Sophos warns of new worms in the wild

Two new worms have been identified by anti-virus specialists Sophos. A new threat just spotted in the wild is the batch file worm Mamu-B. Using the Trojan 'PC Ghost', it logs keystrokes and attempts to send passwords to a preconfigured email account. ...more

US Xbox live details confirmed

Microsoft has confirmed Xbox Live details for the US, giving a concrete release date of November 15th 2002, a form of celebration of the console's one year anniversary. On the date of launch, Xbox owners in the US will be able to pick up an Xbox Live Starter Kit for $49.95. ...more

BT commits to GPRS, but only for professionals

More good news for those hoping to get into GPRS: BT Cellnet has ordered 175,000 GPRS wireless handsets from US manufacturer Research in Motion. But before you get too excited, the handsets - which are mainly for emailing and paging - are for business users only. According to a press release on the Research in Motion site, BT Cellnet is purchasing RIM's BlackBerry handhelds, which look like a cross between a PDA, a calculator and a pager and connect to the PC through a docking cradle. ...more

Matsushita lets you feel the music

And how is the music sir? Like a traditional sommelier would recommend the best wine to go with your food, so Matsushita's Musicsommelier technology suggests the best music to go with your mood. In an attempt to let the user make sense of the huge resource of music available online, the Musicsommelier interface technology classifies music according to its emotive feel. The system evaluates a piece of music through five emotive qualities: how soft, simple, refreshing, dynamic and exciting it is, and to what extent. ...more

Mandrake takes on Sun's Sun Ray with ultra thin client assault

Mandrake is to launch an ultra-thin client version of its Linux desktop operating system by partnering with Nexedi. The companies have come up with a product they are calling rentalinux, based on a central server which offers remote access to Mandrake desktop applications via VNC (Virtual Network Computing). Jean-Paul Smets, CEO of Nexedi, told us: 'The term Ultra-Thin Client applies very well to Nexedi DLS appoach since it is based on a thin client protocol, tightVNC, which requires extremely little CPU and can run on thin client devices costing about €100 and available from various sources. ...more