2006 - The most popular news stories

We present the news stories that drew the greatest traffic across the course of the year, month by month. They might not have been the most significant or insightful stories, but they were the ones that were the ones that garnered the most clicks, according to the stats ground out and sifted by our hosting company's very own super computer. January 1. ...more

Qualcomm speeds mobile phone data transfer

Qualcomm has announced plans to introduce a chip for mobile phones that is compatible with both main standards for high-speed data transfer. The company said at the CTIA wireless conference in Las Vegas that the chips will work on both the EV-DO technology used by US operators Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel and with W-CDMA, which is widely used in Europe. It expects to have initial products for testing before the end of the year. ...more

AOL's refusal to unhand users hobbles sell off plans

AOL's efforts to sell off its UK business has run into difficulties, because the ISP insists on retaining some contact with its 2.5 million users. The Time Warner-owned company is prepared to hand over the less lucrative Internet access side of the business, as long as the buyer continues to direct users to the AOL portal website. ...more

Make a video: meet Moby

Apple is co-sponsoring a competition for budding film makers to make a video for Moby's version of New York, New York. Together with EMI and U-MYX, Apple is inviting video submissions that will then be hosted on U-MYX's Moby mini-site where others can view, comment on and rate it. Potential entrants can download U-MYX's mix of New York, New York or cut their video to Moby's own version. ...more

Zopa readies for US invasion

Zopa, the UK online social lending site, has secured additional funding, to the tune of $12.9 million, and appointed a new global CEO. The two items are related because the UK site is preparing to launch in the US where it will look to draw on the experience of Douglas Dolton in the US savings and lending industries. ...more