Toshiba and Siemens to develop videophones

Following on from our recent story about next generation LCD screens, it has been announced that Toshiba and Siemens are to work together to produce video-capable mobile phones. According to the Japanese business newspaper Nihon Keizai, without revealing its sources, the two companies are in talks and will make an announcement at the end of the year. The impetus behind the deal is Toshiba's advanced video compression technology and Siemens' extensive distribution network. ...more

Palm hires ex-Apple man to meet iPhone challenge

Palm has appointed a former Apple engineer to oversee its attempts to meet the iPhone's challenge to the entire handheld industry. Paul Mercer was the lead designer of the System 7 version of the Mac operating system, before leaving to set up a company whose development system software was used by Apple when it was creating the iPod's interface. More recently he worked on the interface for Samsung's Z5 MP3 player. ...more

W3C updates Amaya, its protocol test tool

Amaya 4.1 is a browser-based tool that can be used to demonstrate or test some of the new developments in Web protocols and data formats. It's an Open Source software project that is hosted by the W3C, which is the international body responsible for maintaining Internet-related protocols and standards. ...more

PGP to sign VoIP calls

The inventor of the Internet's best-known encryption software has turned his attention to the security of IP voice calls. Phil Zimmerman, whose PGP (Pretty Good Encryption) software is the de facto standard for the encryption of email, announced that he will demonstrate a prototype of his new program for scrambling VoIP traffic - Internet-based phone calls. Like PGP it will use public and private keys to encrypt the call before it is sent and then unscramble it on receipt. ...more

Wave bye-bye to small ISPs

There's no longer any room for the small-fry in the UK Internet access market, according to analyst Forrester Research. In its report, entitled UK Virtual ISPs: RIP, Forrester predicts that a handful of large telecommunications companies will dominate the Internet service provider market within a few years. Its research points to the demise of the Virtual ISP (VISP) model employed by the majority of UK service providers, and is based in part on recent aggressive moves by the likes of BT and ntl. ...more