UK government stands up to spam

The DTI has unveiled proposals to ensure the public has effective methods of blocking unsolicited emails and SMS messages. The proposals are the UK's implementation of the European Directive on Privacy and Electronic Communication and if adopted would require that users explicitly opt in to receiving commercial emails from businesses. They also require that the use of cookies from Web sites are clearly explained both in terms of purpose and how to refuse them. ...more

Britons buy half a million legal music downloads

The BPI has announced that, according to the Official UK Chart Company (OCC) there have been 500,000 legal downloads of music to date this year. The bestselling tracks have been Coldplay's 2,000 Miles and OutKast's Hey Ya. The OCC is a partnership between the BPI and the British Association of Record Dealers and expects to launch an Official UK Download Chart later this summer. ...more

Interview: Intel's Don MacDonald talks Centrino

At the recent Intel Developer Forum, I caught up with Don MacDonald, Intel's Director of Marketing, Mobile Platforms Group. Following a Mobility Computing keynote by Intel VP Anand Chandrasekher - IDF Fall 2003: Next-gen Centrino processor takes a bow - we talked about all things Centrino: the forthcoming Dothan mobile processor, strained silicon, and the next-generation 'Sonoma' platform. A good one to start with - how will Dothan benefit the consumer as compared with previous Intel processors? MacDonald: Dothan is a system chip to replace what we codename the 'Banias' CPU, which is one of the ingredients of the Centrino package. ...more

Intel releases new Xeon heavyweight server processors

Sunday saw the introduction of some new Intel Xeon server processors, including a 3.2GHz Xeon and a 3GHz Xeon MP. The new top-of-the-range Xeon MP, for multi-processor systems, also doubles the amount of Level 2 cache. ...more

Sony's profits-drop beats expectations

Sony has announced its third-quarter results and has halved its profit estimate for the full year to $423m. Analysts predicted profits to fall by as much as 27 per cent, but the picture was a touch rosier, with a $1.24bn operating profit for the quarter ending 31 December, down 11 per cent. ...more