Yahoo!'s new search is a great find

Yahoo has at last begun the process to wean itself off its reliance on the Google search engine. It has now released a revamped version of the Inktomi `Slurp` spider to crawl the web. As a result, the Yahoo web search results now appear to be exclusively those from Slurp and Google has been dropped from the listings. ...more

Apple from A to Z (redux)

Apple has updated its online glossary of computer terms, ranging from the obscure to the 'does-anyone-not-know-what-this-means?'. ...more

Stop monkeying about

When I was a young lad, there was nothing better than to spend a Sunday morning watching the Planet of the Apes TV series on our small black-and-white TV set. I didn't even realise that there were a multitude of films already in the can! Well, as is the way of Hollywood these days, the powers that be have decided to remake this classic based on the Monkey Planet by Pierre Boulle. Gone is Charlton Heston (though he does make a cameo appearance) and Roddy McDowell, who has retired to the big monkey puzzle tree in the sky, to be replaced by Mark Wahlberg, Tim Roth and Helena Bonham Carter. ...more

Analyst backs Blu-ray

Blu-ray will win the next-generation DVD format war when it begins in earnest next year, according to a report by Forrester Research. Forrester analyst Ted Schadler believes that Blu-ray's chief backer, Sony has learnt the lessons from the failure of its Betamax technology which lost out to VHS in the first battle for the home video market. Rather than rely on the technology alone, he says, Sony has assembled an 'impregnable' collection of partners, from computer makers to content providers. ...more

Comment: Free services threaten UK's broadband future

So-called 'free' broadband might have sounded like Internet nirvana when it was launched earlier this year by companies such as The Carphone Warehouse and Sky, but industry experts are warning that it could prove to be the nail in the coffin for Britain's high-speed Internet access. Some ISPs have complained to PC Pro that demand for broadband has soared so dramatically that Britain's telecoms infrastructure is close to breaking point. What's more, they claim the flood of new 'free' entrants could stall investment in the next-generation high-speed telecoms system that's set to replace the creaking ADSL network, because BT would no longer have sufficient market share to make it worthwhile. ...more