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24th January 2005 Archive

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  • Napster readies German music service

    Latest funding may drive game, video subscriptions too.

    Napster will launch a German online store "later this year", the digital music company said today. The move follows the raising of $52.2m through a private placement of shares with institutional investors, which is expected to complete today. Napster will use the proceeds to for business development, such as the formal launch …

    Financial News 24 Jan 2005, 10:26

  • Intel 'Smithfield' dual-core to debut as 8xx series

    Prices set too, say sources

    Intel's 'Smithfield' dual-core desktop Pentium 4 processor will ship as the 8xx series, Taiwanese motherboard maker sources claim the chip giant has said. And it has set 20 February as the launch date of the P4 6xx series - the first 64-bit Pentium chips aimed at mainstream desktops systems. It's already known from internal …

    PCs 24 Jan 2005, 10:37

  • Google mulls VoIP move

    Skinny story has the skinny

    Google is considering offering Voice over Internet Protocol phone calls according to the The Times. Evidence for Google's alleged move comes from comments from Ovum analyst Julian Hewitt and the text of a job advert on Google's site. The ad is for an strategic negotiator to join the search engine's "technical infrastructure …

    Telecoms 24 Jan 2005, 10:52

  • Need an African slave? Try eBay

    Low Priced! Big selection!

    Absolute proof that eBay really is the world's marketplace comes with the revelation that the online auction site has branched out into the African slave trade. This outrage was discovered by a Google Group member who typed "African Slave" into Google, and was shocked to find this irresistable offer: Oh dear, oh dear. Of …

    Bootnotes 24 Jan 2005, 11:20

  • Western Digital hops on 1in HDD bandwagon

    Wants share of MP3 player action

    Hard drive maker Western Digital is finally following Seagate et al into the 1in HDD market in a bid to exploit exploding demand for mobile phone, PDA and MP3 player storage. WD said it expects to ship its debut 1in product in Q2. The 3600rpm, 12ms access-time unit will initially offer up to 6GB of storage capacity, and use a …

    Storage 24 Jan 2005, 11:34

  • Bush bins Hubble fix

    Not on the 2006 budget sheet

    The Bush administration has cut funding for any future mission manned or robotic, to service the Hubble Space Telescope, according to anonymous sources, cited by The Washington Post. The paper reports that NASA has binned its plans to send a robot to service the telescope so that it can focus its resources on Bush's Martian …

    Science 24 Jan 2005, 11:39

  • German police bust porn invoice scammers

    Bogus bills with menaces

    German police have seized computers and documents from a dozen companies which allegedly attempted to extract cash from people using bogus invoices for porn services. They also arrested the main suspect - a 50-year-old Danish man. The companies, located in Hamburg, Mannheim and Friedberg, punted their services through …

    Security 24 Jan 2005, 11:54

  • AOpen preps second-gen Centrino desktop mobo

    Pentium M for low-noise machines

    Motherboard maker AOpen has followed up its recent Pentium M-based desktop board with a new model equipped with the latest generation of Centrino technology. Like its predecessor, the i915GM-FHS is pitched at desktop machines being developed for low-noise roles, such as living room PCs. The new model uses Intel's 915GM chipset …

    System Builder 24 Jan 2005, 12:00

  • Spaniards develop chart-topping program

    Hit or miss? HitSongScience has the answer

    A small Spanish company says it can use artificial intelligence technology originally developed for the banking and telecoms industries to predict if a record is going to be a hit or not. It boasts an impressive track record, having successfully predicted hot sales for Norah Jones and US band Maroon 5. Barcelona-based …

    Developer 24 Jan 2005, 12:28

  • Averatec sets up shop in UK

    US cheap notebook specialist flies over

    US-based, Korean-backed notebook maker Averatec has begun selling its systems in the UK with the intention of becoming "a major player" in the laptop market here. Averatec today said it had put in place sales partnerships with an unnamed "major reseller" to offer its 3200, 3300 and 6200 notebook families. We can reveal that …

    PCs 24 Jan 2005, 12:32

  • Hotspot paranoia: try to stay calm

    Opinion No-one's actually interested in your data

    OK, the fact that Professor Brian Collins is prepared to talk about public Wi-Fi hotspots with evil twins does mean it's worth taking seriously. I took it seriously enough to publish something about it myself - mainly, though, as a way of publicising the Science Museum's series of talks on crime. But out there, people are taking …

