LetsBuyIt.com bows out

It looks like it's all over for co-shopping site LetsBuyIt.com, which has finally filed for bankruptcy. The company's troubles began just before Christmas when it asked a Dutch court to protect it from its creditors while it sought extra funding. ...more

UK games chart: Sega Sonic magic does the trick

The long post-Christmas freeze is over and it is all change in this week's ELSPA UK games chart. EA's Need For Speed: Underground 2 has finally been deposed by Sega's Sonic Mega Collection Plus, which shoots straight in at number one. Sega's burst of nostalgia, for PS2 and Xbox owners, includes every Sonic title released including Sonic The Hedgehog 1, 2 and 3, Sonic & Knuckles and Sonic 3D Blast. ...more

BT doubles business broadband speeds

BT is to double the broadband speeds for its 512Kbps and 1Mbps business customers at no extra cost, while 2Mbps users will get a ?30 reduction in their monthly line rental. From 1 November all its Business Broadband Network 500 and 1000 customers will have their connection speed doubled. Only those few customers who are based too far from an exchange (beyond about 6km) to get services faster than 512Kbps will not be upgraded. ...more

Telephone numbers become your domain

Telcordia Technologies and VeriSign Global Registry Services are working on the first large-scale test of an emerging technology called ENUM that integrates telephone numbers with Internet domain names. They will jointly develop an ENUM directory and carry out an open system trial based on the proposed ENUM standard (it is currently being considered as a standard by the Internet Engineering Task Force). ENUM lets an end user type a telephone number into his Web browser and pull up the corresponding email address, URL or IP address. ...more

Microsoft cuts ribbon for Live search services

Microsoft has officially unwrapped its Live search services, and installed its home-grown search engine as the search facility for its MSN portfolio. Snapping off the beta tag on Live search, which went into beta only last March, allows Redmond to unify the search service of its Live.com and MSN online offerings around a single engine. ...more