Harry Potter and the Orders of Amazon

It may not be available for another five months but Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is already at the top of the charts on Amazon.co.uk. ...more

Nokia to take control of Symbian smart phone technology

Nokia is to acquire Psion's stake in Symbian, the mobile phone software licensing company. Already a major shareholder in the firm that produces the platforms for smart phones, Nokia is now to have a controlling stake. The deal, which begins with a cash payment of ?93. ...more

Digital consumers fuzzed by tech buzz words

The 21st century Digital Consumer makes for a good marketing phrase, but how aware are these consumers of digital technology itself? This was the subject tackled by Nielsen//NetRatings in a new survey of UK people online. Among the findings were that while just over half (52 per cent) believe online and digital technology makes their life easier, exactly half say they can't keep up with it all. 'In the relentless quest for the next big thing comes to new forms of digital consumption, there is a significant tendency for the industry to over-estimate consumer's knowledge and understanding of the seemingly limitless new terms and products out there,' comments the company's European Internet Analyst, Alex Burmaster. ...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

Palm embraces wireless services

Palm Computing is moving away from being just a consumer-centric hardware manufacturer to a wireless services provider, with the acquisition of Extended Systems. The move will see Palm getting involved with rival software such as the EPOC, Pocket PC and Handheld PC operating systems and standards such as Bluetooth. Extended System's main business is providing data services and synchronisation to corporates across a wide range of devices. ...more