Microsoft edges closer to closing November settlement

Light at the end of the Tunney. US District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly yesterday released a 36-page memorandum saying that the Microsoft, the Justice Department and the nine states seeking a settlement proposed last November had acted in accordance with the Tunney Act. The Tunney Act stipulates that interested parties must be above board and that no behind-the-scenes deals were made during the negotiation process. ...more

3G due in 2003, says Nokia

Never fear, 3G will be here. Or so says Nokia, but then it would. In an interview with Reuters at CeBIT in Germany, Nokia's senior vice president, JT Bergqvist, said that high-speed third-generation mobile networks will be up and running by early 2003. ...more

The security union of IT giants

There's strength in numbers - everyone knows that - and now a group of big-hitting technology firms are to work together over computer security. The US companies - which include Intel, Microsoft, AT&T, Oracle, IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Computer Associates, EDS and Cisco Systems - are planning to form an ISAC (Information Sharing and Analysis Centre). There are already such centres, in the US, for the telecommunications and finance sectors and the companies want to emulate the cross-company co-operation in IT. ...more

Pocket PC ads under FTC scrutiny

Microsoft is again on the wrong side of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which is looking into its recent advertising campaign for the Pocket PC platform. The print campaign that began in April last year outlined a number of Pocket PC functions, including accessing the Net. The adverts asked "Can your Palm Do That?", but the correct answer was "No, and neither can Pocket PC". ...more

New variants of Yaha and Spybot threaten PCs

Another variant of the Yaha worm has been spotted in the wild - this time, Yaha-X. Graham Cluley, Senior Technology Consultant at Sophos, has told us that Yaha and its various manifestations were the creation of a group of Indian hackers. Its various clones have a long and inglorious history, with it first emerging in January 2000 in the guise of a Valentine-related screen saver. ...more