11th April 2003 Archive

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Apple boosts Bluetooth – Bluetooth boosts Apple

P800, Series 60 support added in OS X rev

Apple has updated its operating system to include support for Bluetooth-enabled smartphones and peripherals. It's a huge win for Apple users, who can now sync their Macintosh computers with the coolest new phones. The release notes for the newest revision of the OS, version 10.2.5, here, promise support for the P800 and Nokia's …

Mac Channel 11 Apr 2003, 05:15
Windows comes to AMD Opteron

But when?

Illuminata analyst Gordon Haff tells us that Microsoft informed developers to expect x86-64 support with the first Service Pack for Windows .NET server. Redmond confirmed on Wednesday (9 April) that it should have Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 beta releases running natively on AMD's 64-bit chips in "the middle of 2003". …

Channel 11 Apr 2003, 06:27
PwC unveils VAT help site for e-tailers

Impact assessment

PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC)has set up a new Web site at www.pwcebiztoolkit.comto help e-tailers comply with new European Union regulations that come into force in July. In less than four months' time, all e-commerce firms selling products in the European Union will be required to collect VAT, even if the seller is not based in …

Small Biz 11 Apr 2003, 08:11
UK ebiz owners are bird brains

Do what?

UK Internet firms lack "business brains", according to first national IQ test of small business entrepreneurs. The UK's "dotcommers" came second to bottom in the test - only managing to beat those in the retail sector. Worse still, only one per cent of ebusiness bosses managed to get all the questions about finance correct. …

Small Biz 11 Apr 2003, 09:29
Administrators called in to Brightview

'Financial restructuring'

Brightview Ltd - the independent outfit that owns ISPs including callnet, ic24, madasafish and Totalise - has gone into administration. Brightview was put into administration on Wednesday after a demand was made on the company by one of its creditors. It is understood that the administration follows a dispute among …

Music and Media 11 Apr 2003, 09:57
Juniper returns to profit

Solid quarter

Juniper Networks has met analyst expectations for Q`. The networking equipment vendor posted net revenues for Q1'03 of $157.2 million, 29 per cent up on the $122.2 million for the same period last year. The company recorded net income of $3.7 million for the quarter ending March 31, 2003, compared with a net loss of $46.0 …

Data Networking 11 Apr 2003, 10:34
Jobs hope for IT contractors

Steady now

If you're an IT contractor "in between jobs" here's a crumb of hope for a Friday. ITjob outfit CWJobs.co.uk reckons the demand for IT contract staff is starting to grow as an increasing number of companies look to recruit more contractors than permanent staff during 2003. According to research carried out in February, just …

Small Biz 11 Apr 2003, 10:47
Novell goes a bundle on small biz networking

FOC for early sign-ups

Novell is giving away a small business networking starter pack to small businesses free of any licensing costs. The move is designed to court sales from smaller businesses as they grow. The company's Small Business Suite Starter Pack - networking software featuring Web access, collaboration, security and management capabilities …

Small Biz 11 Apr 2003, 11:03
Apple in talks to buy Universal Music Group – report

What will The Beatles have to say about that?

Apple CEO Steve Jobs may once have dated Joan Baez, but is he really itching to become a music industry player? If the LA Times is correct, that could well be what he achieves. According to the paper, Apple is in talks to buy Universal Music, one of the world's 'big five' record labels, from its troubled parent Vivendi. The Mac …

Mac Channel 11 Apr 2003, 11:18
Acequote shuts doors to new subs

Care and maintainance

Acequote.com, the veteran UK e-marketplace, is shutting its doors to new subscribers, following the decision of German parent, DCI, to withdraw from the sector. But the company will continue to run its service for existing customers "until subscription expiry", it says in a pop-up message on the Web site. "So long as there are …

Music and Media 11 Apr 2003, 12:07
Why we love the Iraqi information minister

Updated Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf, come on down!

One unfortunate side effect of Gulf War II has been the complete disappearance of affable Iraqi information minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf. We say unfortunate because al-Sahaf will go down in history as one of the most entertaining mouthpieces of tyranny ever to grace the international stage. So, while al-Sahaf's ancestor …

Bootnotes 11 Apr 2003, 12:20
Reg Kit Watch

FIC readies SiS-based Pentium 4 mobos

Motherboards FIC has extended its range of mobos with two products based on SiS' 645DX and 651 chipsets, respectively. The VI35VL micro-ATX mobo supports Pentium 4 processors with a 400/533MHz frontside bus. It can take up to 2GB of DDR 333 memory, sports one AGP 4x and three PCI slots, 10/100Mbps Ethernet, ATA-100/133 support …

Personal 11 Apr 2003, 12:25
Vibrating Nokia self-pleasure – yours for £1.50

Something for the weekend, Madam?

Girls, are you tired of spending your evening staring at your mobile, waiting for a man to call? Guys, does your girlfriend wait up all night whilst you're out with the lads, waiting for you to call her? Well no longer, help is at hand! The Purring Kitty transforms Nokia mobile phones into discreet, vibrating massagers. Kitty …

Bootnotes 11 Apr 2003, 12:31
Smart credit on UK cards. Will it cut fraud?

