PDA shipments triple across Europe

Mobile device shipments nearly tripled across Europe in the first half of the year according to analysts Canalys. According to the company, volumes of smart phones and wireless handhelds rose 170 per cent year on year in EMEA to 9.6m. ...more

Microsoft seals Windows-only deal for Vodafone smartphones

Vodafone signs up to Windows Mobile on its smartphones - a sign of things to come, hints Microsoft Microsoft has announced that Vodafone will be the first mobile carrier to standardise on Windows Mobile smartphones, but that the software giant was working with other operators on similar deals. 'Vodafone is the first to go into this direction, but there are others doing similar things and we will be talking about them in due course,' Pieter Knook, senior vice president for the Mobile and Embedded Devices Division at Microsoft, said in a telephone interview. Microsoft Windows Mobile was one of just three core software platforms selected by Vodafone for future consumer handsets, in an attempt to cut costs in offering services to subscribers. ...more

Updated: ISPs named for extended broadband test

A preliminary list of the ISPs that are participating in BT's extended reach broadband trials has been released. The trials are designed to see whether BT can successfully extend the range of current broadband services to include homes and businesses that are currently too far (more than 5.5km) from ADSL-enabled exchanges. ...more

Linux community offers free drivers to hardware makers

The Linux community has stepped up to address one of the bigger barriers to mainstream Linux adoption: device drivers. Greg Kroah-Hartman posted in his blog earlier this week that the community will take on all comers to develop Linux drivers for products free of charge. 'You will receive a complete and working Linux driver that is added to the main Linux kernel source tree. ...more

PC Pro Labs: Acer Aspire 5684WLMi correction

Acer Aspire 5684WLMi, Vista laptops Labs, Recommended award-winner update. Unfortunately, due to an error, the wrong part code was printed for the Acer Aspire 5684WLMi in this month's issue (151, May 2007, p101). The correct part code is LX. ...more