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6th January 2004 Archive

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  • 111m texts sent at New Year

    gr8 4 fonecos

    A record number of texts were sent over the New Year. The Mobile Data Association (MDA) reports that 111 million text messages were sent between midnight on 31st December and midnight on 1st January - nearly twice the daily average for 2003 and eight per cent up on the year before. Said the MDA's Mike Short: "The large amount …

    Mobile 6 Jan 2004, 10:28

  • $87 million for Nordic IT services firm

    Consolidation gets serious

    TietoEnator, the Nordic region's largest IT services provider, is paying $87 million for Swedish IT consulting firm Ki Consulting & Solutions, a 770 employee organization specializing in integration, application management and development of telecom IT systems. The announcement came after TietoEnator's closest Nordic rival, WM- …

    Business 6 Jan 2004, 10:30

  • Netcraft crafts anti-phishing service

    Early warning

    Netcraft has introduced an early warning service to alert banks to phishing scams. The service aims to help customers identify fraudulent sites which pose as the real thing to hoodwink the unwary into handing over confidential financial information. Promoted through spam messages, these bogus sites are becoming increasingly …

    Security 6 Jan 2004, 10:37

  • Row erupts over ‘illegal’ UK email invoicing

    Is. Isn't. Is. Isn't

    A UK industry group has slammed "untrue and misleading" warnings from an "opportunistic" ebusiness firm that claims it is now illegal for British business to transmit invoices by email. The row erupted after electronic invoicing outfit Global Invoice Corporation sent out a starkly worded statement claiming that: "From January 1 …

    Small Biz 6 Jan 2004, 10:59

  • Court bars Canadian domain slammer

    50,000 misled consumers can get their money back

    On December 23, The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) requested that a federal district court instruct an Internet domain name reseller from making misrepresentations in the marketing of its domain name registration services. Domain Registry of America (DROA) told consumers that their domain registrations were expiring, leading …

    Music and Media 6 Jan 2004, 11:55

  • Curtain draws on Google's Yahoo! gig

    Anyone surprised?

    Yahoo! will ditch Google as its main search engine "perhaps as early as the first quarter", the WSJ reports. The paper's sources are unnamed marketing outfits who says they have been briefed on the switch by Yahoo! This will come as little surprise to anyone. The only question was when the contractual agreements between the two …

    Music and Media 6 Jan 2004, 11:55

  • AMD tarts up Athlon 64 line

    Four new members

    AMD has come to market with four new faster Athlon 64 processors for desktops and power notebooks. It is pitching the Athlon 64 family particularly at digital media apps users/abusers and games nuts. The three notebook flavours are the Mobile AMD Athlon 64 processors 3200+, 3000+ and 2800+; the new desktop (and desktop …

    Channel 6 Jan 2004, 11:55

  • Lady Di inquest scrambles black helicopter brigade

    Conspiracy theory? You bet

    Conspiracy theorists are likely to have a field day over the inquests into the deaths of Lady Di and Dodi Al Fayed, which opened today in London. Amid a veritable newsfest of tabloid speculation and TV punditry, former royal butler Paul Burrell will be ordered to hand over a letter written by Di in which she sensationally …

    Bootnotes 6 Jan 2004, 12:31

  • Halifax users locked out of ATMs

    A little less Xtra

    Customers of UK high street bank Halifax were unable to use ATM machines for much of yesterday because of hardware problems. The glitch, traced to a faulty storage disk at the bank's data centre, has been resolved. The fault meant Halifax account holders were unable to use their cards in ATMs between 1200 and 1400 and again …

    Hardware 6 Jan 2004, 12:33

  • Broadband at risk over new congestion law

    Road to hell

    New traffic congestion measures currently working their way through the parliamentary process could damage the future progress of broadband in the UK. So say the bosses of telcos Thus, Kingston Communications, Cable & Wireless, BT and Colt, who wrote to the FT yesterday warning that proposals contained in the Government's …

    Telecoms 6 Jan 2004, 12:35

  • Newham ditches IBM OSS trial, but goes to extra time with MS price talks

    And is a more widespread public sector 'peasants revolt' brewing?

    Microsoft has emerged from the open source battle in Newham council with a couple of PR victories, but they could prove expensive in the long run. In December Newham, which is one of the leaders in local authority IT in the UK, pulled out of the Office of Government Commerce's open source trials, and has subsequently stated that …

    Software 6 Jan 2004, 12:53

  • Philips leaks Intertrust 'open' DRM details

    Will Microsoft play?

