23rd February 2004 Archive

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Voda explains AT&T Wireless defeat

Wake up call

Cingular paid $1.5bn more than it needed for AT&T Wireless, The Sunday Times claims. Vodafone CEO Arun Sarin says he receive a phone call from John Ziegler, his AT&TW counterpart, at 2am on Tuesday - five hours after the final deadline for offers. "We were advised of some numbers that were weaker, and we frankly needed time to …

Mobile 23 Feb 2004, 08:53
Mobile operators face EC action over roaming

Long time coming

The European Commission is still considering formally charging mobile phone operators with breaches of competition law. The Commission raided phone company offices in July 2001 but never laid formal charges. According to the Financial Times this could happen as soon as this summer. mmO2, Orange, T-Mobile and Vodafone are all …

Mobile 23 Feb 2004, 09:03
Email billing saves trees

Red emails for final warning

Electronic billing was supposed to be the big cost saver for utilities companies - and now it's starting to happen. Gas and electricity supplier Centrica is already billing 150,000 customers by email, according to the FT. Customers signing up for emails instead of bills also get a discount. Centrica hopes to get a million …

Hardware 23 Feb 2004, 09:22
Egg blames France for big losses

Two bidders left

Online bank Egg more than doubled its losses compared to last year and blamed poor business in France. Good profits for the UK business - £72.8m in the UK, were eaten up by losses of £89.1m in France. Overall, the bank lost £34.4m compared to a loss of £16.6m in 2002. It now hopes to break even by 2005. Egg added 635,000 new …

Business 23 Feb 2004, 09:31
KPN offer stokes mmO2 bid excitement

Not going Dutch, just yet

Speculation over the future of mobile operator mmO2 was rampant on Monday after Dutch telecoms company KPN made an offer for the firm. The friendly offer, which was rebuffed on Friday when O2 said it had ceased talks with an unnamed operator, has prompted conjecture over whether the mobile arm of Royal KPN NV will now launch a …

Mobile 23 Feb 2004, 10:20
Judge bans DVD X Copy software

Hollywood 1, 321 Studios 0

DVD duplication software maker 321 Studios has been given seven days to stop selling its controversial DVD X Copy family of utilities, a US federal judge has ruled. The ruling follows legal action brought against the developer by MGM Studios, Tristar Pictures, Columbia Pictures, Time Warner Entertainment, Disney, Universal City …

Personal 23 Feb 2004, 10:25
Kazaa trial judge delays hearing

Further submissions, please

Kazaa owner Sharman Networks will have to wait until next week to hear if the Australian federal court will suspend legal action brought against it by the Aussie music industry. Judge Murray Rutledge Wilcox adjourned a hearing due to take place this past Friday in order to allow the parties to make further submissions this week …

Music and Media 23 Feb 2004, 10:53
Symbian minorities to block Nokia sale

Mobile operating systems are go

Nokia's bid to own 63 per cent of Symbian could be in doubt. Earlier this month Psion announced its intention to sell its 31.7 per cent stake in Symbian to Nokia for up to £135.5m handing the Finnish company control of the company. But unnamed sources have told Reuters that other shareholders, including Ericsson, could use …

Mobile 23 Feb 2004, 11:23
Group Sense updates Palm OS smart phone

Adds integrated keypad

PalmSource smart phone licensee Group Sense PDA's latest handset will not be using the mobile operating system supplier's phone-oriented Garnet OS - at least, not yet. Instead, the upcoming G88 device will run Palm OS 4.1.2, the company announced today. Hong Kong-based GSPDA already offers the Palm-based Xplore G18 dual-band ( …

Mobile 23 Feb 2004, 11:23
Linux Bash Shell Scripting at 30 per cent off

Site Offer Plus Microsoft .NET Kick Start for a mere £17.85

This week at The Register bookshop, we've got huge savings on a guide to Linux Bash Shell scripting, a developers guide to .NET programming plus several essential companions for Cisco and DB2 certification exams. We've also got guides for online job hunting, managing your boss and first time investors. Don't forget you can …

Site News 23 Feb 2004, 11:30
Nokia and IBM update the Communicator with Wi-Fi

3GSM Not the one you've been waiting for

Nokia has buffed up its venerable 9000 series Communicator with tri-band GSM, GPRS EDGE and Wi-Fi support, in partnership with IBM. But this isn't the long-awaited version based on the Hildon user interface. It uses Series 80, which made its debut three years ago but which has been de-emphasized in favor of the new Series 90 …

