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26th March 2004 Archive

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  • Sprint exec dials the wrong acronym

    'Don't ask me! I only work here'

    If Sprint's director of business marketing Tom Shaughnessy had thoughts of defecting to rivals Cingular or T-Mobile, he's going to need a refresher course in the mobile phone industry. Speaking of AT&T's recent upgrade to EDGE, Shaughnessy declared that "EDGE is just a band aid to get to UMTS. EDGE isn't backwards compatible …

    Mobile 26 Mar 2004, 08:32

  • Nokia to fix sidetalking, swapping with Son of N-Gage

    Backward compatible

    Some critics suspect that Nokia only launched the N-Gage console-phone to drum up interest for its Series 60 platform amongst game developers. This is an expensive way of building a brand. The phone giant is pressing ahead, and has acknowledged that it will fix the two most serious design issues with the first generation of the …

    Mobile 26 Mar 2004, 08:36

  • Punters stay away from Winchester Powerline BB trial in droves

    Campaign to generate spark of interest

    Southern Electric - which is running trials to supply broadband over electricity cables - is to begin a marketing push in Winchester next month to drum up more customers. So far, only 50 people have signed up for Southern Electric's Powerline Communication (PLC) broadband service, even though the commercial trial kicked off …

    Telecoms 26 Mar 2004, 08:38

  • If consumers want to copy games, let them

    DRM provider claims to have answer to 'honest' copiers

    Consumers know it's bad, but they do it anyway. Copy games, that is. The solution? Let them go right ahead. So says Trymedia Systems, which conveniently makes secure distribution software. In a bid to better understand why consumers copy games, it asked visitors to its web site to tell it. Some 2122 people responded, of which …

    Consoles 26 Mar 2004, 08:52

  • Hitachi to boost 1in HDD output

    Good news for Apple's iPod Mini

    Hitachi's Global Storage Technologies company admitted today that it is not churning out enough 1in hard drives to meet demand, but pledged to ramp up production volumes as quickly as it can. "We are planning to boost production at our plant in Thailand, and it will come sooner rather than later," a Hitachi spokesman promised, …

    Storage 26 Mar 2004, 09:40

  • Schumacher quits Infineon

    Resignation effective immediately

    Infineon CEO Ulrich Schumacher has quit the company. No reason has been given for the abrupt departure. Fast it certainly was. Schumacher resigned yesterday with immediate effect during a board meeting. The board accepted his resignation straight away. Board chairman Max Dietrich Kley will replace Schumacher for a year or …

    Channel 26 Mar 2004, 10:05

  • Securing the mobile enterprise

    No room for complacency

    Now that corporate governance is the topic of the moment, everyone is much more aware of the importance of maintaining the integrity of important business data, writes Bloor Research analyst Fran Howarth. Not only are company executives personally facing severe sanctions if the business data that they publish is erroneous, but …

    Mobile 26 Mar 2004, 10:29

  • LGA775 will not bring 64-bit to desktop P4s yet – Intel

    Waiting for Longhorn

    Intel has reaffirmed its pledge that it will not to offer a 64-bit x86 desktop processor for some time yet. The company this week told Xbit Labs that the 775-pin version of the 90nm Pentium 4, aka 'Prescott', would not ship with EM64T enabled, contradicting earlier reports that it would be. Intel's Enhanced Memory 64 …

    Channel 26 Mar 2004, 10:34

  • EC earmarks €2bn for small firms

    Lots of lovely lolly for research funding

    The European Commission has announced that it is targeting small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in its distribution of €2.2bn of EU research funding. Philippe Busquin, European research commissioner, launched the EU-funded DETECT-it project at a presentation in Brussels. The programme aimed to help SMEs to overcome the …

    Small Biz 26 Mar 2004, 10:40

  • UK IT tax break deadline looms

    31 March cut-off for small.biz tax clawback

    Small businesses must hurry to take advantage of tax breaks on IT equipment before the incentive is withdrawn next week, according to Microsoft. In last Wednesday's Budget, chancellor Gordon Brown announced that the ICT tax allowance for small firms will end on 31 March. The tax break allows entrepreneurs to claim 100 per cent …

    Small Biz 26 Mar 2004, 10:50

  • Yahoo! buys Kelkoo

    Beefing up Europe

    Yahoo! is to buy Kelkoo, Europe's biggest online comparison shopping service, for €475m cash. The company says the lead referral model used by the French-owned business complements its own paid-for search business, Overture. Indeed. Kelkoo currently runs text ads supplied by Google, which in turn supplanted eSpotting, the …

