Xbox console gets hard

It looks as if Microsoft's Sony-busting console, the Xbox, is to get a hardware upgrade in the form of a 20Gb hard disk drive. Western Digital has been awarded a multiyear contract to supply drives for the console and will beginning shipping to Microsoft in June 2001. The drive will be a single-platter, 3. ...more

Trend Micro ousts McAfee from Hotmail message scanning

Trend Micro has ousted McAfee from its seat scanning Hotmail messages for viruses. Exactly what motivated the change remains unclear. Trend Micro's president of European Operations Raimun Genes told us: 'We were contacted by MSN Hotmail, but we never questioned why. ...more

BSI promotes Web accessibility standards

The British Standards Institute has published new guidelines for the development of websites that are accessible to disabled people. The BSI says that its PAS 78 'Guide to good practice in commissioning accessible websites' is applicable to anyone creating a public website and was based on feedback from a Disability Rights Commission (DRC) survey that found that 81 per cent of such sites in the UK are inaccessible to the disabled. PAS 78 covers areas, including: building an accessible website from commissioning and developing it, through to publishing and maintaining it; the importance of accessibility and how to define it; and the involvement of disabled people in requirements gathering, conceptual design and testing processes. ...more

QuickTime to support high-definition DVD

Apple has welcomed the decision by the DVD Forum to ratify the H.264/Advanced Video Codec (AVC) as part of the forthcoming HD DVD format. The codec will be included in a future release of QuickTime. ...more

Allofmp3 denies link to arrested London man

The Russian owners of Allofmp3.com deny that a man arrested in London for alleged copyright violations was the European agent for the controversial music downloads site. In a statement, they say that the unnamed Londoner 'was hastily declared an employee of the European office of Allofmp3' and denied that their business operates outside its home country. ...more