The low-down on... Broadband

If there's one subject that's bound to get an IT journalist irate, it's broadband Net access. Why? Because we've been waiting for it for so very, very long and now it's shown up, only a very small proportion of us can actually get it and even then it seems to take an age to install and is very expensive. But why do we need broadband anyway? Recently Matt Peacock, director of corporate communications at AOL said that unless the UK catches up with the rest of Europe and the US in broadband we will become a second-rate nation. ...more

Nokia connects with third quarter profits

Nokia - the world's largest mobile phone maker - has reported above-forecast third-quarter profits, which is some good news for the global handset market. Its rivals, including Motorola, Matsushita and Philips Electronics, have cut their estimates of mobile phone sales recently. Nokia has reaffirmed its growth outlook. ...more

Wanted: dead or alive

A website is offering a $25,000 (?17,000) bounty on a malicious hacker who shutdown its website for two days. Online auction website BidBay is putting up the bounty for information leading to the conviction of the hacker who caused the damage. The company believes that it was not the target of the attack as the intruders did an aggressive port-scan that rendered the service unavailable. ...more

Microsoft warns that EC rulings may force Vista delay

Microsoft has warned may have to delay the European release of Vista if it fails to comply with the EU's 2004 antitrust ruling against the company. In statement, Microsoft said that it has submitted proposals to the European Commission addressing concerns about Vista, the successor to Windows XP slated to be released at the end of January 2007. 'Once we receive the Commission's response, we will know whether the Commission is seeking additional product design changes that would result in delay in Europe,' the statement said. ...more

Security patch crashes Explorer, Office

The latest security patch issued by Microsoft last week is causing havoc with a range of consumer equipment from Hewlett Packard. The patch issued last week was intended to fill in some holes found in Windows Explorer. However, after the patch was installed, users found that they suddenly had a series of problems in accessing files on their computers. ...more