    Wireless 24 Jan 2005, 13:05

  • Globus Consortium takes grid computing to the office

    Commercial exploitation

    IBM, HP, Sun and Intel have formed the Globus Consortium, to accelerate the commercial development of grid computing. The Consortium is an offshoot of the Globus Alliance, and will develop grid computing tools for businesses such as the Globus Toolkit, an open standards building block for commercial grid computing. The group …

    IT Director 24 Jan 2005, 13:08

  • AMD's 2006 roadmap - details emerge

    Roadmap More codenames, more DDR 2 support suggestions

    AMD's public roadmap stretched only so far as the end of 2005, but an image that surfaced on the web this weekend may reveal the chip maker's plans for 2006. If genuine, the roadmap shows the arrival of 'Windsor' and 'Orleans', dual-core processors that bring DDR 2 SDRAM support to the memory controller integrated into AMD's 64 …

    PCs 24 Jan 2005, 13:10

  • Nokia settles GSM patent clash

    Cross-licenses technology with Vitelcom

    Nokia has brought to a close the legal proceedings it began against rival mobile phone maker Vitelcom last November, the Finnish giant said today. In a terse statement, Nokia said it had reached a settlement with the Spanish company. While the exact terms of the agreement were not disclosed, the deal sees the two companies …

    Financial News 24 Jan 2005, 13:51

  • CE giants open DRM to the community

    'Community Source Program'

    The leading vendors in consumer electronics have banded together to create a Community Source Program for digital rights management and will license the whole kit and caboodle, the patents, copyrights, compliance logo and source code to anyone that wants it. Effectively CE DRM is going open source (to the extent that Community …

    Music and Media 24 Jan 2005, 14:04

  • Orb offers media on the go

    Streaming joy from PC to PDA

    American company Orb has released software that streams live or recorded TV, MP3s, photos or other digital media stored on a home PC to portable devices such as a laptop, cell phone or PDA. Customers can listen to their MP3 music or watch recorded videos on a mobile phone while on the go. The service - launched at the 2005 …

    Mobile 24 Jan 2005, 14:10

  • Dozen claim MS codec patents

    Number likely to rise

    The MPEG LA has had 12 separate companies claiming that they have essential patents in the pool it is developing for the licensing of Microsoft’s video codec, dubbed VC 1 under the SMPTE standard (Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers). The fact that 12 separate companies, possibly more, will decide the fate of the …

    Personal 24 Jan 2005, 14:11

  • Tabloid fires 'Yahoo baby' reporter

    Made the whole thing up

    Romanian tabloid Libertatea has fired the reporter who fabricated a story claiming that a couple had named their baby Yahoo, Reuters reports. Ion Garnod walked the plank after admitting he made the whole thing up "to look good". A birth certificate accompanying the story turned out to be that of Garnod's own son. The paper's …

    Bootnotes 24 Jan 2005, 14:41

  • BT warns of broadband divide ahead of Ofcom review

    Getting retaliation in first

    More than half of UK homes and businesses could be left without advanced broadband services if Ofcom continues to press ahead with plans to make the UK's telecoms sector more competitive, BT boss Ben Verwaayen warns. Interviewed in The Sunday Times, Verwaayen argues that the regulator's preference for local loop unbundling (LLU …

    Telecoms 24 Jan 2005, 14:46

  • US hints at IBM-Lenovo deal spy fears

    Ex-IBM US PC plants might host Chinese spooks

    US regulators could scupper the $1.25bn sale of IBM's PC division to China's Lenovo - on grounds of national security. Both vendors have expressed their willingness to co-operate with any regulatory investigation into their proposed deal. But the US Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security, both of which sit …

    Financial News 24 Jan 2005, 14:50

  • Brit jailed for tsunami emails

    Six months in chokey

    A 40-year old British man was sentenced to six months in prison for sending emails to relatives of people missing after the tsunami disaster. Chris Pierson, pleaded guilty to charges of malicious communication and causing a public nuisance, according to AFP. Pierson sent more than 35 emails, apparently from the Foreign Office, …

    Music and Media 24 Jan 2005, 14:51

  • US stem cell research in jeopardy

    Existing stocks contaminated

    US stem cell research faces an uncertain near future after scientists reported that existing stocks of such cells are contaminated - and therefore useless for treating people - while the US administration has terminated federal funding for the extraction of fresh cells. The contaminated cells are from batches collected prior to …

    Science 24 Jan 2005, 15:18

  • Apple iTunes sales tally hits 250m

    Billion tracks sold by year's end?

