Microsoft updates SQL Server reporting

Microsoft has released the first service pack (SP1) for Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Reporting Services. The company says that the Service Pack is intended to improve functionality, performance and security. Reporting Services is intended to provide real-time reporting of data to any device. ...more

EMI deal completes YouTube's record label collection

YouTube is now free to play music videos from the likes of Coldplay and David Bowie after signing an agreement with EMI. The video sharing website now has licensing deals with all four major record companies. EMI had delayed signing up until satisfied by YouTube that adequate safeguards were in place to prevent videos being downloaded and copied. ...more

Nintendo caps Wii price

Nintendo has put a price cap on its forthcoming Wii games console. The company's senior management has declared that the Wii should sell for 25,000 yen or lower in Japan and $250 or lower in the US. No UK or European pricing has been cited, but by our reckoning a currency conversion equates $250 to ?133. ...more

Bluetooth technology ready for the big time

It's been a long time coming, but analysts at the In-Stat/MDR research group predict Bluetooth is about to explode onto the mainstream market, with shipments of devices offering the wireless technology rocketing 60 per cent every year to more tha 700 million by 2008. 'Most of the end-use markets for this technology seem to be making significant headway,' said Joyce Putscher, Director of the high-tech market research firm's Converging Markets and Technologies Group. In particular, ever more mobile phones are integrating the technology along with accessories such as wireless headets. ...more

Gartner predicts Ofcom rules will bring in more UK broadband players

Gartner's latest research predicts that recent price setting measures by Ofcom will make wholesale broadband products more attractive, encouraging new players to enter the UK market. Currently, most ISPs offer broadband to their customers using BT's IPStream products - essentially renting a BT-managed broadband line and making a bit on top - but operators that have taken up DataStream products and moved into exchanges under the Local Loop unbundling schemes stand to benefit from a proposed pricing system which will maintain a specific margin between wholesale and retail prices. Gartner suggests that the effect of new regulations and proposed pricing structures to be implemented early next year will allow existing DataStream and operators using Local Loop Unbundling options to be able to expand their geographical coverage and provide a range of new services. ...more