Dell gets rugged with laptops

Dell has announced the release of its first ever semi-rugged laptop, the Latitude ATG D620. Designed for users who work in what Dell describes as 'tough' environments, the portable meets US military MIL-STD-810 standards for vibration, humidity and altitude and is designed to prevent damage from accidental bumps and moisture. It features a shock-mounted removable hard drive, spill-resistant keyboard, port covers and high durability paint and in addition to being suited to military use, Dell says the laptop is equally suited to construction sites and for use by the emergency services. ...more

AirPort update for WiFi compliance

Apple has released updates for both its AirPort software and its AirPort Extreme base station firmware to ensure that its wireless networking products are compatible with the recently ratified 802.11g standard. Although Apple introduced faster, 802. ...more

Lycos Europe gets FAST

Lycos Europe plans to improve its service using multimedia search technology developed by Fast Search & Transfer (FAST) of Norway. FAST specialises in developing high-volume, scalable multimedia catalogues and search tools. It will broaden the current proprietary search, directory and navigation technologies marketed under the Lycos brand and be more adept at handling large image and multimedia files, currently in high demand. ...more

Netscape heads for court

Netscape users suing AOL Time Warner for its intrusive SmartDownload software that was eavesdropping on their surfing habits have been given the go ahead to pursue their suits in court, despite having 'agreed' to an end user licence agreement (EULA) that they can only pursue their complaints through arbitration. The US Court of Appeals has found that the EULA was presented in such a way as to not give reasonable notice of the terms of the agreement. The terms of the EULA were often below the button that would begin the download, nor were users asked click that they agreed to those terms. ...more

University to set up archive of bust dot com company business plans

Budding entrepreneurs and historians of the future will be able to look back on the madness of the dot com boom. The University of Maryland has received government and private grants to archive the business and marketing plans of those companies launched between 1996 and 2002 that thought having a domain name and venture capital backing meant they could retire at 25. The University of Maryland's Robert H. ...more