Service Pack 1 delivered for Office XP

Microsoft has batched together a number of patches and fixes in the shape of Office XP Service Pack 1 (SP-1). The pack includes some security fixes. These involve a bug that allow malicious code to execute within Excel, PowerPoint, or Word. ...more

Apple dishes out iPod plunder for 500,000,000th iTunes download

Half a billion and counting. Apple has notched up the 500,000,000th download from its iTunes Music Store and a woman from Indiana is the very lucky recipient of a big iPod prize bundle. Earlier this month Apple announced it would mark the milestone with a big give away and one Amy Greer of Lafayette, Indiana scooped the 10 iPods, the Gold 10,000-song Gift Card for the iTMS (and 10 additional 50-song gift cards to go with each iPod) and four tickets to see Coldplay on their current world tour. ...more

Microsoft promises to hang patent fire over web services

Microsoft has announced that it will not assert patent claims against those involved in a range of web services standards. The move has been welcomed by the open-source community. Redmond's Open Specification Promise (OSP) shows Microsoft's commitment to ensuring the unencumbered progress of a range of some 35 WS-X web service standards covering security, policy management and communications, regardless of the final specifications of these standards. ...more

Gartner predicts Ofcom rules will bring in more UK broadband players

Gartner's latest research predicts that recent price setting measures by Ofcom will make wholesale broadband products more attractive, encouraging new players to enter the UK market. Currently, most ISPs offer broadband to their customers using BT's IPStream products - essentially renting a BT-managed broadband line and making a bit on top - but operators that have taken up DataStream products and moved into exchanges under the Local Loop unbundling schemes stand to benefit from a proposed pricing system which will maintain a specific margin between wholesale and retail prices. Gartner suggests that the effect of new regulations and proposed pricing structures to be implemented early next year will allow existing DataStream and operators using Local Loop Unbundling options to be able to expand their geographical coverage and provide a range of new services. ...more

Banishing the PC upgrade blues

Industry giants are getting increasingly queasy at the time it takes companies and individuals to upgrade the computers they bought at the height of the millennium bug boom in 1999. In order to lower the barriers to buy new machines some of the biggest names in the PC market have joined together to form the PC Migration Workgroup. Among the companies involved are Intel, Microsoft, Laplink and Symantec. ...more