Europeans fall back in love with the mobile

Shipment figures for Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) show that our love affair with the mobile phone has been reignited with pictures and data services. The figures, from industry analysts at Canalys, show mobile device shipments for the second quarter of this year have risen 238 per cent year on year to 1,695,950. 'Shipments for high-end phones are growing in line with our expectations,' said Canalys director Chris Jones. ...more

Apple issues major security update

Apple has released a major security update for Mac OS X 10.3.9 client and server editions which addresses 20 outstanding vulnerabilities. ...more

Skype users blocked in UAE

Skype users in the United Arab Emirates are being prevented from accessing the company's website to buy minutes for making voice calls. The service has proved highly popular with expatriates, who make up about 60 per cent of the 2.5 million population. ...more

Scorpion robot wars

The US military is currently developing solar-powered robots based on the humble scorpion. A report on the Virtual New York Web site, tells how research funded by the US Navy is producing these tiny robots that will hopefully in the future be used in military reconnaissance. This research is part of a new scientific field called biomimetics, an area where scientists use animals as a blueprint to build better robots. ...more

Palm ordered to pay $50m in Xerox case

Palm has been ordered to pay a $50 million bond in its legal battle with Xerox. The case concerns Palm's Graffiti handwriting recognition technology, which last year was found to infringe a patent held by Xerox. Xerox sued Palm and its former parent company 3Com last year for infringement of a patent covering its Unistrokes technology, which was developed at its famous Palo Alto Research Centre (PARC). ...more