EU to ban spam by October

Member states of the EU are expected to have implemented Directives that will make unsolicited emails and SMS messages illegal on 31 October. Erkki Liikanen European Commissioner for Enterprise and the Information Society, 'Combating spam has become a matter for us all and has become one of the most significant issues facing the Internet today. It is a fight over many fronts. ...more

Microsoft UK makes certification programme more flexible

Microsoft UK has announced an online mentoring programme for those seeking certification - Microsoft Certified Application Developer (MCAD) and Microsoft Certified Solutions Developer (MCSD) for .NET, to be precise. It is done in conjunction with the training companies Key Training Solutions and KnowledgePool, and the programme will be supported by a 24/7 online tutoring service. ...more

Chips are up for gambling Aussies

It seems our cousins down under find it hard to fight the lure of cyber casinos. More than 80 per cent of adult Australians gamble, spending twice the amount compared with their American or European peers and losing an average of 3 per cent of their income on games of chance. To combat this rising tide of gambling, the Australian government has decided to ban Internet casinos for a year, with offending sites facing criminal charges and a fine of up to a million Australian dollars (around ?380,000) per day. ...more

Nikon talks up new digicams

Nikon has announced three new digicams to catch the Easter holidays. Most noteworthy is the innovatively-styled Coolpix SQ, with a swivel hinge allowing you to take shots from nearly any angle, including self-portraits where you can twist the lens to face you while the LCD display remains in view for lining up the shot. It also incorporates technology taken from Nikon's high-end cameras, such as the D100. ...more

CeBIT 2005: Samsung launches first 7 megapixel phone

While it took the photographic industry several years before it produced the first 7 megapixel compact digital camera, the mobile phone industry is wasting no such time. Samsung has today announced a world first with the 7 million pixel SCH-V770 which, it has been reported, boasts manual focus, shutter priority, AE lock and an optical zoom as well as MP3 functionality and a business card reader. The SCH-V770, which can also take telephoto and wide-angle converter lenses, is due to make its debut at CeBIT, Germany tomorrow. ...more