Hot spots for free

Freespot has made public what it claims is the first free wireless hot spot in the UK. Sod ?5-a-day hot-spots-in-boxes, a brand new solution for creating a UK hot spot market in smaller sites has been found - offering free access. Melco, the parent company of Buffalo Technology, has installed its wireless kit in the Lounge bar of Kingsway Hall Hotel in Covent Garden, offering free access for all. ...more

Motorola to bid $2 billion for Palm - shareholder

Motorola will announce a $2 billion bid for Palm on Thursday, according to CNBC. The news service says that according to a Palm shareholder, who declined to be named, Motorola has leapt above Nokia and two private equity firms in the list of suitors for the troubled PDA and smartphone maker, which earlier this month hired investment bank Morgan Stanley to investigate its options. 'For Motorola, I think it's the threat of Nokia owning Palm,' the shareholder told CNBC. ...more

Apple upgrades iMac line with Core 2 Duo chips

Apple has upgraded its entire iMac line, adding Intel's recently introduced Core 2 Duo processor to all the models, including a new 24in version. The machines range from two 17in models with either a 1.83GHz or 2GHz processor, through to the 2. ...more

Napster creator goes legit with music royalty collection service

In the manner of a poacher-turned-gamekeeper, Shawn Fanning - the man behind Napster and for several years a hate figure for the music business - is back with a plan to enable copyright owners to track music downloads and collect royalties. Fanning's new company Snocap sets out to build a database of every piece of music - including live performances, remixes and unreleased material on the internet. It will then use a technique of 'audio fingerprinting' licensed from Philips to mark each copy. ...more

Critical flaw found in PowerPoint - Secunia

An extremely critical security flaw in multiple versions of Microsoft PowerPoint has been discovered in the wild. The vulnerability is caused by an unknown error when parsing certain strings in a specially crafted document and successful exploitation allows remote execution of arbitrary code. Security firm Secunia recommends that PowerPoint users do not open any untrusted documents until the flaw has been patched. ...more