Apple music player dominance set for years - analyst

Apple's dominance of the portable music player market is likely to continue for years according to Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster. In a note to investors, Munster says that the iPod's huge market share gives Apple cost savings that its rivals simply cannot match. Apple's 30GB iPod, for example, is nine per cent cheaper per gigabyte than Creative's new Zen Vision:M. ...more

CeBIT 2007: Will powerline networking outshine 802.11n?

A brief walk around the communications halls at CeBIT 2007 is enough to confirm that powerline networking is a technology in the ascendancy. Dozens of stands are pushing powerline products, which connect all of the devices on your home network through the house's electrical wiring, instead of having to trail Ethernet cable around the house or rely on wireless solutions. Why such an explosion in powerline products? Although few router manufacturers are prepared to admit it, PC Pro's tests have proved that 802. ...more

BT unbundles its millionth line

BT says it has now unbundled one million of its telephone lines for competitors to offer cheaper service. It describes this as a major milestone, reflecting the highly competitive state of UK broadband market. The former UK telecoms monopoly said its Openreach division, set up in January under a deal with regulator Ofcom intended to open up its network to rivals, was processing almost 30,000 unbundling requests each week. ...more

Oracle to release free version of its 10g DBMS

Database giant Oracle has finally faced up to the threat of MySQL and decided to fight fire with fire. It is to release a free version of its database manager in order to stem the flow of developers and particularly novice programmers to the open source database. The company has announced the Oracle Database 10g Express Edition (Oracle Database XE), a free, starter edition of the world's largest proprietary database software. ...more

Music industry opens new front against Kazaa in Australia

The music industry has taken its battle with peer to peer networking down under. The Australian subsidiaries of the major record labels, including Universal, EMI, Sony BMG, Warner and 25 others are suing Sharman Networks, the producers of the Kazaa file sharing software. The music industry is bringing a whole battery of charges against Sharman. ...more