Lenovo gears up for consumer markets

Lenovo has confirmed its plans to enter the consumer market, boasting of its Formula 1 driven branding success and announcing the release of a 'super luxury' notebook. The company has been outlining its business strategy for Europe and boasting of its success in driving the Lenovo brand, courtesy of its recent Formula 1 sponsorship of the AT&T and Williams team. Already a major player in the Chinese consumer market, the company believes it 'can gain more than our fair share' of the fast growing market, said Milko van Duijl, president of Lenovo EMEA and senior VP of Lenovo Group, speaking to journalists this morning. ...more

Yahoo! to tackle spam with public keys

With spam now accounting for more than half the emails sent around the world, new and stronger defence measures are obviously required. In this light, Yahoo! is investigating new ways of authenticating email authorship. As we reported yesterday, the virus-based hijacking of PCs for the relaying of spam is increasingly common. ...more

NTL investigates 18Mbps next-generation broadband technology

NTL has been quietly testing next-generation broadband technology that will raise the maximum speed available in the UK to 18Mbps. ADSL2+ trials were carried out last month and have now been extended to test the viability of on-demand HDTV (high-definition TV) streaming. Although 18Mbps is the highest downstream speed attainable, in reality it will only be reached by premises within 1km of exchanges, although the technology will boost performance across the board. ...more

Microsoft demos its new Pocket PC platform

The Microsoft take on PDA design has been revised, XP style, with Pocket PC 2002. With an official product launch date of 4 October, Microsoft is demo-ing Pocket PC 2002 at DEMOmobile 2001 in San Diego. As well as a new style of interface (pictured) there are three main thrusts to the development. ...more

Fujitsu embeds data in printed images

How many words does a picture paint? Well it depends if it is using Fujitsu's new system for embedding data within images. To be precise, Fujitsu's technology embeds 12-digit numerical data within pictures, enabling ID codes to embed URLs or telephone numbers inside magazine images or advertisements. This offers a potential way to link printed images to the Internet for users of PDA or smartphones. ...more