MS opens window of learning for poor

Global software giant Microsoft on Wednesday unveiled yet another initiative to make computer education easier, accessible and affordable for the poor through the use of information, communication and technology (ICT). With the launch its programme called Unlimited Potential Microsoft aims to make technology available to over a billion poor people by 2015 more...

Apple's iPhone makes it to stores

Apple's much-hyped iPhone finally goes on sale in the US today. Some people have been queuing for days outside Apple and AT&T stores across the US to ensure they get hold of one of the devices. Hundreds more are expected to start queuing during the day because stores will not start selling the iPhone until 1800 local time (2300 GMT) more...

Nintendo to open up Wii console

Home and independent game makers are getting a chance to put together titles for Nintendo's Wii console. The hi-tech firm has released a set of game-making tools called WiiWare that give budding game makers the data they need to use the console and its innovative controller more...

MySpace launches YouTube rival

MySpace is to take on YouTube's status as the world's leading video-sharing website by renaming and relaunching its own service as MySpaceTV. The video section of MySpace will be given its own web presence, www.myspacetv.com, and built up as a destination in its own right more...

Hanging up on ringtones

Although Apple's iPhone is only released in the US tomorrow, its ringtone has been available for download for months, picked up by alert listeners to Steve Jobs's demo in San Francisco in January. Being a MIDI sequence, it's free. Free ringtones? It's enough to put a shudder through the music and mobile businesses more...

BSkyB has cranked up the pressure on Virgin Media by striking a deal to sell the channels it pulled from the cable operator's platform to smaller rival Tiscali. The agreement, struck at a price Virgin Media refused to pay, will allow Tiscali to market such programmes as Lost, 24 and Prison Break to its 1.7m broadband customers more...

MPs raise concerns over BBC savings

The BBC substantially over-estimated the savings expected from outsourcing IT services to Siemens under a 10-year £1.5bn framework contract, according to an influential group of MPs. A Commons Public Accounts Committee (PAC) report released today accuses the corporation’s management of giving its Board of Governors the impression when seeking approval for the deal that annual savings of £35m were guaranteed more...

Veoh Networks VeohTV delivers online video promise

VeohTV is the latest contender aiming to transform the online video landscape. Their downloadable application, currently in pre-release testing, builds on the previous Veoh Player to provide a single internet television experience for viewing online video. It is specifically designed to be driven using a remote control and seems to provide a much better viewer experience than Joost more...

iTeddy bears top television titles under its T-shirt

Classic television titles, including Paddington Bear and The Wombles, will soon be available for download to teddy bears. The iTeddy toy with a built-in personal media player for children has been launched after featuring on Dragons’ Den, the BBC television programme in which entrepreneurs pitch for investment more...

iPhone's US price plans unveiled

It's two days to go (as if you didn't know) and it's only now that America finds out exactly how much it'll be shelling out for those iPhone price plans. Bit by bit the full iPhone picture emerges. Today it's the AT&T two-year price plans that iPhone users in the States will have to sign up to more...

Supercomputer steps up the pace

The world's fastest commercial supercomputer has been launched by computer giant IBM. Blue Gene/P is three times more potent than the current fastest machine, BlueGene/L, also built by IBM. The latest number cruncher is capable of operating at so called "petaflop" speeds - the equivalent of 1,000 trillion calculations per second more...

Better internet access for people with disabilities

A bill requiring the government to allow people with disabilities to complete a single online application form for a range of different benefits has received backing in Parliament. Tory MP Jeremy Hunt says existing requirements for disabled people, some suffering from acquired brain injuries, to fill in several forms is humiliating for applicants and squanders money on official error, waste and fraud more...

DTI appoints new technology strategy board

The Department of Trade and Industry has announced a new Technology Strategy Board (TSG), responsible for delivering technology and support activities from 1 July. The TSG will have a budget of £320m to promote and support research, development and the exploitation of science, technology and new ideas to benefit business, increase economic growth and improve the quality of life more...

Lack of innovation is causing UK productivity gap

UK labour productivity is lagging behind the rest of Europe and the US, according to a new study. The London School of Economics' Centre for Economic Performance has found GDP per hour worked in the UK is 13 per cent lower than Germany, 18 per cent lower than the US and 20 per cent lower than France more...

'Violent' video game ad condemned

A poster for a computer game has been strongly criticised by the advertising watchdog after complaints that it encouraged violence and vandalism. The advert for Burnout Dominator showed a wrecked sports car, broken glass and a burning tyre, and had the slogan "Inner peace through outer violence" more...

EC threat to BBC over downloads

The BBC has been accused of forcing people to use Microsoft operating systems and has been threatened with a complaint to the European Commission. The charge concerns the use of Microsoft technology in the corporation's forthcoming iPlayer more...

'Day of silence' for US web radio

Web radio broadcasters across the US will hold a "day of silence" on Tuesday in protest at plans to hike royalty payments when music is played online. The plan - due to come into force on 15 July - could cost webcasters around $1bn in additional administration fees, protesters claim more...

Computers 'can raise attainment'

High levels of computer technology in schools can improve attainment to an extent, a four-year study has found. The £34m ICT Test Bed project by computer agency Becta in three deprived areas of England showed gains in some GCSE and primary school test scores more...

Leader of net piracy gang jailed

A Briton has been jailed for 51 months after pleading guilty to software piracy charges in the US. From his Australia home Hew Griffiths led the DrinkOrDie piracy group which specialised in cracking protection codes on software, music and movies more...

Mobile phone virus writer arrested in Spain

Spanish police have arrested a 28-year-old man on suspicion of creating and spreading a virus that affected more than 115,000 top-of-the-range mobile phones. The man was arrested in Valencia following an investigation that lasted over seven months more...

Blinkx Has an Eye on Contextual Video Search

Video search engine Blinkx today announced AdHoc, a platform that helps its partners monetize their video content with relevant advertising. The product is similar to Google AdSense. And it's not the first time blinkx has followed the Google path. CEO Suranga Chandratillake said the search engine giant serves as a model for his company more...

Facebook v MySpace - a class divide

Social networking websites MySpace and Facebook are increasingly splitting along class lines, according to a US academic. The sites, which allow users to make friends and share pictures and information about themselves, have become two of the most popular destinations on the internet. But Danah Boyd, a researcher at the University of California, says their populations are now dividing on the basis of social and economic backgrounds more...