Microsoft readies MSN Messenger 7

A beta version of MSN Messenger 7.0 is reported to be released for private testing this week. Amongst the new features to be tried out across six countries are ones specifically targeted at the 13-24 year old age group. ...more

Gates announces Media2Go at CES

Bill Gates unveils Microsoft's venture into portable media players at his CES keynote with the Media2Go device platform. Working together with Intel, who were already working on a PVP (Personal Video Player), a Media2Go device sports WindowsCE embedded operating system, Intel's XScale processors (as used in many PocketPC devices), a 4in LCD screen and a 20Gb hard drive. Using Microsoft's Sync & Go software, users will be able to set up the device to grab selected video, audio and image files, including favourite TV programs, from an XP-based PC. ...more

Play games for money

So you think you are a pretty cool computer games player and you want to be a professional gamer, trading frags for money... ...more

Authorities stamp out Russian hack site

A plot to infect thousands of computers around the world was foiled over the weekend when a Russian web site harbouring malicious code was shut down. Internet Explorer users who visited certain web sites were redirected to the hacker's web site in Russia. That site then attempted to infect the visiting machine with a Remote Access Trojan (RAT), which can be activated at will by an attacker and taken control of the computer. ...more

Tsunami websites struggle to carry charity pledges

The high volume of visits to charity websites has meant that some donors are being advised to resort to the telephone to pledge their money. Following the tsunami disaster on Boxing day, Internet traffic to charity websites leapt more than five-fold, according to UK traffic monitor Hitwise. In particular, the website of the UK's Disaster Emergency Committee (www. ...more