5th December 2003 Archive

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Sun won't be Eclipse'd

Rolls out NetBeans roadmap

Sun won't be joining the IBM-led open source tools effort Eclipse, and today announced its roadmap for its own NetBeans framework. IBM has based its own WebSphere development suite on the Eclipse framework, which the organization describes as "an open extensible IDE for anything and nothing in particular." It's supported by …

Software 5 Dec 2003, 09:14
One third of US mobile phones to have Bluetooth in '04

About time too

Nearly a third of US cellphones will feature Bluetooth by the first half of next year, predicts analyst company ABI Research. In a slightly riskier prediction, ABI reckons that by 2008 a fifth of new cars sold will carry Bluetooth, citing commitments from Acura, Audi, Lexus, Lincoln, Maybach, and Toyota to install the wireless …

Wireless 5 Dec 2003, 09:17
Fifty more exchanges to get SDSL

Some people like it fast both ways

BT is to upgrade a further 50 exchanges to provide SDSL services to London and the West Midlands. Geared specifically for business use, SDSL (Symmetric DSL) gives the same rate of data transfer upstream as well as downstream and is spot-on for punters looking for services such as fast file transfer and Web hosting. All 50 …

Telecoms 5 Dec 2003, 09:22
BT to offer a week's free Wi-Fi access

Wireless Broadband Week to kick off on 26 January

BT Openzone will next month open up its network of Wi-Fi hotspots to businesspeople and consumers in a bid to improve the British public's awareness of wireless networking. And the telco is expected to make access easier - and possible even less expensive - through a series of pay-as-you-go options due to be launched in the …

Small Biz 5 Dec 2003, 09:30
Intel XScale biz to take $600m charge in Q4

But sales up overall, as expected

Intel narrowed it Q4 sales forecast yesterday, tightening the focus from its earlier prediction of $8.1-8.7 billion to $8.5-8.7 billion, as anticipated. However, the company also said it would take a $600 million one-off charge during the period. Revealed during Intel's mid-quarter update yesterday, the "goodwill impairment" …

Channel 5 Dec 2003, 09:33
Brazil champions free Internet access

Cybercafes for Sao Paulo's poorest citizens

The Brazilian city of Sao Paulo is offering its poorest citizens a chance to get connected for nothing, the BBC the reports. The left wing local authority has opened almost 100 "telecenters" - free Internet cafes - where any of the city's 20 per cent unemployed can enjoy up to one hour's free surfing a day. "We want to take …

Software 5 Dec 2003, 09:35
Intel ship Banias-based Mobile Celeron

Shouldn't that be 'Dothan-based'...?

Intel has confirmed that it is already shipping Mobile Celeron processors based on the 'Banias' core already available in the Pentium M chip. What's more interesting, however, is that the part in question is based on Banias, and not the 90nm 'Dothan' core, as originally roadmapped. The chip is the 800MHz Ultra-low Voltage …

Channel 5 Dec 2003, 10:17
Daily Mail finally launches website

Newspaper learns to love the Internet

Britain’s second-biggest selling daily newspaper, The Daily Mail, has finally shaken its dislike of the Internet and announced it will launch a Web version. The right wing paper, renowned for running Internet scare stories, will open up for business in February 2004 at its existing domains DailyMail.co.uk and MailOnSunday.co.uk …

Music and Media 5 Dec 2003, 10:25
IT firms use jargon ‘to deceive’

Second only to lawyers in obfuscation

Shocking as it may seem, 74 per cent of Brits reckon that business jargon is nothing more than a tool of deception and confusion. What's more, over half think that nonsensical lingo is deployed as an arse-covering device by people who haven't got a clue what they're talking about. That, at least, is the conclusion of an Abbey …

Small Biz 5 Dec 2003, 11:21
PalmOne settles m500 synchro class action

Offers replacement kit, cash to plaintiff

PalmOne has agreed to settle a class action brought against it earlier this year by Palm m500-series owners who alleged that the PDA maker had knowingly sold them defective devices. The case centred on the difficulties some Palm m500 and m505 handhelds experienced when attempting to synchronise with a host PC. A variety of …

Mobile 5 Dec 2003, 11:40
Nokia Q3 sales leap, market share drops

Siemens bounces back

Siemens proved to be a surprise winner in the Western European mobile phone arena this year, almost doubling its market share between Q3 2002 and Q3 2003, according to market watcher Strategy Analytics. Nokia, by contrast, saw its market share eroded, though not enough to knock it off its position as market leader. During Q3, …

