States may request bare bones Windows

A source close to the antitrust case has told Reuters that attorney generals for the remaining states still unhappy with the proposed settlement may request that Windows be offered in an unbundled form. The nine States are putting together a draft remedy to submit to US District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly tomorrow. Not only would a stripped-down Windows open the door for third parties to put their email and browser applications and the like onto the OS, but other sanctions being considered include the disclosure of key source code, so that third-party software can be made compatible, the inclusion of Sun Microsystem's Java and the requirement that Microsoft's Office be cross-platform compatible. ...more

Industry and governments convene Internet Governance Forum

More than 1,500 delegates from industry, governments, and other influential bodies met today in Athens under the auspices of the UN for the first day of talks at the Internet Governance Forum. At stake is the future of the Internet, and while no actual policies or decisions will be made, the aim is to reach consensus on the key issues regarding the future governance of our online world. The Forum follows on from the work of the World Summit on Information Society, which met in Tunis last year, and will look at four main topics: openness, security, diversity and access. ...more

Apple takes lid off Foxconn plant

Apple has begun its audit of the Foxconn iPod manufacturing plant in Shenzhen, China. 'Apple has begun a thorough audit of the manufacturing plant operated by Foxconn, including employee working and living conditions, interviews of employees and managers, compliance with overtime and wage regulations, and other areas as necessary to insure adherence to Apple's supplier code of conduct,' the company said in a statement. The audit was prompted by a Mail on Sunday article which claimed that the plants workers were poorly paid, working 15 hours a day and living 100 to a room in company dormitories. ...more

ISPs announce broadband cuts

Following yesterday's announcement by BT Wholesale that it will be cutting the price of the broadband services it sells to Internet service providers (ISPs), the ISPs have begun to pass the cuts on to their customers. The following have announced these new prices for their standard home-user broadband packages: BTOpenWorld ?29.99 (inc. ...more

Sony unveils handheld PlayStation

Now that's what we call an announcement. It's been widely known in industry circles for some time now that Sony was working on a handheld games console, but none of us had any idea when the announcement would finally be made. Until now. ...more