Thunderbird 0.4 RC1 released

The Mozilla Organisation has made the first release candidate of its open source email client available to download. Thunderbird 0.4 incorporates several new or improved features including: new icons for the mailing list, subscribe, search addresses and offline dialogues; results in the search Addresses dialog now only show a subset of the available columns by default instead of showing all the address book columns; an IMAP fix to prevent the software hanging when selecting the Inbox while new mail is being downloaded; find in message now always forces focus on the message pane so you no longer have to do it yourself; and the correct saving of attachments with non-ASCII file names. ...more

Dell boss unconcerned by Mac mini

The CEO of Dell appears wholly underwhelmed by the Mac mini, a machine which Apple hopes will reach into Dell's Windows-using constituency. Kevin Rollins said in an interview that, 'It might take some here and there, but Apple's market share in the global computer business has really shrunk pretty far. Where they've been making success recently is not in the computer business, but in the iPod music business. ...more

NTL gives customers Freeserve option

NTL and Freeserve have signed a non-binding wholesale deal for Freeserve to offer its 512Kbits/sec broadband service across NTL's cable network. To take up broadband with Freeserve using NTL cable, customers also have to sign up to fixed line telephone with NTL, in order to get onto the network, and can also take up digital services too. This is the first time that a broadband cable operator and UK ISP have worked together in this way and the agreement, being non-binding, means that further ISPs are invited to the party. ...more

Dreamcast doubles sales in US

Sega witnessed a surprising upturn in sales after slashing $50 from the price of its ailing Dreamcast console. Market researcher PC Data said that the sales of the Dreamcast had risen 156 per cent between 27 August and 30 September, with an average of 30,294 units being sold each week, after the company had cut the price of the console from $199 to $149 on 30 August. This jump in sales comes on the eve of the launch of Sony's new PlayStation 2, which arrives in the US on 26 October. ...more

Palm marks LifeDrive 'end of life'

Palm has called time on its LifeDrive PDA, the first, and so far only, of its handhelds with hard drive rather than flash memory storage. The device has been tagged 'end of line' on the company's US store. Also references to the Mobile Manager product category have been removed from several places on the Palm website, suggesting that there will be no replacement for the LifeDrive, the only Mobile Manager that the company has released in the less than two years since the new category of devices was introduced in May 2005. ...more