Sony says yes to in-game trading

Sony is embarking on a new project to enter a market worth some $200mn in its estimation. That market is the business of trading virtual items within the online gaming worlds: in Sony's particular case it is setting up exchange systems for its EverQuest II game. In an address to the EverQuest community, Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) president John Smedley wrote that despite the company's previous opposing stance on the subject, the decision to enable such trading is a response to high level of behind the scenes exchanges that currently occur and the fact that 40 per cent of customer service's time is spent dealing with these issues. ...more

Acer expands its value line of LCD displays

Acer has added new TFT monitors to its Value range, with prices from ?200 ex. VAT. The new models are the Acer AL1511s, the Acer AL1711s and the Acer AL1912s, which are 15in, 17in and 19in displays respectively. ...more

IBM becomes doomsayer for virus-ridden future

Mobile phones, wireless networks and embedded car and satellite communications systems are all prime targets for virus and worm attack in 2005. There will also be a big surge in phishing attacks, Spam (CAN-SPAM notwithstanding), viruses, identity theft and plagues of frogs. (I made that last bit up). ...more

IBM guns for automated trouble-shooting

IBM has announced further developments in its autonomic computing initiative: new services, software and a partner program. The eventual aim of 'autonomic computing' is for large systems to become more self-managing so they can automatically anticipate, diagnose and correct problems and optimise the processing of varying workloads. The bottom line, of course, is to reduce the need for manual intervention and reduce IT maintenance costs. ...more

Mobile sales pass saturation point

First drop in history for global mobile phone sales. According to the research group Gartner Dataquest, the mobile phone industry has suffered its first drop in total unit sales. While 2001 saw the shifting of 399. ...more