Digital consumers fuzzed by tech buzz words

The 21st century Digital Consumer makes for a good marketing phrase, but how aware are these consumers of digital technology itself? This was the subject tackled by Nielsen//NetRatings in a new survey of UK people online. Among the findings were that while just over half (52 per cent) believe online and digital technology makes their life easier, exactly half say they can't keep up with it all. 'In the relentless quest for the next big thing comes to new forms of digital consumption, there is a significant tendency for the industry to over-estimate consumer's knowledge and understanding of the seemingly limitless new terms and products out there,' comments the company's European Internet Analyst, Alex Burmaster. ...more

IGF - Major changes ahead for domain name system

The chairman of ICANN has given the biggest indication yet of a major change ahead for the domain name system. Vint Cerf told the open session of the inaugural Internet Governance Forum that he accepts that it will be necessary to expand the range of characters that can be used in domain name so that individuals and organisations can include characters from their own languages in their websites' URLs. 'There is a strong interest in the existing and nascent Internet community to have the ability to register domain names written in the characters used in their preferred languages,' he told the audience in Athens, Greece, before adding that, 'therein lies a huge technical challenge. ...more

That's no computer, that's a PlayStation

Does the PlayStation count as a computer? Sony believes so. Especially when the Japanese electronics giant faces an extra import duty of 2.2 per cent from the EU now that its units fail such a test. ...more

AMD bullish on sales growth

Speaking at the company's annual analyst meeting yesterday, AMD president and CEO Hector Ruiz confirmed that he expects a sales increase of 20% or more in the fourth quarter of 2002, compared to the third quarter ended September 29, 2002. Speaking at the company's annual analyst meeting yesterday, AMD president and CEO Hector Ruiz confirmed that he expects a sales increase of 20% or more in the fourth quarter of 2002, compared to the third quarter ended September 29, 2002.AMD reported $508m in third-quarter sales. ...more

PayPal launches anti-phishing security device

Online payment firm PayPal is testing out a new key fob that it hopes will improve security for users of the site against phishing attacks and other types of fraud. The PayPal Security Key generates a one-time use password every 30 seconds that users type in to gain access to the site as well as their normal username and password. The eBay-owned company device is based on Verisign's One-Time Password Token product and will cost personal users $5 (?2. ...more