Japan's 3G standard finds favour in Europe

Nokia has announced it will have wCDMA cell phones on sale by the end of the year, probably to customers of NTT DoCoMo's FOMA service in Japan. Ericsson has announced the world's first hand-off of a call from a wCDMA network to a GSM one - currently the European standard. wCDMA is expected to be the 3G standard of choice for 85 per cent of mobile operators, helped in that it is relatively easy to run over GSM networks, predominant here and in Asia and growing in popularity in the US. ...more

Microsoft prices Xbox 360

No dates, but prices have been revealed for Microsoft's next-generation Xbox games console, the 360. Prices for the 'Core' system start at ?209.99 for the UK, €299. ...more

Unmetered Internet access for the UK

Unmetered Internet access for the UK is almost here. Oftel has put the squeeze on BT with new guidelines that prevent it charging rivals by the second for all connections going through the BT network. The new deal - known as "single tandem FRIACO" - should force British Telecom to provide a pricing package for Internet access all the way from the consumer's home to the network of a competing operator. ...more

Palm ups the stakes in the battle for smartphone share

PalmSource's CEO David Nagel, described Cobalt today as 'simply the most important technological event in our short history' - see Palm shows off its next-gen Cobalt handeheld operating system He said that 'the traditional organiser market is pretty flat,' but forsaw huge growth opportunities in areas where the handheld has a dedicated task. Palm is already successful in vertical markets such as the medical professions and Nagel said the company would continue its focus there. He also praised the success of the Treo 600 for which supply is outstripping demand in some areas. ...more

RIAA says Net karaoke is not OK

The US record industry has apparently taken offence at a new trend of kids making videos of themselves singing along to popular songs and posting the result on websites such as YouTube. According to music website Project Opus, the Recording Industry Association of America has sent cease-and-desist letters to YouTube users, demanding that said videos be removed from the site. Project Opus says that RIAA-member Universal has called for 'an aggressive stance against amateur video using commercial songs'. ...more