09-06-2001 Essential news of the week

Brought neatly together and presented on a plate, here is a roundup of some of the week's main news stories from the world of IT. IBM makes chip speed breakthrough Palm moves to make Bluetooth more mainstream Fast Internet access for ?19.99 announced Intel waving not drowning, in new digital wave New 1. ...more

Taking the wireless option

Actiontec is entering the UK market for wireless connectivity with new USB- and PCMCIA-based offerings. Wireless networking - in the 802.11b manner - has become increasingly well established, and with a (theoretical) upper limit of 11Mbit/sec for transferring data, you can have a cable-free wandering range of 30 metres (indoors) and 90 meters (outdoors) for accessing the Internet, printing files or generally networking data. ...more

Google maps the Moon online

First the earth, now the moon. Google takes its Maps and Earth technologies and launches Google Moon. The mapping comes courtesy of NASA imagery, and is currently quite primitive in scope. ...more

BBC to sell its technology subsidiary

The BBC is to sell off its commercial subsidiary BBC Technology Ltd. The unit was created in 2001 to deliver technical services including desktop support and was expected to deliver 'significant savings'. Now the Corporation says that it expects to save some ?20-?30 million a year by outsourcing these services. ...more

eBay frowns on Google Checkout

eBay is preventing buyers and sellers from using Google's new online payments service. Google Checkout, introduced a little over a week ago, has been seen as the first major threat to eBay's PayPal ever since rumours of its imminent introduction began circulating last year. The auction monopoly's response has been to invoke its Accepted Payments Policy, which states that with regard to new payment services, 'eBay will evaluate them to determine whether they are appropriate for the marketplace'. ...more