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22nd September 2003 Archive

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  • Twinhead returns to Europe

    Dusting down contacts book

    Twinhead is to start reselling own-brand computer goods in Europe, two years after it withdrew from the region. The Taiwanese manufacturer is setting up stall again in the UK, Germany, France and Italy and will service other European countries through distribution. Twinhead is majoring on three classes of product: notebooks, …

    Channel 22 Sep 2003, 08:14

  • IT chief sacked for donating old PCs

    Sues for £500k

    A former senior IT executive at Interbrew his sueing the company for wrongful dismissal after being sacked for donating secondhand PCs to schools and retiring staff. Kevin Kelly, former head of IT services at the brewing giant, is claiming £500,000 in loss of salary and pension benefits. Kelly was accused by Interbrew of …

    Personal 22 Sep 2003, 08:17

  • Atos Origin buys Sema

    Schlumberger jettisons expensive millstone

    Schlumberger is to offload its computer services arm to Dutch rival ATOS Origin for €1.5bn in cash and shares. ATOS Origin is effectively doubled in size by the deal. The enlarged group will have 50,000 staff and annual revenues of €5bn. SchlumbergerSEMA is sweetening the deal by agreeing, in principle, to an outsourcing deal …

    Hardware 22 Sep 2003, 08:47

  • Intel most active IT investor

    Flash the cash

    Need money? Call Intel! Intel Capital, the chip manufacturer's investing arm, was the most active investor in IT companies in the US in 2002, according to VentureWire. Intel invested over US $200 million in more than 100 companies worldwide. "This year it will be even more," Claude Leglise, vice president of Intel Capital, told …

    Business 22 Sep 2003, 09:10

  • Reseller ‘leaks’ iBook G4 specs?

    Update Cock-up not conspiracy

    A major UK reseller claims to have made a mistake when it appeared to pre-announce this weekend Apple's intention to migrate the iBook consumer notebook line to the G4 processor. Dabs' latest computer magazine off-the-page sales advert refers to a "iBook G4". The machine is equipped with a 500MHz processor, 60GB hard drive, …

    Mac Channel 22 Sep 2003, 09:40

  • ICANN urges VeriSign to suspend SiteFinder

    Violates 'Principle Of Least Astonishment'

    Net governing body ICANN has called on VeriSign to "voluntarily suspend" Site Finder amid renewed concerns that the web typo replacement service could undermine key Net standards. Last week VeriSign deployed a "wildcard" service into the .com and .net Top Level Domain zones. This VeriSign wildcard redirects traffic that would …

    Music and Media 22 Sep 2003, 10:28

  • Brit ISPs run ADSL price promos

    Virgin, Plusnet, Bulldog etc.

    Virgin.net has cut the up-front cost of signing up for ADSL with the launch of a new promo offer. The cost of its Broadband Starter Kit - which includes a Thomson Speedtouch 330 DSL modem, 2 micro filters and a set-up guide - has been cut from £49.99 to £24.99. The offer from Virgin.net - a joint venture between the Virgin …

    Telecoms 22 Sep 2003, 11:17

  • 3 may back out of i-Mode partnership

    Mind the UK gap

    NTT DoCoMo is rumoured to be seeking an alternative UK operator with which to launch its i-Mode data service, because of the problems besetting its planned partner, Hutchison's '3', in which it owns a 20% stake. Although DoCoMo denied the speculation, sources within '3' said the company is no longer intending to launch i-Mode …

    Mobile 22 Sep 2003, 11:32

  • China Unicom tests GSM-CDMA bridge

    Good week for Qualcomm

    China Unicom has tested Qualcomm technology designed to bridge GSM and CDMA networks. The system uses CDMA to transmit voice and data over a GSM network and the operator said it "works very much according to our requirements". Such a combination could significantly boost Qualcomm, whose CDMA technology faces eventually being …

    Mobile 22 Sep 2003, 11:42

  • Motorola is reluctant white knight for 3

    Paragon an early mover

    Motorola has an unexpected hit this weekend, with sales of the phone it barely loves selling out of 3 stores in the UK. We first revealed the existence of the A920, codenamed 'Paragon', almost two years ago. It's Motorola's first Symbian phone, produced under contract for Hutchison with gritted-teeth. Stores in London and …