    Philips has let the cat out of the bag on an open secret around the consumer electronics industry, by promising to launch an open Digital Rights Management system inside the next six months built around the Intertrust patents. It says that it is working with Sony, the co-owner of Intertrust, and that the system will be open to …

    Software 6 Jan 2004, 13:28

  • US inspired copyright laws set to sweep the globe – for fun and profit

    Analysis No fanfare for the common man

    In the days before Christmas, 20 year old Norwegian, Jon Johansen, was found not guilty of DVD film copyright theft in his second criminal trial held in Norway. The story began five years ago when he distributed a software program to bypass DVD copy protection systems. He has been found innocent after justice has had two bites …

    Software 6 Jan 2004, 13:28

  • Online sales shine through the high street gloom

    Bright spot

    Online retail sales rose dramatically during 2003, despite an alarming fall in takings by high street stores over the same period. In its end of year report, ecommerce provider Actinic found that most UK web retailers experienced sales increases of between 10 and 30 per cent over the past year, with one company even enjoying a …

    Software 6 Jan 2004, 13:28

  • Linux kernel security vuln fixed

    Get patching

    Linux users are urged to patch their systems following yesterday's disclosure of a serious security vulnerability in Linux kernel software. The flaw stems from shortcomings in code used to control virtual memory (the mremap(2) system call)and can be exploited to run malicious code on vulnerable systems (as explained here). …

    Security 6 Jan 2004, 16:03

  • Tiscali UK in BB price promo

    Isn't it mild for the time of year?

    Tiscali UK has cut the upfront costs of two of its high-speed Net access services. The set-up fee (previously £25) for its 150kbps DSL product has been scrapped while the activation fee for its 256kbps product is halved to £25. The promos run until the end of April and coincide with a limited time cost reduction announced last …

    Telecoms 6 Jan 2004, 16:05

  • 750,000 mobiles dumped this Xmas

    Oh, oh, oh

    Few people are aware that old mobile phones can be recycled, according to research published today which "reveals" that more than three quarters of a million handsets were dumped over the last few weeks. According to a syrvey by environmentally-friendly retailer The Body Shop and mobile phone recycling outfit Greener Solutions …

    Mobile 6 Jan 2004, 16:11

  • Transmeta hunts for life in small devices

    Thin and quiet

    Transmeta keeps plodding along with the release of two new processors for small form-factor PCs and other computing devices such as cash registers. The Crusoe TM5700 and TM5900 chips are Transmeta's latest effort to make the most out of its low power consumption processor designs. The company hopes to extend its presence beyond …

    Personal 6 Jan 2004, 16:41

  • MySQL looks for life in the Itanium ecosystem

    Open source hand for HP-UX

    MySQL is hoping to tap into a niche of the server ecosystem with a release of its database that supports the HP-UX operating system running on the Itanium 2 processor from Intel. MySQL has successfully ported Version 4.0 of its open source database to Version 2 of HP's HP-UX 11.i operating system. This gives those brave few HP …

    Hardware 6 Jan 2004, 17:58

  • Gateway revenue warning scares off investors

    Branded integrator branded

    Struggling branded integrator Gateway saw its shares slump during Tuesday's trading as investors reacted to a profit warning and analysts cut their ratings on the company. On Monday, Gateway lowered fourth quarter revenue forecasts to $880 million from a previous prediction of between $925 million and $975 million. This …

    Personal 6 Jan 2004, 17:59

  • eBay UK hikes auction fees

    Going, going, gone up

    eBay is to raise fees for many big ticket UK auctions - in some cases doubling commission. The revised tariffs also see some price cuts. From January 20 there will be a £100 fee for running auctions with a reserve price of £5,000 or above and a two per cent charge for running auctions with a reserve price of between £50 and £5, …

    Small Biz 6 Jan 2004, 21:12

  • US radio host attacks ‘blood sucking slobs’ in the music biz

    Hendrie says good times are over

    Los Angeles radio giant Phil Hendrie recently attacked the music industry on its home turf, launching one of the fiercest assaults against the pigopolist mob to date. Hendrie captains one of the largest radio shows in the U.S. and has recently started a new program that allows listeners to download and copy his show for roughly …

    Bootnotes 6 Jan 2004, 21:14

  • Beware the auction sites – Gov.uk

    Caveat emptor Internet

    The DTI has issued a warning to consumers to tread carefully when purchasing through auction sites Internet bargains that seem too good to be true". Here is a tale of woe, supplied by the DTI: A consumer from Normanby, Lancashire paid £1770 through an internet auction site for a 42-inch plasma screen TV. He had an email …

    Music and Media 6 Jan 2004, 21:31

  • Police slap Web designer with public nudity ticket

    Caught with her pants down at Mickey's Irish Pub

    Melissa Harrington's part-time porn gig caught up with her on Monday, as Nebraska police ticketed the lass for posting nude photos of herself taken at a local bar up on the Internet. Harrington - who goes by the name Melissa Lincoln on her Web site - apparently violated Lincoln, Nebraska's public nudity ordinance by placing a …

    Bootnotes 6 Jan 2004, 21:31

  • Micron makes a profit!

