14th June 2004 Archive

Browse by publication date, or search the site.

Apple readies European iTunes launch

Excitement reaches fever pitch

Apple is tuning up to launch iTunes in Europe this week and Napster has confirmed a distribution deal with NTL. Apple is expected to announce tomorrow the availability of its iTunes service in France, Germany and the UK. Rumour has it Steve Jobs may even be in town for the launch. Rival music service Napster has done a deal …

Financial News 14 Jun 2004, 08:30
France gets first virtual mobile operator

Cheaper texts ahoy

French mobile customers should see cheaper prices with the launch of the country's first virtual operators. Mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) do not own a network but piggyback on another company's network. Virgin Mobile, Tesco and BT are examples in the UK. The first MVNO in France is Debitel - a German company …

Mobile 14 Jun 2004, 08:52
Churn baby churn: junk email inferno

It was five years ago today... 14 June 1999

If you've got a couple of minutes to spare between deleting spam advertising Viagra, Spanish lottery bonanzas, once-in-a-lifetime Nigerian investment opportunities and custom-made logo services, then have a look at Gartner's 1999 suggestion for how to avoid that junk mail tsunami: Churn baby churn: junk email inferno By Drew …

Spam 14 Jun 2004, 08:54
Nokia unveils phones, promises Wi-Fi

And a keyboard

Nokia won't be neglecting the high-end, the company confirmed today as it tried to answer its critics at a major press launch in Helsinki. The company expects Wi-Fi to feature in many business models next year, and some consumer models too. Nokia has also expanded its Series 60 platform to support 3G and new screen sizes, taking …

Mobile 14 Jun 2004, 09:07
Sheep like happy, smiley people: official

More cutting-edge scientific research

Continuing our occassional series looking at how cutting-edge scientific research is changing our world for the better, we have unearthed the astounding fact that sheep prefer looking at happy people. Yup, according to a Cambridge University research team, your ovines like nothing better than a big cheesy grin. Naturally, they …

Science 14 Jun 2004, 09:08
Kazaa in German trademark punch-up

Mi Casa no es tu Kazaa

Sharman License Holdings, the company behind the controversial P2P utility and search engine Kazaa, can't use its trademark under the European Community Trademark (CTMR) system. A CTM is valid in all participating EU nations. Kazaa may even have to change its name in Germany. FastTrack, the company that developed Kazaa and then …

Financial News 14 Jun 2004, 09:23
Phoebe's past writ large in craters

Saturn's moon shows its age

Photographs from Cassini's flyby of Saturn's moon Phoebe have revealed a battered body, with an interesting past. Its face is pock-marked with craters ranging from 80 kilometers across to less than one kilometer, with variations in colour suggesting it contains plenty of ice. The larger impact sites have prompted speculation …

Science 14 Jun 2004, 09:57
NTL signs up Napster

Punters to pay extra for music downloads

Napster UK has today signed a partnership with cable TV and broadband connectivity supplier NTL, as anticipated. The deal will see NTL bundle a Napster monthly subscription with its Broadband Plus package. The Napster subscription doesn't come free, however. With it, Broadband Plus subscribers pay £9.95 a month; without Napster …

Financial News 14 Jun 2004, 09:59
AMD to ship mobile Athlons, Semprons in Q3

Low-power parts

AMD is to promote take-up of its Athlon CPUs in notebook PCs next quarter with the launch of four 754-pin low-power mobile processors. Two will be offered as Athlon 64 parts - the others will carry the chip maker's new Sempron brand. So suggests a low-power processor roadmap posted on amd64notebooks.com, and marked 'AMD …

Channel 14 Jun 2004, 10:31
BT links to eBay

Small business gets a boost

Small business customers of BT will now be able to sell their products through eBay auctions. BT's Internet Trader Pack - SHOP connects to eBay and lets you control the auction process from one place. Small business subscribers will be able to offer their products to eBay's 105m customers. The management area means you can …

Small Biz 14 Jun 2004, 10:33
Jormaspeak - Nokia CEO explains targets, culls and price cuts

Ollila sucks the bullet

In Helsinki this morning Nokia CEO Jorma Ollila was a man with just a little explaining to do. A while back when Nokia's market share was around 32 per cent he was bullishly aiming for 40, but mysteriously Nokia hit 28 per cent instead. Not, however, that he's been asleep at the switch since then or anything - a few rapid about- …

Mobile 14 Jun 2004, 10:35
Consumers want big telcos to supply VoIP services

Not so hot for start-ups

Three in ten homes in the US and the UK could hook up to Internet phone calls over the next three years, according to research published today. Consumers look set to embrace Voice over Broadband (VoB) - but only as long as service quality is as good as traditional voice services, the New York Times reports. Although many will …

Telecoms 14 Jun 2004, 10:40
Italian gov text spams entire country

Berlusconi orders mass SMS election call

The Italian government is in hot water this morning after spamming every single mobile subscriber in Italy with election information. Silvio Berlusconi's government recently passed laws to jail spammers and file sharers but obviously excuses itself from the new regulations. Consumer groups including Federconsumatori condemned …

Mobile 14 Jun 2004, 10:47
Wiltshire feds in online gnome appeal

Do you own this gnome?

