19th March 2004 Archive

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China pulls plug on blogs

Another attempt to 'strangle web use'

Chinese authorities have been accused of censorship after closing down two blogging sites. Used by more than 15,000 people, Blogbus.com was closed "until further notice" on 11 March after a letter was posted on the site that was critical of the government. Another site, Blogcn.com, had its plug pulled three days later. "After …

Music and Media 19 Mar 2004, 09:38
Baseball lives on the Web

Akamai slides into Real's place

The sweet sounds of live baseball games will continue to pour out of PCs thanks to a deal between Akamai and MLB Advanced Media. Akamai has signed a multi-year deal to provide audio and video streams of baseball games. It replaces Real Networks as the content provider of choice for MLB (Major League Baseball). Negotiations …

Music and Media 19 Mar 2004, 09:39
Telstra faces fines over broadband price cuts

Hackles raised as Aussie telco stands firm

Australia's dominant telco, Telstra, came a step closer to being slapped with a AUS$10m (£4m) fine, after a consumer watchdog claimed its pricing for wholesale broadband services was anti-competitive. In a ruling published today, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) decided that Telstra is engaged in anti- …

Telecoms 19 Mar 2004, 09:49
IT pros unhappy at work

Not as miserable as IT hacks

When it comes to being happy at work, IT professionals are a miserable bunch. Only 14 per cent of IT workers are very happy in their job, compared to 40 per cent of care assistants. While a third of IT workers feel that they are appreciated, half find their work unrewarding. According to the City & Guilds "Happiness Index" - …

Business 19 Mar 2004, 10:14
Endesa's power line broadband coup

A kickstart for utility product expansion?

Attempts to sell broadband services through the power network have been beset with problems. However, Spanish energy provider Endesa has managed to provide an exception, with a penetration rate of 19 per cent. Datamonitor's Martin Yuill examines how the company has managed to find success where so many others have failed... …

Telecoms 19 Mar 2004, 10:20
ReadytoSurf offers six months' Wi-Fi access for £50

Update Not as unlimited as all that?

Broadreach Networks, which offers fixed and wireless Internet access under the ReadytoSurf brand, has revealed details of its low-cost unlimited Wi-Fi access package. However, the deal, which provides six months' access to any of the company's 200-odd hotspots, for a flat payment of £50 ($92), turns out not to quite as " …

Wireless 19 Mar 2004, 10:46
Anti-piracy vigilantes stalk file sharers

'Bad Pirate!'

A pair of coders nurturing a deep antipathy for software pirates set off a controversy last Thursday when they went public with a months-old experiment to trick file sharers into running a Trojan horse program that chastises users and reports back to a central server. As of Thursday, the crime-busting duo's server had logged …

Security 19 Mar 2004, 10:59
Agere refocuses on Wi-Fi

Head-to-head with Atheros in search for speed

Agere is the latest firm to introduce a semi-proprietary, turbocharged Wi-Fi chipset anticipate the 108Mbps standard expected in two years' time. The company is trying to make up for its recent dormant state in the WLAN business, and is claiming peak rates of 150Mbps. The battle for differentiation in the increasingly …

Wireless 19 Mar 2004, 11:02
Voda leads race for branded content services

Control of the mobile content platform

The trend for operators to use branded content services to differentiate themselves is gathering speed. These offerings are also an important way for cellcos to enhance their own brands at the expense of those of the handset makers, in order to strengthen their position in that uneasy balance of power. Vodafone has been the …

Mobile 19 Mar 2004, 11:02
US asks WTO to rule on China's chip tax

We want level playing field

The US government has filed an official complaint with the World Trade Organisation (WTO) regarding the tax rebates China offers to its domestic chip makers As reported yesterday, US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick last week said of the tax rebates: "If they don't stop it, we're going to take action." And that's just what …

Channel 19 Mar 2004, 11:03
Punters demand broadband music

Europeans willing to pay for legal downloads

Fifty-five percent of European broadband users would pay up to €15 a month to download legal music files to their PCs, according to a seven-country survey by research firm Strategy Analytics. The possible annual revenues could amount to €650m. Those surveyed as part of "Online Music: Europe's Sounding Good", expressed …

Telecoms 19 Mar 2004, 11:20
AMD unveils 2.4GHz Athlon 64 FX-53

And drops the FX-51

AMD yesterday rolled out its latest Athlon 64 FX processor, the 2.4GHz FX-53, and dropped its predecessor, the FX-51, from its product list. The new 64-bit chip was originally expected to appear before the end of 2003, according to sources cited by AMD-watching web sites, but the part ultimately turned up on the company's …

Channel 19 Mar 2004, 11:33
Small.biz: how does the Budget affect you?

Business as usual?

