BBC opens its news archives online

The BBC is opening the doors to its archives and releasing some of the news reports over the past 40 years. In a pilot scheme, the BBC has released 80 news clips under the Creative Archive Licence. The clips cover many of the iconic moments in British and international history over the past 40 years including the aftermath of 9/11 in New York, the demolition of the Berlin Wall, the 1980s miners strike and, inevitably, coverage of the 1966 World cup final. ...more

Microsoft withdraws from Novell slur

The company will cease sending anti-NetWare 6 letters to Novell customers, and retracts previous statements. Earlier this month Novell filed a suit against Microsoft, claiming false advertising, after Microsoft was discovered to have mailed Novell customers last month with thousands of leaflets. These claimed that Novell did not plan to fully support NetWare, that the nearly-obsolete product would be expensive to maintain, and that the software had an expiration date. ...more

Amazon offers Pocket PC iPaqs for ?7

Amazon shuts up shop to close off pricing error. Online retailer Amazon temporarily shut down its UK operation this morning after a pricing error resulted in customers bulk buying HP iPaq handheld computers for as little as ?7. However, the company maintains that it is within its terms not to honour the erroneous pricing and to instead offer customers (who had placed orders at the cheaper price) the product at the correct price Amazon said in a statement: 'In keeping with our Conditions of use and our Pricing and Availability Policy, we will be cancelling orders made for the HP iPAQ Pocket PCs at the incorrect price this morning. ...more

Ultra-slim desktop arrives in the UK

Compaq's Evo D500 Ultra-slim desktop is now available in the UK, with prices starting from ?467 (excluding VAT). The Evo D500 Ultra-slim Desktop Compaq was previewed at the Comdex trade show back in November. As we reported at the time, the model weighs around 11 pounds and its base unit measures 2. ...more

SCO announces umbrella licence for Linux users

SCO has made available an umbrella licence that covers off all litigious concerns and which the company hopes will send Linux users flocking to sign up. In a teleconference yesterday, following on from SCO's announcement that it had received US copyright registrations for Unix System V source code, SCO's CEO Darl McBride said that Linux 'directly violates SCO's copyright and contracts rights'. The company has now prepared an umbrella licence in order to give Linux users peace of mind. ...more