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28th July 2003 Archive

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  • German court blocks $17bn Bertelsmann suit

    A Tale of Two Jurisdictions

    The German Constitutional Court has intervened in the $17bn lawsuit filed in New York in February against Bertelsmann over the funding of Napster. In a ruling Friday, July 25, the court said the lawsuit could not be delivered to Bertelsmann because it would violate the company's rights under the German constitution. "If …

    Music and Media 28 Jul 2003, 08:03

  • Vodafone boasts of good Q1

    Figures bear it out

    Vodafone has put in a good Q1, gaining 2.5 million customers net, and improving blended ARPU (average revenue per user) up in Italy and the UK, holding steady in Germany, but down slightly in Japan, compared with the previous quarter. The world's biggest mobile network operator company says it is doing a little better than it …

    Mobile 28 Jul 2003, 08:27

  • Napster 2.0 by Christmas

    No Macs allowed

    California-based Roxio will later today announce key elements of its launch strategy for the new Napster music service in a keynote address at Jupiter's Plug-In conference in New York. To drum up excitement, Roxio has already leaked some details about the service, which will be available to consumers by Christmas. Users have …

    Music and Media 28 Jul 2003, 08:32

  • Dell promises Axim PDA fix, fails to post it

    PocketPC 2003 update CDs delayed until September

    Dell has delayed releasing a patch that allows its Axim x5 PDA to operate correctly with Windows Mobile 2003 for Pocket PC. The patch was to have been released this past Saturday, according to a PDA Buzz posting. We were unable to track it down on Dell's US web site, and PDA Buzz has since updated its story, which covered a …

    Mobile 28 Jul 2003, 08:53

  • Sex.com owner can sue VeriSign

    For how much?

    Gary Kremen, rightful owner of the Sex.com domain name, has won the right to sue the registrar duped into transferring the lucrative domain to a convicted felon, Stephen Cohen. Judge Alex Kozinski, of the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals, ruled on Friday that courts should treat domain names exactly as they would "a plot of land …

    Music and Media 28 Jul 2003, 09:33

  • AMD Opterons to power Great Supercomp of China

    Export permission pending

    AMD Opteron processors are to power the fastest supercomputer in China, under a deal between the microprocessor firm and Chinese server vendor Dawning announced today. The Dawning 4000A supercomputer is planned to run at maximum speeds in excess of 10 trillion operations per second, or 10 Tflops. Downing says this capacity will …

    Servers 28 Jul 2003, 10:08

  • Apple confirms Panther OS will be 32-bit

    Just tweaked to support 64-bit addressing

    Apple has confirmed a Register report that Panther, aka Mac OS X 10.3, will not be a fully 64-bit operating system. Greg Joswiak, Apple's vice president of hardware product marketing, this week admitted that Panther will be a 32-bit operating system tweaked to support 64-bit addressing. That's the same technique implemented in …

    Mac Channel 28 Jul 2003, 10:18

  • Bitboys offers tiny mobile graphics chips

    Remember them?

    Finnish company Bitboys, the one-time golden child of the graphics chip arena, today made its Acceleon mobile graphics chip design available to licensees. The Acceleon line comprises three cores: the G10, G20 and G30. The G10 uses just 60,000 transistors - these are the smallest graphics chips around, Bitboys claims - to …

    Channel 28 Jul 2003, 11:07

  • Microsoft brings Secure Web Services closer

    Not there yet

    As the noise of secure communications and identify management continues unabated and vendors clamour at the door, Microsoft's recent announcement of Web Services Enhancements 2.0 might have been missed, writes John McIntosh of Bloor Research. This is a significant announcement, because of what it potentially means to the Web …

    Hardware 28 Jul 2003, 11:36

  • Arrow to shut UK warehouses

    Takes flight from Nordic PC biz

    Arrow Electronics is going pan-European on the distribution front, shutting down two UK warehouses in the process. The move which will see distribution centralised in the Netherlands, is expected to save $5m a year. The number of staff affected has not been published. Arrow is also taking flight from PC component distribution …

