An independent security researcher showed off an early version of a tool for creating covert channels that, he claims, can pass undetected through most firewalls and intrusion detection systems.

European ISP Tiscali has bought Homechoice, which offers broadband and video-on-demand to customers in London and Stevenage.

In the last two years, systems management and helpdesk vendors have bandied around a term as if it will be the saving grace of organisations for the future - Itil.

Microsoft today pledged to bring Xbox 360 programming to the masses, but ordinary folk will have to wait until the end of this month to get their hands on the tools they'll need to get coding for the console. Professionals will get a version in Spring 2007, the software giant said.

It seems increasingly likely that Vodafone Germany's wireline unit, Arcor, is no longer up for sale but will instead be incorporated into the giant cellco's first major experiment with fixed mobile convergence (FMC) - one that could be a blueprint for other territories.

The much hyped bubble in MVNOs (Mobile Virtual Network Operators) in the US is close to bursting, according to new research from Strategy Analytics.

Rupert Murdoch's News Corp will start selling films and TV episodes via download from October.

Handset maker HTC is preparing the successor to 'Galaxy', the company's PDA phone with a built-in GPS receiver. The new model, dubbed 'Artemis', improves on the older device with a slicker look, a quad-band, EDGE-capable cellular radio and a two megapixel digicam.

With tech-tastes turning to everything retro, and ye olde analogue mobile phone brick-like handsets commanding high prices on eBay, how about going back more than a decade or two for the acme of old-style telephony: the rotary dial.

CommentHow much "style" do you have, when you send a text?

US digital music supplier eMusic has launched its MP3 DRM-free download subscription service in the UK, and its attempting to tempt would-be buyers with a free two-week trial and 25 free downloads.

Telstra has taken a slap from the Aussie competition regulator and been told to cut access fees for a rival operator using its network.

TJ Hooker star William Shatner will once again play overweight promiscuous space maverick James T Kirk as a new videogame based on the Star Trek franchise is coughed up this October.

The International Astronomical Union (IAU) has gathered in Prague to finally settle a matter of galactic import: whether Pluto is in fact a planet or should be relegated to the second division of Kuiper Belt Objects and similar detritus.

Hampshire police are investigating a spate of "vigilante" attacks on cars whose drivers were apparently seen chatting away on their mobiles while on the move, The Telegraph reports.

Intel has unveiled an own-brand desktop motherboard based on its G965 integrated chipset pitched at a range of processors including the chip giant's latest Core 2 Duo dualies.

Amazon.com is investing in IP to create the largest database of personal information ever gathered by an online retailer, according to a report in its local paper.

Aficionados of tenuous acronyms - in which great effort has been expended in forming a real word, often at the expense of linguistic common decency (try Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001, for example) - will certainly want to raise their glasses to Professor Axel Temming of the University of Hamburg who has pushed back the envelope with his spendid BECAUSE effort:

Aircraft designers are looking to technology to combat onboard threats. Moves to develop technology in planes designed to foil hijacking began after the 11 September terrorist attacks.

The premium rate industry has hit out at regulators' investigation of iTouch UK and Minick Ltd, the providers of Big Brother's SMS and phone lines.

LloydsTSB's website went down this morning and is still struggling to its feet.

An eagle-eyed Wal-Mart clerk in Caro, Michigan may have foiled a dastardly terrorist plot simply by alerting police to a suspicious purchase made by three men of Middle-Eastern descent, the Associated Press reports.

Mouse maker Logitech has hopped on the VoIP bandwagon with a phone-style cordless handset capable of connecting to its host computer from almost anywhere in the house. It's got a colour display and it's set to work with Skype. The company also unveiled today a PC-connected speakerphone and a Bluetooth headset for phones.

Virus writers have adapted an existing family of worms to exploit a recently patched, high-profile Windows security vulnerability.

A US federal appeals court has rejected the claim of a Montana man who used his work computer to access child pornography that a probe of his machine breached his Fourth Amendment rights against "unreasonable searches and seizures", Reuters reports.

Software testing is still a controversial subject – everybody agrees that it is a "good thing", but it is frequently the first bit of the process to get cut when deadlines bite.

Segway has unleashed a new generation of its futurtopian personal transport vehicles.

Account details from thousands of British citizens are being sold in Nigeria, fuelling the 419 scam and ID theft trade in the African country.

A British Airways flight from London to New York turned back on Sunday after an apparently ownerless mobile phone began to ring at the back of the aircraft, CNN reports.

Demand for GPS devices continues unabated, market watcher Canalys has claimed. Its latest figures show more European consumers splashed out on handheld navigation gadgets in Q2 2006 than they did in Q4 2005, last year's Christmas quarter.

A number of people have commented that "nobody" uses Floating Point in financial calculations, for all the reasons Dan Clarke went into in his recent article on Floating Point and rounding issues.

Dell's customer satisfaction flameout has started to reach record levels. The company today issued a recall for 4.1m laptop batteries out of fear that they could catch fire. The product recall stands as the largest ever for the US consumer electronics industry.