Get your washing online

Italian washing-machine manufacturer Merloni, makers of Indesit and Ariston products, is to launch a range of Internet-savvy appliances that could appear on the shop floors of Curry's and Comet soon. Users will pay an initial deposit to take a WRAP (Web-Ready Appliance Protocol) machine home, and then a further charge (expected to be about 60p) for each wash. The machine plugs into a phone socket and dials Merloni's nearest Digital Assistance Centre to diagnose any potential problems and servicing requirements as well as monitor energy consumption. ...more

Apple stomps up the brand charts

Every year Business Week and Interbrand try to put a value on the brands of the world's biggest corporations and see how they compare. It is a ranking of 'The 100 Best Global Brands' by dollar value. For 2004, Apple and Samsung (as last year) are among those measured as being the fastest growing brands. ...more

Government e-auctions save ?7 million on IT

NHS trusts and Local councils have saved millions of pounds on hardware purchases using a government e-auction scheme. According to a report by the Office of Government Commerce (OGC), an online government procurement auction has helped 14 councils and six NHS trusts save a combined ?7 million on IT hardware purchases. The OGC eAuction site helped the councils and trusts buy six lots of IT hardware for ?6. ...more

Apple climbs the brand value ladder

Apple has moved up just two places in the annual list of the world's most valuable brand, despite a 16 per cent growth in its value. The company now lies in 41st place in the top 100, compiled by Interbrand, nine places higher than its 2003 position, such is the impact that the iPod has had in the past couple of years. Conversely, Sony - which is arguably the company that has lost most as a result - lost 16 per cent in the past year to drop eight places in the table to 28th. ...more

Firefox flaw 'impossible to patch'

Hackers are claiming that the open source Firefox 1.5 Web browser has a serious flaw in the way it handles JavaScript. What's more, they also claim that the vulnerability is 'impossible to patch' and the implementation is 'a complete mess'. ...more