Mobile 23 Feb 2004, 12:07
UK passes 2m-line ADSL milestone

BT chuffed to bits, apparently

There are now more than two million ADSL connections in the UK, according to figures revealed by dominant telco BT. Chuffed to bits that it's taken just eight months to notch up its "second million", BT's chief exec, Ben Verwaayen, said: "The phenomenal growth we are now seeing in the broadband market is excellent news for the …

Telecoms 23 Feb 2004, 12:12
Isoft – Torex marriage postponed

Proposed merger sent back to UK Court of Appeal

A new ruling by the UK Court of Appeal means that the proposed $1.2 billion merger between healthcare services providers Isoft Group and Torex is no closer to being given the green light. This setback may reduce their chances of winning lucrative NHS services contracts. The UK Court of Appeal has ruled that the Competition …

Hardware 23 Feb 2004, 12:27
Ericsson: from A to B and back again

Voting balance of power untouched by shareholding shake-up

Ericsson plans to reform its controversial voting structure to allow foreign shareholders a greater say in the company. However, the plan will do little to alter the current balance of power since the two existing controlling shareholders will remain in charge. Under LM Ericsson Telefon's current dual-class shares system, the " …

Business 23 Feb 2004, 12:39
WH Smith bins CD singles

Downloads to blame for shelf-clearing exercise?

UK retailer WH Smith has blamed falling sales for the decision to pull CD singles from its shelves. The company will use the free shelf space to sell other entertainment products. The decision followed a review of trading by Boston Consulting Group and Cap Gemini Ernst&Young, according to the Guardian. It will continue to …

Personal 23 Feb 2004, 12:51
One billion people use GSM phones

Boldly going where no phone has gone before

More than one billion people worldwide now enjoy the benefits of GSM, the GSM Association says. This helped generate global GSM revenues of $277bn in 2003 - a figure expected to rise to over $500bn in 2005, according to a white paper from Deutsche Bank. The study claims that GSM is closing the digital divide because mobile …

Mobile 23 Feb 2004, 13:11
France Telecom bids for outstanding Wanadoo shares

Broadband at 'heart of strategy'

France Telecom (FT) wants to acquire the outstanding shares in its ISP division, Wanadoo, in a bid to cash in on future revenues from the growth in broadband. Like other incumbent telcos, FT's traditional voice revenue streams are being squeezed and it reckons that broadband is one area where it can generate new revenue growth …

Business 23 Feb 2004, 13:36
419 haiku results delayed

Poetic tsunami swamps Vulture Central

The results of our 419 haiku competition have been postponed after hundreds of wannabe poet laureates jammed El Reg inboxes with 17-syllable masterpieces. Accordingly, the results - which will announce who has won one of our magnificent Strategy Boutique t-shirts - will be announced later in the week. Suffice it to say for now …

Site News 23 Feb 2004, 13:53
PS2 dominates January UK hardware sales

2004 off to a good start

Post-Christmas sales helped demand for the main three consoles jump by over nine per cent, according to the latest figures released by ChartTrack, but sale pricing meant that the value of the market was down. An estimated total of 18,000 more consoles sold in the five weeks to 31 January, compared to the same period last year, …

Personal 23 Feb 2004, 14:20
IBM ThinkPad X31

Review Small, slim but pricey

It was only a couple of weeks ago that I reviewed the IBM ThinkPad T41p and proclaimed it the best notebook that I've ever used. This week that statement still stands although the ThinkPad X31 is still a fine mobile companion, writes Riyad Emeran. The ThinkPad X31 is part of IBM's ultra portable range and it's certainly slim …

Reviews 23 Feb 2004, 14:40
Court rules for IBM pensioners

Big Blue hit by big grey bill...

