12-01-2002 Essential news of the week

Brought neatly together and presented on a plate, here is a roundup of some of the week's main news stories from the world of IT. Two new V.92-ready modems from Creative A new Dimension Safe computing for kids Flash in the pan The Gates to the future New OS for broadband Net access Flash and go New iMacs unveiled AMD's Athlon XP hits the virtual 2Ghz mark P4 reaches 2. ...more

BT wants you to Ask Jeeves

British Telecom is not that well known for answering questions, so to rectify the matter it is handing over that side of its website to snooty search engine Ask Jeeves. If you are not already familiar with the search engine, it is fronted by Jeeves, the butler from PG Wodehouse's Bertie Wooster stories. You will be able to ask the virtual butler things relating to BT such as "How do I order an extra line" or "Can I pay my bill by direct debit?" The Jeeves character should be appearing on the bt. ...more

BT plugs SDSL into 150 exchanges

BT has announced that following successful trials SDSL broadband services will be available at 150 exchanges in Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds, Sheffiled, York, Birmingham and 'key locations' throughout Scotland. SDSL provide equal bandwidth both up- and downstream and is aimed squarely at business customers, as the prices reflect: ?170 per month for 512Kbit/sec, ?230 for 1Mbps and ?345 for 2Mbps. The connection charge is ?595, not including a router. ...more

Safari AutoFill risks user details disclosure

A security vulnerability has been discovered in Safari's AutoFill feature that could be exploited to steal usernames and passwords. The vulnerability is caused by to the AutoFill feature not properly checking the URL before automatically filling saved user credentials into forms. This may be exploited in a phishing attack to steal user credentials via malicious forms in the same domain. ...more

Apple and Samsung fall out on memory deal

A possible deal between Apple and Samsung to produce NAND flash memory chips has fallen through after Apple reportedly pulled out. The Korea Times newspaper said that Apple decided to withdraw after Korean authorities said they were considering an investigation into allegations of unfair pricing practices by Samsung. Neither party was prepared to say why the discussions were curtailed. ...more