Napster and record industry go another round

MP3-swapping software firm Napster was in court again on Monday, and this hearing didn't progress the argument much. Both Napster and the record industry set out their cases again to three federal judges, who are expected to make a decision in around a month. Whichever way the verdict goes, the loser is likely to appeal to the US Supreme Court. ...more

Flash future for Web advertising

Major players in Web advertising have formed the Macromedia Flash Advertising Alliance, with the aim of establishing standardised practices for the creation and tracking of "rich media" advertising. The alliance includes ad agencies, advertisers, ad serving networks, Web sites and technology vendors, "seeks to build standard practices around the growing momentum surrounding Macromedia Flash by improving the user experience and delivering compelling experiences for advertisers." Alliance members include AOL, DoubleClick, CNET, Excite and MSN. ...more

Power Mac 'is no supercomputer'

An independent computer performance tester has concluded that Apple's Power Mac 'is no supercomputer', contrary to claims that Apple has consistently made. Using a series of tests - designed to be as platform independent as possible - the Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation (SPEC) concluded that compared to a 1GHz Pentium processor, the Motorola Power PC 1GHz processsor currently employed in Apple's top Power Mac, 'is far less suited for scientific applications', despite the fact that the Power PC FPU, 'with its 32 registers ought to have been superior to the x86 [Intel Pentium] FPU with its antiquated stack structure and eight registers only.' On the bright side for Apple, the test did show that 1GHz PowerPC gives a greater performance increase over the 867MHz version than mere clock speed would indicate, suggesting that Motorola is able to squeeze extra performance out of its processors beyond simply adding megahertz. ...more

Spanish police arrest six in porn investigation

Spanish police have arrested six people in a clampdown on Internet child pornography. They also closed down 62 Net 'communities' where pornography was being exchanged, Reuters reports. Investigators discovered 2,870 Internet users in 40 countries who were involved in the distribution of images and videos leading to the arrests in Spain. ...more

dabs.com preps for relaunch

Online tech shop dabs.com has spent half a million pounds overhauling its website and developing new search facilities for a relaunch on 12 September. The UK company has brought in search experts Endeca, which powers the search of Walmart and Circuit City sites in the US among others, to offer browsers an easier route to find the most suitable products. ...more