Video streaming future for Flash?

A leading industry figure has predicted a surprise victory in the battle for supremacy of the streaming video market. Ed McGarr, vice president for sales and marketing at Sorenson, said in an interview with Streaming Media World that the three existing players, Microsoft's Windows Media, RealNetworks' RealPlayer, and Apple's QuickTime, have been joined by a fourth contender, Macromedia's Flash, which has the potential to end up as the market leader. 'Pretty much the de facto standard video format is going to be Flash, and we're the codec behind Flash' McGarr said. ...more

Researchers make signing mobiles

Researchers are customising mobile phones to make them suitable for deaf people to chat using sign language. This is the goal of MobileASL, a video compression project at the University of Washington. By the use of video compression techniques, it has proved possible to send live pictures of users signing across relatively low-bandwidth mobile networks, reports the BBC. ...more

High Court absolves ISPs for libelous Web postings

The High Court has absolved three UK ISPs of any liability for potentially libelous Web postings made by their customers. John Bunt was attempting to sue three individuals and their service providers - AOL, BT and Tiscali - for postings on a Usenet message board. Bunt's lawyers based their case on the basis of the 2001 Godfrey v Demon Internet ruling that determined that Demon was liable for posts on its own news server, although the post has been made by an unknown person via another ISP. ...more

Reviving HP has IBM in its sights

Hewlett Packard is continuing its climb back from the doldrums of a couple of years ago and now may be about to overtake IBM as the world's biggest computer company. HP's net revenues for the third quarter of its financial year were $21.9 billion, it has revealed, representing growth of 5 per cent over the equivalent quarter this year. ...more

American Express to reduce online fraud

American Express is set to launch a disposable credit card number scheme for shopping on the Internet. The system will allow existing cardholders to access a secure Web site and obtain a card number that can be used only once. It is hoped that this plan will alleviate customers' fears of their details being stolen through their use on the Internet. ...more