BPI to chart online music sales

The British Music Industry BPI has announced that the UK's first Official Download Chart will launch on 1 September. The chart will include actual sales data from all the UK's most significant download retailers, including HMV, MSN, Mycokemusic and Virgin, all of which are powered by OD2, and Apple's iTunes. The much trumpeted Napster is not yet included although it is probably only a tiny fraction of the UK market at present. ...more

Apple releases AirPort update

Apple has released an update to its software for Macs connected to AirPort wireless networks. This maintenance update follows the firmware update released earlier this week, and recommended for all customers with French AirPort Extreme base stations or if your AirPort Extreme base station stops responding after being on a busy Ethernet Network. AirPort 3. ...more

And also today (2-July-2001), for the record...

Here, in brief, are some of the day's other stories. XML Link standardised The W3C standards body has announced XML Linking Language (XLink) and XML Base as W3C Recommendations. XLink is a way to create and describe links between resources, and XML Base - like its HTML equivalent - allows you to indicate the base URL for a document to allow subsequent use of relative URLs. ...more

Universal Music slashes CD prices

One of the big five global music companies Universal Music Group has slashed the wholesale prices of its CDs and cassettes in the US. The move is seen as an attempt to head off the growing threat to its business from piracy and illegal downloads. From the beginning of October, the price of CDs to retailers will be cut by between 16 and 24 percent. ...more

Linksys frees Skype from the PC

Cisco-owned Linksys has announced a wireless handset that enables Skype users to break away from the PC. The CIT200 has a colour screen that lists the user's Skype contacts, but also supports calls to fixed and mobile lines through SkypeOut, and allows fixed and mobile callers to ring the Skype account through SkypeIn. It also supports Skype Voicemail. ...more