EU to create super Ofcom?

The European Union may create a watchdog to monitor telecoms across Europe, according to the Commissioner in charge of Information Technology. However, as a sweetener, The European commission is proposing sweeping changes to the regulation of the telecoms industry. In a draft document, the EC says that it intends to withdraw from the regulation of a number of areas in telecoms provision. ...more

Another day another Netsky

For those who aren't completely bored with their mailboxes clogging up with variants of the Netsky worm, security firm Sophos is reporting two more versions named Netsky-J and Netsky-K. Both worms use the familiar technique of using its own SMTP engine to broadcast itself by email from infected machines. The latest versions also appear to be attacking anti-virus and security programs from a number of security firms by deleting their registry entries. ...more

Microsoft prohibits Parallels installation of Vista Home edition

Parallels has warned that anyone hoping to run Vista using its Desktop virtualisation software will only be able to do so with the more expensive Business and Ultimate editions of the new Microsoft operating system. Reading Microsoft's new End User Licensing Agreement (EULA), Parallels discovered that it expressly prohibits running the Home Basic and Home Premium editions of Vista in a virtual machine. Under a section headed 'Use with virtualization technologies' the EULA states: 'You may not use the software installed on the licensed device within a virtual (or otherwise emulated) hardware system. ...more

RAZR wants a cut of iTunes action

First it was the ROKR, now the new RAZR V3i is Motorola's second iTunes-playing phone. iTunes playback aside the quad-band phone includes a 1.23 megapixel camera with a full screen view-finder, zoom, and video capture and playback, a mini-USB stereo headset, Bluetooth and Airplane mode, which disables the phone components but leaves iTunes operational. ...more

BT opens LiveMeeting-based services with Microsoft

Real-time remote conferencing is the result of a newly announced alliance between BT and Microsoft - BT's audio conferencing services are to support the Microsoft Office Live Meeting service in both the UK and the United States. Features of the system include having a single source for audio and Web conferencing services, electronic whiteboards for the use of all participants, 'auditorium management' in terms of selectively enabling or disabling interactive features, and support for private Instant Message 'side-chat' discussions. There is also real-time Web-based support. ...more