Now that the dust has settled on the 2004 Budget, the question many small businesses will be asking is: exactly how better or worse off are we? Well, the short answer is that although the Budget wasn’t great, it could’ve been a lot worse. After all, chancellor Gordon Brown resisted the temptation to crank up business taxes to …

Small Biz 19 Mar 2004, 11:47
Intel Dothan to be called ‘Pentium M 700’

Desktop P4s to become the 500 series

Intel will assign its 90nm desktop and mobile Pentium and Celeron processors to 300, 500 and 700 series under its anticipated new naming scheme, according to Taiwanese reports. Unnamed PC makers cited by DigiTimes say the naming scheme will be launched next quarter. The launch will see the 2.8GHz Prescott Pentium 4 renamed the …

Channel 19 Mar 2004, 11:51
German police bust massive movie piracy ring

Raid 750 premises

More than 750 premises were raided - and 15 people arrested - in a crackdown against a huge Internet piracy network in Germany this week. The raids on 16 and 18 March targeted a network of pirates blamed for illegally distributing more than 500 German-language versions of popular films on the Net since 2001. Among the films …

Music and Media 19 Mar 2004, 11:54
China bans PC game

'National dignity and interests' hurt

China has banned a computer game because it tarnished the image of the country and its army. According to state media Project IGI2: Covert Strike - which was created by the Norway-based Innerloop Studios and published by UK-based Codemasters - has broken tough gaming laws because it "hurt China's national dignity and interests …

Personal 19 Mar 2004, 12:06
France shakes down mobile operators. Customers are safe

Orange takes it on the chin

The French finance ministry's decision to hike license fees for GSM operators from 2006 will have no effect on consumer prices, Orange said today. Which is nice. But it also shows how much profits the mobile operators are raking in, if they can afford to take the licence hit on the chin. Here is a rundown of the proposed levy …

Mobile 19 Mar 2004, 13:42
Fraunhofer's 3D kiosk excites punters

CeBIT Boffins also unveil multi-sensor armband

Pity if you will the poor boffins of the Fraunhofer Institute - Germany's largest technology research organisation - who have been dragged kicking and screaming from their cosy labs to display their wares at CeBIT. Their journey has not, however, been in vain. Fraunhofer's 3D kiosk in Hall 11 has been attracting a lot of …

Science 19 Mar 2004, 13:42
Unholy trinity of Open SSL vulns

Security alert

Updated versions of Open SSL have been released following this week's announcement of three potentially troublesome security vulnerabilities. These could be exploited by attackers to launch denial of service attacks against routers or servers running the ubiquitous security protocol, security clearing house CERT warns. OpenSSL …

Security 19 Mar 2004, 13:54
ARM to take £6.4m hit to end Herodion fight

PicoTurbo lawsuit comes back to bite

ARM has settled its last remaining differences with Herodion, the company that comprises what's left of PicoTurbo, the chip maker it accused of patent infringement in 2001. The settlement will see ARM's 2003 fully diluted earnings per share dip from the previously forecast 2.1 pence to 1.5 pence, under UK GAAP. Similarly, the …

Channel 19 Mar 2004, 14:10
NEC shrinks music, grows phones

CeBIT How many features can you fit on a phone?

NEC has launched the e616, its latest feature-packed 3G handset at CeBIT. Fire it up and you've got video calling, audio and video streaming, video recording and playback and, significantly, built in GPS. It has all the diary features we've come to expect from our handsets, Java, and 19MB of phone memory expandable to 128MB …

Mobile 19 Mar 2004, 14:25
PDA makers unveil Wi-Fi, GPRS PDAs

Reg Kit Watch Big week for GPS-enabled PDAs too

Asus this week demonstrated its upcoming wireless PDA, the MyPal A730 - one of the first handhelds we've come across that's based on Intel's next-generation XScale chip, 'Bulverde'. The A730 will contain a 520MHz Bulverde, which builds on previous XScales by adding the MMX multimedia instructions Intel developed for the Pentium …

Mobile 19 Mar 2004, 15:12
BT spreads VoIP love across Europe

CeBIT PBXs are so last season

BT is rolling out managed VoIP services to businesses across Europe: Spain and Ireland first, later in Germany and the Netherlands. The company is kicking off with two offerings: the top-of-the-range multimedia MM VoIP, aimed squarely at the more technophiliac CIOs; and the slightly less intimidating VoIP Port. The latter lets …

Data Networking 19 Mar 2004, 15:15
Sony doubles up with AIT-4

CeBIT Still chopping away at the DAT market

Sony has launched the fourth generation of its AIT (Advanced Intelligent Tape) format at CeBIT, doubling the capacity of the previous AIT-3 to reach 200GB of uncompressed data per cartridge, or around half a terabyte compressed. The increase is in line with Sony's roadmap for AIT, which also includes fifth and sixth generations …

Storage 19 Mar 2004, 15:21
Business as usual for jailed 419er

Allegedly committed further offences while on remand

Australian police have charged the alleged ringleader of a massive advance fee fraud network with offences which they claim were committed since he was held on remand in October last year. Nick Marinellis, 39, faced 17 charges including obtaining money by deception and conspiracy to cheat and defraud. Investigators allege he …

Music and Media 19 Mar 2004, 17:20
Coke's spunky water pulled from UK market

Bromate flash

First Coca Cola's Dasani bottled water lost its spunk and then the product was completely pulled from the UK market. Last week, we reported on Coca Cola's Swiresque online advertisement for Dasani water. A Flash animation brought up the phrase "Can't live without spunk" - something that might appeal to US audiences but surely …

Bootnotes 19 Mar 2004, 20:36