Apple defends its environmental record

Apple has defended its environmental record in the face of protests outside its shareholders' AGM this week. A dozen protestors from the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition held a picket, criticising the company's record on recycling and taking particular issue with iPod battery disposal. Inside the meeting Apple CEO Steve Jobs gave a long answer to a question from an environmentally aware investment fund regarding the company's green credentials. ...more

Slackware lets Linux 9.0 loose

Built around version 2.4.20 of the Linux kernel, Slackware Linux 9. ...more

Microsoft and AOL agree to agree on anti-spoofing Sender-ID technology

AOL is chums again with buddy Microsoft and is now supporting a new version of Redmond's controversial Sender ID anti-spoofing technology. The fracas blew up as a working group under the auspices of IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) failed to agree on a framework to implement Sender ID. Microsoft had submitted its PRA (purported recent address) algorithm to Sender ID, which was encumbered by licensing restrictions and unspecified patent and intellectual property claims and would mean that Sender ID was not backwards-compatible with existing SPF (Sender Policy Framework) records that are used in today's anti-spoofing efforts. ...more

BT starts legal action defending its hyperlink patent

BT has taken US ISP Prodigy Communications to court in an attempt to recover licence fees over the use of hyperlinks. BT hopes to force all ISPs that use hyperlinks to pay the telco a licence fee. This move is believed to be the first of many, as the company contacted 16 ISPs, including America Online, back in June with a request for licence fees and hired intellectual property licencing firm QED. ...more

MSN to roll out Microsoft's new search engine

MSN is on the brink of rolling out a beta of its long awaited search engine tomorrow according to reports. Microsoft is preparing to launch two new products - a search engine capable of competing with Yahoo! and Google - and a desktop search tool. The desktop search product is slated to be released later this year. ...more