Online retailing 'surging ahead'

Cheaper broadband is fuelling the growth in online shoppingOnline retailing in the UK has grown at its fastest rate since the dotcom bubble burst, a survey has claimed. The amount of money spent by consumers shopping online increased by 33.4% to £10.9bn last year, retail analysts Verdict Research said more...

Digital divide is closing, Ofcom survey finds

The divide between the digital haves and have-nots has narrowed, according to the second annual survey of the UK's communications market by Ofcom. The take-up of broadband in England extended to 45% of households last year - three percentage points above that of Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland at 42% more...

Industry approval for anti-spamming technology

New technology to combat spam and phishing attacks has been approved by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). The industry group has accepted a draft standard for DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM), which uses encrypted digital signatures to validate the identity of an email sender more...

Third of bloggers 'risk the sack'

More than a third of UK bloggers risk the sack by posting derogatory or damaging details about their workplace, boss or colleagues, a survey claims. Human resources company Croner, which commissioned the study, warned that such bloggers could be sacked from their job for gross misconduct more...

Students criticise staff on net

A university has written to all its students threatening them with disciplinary action for comments made about staff on the internet. Keele University said the remarks on Myspace and Facebook were unacceptable, and students may face legal action from the members of staff concerned more...

Steam logs 13 millionth user

Valve Software's digital distribution service Steam has surpassed 13 million active users. With over 150 games available over the service, the PC specialist is expecting to announce that more major publishers are due to make use of the service this summer more...

Sony handheld to offer net calls

Owners of Sony's PlayStation Portable (PSP) handheld console will soon be able to make voice and video calls over a wireless internet connection. Using a soon-to be-released camera and microphone, gamers will be able to call other PSP owners and some BT phones more...

What will more research on Wi-Fi's health effects show?

If it's anything like the outcome of the further research on the health effects of mobile phones that was called for in 2000, then it'll probably show that we need ... more research more...

Google is watching you

Google, the world's biggest search engine, is setting out to create the most comprehensive database of personal information ever assembled, one with the ability to tell people how to run their lives. In a mission statement that raises the spectre of an internet Big Brother to rival Orwellian visions of the state, Google has revealed details of how it intends to organise and control the world's information more...

EU caps roaming mobile phone fees

The cost of making mobile phone calls in Europe is set to fall substantially after lawmakers backed plans to cap so-called "roaming" charges. The amount mobile customers are charged by local phone operators for using their handsets while abroad should now fall by as much as 75% more...

Teachers want bullying answers

Teachers have shown evidence of cyberbullying to the schools minister - including death threats by mobile phone and on websites. The NASUWT teachers' union showed the threats to Schools Minister Jim Knight after teachers recorded their experiences on a web page more...

IBM's New CPU Clocks Just Shy Of 5GHz

There's something I miss about raw clock speed. Hearing that a CPU had broken 100MHz or 1GHz gave a genuine sense of advancement that a Core 2 Duo E6400 (2.13GHz) or other simply can't match. IBM has plans to change that more...

MySpace to report sex offenders

Social networking website MySpace has agreed to provide police with information about convicted US sex offenders, removed from its service. The site's owner - News Corp - had previously been criticised for refusing a request from eight US states to divulge information from profiles more...

Rockstar Announces GTA IV Special Edition

In the tradition of many highly anticipated games from respected publishers, Grand Theft Auto IV will be available in a special edition for those fans dedicated enough to cough up the coin for it. Rockstar, the game's publisher, made the announcement Monday evening along with the price: a steep $89.99. That’s $30 more than the regular versions on Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 will go for more...

Google to list top 100 searches

A feature listing the day's 100 fastest-rising search requests has been unveiled by Google. The chart, part of the search system's trends service, will be refreshed several times a day using data from millions of searches, the company said more...

BSkyB drops subscription for hard-drive recorder to head off rivals

BSkyB is planning to drop the monthly subscription charge for its Sky Plus hard-drive disk recorder in the hope of further boosting take-up and subscriber loyalty in the face of increased competition more...

Success for Everest mobile effort

A British climber has set a world record by making a mobile phone call from the top of Mount Everest. In the early hours of 21 May, Rod Baber made two calls from the mountain's north ridge more...

Foreign Office closes online visa application site

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office has shut down its online application system run by visa service Vfs Global after a reported security breach last week. Lord Triesman, secretary of state for foreign and Commonwealth affairs made a statement on the reported security breach of the Vfs visa application web site more...

Scientists reject Panorama's claims on Wi-Fi radiation risks

An investigation into the possible dangers of Wi-Fi technology - wireless computer networks - by the BBC documentary programme Panorama has been rejected as "grossly unscientific" and a "scare story" by leading scientists more...

No 80GB PS3 for Europe

A Sony spokesperson has confirmed to GamesIndustry.biz that an 80GB PlayStation 3 is to go on sale in Korea - but said there are no plans to launch the model in Europe. News of the 80GB version emerged via a statement on the Sony Korea website, which said the 80GB version will launch there on June 16 priced at KWR 518,000 (EUR 412) more...

'Must-have' titles to drive PS3 sales

Sony president Jack Tretton believes 2007 is the year when video game makers will deliver the games needed to drive forward PlayStation 3 sales. PlayStation 3 has so far failed to sell in the same quantities as previous models due to its high price and a lack of PS3 hit games, but for 2007 Tretton said, "users can expect more than 15 exclusive titles" more...

Sony seeks to recover from game losses

When Ken Kutaragi, the diminutive and brilliant engineer behind three generations of the PlayStation games console, announced his retirement last month, it marked the end of an era at Sony more...

8-cores in a laptop?!?

NextComputing have the honor of creating the first flextop computer in the world which is based on Intel’s Xeon 5300 processor. Known as the NextDimension Pro and Evo machines, both computers have shown their prowess by taking advantage of the power requirements of two quad-core processors that stand at 100W instead of the 160W found in desktops. This briefcase-sized computer carry a jaw dropping 8 cores, providing higher performance per watt and better energy efficiency in such a small package more...

French plan high-definition for digital terrestrial television

The French are planning to provide high-definition channels on digital terrestrial television from as early as 2008. They have concluded that it will be possible to fit three high-definition channels on a single multiplex which is currently unoccupied. It raises the question of how soon high-definition could be made available on digital terrestrial television in the United Kingdom more...