Comment: How much worse does broadband have to get?

Detect, if you will, the pattern in the following statistics:51,000 people were so dissatisfied with their broadband service last year that they complained to telecoms regulator Ofcom. Which?'s latest broadband survey recommends just three ISPs compared with last year's eight, leading the watchdog to declare 'satisfaction with broadband suppliers is in sharp decline'. Only 73 per cent of PC Pro readers would recommend their ISP to somebody else, one of the lowest satisfaction ratings across our 12 award categories. ...more

National lottery adds online games for Prize Puddings

The National Lottery is adding more instant win games to its online line-up in the run up to Christmas: Prize Puddings, Cash Machine and Hot Cards. Prize Puddings refers not to those who play the lottery but to the three sixpences that must be revealed to win ?5,000. A ?10,000 top prize is available to the winner of Hot Cards, which is a standard scratchcard-based game. ...more

FireWire doubles up

The next generation specification for FireWire - the technology for the high-speed connection of peripherals - has been approved by the industry body overseeing the standard. The 1394 Trade Association (IEEE 1394 is the official designation for the standard) has announced the 1394b standard, which enables data, transfer speeds of connected devices to reach 800 megabits per second. This is twice the current maximum of 400 megabits per second supported by today's FireWire devices. ...more

Divided states of America

The US states are split in their reaction to the federal government's deal with Microsoft. As we reported yesterday, Massachusetts was the first state to declare against the deal and indications are that California is in the same camp. In contrast, the states of New York and Illinois have reportedly struck a tentative agreement with Microsoft. ...more

Kodak comes over free and easy

Kodak has released the latest version of its photo software as a free download. The EasyShare software is geared to optimise your prints and features a 'One touch to better pictures' button, that automatically changes the print and ink settings on more than 70 inkjet printers to get the best results for photographic prints. It will also find all images on the system and organise them into a single album of thumbnails, allows you to name individual and groups of pictures for easy organising and offers one step image enhancements red-eye reduction, cropping and light correction. ...more