    Music and Media 26 Mar 2004, 10:54

  • Bagle-U plays MS Hearts

    Key to victim's PC

    A new variant in the Bagle worm series - Bagle-U - is spreading quickly across the Internet this morning. As with its 20 previous siblings, Bagle-U spreads vy email. This time, infected emails have an empty subject, no body text and a randomly-named attachment containing malicious code. If this attachment is run, the worm …

    Malware 26 Mar 2004, 11:04

  • Wi-Fi devices not talking

    Wi-Fi Alliance admits to lack of communication

    The UK Consumers' Association recently upset the Wi-Fi wireless networking world by saying that two different makers were unable to inter-operate. The incident was seen as a one-off. Not so, it now seems. According to a report carried in eWeek.com, the Wi-Fi Alliance has now publicly admitted that there is a problem. The …

    Wireless 26 Mar 2004, 11:13

  • No mobile console for Microsoft

    'It's not our core competency'

    Microsoft's global head of game content Peter Moore has ruled out the possibility of the company launching a mobile games console to compete with PSP or GBA. Speaking the Game Developers Conference, Moore confirmed that although the company will continue to support game developers working on its mobile operating systems - which …

    Consoles 26 Mar 2004, 11:24

  • HP sues Gateway over patents

    A first for the company

    HP is taking action against Gateway, the rival PC maker, for alleged infringement of six patents. Gateway says it will defend itself "vigorously". The suit, filed on Wednesday, 24 March, in San Diego, is a first for HP since it formed an intellectual property department last year, The LA Times reports. It accuses Gateway of …

    Channel 26 Mar 2004, 11:32

  • Tiscali UK in billing bungle

    I'm not even a customer, says bemused reader

    Tiscali UK is busy sorting out an admin cock-up after it sent out letters confirming the creation of payment details with the ISP. Snag is, not all of those who received the letters are even Tiscali customers. One Reg reader told us: "Tiscali sent me a letter today confirming a direct debit mandate has been set up. This is …

    Telecoms 26 Mar 2004, 11:34

  • Security patches via modem? Forget it!

    Opinion 11.3MB at 56kbps - you work it out

    I recently had two eye-opening experiences that made me aware of something that, to my shame, I had forgotten. In the first case, I was helping a friend perform a clean install of Windows 2000 on a used computer that he had bought. We installed Windows 2000 just fine. We then installed all the other software that you have to …

    Security 26 Mar 2004, 11:45

  • Boeing prices up in-flight Wi-Fi

    Not cheap

    Boeing has announced how much it will charge customers for in-flight wireless Internet access once its Connexion service goes live this Spring. Connexion will charge $29.95 for long-haul flights - typically those taking six hours or more - $19.95 for 3-6 hour journeys and $14.95 for short hops. These flat-rate options provided …

    Wireless 26 Mar 2004, 11:51

  • Staples to buy Office World UK

    Quite cheaply, too

    Staples is stumping up £32.5m to buy Office World, the UK arm of rival office goods retailer, Swiss-based Globus Group. That's not a lot of money - it gains 59 out-of-town stores, all based outside London. The deal is subject to scrutiny on competition grounds from the Office of Fair Trading. Theo Van Brandenburg, president, …

    Channel 26 Mar 2004, 11:56

  • Aussie court blocks DrinkorDie extradition

    Windows 'software pirate' going nowhere

    Australian magistrates have blocked the extradition of the alleged head of a software piracy syndicate to the US. Hew Raymond Griffiths, 41, of Berkeley Vale in New South Wales, Australia, was indicted on one count of criminal copyright infringement and one count of conspiracy to commit criminal copyright infringement by a …

    Channel 26 Mar 2004, 12:26

  • Sony preps 50GB next-gen Blu-Ray video deck

    Will include a hard drive too

    Sony has committed itself to shipping second-generation consumer-oriented Blu-Ray video recorders by the end of the year, the company said today. The new systems will support single-side, dual-layer Blu-Ray rewriteable discs with a total capacity of 50GB. Current Blu-Ray rewriteable discs provide 23GB of storage on a single …

