UK games chart: Cricket gets comfortable at the crease

August is always a quiet month for games and with no new entries in this week's ELSPA UK games chart we watch the existing pack shuffle - Ashes interest fuels Brian Lara's return to the top of the charts with Brian Lara International Cricket 2005 Behind Codemaster's cricket game for the PC, PS2 and Xbox, Activision's multi-format movie spin-offs line up, with Madagascar at two and Fantastic 4 at number three. Also benefiting from the efforts of Vaughn and his boys is Cricket 2005, EA's leather and willow game for the PC, PS2 and Xbox. Indeed, Xplosiv's International Cricket Captain: Ashes 05 also makes it to the top of the chart for budget PC games. ...more

Unbundled local loops to pass 28 million by 2010 - report

The UK may be making headway when it comes to local loop unbundling (LLU), but its lead is likely to be swiftly followed by its Western European counterparts, according to research published today by telecoms, IT and media analyst Analysys. Last month, BT Openreach announced that LLU had passed the one million milestone. That momentum looks set to be mirrored elsewhere as the number of unbundled local loops in Western Europe grows massively from 10. ...more

A fifth of kids using youth chatrooms are approached by paedophiles

A draft report issued by the Internet Crime Forum (ICF), a joint venture between the Government, law enforcement agencies and ISPs, quotes recent research in the US that 20 per cent of children using chatrooms are approached by paedophiles. It continues: "65 per cent of these approaches were initiated in chat rooms, although generally such relationships are subsequently developed through instant messaging, email and telephone contact." The report found that many children go online in their bedrooms and recommends that instead parents install computers in the lounge in order to monitor them more closely. ...more

Broadband hits three million mark

The UK now has three million broadband subscribers, according to the latest figures from industry regulator Oftel. In its latest Internet and Broadband Brief, Oftel says that there are 1,674,000 ADSL users and an estimated 1,331,000 cable subscribers. These figures do not include businesses with leased lines. ...more

Wallop cued to 'change the face of social computing'

Microsoft venture set to upset social networking site. Microsoft's IP Ventures division has spun-off a new social networking technology to create a Silicon Valley startup company. Wallop will launch later this year into the space currently dominated by MySpace and Friendster. ...more