Government backs down on ?1bn broadband investment

The Government has dramatically reduced its plans to push broadband in Britain, dedicating ?30m rather than the previously stated ?1bn to the job. In a report presented by e-minister Patricia Hewitt and new e-envoy Andrew Pinder, the Government said it would dedicate itself to meeting the needs of regional areas and would fund an audit of public and private bandwidth requirements. A new group, called the Broadband Stakeholder Group, will work to bring about a competitive broadband market. ...more

Easing traffic flow on the Internet

With the ever-growing use of the Internet, its infrastructure has an increasing load to bear. It's the easing of traffic among Internet backbone providers that's the target of InterNap Network Services. They have developed a setup that bypasses the peering process among backbone carries by scanning the Net for optimal routes. ...more

Sony to increase DVD output

Japanese electronics giant Sony has plans to increase its manufacturing output of DVD players by 60 per cent, according to the Japanese newspaper Nihon Keizai Shimbun. The announcement could be good news for consumers because Sony has planned the increase in order to make their players more competitive in terms of pricing. The last couple of years have seen DVD players and movies become hugely popular in Europe, America and Japan, with the format slowly taking over from VHS, in terms of pre-recorded movies. ...more

ARM builds in biometric voice recognition

The UK voice recognition specialists Domain Dynamics is working with ARM to develop biometric voice security technology. Reducing the scope for fraud and security breaches is the goal. Domain Dynamics is to join the ARM PrimeXsys Community Program, making its Smart Voice technology available to developers for ARM devices, which include phones, PDAs and access control systems. ...more

New iPod and vPod 'could be delayed'

Apple shares took a knock yesterday following an analyst's report that the next generation of iPod and vPod devices might be delayed. The report from American Technology Research (ATR) says that a new Nano is likely to appear in the fourth quarter of this year rather than the third as expected. It also says that video iPod, previously expected in the fourth quarter of 2006 may not appear until sometime in the first half of 2007, missing the crucial Christmas buying season. ...more