UPDATED: FBI raids peer-to-peer Underground Network

The FBI has raided the homes of people suspected of sharing vast amounts of copyrighted material via peer to peer networks. The raids on five homes and one ISP are said to be part of an organised network of people who had to able to offer at least 1GB worth of files to take part. The raids on the group, said to be called 'The Underground Network', took place in Texas, New York and Winsconsin and are part of a continuing crackdown on copyright piracy by the US law enforcement agencies. ...more

PC Pro Labs Correction - 3.5in SATA hard disks

In the Upgrade to Vista Labs in Issue 149 (March 2007, p110), we incorrectly printed that the Western Digital Caviar SE16 was available from www.sandisk.com. ...more

Dell foresees PC upturn

Dell is being upbeat about its fortunes over the next year, despite having had to lay off 3,000 to 4,000 workers recently. CEO Michael Dell said the firm, which recently had to cut jobs in its US homeland, would nevertheless benefit from a new buying cycle due to start in the second quarter of 2002. "If you fast forward three years from the second quarter of 1999, you get to the second quarter of 2002, which is about the replacement cycle for all those machines installed for the anticipation of the year 2000," he said. ...more

Comment: Is Apple in a muddle over the iMac?

Apple has upgraded the entry-level 'Fast' iMac with more powerful graphics and a faster processor, but it leaves the model sitting outside Apple's current marketing strategy. Previously the specification of the entry-level model matched that of the old mid-range model, sharing the Rage 128 Pro graphics card and the same 500MHz processor. The upgraded model has a 128 Ultra graphics card and a souped-up 500MHz processor with 256K of level 2 cache at 500MHz. ...more

ISPs plug into extended ADSL

Several ISPs have begun taking orders from households who will soon be brought within reach of broadband ADSL services for the first time. Eclipse Internet, Freedom2Surf, NDO, PlusNet and Zen are accepting orders ahead of BT Wholesale's 6 September changes. From then 512Kbps services will be available to properties regardless of how far they are from the exchange; the current limit is around 6km. ...more