Power Mac ad banned in UK

Apple's TV advertisement for the Power Mac G5 has been banned after eight complaints about the claim that it is 'the world's fastest, most powerful computer'. The Independent Television Commission has ruled that the ad is 'misleading' and can no longer be shown. Apple insists that the tests used to justify its claims were 'fair and even', but the ITC agreed with the complainants who said that the tests were weighted in the Mac's favour. ...more

American praise for UK government's handling of technology

Senior US diplomats have been praising the UK government's handling of technology in private dispatches from the London embassy. They note that the productivity within emerging technology sectors has been channelled to help turn the domestic economy into one of Europe's top performers. The private dispatches of officials at the US Embassy have been obtained by The Guardian, being disclosed under the terms of the US freedom of information act. ...more

Yahoo! baby revealed as hoax

An off-beat news story that did the rounds recently was a Romanian couple naming their child 'Yahoo!' to express their joy at having first met over the Internet. It would have been a good story, if it was true. Reuters now reports that the story was fictitious and the reporter responsible - working for a Romanian tabloid - has been fired. ...more

Laptop drives to top 100GB

Laptop hard drive capacities will each 100GB later this year, following Toshiba's announcement that it plans to start production next month. The company has used a new thin-film process to increase the amount of data stored on each square inch of disk space. Coupled by improved read/write head technology, this increases the overall capacity of the largest 2. ...more

RIAA hit with anti-racketeering lawsuit

The Recording Industry of America has been sued under anti-racketeering laws by one of the people it is suing for alleged file sharing. Michele Scimeca from New Jersey is charging the RIAA with extortion, violating laws originally enacted to prosecute the Mafia. She has previously been sued by the RIAA which believes she uploaded 1,400 songs via KaZaA. ...more