PC Pro correction: Hard Disk Reliability & Service

A mistake in the calculation of the hard disks category of the PC Pro Reliability & Service survey means that we printed incorrect results for two companies: Seagate and Western Digital. In fact, Seagate should have scored six stars for reliability and Western Digital should have scored five stars. Seagate now shares the Hard Disk award with Samsung, while Western Digital picks up a Highly Commended award. ...more

Timms says 100 per cent broadband for all by 2005

E-commerce Minister Stephen Timms has set a target of 2005 year end for broadband to be available to everyone. Speaking at the Cambridge MIT Institute's Competitiveness Summit in Newcastle, Timms said: To ensure the competitiveness of our economy, broadband needs to be available to as many people as possible as soon as possible. 'Broadband is now available to 80 per cent of UK households, and that is certain to rise to 90 per cent next year. ...more

Children get first glimpse of $100 XO laptop

From Brazil to Pakistan, some of the world's poorest children will peer across the digital divide this month - reading electronic books, shooting digital video, creating music and chatting with classmates online. Founded by Massachusetts Institute of Technology academics, the non-profit 'One Laptop per Child' project will roll out nearly 2,500 of its $150-laptops (?77) to eight nations in February. The experiment is a prelude to mass production of the kid-friendly, lime-green-and-white laptops scheduled to begin in July, when five million will be built. ...more

EA gets games rights on Lord of the Rings books

Electronic Arts has today announced that it has signed up for the rights to develop Lord of The Rings games based on J.R.R Tolkien's epic work of fiction. ...more

Torvalds tells Microsoft: put up or shut up

Linux lead developer, Linus Torvalds, has told Microsoft to name the 235 patents the company claims are infringed by free and open-source software (FOSS). Torvalds claims the time has come for Microsoft to put up or shut up. 'Naming them would make it either clear that Linux isn't infringing at all (which is quite possible, especially if the patents are bad), or would make it possible to avoid infringing by coding around whatever silly thing they claim,' he says in an interview with Information Week. ...more