    First Q for three years

    Micron has declared its first quarterly profit for three years. True, it's a titchy profit, just $1.1m on sales of $1.1 billion for Q1, the best-selling period of the year, ended December 4. But the revenue line and the fact that Micron, is back in the black, shows that the DRAM market is picking up at long last. Compare and …

    Business 6 Jan 2004, 21:32

  • Martha Lane Fox heads for Selfridges

    ... and not just for the sales

    Martha Lane Fox, the co-founder of Lastminute.com, is joining Selfridges as the righthandwoman of Galen Weston, the new owner of the London department store. She said to be "thrilled" by the job offer, says the Sunday Telegraph. The broker between Lane Fox and Weston is said to be Royal Mail chairman Allan Leighton, who sits on …

    Business 6 Jan 2004, 21:32

  • Europe in Brief Mobilcom returns 3G licence

    Germany's Mobilcom is to return its UMTS license to the federal telecommunications and postal regulator. The move comes more than three years after the company bought one of six available licenses in Germany for a stunning € 8,5 billion. Mobilcom already had started building the network, but now has sold most of its …

    Mobile 6 Jan 2004, 21:32

  • Orange flogs Swedish 3G licence

    ... To Swedish 3G licence holders

    Orange has found a couple of buyers for its Swedish 3G licence. They are TeliaSonera and Tele2, which are paying the enormous sum of Kr50m ($6.9m). Actually, this is not bad, considering that Orange publicly announced its intention to withdraw from the crowded Swedish market in the summer. Also, its licence was not purchased at …

    Mobile 6 Jan 2004, 21:32

  • Sun and Cobalt left me with a dinky toy

    Letters A $2 billion flirtation gone wrong

    re: Sun drives the final nail in Cobalt's coffin A company's decision to kill a product line is never easy for those employees who tried to make the gear thrive or those users who loved and adored the kit. The axing of the Cobalt product line by Sun Microsystems holds true to this maxim with a flurry of former Cobalt devotees …

    Letters 6 Jan 2004, 21:33

  • Jobs caps snoozathon with cut-down Emagic, iPod

    MWSF The dullest since Amelio?

    Would the January MacWorld keynote on the twentieth anniversary of the Macintosh live up to expectations? These January keynotes have traditionally served two purposes: as a stage to bring the company lots of free publicity, and to announce key new products. But as recent keynotes have proved, the latter has been deprecated in …

    Mac Channel 6 Jan 2004, 21:37

  • Whatever happened to the Windows Media Center?

    Exclusive Back to the drawing board

    On the eve of the giant annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Microsoft is set to switch the focus of its Windows Media Center from standalone PC to home network hub, according to reliable industry reports received by The Register. The news follows hot on the heels of Microsoft ditching its Smart Display (Mira), much …

    Software 6 Jan 2004, 21:41

  • SonyEricsson follows Palm in RIM deal

    Clean sweep

    Although an axe hangs over Research in Motion, in the form of an injunction which would prevent it from selling its Blackberry handheld, the pager vendor continues to strengthen its software lifeline. Following PalmSource's update last week to deliver a RIM-based email for PalmOS devices by the second half of next year, handset …

    Mobile 6 Jan 2004, 21:42

  • Ofcom frees radio spectrum for rural broadband

    5.8GHz services expected in '04

    Ofcom has allocated radio spectrum to enable the delivery wireless broadband to "the most remote rural communities in the country". The new super-regulator says that the newly released 5.8GHz Band C spectrum range should be able to support typical download speeds of up to 1Mb/second. And it expects the first 5.8GHz services to …

    Telecoms 6 Jan 2004, 21:42

  • Online crime up in 2003

    A lot

    It seems 2003 was a productive year for phishers, online auction scammers and Nigerians professing a deep sense of purpose and utmost sincerity, judging from the latest stats from the Internet Fraud Complaint Center. The center reports receiving over 120,000 online fraud complaints through its website this year -- an increase …

    Security 6 Jan 2004, 21:42

  • Beware of strangers carrying books, warns FBI

    Maps too

    The FBI has issued a terror warning to police to look out for individuals carrying almanacs or maps, reports AP. The warning was sent to 18,000 officers before Christmas. Almanacs, warns the FBI, may be used "to assist with target selection and pre-operational planning." The Bureau acknowledges that there may be "legitimate …

