Dumaru worm twists again

The Dumaru worm is continuing to evolve. First appearing only in mid-August, it has now reached its fifth generation in the wild with the Dumaru-E variant. Purporting to come from 'security@microsoft. ...more

Nokia and Symbian steal a march on Microsoft and Palm

Nokia should have the edge over rivals Palm and Microsoft, as it is launching its combined mobile phone and personal organiser, the 9210 Communicator months earlier than products using Microsoft Pocket PC or PalmOS platforms. The Finnish handset manufacturer says that it will launch the colour, wireless device in Europe and Japan sometime in March or April, based on Symbian's EPOC OS. Microsoft says its Pocket PC won't be available in colour wireless products for another six months and, although the Palm III Series have colour screens, there's not yet a wireless version. ...more

eToys pull the plug on UK trading

eToys, one of the UK's largest online toys retailer is to cease European operations early this year, and pull the plug on UK trading on 19 Jan. The company warned in December that sales had fallen far short of expectations and is now looking at merger, asset sales and other options. However, one man's loss is another man's gain, as all items on the eToys. ...more

Sun fears Eclipse may threaten Java's future existence

Sun has published an open letter to the Eclipse Consortium, outlining its concerns over the future of the Open Source tool environment, as it severs it IBM umbilical cord and gains independence as of today. The letter essentially outlines Sun's desire to see its NetBeans Java platform accepted by Eclipse, despite the organisation's requirement that participants adopt the Eclipse environment. 'Any entry criteria requiring that Sun abandon the NetBeans open source platform directly conflicts with the concept of choice and diversity, the very bases that gave Eclipse its beginning. ...more

HP files suit against 'grey market' reseller

HP has filed a law suit alleging civil conspiracy, common-law fraud and breach of contract against two companies for defrauding HP out of more than $8.6mn in discounts. The suit, filed in a Tennessee federal court, alleges that Capital City Micro duped HP into offering significant discounts on its products as a way of ensuring the custom of drinks wholesaler P&E Distributing. ...more