Wireless trains go online today

Rail passengers travelling between London, the North East and Scotland can now get wireless Internet access throughout their journeys. GNER, which operates trains on the lines running from Kings Cross, through York and Leeds, to Newcastle and Edinburgh has launched the scheme today on one high-speed train and will gauge customer reaction before deciding whether to provide access across its entire fleet. The company is using technology from Swedish firm Icomera that comprises antennae mounted on the train roof which are linked to an onboard server and through to a standard wireless network. ...more

MySpace tables $250 million deal for Photobucket - report

MySpace has reached a preliminary deal to acquire Photobucket, the world's top photo-sharing site, for around $250 million in cash, a source familiar with the deal said on Monday. Photobucket functions like a kind of Swiss bank for depositing and transmitting photos, helping Web users post their photos on other social networking sites, instead of trying to keep the users locked up on its own site. Besides MySpace, Photobucket is popular on sites such as Facebook, Bebo, Friendster, eBay, Craigslist, Blogger and Xanga. ...more

Dell profits up 30 per cent as it grows and grows

Dell continues to grow and grow. The Texas-based company has published its second quarter financial figures and has again reported a significant increase in revenues, up 20 per cent to $11.7bn. ...more

Pioneer begins shipping Blu-ray drives

Pioneer has begun shipping the first Blu-ray drive units for computers. The BDR-101A is bundled with Sonic Solutions Roxio Blu-ray Disc software and blank media from TDK that will store up to 25GB of data and recorded content. The unit doubles as a DVD read/write drive (DVD-R/RW, DVD+R/+RW). ...more

O2 seals i-mode data services deal for UK

O2 has sealed the deal to provide i-mode data services over its network in the UK, Ireland and Germany. The 10-year licence agreement was already the subject of much speculation following i-mode operator NTT DoCoMo pulling out its investment in Hutchison 3G after it failed to launch i-mode in the UK. A spokesperson for O2 said that most of the handset manufacturers were building i-mode compatible handsets, with Nokia due to come on board in the near future. ...more