Apple antitrust suit gets green light

A US court has given the go-ahead for Apple to be sued over allegations that the iPod-iTunes axis breaches federal antitrust laws. eHomeUpgrade reports that Judge James Ware, of the District Court of Northern California rejected Apple's argument that the two products are not tied together - you can for example buy and play music from iTunes without owning an iPod - and found that plaintiff Thomas Slattery had 'met all the requirements for asserting the tying claim'. Tying two products together is (potentially) illegal under the 1890 Sherman Anti-Trust Act and is described as 'the practice of making the sale of one good (the tying good) to the de facto or de jure customer conditional on the purchase of a second distinctive good (the tied good)'. ...more

A NeuStar on the horizon, a new domain on the Net

NeuStar is the Registrar that has won the right to manage the newly available .us chunk of Internet real estate. The Washington-based company has now announced its intent to accept registrations from the general public on 24 April. ...more

Intel doubles its profits

Growth in market share has boosted Intel's fourth quarter financial results yet is still cautious about the future. The Santa Clara-based company reported net income of exactly $1bn, a 53 per cent increase on the previous quarter and a 108 per cent rise year-on-year. Earnings per share were $0. ...more

SimpleTech cards go large

A new product from SimpleTech allows you to securely carry 512Mb in a card the size of a stamp. Capable of sustaining transfer rates of 10Mb/sec, the new memory card uses the Secure Digital format, providing an easy way to transfer large files. The new larger capacity can hold more than 8 hours of average quality MP3s, making it an attractive choice for those with compatible MP3 players. ...more

Visa announces swipe-free payments

Visa has announced a new global payment specification that will remove the need to swipe credit and debit cards through a reader. The new 'contactless' technology is based on a chip that can be embedded not just in conventional cards, but also in mobile devices such as PDAs and mobile phones. A terminal captures information from the chip as the card or device is placed within approximately 10cm. ...more