Firefox's open source email partner makes it to version 0.9

Thunderbird, the open source email client from the makers of Firefox, is one step closer to completion with the release of version 0.9. This release incorporates two new ways of organising messages. ...more

Wheels in motion for GNU General Public License v3

The wheels have been set in motion for the first rewriting of the GNU General Public License (GPL) in more than 15 years, with the release of a document specifying the process and guidelines of the historic revision. The most important licence for free and open source software, the GPL underpins nearly three quarters of free software programs. The first draft up for discussion will be presented at the International Public Conference for GPL v3 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) on 16 and 17 January 2006. ...more

iTunes Music Store passes 250 million downloads

Downloads from the iTunes Music Store have passed 250 million, with the daily rate reaching 1.25 million songs. 'When we launched the iTunes Music Store we were hoping to sell a million songs in the first six months - now we're selling over a million songs every day, and we've sold over a quarter billion songs in total,' said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. ...more

BBC Jam for spreading online learning

The BBC has announced that its online learning resource will be called BBC Jam when it launches in January 2006. Designed to play a key part of the corporation's role in developing digital Britain, BBC Jam will exploit the latest digital technologies to deliver a learning experience combining video, games, audio and animation. The service will also attempt to inspire children who are not achieving their potential to try an alternative way of learning and aims to bring learning into the home as well as the classroom, helping pupils learn at their own pace in a way that interests and suits them most. ...more

FTC reports spam in decline

The US Federal Trade Commission says that the controversial CAN-SPAM Act is working. In a report on the working of the anti-spam Act, the Commission says there has been a steady decline in the amount of junk email which fills the world's inboxes. The FTC quotes email filtering firm MX Logic as reporting that during the first eight months of 2005, spam accounted for 67 per cent of email passing through its system, a nine per cent decrease from the same period one year earlier. ...more