Microsoft intros Office Live beta

Microsoft has unveiled, for the US, a beta version of its Office Live online web services. The set of online applications announced by Bill Gates last year are aimed at providing basic website and intranet services for small and medium-sized companies. The product comes in three versions: - Live Basic, Live Collaboration and Live Essentials. ...more

German music industry launches huge legal attack against file-sharers

The German record industry has commenced the largest legal campaign against p2p file sharing by filing lawsuits against 3,500 alleged sharers. Yesterday police officers searched 130 premises to gather evidence following an investigation that has lasted several months. Under German law the alleged sharers face both criminal prosecution and claims for compensation under civil law. ...more

Full details of IBM e-servers released

IBM has officially released full details of the rebranding of its line of servers. Essentially, the term "eserver" will prefix a notional sub-division of its existing range of products. The most obvious change is that the AS/400 identity will be subsumed within one of a range of "Series". ...more

BenQ brags of Blu-ray first with new drive

BenQ is the first of the major peripheral manufacturers to announce a high-definition optical drive. Its Blu-ray unit was developed jointly with Philips and was unveiled at CeBit, Hannover. It will be available in the second half of this year. ...more

Microsoft wins Deutsche Telekom for European IPTV

Microsoft has made a further win for its European IPTV empire with an agreement with Deutsche Telekom to provide the technology behind its broadband television services. The contract is Microsoft's biggest yet in Europe, and second-largest globally. In June of last year, BT signed up Microsoft to use the same platform for what is now emerging as BT Vision. ...more