Unmetered Internet access for the UK

Unmetered Internet access for the UK is almost here. Oftel has put the squeeze on BT with new guidelines that prevent it charging rivals by the second for all connections going through the BT network. The new deal - known as "single tandem FRIACO" - should force British Telecom to provide a pricing package for Internet access all the way from the consumer's home to the network of a competing operator. ...more

Range of FireWire products expanding

The range of FireWire products continues to expand, following the announcement that Orange Micro will ship the iBOT desktop video camera at the end of October. The company claims the camera is "quite simply 16 times better than current standard USB video cameras," as it takes full advantage of FireWire's 400Mb/second bandwidth. The camera captures video at 30 frames per second at standard 640x480 resolution, performance unheard of in USB cameras. ...more

LLU broadband take-up skews heavily towards London

LLU broadband take-up in the UK is skewed heavily towards London, with some areas having no access to the cheaper services and faster speeds that the technology has enabled. Forty-five per cent of LLU lines are in the capital, with the South East and North West, especially Manchester, also showing relatively high levels of penetration. That contrasts markedly with Northern Ireland, for example, where not one exchange has been unbundled. ...more

Apple closes iTunes security hole

Apple has closed the gaping hole in its iTunes Music Store's security which allowed hackers to gain access and download DRM-free music. 'The security hole in the iTunes Music Store which was recently exploited has been closed, and as a consequence the iTunes Music Store will now sell music only to customers using iTunes version 4.7, the company said in a statement. ...more

Sun to open-source Java

Newly minted as CEO, Sun's Jonathan Schwartz took to the floor for his first appearance at his company's JavaOne Developer Conference in San Francisco to detail a new strategy to open-source Java and point it at SOA (Service Oriented Architectures). To date, Java has been popular for applications on mobile phones and websites, and is just a part of the systems giant's mammoth portfolio. But by open-sourcing Java, Schwartz seems to be painting it as the glue to unite its wide-ranging offerings as business adopts open-source technologies and moves to an SOA environment. ...more