Brit pensioner becomes online video star

A British widower, known only as Peter and who goes by the name 'geriatric1927', is the latest star of the video-sharing site YouTube. His views on life backed with a blues soundtrack have made him a big hit with the teens and twenty-somethings who frequent the site. Peter's first posting a week ago has now garnered an astonishing 447,440 views. ...more

Schools fingerprinting kids without parents' consent

As many as three-quarters of school authorities allow students' fingerprints to be held in databases - for use as identification for libraries and canteens - according to Conservative Party data. According to media reports confirmed by a conservative party spokesperson, a Freedom of Information Act request revealed that 132 of 171 local education authorities - some 17,000 thousand schools covering 5.9 million children - in the UK allow fingerprinting of students. ...more

Microsoft launches no-frills XP Starter Edition for South East Asia

Starting in October, Microsoft is shipping a modified version of Windows XP geared for the Asian markets. Specifically, in Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia. Dubbed Windows XP Starter Edition, it will be available for low-cost desktop PCs from official Microsoft OEM distributors. ...more

New Blazer, new browser

'Faster and more secure' is Handspring's claim for its updated browser. For PalmOS-based handhelds, Blazer 2.0 is Handspring's way of viewing Web content. ...more

Apple on course for quarterly iPod sales surge

Apple will sell between 11 and 12 million iPods this quarter, according to NPD's analysis of sales figures for January. Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster said that the figure is 'based on various assumptions', explaining that it had been calculated by comparing January's data with its proportion of sales in previous years. 'When the second month of data is released, our analysis will likely lead to a slightly different iPod unit figure,' he wrote in a note to investors Munster noted that the estimate is higher than both Wall Street's 10. ...more