IT economic downturn continues

To save you a drip drip of unhappy economic news from the IT sector, here's a roundup up of some recent financial reports from hi-tech giants. It's that time of the quarter when financial results come thick and fast. Following on from Motorola and Yahoo! come results from Philips and profit warnings from Cisco Systems (Intel and IBM's quarterly results are imminent, too). ...more

City of London switches on Wi-Fi network

The City of London has switched on the Wi-Fi network covering the entirety of the capital's Square Mile financial district. Europe's densest wireless network provides broadband Internet access for the 350,000 plus people who work in and visit the area. They will get free access for the first month. ...more

Broadband price cuts announced

Two ISPs have announced broadband special offers in the wake of BT's decision to half the price of ADSL connections during the early part of next year. Nildram are halving the set-up fee to ?25+VAT, starting 6 January. Nildram has been rated the fastest ADSL provider in the UK in the last three months by ADSLguide. ...more

AOL gets HP source

A joint venture has been agreed between America Online and Hewlett-Packard (HP) to spice up a number of AOL brands with HP's printing expertise. The most uninspired addition to AOL and CompuServe will be a print button, allowing users to print email, My Calendar pages, Address Book data and Web pages. There will also be a "Print Center" in the Computing channel of AOL, Netscape Netcenter and CompuServe that will let users explore new printing projects, such as printing out select Web sites in a customised newspaper format. ...more

EC issues mobile emissions standard to decrease safety

The European Commission has set strict limits on the level of electromagnetic emissions from GSM mobile phones sold in Europe. The standard, EN 50360, builds on the 1999 EC directive for Radio and Telecommunication Terminal Equipment, by measuring the absorption rate for human exposure to these magnetic fields. Mobile manufacturers are assisting by giving their products Specific Absorption Rates (SAR). ...more