UPDATED: Playfair cracks iTunes DRM protection

The digital rights management technology that Apple uses to restrict the copying of songs bought from its iTunes Music Store has been cracked. An anonymous programmer has released software called Playfair that takes one of the iTMS AAC files, decodes it using a key obtained from an iPod or Microsoft Windows system and then writes the new, decoded version to disk as a regular AAC Audio File. It can also, if required, copy the metadata tags that describe the song, including the cover art, to the new file. ...more

AOL backs single-ID system for website logins

AOL has announced support for OpenID, a decentralised Internet identifications system that lets users log on to supporting websites using a identifier. Rather then relying on the traditional username and password method for identification, an OpenID can be any unique Internet identifier such as a website address or blog. AOL, for instance, has enabled basic OpenID 1. ...more

HP shows off blue iPod

HP CEO Carly Fiorina has given the first public showing of the HP branded iPod, announced on Friday. Fiorina waves the device around in this C|net video. Microsoft has, as you might have expected, given the Apple-HP alliance a frosty response. ...more

Apple's 30th Birthday [part 1] - Riding the whirlwind

Thirty years ago this Saturday, 1 April, Apple Computer was founded by three some-time employees of Atari and HP: Steve Jobs, Steve 'Oz' Wozniak and Ronald Wayne. No-one seems absolutely sure of the origins of the name. It has variously been suggested that the name is a tribute to The Beatles' company Apple Corps, to Alan Turing, the father of computer science who killed himself by eating an apple laced with cyanide, or to Sir Isaac Newton, who is pictured sitting beneath an Apple tree in the very first company logo. ...more

Dell Centrinos in on Inspirons and Latitudes

Dell has launched new Inspiron and Latitude notebooks with Centrino technology. Dell's Inspiron 500M starts at ?1,113 including VAT and delivery, and offers the choice of either Intel's 802/11b wireless solution, or Dell's 802.11b/g TrueMobile wireless offering. ...more