Sky signs up Google services

Sky users to get Sky-branded Google Mail email accounts, a user-generated video portal, plus Google search and ad services Sky has announced a multi-year agreement with search giant and YouTube-owner Google to offer Sky users a range of Sky-branded Google services. As owner of YouTube, Google will help Sky set up and run a video service for its subscribers, allowing them to upload, edit and share video clips via PCs and mobile phones. YouTube is already run on Google's video technology and, while Sky's video portal will be based off the same platform, increasingly more YouTube technology is expected to be integrated down into Google. ...more

Pipex Wireless details UK's first WiMAX service

Pipex Wireless has confirmed its first deployment of WiMAX in the UK with Intel. As we reported last month, Milton Keynes will become the first major location with blanket WiMax coverage. The deployment will begin in December with trial base stations sited around the town, where DSL broadband is limited or unavailable. ...more

Be shows off its Aura

A new range of devices from Be Incorporated could see MP3 and streamed media moving out of the office and into the living room. The Aura specification sees a device at the heart of a home entertainment system that can encode music to MP3 and other formats from analogue and digital sources as well as downloading files from the Internet, via an in-built modem. The system also features the ability to purchase music online and organise all your files into a playlist system. ...more

Blue-laser backers move to promote rival formats

The battle for supremacy for next-generation blue-laser optical disc technology - Blu-ray Disc (BD) versus High-Definition DVD - has taken a couple of (admittedly rather small) twists and turns. Sony has boasted that it will soon begin shipping 'key components' of BD technology, such as optical heads and optical related semiconductor devices (such as Photo detector and Laser diode driver ICs). These should be available in December, with the significance being that manufactures will be able to develop BD-related products and begin to expand the market. ...more

Spam king wins court restraining order on anti-spam company

The self-confessed spam king Scott Richter has won a temporary restraining order against anti-spam outfit SpamCop to bar it from including it in its blacklists of known spammers used by other companies to block unwanted mail. Richter sued SpamCop - owned by IronPort systems - on 29 April on behalf of his email marketing company OptInRealBig.com. ...more