BT to scrap consumer ISDN

BT has announced that it will withdraw consumer ISDN services later this year, broadband having killed off what was once a cutting-edge technology for Internet access. The telco stopped selling its Home Highway ISDN (integrated services digital network) product in February and existing users will now have just a few months to switch to a faster ADSL broadband connection. Typically ISDN was used where broadband services were not available, though improvements over the past few years to the UK broadband footprint have gradually negated its role. ...more

UK public digitally switch off

According to research commissioned by Pace, far from being ready for Tony Blair's digital switch over to digital TV, most UK consumers aren't ready to change, and 92 per cent aren't prepared to pay for it. Tony Blair set out a goal to get the UK to switch over to digital TV by 2010 - with a view to auction off more airwaves - but 60 per cent of those polled have no plans to do so for the next few years and a third could not see who would benefit from it. Forty per cent of over 65s would not be prepared to pay for either new sets or set-top boxes and a third of all those surveyed believed that the Government should foot the bill. ...more

Google betas video search

Google has launched a beta versions of its video search interface and playback application. Google Video extends the company's reach over the world's information and gives search access to the growing Web archive of TV programming, primarily from US channels It searches the closed captioning and text descriptions of all the videos in the Google archive for relevant results. As well as identifying whole videos, the technology can also find sections within videos that match the search terms. ...more

HP bundles Netscape on laptops and desktops

Netscape has announced that its eponymous Web browser will be pre-installed on all HP desktop and notebook PCs from early next year. The set-up process will include an option for setting Netscape as the default browser, which will be customised with tabs that point users at 'key' Hp and Compaq websites. 'Netscape 8. ...more

DoCoMo faces another 3G recall

After managing 3G's debut in Japan, NTT DoCoMo has announced it is to recall all of the handsets used in the trial rollout "to improve their function". The recall of the N2001 NEC handsets, follows DoCoMo's recalls of 420,000 Sony S0503i phones, after it ignored a warning from Sony about faulty software, and another involving Java-enabled handsets from Matsushita's Panasonic brand. Users of the 3G handsets had been warned that a recall was possible, in order to upgrade the handsets, and Japanese newspapers have indicated that replacements would become available in July. ...more