Mobile 5 Dec 2003, 12:16
Mobile phone ban – the risk to business

Look to your employment contracts

Well mobile phones in cars haven’t actually been banned but there is some important new law that affects the use of hand held mobile phones in cars and there are significant risks for businesses, writes technology lawyer Tim Cook. The Road Vehicles (Construction and Use) (Amendment) (No. 4) Regulations 2003 came into force this …

Small Biz 5 Dec 2003, 12:28
More promiscuous data exchanges with strangers

Bluepods, Personal Servers, and instant radio

Technology doesn't change society, Linus Torvalds once said - society changes technology. A great example of this is illustrated by a fine piece at Wired which brings us news of another Bluepod research project. About a year ago we speculated how interesting things could get if the iPod added Bluetooth and Rendezvous, allowing …

Mobile 5 Dec 2003, 12:33
Vodafone UK to offer handheld wireless PC

Be there or Bsquare...

Vodafone has begun to pitch Bsquare's Power Handheld ultra-mobile wireless Windows PC to enterprise customers who want full-screen web browsing and email. The Power Handheld sports a 4in, 16-bit colour 680 x 480 LCD and offers what Bsquare claims is the "richest handheld email and web app experience available". the screen is …

Mobile 5 Dec 2003, 13:09
On Stob and patenting numbers

Letters Hold the front page

Numbers to be patentable Last week we welcomed Verity Stob to The Reg. Verity has built up a strong following for her humorous work in .EXE, alas defunct, and through a regular column in Dr. Dobbs Journal. Now we are introducing Verity to the online world. Her Register debut, a series of linked articles on patenting integers, …

Letters 5 Dec 2003, 13:13
Nokia N-Gage

Reg Review Is it phone? Is it a console? Bird? Plane? No, it's...

The trouble with Nokia's N-Gage, say the gamers, is that it's a phone, not a console. Likewise, handset specialists bemoan what cramming mobile phone functionality into a handheld console has done to the telephony experience. Nokia, of course, can't win. In devising a device that attempts to leverage the growing demand from …

Reviews 5 Dec 2003, 13:18
On the Japanese ‘anon’ P2P bust

Letter Japan, a polite police state

'Anonymous' P2P users busted in Japan If you are going to use a story from the Mainichi Daily News, please include in your story that the article you mentioned may not be what all appears. Doesn't it seem strange to you that: "It's unclear how police traced the suspects" and the "19-year-old who can't be named for legal …

Letters 5 Dec 2003, 13:27
BT promises an ‘office in an hour’

Rome wasn't built in a day

BT has rolled out a package that it says will enable UK firms to get an office network up and running in less than 60 minutes. The telco's "Office in an Hour" bundle uses 802.11b wireless kit to link up to 10 PCs together in a peer to peer local area network that allows firms to share files and peripherals, such as printers and …

Small Biz 5 Dec 2003, 13:31
Europe ‘broadband revolution’ leads the world

Yeah, right

The future iss burning bright for the ICT manufacturing and services across the European Union as the continent enjoys a "broadband revolution" and takes up global leadership in the mobile sector. This upbeat assessment came from the European Network of Training Organisations Conference 2003 in Brussels this week. At the event …

Small Biz 5 Dec 2003, 13:35
Time-out code ambushes MS Small Business Server 2003 install?

Microsoft is working on fix

So there I was, happily installing this spanking new shinkwrap of Microsoft Small Business Server 2003 onto a spare computer. The code only came out a couple of weeks ago, so it is hot off the production line. SBS takes a while to install, but it is a huge product. Somewhere near the end of the install, however, the setup …

Small Biz 5 Dec 2003, 13:55
Phone driving ban article ‘flippant and hostile’

Letters Stats spat

A single death is a tragedy, a million deaths is a statistic. Joseph Stalin Letters "Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA), knows for sure that since 1998, there have been 20 deaths on Britain's roads involving mobile phones. Of these, two involved hands-free phones. Neither figure sounds particularly high, …

Letters 5 Dec 2003, 14:44
How Nintendo almost beat Nokia to the gamephone

Letter Could've been a contender

Review: Nokia N-Gage Interested in reading your review of Nokia N-Gage on El Reg. I thought you might be interested in this little ditty. It's a bit long-winded but there is a point. In the Autumn of 2001, we developed a prototype that turned the Gameboy Advance into a fully functioning phone. The idea was that we would be …

Letters 5 Dec 2003, 17:25