    Bootnotes 6 Jan 2004, 21:42

  • Union calls BT strike ballot over ‘derisory’ offer

    My London weighting is thinning

    BT London employees could go on strike in the New Year, following the rejection by their union over a "derisory and completely unacceptable" pay offer. BT is offering an extra £100 for London weighting, to top up the current annual allowance of £2,600 for inner London and £1,128 for outer London. The allowances to compensate …

    Business 6 Jan 2004, 21:43

  • Teen 419er in Trainspotting drug hell

    $50m in the bank, but no escape from smacked-up harlot mum

    We were always led to believe that it's tough up North, but good Lord, we never imagined how truly Dickensian things could be - especially if you're a 14-year-old lad living in some kind of Trainspotting nightmare scenario. What must be especially galling for the young victim in question is that, a few technicalities aside, he' …

    Bootnotes 6 Jan 2004, 21:43

  • Toshiba rejigs PC biz

    Standalone

    Toshiba is to spin off its lossmaking PC operations into a standalone (but still inhouse) company. The electronics giant is presenting this as an attempt to restore its ailing PC biz to profitability. But equally the re-org could be seen as a tidying up exercise, which will make it easier for Toshiba to flee the PC scene if …

    Channel 6 Jan 2004, 21:44

  • The USB dongle: a form factor worth plugging?

    Removable storage is only the beginning...

    I've recently been experimenting with those USB Flash drives that seem to be proliferating at the moment. Natty little things, they hold anything from 16MB of data and support recent versions of Windows, Linux and the Mac OS, meaning that the information they contain can be accessed on any current computer with a spare USB port …

    Personal 6 Jan 2004, 21:44

  • Victory for CPRM: SD cards overtake Compact Flash

    A trip down flash memory lane...

    It's three years since we first heard of CPRM (Content Protection for Recordable Media), the digital rights management technology, but it's only in recent weeks that it's taken a decisive edge. CPRM is designed to restrict the movement of digital files (which could be content or executables) according to rights set by the …

    Personal 6 Jan 2004, 21:44

  • CSC, Accenture win NHS Care Records contracts

    Four down, one to go

    The government today named Accenture and CSC as the winners for separate IT contracts to manage the NHS Care Records service. CSC has scooped up the contract, worth £973m, to manage the North West and West Midland region, while Accenture has won the Eastern region, worth £934m. CSC's junior partners are Hedra, iSOFT and SCC. …

    Hardware 6 Jan 2004, 21:44

  • Symantec cans another counterfeiter

    A hundred or so to go

    A US court has awarded Symantec, best known for its antivirus and security software, a $3 million judgment against Baltimore-based Maryland Internet Marketing for selling counterfeit Symantec software. Symantec says that Maryland Internet Marketing was the largest source of spammed e-mails circulating in the US selling …

    Security 6 Jan 2004, 21:45

  • AOL France to challenge Wanadoo over ‘predatory pricing’

    Broadband tiffs

    AOL France is to complain to French competition authorities over allegations that France Telecom's Wanadoo ISP is engaged in predatory pricing. Le Figaro quotes, (by way of AFX) AOL France boss Stephane Treppoz as saying that Wanadoo is flogging broadband at a price lower than the wholesale cost of the service. An AOL …

    Telecoms 6 Jan 2004, 21:45

  • Punters want cheap, simple PDAs

    We don't want media players in our handhelds

    Handheld vendors are repeatedly making mistakes by targeting the upper-end of the market, according to Jupiter Research. The market for handheld PDAs is likely to remain flat so long as vendors mistakenly believe that consumers want convergent devices, Michael Gartenberg, research director at the analyst firm, argues. "The …

    Mobile 6 Jan 2004, 22:03

  • Sony pencils November for PSP global launch

    Just in time for next Christmas...

    Newly-promoted Sony Europe boss Chris Deering has revealed that the company is planning to roll out the PlayStation Portable worldwide by the end of the year, with a global launch aimed in November 2004. In an interview with official site PlayStation.com, Deering said that there was no official date for the unveiling of the …

    Personal 6 Jan 2004, 22:13

  • Macromedia steps up to top phone slot, hires Juha Christensen

    Flash - Juha - He'll save ev'ry one of us

    Juha Christensen's move from Microsoft to Macromedia, announced today, marks a new dawn for Flash. Flash may be the bane of web surfers in a hurry! - but it has become a real contender for the role of "key software product for phones" with the adoption of Flash Lite by Japanese network Docomo. Terror struck several players in …

    Mobile 6 Jan 2004, 22:53