Microsoft withdraws from UN software standards group

Microsoft has pulled out of a United Nations sponsored software standards group. The company would only say that there were 'business reasons' for the decision for its withdrawal from the United Nations Center for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business, or UN/Cefact. It has been known for some time that the company has been unhappy with the direction the group has been going. ...more

New Bagle variant is a turn off for Windows XP firewall

Antivirus vendors are warning of a new variant of the Bagle virus discovered today that can turn off the firewall in Windows XP. Bagle-AT, also known as Bagle-BB, -AU, and -BC, -BD, spreads as an attachment in an email with simple subject lines such as 'RE: Thanks ;-)' and an attachment with the filename 'Price' or 'Joke' and a variety of extensions. Kaspersky says that variants AT and AU are the same with the exception that each uses a different compression format, or packer. ...more

Walter's suit to the wall

HP Compaq merger on the home straight. A suit brought against HP management over the way it conducted its campaign to persuade shareholders to vote for the merger with Compaq has been thrown out by a Delaware court. Mr Hewlett has said in a statement that he would not appeal the Supreme Court's decision and that he would now back the merger and persuade any remaining opposition to do the same. ...more

Apple and EMI announce DRM-free iTunes downloads

EMI has announced that it is both removing copy protection from its entire music catalogue, and selling higher-quality editions of every song to which it owns the rights. The first outlet through which the DRM-free, higher-quality tracks will be sold is Apple's iTunes Store. They will appear in May. ...more

Microsoft optimises MSN for Pocket PCs and Smartphones

Microsoft has announced that Pocket MSN - a version of its MSN online data services - will be optimised for handheld devices and mobile phones. To be precise, devices running Windows-based Pocket PC and mobile phones based on Microsoft's Smartphone OS. The selling point for Pocket MSN will be 'always on' access to online users, whether through email, instant messaging or other online services, such as news based alerts. ...more