IBM underpaid pension benefits for 140,000 employees and ex-employees, according to a US court ruling. The computer giant changed its pension scheme in 1999 but the court in East St Louis ruled the changes illegal late last week. The decision opens the door for higher payments for people who lost out as a result of the move …

Business 23 Feb 2004, 15:10
US woman in 419 kidnap terror ordeal

John F. Kennedy's ex in a tight spot

Let's face it - it's not every day that you get an email from one of President Kennedy's former squeezes who finds herself rather inconveniently imprisoned in a hole in the ground with only a computer for company and $10m dollars to give away to worthy causes. This latest 419 variant marks an interesting departure for the lads …

Bootnotes 23 Feb 2004, 15:11
Motorola chip launch paves way for 1.5GHz PowerBook G4

MPC7447A adds SpeedStep-style tech, too

Motorola's chip division - soon to be spun off as Freescale Semiconductor - today updated its G4-class PowerPC processor, the MPC7447, taking the part to 1.5GHz and paving the way for one more PowerBook G4 update the line before its upgraded to IBM's 90nm G5 chip, the 970FX. The new Motorola part is dubbed the 7447A and adds on …

Mac Channel 23 Feb 2004, 15:29
Hampshire police deploy e-warranting

Exchange of intelligence between officers and courts

Unilink has won a contract with the Police and Magistrates' Courts in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight to integrate the handling of Court warrants. The aim of the project is to improve the percentage of fines that are paid. When an arrest is made, the system will cross-reference the name of the suspect with the database of …

Hardware 23 Feb 2004, 15:35
Boingo roams onto All Telecom hotspot network

150 sites now, 1500 by the year's end

Wi-Fi hotspot aggregator Boingo has added All Telecom's network of 150 sites in France and Belgium to its worldwide total of over 6000. More than half of these are in Western Europe. The deal with All Telecom is expected to boost that figure significantly by the end of the year. All's expansion plan calls for roll outs in Italy …

Wireless 23 Feb 2004, 15:37
Stob: Dylan Beard is not weird

Stob Free number radical speaks to El Reg

There was a rare opportunity to meet Dylan Beard in person today when, flanked by a brace of spear-carriers, he brought his campaign to reimplement the 'Wron number to London. For all its supposed iconoclastic nature, the Free Number Association was rather conventional in its approach to publicity. We met at the traditional …

Bootnotes 23 Feb 2004, 16:01
Skype plays conference calling card

With free acronyms: P2P, VoIP

Skype, the upstart provider of peer-to-peer VoIP telephony services, has added conference calling to its portfolio. The new service lets up to five people to talk simultaneously using their broadband connections. As with its original product, Skype's Beta 0.97 is available to download for free, and has no time restrictions on …

Data Networking 23 Feb 2004, 16:14
Sony adds a trio of Vaios

Reg Kit Watch Extends Centrino lines

Sony UK introduced a trio of notebooks today: the Vaio TR2MP ultra-portable and a pair of Z1X-series machines, the Z1XMP and the Z1XSP. All three are based on Intel's Centrino platform and consequently offer 802.11b/g WLAN connectivity. The TR2MP sports a 1GHz Ultra-low Voltage Pentium Ms, while the other two are equipped with …

Personal 23 Feb 2004, 17:01
Click on this, you muthas

Clueless users guarantee virus propagation

If hundreds of thousands of people are still blindly clicking on attachments in their email, is there any hope of mitigating the threat of hundreds of thousands of compromised systems with open backdoors? There's a myth that should be dispelled in the computer security world, and that is the belief that the growing and …

Malware 23 Feb 2004, 17:20
Bradford IT strike off

Workers win key assurances

A strike among IT workers in Bradford has been averted following the successful completion of "extensive negotiations" between the council and public sector union UNISON. Bradford Council's 100 or so IT staff were due to strike later this week over plans to privatise the authority's IT department. Workers were concerned that …

Business 23 Feb 2004, 17:26
Sun secures much-needed storage software help

We tap you, AppIQ

Proving it has some measure of self-restraint, Sun Microsystems formed a partnership with AppIQ for storage management, declining to buy the company as it has with numerous small software makers. Sun is turning to AppIQ to help build out its N1 technology for managing software, servers and storage systems. The AppIQ software …

Storage 23 Feb 2004, 17:51
SCO opens online IP store

Get clean on credit

The SCO Group has put up a convenient online shopping Web site where Linux users can scrub themselves clean in a jiffy. SCO last week covertly launched the IP Licenses store, allowing "customers" to purchase the right to use versions of Linux allegedly infected with Unix System V code. This site apparently caters to those Linux …

Hardware 23 Feb 2004, 22:12