BT forces ISPs to stump up activation fee

BT Wholesale's halving of its ADSL activation fee comes to an end this month, much to the disappointment of ISPs and indeed consumers, to whom the promotional discount has been passed on. BT Wholesale introduced a promotional offer earlier this year that halved the ?50 fee the company charges to activate an ADSL connection. It comes to an end on 31 March and although BT has not returned requests for comment, Tiscali tells us that the charge is to be re-instated. ...more

Western Digital takes hard drives to triple figures

Disk drive manufacturer Western Digital is to ship a drive spinning at a blistering 7,200rpm and offering an astounding 100Gb of storage space. The three-platter EIDE WD Caviar is expected to start shipping this month and adds another 20Gb to the top end of the Caviar range, which also comes in 30, 40, 60 and 80Gb flavours. It's yours for a princely ?212 ex VAT (that's around ?2. ...more

Apple unveils the iPod

Apple's new iPod is a pocket-sized, 1000-song MP3 player with a 10-hour battery life, and it weighs just 180g (6.5oz). Up to 1000 songs can be stored on its "super-thin" 5Gb hard disk - via the Mac-only iTunes program - and it has up to 20 minutes of shock protection to ensure smooth playback if you happen to be doing something active. ...more

Solar storms create 'profound' disruption to GPS systems

A solar eruption in December disrupted the Global Positioning System (GPS), the satellite-based navigational system used by the military, scientists and civilians, researchers report. The solar flare created radio bursts that traveled to the Earth, covering a broad frequency range, the researchers said, affecting GPS and other navigational systems. Solar flares have been known to knock out satellites and even electricity grids, but the researchers told the Space Weather Enterprise Forum this was an unexpectedly serious new effect. ...more

PalmSource splits directions for smartphones and featurephones

PalmSource is changing direction, creating two new operating systems for smartphones and featurephones. The move is clearly an engagement with market movements - Palm devices such as the Treo 600 and 650 are the growth products, while the humble plain old PDA is a fairly stagnant space. But what has made it possible is PalmSource's acquisition of ChinaMobileSoft (CMS). ...more