Jump to the Gigabeat

Toshiba has announced a new portable music player, the first to rival Apple's iPod in storage capacity, transfer speed and style. The Gigabeat can store up to 5Gb of music on removeable PC-card hard drives, which suggests that there is no limit to the amount of music you can easily carry around with you. Toshiba will ship the player with one card, and will make additional 2Gb and 5Gb cards available. ...more

Microsoft accepts new name for Windows minus Media Player

Microsoft has accepted the European Commission's name for its forthcoming version of Windows XP without Windows Media Player. The EC ruled last week that both the Home and Pro version should be appended with N to designate the absence of Media Player; they will therefore be known as Windows XP Home Edition N and Windows XP Professional Edition N. Microsoft had originally suggested calling the software Windows XP Reduced Media Edition, but that was rejected by the EC as too pejorative. ...more

SunnComm changes its DRM ways

Chastised copyright-protection technology company SunnComm has made public its efforts to fix security concerns over its MediaMax software. The company's announcement is in response to an open letter from the Electronic Frontier Foundation calling on it to be more transparent and to ensure consumers' rights and security are not considered the collateral damage associated with protecting copyright content. As such, SunnComm has stated that all future versions of its MediaMax software will only install if the user accepts the end user licence agreement presented when a music CD with this software is inserted into a computer. ...more

Broadreach set to push down the cost of wireless access

Broadband on the move specialist Broadreach Networks is set to fix its wireless access pricing at ?3 per hour. This would put it at about half the price of its major competitor BT Openzone. The company is also considering a contract deal of ?30-?35 for six months. ...more

A camera for your phone

I guess it had to happen eventually. With the "c" word being bandied about at every opportunity (I mean "convergence" and not the other one), I guess it's no real surprise that Ericsson has announced it's new digital camera add-on for mobile phones. The snappily titled CommuniCam is the first imaging product that Ericsson has produced and brings digital imaging to the mobile phone arena. ...more