PC Pro online music expos?: UK public pays too much for too little

The new issue of PC Pro, which goes on general sale today, includes a headline-grabbing expos? of the UK's online music market. It reveals what many have suspected for some time: that the British public is being asked to pay too much money for tracks, that the music is often poorly encoded, and that the limitations over what people can and can't do with the tracks are strict to the point of draconian. 'What people don't understand is that when they buy an iPod or other digital music player, they're being tied into a system,' believes Deputy Labs Editor, Nick Ross. ...more

Palm sets sights on China

Palm has set its sights on the mobile market in China, with sales and marketing support offices and agreements with the country's largest distributor. Palm says it will launch its full range of handheld products, comprising the Tungsten, Zire and m500 ranges into the territory. The m100 series seems to have been forgotten, and at the London launch of the latest Tungsten and Zire, the latter was described as 'sitting alongside the m100, for now'. ...more

AMD launches sub $250 PC

As previously reported AMD has announced a reference machine for emerging markets. The Personal Information Communicator (PIC) is part of the AMD 50x15 strategy which aims to put computer power in the hands of 50 per cent of the world's population by 2015. AMD's initial OEMs are the TATA Group in India, CRC in Mexico, and Cable and Wireless in the Caribbean. ...more

Drive-by hacking live demo

Think your wireless LAN is safe? Think again. In a live demonstration at London's Internet World conference staff from security company ISS broke into a wireless network, established connections with a test system running off a Buffalo access port and gained remote control of a Windows-driven laptop using the NetBus Trojan. ISS' Simon Edwards (no relation) told the audience that any hacking techniques capable of working across cables will work with wireless networks, and that such infrastructures should be treated as untrusted. ...more

Footballers evict cybersquatters

The latest round of rulings over cybersquatting involves two footballers and Wembley stadium. The World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) has awarded Dutch internationals Jaap Stam and Pierre van Hooijdonk the right to use their names as domain names. The company that runs Wembley - "Wembley National Stadium" - also won control of the "wembleystadium" Web address. ...more