has been jailed for 15 months. London-based Pakistani national Bilal Khan, 23, was sentenced at the Old Bailey on Friday after he earlier pleaded guilty to five charges including possessing and selling counterfeit computer programmes …

Channel 7 Jul 2003, 10:04
Sybase changes its spots

No longer the db vendor we think it is

Sybase is no longer the database vendor that we all tend to think of it as, writes Phil Howard of Bloor Research. Sybase still develops and markets a variety of database products. It even has a market leading product in its mobile database, SQL Anywhere. But it would be a mistake to think of Sybase as a database company any …

Hardware 7 Jul 2003, 10:05
Two UK telco resellers go titsup

Psst! Anyone want an AIM listing?

Two UK telecoms firms have gone tits up, Eclipse Telecom, a switchless reseller based in Chesham, and Convergent Communications, from York. Convergent Communications, has filed for administration, after creditors presented the AIM-listed firm with a winding-up order. In a Regulatory News Statement today, the company said that …

Channel 7 Jul 2003, 10:49
Samsung to ban camera phones

Fears industrial espionage

Samsung is to ban camera phones from its semiconductor, flat-panel and electronics factories because of industrial espionage fears. The ban, due to come into effect from 14 July, will apply to both workers and visitors to the factories. The prohibition was introduced amid fears that the latest generation of smart phones could …

Mobile 7 Jul 2003, 10:50
Fossil delays US Wrist PDA shipment

Release slides to 21 July

Fossil's Palm OS-based Wrist PDA watch did not shipped in the US on 30 June as promised and has slipped back until 21 July. So says Amazon.com, which had an exclusive deal with the watch maker to offer the hi-tech timepiece online. The delay applies to all three versions: the metal strapped 'dress' Wrist PDA, the 'casual' …

Mobile 7 Jul 2003, 10:54
Samsung to ban camera-phones from factories

Industrial espionage fears

Samsung will next week ban the use of camera-phones in its factories in a bid, it said last week, to curb industrial espionage. The restriction will affect both visitors and employees and will come into force on 14 July, the Korea Herald reports. Samsung itself makes phones of the kind it plans to ban. But the ease with which …

Mobile 7 Jul 2003, 11:08
Net survives mass-defacement contest

We're lucky to be alive

The Internet is still up and running thanks to the diligence of government agencies like FedCIRC and commercial fearmongers like mi2g (which will let you read the free FedCIRC advisory on their Web site for a mere £29.38), who warned us about a massive defacement contest scheduled for this weekend past. Or thanks to the fact …

Security 7 Jul 2003, 11:13
FTC calls privacy claims to account

Promises, Promises

Most online businesses promise they'll protect customer data as if it were their own. Now the government is holding them to it, writes SecurityFocus columnist Mark Rasch. The last couple of weeks have been a busy time for information security law and privacy. First, the California law that requires disclosure of break-ins that …

Security 7 Jul 2003, 12:00
G5 roadmap revealed

Allegedly

Apple's G5 chip family will reach 25GHz in less than ten years' time, according to an anonymous poster over at MacRumours.com. The same correspondent also posts what purports to be a roadmap for the G5. The chip family's future goes something like this. IBM will follow the current G5, the PowerPC 970 with the 980, based on the …

Mac Channel 7 Jul 2003, 13:00
Toshiba softens stance on e740 OS upgrade

Bowing to customer pressure?

Toshiba has offered some hope for thousands of angry e740 PDA owners that it may yet offer an upgrade to Windows Mobile 2003 for Pocket PCs. Following our initial report on the company's decision not to offer such an upgrade, a Toshiba spokeswoman said in a statement: "Toshiba is not initially offering an upgrade for the e740, …

Mobile 7 Jul 2003, 13:08
Wireless rural BB service names the day

Let the Sunshine into your life

Wireless Rural Broadband (WRBB) is launching its Sunshine internet access service on September 30. The company is kicking off in East Anglia and the East Midlands and reckons to have full national coverage by the end of 2005. WRBB is touting for business customers at first but at some point residential subscribers will be …

Telecoms 7 Jul 2003, 13:36
Small.biz shuns IT recycling (mostly)

What a load of rubbish

Most small firms are still not assessing the environmental impact of their operations according to the latest research. A study by electronic recycling and refurbishment firm MIREC Asset Management found only 35 per cent of UK businesses are getting rid of their old computers and other items in a manner which complied with an …

Small Biz 7 Jul 2003, 14:17
Pipex woos BT broadband punters

Free migration promo

UK ISP Pipex has today cut the price of setting up its consumer ADSL services - and offered to pay the price of migrating from BT - in an attempt to woo more broadband punters onto its service. Pipex currently has 60,000 ADSL subscribers. For a limited time, new broadband users signing up with Pipex will be charged only £17.57 …

Telecoms 7 Jul 2003, 14:33
Mac OS X 10.3 Panther will not be a 64-bit OS

G5 to run in 32-bit 'bridge' mode

Mac OS X 10.3, aka Panther, will not be a 64-bit operating system, despite running on a 64-bit processor, the PowerPC 970 aka the G5. Instead, the next major release of the Mac operating system will be a hybrid, much like version 10.2.7, codenamed 'Smeagol', which Apple has running on its pre-production Power Mac G5 machines …

Mac Channel 7 Jul 2003, 15:14
EC calls on political bosses to tear down e-gov barriers

'Mindsets and rigidity of administrations'

The "mindsets and rigidity of administrations" are the greatest barriers to implementing effective e-government, Erkii Liikanen, EC commissioner in charge of IT policy, said today. Opening the EC's eGovernment 2003 conference today at Lake Como, Italy, the commissioner called upon politicians "at the highest level" to commit …

Music and Media 7 Jul 2003, 15:21
Consumers not ready for online gaming – Nintendo

Little toe, big water

George Harrison, Nintendo of America VP of marketing, has hinted strongly that Nintendo will not be rolling out any online strategy in this generation of hardware, although the company is looking into it for N5. In an interview with the Puget Sound Business Journal, Harrison commented that "we just don't believe consumers are …

Personal 7 Jul 2003, 15:55
Microsoft: unusual cash flow problems

Big Bucks

Microsoft is reviewing what to do with its cash pile. Microsoft is considering paying a special dividend of $10 billion, the largest corporate payout on record, to slim down its cash reserves of more than $46 billion. It has also been reviewing other options, including acquisitions - and while there is frequently speculation …

Business 7 Jul 2003, 16:16
The piracy pitfalls of outsourcing

Not me, Guv defence rejected

IT outsourcing companies could risk criminal and civil proceedings if their clients do not have adequate licenses in place for their software, the Federation Against Software Theft (FAST) claims today. FAST has recently seen its first case involving a company using outsourcing (the software piracy watchdogs refuse to say which …

Channel 7 Jul 2003, 17:20