Skype users blocked in UAE

Skype users in the United Arab Emirates are being prevented from accessing the company's website to buy minutes for making voice calls. The service has proved highly popular with expatriates, who make up about 60 per cent of the 2.5 million population. ...more

NHS facing massive cost overrun for IT system

A mammoth IT system for the NHS is expected to cost billions more than expected, possibly eating into funds needed for front-line local health services, according to reports. The system, which will enable patients to book hospital appointments at times and places that suit them and give health staff access to patient records wherever they are, was originally billed at ?2.3bn over three years. ...more

Monopoly gets with the times

For those of you who think that playing Monopoly is a bit unhip and you'd rather be downloading MP3 files from some warez site then you might enjoy the new updated version of the classic board game. Fans of the old version will be misty-eyed when they realise that the game has been dragged screaming into the 21st century with a dotcom makeover. Gone are the boot, the ship and the top hat game counters to be replaced by a mouse, a computer system and an icon. ...more

New web mail service gives to charity

A new free web mail service is being launched that allows its users to help charities while they manage their email. Ippimail says it plans to give 45 per cent of its profits to the charities of the user's choice. The new service, known as Ippimail, is based entirely on Open Source software and a further 10 per cent of the profits are being donated to the Open Source programming community. ...more

Nokia rolls out faster broadband

Mobile telecoms manufacturer Nokia has introduced its D500 IP DSLAM designed to work with the emerging ADSL 2+ standard. The company says that the adoption of ADSL 2+ by ISPs can raise the bandwidth to broadband enabled homes to 20Mbit/sec and beyond. A DSLAM or Digital Subscriber Line Access Multiplexer, is a device which takes a number of ADSL subscriber lines and concentrates these to a single ATM line. ...more