EC to investigate 'British Government subsidies' to BT

The European Commission is to investigate whether BT and the Hull based telco Kingston Communications have been given hidden subsidies by the British Government. The subsidies are said to be via a different 'business rate' on property not available to competitors. The difference is said to be in the region of around ?12 billion. ...more

Intel makes U-turn with new-generation chips

Intel has revealed unprecedented amounts of new detail about forthcoming processors. Not just its next generation of processors, codenamed Penryn, but the one after that as well, codenamed Nehalem. The new parts will be based the 45nm fabrication process using the newly developed metal-gate transistors that the company describes as 'revolutionary'. ...more

Memorex puts print on CDs

Memorex has announced what it claims are the first CD-R disks that can be printed on using an inkjet printer. The 48x discs have a porous surface that absorbs ink and can be used in any direct printing inkjet. 'As consumers use CDs almost exclusively to store music, data and photos, they want to give discs their own personalized, creative look,' said Brad Yeager, senior product marketing manager, digital media. ...more

AOL to save Napster?

AOL/Time Warner is set to use Napster as the technology behind its own download service, it emerged today. Napster, which is being sued by Time Warner over copyright issues, would be the perfect way to take the "business of enjoyment of music" and "bring it into the digital communications age", said AOL/Time Warner CEO Gerry Levin in an interview with the BBC. Napster has already been down the road of doing deals with media companies. ...more

08-09-2001 Essential news of the week

Brought neatly together and presented on a plate, here is a roundup of some of the week's main news stories from the world of IT. DoJ abandons call for Microsoft breakup Microsoft demos its new Pocket PC platform Ericsson launches GPRS mobile phone A new series of multi-media VAIOs ECTS 2001: ECTS awards, er, awarded Motorola breaks semiconductor barrier Hewlett-Packard and Compaq to merge Adobe offers 75 per cent education discount Cutting the cost of ASDL installation Talking the language of Office XP Don't forget, we welcome your comments. Just click on a story and go for the 'Comments' link on the right-hand side of the screen. ...more