Apple to fix defective iBook logic boards for free

Apple has launched a worldwide programme to repair failed components on iBook logic boards manufactured between May 2002 and April 2003. Under the iBook Logic Board Repair Extension Program, anyone who has suffered the following problems with their iBook display may be entitled to an entirely free repair: scrambled or distorted video, appearance of unexpected lines on the screen, intermittent video image, video freeze, or computer starting up to blank screen. Full details are available at www. ...more

Mobile bills to include lunch

Members of the Croatian government's Cabinet that interrupt meetings by forgetting to turn off their mobile phones could face more than embarrassment. Prime Minister Ivica Racan has had enough of the Dom Jolly antics of his Ministers and has decided that owners of errant mobiles will have to take himself, the rest of the Cabinet, and any present journalists out to lunch if their handsets go off. Indeed if it then goes off a second time, the penalty is extended to include an entire week. ...more

Airlines agree to on-board mobiles

Two European airlines, including UK-based bmi, will begin providing on-board mobile phone support from late 2006. The second largest airline operating out of Heathrow, bmi will begin trialling the OnAir service in an Airbus A320, once the onboard equipment developed by Airbus and Siemens is fully certified and the necessary telecommunications regulations are in place to permit the safe use of mobile phones inflight. TAP Air Portugal will conduct its trial around the same time aboard an Airbus A321. ...more

FTC presses Passport

Microsoft and the FTC reach a 20-year agreement that will see the company face security audits every two years. Following complaints about Microsoft's single sign-in Passport account, the Federal Trade Commission and Microsoft yesterday agreed an order that will result in changes to the way Passport is described, changes within SP1 for XP and the adoption of a 'comprehensive information security program', which will undergo a third-party security audit within a year, and bi-annually thereafter. Brad Smith, general counsel for Microsoft, said in the conference call yesterday that the new measures, 'raise the bar for Microsoft and the entire industry,' and that 'the industry will need to keep pace with the precedent this case sets. ...more

IDF Spring 2004: Microsoft gives 64-bit backing to Intel

Microsoft has said that its 64-bit extensions in Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 will be compatible with Intel's 64-bit extension technology announced at its IDF conference this week. Building on the announcement that Intel is to include 64-bit extensions in its Xeon server chips as well as desktops chips further down the line, Microsoft says that the 64-bit editions of XP and Server - currently in beta - will be available in the second half of this year. 'Microsoft's and Intel's leadership continues to deliver powerful, cost-effective, 64-bit computing to the broad IT market,' said Jim Allchin, group vice president of the Platforms Group at Microsoft. ...more