Power Macs go dual-core

Apple has unveiled a major upgrade to its Power Mac range. In what is likely to be the last major upgrade to the desktop machines before Apple switches to Intel chips next year, Apple has used dual core processors for the first time. Dual core processors have more efficient cache and memory management that enables them to work more efficiently and therefore faster. ...more

Egg ditches current account plans

Internet bank Egg said yesterday that it would suspend plans for a current account until the market is more favourable. The company, founded and majority-owned by the Prudential, is famous for its Internet credit card, but is running shy of introducing a current account after reporting losses of ?155m in 2000. According to reports in The Guardian, Egg believes the market is too conservative for an Internet-based current account. ...more

SurfTime is all washed up

BT's unmetered service has failed to attract customers and ISP partners, it emerged yesterday. According to figures released by BT, SurfTime has a mere 200,000 subscribed users, despite the telecom giant spending around ?20 million on promoting the service. Not only does the actual number of users fall well short of BT's projections, but the figures translate into a cost of ?100 per customer - not particularly impressive. ...more

EC backs hi-tech research with a billion Euros

The European Commission (EC) is to invest €1bn into R&D in a bid to increase momentum in ICT research. The EC recently announced R&D levels across Europe were stagnating, showing a growth of just 0.2 per cent in 2002 to 2003, and that figure was now approaching zero. ...more

Google opens Gmail

Google has finally lifted the invitation-only restriction on opening Gmail accounts. From today anyone can get an email address with the company, with its accompanying 2.7GB (and growing) of online storage space. ...more