We're pleased to note that Wiltshire Constabulary is committing vital resources to clamping down on that most hardened of criminals: the drunken gnome kidnapper. According to the latest appeals and CCTV images from Wiltshire Police, the force's zero-tolerance policy towards garden ornament molesters has left them with a sticky …

Bootnotes 14 Jun 2004, 10:48
Lloyd's bets on Unisys

£10m on desktops and servers

Insurance market Lloyd's has signed a £10m ($17m) contract with Unisys to provide desktop and servers. The five-year contract covers 1,400 desktop computers and 200 servers. Lloyd's has also bought two ES7000 Unisys servers. Unisys will deliver desktop support to Lloyd's employees from its centre in Milton Keynes, and it will …

Hardware 14 Jun 2004, 10:59
OD2 unveils 1p-a-play digital music jukebox

And downloads that get cheaper the more you buy

UK-based digital music distributor On Demand Distribution (OD2) today launched its own a la carte download service, a day ahead of Apple's anticipated European iTunes Music Store launch. The new service not only provides downloads by a novel 1p-a-go on-demand jukebox feature. OD2's SonicSelector will be made available through …

Financial News 14 Jun 2004, 11:05
AOL to target Hispanic Net users in ad campaign

ISP eyes growth market

America Online is set to unveil a new multi-million dollar ad campaign this week to help drive new punters to its AOL Latino service. The six month campaign - to be run on TV, radio and the Internet - will be backed up with other promotional activities to help AOL shift its software and sign up new users. For instance, as part …

Financial News 14 Jun 2004, 11:47
Briton invades France in amphibious car

Previous cross-channel record smashed

There is some consolation for distraught Brits today following England's crash-and-burn last night in Lisbon. Entrepreneur Richard Branson this morning thundered across the English Channel from Dover to Calais aboard a Gibbs Aquada amphibious vehicle in just 90 minutes - thereby smashing the previous French record of six hours …

Science 14 Jun 2004, 12:25
Vodafone finds mobile workforce

All gadgeted up and ready to go...

Eight out of ten British business people are tooled up for mobile working, according to research from Vodafone. Chief executives, as the group most likely to be out of the office a lot, are the group with most gadgets. Some 83 per cent use a laptop, 48 per cent use a PDA and 35 per cent use Wi-Fi or a mobile datacard. Half of …

Small Biz 14 Jun 2004, 12:28
Forum approves Apple music format for DVD Audio

Steering Committee says 'yes'

The DVD Forum has approved the first version of its next-generation High Definition DVD (HD-DVD) specification. The organisation, which controls the DVD format, has also approved the mandatory use of the Apple-favoured AAC for audio tracks stored in the DVD-ROM partition of future DVD Audio discs. Approval of HD DVD 1.0 …

Storage 14 Jun 2004, 12:30
US woman eBays stroppy son's PS2

Teen drank Dad's beer, paid price

A US woman has inflicted the ultimate punishment on her errant 13-year-old son and sold his PS2 on eBay. The teen ne'er-do-well apparently ran amok in the Arkansas household - his misdemeanours include drinking Dad's beer and a bottle of 1995 Dom Perignon champagne - and as a result dear old Ma deployed the big, big stick. As …

Bootnotes 14 Jun 2004, 12:45
Computing needs a Grand Challenge

Sir Tony Hoare lays down the gauntlet

Sir Tony Hoare - British computing pioneer and senior scientist at Microsoft Research - believes the computer industry needs a "grand challenge" to inspire it. In the same way that the lunar challenge in the 1960s sparked a decade of collaborative innovation and development in engineering and space technology, or the human …

Science 14 Jun 2004, 12:55
16k nostalgia - Britpop style

A musical trip down memory lane

If you go all teary-eyed at the thought of Clive Sinclair astride his mighty ZX81, then we can recommend something right up your street - a musical ditty from Web wags b3ta. "Hey hey 16k" - a rather catchy Britpop sort of affair - is the work of MJ Hibbett and the Validators. The accompanying Flash animation is courtesy of b3ta …

Bootnotes 14 Jun 2004, 13:29
Chinese cyber-dissident gets four years' house arrest

Let off lightly

Chinese cyber-dissident, Du Daobin, has been sentenced to four years under house arrest after being convicted for posting pro-democracy articles on the Net. Du's trial in Xiaogan, in the central province of Hubei, on Friday lasted just 15 minutes, during which time he was not allowed to speak. Although Du accepts that he posted …

