Microsoft releases new betas of its next-gen development platform

Microsoft has begun public testing of its next generation development platform with the availability of Visual Studio 2005 Beta 2, Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 Beta 2 and the SQL Server 2005 April Community Technology Preview (CTP). ...more

HP recalls notebook batteries

The US Consumer Product Safety Commission along with Hewlett Packard has issued a product recall on 135,000 batteries - 50,000 of which have been sold outside the US - for a range of Compaq and HP badged notebooks. The Commission says there is a danger of a short circuit in the battery packs that may lead the cells to overheat and melt or char the plastic case resulting, potentially, in a burn or fire hazard. Hewlett Packard says that it has received reports of sixteen batteries overheating, twelve of which were outside the US. ...more

Mozilla 1.7 preview released

The Mozilla Organisation has released a preview version of the Mozilla suite of standards-based Internet applications. Among the features new to the combined browser and email and chat clients are improved pop-up blocking and support for multiple identities on the same mail account, as well as significant 'under-the-hood' improvements and speed increases. Full details are listed in the release notes. ...more

Vodafone launches GPRS

Vodafone launched its GPRS service on Friday with a similar pricing structure to BT Cellnet. The network operator has only one handset available, the Motorola Timeport T260, at a price of ?99. This beats BT's ?199 for the same phone, but the monthly charging structure is pretty similar. ...more

Logitech presses the right keys

Peripherals manufacturer Logitech revealed its upcoming range of products at a press event this morning. The main event seemed to be keyboards, with low profile, flat (rather than the tiered key set up) units. In addition to the Internet shortcut keys offering such niceties as one touch access to email and your favourite shares, shopping sites and the like, are two new 'zones'. ...more