US elections already hit by miscasts of automated voting

Electronic voting machines are mis-casting votes during the presidential election. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) claims that it has received reports that the 'summary' screen, which users see to verify their vote before submission, does not match the candidate for whom they in fact voted. Such problems have been identified on machines from at least half a dozen States. ...more

Mozilla browser receives Firefox fix

Mozilla has released a security update for its Internet software suite. The Mozilla 1.7. ...more

Corporates 'will pay ?350 for solid state hard disks'

Companies will pay a hefty premium for the reliability and power savings afforded by solid state hard disks, according to retailers. As Samsung releases its 32GB solid state drive to retail in the UK, one of the company's retail partners claims 'people who understand the technology' are willing to pay the extraordinary premium to replace mechanical drives. 'Even at ?350, corporates are saying they can see the TCO [total cost of ownership] benefit,' says Sanjiv Kotecha from Just Rams, who will be selling the Samsung drives under the Integral brand. ...more

Industry predicts online music consolidation

Music industry chiefs gathered at this week's Midem conference in Cannes are warning that a 'shakeout' is looming in the digital music market. There are currently around 355 downloads stores worldwide, but with Apple's share of the market rising to 83 per cent, many of the smaller operators will soon be forced out or absorbed by a larger rival. 'I don't imagine all these services can last,' said Gabriel Levy, head of music in Europe for RealNetworks. ...more

Virtual PC updated

One for Mac users. Connectix has fixed several problems that appeared with the release of Virtual PC 4, and brought the software up-to-date with OS 9.1. ...more