One in eight Net users log on to iTunes

Almost 14 per cent of active Internet users accessed Apple's iTunes application and its corresponding Web pages in December 2005, according to Nielsen//NetRatings. iTunes usage and traffic rose by 241 per cent last year as the number of users topped 20 million by the end of the year. 'The rapid growth of iTunes is an important phenomenon in the online media marketplace,' said Jon Gibs, director of media analytics, Nielsen//NetRatings. ...more

Blackberry maker faces new lawsuit

The makers of the Blackberry are being sued over an alleged infringement of a patent on text input. Specifically, US company Eatoni Ergonomics claims that the Blackberry 7100's predictive texting technology, SureType, infringes the patent that it registered to protect its own predictive technologies: LetterWise and WordWise. The patent, Eatoni claims, covers the deployment of predictive text using a keyboard on a mobile device although the wording is not quite so precise. ...more

Messenger 6 public beta

Microsoft has made available a public beta of its latest Messenger instant messaging system - version 6. The beta adds a range of new features seen in the likes of Yahoo! messenger and AIM, such as the ability to participate in games (although this feature wasn't available when we tried the beta), and the ability to add an animated icon. More personalisation is available in the form of more than 30 new emoticons and the chance to choose and create background images. ...more

Ohhh, Palm...suits you, sir!

So you got a Palm PDA for Christmas but you've got no pockets left to carry your little electronic companion. What are you going to do? Don't fear a Japanese design house have just designed a suit with the fashion conscience gadget user in mind. It's hard to believe but your average geek-boy, PDA carrying, gadget fan is hardly going to be that concerned with sartorial elegance so it is a wonder why Onward bothered to design its fancy suit in the first place. ...more

Samsung unveils thin and light 17-inch notebook

Samsung has announced availability of its new M40 notebook, which it claims to be 'the lightest, and one of the thinnest 17-inch notebooks in the world'. The Centrino machine, using 802.11g for wireless networking, also comes armed with a DVD re-writer. ...more