eBay drops Passport

Microsoft has lost its most prominent partner in the Passport user authentication service. The online auction service eBay has told its users that from the end of next month it will cease to support Passport as a means to log in. The announcement leaves Microsoft's own MSN based services such as MSN and Hotmail as the only major web properties using Passport as a means of identification. ...more

One in eight Net users log on to iTunes

Almost 14 per cent of active Internet users accessed Apple's iTunes application and its corresponding Web pages in December 2005, according to Nielsen//NetRatings. iTunes usage and traffic rose by 241 per cent last year as the number of users topped 20 million by the end of the year. 'The rapid growth of iTunes is an important phenomenon in the online media marketplace,' said Jon Gibs, director of media analytics, Nielsen//NetRatings. ...more

AMD introduces low-power Opterons

AMD has added a new class of low-power Opteron processors to its server range. Aimed at the blade server market, the new low-power, 64-bit processors are dubbed with the suffix HE (55 watt) or EE (30 watt) after the equivalent full-power Opteron model. The new processors cover the single-, two- and four-way range: the 146 HE and 140 EE, the 246 HE and 240 EE, and the 846 HE and 840 EE. ...more

Microsoft expects Vista-inspired surge in piracy

Microsoft expects the launch of Vista next year to bring with it a surge in piracy. Yet the focus of that piracy is likely to be Windows XP, according to Michala Alexander, head of Microsoft's anti-piracy programme in the UK. 'We expect the effect of Vista will be to increase Windows XP piracy rates massively,' she told us. ...more

BSkyB tunes into broadband

BSkyB has hinted that it expects the Internet to play a significant role in the delivery of programming over the next few years. COO Richard Freudenstein told the Royal Television Society that services will be delivered over broadband as well as by satellite. 'New Ethernet connections will allow us to deliver services such as VOD (video on demand) over a broadband pipe as well as over satellite,' he said. ...more