    Channel 28 Jul 2003, 12:27

  • ITNET bags £83m Cabinet Office gig

    Biggest deal ever

    ITNET has won a £83m deal to handle the web hosting infrastructure for The Cabinet Office. The five-year contract is the biggest in its history and its first major Central Government win, the company said today in a press release. The contract contains a provision for a two-year extension. ITNET is not taking on any staff under …

    Hardware 28 Jul 2003, 12:44

  • Cavium touts wireless security processor

    Eyeing up 802.11i upgrade market

    Cavium Networks today announced a new range of security processors for Wireless LAN applications and protocols. Cavium's NITROX Wireless Security Processors are designed to make it easier for equipment manufacturers to introduce support for emerging 802.11 security standards, such as 802.11i. The Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) …

    Hardware 28 Jul 2003, 12:45

  • It's Alive! Blake's 7 rises from the grave

    No, not that, please...

    Blake's 7 is returning to the TV screens, a mere 23 years after the cult Brit SF series ended its run on the BBC. A consortium, including Paul Darrow, the actor who played Avon, the nasty-but-nice computer expert, has bought the rights from the widow of Terry Nation, creator of the show (and Doctor Who's Daleks and Survivors …

    Bootnotes 28 Jul 2003, 13:13

  • NTL admits billing letter blunder

    Ooops

    NTL has apologised after sending out 800 letters by mistake to customers demanding payment on "overdue" accounts. The letters have been sent out over the last couple of weeks to NTL Freedom customers - punters outside of the company's cable areas who subscribe to its Internet and phone services. One of those who received the …

    Telecoms 28 Jul 2003, 13:33

  • Copying is Theft – and other legal myths

    Opinion Fair and unfair use

    As the war over P2P downloading heats up, and the record companies launch the novel marketing technique of suing their customers, I think it is an appropriate time to settle some of the pervasive myths about U.S. copyright law which fuel both sides of the debate, writes Mark Rasch, SecurityFocus columnist and former head of the …

    Music and Media 28 Jul 2003, 13:39

  • Maxtor Maxes on Max Services

    Support stockings

    Maxtor is bringing all its customer care ops under a new global brand called MaxServices. The hard drive maker is making big claims for the regrouping, which unite the activities "under One Standard of Excellence". MaxService incorporates 24x7 phone and online user support; in-country RMA replacement programmes for register …

    Channel 28 Jul 2003, 14:12

  • Ryanair blocks flight search engine

    Deep linking dispute

    Fledgling flight comparison Website -Openjet.com - has accused Ryanair of blocking access to its airline schedules. Cork-based Openjet.com enables users to search, compare and book flights with different low cost airlines. But in an email received by Openjet.com's host, Hosting365, Ryanair confirmed it had blocked access …

    Music and Media 28 Jul 2003, 14:18

  • MusicMatch to offer subscription free downloads

    Will you purchase or sub-license?

    First BuyMusic.com, now MusicMatch. The online music company today said it will offer an Apple iTunes Music Store-style subscription-free service in the autumn. Just before it did, market watcher Jupiter Research announced it had "slashed" its forecast for the revenue it expects to be generated by downloads over the next few …

    Music and Media 28 Jul 2003, 14:58

  • ‘Divorce is a cakewalk compared to losing email for a week’

    C'mon, guys - get a grip

    More than a third of IT staff find the "loss of email more traumatic than events such as a car accident or getting a divorce". This hard-to-credit finding comes from a survey of IT managers by Dynamic Markets, sponsored by storage software firm Veritas, out today. Dynamic Markets found that properly functioning email systems …

    Storage 28 Jul 2003, 15:02

  • EU mulls closure of Madeira ISP tax loophole

    Freeserve, take note

    Europe is considering closing a loophole that allows ISPs and e-commerce operations to pay less tax. In a proposal published last week the European Commission said it wanted to ensure a "level playing field" concerning VAT (Value Added Tax). One of the proposed reforms highlighted in the document was the "abuse" whereby …

