Oftel twists BT's arm over broadband

Oftel has told BT that it must make its local-loop unbundling prices transparent, remove one-off charges and act immediately on ISPs' requests to enter BT's exchanges. As we reported yesterday, BT has been complaining that no-one is taking up the offer to install equipment in its exchanges and offer their own broadband Internet access services. The ISPs are naturally responding that this is because BT is making it virtually impossible. ...more

Google reopens Writely

Google has finally cleared the backlog of applications to join the beta programme for the Writely online word processor and has now reopened the application to new users. There has been no formal announcement on Google although there is a mention in Writely's own blog, presumably to prevent a rush of sign ups. When Google bought the parent company Upstartle in March of this year, among the first things it did was to remove access to the Writely word processor so that its development team could get to grips with the underlying AJAX technology. ...more

Online supermarkets agree to clearer pricing

Have you ever done your supermarket shopping online and found that the prices charged on delivery were different from those advertised on the website? If so, you are not alone, because the Office of Fair Trade (OFT) has been spurred to move following a number of complaints from the public. Consulting with Asda (www.asda. ...more

Wi-Fi races towards 802.11n and past 100Mbps

Two of the companies that are making the chips that will power the next-generation Wi-Fi standard have announced that they have achieved interoperability at speeds in excess of 100Mbps. Using the Draft 1.0 specification for the 802. ...more

Microsoft used undocumented Windows APIs - Iowa testimony

Microsoft used undocumented APIs that allowed its developers to write programs that worked better with Windows than competitors', according to the latest testimony in the Iowa antitrust action against the company. The claim was made by software expert Ronald Alepin, giving evidence on behalf of the plaintiffs, as the court case resumed after its Christmas hiatus. According to the plaintiff's account of the court proceedings, Alepin referred to a series of internal Microsoft emails, that he said showed that although these APIs (application programming interfaces) were provided to developers 'they were simply inserted into several megabytes of notes onto a CD-ROM, in a "very low profile" intended to "discourage" developers from using them and to provide enough "air cover" to allow Microsoft to say they were documented'. ...more