Microsoft to bundle anti-virus scanning into its monthly security bulletins

Microsoft's next monthly security bulletin will include its first foray into antivirus software since its buy of Romanian antivirus company GeCAD 18 months ago. Next Tuesday, 11 January, the security bulletin will include the Microsoft Windows malicious software removal tool. Essentially a cumulative patch of the past year's scanning utilities built to detect common viruses such as Blaster, MyDoom and Download. ...more

Pogo to deliver techno joy

There's been a heck of a lot of material written about the up-and-coming 3G mobile phone network, but one piece of technology that has been designed to get the best from the GSM/GPRS network is the Pogo Technology Terminal. The device has been designed with the 21st century in mind and looks like a misshapen credit card with a 3.8in colour LCD touch sensitive screen. ...more

Campaigners question Jobs' call to drop DRM

A leading group of anti-DRM campaigners has called on Apple CEO Steve Jobs to back with action his recent call for the scrapping of copy protection on music downloads. DefectiveByDesign, which regularly arranges pickets outside Apple retail stores, said that Jobs' widely reported and widely critiqued call for record companies to abandon their insistence on DRM increasingly looks more like an attempt to deflect criticism of Apple than a serious commitment to eliminating usage restrictions, such as the FairPlay technology it uses in the iTunes Store. 'To many observers your blog pledge looks like a way to reduce pressure on Apple from regulators, and head off calls from the industry to license FairPlay to other distributors,' DefectiveByDesign says in an open letter to the Apple CEO. ...more

PC Pro: Change of specification to Carrera Recommended PC

Carrera has been forced to replace the monitor included with its Octan 2800SE PC, which has won a Recommended award in the January 2004 issue of PC Pro. Instead of the NEC LCD1711M monitor, which NEC has discontinued without notice, Carrera will ship the system with the AOC LM720A. Having examined the screens side-by-side, we're happy that the two panels are of equivalent quality. ...more

Cisco unveils its next-gen, half-million dollar CRS-1 router

With prices starting at nigh on half a million dollars, Cisco is hoping that its brand new CRS-1 router will help it fight its way ahead of stripling rivals such as Juniper. The Carrier Routing System 1 has been the subject of much speculation for almost a year now as the company's share of the lucrative carrier-grade router market slipped, although whether this is due to rival products or customers waiting for this new product remains to be seen. Even so, carriers are likely to wait still further before deciding whether to invest. ...more