Chip and PIN

UK banks, building societies and retailers are to introduce a more secure method of authorising credit card payments. Designed to combat fraud, the Chip and PIN Programme will see the magnetic stripes on credit and debit cards replaced with smart chips. The huge project will see more than 850,000 retailer terminals, 122 million …

Security 11 Apr 2003, 13:04
HP wins $3bn P&G outsourcing mega deal

Soft soaping

HP has won a 10-year IT outsourcing deal with Procter & Gamble, worth an estimated $3bn. The managed services contract will see approx. 1,850 P&G employees in 50 countries transfer to the HP payroll. The paperwork should be completed mid-May. HP won the gig in competitive tender against unnamed vendors. But you wouldn't have …

Hardware 11 Apr 2003, 13:21
NZ ISP is content monster

Owns the lot

Net users in New Zealand are threatening to cut their ties with the country's biggest ISP, Xtra, after it introduced sweeping new terms of service (ToS) that effectively hands it ownership of all content passing through its system. The draconian measure was highlighted by IT columnist Bruce Simpson earlier this week giving Xtra …

Music and Media 11 Apr 2003, 13:22
HP signs IT outsourcing MOU with Ericsson

Busy Bunnies

Ericsson is planning to outsource its IT infrastructure operations to HP, and the pair have signed a memorandum of understanding today setting out how they will work together. A final agreement should be in place before the "end of Q2, 2003, Ericsson says. Staff at Ericsson Global IT Services (EGIS) will transfer to HP, but …

Hardware 11 Apr 2003, 14:47
BT helps ADSL campaigners

Tips, leaflets, etc

BT Wholesale is trying to make life easier for its unpaid army of volunteers who are trying to muster enough support to get their local exchange converted to ADSL. It's just launched a new service designed to provide support and encouragement for campaign groups trying to generate enough interest for the telco to cough up and …

Telecoms 11 Apr 2003, 14:49
Sunderland FC and the Iraqi minister of information

Another Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf kiss of death

News of another of Iraqi information minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf's blinding predictions comes to us via www.nufc.com, a non-official website dedicated to UK footie outfit Newcastle United. The lads and/or ladettes behind this site have for some time been running a clock at the top of the home page counting down how long …

Bootnotes 11 Apr 2003, 15:58
Sanera ready to beta SAN switch

Port-au-Plenty

Sanera Systems has been touting its switch of enormous proportions for a long time now, but come next week beta product will be on hand. The DS10000 is a 14U high storage switch that has been designed to sit at the heart of large scale storage networks. A whopping 256 nonblocking Fibre Channel ports have been packed into the …

Data Networking 11 Apr 2003, 19:08
Grifter jailed for Mac auction fraud

350 victims lost $880,000

A conniving conwoman who ripped off an estimated $880,000 from almost 350 victims through online auction fraud was sent to jail for four years and nine months this week. Teresa Smith, 25, of Massachusetts, USA, posed as legitimate businesswoman selling Apple computers on auction sites such as eBay for 18 months before she was …

Mac Channel 11 Apr 2003, 20:42
Greece stunned by ADSL charges

Shocking

Spare a thought for Net users in Greece. First the Government banned (temporarily) all computer games. Now, they've finally found out that they're about to get ADSL after waiting two years or so for incumbent telco, OTE, to complete its trial. That's a bloody good reason for a party, no? Unfortunately not. Reg readers in …

Telecoms 11 Apr 2003, 21:03
DNS inventor calls for security overhaul

Political squabbles

Web site impersonation could become as great a risk as ID theft, Paul Mockapetris, the co-inventor of DNS warns. Waiting in the wings is a better security standard for the Internet's Domain Name System. It's called DNSSec, and it uses digital signatures to guard against impersonation. But political wrangles are holding up …

Business 11 Apr 2003, 21:06
WorldCom to adopt MCI name

Back to the Future

WorldCom will rebrand itself as MCI possibly as early as next week in an attempt to move away from its tainted past. The carrier will announce the name change as part of reorganization plan that WorldCom will submit to a bankruptcy court. The WorldCom name is tied to a multi-billion dollar accounting scandal and a reckless past …

Business 11 Apr 2003, 22:07
The self-healing, self-hopping landmine

Welcome to Extreme Networking

Only the well-funded geniuses at DARPA would describe their creation of hopping, networked explosives as "Self-Healing Mines." No, the mines don't fit prosthetic limbs to maimed victims. So where does the Mine, Heal Thyself bit come from, then? It refers to the mines' "self-healing" ability to regroup by jumping up to 30m at a …

Data Networking 11 Apr 2003, 22:34
Sparks over US power grid cybersecurity

Security? What Security!

A new measure aims to protect the networks that control electric power distribution throughout North America. But not everyone is juiced over plans to hold utilities accountable to tight security practices, says Kevin Poulsen, of SecurityFocus. The organization responsible for keeping electricity flowing throughout the United …

Security 11 Apr 2003, 23:03