Microsoft Office, Vista reach final straight

Microsoft is entering the final straight towards the launch of its two flagship products. The company has just released what it is calling Release Candidate 2 to a group of between 50,000 and 100,000 testers. The next release is expected to be the Gold code. ...more

Bid for new online music rules rejected

The European Parliament has called for binding rules to regulate the bloc's online music market and protect less powerful artists, but the proposal was rejected by the bloc's executive. It was the latest spat in the European Union's tortuous efforts to get agreement in the hotly contested field of intellectual property rights. In October 2005, the EU's Executive Commission published nonbinding guidelines allowing artists to choose which collective rights management society (CRMs) they want handle their online music copyright across Europe. ...more

Delphi gets seriously corporate

Borland has taken the wraps off Delphi 6, which brings the world of Web Services into a graphical development environment. Three editions of the popular Object Pascal-based system are scheduled to be available this month: Enterprise, Professional and Personal, and the latest release emphasises the development of "Web Service" applications. As well as XML and SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol), Delphi now supports WSDL (Web Services Description Language), which is an XML-based way of describing the services an e-business offers. ...more

EU to probe TV companies 'blocking out' new media competition

The European Commission is to investigate claims that big media companies who buy up television rights to big events are blocking out internet and 3G operators. The allegations are that by buying up the exclusive rights to sporting or other events across all media, television companies are effectively blocking out competition. Speaking at a workshop in Brussels, the Competition Commissioner Mario Monti said that his department would use 'all the powerful legal instruments. ...more

Playing the online Links

A new World Golf Champion has been crowned, virtually... ...more