Neocron game to inspire broadband subscription surge

Apparently the upcoming sci-fi 'massively multiplayer online role-playing game' Neocron will make everyone rush out to get broadband Internet connections! According to CDV, which is to publish the game, a massive 86 percent of those who are planning to purchase the MMORPG have stated that they were strongly considering ditching their old modems in favour of broadband Internet connections. Now, the implication is that the arrival of Neocron will be responsible for a surge in broadband subscriptions. 'If our forecasts are correct, the Neocron subscriber base could drive nationwide broadband subscription up by 10 per cent in one fell swoop,' stated Leo Zullo, Marketing Manager, CDV Software Entertainment. ...more

Vodafone launches pay-as-you-go 3G card

Vodafone has announced the release of the UK's first prepay 3G/GPRS data card, for connecting wirelessly to the Internet from a laptop. The PCMCIA card works in the 65 per cent of the UK that has 3G coverage and in 13 other countries worldwide with a 3G network plus some 20 with GPRS support. For ?199 you get the card plus 10Mb of free data traffic. ...more

BPI wins landmark file sharing case

The UK record industry has won a landmark court case against two men it accused of sharing music files over the Internet. In the first ruling of its kind in this country a Norfolk man must make an immediate payment of ?5,000, plus meet additional costs estimated at ?13,500 and damages. A Brighton man was ordered to pay ?1,500 now with costs and damages to be assessed later. ...more

Microsoft ruffles anti-trust feathers with IE-only documents

The MHT file format 'significantly limits the practical usability' of the relevant documents, claims the US Government and the seventeen states who were part of the final settlement. Microsoft, which has been forced to publish details of its software as part of its antitrust settlement, is providing the information in a form which can only be read by Internet Explorer, according to Associated Press. The US Government and the seventeen states who were part of the final settlement have complained that the MHT file format 'significantly limits the practical usability' of the published documents as it doesn't support sufficiently useful search technologies. ...more

Microsoft teams up for virtualisation with XenSource

Microsoft is teaming up with virtualisation open-source company XenSource to develop interoperability between their respective hypervisor products. The collaboration will result in Xen-enabled Linux platforms being run on Microsoft's virtualisation technology in the upcoming version of Windows Server, code-named Longhorn. Microsoft will also offer technical support for Xen-enabled Linux guest operating systems through its standard channels. ...more