Philips doubles up with new portable players

Philips has unveiled a new 1,000-song micro audio jukebox with built-in FM radio. One of the gadgets to feature at this year's CeBit show in Hannover, the credit card-sized hdd070 (pictured, top) is 1.8cm thick and weighs 95g. ...more

iRobot for you

Robotics and home robots seem to be really popular at the moment, from Sony's Aibo to Probotic's Spy-Cye, and the recent Demo 2001 show in Arizona gave iRobot the chance to show what it can do. This machine is a little different in design to some of the other machines currently doing the rounds. For one, the iRobot actually looks like it came from the Mos Eisley scene in Star Wars - when you take a look at the picture you will know what I am getting at! The robot moves on eight-wheels in a unique configuration that allows it to clamber over obstacles and features a long extendable neck equipped with a video camera. ...more

ICANN can't get the .uk money in

Debt collection is not a problem you would normally associate with Internet regulation bodies. ICANN, however, is facing a dispute over charges for maintaining regional suffixes on its root servers. These root servers effectively function as the master directories of the Internet, so a listing there is essential for browsers to locate sites using suffixes such as . ...more

Microsoft PITs itself against the pirates

Microsoft is to compensate users who have mistakenly bought pirated programs. In an effort to generate more leads in the pursuit of software counterfeiters, the company's Product Identification Team (PIT) will accept one suspect product per person. It will investigate whether or not it is the genuine article and return it if it is. ...more

Canada to jam mobile phones?

Canada is considering using technology to block the use of mobile phones in certain public areas. It's been announced that the Canadian government is to kick off a 90-day discussion period to decide whether or not to allow technology that blocks mobile phones to be used in the region. Most countries banned such equipment, but Canada is seriously considering using mobile blockers where phone use is deemed inappropriate, such as restaurants, theatres and cinemas. ...more