Apple ushers in era of free phone calls with iChat and iSight

Apple has announced the next version of its iChat instant messaging support, and at a stroke has provided OS X users with the ability to make free voice and video calls any where in the world for the price of an Internet connection. Combine iChat AV with iSight - Apple's new video camera - or any other FireWire enabled video cam and Mac users with a broadband connection can hold video conferences with any other Mac OS X user anywhere in the world. Although video conferencing is not possible over a dial-up connection, you can still use iChat AV for audio conferencing, effectively giving you free phone calls. ...more

Open source lobby fury over Office format fast-track

Two leading open standards bodies claim Microsoft's new Office XML formats are being 'fast tracked' into official European ISO/IEC standards without due consideration. OpenForum Europe (OFE) and the ODF Alliance have joined forces to protest against the speed at which the Office Open XML standard is being rushed through. The groups claim that interested parties have until only February 5 to state their objections - just days after the official launch of Office 2007. ...more

CeBIT 2007: Sneak preview

The biggest names in the IT industry are putting the finishing touches to their stands at CeBIT 2007, but our team in Hannover has sneaked on to the show floor to find out what we can expect to see over the coming week. In the consumer and digital entertainment halls there's one big theme this year: high-definition displays. The centrepiece of the Sharp stand is an enormous 108in LCD TV (pictured below), which the company claims is the world's biggest. ...more

Hackers bomb Windows Live

Windows Live Search in Italy has been taken over by hackers according to reports. Security experts at Sunbelt software claim that certain queries typed into the search engine point to sites run by hackers. 'It looks like the malware people have practically taken over Live search in Italy. ...more

A quantum leap, using silicon

A quantum computer may sound futuristic, but researchers are working on such a model using existing silicon fabrication techniques... ...more