Yahoo! audio search arrives in UK

Yahoo!'s audio search has officially arrived in the UK, allowing users to search through some 38 million audio files online. As well as indexing what's available from commercial online music services, such as iTunes, Napster and Wippit, Yahoo! audio searches will also look up podcasts, interviews and other spoken word files. In addition, audio searches will also return other information such as music videos, album art and reviews. ...more

Europe homes in on home networking - research

According to research, Europe is well on the way to widespread adoption of the networked home, with the PC already having crept into the living rooms of a quarter of homes, and up to half of consumer electronics devices expected to be network-enabled by the end of the decade. Research group Understanding & Solutions expects more than a third of European homes to have an integrated home network by 2010, linking multiple computers, telephones, televisions, Personal Video Recorders (PVRs), games consoles, home security systems and other digital devices. It claims the two driving factors are the wide availability of broadband and the increase of digital multi-room TV networking. ...more

PDA users exposed to data theft

Almost one in four handheld PDA users are storing unprotected bank account details on their devices, according to a report commissioned by a security company. Sixty-five per cent of people who store their bank details on PDAs do not bother to encrypt them and just under 25 per cent don't even bother with password protection. In general, the survey found that in 25 per cent of PDAs, the user employs no password protection whatsoever. ...more

Scanning for the home user

Epson has announced a new scanner aimed squarely at the home user. The A4 size Perfection 1260 has four quick start buttons - scan to print, scan to Web, scan to email and scan to application, designed to simplify the process. It scans with an optical resolution of 1200x2400 dpi and 48-bit colour depth. ...more

BBC exec warns of online charges

A BBC executive has warned that the corporation might have to consider charging for online content. In an interview with the Financial Times, Ashley Highfield, director of new media, said that the cost of providing content on the Internet may well outstrip the BBC's income from the licence fee. He suggested that users of the corporation's services might face additional payments in order to access all the content on offer. ...more