PC Pro Award winners 2006

The annual PC Pro Service and Reliability Awards were held in London last night, and we can now reveal the winners of the IT industry's most prestigious gongs. With more than 16,000 people giving feedback on everything from their notebook to their web host, the PC Pro Awards give an unmatched insight into the level of customer service UK technology buyers receive. In all 12 categories of the Reliability and Service awards, we delve into our readers' experiences to reveal the winners, so that you have 16,000 people to call on when you're next buying a piece of hardware or software. ...more

Freeserve becomes Wanadoo, confirms ?17.99 service; PlusNet cuts ?1 off sub-512 services

Freeserve officially becomes Wanadoo today and as anticipated marked the occasion by announcing a capped 512Kbit/sec ADSL package with a 2GB monthly cap, which as we as noted yesterday compares favourably with similar products from other ISPs. Despite the name change, existing Freeserve customers will be able to carry on as before with email addresses and so on as they were. Wanadoo can be found at www. ...more

Punters gagging for wireless versions of consumer electronics

Consumers are gagging for wireless versions of DVD players, plasma screens and other consumer electronic products, and would be prepared to pay extra for this feature, according to Netgear. The company, which unsurprisingly makes wireless products, polled 1,000 punters coming out of Habitat and found 51 per cent would pay at least 10 per cent more to be rid of the spaghetti of cables between various electronic boxes. 20 per cent felt that the more complex a product, the more likely things would go wrong. ...more

Could the end be nigh for Windows?

Microsoft will argue next week that the very future of the Windows operating system is under threat, if the nine US states that have rejected last year's anti-trust settlement have their way. Last summer a federal court ruled that Microsoft had illegally attempted to exert a monopoly over desktop computer systems by excluding rival products such as Netscape's Web browser and email client and Sun's Java programming language. Though a settlement was reached, nine states rejected the deal, which would force Microsoft to accept the installation of third-party software on PCs and restrict the extent to which Microsoft could tie-up agreements with PC manufacturers to exclude such third-party products. ...more

Borland spinning Web Services for Linux

Borland is looking to provide Web Services to the Linux operating system. Following in the wake of Kylix, which Borland claims to be the first Rapid Application Development (RAD) environment for Linux - the Web Services will build on the Apache Web Server to help put systems up on the Web. "Extending business processes and systems to the Internet is a high-priority for corporate enterprises," asserts Simon Thornhill, VP of Borland's RAD business unit. ...more