DataPlay provides little big space

Throw away your memory cards and bin your CD-Rs as a new storage format rides into town. The new DataPlay magneto-optical discs were on show at the CES in Las Vegas and the format has strong support within the industry. The DataPlay company is partially funded by Toshiba, Samsung, Rio and Imation, so you can expect the format to have an influence on the development of MP3 players and digital cameras. ...more

Google probed for video violence

Italian prosecutors on Friday put two Google Italy representatives under investigation as part of an inquiry into how a video of teenagers harassing an autistic classmate surfaced on its Video site, a judicial source said. The two are being investigated for allegedly failing to check on the content of the video posted on the Internet search engine's Web site. The video, which sparked outrage in the country, showed four teenagers beating and poking fun at a 17-year old disabled boy in a classroom in the northern Italian city of Turin. ...more

EU proposes new police powers to monitor all electronic communications

The European Union is proposing that phone companies, mobile companies and internet service providers must retain all information that they collect on anyone called or contacted by an EU citizen and the places where those comunications were made for a period of at least one year. The new proposals are being formulated because law enforcement agencies are worried that the rapid pace of technical innovation opens new opportunities for terrorists. The ever widening diversity of devices means that EU police forces say they are struggling to keep up. ...more

Sony burns on the outside

Sony is to roll out two external DVD/CD-R/W combo drives. The CRX85A/A1 and CRX85U/A2 come with PC Card and USB 2.0 interfaces respectively. ...more

UK woman virtual hits virtual jackpot

A businesswoman from Surrey has scooped an incredible ?98,000 prize from an online casino. It is the biggest-ever online casino win in the UK and Carol Andrew's $137,000 win came when she was playing the Cashsplash game on the US site King Solomon's Online Casino. The payment was made the next day but Mrs Andrew didn't receive her win until a week later after the sum had been converted from dollars to sterling. ...more