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16th April 2004 Archive

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  • Servers carry IBM to solid Q1

    A little currency love too

    A solid performance from IBM's server unit helped carry the company to a decent first quarter. IBM reported $22.2bn in total revenue for the quarter, which stands as an 11 per cent increase over the $20.1bn posted a year ago. Net income also increased to $1.6bn up from $1.4bn. "IBM continued to out-perform the industry in our …

    Financial News 16 Apr 2004, 02:20

  • Time called on EC - Oracle investigation

    Lack of info

    The European Commission has called time out in its investigation into Oracle's takeover of Peoplesoft. The EC said Oracle had failed to provide evidence of how it negotiates prices with customers without which the investigation cannot continue. The Commission wants evidence of the discounts offered to companies signing big …

    Mobile 16 Apr 2004, 08:05

  • Sage interim profits jump

    Rest of world comes on stream

    UK accounting software specialist Sage has posted decent profits for the six months ended 31 March 2004. Interim profits before tax grew 17 per cent to £87m and turnover hit £332m, growth of 23 per cent. Sage shares rose slightly on the news. UK turnover was up seven per cent to £91m and mainland Europe contributed £89m, 23 per …

    Applications 16 Apr 2004, 08:35

  • Japanese boffins perfect paper Blu-ray disc

    Pulp fiction

    From the nation that brought us literally paper-thin walls and Origami, the ancient art of paper folding, comes the world's first optical disc made largely out of paper. Researchers from Sony and the Toppan Printing Co. have created a Blu-ray disc based on the material, the pair announced yesterday. The two companies mixed …

    Storage 16 Apr 2004, 09:06

  • Transmeta sales rise as Efficeon interest grows

    On track for 90nm adoption

    Transmeta saw is quarterly revenues jump 44 per cent sequentially during the first three months of the year, but its losses continue to widen. However, the company offered an optimistic release schedule for its upcoming 90nm chips, including the prospect of a product revamp next year. Sales for the company's first fiscal …

    Financial News 16 Apr 2004, 09:28

  • ATI targets Nvidia's 60% desktop chip share

    'Impossible,' says Nvidia

    Arch-rivals Nvidia and ATI are each gunning for a 60 per cent share of the world market for desktop graphics chips, both companies said separately this week. First up, ATI. During an Taipei press conference, Ho Kwok Yuen, the company's chairman and CEO (soon to be ex-CEO) said ATI plans to raise its 40 per cent market share to …

    Channel 16 Apr 2004, 09:49

  • Nvidia discounts old graphics chips

    Spring sale to clear inventory

    Nvidia is offloading older graphics chips at double-digit discounts in a bid to clear its inventory figures before the end of its current fiscal quarter. Some $80m worth of stock is on offer, at discounts of 10-20 per cent, sources close to Taiwan's graphics card makers cited by DigiTimes claim. Nvidia has said only that …

    Channel 16 Apr 2004, 10:05

  • Computacenter duo clean up again

    Channel Roundup Dealogic float raises fortune

    Computacenter's super-rich founders Philip Hulme and Peter Ogden are to make a second fortune this week, through the flotation on AIM of their investment banking software business Dealogic. The IPO could see the pair net up to £45m each - on paper for now, as they have no intention of selling stock just yet. Hulme and Ogden set …

    Channel 16 Apr 2004, 10:09

  • Logitech results due to 'fighting spirit' of staff

    No mice here, then...

    Logitech made sales of $347m, up 15 per cent, and increased profits by 29 per cent to $44.9m in the fourth quarter ended 31 March. This contributed to yearly sales of $1.268bn and profits of $146m. The peripherals firm introduced 100 products over the year and sold 47m Logitech-branded items. OEM sales grew 32 per cent for the …

    Peripherals 16 Apr 2004, 10:12

  • Innocent Brits labelled as crooks

    Records snafu

    Almost 200 Brits have been wrongly labelled as criminals because of mistakes in records. By incorrectly linking 193 people to various crimes recorded on the police national computer (PNC) the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) may have inadvertently blighted the employment prospects of scores of innocent individuals. The Criminal …

    ID 16 Apr 2004, 10:46

  • Estonian plasma TVs: Phishers fingered

    419ers cleared on all counts

    We were too quick to point the accusatory finger at Nigerian 419ers for the Estonian plasma TV job offer scam as discussed yesterday. To recap: you receive a lovely email offering the chance to get involved in the Baltic flat screen market. To do this, you will be asked to transfer certain funds abroad and keep a percentage for …

