ADSL market leaders see off competition

Despite ever-increasing competition, the UK broadband market continues to be dominated by a handful of service providers, with no indication that this will change any time soon. A survey by research firm Point Topic revealed that just five companies provide 80 per cent of all ADSL connections. The newly merged NTL and Telewest is now the market leader, with 2,822,000 subscribers in the first quarter of 2006, followed by BT/Yahoo! (2,481,000), AOL (1,300,000), Tiscali (1,085,0000) and Orange, formerly Wanadoo (986,000). ...more

MSN added to Starbucks' blend

Will that be a high-speed connected environment with your decaff latte, sir? Starbucks and Microsoft have announced an agreement for the incorporation of MSN into the "inviting and relaxing coffeehouse experience" that is otherwise known as Starbucks. The idea is that customers, as well as checking their email, will be able to download information about local entertainment while sipping their mocchiata. MobileStar Network will provide a wireless broadband network to underpin the operations. ...more

Google rolls out Desktop Search for Enterprises

Google has extended its Desktop Search product to operate across company networks. Google Desktop Search for Enterprise looks and feels much the same as the standard desktop product but can be distributed and managed centrally and configured by a Windows administrator. As with the standard desktop product, users are able to index content in a wide range of file formats including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF, MP3, image, audio and video files. ...more

Amazon stock price plummets on profits forecast

Online retailer Amazon.com suffered the biggest fall in its share price in six years when it announced that this year's profits will take a hit following big investments in its toys division in the run up to Christmas and in 'aggressively cutting' prices. Following the publishing of quarterly results, investors took the news badly and the shares plummeted almost 22 per cent on the day to their lowest level for three years. ...more

VMware virtualises the Intel-based Mac

VMware has announced the Intel-based Mac version of its client virtualisation software. The new version was demonstrated yesterday at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference 2006 in San Francisco and allows Intel-based Macs running OS X to run a whole host of guest operating systems within its virtualised environment without having to dual boot. Apple's first concession to allowing other platforms onto its hardware came in the form of Boot Camp, which allowed the installation of Windows XP alongside Mac OS X in a dual-boot environment. ...more