    Business 28 Jul 2003, 15:08

  • ALi licenses Rambus for PCI Express

    Getting ready for 3GIO

    ALi, formerly Acer Labs, has licensed Rambus' PCI Express physical bus interface technology for use in future core logic chipset products, it said today. PCI Express is the successor to today's PCI and AGP buses. Products incorporating the technology are expected to begin appearing on the market toward the end of the year or …

    Channel 28 Jul 2003, 15:21

  • Plextor unveils DVD+/-, R/RW CD-RW drive

    Reg Kit Watch Plus: eMachines notebook goes 54g

    Optical Plextor has introduced an optical drive to burn DVD-R/RW, DVD+R/RW and CD-R/RW discs. The PX-708A supports 8x DVD+R, 4x DVD-R, 4x DVD+RW, 2x DVD-RW, 40x CD-R and 24x CD-RW burning. Its reads CDs at 40x max. and DVDs at 12x max. The drive contains 2MB of data cache and offers a burst transfer rate of 33MBps, allowing a …

    Personal 28 Jul 2003, 15:24

  • So what info does WinXP really send to MS?

    Germany's tecChannel explains

    Germany's tecChannel has launched an English-language version of its site, and has celebrated with a seriously trainspotter analysis of the interaction between Windows XP's product activation and Redmond central control. Despite (or possibly because of) Microsoft's insistence that the WPA process is completely harmless and doesn …

    Software 28 Jul 2003, 16:03

  • Atheros touts top-end Wi-Fi products

    802.11b now just a commodity

    WLAN chipmaker Atheros is now selling more than a million 802.11b/g and a/b/g chipsets a month, the company boasted in a statement put out on the wires today. We mention this otherwise unremarkable news release - 'Company sells product - shock' - not because of Atheros' braggadocio, but because of what it says about the …

    Wireless 28 Jul 2003, 16:16

  • Lastminute.com available on 3 handsets

    Travel on the move

    Lastminute.com is to provide its online travel service direct to people's 3G phones. 3 UK punters can now use their video mobile handsets to access the latest holiday deals and lifestyle products. It is the first time that 3 has offered its punters content prepared and managed by one of its partners. In a statement Andrew …

    Mobile 28 Jul 2003, 16:33

  • You can buy Win2k server, but pretend it's 2003?

    Or something...

    It's how you count them. History tells us that the success of quite a few next generation Microsoft products is aided by it becoming progressively more difficult and expensive for customers to carry on buying the previous product. For some lucky licensees Microsoft institutionalised this procedure last year by getting them to …

    Software 28 Jul 2003, 16:44

  • BMC cuts 900 jobs

    Trying to staunch red ink

    Software maker BMC said today it is to slash 900 jobs globally in an effort to stem losses. The company, which makes software products that monitor traffic on mainframe and networked computer systems, said that it will cut about 13 per cent of its global workforce and is planning facility closures and office consolidations to …

    Data Networking 28 Jul 2003, 17:17

  • Privacy: US, full marks, Europe, null points – study

    Free-market axes grind, we grind back...

    Privacilla.org, "your source for privacy policy from a free-market, pro-technology perspective", has lined up behind the, er, interesting argument that the US approach to privacy is superior to the European model. Hailing a supporting AEI-Brookings study, Privacilla.org editor Jim Harper says: "While Europe has built a creaking …

    Music and Media 28 Jul 2003, 17:43

  • Unisys brings J2EE and .Net to new mainframe

    Something old, something new

    With the release of a new mainframe, Unisys is trying to provide its customers with a route out of the dark age. The ClearPath Plus Libra 185 is billed as Unisys' most powerful mainframe to date. The system runs on a new class of CMOS processor said to be 25 percent faster than the chips used by the Libra 180. Overall, the box …

    Servers 28 Jul 2003, 19:00

  • Fraud cases up, financial losses down

    VAT fraud, ID fraud skyrocket

    The number of fraud cases reached a record high during the first six months of this year, according to KPMG Forensic's latest Fraud Barometer. But the average value of fraud per case has decreased from £9m to £3m so that - in absolute financial terms - fraud is actually down. The total value of fraud within the six-month …

    Channel 28 Jul 2003, 19:11