ICANN green lights .tel

The body governing the Internet's top-level domains (tlds) ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) has unanimously given the green light to the .tel domain. The new domain is expected to simplify the process of supplying multiple contact details for any individual or company that registers a domain. ...more

Sony on a chip

Joint venture to produce system-on-a-chip processors tailored to Sony's application requirements. IBM has signed multi-year agreements to license out its semiconductor technologies to Sony, Sony Computer Entertainment and Toshiba to develop high performance, low-power chips. IBM's expertise with process technologies, including silicon-on-insulator transistors and copper wires, will push the scale down to 50nanometres, less than half that used by Intel, which recently moved to a 0. ...more

Millennium Dome to get multi-million pound tech makeover

Last year's dome prepares for a July rebirth as Europe's leading entertainment venue, supported by state-of-the-art technology from NEC UK The venue formerly known as the Millennium Dome is undergoing a technology makeover as it prepares to re-open its doors to the public in July this year. Touted as what will become Europe's leading entertainment venue, The O2 will play host to a variety of music, sporting and entertainment attractions, as well as acting as an Olympic venue for the basketball and gymnastics finals in 2012. The O2 has signed a three-year multi-million pound deal with NEC UK to kit out the venue with innovative solutions spanning security, digital cinema, data and phone networks in addition to PCs and servers. ...more

Comment: Email tax faces user backlash

Email - one of the key drivers of the digital revolution - is an invaluable tool for companies keeping in touch with customers, but fresh moves from AOL and Yahoo! could mean higher costs for firms and lost email for end users. The two companies say they'll guarantee access to your inbox for emailers who pay anywhere between 0.25 cents and 1 cent per message - a controversial plan that's being marketed as a way of limiting spam. ...more

Blackberry grows on mobile phones

Blackberry developer Research In Motion and mobile OS consortium Symbian have struck a deal which will allow Blackberry Connect to run on Symbian-based mobile devices. The Blackberry Connect service automatically pushes data such as email to any suitably equipped device. The move is one of a series of partnerships agreed by RIM now that it seems the long running dispute with NTP seems to be coming to a close. ...more