National lottery adds online games for Prize Puddings

The National Lottery is adding more instant win games to its online line-up in the run up to Christmas: Prize Puddings, Cash Machine and Hot Cards. Prize Puddings refers not to those who play the lottery but to the three sixpences that must be revealed to win ?5,000. A ?10,000 top prize is available to the winner of Hot Cards, which is a standard scratchcard-based game. ...more

The low-down on... FireWire and USB

Following on from the story of Orange Micro's release of a USB 2.0 PCI card, it's time for another low-down to put things into context.. ...more

Blogger moves subscription features to free service

Blogger.com, the popular web logging site owned by Google, is moving many of the features previously found only in the Blogger Pro subscription service to the free blogger service. Blogger Pro will be wound down and not offered as a separate service. ...more

BBC to offer legal free downloads of TV shows

The BBC is to allow British online users to legally download TV and radio programmes from the Internet up to seven days after their transmission. The announcement was made by Mark Thompson, the BBC Director General, in a speech at the Edinburgh Festival over the weekend. Under the plans announced by Thompson, it is hoped that the new service called MyBBCPlayer will be launched next year. ...more

Bluetooth driving full-steam ahead

Bluetooth will be fitted in nearly a third of all new vehicles within five years, according to Strategy Analytics. The consulting firm predicts that the short-range wireless communications technology will be in 30 per cent of vehicles by 2012, as it becomes standard across a range of consumer electronics devices, notably mobile phones. Growing consumer awareness of Bluetooth and strong demand for hands-free solutions will also drive adoption, the firm said, as will the increasing availability of Bluetooth solutions for manufacturers and legislation designed to prevent people operating handheld devices while driving. ...more