Music downloads prove their popularity

UK sales of online music have topped CDs, vinyl and cassettes The latest figures from the Official Charts Company show that January sales of digital downloads reached more than 150,000, with 50,000 sold in the week that Coke launched its MyCokeMusic's launch. BPI Executive Chairman Peter Jamieson said: 'Digital music services without doubt represent an exciting future for the music industry. Putting the systems in place to properly reward the artists and creators of music takes time, especially against a backdrop of tough market conditions and increasing piracy. ...more

SMIL, you're on candid camera

There's a new W3C standard for creating interactive multimedia presentations on the Web: SMIL 2.0. Standing for Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language, SMIL concerns the presentation of video, audio and text. ...more

Dell goes green with new OptiPlex business PCs

Dell unveiled a broad spectrum of products at a launch event in Monaco today, including new PCs and a printer, but the most surprising product of all is a suite of online learning courses. The courses are aimed at beginners with topics such as using email and digital photography. This may not be of direct interest to a typical computer magazine reader, but if you find yourself the unofficial technical support guru for friends and family, direct them to www. ...more

Russian protection racket raided by Hi-Tech Crime Unit

Three Russian men have been detained in connection with extortion and money-laundering offences that threatened online bookmakers in the UK with denial of service attacks unless they paid an annual fee. The men, aged 21, 23 and 24, were nabbed in a series of raids across St Petersburg and in the Saratov and Stavropol areas of southwest Russia in a joint operation between the UK's National Hi-Tech Crime Unit (NHTCU), and specialist divisions of Russia's Ministry of Internal Affairs. One has been arrested, while two are being questioned. ...more

Carphone Warehouse on brink of free broadband launch

Carphone Warehouse is about to offer free broadband with its TalkTalk landline telephone service, according to reports by several UK national newspapers and TV stations. The company's Internet ambitions are no secret, since it began investing in local loop unbundling (LLU) - installing its own broadband kit in BT exchanges - last October. The introduction of free ADSL services will almost certainly start a price war which is likely to claim several victims among the smaller ISPs. ...more