UK SMEs more Net-savvy than ever

A report released today by Oftel shows that more businesses are online and are shopping around for the best deals. Of those surveyed, 63 per cent of SMEs said they were connected to the Internet, up from 55 per cent in May of last year, with 36 per cent of these opting for better value unmetered contracts. 78 per cent of small businesses rely on dial-up for their Web access, while iSDN and leased lines continue to be the favourite ways to get online for medium-sized businesses, weighing in at 43 and 19 per cent respectively. ...more

Record labels consider iTunes credits to spur album sales

Apple may soon begin crediting sales of individual tracks when iTunes users subsequently purchase the complete album. As things stand, if you purchase an album from which you have already downloaded one or more tracks then you end up paying twice for those tracks. Because fewer people are now buying albums, preferring to cherry-pick downloads, record labels are said to be looking at ways to stimulate album sales. ...more

ISPs see pay as you go broadband as solution to bandwidth hogging

NTL is playing down talks that it is testing pay-as-you-go broadband services. Various newsgroups, including hthell:world, are claiming that the cable provider is testing two potential services: pay-as-you-go (PAYG) and pre-pay. However an NTL spokesperson told us that it is merely an 'infrastructure and technology trial'. ...more

Rivals take instant dislike to AOL merger

The AOL/Time Warner deal is under fire from other content providers. In particular, rivals of AOL's Instant Messenger (IM) service claim that the company has made little effort to ensure the service will work with those offered by other companies. The companies have asked for federal intervention to prevent the media behemoth from using its weight to keep other content off its systems. ...more

OpenOffice.org releases version 1.1.2 'Hakone'

The open source development community, OpenOffice.org has released the latest version of its office suite comprising word processor, spreadsheet, presentation, drawing and database tools. The new 1. ...more