    Spam 16 Apr 2004, 10:49

  • Global PC sales keep growing

    IDC counts boxes

    Figures from research house IDC reveal the global PC market is still strong, helped by price competion and increasing demand for laptops. In total, 41.2m machines were shipped in the first quarter of 2004, an increase of 16.5 per cent on the same period last year. Europe, Middle East and Africa saw the strongest growth at 20 …

    PCs 16 Apr 2004, 10:53

  • Return of the Aussie überLuddite

    Richard Alston in frame for Telstra chair

    It's official: former Australian communications minister Richard Alston is in the frame to take the helm at Telstra - the Aussie telco giant left adrift after the shock resignation on Wednesday of chairman Bob Mansfield. Mansfield jumped ship after months of acrimonious boardroom infighting provoked by the leak earlier this …

    Bootnotes 16 Apr 2004, 11:08

  • Navini comes in from the cold

    Renegade broadband outfit joins WiMax

    Renegade wireless broadband networking vendor Navini Networks has come in from the cold by joining the WiMax Forum. The decision should provide aready-made service provider footprint for the mobile variant of the IEEE's 802.16 metropolitan area networking standard once it comes on stream. Navini, one of a band of "4G" …

    Wireless 16 Apr 2004, 11:09

  • Intel completes hi-def audio spec

    Grantsdale can go ahead now

    Intel has released the final version of its High Definition Audio 1.0 specification, the successor to the AC 97 PC audio standard. Formerly codenamed 'Azalia', HD Audio was officially given its new name Intel's Spring Developer Conference last February. HD Audio takes the PC's sound support beyond CD quality to 32-bit …

    Channel 16 Apr 2004, 11:09

  • US to embrace Wi-Fi - not 3G - for data

    Mobile networks outstripped by 2007

    The WLAN equipment market saw year-on-year growth of 82 per cent in revenue terms last year, according to researchers iSuppli. The company said that, in 2003, WLAN equipment sales totalled $2.8bn, up from $1.6bn a year earlier, while chipsets brought in $760m, up from $436m. Projections for the future are that the number of Wi- …

    Mobile 16 Apr 2004, 12:02

  • PGP to integrate anti-virus defences

    Symantec bundling deal

    PGP Corporation and Symantec are to integrate encryption and anti-virus technology. PGP Universal will incorporate Symantec's AntiVirus Scan Engine to thwart attempts to smuggle viruses into corporates via encrypted email. Traditionally, AV and encryption have not been particularly complementary. AV scanners should check …

    Malware 16 Apr 2004, 12:06

  • Proxim results disappoint

    No early relief from financial woes

    WLAN equipment maker Proxim has warned of disappointing first quarter results, dashing hopes of an early emergence from its recent financial troubles. The company's CEO, Frank Plastina, blamed lower than expected revenue from carriers and problems with transitioning products. Proxim now expects Q1 revenue to be in the range of …

    Wireless 16 Apr 2004, 12:08

  • Creative ships 256MB MuVo TX

    Reg Kit Watch USB 2.0 for key chain MP3 player

    Creative has extended its MuVo line of USB Flash key drive-cum-MP3 players with the MuVo TX. The new model brings the memory capacity up to 256MB, and speeds song transfers thanks to a USB 2.0 connector. Like its predecessors, the TX operates as a USB Mass Storage device, so tracks can be loaded using a variety of operating …

    Peripherals 16 Apr 2004, 13:09

  • Open Source group wins € 2.6m EC grant

    Public sector push

    The Consortium for Open Source in Public Administration (Cospa) launches today with the goal of increasing and improving the use of open source software across Europe. Partly-funded by the European Commission, the group will provide advice and expertise to government bodies which want to use non-proprietary software. The launch …

    Public Sector 16 Apr 2004, 13:12

  • HP Wi-Fi, GPRS iPaq specs hit web

    6300 series details emerge

    HP's upcoming mobile phone PDAs, the iPaq 6000 series, will be released in the US next month if information supplied to Australian web site M-Tekk is anything to go by. The site this week published what a correspondent claims is a spec. list taken from a brochure about the device, now known at the iPaq 6300 series - a fact …

