Microsoft disables OEM Windows product keys

Microsoft is changing its activation policy for new copies of Windows XP. From the 28th of February Microsoft plans to disable internet activation for XP product keys printed on the Certificates of Authority (CoA) labels from the world's top 20 OEMS. The move should not affect most customers who have Windows XP preinstalled on their machines and have the copy of the operating system already activated or those who buy a boxed copy of Windows through retail. ...more

Xerox talks the language of colour

Xerox is developing a new technology that lets you change the colour on a computer document or display by simply speaking or typing a description. As the company puts it: anyone familiar with a box of crayons can describe the colour 'carnation pink' but how many people can make that colour appear 'correctly'? The technology interprets commands such as 'make the sky a deeper blue' or 'make the background carnation pink' and prompts its software to make the necessary change does the work. The invention creates 'colour language' by translating human descriptions of colour into the precise numerical codes that machines use to print colour documents. ...more

Pre-order your Xbox now

If you've heard enough about the PlayStation 2 pre-order scheme, steel yourself for another assault - but this time it's the Xbox that gets the pre-order treatment. Yes, you heard correctly - Microsoft's console-busting machine, the Xbox, is being put on pre-order schemes in America, over a year before it is launched. One web site, Gamestop. ...more

easyMobile closes in the UK

easyMobile closes in the UK due to a dispute with TDC, but Stelios is working on a new service to fill the gap. easyGroup, the company behind a myriad of budget services, has been forced to bin its no-frills mobile offering, easyMobile, due to contractual issues with Danish brand licensee TDC. The company claims that its brand is at risk if it continues working with TDC so it has terminated its licence agreement. ...more

Canon announces commercial displays with SED technology

Canon is to build flat screens based on SED technology in 2006, company president, Fujio Mitarai, promised yesterday. SED, or Surface-conduction Electron-emitter Display, technology has been around since Canon showed its a prototype back in 1998. Originally conceived as a successor to television CRTs, Canon says its unique combination of large screen, high resolution, low power consumption light weight and thin profile make it a potential successor to all current display formats. ...more