Radio goes interactive with music downloads service

UK media group UBC is planning to offer a music downloads service via DAB digital radio. The company, which currently owns several radio stations and makes programmes for the BBC, expects to launch the service within a year through one radio station, before co-opting other broadcasters. When listeners hear a song they like, they will be able to push a button on their radio and the song will be sent to their PC. ...more

Norway's Liberal Party backs file sharing

Norway's Liberal Party has become the first mainstream European political party to back p2p file sharing. The party, which holds 10 seats in Norway's 169-seat parliament, adopted the policy at its annual congress, saying copyright laws are not adapted for a modern society and should permit file sharing for personal, but not commercial, use. 'Copyright law is outdated,' the resolution says. ...more

IDF Spring 2004: Intel succumbs to competitive pressure over 64-bit computing

The head of Intel, Craig Barret, kicked off the Spring IDF (Intel Developer Forum) in San Francisco today by announcing what Intel had previously said wasn't necessary: 64-bit extensions for the existing 32-bit architecture sported by the company's processors. This will happen not only in Xeon, the workstation and mid-range server chip, but as of next year will be present in Pentium 4 chips based on the new Prescott processor core too. It seems that the competition from AMD's Athlon 64 range has forced the company to capitulate on its claim that 64-bit computing was only for high-end 'big iron' server systems based around Itanium CPUs. ...more

Microsoft completes Sybari acquisition

Microsoft has axed Sybari's support for its Unix and Linux products upon completion of its acquisition. Upon announcing the takeover in February, Microsoft had said that this was its intention and says it will continue to support customers of the Linux and Unix versions of Sybari's Antigen, although it will no longer sell them. 'Customers have told us they want powerful security solutions for the enterprise to help protect their messaging and collaboration servers from viruses, worms and spam,' said Mike Nash, corporate vice president of the Security Business & Technology Unit. ...more

UK games chart: Pro Evolution Soccer 6 is number one

Konami's Pro Evolution Soccer 6 (PC, PS2, Xb360, DS, PSP) goes straight in at number one in this week's ELSPA UK games chart. Playing its way to the top of the charts, the football gamer's football game offers greater player control and more accurate simulation. Specifically in the latest version, player AI has been upgraded, with players running into space when not in possession of the ball, and defenders learning to back off slightly to prevent being turned by opponents. ...more