    Mobile 16 Apr 2004, 14:24

  • Dr Hosni Tayeb and the case of the disappearing Internet

    Why Libya went awol

    At the weekend, Libya suddenly disappeared from the Internet. For four days not a single .ly domain was available. Even now, only a tiny percentage of the estimated 12,500 domains, paid for at $500 a pop, are accessible. It's not often that an entire country vanishes from view and the Internet community immediately set out to …

    Music and Media 16 Apr 2004, 14:50

  • Cosmic 419er lost in space

    Stuck on Soyuz. Send help. Quick

    For aficionados of the advance fee fraud email genre, we have a truly delicious 419 solicitation to brighten your Friday. Just when you thought you'd heard it all, try the one about the Nigerian astronaut stuck on Soyuz: Subject: Nigerian Astronaut Wants To Come Home Dr. Bakare Tunde Astronautics Project Manager National …

    Bootnotes 16 Apr 2004, 14:51

  • Nokia issues sales warning

    Will miss next quarter's targets, too

    Nokia has warned investors that it is not selling enough handsets in the second quarter and is likely to miss financial targets. The warning came as Nokia revealed disappointing first quarter figures - net sales fell 2 per cent to €6.6bn, compared with the first quarter on 2003. Nokia made a profit of €1.1bn in the three months …

    Mobile 16 Apr 2004, 14:53

  • The average PC: spyware hotel

    28 items per machine, audit reveals

    PCs scanned using a free scanning service from US ISP giant EarthLink harboured an average of 28 items of spyware, according to figures published yesterday. Earthlink's service, which uses Webroot's Spy Audit detection program, found that most of the items were harmless cookies. But more than 300,000 serious system monitors (e. …

    Enterprise Security 16 Apr 2004, 14:53

  • Global P2P jihad stumbles

    Punters fight back, courts unimpressed

    The legal debate surrounding peer-to-peer file-swapping sites has shifted up a gear in the past few months, beginning with the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) filing hundreds of lawsuits against serial downloaders, who they claim are costing the industry millions. But the crusade against copyright infringement …

    Music and Media 16 Apr 2004, 14:54

  • Gametrac morphs into, er, Gizmondo

    Legal pressures behind renaming

    Gametrac Europe has renamed both itself and its eponymous handheld games console in preparation for the device's launch this summer. When it ships, the kiddie-oriented console-cum-phone-cum-multimedia device will be branded as the Gizmondo. According to the company, the Gametrac name was just "a project name for out strategic …

    Mobile 16 Apr 2004, 15:05

  • Danes tag kids with Bluetooth

    Tivoli Gardens: child friendly

    Copenhagen's famous Tivoli Gardens opened its gates today for the Summer season and, for the first time, mums and dads do not have to worry about their kids getting lost in one of the world's oldest amusement parks. Tivoli Gardens has introduced a Bluetooth surveillance system for parents with small children. The Child Spotter …

    Mobile 16 Apr 2004, 15:15

  • Apple confirms UK AppleStore opening

    European flagship

    Apple CFO Fred Anderson this week confirmed reports that the company will open a flagship European store in London by the end of the year. Last February, it emerged that Apple has chosen a 20,000sq ft site on London's Regent Street for which it will pay up to £1.5m a year in rent. The location, believed to be 229-247 Regent …

    Channel 16 Apr 2004, 15:22

  • US proposes rigorous spam sentencing

    CAN-SPAM big stick

    The US Sentencing Commission (USSC) sent its proposals for sentencing spammers off to Congress this week. Offences under the recently-introduced Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act (CAN-SPAM Act) will be treated as a felony. Criminal sanctions apply where spam is sent using someone else's …

    Spam 16 Apr 2004, 16:39

  • T-Mobile equips US uni with guest Wi-Fi access

    Virtual network bypasses host's secure private WLAN

    T-Mobile has equipped Washington, DC-based American University with a cross-campus Wi-Fi network for visitors to the institution. The US WISP today said that hotspots have been activated in some ten locations around AU's campus. Of course, the hotspots are of little use to students and staff since AU already operates an …

    Wireless 16 Apr 2004, 17:08

  • Investor dumps SCO

    But the money is ours, says SCO

    The major speculator backing The SCO Group's legal jihad against Linux wants its money back. Marin County, California-based equity fund BayStar Capital invested $20m in SCO back in October, confident that the Utah firm had a strong legal case. Now Baystar says SCO has breached the agreement and wants to redeem its investment, …

    Financial News 16 Apr 2004, 21:31