1st October 2003 Archive

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Love me Tender – bidding for Iraqi cellular

Goalposts on wheels

Iraq is up for sale, but not everyone is entitled to bid. A study by the George Soros-backed Open Society Initiative sheds some light on the current auction for Iraq's cellular telephony infrastructure, a market that it is estimated to be worth $6 billion by 2008. And it concludes that the bidding process - subject to several …

Mobile 1 Oct 2003, 00:06
Half of UK homes has Net access

Spam concerns

Half of all UK homes have access to the Net, according tothe Office of National Statistics (ONS). Some 12 million homes have Net access, compared with just one in ten (2.2 million) homes in 1998. Of those Net users quizzed, eight out of ten said they used the Net to search for information and for email. Four in ten said they …

Music and Media 1 Oct 2003, 07:05
Data will save mobile operators – report

Revenue hike

Mobile operators around the world will be spared from declining revenues thanks to increased use of data services, says the Yankee Group. Over the next four years, the number of mobile phone subscribers globally will grow almost nine per cent, exceeding 1.75 billion, the analyst firm estimates. But since the new customers are …

Mobile 1 Oct 2003, 07:25
mmO2: Competition Commission squeezes profits

There may be troubles ahead

mmO2, the former mobile arm of BT Group, is on track to meet H1 financial targets after adding more than half a million new customers, and reporting an increase in the amount they are spending on mobile services. However, regulatory moves could hamper H2 growth in the highly competitive UK marketplace. mmO2 operates in three …

Mobile 1 Oct 2003, 07:32
Entrepreneurs destroyed by lack of IT credit

But are PCs on the never never the answer?

Britain is being robbed of its next generation of businesses as entrepreneurs report their planned ventures are being "delayed or destroyed" by the difficulties they face raising capital or credit to purchase essential IT kit, recent research claims. Almost two-thirds of the 500 UK entrepreneurs questioned in the poll (some 61 …

Small Biz 1 Oct 2003, 07:41
Brits pound OpenSSL bugs

Abstract thinking

Research by the U.K. government into a once-overlooked class of software vulnerability has surfaced three new security holes in the ubiquitous OpenSSL software package, according to advisories released Tuesday. All versions of OpenSSL up to and including 0.9.6j and 0.9.7b, and all versions of SSLeay, are open to the attacks: …

Security 1 Oct 2003, 07:46
Palm launches Tungsten, Zire trio

Leaked specs. confirmed

Palm today unveiled the consumer-oriented Zire 21, and enterprise-friendly Tungsten T3 and Tungsten E PDAs today, as expected. The $99 Zire 21 effectively replaces the original Zire, upping the device's memory from 2MB to 8MB (7.2MB of which is available to the user) and building in a 126MHz Texas Instruments OMAP processor. …

Mobile 1 Oct 2003, 09:24
3G in new health scare

Tingling, nausea and headaches

There are fears over the safety of next generation phone services today after research found that signals from 3G base stations can cause tingling, nausea and headaches. The Dutch Government, which carried out the study, said further investigations needed to be carried to out to confirm the results. However, it is already …

Mobile 1 Oct 2003, 09:48
Worms spread faster, blended threats grow

Not nice, not nice at all

Virus writers are increasingly targeting more recent security vulnerabilities in their attempts to spread malicious code. The latest bi-annual Internet Security Threat Report from Symantec found that 64 per cent of all new attacks targeted vulnerabilities less than one year old. The Blaster worm, for example, appeared only 26 …

Malware 1 Oct 2003, 09:59
Toshiba, HP unveil Media Center 2004 notebooks

Reg Kit Watch Dell and Gateway go for the desktop market

Notebooks Toshiba today launched what it claims is the world's first notebook running Windows XP Media Centre Edition: an updated version of its 17in Satellite P20 machine. The OS is the new release: MCE 2004. Based on a desktop 3.2GHz Pentium 4 processor backed by 525MB of DDR SDRAM, 80GB hard drive and an Nvidia GeForce FX …

Personal 1 Oct 2003, 10:11
Symbian on wheels? Auto makers moot ‘open’ architecture

German majors propose standards for auto IT systems

The auto industry goes open standards? This is possibly more earth-shattering than it would be if Bill Gates admitted he was wrong and gave all his money to Linus Torvalds. Because the auto industry could teach the PC business a few things about achieving lock-in via proprietary IT, and given the amount of IT that's been going …

Software 1 Oct 2003, 13:13
Band goes ahead with Webcast suicide

Hell on Earth

Members of a Florida-based rock band are to Webcast the suicide of a terminally ill friend during a secret concert on Saturday despite moves to outlaw the gig. Hell on Earth had planned to stage the event at a venue in St. Petersburg, Florida, but city officials sought an injunction banning the event. Even though officials …

Music and Media 1 Oct 2003, 13:15
IBM ‘poisoning workers’ case goes to trial

Test case for the semi business?

Two former IBM workers who claim that exposure to hazardous chemicals at IBM manufacturing facilities caused them to suffer from cancer will get their day in court. Judge Robert Baines, of the Santa Clara County Superior Court, yesterday allowed lawsuits brought on behalf of former IBM employees James Moore and Alida Hernandez …

Business 1 Oct 2003, 13:22
US BB take-up hampered by cost, content

Could be worse

High monthly fees and lack of "compelling" broadband content are still being blamed for lack of strong demand for high speed Net access in the US, according to research by Current Analysis. This assessment comes despite the fact that one in five homes in US now has broadband. According to figures published by Current Analysis …

Telecoms 1 Oct 2003, 13:23
Sendo wins round one of MS smartphone secrets lawsuit

Case neither dismissed nor moved

Sendo has largely won the first stage of its lawsuit against Microsoft, which yesterday failed to have the suit dismissed, or moved from Texas to Washington state. Sendo is suing former smartphone partner Microsoft for a range of alleged sins, the central claim being that the company swiped Sendo's expertise and technology and …

Mobile 1 Oct 2003, 14:49
European mobile networks ally for added clout

The 'we're not Vodafone' fraternity

O2 has locked arms with a phalanx of other independent mobile operators to give them more clout in the marketplace - especially against the likes of Vodafone. Amena (Spain), O2 (Germany, UK and Ireland), One (Austria), Pannon GSM (Hungary), Sunrise (Switzerland), Telenor Mobil (Norway) and Wind (Italy signed the formal …

Mobile 1 Oct 2003, 17:17
EMC beefs up midrange NAS

NetApp in sights

EMC is continuing its NAS (network attached storage) march with the release of new systems that add some high-end features in midrange kit. EMC is rolling out three new NAS systems under the Celerra NS600 series brand. In addition, EMC has started shipping the NetWin 200 product that runs on Microsoft's latest storage operating …

Storage 1 Oct 2003, 18:28
Sun makes rare move to place Lintel kit ahead of Sparc/Solaris

Changing times

A relatively small announcement out of Sun Microsystems to partner with VoiceGenie for speech software points to a large shift at the company to place Lintel servers ahead of Sparc/Solaris systems when the move makes sense. Sun is working to tune the VoiceGenie Voice XML Gateway software for its Sun Fire V60x and V65x Intel …

Servers 1 Oct 2003, 18:31
Cisco halts Huawei piracy suit

Peace in our time

Cisco Systems today agreed to suspend its patent infringement lawsuit against Huawei after the Chinese equipment manufacturer signed an agreement to modify some of its products. Huawei will continue to abide by the terms of the preliminary injunction order made by a district court in Texas in June. This injunction served notice …

Data Networking 1 Oct 2003, 20:23