Malaysia gets tough on hackers

The Malaysian government is planning to get tough with hackers after its Web site was wiped out after Christmas. The hacker, known only as "topeira", wiped out the entire Malaysian government site at parliamen.gov. ...more

Kyocera show off Palm-phone

Japanese electronics company Kyocera tries to outwit the Handspring Visor with its Palm-based mobile phone. The Kyocera Smartphone allows access to data using a built-in Web browser and email, and will be compatible with WAP and SMS. It supports voice dialling, hot-synching with a PC and will also be able to function as a wireless modem for a laptop. ...more

PDA market in downward spiral reports IDC

palmOne is at the head of a downward spiral of the PDA market according to research group IDC. IDC's figures showed a 8.7 per cent slump year on year for the third quarter of 2004 - the third successive quarter of year on year decline. ...more

France to back off forcing open iTunes

French legislators appear to have reached a compromise that will allow Apple to maintain the exclusive link between iPods and iTunes Music Store downloads. Having previously threatened to force Apple and other digital music service operators to remove restrictions on which devices their downloads can be played, France's lower house, the Assembly, is ready to accept a Senate proposal that, the AP reports, will provide a loophole enabling operators to avoid having to license their DRM technologies. According to the report, a new regulatory authority will be given the power to resolve disputes by ordering companies to license their exclusive file formats to rivals, but only if the restrictions they impose are 'additional to, or independent of, those explicitly decided by the copyright holders'. ...more

Maximum hard disk speed found

Scientists have discovered the maximum speed that data can be written to a conventional hard disk. Drives store data as a sequence of magnetic polarities on their surface. The BBC reports that researcher at Stanford University in the US found that they could generate pulses too quick to register a change to the coating. ...more