    Mobile 22 Sep 2003, 12:48

  • 118 888 boss quits

    Personal reasons

    The boss of directory enquiries (DQ) newcomer - Conduit - quit the company on Friday citing personal reasons. Liam Young's departure comes just a month after DQ deregulation in the UK, which opened up the £300 million market to competition. Conduit - which is known in the UK by its 11 88 88 number and brand - has spent a …

    Business 22 Sep 2003, 12:51

  • Samsung shifts PC production to China

    Workshop of the world

    Samsung is shifting most of its PC production to China. The electronics giant will retain manufacture for its domestic market in Korea, but is shifting the rest to China. Samsung currently averages a production run of 90,000 PC units a month with plants in Korea, China and other operations overseas. Current capacity is 3 …

    Channel 22 Sep 2003, 13:01

  • Baltimore sells ‘crown jewels’

    Final disposal

    Security company Baltimore Technologies today announced a "conditional agreement" to sell its core public key infrastructure (PKI) business to US firm beTRUSTed for $5 million in cash. The sale of Baltimore's 'crown jewels' to BeTRUSTed (which is owned by Bank One's One Equity Partners) effectively winds up the company, …

    Security 22 Sep 2003, 13:23

  • Norton Antivirus product activation cracked

    Oops

    Software giant Symantec last month announced that it will add product activation technology to all of its consumer products, starting with Norton Antivirus 2004. The idea is to prevent large-scale piracy operations from thieves who counterfeit Symantec programs and offer them to customers on the Web. The company estimates at …

    Software 22 Sep 2003, 13:32

  • Vodafone Connect Card – mobile data done right?

    The Big Picture And no hotspot hype either

    Vodafone Mobile Connect Card Despite the hype surrounding wireless PDAs and SmartPhones, the notebook PC remains the most important business computing device for mobile professionals and this is unlikely to change in the short term. Something that is set to change, however, is the way notebooks are connected to the Internet or …

    Mobile 22 Sep 2003, 14:27

  • MPs head to US on anti spam mission

    Summits up

    MPs from the UK are to meet with Senators and officials in Washington DC next month to discuss what can be done about spam. It's the first time that a UK Parliamentary delegation has travelled to the US to discuss the issue. According to some estimates, half of all emails are now spam, of which 90 per cent of which comes from …

    Music and Media 22 Sep 2003, 14:54

  • Four in ten IT contractors out of work

    Not good

    Four in ten IT contractors are out of work, according to a straw poll by freelancer organisation Shout99. A survey of 700 members carried out during the summer revealed that six in ten of those quizzed were currently working on contracts, with almost four in ten working on contracts for more than a year. However, one in ten …

    Business 22 Sep 2003, 15:50

  • Mitac shows new MS phone

    Smartphone 2003

    Over in Taipei, Mitac is showing its second Microsoft smartphone, and the first to be powered using Smartphone 2003 software. The clamshell Meo 8390 uses a 200Mhz Intel Dalhart processor, has an SD card slot for expansion and sports a VGA-grade camera. According to Digitimes, Mitac hasn't yet announced any carrier deals for the …

    Mobile 22 Sep 2003, 15:52

  • Credit checkers launch ID fraud watch services

    And guess who pays...

    Britain's two largest credit reference agencies, Experian and Equifax, last week began offering online credit reports services designed to help combat ID fraud. Experian's CreditExpert service alerts consumers by email or SMS text when important changes have taken place on their credit report, which they can access online to …

    Security 22 Sep 2003, 18:00

  • VCs back Friendster

    Let a million fake IDs bloom!

    Unemployed HTML coders, take heart: gullible Venture Capitalists can again be tapped for cash to bring implausible business plans into life. The phenomenal popularity of the Friendster social network where people meet online friends has prompted Silicon Valley fund managers to give the Bright Young Things another chance. Some 1 …

    Music and Media 22 Sep 2003, 18:30

  • Sun's ‘MacOS X’ suite to remain in Sun morgue

    This source won't be free

    After investing heavily in the StarOffice suite, Sun Microsystems has no plans to release another productivity suite, one of its hidden gems, we learn. Sun acquired NeXT developer Lighthouse Design in 1996, bringing with it Jonathan Schwartz, who's now Executive VP for Software. Lighthouse had a highly-regarded suite of software …

    Mac Channel 22 Sep 2003, 18:32