Palm sticks with Palm platform for Treo 680 launch

The handheld giant has released its latest smartphone running Palm OS but users must wait and see if a Windows Mobile version will follow Palm has launched its second smartphone in as many months by making its Treo 680 device available to users from today. But unlike its predecessor, the Treo 750v, which was launched last month, Palm's latest offering will only run the Palm OS initially. A spokesperson for the mobile device giant was unable to comment on whether a Microsoft Windows Mobile version will be launched in the future. ...more

UPDATED: BT warns strike action will affect end users

BT is seeking an injunction to prevent a planned strike by engineers, on which 40 per cent have voted in favour of striking. BT is to ask the High Court for an injunction preventing three 24-hour strikes by its engineers over a bonus plan. The Communication Workers Union, which is organising the strikes, got a 40 per cent vote in favour of action, representing about 5,600 of its 14,000 workforce. ...more

Google launches blog search

Google has released a beta version of its long-awaited and much anticipated blog search, two years after it acquired the popular Blogger technology and blog service. However, it appears that the new service is over-zealous in its search for content, and is indexing some blogs, even if the blog instructs it to ignore with meta tags in a file called robots.txt. ...more

Napster sleeps with the enemy

The inevitable has happened: Napster has signed a distribution deal with its former recording-industry enemies. The file-sharing software company, in trouble with nearly everyone in the music industry because it allows the free distribution of tracks, has signed the deal with MusicNet, a service owned by EMI, Warner, RealNetworks and Bertelsmann. The move will mean that MusicNet will be able to legally sell a huge chunk of mainstream music via Napster's innovative peer-to-peer software. ...more

UK games chart: Need for Speed still drives demand

Now in its eleventh week in the charts, Need For Speed: Underground 2 continues to hold pole position in this week's ELSPA UK games chart. The EA racing game is still holding off Take 2's Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (now in its fourteenth week in the charts), with the movie spin-off The Incredibles resting in third place. The only change in the top five - as before - is Konami's Pro Evolution Soccer 4 swapping fourth and fifth place with EA's FIFA 2005. ...more