Elections prompt Internet boom

Internet servers have been swamped by users desperate to get the latest developments in the race to the US presidency. Records have been broken for a number of news sites as surfers are using the Internet to view results as they happen and look at information unavailable on television. At ABC News, a record 23 million page impressions crushed its previous high of 10 million when the site posted the Starr report following the Lewinsky debacle in 1998. ...more

Transmeta-based laptops go to launch

Fujitsu is expected to announce the launch of its first Crusoe-based laptop PC today. The Biblio Loox S and Biblio Loox T will be available from November, but exclusively in Japan. The power-saving PCs will have eight hour battery lives and weigh in at 2. ...more

Norway rules iTunes DRM illegal

Norway's consumer ombudsman has ruled that Apple's Fairplay DRM, which restricts how tracks purchased on its iTunes Store can be played, is illegal. The ruling was prompted by a complaint from Forbrukerradet, the country's consumer rights body. It had claimed that restricting iTunes playback to just one kind of portable player, Apple's own iPod, violated Norwegian law. ...more

Media Player exploit found on the Internet

Barely two days after Microsoft's release of its February security patches, code has been found on the Internet that could be used to exploit one of the critical vulnerabilities patched. On Tuesday, Microsoft released code to patch a flaw in the way its Media Player and Windows and MSN Messenger services handled the PNG image format. An attacker could take advantage of the flaw in Media Player by persuading a victim to click on a link in a specially-built web page or email. ...more

3Gb floppy disks, courtesy of Fujifilm

Fujifilm has announced a breakthrough in magnetic data storage, with its prototype NANO CUBIC technology that can boost the capacity of current forms of media tenfold. NANO CUBIC technology uses an ultra-thin layer coating that boasts low noise and high signal to noise ratios making it ideal for rewritable data media. Applications for such a technology include high-capacity floppy disks, high definition and long duration digital videotape of broadcast quality, and backup media for both data and video. ...more