iPod's fourth incarnation unveiled

Newsweek has been given a sneak peek and the forthcoming iPod that will officially launch in the US later this week, it says. Most significantly, slights that rival players last longer should be satisfactorarily swatted with a 50 per cent longer battery life: that's 12 hours playback. It is also about 1mm slimmer than its predecessor. ...more

Apple's lawyers move to defend Aqua

Apple lawyers have asked Stardock, a Windows software development house, to remove desktop themes, icons and screenshots that, they argue, too closely resemble the Aqua interface of Mac OS X, thus violating Apple's intellectual property (IP). Stardock's Desktop X software allows users to create and customise their desktop interfaces, and the company encourages users to submit designs to be freely shared with others. Apple objected to one such design which, it has to be said, resembles Aqua to quite a considerable extent. ...more

Government denies climbdown over workplace snooping

The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) claims that it always intended to give employers the right to monitor their workers' correspondence, despite reports earlier this week that it buckled under the weight of industry pressure. The statement came as the DTI announced that it would be extending the consultation period on regulations giving firms the right to intercept employees' e-mail. These regulations are an adjunct to the Regulation of Investigatory Powers (RIP) Act, which received the Royal Assent in July. ...more

And also today (2-October-2001), for the record...

Here, in brief, are some of the day's other stories. Troubled times for Compaq The merger-seeking Compaq has issued a profits warning - it expects revenue and earnings for its third quarter to be "below prior guidance". Events of the 11 September are blamed for exacerbating "economic deterioration". ...more

ASUS announces credit-card-sized WiFi access point

ASUS has announced the WL-330 WiFi access point, which will shortly be available in the UK for just ?28 inc VAT. It can act simply as a WiFi adaptor, by plugging it in to an Ethernet port. And being a driver-free plug and play device, it can run on computers, printers, set-top boxes and games consoles. ...more