Music and Media 14 Jun 2004, 13:32
Nokia N-Gage QD US debut slips

Update Some 60 per cent fewer titles will ship, too

Nokia's N-Gage update, the N-Gage QD, will not ship in the US this month, as planned. Instead, the phone maker has rescheduled the launch to 27 July. Separately, the company said it has cut the number of N-Gage titles it expects to see shipped by the end of the year by up to 60%. The N-Gage QD is already available in Europe …

Consoles 14 Jun 2004, 13:33
Seagate unveils 'tiny to terabyte' hard drives

From 5GB 1in units to 0.5TB enterprise jobs

Hard drive maker Seagate launched a platter of products today, including what it claims is the world's first 5GB 1in drive, more capacious notebook-oriented offerings, a 400GB unit for high-end PCs and an 0.5TB enterprise drive. Seagate will be pitching the 1in ST1 drive family at the MP3 player market when it ships them this …

Storage 14 Jun 2004, 13:36
NASA to grow Brit strawberries on Mars

Cream of UK horticulture

A Kent-based farmer is working with NASA to develop strawberries that could make it to Mars. The space agency is looking for something astronauts could grow on the two-year flight to the Red Planet, and that could also be cultivated on Mars itself. Peter Vinson, the Faversham, Kent strawberry baron, sent two of his strawberry …

Science 14 Jun 2004, 13:43
40k hit by Telewest email snag

'Unforeseen issues' not spotted

Forty thousand Telewest punters were without email on Friday after a cock-up with overnight maintenance work. Although email was restored to all users by the middle of Friday afternoon, those hit were unable to access their old emails or address lists. The cableco - which has around 750,000 Internet punters - is currently …

Telecoms 14 Jun 2004, 14:02
DVD Forum backs CD/DVD hybrid

DualDisc format now official

The DVD Forum has given is official thumbs-up to DualDisc, a DVD/CD hybrid format. The approval paves the way for a more rapid adoption of the DVD Audio format. DualDisc essentially sticks a CD onto the back of a DVD or DVD Audio disc. The idea is that punters will be able to, say, play higher quality DVD Audio content at home …

Storage 14 Jun 2004, 14:10
Amazon search engine fingers G-Spot

Interesting related reading for kiddies

Kids certainly grow up quicker these days - or at least they do according to Amazon. A quick search on www.amazon.co.uk for "spot" (being the much-loved doggie) in the "Toys" section reveals an interesting selection of related children's books: Now, I have a two-year-old who would probably love a Pull Along Spot The Dog. I am …

Bootnotes 14 Jun 2004, 15:02
Scientists go quantum dotty over night vision

Tailored to the infrared

US Scientists have found a way to improve the sensitivity of night vision goggles and medical sensors, using a device based on nanostructures called Quantum Dots. Quantum dots are particularly sensitive to infrared (IR) radiation in between eight and 12 microns. Night vision goggles, military target tracking devices and …

Science 14 Jun 2004, 16:28
FoTW: Take your SMPs to Cuba!

Flame of the Week: I'll read none of this tripe

What's the only group worse than the Apple Faithful? Rush Limbaugh's Ditto Heads. One would think the geeky confines of the IT sector would keep you safe from the political extremism of Limbaugh's fans. Not so, as was evidenced by the reaction to our story What 2007 means to your data center. In the story, we state, "But the …

Letters 14 Jun 2004, 16:50
Microsoft's war on GPL dealt patent setback

FAT not a banker

Microsoft has two goals from its patent licensing program. One is to create a new, stable revenue stream to complement its ageing cash cows, Windows and Office. Patent royalties could provide an attractive income if the company succumbs to market economics, and is forced to lower its prices to compete with cheaper free software …

Applications 14 Jun 2004, 18:46
US orbiter detects non-English language signals

Foreigners may not speak English, advises US tech guru

NASA is hoping that clever robots may be able to repair its aging Hubble telescope, but can they do they same for another cherished piece of ancient deep space hardware? We're referring to the patron saint of California's techno-utopians Esther Dyson, who from her privileged orbit somewhere over Planet Earth, has detected new …

Science 14 Jun 2004, 19:56
HP OpenView software can tax corporate bottlenecks

Analyze this or that

HP's software group this week has renewed its march toward profitability by rolling out two new OpenView software packages designed to give customers' better insight into their application and service performance. New to the HP software fold are the OpenView Business Process Insight (BPI) and Route Analytics Management System …

Applications 14 Jun 2004, 21:16
Telecom future to look a lot like the past - study

Lumbering dinos hold all the VoIP chips

A study by Mercer Consulting brings depressing news to readers who hope that Internet technology will help overthrow the telecommunication industry's dinosaurs. The idea is that by using the same broadband pipes that people use for the Internet to carry voice calls, people will by-pass these vested interests, who have grown fat …

Mobile 14 Jun 2004, 22:33