    Personal 26 Mar 2004, 12:45

  • Intel recruits Alcatel to co-develop WiMAX kit

    Products due H2 2005

    Intel and Alcatel will work together to develop and market WiMAX wireless broadband equipment, the pair said today. Products arising from the two firms called their "strategic alliance" will come to market in the second half of 2005. Intel's own WiMAX roadmap calls for the availability of external systems - base-stations and …

    Wireless 26 Mar 2004, 13:06

  • Intel buys Wi-Fi chip maker for $40m

    Envara acquired, claims Israeli site

    Intel has bought Israeli wireless networking chip maker Envara for $40m, local business site The Market has claimed. Envara was formed in March 2000 as a fabless chip producer, and has since launched its WiND series of multi-mode Wi-Fi chipsets. The WiND 502 is a 802.11a/b/g product, the WiND 512 an 802.11b.g product. Both are …

    Mobile 26 Mar 2004, 13:15

  • Thoughts on MS, .mail, T-Rex and sooty footballs

    Letters And we are blasphemers, but y'all knew that

    This week's big news hit was the European Commission's decision to fine Microsoft a small fortune, or a pittance - depending on whether or not you have $51bn in the bank - and to force the galactic software superpower to un-bundle media player from its OS. Plenty of people had thoughts about this one, starting with Sun and …

    Letters 26 Mar 2004, 13:51

  • Europe wears its heart on a card

    EU citizens issued with health insurance ID from 1 June

    European citizens will be issued with pan-European health insurance cards from 1 June, the EC announced today. The cards could replace national health insurance cards, if member states so choose, but are more likely to be issued separately. For now, the card will merely be an identifier, but the EC says that future versions of …

    Hardware 26 Mar 2004, 13:55

  • Broadband Industry Group demands more competition

    UK market 'stifled'

    The Broadband Industry Group (BIG) has called for greater competition to help drive the next wave of broadband growth. In a letter to the FT today the industry group said: "The broadband market in the UK remains stifled by a lack of competition at the wholesale level, where BT retains a monopolistic 99 per cent share in digital …

    Telecoms 26 Mar 2004, 13:57

  • NASA scramjet ready to roll

    X-43A goes for Mach 7 - again

    NASA's experimental scramjet aircraft - the X-43A - will tomorrow makes its second attempt to reach Mach 7 (around 5,000mph). The first flight, in June 2002, ended in disaster when the vehicle had to be destroyed in mid-air due to "stabilization problem with the booster rocket's directional fins". The Pegasus booster rocket in …

    Science 26 Mar 2004, 15:09

  • Vanco sets sights on Infonet

    Intends to overtake rival 'in next four years'

    Allen Timpany, CEO and founder of wide area network services firm Vanco, is counting on impressive growth over the next few years. To achieve its ambitious targets, Vanco will need to maintain good relations with carriers while growing its list of sales partners. Vanco CEO Allen Timpany says that he expects to overtake closest …

    Business 26 Mar 2004, 15:10

  • EC MS ruling: simply the end of the beginning

    This one will run and run

    While the size of the European Commission's record $613m fine against Microsoft for breaking European Union competition law has grabbed most of the headlines, a far bigger factor in terms of consumer protection is the fact that the case could now be held up in the courts for another four or five years... European competition …

    Business 26 Mar 2004, 15:10

  • BT Yahoo! migrates 300,000 punters

    Hang onto your hats

    BT is shifting around 300,000 of its BT Yahoo! Broadband punters onto a new platform over the next couple of weeks. Most of the work should be completed sometime next month with the monster telco assuring us that users should experience few problems during the migration. Here's what it has to say: "From March 29, 2004, BT will …

    Telecoms 26 Mar 2004, 15:12

  • TM domain leads anti-spam charge

    Top-level registry adds vital data to DNS

    The registry running the top-level .tm domains is leading the charge against spam by adding the SPF protocol into all its domains' DNS records. While a large number of ISPs, big online names, anti-spam companies and a few domain registrars have added SPF and so helped verify that an email message comes from the address it says …

    Music and Media 26 Mar 2004, 17:26

  • RIAA student lawsuits. Haven't we been here before?

    Letters It's all about the music

    It is hard to imagine that anything that needs to be said about the RIAA has not been said already. Then, it goes after a new bunch of students, possibly even those whose only act was swapping files. This week, the organisation has filed 532 new lawsuits, 89 of which were against John Does. It also sent letters to university …

    Letters 26 Mar 2004, 17:37