Nokia to take control of Symbian smart phone technology

Nokia is to acquire Psion's stake in Symbian, the mobile phone software licensing company. Already a major shareholder in the firm that produces the platforms for smart phones, Nokia is now to have a controlling stake. The deal, which begins with a cash payment of ?93. ...more

Record industry scuppers Tiscali online music

The European recording industry is virtually impossible to work with in the promotion of legal music online, according to Tiscali, which says it has been 'forced' to turn off its music streaming service by recalcitrant record labels. The ISP says that a dispute over interactive rights means that it can no longer provide the Tiscali Juke Box service, which it launched in the UK and Italy on 26 April. The service gave users the chance to legally listen to millions of songs through p2p streaming. ...more

Nokia offers peer-to-peer controls to mobile operators

Nokia has introduced a bandwidth management application solution to enable mobile network operators control data traffic. The Nokia Peer-to-peer Traffic Control software is designed to let network operators manage the amount of bandwidth available to hungry applications such as file sharing and VoIP telephony - enabling operators to have more fine-tuned control over their networks. The software integrates with Nokia's Flexi Intelligent Service Node (ISN) data connectivity technology and identifies data traffic according to the type of service, so that operators can treat that traffic in a specific way. ...more

EC anti-competitive ruling challenged by Microsoft today

Microsoft has opened its appeal against the EC ruling in Brussels this morning. The European Commission ruled in March that Microsoft had indulged in anti-competitive behaviour with Windows and set a fine of ?333mn plus orders to produce a version of Windows without the Media Player within 90 days or face further action. Microsoft always intended to appeal, and in a pre-hearing statement, Brad Smith, Microsoft's general counsel, said today: 'We have a lot of confidence in the strength of our case. ...more

Spammers marshal zombies to hijack ISP email servers

In a new twist to the spam arms race, spammers have discovered a new way of getting their message across. By using zombie networks to send spam via ISP's servers, they can bypass one of the major tools used by spam filters. Until now, the spammers have simply used a zombie machine to send emails directly. ...more