ICANN signs new contract with US Department of Commerce

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) which oversees the vital task of managing the name servers for the Internet signed a new agreement with the United States Department of Commerce (DOC) on Friday that is being hailed as a 'dramatic step forward' towards independence. ICANN has secured an agreement that recognizes it as being responsible for the management of the Internet's system of unique identifiers on an ongoing basis. It means ICANN is more autonomous,' declared Dr Paul Twomey, the President and CEO of ICANN. ...more

Motorola says iTunes phone debut is imminent

The CEO of Motorola has denied that mobile phone network operators are not prepared to carry its iTunes-playing mobile phone, the Rokr. Ed Zander said that the phone will be available in the US, in a couple of months. 'There is no resistance on anybody's part,' Zander said. ...more

USB 2.0 for laptops

Orange Micro has announced a March shipping date for its new USB 2.0 Hi-Speed CardBus PC card, which provides CardBus compatible laptops with four USB 2.0 ports. ...more

BT to provide financial insight

BT has agreed to provide much greater financial information and accounts in an effort to improve regulation of the telecommunications industry. Industry regulator Oftel will use the extra information supplied to 'improve its regulatory decision making process' in a number of areas. Notably, this will include information of network components, since Oftel has paid close attention to BT's broadband pricing up to now. ...more

Tight supply of ATI graphics chips may last another two weeks

A current tight supply of graphics chips seems to have extended from the high-end to include mainstream models, with graphics-card makers using chips from ATI Technologies affected more seriously than makers that use chips from Nvidia, according to sources at Taiwan graphics-card makers. The entire line of ATI graphics chips are currently in tight supply, and the shortage is not expected to ease for another one or two weeks, the sources noted. Graphics-card makers that focus their sales on the channel are likely to suffer considerably more from the shortage since graphics-chip makers usually give supply priority to OEM makers, the sources said. ...more