    More than 250m songs have been paid for and downloaded from Apple's iTunes Music Store, the Mac maker boasted today. The figure amounts to 20m more than the previous total, announced just a few weeks ago. According to Apple, it's selling more than 1.25m songs a day, which means the company will sell over 456m songs this year if …

    Mac Channel 24 Jan 2005, 15:49

  • Simply Computers suffers big redundancies

    Abandons PC assembly

    Up to 105 workers at Simply Computers are losing their jobs thanks to reorganisation by parent company Systemax. The company is closing down its manufacturing plant in Greenock and will in future get machines from its parent company, Systemax in the US. From the end of this month Simply Computers sales, marketing, customer …

    System Builder 24 Jan 2005, 16:10

  • Transmeta licences low-power tech to Sony

    LongRun 2 to limit leakage from Cell?

    Transmeta has signed its latest LongRun 2 licensee, Sony, the chipmaker said today. LongRun has always been a key feature of Transmeta's chip designs, minimising energy consumption and heat dissipation. Last year it announced version 2 of the technology, which addresses current leakage at the transistor level, later licensing …

    Consoles 24 Jan 2005, 16:31

  • 'Integrity of eBay markeplace' at risk - sellers' group

    Trust me, I'm an online auctioneer

    It has been a bad few days for eBay. Last week more than $12bn (£6.4bn) was wiped off the value of the dotcom auction house as it warned that its financial performance for 2005 is unlikely to live up to bullish expectations. Now discontent is growing among its big traders, who are dismayed with recent price rises imposed by …

    Financial News 24 Jan 2005, 16:51

  • Poland blocks software patents again

    Dangerous precedent?

    Poland has intervened again to stop the Council of Agriculture and Fisheries from rubber-stamping the EU directive on computer implemented inventions. Late last week, the controversial legislation, better known as the software patent directive, was reported to be an A-List item on the agenda of the Council of Agriculture and …

    Developer 24 Jan 2005, 16:53

  • HP France plans February Opteron server party

    Two-way, blades and baguettes

    HP France has set a February launch date for a new fleet of Opteron servers, including a two-processor box and blades. The new servers - first uncovered by The Register last September - are the ProLiant DL385 and BL25p and BL35p. The DL385 is a homemade version of the two-way DL145, which was designed by a HP partner. (As one …

    Servers 24 Jan 2005, 17:05

  • HP's PC biz braced for SAP hell

    Exclusive Server fiasco redux?

    HP's customers should prepare for round two of the company's product ordering fiasco. Insiders have revealed that the very same problems which crippled HP's server business last year will likely hit the PC operation. The reason? The business side of the house can't play well with the IT staffers. HP stunned investors and …

    Applications 24 Jan 2005, 17:41

  • Microsoft preps WMP-less Windows

    Won't appeal

    Microsoft said today that it won't pursue any more appeals against an interim EU competition ruling to ship a version of Windows without Windows Media Player. In December Microsoft lost an appeal to the European Court of the First Instance and promised to ship WMP-less Windows in the EU "in January". Now we learn that OEMs will …

    Operating Systems 24 Jan 2005, 19:47

  • Is Microsoft preparing a flying car?

    Norwegian HoverBot a challenge for embedded CE

    No future is complete without a flying car, but it's the invention that, like Longhorn, never arrives. However, many readers write in with evidence from Microsoft Norway that such a vehicle may be in trial. The company's MapPoint directions service is suggesting a route that at the very least requires an amphibious vehicle …

    Bootnotes 24 Jan 2005, 19:52

  • PalmOne chief quits

    Colligan to bridge the gap

    PalmOne's CEO Todd Bradley has resigned, the company announced today, with Palm veteran and former Handspring marketing boss Ed Colligan filling the gap. Colligan will perform the role of interim CEO from February 25. The board said that Bradley will remain as an advisor after seeing the current quarter through. "We respect …

    Channel 24 Jan 2005, 22:11