Desperate measures for desperate times

All the employees of a South Korean chip-making company have agreed to extreme measures to help save their company. The staff of Hynix Semiconductor have agreed to take a month's unpaid leave, reports the Financial Times, to help reduce the company's debt burden and save their jobs. The slump conditions of the semiconductor market are threatening the whole existence of the company. ...more

UPDATED: Apple adds voice recording and photo storage to iPods

Apple has announced new features for its iPod range of portable music players, including voice recording and photo storage. Voice recording is provided via a new Belkin Voice Recorder which plugs straight into the iPod and on a 40GB model can record up to 600 hours of audio. When the iPod is connected to a Mac or PC, recordings are automatically synced with iTunes (now also available for Windows) and stored on the computer. ...more

Government focuses e-services on digital television

Television to be key framework for delivering government services online. At a product launch of an Internet-enabled set-top box, Anwar Choudhury, Director of Markets Technology and Innovation, revealed 'a new policy programme that requires every government department to consider digital television (DTV) as a key framework for delivering online services'. Choudhury said that while league tables showed we are near the top for e-commerce and making strides with broadband, the UK leads the way for digital television with 40 per cent of households owning a DTV set. ...more

And also today (07-June-2001), for the record...

Here, in brief, are some of the day's other stories. Bom dia, Interactive TV Lisbon sees the launch today of the first commercial application of Microsoft's interactive TV software. The importance of the launch - in terms of the amount Microsoft has invested in this arena - was reflected in Steve Balmer's (Microsoft CEO) presence in Portugal at the event. ...more

Dell releases Ubuntu-based PCs

Dell has confirmed today that it is launching three computer systems, including one laptop, that will come with the open-source Ubuntu Linux operating system already installed. The three computers, which come with a price tag starting at around ?300, will have the Ubuntu 7.04 Linux system pre-installed for use out-of-the-box. ...more